this is a flashback scene (hence why it is in italics) and is shorter than the rest of the chapters. i tried to add more but it's a bit difficult. there's only so much i could write before i hit that wall where you write a few words, they sound wrong, you erase them, you write another few and... oh, well. it's a few thousand words short of the usual length. hopefully, it isn't that noticeable.
Chapter Twelve
"Eat your food, Percival," Molly insisted. Percy had left the hospital a few hours ago. Arthur had paid only about a fifth of Percy's extensive medical bills, and would have a hard time paying off the rest. Molly sighed in exasperation. She thought that Percy wasn't eating properly because of how bad the hospital food was, but this was worse than she could ever imagine. All he did was play with his food, with his hands even! That wasn't like Percy at all to ruin food like that. His hands were making a mush out of the buttered broccoli she'd served him along with their roasted chicken. "Stop doing that right this instance!"
Ginny snorted and wrapped her arms around her doll of Gwenog Jones. Molly knew she liked her two-year-old doll very much but Ginny had never insisted bringing that ratty old thing to the table before.
"Percy, even I don't play with my food like that anymore!" six-year-old Ginny took a mouthful of her own buttered broccoli to make a point, "See?"
Percy's eyes were smouldering with an intense darkness as he stared back at Ginny. Molly had never seen such a look of contempt sprawling in her son's features before. She did not know what happened to Percy in those words, but she'd never seen him as cynical and callous as he was right then. "Must you bring that wretched doll to the dinner table?"
"Must you bring your charming attitude to the dinner table?" Bill responded, eyes on Percy's face.
Percy only offered a smile that Molly couldn't read (and she wasn't even sure if she even wanted to at this point). He walked over towards the kitchen and cleaned his hands, which were covered with bits of broccoli. "I don't see what's so fascinating about that ruddy thing..." he said, referring to the doll before he then added on, "Do you want to share, Gin?"
"No," Ginny said, shaking her head adamantly. "Gwenog is mine and you don't even like Quidditch."
Percy just stared down at the running water from the tap before he cleaned his hands with a tissue.
"Share with Percy, Ginevra," Molly insisted. She didn't know how to react. She just didn't know how to deny Percy something knowing that a while ago, she thought that he was dead.
"No," Ginny repeated, burying her head into the doll. "Mine."
Percy just raised an eyebrow. "We'll see about that," was all he said, before he grabbed one of Bill's bread rolls, mostly to irritate Bill considering the fact that he hadn't touched a thing off his own plate. He took a mouthful of it, and stared back at an annoyed Bill. "What is it?"
Bill raised an eyebrow, "You're a right arse for an eleven-year-old, aren't you, Percy?"
"Bill!" Molly called out, obviously exasperated.
Bill didn't seem effected by this at all. "Apologise to Ginny for one—and I don't know who gave you the bloody right to say all that bollocks to my friends yesterday. We were visiting you in the ruddy hospital and instead of being grateful; you acted like a right arse about it. Throwing the book Lauren gave you as a present and whining about how much your bloody head hurts. If the mum wasn't there, I would've snapped your bloody arm and made you think about what you've done."
Molly's cheeks coloured in. "That was a very rude thing to do, Percival. Lauren was just being nice. She didn't know what kind of books you liked."
Percy stared at Molly with a cold expression, and said nothing.
"Mum," Bill gave her a look. "Just let me give him a good whack and he'll straighten out."
"William," Molly was not happy about hearing this, not one bit. "You are not laying a hand on your brother, is that understood? Percy was just upset. He overreacted because he was upset, understand? He's been in the hospital for days, and he's been very tired. He says he's been having all these headaches too!"
Bill looked over at Percy with a hardened expression. "I have a bloody headache just looking at him."
"PERCY, I hate you!" Ginny exclaimed, trying to shove Percy out of her room. Her eyes were bubbling with tears, and she had her arms wrapped around a little Holyhead Harpies doll that was now missing an eye and a leg. "I take it back! I didn't miss you! You could go away and I won't care! I won't care! You—you're so horrible. Horrible! MUM! Mum, Percy broke Gwenog! He broke her and now, she can't walk!"
Ginny had her arms wrapped around her doll, which was now severely disfigured thanks to Percy clawing it out with his sharp nails.
