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Title: Hidden Dreams
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
abzurd
Word Count: 3557
Characters/Pairings: Percy/Luna (Written for the Percy challenge)
Author’s Note: Thank you tosweetjane_69 for the wonderful beta. Someday, I will use those pesky commas correctly. I have a fond spot for Percy but haven’t written him much. This was an attempt to find my own inner “Weasley geek” and I like what I found.
He had known who she was before she ever said a word. Ginny had written him last week, letting him know that she was bringing home a friend for the holidays. She had also written that is was going to be a large gathering, but he knew he needed to make it home this year, no matter that he wasn’t comfortable in groups. This was the first Christmas without the patriarch of the family presiding over the table, handing out brightly wrapped packages and oohing and aahing over the gadgets and gizmos that the family uncovered in the Muggle world around them.
Now he stood in the corner of the room, clutching a glass of his mother’s holiday punch and wondering when he could sneak out without his family noticing. Right now, she was surrounded by family but was sure to notice he was gone when the adulation wore down. Another hour and he was leaving. Sixty more minutes of torture wasn’t going to kill him.
Besides, he was having an interesting time watching Luna gazing at her still unwrapped presents. The rest of the family had finished opening theirs half an hour ago, discarding the paper and ribbons in favor of a quick end to the mystery. She seemed to be memorizing every line and wrinkle on the pretty paper, smiling at each new turn of the box as if she was seeing it for the first time.
He found himself intrigued enough to edge around the outskirts of the room until he was beside her chair. “You’ve only opened one present. Do you need any help?”
The brilliant smile, thought slightly distant, was disconcerting as she aimed it exclusively at him. Her eyes, he noticed, were the oddest shade of blue. Like the cornflowers his mother grew near the fence of the garden each summer, with darker rings near the edges. They absorbed some their striking color from her dark blue robe, affectionately dubbed the Ravenclaw Rags by Ginny and Hermione, who were constantly giving her grief about being the lone eagle of the group. She didn’t seem to mind their words, enjoying the attention of the teasing. Percy only wished he had been able to let the words and laughter slide off of him as easily, but he had never been one for merriment and didn’t understand why people found it amusing to degrade one another for the sake of laughter. Maybe things would have been different if he had learned how to deal with his family’s need to make jokes.
“I’m enjoying the moment. It’s been a long time since I’ve had so many gifts.”
“I heard you lost your father a couple of years ago. I’m sorry.” The grief at using the word “father” was acute. No time in the last six months had he allowed himself to grieve, so it was only right that he would still ache so fiercely from the pain the memories brought forth.
She seemed to see the pain, feeling it even though he knew he showed no sign of it on his face or in his demeanor. When she touched his arm, he jumped, spilling his punch in her lap. The two of them just sat and stared, almost mesmerized, at the red stain barely discernable on the indigo fabric until the wetness had spread as far as it was going to.
“I’m sorry,” Percy exclaimed, suddenly leaping into action. “Let me get something to wipe that up.” Grabbing at the first thing he found, he tried to wipe at the stain. At the first sound of shattering glass and female shrieking, everyone’s attention turned their way.
“Percival! My holiday table runner!”
“Percy! Stop touching Luna there!”
“Good job, little brother. Didn’t think you had it in you.”
He grew still as he looked into the wide eyes of Luna, his hand clutching at a wrinkled, lacy tablecloth – now hopelessly stained. “Thank you but I think I’ll just go change,” she whispered. “I need you to move, though.”
“Right. Sorry. My fault entirely. Moving now.” He felt his face flush and his ears grow warm. Lovely. With the Weasley hair came the Weasley skin, and he was all too aware of how easily the blush was showing up against his freckles.
“Smooth, Percy,” Ron smirked, picking up shards of glass from the floor with a quick spell. “Contemplating an encore? Mum has her special teacups over in the cupboard. Maybe you could juggle those with your eyes closed. I think it’d interest Luna more than this.”
“Ron,” Hermione hissed, “Shut up.”
