After their meeting at the pub, Percy took to walking Audrey home after their evening class together. It wasn't a terribly long walk and she insisted that she never got lost, as she only had to manage the walking path through the University common and then a right turn before her student flat appeared on the corner. However, Percy cherished the time spent in normal conversation. He had taken to reading the muggle paper every morning to keep up with Audrey's opinions. She was rather serious, and didn't often joke. However, she smiled regularly as they walked and had an uncanny ability to spot wildlife, despite the urban setting of their education.

"Look! Two squirrels running around the tree. Do you think they are fighting or playing?" Percy spun his head around, unable to locate the two squirrels until Audrey dispatched more precise directions.

"Near the bench, by the willow. Do you think they are fighting or playing?" Her voice, warmed by the pint from earlier, had a playful cadence to it. Seeing her laugh, so serious as she pondered the social comings and goings of the squirrels, he was brought back to Hogwarts, in Care of Magical Creatures before Hagrid took over. Percy had been a third-year and dreadfully bored, sitting in the pavilion adjacent to the barn of Hogwarts livestock, daydreaming.

Fred and George didn't believe that Percy daydreamed; they didn't believe he was capable of unique thought, only regurgitation of facts and rules. But in truth, Percy's mind was a playground. His mind was not, perhaps, as fantastical as his brothers, nor nearly as prone to whimsy and impulsivity, but he was fully capable of imagining.

That specific day, he had been deep in thought, staring intently at a muggle-bred horse that trotted impatiently around the corral. He imagined himself as the horse; did the horse know that it now lived among magic? Did it understand how different its life was here? Percy gave the horse a sense of wonder and a thoroughly muggle name: Tom. From that point on, he would regularly visit the stables and speak to the horse, so frequently Percy began to think of the horse as his own.

"Tom, did you know that it is magic that causes the bales of hay to be delivered to you each day? It is a rather simple spell, but very ingenious in its application."

"Tom, your presence here is odd. It is not a slight against you, but what can a horse do at a school in which magic exists? We don't use you for hauling or riding. You don't cultivate crops. Why are you here?" He would stare into the honey eyes of Tom and imagine Tom's response:

"I am here because I belong here. I am here because a horse doesn't follow the rules of man. If I didn't want to be here, I would leave. I like it here and I like you."

At his worst times, during fights with Penny, disappointing grades, or feeling iced out by his brothers, who were always more immersed in the world of Harry Potter rather than their own family, Tom's company grounded him. It began to feel like a special secret, this sentient horse that only he knew of.

Percy hadn't thought about Tom in years. Indeed, when he returned from Christmas his seventh year, Tom had gone. Though it was more likely the old pony had passed over to the other side, wherever it was that horses went, Percy believed that one day Tom had decided that he was done and simply left. Penny's pondering of the social dynamics of squirrels awakened in him a fondness for Tom and a familiarity in curiosity that had lain dormant his previous years at the ministry.

"If they were fighting, I suppose they would stop and finish it. There is only so much lead up a man can take before a fight. Why would a squirrel be any different?" Percy's ears turned bright red, unused to voicing his musings and dreamings.

"Percy, what would you know about fighting! The biggest fight you get in is probably with the wrinkles on your shirt before you plug in the iron." She turned, facing him, her cheeks round and rosy, her eyes cheerful.

"I'll have you know that I have five brothers. I believe that has taught me a thing or two about fighting."

"Five brothers! You must be Catholic. My dad's side of the family is like that. I am sure I have cousins I've never met on that side of the family." She took a step nearer to him as they walked, so that if Percy wanted he could reach out his hand and brush the back of hers.

"No, not Catholic. I think one thing just led to another and then suddenly there we all were. I never quite understood why Mom and Dad had so many children, what with the war and all…" His voice drifted off as he realized the war of his early childhood had been isolated to the magical communities. However, Audrey didn't seem to hear him and instead began to chatter about her older sister, Lucy.

