DRAGGING A FAMILY
Disclaimer: This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who created and, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and settings elaborated herein.
Thanks to my reviewers and especially to my previewers, Bellegeste and Cecelle.
This fic is not HBP-compliant but does take note of some HBP information. As the canon-reading here is quite controversial, I've referenced Percy's arguments with their canon sources in a long A/N at the end of the chapter.
Severus leaned into his wife's hair and closed his eyes, ignoring the uncleared breakfast, as he considered how much to tell her. It had been a long night. The rocky after-dinner confrontation with Molly had left Adam in that chatty post-disaster mood that unblocks years of dammed-up memories. The first cataclysm had come when she scolded him for having hidden his children from their large and loving extended family, the second when she brought up his fight with his father.
"I was never so shocked in all my life! After everything your father did for you!"
"I'm sorry about the fight we had. I should never have said those things to him." Adam said, staring dully at the floor. His wife's hand slipped into his and squeezed. She'd tasked the older children with putting the younger ones to bed, just for this one night.
"He was terribly upset. How could you? The dearest, sweetest man, the kindest gentlest father – You didn't know how lucky you were to have him!" Molly raged.
"Yes, he was kind," Adam agreed. He pulled Manda's square, capable hand further into his lap and placed his other hand around it. His own looked very white and freckly against her milk-coffee skin.
"The nights he stayed up with you when you were ill! The games he thought up to amuse you when you were little!"
"I know, Mum. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said –" what I really thought. "I shouldn't have said it, any of it. It was rude and disrespectful."
"It was rubbish! 'Struggling against his reputation! Not working hard enough! Neglecting the family!' Lies, all lies. He was heading his department and the next year he was promoted to a new office with ten men under him! Scrimgeour wouldn't have done that if he didn't respect your father!"
Adam bowed his head and swallowed down his answer.
Of course, that promotion had nothing to do with the Minister wanting to keep an eye on Dumbledore and the Order, had it? That promotion must have been on merit, mustn't it? It was only mine that had to have been from ulterior motives. I was the only person who ever faced an inquiry at work; I was the only person who couldn't be good enough to deserve recognition.
"I won't – I can't talk about Dad to you. Not when he's not here to answer."
Manda's thumb caressed Adam's palm as Molly swelled with anger, hands on hips, chin out-thrust.
"Just what is that supposed to mean? He loved you. He loved all of you. What did he ever do that needed answering to you?"
Her son breathed in and out again, long and deep.
"Nothing, Mum."
I wanted to be him; I tried so hard, when I was growing up, to make him proud, to make him smile like he did at the twins' tricks, but he never understood me and I suppose I never understood him and now we never will.
"He was a better father than you'll ever be!"
Manda's eyes flashed and she leaned forward, chin outthrust, but the sudden pressure of Percy's hand on hers forestalled what would have been a tirade to rival her mother-in-law's. She glanced at him and nodded, then took a deep, calming breath and chose her words carefully.
"That is impossible," she said firmly, patting his arm with her free hand. "Adam's an excellent father. I promise that he does you both credit. He's loving and generous and caring. He reads to the little ones and helps the older ones with their homework and he's always available when they want to talk."
"I'm glad to hear it, but –"
"One thing I've learned, as a mother of a large family, is that sometimes people disagree. I've found it better to cling to our commonality than fight over our differences. We can all agree that Adam's father was a kind and caring man and that your home was filled with love. Shouldn't that be enough?"
The third cataclysm, smaller but no less bitter, came with Molly's reply.
"He still hasn't learned to admit when he's wrong. If only he'd trusted Albus and dear Harry, he wouldn't have – "
Adam's hands tightened till his knuckles gleamed white, but Manda's answering squeeze reminded him that he was still holding her hand. He released it hastily and stroked the pain away.
"I refuse to discuss Dumbledore and Harry Potter with you. There's no point," he said through gritted teeth. "I didn't trust them then and I don't trust them now and you do and that's all there is to say about it."
"They beat Voldemort," Molly pointed out triumphantly.