“What? I’m just saying-“
“Shut. Up. Now,” she ground out through teeth that looked like they were ready to collapse under the strain of her expression.
Percy’s face wasn’t red anymore. The color seemed to have run down, even dripping down his chest, and was now pooled around his ankles, pinning him to the floor along with the expectations he suddenly knew were on him to stick around for the rest of the night. “It’s alright, Hermione. We all know how much Ron enjoys having me here tonight. He’s been itching to say something since I had the audacity to show up here without an invitation.”
“I invited you,” Ginny stated angrily from her place in the doorway. He had thought she had gone to help Luna change, but she had obviously stuck around to see how the family would react to him messing up once again. “I told them I was going to because it’s important that we’re all together. Family means more now that we’ve lost so much.”
He watched in appreciation as the tears pooled in her eyes, causing every male in the room, with the exception of him, to run to her with a handkerchief. As a distraction, it was well done. He had only ever seen the twins react with such immediacy to a misfired joke that needed to be overlooked and quickly swept under the rug.
Ron was not to be stopped, though. Even with Hermione tugging at his arm, he turned back around to his brother. “You’ll come back for presents but you wouldn’t come back for the funeral. Or did Ginny forget to invite you to that?”
“I didn’t want to ruin the event. He deserved to be honored and remembered without his black sheep ruining everything. I see that I shall have to stay away from family affairs, as a whole, if I want to continue seeing that his memory isn’t besmirched.”
With a small smile at his baby sister that he hoped made up for this display, he stalked out of the front door. Where to now? he thought, coming to a halt at the front gate. It was Christmas evening, and he had nowhere he had to be or any place he could think to spend the rest of the night.
“Wait!”
Percy turned and watched the blonde hair streaming behind Luna as she ran around the corner of the house. She came to a halt beside him, her breath coming quickly as her lungs took this chance to get their natural fill of air. The gown she had changed into was obviously one of Ginny’s; the tight material accentuating the sporadic movement of her chest.
“You can’t leave.”
“Yes, I can. I think it would be better if I gave them a chance to have an actual celebration without me. They deserve a nice Christmas.”
She swallowed, her forehead suddenly creased with wrinkles as she frowned. “Don’t you deserve one as well?”
It was her light touch on his arm that undid him. He had spent years not thinking much about what he deserved when it came to his family. Instead, he had put all his time and energy into other things he felt he deserved, like his future. Part of that desire had left him these last months. Even though he had fought long and hard with his father over his choice of career and how he planned on achieving it, he had always known his father loved him. Now, with that love and support (if the fighting could ever have been called support), he felt as if his goals no longer mattered. Other than this drama tonight and the few letters Ginny had sent, he had started to feel like an orphan – when he let himself feel at all.
Before he could think of a suitable answer, she shook her head. “I guess I shouldn’t force you back inside. It’s not like you were having a nice time, but where are you going?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, covering her hand with his. “I can’t go back to my flat until tomorrow morning. Spending another night at my desk, I suppose. It’s not too bad with the right spell on the chair.”
“Why can’t you go back to your flat? I thought you lived alone?” Her eyes were dark in the moonlight and he had to imagine the band of blue into them. The dark was allowing him to imagine all kinds of things about his sister’s friend and fellow Seventh Year.
“Yes, all mine, but I let someone from work use it tonight. He lives with a group of guys and wanted to do something special for his girlfriend…well, fiancée after tonight.”
“How thoughtful,” Luna murmured, “but that does mean you can’t go home. I don’t suppose you want to go back in there after all that hubbub.”
The breeze blew his bangs away from his forehead as he shook his head fervently. “No, not especially.”
“I have the perfect idea. Stay at my house. It’s just done the road, and I was going there to get another outfit since nothing Ginny owns will ever fit me, no matter the sewing charms I try. Please, tell me you will. I’ll feel better knowing you have someplace to go.”
“What about you? It would be improper for us to stay together.”
There might have been a blush creeping up her neck, but he couldn’t be sure as he had left strict instructions with his eyes to stay looking above her chin. He started to think inappropriate thoughts when he started to look at the tight material and imagine just how different she was than Ginny.
