An Only Child - Darkpurplelighter

Chapter 1: His Deepest Desire

Chapter Text

Throughout his entire life, Percy Weasley always had everything planned out.

He knew what he wanted, he knew what goals he wanted to achieve. Percy wanted a great career at the Ministry of Magic, make a lot of money, marry his girlfriend Penelope Clearwater, have two kids; one boy, one girl. It all sounded perfect. He always succeeded throughout Hogwarts; a prefect, thirteen O.W.L.S., Head Boy. Then, after he graduated he got hired by the ministry and practically ran a department by himself. Everything was coming true. It was when he was given the job of junior assistant was when things started to go wrong, family wise at least.

When he told his father about it, Arthur basically told Percy he didn't deserve it, or was just too stupid to realize that Fudge only wanted to use him to spy on the family. Either way to look at it, it was both insulting and hurtful and if his father didn't realize that, then Percy had nothing more to say to the man.

Then one day, he saw something that would change his life forever. Apparently, it had been discovered that Harry Potter was training an army on Dumbledore's behalf in some secret room inside of Hogwarts.

'I knew you were lying,' Percy wanted to say to Potter as he dragged him and this girl named Cho Chang into Dumbledore's office. Fudge was going to have Dumbledore arrested and sent to Azkaban but the headmaster managed to flee. It didn't matter though, it would only be a matter of time before they captured him. Fudge then asked Percy to search the school for anything else that looked suspicious. When he did so, he found something.

The Mirror of Erised.

Percy had always heard about it but never seen it. He knew the mirror showed the most desperate desire of a person's heart when they looked into it, a vision that had been known to drive some men mad.

He didn't know if he should or not, but Percy couldn't help himself. Walking closer to the mirror, Percy stood in front of it and looked. He was sure it was going to show him as the Minister of Magic, but it didn't. Percy was staring at himself, looking no older than the age he was now. He was sitting at the dinner table at the burrow. His father was sitting with too, just talking and laughing when suddenly his mother came into the room with bowls of food. The three of them just sat together, talking and smiling, peacefully eating dinner at this circular table with only three chairs before the image finally faded away.

"I don't understand." Percy muttered to himself.

Where were the others? No Bill, no Charlie, no Fred, no George, no Ron, no Ginny. None of them were around. It was just him by himself with his mother and father. Happy being by himself. Happy just being an only child.

That night, Percy couldn't even sleep as he thought about that image over and over.

And that's when everything started to go wrong.

It turned out that Harry Potter had been telling the truth all along. Voldemort was back as Fudge saw him with his own eyes and he to resign in disgrace. Even though Percy still got to keep his job, that didn't matter. He had really burned a bridge with his family. The things he had said to his father about his job, their house, their lack of money. If he went back home, he would have to deal with Fred and George's taunts and jeers, Ron and Ginny's hateful looks. Who knows how long they would hold the fact that he was wrong over Percy's head. That's when Percy's mind went back to the mirror's image. Merlin, why did he have to have so many siblings? Right now, they probably expected him to come crawling back with his tail between his legs any day now, begging for forgiveness.

If that's what they expected, they weren't going to get it.

So, life just went on. Percy continued to ignore his father at work, most of the time not even bothering to look at him if he ever did see him. It just went on, week after week until it became month after month. He finally got a letter from his mother, telling him that Charlie was going to be back, so they were going to have a big family reunion, she begged him to be there, but Percy just threw the letter away, he didn't go.

A day after that reunion had happened, that's when Percy received a letter from Charlie. He couldn't help but smile as he opened it, Charlie had been his favorite brother, they've always had a great relationship, but he was curious as to why he was writing him.

Hey Perce;

I've been biting my tongue about this whole thing and have been trying to stay out of this whole thing, but when you didn't come to our reunion, it occurred to me that maybe I'm doing you more harm by not trying to talk some sense into you. Percy, I think you're really being a complete prat over this 'feud' I guess you could call it you've got going with Mum and Dad. And if you're not bloody unhappy right now, you should be because they certainly are. Do you know what your estrangement is doing to them? Do you know that Bill is going to get married soon? Bill is afraid to invite you to the wedding because he's afraid you won't even come to that.

Look, now things are clear, so can't you just admit you were wrong? Dumbledore was right, your bosses were wrong. You've always been the most rational one out of all of us, so I don't understand why you're being completely irrational about this. Can't you make up with them? I hate to think of you all being so miserable, lonely and pig-headed over this.

We're angry with you, but we can work things out. That's what families do. You're losing us Percy. We don't want that and deep down, I know you don't want that. Make things right before it's too late.

Your brother,

Charlie.

Furiously, Percy crumbled up the letter and threw it as far away from him as he could. Charlie and Percy had been were an odd paring, certainly, but then, they were the two oddballs of the family, so why not? Of all the people who might have spoken to him like this, Charlie should be the last.

'Complete prat...should be unhappy...you were wrong...pig-headed...losing us.'

He went over those words again and again until to his shock, Percy could feel tears start to build. That was it then Percy decided he wouldn't be reading any more letters from any member of his family that sent one to him, no matter what it may be about. Besides, Charlie, like the rest of them, had missed the point of this whole thing that happened between him and his father entirely. Percy didn't take offence because his father and the rest of them disagreed with Percy over Fudge versus Dumbledore. Percy took offence because his father refused to believe he had earned his promotion through merit, rather than through some weird scheme to allow Fudge to spy on Dumbledore through the Weasley's.

Percy didn't know how to fix things with his parents because he wasn't going to apologize.

Once again, Percy's mind went back to the mirror's image.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two nights later, Percy heard a knock on the door. He groaned; had one of his brothers come to cuss him out for missing the family reunion? Maybe punch him in the nose? He opened the door with a glass of vodka in his hand and to his surprise, Penelope was standing there.

"Hi," Penelope smiled.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"We were supposed to go out tonight. Don't you remember? I came by your office, but you were gone."

"Oh, yeah. I'm sorry Penelope, I completely forgot. I've had a lot of work lately." He invited her in, Penelope then glanced closer at Percy and saw he looked really bad. His eyes were blood-shot as if he hadn't slept in two or three days.

"Are you alright?"

"No," he admitted.

"What's wrong?"

They walked together till they were sitting on the sofa. Percy picked up a regular photo of himself with his family. Percy was on the far-right, his father Arthur was standing next to him with his arm around his shoulder, Arthur's other arm around the shoulder of Ron who standing on the opposite side of his father. Fred and George were on the far left. Molly was in front of the boys with Ginny next to her. They all had smiles on their faces, Percy had told Penelope this picture had been taken right before Ginny was to enter her first year at Hogwarts.

"You all look so happy," Penelope smiled as she admired the photo.

"Well, we weren't," Percy nearly snapped. "Or at least I wasn't." Percy took another sip of vodka before picking up a pair of scissors and began cutting the picture, cutting Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George out until he only showed Percy with his parents. Penelope just watched, puzzled.

"Do you know how lucky you are?" Percy finally asked.

"How do you mean?" Penelope responded.

"To not have any siblings."

She shrugged.

"I would have liked to have a little brother or sister."

"You wouldn't have wanted one, believe me."

Penelope's brows furrowed; the mood was really growing dark in the apartment complex.

"Percy, you're acting really strange. Tell me what's really the problem."

Another drink of alcohol, Percy just stared straight ahead as he then whispered;

"I want to be an only child."

Percy had really begun to think about this over the last several days. He thought about every problem he had ever had to deal with while growing up or at school. Directly, or indirectly it was almost always because of his siblings. His younger ones at least. Percy imagined how life would be so much better if they were gone.

Gently, Penelope put a hand on Percy's shoulder. She knew about her boyfriend's family problems. She never brought it up as she knew it was a sore subject for him, but she didn't know things had gotten this bad. "I'm sorry Percy, but as long you have five brothers and one sister breathing in and out, that's never going to happen."

After taking another shot of vodka; Percy shrugged.

"Well...perhaps it's time they stopped breathing in and out."

After he said those words, the only noise that could be heard was the ticking of the clock hanging on the wall. Penelope could only stare at her boyfriend. Had she just heard him right? Was he serious? Percy continued to stare at the wall in front of him. After what felt like an eternity, Penelope finally found her voice;

"Percy...?"

That was the only thing she could get out before Percy continued;

"What if...they each just went away?"

Penelope finally was able to recover from the shock of Percy's words and suddenly jumped up to her feet.

"Percy, do you have any idea what that would do to your parents? If they lost one child, let alone six!"

"I could use the memory charm on them, they could forget that they ever had any other children." Percy looked up at Penelope who was could only stare at him in disbelief over what Percy was talking about doing. He continued on with; "I've always been my mother's favorite child, and my siblings all know that. I'll make my father proud of me again with all I accomplish at the ministry. I'm the only child they need."

Penelope couldn't listen to any more of this. She quickly snatched the glass of alcohol from Percy's hand. "Alright, you've had far too much to drink." That was it, that had to be why her boyfriend was in this mood. "You need to get into bed and sleep this off, now."

Percy rolled his eyes, but thankfully didn't argue with her. Penelope gently led Percy to his room and he collapsed onto his bed. She threw the covers over him and watched over her boyfriend until he dosed off which only took a few minutes. She closed his door, but even though this discussion was no longer happening, and she was getting farther and farther away from Percy's apartment, Penelope couldn't stop her hands from trembling. What her boyfriend had said really scared her. It scared her so much that she actually contemplated going to see Percy's father tomorrow morning to tell him what had been said by his third born son.

"No."

Penelope thought that to herself. She took a few deep breaths as she finally got herself to calm down. Doing that would probably end up doing more harm than good. "Percy wouldn't do that. He would never do something like that."

Chapter 2: Now It Begins

Chapter Text

Percy really wasn't the type of person that enjoyed the frequent brotherly wrestling matches that took place inside of the Burrow, but Charlie rarely gave him a choice when it came to that matter. A loud crash followed by the sound of scuffling in the living room caused Mrs. Weasley to shake her head and smile but just continue on with cleaning in the kitchen. Charlie and Percy wrestled on the ground, rolling and rolling until the older brother was on top of the younger brother, Charlie's hands on Percy's shoulders and his chin digging into Percy's collarbone. It was completely uncomfortable and undesirable.

"C-Charlie...g-get off me," Percy managed to grunt out, pushing at the other boy's shoulders. When it became apparent that Charlie wasn't listening, Percy slammed his elbow up into Charlie's abdomen.

"sh*te!" Charlie cursed. "That hurt damn it!"

Appalled at the language that was just used by his brother, Percy smacked Charlie directly on the chest, causing the other boy to yelp in surprise and glare down at him.

"Charlie! That is inappropriate language! Mother told you that use of such language was not acceptable!" Charlie continued to stare down at Percy for a moment before rolling his eyes and a wide smile came to his face. "Even with you down on the ground, pretty much beaten, you still find a way to be a prat."

"Ah, that is where you are wrong, Charlie! It is you who is the one who is beaten, not me!"

"I don't think so. I'm on top of you, not the other way around. Therefore, you lost," Charlie pointed out, now smirking.

Percy hated to lose. He opened his mouth to object, only to freeze and stared up at Charlie for a moment. He then looked down at Charlie's knees that were sitting on either side of his waist before sighing heavily and coughed. "That is but a mere technicality that can be ignored," he mumbled out, looking away from Charlie.

Loud laughter left Charlie's mouth before he leaned down a bit, curling his arm around Percy's neck and turning them over so that they were laying on their sides. A gasp left Percy's mouth as his older brother wrapped around his neck in what resembled a choke hold and wrapped his legs around Percy's in order to keep him still. For a moment, he was afraid that Charlie wasn't joking around anymore and that he was actually going to hurt him.

He then felt a hand in his hair, ruffling it in a way that he most definitely did not like, but he relaxed a bit and huffed.

Normally, Percy would scold the other boy for rough housing and tell him to let him go immediately. However, there was something holding him back from doing that. Therefore, Percy just relaxed in Charlie's grip and reached a hand back to begin messing around with Charlie's shorter hair. If his older brother could play around with his hair, it was only fair that he could do the same thing with his. When he heard the huff in response, Percy grinned and took that as permission to keep messing with it.

"Who said that you that you could touch my hair?" Charlie grunted out, tightening his grip around Percy's neck.

"Well...you are doing it to me. It's only fair that I can do the same to you as well."

Neither one said anything more for a few seconds, but then, Charlie grunted before laughing again and began to tease Percy with pokes to his ribcage.

"Wait!" Percy shouted as he realized what Charlie was now starting to do. "Charlie! I'm too old for this!"

"You're never too old for me to tickle you!" Charlie continued on, enjoying hearing the sound of Percy laughing, only because it was so rare for his younger brother to do so. Percy yelled out to his Mum for help, but she wasn't coming because she knew that it was all fun and games. Charlie and Percy cared for each other too much to do anything to intentionally hurt the other.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Smiling to himself as he remembered that day, Percy tried to stay as calm as possible while sitting on the couch as he continued to wait in his older brother's small flat in Romania. He had told the Ministry he needed the day off which they were happy to give him, he had never taken one before. Lacing his fingers together, Percy leaned forward and rested his chin on his hands as he continued going over and over in his mind what he had come here to do. Percy thought about it and thought about it and thought about it. He had a lot of good memories of Charlie, so could he do really do this?

Getting to his feet, Percy began to pace around the apartment and walked into the bedroom when something immediately caught his eyes. On the dresser, the dragon pendant that Percy had gotten Charlie on his birthday, his last birthday before he moved to Romania was laying on top of it. Percy picked it up and closed his fist around it.

A huge part of him couldn't believe that he had actually came here, but Percy needed to start here. If he couldn't rid himself of the brother, he felt the closest to then Percy wouldn't be able to do this to any of them. Then if he didn't, he could never fulfill his deepest desire. Percy would go through his entire life never being truly happy.

It was just two words.

Percy knew the spell, he had just never used it before. It would be quick and painless. He wanted it to be quick and painless. That was when the doorknob of the front door began to rattle which immediately caused Percy to quickly jump to his feet. He could feel his heartbeat start to quicken. Charlie opened the door to his apartment and closed it behind him only to freeze once he saw who was standing in his living room.

"Perce?" His eyes widened in shock as Percy was certainly the last person he expected to see today. But the shock quickly went away as Charlie couldn't help but smile. Maybe Percy had finally come to his senses.

"Hey...hey Charlie," Percy said once he found his voice as he slowly went to the pocket that held his wand. "Sorry for just letting myself in."

"No, that's fine. It's nice to see you. What are you doing here?" Did you get my letter?"

However, Percy didn't respond for a few moments as he raised his chin. It was then did Percy start to think about those words;

'Complete prat...should be unhappy...you were wrong...pig-headed...'

"Yes..." Percy grinded his teeth together. "Yes I did."

The more Charlie stared at Percy he could tell that something was going on. "Percy, are you okay?"

Percy shook his head, shaking the negative thoughts out of his head. Their entire relationship couldn't be summed up by that one letter. Percy's eyes then became glassy as he tiled his head, continuing to look at his older brother as a sad smile came to his face. "I love you, Charlie," Percy responded, because it was true. "I want you to know that. I really do love you."

Charlie blinked, not expecting that.

"I...I love you too Percy."

This felt weird, this felt wrong. What was going on?

"You were always my favorite brother," Percy continued, "But I need to let go. I just have to."

Those words instantly scared Charlie. Was Percy thinking about hurting himself? "Okay, what's wrong?" Charlie asked as he rushed over and embraced his brother, looking him square in the eyes. "Tell me what's going on with you."

Percy roughly pulled away from him. "Please, don't make this any harder than this has to be for me."

"Percy, whatever you're thinking, don't!"

Quickly pulling his wand out, Percy pointed it at Charlie.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The last thing he saw was the shocked look on Charlie's face before the spell struck him in the chest and he sunk to the floor, lifeless. Percy couldn't take his eyes off him, just staring down at his older brother. He kept expecting Charlie to get back up, but the seconds ticked by before they became minutes, and he wasn't moving. Now, the reality of a dead body was staring Percy in the face.

Percy had done it.

Finally dropping down to his knees next to his brother's body, Percy ran his hand over Charlie's face to close his open eyes. "Goodbye, Charlie." Percy whispered as he leaned forward and kissed Charlie's forehead. "Don't worry, I'm going to send the others to you. You won't be lonely."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was two days later when Percy's was working at his desk when the sound of shouting and other commotion outside of his office caused his brows to furrow and for him to look up. That was when his father suddenly barged through the door, white as a ghost, a look on his face that he had never seen his father have before. Percy jumped up from his seat, now frightened. Did somebody know what he had done? Did they tell his father what he had done? Percy had been so careful to not been seen coming in or leaving Charlie's flat.

"Father?" Percy delicately asked. "What is it, what's going on?"

Arthur didn't say a word as he went to his son and pulled him into a tight hug, the year of estrangement and hurt feelings tossed to the wayside. "Percy, your brother is dead." Arthur began crying. "Charlie is dead."

Percy had to fake being in shock as he wrapped his arms around his father.

"What happened? Was it an accident? He did work with dragons-"

"No. Somebody killed him." Arthur hugged him tighter and that caused Percy to smile, because at that moment Percy felt closer to his father than he had in so long. The two just continue to hug for the longest time.

It was working. He could do this.

Percy then looked down at his right hand. He turned it over and stared at his palm before outstretching his fingers. Five. That's how many he had left.

Five to go.

"Come on," Arthur finally let go of him, "We need to go tell your mother before somebody else does."

That caused Percy to close his eyes for a moment before he followed his father. This was going to be the worst part. Following his father out of his office to head to the nearest fireplace, Percy felt his stomach begin to hurt at what was coming next. This was the part that he was not looking forward to. Percy didn't want to upset his mother, he didn't like seeing his father cry either. When they arrived at the Burrow, Arthur broke the news to Molly as gently as he could.

"My son is dead?" Molly gasped. "Murdered?"

The two of them just hugged and cried their eyes out while Percy hung his head as he stood out in the living room. Finally, after the longest time, the tears began to subside and that's when he stepped into the kitchen so his mother could see him.

"Percy!" Molly cried out as a smile came over her tear-stricken face. She ran over to him and threw her arms around Percy's neck, hugging him so tight he was afraid she might actually break a rib. Molly then kissed Percy's cheek. "I always knew you'd come back."

"I'm here Mum," Percy smiled.

