Disclaimer: Not mine!
A/N: Thanks for the reviews... all three of them... Please review, it will help me a lot in these coming chapters. :)
It seemed the only day that Audrey's missing presence didn't cross Percy's mind was the day she appeared. The warm spring air had turned into hot humid air as the days passed quickly. As the temperatures reached the 100's, Percy was unusually moody. He hated summer. How was he to comfortably wear dress robes to work when he suffocated between the heavy layers?
Several charms had been put around the offices trying to make the stuffy office cooler. This resulted into to 3 frostbite cases and one person had actually managed to freeze himself completely. The burden of this lay on Percy. His glasses, which he had gotten recently fixed, kept slipping down his nose due to sweat. Today he just didn't feel like working. Of course he did though, how could he not? He just wanted to go home and sit in front of a fan with an ice pop. Of course he had cast and re-cast the Cooling Charm in his office yet it wore off much too quickly.
There came a brisk knock on the door, scaring the life out of Percy. Because of these loud raspy knocks, he jumped and his ink spilled all over the parchment he'd spent an hour working on. Of course he could just say an incantation and clean that mess write off, but that was much to easy. He felt anger bubble up at his unknown visitor.
"What?" Percy growled. The door opened slowly and instead of where he expected to see Neil, he found a bodacious brunette. She smiled weakly at him as Percy stared in shock. The stayed like this for some seconds until finally Percy realized he had very obviously been looking at her. Instead of conservative clothes like the rest of the office wore, she was dressed in short jean shorts and a skimpy black tank top. It was too much for Percy to take.
"Don't tell me… there's someone having sex in the supply closet?" He murmured to himself and to his surprise Audrey laughed. She smiled, and with the awkward moment past, bounded over to his desk.
"It's been awhile!" She said as if talking to an old friend. "Usually I only come for a week in the summer but I wanted to see you earlier than that and now I'm spending the whole summer here. In the magic world that is," Percy just stared. Had she said that she, this goddess of beauty, wanted to see him?
"Oh… That's good, I think," Percy said lamely as he felt a wave of happiness rise in his chest.
"Let's get ice crea- ah!" She said and her voice went up at the end making it into a shriek. Her eyes were filled with terror. She seemed to be staring at something past Percy's shoulder. He quickly flipped his chair around expecting the reincarnation of the Dark Lord himself, swiveling the chair to its breaking point. Not calculating the speed and weight of himself, Percy flew from the chair and landed on the floor. He received no chuckle but an 'Eeep!' from Audrey's direction. He blushed a deep red at the same time as looking quizzically at the blank wall in which Audrey was staring at in horror.
"What is it?" He said looking around frantically.
"Spider!" She breathed. Her face, tan from the summer heat, had grown a sickly white. It took all of Percy's reserve not to laugh out loud as he spotter the measly spider on the wall. He took off his shoe, careful not to make any sudden movements and gazed over to Audrey with a smug smile on his face. Now she would say that he was dashing and they should be married at nightfall, he thought.
The spider, seeming to sense that death was near, started to crawl in an attempted circle. Percy quickly lowered his shoe and smashed the spider dead. It's mangled body only brought fragments of the Battle of Hogwarts memory to the surface. The sight of death was too close and he suddenly felt guilty. He turned to Audrey with his stomach churning uneasily, as if he'd eaten too much, and gave her a weak smile. The regret he felt suddenly vanished when he Audrey's relieved expression.
"Better?" He said and smiled at the thought that Audrey's face that returned to its normal color. She nodded weakly and looked over at him in adoration, the kind of adoration Ginny used to look up to him with. "My brother is deathly is afraid of spiders too. He wouldn't even go to the basement as a kid, he'd make me come with." Percy chuckled at the memory of Ron's face when he spied a spider in the basement. Audrey however didn't get the humor. She took a few deep breaths before she spoke again, this time with much more conviction.
"I was going to ask if you wanted to get ice cream. It's almost lunchtime anyway." She smiled and before he had time to protest grabbed his hand and apparated.
When they arrived again in the unfamiliar muggle world, after regaining the feeling in his body, Percy tried to take back his hand. He obstinately tried to pull away only to have Audrey squeeze her grip tighter still. He looked over at her in shock, his eyebrows shooting up in shock. The fact they were holding hands must mean something!
Audrey smiled shyly at him and Percy suddenly felt sick. When he had been together Penelope the most they had ever done was hold hands and even then he had been the one to initiate it. The warm and strange feeling that welled up in his chest as he looked at Audrey scared him. She must be joking with him. This was just some big joke to her, wasn't it? Percy felt utterly hurt and snatched his hand away with all his might. How could she have used him when he was just beginning to like her? Audrey gave him a pained expression but recovered quickly.
