the warnings are: 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 or attempts, may it be successful or not later on), mentions/possible illustrations of self-harm and a mention of sexual assault (Penelope and Roger).

these were the warnings. then for some reason, this Percy that came out of the ward is SO self-destructive that i have to mention illustrations of self-harm again (more vividly this time, possibly graphic) and suicidal ideation (with multiple attempts, not just one.) Percy is very, very, very unstable. up until now, there are only mentions of what happened/what he has done but no thorough scene with Percy actually committing such things, but i wouldn't be surprised if they will be covered in the future in very lucid detail. this is a warning.

Percy's psyche is very... interesting to say the least. i am somehow attempting to diffuse this with some lighter situations/scenes, but it is still a very heavy subject.

comment reply:

Phoenixx Rising: it's been some time since i've done one of these. i'm always surprised that Tarvos just managed to shove himself into this fanfic! i think there's a few more scenes with him in this fanfic.

Chapter Forty-Three

After the longest two hours of Fred and George's lives, Fred was glad to announce that it was finally over.

The baby had been taken away for a wash and George had told Fred that he'd been considering building a new firework based off the set of lungs that little kid was born with! Meanwhile, Penelope was panting and huffing like that day that Marcus Flint discovered that Pucey had put dragon dung in his favourite loafers.

"You won't believe what I saw today at Auror training!" said seventeen-year-old Ron, whom apparated into the hospital room with Harry stood beside him. Molly was right about him reading the note on the fridge.

"Didn't I tell you to go back to school instead of doing this-this—?" Molly's voice was cut off by Penelope's long and intense glare over at Molly. Penelope had changed into a pair of Welsh Green-coloured robes and was just about to fall asleep. She'd demanded complete silence just a few seconds ago. "Hermione is sat at home, finishing off the work that she was supposed to be doing to finish off the last bit of Hogwarts exam instead of wrecking about with the Auror office! And how are they sending you for missions NOW? You lot haven't even gotten through basic Auror training yet! Just because you've saved the whole wizarding world from obliteration does not mean that you can abuse the system like this—Penelope, sweetheart, you should really take that scowl off your face! If you keep that up, your face will stay stuck like that!"

"Hello, Penny," Harry greeted her with a wave. "I didn't know you had one whacked in the oven."

"That's because if it was a sweet bun, George would've scoffed it by now," Fred jeered.

Penelope shot Fred a look and then sat up tiredly, placing her hand on Marcus', which was pressed up against her hospital cot. "Well, there was a war going on. I didn't think it was wise to be going about, letting the whole of Britain know that I've married Marcus and was, indeed, pregnant with his child… as my father's intense resolve to assaulting me with multiple prenatal paternity tests proved."

Ayden scoffed at the last part. "I still do not believe you insisted on marrying this-this—"

"—wonderful and caring individual," Penelope cut him off with a sharp look.

The part-troll only offered a toothy beam when Ayden stared at him with a cold, piercing look.

"Oh, Ayden," Molly crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm sure that Penelope and Marcus are very happy together. I've had a chat with Viola the other day and she kept on gushing about how beautiful she thought that Penelope looked like on her wedding day! She wore her mother's dress robes you know! It's a shame that you didn't even attend your own daughter's wedding! It's a revolting thought that the man that was socking poor Marcus in when he was little was the same man that was walking Penelope down the aisle. Oh, I'm glad you actually showed up to this... else I would've hunted you down myself and dragged you here. Your daughter is blossoming into a fine character and you're insisting on letting yourself miss out on her life because your stubborn arse isn't happy with whom she choose to spend the rest of her life with!"

George's eyes widened in surprise. He looked like he did on that night where Ginny decided to play her Weird Sisters album at four in the morning and accidentally woke up the whole of Devon. "Mr Clearwater, I say this as respectfully as I can... you're a bastard if you didn't attend your daughter's wedding just because you didn't like the fact that she was off snogging trolls instead of princes! No offence, Flint."

"I'll break your neck," Marcus smoothly replied. None taken, Fred supposed.