“I’ll stay here, like I was going to. They won’t miss me for such a short time, though. Please? I’ll feel better knowing you won’t be sleeping at your desk.”
The walk was shorter than he imagined it to be, considering she lived at the other end of Ottery St. Catchpole. Between her stories about what she and Ginny had been up to this past year at school (Merlin help the wizarding world when Hogwarts finally let Ginny loose to create her own special brand of chaos) and the information she had been gathering to complete some of the uncompleted stories her father had been working on at The Quibbler, he was kept quite entertained.
Even later, after she had changed, made sure he had enough blankets, and left, he hadn’t found himself feeling lonely. The house itself was as interesting as the girl. He hadn’t meant to get caught up in looking through the rooms but found himself opening a door to a room that looked dustier than the rest. Bringing in the lamp so he could get a better look around, he found himself truly in awe of what he had found.
The most unused room in the house was not a study or a library or a dining room. From what he could see in the flickering light, this was a little girl’s room. Some glass crunched under his feet, and he bent down to pick up a mangled frame. The little girl in the picture was throwing a ball up in the air and laughing as it bounced away, time and time again. There was no doubt in his mind that this was Luna’s room. Had the picture slipped off the wall and broken? No, he couldn’t find a nail but he found a gash in the wall. This picture had been thrown against the wall.
Setting the frame back down on the ground, he decided he had intruded enough on her for one night. Luna obviously wasn’t always as unflappable and content as she was tonight. He closed the door behind him but leaned against it, wondering if she mourned her childhood the same way he mourned his.
The couch he had decided to sleep on proved to be more uncomfortable than he had anticipated. As dawn seeped through a crack in the curtains, he folded up the blankets, regretful that he couldn’t wait for her to come back. There were so many questions he wanted to ask her, but it still like intruding to ask.
“Happy Boxing Day,” he whispered to whatever might have shared the house with him and locked the door.
For months, the smashed picture frame haunted him. There was someone else out in the world that understood him – and who he understood, but he had walked away from his opportunity to find out more about her.
Ginny was faithful in writing, including everything but the menus in her weekly letter. Over and over, she asked him to come visit, but he always had a ready answer for her. There was always work to use as an excuse. Lately, though, he had started to make up a life for himself that she could appreciate when he used them as an excuse.
In this dream reality, he went out each night with the boys for a pint in a nearby pub and was getting quite good at darts. There was even a girl who had captured his fancy and whom he escorted around the town from time to time. He never told Ginny, but she had long blonde hair and blue eyes with a darker ring around the outside. In his letters, he had never named this girl, telling Ginny he didn’t want to let on to her identity because they might know each other. All he would let on was that she was smart and pretty, and he was beginning to like her very much.
Because he was. Luna had started to write articles in The Quibbler, and there was talk about her taking over her father’s vacant position as soon as she left school this spring. Each and every article had a special flare, and Percy liked to imagine that he was getting to know her better with each one he read. Also, Ginny’s letters had begun to paint a vivid image of her best friend, and he found himself asking questions that would lead to more stories. He figured the dream reality was cloaking the real reason for the requests for information.
He could have gone on forever like this, gleaning information secretly while cloaking his own life, but a letter from another Weasley stopped him dead in his tracks one day.
Dear brother,
I’ve been meaning to apologize for some time but haven’t had the courage to come find you like I should. Hermione tells me that this type of family-centered cowardliness is a trait I need to work on in the future. You see, I let her boss me around like that now because I’ve asked her to marry me and she’s said yes. You’ll be getting your official invitation, made out to you and your rather secretive girlfriend, but I wanted to ask you to be part of the wedding party. I’m not sure who you’ve been paired up with – Hermione is still being secretive about her list of bridesmaids – but I hope you’ll accept.
Ron
It wasn’t an apology, but he had been forgiven his share of wrongs without ever saying the words. Maybe it was time he gave back some of what he was continually receiving. He wrote back an acceptance and waited to see what would happen next. As he expected, he was sent the location of a nearby tailor’s and given a specific time to show up. He didn’t often have to make an appointment at his tailor, but this was for a special set of clothing so he was willing to accept that it might take a bit more from him to accomplish.