Molly poked her head into Ginny's small yet very feminine room. It was very obvious that mum had gone all out when it came to the only girl that she had. The curtains were a cerise satin that let most of the light outside in. Her walls were coloured into a shade of salmon pink that really went with the white oak wood that made her furniture and her bed. Most of the bed was covered with an endless amount of toys, mostly as gifts from relatives that spoiled Ginny senseless for being not only the (hopefully) last child, but the only girl Molly had. Sitting on the floor, looking relatively unashamed of himself was her eleven-year-old son, whom was glaring at Ginny as if she'd committed some kind of a crime.
Ginny wrapped her arms around Molly's leg, burying her small head into her mother's leg. "Look at what he did to her!" she thrust the toy into Molly's hands.
"Percy, did you do this?" Molly said, noticing what a poor state the toy was at.
"He did!" Ginny exclaimed, grabbing the doll from Molly's hands. "I saw him! He did it!"
Percy slowly nodded his head, confessing to his crime. He opened his hand where he was holding a large chocolate brown button, which used to be Gwenog's eye. Almost instantly did Ginny swipe the button from his hand and then pounced on top of her brother.
"You broke her!" Ginny jammed the fluffy doll into Percy's face.
He tossed it aside, and Ginny immediately grabbed fistfuls of his wine red curls.
"Ginny, get off him!" Molly looked rather confused on what to do. She pulled Ginny off Percy, which took a lot of effort seeing as Ginny didn't want to let go of his hair.
"GIVE ME BACK GWENOG!" Ginny exclaimed, kicking her small legs into Percy's abdomen.
Percy grabbed the doll again and as if to make a point, tore off the other brown button from the toy's eye. This resulted into a high-pitched cry eliciting from Ginny's mouth, as tears burned down the six-year-old girl's eyes. "Percy, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" tearing the button was apparently the last straw, and Ginny had surged towards Percy, breaking free from her mother's grasp.
Ginny and Percy rolled across their room. Ginny's hands in his hair and Percy's hands on the ground.
"Get off me!" Percy exclaimed, trying to shove Ginny on him but she had a foot nestled into his abdomen to steady her. "Get off... you're-you're not particularly light!"
"You're not particularly light," Ginny mocked, sticking out her tongue.
"OH, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!" Charlie called out, standing by the doorway. He walked down towards them, grabbing Percy by the collar of his robes and pulling him up from the ground. Ginny fell to the ground with an oof. An icy expression shot at Percy decorated her delicate features. "Mum, just tell him off! Tell him that he's being a right arse and that he shouldn't have broken Ginny's dolls! He wouldn't have gotten away with it before and he shouldn't get away with it now!"
Molly stared at him with big eyes, and said nothing.
"He broke Gwenog," Ginny insisted, taking the doll into her small hands. "Look!"
"Percy's sorry, isn't he?" Molly said, taking Percy from Charlie's grip and running her hand through his unkempt curls. "You're sorry, aren't you, Percy?"
Percy sighed deeply and slowly nodded his head.
"He's sorry," Molly insisted, looking back at Charlie, whom just shook his head as he leaned down to Ginny's eye-level, grabbing the broken doll from her hands. "Charlie, he just got out of the hospital... what do you want me to do?"
Charlie just gave his mother an incredulous look before glancing back at Ginny. "Come on. I've got a few Galleons. I'll get you an ice-cream from Diagon Alley, alright?"
Ginny slowly nodded his head. She passed Percy, glaring at him coldly. Percy's face remained stoic. He picked up the doll with some kind of a chaotic glee sprawling across his face, and a smirk following.
"Mine now," Percy decided, grabbing the other two buttons, the legs and then followed Charlie. "I want ice-cream."
"You're not getting any, you little rut," Charlie called out unhappily.
Percy's plea made Molly's heart twinge, knowing he hadn't eaten anything but half a bread roll that day. "Charlie, please just take him," Molly explained, placing a hand on Percy's shoulder. "He's just tired...he's come out of the hospital. You know Percy's a good boy, you know he's such a sweetheart..." she pressed her lips against Percy's forehead.
Charlie sighed deeply. "He broke your china. He ruined Ginny's doll. He stole Ron's Chudley Cannon's badge. He hid my bloody books for no real reason. I've no idea where or how he got to Bill's earring, but Bill's been looking everywhere for it and he can't find it! And you want to give him ice-cream? He should be getting a proper beating is what he's supposed to be getting—and if Bill sees him, he'll give him just that."
"He will do no such thing," Molly decided, ignoring everything else that Charlie said. She ran her hand through Percy's untidy curls, and then said, "Bill looks awful with that thing. I don't know why he'd be looking for it."