"They were lucky. And in the process they did their best to topple the Ministry."
Molly snorted and tossed her head.
"The Ministry deserved to be toppled!"
Adam leaned forward, eyes blazing.
"Then Wizarding Britain deserved to be toppled. The Ministry is the instrument of the people. What did Dumbledore plan to put in its place, a benevolent dictatorship with Harry Potter at the head?"
"That's not –"
"Dumbledore was always a bit mad, but when Harry came to Hogwarts, all Dumbledore's sense of proportion and fair judgement went out the window," Adam continued.
His mother stared at him, her eyes filling with realisation.
"You never liked Harry. I suppose you were jealous of his fame and popularity."
He sloughed off the implication with a shake of his head.
"He wasn't popular, not really. If I'd ever wanted his fame, watching people turn on him in my sixth year would have cured me. What I didn't like was his throwing himself and Ron into danger all the time. And the way Dumbledore fawned on him as if he could do no wrong."
"He didn't drag Ron; your brother was just as eager as Harry."
"But Ron always came off the worst, didn't he? Ron was knocked out in first year, Ron had his wand broken in second year and his leg broken in third year, Ron was put underwater in fourth year, attacked by a brain in fifth year – in the Department of Mysteries, where he never should have been! He could have died, and Ginny too! And he was poisoned in sixth year!"
He put his head in his hands suddenly, oblivious alike to his mother's accusing glare and his wife's sympathy.
"I tried to stop it. I told Ron – I told him to be careful of Harry, but he wouldn't listen. I wanted Harry sent away from school so he couldn't drag them into any more trouble. I thought when he was on trial for that Patronus – And when he got caught training an army of students for Dumbledore – I thought he'd get sent home and Ron and Ginny would be safe and I was glad!"
That was news to his mother. Only her daughter-in-law's tact and calm – and the reminder that there were ten gorgeous grandchildren for Molly to get to know – kept her from storming out of their home as he had done from hers twenty years earlier. It was a near-run thing though and they were all exhausted by the time she left.
Severus, arriving soon after to discuss the arrangements he'd made on Adam's behalf, had found his friend slumped in his chair, staring at the pattern of the upholstery as if it could tell him the meaning of life.
"Did Manda let you in? I hope she went to bed after. She has to cope with Mum coming tomorrow to spend time with the kids," Adam muttered wearily. "I'll be at work, thank goodness."
"I take it the meeting didn't go well?"
His friend barked a short laugh.
"You know Mum. She wanted to know everything about everything I didn't want to tell her. Only she didn't want to know it, not really. Not unless it was what she wanted to hear."
"That's hardly surprising."
"It's been locked away for so long, I almost thought I'd forgotten."
Severus closed his eyes briefly in fellow-feeling. The things in life that one most wanted to forget were precisely those one never could.
"Almost," he said.
Adam nodded. A silence fell. Severus stretched his long legs in front of him and waited.
"I'll never see Dad again," Adam said, raising his head and blinking. "I'll never have a chance to make things right between us, to even know if things could ever be right between us."
"You wish they could."
Adam sighed and rubbed his eyes fiercely.
"When Hermione told me he was dead, it didn't seem real somehow. Not completely. I wasn't expecting to see any of my family again so – I don't know, he didn't seem much further out of reach than he already was. I grieved but it didn't quite take hold, I didn't believe it. But now… Now that I'm seeing them all again and he isn't there –"
"You miss him."
Adam swallowed hard and covered his eyes with one hand as the other clenched in his lap. There was another silence.
"He always had time for us when we were kids. It took so little to make him happy."
The older man nodded.
"Yes, he always seemed content with what he had."
"I loved him for that, but as I grew older, it bothered me. Watching Mum wear herself out being the parent for both of them. In some ways, he was like a child that never grew up."
"Your mother liked him that way. I've heard her say that all men are children," Severus said.
"I'm not. I never was. I think I was born a hundred years old." Adam paused and sighed. "I was barely five when Voldemort was defeated the first time. All my earliest memories are of Mum crying over her brothers. Maybe I'm not remembering it right, but it seemed like she was doing it all the time. And I knew I had to be good for her and help look after my little brothers – and even Ginny sometimes – when Mum. – when she – when she couldn't."
