A/N: thank you all for your reviews and wonderful comments. Also thank you for pointing out that I got Audrey's eye color mixed up. My bad! And to the anonymous review who noticed undertones of d/s lifestyle, I write omegaverse novels for a living and wouldn't be surprised if shades of that slipped into my stories :D

Percy Weasley stalked through the hallways of the Ministry. Anger, a sort of indignation, was written clear as day across his face. Disappointment, and a type of hurt were hidden underneath. The kind of hurt that came from finding out your childhood heroes were nothing but smoke and mirrors.

His resignation letter was clutched firmly in his hands, though the decision hadn't come easy. That morning, he'd gotten the news that he'd be getting a promotion, and the kind of money that he was turning away wasn't something to be taken lightly. But how could he look his father, whom he'd always idolized, in the eye if he took the position of Cornelius Fudge's stooge?

"Mr. Weasley," came a sweet voice to his right.

Resisting the urge to shudder, Percy turned to face Dolores Umbridge. Despite her high pitched voice and pleasant demeanour, there was something about the woman that just made his skin crawl. Unfortunately she was in Fudge's pocket, and therefore, he forced a smile onto his face. He'd give his two weeks, and that would be the last he'd have to deal with her.

"Can I help you?" he replied, prim and proper. Always be proper.

"Can you just step in here a moment? I need some assistance with this paperwork."

"Of course."

In the coming years, he would go over this moment over and over and over. When the despair and regret and blinding panic threatened to choke him, it would be from thinking of why oh why didn't he turn her down? Why didn't he make up some half-arsed excuse and walk away?

The door closed behind him as he stepped inside, slipping his letter inside his robe pocket. When he looked up though, to see Augustus Rookwood's wand between his eyes, instinct took over. He stumbled back, reaching for his own wand.

It would be the last bit of control he'd have over his own body for the next three years.

The fight would haunt Percy's nightmares for some time. The sight of his father's face, looking down on him like he was no longer a Weasley, like he was nothing more than a traitor to the light and a disappointment of a son, was seared into his mind.

Dad! Please! But the words never even formed in his throat. His mum was hunched over the table. She had her head in her hands, sobbing at the loss of her boy.

Mummy...please...look at me...

But she never did. He screamed silently as his body carried him out of his house, away from his parents that he thought knew him so well, but couldn't tell that something was wrong. Who didn't care to even check that something was wrong.

When he wasn't crying for his mother's arms, or his father's voice assuring him that everything would be okay, bitterness took hold in his heart, festering like an infection. He was right there. He was right there screaming and they didn't notice.

On Christmas, when he sat at the table surrounded by his family, with Rufus Scrimgeour beside him, he came to the realization that they couldn't care less of his absence. Sure his mother cried, but only because she was his mother and she had to love him. His father wouldn't look at him, and his siblings' faces were filled with nothing but scorn.

He stopped screaming for his family after that.

After that, his mind simply drifted. The stabbing pain he felt every time his own father passed him in the Ministry never got better, but he got good at tuning it out. At hiding away in his own head. He recited old fairy tales over and over again. He sang songs he couldn't remember the names of anymore. He went over potions ingredients and charms theory. When his body sat down to do it's daily paperwork, he ventured to the front of his mind and read over every bit of text he could see, no matter how dull, as long as it distracted him from the never ending numbness. The sensation of floating weightless. Nothing but a soul, trapped in an unyielding husk.

Then it all ended. One day, the feeling of numbness vanished, leaving behind stiff bones and blinding pain. Wind was too cold and sharp. The sun was blinding and hot. Suddenly, Percy was expected to hold himself up. His legs buckled and concrete dust and gravel bit into his palms as he toppled over like a stack of cauldrons.

And then soft hands and a softer voice. The first touch he'd felt in an eternity. The feeling of being carried. Waking up, warm and comfortable. The guardian angel who had pulled him out of the chaos and placed him in a world of peace and quiet, where nothing hurt anymore.

Percy hadn't realized he was shaking until Audrey gently took the cup from his hands. Thin arms wrapped around his shoulder, a hand slipped up to cup one cheek, soft lips pressing against the other. He sighed, leaning into the contact.

It had taken over an hour to get everything out in the open. The overwhelming panic that the nightmare would never end. The pain and hurt that his own family couldn't see that something was wrong. The anger at said family for abandoning him.

"You know what the worst part of it is?" he said with a wet chuckle. "I have twin brothers right? Identical right down to the freckle, and matching personalities to boot. Mum has never had trouble telling them apart. But she couldn't even tell that she was talking to a robot."

He'd learned what robots were from Doctor Who. He thought the term fit his former situation perfectly and had used it more than once to describe himself.

"The guy you saw at the club. That was your brother?"

"Bill. The oldest. I can't...I can't go back. They washed their hands of me a long time ago. I can't go back," he repeated. He braced himself for a lecture on family and forgiveness, but was surprised when Audrey just nodded.

"Just because you're related, doesn't mean you owe them anything," she said. Bitterness crept into her tone. "When I got my job at the club, my dad kicked me out of the house. Burned my things on the front lawn. I left and never looked back. Once I finally managed to scrape together enough money for this place, my mum started calling me, telling me that dad was sorry and that I should come home. That they'll fix me up with a real job."

"I assume you didn't?" he said, the corner of his lip twitching into a smile.

Audrey shook her head. "Told her I was happy. Then she started going on about how I owed it to them to make something better of myself. That as their only child, I should have more respect for their wishes. Well fuck that."

She leaned in close, pressing their foreheads together. "I don't owe them a damn thing, and you sure as fuck don't owe your family anything either. Even if you weren't under a spell, they still kicked you out because you took a job. You don't owe it to them to hear an explanation. And you sure as don't owe them a second chance."

With each word, Percy felt the knot in his chest become lighter. No matter what he decided, Audrey would support him. And as far as he was concerned, she was the only person in the world that mattered to him now.

"They'll find me," he whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. "There are spells. There's no way they won't find me. I don't...I don't know if I can face them."

"Then you don't have to. I'll keep them out."

And Percy knew without a doubt that she could. Suddenly his eyelids felt heavy and his limbs felt like wet clay. The exhaustion settled over him like a heavy quilt, or maybe three. Audrey snuggled up against him, her small body warm against his.

"I'm tired," he said quietly. "I'm so tired."

"Sleep," she said softly. "I'll be right here."

He did.