When the day arrived for his fitting, he was in a foul mood. His birthday, the day before, had come and gone without even the shortest note from Ginny. He hadn’t expected anything from the rest of them but he had been hoping for something from his sister. Secretly, he had also been wishing that Luna would somehow find out about it…but that was only a dream. Because stopping at the pub each night for a pint always sounded so entertaining when he wrote about it on paper, he tried going by for a celebratory round but quickly left as he realized that it wasn’t really his scene.
Promising himself a decent meal tonight no matter if he ate alone or not, he walked into the tailor’s and stopped dead. Luna was smiling at him from a chair right inside the door. “Punctual, just like they told me you’d be.”
“Luna,” he gasped, making a complete fool of himself as she took his hand and led him back out the door. “I have an appointment.”
“Yes, with me. The tailor had your measurements weeks ago. Your mother remembers where you like to get your robes made and had them sent over. Oh, you should be receiving a box from them in the next week so make sure you try them on just in case any adjustments need to be made. And don’t worry about your guest.”
“What?” He was completely confused now, an experience he wasn’t familiar with at all. Calm, cool Percy was normally able to manipulate any situation, but this….
She stopped and smiled up at him, her blue eyes sparkling. “You forgot one thing, Percy Weasley. I track down mysteries and strange phenomenon for a living, or I will someday soon. Figuring out who your special someone was for Ginny was rather easy. I let her believe you had someone, though. Your secret is safe with me but I took the liberty of scratching out the “And Guest” after your name on the list.”
His mouth was opening and closing, doing nothing but smacking uselessly. “What?” he asked again.
“Don’t worry. You can hang out with me at the reception. I’m your bridesmaid, after all.”
Before he could stop himself, he reached out and stroked a hand down her hair. She had cut it recently, but it still fell in golden waves over her shoulders. It was soft – but he contained himself before he went for a second touch. “My bridesmaid?”
“The one you walk in and out with. You know, at the ceremony.”
“Right. The ceremony.” He hid his hands in his pockets, berating himself for this lapse in judgment. “Where are you taking me? I’ll have to get back to work soon. So much to do today, what with the new laws going into action next month.”
She stared at him, one of her pale eyebrows lifting, and he knew he was found out once again. It seemed she knew everything about him. “Do you really?” she asked quietly.
“How do you do that?” His tone was angry as he didn’t even fight to control it.
“I know more about you than you know about yourself, Percy. Everything. I’ve begged, borrowed and stole the information I couldn’t get from a mere question. Everything.” The word was a caress as she stepped forward.
“Should I be scared?”
Her kiss answered his question. Yes, he should be terrified of this girl – no, woman. He already was. Since meeting her, his life seemed to be constantly shifting, tilting wildly under his feet.
To prove just that point, she grabbed his hand and began to lead him down the street once again. He was quiet until she stopped in front of a trendy eatery. “It’s not the neighborhood pub but it should do, don’t you think?”
“For what?” This time his kiss kept her from answering, and she smiled up at him, enigmatic and serene, when he pulled away. “Have dinner with me tonight,” he blurted out, knowing he needed to find out more about her to fill in the blanks of his imagination.
“I will, but only after we have lunch together with your family.”
His eyes narrowed but she pulled him into the restaurant until they were standing by a table full of Weasley’s and their significant others. They were all smiling, every one of them, as they clapped and chanted his name.
“Happy Birthday, my dear boy,” Molly said as she stepped forward to hug him, her weathered eyes glistening with tears. “We would have done this yesterday but Luna let us know you had an important meeting you couldn’t miss. My, but you’ve been so busy lately. I’m glad they could do without you long enough for you to come to your party.”
Luna’s eyes were filled with tears, too, as he looked at her over his mother’s head. He understood some of that enigmatic smile now. When she slipped her hand in his, he knew he’d have a chance to learn some of the other mysteries as well.