"Your older brothers were unable?"
"They were already at the local school during the day and they didn't hurry home. I don't think they really knew. She could put on a brave face most of the time, especially when Dad was home, but when she was alone with us little ones… Something would set her off and she'd just cry and cry." He ran his hand through his short, red curls and sighed again.
"But not when he was home?" Severus asked.
"No. Maybe he cheered her up; I was never sure whether she was really happy when he was there or just pretending."
One long finger tracing his thin mouth, Severus watched his friend rub his brow.
"You resented it," he said.
Adam grimaced.
"I did, I think. More because he didn't know than because he could make her smile when I couldn't. At least, that's what I told myself, but now I'm not so sure. I resented him terribly sometimes. I felt burdened with keeping her smiling, keeping the little ones out of her hair when things got tough. Well, trying to, because Fred and George were always too much for me."
"They'd have been too much for anyone," Severus assured him.
"Yes, I suppose, but I didn't understand that then. I just thought I should be trying harder. And it didn't help that I was always the odd one out, the spare. Mum had Dad, of course. Bill and Charlie were always together and I was too young for their games, they were always telling me to push off and go play with the littlies. The twins never needed anyone but each other and then Ron and Ginny were just seventeen months apart."
"They were too young to be your companions."
"I was more like a parent than a playmate." Adam was staring at a picture only he could see, far away but unfaded and clear. The years dropped away. "I wiped their noses and spooned their cereal and found their lost toys. And then they grew up and they didn't need me to do that any more."
"But you still needed to do it."
"I wanted – No, you're right, I needed that. It was all they'd ever wanted from me and when they didn't want it any more, I had nothing that they wanted. I was nothing."
There had been much more in the same vein, long, painful hours of it. Severus breathed in the clean, fresh scent of his wife's hair in the bright morning and skated lightly over most of the details. Hermione could only be glad she'd missed it all.
"Is he still going to go ahead with seeing the others if it went so badly with his mum?" she asked, smothering a jaw-cracking yawn. She felt weary, so weary.
Severus yawned too, but turned it into a cough.
"Tonight. He just wants to get it over with."
When Bill and Charlie arrived that night, Hermione showed them into her husband's study, and then went back to the kitchen to sprinkle cheese on the lasagna. Adam arrived three minutes later. By then, dinner was in the oven and Hermione was settled at her desk, reading, so Callie let him in, then made herself scarce, obedient to her father's glare. He warded the room anyway.
The three brothers stared at each other in silence until Severus spoke.
"I hadn't thought you'd need introductions, but if you've all forgotten each other's names –" He paused expectantly.
"Perce," Bill said.
Adam looked back at him.
"Bill. Charlie."
"We missed you, you silly git," Charlie said suddenly. "Don't disappear again."
His younger brother rubbed the back of his neck and gave a painful smile.
"I'm not planning to. It's not so easy when you're dragging a family too."
"Why did you do it?" Bill demanded. "Didn't you know we'd care?"
Adam didn't flinch.
"Did you care?" he asked. The only sign of his tension was the clenching of his hands and the tight straight set of his shoulders.
"Of course we did," Bill said roughly.
Adam blinked.
"Oh," he said and lifted his chin slightly. "That explains why you never came looking for me or asked me my side of the quarrel. I see."
"Prat," Charlie said without heat. "We didn't blame you for leaving. Not even for having a fight with Mum and Dad about it. How could we? It's what we did ourselves."
Bill nodded. Severus studied them for a moment, then picked up the top letter on his desk and began to read. It didn't look as if he was needed.
"Only we made a clean break straight from school. Got jobs overseas and left the country." Bill sighed. "Maybe you should have done that too, but you were always such a homebody, you didn't want to leave."
Adam's mouth was open and his breathing was heavy. He blinked a few more times. His mouth closed and he swallowed hard.
