Chapter 10: Percy's Book

Back at the Burrow, Bill, Fred and George were sitting in the living room in grim silence. Percy was getting worse. The potions the Healers had given him did little more than making him violently ill and Percy knew it, so he was refusing treatment. But even without their potions he was still extremely sick, probably because he was also refusing to sleep. Now he was more miserable than had ever been in his life. And though Percy tried his best to hide it by refusing every visitor, thanks to a pair of their Extendable Ears, they knew he was crying all the time.

"He must be so scared." Bill said, finally voicing his thoughts out loud.

"I think he's terrified." Fred said in a flat voice.

"But this refusing to sleep-" George said,

"-is not doing him any good." Fred finished.

"I wish there was something we could do to cheer him up." George said running his hand through his hair. He had been racking his brain for days now trying to come up with some way to put a smile on Percy's face . . . or at least make him less miserable. George looked over at his twin who was staring off into the distance. There was no doubt in his mind he was doing the same.

"I wouldn't try to make him laugh if I were you. He never did find you two funny." Bill warned.

"Right." George said in a defeated voice.

"But we've got to do something!" Fred said desperately. "If we don't he's going to die miserable!"

George suddenly perked up, "Well, we can't have that, can we?" he said with a mischievous smile growing on his face.

Fred raised a brow and felt himself begin to grin, "What are you proposing we do, dear brother?"

George rubbed his hands together and stood up. "I think it's time we finally took a page out of Percy's book and did a little research."

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Bill said as he expertly dismantled the semi-advance security charms placed on Percy's flat.

"It's for the greater good." Fred said patting on the back as he walked inside.

Bill stepped inside and slowly looked around. It was a decent sized apartment for a single man. But it didn't look anything like a home. The walls held no frames of friends or family. The only thing only frame hung on the wall contained Percy's exemplar N.E.W.T scores. There were no magazines on the coffee table. There were several bookshelves though, each stocked with plenty of thick boring looking books. It was extremely neat- too neat. It seemed like hardly anyone lived here.

"Let's begin, shall we?" George said. He and Fred immediately began pulling books off the closest shelf, looking at the cover, sometimes flipping through the pages before nonchalantly throwing them on the floor.

"You don't literally have to tear the place apart! What are you two thinking?!" Bill scolded, grabbing a book out of George's hand.

"Don't get your wand in a twist." George told him.

"Yeah, it's not like he's going to be coming back." Fred said without thinking. His brothers looked at him and the room suddenly felt colder and heavier that it was a moment ago.

"Just . . . be careful" Bill said somberly, giving the book back to George. Fred and George began replacing the books back onto their shelves. No one spoke for a while after that. They just searched and searched. They searched the drawers, the closets; Fred even started searching the cupboards in the kitchen.

"Merlin, there's hardly any food here! I can't find any Pumpkin Juice or Butterbeer or anything!" Fred said closing the last kitchen cabinet.

"We're supposed to be looking for something that will give us some indication as to what Percy likes, not what he likes to eat." Bill called out from the living room.

"If he eats." George muttered from the bedroom.

"Besides, he can hardly keep the potions down as it is." Bill said coming out from the living room.

"Who said anything about Percy? I'm just hungry." Fred said. Bill sighed and went to help George in the bedroom.

"Found anything yet?" Bill asked George.

"I found this," George said pulling over a small gray chest. "but I can't open it."

Bill examined it for a moment then began casting the best de-charming spells he knew. After several minutes of this the chest finally opened with a click. George put his hand inside and pulled out an old, boring, dark red book.

"Another book, how surprising." George muttered, flipping through it. "Hold on, is this a diary?"

Bill too the book and inspected it. It looked familiar. "Yeah, I gave that to him when he first started Hogwarts. Only he said that it was a journal, not a diary, because diaries are for girls." Bill said replacing a pair of invisible glasses on his face and crossing his arms, mimicking a young Percy.

George snickered at the action. "Tell that to Tom Riddle."

"Let me see!" Fred said rushing into the room.

"Hey, here's another one." George said picking up a similar blue book, before pulling out one that was dark green. "Look there's loads of them!"

