CHAPTER FOUR

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When the message came through the floo, Oliver felt as though his heart had fallen all the way down to his knees. He stumbled backward to slump limply into his lover's favorite chair; a forgotten book poked a sharp corner against his hipbone. He idly wondered if he was going to pass out. His pulse fluttered at his throat and he could barely breathe. Sweat sprouted on his suddenly pale skin.

He had always thought it was going to be him that would be badly hurt. Quidditch wasn't exactly the safest sport, and professional Quidditch was far beyond anything he'd experienced in school. So he'd known that a message would probably be sent about him someday saying that he'd taken a bad fall and was in hospital. Instead, something had happened to Percy.

"Oh great bleeding gods," he moaned, holding his hands against his chest, trying to push his heart back in.

With Percy's job, he was either very safe, or in so much danger that Oliver didn't even want to imagine it. The only reason a message would come about Percy was if Voldemort had acted, which meant bad things all around, and Percy was probably so badly hurt that permanent damage had been done.

Gathering himself together, Oliver pulled himself up out of the chair and hurried to the bed to fumble around under it for a moment, finding his shoes.

It took him three tries to tie his shoes, but he finally managed. He grabbed his jacket and raced to the fireplace.

A handful of floo powder, with a good bit of it spilled on the carpet, and he was away to Hogwarts. It was only a few seconds before he was stepping out of the staff room fireplace. Professor McGonagall was waiting.

"Mr. Wood," she said in her usual stern voice, then her entire face softened and he felt a surge of terror go through him. The only reason the old battleaxe would wear an expression like that was if something... permanent had happened to his Percy. "I am so sorry."

"No," Oliver stated, shaking his head. Just "No."

Her hand fell on his shoulder and she led him out of the room. He stumbled along with her, feeling as though his head and body were floating about three feet apart from each other.

"W-where... where is he?" he stuttered.

Her fingers tightened on his shoulder for a second before releasing. "He is in the infirmary."

"So he's alive," Oliver said, feeling a surge of relief. As long as Percy was still breathing, everything was all right.

McGonagall gave him a sad look. She had been surprised to find out that Percy and Oliver were a couple, but she could see now how much Oliver loved Percy Weasley and it was hard being the bearer of bad news. "That's... the twins were playing a prank and there was an incident. The Percy Weasley that you know was replaced with the one from fifty years in the future."

Oliver's feet almost went out from under him. "Wha... does that mean Percy's old now? Does he know me? Wh..."

"No, Mr. Wood... Oliver. The Percy from the future looks almost the same age as your Percy, but his personality and the experiences he's lived through are extremely different. I do not know the entire story, but from what I've heard, the future Percy has lived through has not exactly been a happy one, and it shows." She sighed heavily, an unhappy sound. "He is a different person from the one you know, Mr. Wood. I just wanted you to know that before you go in there."

Without even realizing it, Oliver had followed her to the infirmary door. She opened it and waved him in.

He stepped forward, glancing at her over his shoulder once before he went in. His stomach was a hard knot and he didn't know what he was going to see when he went into the room, and he was afraid, more afraid than he'd ever been in his life.

Percy was everything to him, more important than even quidditch, which was kind of strange, since he had never thought anyone could ever mean that much to him. But Percy did, and now something terrible had happened to Percy and he didn't want it to be permanent and true. He dreaded what he was going to find.

A surge of relief went through him when he saw the same Percy he loved sitting on a bed... then Percy looked up and saw him. Oliver shivered to see those eyes, recognizing nothing in them.

"Oliver?" Percy asked. "Is that really you?"

"Yes, it's me," Oliver said. "I don't... what happened? Are you all right?"

Those cold-cold eyes suddenly filled with tears that overflowed to trickled down his cheeks. Percy raised a wondering hand to touch the wetness. "Strange. I haven't been able to cry in over twenty years. I thought they cut that ability out of me as a weakness." He focused on Oliver. "I don't think this is real, any of this. You're not really here. You're just a dream taunting me with what I can't have."

Oliver stepped closer to the bed. "Percy, it is me. It's Oliver. I'm here."

"I want you to be here so bad," Percy whispered, his voice hissing and cracking. "I was so alone when you... left. I begged them to bring you back to me, but they didn't want me to be happy because then I wouldn't fight how they wanted me to. They told me that misery feeds my power. It made me hate them until all the feelings in my chest dried up and I was left with nothing."

Oliver sobbed, unable to help himself. Something terrible had happened to Percy, and it was more than just the fact that a prank had gone wrong. Someone had purposely hurt Percy over and over again; Oliver could almost taste the torment in the air around Percy, and it turned his stomach to a hard lump inside him.

Standing close to the bed, Oliver reached out and grabbed Percy, dragging him against him. "It's all right, it's all right," he murmured, stroking the back of Percy's head. "I'm here, Percy, I'm here."

"Don't leave me."

"Never. I'll never leave you, my love."

* * *

Minerva was filled with sadness watching the two young men embrace. She hadn't even known that they were together, but now that she did... it made the whole situation with Percy somehow worse.

It was obvious that they loved each other, but Percy wasn't the same man that Oliver had loved. He was a version of Percy from a bleak future where nothing had gone the way it should. It was tragic how much both men had lost in a few careless moments.

Not for the first time, Minerva cursed the Weasley twins in her mind. Most times they pursued harmless mischief, but when they truly screwed up, they went all the way. Percy was their victim this time, and what they had done to him she didn't have the first clue how to go about setting right. The damage had already been done.

