aaaaand there's Audrey. speaking of unplanned things, Tarvos' existence wasn't planned. an OC was created on the spot, inserted himself, gave himself character and somehow a scene that i could appreciate was produced.

warnings: isolation, imprisonment, physical and mental abuse - some described in great detail, some only hinted, unlawful discrimination and God knows what else i decide to put in last minute... that 'God know what else i decide to put in last minute' includes suicidal ideation (possibly an attempt may it be successful or not later on) and mentions/possible illustrations of self-harm.

to Phoenixx Rising: aye, it is a strange situation to be in! i just hope i have spun it on nicely enough.

Chapter Thirty

It was noon and Percy was too broke for coffee. That statement alone could express how foul his mood was.

An hour ago, he had a long kip in the middle of his shift. He dreamed that Roger Davies had his cauldron explode during Potions. Even his dreams were as insipid and uninspired as he was.

By one, he wished he'd be kidnapped by a bicorn that had a voracious appetite for redheaded tossers.

His last shift was in the Paediatric section. Fortunately, the worst child he had to encounter was nothing more than Ron having a temper tantrum after Ginny stole his stash of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

However, within the time period between eight in the morning to two in the afternoon, a hundred and ten formal complaints were filed against him, stating that it was depressing for a cripple to attend to the children.

Thus, Percy was sent to his superior's office, whom threatened to discredit his work.

Percy stood his ground, only for Shoes to dismiss him.

Percy needed that certificate because apparently, an application for any possible job he'd want after he'd finished his Hogwarts education would be a thousand times more guaranteed if his curriculum vitae was accompanied with a certificate from St Mungo's saying: "Percival has changed three hundred nappies, took enough blood samples to make a vampire terribly jealous, had a mental breakdown at a hospital crisis where children's skin was desquamating and had an IV line explode on him! Please hire him!"

Due to Fred and George's help, Percy's resume for St Mungo's included qualifications such as 'lived with five brothers and one sister and thereby can efficiently change nappies and tell small children to suck it up', 'lost 500 Slytherin house points for being the world's most insufferable prat' and 'however, to make up for being an absolute berk, he can make an excellent cuppa'. Apparently, that wasn't a problem with Shoes. The real issue here was that Percy had to sit down whilst he withdrew blood because he was a cripple.

Percy was handling the situation relatively fine (read: he wanted to kill himself slowly and painfully).

That was when the disability unit heard about the complaints that were being filed against him and marched down to his superior's office, demanding Percy get his certification approved.

This, of course, resulted into an uproar that involved levitating wheelchairs and heated blood samples.

No, it did not change Percy's predicament. He was still getting no certification.

Now, he was sat on a bench just a two-minute walk away from the hospital, staring at his knobby knees and skinny thighs, wondering if in seconds, he would at least have a semi-attractive body to walk around with to make him excited about something. Apparently, gawking at his body with intense self-loathing did nothing to make him look any more attractive than he was three seconds ago. Ever since he'd turned into his shift, all he'd done was cause ruckus and gotten himself banned from any work-related position in St Mungo's. On top of that, his father will kill him when he heard about Audrey. Percy was so frightened of disappointing his own father that it had been gnawing at the back of his head all day.

He'd defied his mum for nothing. He'd put everything on the table for nothing.

Just when he thought his day couldn't get any worse (he should stop saying this to himself because he was ultimately tempting fate to make it even worse), he saw a figure stride towards him in the darkness of the cold summer evening... Audrey.

His heart started to pound when he saw her walk towards him, fuming. Percy's stomach clenched, because she knew. If she didn't know, she wouldn't be looking like she wanted to make sure he'd never walk again.

"Audrey, I—" Percy had immediately stood up, his voice squeakier than usual.

"Is there something you'd forgotten to tell me, Percival?" Audrey asked coldly, pulling him down back at the bench. He felt cornered as he stared at her wide brown eyes, which were filled with contempt.

