The First Star to The Left

In a family of a long line of men Percy Weasley was surprised to be blessed with one daughter, let alone two.

With Molly mistakes were made. Innocent ones that ended up with embarrassing pictures of Percy running after a little naked toddler because he could never change her nappy quickly enough. There were several photos of him covered in pureed baby food because she was such a picky eater. Not to mention the rare two or three where she had knocked him out or given him a black eye when he tried to teach her how to ride a broom.

Lucy was different. She was calmer than Molly, which turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. When she cried Percy felt her pain. He liked to scoop her up in his arms and sway her, never wanting to let her go. He loved both of his girls but Lucy was his baby. She was the youngest and knew how to wrap him around her finger and make him do as she pleased.

If she wanted a special dessert he would go out of his way to pick it up. A new book? He would wait online for hours for the first copy. Molly was closer with her mother and it didn't hurt Percy when she ran to her first with news about her day. Lucy would always stumble into the room behind her, blonde braid swishing behind her head, a smile on her face as she ran into his arms.

Percy was her favorite, her go-to guy, until she turned sixteen.

-X-

"I hate you!"

The royal blue colored door slammed shut in Percy's face making him jump back from shock. The shout and the declaration itself shook him to his core. His face was an unsightly shade of red as he turned and gaped at his wife who was silent and staring at him with a sympathetic look on her face.

"I don't know anything. Honestly Daddy, Luce has been acting like a cow ever since I met her at the platform," Molly said rapidly on his other side. "You don't know how embarrassing it was to drag her through the platform. She was being hysterical. You know how she gets when she cries. She wails like someone is torturing her. I checked for cuts, bruises, a missing finger or toe. Nothing. She's perfectly intact."

"Molly!" his wife shouted, giving her daughter a hard look. "Don't talk about your sister like that."

Molly held up her hands in surrender and joined her mother in staring in silence at Percy with worry.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to calm his nerves. His daughter never fought with him. It was rare she raised her voice. Lucy was a rather docile teenager. If she ever did get upset it was over something that could be handled quickly.

A bad haircut at the Muggle salon Audrey insisted on taking the girls? Easy, magic. A hole in her favorite sweater. Hello, magic. With a wave of his wand he could get rid of most of her troubles.

"L-Lucy," he said nervously, rapping his knuckles against the door. "Sweetheart, open this door right now. Let's talk. You'll feel better once you've let it all out. Sweetie—"

"Go away!" she shouted. Percy jumped back as an object slammed against the door on the opposite side making it shake violently.

He turned to his wife with an exasperated look on his face.

"She's a teenager," Audrey said quietly. She gave him a weak smile and patted him on the back gently. "Don't take it to heart. Right, Molly?"

Molly shrugged and picked at a piece of lint on her red blouse.

"Sure. I mean…teenagers are overly emotional people. She's probably upset over something stupid. A pimple or a stray mustache hair. Maybe her boobs are getting smaller. It'll blow over," she said unconvincingly, scratching her head. "Just leave her alone. I'd rather be alone then harped on. No offense Daddy," she added the last part due to the glare Percy was giving her.

Percy didn't know what to say. He didn't care if he had to stand outside the door the entire day. He would camp outside of it if necessary. He didn't want his little girl to feel like she was being left all alone. Percy had read plenty of parenting books over the years and he disagreed with all of them. They always talked about giving the child 'space.' In his personal experience space was a bad thing. His parents had given him space and he had almost ended up on the side of evil. Granted he had asked his parents for space time and time again because he had so many siblings but Lucy had one. She had enough space. Too much space and she could potentially disappear.

She had never rejected him before. It was a hard pill to swallow.

They talked about everything together. Her classes, the essays she couldn't wrap her head around and the theories she didn't quite agree with. They talked about how she thought she was getting fat (she wasn't) and boys (though she wasn't allowed to date until she turned forty). Sometimes he let her put nail varnish on him to test out the best color that would match her outfit.

"We love you," Molly said weakly at a nudge from her mother. "It's just hard growing up. Too many hormones. I'm glad I'm past that stage."

Percy removed his blue horn-rimmed spectacles from his face and pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly.

"I'll remember that the next time you complain about me to your mum."

Molly's brown eyes flashed angrily and she turned towards her mother who was pretending to not notice her daughter's angry glare.

"Mum!" she bellowed, huffing slightly. "You tell him what I say? How could you!"

Even though Molly was twenty years old she could still argue like she was ten. She stomped her foot on the floor and then crossed her arms against her chest, waiting for an explanation.

Audrey rolled her eyes and gave Percy a sharp look. She crossed her arms against her own chest, mirroring her daughter.

"Percy Ignatius Weasley—"

He cringed at the sound of his middle name. Not even his mother called him that when she was upset with him. He felt his ears redden as he sheepishly grinned at his wife.

"We're supposed to be a united front," he argued weakly. "I don't understand. Lucy tells me everything," he mumbled.