Author:
abzurdWord Count: 3557
Characters/Pairings: Percy/Luna (Written for the Percy challenge)
Author’s Note: Thank you to
sweetjane_69 for the wonderful beta. Someday, I will use those pesky commas correctly. I have a fond spot for Percy but haven’t written him much. This was an attempt to find my own inner “Weasley geek” and I like what I found.He had known who she was before she ever said a word. Ginny had written him last week, letting him know that she was bringing home a friend for the holidays. She had also written that is was going to be a large gathering, but he knew he needed to make it home this year, no matter that he wasn’t comfortable in groups. This was the first Christmas without the patriarch of the family presiding over the table, handing out brightly wrapped packages and oohing and aahing over the gadgets and gizmos that the family uncovered in the Muggle world around them.
Now he stood in the corner of the room, clutching a glass of his mother’s holiday punch and wondering when he could sneak out without his family noticing. Right now, she was surrounded by family but was sure to notice he was gone when the adulation wore down. Another hour and he was leaving. Sixty more minutes of torture wasn’t going to kill him.
Besides, he was having an interesting time watching Luna gazing at her still unwrapped presents. The rest of the family had finished opening theirs half an hour ago, discarding the paper and ribbons in favor of a quick end to the mystery. She seemed to be memorizing every line and wrinkle on the pretty paper, smiling at each new turn of the box as if she was seeing it for the first time.
He found himself intrigued enough to edge around the outskirts of the room until he was beside her chair. “You’ve only opened one present. Do you need any help?”
The brilliant smile, thought slightly distant, was disconcerting as she aimed it exclusively at him. Her eyes, he noticed, were the oddest shade of blue. Like the cornflowers his mother grew near the fence of the garden each summer, with darker rings near the edges. They absorbed some their striking color from her dark blue robe, affectionately dubbed the Ravenclaw Rags by Ginny and Hermione, who were constantly giving her grief about being the lone eagle of the group. She didn’t seem to mind their words, enjoying the attention of the teasing. Percy only wished he had been able to let the words and laughter slide off of him as easily, but he had never been one for merriment and didn’t understand why people found it amusing to degrade one another for the sake of laughter. Maybe things would have been different if he had learned how to deal with his family’s need to make jokes.
“I’m enjoying the moment. It’s been a long time since I’ve had so many gifts.”
“I heard you lost your father a couple of years ago. I’m sorry.” The grief at using the word “father” was acute. No time in the last six months had he allowed himself to grieve, so it was only right that he would still ache so fiercely from the pain the memories brought forth.
She seemed to see the pain, feeling it even though he knew he showed no sign of it on his face or in his demeanor. When she touched his arm, he jumped, spilling his punch in her lap. The two of them just sat and stared, almost mesmerized, at the red stain barely discernable on the indigo fabric until the wetness had spread as far as it was going to.
“I’m sorry,” Percy exclaimed, suddenly leaping into action. “Let me get something to wipe that up.” Grabbing at the first thing he found, he tried to wipe at the stain. At the first sound of shattering glass and female shrieking, everyone’s attention turned their way.
“Percival! My holiday table runner!”
“Percy! Stop touching Luna there!”
“Good job, little brother. Didn’t think you had it in you.”
He grew still as he looked into the wide eyes of Luna, his hand clutching at a wrinkled, lacy tablecloth – now hopelessly stained. “Thank you but I think I’ll just go change,” she whispered. “I need you to move, though.”
“Right. Sorry. My fault entirely. Moving now.” He felt his face flush and his ears grow warm. Lovely. With the Weasley hair came the Weasley skin, and he was all too aware of how easily the blush was showing up against his freckles.
“Smooth, Percy,” Ron smirked, picking up shards of glass from the floor with a quick spell. “Contemplating an encore? Mum has her special teacups over in the cupboard. Maybe you could juggle those with your eyes closed. I think it’d interest Luna more than this.”
“Ron,” Hermione hissed, “Shut up.”
“What? I’m just saying-“
“Shut. Up. Now,” she ground out through teeth that looked like they were ready to collapse under the strain of her expression.