Arthur couldn't help but smile too at the scene. Percy closed his eyes. It was just the three of them there, this was how it should be.

"Listen, Percy" Arthur sniffed. "Could you stay here with your mother? I need to go bring your sister and brothers here."

Percy let out a low, audible growl at the mention of the words 'sister' and 'brothers'. That instantly ruined the moment for him.

"Of course." Percy watched his father leave before he gently took the arm of his mother and led her to the couch. They sat next to each other, and Percy began talking to Molly, trying to comfort her the best he could with stories he had about the good memories of Charlie.

Chapter 3: Fractured Family

Chapter Text

Having to tell the rest of his children about the murder of their older brother Charlie was just another crack into Arthur Weasley's already broken heart. He felt like going off into a dark corner somewhere and just cry but he knew he needed to stay strong for his wife and the rest of his kids. Arthur wrapped one arm around Ron's shoulder and another around Ginny's. The latter of the two had now begun to cry and in-between sobs asked why anyone would want to hurt Charlie, that he wasn't hated by anyone in the world. Ron just looked lost, like he didn't really know how to express what he was feeling. Fred and George on the other hand just looked angry as they talked in a dangerously low tone about all the things they would love to do to the person who had killed Charlie.

Arthur could understand perfectly as he had just as much anger as he did grief.

He wanted to know. Arthur wanted to know who killed his little boy.

Once they were able to regain their composure the best that they could, Arthur informed the four of them that Percy was home with their mother right at this moment and Bill was likely there by now too. However, the mention of their estranged brother wasn't met well by Ron.

"So, it actually takes one of us to die for that git to pull his head out of his arse and remember we exist?!" Ron swore.

"Ron, do not cause a scene when we get back, I mean it." Arthur warned. "It's the last thing your mother and I need right now."

Ron's anger immediately deflated after what his Dad said. Lowering his eyes as he regretted his outburst, but before he could mutter an apology Fred and George came up on either side of him, placing a hand on each of his shoulders. Ron looked at the two of them and they nodded to their younger brother as if to say they understood how he felt. Fred and George, along with Ginny had been just as angry as Ron had been about the whole 'Percy situation', recalling how badly it had hurt their parents. It was just that now was not the time to refresh that whole thing.

"Come on," Fred said. "Let's just go home."

Meanwhile, back at the Burrow, Bill was sitting in the living room with his Mum and Percy. They were all talking...well, his mother and Percy were talking. The two were sharing memories they had of Charlie while Bill was barely able to get a sentence in due to Percy constantly cutting him off. It was a little over twenty minutes ago when Bill finally arrived at the Burrow. He walked in and found his Mum and Percy sitting next to each other, talking. It did seem like Percy was doing a good job in keeping their Mum pretty calm, so Bill didn't want to disrupt that.

Once she finally noticed her oldest son was there, Molly jumped up and squeezed him tightly with a hug; something he loved and missed getting. Bill smiled when he looked to Percy and stepped towards him to give a hug but Percy gave him a very brief one armed hug before stepping quickly away from his older brother, leaving Bill perplexed. "Hey, Bill," Percy simply said before sitting back down next to his mother and continued their conversation.

Sighing heavily, Bill rubbed his hands together before looking at the clock, wondering when the others would get here.

"Bill?" Molly turned her attention to her oldest son. "Does Fleur know about what happened?"

"No," Bill shook his head. "She was gone by the time the owl arrived." When he saw the confused look on Percy's face he explained; "Fleur Delacour is my fiancée. We're getting married soon."

"Oh." Percy said, finally making eye contact with him.

"Speaking of that," Bill continued. "Percy, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to-"

"Remember when Charlie took me to the lake when I was six, mum?" Percy smiled, turning back to his mother and throwing Bill's entire conversation off, cutting him out of the discussion once again. As Percy continued to talk about Charlie teaching him frog hunting, Bill outstretched his arms while staring at Percy with disbelief, now starting to get angry.

"What am I? Wallpaper here?" Bill demanded, in such a forceful tone of voice it caused Percy to look over at him with furrowed brows.

"What?"

"I've been here for twenty minutes, and you've said two words to me."

Percy narrowed his eyes. "Maybe I'm more worried about my mother who I'm sure is in great pain."

"Charlie was my brother. I'm your brother. You don't think that maybe I'm in great pain too?" Bill questioned as he got to his feet which made Percy get up as well. "When I got here you wouldn't even look at me, and now you won't even let me speak. I have a lot of good memories of Charlie, you know." His voice cracked a little when he said that. Charlie was his first little brother, but he loved Percy just as much. Maybe through this tragedy the two of them could get to know each other again, but at that moment it seemed that was the last thing Percy was interested in.

"Why did you even bother to come here?" Bill then asked. "Why didn't you just send a card!?"

Percy tuned everything out as he began slowly walking towards his oldest brother. Everything that followed seemed to go in slow-motion. He believed the last words he heard was by their mother shouting at them to '"Stop! Please stop!"

It took just a few more steps for Percy to now be standing right in front of Bill. While Bill was angry, he was a little nervous too as he didn't know what Percy was going to do. What this might lead to. Percy on the other hand, looked calm and collected. Percy's hand was in his right pocket, wand gripped in his hand as he wondered if now would be the right time...

No.

No. The others will be here at any moment. This would have to wait for another day.

A big smile sudden appeared on Percy's face which took Bill a back. Percy then threw himself at Bill, giving him the biggest, brotherly hug Percy had ever given anyone. Bill was smart, Percy hated to admit that he might have been just as smart as him, so Percy needed to do something to throw him off guard, which it apparently did. Bill was shocked at first at what Percy had just done but the shock quickly dissipated as he hugged younger brother back.

"I'm sorry Bill." Percy stated. "You know that I love you. Right now I'm just feeling-"

"I know how you feel right now, believe me. I love you too, Percy." Bill said while giving his little brother several playful punches to the back. When they let go off each other Bill laughed a little, and their mum was crying, tears of joy this time instead of tears of sadness. Bill must have thought that he maybe had just gotten his second little brother back and that's what caused Percy to look away. Bill had always tried to be the exemplary older brother. Percy tried to be just like Bill, but obviously he had failed.

'That won't matter for much longer,' Percy then thought to himself as he then tried to think of something to say to Bill.

"So, uh," Percy began, "Why don't you tell me about Fleur?"

But before Bill could answer him that's when the front door busted open and the rest of the lot had arrived.

"Boys!" Molly screamed with joy. "Ginny!"

Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny all gathered around their Mum, each got a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. Bill smiled at the scene, this would have been just a great moment had it not been for the tragedy that had brought them all here. Bill then looked over at Percy and noticed a weird look was now on his face. Also, one of Percy's fists had clinched as he watched his younger siblings hug his mother.

"Percy?" Bill put a hand on his shoulder and shook it while quietly asking; "Why do you look so upset?"

"I'm fine, Bill." Percy responded as he gently pulled away from him and went to stand closer to his father. Shrugging, Bill went to greet his youngest siblings, Arthur was about to make a motion to Percy to go over and do the same, but Percy leaned forward and hugged his father tightly. That caught Arthur off guard, but surprise quickly turned to a big smile on his face. Arthur had a small fear deep down in his gut that Percy may never talk to him again. But here he was, hugging him as if Percy was clutching on for dear life.

The sad, family reunion was then put on pause by a knock on the door. Arthur carefully answered it to see that it was Rufus Scrimgeour, the new Minister of Magic.

"Hello, Mr. Weasley. May I come in?"

Arthur nodded and opened the door further to let the Minister in.

"I just learned of the news, I came to offer my condolences. I'm very sorry about the loss of your son. I came to let you and your family know the Ministry is going to take care of everything regarding Charlie's funeral. We don't want you to have to worry about a thing."

Arthur lowered his eyes.

"Thank you, very much."

"Anything else you need, just let us know." Scrimgeour looked to Percy and gave him a sad smile. "I suppose the whole family will be staying here tonight?"

"Yes." Arthur put his arm around Percy. "Now that Percy's back, we're-"

"Wait, I'm not back!" Percy pulled away from his father. "I'm not done yet! I'm not even close!" Now everyone in the house was looking at him as if he had just grown two extra heads as they tried to figure out what he was talking about. Percy froze for a moment but quickly saved himself as he turned toScrimgeour. "May I come back to the Ministry with you, Mr. Scrimgeour?"

Ron's eyes widened in outrage after that.

"What the-"

Every one of the Weasley children then began to barge down on Percy before Mrs. Weasley overtook them all.

"Silence!" Her brood calmed but only in quiet voices. "Percy, what in the world are you talking about?"

"I happen to still have a lot of work to do." Percy explained.

"Work?" Fred then turned to George and scathingly asked; "Are we really sure he's not one of those house elves, with all the attention he gives to work?"

"Nah," George answered. "He doesn't have enough heart to be one."

"He could be a Dementor though." Ron spoke, glaring at Percy with as much hate in his eyes as possible.

"Percy." Scrimgeour drew his gaze away from the other Weasley kids and looked to his assistant. "Do you really wish to come back to the Ministry with me?

"I would like to go." Percy confirmed, having enough composure not to respond to the jabs of his siblings. "I just don't think I'd be of any use here."

Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny turned away in disgust after hearing that, not even glancing at Percy as they headed for the stairs. Bill looked at Percy, trying to understand but quickly just gave up. "I guess...I'll see you at the funeral."

Percy nodded and Bill went to follow his brothers and sister. Scrimgeour ushered Mr. and Mrs. Weasley over into the corner to talk in private.

"People cope with tragedy in different ways," the Minister explained. "If he feels he can be useful for the Ministry, I will let him."

"He could be useful for his family," Molly angerly replied, not loud enough for Percy to hear.

Scrimgeour nodded.

"That may be true, but he might feel he is doing something for his family by going back to work. I know, people are hard to understand sometimes."

"Very well," Arthur sighed heavily as he looked back at Percy with a mixture of confusion and guilt. He just didn't understand his third born anymore, and therefore felt guilt that some part of that was his fault. "If he wants to go, he can go." Arthur then went to go look for his other kids. "Owl us if you need anything. Or if you change your mind, come on back."

"Percy, we love you." Molly said while approaching him. A single tear began to slide down her cheek. "You know that don't you?"

"Of course. I love you and Father too." Percy insisted.

Clearing his throat, Scrimgeour spoke up.

"I'll wait outside."

Once the Minister was gone, Percy closed the distance with his Mum and brushed the single tear away.

"Mum, I know things seem...bad, right now. But everything is going to be okay in the end, I promise you." Percy then gave her a little smile before a hug, then walked out the front door.

'Everything is going to be the way it should be.'

Chapter 4: Susurration

Chapter Text

That evening at the Burrow, Molly cooked a big meal for the family. Ginny helped her mother out in the kitchen while the boys stayed with their father in the living room playing some sort of card game. It was a good deflection from the family tragedy that everyone desperately needed, even if it was only going to last a few hours. Once everything was ready to eat, they gathered at the kitchen table. It was a little awkward due to the fact that although one brother and son was gone forever there were two empty chairs. Throughout the dinner, everyone had to ignore the elephant in the room.

They all kept up the chit-chat, talking about something, anything that came to thought in order to distract each other but nothing truly worked. The pain of losing Charlie was in the back of all of their minds.

It was awful. Solemn and awful.

Later that night, just after Ginny got done brushing her teeth she headed to her room to try and get some sleep when she suddenly heard the sound of a glass shattering in Ron's bedroom which caused her to jump. She hesitated for a few moments before gently pushing the door open. When she stepped inside she saw Ron down on his knees, carefully picking up pieces of a glass he had apparently just thrown against the wall.

"Ron?" Ginny questioned. She knelt down beside him and began helping him clean. "Be careful, don't cut yourself." Ron nodded but didn't say anything. "I know how you feel," she continued. "I miss Charlie so much."

"It isn't just that." Ron quietly responded as he pulled his wastebasket towards them so they could throw the glass away. "It's..."

"Percy?" Ginny already knew.

"Yeah." Ron slowly shook his head. Percy should have stayed at the house, he should be here right now with all of them, but apparentlywork and his job was more important to him then his own family. "How come we aren't good enough for him?"

"I wish I knew."

She didn't know what to think about Percy anymore. They had their issues, but even Ginny thought their family problems would be set aside for something as emotional as an upcoming funeral. The two of them both wanted to hate Percy, but they just couldn't. They were mad at him, but they didn't hate him. Despite everything that had taken place, Ron and Ginny still loved their older brother. Yet, the family had just suffered such a tremendous and painful loss and it still seemed like Percy wanted nothing to do with any of them.

It really did hurt. Not knowing what else to do, once all the broken pieces of glass were picked up, Ginny threw her arms around Ron's neck and hugged him tightly.

The both of them, along with Fred and George had taken Percy's fight with their dad very personally. Throughout the whole time that Percy had been away, each one of them at one point or another had talked about how much of a prat Percy was and that he wasn't worth getting upset over. However, it was obvious that deep down they didn't really believe that deep down. Percy was more important to them then they would want to admit.

Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny had always been sort of taken care of by Percy at one time or another, especially when they were little during the first war. Even though they all agreed that Percy was too uptight and could be very pompous and arrogant at times, he had always been a constant person in their lives. When Percy just suddenly left and cut off all contact with all of them, the older brother who the youngest Weasley's had always known as the most responsible one had just kind of abandoned them. They were so taken aback by it that they didn't really know how to deal with it, so they reacted with anger. If they truly didn't love Percy or care about him, they wouldn't have been as upset as they were for the things he had said when he had the argument with their dad, and the things he done afterwards like sending back Mom's Christmas sweater.

They tried to act like Percy didn't matter to them, but they had all secretly wanted and expected him to come back. But at that moment, Ginny began to serious wonder if that would ever happen. If a death in the family didn't want to make Percy stay and be with them, what would?

Perhaps reconciliation wasn't possible after all.

As the two youngest of the Weasley family continued to comfort each other, Arthur had just gotten out of the shower. He had on a bed robe and slippers as he entered his bedroom and saw his wife, laying on her left side, her back to him as she tried her best to fall asleep but she couldn't stop thinking about her children. Molly wasn't crying, she had no more tears to shed. Carefully, Arthur sat down on the bed, knowing she was still awake.

Taking a deep breath, Arthur reluctantly asked; "Molly...do you...blame me for this?"

Molly quickly turned around and sat up. "What?" She asked, shocked by the question. "That's crazy talk. How could I ever blame you for Charlie?"

He shook his head. "No, not for Charlie. For Percy?"

"Oh, Arthur." Molly reached out and touched his hand. "No, not at all." They couldn't believe the situation. One of their sons was dead but yet at that moment they seemed more concerned for their third born who was still very much alive. They honestly didn't know what to do about Percy anymore.

"Did he seem strange at all to you?" Arthur then asked.

"No, he was fine after you left us to get the others, he was just fine." Molly insisted. "It was just until Bill got here...Percy completely ignored him and kept talking to me."

Arthur rubbed his chin as he smiled a little. "Percy hugged me after we got back."

"I know, I saw."

That made the both of them tear up. Arthur and Molly both thought they had Percy back at that moment. They really did.

"But he wouldn't go hug Ginny, or Ron, or..." Arthur trailed off. "It was like he didn't want to be near them."

"He must think they're still mad at him." Molly responded. "They are, I know they are. But they would forgive him."

Arthur exhaled heavily. They shouldn't be talking about this right now. Yes, they were worried about Percy but they needed to be focusing on Charlie at the moment. He took his wife's hands. "Listen, Percy will come around. Right now, we have to find out what happened to Charlie. Whoever did this could be trying to break our family, but we can't let them." Molly leaned forward and hugged Arthur tightly. Her husband was right, although their hearts were hurting, they had to remain strong because they still had six other children who loved and needed them.

This wouldn't break them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The day of Charlie's funeral was kept very private as only family and close friends were invited to attend. Auror's who were investigating Charlie's murder couldn't guarantee that none of the other members of the Weasley family weren't in danger. They also unfortunately had no strong leads on who had committed the crime or any kind of motive.

Once everyone had arrived, they all began to slowly walk into the graveyard. There was no viewing of the body, no one had any long speeches prepared to give. A funeral was such an awful thing, so it was going to be kept short. Everyone was still upset, so Mr. and Mrs. Weasley didn't think there was a need to prolong the ceremony any longer than it needed to be. They all loved Charlie and would miss him for the rest of their lives. Now, they all needed to mourn their own way. Charlie's coffin lay near an open hole in the grass, ready to be lowered. One by one, each person who was attending lined up in a row and placed a red or white rose on the ground as they walked by it.

Percy was the last to do so, lingering on longer than anyone else. It was so strange to be here right now amongst everyone else, knowing that he was the one who had made this happen. He tried not to look at his mother and father as he didn't want to see them in such a state of grief. Percy wished that he could tell them that soon, they would never even remember this day.

Percy made eye contact with Bill who gave him a nod which Percy returned while Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny simply ignored him which he expected and didn't care. Arthur and Molly worked the spells to lower the coffin into the earth. After a great puff of dust, the ground was covered and Charlie Weasley's headstone rose up with the inscription;

'Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.'

Percy frowned after reading the words before angerly straightening his tie. He returned to work that afternoon and after walking through the main lobby of the Ministry, heading to his office when his brows furrowed as he saw of all people, Penelope, waiting outside of it.

"Penelope?" He questioned, getting her attention. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm so sorry about Charlie." Penelope approached him and hugged her boyfriend. This was the first time she had seen him since she had heard the news.

"Thank you."

She bit her bottom lip. Percy could tell that Penelope had come here for more then to wish him condolences. "Is something wrong?" He then asked.

"Percy...did you have anything to do with it?" She knew it was inappropriate to ask such a question, but Penelope couldn't help it. It was just that night at the apartment was scary. It was just so unlike Percy. He just stared at her, seemingly shocked by the question.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't-"

Percy gently took Penelope's wrist and guided her inside his office so they could continue their talk in private. "What in the world are you talking about?" He demanded once he closed the door behind them.

"It was a couple of nights ago at your apartment, you had been drinking and you said, you said..." Penelope quickly calmed herself. "Percy, you basically said you wanted your siblings to die so that you could be an only child."

He blinked, acting as if he had forgotten all about that.

"I don't even remember that." Percy said, putting on his best poker face. "I was angry. I may not have the best relationship with them right now but I wouldn't hurt them, ever."

'Damn it. Why would I ever tell her that?' He mentally cursed himself. It was because Percy never thought he would actually carry through on what he had said.