Percy found it in him to reply. "I'm not sure as to what you might—"

Audrey scoffed. Her brown hair seemed more chaotic than usual, and her eyes harder than his mum's Christmas pudding. "Something regarding the fact that I have bloody oranges that are older than you?"

"Yes, I-I just remembered... I—" Percy was so nervous that he started to babble. "I hope you're aware that using anti-decomposing charms on fruit is an imprudent move. I believe that there are studies linking the consumption of charmed fruits to increase the risk of viral infections due to the fact that they are—"

Audrey cut him off, which was probably a wise thing to do. "Percival, I'll think very hard about what you're going to say next because if decaying vegetable matter or encephalitis is involved, then I'm going to break one of your bones... that is without the having to resort to hexing you."

"I'm so sorry," he could barely hear himself speak. "I'm so ashamed of myself, Audrey."

"Ashamed of yourself?" Audrey echoed mockingly with a raised eyebrow. "Listen to me, Mr Decomposing-Charms-On-Fruit-Is-An-Imprudent-Move—"

Percy was visibly sweating by then. "Well, it is."

"Do you realise that being with you is a felony because you're not of age? I could lose my job, my house—"

Percy cut her off. "You're simply overreacting—"

"NO, I'M NOT! I COULD LOSE EVERY BLOODY THING I'VE EVER WORKED FOR JUST BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO SHAG AN OLDER WOMAN!" Audrey suddenly spat out icily. Her hands were clenched into fists. The street was absolutely empty, but he bet that the whole of Britain could hear her. Percy had never seen her like this before. She looked one step away from considering murder.

"That is simply a false allegation!" Percy attempted to defend himself.

"Did you ever think about what people will think of me if they know that I've been dating a child?" Audrey spat out. "Did you even stop to think about anyone other than your ruddy self? How long did you think that you were going to keep this from me before I found out?"

Percy attempted to swallow the lump in his throat. "Well, I—"

"OH WAIT!" She turned around, looking like she was on verge of setting him on fire. Percy felt a need to contact the psychiatric unit. "I'D FORGOTTEN! OF COURSE YOU WERE GOING TO KEEP THIS FROM ME FOR A LIFETIME BECAUSE I'M RUDDY STUPID CONSIDERING I CHOOSE TO USE ANTI-DECOMPOSING CHARMS ON MY ORANGES! And if not, I'd probably die before I could figure it out because I've had a strawberry that would've gone bad in 1974 if not for the fact that I've applied an anti-decomposing charm on it! I've had it last week and I will be dying of a fatal viral infection because PERCY WEASLEY KNOWS EVERYTHING!"

"I never said they were fatal viral infections," Percy protested weakly in a low voice. By then, he could hear her violent weeping and his heart thudded harder in his chest. "Audrey?"

"1974," Audrey repeated, a sob escaped and tears ran down harder. "I was six years old then and you... you weren't even born! By the time I got my Beauxbatons letter, you was just a little nipper! Three years old!"

"Audrey..." his voice was watery.

"What about what would happen to Lucy?" she asked. "What would people think of her? If they thought that her mum was desperate enough to start shagging a bloke that hadn't even done his O.W.L's yet?"

Percy said nothing, and only stared back at her.

"Well?" she inched closer to him. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself, you sodding git?"

Percy felt a solid feeling in his stomach, the nausea was empowering.

"ANSWER ME!" Audrey exclaimed. There was a distant sound of something breaking.

Percy flinched. "I'm sorry," he managed to reiterate through the queasiness. "Audrey, I am so—"

"That means nothing to me," she thrust a cream-coloured envelope towards him. "By the way, I found that little titbit of information when I managed to convince Caiden to cough up your certification... which I hope you'll do the right thing with by shoving it up your pubescent arse."

She stormed off, and Percy followed her. The certification suddenly didn't mean much to him at all, which in itself was shocking for him. He felt his feelings for her amplify. He could barely breathe.

