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Warning for Everyone Lives!AU, a slight bit out of character, a whole load of fluffiness. Word count is 2,380 words. I hope you all enjoy A Hazy Shade of Winter.
It was one of the harshest winters ever in recorded history or at least that was what Percy kept hearing on the radio. He was pretty sure that his parents had said something about seeing harsher when he and the girls had been over to dinner last night. Looking out the window, he just couldn't see it.
"It's a beautiful morning," he said to himself as he stretched. "The weather forecast must be wrong."
The gound only had a quaint dusting of snow. But the sky looked like it held more snow. Perhaps today would be full of quaint little dustings of snow and he could take his daughters Molly and Lucy out to play in it.
"Daddy," Lucy's voice called from the other side of his closed bedroom door, she gently knocked on the door as she called out, "are you awake yet?"
"I am, sweetheart," he called out. He walked across the room wincing as he stepped off the throw rug that was in front of his bed. The floorboards were ice cold and that leeched some of the warmth out of him. He'd have to remember to put his slippers nearby next time. That way his feet wouldn't be cold when got up.
Opening the door he caught sight of his youngest daughter. The little five-year-old girl was clutching her teddy bear. The one that his mother had given her when she was born. The one that had been handed down for generations and had used to belong to each Weasley in turn. Her hazel eyes were full of concern and her auburn hair was knotted as she'd just woken up.
"What's wrong, sweet pea?" Percy asked, picking his youngest up. "Did you have a bad dream?"
"No," Lucy said, sounding afraid of something. "Molly said that it's going to storm and be horrible out today and that we'll freeze to death."
"Did she?" Percy said, shock coloring her voice. He'd never known his eight-year-old daughter to be so mean to his younger daughter.
Lucy nodded, eyes wide as saucers and fear clearly written on her face.
"Look outside," Percy said, walking over to the window in his room that overlooked the street. "It's only going to flurry today. Your sister is only trying to tease you about your feat of storms. Don't allow her to."
"But how, Daddy?" Lucy asked, looking him in the eyes. Her doleful eyes starting to tear up at the thought of a storm.
"Tell her that your father said that there isn't going to be any storms today and we won't be freezing to death either," Percy said, rubbing Lucy's back comfortingly.
"Okay, Daddy," Lucy said, smiling at him.
"Now, why don't you go and get dressed?" Percy said, setting his daughter down on her feet. "Then we can go and get some ingredients for pancakes and have those for breakfast. Would you like that?"
Lucy nodded excitedly. The horrible thoughts that her older sister had put in her head were forgotten about in the favor of pancakes for breakfast. She giggled and went racing out of Percy's room. He could hear her calling to Molly that she should get dressed and smiled to himself. Even when his daughters were at odds with each other they were still close. He hoped that they'd stay that way for as long as possible. Hopefully not following in his footsteps and making their family suffer the way he had his.
Walking over to his wardrobe, he took one more glance out the window. The sky was beginning to gray a bit. The look that it normally took on before it began to snow. Perhaps they'd have a bit of a flurry for the ride home.
Pulling out a nice comfortable looking flannel shirt that Bill had given him for his last birthday, and a pair of jeans to go with it. Percy dressed for the day. He wanted to be comfortable but not too dressy. He was only going to the grocery store after all.
"Daddy, it's snowing!" Lucy said, pointing to the great big fluffy flakes of snow that were coming down from the sky.
"It's only flurrying, baby," Percy reassured her. Although he wasn't entirely sure of that himself. He'd almost slipped on the ice getting the girls into the car, to begin with. But he didn't want to get Lucy worried again. "We'll get home before it starts to snow any harder than this."
"Are you sure, Daddy?" Molly asked, looking up at him in concern.
"I'm a hundred a percent sure," Percy said, wishing he felt as sure as he had told his daughters he was. After all, who knew what the weather was going to do one from moment to the next. It was cold enough to make the sidewalks icy outside of their flat, wasn't it? Who was to say that it wasn't cold enough for a snowstorm? "Let's try and get in out of here quickly shall we?"
Lucy and Molly shared a look behind their father's legs. It was obvious to anyone that the young girls weren't convinced by what their father had said about being a hundred percent sure. But nonetheless, they took their father's hand and followed him into the store.
Percy stared in shock at the long lines for the checkout. He'd hear his mother say that people panicked when anyone said the word snow but he'd only thought that was an exaggeration. But no! It wasn't an exaggeration. The lines were down the aisles for the checkout and they'd only just got here.
"Daddy, why are the lines so long?" Lucy asked, looking at the lines with wide eyes. One woman had a grocery cart full of stuff and her daughter behind her with a second cart full of groceries. "Why are all they buying so much?
"Maybe they're really hungry," Percy said, noticing that a lot of the carts in the lines had things like eggs, water, bread, peanut butter, jellies, and toilet paper. He hadn't thought of stocking up on the essentials but then again who was to say that it was going to storm that bad. "Come along, girls!" He picked Lucy up and put her in the seat of the grocery cart while Molly jumped onto the front part and held onto it. That was one of her favorite things to do when they went grocery shopping. Ride the front of the cart.
Percy headed quickly towards the milk and eggs. He knew that if these people were thinking the way that he knew they were those would be the first things to go. He dashed quickly down the aisle making Molly squeal in delight.
"Faster, Daddy!" she squealed. "Go faster!"
"Don't faster!" squealed Lucy, holding on for dear life and looking about ready to cry her eyes out. Percy couldn't truly blame her. He'd taken the last corner a little too close and on only two wheels.