"I didn't believe it when Ginny wrote me that you'd left," Charlie reminisced. "And I certainly never thought you'd stay away longer than it took to make your point. It never occurred to me you wouldn't be back some time soon, fretting about the extra work you'd brought home and grumbling about the noise."
Adam drew in his breath as if it hurt.
"If you'd only said. I thought you hated me too."
"Nobody hated you, Perce. You were just overreacting. You always did have a tendency that way," Charlie said. Bill nodded agreement. Severus turned the page.
"Don't call me Perce; I'm Adam now."
"You could change your name ten times, you'd still always be Perce to us," Charlie said.
His younger brother scowled and turned his head away. I hate Percy sodding Weasley. I don't want to be him ever again.
"They said Fudge only wanted me so I could spy on them! As if I would!" he said.
'They didn't think you'd spy on them intentionally," Bill explained patiently. "Just that the Ministry might trick you into saying things you oughtn't. I know you fancied yourself very grown up then, but you were only a year out of school and not experienced enough to know how tricky people can be."
Adam shook his head.
"Dad yelled at me. You know he never yelled at anyone, not even the twins when they took his car, not even Ron, when he copied them and almost got Dad fired."
"I wouldn't say never," Bill mused. "There was that time they gave Ronnie an Acid Pop and burnt a hole in his tongue."
"Mm-hm. And that time they tried to get him to make an Unbreakable Vow," Charlie chimed in.
"Right. Or that time –"
All right, all right," Adam huffed. "Almost never. You know what I meant. They thought the Ministry only wanted me as a spy. The only way I could prove them wrong was to go away and not see them. Nobody could accuse me of spying on them if I never saw them."
"You idiot, Perce," said Bill affectionately. "Fancy thinking it was worth losing your family just to prove they could trust you. Kind of defeats the purpose, don't you think?"
"I didn't mean to lose them!" Adam protested, adding sulkily, "Anyway, I didn't want to be around family that didn't trust me not to spy on them."
Charlie just laughed at him. Severus picked up his quill and began drafting his reply.
Next to have a turn were Fred and George. They bounced into the room in matching dragon-hide jackets and boots and began talking at once, turn and turn about. Severus watched them under shadowed eyelids, his hand loose on his wand. One never knew with those two.
"Brilliant prank, Perce, but you haven't quite got –"
"– The hang of it. You should have popped up and yelled 'Surprise!' after –"
"– Twenty minutes, not twenty years."
Adam sat, head in hand. And didn't look up.
"Say what you want to say and go away," he muttered.
"It was just joking, Perce. Sure we liked –"
"– To razz you, but you didn't think we meant anything by it."
Adam's lips tightened and his free hand clenched.
"A joke is just the truth in disguise. Of course you meant it," he said flatly.
Fred shook his head earnestly.
"We just wanted you to lighten up."
"We didn't mean to drive you away," George added.
"Maybe you didn't realise you meant it," Adam shot back.
The twins looked at each other, then back at his recalcitrant bent head.
"We didn't mean it. So you're saying –"
"– This is all about us; it's all our fault you left."
"You taught Ron and Ginny to hate me too," their brother accused them. Severus leaned back in his chair, but his hand never left his wand. Just in case.
"We never! Doesn't it enter your fat brain that maybe they were –"
" – Rude because of you, because you were just too goody-goody, too bossy, too much of a suck-up."
Adam lifted his head to glare at them.
"And you say you don't hate me." He turned away. "I never meant any of you anything but good and you pushed me away. And then Mum and Dad turned against me too. What was there to stay for?"
"Perce, Perce, you silly boneheaded canary-brain," said George.
"Of course we don't hate you. We love you like a brother," Fred continued. "It's just that we don't always like you very much."
"And you ought to understand that, because it's how you feel about us. At least –"
" – You don't really hate us, do you?" Fred's voice was so anxious that Percy had to look at him, and then he couldn't look away. He meant it. They both meant it. That was unexpected. Severus watched the three brothers staring into each other's eyes and reflected on the twins' unpredictability. This was turning out to be much easier than he'd anticipated. It couldn't possibly last.
Adam smiled wryly.