"Hurt?" Tarvos asked Audrey as she passed him. He'd probably been stood there, waiting for someone to apparate him home. From what Percy heard, it was a lavish cabin just outside of Hull. His existence was only there for St Mungo's campaign to show altruism and consideration to the general public, especially to special creatures—this was amplified by the fact that they'd obviously taken Percy's disability as a very serious thing by insisting on offering certain pain medications a knut less than they were originally sold for!

Percy had seen Tarvos round the hospital a few times. He didn't know if he was just a very stupid brute with troll or giant blood in him. A few times a week, Percy would offer him a very large pumpkin pasty (which looked like a miniature one in Tarvos' hand) and Tarvos's face would light up like it was the first time ever he'd ever been given one. Slobbery kisses were usually followed with Percy trying to rub it off his cheek in disgust. It wasn't that Percy had anything against half-breeds—he would do the same if energetic crups ran up to him, attacked him and started to cover his face with their unhygienic, disease-ridden saliva. Other than Tarvos' questionable intelligence, Percy did note that he was muscled, insanely attractive and obviously overprotective against females—which did not bode well for Percy. "Audi?"

"Audrey," Percy could barely choke out her name as he ran after her. "Please. I—"

"Don't talk to me ever again!" Audrey exclaimed, only inches ahead. "SELF-RIGHTEOUS BASTARD!"

Percy didn't know if it was a courageous move or a stupid one but he grabbed Audrey by the elbow.

Apparently, he'd realise very soon that it was a very stupid one because immediately, he was lifted from his feet by the collar of his button-down like he weighed no more than a Flitterby, twirled around on his toes before a fist came crashing down onto his face. He momentarily saw Dumbledore's stars and moons robes swirl in front of his eyes and felt his face become numb before his head started to pound—not unlike how it would usually pound when he caught sight of Fred and George with that pitiful ancient-looking map of theirs, planning on releasing dungbombs on an unsuspecting Snape when he'd least predict it. Percy essentially felt like he'd just been thrashed by ten Mjölnirs.

As he fell on to the ground, he turned to realise that Audrey was gone by then. He mucked up... severely.

Just before he could consider doing something stupid and self-destructive, Tarvos grabbed Percy by his long arm again and pulled him to his feet like he was nothing more than Ginny's ratty old Gwenog doll. Percy swayed unsteadily. He was in such pain that he wished to Diffindo his dodgy leg before his knee got even more deformed than usual. The pain was so bad he almost felt like he didn't deserve it...

"Tarvos, stop!" Percy exclaimed, hearing an audible crack. "AUDREY, TELL HIM TO STOP!"

Within the next succession of punches, jabs and kicks, Percy learned two very important things. Firstly, he didn't know he could dislocate his jaw in about three seconds. Secondly, he didn't know that his brain matter could be completely abolished in the same amount of time. At this point, he'd be surprised if he could adjoin three words together and put them into a sentence.

"Tarvos!" Penelope called out with sharpness to her tone. "Leave him alone!"

If Percy could feel his—well, face, he'd make a comment about how Penelope was stalking him and somehow find a way to throw Roger Davies in it as well. She lived in this bloody hospital no doubt!

"He hurt Audi," Tarvos replied, his voice full of emotion. He crashed Percy down onto the ground again. The impact of the collision of his body to the ground made Percy wonder if there was a bone in his body that wasn't completely shattered or grinded into a fine powder. "Penny, he hurt Audi."

"I know, I know," Penelope said smoothly as she walked towards him, rubbing his shoulder. She was trying to calm a distraught Tarvos down as well as she could. "Let Percy go. You know, he can't hurt Audrey anymore. It's going to be fine. Okay? Okay?"

Percy attempted to stand up. His bones were liquid and he lost all possible thought processing. His dodgy leg was in crippling pain and the minute he put pressure on it, he collapsed onto the ground with a thud.