He ran his hands through his short red hair in frustration. He didn't know what to do. For the first time in a long time Percy felt stumped. Maybe they should have tried for a boy after all. He needed more testosterone in his house.

Percy tried to think about his logically. If he barged into her room he would be seen as an intruder, the bad guy. He used to hate when his mother did that to him. She was always interrupting his studies to bring him cookies or tea and could never leave well enough alone. Yet if he did nothing his silence would show her he didn't care.

Regardless of what he did Percy knew he wouldn't win. As a parent he learned to roll with the punches. There were times he had to admit to defeat.

"I should know what's wrong with her. In all of her letters she never said if anything was bothering her. Her grades are excellent. Her friends treat her well. I even promised to take her shopping and you know how much I loathe shopping."

"I get that from you," Molly said, earning another sharp look from her mother and a slight grin from Percy. She smiled and whispered to her mother, "What? I was just trying to cheer him up."

"Percy," Audrey said, placing her hands gently on his back. She squeezed his tense shoulders trying to comfort him. "Just calm down. She'll talk to you when she's ready. Give her some space," she suggested.

There was that word again: space. He didn't want to give her any space. He didn't want his little girl to leave him. He didn't want Lucy to grow up too fast and forget about him one day. What if she pushed him to the sidelines because of too much space?

Percy pressed his palm against the door and then gingerly dropped it, stopping at the silver doorknob. He counted to ten in his head, pausing to figure out if he should turn it.

"Lucy, I'm here when you want to talk," he said loudly. His voice cracked slightly towards the end. "I'm always here. No matter what it is. You know that."

He removed his hand from the doorknob and reached for his wife. Giving Lucy space was difficult. He felt unsteady as Audrey gripped his hand and started to lead him away. Molly was already bounding down the steps, towards the kitchen, two at a time.

With each step he took towards the wooden staircase it took everything inside of him to not whip out his wand and blast her door off of its hinges.

As Percy reached the middle of the staircase the blue door creaked open slowly and a blonde head peeked out.

"Daddy?" Lucy croaked out, wiping away a few of the stray tears that were rolling down her cheeks.

Percy abruptly turned his head, blue eyes falling on his daughter. Her freckled face was red and there were black streaks down her cheeks. Her normally straight blonde hair looked knotty and disheveled like she had been pulling it or thrashing about violently.

"What's wrong with me?" she questioned with a slight hiccup. She rubbed her red eyes with her small fists roughly. "I love him and he broke-up with me. He's all I ever wanted."

Percy stood rooted to his spot. He reached for the banister for support as his entire world started to tilt on its axis. He felt completely out of orbit and had to hold on tightly because he felt as if he was going to fall to the floor.

Boys.

His sixteen-year-old daughter was crying over a boy. The one thing Percy would never be ready for was boys. She was too young to be dating and much too young to be throwing around the 'L' word.

The words slipped out before he could give them much thought.

"Lucy," he said her name with a condescending laugh, "stop being foolish. You're not in love. You're too young to truly understand what love is. This is what you're crying about? Honey, boys are silly."

As he started to speak he knew they weren't the right words. Children never wanted to be told they were wrong or that they didn't know what they were feeling. All of the parenting books said to accept their emotions and never make them feel wrong for having them. But this was just silly! Lucy was a sensible young woman.

Her eyes welled up with a fresh set of tears and she bit her trembling lower lip, drawing blood.

"I hate you!" she screamed louder than before. "You don't understand anything!"

Percy watched completely perplexed as she slammed her door shut again. The house shook slightly underneath him.

"Way to go Dad," Molly muttered from the bottom of the staircase sarcastically.

Percy sighed tiredly. He was still holding onto the banister and staring at the door. He was hoping she would pop her head out again. He would apologize profusely, say something different, something comforting.

Percy knew that Lucy was right. He just did not understand.

-X-

Five hours, thirty-six minutes and twenty…two seconds later Lucy still had not left her bedroom. She felt embarrassed and refused to go downstairs even though she was hungry and tired of crying.

How could her father call be so insensitive? How could she be so stupid to think she could talk to him truthfully about boys? She knew boy and relationships were technically off limits but she always had some pull with him. He was always treating her like a fragile child. Just this once she wanted to prove him wrong.

Lucy rubbed her sore red eyes, the back of her hands were covered in splotches of black mascara. Maybe she deserved to be treated like a child.

She laughed bitterly to herself, hugging her pillow to her chest, dropping her head to her knees. Her blonde hair was in a messy braid that fell over her pillow and just the mere sight of it made her groan.

Little girls wore braids in their hair. Little girls cried and shouted at their parents when they didn't get their way. At sixteen Lucy did not want to consider herself a little girl. She thought of herself as a woman.

She released her pillow and rolled her eyes as someone knocked lightly on her door. She ignored it and instead removed her pink hair tie letting her hair fall free.

