Chapter 7

Once the silence had been successfully overcome, which had happened after dinner that next night after Bill had discreetly taken himself off on the pretence of making tea and Oliver had gotten Percy talking about whether or not Snape and Trelawney had been in a relationship while they were at school. Percy was adamant they had not been of course, while Oliver enthusiastically put forward all his 'evidence'. Bill had to stifle his laughter a few times as he listened--but thinking about it, Snape and Trelawney had been awfully close when he had been in school--it sounded… interesting.

But once the awkwardness between them was gone, it became quite the task to get Oliver to leave at all. Not that he was ever impolite, or stayed to hours that were past respectable, but he was always coming over, not that Bill minded too much, he hadn't seen Percy smile as much as he had in that one week.

But things were moving a little to fast. Oliver had wrangled a promise from Percy to go out to see a movie with him, and Bill wasn't entirely sure about how he felt letting his little brother go out somewhere with a man he didn't know accepted gay wizards--if something happened and Oliver turned nasty it would be so much harder to bring Percy back. Which was one of the two reasons he had decided to bring up the subject with Oliver.

The other reason being that the date for the trial was set. Percy would have to go back to England to testify, there was no way round it.

"Bill." Oliver said quietly, looking over at the eldest Weasely.

Bill started slightly; he had been staring at his tea, trying to come up with a way to tactfully broach the subject. "Yes?"

"I know this might seem rude, but what exactly is wrong with Percy--he's just so different from how I remember him in school. What could have happened that was bad enough to make him so…" he trailed off, not really knowing how to phrase it.

Bill studied him, it was genuine concern he read in his face, he took a deep breath. "Oliver--what do you think of homosexuality?"

Oliver looked startled for a minute, blinking in confusion-then he blushed. A sight Bill would have found highly amusing had Percy's well-being not hung in the answer.

"I didn't think I was being that obvious." He muttered.

Bill blinked. "What?"

"That was a trick question wasn't it?" Oliver asked quietly. "Why--what do you think about it?"

Bill blinked again. "I have absolutely nothing against it--now would you care to explain to me what you just meant?"

The second he saw Oliver's relieved expression it all connected and he smiled in his own relief. "You're gay."

Oliver nodded slowly. "Em… yes… I was going to bring it up at some point; I mean I wasn't just going to start--trying--to date your brother without letting you know. Though I'm not exactly sure if he's--well, you know, which is why I wanted to know what happened to him, to see if it would--I don't know--traumatise him if I said anything and-"

"Oliver." Bill said kindly, with a chuckle. "You're babbling." A weight had most certainty been lifted off his shoulders. "So you have a crush on my baby brother?" he asked, making Oliver blush again. "Well that's ok--because he likes you too."

Oliver looked up with a wide smile. "Really?"

"Yep." Then Bill's smiled faded. "Oliver, listen to me, don't rush in please--Percy's been through a lot and he's just recovering."

"What happened to him." Oliver asked.

Bill told him, vaguely, what happened, and a thunderous expression crossed Oliver's face.

"How could anybody do something like that? And to Percy! He always took things so seriously in school--no wonder--that Bastard! I hope you're bringing him down--or better yet have you punched him yet?"

Ah, so the punching Fudge's lights out was not limited to merely the two eldest Weasley brothers apparently.

"It's going to trial in a month; Percy will have to go sooner to give a statement."

Oliver's expression softened. "That's going to be tough."

"Yeah." Bill sighed.

They sat in silence for a while.

"So it's ok if I date him then?" Oliver asked finally, fidgeting with his mug.

Bill bit back a chuckle. "I suppose--as long as you take it slow--have him home by eleven and don't make him do anything he isn't very comfortable with." He said, half in jest.

Oliver caught the warning in his words and nodded gravely-he understood-if he hurt Percy, Bill, and probably the rest of the Weasely clan, plus honorary Weasely's would grind him into dust--not a happy prospect. Lucky thing he had no intention of hurting Percy.

xxx

Oliver turned up at Bill's at half seven, Charlie had stopped over to talk with Bill, so the two of them were in the living room when Oliver arrived, Percy was still in his room, probably thinking of what to wear. Bill got up with a smile once Oliver was seated.

"I'll go see what's keeping Percy." He said, trading a smirk with Charlie, which made Oliver distinctly nervous.

Once Bill was gone, Charlie turned to Oliver, a very serious expression on his face. "So, I've been told that you want to date my little brother. Now, seeing as our father is not here to give you a little talk on the rules of dating a Weasley, I will. Now I don't know what Bill has told you, but I will make this very, very clear, if you do not get Percy home by eleven o'clock, or his clothes are rumpled, his hair mussed up or his cheeks flushed I will take it upon myself to personally rip you from limb to limb. However, if he comes home in anyway upset with how you treated him I will do so much worse--do you understand me?"

