Chapter Text
Oliver looks at Harry Potter, aged eleven, four foot something and underfed, and well, he doesn't see a star at first but once Harry gets on a broom and kicks off- oh, he's a galaxy.
*
One day, long from now, Harry will look back and think Oliver might have been the first person who ever made him believe he could be something more. All those people touching his scar or remembering his parents, but it was Oliver who put thoughts of ambition into his head, determination not to fail, the incentive to succeed. That was all Oliver.
Oliver pushes hard but he's anything but doubtful. He knows Harry can win every game, if given the chance. The kid is fast and smart and so small- he and Angie and the others have a shameful period of giving him the cold shoulder, calling him "the seeker" after he and his little friends lose their house hundreds of points, but even as they're doing that, they're shoving jumpers and hot chocolate his way, trying to keep an eye on where he goes after practice, trading whispers about how exactly he managed to lose all those points in the first place.
It becomes an unfortunate yearly tradition to have Harry lying in bed, his quidditch team surrounding him, the twins sitting on the bed, Oliver gripping his shoulder. They're the first family Harry really claims for himself. They bemoan his penchant for danger and his growing collection of scars, but they ruffle his hair too and call him our little Gryff, and if they could they would fight all his battles beside him.
*
Oliver and Percy start dating in Harry's second year but they never make it a big thing until his third.
Harry's never seen boys kiss before. He didn't know that was allowed. Oliver takes him aside, at some point, and he knows Harry hasn't got an issue with him and Percy and has an idea of what might really be going on. "It's allowed, you know," he says. "Wizards aren't like muggles with this. It doesn't matter who you choose to date, okay? Don't listen to anyone who says it does."
Harry, twelve years old and one year from forming bright blinding crushes on Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory, stutters out an agreement and stares at his ceiling for a couple weeks. But if Oliver says it's okay... he decides it's okay. He rolls over, stops worrying, and closes his eyes.
*
Oliver and Percy, who've been going steady, nearly break up in Harry's fourth year after they've graduated.
Oliver's looking for quidditch jobs and Percy is starting his internship at the ministry, and it's all just piling on top of them, the post-graduation pressured growing and growing. Visiting the Burrow goes from being something Oliver loved to something he dreads, hates answering Molly's questions about how many teams have signed him with half-answers. Life outside school is frightening, and it's only getting more so as dark things start to creep out from the shadows and into the light.
Privately, Oliver and Percy get into fights over it- Percy promises it'll blow over, Oliver wants to know why he's hiding from the truth. "Harry is a kid," he snaps, "a kid we've watched grow up, Perce. A child. You think that boy put his own name into that goblet? Why would he ever do that?"
Percy, whose own younger brother has rather a different idea of fame, throws his hands up and scoffs. "Oh, I don't know," he says, tone just as sharp. "Maybe because every boy his age would? Can you look me in the eyes and say you wouldn't have, Ol? Can you?"
"That's different," Oliver protests, and it is. Everything is different now, and still changing. The fifth ends with Percy and Oliver tangled together on the couch, staring in the fire, trying not to think about the growing gap between them, the growing fear in the world and their brothers' places in it.
*
Fourth year ends and Percy and Oliver are in the hallway pacing, worrying their hands- Bill storms out and sweeps past them. "Harry's alive," he says. "He's injured, traumatized, I don't know. There's more happening than we knew about."
Oliver slumps against the wall and Percy stares at his hands. (Of course Oliver came to watch. He's been here for every task. Percy doesn't come and find him but at the end of the day, they'd meet and wrap each other up in their arms and he'd make Oliver laugh with stories of the other Ministry employees.)
When they're finally allowed into the medbay- after Harry woke up mid-rant from Fudge and rattled off a list of names that includes Percy's own coworkers- Percy chews on his nails and pats nervously at Harry's legs while Oliver grips his shoulders and ruffles his hair and says "Hey, harry. Hey. You're okay. I'm so proud of you."
Harry chokes on nothing and his breath stutters in his chest. Oliver leans over and pulls him into a tight hug, Harry's fingers catching in the holes of his jumper, and Oliver thinks fuck. He thinks, if things were bad before, they'll be worse now.
