Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me.
A/N: Please consider leaving a review if you are still reading and enjoying this story!
Content Note: Dark, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.
Chapter 7: Fractious
Percy manages to hold back his tears as Mum leads him up the stairs. The last thing he needs is to look even more pathetic in front of his family.
"They're obviously thrilled to have you back, aren't they, Percy?"
"They would have been happy to never see you again, but you had to go and fuck that up."
Mum guides him to his childhood bedroom off the second floor landing. Percy stops at the threshold. It's a small, cramped room with a single small window and a door with a lock. A swell of panic rises in him.
Mum walks into the room, past where Bill has deposited Percy's trunk and owl. She unlatches the window and pushes it all the way open. "There," she says. "So Hermes can come and go."
Percy feels a wave of gratitude mixed with humiliation, and this time he can't contain the tears. "Mum, I'm…"
"I know, Percy," she says, taking his thin hands in her own. "I love you." She walks him into the room, leaving the door open, and pulls him down to sit on his childhood bed.
Percy knows he should feel comfortable with his Mum, but he doesn't. For so long, the only time he could hope for a modicum of safety was when he was alone. The presence of another person, even his mother, sends a discomfort crawling over his skin, seeping down to set as terror in his bones.
"Mum, would you…I'm a bit hungry…" Percy couldn't possibly feel hunger with the nausea wracking his body, but he knows it's the only thing to get his Mum to detach herself from his side.
"Oh, of course, Percy!" Mum leaps to her feet. "I'll make all your favorites." With another hug and kiss on his forehead, she bustles out of the room.
And Percy is alone again. He slowly surveys the room, remembering his routine while in captivity. He had inspected and cleaned and rechecked every inch of his cell, every day, trying to assert some control over his helpless situation.
"Well, unless you think there's something you can actually do with your miserable life, you better bloody get to it."
Percy starts with the walls, checking for cracks and stains, running his shaking fingers over the uneven surface. He stops as he reaches the window and notices the activity outside.
Arthur is leading a few Aurors around the perimeter of the Burrow. Colored lines and veils emit from their wands as they walk—protection spells. But these Death Eaters have been evading the Aurors for months. Will this be enough to stop them?
George's words rise in his mind. "Everyone wants to know what's going on, what they could be planning." After they finish with these spells, are the Aurors coming to question him?
"Percy?"
Charlie sticks his head in the room, and Percy flinches. "I don't know, I swear I don't, please don't make me tell you what they did—"
"Hey, Perce," Charlie says. "I'm just going to do a quick charm so we won't bother you with all our noise, okay?"
Percy nods, relieved he wasn't asking about the Death Eaters. Charlie casts a "Confutatus" noise dampening spell, and a shimmering pale blue light fills the doorway for a moment. When it fades, Percy can no longer hear the muffled sounds of his family downstairs.
"So we won't bother you," Oliver repeats, rolling his eyes. "So you can't hear them talking about you, more like."
Percy tries to swallow the lump in his throat. He imagines his siblings, plotting what to do with him, how to interrogate him. And how they'll lock him up in Mungo's once they realize how little he knows, how useless he is.
"They wouldn't do that," Penny protests, and Oliver snorts. "Why not? Because he's family? Percy here made it very clear he doesn't consider himself part of their family."
The clutching, gnashing monster of panic has seized his body again, and Percy has to know what they're saying about him.
Percy spent a good chunk of his childhood shut up in this room. And he knows that, by a trick of the Burrow's ad hoc, haphazard construction, if your press your ear to the right spot where the interior wall meets the floor, you can hear conversations taking place in the main room downstairs.
Percy had spent quite a few nights curled by that spot, with a book or Scabbers in his lap. He had hoped one day to overhear his mum say they needed to have a serious talk with the younger Weasleys about leaving Percy alone. Mostly, he listened to his father convince his mother that the twins' pranks were just good fun.
Charlie had cast the noise dampener on the doorway, so that they could leave the door open for poor mental Percy but still prevent him from hearing them. But he hadn't charmed the walls, or the floor. Sloppy spellwork. Bill, a Curse-Breaker, would have known better. Charlie is too used to working with dragons.
Percy lowers himself down, arranges his thin, stiff body on the wooden floor, and listens.
He hears Bill's voice first. "One Auror? That's it?"
"That's all they say they can spare," Ron replies. It's the first time Percy has heard his youngest brother's voice in years. "Everyone else is out trying to track down the Death Eaters."
"We're going to get some Order members to help, to keep at least two people on guard."
Percy heart thumps as he recognizes that voice—Harry Potter, the Chosen One. "You called him a liar and a deluded child," Oliver comments. "And he's still here saving your sorry arse."
"Two people plus whichever of us is around," Charlie adds. "I'll stay here for now, Mum'll love if I move back in for a while."
"So we're really building a full protection team here." George says. Percy can easily tell which twin is speaking—Fred's voice had been quieter and hoarser because of his injuries. "You think the Death Eaters are going to come after him?"