"Would you like to go somewhere with me?" Percy then asked as he quickly tried to think. He needed to do something to take Penelope's wariness off of him. "I just need to get out of here."

"I thought you don't get off until six?"

"Well, the work is mostly done for the day. Besides, I need to make up for missing our date, don't I?" A smile came to Percy's face as he remembered how much Penelope liked horses. "How about getting a carriage?"

That caused Penelope to smile back at him, and she agreed. As the two of them left the Ministry, a scary thought quickly passed through Percy's mind.

Was he going to have to...no.Percy refused to even consider it. Never...not Penelope.

Percy paid for a grand carriage drawn by two beautiful horses, one was all black, one was all white, both had long manes. As the carriage began to give them a ride throughout the town, Percy began thinking of what he should tell his girlfriend. He wondered if he should tell Penelope the truth about why he told her what he did about his siblings a couple of nights ago. She would always listen, that's the thing Percy loved the most about her.

Percy and Penelope both leaned back in their seats, Percy actually found this relaxing which was something he desperately needed right now.

"How are you parents holding up?" She asked.

"They're...functioning." Percy replied. "I think they're putting up a front for our sake."

"How about you? How are you doing?"

Percy rubbed his right temple with his index finger.

"It's really strange, Penelope. I really feel strange. Ever since I looked into that mirror."

"What mirror?"

"The Mirror of Erised."

Chapter 5: Descent

Chapter Text

Day by day, week by week, Percy would plan. He did research in different deadly spells and curses. Percy even took a page out of his father's book and began looking into muggle methods. Guns, explosives, stabbing weapons. Making a death look like an accident, making a death look like a suicide. These were certainly morbid thoughts but Percy had to work out each and every little detail. Everything had to perfect. This would all be for nothing if Percy got caught and had to spend the rest of his life in a jail cell, and his mother and father would know the truth about what he had done. The only thing that was keeping Percy grounded in reality and not descending into madness was his relationship with Penelope. He always made sure to spend the weekends with her.

On this particular Friday night, Percy was going on three straight days with no sleep as he was taking a dangerous amount of stimulates to keep himself awake when suddenly the door of his office was flung open and Arthur Weasley stepped inside, immediately closing the door behind him. He was heading home but upon seeing the office of his son for some reason Arthur just couldn't take it anymore.

He stared at his son, looking almost broken-hearted.

"Merlin, Percy what has happened to you?" He asked. What had happened to his little boy who use to sit out in the shed with him and play with muggle toy cars?. How could he turn into someone who disowned his own family for a job? In a lot of ways, Arthur felt closer to Percy than the rest of his boys. Now, Percy had become a stranger. Arthur didn't know his own son anymore and he hated it.

Raising one eyebrow, Percy didn't even look up from the paper he was writing and ignored the question completely.

"I didn't know we had a meeting scheduled."

"I don't need to schedule a meeting to see my own son."

"I happen to be extremely busy." Percy responded.

Arthur walked closer to his son's desk.

"Every year for Christmas, your mother makes new sweaters for all her children. This year she didn't even bother to send you one because she was afraid you'd send it back again. Did you even notice? It hurt her, Percy. Very much. It hurt the both of us. I think she feels like she failed you as a parent. I'm starting to feel the exact same way." He admitted.

"So why are you here now?" Percy asked.

"I would like you to come home with me for dinner tonight."

"I'm afraid I can't."

Arthur exhaled heavily as he looked down.

"I thought that when Charlie..." He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. "That it would bring you back to us. It seemed like it drove you even further away."

Percy didn't answer him, he just kept writing.

"Percy, I'm sorry about our fight. I handled it wrong." Arthur finally had to be the one to apologize. Even though he still felt he was right to have his suspicions about Percy's promotion, he should have handled it another way. He should have waited a little while to tell Percy his concerns, not right after his son had just told him the news. Even though deep down, Arthur felt Percy would have reacted the same way no matter when it was he told him, none of that mattered anymore.

He just wanted his son back, he wanted his family together, especially now. The war was starting to get worse.

"It's not that." Percy finally spoke. "I'm well over it."

"Then what is it?" Arthur practically begged Percy to tell him as he sat down in the chair in front of Percy's desk. He couldn't lose another son. "Your mother and I are very worried about you. Ginny and your brothers-"

"That's what the problem is." Percy interrupted. He said it quietly, his voice just above a whisper.

Now looking confused, Arthur responded with;

"I don't understand."

"I know you don't."

"Just explain what you meant."

Percy took a deep breath. He needed to be very careful with what he said next. Percy knew that he shouldn't say anything at all, but he needed to get some of this off his chest. "I don't want them in my life anymore."

"What are you talking about?" Arthur asked, almost incredulous. "They aren't in your life, Percy. You never see them. You don't talk to them, you don't write to them."

Finally looking up, Percy glared at his father.

"That isn't good enough!" He snapped causing his father to slightly jump in surprise. "As long as I have the same mother and father as they do, they'll always be in my life! Even in the smallest possible way!"

Arthur stared at Percy in shock. "Percy...they love you."

"I don't love them."

"I don't believe that." Arthur slowly shook his head as he spoke. "I don't believe that. I can't."

"Did I ever give you and mother anything to worry about as I grew up? Didn't I do everything right?" Percy demanded. "I succeeded at every goal I ever set for myself. I worked hard each and every day to make something of myself! I tried to be everything you wanted me to be. So you and mum should...you should..."

"Love you more." Arthur finished.

Percy didn't answer, he didn't have to. Arthur swallowed the knot that had formed in his throat before speaking straight from the heart.

"Percy, if it were possible to go to a store and buy a son, you would you be the one I would want. You're smart, strong, responsible. Whenever your mother or I made a rule you never disobeyed, never. You never gave us anything to worry about. I've never been disappointed in you." Arthur couldn't help but smile as his eyes got watery. "You were the model kid."

Percy was staring at his desk. He had become teary-eyed as well listening to his father. After a few moments he got up from his chair and walked over to his father. Arthur stood up and Percy hugged him tightly. Arthur smiled and returned it.

"Now...tell me," Percy began, "Tell me I'm your favorite son."

Arthur could feel his face drop. He had hoped that all he had just told Percy would be enough, because he meant what he had just said. But Arthur couldn't say that to Percy. Even if that was what he needed to hear. Arthur couldn't choose between his children. He just couldn't.

"Percy, I can't pick a favorite. When you become a father someday, you'll understand."

Percy's face hardened as he glared at the wall in front of him. Forcing himself to relax, he let go of his father and looked him in the eyes.

"You don't need them." Percy desperately tried to convince his father. "Why can't you see that? You and mum don't need them when you have me. The five of them put together couldn't equal one of me. Each one of them on their best day couldn't be better than me on my worst day."

Arthur could only stare at his third born in disbelief. He had no idea where this was coming from. He knew that sibling rivalry existed within any family, even to a small extent, but this was something else entirely. Percy sounded like he absolutely hated his siblings.

"I can't imagine how hurt they all would be if they could hear what you're saying about them right now." Arthur finally said.

"I don't care! I don't want them in my life! Not today, not tomorrow, not next year! Not ever!"

"I don't know what to say." Arthur began. "I don't know how to fix this. Tell me how to fix this."

"What if you and mum disowned them?"

"I would never do such a thing!" Arthur snapped, now angry at what Percy had just suggested. "And it's insane for you to even ask!"

Percy titled his head back and closed his eyes. Two tears ran down his face. But the tears weren't for himself. The alternative was going to be so much hurtful for his parents. Even if the pain would only be temporary, he didn't want them to have to go through it at all. Percy wished he could just obliviate his father right now, but he couldn't.

"Then I'll do...what I have to do."

Arthur brows furrowed, not understand at all what Percy meant. He looked down and took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Percy, all I can tell you is that I'll always love you. I love you no matter what."

Percy's eyes suddenly snapped open and looked in outrage at his father. On the inside, Arthur groaned because he knew that once again, he had said something wrong.

"What does that mean?" Percy demanded. "No matter what?"

Arthur was confused. "It...it just means that I love you-"

"No, "no matter what" means you love me despite the fact that I have some sort of problem!"

Arthur's shoulders sagged, almost like in defeat as he rubbed his chin. Percy then stomped his way back over to his desk and forcefully sat back down at his desk, indicating that this conversation was now over. Arthur decided not to push any further, but he would say one last thing.

"Percy, I don't know what's going on with you, but you need help. You're going to get it whether you want it or not, because that's what a family does. They still love you. Even if you don't."

Arthur finally left the office. He now had a sharp pain in his stomach because he began to think of Molly, knowing that he needed to tell her about this conversation. He couldn't begin to think how she would react when she heard what Percy had said about his siblings. Once his father was gone, Percy looked up and glared at the closed door, saying out loud;

"It's your other children that are going to need help."

Carry on, my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest, don't you cry no more.

Chapter 6: No Going Back

Chapter Text

Arthur arrived home still shell-shocked from the discussion he just had with Percy. He slowly walked into the kitchen to see his wife pouring beef stew into multiple different bowls. Molly took a quick glance behind her and smiled when she saw her husband. "Oh, you have perfect timing. I just finished dinner."

"Dinner can wait, Molly." Arthur stated in a serious voice. "I really need to talk to you."

Molly took a second look at Arthur, this time seeing the look on his face and instantly knew something was wrong. Molly could always tell with Arthur.

"What is it? What's happened?"

They both took a seat at the table. Unbeknownst to Arthur, right before he walked through the front door Molly had just yelled up to the kids upstairs that dinner was ready. "It's Percy." Arthur then quickly put a hand on top of Molly's upon seeing the look of fright on her face. "It's okay, he's fine...physically anyway."

"Then what is it?"

He tried to think of the right way of how to tell Molly about what her third son had said to him. She needed to know.

"I went to see him before I came home. I told him that we love him, and we miss him. Percy said he loves us."

Molly slightly shook her head, confused.

"Well, that's good. Why does that have you looking so grim?"

"He just lovesus, Molly." Arthur then pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a deep sigh. He didn't want to tell his wife the rest, but he had to explain. "Percy said that he doesn't love Bill, Fred, George, Ron, or Ginny. He doesn't want them in his life anymore. Percy even went so far to say that we should disown them because he is so much better than they are, and has been a better son to us. He made it sound like he won't come back as long as they're around."

Molly now had the same look of shock that Arthur probably held once Percy had told him this. Once she was able to find her voice Molly managed to say; "I don't believe it."

"That's exactly what I said."

"How do we handle this?" She then repeated the question. "How do we handle this?"

"I don't know." Arthur was at a loss. "Do you think that we should tell the others?"

"We heard you."

Arthur lightly groaned when he heard Fred's voice from behind him. Slowly turning his head, Arthur looked to see the twins, Ron, and Ginny as they all walked into the room. He motioned for them all to sit down, which they did. As a father, seeing their matching hurt expressions was difficult for him.

"I'm sorry, you guys. I really don't know what else to say to say to you."

"You don't need to be sorry." Ron growled, hating himself because he actually felt his eyes begin to sting. He forced back the tears forming in his eyes. I couldn't believe that he allowed Percy to get to him like this. "If that arrogant, obnoxious git doesn't want me in his life anymore, show me where to sign!"

"That's not the way to solve this." Arthur gently placed a hand on Ron's.

"Maybe you should disown Percy instead." Ginny spoke with a light, shaky voice. However, that only caused Molly to slam the palm of her hand down on the table, hard. That caused all of them, even Arthur, to jump.

"I don't want to hear the word 'disown' again!" She yelled. They were all silent after that, but as each second ticked by each one of the Weasley children were getting madder and madder. Fred in particular started tightly rubbing his hands together.

"Percy thinks he's a better son than us?" Fred finally asked, voice trembling with rage. "Where was he when Charlie died?" He demanded. "Did he stay here with you like we did!? No! He went back to work!"

"Fred-" Arthur began but Fred stood up from his chair so fast it tipped over as he stormed out of the room. They all watched him leave and heard the sound of footsteps stomping back up the stairs. Out of all of them, it was George who was surprisingly the least angry. When he finally spoke up, he sounded even headed and yet saddened at the same time.

"Do you think that it could be our fault?" George asked no one in particular. "Mine and Fred's? We used to prank and tease him a lot...do you think that's why Percy hates us so much?"

"Bollocks." Ron said dismissively. After all, who did the twins prank and tease more than him? And yet, Ron didn't hate Fred and George. "You two do it to everyone."

"Yeah, but Percy could never take it like everyone else could. Me and Fred never did any of that stuff to hurt him, most of it anyway. It was just our way of making him a part of our lives."

"It's not your fault that Percy is a pompous prick who has a stick up his tight arse," Ginny told her brother.

"Ginevra Weasley!" Molly scolded her daughter for the language.

"I'm sorry Mum, I just found out that my own brother hates me!"

Suddenly, bright green flames flared up in the fireplace before dying down as Bill stepped out of it. He had managed to hear the last thing Ginny had yelled and upon looking at the scene in front of him, the oldest of the Weasley children knew something wasn't right.

"What's going on here?" He asked.

That's when Arthur asked his kids to head back upstairs so he and their mother could talk to Bill alone. Molly made them all take a bowl a stew up with them, which Ron slammed on his dresser, making the contents go everywhere. He wished Harry were here to talk to, but he was with Dumbledore on some kind of secret 'mission.' Ron wanted to be with him and Hermione, he wanted to be far away from here. Meanwhile, Arthur had just finished telling Bill what Percy had said. Bill rubbed the back of his neck, now looking very taken aback.

He always thought that he had a good relationship with Percy. Bill wasn't as close with him as he had been with Charlie, but still, they had always got along fine.

"How did the others take it?"

"They're upset." Arthur answered.

Bill could see that his father wasn't telling him this just for him to know. Being the oldest sibling, Arthur was also looking to Bill for some advice on what to do. After taking a deep breath Bill spoke up again.

"If that's how Percy really feels about us then maybe...maybe we shouldn't be around him."

"Bill-" Molly began.

"I'm sorry Mum, but I really don't feel comfortable being around someone who really doesn't like me. Things can be arranged so Percy can come home and never have to see us." Leaning back in his chair, Bill began to think about Charlie and coming home when he found out that he had died. He remembered how Percy wouldn't even look at him, let alone talk to him. It was right then Bill became just as incensed as the others had been.

"What the hell did I do to make him act like this?"

Bill then blinked as he realized not only had he said that out loud, but his voice had risen to a shout. Molly placed a bowl of stew in front of him and looked sadly at her oldest son. "Sometimes you just don't know." She responded.

Leaning forward on the table, Arthur was emotionally drained. After taking another long slow breath, he got up to get a glass of scotch, something he really needed right now. He and Molly had always loved having a big family. He thought that they all had loved it too. What made things even worse, if that were possible, was the holiday season. This was the time for family, but Percy had now missed two Christmases in a row. After seeing the pain that Percy had inflicted upon his siblings, no one was happy anymore. No one smiled, no one laughed, their family was broken. Something he and Molly vowed to not let happen.

Everything was wrong.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was now New Years Eve and snow was still everywhere throughout the neighborhood Penelope had grown up at. She had brought Percy home with her as her parents had thrown a big party to celebrate. Percy was surprisingly comfortable in the muggle world, and he had made a good impression with her Mom and Dad. She also introduced him to her older cousin, his wife, and their two young sons. It was starting to get late, but Percy and Penelope were outside at that moment, rolling up a large ball of snow.

The two of them look as much snow as they could, making sure the ball was medium sized, not too big but not too small. After that, they found two decent sized sticks to be the arms. For the finishing touches, Penelope drew a smile on the bottom of the face while Percy placed two pieces of coal for the eyes before pulling a red button from his shirt for the nose since they didn't have a carrot. With that, it seemed their snowman was pretty much complete.

"What should we call him?" Percy asked.

"How about... Frosty?" Penelope suggested.

"Frosty?"

She nodded and then he agreed.

"When was the last time you built a snowman?" She curiously asked him.

"When I was twelve. With my father." Percy then smiled at the memory. "It was two days before Christmas. Charlie had run off with Fred, George, and Ron, having a snowball fight. Charlie asked me if I wanted to join them, but I said no."

"Why not?"

He shrugged.

"I don't know. Getting hit in the face with a ball of snow didn't seem appealing to me. Anyway, I was about halfway done rolling up the base when suddenly a snowball hit my right shoulder. I thought it was one of my brothers. I turned around to tell them off, but it was my father who had done it. He had come home from work early and he helped me finish it."

The two of them then headed back inside the house. Penelope's parents were now asleep and the guests from the party were long gone. Percy hoped in the shower to warm himself up while Penelope headed straight for her bed. She looked down at Percy's bag on the floor and noticed there was something sticking out of it. She looked at it closer and curiously she leaned down and pulled it further out. It looked like a journal.

Not able to help herself, Penelope opened it and began reading the first page.

Oh boy. I don't know how I ended up here. I just don't know how I ended up here. I thought I was doing everything right. I went out of my way to make everyone happy and comfortable.

My mind keeps racing and once I'm awake, I'm awake. I can't fall back to sleep, so I decided to write my thoughts down on paper.

Why did Charlie have to send me that stupid letter?

It was what suddenly got me thinking about him. I had been drinking, which I never do, and I was so upset. I really didn't think it all the way though, it was an impulse to go and visit him. I have to admit I'm really scared now, because I don't know what's going to happen next. I don't know if I will succeed or fail, I just know that there is no looking back. I can't stop now, I have to keep going.

Penelope's brows furrowed as she re-read the passage, trying to make sense of it. She then began flipping through the pages, the handwriting becoming more and more erratic before Penelope got to page where the quill had been placed.

Just make them go away. Make them go away, make them go away!

Before she could read anymore, Penelope heard the doorknob rattle. She quickly closed the journal and put in back before getting into bed before Percy entered the room.

"Nice of your parents to let me stay in your room."

"Yeah, about that. They think you're sleeping in the guest room."

Percy raised an eyebrow before smiling, wondering if she wanted to so what they did last night. That caused Penelope to smile because Percy smiling was such a rare thing to see. Penelope wondered if she were the only one who got to see it. Slowly, Percy laid down next to her as Penelope leaned forward and kissed him. She then rested her forehead against his, looking into Percy's eyes.

"Percy...is everything is okay with you?" She carefully asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know why, but I just stared thinking about that carriage ride, what we talked about." Percy nodded but didn't say anything. "You know that if you have a problem, whatever it is, you can tell me."

