Disclaimer: If any of you know when J. K. Rowling wants to give up the rights to Harry Potter, please let me know, because I don't own it! All I own is a copy of each book in the series and a copy of the first book in French (which I can't yet read).

Author's Note: WOW! It's been forever since I've posted! I've been crazy busy lately! Anyway, here's the newest installment of Audrey Weasley.

A routine befell upon the cottage. Percy would go to work every day and usually come back in a foul mood or with a dark look on his face. Usually Audrey was the only one brave enough to ask him what was wrong when this happened. Often, neither of them wanted him to answer. While he was at work, the rest of the family tried to fix up the cottage which was difficult with only one witch in the family. It seemed as though, in his old age, Ignatius Weasley had neglected the needs of the old cottage and hadn't paid for someone else to care for it. Some of the more minor problems included the leaky roof and the more major problems the building's moldy frame. At five o'clock, one of the four (they alternated days) would stop working on the cottage to make supper. Percy normally got off work at six. Sometimes he was late; on those days the food grew cold as the family was too worried to eat. No matter how natural their new lifestyle had become, they were always plagued by fear that their secret might be discovered and that Percy wouldn't come home that evening. Percy always tried to get away from work as fast as he could, but was forced to stop and talk with people so not to appear suspicious.

Normally, Percy was less than an hour late, but on this particular night, it was eight o'clock before the fireplace roared to life; not with the usual orange fire, but with green. Until then, Joey and Mr. Simmons sat stiffly on the couch, not daring to say what they were both thinking; Mrs. Simmons made tea that no one could bring themselves to drink; and Audrey paced the floor (much to her mother's annoyance) and glanced at the fireplace and out the window every time she got close to either.

Percy stepped out of the fireplace, attempted (with not much success) to brush the soot off his pants, and readjusted his glasses before Audrey rounded on him. "WHAT took you so long!" she shouted as the rest of her family merely let out sighs of relief.

Percy would have taken several steps back (and possibly ran in the other direction, were he not a Gryffindor) but as he was already standing in front of the fireplace, he was only able to retreat two and cower in fear slightly. "Um, I got stopped on my way out," he said, afraid of saying anything more.

"By who!" she shouted. "And why would it take you two hours before you could come back!"

"Umbridge," Percy answered slightly louder than he'd been speaking before. "She cornered me just before I managed to leave and she gave me more work to do." Percy shuddered slightly at remembering their earlier meeting.

Percy stood up, grabbed his cloak, and was ready to hurry back to the cottage, but someone was standing in his way; someone wearing bright pink robes and a tiny black bow in her hair. "Dolores," he said pleasantly. He hoped this wouldn't take long; he hated being late home and Dolores always creeped him out.

"Mr. Weasley," she said, smiling sweetly. He tried not to shudder. Her mouth was so large that she looked like she could swallow both Percy and his desk whole. "Could I ask you a favor?" she smiled in a way that sent shivers down his spine.

"Of course," he answered. Oh, no. What have I gotten myself into?

"Could you finish cataloging these Ministry employees for me? I was going to have my assistant finish it for me, but he needed to get home to his sick mother early. Poor fellow," She let out a girlish giggle. "Just leave it on my desk when you're finished."

He sighed and opened the envelope she'd handed him and braced himself for the worst. However, he merely had to copy various Ministry workers names, jobs, etc. down in alphabetic order. The Ministry had to rewrite this list of information every so often to keep itself up to date. Percy didn't feel the least bit sick to his stomach (he feared he'd be cataloging Muggle-borns and Squibs or something of the sort) at all, though he did feel a bit tired when he finished.

Just before he was about to begin, Yaxley came in, noticed that Percy was still working, and struck up a conversation with him. Percy nodded and said idle things such as, "Yes," and "I agree," and "Absolutely," with little idea about which he was actually conversing. He did catch snippets of the conversations such as, "She's always complaining," and "I dunno. Sometimes I wished I'd taken my father's advice and stayed a bachelor," so Percy supposed that he was in the clear and not discussing a new Ministry policy for non-pure-bloods.

Finally, at around seven-thirty, Percy had finished and turned in Umbridge's work and was about to leave when Yaxley stopped him. "You're not leaving already are you?" he asked.

"I finished everything I had today," Percy said, putting on his cloak.

"How about a drink?" Yaxley asked.

"No, I think I'll just go back home," he shook his head.

"Come on!" Yaxley said. "You're always going by this same routine. Work, home, work, home. You never go out and have fun. Live a little."

"I like my routine," Percy said firmly.

"You know, sometimes, I think that you have something to do. You're always rushing home," Yaxley glanced at Percy's left hand. "You didn't elope, did you?"

"No!" Percy said surprised. "Why would you say that?"

"Dunno," Yaxley gave him a strange look. "It's just that a lot of people are eloping nowadays and I just wanted to warn you, don't do it! Stay a bachelor! Trust me, you do NOT want to get married."

"I'll keep that in mind," Percy said nervously.

"Alright, so you coming?" Yaxley asked.

"Maybe some other time," Percy said before hurrying over to the fireplace before Yaxley could say another word.

"And you couldn't have let us know not to worry?" Audrey shouted.

"Yaxley was rambling to me the entire time," he said. "I would've if I were alone!"

"You could've excused yourself to the bathroom to send us a Patronus or something!" she shouted.

Percy was about to say something, but he stopped. "Oh. I didn't think of that."

"You could've stopped at, 'I didn't think!'" she shouted and stormed up the stairs.

There was an awkward silence broken by Mrs. Simmons saying, "Well! I'll reheat supper. Who's hungry?" followed by Mr. Simon's and Joey's "I'm starving!" which was a little too loud and cheerful to be honest considering the circumstances.

XXX

Later that evening, when the rest of the family had gone to bed (it was rather late) Percy heard someone creep into the kitchen as he was cleaning up the dishes. He looked up to see Audrey looking slightly sheepish and slightly annoyed at the sight of him. "Audrey," he whispered, "what are you doing here?"

"Seeing if there were any leftovers," she admitted. "I can't get to sleep on an empty stomach."

"Over there," he pointed towards the counter where the pots and dishes had been covered with foil.

"Thanks," she said gratefully. She hurried over to the counter and grabbed a roll than was much staler and colder than it had been a few hours previously, but still very delicious. "By the way, I'm sorry that I went off on you earlier."

"It's fine," Percy said, setting Mr. Simons' plate in the sink and flicking his wand so that the sponge scrubbed it by itself. He turned to face her. "I should've thought of a way to contact you, like you said."

"But still. I was just worried," she looked rather guilty.

"Well, I suppose that since I've gone off on you before, we're even now," he mused.

"No," she said slowly. A small smile began to form on her face. "I think that you've gone off on me twice. After I took a while at my house and after you found out that I brought photo albums with me."

"The second time doesn't count. You argued back. Besides," he grinned, "you're scarier than I am. When you go off, it's worse than when I do."

"True," she nodded. "You're not scary at all."

"And you are pretty-Scary! Pretty scary! You're pretty scary," he said at the look on her face. Percy felt his face grow red and he inwardly cursed his Weasley-genes.

"Thank you," she said as she left the room, taking much of the leftovers with her. Percy wasn't quite sure for what she was thanking him, but he had a pretty good idea of what.

Silently as he could, Percy banged his head on the counter, muttering, "Stupid, stupid, stupid," repeatedly.

XXX

Audrey hurried up the stairs, trying not to get crumbs on her top. She wasn't sure why, but she felt oddly excited and upbeat.