Their walks always ended too soon, in Percy's opinion. He stood awkwardly on the sidewalk, watching her walk up the steps before turning to him as she always did and said, "Good-bye Percy, thank you for the company." She would smile gently at him, her face serene and round, push her hair behind her ear, straighten her glasses, and then turn on her heel and walk into the old victorian that had been converted into student housing. Percy would watch her walk through the door and pretend that he could hear her walk up the steps, unlock her front door, and leave only when he could convince himself that he had heard her safely in her flat. Then, he would duck into the alley and apparate back to his home.

Typically the emptiness of his flat left him feeling dull, however Percy had had an especially stressful day, transcribing performance evaluations for the executive branch and then filing the necessary documents with the personnel office. He hated sitting in on performance evaluations because they always made him feel like the bastard everyone thought he was, hunched over a quill, diligently recording every acid-laced barbed word that Dolores diligently effaced to her staff.

However, the meetings had not been fruitless; numerous employees had been taken to task over "inappropriate sympathies for a member of the office of the minister" and been questioned regarding their "true loyalties within practice." Most of these remarks had been unfounded, only said to lay the foundation of uncertainty and fear within her domain. However, a new-grad Wizagamont scheduler had nearly had a conniption and inadvertently admitted to rescheduling Harry Potter's trial without notice as a plea to ensure their innocence was taken seriously.

Percy had hoped that Harry would not face the dementors, had prayed that even in Umbridge's eagerness that something so truly horrible would not occur. His anxiety had grown as it became obvious that Umbridge's power grab would not be thwarted by any sort of checks and balances; it would seem the Minister had written a blank check, giving her permission to do as she pleased. Percy had spent most of his life idolizing the minister and believing that the wizarding system of governance was failproof, an almost holy institution. He had worried initially that the minister had been Imperiused, as his former boss had been (which had put him in this position in the first place). However, it had quickly become clear that Fudge's toad like demeanor was befitting his own morality. Fudge was willing to do whatever it took to maintain his own power, even if it meant handing over the keys to someone so heinous as Umbridge.

Once Percy had realized that the evil ideology was soon to beget evil actions, he attempted to keep watch over Harry. Under a charm, he had sat on a neighbor's garden bench staring at Privet Drive, until the pop of apparition had alerted him to the presence of someone else. Snape sauntered down the dark street, stared at Percy with a specific disdain that it felt belonged to only him, and said, "Weasley, I know sense are few and far between in your family but I was led to believe your feeble mind had the share. Tell me, why are you, a ministry operative, believed enemy of Dumbledore, watching Potter's home." Percy didn't understand how Snape knew it was him, however all fight had left him and he realized how fruitless his desire had been.

"Apologies sir, expect an owl later this week." And quickly apparated away, before Snape could begin another tongue lashing.

It had felt good to undermine authority; he knew Snape probably relished his verbal tortures on Percy. To get away felt just as much a blessing as it did a success. However, now he was back in his flat. The joy of his walk with Audrey slowly evaporating as he surveyed the room, the work, the loneliness that surrounded him.

Dear Sir,

Harry Potter's hearing has been rescheduled as the first case on the docket, same day. Please plan accordingly. The ministry has continued fear mongering amongst high-level employees, with fabricated allegations of disloyalty. Tensions within the executive office are rising. Dolores expects her new position at Hogwarts to be announced shortly. As such, many are eager to please. Expect complications with security at Azkaban. Dementors appear to be following

executive orders.

Propaganda efforts are stymied due to reluctant journalists. Any eyes on Skeeter? Many in the office are keen to meet with her, but unable to do so.

Sincerely, W

Percy wished there was more he could do than send missives about "tensions" but little action besides some administrative meddling had occurred as such. Feeling as much as dog as Snape argued him to be, Percy diligently encoded his text using a charm and sent Errol on his way. While Percy had taken this position in order to redeem himself for his family, he had imagined that it would be more exciting, even life threatening at times. However, all that was left was his muggle Maths and then another day at the ministry, alone.