"I come here all the time," She ordered for both of them and insisted on paying. They picked out one of the cleaner tables and slipped into opposite sides of the booth.
"So, Weasley, tell me, you've already found out my biggest fear, what's yours?" She smiled. Percy couldn't help but stare at the small dribble of ice cream that dribbled down her chin. She tried to reach it with her tongue but the only thing that succeeded in doing was making Percy flustered.
"Here," He said rashly to cover his reaction. His picked up the napkin next to him and leaned over the table to wipe away the bit of ice cream. She looked up at him curiously while Percy blushed. He hadn't meant for it to be affectionate, he just wanted for her to stop moving her tongue in that particular fashion. Get back on subject, Percy thought quickly.
"Failure, I'm deathly afraid of failing. I'm getting better now though." He stuttered. Audrey seemed unsurprised. Had she read the book? She had read it, thought Percy bitterly. She already knew everything about everything. Of course, it all made sense now. "After reading the book though, you would understand," He said looking at his melting ice cream. He begged in his brain that she hadn't read the book; maybe being a part of the muggle world had somehow distanced herself greatly from the wizarding community.
"Oh yes, I've read it. Who hasn't read about the adventures of brave Ron Weasley?" She said finally and Percy felt his heart drop. The only reason she was talking to him was to meet Ron… it made sense after all. Nobody had woman had even given him since his graduation from Hogwarts.
"Oh," He said faltering. She took a deep breath, sounding suspiciously like a sigh.
"I get it though. I get why you left. I used to be like that too. But that's too sad to talk about now. We need to talk about you. What's you favorite color?" She said simply. She had changed the subject as if it was simple. Life was simple to her. The curiosity bit away at Percy but he didn't say anything. He hoped he would never say anything that could offend this woman.
Ice cream for lunch turned into to dinner plans. Audrey scratched down an address on a napkin. It was torn as she hurriedly wrote it, the words barley legible.
"Pick me up here. It's my apartment. It's a muggle neighborhood so act decent," She said smiling. She apparated away soon after as Percy stood lamely holding the napkin. What did it matter if he was almost 5 minutes over on his lunch break? It didn't at all. How was it that finally after all these years he'd found someone so compatible? They laughed and joked about bands that were mostly unheard of. They talked about there need to strive for perfection. A conversation ran through his mind. It wasn't particularly significant in anyway but the casual conversation just spoke to him.
"Did you go to Hogwarts? I didn't see you around," He said thinking back. She could have only been one or two years behind him.
"No, I went to Beauxbaton's. Mum went there when she was a child. She wasn't from France but her mother was and so the cycle continued. You might have seen my brother… He was a Ravenclaw. His name is Grant. He was a 7th year last year. He's going to Healing School to work in St. Mungo's. He's tall with a long nose. Our hair color's not the same but the family doctor always told my mum that we looked alike," She said suddenly excited. Percy scrunched his face in concentration. He couldn't remember anyone that fit that description.
Percy walked through the doors for the ministry and immediately he heard whispers.
"The Brother Who Left actually did leave for lunch… with a girl! He's never been out for lunch." He heard a witch with a long nose sneer.
"Way to go, Perce," Said a male colleague of his he only knew by face. He couldn't help the smile that crept to his face and reached his eyes. It was only when Percy reached his office again did he remember his bad mood. Although the fresh memories of Audrey were still on his mind, the heat was still unbearable. Percy sweated and grumbled as he worked, wishing only to be home. In those moments, although formerly thought impossible, Percy hated work. He hated the way he was sent to do tedious tasks that meant nothing to him. Who cared if the quidditch match was postponed? How did it relate to his branch of expertise anyway? He was International Magic Cooperation for Merlin's sake! He let out a sigh a relief as finally after staring at the clock for the past twenty minutes, the clock struck 5.
He didn't have any time he realized as he arrived home three minutes. There was no possible way to take a shower, get dressed and give himself a mental pep talk before 5:30 to pick up Audrey. He only had time to take a quick shower, tousle his red curls and pull on a pair of jeans and a dress shirt, skipping the pep talk altogether. He arrived at the address sometime later. He curiously walked to the elevator examining it curiously. He could always take the stairs, he thought, but it was just too tempting.
"DING!" The elevator said as it arrived. Percy jumped a foot and boarded the cramped room. Why were the doors closing? They didn't close like that in the Ministry! He bounded over to the doors and pounded on them as he felt the elevator groan to life. He finally relaxed waiting for the floor to come. Eventually he did reach his stop and he got off with the sense of feeling airborne. Whether it was from the elevator or because he was going on a date with Audrey he wasn't sure. He rang the small on the door. It opened suddenly as if she had been waiting by the door. In fact it looked exactly as if she'd been waiting by the door.
