London/Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - June 1997

Dumbledore was dead.

Percy couldn't believe it. He'd never particularly liked Dumbledore, but Dumbledore had made him Head Boy, hadn't he? Shouldn't he at least respect him for that?

Percy was being forced to go to the funeral. Percy really didn't want to go to the funeral. He'd rather stay at home.

His family was going to be at the funeral.

He hadn't seen his family since Christmas.

He hadn't told Audrey about meeting his family on Christmas. Then again, he hadn't even told her about the relationship between him and his family. He was a bit afraid to. How would she react? Would she think that he was a jerk?

They'd been dating for almost seven months now, yet he was too chicken to tell her his life story. He really liked her, but he just couldn't. There were plenty of opportunities, he knew. They got together at least once a week, to go to dinner, or to see a movie. Percy often had to pretend that he knew what a movie (or something else Muggle like that) was.

But though she was a Muggle, and though that made it hard for them sometimes, he pushed through it. He made up excuses for not having a phone or a television or not being able to drive.

He'd been a jerk to his family the year before. He knew that now. But he didn't know how to make up for that.

So he went to Dumbledore's funeral and he sat there and he pretended that he wasn't there and they weren't there.

London - August, 1997

Percy really didn't want to lie to Audrey. But he had no choice, you see. He needed to tell someone about his family, about his life, to get an impartial ruling on how he should move forward. But he couldn't tell her about magic. For one, she wouldn't even believe him. Also, he wasn't really supposed to tell Muggles about his magic.

So after contemplating the issue for many, many weeks, he figured out just the right way to explain it.

"You know how I told you that I didn't grow up in London," Percy said to her.

Audrey nodded from across the table. They were out for dinner, but their food hadn't even come yet. She wore a casual black dress that Percy loved. Audrey was astonished that Percy was bringing up a topic like this. She didn't know much about his past and every time she asked questions, he pushed her away.

"I grew up on this small island in the Atlantic, maybe half an hour boat ride from the coast."

"What island?" she asked.

"You wouldn't have heard of it."

"It's a beautiful little island, very detached from everything else in the world. Very… different."

"Does everyone there have red hair?" Audrey asked with a smirk.

Percy shook his head, not laughing at her joke. He was totally serious tonight.

This was the side of Percy that scared Audrey. Normally, she forced him to break out of his shell, to laugh, to have fun, something she'd noticed that he never did around other people. But sometimes he'd be in moods when she couldn't get him to smile, couldn't get him to laugh.

"Only my family. It's… it's an amazing place to live," Percy said. "But there was this evil man… he was trying to take over the island when I was born. And almost half of the people on the island were following him. They almost succeeded, but then he was defeated and… he was exiled.

"But he came back a few years ago. I didn't believe it at first, but he came back. And now the island is in complete turmoil. Battles are happening, people are fighting, families are breaking apart… and I… I…"

Percy couldn't finish the sentence.

Audrey lay a hand on his shoulder and felt that he was shaking slightly. "Hey. You don't have to tell me everything."

"But I want to. I want you to know," Percy said, looking up at her with sad, brown eyes.

"Maybe you should tell me the rest another day," she suggested lightly.

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."

Audrey gave him a small smile. The truth was she was a little scared to hear the end of the sentence.