Oliver was frozen to his seat, searching Charlie's eyes for some hint of a joke, but he looked deadly serious. He swallowed hard and nodded--he would have definitely preferred talking with Bill.

Charlie's serious expression barely held out long enough to get the nod before he started laughing, catching Oliver by complete surprise. "You should have seen your face! At least I know I haven't lost my touch!" he said between chuckles.

"Charlie, stop scaring the poor boy. You two have fun." Bill said with a grin, waving Percy towards the door. Oliver practically jumped off the sofa and out the door, dragging Percy behind him. Bill fell onto the sofa Oliver had vacated and laughed. "What did you say to him?"

"I just told him what I'd do if Percy was late." Charlie smiled.

Bill shook his head. "That boy has no fashion sense. I mean, honestly, I bought him a whole new wardrobe and he manages to pick clothes that don't match--so much for the famed gay fashion sense." He sighed. "I think it should be you Charlie." He said, returning to their conversation from before Oliver had arrived.

"But it would sound better coming from you Bill, and you know she won't listen to me when I say she shouldn't come." Charlie said plaintively.

"Charlie, look, I just can't deal with mum and Percy. All you have to do is tell them about the trial, that's all, please Charlie, that's all I'm asking, just tell mum and dad about the trial. Don't even tell them what it's about, just tell them."

"We'll have to tell them what it's about Bill; we can't just let it be a shock to them if they hear it in the papers or something."

"Damnit you're right." Bill groaned. "We need to come up with a way to tell them that will stop them coming to visit; I just know Percy will lose it if they all arrive at once demanding to know what's happened."

Charlie could see the strain his brother was going through and he sighed. Leaning forwards, he squeezed Bills knee, the nearest part of his brother he could reach. "I'll figure out something Bill. Maybe you should get some sleep, you've been stressing over this since you heard haven't you?"

Bill nodded wearily. "Between trying to get Percy better and the trial. Charlie, I know we've talked about it, but I don't think he'll handle this as well as he keeps pretending he will. I just don't know. Maybe I'm doing the wrong thing taking this to trial, maybe I should have just left it."

Charlie stared at him like he had three heads, his face taking on a slight red tinge from anger. "Don't you dare back out of this Bill!" he snapped. "What that Bastard did was sick and disgusting and her needs to be punished, and if you just dropped this he would win and Percy would just keep on being afraid. I don't want that, you don't want that and he doesn't want that, that's why he agreed to testify Bill. Bill please, I know this is getting to you, but we have to go through with it, for Percy. If we don't he's going to be afraid to be himself forever, he needs to know there are people like him, who support him, and he won't get it if we let it go. You know I'm right Bill."

"I know Charlie!" Bill yelled. "I know all that! I just don't want to see him go back to what he was--you weren't there when I found him Charlie! What that man did to him is worse than anything, but I don't know if I can go through hurting him all over again. I just don't know." He sagged back. "Some big brother I turned out to be, this is the second time I failed him Charlie."

Charlie darted over beside him, now very concerned. "Don't say things like that Bill, you haven't failed him, you're a great big brother, and Percy agrees, I know he does."

"No Charlie, I should have gone after him when he left-- after that argument with dad--I should have known something was really wrong. I shouldn't have let it drag on so long before I went to look for him. If he hadn't sent those letters I wouldn't be looking even now--he could be dead now…" he trailed off.

Charlie was shocked, never before had Bill said anything like this, Bill had never been unsure of himself before, it just wasn't like him, and Charlie had no clue how to comfort him. "But he's not Bill, he's not dead--he did send the letters. And we all should have known something was off about that argument. Bill come on, it wasn't your fault, share the blame here, it's my fault as well, it's the twins, its Ron's, its Ginny's, it's mum and dad's, but you know who's most to blame Bill?" Charlie asked, willing his brother to focus, willing him to be ok.

"Fudge." Bill whispered.

"Exactly, so it's him we bring down Bill, and then we can really start to make it up to Percy." Charlie finished softly.

Bill knew he was right, it was a lot of people's fault Percy had ended up where he was, but they couldn't make it up to him until they took care of Fudge. He managed a small smiled for Charlie, whose relief that Bill was back in charge was almost palpable.

"Ok." He said slowly. "So when are you going to tell mum?"

Charlie smiled, letting his breath go in relief.