"It's alright, sweetie," he said, finally reaching the eggs and picking up the last carton of them. He quickly walked across to the milk and picked up the last carton of that. Walking away he could hear someone behind him cursing a blue streak but as long as he could make his children pancakes he'd be happy.
"Why was that man so angry, Daddy?" Molly asked, looking back at where milk and eggs aisle a small frown pulling at her lips.
"Perhaps he wanted to make pancakes too," Lucy said, looking up at her father.
"Maybe they have some more eggs and milk in the back and will bring him so out," Percy said, knowing that they probably didn't.
"I hope so. Everyone deserves pancakes on a day like this," Lucy said, sweetly smiling up at her father as the small family went in search of pancake mix.
By the time that Percy had paid for his groceries and had them packed in the car, the snow was swirling wildly around them. He acted rather nonchalantly because he could see that the girls were afraid. He didn't want them to be any more afraid than he was. The wind had picked up and it looked like a storm was going to hit them soon.
"You might want to take shelter soon, sir," a police officer said, stopping his cruiser near Percy's car. "The storm is going let lose any minute now."
"Thank you, officer," Percy said, finishing buckling up Lucy. "We will."
He got back into the car and drove. The snow coming down faster and harder than it had been when they'd first set out on their little adventure. It was a good thing that they didn't live that far away from the grocery store.
By the time that they arrived back at the flat, it was almost to white out to see where one was driving. Percy was thankful for the fact that they didn't live that far away from the store. He quickly jumped out of the car and unbuckled Lucy's belt. Then raced around the car to help Lucy out of the car. He helped the two girls up to the front door of the flat first.
"You girls, run up to your room and get some nice warm clothes on," he said, opening the door for them. "I'll be right back with the groceries and then we can start on the pancakes, alright?"
The girls nodded, eyes wide as saucers.
Percy jogged back to the car thankful that it was so cold out. If it wasn't he would have carried the groceries with him. But the cold would keep the groceries good while he helped the children into the house.
He was just about to pick up the bag with the eggs in it when his feet went out from under him. His bottom half slid under the car while his groceries, at least the milk and pancake mix box, went flying overhead.
"Ow!" exclaimed someone who'd been walking down the street. "Why'd you do that for?"
"I didn't do it on purpose," Percy said, trying to regain his footing and get up at the same time. "I can assure you of that."
The person, which from the sound of the voice was a man around Percy's age if not a bit younger, sounded like he was laughing. How could someone laugh at the expense of someone they didn't even know? That wasn't nice at all.
"It's not that funny," Percy huffed, folding his arms over his chest where he sat on the ice-cold driveway. "I assure you of that."
"It kind of is," the voice said, getting closer to Percy. Until finally an angel sent from heaven itself was standing over Percy smiling at him.
The man was at least a year or so younger than Percy. His face had a charming smile and slight bruise on the forehead from where the box of pancake mix had met it full force. His dark eyes were smiling with mirth. His sandy brown locks were swept around by the wind giving him a boyish sort of look. His cheeks were colored red from the cold. He was dressed in the warmest clothes possible.
"Here," he said, holding out his hand to Percy. "Let me help you and we can gather these things together again."
Percy nodded, taking the stranger's hand. He allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. He couldn't take his eyes off the stranger that had come to his rescue. Why was the man out in this horrible storm?
"Thank you…"
"Cedric," the man said, holding his hand out once more for Percy to shake it this time. "I just moved in next door."
"It's nice to meet you, Cedric," Percy said, shaking the outstretched hand. "I'm Percy. My daughters and I were just returning from the grocery store."
Cedric chuckled and held up the box of pancake mix. "I could tell," he said, handing Percy the box. "You have quite the arm on you."
Percy blushed, feeling like an idiot for not keeping hold of the bag when he fell. Then again if he had kept hold of the bag he wouldn't be standing her almost calf-deep in the snow talking to Cedric. He took the box of pancake mix and searched the ground. He had to find the milk or the pancake mix would be pretty useless.
"What else are we looking for?" Cedric asked, watching Percy search the nearest snowdrift for whatever he was looking for.
"There was a carton of milk that was in the same bag as this box," Percy said, searching frantically. He didn't want to let his daughters down. They had been hoping for pancakes since he'd mentioned them.
"You mean this carton of milk?" Cedric asked, bending and picking up the carton that was next to his feet.
"Yes," Percy said, reaching out his hand to take the milk. His fingers brushed gently against Cedric's and it was like something electric went off in his body. Tingles went through his spine that had nothing to do with the chill that was spreading from his snow-covered clothes. "Thank you!"
"No problem!"
"What are you doing out here at a time like this anyway?" Percy asked, wanting to smack himself for being so forward. But also wanting to know why this gorgeous man was outside in a full-fledged snowstorm.
"I'm shoveling snow as the storm progresses," Cedric said, pointing to where his shovel was buried in the snow. "It makes it easier to do when the storm calms down."
"I never thought of that," Percy said. He usually had a service shovel his sidewalk and driveway. "Would you like to stop over and have some pancakes with us? You did after all save the pancakes from the snow."
"Only if you're sure that you'll have enough for everyone," Cedric said, smiling at Percy.
"I'm sure," Percy said, motioning for Cedric to follow him. "I'm sure that the girls will be happy to meet the man who saved breakfast."
As the storm raged on outside of the flat, Percy smiled watching his daughters and Cedric interact with each other. He felt like this was the start of something beautiful and it was all thanks to pancakes and snow.
I hope you all enjoyed A Hazy Shade of Winter as much as I enjoyed writing it.