"What did you do to upset Tarvos so much?" Penelope acerbically challenged. "I'm not sure what's taking my group so long to send that ruddy owl, but along with your instructions on what not to say to a socially impaired individual, I'll have you get a little nice brochure on how to treat half-breeds too!"

Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "But he attacked me!"

"You scared him!" Penelope exclaimed. Tarvos looked to be afraid of how animalistic Penelope looked like right then and looked to be trying to figure out what the situation was. "What did you do to Audrey Brown that was so bad that you've upset Tarvos for? I bet that he was only trying to help her! You know what a soft spot he has for women, something that you should learn from!"

"Yes, help her by making sure I never walk again!" Percy challenged.

"Tarvos is not dangerous! He has his limits!" Penelope looked annoyed at his accusation. "Oh, Merlin, would you stop feeling sorry for yourself for just one second..."

"I'm feeling sorry for myself?" Percy echoed incredulously. "I bet you he broke at least six of my ribs! If he does have limits to how hard he'd pound me in, I'd suggest that he rethink them. I'd recommend that he stops at the point where one typically vomits blood!"

"You're over exaggerating! Save for that awful-looking shiner, you look just fine to me!" Penelope exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest and giving out a deep sigh. "Now, I'd like to let you know that—"

"Oh, shut up, Penelope," Percy snarled. He was about a second away from lunging at her, but he felt like her hair might come to life again. "Can we do this another time? I'm not in the mood."

"Fine," Penelope said, "Let's go, Tarvos!"

With that, she walked down the street with an air of arrogance that rivalled his own. A confused Tarvos followed her, with a glance back at Percy.

"Tarvos hurt Piercey?" he called out to Penelope, who just shook her head and insisted otherwise.

Tarvos turned around and grabbed Percy by his waist and scooped him up into his arms.

"Tarvos take Piercey home," said the half-breed, to which Percy wished at this point, he could've told him that he was not a stranded Kneazle—then again, he was not sure if Percy himself would viciously beat up a cat and then take it home.

"My broom!" Percy remembered. The broom he'd left at the bench! Charlie's old broom! Charlie would kill him long before Arthur would for dating a twenty-three-year-old!

"Tarvos thinks brooms are evil," Tarvos insisted, only for Penelope to guffaw.

"It's nice to find someone that shares your opinion, isn't it, Piercey?" Penelope called out, obviously in a jovial mood. Percy hoped that the next time she'd have a cuppa; she'd burn her bloody tongue on it.

AN hour passed and Percy came to the riveting conclusion that he might just save both his father and Charlie the trouble and snuff it in himself.

Percy was sitting on Tarvos' bed in the cabin and had been attempting to communicate with a family of half-breeds about how he needed an owl—a very, very fast owl. That could deliver letters in less than a minute, least his mum think that he'd ran away from his responsibilities... again.

At this point, he was more likely to run away from Charlie, as Charlie's broom suffered an unfortunate accident when a frightened Tarvos grabbed it from Percy and threw it across the street.

Percy had never seen something break mid-air before.

Within the hour, Percy found himself reading—and rereading—his certification. He let his fingers run across the fine print. He inhaled the scent of parchment paper in the air. He'd reread it so many times that the words had burned themselves permanently into his pounding head. The words consoled him deeply and he found himself feeling slightly more than a flobberworm someone stepped on when he read them. He could see a future spanned for him, just like he did when he'd first gotten a letter to accept his resume. He felt like he was worth something... and between Tarvos' crushing hugs and slaps on the back (that were hard enough to seriously herniate Percy's discs), he believed that Tarvos agreed with this sentiment.

"Tarvos bought owl for Piercey!"

Percy jumped up from where he was sitting down. His leg was still in extreme pain, so he'd immediately collapsed upon doing so. Still, shock seemed to be a fairly sane reaction for when an oaf dumped a large dead owl in front of Percy—that was with a thick wooden stick through it.

