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Content Note: Some (necessary) exposition / infodump.
Chapter 10: Tergiversate
Charlie blinks in shock as we he takes in Hermione's claim. For a week Charlie's been trying with no success to cajole the information about of Percy, but Hermione figured it out from afar? No wonder his siblings call her a genius.
"Go on then, tell us!" Ginny demands.
"Well, since the war ended I've been in close contact with the muggle-born community, in Britain and throughout Europe," Hermione explains, speaking rapidly. "To eventually force magical governments to change discriminatory laws, but right now just to help muggle-borns return from hiding and reintegrate into the community."
While Hermione talks, Charlie examines one of the blood status certificates she dumped on the kitchen table. An unpleasant jolt runs through his stomach as he recognizes Percy's signature. He knew Percy had been working in the Minister's office, but to see Percy's handwriting on such a hateful document still makes Charlie feel sick.
"While all muggle-borns were horribly mistreated," Hermione continues, "we've found that far fewer were actually sent to Azkaban than expected, given how many people were forced into those corrupt shams of courtroom proceedings. Many were certified as having 'appropriate' magical blood and released, who now admit that they are entirely muggle-born."
"I know that some attempted to fake their family trees," Arthur says somberly. "Dirk Cresswell was caught and thrown in Azkaban, but I suppose a few got away with it?"
"Quite a few, actually!" Hermione says, her voice growing excited. "I've spoken to many muggle-borns and their families who escaped Azkaban with forged documents. Far more than would be expected, given the complexity of the magic necessary to fool Ministry truth charms. Not to mention the bureaucracy involved."
Charlie scrutinizes the certificate more closely. The document stated that a believed muggle-born was actually the great-granddaughter of a Finnish pureblood wizard. A family tree was etched on the back, with a drop of the suspected muggle-born's blood placed at the base. Glimmering trails of magic run from the blood up the tree, showing a certified connection between the witch and her supposed pureblood ancestor.
"What are you getting at?" George asks.
Fred is also inspecting one of the blood status certificates. "Who do we know," he says slowly, "who's good at complex magic and outstanding at bureaucracy?" He taps Percy's signature on the certificate with one scarred finger.
"I'm getting there," Hermione continues. "I've asked muggle-borns how they managed to forge their documents. Most have been reticent to share the details, understandably so, but I've been able gather some accounts. I spoke to many people who were forced to report to the Ministry courts, only to be told they had been cleared by bloodline documentation, even though they hadn't submitted any."
Charlie starts rifling through the certificates. They all have Percy's signature, and all bear a family tree with a distant connection to a pureblood ancestor, usually foreign. All prove, by the Death Eater's disgusting standards, that the person hadn't "stolen" their magic.
"Some had falsified documents delivered anonymously to their homes. Others were warned not to go to court at all and to go into hiding instead, because they had no chance at avoiding Azkaban. Again, anonymously, but the warnings must have been sent by someone with inside information!"
"Don't forget to breathe, Hermione," Ron says, watching her with wide eyes.
Hermione takes a few panting breathes. "Well, it all points to a high-level Ministry insider, doesn't it? Someone in the Minister's Office who was forging blood status documentation to save muggle-borns from Azkaban!"
There's a moment of silence as they all absorb her clear implication. Charlie feels a bizarre emotion swell in his chest—half pride, half pain. "You think the insider was Percy," he says.
Hermione nods. "When I heard about what happened to Percy, I had a hunch. I'm sure of it now. When I went looking through all the paperwork associated with the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, I found loads of certificates and family trees that were falsified, all with Percy's signature on them."
She gestures at the piles of parchment on the table. Bill, George, Ron and Ginny all grab documents to inspect. Molly has her hands pressed over her mouth. Arthur is standing stock still, staring fixedly at the table.
"Just based on these, Percy must have saved dozens of muggle-borns from Azkaban, but I don't think that's the end of it. It would have been too obvious for him to sign every document he forged, wouldn't it? But there are some notable characteristics of the magic involved in the bloodline certification, a bit like a fingerprint, if you know what those are? The magical approach and style match Percy's, even on forged documents without his signature. It makes me think Percy faked far more papers than—"
"Oh, Percy." Molly's cry cuts off Hermione's rambling explanation. Tears pour down her cheeks. "He was saving—saving those people—all by himself—"
Arthur, pale and wide-eyed, moves to put a comforting arm around her shoulders, but Molly pushes him away.
"Merlin," Bill murmurs. "Merlin, Percy."
"Percy saved all these people from Azkaban." George says, not quite a question, as he stares at the certificates.
"And their children, in some cases," Hermione replies quietly. "I don't have an accurate count yet, but I would put it above a hundred, conservatively."
"Bloody hell, Percy," Ginny says. She sounds shocked, but impressed. "That's…wow."
"He doesn't do things halfway, does he?" Fred offers a crooked grin. "And he managed to find a way to use Ministry bureaucracy to fight Voldemort. Of course that's how Percy would do it."
Charlie's strange feeling starts to clarify itself. He's bursting with pride that Percy was bravely rescuing innocent people. And he's crushed by pain and guilt at the realization that his little brother had been accomplishing this all alone, unappreciated and unprotected, until the Death Eaters discovered and hurt him.
