Chapter Text
It has been eight years since Percy Weasley graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
It has been four years since the end of Second War, and three years since he’s married Oliver Wood.
It’s been seven years since Percy Weasley has told his family anything about his life.
He doesn’t talk to them much at all, really: he shows up from Sunday dinner, like he always does, and he sits and listens to his family talk around him. No one asks him about his work, and so he doesn’t say anything about it. No one speculates on whether he has a girlfriend, so he doesn’t bother to correct their assumptions.
His listening and looking means he hears things that most people don’t, however. When his mother asks Ginny eagerly whether she’s patched things up with Harry, his sister shifts nervously and deflects her eyes.
Percy knows that this means no, and it means that she’s involved with someone else. Harry, in addition to looking awkward, has also started averting his gaze as of two months ago, and Percy takes this to mean that the raven-haired boy has now also found someone new.
He knows before the others when Ron and Hermione are engaged, because he sees the way his younger brother is clutching Hermione’s fist and sees the knowing glint in Harry’s eyes.
He knows Fleur is pregnant before the rest because of the careful way that she avoids alcohol for those first five weeks of secrecy. She and Bill are subtle, but not quite enough: she gets a glass of wine like everyone else, but it’s Bill who drains her glass by the end of the night.
Percy Weasley finally learns who Ginny’s new significant other is when she arrives late one Sunday, humming dazedly. He sees the necklace clenched in her fist before she stuffs it into her satchel, and it’s strung with Butterbeer corks. He’s seen that necklace before, and he knows it– Penny had introduced him to a tiny Luna Lovegood in their sixth year. The blonde girl had been his sister’s age.
So observing has become a habit for him, because he can’t very well talk about himself, and it rather blindsides him one day when George shows up for Sunday dinner acting more antsy than he’s been in years.
His mother shoos them all to the table, and they sit. His dad immediately engages Charlie and Ron and Ginny in a discussion about the Falmouth Falcons’ latest match, and Hermione begins to coo over baby Victoire. Bill is drawn into conversation with Harry, and Fleur begins to talk to George, who is still acting off–
And then Molly’s interrogations begin. They circle around the table as she stares down Bill, Ron, and Charlie. Finally, her attention is on George, and Percy feels a heavy weight in his stomach.
It starts out well enough. She asks him about the shop, and about how Verity and Lee are doing, and whether they’ve had any new product lines. But then she starts asking about his dating life, and George tenses. Percy suddenly knows what’s about to happen.
He catches the tense line of Harry’s shoulders immediately. The Boy-Who-Conquered is sitting next to George, and he realizes that they’re involved. George is about to come out, and Percy knows that his mother will not take it well.
Shit.
“Are you seeing any special girl?” Molly asks, and huffs in disappointment when George shakes his head. “No? No lovely lady’s caught your eye? What about Verity, she’s a sweet one!”
“No,” George mutters. “Not Verity.”
“Well, you’ve got to start looking around, young man! There are plenty of beautiful women out there for you if you’d just try–”
“Mum,” George says firmly, meeting her eyes. “I’m gay. I’m dating a guy, and we’re very happy together.”
There is absolute silence.
Hermione’s eyes are darting frantically between Molly and George, Ron is leaning into Harry's side, Harry looks very pale and is biting his lip– yes, it’s definitely Harry that George is seeing. Bill’s eyebrows are drawn together as he stares at Molly, and Charlie is looking down at his plate. Ginny is narrowing her eyes at her mother. Fleur is holding baby Victoire, seemingly categorizing everyone’s reactions. Arthur is watching his wife.
Percy needs to say something, or this is going to get very out of hand.
Percy Weasley doesn’t talk about himself, he just doesn’t, and he and George are just this side of estranged, but the reason there’s silence in the kitchen right now is because Fred isn’t there to fill it. So Percy Weasley straightens his back.
“Mum,” he says, and everyone’s eyes dart to him immediately. “Did I tell you where Oliver took me for our anniversary last week? It was very romantic. He got an international Portkey to Belgium, and we renewed our vows in this quaint little seaside town.”
The silence is somehow even heavier. Molly’s face is quickly reddening. George’s eyes are wide and he quite frankly looks stupefied.
Percy flicks his wand to dispel the glamours around his hand, and shows off the slightly-worn ring on his left ring finger. “He was telling me the story about how he bought my engagement ring, apparently he found it in this out-of-the-way jewelry store in Scotland, but he went back to buy it and it had been sold. So he followed it around the Isles, eventually caught up to the guy that bought it and purchased off of him for nearly four-thousand Galleons. I almost upended my wine in his face when I heard the cost.”