"Mum, don't encourage him," Charlie's eyes were on Percy this time. A disappointed look on his face. "Apologise to Ginny."
Ginny moved towards Percy now, with a cold expression on her face. "You killed my Gwenog!"
"And I'd do it again," Percy mumbled, as he let his hand run through the dissected doll, which looked rather appalling right about now. The smile that Percy gave was reminiscent of Lucius Malfoy's smile. It really irked Charlie to see Percy so callous. "It's just a bunch of strings tied up together. I don't see why it's so important."
"You could say the same thing about your books," Bill said in a hollow tone of voice, standing beside the doorway with a hardened expression on his face. In truth, Molly would never admit it to Bill, but he looked odd without the earring—almost as if a part of him was missing. "Couldn't you, Perce?"
Percy's entire face had gone red. "No!" he exclaimed, taking one of the battered doll's arms and tearing it to shreds. "You're lying to me. You're lying!"
With that, Percy ran out of the room with whatever was left of the doll.
Standing by the doorway, Bill only offered a weak smile towards Ginny before he said, "It was an old doll anyway. I'm sure if you're a very good girl this week, Dad would end up buying you a new doll."
Molly knew fully well that they wouldn't be able to afford Ginny a new doll for a while. Every bit of money they had now they were using to pay for Percy's medical bills. Arthur would know, since he'd spent the last few days doing nothing but sleeping, eating and going to the office. He didn't even have any excitement towards any new muggle products he'd have found recently because of his extreme weariness.
Ginny's bright smile made her feel worthless for a while, but what could she do? Molly couldn't go look for Percy and tell her that he had to apologise a day after he'd left that ruddy hospital.
She couldn't look at those blue eyes and demand that he apologise to Ginny.
He was a good boy, anyway, Molly insisted to herself. He might have stolen before but he didn't mean to. He might have broken Ginny's toy and stolen Bill's earring and Ron's badges, but those weren't important things, right? They were meaningless compared to having him back home, safe and away from danger. It had to be that way. It just had to be.
That night, Molly found herself walking to Percy's room. She was surprised to find him sitting on his bed, with that doll in his hands—or whatever was left of it. She didn't think that she could tell that it was a doll if she hadn't seen Percy dismember the thing in front of her eyes.
Percy looked up at her with those soft blue eyes, and then he'd said, "Mum, I want to be alone."
It was a soft plea and she just felt dreadful. Molly couldn't just tear the doll away from his hands. She didn't think she'd be able to do it with what she knew about him recently. It wasn't exactly broken beyond repair. A few stitches and it would be fixed. Ginny wouldn't have to wait for a new one.
"Can I have the doll, Percy?" Molly asked.
Percy shook his head and gripped tighter around the body. "It's mine now."
Molly sat down on his bed. He had such an awful, springy bed. It was the only thing they could somehow bring to his room after the debacle that happened before. "Come on, you don't want Ginny to be upset now, do you?"
Percy's eyes were on the door. "I don't care," he said before adding on, "It's mine now. You can't take it away from me."
"Why do you want Ginny's doll so badly?" she asked, staring at him with wide eyes. It just made no sense to her why Percy was so infatuated with the doll. It wasn't like him at all. He might as well be a stranger, wearing Percy's body. His skin was just as rubbery, and his eyes were vacant. They held no emotion that she associated with Percy from before. There was that whisper of contempt in his eyes. She could remember the memory he'd reiterated when he'd had that Merlin-awful seizure. A seizure that would happen to him only once hopefully and she wouldn't have to deal with the idea that Percy might be punished for being ill.
"It's mine now," was all that Percy said, finger on the doll body.
"You've made Ginny very upset," Molly tried to reason with him.
Percy looked back at her. His expression was unreadable. "Let her be upset. I hate her."
"Percy," Molly's voice was teetering with distress. Why did Percy insist on ruining Ginny's doll? Why did he insist on taking Ron's badge? Why did he insist on doing these things? What was the point of all this? Because Molly didn't know. "You don't mean that. Ginny's your sister. Give her back her doll."
Percy threw the doll towards his mum's lap and stood up. Molly hoped that now, Percy would let her know what he was thinking when he'd done all those things.
Under normal circumstances, they would be unacceptable. Under normal circumstances, she'd have thought of a suitable punishment for this. Under normal circumstances, Percy wouldn't even be doing this because this kind of childish behaviour was usually beneath her son. So, what had changed?
He opened his mouth and instead of an apology, said, "It's an ugly doll anyway."