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

Moving his head to stare up at the ceiling, Percy wished he could tell Penelope the truth.

"Yeah...I'm...I'm getting there."

Thankful, Penelope didn't say anything more. After the two of them got done with their private 'activity', Penelope took a sleeping pill. She offered one to him, but Percy declined. When Penelope finally dozed off, Percy simply watched her and reached out to lightly brush her hair back. It was oddly peaceful for the briefest moment before his thoughts went back to the one that was dominating him as of late.

Bill.

Suddenly, Percy realized that he didn't even know his oldest brother's address. He needed to find out because he had decided that's where he would do it since it had worked with Charlie.

'Wait...Bill has a fiancée...she must live with him...'

Percy's eyes then widened, and a smile formed at the corner of his mouth. An idea and how to do it finally came to him. Before he could stop himself, Percy got out of the bed and began quickly and quietly gathering his belongings to head back to his own apartment.

Chapter 7: White Noise

Chapter Text

It was late at night by the time Harry had arrived at the Burrow, but everyone was still awake. Their Christmas break from Hogwarts was coming to an end so he was happy he was going to get to spend the remaining time with the Weasley's. However, the moment he arrived he could tell something was off. No one said anything to him, but simple greetings and Harry was afraid to even ask what was going on. Once he inside the bedroom of Ron he watched as his best friend was finishing putting away some clothes in his dresser before shutting the drawer shut with more force than was necessary. Harry had seen Ron look angry and upset and just about every emotion under the sun, but at the moment he just looked exhausted. It was if Ron had just finished running a marathon.

"Have you heard from Hermione?" Ron suddenly asked Harry.

"No, no I haven't." Hermione had been spending this Christmas break with her parents this year instead of them. "I decided not to bother her. I figured she could use a break without having to think about everything that's been going on."

"Yeah." Ron simply responded.

Harry then bit his bottom lip for a second before finally deciding to ask.

"Ron, why do you seem so upset?"

Ron heavily sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "I really don't want to talk about it right now." He finally met Harry's eyes, not knowing that his very own were silently begging. "I promise I'll tell you some other time, just not now."

The message was received. "Alright." Harry agreed.

He then got up from where he was sitting and went back downstairs, deciding to visit with the rest of the family. Bill, the oldest of the Weasley siblings was here, whom Harry really didn't know all that well. He did know that Bill was going to be getting married soon, to a girl that Mrs. Weasley and Ginny didn't seem to like that much as they never talked about her in very flattering terms. Maybe Harry could distract himself and the others if he could get Bill to talk about his soon-to-be wife.

However, as he was halfway down one of the staircase Harry just happened to look out the window and that's when he saw it. Or rather, saw who it was when the smoke-like blackness of the apparation cleared.

Bellatrix Lestrange.

Harry's eyes locked with hers as Bellatrix smiled a sick grin before quickly casting a massive fire around herself which slowly began to circle around the Burrow. Bellatrix began cackling which got the attention of everyone downstairs. Arthur opened the front door and he and Molly both looked out to see what was going on. Before they could even remotely decide on what to do, Harry ran right past them out the door and began to give chase to the woman who had killed his godfather. Revenge was now the only thing that was on his mind.

"Harry, no!" Arthur shouted but he was ignored.

Just then, Ginny too ran out from the house and continued going despite hearing the sound of her mother yelling for to come back. Ginny was wearing her bedtime clothes and a robe but she wasn't about to let Harry go after Bellatrix on his own. For all she knew, Bellatrix could be leading Harry into a trap. Ginny managed to make it through right before the ring of fire around the Burrow completed itself.

By this time, Fred, George, and Ron had all come out of the house and were doing everything they could to fight the flames while Bill managed to get his parents into the living room, telling them that he was going after Ginny himself. Bill then ran out the house and through a path his brothers managed to clear, yelling at them to stay there and keep working on putting out the fire. Meanwhile, running through the tall weeds of grass, Harry ran as fast as his legs could go as he heard the deranged woman chant;

"I killed Sirius Black! I killed Sirius Black! You coming to get me? Get me! He's trying to get me!"

He finally came to a stop to catch his breath before jumping as someone suddenly ran into him. "Ginny!" He yelled, angry to discover that she had come running after him. "What do you think you're doing!"

"What do you thinkyou'redoing!?" Ginny demanded. "Running out here alone!?"

"Come on, stay close to me."

He then took her hand and they began quietly moving forward. It was almost too dark to really see anything. The two of them jumped when they heard the sound of someone apparating nearby, then again, then again. For a moment, Harry began to wonder if there could be a dozen Death Eaters laying in wait to attack them. They kept moving forward until Harry and Ginny now stood side by side on a small piece of grassy land that sat on a small pond of water. Harry gritted his teeth as he now realized what a dangerous situation he had gotten the two of them into. Once he saw Bellatrix, he was blinded by rage and couldn't stop himself from chasing after her.

More sounds of apparating. It now sounded like they were being surrounded.

Unbeknownst to Harry and Ginny, Bill was running his way through the tall grass but in a different direction. He stopped for a moment, so desperately looking around for his sister that he didn't realize someone had been silently stalking him. Bill was then suddenly hit very hard across the back. It was so hard that it knocked him clean off his feet, causing his face to slam right into the ground.

Bill groaned as he slowly rolled over but he was grabbed by the throat and pulled back up. He now found himself staring into the eyes of Fenrir Greyback. He tried to swing a punch but his wrist was tightly caught. Greyback then gave the young man a sick smile before lifting Bill up by the throat as high as the beast possibly could before slamming him back down on the ground. The impact caused Bill to lose a hold of his wand. The wind was completely knocked out of him, Bill's sight was blurry and he could just make out Greyback drawing back a hand and suddenly slashing Bill across the face.

Harry and Ginny both jumped when they heard the sound of a young man's anguished scream.

Drips of blood ran from Bill's mouth and dark red blood now streamed down his face from four long, deep cuts. Greyback stood over him, making a move to finish Bill off when suddenly he was hit in from two spells from behind. Greyback roared as he spun around, seeing Harry and Ginny coming at him, ready to fire more. Deciding that he had done enough damage for the time being, Greyback apparated away.

Both Harry and Ginny ran to Bill's side and gently rolled him over, laying him on his back. That's when Ginny let out a piercing scream of horror when she saw the state of her oldest brother. Bill's face was so bloody that Ginny could barely even tell that it was him.

"Harry!" Ginny screamed as tears streamed from her eyes. "Go get the others!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Percy had arrived back at his apartment. He was currently gathering together all the supplies that he had collected and placing them inside of a sack. Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, knotgrass, the powdered horn of a Bicorn, and the shredded skin of a Boomslang. The next part would be the hardest; find someone to take the appearance of. It had to be somebody that people weren't going to exactly miss or like very much because Percy knew he couldn't let that person live. He willed himself to get ready and was about to head out the door when suddenly a snowy white owl he didn't recognize flew through his open window carrying a letter. It then flew over to Percy.

"What in the world?" Percy said to himself.

Hedwig then began to rapidly poke at Percy's hand, showing him that it wouldn't stop until he took the letter. Irritated, Percy snatched the letter away.

'EMERGENCY.'

The words were written in big block letters. Percy quickly opened it up and from the writing he could tell that it had been written by his father.

Percy, please come to St. Mungo's. Therewas an attack at the house and Bill has been badly hurt. Hurry, please.

His eyes widened in shock. This was something he never would have expected. A big smile then came to his face. This had been the holiday season, maybe somebody had given him a gift and done the work for him.

Once Percy arrived at the hospital, his heart was beating very fast as he was helped up to the floor where Bill was being treated. Down the hallway, on the last room on the left he could see his family along with Harry Potter waiting outside of the room. Fortunately for Percy his father was the first person to noticed he was approaching them all and Arthur moved forward to greet him. His father hugged him tightly, however the others were less the kind as they looked at Percy as if they had just smelled something foul.

"How dare you show your face here!" Ginny then yelled. Percy then looked closer upon the angry faces of his siblings and suddenly realized that his father must have told them all about the discussion they had in Percy's office.

"Now is not the time or the place for this!" Arthur snapped at his daughter then looked back to Percy. "Bill was attacked by a werewolf."

"Like he cares," Ron muttered. Harry looked to all of the younger Weasley's and was bewildered by their reaction to Percy now being here. Of course, Harry was well aware of Percy's estrangement but right now Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny's expressions all had new levels of anger and hurt.

"Is it bad?" Percy had to keep the hope out of his voice. Maybe his oldest brother would die. Maybe this would be one he didn't have to do himself.

"It's pretty bad. Your mother is in there."

"Can I go in?"

Arthur nodded. Percy ignored the dirty looks of his younger siblings as he walked inside the room. He instantly saw Bill lying in the hospital bed, half of his face was heavily bandaged. Molly was sitting in a chair right next to the bed, clutching at her oldest son's hand. "Please don't leave us, Bill. I can't lose another child." She then muttered that last part at least five more times as Percy slowly made his way over to her.

"Mum?"

Molly saw who it was and quickly jumped up, throwing her arms around Percy's neck, pulling him into a tight embrace. Percy returned the hug and the two of them stayed that way for the longest time before Percy finally helped his mother sit back down.

"Bill is going to be fine, Mum, he's strong." Percy knew he had to say that for his mother's sake. "Look, he's breathing normally." Percy then gave Bill a closer look and saw that was true, he was breathing normally. In that moment, if Percy could have let out a string of swear words, he would have because for some reason Percy knew, he just knew that Bill was going to make it through this. Percy placed a hand on Molly's shoulder as they both continued to watch Bill's chest go up and down.

"Bill was so handsome." Molly then spoke. "He was going to get married in the spring." She then shook her head. "Fleur is definitely going to leave him now. She never truly loved him. She was only interested in him because of his looks."

Percy co*cked his head as he looked down at this mother, wondering why she would say that. She had spoken Fleur's name with such contempt. Before he could ask what she meant by that the door opened and a healer walked in. Percy slightly frowned and he dug his fingernails into the palms of his hand...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About a minute in a half later, Percy walked out of the room. He only tried to look at his father. The others temporarily put any feelings of disdain they may have had for Percy as they waited for him to give them the news. "You all can relax. Bill is going to be fine. He'll have a few scars, but he'll be alive." They all breathed a huge sigh of relief, grabbing each other in big hugs. Percy slowly approached his father who seemed like he was uncomfortable to be around him now. But his father had wanted to know why he was acting they way he was, so Percy told him.

"Dad, can I ask you a question?" Arthur blinked in surprise as Percy had rarely referred to him as 'Dad'. For some reason, that alone seemed to ease the unspoken tension between them. "Does Mum not like Fleur?"

Arthur sighed as he rubbed his left shoulder.

"Well...she's not exactly your mother's favorite person in the world." Arthur admitted before slapping his hand against his forehead as he realized something. "Oh sweet Merlin. I forgot to send an Owl to Fleur." He then went to move forward but Percy quickly stepped in front of his father.

"No, wait. I'll go tell her. I think that she should be told about this in person, not by a letter."

Arthur relaxed a little. His son had a good point, and also a trip to Egypt would be hard for any owl.

"Yes, yes you're right. Bill and Fleur share a place together."

The smallest smile then came to Percy's face as he was quickly putting together a slight change in his plan. "I just need their address."

Arthur gave it to him.

"Okay, I need to go so I can use Gringotts Floo Network."

"Can you do that at this time of night?" Arthur questioned.

Percy gave his father a look. "I can do anything, I'm the Minister's Junior Assistant."

Arthur bit his tongue and nodded as Percy walked around him. The rest of them all glared at Percy's retreating back.

"Percy's not sticking around. What a surprise," Fred said loud enough for him to hear.

"He graced us with about three minutes of his presence, give him a break." George responded to his twin. Ginny was the next to say something, followed by Ron, though at that moment every single sound to Percy had become white noise.

Chapter 8: Whatever It Takes

Chapter Text

Laying inside of a bubble bath while drinking a glass of red wine, Fleur Delacour was relaxing and was enjoying the smell of the scented candles she had lit and had set up all over the bathroom. She was going to be by herself tonight because Bill had told her that he was mostly likely going to stay at his parents house tonight so Fleur had the apartment all to herself. She continued to relax when suddenly the sound of the front door being roughly pushed open caused her to open her eyes and turn her head, staring at the closed bathroom door.

"Bill?" She called out in her thick French accent. "Bill are you home?"

No one answered her. She began to hear the sound of footsteps moving around the kitchen area. What Fleur didn't know was that it wasn't her soon be husband in the apartment with her. It was his brother Percy, the brother that Bill had rarely ever talked about, the brother she hadn't even met yet.

"Bill?" Fleur called out again but still no response. She slapped the water in irritation. "I hate it when you don't answer me." She muttered. Meanwhile, Percy had entered the bedroom and began moving his hands all over clothes hung up in the closet before making his way to the unmade bed, running his fingers across the pillows before smirking when he found what he needed.

A blonde head hair.

After about five more minutes in the tub, Fleur got out and dried herself off before throwing on a bathrobe. When she left the bathroom, her brows furrowed when she could smell something unpleasant coming from the kitchen. Sitting on top of the stove, a thick potion was bubbling in a pewter cauldron.

"What in the world?" She asked herself out loud before calling out; "Bill, what are you doing?"

Fleur spun on her heels and headed to the bedroom. Once she walked in Fleur froze in place with shock. She was now staring at herself. Percy then pointed Fleur's own wand at her. Fleur didn't even have the chance to scream as a green flash of light sped right towards her.

"Avada Kedevra!"

Fleur slammed against the wall and collapsed to the floor. Percy stared down at her body for a moment before crouching down and placing her wand inside of her hand. He then walked over to the full length mirror in the corner of the room. Percy looked at himself now disguised as Fleur. He touched his cheek as he winced with disgust. "Merlin." Percy said to himself. "No wonder my mother hates you."

Percy then closed his eyes and took a deep breath, preparing himself for what he was about to do next.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was close to five o'clock in the morning by the time 'Fleur' arrived at St. Mungo's. A healer was walking her to the room that Bill was in.

"Are the Weasleys still here?" Fleur asked, worried.

"No," the healer answered causing Fleur to breath a sigh of relief. "They left a little over a hour ago because Bill actually woke up for a little while. We've been giving him draughts for the pain, so if he wakes up again he's going to seem really out of it and might not even recognize you."

Once the door was opened for her Fleur gasped in shock once she saw Bill and ran to his side.

"Oh my goodness! What happened!"

"He was attacked by a werewolf."

"A werewolf!? Does that mean he's going to become one!?"

"No, Ms. Delacour. But I'm afraid that Bill is going to have some werewolf characteristics from now on."

"What does that even mean? We were going to be married soon, how can I marry him now! I wanted to have children! Won't this be passed down to them?"

"I'm afraid at this moment I can't say."

Fleur buried her face in her hands and forced herself to start sobbing as hard as she could. The healer put his hand on her shoulder and tried to comfort her.

"The two of you will still be able to live a normal life." He assured her before frowning, seeing how hard the young woman was taking this. "I'll give you some time alone with him."

Once the healer was gone, Percy looked at the door and back at Bill as he took out his own wand. He knew he had to be quick as the polyjuice potion wasn't going to last forever. As he stared at his older brother, it seemed like time stopped as he remembered a moment between them...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was late this particular night at the Burrow. Percy had been keeping himself isolated the entire day and Bill could tell that something was bothering him. Bill was now inside of his room and was refusing to leave until Percy told him what the problem he was having was.

"Will you leave me alone?" Percy snapped as he tried his best to ignore his oldest brother standing right next to his bed. Bill could always tell whenever something was bothering him. He should ask Bill someday how he manages to do that.

"Come on, Percy. Tell me what's the matter." Bill insisted.

Percy then slammed the book he was reading down on the floor.

"I didn't get fourteen O.W.L.S!" He seethed. If he had, Percy would have the record for having the most O.W.L.S. in Hogwarts history. "I didn't get to study as hard as I wanted because I had to keep chasing after those brats!" Referring to Fred and George.

"Alright, what's the big deal?" Bill laughed, and now somewhat confused. Having these kind of scores should be the last thing a person should be upset about. "Thirteen O.W.L.S. is great, it's the same number that I got."

"Yeah, I know." Percy muttered bitterly.

That caused Bill to raise his eyebrows. At first not understanding what Percy meant by that but he then realized it. Percy wanted to surpass him.

"Okay, you and I are tied. Why is that such a big deal?"

Percy didn't answer. He really didn't know why, it just was.

"So what do you want to do, compare all our old NEWT scores to see who did better?" Bill asked, incredulous. "This is ridiculous, Percy."

"If it's so ridiculous, let's just forget it." Percy snapped.

"No, let's not forget it." Bill snapped back as he sat down next to Percy on the bed.

He was really surprised of how much this had upset his brother. Bill always believed that Percy was smarter than him, than the rest of them. Anytime they played Wizard Trivia when they had family night, Percy always won. It finally got to the point that no one wanted to play it anymore. Bill guessed because they had such a big family it was normal for Percy to want to stand out. Maybe that's why he bragged so much about his accomplishments. Bill really didn't have that problem, perhaps it was because he was the oldest, the first born child. But in actuality, Bill thought that put the most pressure on him because he felt he needed to set a good example for the rest of his siblings.

"No one thinks any less of you because you didn't get more O.W.L.S then me." Bill assured Percy. Their Mum and Dad certainly didn't. "Have I treated you like you're any less?"

"No." Percy begrudgingly admitted.

"Alright then." Bill grabbed Percy and gave him a noogie. Finally, that caused Percy to loosen up and laugh.

"Bill! Cut it out!" He yelled, swiping at him.

Bill let his little brother go. Percy seemed to be in a better mood now. He then asked Percy to come downstairs with him to get a late night snack.

"So, you're going to start working for Gringotts." Percy said as they walked down the stairs. "Are you excited?"

"Yeah, it's going to be really fun." Bill smiled. "I'm going to be evaluating artifacts in search of curses before forwarding them to the bank."

"I wonder what I'm going to do when I'm done at Hogwarts."

Bill co*cked his head as he looked at Percy in surprise.

"I thought you wanted to work for the Ministry." That was all Percy had ever talked about doing, even when he was very young. He even told Bill that he would be the Minister of Magic someday.

"I do. I just wonder if I'll get in, and how'll I'll do if do make it in."

