Chapter Five

Bill was in absolute shock. His numb mind was trying to process what had occurred.

They had found Percy alright – or rather, Penelope found Percy, and an inane manticore found Penelope.

It was the first time in his life he'd seen one of those things. He pulled out his wand instinctively, even though he had heard all those tales about how manticores couldn't be subdued by magic. However, then Percy talked to it. His not-even-eleven-years-old-yet brother seemed to manage to converse with Alec Lestrange's great beast and then he ran off in a quick haste. Hagrid would definitely be proud.

He couldn't process anything for the first few minutes.

"Stay here with Penelope," Bill suddenly told Charlie in a definitive voice. "I'll go after Percy."

"But Bill, what if he—?" Charlie was cut off from Bill's voice.

He had to leave now, before Percy got too far. "Charlie, I won't repeat myself. Every minute we're wasting is another minute for him to get ahead!"

"Be careful, Bill," was Charlie's last statement.

After the manticore occurrence, Charlie was a little shook up. Bill was also fairly startled about the whole thing as well. At the same time, he had to make sure that Percy was taken home where he was safe. These woods were becoming more perilous the deeper they divulged into its very quintessence.

"I will," Bill promised.

He turned to look back at the big woods – and then he ran after Percy, whom now seemed like a red blur a few light years away.

"Percy!" Bill exclaimed as he ran. "PERCIVAL!"

This was his baby brother that always fell off in his broom when Bill was trying to teach him how to play Quidditch. This was the small little thing that disappeared under the table whenever he and Charlie played any form of entertainment that could harm them, even if it was all fun and games really. This was him, faster than Bill had ever seen him, as he swiftly diverged into the woods where his doom might dwell.

"Percy, stop!" Bill exclaimed afterwards, before he tried to frighten him, "When I get to you, you're going to be in a lot of trouble!"

Percy was normally very frightened by authority and demands as such. Normally, this would be enough to make him stop but he still kept on running.

"I'll tell Mum, and she'll never let you leave the house again! She might think that you're no better than the twins!" Bill continued on before adding, "You've ruined everything! You've made everyone upset. How dare you, Percival?"

Merlin, do you really want to scare Percy to death just so you can take him home? He thought to himself. This was Percy. He couldn't stand the idea of getting into trouble, much less the incessant threatening that he was receiving it.

Bill was getting incredibly winded. All the air seemed to be knocked out of his lungs.

A little faster! The logical part of him roared. Do you want to go home to Mum without Percy in your arms? Do you want to tell her that you let a ten-year-old get away into the woods after you've just seen the first manticore in your life?

"PERCY!" Bill exclaimed once more, his mind racking with conversations he had with his father about things his mum didn't know of. "Mum's so incredibly upset with you. She's going to give your room away if you don't come back, and give away all your things! We're going to have someone else to replace you!"

"I don't care! I don't have anything!" Percy shouted from where he was, "Leave me alone!"

"Percy!" Bill yelled again. His mind couldn't come up with any other convincing argument. Fear of disappointing their parents was one of the biggest reasons for why Percy was so insistent on following the rules, and being quiet and detached from the rest of them most of the time. What else could he fear so—

That was when Percy slipped over a very large branch.

Bill's heart suddenly gave away to see the child lying down with blood heavily bursting from his leg. Bill had stopped running, panting as he tried to catch his breath. He heard Percy whimpering, as he stared over at his leg, which might possibly be broken from the angle that Percy had twisted it in.

"It's done, it's over!" Bill rasped out, trying to breathe just a little better. "Stay there. I'll carry you home. It's fine. You're safe. We could heal that little cut up in no time."

Little cut? He thought to himself, looking at it more closely now. There's nothing little about it! If their mum had caught a sight of it, she might just faint. Aside from exhaustion, anger and terror, Bill felt so accomplished and rather self-satisfied. He couldn't wait to carry that little bundle back home.

"No," Percy cried out, grasping his ankle with an indignant expression. "Go away!"

Bill stood up again, a pain manifesting in his side but he still kept on walking towards Percy.

Percy must've noticed Bill's pain too because he stood up . Percy cried out in absolute anguish. He was swaying to one side, but he still turned to dart again.

"PERCY!" Bill went to run after him again. This time, he was the quick one!