Ron opened his mouth to speak. "You—"

He was immediately cut off by a raging Molly, "Speaking of stupid things you've done, Ayden, why is it that my child is already out doing Auror missions? You're tired, love. I know, especially with all the causalities in the war, you need someone as commendable as your old task force to attempt to take their place but you cannot trust the expertise of children that haven't even completed their Hogwarts' education! Especially if one of them is my son! Don't you think he's been in enough danger these past six years as it is?"

"Well, yes," Ayden replied, his cheeks coloured in darkly. "But—"

"Mum, we just defeated one of the Darkest Wizards of the Ages!" Ron exclaimed, waving his arms around haphazardly. "We can handle whatever they throw over at us!"

"Ron—" Harry was cut off by Molly.

"I nearly lost both of you only a month ago and now, you're already in the bloody game again! How do you exactly want me to react?" Molly exclaimed, looking close to tears as she turned to Penelope with a hardened expression. "Penelope, sweetheart, you really need your rest. Look at you; you look like you're just barely staying awake! We'll wake you up when they bring the little one over! I promise!"

Fred thought that Marcus looked like he could use the kip more than Penelope did.

"Harry, do you want to hold my baby?" Penelope suddenly asked, sitting up straight with her big tired blue eyes glowing in excitement. She ran her hand through her long golden hair. "They're going to bring the little nipper over here any minute now. I can hardly contain my excitement! I want you to be the first to hold them because they wouldn't have been possible without you! Saving the wizarding world and all."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Thank you?" he replied awkwardly.

"Don't forget, Clearwater, I'm your husband," Marcus mumbled in irritation.

"Yes, I remember because it's Flint. It hasn't been Clearwater for a year now, Marcus," Penelope replied in an acerbic tone of voice before flashing a warm look towards Harry.

Godric, Fred never knew that their father hated himself so much. He'd done this six other times. Fred was exhausted and he wasn't even going to go home with the wee tot! Thankfully! Speaking of the little thing, it seemed that one of the nurses had appeared again, holding the blanketed bundle into her arms. Harry cautiously took the baby, obviously very aware of Marcus' glower and then smiled weakly over at the baby.

"Oh!" the nurse exclaimed. "Congratulations, Mr Potter. She's a beautiful little creature!"

"He's not his bloody—"Marcus' irritation melted away and a look of glee crossed his face. "She?"

Fred caught sight of the little thing when Harry had been holding her. She was pretty bloody big for a newborn, red and ugly, but with a miniscule tuft of golden hair and big blue eyes. The smell of her though... there was no mistaking that she had troll blood in her! When Ayden Clearwater got a whiff of that, he would definitely stop demanding paternity tests.

Marcus and Penelope's faces lit up like Father Christmas had just paid them a visit.

Apparating inside the very cramped hospital room was an excited Viola Flint, whom looked groomed to perfection. Her watermelon-sized knockers nearly broke a lamp as she ran to them in excitement. Her big lavender eyes were glimmering so brightly that Fred could read constellations in her starry eyes. Viola immediately snatched the baby up from Harry, squeezing herself between a displeased Ron and a euphoric Marcus. "Congratulations!" she called out. "Oh, Marcus... she looks nothing like you!"

"That's probably for the best," Harry decided to mention, only for Marcus to shoot a look towards Harry.

Ayden managed to weed through the crowd. The bloke was microscopic. He was thin and short, making him look like a six-year-old bloke that attempted to be noticed by their mum. He stood up on his toes in his attempt to catch a look over at quiet baby but it didn't seem to work. He poked Viola's arm, waiting for recognition, only for her to look down at him and then ruffle through his long blonde locks before shoving a piece of chocolate fudge in his mouth with her free hand. Now that Fred noticed that there was chocolate fudge besides Penelope's bed, it was all he could think about. George had to be planning an attack from the way that he was salivating. After all, it had been an hour since George had eaten, Fred snickered in thought.

"Oh, Penny!" Viola exclaimed, voice warm. Fred swore that she had to have been sorted into Hufflepuff. Nobody else could be that happy. "You didn't tell me you had such a cute little brother." She grabbed Ayden's cheek and pinched it much to his instant exasperation.

Penelope chuckled and shook her head. "That's my father."

At that notion, Ayden managed to finally take hold of the baby. He wasn't happy about it, probably because Fred and George could smell that distinctive troll smell and they were at the end of the room.