"Nine to be exact." Bill said.

"And they're labeled- how convenient." Fred noted, examining the red journal. It's cover and spine read Year One. Fred opened the cover. "September 1st 1987- that's the day he started Hogwarts!"

"Right then, you start with year one and I'll start with year two. Bill, you get year three." George said handing Bill a dark yellow journal.

Bill gaped at the audacity of the twins. "You're not seriously going to read them, are you?"

"Look, what do you care more about; invading Percy's privacy or making his last few days on earth good ones?" Fred said seriously. Reluctantly, Bill took the journal. His brow furrowed as he began to flip through it.

"There are pages missing from this one. Looks like they were torn out." he stated.

"That's odd." George muttered.

"Yeah it's not like Percy to tear out pages of any book, let alone one as important as his diary." Fred said taking the book from his older brother.

"Journal." Bill corrected.

"I wonder why he did that?" asked George.

"Maybe he has something to hide?" Bill suggested. The twins looked at him expectantly. "I mean everyone has their secrets."

"But these books are filled with Percy's secrets, why would he tear out any of them?" Fred asked Bill.

"Why do you think I would know?" Bill asked him.

"Well, you know how to think like a Prefect." Fred explained.

"-seeing as you were one." George pitched in.

"Why would a perfect Prefect throw away his own secrets?"

Bill thought for a moment. "Maybe he did something he's not proud of. Something he never wants to remember or anyone to ever know about. That's the only reason I can come up with."

The twins looked at each other with sparks of curiosity in their eyes.

"I wonder what he did."

"The suspense is killing me!"

"Maybe he mentions it somewhere else in the diary?"

"Journal."

"Whatever. Here, let me see."

Fred skimmed the remaining pages of the journal. "It doesn't say much. Basically, all he does is bitch about us, brags about is his grades and how a girl named Penelope lent him a quill- pathetic."

"There's got to be more to him than that." Bill said "We should look through his most recent years at Hogwarts, if we wan to get an idea of what he likes now." Bill suggested. He handed the dark violet journal to Fred, the dark indigo one to George, and took the dark blue one for himself. They sat in silence skimming through the journals in search of any hints as to what they could do to cheer their brother up.

"OH, EW!" Fred shrieked holding the book away from him. The look on his face was one of shock and disgust.

"What is it?" George asked curiously peeking over his twin's shoulder.

Fred stammered. "He- he-"

"He what?" Bill asked impatiently.

"HE HAD SEX!" Fred exclaimed. "WITH PENELOPE CLEARWATER!"

"HE WHAT?!" Bill said shocked.

George grabbed the book out of Fred's hands and began to read.

"Though I finished my summer schoolwork within a week of arriving home, I had told Mother that I would be spending the evening at library in Diagon Ally to finish said homework. I still feel a bit guilty that I lied – but only a bit. Truthfully, I had arranged a rondevu with Penny. Prior to our meeting, we had talked about this night and concluded that we were both adult enough to advance our relationship, and had chosen this night to do it. After a lovely evening of talking, dinner, and romance, the time came for us to follow through with this decision. We had only two hours before our parents would start to question our absence and we were going to make the most of it. After making sure we were not followed, (I was terrified that the twins would be tracking us, seeing how I am a constant target for their immature pranks), we set up the tent she had bought for the future travels we will surely have together. Once it was set, we gave the tent the password we had charmed it with and entered together hand in hand. As an extra precaution, she locked the opening with the most impressive charms. Then she looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes. I have never been so nervous.

"Ready?" she asked me. I don't remember saying yes, but the next thing I know we're in a moment of heated passion. Kissing each other like we were living the last moments of our lives together. She's unbuttoning her shirt. Then she takes it off, along with her skirt and undergarments. For a moment I forget to breathe, she is the most transcendental creature I have ever seen. A veela wouldn't stand a chance against her. Then she reminds me that I need to do the same if this is ever going to work. She laughs saying that my face is redder than she's ever seen it, and saunters over to me with such grace... As she takes off my tie and unbuttons my shirt, I could hardly believe this moment is real,-"

"He's not the only one." Fred muttered, earning an elbow to the side from his older brother.

