The next morning Audrey was startled awake as she felt someone shake her. She opened her eyes and let out a little shriek, seeing nothing but her youngest daughter's big doe eyes only inches from her face. Upon hearing her mum's shriek Molly ducked down below the bed with a shriek of her own. Audrey sighed as she looked over to see Lucy sitting at the end of the bed. She took a second to calm herself before sitting up.
"What happened next?" Lucy asked, determining that her mum was properly awake.
"Good morning to you too." Audrey said with a smile. She leaned over and smiled at Molly who was looking up nervously from under the bed. She picked Molly up and sat her down beside her on the bed.
"Morning mum. Now what happened next?" Molly asked.
Audrey sighed as she thought back to her first summer away from Hogwarts. "The summer after the school year ended Uncle Ed and I went on holiday to Scotland. I knew that I would miss your dad terribly, so I made him promise to owl me every day." She started.
"Twice a day if I could manage." Percy said as he walked in the room carrying a tray of biscuits. He set them down on the night table, and sat on the bed next to Molly, who climbed up into his lap. "By the way, I told you that you'd scare your mum trying to wake her up that way." He whispered to Molly as he gave her a little hug.
"I had never had a best friend like your dad before, and although I had a fantastic time on holiday I found out very quickly that being without your dad made me miss him very much." Audrey explained.
"I know that feeling." Lucy said with a sigh. Audrey patted her knee with a smile, knowing that first summer from Hogwarts was always the hardest.
"After Uncle Ed and I came home from Scotland, your dad and I decided we would meet at Diagon Alley to get our school supplies for the year." Audrey explained. "I couldn't even sleep the night before I was so excited." She added.
"I felt the same way." Percy confessed.
Audrey smiled, giving his hand a loving squeeze.
Audrey stood with her Uncle Ed outside Gringotts for what seemed like an eternity to her. She paced back and forth, waiting for the Weasleys to arrive.
"Calm down or you'll wear a hole in the pavement." Her uncle said putting his hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"I'm just so excited." She said. She nearly squealed as she saw a mass of red-heads walking her way from the entrance of the alley.
"I think this is them." Ed said, smiling down at her.
Audrey took off running and the minute she picked Percy out the bunch she grabbed him, and hugged him tightly. "I've missed you so much!" She said with an ear-to-ear smile.
Percy hugged her back. "I have too." He said. The sound of snickering from his brothers made him pull back as he cleared his throat. "It's good to see you." He added.
"It's great to see you." Audrey said. She looked next to Percy, seeing his mum and smiled brightly at her. "You must be Mrs. Weasley; it's fantastic to finally meet you." She said.
"You too, dear." Molly said, before giving her husband a quick look. No doubt making a silent comment about their son's very outgoing friend.
"I'm Percy's dad, Arthur." Her husband said holding out his hand.
Audrey shook it enthusiastically. "I'm Audrey Darcy; it's fantastic to meet you as well." She said.
"Audrey, calm down before you shake Mr. Weasley's hand clear off." Her uncle said, again putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Yes, sorry." Audrey said letting Mr. Weasley's hand go.
"You'll have to forgive her; she takes to excitement very easily." Ed explained.
"She's charming. It's so nice to see you again, Ed." Arthur said shaking Ed's hand.
"How have you been? She really does look quite like her mum" Molly asked, looking at him with sympathy.
"She does, doesn't she?" Ed said, taking a moment to think about his sister. "I've been well, though. And yourselves?" he asked.
"Very well, as you can see." Molly replied motioning to her children.
"You're Percy's brothers, the twins, aren't you?" Audrey asked the two boys standing nearest to Percy.
"Yes, Fred and George, at your service." One of them said.
"How do you tell which one's which?" She asked them, looking between the two.
"Well, I just remember that he's George." Fred started.
"And I remember that he's Fred." George finished.
"Yes, but how do you know? You're so alike." She asked.
"This one's a nutter." Fred said to George, who nodded in approval.
"My uncle says I'm not a nutter, just quizzical." She explained.
"Nutter." The twins said to themselves.
"Boys knock it off this instant." Molly ordered. She looked around. "Alright, Percy and Charlie you're off with me. Fred, George, Ron and Ginny you go with your dad." Molly said.
"You have quite the handful there, Molly, are all of them at Hogwarts?" Ed asked.
