Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, there is onscreen panic attack and vomiting. Oh, and referenced Molly Weasley's A-Plus Parenting. Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Just a fair warning that I will not debate whether Percy was right or not. He was, so jot that down. I will also not be debating anything about Molly.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Post Term 16); Ministry (Pre-Open); MC4A (Summer Year 5)
Individual Challenges: Red Dress; Red Bull; Red Wave; Lovebirds; Gryffindor MC; Gryffindor MC; No School MC; Magical MC; Magical MC; Magical MC; Medic MC; Jock MC; Bard MC; Neurodivergent; Rowl in Her Grave (Y); Rian-Russo Inversion; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Shifter MC; Nonhuman MC; Nonhuman MC; Bi Bi Bi; Lovely Triangle; Ship Sails; Zed Era; Old Shoes (Y); Feathers & Such; Short Jog; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift
House: Slytherin
Ministry Challenges: Aug Bingo [B4](Percy Weasley)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: 365 [96](Conspire); 1000 Prompts Challenge [144](Werewolf); Days of the Year [Aug 5/International Beer Day](Set in a bar/pub); Creative Ice Cream Flavours Day [21](Oliver Wood); Shark Awareness Day [15](Someone who feels small in a crowd); Colors [03](Tan); Flowers [14]("Normal? There's nothing normal about this!"); Gryffindor's OTPs [05](Percy/Oliver);
Other MC4A Challenges: Ship (Prefect Keeper)[SuMic2 (Black; Gray; Red; Orange; Transparent]; Chim [Yoo]("The Village" - Wrabel; Life/Death; Crimson); TWT (Trans Fem Percy Weasley; Next Gen Era)[Task#4 (Dress/Gown)]; Hunt [Su Set (Bar/Pub)]; Fire [x3](Brick); Garden [Bargain Beans (Trans Character)]; Harvest [A&B (Cuddling; Kissing); AUs (Were-Creature); Settings (Bar/Pub; Night)];
Representation(s): Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood/Audrey Weasley; Werewolf Audrey; Partial Were Oliver; Trans Fem Percy; Weasley Family Dynamics; Skirt Twirl Euphoria; Chim Song Prompt
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Muck & Slime; Abandoned Ship; Surprise!; In the Trench; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Found Family; Nontraditional; Sneeze Weasley; Mother Hen; Nightingale; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Brooms Only; Car in a Tutu; Lock & Key; Three's Company; Lovely Coconuts); Chorus (Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Peddling Pots; Tomorrow's Shade; A Long Dog; Bandstand; Larger than Life; Unicorn; Creature Feature; Wind Beneath); Demo 1 (Under the Bridge; Sweetest Burn; Fruit Fly)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: Once (Moses Supposes; Santa Fe; Inchworm); TY (Slainte; Ntaiv); War (Orator; Obstruction; Sanctuary; Ennui); T3 (Toad); SN (Rail; Negate); LiCK (Poppy; Tansy; Yarrow); FR (Satisfaction); O3 (Orator; Olivine); HoSE (Schooner; Obscure)
Word Count: 1941 words
(^^)
Beauty
(^^)
It started while they were out drinking together. The three of them were doing a pub crawl to celebrate, oh, so many good things. Oliver's team had just won their thirteenth game in a row. Audrey had just finish her apprenticeship under the pack healer. Percy had just learned that Bill and Fleur were expecting their second child, a thing which brought all of the other Weasley children a bit more breathing room from their mother's endless pressure to provide grandchildren while torquing the future pressure just that much higher.
Percy blamed it on the drinks that his partners had been plying him with. He wasn't one for drinking usually. He found the loss of control distastefully unpleasant. But Audrey had introduced him to a bunch of brightly colored cocktails loaded with fruit and garnished with this adorable little umbrellas. The alcohol went down like juice and before he knew it, he was much more drunk than he had planned on getting. (Though, perhaps not more drunk than his partners had been planning, as Oliver had stuck to only one weak beer at every place they had gone. Often, he had not even finished that.)