Penelope's face crumbled and she looked away from him. "Marcus, darling," she scoffed in a stern, icy voice. "Go take the little one down to the psych ward so that your father could have a look over at her."

"Over my dead body," Viola Flint hissed. "Marcus is not taking my grandchild to see that man if it kills me!"

Marcus slowly nodded his head; his lips pressed tightly into a line as he took his child from Ayden.

"Marcus," Penelope frowned deeply. She looked very likely to slip into a coma and Fred wondered how in Merlin's name she'd managed to keep herself awake for so long. She looked absolutely exhausted. "Please."

"I'm not showing my bloody father my daughter," Marcus said firmly. "Get some sleep, Clearwater. We'll talk about this later."

Penelope yawned, and just before she fell asleep, she said, "It hasn't been Clearwater for a year. I'm Flint."

With that loud and frightening snoring, Fred supposed she really was Flint!

"I AM happy to announce that I am now finally clean," Percy said, as he emerged from the bathroom with a white towel tied to his hips. He had very short dull red hair. "My skin might be red and blistering, I might've had to cut off most of my locks and burn them before we were invaded by other disgusting woodland creatures and I might've fallen asleep in my own dirty bathwater when I was done because it had taken me several hours to disinfect myself, but that matters not because I am clean. I am pure and I—"

"Have missed a spot," Audrey pointed towards a patch of skin on his shoulders, and then on his nose, his cheeks, his bellybutton and—

"Those are my freckles!" Percy yelled in irritation.

Audrey smiled warmly and then wrapped her arms around his frame, squishing him tightly into her embrace. "Oh, Percy! I'm so glad that you're more like yourself." She then pushed him into her room, and shoved a new pair of black cotton robes towards him. "I bought you these robes this morning. Unfortunately, they do not have Inferi sized robes. I thought maybe I should ask Marcus where he buys his robes from, but apparently, it's Penelope that shops for him."

Percy huffed and took them into his hands, only to have a pair of... patriotic underpants hit his face.

"Wait, Penelope Clearwater?" he attempted to wear his underpants without letting Audrey see any bit of his anatomy but he did not know why he bothered since she already knew how he looked like.

Audrey gave a quick nod of her head. "Yes, I have some pictures from the wedding if you want to see!"

"Wedding?" Percy felt lightheaded and it wasn't because he hadn't eaten or drunken a thing in the past twenty-four hours. Imaging Marcus and Penelope together brought a shiver down his spine. He always believed that Penelope would go for someone that was more... well, someone that actually opened a book outside of their Hogwarts classes. To be fair, he was sure that when Marcus was bored, he tore out pages from his Herbology text and made paper dragons out of them.

Audrey frowned. "Did you like her? Penelope?"

"No! My heart solely belongs to you!" Percy replied, because that was not desperate at all. He was glad he'd already put his underpants on because he was so surprised at her question, he'd thrown his towel away.

She rolled her eyes and he offered a sheepish smile.

Percy recalled that this time two days ago, he'd pulled out an extremely large twig from his hair. He was sure that the twig did not have three flobberworms living in it until he'd pulled it out of his own hair. Percy shuddered at the thought of how low he'd sunken in that—that pit of endless doom and despair!

Percy was not ready to face off Ares any time soon. Godric, Percy wasn't even ready to face off the indigestion he was going to receive from eating manky, old Herbology plants for dinner for a week.

As he put on the robes, Audrey spoke, "I'm going to go to my mother's house to go and get Lucy but I'm taking you to the Burrow beforehand... and before I do that, I'm going to feed you before you float away."

"The..." Percy's voice was soft, heart fluttering wildly in his chest. "The... the Burrow?"

Audrey grinned wildly. "Oh, Percival!" she exclaimed. "Aren't you excited?"

Percy's throat became dry. He wanted to say that he did not wish to see them or hear from them ever again considering the circumstances that he had been left in, but that would've been the biggest lie of his life. Percy missed hearing his mum moan on about how he kept so much to himself and how worried she was about it. He missed watching their Quidditch matches, even if there was a time where he would've done anything to have them stop playing them. He missed seeing Ginny beat them in most games. He missed seeing Charlie talk incessantly about his burns. He missed seeing Bill change his earring before he spent three hours searching for where the other part was at. He missed seeing Ron irritated over the most menial things. He even missed waking up in the morning to see that his hair was a brightly coloured pink, or that his shoes had been randomly changed into a striking pair of pumps. Percy would actually go as far as to say he missed Arthur telling him not to laze around in his room all day long.

