A/N: Written for the Fairest of the Rare, Sing Me a Rare: NOW Edition, Spring 2021! Many thanks to the modmins of Fairest of the Rare for hosting this fest! It's such a fun one to do! My song was Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers. My character of choice was Percy Weasley and my pairing was Percy Weasley/Rowena Ravenclaw.
All of the thanks to brownlark42 for being my alphabet for this story.
If you liked this (or hated it) let me know about it in a review! You can find me on Tumblr at crochetawayhpff or Facebook at Shan Crochetaway. Enjoy!
Summary: Percy longs to find love, even the temporary love his brothers Bill and Charlie experience would be preferable to being lonely.
Pairing: Percy Weasley/Rowena Ravenclaw
Rating: G
Warnings: Modern AU
Hungered For Your Touch
The first time Percy Weasley heard their song was on one of his dad's old Muggle radios. It was that first hook that got him excited, and then as the music swelled and built to the end of the first chorus and the singer belted out that 'mine', chills ran down his arms and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
Woah, my love, my darling
I've hungered for your touch
A long, lonely time
And time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
It felt like a song that was made for first loves.
Percy sighed. He did not have a first love or any love. Hogwarts was filled with witches, and not a single one of them was interested in the nerdiest of the Weasley brothers. Both Charlie and Bill had their pick of witches. It had gotten so bad that Percy knew every time a witch approached him it was because they were really interested in one of his brothers. He tried not to be bitter about it, but the older he got, the harder it became.
He was lucky he had heard the song at the beginning of the summer. The DJ came on the radio just after the song ended and supplied the name and artist which Percy had faithfully written down. But how to hear it again? He knew Muggles made records, just as wizarding bands did. He would just have to devise a plan to get one of those Muggle records.
Percy wasn't known for his sneakiness or his plotting. He was known for his fastidiousness and always following the rules, but the song sparked something in him that made him feel much more like his brothers than he normally did. For the first time ever, he begged for a trip to Diagon Alley. There was a Muggle music store next to the Leaky Cauldron and he felt confident he could find these Righteous Brothers there. It took getting Charlie and Bill on board before he was able to convince his parents a trip to Diagon Alley was in order. But finally, only a week or so after first asking, he and his brothers were on their way to Diagon Alley.
It didn't take much to slip away from his parents, especially after bribing the twins with a bit of candy. They happily took the mantle to drive their mum to distraction so Percy could slip out through the Muggle door of the Leaky Cauldron and to the record shop next door.
He'd scoured his father's various artifact collections, and treasure piles, for as much of the Muggle money as he could, but it only amounted to a couple of plasticky feeling slips and a handful of coins. There was some woman's picture on them, the queen if Harry could be believed, but Percy wasn't quite sure what to make of them.
The cool, dim record shop was a welcome relief from the heat outside, though it was extremely cluttered with records and odd Muggle items stacked everywhere.
"'Help you?" a gruff voice from the back asked.
"Yes, I think," Percy replied and quickly explained what exactly he was looking for to the man at the till. The man was probably his father's age, with long greying hair tied in a queue at the back of his neck, wearing a garish shirt with a chaotic swirling pattern in bright colors.
"Haven't you got a mobile?" the proprietor asked with a heavy frown.
Percy had no idea what he was talking about, so he shook his head.
"Into oldies, are yeh?" he asked.
Again, Percy didn't know what the man was talking about. This time he shrugged.
"Well, I don't have any Righteous Brothers records and their CDs are hard to come by. Maybe they're on one of the NOW albums. I'll have a look real quick. Back through there you'll find CD walkmans." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, indicating a back room that Percy hadn't noticed earlier.
Sliding through the beaded curtain, Percy found himself in what looked like a junk shop. There was all manner of electronics piled up. Some new and some clearly heavily used. He had no idea what he was looking for, but repeated the words the proprietor had given him over and over again. "Seedy walkman, seedy walkman," he muttered under his breath, trailing his fingers over the dusty, black and grey plastic.
Finally, a small oval shape had the sounds he was whispering to himself written on the front of it. It had been white at some point in time, but was now kind of a dingy yellow. But clearly written on the front was 'CD Walkman.'