"You're so pretty," he slurred into Audrey's shoulder, his glasses pressed crookedly from the angle. Their bar stools were as close as possible without a fusion charm. Even then, Percy was only half on his, pressing against Audrey's side while Oliver laughed at them from Audrey's other side. He wrapped one of her springy curls around his finger before pulling away to watch it bounce back. Audrey laughed and pressed a kiss to his forehead. Percy sighed regretfully as he clenched at a fold of Audrey's violet dancing dress. "I wish I could be as pretty as you."
"You're plenty pretty, love," Audrey assured him. She ran her fingers through his hair, kept properly short and styled just like his mother wanted for all her sons. Percy sighed again as the constant wish that he was as brave as Bill or Charlie or George—Even Ron was braver than he was. The one time Percy had tried to stand up to their mother, he had ended up in family exile for months, nearly two years. And that was for something far more important than wanting to grow his hair out or—
He gulped down more of his tangerine drink and forced himself to not think about those desires. They didn't matter. He was already pushing the limits of his mother's patience, risking a return to exile, by being with both Audrey and Oliver. Not that Percy had been brave enough to break the news that Oliver wasn't just his roommate or that he was involved with a full werewolf. He didn't dare bring either of them to the weekly family lunch, especially not Oliver who had always been able to read him like an open book. (It was better this way, where everyone was protected from each other, even if the secrets were smoldering along his mind and threatening to burst into flames that would consume him faster than phoenix fire.)
In fact, Oliver was suddenly studying him too intensely to not be picking up on something or seeing through him as if he was just as transparent as the lens of his glasses. Shit. Percy was too sober to have that conversation but also too drunk to have any chance at hiding anything. He whined and hid his face in Audrey's neck.
Not long after that, they left the last pub with Oliver making sure that they all got home with everything still attached. Somewhere in the dark recesses of his mind, Percy knew that Oliver wouldn't just let things go. Just like the other thoughts there, he just ignored it.
(^^)
Percy wasn't able to ignore it for very long. The problem with having two partners was that they would often conspire with each other against the third one, especially if they felt it was in their best interests. Percy and Oliver had done it plenty of times when Audrey was working herself into exhaustion. Percy had done it with Audrey to get Oliver to rest long enough to actually heal from one of his many quidditch injuries.
So it was not a shock when he arrived home the next Friday to find both of them sitting on the couch, clearly waiting for him to arrive. It is a bit odd that Oliver was dressed in an iron gray shirt that should have had laces holding the vee from the neck hole closed. It was tucked into black dress slacks. He looked like he had walked off the stage of a Shakespearean play or the pages of a Jane Austen novel.
In contrast, Audrey was wearing very modern sundress in a deep crimson that made her tan skin look particularly soft and kissable. Her dark brown curls had been pulled back into a series of half twists that each ended with a sparkly green bead. Something mischievous glinted in her warm brown eyes as she watched him linger just inside the door to their flat.
He felt like he couldn't breathe for how beautiful she was, a mixture of awe and envy bubbling in the pit of his stomach. Attempting to distract himself, he focused back on Oliver. Not that that was any more helpful. Oliver had that intensity to his hazel gaze again. It felt like he was looking into Percy's soul and examining all the dark secrets he had buried there over the years.
"What," Percy started before his throat tightened and his mouth went dry. He had to swallow a few times before he could continue. "What is going on?"
"We've gotten you a few presents," Audrey announced, rising from the couch. Oliver didn't say a thing as she approached Percy, taking his hands in hers. "We think you're going to love them, even if you might be a little, hmm, uneasy about them."
"Uneasy?" he questioned as she began to pull him towards their bedroom. He didn't fight the pull, even as his stomach twisted with his nerves. Distantly, he was thankful for accidentally skipping lunch earlier. Audrey gave him a small grin over her shoulder.