Then he felt like he'd been hit with a bucket of cold icy...freezing...reality.

His family had just gone through a war. Percy was not there. Percy was stuck in a complete static for six years, six years of nothing but being smacked in the bottom for not listening to instructions. Six years where they were probably flickering about in safe houses, scared for their lives, six years of Ron being involved with that black-haired bloke that saved the wizarding world the first time around, six years where anything and everything could've happened and Percy had not been there to witness it.

Ron was seventeen. Ginny was sixteen. Bill and Charlie were at ages that Percy did not want to fathom because they might be married off by now... the twins! They were nineteen and Percy might as well have been in a coma for six years because he was so out of touch with everything.

For the second time since he'd been out of the ward, he'd sobered up.

Percy straightened up his back and pretended that it was not the first time that he'd seen that picture of Lucy stood on the mantelpiece above Audrey's fireplace. He pretended that it did not bother him that the last he'd seen her; she was two years old, small and quiet. That eight-year-old little redhead in the photograph had a mischievous glint in her eyes and her cheeks were freckled enough that they looked to be a different shade from the rest of her. That was not Lucy. That could not be Lucy—

Percy's stomach churned. His head was woozy and he was sure that the lack of food and drink was involved.

He sat down onto the couch (how did he end up in the living room was beyond him) because he did not fancy fainting a second time in what was less than twelve hours since he'd left the ward. Percy found himself placing his hands on his ears. His chest tightened and he felt like he was drowning in the implication of everything. His head was spinning and he bit down his lower lip so hard he was drawing blood.

Godric, what had they done to him in there? All he could hear was a deafening silence, a silence that he was already deeply drowning in but then... he remembered.

Percy remembered being so hungry that his desperation led him to dissect and eat a rat with his own bare hands. He remembered crying so hard that he actually ended up vomiting and then sleeping in his own sick. He remembered that at some point, Percy attempted to snuff it in himself using nothing more than a spoon and a paperclip he'd been saving for two years. He remembered banging his head against the wall, attempting to bleed out to his own death, wishing that this time he would be able to lose enough blood before they found him. He remembered throwing forks over at nurses that attempted to smack him over with whips and constrain him. Percy remembered attempting to steal one of their wands and instead, had his wrist broken for being disobedient. Percy remembered how laughing at jokes the twins had told years ago, sobbing as he screamed out how sorry he was that they'd ever believed that they were terrible... a thousand memories assaulted his head in seconds and the world was spinning round so fast that he could barely fathom the fact that he was alive, free of that prison and was sat in Audrey's living room in nice new black robes.

"Percy?" Audrey called out. He didn't know how he heard her considering he had his hands on his ears and was busy blocking out the rest of the world. "You're hyperventilating."

His heart was pumping so loudly he believed that it was due to fly out of his chest like that stupid bird. The past twelve hours had been much of a shock to him and he hadn't even grasped much of anything. His mind was numb as more images assaulted his mind. Sixteen-year-old Percy loosening a brick on the wall and slamming it into his head repeatedly. Seventeen-year-old Percy feeling the spider he had for dinner crawl back up into his mouth. Eighteen-year-old Percy carving images into the stone until his wrists ached. Nineteen-year-old Percy shaking his head as Ares told him what Scabbers was. Twenty-year-old Percy told that the merfolk that told him about Elijah was just talking about the manticore that Percy had 'killed' by allowing him to laugh himself to death. Twenty-one year old Percy being... here. In Audrey's living room. He did not feel free. He felt trapped. He could feel the walls closing in on him. He felt like he was suffocating—

Rat eater! Rat eater! The imaginary sounds of Fred and George roared into his brain. Rat eater!

Percy wished he could cry, but all he could do was stare aimlessly into space, wondering how he had gotten himself into this position. He was humiliated at everything that he had ever done.

"Audrey, I... I believe I-I..." Percy whispered. "I am just coming to terms with what had been done to me."