Afterwards, at his apartment, Oliver cries into Percy's shirt. "I said I hated him," he says weepily. "Cedric, Perce. Fuck, Cedric. He's dead. How can he be dead?" Percy soothes him as best as he can, but he's still shell shocked himself. They haven't had a brush with death like this before. This is the first. This and Barty Crouch Jr.
"It's okay," Percy mumbles into Oliver's hair. "It's okay. It's okay."
"No it isn't," says Oliver, and, well. It's not.
*
They break up the next year.
Oliver believes Harry, of course he does. Harry says Voldemort is back so Oliver knows Voldemort is back and they'd better start getting ready for things to get worse.
Percy doesn't want to. Deep down, Oliver knows Percy believes Harry too, but it's easier to say he doesn't, to take the Ministry job and cut off his family and bury his head in paperwork so he doesn't have to think about how everything that matters is entirely out of his control.
They break up.
Oliver writes Harry letters that are only sometimes answered and never genuinely, and Angelina writes Oliver letters that say shit, Ol, he's a mess. Detentions every night and his hand is always bleeding and he's so goddamn angry. Our little Gryff worries me, these days. (Oliver writes back saying he's always worried me, Angie. We do what we can. And that has to be enough for now.)
He starts playing for a minor quidditch league team, and at the end of practices he hesitates in the locker rooms, like he's waiting for Percy to show up, cheeks flushed and voice breathless, I saw you flying, you've never looked better, but of course Percy is never there.
Percy, elsewhere, starts noticing things that he can't ignore.
*
Things, as they do, get worse.
*
Oliver joins the Order, like so many others. He's never in the inner circle- never once goes to Number 12- but the Order has longer tendrils than that. He delivers messages, trains with other recruits, and then trains recruits himself. He still writes Harry letters, and Harry writes back when he's in his sixth year, sometimes nearly manic in his convictions and other times listless and flat.
Oliver meets him in Hogsmeade, a few times, pulling him close- Harry's taller than he is, now. Little seeker's growing up, Oliver says, half dismayed, half proud. Hermione and Ron, by his side as usual, have grown up too. "How are you, Ron?" Oliver asks, because Ron is still Percy's brother, and Percy always pretended but Oliver knows how he worries.
(At the end of the day, he goes home and he writes a letter. Ron is well, he writes. Seeing a girl named Lavender but still in love with Hermione. He's safe. Percy hides the letter in his coat pocket, and the words fade from how often he runs his fingers over it, half to remind himself of what it says, half to touch paper Oliver has touched.)
They miss each other. They do not bridge the gap.
*
The war becomes a war in full. Time passes in a trudge, and Percy and Oliver keep their jobs on the surface but underneath they are barely staying afloat. Oliver still does Order work. Percy starts to shuffle things around to hide the Muggleborns he's being asked to register.
There's no hiding from this war, not anymore.
*
Oliver fights at the battle of Hogwarts. He hasn't been back in years, he thinks morosely, and now that he is, it's to watch the place grow bloodstained. He sees Percy only once before Fred dies, and beams at him, so fucking proud it hurts.
Oliver finds him after Fred, sits down heavily on the ground, and pulls Percy into his arms. Percy sobs, and Oliver holds him, and the world is so very dark.
Before Harry disappears, he finds Oliver and pulls the older boy into a hug. "Hey," says Oliver, surprised, arms coming up to hug back, "You alright?" He can count the amount of times Harry has initiated a hug on one hand.
"I'm alright," says Harry. "I'm just glad to see you." He squeezes tighter, and Oliver manages to laugh, ruffling his hair. Harry's tall enough that he has to bend down to hug Oliver now. Maybe Oliver's just short after all.
"It'll be alright," Oliver tells him. "I believe in you." Harry's breath shudders, but Oliver means it, just as much as he meant it when the fight was a quidditch match and Harry was still eleven and as innocent as he ever was.
*
When Hagrid carries Harry's body into the light, Oliver isn't the only one to scream. Hermione and Ron make awful noises, and Ginny shrieks, and McGongagal cries out, and half a dozen others make noises of grief or fear or horror. Oliver himself nearly drops to his knees and thinks no, no, no and only later realises it was aloud.
