Arthur Weasley was humming to himself as he finished up his last bits of paperwork. He had an incident report on yet another of those stupid metamorph medals—really, hadn't those things gone out of style by now? But after this he would be able to go home. They were hosting a little party for Harry's seventeenth birthday, and then after that he supposed Molly would have another dozen things for him to put in order before the wedding tomorrow.
He was a lucky man, really. Despite the current state of the world and how overbearing his wife was being about the wedding, his family was gathering together for two important celebrations. First, the coming of age of his bonus son—or, if Molly's speculations were to be believed, his future son-in-law. Then the wedding of his eldest the following day.
It was as if the universe had heard him gloat over his fortune and then decided he'd gotten too cocky. For no sooner had these thoughts gone through his mind then the explosions began.
"It's coming from level one." Arthur's colleague, Johnson, looked down the hallway. "It's the minister, they've come for the minister!"
"Come on, then!" Arthur grabbed his wand and fairly leapt for the lift. "They're not taking him without a fight."
. . . . . . . . .
Percy Weasley sorted through a stack of mail as he rode upwards in the lift. There was all the usual in here—today's Prophet, several reports of disappearances, and a press briefing he was supposed to review. There was also a lavender envelope that contained an invitation to Bill and Fleur's wedding. It was tomorrow and the invitation was only just arriving the day before, which meant he was an afterthought as always. He'd opened the invitation in the lift to find a handwritten note from Bill, begging him to please come for their mum's sake. Percy had snorted at that and tucked the invitation back into its envelope. Look how things had turned out last time he'd seen his family. The last thing he wanted was for someone to start shouting at him and make a scene at Bill's wedding.
The explosions started while he was still in the lift. In a panic he crammed Bill and Fleur's wedding invitation into his pocket, dropped his other mail, and sprinted out of the lift.
It was a full-blown attack on the minister's offices. The entire corridor was filled with hooded, masked figures and the bulk of the fighting seemed to be coming from the minister's office itself. Percy drew his wand, but before he could fire off a single spell a hand grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against a wall.
"Weasley." It was Yaxley's voice under the mask. "Keep your wand away and we'll leave you alone. Keep your wand away and we'll let you keep your job under the new regime and we'll conveniently forget all about your nasty little blood traitor family."
Percy gulped and nodded, flattening himself against the wall. If he could just get to the lift and hide somewhere safe, then he could wait this out and go back to work afterwards. No such luck, though. The lift dinged and ministry wizards poured out, wands at the ready. Percy realized they were ready to fight, to be killed even, to protect their ministry.
He stumbled backward as another realization swept over him and the wizards ran past him. He'd been willing to slink away like a rat as death eaters took over the ministry, all to save his own sorry skin and his job that had been working him to death anyway. The twins had been right to call him a power-hungry arsehole at Christmas—it was exactly what he was. He'd burned the bridge with his family to side with the ministry, and had been too proud to apologize as the ministry drifted into the pocket of Lord Voldemort. Where had that gotten him? It had him looking for a place to hide while death eaters tried to kill good people.
There was one way to atone for his actions, and that was to fight, to the death if need be. Percy took out his wand and flew into battle, firing off a few stunning spells. He'd never been much for dueling, preferring slow and methodical magical practice. A diffindo curse split the right side of his cheek in a deep cut and blood began trickling down his face. Undeterred, he shot a full body-bind curse at the cloaked figure who had sent the spell, then looked around.
Down the hall, just outside Umbridge's office, he spotted his father dueling Yaxley. Percy thought of his father as a gentle man, and was therefore not surprised to see that Yaxley was getting the better of him. Without so much as a second thought he ran towards them, diving in front of his father just in time as Yaxley shot a spell intended for the father that hit the son instead. The last thing Percy remembered was a searing pain in his chest, then his head slammed into the ground and all went dark.