When Percy woke again, every member of his immediate family was crowded around his bed. "Merlin's pants." Percy yanked his covers up to his chin. "I forget how many bloody people there are in this family."

"How're you, Big-Head boy?" George asked. He had a mischievous gleam in his eye and a bandage wrapped around his head.

"Yeah, how's our favorite git?" Fred added.

"Come off it, you two." Bill said in his firmest older-brother voice. Percy hadn't realized until now that Fleur was standing just behind Bill. "Percy already apologized to Dad. Don't go making things worse."

"No, I'll apologize to the rest of them if that's what you want to hear." Percy pushed himself up on his pillows a little bit. "Look, I was a fool, I was a pompous prat, a—a—"

"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron?" Fred finished.

"Yeah, I was."

"Well, you can't say it any fairer than that. Welcome back, you weirdo."

Percy sighed. "I can't say I missed the constant teasing from you two." He looked up at George. "I heard you lost an ear?"

"Yes, I did." George's hand went to his bandaged head. "We were all moving Harry from his aunt and uncle's house—long story—and I lost an ear in the fighting. I'm saintlike. I'm holey now, Percy, hole-y, get it?"

Percy groaned. "You are the furthest thing from saint-like I've ever seen."

"Look on the bright side." Fred interjected. "You'll be able to tell us apart now."

"I already know how to tell you apart." Percy scoffed. "Fred has an extra freckle near his left eye."

"You know about the freckle." Fred's hand went to the freckle near his eye. "Only Lee and us know about the freckle. Not even Mum can tell us apart by the freckle."

Percy shrugged. "When you're not constantly flapping your mouth, you can notice small details about people."

"So what are you doing now?" George asked. "Coming home and finally being an agreeable family member?"

Percy nodded. "I'm out of a job now, so, what else would I really do?"

"Percy out of a job?" Fred dramatically clutched his chest. "He's lost his entire identity! Whatever shall he do?"

"He doesn't even know who he is anymore!" George declared.

"He has no reason to live anymore!" Fred wailed.

"Oh shut up." Percy snapped. "One more word out of either of you and I'll go back to my flat in London."

"Oh, Perce, we would never dream of insulting you." George said. "Come on back home. We've been looking for someone to test our new giggle potion on."

"Spike someone's drink with it and they giggle uncontrollably for a hour." Fred said.

"You definitely need some." George finished.

"Oh, look at you all being one big happy family again." Molly said. She looked like she might burst at the seams with happiness. "Fred, George, go easy on him. He's had a near-death experience."

Percy looked around at the family. His parents seemed at ease. Bill and Charlie had heard his tearful confession yesterday, and Fred and George had gone back to poking fun at him like nothing had changed. Fleur was eyeing him curiously and chatting with Bill. The only ones still on edge were Ron and Ginny. Ron was standing at the back of the group looking surly, and Ginny had been staring at the ground the whole time. Percy looked at Ron, who glared at him, then looked at Ginny. Ginny would be the easier one to talk to.

She noticed him looking and came and sat down on the end of his bed. Her movements were stiff and tentative, and when she looked at him he knew she was expecting him to speak first. "Ginny." Her name felt stiff in his throat. "Err . . . how are you?"

"You're a noble prat, you know that, right?" She didn't look at him but instead down at her hands.

"You've called me a prat plenty of times, but never a noble one."

"It's something I've called Harry plenty of times. Because sacrificing himself for someone else is something he would do. This isn't something you would do, though, and I don't know what to make of it."

"It wasn't me trying to be noble." Percy said. "It was a split-second decision. I saw Yaxley about to hurt Dad, and I couldn't just let him do it. I knew I'd been an arsehole to Dad, I just didn't know how to say it. I figured maybe this would be my way of saying it."

Ginny nodded but didn't say anything.

"You're still with Harry, right?"

"No, he broke up with me to protect me. It's the whole noble prat thing again. He doesn't want you-know-who coming after me." She looked up. "Thing is, I don't need his protection. I can handle myself."

"I know you can." said Percy. "Don't let him get away that easily. Maybe one day when this is all over . . . he's a good man."

Ginny smiled now, a real smile that split her face ear-to-ear like when she was a kid. He hadn't seen a smile like that on her in a long time. "Don't worry, Percy, I don't intend to let Harry get away. Now if you'll excuse me, now's my chance to corner Fleur. She's been scaling back the wedding and I want to convince to not make me wear that bridesmaid dress . . ."

As she got up Percy looked at Ron. Without Ginny sitting on the bed he now had a clear look at Ron. "One big happy family?" Percy asked.

"Big happy families are a myth, I've decided." Ron muttered. "Always gotta be one bad apple. And I'm not just going to forgive you and pretend nothing bad happened. You know what you did!"

"Is this about the row or something else I did?"

"You know what you did!" Ron snapped. "And I can't forgive it!"

Percy sighed. "What is this, the Percy Weasley apology tour?" When Ron didn't reply, he sighed again. "Fine. What is it?"

"You wrote a letter to me telling me to 'sever ties' with Harry! He's my best mate and I'm not going to 'sever ties' with my best mate."

Percy gulped. That letter to Ron had not been his finest hour. "Look, Ron, I—"

"You know Harry! Harry's stayed at our house, you know he's not dangerous! You played freaking wizard chess with him the first time he stayed over!"

"You didn't understand!" Percy snapped.

Ron folded his arms. "Explain, then."

"Look, I was young and stupid—"

"Percy, this was less than two years ago."

"Fine. I was younger than I am now and had less life experience. The way I looked at it, you got hurt every single year because you were running around with Harry. First year you got clobbered by a giant chess set because Harry wanted to save the sorcerer's stone. Second year you were almost killed by a giant snake. Third year you broke your leg running around with a wanted criminal and a werewolf. Your fourth year, they threw you into a lake so Harry could go and rescue you. Then Harry, a boy who has a traumatic past and frequent nightmares, starts claiming you-know-who was back. There were no other eyewitnesses and none of us knew what to think. I just didn't want you getting tangled in that dangerous mess."

"Well, too late. I'm going with Harry on the mission Dumbledore gave him."

"I know. Look, in hindsight, the letter was a really bad idea. You are friends with Harry and very little can change that. I didn't see at the time the role you-know-who played in all of this. I'm sorry, Ron. You didn't deserve something like that from me."

"Merlin's saggy nuts." Ron sighed, blasting air from his nostrils like an angry horse. "I still don't want to forgive you. But when you put it like that, it kind of all makes sense. I never really thought about how often I used to end up in the hospital wing. Did you hear that I got poisoned back in March?"

"You what!? Was this because someone was trying to kill Harry and got you instead?"

"Nah, that time it was because someone was trying to kill Dumbledore. Then it turns out Snape did it in the end. Crazy stuff."

"And now you're going on some crazy mission Dumbledore gave Harry?"

"Yeah. I'm not gonna 'sever ties' with him."

"Is Hermione going too?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Percy folded his arms. "She'll keep you safe. You know, she would make an excellent Head Girl."

"Eww." Ron said. "I don't want her to end up like you. Err, no offense."

"None taken." Percy muttered. "I wouldn't want to end up like me either, at least the version I've been the last few years."

"Who knew it would take a full-on coma for you to start talking sense?"

"Shut it." Percy muttered, but he was trying not to laugh. Ron was right. Who would've guessed it would've taken a five-day coma for him to finally mend the broken relationships with his family?