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Percy’s not sure how he’s expecting things to be after the war, but it sure isn’t like this. Different, but so similar. There are still trials to attend, there’s still paperwork to complete, and there are still sleepless nights.
Percy’s not sure, sometimes, why he went back to the Burrow. He’s not sure why, after Voldemort fell for the last time, that felt like the right place to go. His friends aren’t mad, of course, but they miss him. He knows they miss him. He misses them too.
He’s not sure why he’s doing this. He feels like he’s turned on an autopilot that has betrayed him.
Before, Fred and George would bring them out of their stupor. Crack a joke here, plant a prank candy there, and everybody’s laughing again. Except Fred’s set to be buried this afternoon, and George still hasn’t come out of his room. Fleur is cooking because every time Mum tries she breaks down in tears, and Dad doesn’t want to let her burn herself one more time.
“Let me help,” Percy says. Fleur’s been in here for hours trying to make enough food for everybody who’s promise d to attend later.
“You know how to cook?” Fleur asks. He’s sure she doesn’t mean it in a judgemental way until he meets her eye and sees her raised brow, the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. He doesn’t know her well, and that’s something he regrets. He thinks that accidentally sitting beside her at the Yule Ball is the best decision he made that year.
“I’m alright,” he says. “I swear I won’t ruin it, I’m not that bad.”
Fleur watches him for a moment, not pausing the movement of her hands as she cooks, before she smiles. A real, open one this time. Still a little performative, but not as much as she performs around Molly. Percy appreciates that. “I could use a hand,” she agrees, and she moves over, pointing out where Percy can help. They work well together, he discovers. This is the first comfortable silence he’s had since getting back to the Burrow. It’s not home yet, he’s not sure if it ever will be again, but this is closer.
Percy didn’t think it would be appropriate for him to carry Fred’s coffin, but George practically manhandled him over to it, and if being at his baby brother’s funeral is difficult, denying his other brother some comfort is impossible. Molly doesn’t want Ginny there either, says it’s not ladylike, but she’s crying too hard to argue when Ginny pushes her way over to the casket.
The clouds clear the second his brother is in the ground. Percy likes to think this means Fred’s finally found peace after all that’s happened these past few years.
Molly wishes to keep her children close after it’s all done, but Ginny must manage to slip away because when Percy insists on getting a little air, he finds her crying behind the broom shed. The first thing she says when she sees him is, “You came back,” and then, “I’m glad I only lost one brother this year.”
He doesn’t say anything as he sits down next to her, as he pulls her into a hug that she readily leans into, but once they’re finally settled, he whispers, “I’m glad I only lost one piece of my family and not the whole thing,” and Ginny buries her face in his shoulder to muffle her sobs.
“How are you and Harry?” Percy asks later that night when Ginny slips into his room, and his sister huffs a laugh.
“Nonexistent,” she replies with a shrug. She stares down at her pyjamas, picking at one of many loose threads. “I know Mum really wants us to get together, but we’ve tried a few times and it’s not what we want.”
Percy’s a little surprised, to be honest. But then he takes a moment to recall how much of a mess Harry was at the Yule Ball — how much of a mess the boy was around any pretty people, really, even if Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory were certainly at the top of the list — and he thinks that maybe it’s not a surprise at all. If Harry needs time to figure himself out at seventeen, surely Ginny does at sixteen. Merlin, they’re so young. It’s not fair that most of Percy’s school years were uneventful while his younger siblings were forced to fight in a war.
“It’s good,” Percy says, “Not to listen to everything Mum wants. You’ve fought through your entire bloody education, Ginny. It’s time to relax and build your life for yourself.”
Ginny gives him a funny look when he says this, one he can’t quite read. A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth, and she squints at him and cocks her head to one side like she’s trying to get a better look at him. “When did you get so wise?” she asks, and Percy just laughs in response. It’s good to have her back after so much time apart. It’s good to be able to sit in a room and laugh with her without wondering if it’ll be the last time.
It’s not much, but right now, it feels like everything.