Chapter Text
The next few days are spent languidly. Percy finds himself taking his meals alone more often than not, just like in the summer before. He also spends his time running poor Hermes ragged just like the summer before, sending off letters to both Oliver and Penelope multiple times a day. Sometimes Percy thinks about the telephone that he had learned about in Muggle Studies; would it be easier to talk to his friends if he could call them using the telephone rather than writing letters?
He knows that sometimes telephones can go a bit haywire when magic is used around them, so he takes that as his passion project. He thinks his father was about to keel over when he asked him to borrow his Muggle books and the telephone he’d been tinkering awake on in the shed.
Working on magical theory to get these the telephone to work properly with magic, sending letters back and forth and generally trying to ignore his siblings, if not for the wheelchair and the nightmares it’d be like last summer all over again.
That and the fact that Bill and Charlie were still here. When Percy asked Charlie about it, he’d waved him off. And Bill said he had taken on a small project at the main branch that would keep him at the Burrow for another week or two. It was all oddly timed.
Like they were hiding something.
Still, having them here was… nice. Bill, especially, was helpful. He hated it when his Mum woke up from his nightmares; it made him feel small all over again. But with Bill or Charlie helping, it felt less humiliating. He’d hate for one of his younger siblings to be bothered.
After the second night of waking up the house, Bill put a silencing charm on Percy’s room and transfigures a desk into a bed. He and Charlie take turns every other night, keeping him company.
It’d oddly comforting, which Percy hadn’t really expected. He expected to be embarrassed, but it’s like someone flicked a switch. Bill who was once distracted seems oddly present. Charlie, too, has gone from fidgeting, flitting back and forth between this and that seems unusually focused.
Percy can’t help but think it has something to do with this ‘Order’ that he had overheard his parents talking about. Had Bill and Charlie been convinced to join?
For a week, things fall into some semblance of a routine. Percy wakes up multiple times during the night and is coaxed back to sleep by either Bill or Charlie just as the sun rises. Then he’s able to rest until around ten, when he’s roused to eat by Mum. Then he spends the day sending letters and tinkering with the telephone and studying a bit, takes lunch alone, and eats supper with his family before drifting fitfully off just as the sun sets.
Being a in wheelchair is the biggest pain. He should have been out of it by now, but his nightmares leave him thrashing, causing him to irate the wounds on his feet. He’d very, very much like to be done with not being able to walk.
Sitting in his room on the bed, his Mum pokes and prods at his feet. He picks at a hangnail nervously, hoping for her approval. As a home witch, Mum’s been well trained in healing spells. Sort of another trip to the hospital, her word is what’s going to get him to finally burn that stupid wheelchair.
The twins had offered to blow it up.
He may take them up on it.
“Well?” he asks, unable to wait any longer.
Mum hums considerably.
“I think you’ll be alright-,”
“Yes!” Percy exclaims excitedly.
“To walk,” Mum continues, leveling a stern look at him. “But if it starts to hurt, get off your feet.”
“Fine.” He agrees quickly.
Mum smiles and shakes her head a bit before straightening up. She puts her hands on her hips and looks him over, up and down.
“I love you, Percy. You know, don’t you?”
He blinks at her unexpected statement.
“of course, Mum.” He tells her, because he knows that she does.
She gives him a small, wistful smile.
“I just feel like, with so many of you, it’s easy to forget. I just want you to know, dear. I love you very, very much. And I know we never quite finished our... conversation about you and Fred.”
Percy’s stomach flips. Had this been where she was going with it? Trying to get him to forgive his brother for outing him to the entire school?
“Well, you father and I were talking, and we decided it’s not our place to tell you who and how and when to forgive. If you chose to, that is.”
Percy can only stare up at her, a slight ringing in his ears.
“I- what? You do?”
His mother nods and sits herself on the bed next to Percy, the ancient springs creaking under her weight. She takes Percy’s hand in hers, and Percy is surprised about how much her hands remind him of Oliver’s- rough and calloused.