"I just wanted all of you to be happy, and it was clear you'd do that easier without me."
"You mean you thought you'd be happier –"
"– Without us."
Adam closed his eyes, but the pain was clear on his face.
"Not happier. Just – not so raw all the time."
So far, so good, but the youngest Weasleys were also the most hot-headed. Ron came in, scowling, and flung himself into a chair. Ginny followed, her brow furrowed and a frown in her eyes.
"It's all about Harry, isn't it?" Ron accused, without even a greeting. "You were jealous 'cos you thought we liked him better."
Adam sat deeper in his chair and eyed his brother in much the way one eyes a rattlesnake. Severus sighed and shifted his hand on his wand. If it came to hexes, he'd be ready.
"I don't want to argue about this," Adam said wearily.
"That's because you have no argument," Ron shot back.
Adam looked from his brother's accusing face to his sister's and took a deep breath. He really didn't want to discuss it. 'After tonight, I may never see them again,' he reminded himself. His lips tightened. One last throw of the dice. One last attempt to break through to them.
"You did like him better," he answered, "but that's beside the point."
"No, that is the point! That's when it all began, isn't it? You were jealous." Ron's voice was rising.
Ginny was uncharacteristically silent. Adam glanced at her, biting his lip, and tried to explain.
"He changed you. You wouldn't listen to me, you just kept following him into one scrape after another and you wouldn't listen. He almost got you killed, every year of school, and instead of stopping him, Dumbledore encouraged him."
Ron jumped up and began pacing. Severus hid a sigh of relief. Perhaps the irritating brat would expend his energy on movement instead of magical mayhem.
"He saved Ginny in my second year and he saved Dad in my fifth and he put his life on the line to save me lots of times," Ron shot back.
"You wouldn't even have been in danger, if not for him," Adam said quietly.
A stabbing finger almost put out an eye as Ron swooped. Severus raised his wand and cut across Ron's furious rejoinder.
"Sit down, Mr Weasley, or I shall be forced to Petrify you." He kept one eye on Ginny, in case she decided to stop him. Her Bat-Bogey Hexes were legend, even now.
Ron eyed his erstwhile teacher and sat down sulkily.
"Now you may repeat yourself, if you haven't thought better of it," his host invited calmly.
"I said, 'Bollocks!' Voldemort would still have risen, if Harry wasn't there. In fact, Voldemort would never have gone away in the first place and we might not even have lived to go to school."
Severus rolled his eyes. That wasn't Potter. That was his mother.
"That diary wasn't about him at all; it was about the Malfoys hating Dad," Ginny suddenly contributed. Her frown was deeper, but her hands were still safely clasped in her lap.
"It was also about being Dumbledore's biggest supporters and Harry Potter's closest friends," Adam argued.
"Better than being Fudge's biggest supporter and Umbridge's closest friend!" By the way Ron sat preening himself, it was clear he thought he'd clinched the argument.
Ginny huffed out an angry sigh. This wasn't about point-scoring or, at any rate, it shouldn't be.
"Shut it, Ron," she said shortly and challenged her other brother with one flaming glance. "Percy!" she commanded. "And if you dare tell me to call you Adam, I will hex you! Are you trying to say that we should care more about what's dangerous than what's right? Because I'll never agree to that."
"No, of course not," Adam said. "You have to do what's right."
"Then just what the flaming heck are you on about? We did what we thought was right and we were right! And if Harry was in danger, it was for our sake and we were proud to follow him into and out of it! And we still are!"
Adam stared at her. His mouth opened and shut several times, as he thought of things to say and thought better of them. At last, he sighed.
"I just wanted you to be safe, Gin. I wanted all of you to be safe. I needed you to be safe."
"No, Perce, you needed us to be strong. Because no one can guarantee safety when there's a nutter like Moldy-Voldy on the loose, and the only way to stop him is to stand firm against him. And I don't know what you thought you were doing, but it wasn't that!"
Adam rubbed his forehead hard enough to hurt and spoke without looking at her.
