Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Feel free to back out if that's you.
Author's Note: I'm of the opinion that Percy was right in the argument with Molly & Arthur, even if he did end up giving them exactly what they wanted to end it.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 11); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Gryffindor MC; Sett to Destroy; In a Flash; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux
House: Hufflepuff
Assignment No.: Term 11 – Assignment 03
Subject (Task No.): n/a
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [624] (Winston Churchill quotation); 365 [123] (Bridge); Galleon Club (afraid)
Space Address (Prompt): n/a
Representation(s): Percy Weasley; Weasleys & the World
Bonus Challenges: In the Trench; Second Verse (Lovely Coconuts; Unwanted Advice; Nontraditional; Persistence Still); Chorus (Unicorn; A Long Dog; Tomorrow's Shade; Peddling Pots; Machismo)
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: SN (Rail); O3 (Olivine)
Word Count: 367
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Those Nights
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Percy was used to being hated. He had been a prefect at Hogwarts after all. The problem with being the person whose job it was to enforce the rules was that you didn't end up being everyone's favorite person. So he was used to looking at someone and knowing that regardless of whatever else they felt for you, they hated you for your stance on something. Yet even with the fights he had always had with his siblings, Percy would never have believed that he would ever feel that way from a family member.
He could feel the way that his father glared at him as they crossed each other's paths going about their separate work at the Ministry. He could also feel the way that it sometimes softened into nostalgia and longing. He knew that they didn't regret their decision to lash out when he had tried to get them to break from Dumbledore. He knew that they didn't regret choosing to follow that man over a member of their own family, and maybe he deserved that for treating it like an ultimatum in the first place.
Percy just didn't understand how anyone can look at the things that the man had done and still want to put him on a pedestal like he was a savior. Dumbledore talked about sacrifices for the Greater Good, but there comes a time when one had to look at the trail of dead and disappeared left in his wake and wonder just who was the one making the sacrifices and whether the results were good for anyone. More than anything, Percy wanted his family safe.
But you couldn't save those who were determined to throw themselves into the cauldron.
He still had to steel himself to ignore the looks he got just as much as he ignored the longing inside of him as the estrangement lingered on, and the bridges between them continued to burn. Would there be any hope of resolution by the end of this? Would they ever get to repeat those nights when they were a family united against the world that always had reminders of their inferiority? Would there even be anything left to salvage?