“When you were missing, it was one of the most terrifying times. And I think we both realized then about how unfair we’d been to you. I think it’s wrong to say we love you kids the same way, because we don’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“We love you equally but differently. I love George and Fred’s sense of humor. I love Ron’s loyalty and Ginny’s bravery. And I love your dedication. That’s something I love about you, but not about Ron, or Ginny, or any of your siblings. It was wrong of your father and I to expect you to take on so much responsibility and act and behave like your siblings. And you’re right, there are things we should be doing as parents that we have unfairly expected you to do. We’re changing that. Do you understand?”
Percy leans on his mother’s shoulder, basking in her warm, feeling tears prickle in the corner of his eyes.
“Yeah. Thanks, Mum.”
She kisses him on the forehead.
“You’ll make up with Fred if and when you’re ready.” Mum says, and they stay there for a long time, sitting side-by side quietly.
As soon as his siblings learn he’s back to sort-of walking, they drag him outside to watch them play Quidditch. Ron even looks like he’s about to invite Percy to play, but the dirty look Mum gives him is enough to shut it down.
Instead, Percy settles himself on a small bench just on the outside of garden, where a large, sun-soaked field that they’d been using as a pitch is.
Percy brings along with him some parchment and a muggle pen, drafting out a letter to Penelope.
Penny,
I think I’m finally back to health. It’s still a bit rough going, but I finally feel almost back to normal. I heard that your brother his and boyfriend just got engaged! Congratulations are in order. I know you like him a lot.
Oliver and I have talked more after the hospital. I think we both decided to fully commit to each other again, which means you’re now the only single one out of the three of us. You need catch up!
Write back soon. With our final year coming up, I expect our school year to be very busy. We might as well take the time now before we both drown in our studies.
Love,
Percy
He sets the pen down and folds the letter up, tucking it neatly into one of the envelopes he brought.
He hears a noise behind him. He turns over his shoulder to look. It’s Fred, covered in a bit of dirt and flushed with the activity of a pick-up game. He sets his broom against the bench and plops down heavily into the seat next to Percy.
“Hey.” Fred says.
“Hey.” Percy says back, busying himself with addressing Penelope’s name on the envelope. When he finishes, he whistles and Errol flies over, hooting. Percy scratches him on the head. Errol had practically grown up with Percy. He loves this bird.
“Penelope?” Fred asks, nodding his head at the letter.
“Yes. Her brother just got engaged.”
Percy hands Errol the letter. The bird was old, but still pretty smart. There was only one of two places that Percy wrote often enough for the letter to go to, and just Fred mentioning Penelope’s name out loud gave the bird context. Percy sends him off with a pat on the head and watches as the old bird soars into the air. He keeps his on the bird until it’s just a speck in the distance.
“Percy, I-,” Fred starts to say. “I’m sorry. I am. And I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I still need you to know.”
Percy resists the urge to bite his lower lip. With the start of summer being so chaotic, being upset with Fred felt like playing second fiddle. Being force-fed potions in a basement sort of put things into perspective.
Still, Percy was hurt. Fred hadn’t done it on purpose, but having outed Percy to the school meant that he took Percy’s choice away. It was almost humiliating- Percy had never felt so powerless as he did when the mutters started at school about him kissing a boy.
He takes stock of himself.
Was he still upset? Yes. But was he angry anymore? At Fred?
“I forgive you, Fred. You didn’t mean for things to go the way they did.”
Fred bristles, perking up in his seat.
“I’m still upset. Really upset, but I don’t think I’m angry at you anymore.” Percy says pointedly. “What happened as a result was upsetting. But I know you never wanted anything to happen. So, I forgive you.”
Fred is quiet for a long, long moment, and then he’s throwing his sweaty arms around Percy, squeezing him tight.
“Ew! Fred! Gross!” Percy grumbles without any heat. Fred pulls away and brushes some of the dirt he’d just smeared onto Percy’s shoulder away.
“Thanks, Perce.”
Percy rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Get back out there before Bill hurts himself.”
They both look at the pitch. Bill is hanging a bit sideways on his broom- he’d never been as gifted on it like Charlie was. Fred gets up from the bench and launches himself into the air, nearly colliding into Ron who squawks in protest.
Things would still be uncertain. Marcus Flint was going to join the Death Eaters. There may be a war coming son, and the future looked blurry. But as Percy watches his siblings fly for a bit longer, thinks very quietly to himself that things will be okay.
Someday.