Bill threw an arm around Percy's neck as he guided him to the kitchen.

"You'll do great. I can't think of anyone better for the job." Bill then got out some of the leftover carrot cake their Mom had made. Once they both sat down and began eating Bill remembered Percy referring to the twins as brats. "You know, the only reason Fred and George bother you the way they do is to get your attention. You don't spend as much time with them as you use to."

"I know." Percy admitted. "I'm always just so busy with schoolwork."

"I know your work is important to you." Bill then stated seriously; "But so are we."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Percy then reached down and brushed back Bill's long hair. This was different then it had been with Charlie. He had the chance to say something to Charlie first. He wondered what he would say to Bill at this moment if he was awake, but honestly, Percy really didn't have any words. Percy raised his chin as he continued to stare at Bill. Percy then said;

"There is nothing more to say. You are not worth any more of my energy. You are not worth any more of my words. You are not worthy to walk inmyshadow."

After saying that, Percy then placed his own wand against Bill's chest and as quietly as possible said;

"Avada Kedevra."

Then as fast as he could, Percy left the room and out of St. Mungo's hospital. His serotonin level was racing as he realized that he done it again. He was another step closer. Now, he had no more older brothers. Percy was now the oldest.

Percy then smiled.

He decided right then that he would now go after Fred and George. Since they were born together, they would go together.

Chapter 9: There's Something Wrong

Chapter Text

Arthur was lucky if he had gotten about forty-five minutes worth of sleep that night as he woke up and groggily walked across his bedroom when he suddenly heard a tapping at the window. Rubbing his eyes, Arthur looked over and saw that it was Hermes, the owl that he and Molly had bought for Percy. He opened the window and took the letter it was carrying.

Father, I visited Fleur and alerted her of the situation. She informed me that she would be going to see Bill at St. Mungo's as soon as possible. She more than likely has already arrived by the time you receive this.

Percy.

Breathing a sigh of relief that Percy had come through on that, Arthur changed out of his pajamas and headed downstairs to discover that Molly had cooked up a storm. It was always something she did when she was stressed out or needed to take her mind off of something. Despite the winter break being over Ron and Ginny were still at the house. At the beginning of the school year, he had to fight with Molly to get her to agree to let the two of them attend Hogwarts. Now, he might have to admit that it was too dangerous out there and they needed to be home. The two youngest Weasleys had just finished their breakfast when their Dad walked into the room.

"Good morning." He greeted, trying to act like he normally did. "Did you sleep well?"

"Not really." Ron muttered.

"Me neither." Arthur admitted.

"Okay dears, go up and get changed." Molly then instructed. "We're going to go see your older brother."

Ron and Ginny headed upstairs as Arthur got himself a cup of coffee and a small plate of food. He knew he should try to eat something even if he didn't have much of appetite.

"How are you doing?" Arthur then asked his wife.

"I feel a little bit better," Molly responded, "Now that I know that Bill is going to be alright. I just want to take him home."

"Molly, we can't rush his recovery. Let him heal, they'll take good care of him at St. Mungo's."

After a couple of minutes, Ron and Ginny were dressed and ready. The four of them headed to the fireplace and used the Floo network to travel. Upon entering the lobby of St. Mungo's, the Weasleys were immediately greeted by a healer.

"Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. I'm afraid you just missed Ms. Delacour."

"I wouldn't say we missed her," Ginny spoke just loud enough for Ron to hear which caused him to grin just a little.

"I'll take you to your son." The healer then began to walk the Weasleys down the hallway to Bill's room.

"Has there been any change with Bill?" Arthur asked.

"He was asleep when I took Ms. Delacour in to see him. She didn't stay for very long. I have to say, she was very upset when I informed her about Bill's condition." They then arrived at the door which the healer opened for them. "Take all the time you need."

Molly was the first to walk in, but as soon as she saw her oldest son she froze. Bill looked awfully pale, much more than he did last night. She then noticed that his chest…it wasn't raising up and down. It looked like he wasn't breathing. A sharp pain then hit her stomach.

"Arthur…?"

Arthur's brows furrowed when he heard the scared tone in his wife's voice. Molly slowly approached Bill and put a hand on his cheek. His skin was ice cold.

"Bill?" Molly whispered. "Can you hear me?"

"What is it?" Arthur asked, confused.

"Bill? Bill what's wrong honey?" Molly then gently shook his shoulder and asked again in a louder voice; "Bill, what's wrong honey?"

Arthur walked over to them. He gently lifted Bill's eyelid with his index finger. There was nothing there. At that moment, he could feel his heart begin to beat faster as panic slowly overtook him.

"Bill wake up." Molly shook him harder. "Bill wake up! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!"

Ron and Ginny stuck their heads in the room, looking confused after they heard their mother yell.

"What's going on?" Ron asked.

"Go get a healer!" Molly screamed to Arthur. "RIGHT NOW! GO GET A HEALER!"

Arthur spun around and ran out into the hallway, grabbing the first healer that he could get to. "MY SON ISN"T BREATHING!" He yelled. Molly didn't even bother to wait. She tore open Bill's shirt and pulled out her wand.

"RENNERVATE!"

The most terrible ache suddenly hit Arthur as he put both of his hands on either side of his head. Everything around him started spinning. He stumbled and lost his balance, collapsing to the floor. He heard voices around him yelling but couldn't make anything out clearly. The last thing he saw was the sight of his wife standing over Bill, screaming the reviving spell over and over again before blackness overcame him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop located at Number 93 Diagon Alley was always a joyful place for people to come visit. All the products were always on display, new things were being developed all the time. It was always such a place of happiness and fun...until now. For the first time, the shop was closed. There wasn't one customer in the store. Not a sound was coming out of it. Inside, Fred and George sat in chairs right next to each other, both of them were stone-faced. At any time, any situation, one or both of them could make a joke or pull a prank to make somebody laugh. They couldn't do that this time around.

Nothing was funny.

There was nothing to joke about. Two of their brothers were now dead. When they left the Burrow, their mother was asleep in her room, as she was being kept on heavy calming droughts. Their father had drunk himself until he passed out on the couch. They promised Ron and Ginny they would be back as soon as they locked down the store.

Aurors had investigated the crime. A healer they interviewed had told them that Fleur Delacour was the last person to visit Bill. He was alive before she had arrived, he was dead after she left. The healer had stated that Fleur was very distraught when told about Bill's attack. How he would have werewolf characteristics from now on, that she wondered how it might effect any children the two of them would have. When aurors arrived at the apartment that Fleur shared with Bill, they found her dead as well. They examined her wand and used 'Prior Incantato' to see the last spell she had cast. It was the killing curse. They ruled her and Bill to be a murder-suicide. Things got even crazier because amongst her jewelry they had found a dragon pendant that had once belonged to Charlie Weasley. That linked her to his murder as well.

This didn't make sense. This just didn't make any sense.

Fleur was the last person who would commit suicide. If Fleur was that upset about the state of Bill, she would have never had murdered Bill, she just would have left him. And Charlie? What reason could Fleur possibly have for wanting to kill Charlie? Appearances could be deceiving, things go on behind closed doors that others don't get to see the aurors had said. The couple could have been having problems, Fleur could have been having problems. They really couldn't explain why Fleur did what she did, only that the evidence pointed to her.

They just continued to sit in silence as if they knew what each other were thinking. Fred and George both suddenly jumped when they heard the sound of the bell jingle as the door to the shop opened. They both jumped up, wands in hand only to see that it was a young woman.

"Excuse me, we're closed." George stated.

"I'm sorry, but I really need to talk to you." Penelope responded. "I don't know if you remember me, but my name is Penelope Clearwater, I'm Percy's girlfriend."

George looked at her closer. "Oh yeah." He then sat his wand down on the small table that stood between the chairs. Fred did the same. "Does he know?"

"Know what?"

"It's nothing." George shook his head as he didn't want to tell her about Bill's death if she didn't know and tried to remain as cool as possible. "Do you need something?"

"No, not me. It's Percy..."

The twins looked at each other as they immediately thought the worst.

"Is he okay?"

"Well..."

"Is he okay?" Fred demanded.

"I don't know." Penelope cried. "He's really been acting strange over the last few months. Then I took him to my parents' house for New Years and he just left in the middle of the night after we went to sleep without waking me up to tell me he was leaving. I haven't seen him since. I've been to his apartment but he won't answer the door."

"He hasn't been talking to any of us." George responded.

"I don't know what it is, but-" Penelope then stopped as she felt a tear drip down her left cheek. "There's something wrong, and I'm really worried about him."

The twins approached her.

"Don't worry," Fred tried to comfort her as he put a hand on her arm. "Percy's going to be fine."

The twins then assured her that they would check on Percy right away. Penelope thanked the both of them and left the shop. Immediately, Fred and George started talking about what to do. They decided that they would check the Ministry first. If Percy wasn't working, they would go to his flat. Fred stated that they would beat the piss out of the door if that's what it took to get him to answer. They all needed to be together at the Burrow. Unbeknownst to them, the whole time they had been talking, an odorless, colorless gas was pouring out of the vents in the shop.

"Fred, we need to be calm about this." George said.

"CALM!" Fred yelled. "Bill and Charlie are dead! I don't care what those aurors said, Fleur didn't do it! Somebody is after us!" After he yelled that, Fred began coughing. George exhaled heavily before rubbing his eyes as they started to sting. He hated to admit it but maybe Fred was right. Even if he wasn't, their parents were an emotional wreak. They all needed to be around for them. They all needed to be around for each other.

Fred then rubbed his forehead. Suddenly, he didn't feel so good.

"George...I feel...weird..."

George then realized how dry his throat had become.

"Me too. Let's get some air." George went to the door and tried to open it but couldn't. He used more force but still couldn't get it open. It was if it was locked from the outside. "What the hell?" He asked himself.

"Stand back!" Fred yelled as he took a deep breath. "I'll blast the damn door off!" Fred then spun around and headed to get his wand from the table but midway, stumbled and hit the floor with one knee.

"Fred!" George coughed as he moved towards his twin. What was going on? He too then fell to his knees. "Are you alright?"

The two of them began coughing uncontrollably. Fred managed to say;

"No...I feel sick."

George did as well. He felt like he was going to vomit. His sight was becoming hazy and he felt like he was going to pass out when to his relief he saw the door being opened by somebody.

"Look!" He pointed towards it. "Someone got the door open!"

He was about to yell out for help but the figure rapidly approached them, and that person was wearing a gas mask. Once he was standing over the twins, Percy pulled off the mask. Fred and George looked up at him in shock before Percy pulled out his wand and nailed them both with stunners, knocking the twins unconscious.

Chapter 10: Flesh and Blood

Chapter Text

"What's all this noise?" A voice suddenly demanded from the doorway. They all turned to see Percy sticking his head through the door with a very annoyed look on his face. He had a jumper of his own thrown across his arm which Fred noticed immediately. He seized it and alongside George began trying to force it over Percy's head.

"'P' for Prefect!" Fred laughed. "Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry got one!"

"I...don't-want!" Percy protested but the twins ignored his complaints and managed to pull it on him.

"And you're not sitting with the Prefects today." George added. "Christmas is a time for family." And with that statement, Fred and George forced their older brother to frog-march out of the room with Ron and Harry following behind.

Percy had to force himself not to smile as he realized the twins were going to make him spend the day with them. He really couldn't remember the last time he did anything with the twins or Ron because he had become so...for lack of better word, 'obsessed' with his school work. Percy wasn't doing on purpose, it was just that he was doing so well that if he kept it up there was no doubt that he would become Head Boy in his seventh year just like Bill had been.

They had an early Christmas dinner with a massive roast turkey, potatoes cooked in any way you could think of. Stuffing, peas, carrots, gravy and cranberry sauce, and there were large stacks of Wizard Crackers across every table. After the main meal disappeared, it was replaced by flaming Christmas pudding. The professors were all become tipsy as they were drinking some kind of alcohol and Percy could swear Hagrid was becoming drunker by the minute.

That afternoon they all had a snowball fight out in the grounds and after a few hours once they were too cold and tried to continue they returned to the common room. They drank hot tea and ate crumpets and sandwiches. Harry lost spectacularly to Ron in a game of Wizards Chess with his new chessman, and then laughed as they watched Percy chase Fred and George around the Common Room after they stole his Prefect badge.

Fred and George tossed the badge back and forth between them before Percy finally managed to tackle Fred to the ground when it was passed to him. The two rolled around the ground for about a minute before Percy finally got Fred in some kind of chokehold as Ron and Harry continued to look on.

"I think Percy might actually hurt him this time." Ron said with glee.

"Alright...Percy, jeez." Fred coughed as he handed Percy back his badge. You would have thought he had just stolen Percy's newborn baby the way he reacted to getting his Prefect badge taken away. Percy snatched his badge back before he let Fred go, getting up and returning to his room. George helped Fred to his feet and the two of them followed after their older brother.

"When you're not ratting us out to Mum and Dad you're actually fun to hang out with." George smiled as the twins walked into the room. "You weren't so boring today."

"Gee, thanks." Percy muttered as he picked up a book from the nightstand and threw himself down on the bed while the twins sat down next to each other on the bed right beside his that belonged to Oliver Wood.

"Never thought I'd hear anyone use 'Percy and the word 'fun' in the same sentence." Fred then laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck which was now red and sore.

George smiled. It was fun actually getting Percy to do something with them for a change, just like he used to when they were younger and not at Hogwarts yet. Nowadays he was always either reading or studying. George could tell that Percy had a good time today but now that it was over it was obvious that Percy just wanted to get back to the book he was reading. Against his better judgement, George decided to bring something up. "Today's the first time in a while since you've done anything with us."

"Isn't it?" Fred echoed. "You're also so busy with schoolwork."

George could hear the slight bitterness in his twin's voice. Percy only shrugged. "I have to keep busy with schoolwork if I want to get the Head Boy position." Percy responded.

"Another Head Boy in the family." Fred shook his head in mock agony. "Oh the shame, the shame."

"Still," George continued, he was attempting to have a serious conversation with his older brother but it didn't seem like Percy realized it. "Why don't you take some time for yourself once in a while?"

"I have to work hard so I can eventually get a good job at the Ministry, a respectable job. If I stop it now, who knows?" Percy then joked; "I could wind up working at a joke shop after I graduate." Percy was only kidding but when he saw Fred and George's matching hurt expressions, he realized that he had just accidently insulted them. Opening up their own joke shop was all the twins ever talked about after they got out of Hogwarts. The hurt the twins felt quickly turned to anger.

"Yeah." Fred finally spoke as he narrowed his eyes at his older brother. "Because Perfect Prefect Percy is so above having to work at a joke shop."

Percy opened his mouth to apologize and tell them he didn't mean it like that, but Fred and George quickly got up and stormed out of the room before he could. Percy then frowned as he began to wonder how they were going to get back at him for that. He was going to have to have eyes in the back of his head and closely examine his clothes and food for a couple of weeks.

He sat up against the headboard of the bed, opening up his book.What had just happened was a reminder to Percy as to why he didn't tell jokes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gasping for air when his eyes opened, George widely looked around and quickly realized that he was still in the shop. He then realized he had been tied to the chair he was previously sitting in. Fred was right next to him, tied to his chair as well. George tried to pull at the ropes but couldn't. They were so tight that he couldn't even budge.

"Fred!" George whispered. "Fred wake up!" Fred stirred and groaned as he slowly came to.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know." George kept looking around the store in a panic. "The last thing I saw was...Percy."

The twins could only look at each other as they remembered. Percy did this to them? Why would Percy do this? They then heard the sound of footsteps coming down the staircase from the second floor. Once Percy came off the last step, he slowly walked over to them with a large canister in his hand. He started to walk closer towards them.

"So,thisis all that you ever wanted?" Percy asked. "This was your big dream?"

Percy's eyes then began to roam around the shop and by the look on his face you'd thought he had never seen something so disgusting in his entire life.

"Living in an everlasting childhood without any real responsibilities, getting to act anyway you want. The problem with that is somebody still has to be responsible. If everyone acted like you two idiots, this world would dissolve into chaos. So, you need people like me to take up all the real work, that way you never have to grow up. Well, guess what? I'm done chasing after you. I'm done trying to keep you out of trouble. Your free ride on my back is over!"

Fred and George couldn't speak. They couldn't take their terrified eyes off of Percy as he continued to belittle them.

"The two of you are such an embarrassment. Even your own mother thought so. She named you to honor her brothers, Gideon and Fabien. They were the kind of men you never were, never have been, and never could be. You two are so pathetic that it's actually sickening to know we share the same parents."

Percy turned away from them and began pouring something, some kind of liquid around the store from the canister. It had a horrible smell. After a few moments Fred finally managed to say in a quiet voice;

"You used to read to us."

Percy stopped what he was doing but didn't turn around. George looked over at his twin as Fred continued;

"When we were little we would sit on either side of you on the couch, and you read us a story each night. Sometimes you read until all three of us fell asleep and Dad had to carry us up to our rooms." On some occasions, Arthur would put the three of them on the same bed, Percy in the middle with the twins wrapped around either side of him. It was such a cute sight that Molly and Arthur would just watch the three of them sleep until they became too tired and had to go to sleep themselves.

"And then when you started going to Hogwarts it was like we didn't even matter to you anymore." Fred then continued. "We had to play all those pranks on you to get you to remember that we even existed. You no longer gave us the time of day. Maybe if you had paid half as much as attention to us when you were in school as you did your little badges we would still be as close as we were when we were kids. You abandoned us! WE WERE YOUR GODDAMN BROTHERS!"

Hot tears of anger slowly ran down Fred's face as he now trembled with rage. Listening to Fred gave George the courage he needed to speak up as well.

"I hated listening to it." George had to confess. "Mum always comparing us to you. You made her think that we weren't doing anything with our lives, that we were going to amount to nothing. Every time you ran up to her bragging about another one of your accomplishments-"

"Hey, if I did that it was only because out of the three of us, I was the only one who had any accomplishments!" Percy interrupted as he spun around to glare at them.

"Well now we have one!" Fred shouted back. "You can think what you want about it, but opening this shop is all George and I ever wanted to do and we did it."

George nodded and raised his chin in defiance.

"We like who we are." He stated. "The world needs people like us too. They need people like us so they can remember to laugh every once in a while, and not take everything so seriously. Everyone likes a good joke."

Percy rolled his eyes.

"The biggest joke is that there's two of you."

Fred took a deep breath as he stared at the ground. He couldn't believe this was happening.