Percy’s face wasn’t red anymore. The color seemed to have run down, even dripping down his chest, and was now pooled around his ankles, pinning him to the floor along with the expectations he suddenly knew were on him to stick around for the rest of the night. “It’s alright, Hermione. We all know how much Ron enjoys having me here tonight. He’s been itching to say something since I had the audacity to show up here without an invitation.”
“I invited you,” Ginny stated angrily from her place in the doorway. He had thought she had gone to help Luna change, but she had obviously stuck around to see how the family would react to him messing up once again. “I told them I was going to because it’s important that we’re all together. Family means more now that we’ve lost so much.”
He watched in appreciation as the tears pooled in her eyes, causing every male in the room, with the exception of him, to run to her with a handkerchief. As a distraction, it was well done. He had only ever seen the twins react with such immediacy to a misfired joke that needed to be overlooked and quickly swept under the rug.
Ron was not to be stopped, though. Even with Hermione tugging at his arm, he turned back around to his brother. “You’ll come back for presents but you wouldn’t come back for the funeral. Or did Ginny forget to invite you to that?”
“I didn’t want to ruin the event. He deserved to be honored and remembered without his black sheep ruining everything. I see that I shall have to stay away from family affairs, as a whole, if I want to continue seeing that his memory isn’t besmirched.”
With a small smile at his baby sister that he hoped made up for this display, he stalked out of the front door. Where to now? he thought, coming to a halt at the front gate. It was Christmas evening, and he had nowhere he had to be or any place he could think to spend the rest of the night.
“Wait!”
Percy turned and watched the blonde hair streaming behind Luna as she ran around the corner of the house. She came to a halt beside him, her breath coming quickly as her lungs took this chance to get their natural fill of air. The gown she had changed into was obviously one of Ginny’s; the tight material accentuating the sporadic movement of her chest.
“You can’t leave.”
“Yes, I can. I think it would be better if I gave them a chance to have an actual celebration without me. They deserve a nice Christmas.”
She swallowed, her forehead suddenly creased with wrinkles as she frowned. “Don’t you deserve one as well?”
It was her light touch on his arm that undid him. He had spent years not thinking much about what he deserved when it came to his family. Instead, he had put all his time and energy into other things he felt he deserved, like his future. Part of that desire had left him these last months. Even though he had fought long and hard with his father over his choice of career and how he planned on achieving it, he had always known his father loved him. Now, with that love and support (if the fighting could ever have been called support), he felt as if his goals no longer mattered. Other than this drama tonight and the few letters Ginny had sent, he had started to feel like an orphan – when he let himself feel at all.
Before he could think of a suitable answer, she shook her head. “I guess I shouldn’t force you back inside. It’s not like you were having a nice time, but where are you going?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, covering her hand with his. “I can’t go back to my flat until tomorrow morning. Spending another night at my desk, I suppose. It’s not too bad with the right spell on the chair.”
“Why can’t you go back to your flat? I thought you lived alone?” Her eyes were dark in the moonlight and he had to imagine the band of blue into them. The dark was allowing him to imagine all kinds of things about his sister’s friend and fellow Seventh Year.
“Yes, all mine, but I let someone from work use it tonight. He lives with a group of guys and wanted to do something special for his girlfriend…well, fiancée after tonight.”
“How thoughtful,” Luna murmured, “but that does mean you can’t go home. I don’t suppose you want to go back in there after all that hubbub.”
The breeze blew his bangs away from his forehead as he shook his head fervently. “No, not especially.”
“I have the perfect idea. Stay at my house. It’s just done the road, and I was going there to get another outfit since nothing Ginny owns will ever fit me, no matter the sewing charms I try. Please, tell me you will. I’ll feel better knowing you have someplace to go.”
“What about you? It would be improper for us to stay together.”
There might have been a blush creeping up her neck, but he couldn’t be sure as he had left strict instructions with his eyes to stay looking above her chin. He started to think inappropriate thoughts when he started to look at the tight material and imagine just how different she was than Ginny.