"Only the three are right now, the twins have one more year, Ron's got three years and Ginny has four, and I've got one that finished last year." Molly explained.
Audrey walked along the road with Percy as the two chatted about the things they needed to purchase and what had happened over the summer that they hadn't written about. Percy smiled as Audrey talked a mile a minute about the happenings of her summer, down to the smallest detail. While talking to him Audrey caught his smile and grabbed his hand, giving it a friendly squeeze. Percy's heart skipped a beat for a second, and he wasn't sure why. He shook the thought from his head and continued to listen to Audrey's stories. Ed and Molly walked behind the two friends, they exchanged a smile as they watched the two, well aware of what the young kids didn't yet know.
Once Audrey was done talking she took a deep breath and turned to Percy, "are you excited to be going back to school?" She asked as they walked into Flourish & Blotts.
"Yes." Percy said picking up a book and looking at it. "I feel like I haven't studied in ages." He added.
"That's not always a bad thing." Audrey said with a smile as she picked up a book and skimmed it.
"Maybe not for you, it isn't." Percy replied.
"Audrey, what is the name of the potions book you're supposed to get?" Ed asked peeking into the aisle where Audrey stood.
"I'll show you where it is." Percy offered, as he slid his book back onto the shelf.
"Thank you." Ed said as he and Percy walked off to find the book they were looking for.
"So you're friends with Percy." Someone said from behind Audrey.
She spun around to come face-to-face with the twins, both looking mischievous. "Yes, he's my best friend." She said with a smile.
"Why Percy? You couldn't find anyone else to bore you to death?" Fred asked.
"He's not boring at all. In fact, he's very interesting. He tells me all kinds of stories, and he knows an awful lot about, well, just about everything." She explained.
George patted his mouth as he pretended to yawn. "Boring." He said.
Audrey shrugged. "Not everyone can be as adventurous as the two of you I suppose." She said.
Fred's eyebrow rose. "You make it sound like you know something about us." He said.
Audrey mirrored his eyebrow raise. "Perhaps I do." She said. She gave him an all-knowing smile before turning around and skipping off towards the direction her uncle and Percy had gone. She stopped as she heard the voice of her uncle in the aisle next to her.
"I'm just saying to be careful with her, she's a very sensitive and trusting girl, I'd hate for her to get hurt." Ed explained.
"Don't worry Sir, I care quite a bit for her, and I would never intentionally hurt her feelings. I'm lucky to have her as a friend." Percy replied.
"Wait a minute, you heard that conversation?" Percy asked.
"Not all of it." Audrey said.
"I didn't realize you had heard any of it." Percy said, his cheeks going a bit red.
"Don't worry dear, I thought it was sweet of my uncle to do and even sweeter for you to take it seriously." Audrey said. "You were always careful with my feelings. That was until 7th year." Audrey said.
"That wasn't intentional." Percy argued.
"I know." Audrey said.
"What happened 7th year?" Lucy asked.
"That's skipping much too far in the story, we'll come back to it." Audrey said.
After the group had gotten everything they needed from Diagon Alley they stood near the entrance, giving the kids a few minutes to say goodbye.
"It's a shame you couldn't come visit before we go back to school." Audrey said.
"It's only a couple of days, it will be ok. I will send you an owl in the morning." Percy said.
Audrey pulled him close and gave him a hug. "I'll miss you." She said.
He hugged her back, letting his arms linger around her. He liked hugging her, she always smelled so pretty and whenever he hugged her he could feel butterflies jump around in his stomach. "I'll miss you too." He said finally letting go.
Ed came up and put his hand on Audrey's shoulder. "Alright, we had better get going." He said.
Audrey nodded up at him. "Only a couple days, right?" Audrey asked Percy.
"Right." Percy said he watched her walk away.
"Percy Weasley, you were such a sweetheart." Audrey said with a smile, as she leaned over and gave her husband a kiss.
"Ewe." Molly said squirming away from them. Her and Lucy got up, and walked to the door.
"We'll be downstairs when you two are done being gross." Lucy said grabbing a biscuit. With that she and Molly left the room, talking amongst themselves about the story and about how gross their parents were.
Audrey just smiled at Percy as the two of them watched their daughters leave in disgust. She put her head on his shoulder as he put his arm around her.
"They are so very much their father's daughters." She said with a knowing smile.