When Harry jumps to his feet, Oliver whoops and thinks oh thank fuck and believes in harry harder than he ever has in his life.
After everything, when he manages to find Harry, he yells "Don't you ever do that again, you awful child, I'm so bloody proud of you," and drags Harry into the tightest hug of his life.
*
Things don't go back to normal once the war has been won. Fred Weasley is still dead. Oliver gets a new job at a different quidditch team, and relearns how to care about it. So many people are dead, and so many have moved away, and the Ministry is getting torn down and deserves it entirely.
Things are still quite bad, is the point, so Oliver doesn't expect the thing with Percy to get fixed.
They've been broken up quite a while now anyway.
That doesn't keep him from writing letters. Dear Perce. Love Ol.
Percy leaves them unanswered for three months, and then starts to reply with one or two word answers. One month later and it's sentences. A year of letter writing, and Percy's filling out a page, still crossing his t's and dotting his i's and looping his g's all with too much emphasis.
I miss you, writes Oliver.
Come see me, then, answers Percy.
They meet at Hogsmeade, which is neutral ground. They go on a walk. Halfway through, they realise they're holding hands. After realising, they don't let go.
*
It's not an easy process, falling back into a relationship. They fight about what happened in the war on the bad nights, and on the worst nights Percy just shuts down and sobs. The thing is, though, that they've never really stopped being in love.
Harry visits Oliver's apartment once a month, and when he spots Percy reading on the couch his eyebrows shoot upwards.
"Just be careful," he says eventually, and Oliver wishes he was still small enough to pull into his side, and has to settle for a proper hug instead.
"I'm being careful," he replies. "Percy and I love each other. We'll be alright, Harry. Don't worry about me, alright? That's my job. Speaking of, Angie tells me she's been hearing you and Neville Longbottom keep disappearing into the Forbidden Forest? What's that about then?"
"Alright, message received," Harry says very quickly, brown cheeks dusted red. "I just don't want you to get hurt, is all."
Oliver sighs gruffly and pulls Harry into another hug. "Oh, that's not a worry," he says, once he can speak, "Percy and I never hurt each other, not really. We just couldn't make it work for a while, but we're older now, and things are different."
It's not an easy process but it's a natural one, buying extra peanut butter because Percy loves it, folding up Percy's sweaters and leaving them in the cupboard, coming home to takeout already delivered.
Eventually, two years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Oliver sits down next to Percy and says, "have you realised you live here now?"
Percy looks up from his newspaper, putting his socked feet into Oliver's lap, and blinks a few times. "Oh," he says after a moment. "I hadn't realised. Is that okay?"
Oliver shoves Percy's feet off, crawls up the couch, and tugs Percy into a smiling kiss. "Yeah," he says. "Just thought I'd let you know."
*
Time passes and the war fades away and they heal.
Molly holds family dinners and Percy and Oliver bring brownies and fruit every time.
Oliver makes Neville blush bright red with his posturing until Harry kicks at him under the table, glaring fiercely, but Oliver only laughs, knowing Harry's date has already gained George and Charlie and Bill's approval and a bit of challenge will be good for him. ("Never thought I'd have too many meddling older brothers," Harry bemoans to Ron later, who cackles.)
Ginny and Oliver talk shop for hours and hours, alongside Harry and Ron who might not be quidditch professionals but have opinions loud enough to act like it. Molly presses kisses to Oliver's cheeks and pats at his chest, gifting him a Weasley sweater that's a size too big and that Oliver wears every time he visits. Percy stands behind him in family photos, chin on Oliver's shoulder, long arms crossed over Oliver's chest.
They move out of Oliver's studio apartment into a proper apartment with a king sized bed and a study room for Percy, pictures of their friends on the walls, the picture of the Gryffindor quidditch team when Harry was only a first year in its place of honour, right next to the one where they're hoisting Harry and the House Cup triumphantly into the air. In the mornings Percy cooks breakfast, and in the evenings Oliver makes dinners. Harry brings Neville over, and Angelina barges in every couple of months to complain about George while Percy whines about not wanting to know.
Time passes and new routines form and the war is behind them, now, but the future is ahead.