Percy suddenly stopped running, kneeling in pain.

Bill believed he finally had him! He ran quicker, with more enthusiasm coursing in his veins just as Percy's body became more and more visible then…

Snap!

He was pushed down by a Whomping Willow. Bill felt his blood run cold.

Percy whimpered in pain, his eyes on the gash that seemed to have gotten worse when he tried to run from Bill. It was honestly very painful-looking. He had not seen Percy cry in years, but yet there they were – tear tracks running down Percy's face, as he tried to hiccup back his sobs.

"It's okay," Bill said, as he was being sloshed around repeatedly by the angry tree. "It's okay, Perce."

Percy tried to stand on it again, but ended up tripping instantly. He curled up again, hissing out in torment and sobbing to himself. His baby brother was in an absolute hellish pain.

"It's okay, Percy…" Bill announced once more, his voice softer.

He didn't want to see his ten-year-old brother crying, but dear Merlin, that gash seemed to be getting bigger and worse by the minute. He was bleeding out in an unwarranted manner.

"BILL!" Charlie's voice boomed from a distance that was too far away for Bill to feel comfortable.

The Whomping Willow was spinning Bill round and round until his brain felt like it was disintegrating.

Somehow, some way… Percy found it in himself to stand up on his absolutely shattered leg and pick up his bag from where it had fallen on the ground. He shook for a few moments, unable to keep himself steady.

Then he ran as fast as his body would allow him to without breaking into pieces.

"Percy, stop!" Bill announced, smacked around by another branch of the Whomping Willow. "Percy, don't! Your leg is… Merlin, how could you even walk with—PERCY, PLEASE!"

Bill watched as a slew of ginger snaps and Honeydukes' chocolates had fallen from Percy's bag.

As Bill's stomach churned, the Whomping Willow tossed him aside as if he was nothing more than an empty sack of potatoes. He was flung high and flung far – in fact, he was tossed to Charlie, whom was running towards them. He crashed into his younger brother, feeling a hard-hitting pain develop in his chest and jaw.

Penelope flinched from where she stood. That crash must've looked as painful as it felt!

"You fat arse!" Charlie snapped over at Bill, as he tried to push him off quickly.

With his aching body, Bill separated himself from his younger brother. His head was pounding and every bone in his body was throbbing, yet the only thing that seemed to bother him was the thoughts that were rattling about in his mind… Percy!

"Charlie, he's hurt," Bill announced, as he dusted off the dirt that was on his shirt. "Percy's tripped over. He's sporting a wound big enough to possibly kill him if he doesn't have a healer attend to it soon."

His younger brother looked terrified. "Alright, alright…I…"

Charlie shut his eyes. He gave the command this time, "It's best if you stay with Penelope instead and take her home. I'll scout out to look for Percy. Send a healer in the outmost urgency when you're back in the Ministry. If he's as hurt as you say he is, he can't run that far."

Charlie then said, "We'll find him."

It was supposed to be a promise, wasn't it? Then why was Charlie's voice wavering?

Bill's heart was pounding. The only thing he could think of was that Percy was only out there all alone and by himself with a potentially fatal wound and no food or water. And he'd rather be out there all by himself potentially dying than have his family take him back to their home. What had they done so wrong that they were too blind to see? Percy was setting himself up for trouble. What had they done that was so bad that—

Charlie smoothly maneuvered himself down the path that Percy had gone to. Bill Weasley glanced away from his younger brother and looked down at Penelope, whom seemed shell-shocked. Tears were streaming down her face in a rather haphazard manner.

"I don't want him to be hurt," Penelope suddenly stated; strands of short golden hair in her view.

How could he comfort her on something he was highly worried about himself? The young girl sobbed and shook her head, "Can't we look for him too? He's so bloody stubborn. I'm scared he'll hurt himself."

Bill shook his head. "We have to go," he insisted, before cursing himself for not bringing any brooms or training to take his apparition test. If he had known it wasn't going to be easy, he would've tried harder.

"Come on," Bill tried to cheer the little girl up. "You're going to be going home. That's exciting, isn't it?"

Penelope kept on staring at the trail, as if Percy was going to pop out of there somehow. She looked sad. He picked her up (she was a lot heavier than Percy), and felt his heart sink deeper.