“I’ll stay here, like I was going to. They won’t miss me for such a short time, though. Please? I’ll feel better knowing you won’t be sleeping at your desk.”
The walk was shorter than he imagined it to be, considering she lived at the other end of Ottery St. Catchpole. Between her stories about what she and Ginny had been up to this past year at school (Merlin help the wizarding world when Hogwarts finally let Ginny loose to create her own special brand of chaos) and the information she had been gathering to complete some of the uncompleted stories her father had been working on at The Quibbler, he was kept quite entertained.
Even later, after she had changed, made sure he had enough blankets, and left, he hadn’t found himself feeling lonely. The house itself was as interesting as the girl. He hadn’t meant to get caught up in looking through the rooms but found himself opening a door to a room that looked dustier than the rest. Bringing in the lamp so he could get a better look around, he found himself truly in awe of what he had found.
The most unused room in the house was not a study or a library or a dining room. From what he could see in the flickering light, this was a little girl’s room. Some glass crunched under his feet, and he bent down to pick up a mangled frame. The little girl in the picture was throwing a ball up in the air and laughing as it bounced away, time and time again. There was no doubt in his mind that this was Luna’s room. Had the picture slipped off the wall and broken? No, he couldn’t find a nail but he found a gash in the wall. This picture had been thrown against the wall.
Setting the frame back down on the ground, he decided he had intruded enough on her for one night. Luna obviously wasn’t always as unflappable and content as she was tonight. He closed the door behind him but leaned against it, wondering if she mourned her childhood the same way he mourned his.
The couch he had decided to sleep on proved to be more uncomfortable than he had anticipated. As dawn seeped through a crack in the curtains, he folded up the blankets, regretful that he couldn’t wait for her to come back. There were so many questions he wanted to ask her, but it still like intruding to ask.
“Happy Boxing Day,” he whispered to whatever might have shared the house with him and locked the door.
For months, the smashed picture frame haunted him. There was someone else out in the world that understood him – and who he understood, but he had walked away from his opportunity to find out more about her.
Ginny was faithful in writing, including everything but the menus in her weekly letter. Over and over, she asked him to come visit, but he always had a ready answer for her. There was always work to use as an excuse. Lately, though, he had started to make up a life for himself that she could appreciate when he used them as an excuse.
In this dream reality, he went out each night with the boys for a pint in a nearby pub and was getting quite good at darts. There was even a girl who had captured his fancy and whom he escorted around the town from time to time. He never told Ginny, but she had long blonde hair and blue eyes with a darker ring around the outside. In his letters, he had never named this girl, telling Ginny he didn’t want to let on to her identity because they might know each other. All he would let on was that she was smart and pretty, and he was beginning to like her very much.
Because he was. Luna had started to write articles in The Quibbler, and there was talk about her taking over her father’s vacant position as soon as she left school this spring. Each and every article had a special flare, and Percy liked to imagine that he was getting to know her better with each one he read. Also, Ginny’s letters had begun to paint a vivid image of her best friend, and he found himself asking questions that would lead to more stories. He figured the dream reality was cloaking the real reason for the requests for information.
He could have gone on forever like this, gleaning information secretly while cloaking his own life, but a letter from another Weasley stopped him dead in his tracks one day.
Dear brother,
I’ve been meaning to apologize for some time but haven’t had the courage to come find you like I should. Hermione tells me that this type of family-centered cowardliness is a trait I need to work on in the future. You see, I let her boss me around like that now because I’ve asked her to marry me and she’s said yes. You’ll be getting your official invitation, made out to you and your rather secretive girlfriend, but I wanted to ask you to be part of the wedding party. I’m not sure who you’ve been paired up with – Hermione is still being secretive about her list of bridesmaids – but I hope you’ll accept.
Ron
It wasn’t an apology, but he had been forgiven his share of wrongs without ever saying the words. Maybe it was time he gave back some of what he was continually receiving. He wrote back an acceptance and waited to see what would happen next. As he expected, he was sent the location of a nearby tailor’s and given a specific time to show up. He didn’t often have to make an appointment at his tailor, but this was for a special set of clothing so he was willing to accept that it might take a bit more from him to accomplish.
