#;post war

[prodigalpercy]

@impurx continued from x

“It’s called a phone, Percy,” she corrected him, an amused smile on her lips. “Alright. If you want I can take you to a place where they sell some. They’re not cheap though.”

“Oh. Oh. Like -- the phone booths for the Ministry.” Well, that made a lot more sense now. Why hadn’t he thought of that before? Also he did not appreciate that smile on her lips. Goodness, he hoped she wasn’t judging him. “Well, I happen to have a little more money thanks to my position. I can convert wizard money to muggle money, so it shouldn’t be a problem.” Audrey was worth it. 

[prodigalpercy]

@scarheadx

It took a lot of courage to stand before this door, knowing what was behind it. Percy swallowed, reaching to knock. He’d been thinking about this for weeks now, maybe even months, but finally he decided that today would be the day he finally confronted Harry Potter. His fist hesitated on the wood. He’d been to this flat before; it was Ron’s, the one he moved into after the war. But he’d never been here alone with Harry. Seeing him at family functions had nagged at him, because he remembered all of those terrible things he’d thought and said about him. Harry had deserved better than Percy’s treatment of him. 

Hell, Harry deserved better than what the world had done to him. 

Percy pulled his hand back. He couldn’t knock just yet. Unconsciously he rubbed a hand over his neck, where a nasty scar came up above his collar, dark and jagged. He’d been covering it up for work, but he must have forgotten today. Oh, well. What did it matter, if Harry saw Percy’s wounds? Percy’s pain didn’t matter, not after all that he’d done. They had tortured him at the Ministry, nearly devoured him alive, but Percy had been the one to do it to himself, hadn’t he? 

Goodness, this was so much harder than he imagined. He was already shaking with fear. Would Potter reject him? Did he still think terribly of Percy, who had been misguided and -- and -- It was hard, living with his brother’s death on his hands. To this day, it’s all a blur. The explosion went off, and Fred was dead in his arms in the next. He heard himself screaming, he felt arms on him, pushing him away -- 

Percy knocked on the forsaken door. In his other hand, he held an offering of piece: a bottle of red wine, aged about 40 years. He didn’t even know if Harry drank, but it was something, wasn’t it? He exhaled a slow breath and adjusted his glasses.

[prodigalpercy]

@impurx continued from x

   A little squeak escaped the Gryffindor’s lips when she felt herself being groped. She spun around in an instant, hand raised to strike whoever had done this. Her jaw dropped when her gaze fell upon Percy Weasley.

“How dare you?!” Hermione frowned. “Wait, are you drunk?”

“Of course not, Hermione,” Percy slurred, lying right through his teeth. The older Weasley placed a hand on his hip, not even realizing how much of a fool he was being. This -- became commonplace. He tried not to drink while Molly was around, but George encouraged him by drinking with him. And well, Hermione had the displeasure of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like this, Percy wouldn’t stop himself from taking the dare. “M’sorry, did I squeeze too hard?” 

[prodigalpercy]

@wcbbles

The Burrow was so silent that Percy thought he was alone. He crept down the stairs, glancing around uncertainly. It’d been a few weeks since he relocated temporarily to his family’s house. He knew the family needed everyone right now, so he was back in his old room, trying to cope with the pain in his chest and dark memories of the last year. He exhaled a deep breath and moved to light a cigarette, needing it. No doubt Mother would throw a fit if she knew, but Percy needing something to focus on -- something to take his thoughts away... He moved into the living room and sat in the darkness, not bothering to flick on the lights. It was nice, to be alone. It almost felt peaceful in spite of this chaos ripping through their souls. He relaxed his head back against the sofa, closing his eyes, letting the cigarette consume every bit of him...

[prodigalpercy]

@nolastresort​ continued from x

The Burrow is no longer quite the same, no longer quite the place it had once been. There was a gaping hole now, where Fred had been. A quiet and a stillness that had never been there before.  And the people that dwell within are different too, older and sadder (every last one of them). And Percy perhaps one of the saddest of all, trying to numb the grief at the kitchen table. Hermione sighed, nursing her own cup of tea, took a moment to respond. Instead she stood and turned to one of Mrs. Weasley’s cupboards, pulled out an empty jam jar and set it on the table between them, murmuring the spell that brought her favorite bluebell flames to life.

“There’s always light, you know. Somewhere. If we can’t find it, we have to make it. Dumbledore, Fred, Lupin, Tonks-…none of them would want us to sit in the dark. That isn’t what we fought for, what any of us fought for.” It wasn’t what she had been tortured and scarred for. She sat back down to her tea, lifting the cup to her lips for a deep sip of peppermint and said nothing more, letting silence fall around them as she watched the cheery flame dance.

She was right. Percy knew she was right, as he locked on to the dancing flames in the jar. He had always admired her in school, knew she was destined for great things. How far Hermione Granger had come. Percy was tempted to light a cigarette, to enjoy this silence in more ways that one. It had been hard, so very hard. Being at The Burrow was even worse, seeing Fred’s arm on the clock as lost -- being around the family that he still felt so uncomfortable around. Percy was still afraid that they hated him so. He didn’t blame them, after all he’d done... “Don’t laugh,” Percy began, after the silence hung for a while, after the anguish rushed through him and left. “but -- I’ve ... started attending those muggle therapy sessions.” He took a sip of his own tea. “I don’t want to tell mum or the others, but...” He shrugged. It was helping, but there were still days like this where he could not shake the pain away. 

[prodigalpercy]

@humanbludgers

After the battle of Hogwarts, Percy temporarily moved back in to the Burrow to be with the family he had missed so very much. The war had been tough on the Weasleys, but they had come out mostly unscathed. Percy still had a tightness in his chest, the guilt almost too much to bear as he remembered the explosion that nearly took Fred’s life. He had distracted him with his silly joke, and now Fred was in St. Mungo’s with a leg beyond repair... 

But he was alive. He was alive, and Percy had been too scared to go see him. The house was a mixture of love and tension. No one knew how to deal with one another. One moment, they were all hugging each other, the next there was fighting. But slowly, they were healing. The war was over, and they had won. 

Percy still felt like a pariah, like he didn’t belong, but he tried to push away these feelings -- push away any of his feelings and focus on being the brother everyone always needed him to be. Finally, he found the courage to go to St. Mungo’s and visit Fred. He didn’t know or expect Fred to be awake to see him. He didn’t expect Fred to want to see him, after all of that. But he still went, with a bag of Fred’s favorite candy, as a gesture of good will. 

He stood there, standing over his younger brother, feeling his lower lip quiver. Fred was alive, but Fred would never be the same, and Percy knew that as he stared down at his leg. “Fred?” He asked in a soft voice, moving to sit in the empty chair beside him. “Are you awake?” 

[prodigalpercy]

@mrsweatherby "Audrey, we’ve been dating for a while now, and -- well... I was wondering if you would like to come meet my family this Christmas.”  It was a big move on his part, but he had told her about being a wizard by now. And well, Mother had been  asking after she found out that Percy was “going steady” with someone. [ Thanks, Ronald. ]