AN: And I'm back. This is my drabble for The Houses Competition, which has started the new season! I'm in Hufflepuff house, taking the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm excited, this is going to be so much fun. For my prompt, I chose Percy Weasley, one of the most annoying Weasleys. I hope I make him a bit likable, or a least understandable in this fic!

Word Count: 872

Percy Weasley was trapped. He knew he was under the Imperius Curse. He remembered the moment it had been placed on him.

He had gone to his boss, Mr Crouch's, house to give him a recent report he'd written, and to try and find out what was going on. He'd started to become suspicious after he'd missed the Yule Ball, but hadn't had the time to investigate until this moment. As soon as he Apparated to the front door, he had a terrible feeling something was about to go wrong. Maybe it had to do with the two shadows that he saw crossing in front of the window. Two? As far as Percy knew, Mr. Crouch was alone except for his house-elf, whom he'd dismissed almost six months ago. So why were there two figures in the window when there should have been one?

Despite his worry, he knocked on the door. "Mr. Crouch? Are you home?" He heard a small commotion inside, which made his worry increase, but a moment later it eased a bit as Mr. Crouch opened the door, appearing as he always did, if perhaps a bit pale and disheveled (due to being sick, he presumed).

"Walters," Crouch greeted. "What are you doing here so late in the evening?"

Percy held out the report as he said, "Oh, I just wanted to hand you this in person. It's a report on the merpeople in the Hogwarts lake, it has all the information necessary for the second task in February."

Crouch gave it a cursory glance before saying, "Yes, yes, this is quite enough information. Thank you, Wellington."

Percy knew he should have made himself satisfied with giving the report and seeing Mr. Crouch, if not in perfect condition then as well as could be expected for someone recovering from a sickness.

But he couldn't. He had learned Mr. Crouch's ways pretty well during the time he'd been employed in his department. From his observations, and those of anyone he asked, Mr. Crouch would rather die than miss a day of work. So why was he at home when he appeared to be suffering from only a minor cold?

"Mr. Crouch, are you all right?" he decided to ask. "Your letters say you've been sick, but you've been rather vague. Also, I saw a second person in your window, is someone here with you?"

Percy expected any number of things to happen next. He thought Mr. Crouch might get angry and send him away. He thought he might discover a secret girlfriend that Crouch wanted to hide. He thought of anything except what happened. From around the corner of the door, A squat, rat-like man came and aimed his wand at Percy. Percy tried to defend himself, but before he could even raise his wand, the mysterious man said, "Imperio."

Percy knew the effects of the Imperius Curse. He was no longer his own person.

Over the next few years, Percy did things he knew he would never have done in his right mind. When Harry came back after the hour allotted to complete the second task, Percy wanted to give a seven, and yet he wrote down a perfect score of ten. Rule-breaking should not be rewarded, and yet that's what he'd done. Later that year, after the events of the Third Task, Percy would not have been able to refute the evidence for the Dark Lord's return. And yet, when confronted about it in his own home, he had exploded and left the house. Discovering that he had been cursed by Peter Pettigrew, a man people believed dead for years, had meant little. He had still been forced to rent an apartment in Diagon Alley. If he'd been himself, he would never have treated his family the way he did, despite his annoyance with them at times.

The war was now fully underway. He was forced to go to the Ministry every day to keep up his appearance as a diligent worker and all, but everything he was forced to do was for the regime. In his office at Malfoy Manor, he looked at his calendar to see that it was almost Easter. He knew his family would be celebrating in whatever meager way they could wherever they were hiding, and all he wanted to do was join them and apologize, explain what had happened and beg forgiveness. Yet he knew that Peter Pettigrew would be along soon to reinforce the curse. He'd felt it abating for a few days now, and knew that he would not be set free until this war was over.

And yet… suddenly, he felt a sense of levity. He felt something being released, his mind returning to his own. But how? It wasn't possible that he'd been discarded as useless. He had been forced to do a number of things for the Death Eater's cause, and he didn't know why he'd be released now.

Whatever it was, he couldn't give the appearance of anything wrong. He knew how the Ministry dealt with traitors nowadays. No, he'd have to work his way out slowly. And yet, he was prepared. He needed to get back to his family for the holiday, after all.

Note: the reason the curse breaks is because Peter has just died.