Arthur stepped out of the whirl of green flames into the hospital lobby and looked around, trying to get his bearings. The room was already filling with the panicked family members of those who had been hurt in the attack. Before Arthur could go anywhere, he was body-slammed by his wife in her approximation of a hug. "Molly! What are you doing here?"
"I heard about the attack!" Molly wailed. "And I saw on the clock that you were at the hospital, and I thought—I thought—"
"Shh, it's ok. I sent you the patronus, remember? I'm alright. I—I'm here with someone else." He looked down at the top of her head, wondering how to tell her. He knew Molly loved Percy more than he did. He'd told Percy never to darken their door again, but Molly had run after him begging him to come back. She'd been right this whole time. "Molly, I'm here because Percy got hurt in the attack." There was no point beating around the bush.
"Percy?" Molly looked up at him, her eyes filling with tears. "What happened? Is he alright?"
Arthur shook his head. "He got hit by a curse. He's alive, but . . ."
Molly ran for the lifts, Arthur huffing and puffing to keep up with her. She followed the trail of injured ministry workers to the spell damage ward, where Percy was easily visible due to his bright red hair, and ran to his bed.
Many moments of Arthur's life were seared into his memory—the births of his children, finding out Voldemort was gone, the time he'd been attacked by the snake at the ministry. But all of these paled in comparison to raw, primal scream that came from Molly's mouth when she laid eyes on Percy.
Percy was in bad shape. His wound had been bandaged and the blood on his face cleaned up, but he was still deathly pale and his skin seemed to be taking on a greenish tinge. His shattered glasses had been removed and placed neatly on the bedside table.
"What happened to him?" Molly wailed.
"It's my fault." Arthur said. "I was dueling Yaxley. I should've known my skills weren't up to snuff to duel him. Anyway, he shot this curse at me and Percy dived in front of me and took it straight to the chest. I didn't even realize it was him until after the battle."
"Oh, Percy!" Molly began sobbing harder. "Percy! I knew he had a good heart after all." She sank onto the bed, sobbing. "My sweet boy."
"Ma'am, I'm gonna have to ask you to not lie on top of the patient like that." A harried-looking healer came over to them. "Are you Percy's parents?" When they nodded, the healer continued. "He's been hit with a putrificus curse."
"A what?" Molly gasped.
"No." Arthur gasped too. "I know what that curse does. Molly, that curse rots the body from the inside out. You die a slow, painful death over about twenty-four hours. Percy took a direct hit."
"No!"
"Hey, it's alright." The healer sat them down into a pair of hard wooden chairs before Molly could start crying too loudly. "You're lucky he got immediate medical attention. There's a potion that counteracts this curse that we've just given to him. However, it doesn't take effect immediately. Don't expect Percy to wake up for several days."
"Several days?" Molly sobbed.
The healer nodded. "That's if it takes effect." She paused, then went on. "The potion has roughly a 50-60% chance of working. If it doesn't work, it only manages to slow down the effects before the patient dies. If Percy's condition improves over the next few days, it will be an indicator of whether the potion is working."
"50%?" Molly wailed.
"Up to 60%." The healer said. "Look, I know this is very upsetting for you both. But we've stabilized him and given him a pain relief potion. I'm afraid all you can do now is wait."
Molly and Arthur sank into the chairs as the healer left to go see her other patients. "Where did we go wrong with him?" Arthur moaned. "What happened? It was just after the triwizard tournament, and all the kids were ready to help Dumbledore except him."
Molly shook her head. "It goes back further than that. He'd been having a rough year. Mr. Crouch was ill and then it came out that he was being controlled by the imperius curse and the entire department was under a lot of scrutiny. And I think we were all so busy with the triwizard tournament that we didn't realize how much stress he was under. I think about it all the time, what we could have done differently with him."
Arthur nodded. "You're right. We were all so worried about Harry, and we thought Percy would be ok because he was an adult. But he's been more reserved and more focused on work since his teen years. This behavior really shouldn't have been a surprise."
"He needed more of my time, of our time." Molly said. "But the twins came along when he was still so little, and then I just didn't have time and—"
"Shh, shh." Arthur pulled his wife into his arms. "It's alright. It's alright. You were doing the best you could. Sometimes I wonder if we should have stopped sooner. But then I can't imagine life without all seven of them."
A small sound caught their ears. It was Percy, shifting on his bed. A small sigh escaped his lips.
"Percy?" Molly leaned forward. "Mummy's here, sweetheart. Can you hear me?" Percy didn't move. "Oh, Percy." Molly leaned back in her seat. "Arthur, we have to wait here with him for a week. A whole week to see if he'll even live." She began to cry again. "This was my boggart. Two years ago I found a boggart at Grimmauld Place, and it was just all of them dead. I see them dead all the time, I dream about it!"
"I'm sorry, Molly. I'm so sorry." Arthur pulled her close again. He wanted to offer words of comfort, but he had none to give.