Arthur was feeling refreshed after his time alone and he accompanied Molly to the hospital the following day. There was little change in Percy's state and the day passed uneventfully. Percy had been dosed up with dreamless sleep potion, so they didn't even have his ramblings to keep them occupied and instead sat in companionable silence. They went home for a quick lunch and Arthur stopped to grab an owners' manual to a muggle car for a bit of light reading while Molly disappeared to their bedroom to cram a bunch of things into her handbag. When they got back to the ward, Arthur saw that what she had was navy blue yarn.

"New sweater?" he asked her.

Molly nodded. "Fleur's. I feel terrible about not giving her one last Christmas, so hers is at the top of my list this year. There's only four and a half months until Christmas, you know."

Arthur nodded. Molly had been doing this for years now. "And what's that slip of paper?"

"Her approximate measurements." Seeing the look on Arthur's face she added, "Look, I do laundry for everyone in the house. It was easy enough to pull out a few of her shirts and measure them to gage what size she wears. She's got rather long arms, and I need to keep that in mind."

Arthur smiled bemusedly and went back to his manual to read all about how to change the oil in a Honda Civic. It was absolutely fascinating, the things these muggles did, and it was a good distraction when his son was quite possibly on his deathbed. They wiled away a few more hours like that, and Molly had what looked like most of a sweater completed when Percy's dreamless sleep potion started wearing off.

"Fanged frisbees are banned!" Percy slurred, causing his mother to jerk up and drop her knitting needles. "That means you too, Fred."

Molly and Arthur exchanged glances and she got her notebook out again.

"What do you mean Ginny's in the Chamber of Secrets, Professor?"

"No, no." Molly whispered. "Please, Perce, tell me something more recent."

"Molly." Arthur patted her hand. "It doesn't work like that."

"Well why doesn't Dumbledore do something to get her out?" Percy's voice was a little clearer now. "Why are Harry and Ron down there, Professor McGonagall? They. Are. Twelve. Years. Old. Where the hell is Dumbledore?"

"That's the source of his dislike of Dumbledore." Molly said. "That's it, right there. Merlin, Arthur, we were so worried about Ginny in the aftermath of that, we never stopped to ask the others if they were all right."

Arthur nodded. "I think the muggles call it vicarious trauma or something. Why didn't we think of that?"

Molly shook her head. "None of the others seemed affected, so I thought Percy was fine. He became Head Boy not long after and was so excited."

"Mr. Crouch, this behavior is hardly appropriate." Percy was starting to convulse again. "Please, Mr. Crouch! Please, go home. Phelps and I really think you should go home." Percy flopped like a fish and his voice jumped up an octave. "Mr. Crouch was ill! I swear, I didn't know anything! Please, Madame Bones, we all thought Mr. Crouch was having a mental breakdown due to the stress of the tournament! I swear!"

"Percy!" Molly had gone very white. "Arthur, get Healer Perkins, please! I can't bear to see him like this!"

Arthur ran out into the hallway and flagged down Healer Perkins, who came running with a dreamless sleep potion. As they came back in Percy was still talking about Mr. Crouch, though his cries had slowed and his voice sounded more normal. "I tell, you it's a madhouse." He moaned. "That promotion saved me."

Molly and Arthur exchanged glances as Healer Perkins administered the potion. "I'm just going . . . I'm just going to the loo now." Molly's voice was wavering. "Just doing to freshen up."

"Of course, dear." Arthur patted her on the back. He knew she was probably going to the bathroom to cry some more, and he couldn't blame her. It sounded like Percy had been through hell and back with Mr. Crouch's imperious curse, and now he was reliving it in his nightmares. It was enough to make Arthur's stomach turn. He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

The sound of footsteps in the hallway echoed behind him. Arthur looked up and saw someone he didn't know entering the ward, a young blonde witch wrapped in a heavy black cloak despite the summer heat. Arthur assumed she was here for one of the other injured ministry workers and turned back around, but her light footsteps kept drawing nearer to Percy's bed.

"Percy? Oh, Percy." Her voice carried the same desperate intonation Molly's had had when she'd first seen Percy.

"Hello?" Arthur stood up and straightened his glasses. "Who are you?"

"I'm Audrey. I'm one of his coworkers and probably one of his only friends. You must be Percy's father."

"That would be me." Arthur said. "My wife's here too—she hasn't hardly left Percy's side since this whole ordeal began—but she stepped out to use the loo. You say you're Percy's coworker—are you on the minister's support staff? Were you there when the attack happened? Are you all right?"

