"Oh, that was a terrible haircut!" Audrey said disgusted. "I can't believe I actually wanted to get my hair done that way."
"It was in style," her mother pointed out, "and you were six."
"True," Audrey agreed, "oh, look!" She pointed at a picture of a small, red newborn. "Joey, it's you before you learned to talk and I actually liked you!"
Joey scowled at her and said, "And here's a picture of you when you were still nice to me. I suppose that awful haircut was humbling for you."
Before she could retort, Percy walked in and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Going through old photo albums," Mrs. Simons answered. "Would you like to see?"
Rather than looking mildly interested, Percy looked alarmed. "You brought photo albums back from your house?" he rounded on Audrey.
"Yes," she said coolly, looking up at him. Ever since she'd gotten back from the house where's she'd grown up, she and Percy had been very cold to each other. Her family was expecting a shouting match sooner or later. "Why do you ask?"
"What's wrong with her bringing back photo albums?" Joey asked, confused.
Percy's expression softened when he turned to Joey. "If the Ministry comes here and sees the photo albums, they'll see who's in them and it'll be pretty obvious why we have them."
"Ah," Joey said understanding and Audrey cut in.
"But I've already thought of that!" she stood up.
"Have you?" Percy asked challengingly.
"Of course!" and snapped and Percy could have sworn that he heard her grumble, "How stupid do you think I am?" She picked up an album from the stack. "You and I both see a photo album. Everyone else sees a cookbook." She picked up another one. "This one is Hogwarts: a History." She picked up yet another one, "This is a novel by a popular author, Richard Taylor, who died, I believe, nine years ago? And this one….."
"I understand," Percy said, cutting her off. Rather than looking offended, she looked rather smug which only made Percy more annoyed with her. He never would have thought of charming the photo albums to look like ordinary books. "What if someone from the Ministry comes and asks you about them? How would you remember which one is a cookbook and a novel?"
She smugly held up the "cookbook" so that he could see the back cover. In large letters, she'd written "COOKBOOK" with an ink-pen. "As long as I can see the back cover, I'm fine."
Now Percy was furious. Not only was she playing a dangerous game by bringing the photo albums here, she was also winning. And Percy Weasley did not enjoy losing.
In an attempt to keep the peace, Mrs. Simons asked, "Percy, would you like to look at some albums with us?"
After a few minutes of listening of Mrs. Simons go on about how cute Audrey and Joey were as children and Joey and Audrey making snide comments to each other, Percy said, "It's just so strange that they stay still."
Mrs. Simons and Joey gave him a strange look and Audrey explained to them, "Wizard photos move."
"Like movies?" Joey asked.
"Movies?" Percy raised an eyebrow.
"Not quite," Audrey said, ignoring Percy. "Here, I found a newspaper clipping in the library. I show it to you." She hurried upstairs. In almost no time at all, she was back (though panting) and she thrust a newspaper clipping at Joey. "Here you are."
Percy looked mildly interested at the photo she had found and his stomach turned over. It was the article written when his father had won the Ministry's Galleon Drawing four years previously. His family (himself included) smiled up at him and waved. Percy couldn't help but notice how different how much they'd changed from when they took that picture to the last time he'd seen them all. This made him wonder how much different they'd look now in comparison to when he last saw them. Percy swallowed the lump in his throat.
"Hey, that's you!" Joey said. His eyes skimmed the article. "You have six siblings?"
"Yeah," Percy said standing up.
"I can't imagine having that many," Audrey said. "One is bad enough."
"I know," Joey replied. "She thinks the word revolves around her."
"My little brother does too," Audrey smiled.
"Excuse me," Percy said before hurrying out of the room.
Audrey's eyes followed him, and she said, "I'll be right back.
Audrey found Percy sitting at the desk in the library. "What was that about? Is there something I should know about?"
Percy didn't look up at her as she sat down in the chair opposite him. "I don't think you really want to know."
"Why wouldn't I? There's nothing really special about that picture except for your really large family and the fact that you went to Egypt which really isn't enough for me to piece together what's bothering you. So what's up?" She crossed her arms in a way that told Percy she wasn't leaving until she got some answers.
"The war," he finally said, "tears families apart."
Her eyes got wide, "They're not…..?"
"They're all still alive," Percy answered. "You remember a couple of years ago when Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore said that You-Know-Who had come back, but…"
"But the majority of the idiots in the world didn't believe them? Yeah, I remember that. I was really excited when the Quibbler came out with the interview about what actually happened. Weren't you?"
Percy shifted uncomfortably. "Well, that's actually why I don't talk to my family anymore."
She looked confused, "They didn't believe Dumbledore and Harry Potter? But wasn't your youngest brother friends with him? Yes, it's coming back to me now…"
"Audrey!" he cut in. "If you'll stop interrupting." She didn't appear ashamed or apologetic in anyway, but just sat patiently and waited for him to continue. "My family did believe what Harry said, but I'd just gotten a promotion. I was now the Minister of Magic's Junior Assistant and, well, I was being an idiot."
Percy could have sworn that he heard her mumble, "And that's new to you?" but he pretended that he didn't notice.
"I refused to believe that You-Know-Who was back, or rather, I refused to openly admit it. There was a row between my dad and me…and I haven't properly spoken to any of them since. I sent my brother, Ron, a letter when I found out that he was made a Prefect, trying to convince him to be as much of an idiot as I was being and when Minister Scrimgeour wanted to speak with Harry last year, I went to my family's place for Christmas, but that's it. I abandoned them, Audrey," he looked up at her, almost pleadingly. "And now, I heard that Bill's gotten married and I wasn't even invited. My family's moved on and it's all my fault."
Audrey moved her chair closer to his. "I'm not going to tell you that you weren't an idiot because you were, but clearly you've gotten over that. I mean, if you're admitting it, then clearly you know that you messed up and you want to fix it. It'll be okay. Just trust me."
"How do I not know that it's going to be too late?" he asked her, resting his head in his hands. "I mean, what if we get caught? I'll never have apologized. My family would still hate me. What if…." He took a deep breath, "What if something happens to one of them before I could ever make amends. We're in a war here and family is not the type to sit by and let something happen without putting up a fight. There's always a chance of it happening. And there's no way that I could talk to my father without the Ministry becoming suspicious of me. I mean, they've already searched my family's place and they're watching their every move. I can't risk this place being searched and having them find you and your family."
"Look, while you might not be able to apologize to your family for a little while and, yes, there is the chance that you never will, but you've always got us. We're not going anywhere for a while so even if you really did something terrible, we'd still be here," she put an arm around him, "whether you like it or not!"
He grinned at her.