George continued reading.

"-that she was real. But it was- she was. And it has been the greatest night of my life. Those two hours of passion made me realize how lucky I am to finally have someone in my life who truly loves me for me- and not out of obligation."

There was a moment of silence before Bill said. "I'm pretty sure Mum would not approve."

"Looks like Percy wasn't the perfect Prefect we thought he was." George said closing the book, but with a wicked grin on his face.

"Yeah, we've underestimated him terribly." Fred said mirroring his twin's expression.

"I don't know about you, but I'm rather proud of our little Prefect." George said, taking a seat on the bed.

"Indeed." Fred said in a mock Percy voice.

"Makes you wonder how well we actually know Percy." Bill said. "if at all..."

"But at least we know now what will cheer him up." Fred said happily.

"We are not getting Percy laid." Bill said sternly.

"Ew, Bill, no, I wasn't thinking about that! Get your mind out of the gutter. I was talking about Penelope." Fred said. "Besides in his current stated I don't think-"

"What were you saying about Penelope?" Bill interrupted.

"Oh, right. We should find her and tell her about Percy." Fred suggested, "He seems to like her."

"Fred, I don't think they're still together anymore." George pointed out. "Don't you think if they were she would have shown up at the hospital by now?"

"Maybe she doesn't know?"

"Or doesn't care."

"Either way I think she has the right to know that Percy's not going to be around much longer and that she should say goodbye while she still has the chance," Fred explained. "She was an important part of his life. And he really seems to have loved her."

A few hours later they were walking up the stairs to Penelope's flat. Bill had managed to track down where she lived through Gringotts' paperwork. Bill was a very useful brother to have around.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Bill said for the fourth time within the last hour.

But he can be a real downer sometimes. Fred stopped in the middle of the stairs and rounded on him.

"Do you have any better ideas?" Fred asked. Bill tried to think of something, but ended up shaking his head. "Then let's go."

"114... 116... 118!" George exclaimed coming to a stop. "Here were are." George knocked on the door and stood back. Moments later the door was opened, not by the dark haired girl they knew from school, but by a some burly young man with long brown hair and a short shaggy beard. He wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Um, hi." Fred said uncertainly. "Does a Penelope live here?"

"Yeah" the man grunted. "Hold on, I'll get her. Honey, it's for you!" he called over his shoulder.

"Who is it?" Penelope yelled back.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm Fred Weasley, this is-"

"Says his name's Weasley!" Brown-beard shouted back, cutting Fred off in mid sentence. The git.

Immediately Penelope came into view behind Brown-beard git.

"Fred? George? What are you doing here?" she asked with a look of curious confusion.

"We need to talk to you." Bill said. She looked at the eldest Weasley. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. I'm-"

"-Bill. I remember you from my first year. What do you need to talk to me about?" she asked.

"It's about Percy." Fred said.

Penelope turned to Brown-beard-git. "Honey, could you excuse us for a moment." Brown-beard-git walked back into the apartment muttering something about needing another Butterbeer. Penelope looked backed at them, "So he told you?" she asked rather shamefully.

"Yes, he told us everything. But we came here to hear your side." Fred said, having no idea what she was talking about, but far to curious to not find out.

She looked at the ground, "You must think I'm a horrible person."

"We want to hear your side of the story before we come to any conclusions" George insisted.

"I cheated on your brother. What else do you need to know?"

"Wha-!" Bill covered Fred's mouth.

"Why?" Bill asked sternly.

The bitch shook her head sadly, "He just didn't turnout to be the person I thought he would be. He was so busy with his work, trying to impress everyone around him. Trying to impress me-" She stopped and looked at them, with narrowed eyes, "Why do you care? Last time I checked you were cursing his mail and setting his desk on fire."

Instinctively Bill covered the twins' mouths before all Hell broke loose, "Doesn't matter," he said. "We should leave now. Excuse us."

With that Bill directed his siblings back down the hall. Penelope closed the door, but not before Fred had the chance to say, "Enjoy your life, you SCAMP!"