"Yes, it was. Upholding the Ministry is upholding the law. No one should be above the law. Not even Dumbledore or Harry Potter."
Thin lips quirked in agreement. Especially not Potter. No one was looking at Severus to notice.
"It tears at the very fabric of society," Adam went on fiercely.
"What if the Ministry and the laws are corrupt?" Ginny said. Ron nodded self-righteously beside her.
"Then you fix them, you don't break them more. No one was in a better position than Dumbledore to fix them. He was the law – Head of the Wizengamot for years – and he could have been the Ministry too, instead of Fudge, and tried to fix things from the inside."
Black brows rose, but Severus was silent. The question of whether the leader was the embodiment of the law or only its servant was not one these hotheaded siblings were equipped to argue.
"Some things are too broken to fix," Ginny said.
"Especially when you don't even try!" Adam shot back. "He just preferred working outside the law, where he wouldn't be accountable to anyone for his decisions."
Ginny's eyes flashed fire.
"Maybe he just knew that guiding children was a better way of fixing the law than ruling adults."
"I hardly think so. How much guiding did Dumbledore ever do? 'Nitwit, blubber, oddment, tweak?'" he mimicked savagely. "He ran that school like a private fiefdom and put you and your friends on the frontline to fight for him."
"What would you know about it?" Ron chimed in. "He was wise and good and he did it all for our own benefit."
"He made you think it was for your own benefit. Maybe he thought so too, but that doesn't make it true. Don't you see?" he appealed desperately, his hands dropping away from his face to clench by his sides. "It's just as easy for one person to be corrupt or misguided as for an organisation; easier, in fact, because he doesn't have the checks and balances that come with accountability."
'On the other hand,' thought Severus, 'he doesn't have the dead weight of everyone else's folly pulling him down with them.' He sighed. Would these children never grow up?
"But he was right about Voldemort having returned and Fudge was wrong! He was just too stupid and too scared to face the facts," Ron said.
"What facts? There was no hard evidence, just an escaped lunatic Death Eater who killed my boss and spoilt the World Cup and the Triwizards."
"There was more than one Death Eater at the World Cup," Ginny offered.
Adam shook his head.
"No, there was more than one Muggle-baiter. Not every Muggle-baiter is a Death Eater, even if they dress up to look like it. And even if you're right, don't forget there was another escaped Death Eater on the loose."
"There was hard evidence, you know," Ron said. "Barty Crouch confessed –"
"Veritaserum testimony!" Adam snorted. "You know that's not reliable."
'Severus was there and he's a Potions-master. He'd know how reliable it was," Ginny suggested.
Three pairs of eyes turned to interrogate their host. His lips pursed and his eyes narrowed in remembrance as he inclined his head.
"It was very strong Veritaserum and Barty had no chance to subvert it as he was unconscious when I administered it. It would have been corroborated under interrogation by the Wizengamot, if Fudge had not, unfortunately, prevented that by bringing a Dementor with him."
"Yes, why did he do that, if he was above-board?" Ron demanded.
Adam rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Because the previous year, a dangerous Death Eater escaped from Hogwarts in very peculiar circumstances and Dumbledore spun a ridiculous story about dead people coming to life as Animagi –"
Ron leaned forward, his face redder than his freckles.
"That wasn't Dumbledore, that was us. Are you calling me a liar?"
"You were Confunded –"
Ron snorted.
"No, I wasn't. Ask Snape, if you don't believe me."
Severus nodded gravely.
"I can confirm that the truth was stranger than fiction, in this case. I later had the misfortune of having Pettigrew billeted on me for several months."
Adam's face screwed into a grimace of disgust.
"You mean it was true? My rat – Scabbers was Pettigrew?"
"I'm afraid so." Thin lips twisted. "He managed to stay out of the way of Aurors till well after you turned Muggle, but his body was found eventually."
"There! You see!" Ron's finger stabbed the air but Adam was shaking his head.
"There was no way the Ministry could know that at the time. Who could believe Harry and Dumbledore after a story like that?"
"Anyone with sense! Anyone could tell they weren't liars!" said Ron.