"Whatever. Do your worst Percy."

Percy snorted.

"Do my worst?" Percy couldn't help but laugh a little. "I'm not some sort of monster. Do you really think I want to hurt you?" The twins could only glare at their older brother over that statement. Percy had already hurt them worse than any spell ever could. "Whether I like it or not, you are my mother and father's other sons."

Percy walked closer to Fred and George. He bent down so he could look them both in their eyes.

"I don't want you to suffer. I just want you to die."

Those words made both of Fred and George's jaws drop. How he said it so casually like he was asking for a glass of water. Their eyes refilled with tears as they could only stare at Percy. This was not their brother. This was a stranger, a killer. The look in his eyes sent a chill up Fred's spine.

"Who are you?" He finally managed, his voice trembling.

Percy straightened up and pointed his wand at them.

"I am Arthur and Molly Weasley's only son."

After that, just as he had done with Bill and Charlie, Percy took Fred and George's lives as well. Several minutes later, the shop exploded, going up in flames and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes became a crematorium. The Burrow was Percy's next stop. How fitting it was that everything would end there.

Chapter 11: Lullaby For a Stormy Night

Chapter Text

Taking in the fresh air upon arriving at the Burrow, Percy looked up at the beautiful night sky decorated with countless little twinkling stars. He tried to prepare himself the best that he could, going over and over again his strategy. He was so close to being done. Percy was well aware of the emotional state of his mother and father, so this needed to end here and now, tonight. Percy planned to do away with Ron first. He would get him alone and away from the house. It would be easier said than done, only because Ron was still so mad at him but Percy was sure that he could pull it off. He would ask to talk to Ron alone, outside. He would beg for forgiveness, work up some tears if that's what it took for Ron to lower his guard so Percy could take his life.

After a few more seconds, Percy finally approached the front door when suddenly...

"Tell me I'm your favorite son."

"I am Arthur and Molly Weasley's only son."

Percy's own voice began to echo throughout his mind. Just then, he realized that had been saying 'son' instead of 'child'. He remembered how thrilled his parents had been when they found out they were finally going to have a girl, the daughter they always wanted. Percy was happy about it too and he enjoyed spending time with her. That was until she started getting older. They drifted apart the same way Percy had from Fred, George, and Ron. He wished he had a good reason for why that had happened in each relationship he had with his younger siblings, but Percy didn't.

He then began to seriously think that maybe if didn't have to do away with Ginny.

'Could I leave her be?' Percy wondered to himself. Could he erase Ginny's memories and start all over with her? It would just be the four of them. A mother, a father, one son, one daughter. That did sound nice to him. It was something he could live with. He could live with only having a little sister.

"Alright." Percy said to himself. "Let's finish this."

He went to open the front door but right before he could walk inside, Percy froze yet again.

Ginny was friends with just about everyone Ron was friends with. It had greatly annoyed Ron at first. He had told Percy during his second year that he wished Ginny would get her own friends instead of hanging around his all the time. Percy responded by telling Ron to give Ginny a break, and that it was just Ginny's way of showing that she still wanted to be around him. Harry Potter and that Hermione girl were over here all the time. They would become suspicious. They wound find out what Percy had done.

He couldn't leave any loose ends. Ginny had to go.

Percy let out a groan as he felt his knees buckle. Percy slumped forward and rested his forehead against the door. He was so worn out from this.

Finally, inside of the house, Percy made his way up the stairs and could hear the sound of the shower running. The closer he got to Ron's bedroom the more his hands began to shake. Percy raised an eyebrow once he saw that Ron's bedroom door was open, no light. Ron always kept his door closed. Ginny's room was right next to his, the door was open and the light was on. No one was inside. Percy quickly did a search of the Burrow, the last place he stopped was his Mum and Dad's room. The two of them were asleep, thankfully. Arthur had his arms wrapped around Molly. He watched them for a few seconds before closing the door.

"Don't worry." Percy whispered. "It's almost over."

There was no sign of Ron anywhere. Ginny must have been the one in the bathroom. He quickly went back to Ginny's bedroom. Once he was inside, Percy took a seat on the bed and simply waited. He didn't know why he was so nervous, even more so then when this all began with Charlie. Maybe it's because this time it was happening inside of the home they all grew up in. He had so many memories here, both good and bad. Percy's eyes wandered around the room until settling upon a shelf where Ginny kept all her favorite stuffed animals she had when she was a little girl.

One in particular got Percy's attention...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was the beginning of August. Outside, the rain was pelting the top of the roof, beating against the windows as it had been raining non-stop for the past several days but tonight it was the worst. Their mother was making them all stay inside until the storm had passed. Tonight was supposed to be the last night before they finally saw the sun shine again. They were all bored out of their minds by this point, even Percy who was more of an in-door person was tired of the grey skies and rain. Percy shifted in his bed as he was almost asleep when he heard the creaking noise of his door being slowly opened.

A loud rumble of thunder broke across the sky followed by a streak of lighting which caused a shriek from the person who had just entered his room, followed by a pair of small feet rushing to the bedside. Percy opened one eye to see his five year old little sister standing there, her head just barely above the frame of the mattress as she stared at him with terrified eyes.

"Kiddo," Percy sighed as he looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was going on eleven-thirty. "This is the third night in a row. Are you going for a record in the five year old's insomniac hall of fame?"

"I can't sleep." Ginny's voice was just above a whisper. "Fred and George told me the thunder-boomers were going to get me tonight."

Percy clenched a fist. He couldn't wait until morning when he could tell Mum about this so he could see the twins going to over their mother's knee for a spanking. They knew just like everyone else how scared Ginny was of storms and shouldn't scare her like that. Percy sighed.

"Well, do you want to stay with me tonight?"

"Can I?"

"I just said you could." Percy pulled back the covers for her.

"Can Jasper stay too?" Ginny held out the stuffed animal she had been clutching to her chest, a purple Hippogriff. Percy smiled and nodded before Ginny jumped onto the bed. He threw the blanket over them before hooking an arm over her. She was so frightened that she was trembling.

"Shh, it's okay." Percy assured her but his words did little comfort. He rubbed Ginny's shoulder as tried to think of something. His eyes then brightened as he got an idea. Percy remembered a song that his Uncle Gideon would sing to him the times he got scared from a nightmare when he was Ginny's age. Percy memorized every word but he had never sung it to any of his younger siblings before, because, well...why would he? However, Ginny was different. She should react well to this.

He began to softly sing;

"Little child, be not afraid. The rain pounds harsh against the glass. Like an unwanted stranger, there is no danger, I am here tonight." Ginny wrapped her arms around him as Percy lightly stroked her hair and continued; "Though thunder explodes and lightning flashes, illuminating your tearstained face. I am here tonight."

The crash of lightning going off caused Ginny to jump and cling to her older brother even tighter, if that were possible. Smiling a little, Percy scooted himself up so he was sitting up against the wall. He gently pulled Ginny up off his chest and sat her down on his lap so she could look into his eyes, see how calm he was. See that there was nothing to be afraid of. "And someday you'll know that nature is so, the same rain that draws you near me." Percy continued the song. "Falls on rivers and land, on forests and sand, makes the beautiful world that you'll see in the morning."

It seemed as if the song was soothing her as Ginny slowly blinked a couple of times. To his delight, she looked like she was getting sleepy. Percy went on.

"Little child, be not afraid though storm clouds mask your beloved moon. And its candlelight beams, still keep pleasant dreams, I am here tonight." Ginny laid down, her head on Percy's stomach. He watched her as her little body went up and down with his breathing. Thunder rumbled again, but this time she didn't jump. "Little child, be not afraid, though wind makes creatures of trees and their branches to hands, they're not real, understand, I am here tonight. For you know, once I was a child and afraid. But a gentle someone came, to dry all my tears, trade sweet sleep for fears and to give a kiss goodnight."

Carefully, he grabbed a pillow and placed it behind his head as Percy stared up at the ceiling, now thinking about his late uncles and how much he missed them.

"Well now I am grown and these years have shown, that rain's a part of how life goes." Percy sang quieter now. "But it's dark and it's late so I'll hold you and wait, til' your frightened eyes do close. And I hope that you'll know that nature is so. The same rain that draws you near me."

Percy smiled when he looked down to see that Ginny was asleep. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head before whispering the end of the song.

"Everything's fine in the morning. The rain will be gone in the morning, but I'll still be here in the morning."

Upon finishing the song, Percy found that his eyelids had grown rather heavy. He moved himself off the wall and back down into the bed as carefully as he could without disturbing Ginny. Once Percy's head hit the pillow he began to sleep soundly with a smile on his face. Tonight, he was every bit the older brother that Ginny needed him to be.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ginny had just finished drying off. She threw her bathrobe on and headed back to her room. Her eyes were red from all the crying she had done. She was scared for the rest of her family, scared for Ron who was now off on a dangerous mission. Ginny tried to get him to stay but Ron didn't give in to her pleas. He told her that he needed to go, he needed to help Harry kill the Dark Lord before someone else they loved died. She walked into her bedroom and decided that she was going to take a calming drought, the same one her Mum was taking to help her sleep tonight. She tied her hair back when suddenly her door slammed, causing Ginny to jump.

Spinning around, Ginny saw that Percy, of all people had been standing behind her door. He was holding her old stuffed Hippogriff in one hand, intently staring down at it.

"Percy?" She was about to rush over to him but something about Percy's demeanor kept her back. "Are...are you okay?"

"Where is Ron, Ginny?" Percy's voice was low and gravelly.

"He's with Harry and Hermione. It's something to do with the Dark Lord." Ginny slowly answered. "Where are Fred and George?"

Percy shook his head, again ignoring the question.

"Ron's off being the good little sidekick. Why am I not surprised?"

Percy then violently threw the stuffed animal to the floor, right at her feet which caused Ginny to jump. Percy didn't have to worry about any noise waking his parents up because he had placed a silencing charm on the room. He finally looked at his only sister. Unlike Fred and George, she was so different now than when she was little. In a lot of ways, Percy felt like he had drifted further apart from Ginny the most.

Ginny took a step backwards. Percy's eyes were bloodshot and had something in them that she had never seen before.

"Percy...you're scaring me."

That caused Percy to smile slightly.

"You use to come to me all the time when you were scared. Do you remember?" He took a step towards her, she took another step back. "You probably don't. You're not the sweet little girl you use to be. You've become a good for nothing brat just like the twins." Ginny had backed up so much she was now against the wall. She was trembling and had a terrified look on her face. It was the same look she had that night when she came seeking comfort from the storm.

"Percy," she finally found her voice. "What's wrong with you? It's me, Ginny. I'm your sister."

"Not anymore. You're nothing to me."

Percy forgot about his wand because this time his emotions had overtaken him. Ginny wasn't just the only girl, she was the baby of the family. This was going to hurt Percy so bad because while growing up they all felt like they had a duty to protect her. Percy lunged for Ginny. Not knowing what else to do, Ginny swung a fist and nailed Percy in the face causing him to stumble backwards. Ginny tried to run around him but Percy caught the collar of her bathrobe and threw Ginny into the wall which her head smacked right into. She slumped to the floor and moaned from the pain as she placed a hand on her now throbbing head.

Percy managed to calm himself as he found his wand. Ginny crawled herself back up to her feet but her vision was blurred. She didn't even see the curse coming.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Percy felt his entire body go numb as he watched Ginny's lifeless body collapse back down to the floor. He turned his head away from the sight and began dry-heaving uncontrollably. He sat back against the wall, eyes watery and sweating. His stomach now hurt because he couldn't throw up, Percy couldn't even remember the last time he ate anything. He began to scratch uncontrollably and at that moment wished he could give anything if he could jump out of his own skin.

'You can't stop now. You still have a lot to do.'

Pulling himself back up to his feet, Percy had a lot of transfiguration to get to. Old pictures and photo albums. Baby clothes and old toys that had been kept for sentimental reasons had to be destroyed. There could be no sign that anyone other than Percy lived and grew up in this house.

But first, the most important task.

Percy slowly made his way to his parents bedroom and carefully opened the door. He knew that Ron was still out there somewhere but Percy couldn't wait any longer. He raised his wand and pointed it towards them. Percy gripped his wrist, trying to stop the shakes. Everything that he had done had built towards this moment. He felt the spell on his lips. After what seemed like an eternity, Percy finally managed to say;

"Obliviate."

Percy felt an instant connection to the minds of his parents. In this own mind's eye, he could see the thoughts and memories Arthur and Molly had of their six other children. He felt the strain of taking those memories away. Many different moments of life growing up in the Burrow whizzed by him as if they were on fast-forward. His parents' thoughts and memories began to fill Percy's own mind as the spell intensified and his heart began to feel heavier with every passing second. Percy managed to turn his head towards the large picture of all nine of them Molly and Arthur had in the center of their wall. Percy watched as Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny disappeared as though they were never there in the first place.

Percy walked throughout the Burrow, making sure that every last photo that did not have him in it was erased. Percy finally made his way back to Ron's bedroom. He turned on the light and stood in the middle of the room.

"I don't know where you are, little Ronniekins. But I will find you...and I will erase you too."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The song Percy sings to Ginny is called "Lullaby for a Stormy Night" by Vienna Teng

Chapter 12: And Then There Was One

Chapter Text

After shoving his feet into a pair of slippers and throwing his bath robe on, Arthur headed down the stairs to go to the kitchen. Molly was awake too and told her husband she would be down in a minute to make breakfast. As soon as he reached the downstairs, Arthur froze when he saw a young man in the living room, sleeping in his recliner. It was his estranged son, Percy. He hadn't been home in a little over two years, ever since their argument. The only times he saw Percy were the brief glimpses he would get of him when he arrived for work in the morning at the Ministry. Other than that, Arthur had no contact at all with his son. Percy's leaving was unexpected and it really did hurt him and his wife very badly. Carefully, Arthur walked over and looked down at his son. Percy looked so worn out, Arthur hated to wake him but he gently put a hand on his shoulder and lightly shook it.

"Percy?" The younger man stirred and opened his eyes to see his father standing over. "This is a pleasant surprise." Arthur stated.

"Hey, D-Dad." Percy slightly stammered. Percy didn't erase the memory of their fight. He felt like it was something that needed to be resolved between them.

Arthur raised his eyebrows, taken aback as a small smile came to his face. "You…you called me Dad." Percy hadn't called him that since he was in his second year at Hogwarts. After that, it had always been 'Father'. Arthur didn't know why, but he hated it that Percy called him Father.

Percy slowly got to his feet. "Is it too late?"

The older man blinked, slightly confused. "Is what too late?"

"To come back."

Arthur shook his head.

"Of course not. It would never be too late. You should have known that."

Finally, a smile came over Percy's face. The last time he had smiled like this was when his parents bought him his owl. He pulled his Dad into a tight embrace and tears began to flow from both of their eyes. They held each other for about several minutes before finally letting go. The two of them wiped their faces.

"Percy, I know we both said things we shouldn't have, but you have to understand why I had my suspicions." Arthur said, referring to Percy's promotion,

Percy raised his chin. "It hurt that you didn't think that I earned it." His father had always supported him. Percy truly believed that he deserved the job of Junior Assistant to the Minister but his father hadn't thought so.

Arthur's face fell. He placed his hands on Percy's shoulders. This is where Arthur had failed his son. "I think you have earned your place and more," Arthur stated, shocking him. Percy did not know how to react to that statement. "I just didn't think that Fudge would give such a job to a Weasley no matter how suited you'd be. No matter how hard you worked that you would get promoted to a position like that in such a short amount of time. You have to understand my suspicions."

This caused Percy to hesitate. He couldn't deny that. "Dad I..."

"But your my only son." Arthur continued which caused Percy to smile again. Merlin, it had worked. "I never wanted to lose you over this."

"I'm sorry." Percy stated. "I didn't mean for my job to come between us."

Arthur smiled back and hugged Percy tightly again. Tears refilled the older man's eyes. "I'm sorry too. Does this mean you're done being mad at me?"

Percy let out a small laugh. "Yes."

By this time, Molly had finally made her way down the stairs only to freeze in place when she saw the scene before her."PERCY!" She quickly ran down the rest of the stairs and to her son, grabbing him in a bone-crushing hug. After a minute, she let go and placed a hand on the side of Percy's face."Dear, you look terrible."

"Thanks Mum," Percy grinned.

"It's true." Arthur agreed with his wife as he looked Percy over more closely. He was pale and he had bags under his eyes. He also looked like he had lost weight. "You look sick."

"I've just been so busy lately."

What he had been doing had taken a lot out of Percy. He also had a long night. Percy had turned the room that Bill and Charlie use to share into a guest room. Ron's room had become a library. Fred and George's room became a storage room, Ginny's was now a sewing room he had made for his mother.

"There is no way you're going to work today." Arthur stated. "When's the last time you took a day off?"

Percy blinked. "I don't think I ever have."

"You're probably being serious. Well, no work for you today, young man." Molly stated. "Get into bed, I'll bring you some soup."

He smiled and looked to his Dad.

"Will you stay with me?"

Arthur smiled back.

"Of course. I'll stay home for as long as it takes for you to get better."

A few minutes after he entered his bedroom, his mother brought him some chicken noodle soup. Percy hadn't eaten his mother's food for so long, he forgotten just how great of a cook she was. Rain was lightly now starting to come down. He pushed the curtains together to darken the room, and got into bed. After about fifteen minutes, Percy's eyelids grew heavy and he drifted off to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Unfortunately, the war was getting much worse. Not only had Albus Dumbledore been killed by Severus Snape when Hogwarts was invaded by Death Eaters, but the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour had been murdered with Pius Thicknesse being put in his place. He declared a state of martial law and was having muggle-born wizards and witches arrested for the crime of 'stealing magic.' The Dark Lord was slowly taking over. Percy began attending meetings with his father with members of the Order of the Phoenix headed by Kingsley Shacklebolt. When the members saw Arthur and Percy they couldn't believe how well together they seemed for a family that had suffered the losses they had. Of course, no one dared bring it up. The worst part for Percy was that Ron, the only sibling he had left was out there running around with Harry Potter doing who knows what. Ron was the only thing that stood in-between Percy finally getting what he wanted more than anything.

Although chaos was going on in the outside world, Percy was having the time of his life. It was because he gave up his apartment and moved back home. He got to spend day after day with his mother and father. They all went about their days the best they could, as normal as they could until finally it happened. They received a message from Minerva McGonagall that The Dark Lord and his army were getting ready to attack Hogwarts.