Audrey nodded. "Ok, one question at a time. I'm on the minister's support staff, one of the press secretaries. They had to hire a lot more PR staff after you-know-who was spotted there. We've been in a near-constant state of PR nightmare since then. Anyway, I fled when the attack started and only just saw in today's Prophet that Percy's in the hospital. I've been trying to lay low, you see—" she dropped her voice to a whisper. "I'm muggle-born, Mr. Weasley."

"Oh. Okay." Arthur nodded. "That's all right. I used to work in misuse of muggle artifacts. My wife and I can help you find a safe place to hide, if you need it. Ah, speak of the devil." Molly was back from the loo, her face slightly damp. Arthur suspected she'd splashed cold water on her face to bring down the swelling around her eyes.

"Who's this?" Molly asked, drawing level with Arthur.

"Coworker of Percy's. Friend of his too, it sounds like."

Molly smiled. "Good, good. I've been so worried about him, off on his own. You know, we've had so little contact with him for years. I'm so glad to know he has someone he can rely on. Here, here, you take the chair." Molly sat down on the end of Percy's bed. "Is this the first time you've come in? Do you know what happened?"

"First time. I've been laying low since the attack because I'm muggle-born. I only saw in today's Prophet that he was here. What happened?"

"It's my fault—" Arthur began.

"It is not your fault." Molly lightly smacked Arthur round the head. "Arthur was fighting off death eaters during the attack and was dueling Yaxley. Percy jumped in front of Arthur and took a spell straight to the chest. Arthur, what curse was it?"

"Putrificus."

Audrey's hand went to her mouth. "I've read about that curse. You rot from the inside out. When you-know-you came back, I bought every book I could find about dark magic."

Arthur exchanged glances with Molly. If this girl liked reading so much, it was no wonder that she got along with Percy. "They've given him a potion for it. But it's only got a 50% chance of working. He's been like this since the attack, with no changes."

"No." Audrey reached down and grabbed Percy's hand. "Please, Percy. I can't lose you."

Arthur exchanged another look with Molly. He'd seen the way Audrey had reached for Percy's hand without hesitation. Were they friends like she said, or was it something more? By the look in Molly's eye, he knew she'd seen it too.

Audrey, slowly turning red, released Percy's hand and looked up at Arthur. "He looks just like you." she said.

"He does." Arthur nodded. "Don't let him hear you say that when he's awake; I doubt he wants to be reminded."

"What did happen between you to cause the estrangement?" Audrey asked. "I mean, I'm surprised you're even here by his bed."

"What did Percy tell you about it?" Molly asked. "He's never spoken about it in a calm, rational way around us. We don't fully know his side of it."

"Let me think. He said it happened after the triwizard tournament, that no one in the family congratulated him for his promotion and instead called him stupid for not realizing that the ministry wanted to keep a closer eye on him. Er, I don't think you would have called him stupid to his face."

"I didn't." Arthur said. "I did, however, heavily imply it. I should've known the one thing you don't do with an eighteen-year-old is imply that they're stupid. They get very stubborn about that. I would know; I've raised several of them. Go on."

"Then he says the argument escalated. He called all of you stupid for listening to Dumbledore and said that Dumbledore doesn't care about putting people in danger. He says he cited Ginny's thing with the chamber of secrets as evidence. Then he says everyone was shouting at each other and at that point he left."

"I shouldn't have shouted at him." Arthur said. "I was the parent; it was my job to keep my cool. I should've tried to understand his viewpoint. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's an asinine viewpoint and would never agree with it, but if I'd listened better maybe we could have agreed to disagree."

Audrey nodded. "He talked to me about it again after Dumbledore's funeral, unprompted. He was in a panicky mood that time. He told me he'd made a horrible mistake and that he'd been realizing more and more the role you-know-who and his supporters played in all of it. He had a gut feeling that the ministry would go down next. He said he'd messed up so much there was no turning back or fixing anything. I told him to apologize to you lot and he wouldn't do it. I think he's too proud to admit that he messed up."

Molly sighed. "That does sound like our Percy."

"His actions show that his heart's in the right place." Arthur said. "I just hope he can say it in words, too, if he wakes up."

"When he wakes up." Audrey said. "He's not allowed to die."

Healer Perkins came in with Percy's evening dose of pain relief potion. "Visiting hours are over. I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, visiting hours are over."

"All right, all right, we're going, we're going." Arthur stood up. "Audrey, are you going to be all right? It's dangerous out there."

"I'll be fine. I've put every protective enchantment I know around my flat."

"And how many enchantments would that be?"

Audrey shrugged. "Not sure, but it's a lot. I got 12 O.W.L.s and 12 N.E.W.T.s in school, Mr. Weasley. I should be fine.

"And now I understand why you get on with Percy." Arthur said. "All right. I'll send you a patronus with any updates. Look out for a weasel patronus."

"Thank you, Mr. Weasley. I will."