"Hey handsome," She said shooing him outside so quickly that he hadn't even got a glimpse of her apartment at all. Was she hiding a hippogriff or something in there, he thought to himself and giggled at the idea.
"Hiding something?" Percy said trying to stop smiling.
"Only the bodies of people who asked me that same exact question," She said beaming back. Then finally he was able to see her fully. She was wearing a pretty cotton blue dress that hugged her curved perfectly and she had tried to straighten her hair but Percy noticed the curls that poked up at her hairline. He absent-mindedly put a hand up to touch the little curl the fell just above her right eye. He quickly pushed his hand backed down when he realized his hand was half way there, moving on it's own accord. Audrey looked shocked and yet at the same time a little pleased. You're just friends, Percy told himself. Don't get your hopes up.
"I didn't plan anything out really… I bet there's a place open or something. What do you want to do?" Percy said awkwardly trying to cover up his mistake.
"I know this perfect little barbeque place. Just hold on tight," Audrey said sticking out her hand.
Percy didn't understand why things went so smoothly. In fact… it was almost like a date. They talked and flirted over barbeque and Percy even managed to pay for the both of them without offending Audrey that much. They laughed and joked, and it was perfectly pleasant.
"Is this a date?" He blurted out before he could stop himself. He blushed red thankful for the low lighting. Great, he thought, now he had gone in ruined it. Now Audrey would never talk to him again and it was his entire fault. 4 words would destroy their entire imaginary relationship.
"I don't know…" She started, her eyes revealing nothing, and trailed off. "I mean I thought it was a date, but it'll have to be mutual. I mean from you." Percy's eyes, which rested on the table, suddenly shot up to meet Audrey's.
"Yes! Yes! I would love it to be a date!" He said overenthusiastically. Audrey smiled at him but made no movement. Percy's smile slipped a little when reality set in. "…I just don't understand… why me?" Percy said confusedly after awhile, the doubt seeping in slowly. Audrey stared at him for some moments before answering.
"Well Percy, I should be asking you the same thing. Why me? What do we share that makes us the same? Well that of course is obvious. Tragedy and humiliation, we've both suffered. I don't know. Maybe it's pure sexual attraction? Percy… you're kind of cute. Plus you're funny. We like the same things. Look Percy, just because we go on one date doesn't mean I have all the answers, we'll figure that out later. All I know is I want to see more of you." Audrey said while sipping up the last of her drink. Percy looked around widely. How was she talking to? Was there another Percy on the premises? Surely she couldn't be talking to him. He pointed to himself at last and mouthed the words "me?" Audrey laughed a nodded. Then in that moment Percy realized that, even though Audrey could have no inkling of his true feelings, he was in love with Audrey. Of course as the three little words popped into his head he reprimanded himself. He couldn't fall in love with a woman on their first date! How immature! Love took years to develop. Later that night Percy even laughed himself to sleep thinking about how silly he was.
They walked out of the restaurant staying their fair share apart. Should he hold her hand? Percy mulled over in his mind the different possibilities of the outcome him reaching for her hand. The only situations he could think of ended up with him getting slapped. Maybe he should-
"I had a good time. I'll owl you." Audrey said finally. Percy realized they had been walking to nowhere in particular just following the curves of the road, Audrey being nice enough not to interrupt Percy's concentration. Wait? Wouldn't a person say that when they didn't want to see you again? He looked down to meet her eyes. She was so small, nothing in comparison to his 6' 5". Audrey looked up into his eyes and got a fairly dreamy look.
"I guess I'll see you…" Percy said lamely. He opened his mouth to speak again but Audrey had different ideas. Before he could realize what she was doing, the beautiful woman he had met only two months ago had crushed his lips onto his own. How was it that the woman that he'd only met a few times gave him one of the most passionate kisses he had ever received in his whole life?
After a few seconds, Percy got himself together and began to react. Placing his hand on the back of her brown hair he pulled her closer. She wrapped her arms around his neck. How was she holding her breath that long? Percy thought breathing heavily as they broke away. Percy beamed. There was no mistaking she meant to do that! Audrey shared a similar smile but her eyes were unreadable.
Wait… was she drunk? No! She had only drunk iced tea! But maybe they slipped something in there to make her lose touch with her sense of right and wrong, Percy contemplated. He turned to ask Audrey what these chances were but when he caught sight of her eyes. A look he'd only seen once, when catching his mother look at his father one late night, crossed her eyes, and knew he had not mistaken her intentions.
"I guess… I'll see you later," Audrey said with a smile and disappeared with a pop. He stared at where she had stood, basking in the moment. And for the first time in his life Percy felt like singing.