Arthur and Molly were preparing themselves but Percy wasn't about to let them go. He knew Ron would be there, he couldn't risk one of them running into him.

"I'm going by myself." Percy stated. "I'll help get the students to safety."

"You can't just expect us to sit here while you go out and risk your life." Arthur told him. "You're my only son. I don't want to lose you."

"That's not going to happen." Percy promised. "I don't want to lose either of you. Please, I just need you to listen to me on this. Just trust me."

"You know I trust you."

"Then please stay here. Look after mother."

Frowning, Arthur reluctantly agreed. He and Molly hugged Percy tightly.

"Please be careful." Molly said, tears lightly falling down her cheeks.

"I will, I promise. I'm coming back home."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Smoke spiraled into the sky steaming from multiple fires that had had scorched the earth. Stone had crumbled off the castle. Hogwarts was getting torn apart as pieces of rock and other debris were falling towards the ground. Large parts of castle were missing as duels were taking places both in and out of the school. Several trolls nearly twenty feet tall began charging towards the school with large battle axes in hand. As they got closer, thick veins ripped out from under the ground and tied themselves around one of the troll's legs making it fall were more veins appeared and wrapped around the rest of its body, but the other two made it past. They began swinging widely, taking out many of the statues McGonagall had made come to life. They marched forward and stabbed at the trolls with their swords. One troll took out at least half a dozen of them as the Death Eaters began apparating, hitting parts of the school as they forced their way inside.

Everywhere curses flew, the deadly green of the Killing Curse being used rapidly from both sides as one fought for survival and the other fought for supremacy. The staff of Hogwarts and the students who were old enough to fight had been joined the Order of the Phoenix as they defended Hogwarts from Voldemort and his Death Eaters. The younger students had long been cleared away, hurried to safety through a secret passage before the battle had begun.

Ron had gotten separated from Hermione as he dove behind a large heap of rubble when a curse was sent his way. More curses were being fired at him when he finally took his chance and leaped up from his cover, sending a stunner at the Death Eater that had targeted him.

Striking him in squarely in the chest and throwing the large man backward, his wand flying out of his hand and clattering, harmless, to the cobblestone of the courtyard. The fall had knocked the mask from the Death Eater's face, and Ron recognized the man as Antonin Dolohov, a higher-ranked Death Eater that they had fought in the Department of Mysteries during their fifth year.

In a surge of anger, Ron ran over to the fallen Death Eater and kicked Dolohov's right in the face. He grinned when he heard a satisfying crunch as the man's nose broke under his foot. Ron kicked Dolohov again, right in the forehead with all his might, knocking him out when suddenly a curse nailed him in the back, causing him to fly forward and land painfully a few feet away.

Groaning, Ron pulled himself back up, wand in hand ready to duel whoever it was that had targeted him. Nothing could prepare him for what he saw once his vision cleared.

"Percy?" Ron stated in shock. Percy fired another spell at him that Ron just barely was able to dodge. "Percy what the hell are you doing!? It's me!"

Percy wasn't going to waste time explaining his actions to his youngest brother. Ron was the only thing that stood in his way of finally getting what he wanted. He wouldn't be denied. He had to have this. There was no one else was around. It was just the two of them.

This ends, now.

"You're the last, Ron." Percy stated as he came forward. "I've killed all the others."

"What others? What are you talking about?"

"Bill, Charlie." Percy spat their names like they were poison. "It was me, Ron. I was the one who killed them. I killed Fred and George."

Ron stared at him in disbelief. "Fred and George aren't dead." He listed to that radio all night, every night when he hunted the horcruxes with Harry and Hermione to make sure that he never heard their names which he never did. But a sick feeling overcame him when he realized he hadn't run into them at all during this entire battle.

"Yes, they are." Percy then took their wands out from his robe and threw them at Ron's feet. "And I killed Ginny."

Ron couldn't speak. A cold pain hit his stomach. His family couldn't be dead.

"Mum..." He finally managed to say. "Dad?"

"My mother and father are alive and they're at home waiting for me. I'm here for you." Percy had thought about this time after time. "When this is over, I will be the only child they ever had."

Ron could only continue to stare at this thing that was before him. He looked like Percy, but it wasn't him. A Death Eater had used Polyjuice potion to assume his identity. That had to be it. And Fred, George, and Ginny weren't dead. He refused to believe it.

"You're not really Percy." Ron stated as he shook his head. "I don't believe you. What have you done with him?" He demanded while raising his wand to him.

"It is me, Ron."

Ron blinked as he began thinking of a question only Percy would know the answer to. He then asked;

"What did you give me in my third year at Hogwarts?"

Percy smirked. With no hesitation he answered;

"My pet rat, Scabbers."

Ron's jaw dropped and his eyes quickly watered.

"I killed the others, Ron." Percy stated again. "You're the last."

"YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!" Ron screamed while coming forward, blinding firing spell after spell as he was consumed with rage. "WHY?!" He demanded. "WHY!? WE WERE YOUR FAMILY!"

"BECAUSE I"M DONE SHARING MY PARENTS WITH ANYBODY ELSE!" Percy screamed back while firing back curses of his own. "THEY'RE MY PARENTS! MINE! I'M THEIR SON!"

"I'M THEIR SON TOO!" Ron bellowed back.

"NOT FOR MUCH LONGER YOU WON'T BE!"

Then, wands forgotten, the two brothers began fighting with their fists. Percy let Ron come at him then grabbed his wrist and ducked down, using Ron's momentum to throw him over his back. Percy kept a firm grip on Ron's arm after his fall, then when he was down, he twisted Ron's arm back and applied pressure to his elbow and wrist while pressing his knee into Ron's shoulder. Ron struggled against him for a moment, trying to break free while biting down on his teeth through the pain. Getting nowhere in a hurry, he finally relaxed and thought for a second...then reached up with his free hand and raked Percy across his eyes.

Percy yelled out in pain and staggered backward, holding his eyes and releasing his hold. Ron rolled out from under him and got back to his feet, ready to throw anything he had at his older brother but found himself begin charged by him again. Percy rushed at Ron blindly, however, since his eyes still ached from the rake, but Ron got an idea.

Ron ducked low under Percy's arms, then rammed his shoulder into Percy's gut, grabbing him around his waist, lifting him into the air and running forward a few steps before slamming Percy back down into the ground again with all his might, knocking the air clean out of him. Percy coughed and felt blood in his mouth as he laid under Ron, momentarily stunned. He was so out of it that Ron was able to get on top of him and start pummeling away at his face and chest for a good few seconds before Percy finally managed to recover and reversed their positions so that he was on top and began punching Ron in the face, blooding his nose and upper lip.

After striking Ron hard in the chest, Percy pulled away from his younger brother and scooted backwards. Ron also had a bad cut over his left eyebrow and a bad bruise was beginning to form on his right cheek. The two of them just stared at each other with unblinking eyes.

Percy then started to laugh as he remembered something. Ron couldn't even remember the last time he had heard Percy laugh. It caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. He still couldn't believe that this person he had been fighting was his older brother. The brother had had loved despite everything that had happened between him and his parents. Percy continued to laugh as he remembered the reason why he had given Scabbers to Ron in the first place.

"Mum and Dad couldn't even be bothered to buy you a wand, because they wanted to buy me an owl." Percy stated to Ron. "You want to know why they always did so much for me, and so little for you? It's because...THEY. LOVE. ME. MORE! AND YOU KNOW IT!"

Ron raised his chin. He had heard things similar things said to him from that horcrux he destroyed. But this was different. This was his own brother saying this to him, not some evil, possessed artifact. Ron pushed back his insecurities, his jealousy. The two of them just continued to stare at each other as if waiting for one another to make the first move.

"Well, you know what?" Ron finally spoke. "They can love you all they want. BecauseIlove them, more than you do."

Percy co*cked his head.

"What?"

"You heard me." Ron managed a smirk. "I love Mom and Dad more."

"Are you saying I don't love them?"

Ron shook his head.

"Not as much as me."

It was because Percy took them for granted. He didn't even have to try to get their affection. But in Ron's case, he valued every ounce for affection their parents gave him because he had to fight for it.

Raising an eyebrow, Percy responded;

"Well little Ronniekins, I want you to answer this one question honestly. If Ginny had been born before you, do you really think you'd even be here right now?"

Ron's eyes shifted away, taking his attention off of his brother and in that moment, that was all the distraction Percy needed. He dove for his wand. Ron's eyes widened as he quickly did the same, but Percy had been a split second quicker. Percy rolled and jumped back to his feet, pointing his wand at Ron.

"Avada Kedevra!"

The spell hit Ron and he crumbled, lifeless to the ground. Percy fell to his knees before falling forwards, resting his forehead against the dirt. He felt like the weight of the world had just been taken off his shoulders.

It was over. It was finally all over.

He had done it.

He won.

Chapter 13: They're All Gone

Chapter Text

While the war raged on around the Hogwarts castle, Harry was running through the hallways gripping his wand tightly as he held it out in front of him, waiting for an attack. He looked around widely in every direction knowing that Voldemort could come out from anywhere. Finally, Voldemort apparated right in front of him and fired a spell at the younger wizard. Harry managed to fire a spell of his own right back at him, and a stream of green and red lightning collided with each other before Harry managed to deflected the curse upwards, nailing the ceiling above them.

A massive piece of concrete was blasted off the castle and it came crashing down between the two of them. Gaping at the luck that nothing had landed on him, Harry quickly scrambled to his feet and began running through the hallway to buy himself more time. Hopefully by now Hermione and Ron had found Nagini. The snake needed to be killed in order for Voldemort to finally die.

Harry ran up the stone staircase of the bell tower when Voldemort once again appeared in front of him. Voldemort threw a spell at Harry that the younger man barely managed to deflect but it had caused the bridge he was standing on to give away and he crashed to the floor below him. The wind was momentarily knocked out of him but before he could get up, his wrists were restrained by two thick ropes before another wrapped itself around Harry's neck. Harry gasped for air as he felt himself being lifted up into the air. He then saw that the ropes were actually pieces of Voldemort's robe.

The Dark Lord dropped him back on the walkway, right in front of him. He grabbed Harry's hair and threw him face first into the wall before backhanding him. Harry fell to the floor and was then kicked in the ribs. He gasped for air and crawled away, trying to get back to his feet. "You were right-" Harry began but Voldemort struck him in the face again. "When you told Professor Snape the wand was failing you," Harry forced himself to say the words. "It will always fail you."

Voldemort tried to curse him but again, the wand did nothing. It further enraged Voldemort as he stood above Harry.

"I killed Snape!"

"But what if the wand never belonged to Snape? What if the allegiance was always to someone else?"

Voldemort grabbed Harry around the throat and lifted him to his feet. For a long moment, he glared at the young wizard before finally asking; "Why do you live?"

Harry glared right back at him. "Because I have something worth living for." Voldemort had no response and Harry used it to his advantage. ""Come on Tom. Let's finish this the way we started it...together!"

Harry then quickly grabbed Voldemort and they both fell off of the ledge. They flew around crashing into several parts of the school as they fought each other. By this time, both armies had stopped fighting each other and watched the battle between the two of them. Finally, in the courtyard both Harry and Voldemort slammed into the ground and in the process, their wands flew out of their hands. Elsewhere in the castle, Hermione was still searching for Ron. They had gotten separated from one another when a small group of Death Eaters attacked them right after Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem had been destroyed. Luna Lovegood screamed for Hermione to run once he saw that Nagini was slithering up behind her.

"Ron!" Hemione screamed. "Where are you!?" A hiss caused Hermione to looked behind her to see that Nagini was still coming. She fired a curse at the snake before taking off as fast as her tired legs could run.

Harry and Voldemort glared at one another before crawling over to their wands. As soon as they both had a hold of their wands, simultaneously, they fired spells at one another which collided. By this time, Hermione had run down the stairs of the front entrance of Hogwarts, followed by a hissing noise causing her to scream. Neville Longbottom pushed himself through the crowd and saw Hermione rush down the steps with Nagini gaining on her. Hermione tripped but just as Nagini lunged forward to strike, Neville swung the sword he had been carrying which sliced through the middle of the snake, causing it to disappear into a puff of black smoke. Meanwhile, everyone else watched as Harry and Voldemort continued their duel.

Voldemort sent a green light towards Harry but the spell was pushed back by a red lightning. The spells colliding with each other which caused an explosion that made a shockwave, sending Voldemort and Harry flying into the air and slamming them into the ground once again. They both slowly got back up and shot the same spells at each other again.

"Avada Kedavra!"

The green light hit Voldemort in the chest but the spell from Voldemort's wand hit Harry as well.

"HARRY!" Hermione screamed.

Voldemort fell backwards and slowly turned to dust. Harry fell to the ground, unmoving and silent. His eyes remained open. Everyone ran over to him. Shock was etched onto all their faces as Hermione kneeled down to Harry and checked for a pulse...he didn't have one.

"He's alive, isn't he?" Neville asked as others gathered around. "He has to be."

Hermione couldn't answer. She just sobbed into his chest.

"Oh no." McGonagall covered her mouth as tears began to flow from her eyes as she and everyone else around realized the Boy Who Lived had given them all the ultimate sacrifice.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The med-wizards and witches from St Mungo's arrived with a fleet of healers and nurses to take care of the injured. Hermione had lost count as to how many times they levitated people to the infirmary. Everything just came to a standstill. Those who had fought against Voldemort had gathered in the Great Hall where the dead were being kept. The bodies of the dark wizards were being piled up on other side of the hall. The Malfoy family were seated at the end, a little far from the bodies. They had turned on Voldemort at the last minute, so they were being spared from being arrested. The other dark witches and wizards that had been stupefied were held up magically with a small group of aurors guarding them.

Hermione just looked lost as she kept wondering how she was going to tell Ron that his best friend was dead. She kept looking towards the entrance, waiting for him when finally a young man with a red head of hair walked through the entrance. However, it wasn't Ron, it was his older brother Percy...and he was carrying a body over his shoulder.

As Percy walked, he eyed the ones who had died in the battle. He saw Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey. He laid Ron down next to them.

Hermione covered her mouth when she saw him.

"Ron!" Hermione screamed. "Ron, wake up!" She fell to the ground and began to shake him. "Ron, this isn't funny, get up right this instant!" When he didn't stir at at all, she put hands on his face and began to sob helplessly. "Ron…" she choked on the word as her tears began to flow. "I… I…"

Percy sank to the floor beside Hermione and watched as she tried to get Ron to wake up, even though it was hopeless. Ron was dead.

"Ron, you can't be dead. I love you."

The last time Hermione had cried was after Malfoy called her a mudblood for the first time back in their second year. After that, she never cried, not even when she went for days without food while the trio were trying to find the Horcruxes. Not when Ron left them, not when she saw Ron go out with Lavender Brown. She was always the one that did the planning...but now, she was broken. Harry, Ron and her, it had always been the three of them. Now she was the only one left. For some reason, Hermione never believed that it could happen despite how dangerous things had become. She always believed they would get through this.

"What happened?" Hermione finally managed to ask the older Weasley.

"Antonin Dolohov killed him." Percy lied. "But I got him." Percy had killed him too.

Hermione sobbed into Ron's chest.

"No, no, no."

Percy ignored her and just looked at Ron's face. He then reached out and gripped his hand...

XXXXXXXXXXXX

He had always been a heavy sleeper, but for some reason Percy woke up that night. It was a little past midnight. He lit a candle and headed downstairs for something to drink. Once he reached the first floor, Percy spotted Ron on the couch already occupying the sofa, curled up under a blanket of his own.

"Ronald?" Percy questioned causing Ron to jump. "What are you doing up?"

Ron gulped, nervously. "I was...hungry." He responded but the little boy wasn't a good liar and Percy saw right through it.

"What's really wrong?" He asked, concerned while sitting down next to Ron.

He really didn't need to ask. His little brother had been petrified ever since the twins had turned his teddy bear into a spider. It was such a cruel thing to do, even if Ron had broken their toy broom. Ron was only four and a half years old. Fred and George were now paying for it dearly. They were only getting cereal and mushy bananas for breakfast and liver and onions for dinner for a week. They were grounded indefinitely and were told if they wanted a new toy, they would have to save up the money to buy it themselves.

"Sorry I scared you." Percy said.

"I wasn't scared."

Percy smiled. "It's okay to be scared. We all have our fears. Everyone is afraid of something."

Ron bit his bottom lip.

"Spider." He softly said.

"What?"

"I saw a spider in my room. Crawling on the floor."

"You can't sleep with a spider in your room?"

Ron shook his head.

"I don't blame you." Percy responded. "I don't like spiders much myself."

Percy gently took Ron's hand and guided him back upstairs. First, he got the thickest book he from his bedroom before entering Ron's room. With the lit candle, he looked about until he saw the spider Ron had told him about and squashed it with the book. Ron stared at him, amazed. After that, he got a tissue and scrapped the dead spider up before throwing it in a wastebasket. Ron smiled brightly at him.

"I'll stay with you, if you want." Percy offered.

"You will?"

"Yeah. No other spiders will be able to slip past me."

Percy began staying with Ron every night to help him get over his fright. He had become Percy the spider-slayer. Percy enjoyed spending so much time with his little brother. Fred and George actually started to become jealous because Percy wasn't reading to them at night anymore. He wanted them to know that he was still angry with them for what they did. Ron was convinced that nothing could hurt his older brother. Arthur was happy to see both of his sons becoming closer, but he didn't want the four-year-old to get the wrong idea about Percy.

"Percy does feel pain." Arthur explained to his youngest son one day. He remembered a time when Percy tripped on his bathrobe on his way down the stairs. He popped right up and didn't shed a tear or even show that he had been hurt. He was far too proud to let anyone see that. "He can take more than most people can, but no one is impervious to pain. And he does get afraid, just like everyone else."

That got Ron wondering. That night when Percy laid down next to him in bed and pulled the covers over them, Ron asked;

"Percy?"

"Hmm?"

"What are you afraid of?"

The older boy stared at him before looking up at the ceiling.

"I'm afraid of heights."

Ron's eyes widened at the admission. "Is that why you never play Quidditch with Bill and Charlie?"

"Sort of," along with that, Percy really never had interest in the sport. He never rode a broom. It just wasn't for him. He then explained; "I once had this nightmare, that I fell from this great height. But when I hit the ground, I just kept going. I kept falling I was going deeper and deeper through the core of the Earth. Until I finally reached this giant pit of fire. It was like I was going to land inside of a volcano. Right before I landed in it, I actually woke up screaming."