"You're in luck," the proprietor said from behind him, holding out a square piece of plastic. It was bright blue and had the word 'NOW' emblazoned on the front in white. He flipped it over to show Percy a list of what he assumed were songs. There at number eight was the song Percy had been obsessing over:
8. Unchained Melody
The Righteous Brothers
"Will this play it?" Percy asked, holding the walkman out to the proprietor who frowned again.
"Kids," he muttered under his breath and turned from Percy to pull something off the shelf. It was a walkman, but encased in a shiny, clear plastic that Percy realized must have been packaging. He had never owned anything new in his life.
"How much?" Percy asked, suddenly worried he wasn't going to be able to afford all of this Muggle technology.
The proprietor stomped back through to the main room, urging Percy to follow him with the wave of his hand. He ran both the walkman and the blue plastic square over a spot on the counter and then looked at Percy. "It'll be twenty-three pounds," he said.
Percy knew that Muggle money was called pounds and he dug into his pocket for the money he had nicked from his dad. Sorting through it he found a piece of plastic with a '20' on it and handed it over. Then he found a few coins with a '1' and handed those over as well. Muggles weren't always logical, but labeling money with its value actually made a lot of sense to Percy.
The proprietor accepted the money and put Percy's purchases in a bag. Then he stuck a small box in the bag as well. "Batteries for the walkman," he said.
Percy had no idea what batteries were, but he nodded and hurried out of the store. It had taken loads longer than he expected, but by the time he joined his family in Diagon Alley, they hadn't even noticed his absence.
The rest of the summer, Percy could be found listening to that song over and over again. He'd found a handy repeat button on the walkman that allowed him to listen to the same song on the CD as many times as he wanted before the batteries gave out. He'd owled Harry to ask about them, and Harry had come through, sending Percy loads of batteries. Enough that Percy was pretty sure he'd be able to get through the first term at Hogwarts with his walkman.
Percy had listened to the song so much that it seemed to circle around and around his brain all the time. He could pick up singing the song from any spot and frequently did so under his breath. Percy guarded his walkman jealously, never letting any of his brothers catch sight of it. The last thing he needed was one of them catching on to what had him so engrossed. Or worse, taking the piss out of him about it.
What hadn't occurred to Percy was the effect magic might have on Muggle technology. At the Burrow, it wasn't so noticeable, especially since Percy spent most of his summer listening out by the pond, gazing up at the fluffy white clouds that scudded across the sky, instead of in the house itself. Once he got to Hogwarts though, the walkman didn't work at all. It only worked intermittently on the train, and within Hogwarts grounds, it didn't even power on, no matter how many times Percy changed the batteries.
Another thing he would have to ask Harry about. He tucked the walkman away into his robes just as Dumbledore stood to make his announcement to the school. He'd been so distracted, he'd missed the sorting entirely.
"And lastly," Dumbledore said, moments later, "I'd like to welcome back a very special guest, or," he broke off with a bit of a choked laugh, "I don't think we can call her a guest, can we?"
Percy's eyebrows knitted together. What on earth was Dumbledore going on about? He scanned the teacher's table. Everyone looked familiar, there wasn't…
Movement at the Ravenclaw table caught his eye and the most beautiful witch Percy had ever seen stood up. She was slim and youthful, looking almost the same age as some of the older students, and she gazed across the Great Hall with a slight smile. Instantly, the lyrics began playing in his head.
I've hungered, hungered for your touch
A long, lonely time
And time goes by so slowly
And time can do so much
Are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
God speed your love to me
It was her. It was his love, he knew it in his heart, in his bones, in his very soul. This shy witch, with the long raven hair, was the one he was destined to love. She gave a wave as Dumbledore finally got around to introducing her.
"The one and only, Rowena Ravenclaw!"
The fact that she was a Founder, should have astonished Percy, but it didn't. It only made sense that he was destined to be with someone as perfect, as advanced, as magically talented as a Founder of Hogwarts.
He had a new mission. He was going to do everything within his power to get Rowena—just thinking her name sent chills down his spine—to love him as much as he already loved her.
~Fin~