Tarvos sat down beside him and grabbed the end of the stick, shoving it to Percy.

"Piercey eat!" Tarvos exclaimed gaily.

"Um... no thank you, Tarvos." Percy saw said owl twitch; his stomach churned. "I'm allergic to feathers."

Tarvos grabbed the bird, and started to inhumanly pluck off feathers. In less than ten minutes, the floor was covered in feathers and Percy was handed back a featherless tortured owl.

"I, um..." Percy's head hurt. The smell of blood was doing his head in. "I'm not hungry anymore."

Tarvos frowned, and grabbed the owl. He started to tear off body parts and eat it himself. Of course, Percy felt relieved that he wouldn't have to eat said owl, but having Tarvos chew meat and bone certainly didn't do anything to settle down his stomach. Percy was the bloke that subsisted on potatoes, pasties and sweeties for a reason—and tonight's display surely didn't see him running back home to shove down a dozen sausages at any point in time! Also, Percy would just about kill for a cuppa (not kill owls), but he wasn't sure if he should ask Tarvos for one in fear that he'd be handed a cup of Flitterby blood masquerading as a soothing hot drink!

Tarvos placed a hand on Percy's thigh. "Grandmother made something for Piercey's pain."

Percy only offered a watery smile as he watched Tarvos disappear for a few minutes before he returned with a see-through cup with a red substance and a phial with the same colour substance.

So, the Flitterby blood was still on. He would just have to grin and bear it.

"Grandmother said that she can't make more for Piercey and she's sorry," Tarvos offered the cup to Percy before pointing towards the phial, "She say that this is as much as she has for you."

Percy looked down at the cup and offered a weak smile towards Tarvos.

"Thank you," he said, as he took the phial when he was offered. He stared down at the unidentifiable scarlet liquid. Every part of his body was telling him not to dawn it down.

Percy finally sighed and drained down the petite cup. It didn't take more than a gulp to finish it off.

About instantly after the drink, the pain in his body disappeared. He glanced over at the mirror and saw that the huge shiner that was on his face was now gone, and his limbs felt like they were—well, they were back in their place as far as he could feel. The warmth radiated throughout this body, and after five minutes, something miraculous happened. The crippling pain in his leg was suddenly gone. He could walk—Godric, he'd be able to run without excruciating agony. When he looked up from his leg, the world seemed sharper, more colourful and beautiful. Tarvos' laugh somehow went from intolerable to sending fuzzy feelings in Percy's stomach. Images went through his mind faster than he could fathom: one-year-old Percy tasting the first chocolate frog he'd ever had. Three-year-old Percy hearing his mum gently cooing him to sleep. Four-year-old Percy being allowed to carry one-month-old Ron and feel the happiness in his heart as he was giggling "squishy baby!" Charlie's mates thinking that six-year-old Percy was the best. Eight-year-old Percy's first big, BIG book. Ten-year-old Percy still being carried round Charlie's back, even though he was less than an inch shorter than Charlie. Twelve-year-old feeling Arthur clasp tightly on his shoulder as they paraded around Arthur's workplace, with the simple proclamation of, "this is my smartest child."

"Brooms are evil," Tarvos' voice pulled him out of his recollection of a thousand memories he didn't even know he had in his head as he was shoved a broom to Percy. "Tarvos give Piercey broom to take away."

Percy loathed brooms but even then, the look of the Firebolt had him swooning.

"Why Piercey crying? Piercey not happy?"

Percy placed a hand on his cheek, noticing how wet it was. Percy only laughed, and it was the kind of laugh that made his spine tingle. "Piercey is very happy."

People at home were probably worried since it was half-nine and he wasn't at home yet. He was going to arrive him no earlier than eleven... with a brand new Firebolt. They might think he went mad and stole brooms and his father was probably going to kill him for dating a twenty-three year old... but he was happy.