I am very sorry, Mr. Weasley, but there is really nothing I can do for you, Minerva thought with a heavy sigh, leaning her head against the wall for a moment before pulling herself together and walking on. No one was going to pass by and see her beginning to fray around the edges.

She had never been overly fond of Percy, not really enjoying the company of someone so anal retentive, but she hadn't really disliked him either. He was just a boy that had tried a little too hard to please anyone in authority no matter how bad it made him look to the other people in his life.

What had happened to him was a terrible thing. His entire life had been stolen from him by members of his own family. It was a tragedy that could never be fixed because the original Percy was gone forever and only this version remained.

Damn those boys, she thought, cursing the twins once again.

* * *

Molly, Arthur, Bill, and Charlie all arrived at Hogwarts together. They had all met up at the Burrow first so Bill and Charlie could offer their parents whatever support they needed.

None of them were quite sure of what had happened, but they knew it had to do with Percy and something bad. So either he had made an ass of himself again... or something really wrong had happened to him.

Molly was already tense-shouldered and red-eyed by the time they stepped out of the floo at Hogwarts.

She had been angry at him for the longest time, but even when her rage burned the hottest, he had still been her son and she had worried about him. Now that they had finally reunited, she couldn't bear the thought of losing him again, not this way.

"What has happened to Percy?" Arthur asked the waiting Headmaster.

Dumbledore looked serious, the sparkle gone entirely from his eyes. "There was an accident. The twins... they were playing a prank but the potion they used had a strange reaction on Percy. The Percy from fifty years in the future was brought back in time, and he is nothing like anyone would expect."

"What... what do you mean?" Molly asked, her voice shaking.

For a second she thought Dumbledore might be about to cry. "At some point in the future... Percy dies and is brought back to life with the use of some very powerful and Dark spells. He does not look much different from the Percy you know, but... You must be prepared for the changes he has gone through."

Molly raised her hands to her lips and bit the tips of her fingers hard enough to almost draw blood. She pressed herself against Arthur, accepting the comfort his arms offered. "Can... can we see him?"

Dumbledore nodded slowly. "Yes, of course, but you must be prepared for the difference in Percy."

Holding Arthur's hand tightly, Molly followed the Headmaster to the Infirmary, where they found Professor McGonagall waiting outside the door with her arms crossed and a blank expression on her face.

"Why are you waiting out here, Minerva?" Dumbledore asked.

She sighed and shook her head mournfully. "Mr. Wood is in there with Mr. Weasley."

"Ah," Dumbledore said meaningfully.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Molly asked.

"Why would Oliver Wood's being in there mean that you would stay out?" Arthur asked curiously.

"You mean, you don't know?" McGonagall asked in surprise.

"Know what?" Arthur asked.

"Oh dear." McGonagall patted her hair nervously and wouldn't meet their eyes. For such a stern and direct woman to suddenly look so anxious was a little suspicious.

"I didn't know that Percy had had any contact with Oliver since graduation, so why would Oliver Wood be here now?" Molly said.

"Minerva?" Dumbledore said questioningly.

She drew in a deep breath and looked directly at Molly and Arthur. "It appears that Mr. Wood is Percy's... significant other."

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked.

"Oliver Wood and Percy are lovers. When I looked up Percy's contact information, I found out that he and Mr. Wood are living together. They have a little flat in England."

"You can't be serious," Arthur said. "Why wouldn't Percy have told us something like that? Something so important to his life?"

"It is the truth," McGonagall said, unable to meet the man's eyes. There was just so much pain in his eyes as he realized that his son was even more of a stranger than he had ever thought.

"Percy... and Oliver Wood?" Molly pressed her fingers against her mouth to still the trembling of her lips and get her bearings. "He... why wouldn't Percy tell me? I'm his mother. He... he tells me everything."

"Not always," Arthur said, giving her a meaningful look.

Molly's shoulder's sunk and she looked as though her middle son had once again broken her heart with his betrayal.

McGonagall had to fight down the urge to shake Molly Weasley. The woman was acting as though Percy had purposely gone out of his way to hurt her, as though this was some kind of plan of his or something. She wasn't thinking about the fact that a horribly life-altering event had changed him, perhaps irrevocably into a frightening stranger. All she was thinking about was herself.

"There are bigger concerns than Percy's relationship with Mr. Wood," Dumbledore said. "Your son needs the support of his family to get him through what is to come and you cannot be so busy castigating him that its to the detriment of his eventual well being."

Molly looked at him in surprise. Dumbledore had never sounded like that to her. Kind, generous, foolish, yes, but hardly ever intelligent or wise.

Arthur wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulder. "Let us see our son," he said, his voice oddly steady.

Dumbledore just looked at them for a long moment, then nodded, gesturing McGonagall out of the way.

She wasn't sure that it was the best idea to let them into the infirmary room, but the look on Dumbledore's face didn't invite objections. She pushed open the door and stepped to one side just inside the room.

Oliver was the first one they saw, kneeling on the cot with his arms wrapped tightly around Percy. But when he turned to look over his shoulder, Percy was revealed. All pale skin, dark red hair and frightening eyes.

The minute those eyes saw Arthur, that pale mouth opened and a terrified shriek filled the air. Percy threw himself out of Oliver's arms and scuttled across the floor, all the time his voice spiraling upward in a shrill scream that had everyone else covering their ears to try and block it out.

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