Adam was unfazed.
"Dumbledore had already deceived the Ministry several times, and every time it was to protect Harry Potter. That's why we didn't trust him."
"You were there that night Fudge and Dumbledore had that fight, weren't you?" Ginny demanded of her host. "You must have an opinion."
Severus traced his finger several times around his thin mouth, his other hand gently rolling his wand.
"Fudge was wrong, but –"
"There!" Ron said again.
"But, in hindsight, I can admit that his reaction was understandable. A year earlier, the headmaster had destroyed my credit and his own when he chose to protect Lupin at my expense –"
"It wasn't Dumbledore, it was that tantrum you threw!" Ron gibed. Harry had told him all about it after he'd woken up. "Fudge thought you were a nutter."
Thin lips grew thinner as Severus continued, "And would any responsible headmaster employ a 'nutter', as you put it?" He saw with satisfaction the dropping of Ron's jaw. Obviously, that was a question the dunderhead had never contemplated. "Fudge was wavering at first and I believe that careful handling might have persuaded him of the truth. Instead, Dumbledore made a stand on Potter's credibility – once again, subordinating common sense to partiality – and forced the split."
Ron scowled, unconvinced, but Ginny's hands twisted. She'd known Severus long enough to believe he was telling the truth as he saw it.
"But you can't defend what Fudge did after that!" she said. "He had Dumbledore thrown out of the Wizengamot and started a witch-hunt in the ministry for any of his friends."
"A very sensible precaution, after Dumbledore declared a parting of the ways and said he was going to act as he saw fit," retorted Adam. "He'd headed a private militia in the previous war and he practically told Fudge he was going to reactivate them and set them above the law."
"A private militia?" Ginny shrilled. "The Order, that your own parents and brothers were part of, a private militia? Are you insane?"
"He must be," Ron weighed in.
"A private militia," Adam repeated stubbornly. "Set above the law. I never approved of that and I never will."
Eyes popping and jaw loose, Ron stared at him and finally said, "You're as stubborn and stupid as Fudge!"
Adam blinked and his mouth and fists hardened. He paused.
"Thank you. It's nice to know that your opinion of me hasn't changed."
Severus cast up his eyes. As if on cue, Ginny turned to look at him.
"What do you think, Severus? You were further in than any of us. Who's right?"
Magnificently ignoring Ron's snort and muttered "Like he'd know!" Severus inclined his head and gave her the sort of knowing upward glance Dumbledore used to give him. Both of you. Neither of you. Foolish children.
"Does it matter? You can argue till the Polyjuice boils about politics and ethics and all you'll be doing is prolonging the split in your family. You don't have to agree on who was right then. You don't even have to agree on who's right now. Just accept that you all did what you thought was right and move on." I sound like an advice columnist from Witch Weekly. Maybe I should Obliviate them.
'Move on? Yeah, that's what Percy did, all right. He left, didn't he? And if that isn't proof that he knew he was wrong, I don't know what is," sneered Ron.
Adam turned away, blinking against the burning in his eyes. He could feel their stares on his back, but he waited a moment till he knew he could keep his voice steady.
"I left because I didn't want to argue with you any more. And I still don't."
A/N 1) Arthur faced an inquiry at work after Ron and Harry flew his enchanted car to Hogwarts. (CoS, ch 6, Gilderoy Lockhart)
2) Percy was the only Weasley present at the trial (OotP, ch 7, The Ministry of Magic) and in Dumbledore's office when the DA was discovered (OotP, ch 27, The Centaur and the Sneak) and those present wouldn't have told Molly about Percy's attitude because the mere mention of his name made her cry.
3) The Harry Potter Lexicon timeline gives the following birthdays for the Weasley kids:
Bill, Nov 29, 1970; Charlie, Dec 12, 1972; Percy, Aug 22, 1976; twins, Apr 1, 1978; Ron, March 1, 1980; Ginny, Aug 11, 1981. Canon is not specific on when Molly's brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, were killed but, judging by Moody's photo of the Order (OotP, ch 9, The Woes of Mrs Weasley), the Potters were alive and out of school (since the Order doesn't take students.) Canon doesn't specify whether Molly home-schooled her children or sent them to a local school, but the presence of other Wizarding families in Ottery St. Catchpole suggests that the latter is a possibility. The family dynamics are my extrapolation.
