From the flash fic collection Days That End In Y
prompt: learning about the other's interests
“Lucy needs to talk to you.”
Whilst not grave or urgent, there was something in Audrey’s soft remark that sounded… significant.
“Mmm… I can’t say exactly — that is, not everything, it’s for her to tell you, but I wanted to speak to you first — ”
“What’s wrong?” Percy demanded.
“Nothing!” She ran an assuring hand down his arm, looking up at him earnestly. “It’s nothing bad, only…”
“Only what?” he prompted shrewdly.
“Only she’s just a bit nervous.”
“Even though it’s nothing bad,” was his dry response.
It was all the more perplexing for the fact that Percy would have been hard-pressed to remember the last time he’d had so much as a cross word for Lucy.
“She’s worried about what you’ll think,” Audrey clarified. “Of her.”
“All right, now you’ve really got to tell me what this is about,” he insisted — and then a thought struck him. “Is she struggling in Transfiguration again? Because I thought we’d — ”
“It’s not Transfiguration — ”
“Well, it can’t be Ancient Runes, so — ”
“She’s…” Audrey smiled like she had a fun secret. “Well, it’s still all very new, but I suppose she’s sort of… dating someone.”
“I thought we said not until Fifth Year,” he reminded her.
“That.” Audrey pointed at him. “That’s what I don’t want you doing.”
When he pulled a perturbed face, she continued, “I want you to listen to her.”
Her dubious look was… a little patronising, if he were honest. And that more than anything made him hold his hands up in concession.
“Fine.” He straightened expectantly. “Where is she? Her room, I expect? — Or no, downstairs?”
“Well, I haven’t got her on standby,” Audrey laughed. “She’ll come to you when she’s ready.”
“Oh, good Christ…” He hung his head wearily.
‘When she’s ready’ came around hardly an hour later, after Lucy had dressed for bed. Percy was ignoring a cup of tea he’d made for himself and pretending to read the newspaper, when he heard her tentative footsteps on the stairs.
“Yes, pumpkin?” His response was perhaps a bit too prompt.
Lucy’s cat-eye glasses made her look more grown-up than her pyjamas with the faded yellow flowers might let on, or the way she was averting her eyes and tugging at the ends of her sleeves.
She looked up, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Why don’t you — Do you want to sit down?”
She nodded and perched on the sofa adjacent his chair, but then popped back up like a jack-in-the-box.
“What did Mum already tell you?” she asked softly.
“What did Mum tell me about what?”
She gave him a look, and he sighed.
“All she said is that you wanted to talk to me.” Lucy had always taken a cautious approach to life, but Percy couldn’t recall the last time he’d seen her such a bundle of nerves. His curiosity bypassed confusion entirely and was swiftly turning to concern. “Darling, what’s the matter?”
“Nothing! Nothing’s the matter. Only… only I don’t want you to be cross, or something.”
“Well, I won’t be. I won’t,” he promised as she hesitated.
Then Percy leant forward a bit in his chair, looked up at her with as neutral an expression as he could achieve, drew on everything he’d ever learnt about patience — and shut the hell up.
“Okay…” Lucy didn’t precisely meet his eye. “Well, you see, there’s someone at school. Someone… who I like. And… who likes me.”
Percy was not designed for these conversations. He blinked up at her and made a noncommittal sound indicating she should go on.
“We’ve only been — I mean, we’ve just been friends, we are friends. But also… not exactly?”
Percy wished for nothing more than to be consumed by the armchair cushions. Unfortunately, Lucy was now looking to him for a reaction. Which he’d been instructed not to have.
“And that’s what you wanted to tell me?” he ventured. “That you like someone and he likes you?”
Lucy stared at her clasped hands and made a little sound.
She lifted her face, but her eyes were shut in concentration.
“She.” Lucy’s voice was soft, but grew a little stronger as she forced the words out, one tumbling after another. “I like her, and she likes me.”
Percy indeed had no reaction. It took him a moment even to register surprise. And not because he’d believed something and turned out to be mistaken — but because he’d not given it much specific thought at all, and to the extent he had, he supposed he’d made vague assumptions. Had some general notion that at some point in their lives ‘boys’ would become a subject.
And whilst this newfound piece of information slotted into place, Lucy was rambling on in earnest.
“ — really nice to me and even helping me with my Transfiguration homework, and at first I just thought, you know, oh because she’s a Prefect, right, and — ”
“Oh, she’s a Prefect?” Percy perked up.
“Good.” He sat back. “I’m pleased to hear it.”
Now it was Lucy’s turn to look confused.
“You… you heard what I said, right?” she asked cautiously. “About, you know, she’s a girl?”
“And you’re not… disappointed?”
“I’m never disappointed with you, darling.”
“Oh.” Lucy gave him an irresistible smile. “Okay.”
He returned the smile fondly.
“Well…” He hesitated. Audrey was going to kill him.
He decided he could live with that.
“I do remember we did talk about this, didn’t we?” he reminded her. “No dating until Fifth Year.”
Lucy looked adorably pleased with herself as she said, “I thought it was no boys until Fifth Year.”
Percy let that one slide because of his two children Lucy was not typically the smartarse.
Still, he crossed his arms and looked at her steadily.
“It isn’t even serious,” she insisted. “I mean, we really just spend all our time in the library.”
“Hmm. You say she is actually helping you in your classes?”
“Yes!” said Lucy, seizing the opportunity to turn this conversation in her favour once more. “She got six OWLs. And four of them were — ”
“Wait, what? What year is she in?”
Lucy sent a sigh up to the ceiling.
“Only sixth,” she pleaded.
“Really. How old is she?”
Lucy groaned into her hands.
“What’s her name, first and last?”
“Mum!” called Lucy, slinking towards the stairs. “He’s doing it!”
“What, what am I doing?” he called after her in confusion.
But Lucy had disappeared up the stairs, replaced shortly by Audrey, who stood on the bottom step, one hand on the bannister and the other on her hip.
“Hey.” Percy leant in and whispered conspiratorially, “Ask Hermione to ask Ron to ask Freddie to ask Roxy who Lucy’s girlfriend is.”
Audrey stared at him like he had three heads.
“Absolutely not,” she laughed, and disappeared into the kitchen.
Percy returned to his chair, arms crossed, muttering to himself.
“Nobody tells me anything.”