When the day arrived for his fitting, he was in a foul mood. His birthday, the day before, had come and gone without even the shortest note from Ginny. He hadn’t expected anything from the rest of them but he had been hoping for something from his sister. Secretly, he had also been wishing that Luna would somehow find out about it…but that was only a dream. Because stopping at the pub each night for a pint always sounded so entertaining when he wrote about it on paper, he tried going by for a celebratory round but quickly left as he realized that it wasn’t really his scene.
Promising himself a decent meal tonight no matter if he ate alone or not, he walked into the tailor’s and stopped dead. Luna was smiling at him from a chair right inside the door. “Punctual, just like they told me you’d be.”
“Luna,” he gasped, making a complete fool of himself as she took his hand and led him back out the door. “I have an appointment.”
“Yes, with me. The tailor had your measurements weeks ago. Your mother remembers where you like to get your robes made and had them sent over. Oh, you should be receiving a box from them in the next week so make sure you try them on just in case any adjustments need to be made. And don’t worry about your guest.”
“What?” He was completely confused now, an experience he wasn’t familiar with at all. Calm, cool Percy was normally able to manipulate any situation, but this….
She stopped and smiled up at him, her blue eyes sparkling. “You forgot one thing, Percy Weasley. I track down mysteries and strange phenomenon for a living, or I will someday soon. Figuring out who your special someone was for Ginny was rather easy. I let her believe you had someone, though. Your secret is safe with me but I took the liberty of scratching out the “And Guest” after your name on the list.”
His mouth was opening and closing, doing nothing but smacking uselessly. “What?” he asked again.
“Don’t worry. You can hang out with me at the reception. I’m your bridesmaid, after all.”
Before he could stop himself, he reached out and stroked a hand down her hair. She had cut it recently, but it still fell in golden waves over her shoulders. It was soft – but he contained himself before he went for a second touch. “My bridesmaid?”
“The one you walk in and out with. You know, at the ceremony.”
“Right. The ceremony.” He hid his hands in his pockets, berating himself for this lapse in judgment. “Where are you taking me? I’ll have to get back to work soon. So much to do today, what with the new laws going into action next month.”
She stared at him, one of her pale eyebrows lifting, and he knew he was found out once again. It seemed she knew everything about him. “Do you really?” she asked quietly.
“How do you do that?” His tone was angry as he didn’t even fight to control it.
“I know more about you than you know about yourself, Percy. Everything. I’ve begged, borrowed and stole the information I couldn’t get from a mere question. Everything.” The word was a caress as she stepped forward.
“Should I be scared?”
Her kiss answered his question. Yes, he should be terrified of this girl – no, woman. He already was. Since meeting her, his life seemed to be constantly shifting, tilting wildly under his feet.
To prove just that point, she grabbed his hand and began to lead him down the street once again. He was quiet until she stopped in front of a trendy eatery. “It’s not the neighborhood pub but it should do, don’t you think?”
“For what?” This time his kiss kept her from answering, and she smiled up at him, enigmatic and serene, when he pulled away. “Have dinner with me tonight,” he blurted out, knowing he needed to find out more about her to fill in the blanks of his imagination.
“I will, but only after we have lunch together with your family.”
His eyes narrowed but she pulled him into the restaurant until they were standing by a table full of Weasley’s and their significant others. They were all smiling, every one of them, as they clapped and chanted his name.
“Happy Birthday, my dear boy,” Molly said as she stepped forward to hug him, her weathered eyes glistening with tears. “We would have done this yesterday but Luna let us know you had an important meeting you couldn’t miss. My, but you’ve been so busy lately. I’m glad they could do without you long enough for you to come to your party.”
Luna’s eyes were filled with tears, too, as he looked at her over his mother’s head. He understood some of that enigmatic smile now. When she slipped her hand in his, he knew he’d have a chance to learn some of the other mysteries as well.