"We don't know." Bill replies. "But it's better to be safe."
"Did Percy think they were going to try to capture him again?" Ginny adds. "I know you said not to push him, but has he said anything about what happened?"
"Not much," Charlie sighs.
"What about how he left, did he say anything about that?" Ron asks. "Did he apologize?"
Percy's skin flushes red and angry. Is that what they wanted, for him to fall at their feet and beg for forgiveness? He had gone home to his own flat, and then they had come to him, not the other way around.
"And yet here you are, expecting them to protect you." Oliver sneers. "You act like you're so much better than them, but everyone can see the truth."
"Merlin, Ron." Fred's voice is cool. "Let him wash the Death Easter prison smell out of his hair before you have a go at him."
"I'm not going to do anything to him!" Ron says defensively. "Bloody hell, I was just asking."
"From what I hear," Ginny snaps, "you're the last person who should be judging Percy for leaving, Ron."
"What does that mean?" George asks.
"Enough." Bill cuts through his younger siblings' squabbles with practiced ease. "No one is having a go at anyone. Got that?" Ron and Ginny grumble something in response.
"Uh, listen," Harry says. "I'm going to get back to the search. If Percy has any information to pass along to the Aurors, let me know. I'll keep you updated on our end."
There's a general chorus of "Thanks, Harry" as The Boy Who Lived departs. After all these years, jealousy still gnaws at Percy when he thinks about how Harry was always more loved in the Weasley family than Percy himself.
"Did Percy tell you anything about why the Death Eaters took him?" Ginny questions after Harry has left.
Charlie answers. "Not yet, no."
"Could they have been keeping him to make Polyjuice Potion?" George asks.
"Ze 'Ealers in France said 'e did not 'ave any 'air missing when 'e was rescued," responds a feminine voice with a heavy French accent.
This must be Fleur Delacour, Bill's wife. Percy's sister-in-law. Percy had ignored the invitation to their wedding, convinced that no one actually wanted him there.
"And besides, no one's seen him at all in six months, right?" Fred adds. "So no Death Eater was impersonating him."
"What if they wanted Ministry secrets?" Bill wonders. "Maybe they were hoping they could use him to infiltrate the Ministry, get back into power."
"I'm really not trying to be a prat," Ron says, and Fred mutters something under his breath. "But can't we just go ask him?"
"Percy was just rescued, Ron," Charlie responds, emotion rising in his voice.
"I know that. I'm not saying we make him write a book about it, just that he give us some idea what the Death Eaters are planning!"
"We're not going to interrogate him!" Charlie is heated now. "He needs time to feel safe! He was held captive for months, do you not get that? He was imprisoned, he was tortured—"
"Tortured?" Ginny interrupts, her voice stifled and odd. "Percy was tortured?"
Percy wraps his arms around his stomach tightly. He hadn't told Charlie that. How did he know?
A moment of silence passes; it's Bill who finally speaks. "The Healers in France said he had curse damage from the Cruciatus Curse. If you see him shaking, that's probably why."
The Healers. Percy had been right not to trust them.
"Shaking?" Ginny repeats, sounding a bit breathless. "So he's still hurt. Shouldn't we take him to Mungo's?" Percy stiffens.
"No," Charlie states. "He's absolutely refused to go to Mungo's. The Healers in France tried to send him there, and he did a bunk and went to his flat in London instead."
Fred laughs, the sound rough and harsh.
"It's not funny," Bill says sternly.
"C'mon, it's a little funny!" Fred argues. "Percy gone rogue. And besides, he did the right thing. Mungo's isn't much use for curse damage from Dark Magic. Ask me how I know."
Percy blinks in shock. Fred wasn't making fun of him, but was…agreeing with him? Standing up for him?
"We're not taking him to Mungo's. We're not asking him any questions," Ron summarizes. "What are we doing, then?"
"We're protecting him," Charlie replies immediately. "He'll tell us what happened when he's ready."
"Right." Bill claps his hands. "Let's get to it, then. We'll work out a schedule for guard duty. Ginny, when are you going back to Hogwarts?"
"I haven't decided yet," Ginny responds. "Maybe in a few days. Right now I'll get Percy some clothes out of Ron's things."
"Shouldn't I be the one doing that?" Ron counters.
"No," Ginny says breezily. "I'll do a better job than you."
There's a flurry of footsteps as his siblings disperse. Percy pulls himself into a sitting position. Could it be true? No one was coming to interrogate him?
"They may not be asking today," a voice hisses in his ear. "But they will. They're going to find out the truth, and then what will they think of you?"
"Useless, disgusting, pitiful, worthless…"
Percy stands up and returns to his inspection. Chanting spells and Ministry regulations under his breath, he slowly maps the walls, with his vision, with his touch. When he's finished, he'll do the same to the floor, the ceiling, every object in the room. And then he'll do it all again.
These tasks are control over the uncontrollable. Help in a helpless situation.
"Sure," Oliver yawns, stretched out on Percy's bed. "You just keep telling yourself that."