Dear Merlin, what was his mum going to do when she heard about this?

AYDEN Clearwater was now standing between that old coot Arthur Weasley and that young idiot Henry Wells, feeling himself grow with trepidation each moment that passed with no sign of his daughter.

Wells had come to him that morning with the preposterous idea that Percy Weasley was somehow involved in his daughter's disappearance, and Arthur's obsessive wife had come around a while back with them to the Ministry. It was all a slew of unproductive confusion, and false-sounding theories. Wells even assumed that this young Weasley boy that seemed to weigh as much as a Cleansweep had somehow managed to save his daughter from a dark wizard that could turn him into liquefied mush in seconds! His precious daughter was a gifted witch that would surely be sorted into Ravenclaw as he was! She was to start her studies soon, and she'd been over the moon about the books that he'd gotten her a few weeks ago.

Molly Weasley must've been approaching him because he did not notice her standing in a close distance from him until she asked, "Would you like anything, Ayden?"

He looked at her. Molly Weasley was holding a tray of small teacups filled with coffee that she'd no doubt gotten from the lunch room. There were neat rows of Jammie dodgers, shortbread and lemon thins resting beside the little white Ministry teacups.

To be polite, Ayden picked up one of the coffee cups in an uninterested manner. She offered a weak smile.

"Have you slept, Molly?" Ayden asked in a very serious tone of voice.

"Not very well…" the ginger haired woman admitted before asking, "How's Claire handling everything?"

A few minutes had passed afterwards. Ayden drank the warm coffee that tasted more like a milky dessert with a hint of coffee flavouring. He found himself picking up a shortbread biscuit. As he ate, he noticed that Molly Weasley's eyes had not diverted from his face.

Ayden cleared his throat. "Yes, uh, well…" he was uncomfortable with how much attention Molly was paying to him. "Recently, I found her in Penelope's living room, talking to her bed as if she was actually there. She also has a habit of fixing her a plate every morning, and yelling at her for not touching her food…well, in short, Claire's not been handling a bloody thing."

Molly frowned and looked away from his face. "Isn't Claire a licensed psychiatric healer?"

"Used to be," Ayden announced before stating, "She's been odd ever since Penelope was born a few years back. She's now seeing Bonnie Waters for a host of psychiatric illnesses."

Despite knowing he'd regret it, he asked, "How are you getting on with Percy's disappearance?"

Molly looked away from Ayden and back at her feet. "Oh…well…with Percy, I…I…"

In what felt like seconds, her cheeks were streaked with hot tears, and she looked rather shook up. Her body quivered viciously. From the corner, Arthur Weasley moved towards his wife and draped a warm-looking red shawl over her shoulders, pulling her into his seemingly warm embrace.

"It's alright. It's alright," Arthur tried to cajole the woman – whom seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The ginger quickly looked over at Ayden with a softened expression. "I'm sorry about this."

"Nothing I haven't seen at home," Ayden stated indifferently, before taking a sip of the now cold 'coffee'.

Molly had left the room in a quick haste. Before Arthur could run after her, Ayden Clearwater had put his hand on the ginger male's shoulder and pulled him back.

"No," Ayden insisted in a rather dark tone of voice. "No, Arthur."

Arthur raised an eyebrow. "But I—"

"It's best to leave her alone until she's calmed down some," Ayden advised.

A memory flashed of Claire screaming at him as he went to try and comfort her about their Penelope. The things that Claire had screamed to him had him up for days afterwards, wondering why he was in this marriage still. He wondered about the things he had done, the things he should've done and the things that she should've done. He wondered about the little yellow-haired angel that could be dismembered into body parts, like a frail porcelain doll. Lestrange might demote her into nothing more than meat, bones and mush – and little stringy things that tied it all together.

Ayden Clearwater would not allow himself to rest until his Penny was back into his arms.

Arthur nodded his head. "Alright. I trust you enough to believe you know best in these situations."

After the lot had knocked down enough coffees to keep the whole Ministry awake and had eaten enough biscuits to make a biscuit tin blush, Henry decided to probe the issue again.

"I swear on my life that I saw them," Henry announced, knowing the amount of judgment he'd receive for bringing up that topic again. Ayden had to admire his persistence on attempting to make them believe absolute bollocks. "You believe me now, don't you, Arthur?"