"Anxious," she supplied. The word had no judgment to it. It was just a simple acknowledgment of his feelings. Oliver and Audrey both knew how he could get about things. They were also good about helping him rein in his tendency to use order and organization to lessen the feeling. (Not that it often worked, or at least not for long, before the organization itself became a source of anxiety.)
Before he knew it, they were alone in their bedroom. Audrey had seated Percy on the edge of the bed. His fingers plucked nervously at the royal blue fabric of the blanket covering it. Audrey was already grabbing a plain white box, unwrapped and without ribbon holding it closed. Percy's stomach felt like he had just lost control of a broom and was free falling to the ground.
Clothing.
They had gotten him clothing.
He was going to throw up.
"I, I, I," Percy stammered as he threw himself off the bed in the general direction of the wastebasket they kept near the nightstand. He curled around it with a choked off sob, his stomach continuing to threaten evacuation but thankfully staying contained.
Audrey was right there beside him. One of her warm hands moved steadily over his back while the other settled over the nape of his neck. The touch was soothing, grounding even. Everything seemed a bit more bearable just for it.
"You don't have to," she assured him. She pressed her lips to his temple, just below his hairline. Her words spread across his skin like his many freckles. "We just wanted you to know that what you're feeling is completely normal—"
"Normal?" Percy interrupted. Agitated, he shoved himself to his feet. He began to pace in the small space between the bed and where Audrey stayed kneeling beside the nightstand. "There's nothing normal about this! I should be better than, than, than—I should just be better! I cah-cah-cah—"
His hands found their ways into his short hair, clenching and tugging at it as his emotions boiled within his chest, threatening to make him explode if he didn't vent some of them. He felt a few strands break free. The sting helped anchor him against the whirlpool building inside of him. Forget flames. Percy was drowning.
It was all too much.
It wasn't nearly enough.
Hands wrapped around his wrists. Then they slide across his skin to tangle with his fingers, loosening their hold on his hair. The hold returned to his wrists before tugging his hands down and together. They were pressed against his chest and held there, a better anchor that the already-dissipating sting could ever hope to be.
Percy's gaze met Oliver's yellow-green one. He could see the strange way that the light reflected in them, that new addition from the claw lashes Oliver had gotten during the Battle of Hogwarts. It was only the confusion that had followed in the aftermath that had allowed Oliver to escape being registered like Bill had been, despite neither being able to transform like Audrey could and did.
It had been in seeking discreet assistance handling all the new instincts Oliver had gained along with the half-state that they had met Audrey. Percy refused to think about how better suited they both were for each other than for him. He refused to worry about how much longer he might have with them before they realized that and left together. He was not going to think about how he was never enough for anyone.
He was not going to think about that.
He was not.
"Breathe," Oliver commanded softly. Then he led by example, taking in an exaggerated deep breath. Percy obediently followed suit. By the third breath, they were in sync with each other. Somewhere around the tenth one, Percy felt the tidal wave recede without dragging him with it. By twenty, he was centered once more.
"There you are," Oliver acknowledged, just as soft and firm as before. The praise warmed Percy in places that he hadn't even realized had cooled. Not that it mattered if he knew or not. Oliver did. Oliver always did. And if he failed, then Audrey would.
Audrey.
Percy turned to look for her as guilt nipped at the calm bubble that Oliver had just created. He had yelled at her when she had been nothing but calm. As if she already knew what he was thinking, she was standing where he could immediately see her. She was smiling but also holding the gift box in front of her like an offering.
And like picking up the perfect wand for the first time, Percy felt something slid into place within him. The vulnerable sense of being seen and known stopped generating terror. They would never use what they learned against him, would never rip into the belly of his soul with claws and teeth made of judgment.
He was safe being seen.
He was safe being known.
He was safe with them.
And just a short time later, he was dressed in the knee-length blue skirt they had bought him. His cautious turning to show it off changed into a happy spin that made the fabric fluff up slightly. Laughter burst out of him at the sheer euphoria of the moment and the warmth passing between them.
For the first time, Percy felt as pretty as he had always wanted to be.