2 YEARS LATER

Sometimes, Percy was so stubborn, that I was left to wonder just how we'd made it this long. But then again, I was extremely stubborn too so he was likely to be asking himself the same question. There were also moments where I, no matter how much I tried, just couldn't understand his behaviour. I could understand wanting to leave home to get some freedom, some space and something that was actually yours but I couldn't understand why he'd decided to cut his ties with his family so definitively, as if he never intended to return to them. Perhaps he didn't. What happened when he achieved his aspirations but found himself alone? Well, he had me but family was different; they were constant and what if he wanted to complain about me to someone? What happened then?

"Percy," I tried quietly as I helped him unpack his things.

"What is it?" he called out from his bedroom as he walked into the front room of his new apartment.

"I don't think you should have left things on such a sour note with your family," I admitted, stacking his books on the bookshelf and keeping my back to him. "You don't really want to do that to them. In the end, family is all you have."

When he gave no response, I glanced over my shoulder to find him watching me with heavy, glaring eyes. They bored right into me and I turned back to stacking the books, knowing that I'd lost. Once I was finished with the books, I put the empty box in the corner before opening the box of pictures. Percy worked in silence around me and I couldn't help but continue to throw looks at him. I knew he'd eventually regret the choice he'd made. But he refused to see that.

But then again, I did understand his reasoning. He hadn't exactly confessed his true feelings to me willingly but he'd been too intoxicated to realise what he was spilling. The next morning when he recovered from his hangover, he couldn't remember a word.

Percy, even from the outsider's point of view, was the boring Weasley and often felt ostracised even within his own family. With no one to relate to amongst his family members, he'd retreated to his room to lose himself in his books and was instantly labelled the boring one. I could still remember him ranting for a long time about how he'd struggled under the burden of being a 'middle' child and having to look after his younger siblings when his eldest brothers left the house. Especially when those younger siblings sought out to make him the butt of every one of their jokes.

And now that he'd left that environment, he was still the bad guy for turning his back on his family in favour for his work. Even though I struggled to understand it, I had still spent a long time comforting him after he'd confessed to me just how hurt he had been by his family's reaction to his promotion. They hadn't congratulated him, or agreed that it was the rightful fruit of his labour. Instead they'd claimed it was a strategic move by the ministry to keep an eye on Potter. Whilst I might not have agreed with his decisions, but I could understand why he'd made them.

"Are you alright?" he asked coming up behind me and taking a hold of my shoulder, rubbing his thumbs gently back and forth. I leaned back slightly into his touch. "You've been lost in thought for a while."

"Just wondering where to put each picture," I explained, turning towards him with a reassuring smile. Right now, considering the fact that he'd turned his back on his family, he needed my support more than ever.

He shook his head, smiling slightly exasperatedly. "I'm not even surprised; you're a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these sorts of things. Here, let me take them. I'll have it done within ten minutes."

"No way." Shaking my head obstinately, I held the box out of his reach. "You're just going to put them everywhere – even if they don't look good together."

"It doesn't really matter that much," he insisted, reaching around me to pull the box away. I frowned up at him but he just pressed a kiss to my forehead to placate me. "Why don't you go and find the takeaway menus? We should order some food before it gets too late – I'm sure you're starving."

"Too late?" I looked at the clock and gasped, "Merlin, time's flown by so quickly. I'm going to have to leave soon or else there's no way I'll make it to work on time tomorrow."

"You could just leave from here in the morning?" he suggested as he set about putting the picture frames out around the room. Merlin, he really was just putting the picture frames anywhere, regardless of how they'd look. I'd have to spend ages fixing them later; while he wasn't looking, of course.

"I could," I agreed slowly as I walked towards him and swapped two of the picture frames around as he looked distractedly down at a picture of the two of us.

"Or you could just stay here?" he said suddenly, sounding a touch too casual about it. Turning towards him, I met his waiting eyes and watched him adjust his glasses on his nose. "Permanently, that is."

I didn't say a word. Instead, I just smiled at him as I headed away in search of the takeaway menus that I was sure were stashed away somewhere. He sighed from behind me and I heard his footsteps follow after my own.

"What does that smile mean?" Stopping in my step, I waited for him to reach me. He looked down at me with apprehensive eyes and I couldn't help but smile that smile again. "Well?"

Pressing a quick kiss to his lips, I hurried away from him. But Percy trailed after me straight away.

"What does that mean?"