"How—what—" Bill takes a deep breath and tries to compose himself enough to ask a question. "How did this happen?"
"I don't know for sure," Hermione responds. "But I think I can piece together a story from the evidence, if you want to hear it?"
Charlie's head is still spinning, trying to process this revelation. His siblings seem just as shocked and overwhelmed, but their Mum speaks for the family.
"Please," Molly says through her tears. "We need to know."
Hermione hesitates and seems to take a breath to steel herself before asking, "Percy disappeared—was captured—near the end of March?"
"We thought it was around Easter," Arthur mumbles. The truth is, they don't know exactly when Percy had been taken—they hadn't been in contact with him in years.
"Look at the dates on these." Hermione selects a few documents. "Percy signed and submitted this bunch in late March, right before he was taken. He made the bulk of the forgeries in winter and spring. But some, like this one—" She holds up a roll of parchment that must be nearly a meter long. On it, a huge, sprawling family tree gleams in colored ink. "Some are from August, right after the Death Eaters took over the Ministry."
"Which means that Percy was forging these documents throughout the entire war," Ginny says with an uncharacteristic softness. "Saving people that whole time."
"And for all those months, he must have known the Death Eaters could catch him at any second," Bill says quietly. "That must have been terrifying,"
"Especially when he was all alone," Charlie adds. Working against the Death Eaters had been frightening enough as part of the Order of the Phoenix. Percy didn't even have his family to rely on.
Arthur lets out a gasping breath like he's been punched in the chest. Charlie hadn't meant the words as an indictment, but his father must have taken them that way.
"Yes," Hermione says, looking uncomfortable. "Well." She clears her throat and continues. "You can see there's a noticeable shift in quality and quantity of the falsified documents as the war progresses." She holds up the intricate family tree again. The document shimmers with magic, and as Charlie focuses on any given branch, detailed bloodline information appears. "At the beginning of the war, there are a few, very elaborate certifications. They must have been quite time-consuming to make."
Hermione carefully lays that oversize scroll aside and picks up a stack of much smaller certificates with simple, unannotated trees. "But as the months go on, the falsified documents are far less careful and convincing. Percy must have been making more and more forgeries, so he was able to put less time into each. And eventually…"
"The Death Eaters realized what he was doing," Bill finishes quietly.
"There's one more thing." Hermione indicates the large, impressive family tree again. "This is the first forgery with Percy's signature, and the most elaborate. It's for Penelope Clearwater. Many of the muggle-borns I spoke to mentioned getting help from her."
"Penelope?" Ron repeats. "The Ravenclaw prefect who was petrified by the basilisk? Wasn't Percy dating her at school?"
"Yes, obviously," Ginny says impatiently to Ron, before turning back to Hermione. "You think Percy and Penelope were working together?"
"I suspect so. I knew Penelope as a fellow muggle-born at Hogwarts, but this family tree certifies her as a half-blood. That allowed her to keep her position as a Healer at St. Mungo's. She might have been passing information about muggle-borns to Percy, to help him make convincing fakes."
"You weren't able to ask her?" Charlie asks.
"No." Hermione becomes solemn. "Penelope hasn't been seen since the war ended. It's possible she decided to leave the country or the wizarding world entirely; some muggle-borns have. But it's also possible…"
"That she didn't survive," Charlie completes the sentence quietly.
"Oh, Percy." Molly leaps to her feet. "I need to talk to him, I need to—" She disappears up the stairs.
Another few moments of quiet pass as Hermione gathers up the documents and returns them to her beaded bag. Eventually, Bill runs his hand through his hair and speaks.
"But what I don't get is—this is brilliant. This makes Percy a hero. Why wouldn't he tell us about this?"
"Some of the muggle-borns are still in hiding, he could be protecting their locations," Hermione ventures.
"He still could have told us that's why the Death Eaters captured him," Ginny points outs. "He could have just told us he was protecting muggle-borns, why would he lie about that?"
"And if that's why the Death Eaters took him, why would they keep him after the war ended?" Ron wonders. "Why wouldn't they…"
Ron doesn't finish the thought, but Charlie's mind finishes it for him. Why wouldn't the Death Eaters kill Percy? What value did he have to the Death Eaters who held on after the end of the war, if they had captured him for faking muggle-borns' papers?
BOOM.
They all jump to their feet, wands at the ready, as the shock wave from a small explosion blows through the Burrow. Somewhere, a rain of broken glass crashes to the floor.
"What the hell?" Ginny shouts.
Charlie dashes to the nearest window, half-expecting an army of masked, black-robed Death Eaters bearing down on them. But there's no sign of anyone.
Molly rushes down the stairs. "Wands away, it's alright!"
Bill lowers his wand, but doesn't put it away. "What happened?"
"Percy's upset, he lost control of his magic—"
"He what?" Charlie asks in surprise. Even as a small child, Percy never lost control of his magic. He was always too disciplined for that.
But of course, it wasn't just kids who had destructive magical outbursts. Those fits of uncontrolled magic were common among the traumatized and the mad, the reason why wizards and witches were locked away from society in hospitals, and in attics and basements.
"Charlie, come help," Molly orders. "The rest of you, stay here for now."
As more bangs and crashes rock the Burrow, Charlie barrels up the stairs toward his brother.