The door creaked open slowly and her father popped his head in. His eyes were filled with sorrow. He waited a few seconds before pushing the entire door open and walking inside her room.

Lucy said nothing as he walked towards her window. She watched from the side of her eye as he pushed her pink curtains apart. The light of the half moon illuminated her room.

-X-

Percy walked out of his daughters' bedroom but didn't close the door. He emerged again a mere five minutes later with a stand and a golden telescope in his arms.

She watched silently as he opened the stand and then placed the telescope gently on it. He had to crouch down to place his eye near the opening and bit the bottom of his lip as he tried to carefully position the telescope exactly where he wanted it to be.

During this time Lucy remained quiet. She didn't bother to say anything to him. Percy knew she was probably puzzled because stargazing wasn't a general occurrence in the Weasley household.

"You said I didn't understand," he said, moving the telescope gently to the left before dropping his hands. He was shaking slightly as he turned to stare directly at his daughter wanting to make a connection with her. "Make me understand."

Lucy hung her head. She squeezed her pink pillow and shrugged, tears were forming in the corner of her eyes again and they were threatening to fall at any second. She looked up as Percy walked slowly towards her bed. She half expected him to take a seat on the edge of it and comfort her but instead he removed his shoes and then climbed on top of her bed. He was standing on her mattress, wobbling slightly.

She watched him, confused and a little horrified, as he removed small flat objects from his pocket and started to placed them on her ceiling.

"I just don't understand why he doesn't love me back," she said quietly with a sniffle. "What's wrong with me? What did I do wrong? Am I not pretty enough?"

Percy pressed one more object onto her ceiling and then carefully crouched down to take a seat on her bed. He sat across from her cross-legged and reached his hand out to touch a stray piece of blonde hair.

"Lucy, I am about to tell you something that you must remember for the rest of your life." She sat a little straighter, blue eyes shining, ready to hear his words. "Boys are stupid. I was one once so I would know. You are perfect. You are kind. You are smart and you are beautiful. I love you. I will always love you. Do you understand me?"

She nodded her head but casted her eyes downwards to her pillow.

"Lucy, look at me," he demanded. "You have stolen one man's heart already."

"W-Whose?" she questioned with a hiccup.

"Mine."

She rolled her eyes but smiled softly. "Daddy—"

"I'm serious," he said, cutting her off with a warm smile. "Before you were even born I was already in love with you. I'm going to love you for as long as I live. Perhaps even longer. You'll never be able to get me to stop. No matter what you do."

Percy didn't wait for her to response. Instead, he untangled himself from his sitting position and got up from the bed. Percy walked over to his gold telescope, feet sinking into her purple carpet. He waved his hand and motioned for her to come stand next to him.

The bed creaked and Lucy appeared next to him. She was wearing one of his old Cannons shirts, the long orange sleeves covered her small hands.

"What is it you're trying to show me?"

"Look through the telescope."

Lucy placed a blue eye to the opening of the telescope. Her vision was slightly blurry and she struggled to focus in order to see what her father was trying to show her. All she could really make out were the twinkling stars in the night sky.

"Look for this," he said, pulling out a crisp piece of parchment from his pocket.

She moved her head from the telescope and grabbed the parchment from him, reading the words over with excitement.

"You…named a star after me?" she said breathlessly.

The parchment shook in her hands. It was a certificate that detailed the location of the star, the constellation and the name. At the very top in sparkling silver ink and a fancy script read the name, 'Lucy's Star.'

"None of those other stars shine brighter than yours. None of those other girls…they're nothing compared to you," Percy said softly, squeezing her shoulder.

Lucy beamed at her father. She took one more look at the position of the coordinates and then peeked through the telescope to search for it.

"But stars fade. They burst and disappear. I always disappear," she said somberly. "It's fitting.

Percy shook his head. "No," he responded sharply. "Come here."

He grabbed her hand and gently guided Lucy towards her bed. He said nothing as he released her hand and then climbed in the bed, laying on his back, staring at the ceiling.

Lucy followed suit and snuggled closely to her father. She stared at the ceiling and gasped in surprise.

The little objects he had been sticking to her ceiling moments before were miniature stars. They glowed a slight yellowish-green in the same formation to the one on her certificate.

Lucy squinted her eyes as her father pointed to one particular star. She shifted and rose to her knees so she could get a closer look at the first star to the left.

There was a small 'L' carved into it. The star was glowing brighter than the others that surrounded it in the darkness and would forever.

Author's Note: I'm supposed to be writing about Augusta Longbottom, a pregnant Lucy and an annoyed Albus but I wrote this instead. I got this idea because I used to have those stars on my ceiling when I was younger. I loved staring at them and dreaming about different worlds. I love Dad Percy. I feel like he's slightly awkward but there's no denying he isn't a good parent. Let me know what you think of the story in a comment below. Thanks for reading!