Ayden was exasperated, "Henry, if you keep on talking about that then I'd assume that you should see my wife's psychiatric healer."

A red hue came across the Auror's face when he realised that Ayden was serious.

"I hope you realise how ridiculous you sound like when you insist that the unarmed child might've been able to get the best of a Lestrange," Ayden's voice did not falter and his expression remain unchanged.

Henry looked over at the ginger male, and then asked, "Arthur, your child could've…"

"I remember this one time I caught him stealing a biscuit from the biscuit tin when he wasn't supposed to have any before dinner. He refused to come out of his room for days afterwards," Arthur announced sternly. "Do you think that that child could possibly harm anything, even if it was in his own defence?"

"What are you talking about?" Molly Weasley was standing by the room, face botched from crying. She walked towards the table, smiling weakly. "I'm so sorry about that. I don't know what got over me…I hope that it didn't bother you that I was so uncouth in leaving. I needed a few minutes to myself."

"That's alright, love," Arthur insisted, standing up and placing a hand on his wife's shoulder.

Henry turned to Molly to ask, "Do you think it's possible that your son could've perhaps assisted in bringing Alec Lestrange to custody?"

Molly chuckled. "Henry, you really should take a week off."

"I suppose it is a ludicrous thought…" Henry Wells answered, cheeks colouring in.

It was a well known thought that if Molly Weasley had believed that something was incredibly absurd, it was because it was indeed absurd. This woman was a cavern of thoughts of hope and all things mystical and unlikely. She always had believed in the most impossible things.

"Bill?" Arthur Weasley's voice had pulled Ayden out of his trance.

The second-eldest – or was it the eldest? – Weasley boys had been standing by the doorway. He looked haggard. His robes were torn, his cheeks flustered and he looked like he had been attacked. There was a nasty-looking cut to his upper lip, and he was sporting a rather colourful variation of bruises. Ayden hadn't even seen injuries like these since the war had ended, though he supposed that the Weasley's didn't fit into the category of predictable when it came to the standard, year-round injuries. Despite his appearance, he did not seem too bothered about his injuries.

"Bill!" Molly announced and ran over to him and hugged him. "Where's Charlie? What happened to you?"

"It's a rather long story…" Bill offered a sheepish smile. "I'm fine. Charlie's fine. It's… complicated."

Ayden rolled his eyes. These Weasley's always seemed to get themselves in the strangest spots of trouble. He turned to look at the now mostly empty tray, finding himself thinking of his daughter. His heart stopped when he noticed a tuft of golden hair poke from behind Bill's robes. Penelope.

His daughter caught sight of him, and smiled merrily. She seemed to have very little hair, but the rest of her seemed well and intact from afar.

"Father!" she exclaimed, as she ran ardently towards her father.

He immediately got up from his seat and hugged her as tightly as possible. In his moment of absolute ecstasy, he let himself slip down the cover of the apathetic and stern Ayden Clearwater for he found himself laughing.

"Mr Clearwater, I'd like to say that she hasn't gotten injured," Bill decided to declare.

"Where's the rest of your hair?" Ayden asked, as he placed his hand on top of Penelope's hair. Her long, golden locks was something to be admired of – now, just gone. From afar, she looked like a boy.

Penelope simply said, "It's a long story."

Ayden chuckled, shaking his head. He looked up towards a rather shell-shocked Molly and a pleasantly surprised Arthur and asked, "There are potions for these sorts of things, yes? Hair growth?"

"No! I don't want any," Penelope said, shrinking to her place. "I'd rather stay like this than have anyone give me another one of those potions. Alec Lestrange made my hair come to life so that he could try and hurt me by strangling me!"

She moved to showcase her neck, which made Ayden's heart stop. There was a circle of bruises of where the locks had been strangling his poor little Penelope. Ayden found himself ghosting his finger across the imprint, feeling an anger brew in him with every light trace of the bruising.

"Where's Percy?" Molly asked Bill, but it was loud enough to bounce off the room.

Ayden did not know what to expect, but in that same instant, Penelope's cheery smile disappeared. In seconds, sobs raked out from her body as she exclaimed, "Bring Percy back! Bring him back! He's hurt!"