4) Canon isn't clear about who started the yelling in Percy's fight with his father or even whether Arthur yelled at all. (OotP, ch 4, Number twelve, Grimmauld Place) What little information we have comes from Percy's younger siblings, who always side against him.
5) Percy's comment about Dumbledore having had the power to fix the Ministry stems from repeated canon references to Fudge having got the top job by default because Dumbledore refused it, for example (PS/SS, ch 5, Diagon Alley), "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts so old Cornelius Fudge got the job."
6) JK's site says that Veritaserum can be subverted by a powerful wizard. Occlumency protects against it or it can be transfigured before swallowing or the throat can be magically closed to prevent swallowing. Thus Barty's evidence was not legally conclusive.
7) We know that Voldemort returned at the end of GoF, but the Ministry did not, (GoF, ch 36, The Parting of the Ways): "Certainly Crouch may have believed himself to be acting upon You-Know-Who's orders - but to take the word of a lunatic..." They believed that two deranged but powerful Death Eaters, Sirius and Barty, had been running around loose and it was therefore a natural conclusion to attribute any suspicious deaths or disappearances to them. There was no hard evidence for Voldemort's return; all rested on the credibility of Harry and Dumbledore and, to a lesser extent, his subordinates, Snape and Minerva, and on whether one could believe the ramblings of an escaped criminal lunatic. (Fudge didn't have to meet Barty to think him mad; Azkaban was known to drive people out of their minds.)
Dumbledore was quite confrontational towards Fudge that night, possibly as a result of Fudge bringing a Dementor that Kissed Barty: "He was staring hard at Fudge, as if seeing him plainly for the first time." He insisted that Harry's testimony be accepted without question and at secondhand, "I am afraid I cannot permit you to question Harry tonight." Offended by Fudge doubting Harry's credibility ("'Certainly I believe Harry,' said Dumbledore. His eyes were blazing now..."), he gave no proof, just his affirmation, "Harry is as sane as you or I," and, instead of attempting to persuade or convince him, he started giving what amounted to a series of orders, "If you accept that fact straight away, Fudge, and take the necessary measures..." that required upturning the paradigms of Ministry policy on security and diplomatic relations with other magical beings.
Unfortunately, Fudge already had strong reason to doubt Harry's reliability and Dumbledore's impartiality. He reminded Dumbledore that "the boy was full of some crackpot story at the end of last year - his tales are getting taller and you're still swallowing them..." He accused Dumbledore of "keeping certain facts about the boy very quiet", listing the "funny turns", the "curse scar acting as an alarm bell" and the Parselmouth ability, widely believed to be the sign of a Dark wizard. In this atmosphere of distrust, it's also logical to suggest that he thought the blackening of Snape's Dark Mark may have been faked.
8) Percy knew broadly what had been said that night because he became Fudge's assistant soon after. He thus understood that Fudge's subsequent purges of Dumbledore and his associates were actuated by the not unreasonable concern that Dumbledore was going to use his power and influence and his private militia (ie a fighting force of ordinary civilians under the guidance of a non-government figure, in other words, the Order) to destabilise society, "determined to start a panic that will destabilise everything we've worked for..." and that his decision to try Harry as a criminal was also a logical next step. It was actuated by his belief that Harry was Dark and dangerous, and strengthened by the memory of having repeatedly let pass Harry's previous misdemeanours (even crimes, such as the flying car incident) on Dumbledore's advice. Unfortunately, his suspicion took him too far; the conduct of the trial was indefensible.
The first evidence the Ministry had of Voldemort's return was his sighting in the Department of Mysteries. Until then, Voldemort and the Death Eaters lay low and acted in secret only and thus the Ministry focused their attention on preventing what they saw as the imminent threat; a rebellion by prominent political figure, Albus Dumbledore.