Percy stared back at his younger brother again. "You know, I never told anyone that." He realized. It was bloody embarrassing. Fortunately, it never happened again.

"I'm not afraid of heights." Ron bragged.

"Oh yeah?"

Ron nodded.

"I'm afraid of falling from heights."

That actually caused Percy to laugh. An idea then came to him. "Hey, we're going to get the twins back for what they did to your bear."

Ron perked up.

"How?"

"We're going to give them a taste of their own medicine."

"Won't we get in trouble?"

"No, we'll just tell Mum it was a prank they did that backfired. She'll believe us, trust me." That was the consequence of Fred and George being troublemakers. Mum always suspected them when something like that happened.

Early the next morning, Percy mixed together a bucket with self-concocted slime. He set it up over their bedroom door. Being sure to be silent so they wouldn't hear the commotion and wake up. Fortunately, much like himself, Fred and George were heavy sleepers. Percy tied some yarn around the handle of the bucket and the doorknob. He had rigged a pulley system, so that the bucket would be above the door, not giving off where it was to anyone coming out of that room. The pulley system would assure that the moment someone pushed open the door, the bucket of slime would come down on that person's head, ensuring that the person would be completely coated with the slimey green substance.

Ron giggled as Percy let him stay in his room as all they had to do was wait. Sure enough, the moment Fred and George opened the door the bucket tipped over and the twins were coated in the thick green slime. They both yelled out in disgust as Percy and Ron laughed. Percy held out his hand for Ron to slap as he assured him that no mattered how many times the twins bathed, they were going to stink for days.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He let go of Ron's hand as Hermione continued to sob uncontrollably into his chest. Percy stood up and turned to leave but by this point, Kingsley had come over to him. He had a grim look on his face as he put a hand on Percy's shoulder.

"Where are you going to go?"

Percy stared at him.

"Home." He simply said.

He was going home. As he turned and began to walk away from all of this destruction, a smile came to his face as Percy thought to himself ;

'They're all gone.'

Chapter 14: Save Our Last Goodbye

Chapter Text

The week after the final battle had been very surreal for the World of Wizardry. Although there was great joy over finally defeating Voldemort and his Death Eaters, there was tremendous sorrow for all of their losses. Every single day of that week multiple funerals had taken place. Of course, Percy had to go to the funeral of Harry Potter along with his mother and father. Harry was buried on the grounds of Hogwarts in a similar fashion to that of former headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Over several hundred had people showed up to pay their respects to 'The Boy Who Saved Us', the new title he was now being referred to. Percy had also gone to the funeral of Remus Lupin and Tonks. He hadn't known that the two of them had a baby together named Teddy.

Percy watched the infant's grandmother; Andromeda hold him while crying her eyes out the entire time. Percy had to make sure to keep his parents away from this funeral as he didn't want his mother running into Andromeda. Percy arranged for Ron to be quietly buried at a small cemetery. He also got word that Ron's girlfriend Hermione had traveled to Australia to be with her parents.

For her sake, she'd better stay there.

It was on Saturday when Percy received a letter from Penelope. He was embarrassed to admit that he had forgotten all about her because he had been so caught up in everything. She asked Percy to meet her at the park just outside the Ministry building. It was a way to be out in the open of the fresh air and still have a private conversation. Penelope was standing by a giant water fountain as Percy approached her. He looked up at a couple of kids playing a game of Quidditch while another group were playing exploding snap. While Percy's eyes were wandering the surroundings, Penelope's focus was solely on him.

"Hey Penelope." Percy began once he reached her . "Sorry that I haven't written or seen you lately, but-"

"That's close enough, Percy." She sharply stated. Percy stopped coming forward. He then looked down at the wand in Penelope's hand that she was holding down by her thigh. He looked back up at...right into her eyes.

"You don't need that." Percy assured. "I'm not going to hurt you, Penelope."

Penelope could have scoffed at that statement, but she just wanted to get this over with. "I know what you've done."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about." Penelope snapped. "I know because you told me what you were going to do."

However, it meant nothing.

It didn't matter what Penelope knew, it was what she could prove and she couldn't prove anything. Bill and Charlie's murders were pinned on Fleur Delacour. The explosion at Fred and George's shop was deemed an accident, some kind of experiment of a new product that had gone horribly wrong. It was believed that Ron was killed at the Battle of Hogwarts by a Death Eater and Ginny had been deemed a runaway. Penelope shuttered at the thought of what Percy did with her.

Taking a deep breath, Percy looked up at the sky for a moment before back at his girlfriend.

"Penelope...it's over now. They're all gone. Everything is going to be okay from now on. You and I can-"

"Do you hear yourself?" Penelope cut him off as she could feel herself start to tremble. She couldn't believe that this was really Percy standing in front of her. She then remembered something. "You were in my home. I introduced you to my Mom and Dad, we threw a party for you, I trusted you with my cousin's kids, we...we built that snowman together." Penelope voice broke after saying that last part. "And you did something like this and just expect us to go back to way things were?"

Percy lowered his head and stared at the ground as Penelope waited impatiently for a response. She wanted to scream at him, shake him, slap him, anything to get him to realize the gravity of the situation.

Finally, Percy met her eyes.

"Penelope...it's still me."

That caused Penelope to cover her mouth as she turned her back to him, tears finally pouring from her eyes. Slowly and carefully, Percy approached her and gently put his hands on either side of Penelope's arms. She roughly pulled away from his touch and spun back around to glare at him.

"Don't touch me." She snapped. "Don't ever try to touch me again."

Percy backed away.

"This...was something...that I had to do, Penelope." He slowly spoke.

"No, no you didn't. " She gaped at him. "Percy, do you even realize what it is that you've done?" Even if his parents were happy, Percy had taken away such precious memories from Arthur and Molly. They were living in a fantasy world where their other children never existed. It was wrong and it was selfish.

"I really don't want to lose you." Percy could only say in response, afraid of where this was heading.

"I won't tell anyone, for your mom and dad's sake." Penelope stated and right then, Percy knew this conversation was over. He knew they were over. "But you know you'll have to answer for it someday. If not in this life, then in the next. And in the next, they'll be waiting for you."

Percy raised his chin. "I don't believe in multiple lives."

Once again, Penelope could only shake her head.

"I'll never understand why you did this."

"I know that." Percy responded. She never could. She was born an only child, she didn't have any brothers or sisters in her life to deal with. "But I understand why I did it. And that's enough."

"I wish you never looked into that mirror." Penelope's eyes refilled with tears. She knew that Percy wasn't always like this, that he had turned into this. The Mirror of Erised had brought out this almost disturbing obsession he had with his parents. She walked closer to him and roughly put something wrapped in tissue paper in Percy's right hand.

"Goodbye, Percy."

He nodded, accepting her decision.

"Goodbye, Penelope."

With that, Penelope turned and walked away from the man who she honestly could have seen herself building a life with. She needed to see him for closure, but also for another reason. Penelope felt so guilty because she remembered that night, she remembered the talk the two of them had.

"I want to be an only child." Percy said.

Gently, Penelope put a hand on Percy's shoulder. She knew about her boyfriend's family problems. She never brought it up as she knew it was a sore subject for him but she didn't know things had gotten this bad. "I'm sorry Percy, but as long you have five brothers and one sister breathing in and out, that's never going to happen."

After taking another shot of vodka; Percy shrugged.

"Well...perhaps it's time they stopped breathing in and out."

Did she plant the idea in Percy's mind?

Penelope had thought that to herself over and over as she continued to walk, forcing herself not to look back at Percy. She knew that she had to stop thinking that way. Penelope had to believe that Percy's fate was sealed the moment he looked into that mirror. After that, no one could save him. Not Penelope, not any of his friends, not his family. He had become sick or evil, or both.

Back at the fountain, Percy looked down at his hand and unwrapped whatever it was Penelope had just given him. He frowned when he saw what it was. Shoving it into his pocket, he began to walk towards the lake that was across from the park. As he did, Percy couldn't help but think about the relationships he had with his younger siblings, how each one slowly dissolved.

When they were little, Percy knew what to do, he knew how to be a big brother. He was responsible, he enforced the rules. He looked out for them, read to them, played with them, comforted them when they were scared. It was once they started getting older that Percy didn't know what to do anymore. He couldn't relate to them like he once did. When he felt the disconnect starting to happen, Percy just doubled down on what had worked when were young, but that only seemed to make things worse.

They just seemed annoyed by him now.

They began to say that he was too uptight, workaholic, pompous, and so on and so forth. It did bother Percy but he didn't know how to tell anyone, so whenever he needed to take his mind off of things, Percy just buried himself further into work.

Bill and Charlie were so much older than Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny, so it was Percy who they looked to when they had some sort of a problem. He liked it at first, but it slowly started becoming exhausting. Of course, no one ever asked. The twins claimed that Percy abandoned them, but they all had abandoned Percy as well. None of them ever really paid much attention to Percy's problems, they just took it for granted that he didn't have any.

'Perfect Prefect Percy' couldn't possibly have a problem, could he?

The Mirror of Erised had awakened these feelings buried deep down inside of Percy. Of how it was possible that you could both love someone and hate them at the same time. Going forward in his life, Percy would have to share his parents with siblings that he no longer cared for, no longer wanted to be around, and no longer had anything in common with. The alternative was to never come home. In doing so, he would lose his mother and father forever. He would have been miserable for the rest of his life because of it, no mattered how much he accomplished at the Ministry.

That's why the mirror showed Percy what it did.

You only have one set of parents in life, and Percy would be damned if he lost them to anyone else, even his own brothers and sister.Percy took no joy in what he had done, but it was what he had to do.

Once he reached the lake, Percy took a seat on a bench and just gazed at the water. As much as he didn't want it, his thoughts were on Penelope. He reached down, picked up a stone and skipped it into the water, watching the ripples echo out. Picking up another stone, he skipped it out on the water, randomly remembering how he used to do that as a child. It skipped six times.

Percy then reached into his pocket and pulled out what Penelope gave him. He pulled back the tissue paper and frowned when he saw what it was. It was the gift he had given her this Christmas. A gold bracelet emblazoned with a diamond-encrusted 'P.C', her initials.

He remembered her telling him that she had wanted one of these ever since she was a little girl. Penelope was happy to have finally gotten one. That was the moment that Percy was sure that the two of them would be married one day and start a family together. He moved the bracelet around in his fingers for a few moments before skipping it into the lake. However, the bracelet didn't skip. It just sank right away down to the depths below. Right then, Percy felt empty.

Percy wished he could have told Penelope one last thing. He would have said;

'Please remember me as a good guy, remember our good times. Don't remember me as something painful that ended up here. Please.'

Chapter 15: Let Them Hate Me

Chapter Text

Hog's Head Pub currently had a new regular as Percy had been in there every night this week. After the bartender sat his third drink down, Percy continued to think about Penelope and even though it was pointless, went over the idea of getting her back somehow. However, mostly what Percy was thinking about this Friday night was what life was going to be like from now on. Percy had just been promoted again, this time to work directly on the Minister's staff. He would no longer be a secretary, Percy would have his own secretary from now on. He hadn't met her yet, he had only been told that her first name was Audrey, and she was a very nice young woman.

Of course, that wasn't the biggest change in Percy's life. He had no idea why, but for some reason Percy couldn't stop thinking about...them.

Opening up his pocket watch, Percy saw that he was going to be late for dinner. Quickly getting to his feet, Percy made his way to the door when he bumped into someone who was just coming in. "Oh, excuse me." Percy apologized before he saw who it was. He was staring at the face of his old friend and roommate, Oliver Wood.

"Percy?" Oliver smiled once he recognized him.

Percy smiled.

"Hey, Ollie. It's been a little while."

The two of them had only seen each other only once since their graduation from Hogwarts.

"Yeah, it has. It's nice to see you."

Percy nodded. "Nice to see you too."

"You look good." Oliver said as he shifted nervously on his feet as he tried to think of more to say. He didn't know whether or not to bring up the deaths of Percy's brothers and sister. How could a simple 'I'm sorry' suffice? Oliver felt horrible that such a good family had to endure so much tragedy. Fortunately for him, it was Percy who continued the conversation.

"Are you still training to be a Quidditch player?" Percy then asked.

"You better believe it. You're still at the Ministry, right?"

"I just got promoted."

"Really? That's great." Oliver then cleared his throat. "Listen, I can see that you're on your way out, but I'd love to get together with you some time."

That caused a smile to come over Percy's face. Being able to talk to someone, someone who didn't know anything about what he had done was something Percy really needed. "Yeah, I'd like that."

After the two of them settled on a time and a date, Percy headed home to the Burrow. His mother had made fish and chips, one of Percy's favorites for dinner. He told his parents about his promotion, and they reacted with joy. It was the reaction Percy was looking for back when he told them about becoming the Minister's Junior Secretary.

Boy, that seemed like ages ago.

Once they had all finished, Molly cleared the table and headed to the kitchen to get dessert while Arthur started talking to Percy about his breakup with Penelope.

"Where did you see things going?" He asked his son.

"I saw things going to where I could hopefully one day let her sleep in the guestroom. I was shooting for that." Percy joked which caused his father to chuckle. Arthur then asked;

"Did she say anything about commitment?"

"Yeah. I told her that I can give you nine months." Percy shrugged. "I can give you nine happy months, and then years upon years of misery. But we'll be together."

Molly walked back into the room with an apple pie in her hands. She couldn't help but smile at the sight of Arthur and Percy both laughing together. It was nice to see Percy laugh and joke around like this, something he seemed to do more of nowadays, opposed to of when he was in his earlier years. Molly took a seat at the dining table. The once long dinner table that Percy had transfigured into a round circular table with only three chairs. Percy had literally made the image he had seen in the mirror a reality.

Molly cut the pie and handed a plate to her husband and her son.

"I think it's unfortunate that you and Penelope broke up," Molly sighed as she sat back down. "I really liked her."

"I did too." Percy confessed.

Arthur lightly slapped Percy on the back.

"Don't worry, there's plenty of fish in the sea."

"Just don't take too much longer. You want to start a family before you get too old." Molly scolded as Arthur gave her a look. "What? Don't you want a grandchild?"

Percy smiled.

"I'll work on it when I get the chance."

"Molly, I think Percy has a lot of time before he needs to worry about that." Arthur responded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That night, Percy tossed and turned but couldn't fall asleep.

That morning he had read in the Daily Prophet that the family of Fleur Delacour had hired a private investigator to reexamine the case of her and Bill's murder-suicide. If that investigator started sticking his nose around here, Percy would have to deal with him accordingly. Percy then began to think about Oliver. What if when they got together he started asking too many questions?

At that moment, Percy began to wonder if he would ever truly be away from all of this.

When he looked at his mother and father, Percy envied the fact that they couldn't remember. Percy wished he could erase his own memories of them, but he just couldn't. Percy would always have to remember what he had done, just in case.

Exhaling heavily, Percy sat up and swung his legs over the bed, resting his feet on the floor. He had one last thing he needed to get rid of. Percy had continued to put it off but tonight he was finally going to get it over with. Pulling it out from underneath his bed, Percy unwrapped from a blanket his mother's prized possession.

The Weasley family clock.

Taking it down to the living room, Percy started a fire at the fireplace. Once the flames got good and going, he began looking it over. Percy didn't want to see their faces, but he couldn't help it. One by one he looked at the face of each sibling he had killed, each spoon pointed towards 'Mortal Peril'.

Reaching his hand out, Percy pulled off Bill's spoon from the clock. He continued to look it over for a few moments before tossing it into the fireplace.

Thought I was rid of you. Thought it was over with. Thought I was over it. Thought I evicted you from my heart, kicked you out of my mind, so nothing left of you wouldn't be left behind. But you still take up all the space, you just won't go away.

Pulling off Charlie's spoon, Percy fought back any feelings of remorse he had over the death of his favorite brother as he tossed it into the fireplace next.

You stay in my head, like anuninvited guest, uninvited guest. You still haunt my heart. Guess you haven't left it yet, haven't left it yet. Like an uninvited guest.

After that, Percy quickly yanked off both Fred and George's spoons and didn't even hesitate for a second throwing them into the fireplace.

Still see you everywhere. You're still in every room, feel you with every move. I can't go on without erasing you from my heart. Tired of feeling this pain. Seems you're the onlyghost, Ijust can't chase away.

Ron's spoon was then the next one and finally, Ginny's spoon was the last. For some reason, Percy started to think what they would say to him if they could talk to Percy one last time. He was sure that they hated him.

'Let them hate me.' Percy thought. It would be nothing new. Percy had grown to ignore it.

You still inhabit everythought, Iprayed that you'd be gone. You stay in my head, like an uninvited guest, uninvited guest. You still haunt my heart. Seems you haven't left it yet, haven't left it yet.

Percy then tossed the entire clock into the fireplace and watched it burn as he rested himself on the floor in front of it. After a few minutes, Percy suddenly heard a light thunder before raindrops began rapidly hitting the roof of the Burrow. He got up and began heading for the door.

I don't want to feel you around! I just want you, want you out! So please, go, please!

Percy walked out into the rain. He titled his head back and closed his eyes, letting the rain pour onto him as if cleansing himself from all the wickedness he had committed. After about several minutes, soak and wet, Percy slowly headed back inside as he then realized something.

He may not be able to sleep so well, but Percy could watch his parents sleep peacefully.

Any night he wanted.

You stay in my head, like an uninvited guest, uninvited guest.

You still haunt my heart;guess you haven't left it yet...

Haven't left me yet.

You still haunt my heart.

Like an uninvited guest.

The End.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lyrics are from 'Uninvited Guest' by Disturbed.

An Only Child - Darkpurplelighter - Harry Potter (2024)

Chapter 1: His Deepest Desire

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Now It Begins

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Chapter 3: Fractured Family

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Chapter 4: Susurration

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Chapter 5: Descent

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Chapter 6: No Going Back

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Chapter 7: White Noise

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Chapter 8: Whatever It Takes

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Chapter 9: There's Something Wrong

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Chapter 10: Flesh and Blood

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Chapter 11: Lullaby For a Stormy Night

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Chapter 12: And Then There Was One

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Chapter 13: They're All Gone

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Chapter 14: Save Our Last Goodbye

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Chapter 15: Let Them Hate Me

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