Harry is looking at him like he’s never truly seen him before, and George’s eyes are watering, and Ron looks flabbergasted. Charlie is smiling knowingly– dammit, how did he know– and Bill is smirking into his glass of wine. Ginny is gaping, but her eyes are glinting, and the corners of her mouth are curling up.
His mother opens her mouth. “You– Percy– you’re also a homosexual?”
Percy looks at her. “Well, yes. I’ve also been married to Oliver Wood for three years. We dated back in Hogwarts, but we fell apart during the war. We were quite distressed about it, but I insisted that I couldn’t have connections while within the bowels of the Ministry. We all made sacrifices for the war effort, I reminded him. We fell back together almost immediately after the final battle.”
“You– what?” Ron interrupts, looking completely thrown. “Sacrifices? Why couldn’t you have connections?”
Now Percy is the one who’s confused. “Well… I was undercover. It would have been dangerous to be visibly aligned with the resistance.”
“You were undercover?” Harry asks, aghast, and George and Bill are wide-eyed.
Percy frowns. “Dad and I argued about it before I left that summer. I avoided you all for three years. Yes, I was undercover.”
“Perce… we were told that you argued about whether Fudge was trying to use you to spy on the family.” Charlie says, biting his lip worriedly as he speaks.
Now he is especially confused. “Well… of course he was. It wasn’t very realistic for me to go directly from assistant for the dead Department Head to assistant for the Minister. They were really quite transparent. But I don’t remember arguing about that. Dad spent all summer telling me that the job was too dangerous, and I was insisting that it was a necessary evil.”
Percy looks around at the dumbfounded faces. “Are you– did you really not know? Did you think I avoided you for three years because I wanted to?” He whirls to face his parents. “Did you not tell them the truth?” Arthur looks absolutely miserable, and Percy is immediately enraged. “Why would you not tell them!”
His father sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. “We thought it would be easier to keep up the charade and keep you safe if as few as possible knew.”
Percy gapes. “But… okay, ignoring that, why would you not tell them once the war was over?”
“We thought you had,” Arthur says, and Molly is still red-faced and quiet. “We were… dealing with Fred’s death.”
“Dealing with– so was I! For three goddamn years I avoided my family, finally returning only to watch my brother die in front of me! And you– they– they all were mourning Fred’s death and you let them think I had betrayed them? Why would I have corrected them? I never knew they were left in the dark to begin with! For four years I’ve been given the cold shoulder by this family, I hid my goddamn husband from you, I hid my company and my life! I thought I’d done something wrong, I thought I was unwanted– now you come out with this shite and say they thought I was a traitor!”
Percy is standing and shouting now, his vision blurred with rage, his voice ragged. His brothers are all watching him with slack faces and wide eyes. Harry’s brows are furrowed with anger. Hermione may be crying, and Fleur is soothing a sobbing Victoire.
“Right,” he says, when nothing else is said. “Right.” He whirls to face his mother. “If you feel like being a bigot, please take it out on me, who has been comfortably out for three years, and not on your other son who has lost a twin and found some semblance of happiness that you were about to destroy. If you feel like explaining why you allowed me to become alienated by my family for the last half-decade, I will be at home with my husband or at work at my company. Because no one ever asks about my work, that is the Ignatius Wood Foundation, dedicated to helping non-humans find work or start businesses. You are not to harass my husband, my clients, or my employees.”
He stalks towards the door. “Congratulations, George, Harry.” He nods sharply. “Oliver and I might send you two tickets to Majorca the next time we go on a double date vacation with Audrey and Penny.”
Percy slams the door behind him as he goes.
***
The Burrow is absolutely silent for a moment, and then a red faced Charlie turns towards his parents. “He was bloody undercover?” He spits, enraged. “I thought I had lost two brothers when the war ended, and now we find that he was really fighting the hardest fight of all?”
Arthur looks pale and shame-faced, and Molly’s cheeks are still ruddy as her jaw works.
Ginny’s eyes are fire, and she leans over the table. “Something to say, Mum?”
Molly spits: “Did anyone else hear him say that he’s been married to a man for three years? Did anyone else catch onto the fact that he never told any of us?”
Bill stands abruptly and thunderously. “Well, no bloody wonder! If this is how you react to his sexual orientation– and beyond that, why would he tell us anything! He’s been thinking that we hated him for a reason he didn’t know!”
George’s face is like stone as he slumps back in his seat. “He was undercover,” he mumbles. “And he’s married to Ollie Wood.”
Harry leans over and presses their shoulders together in silent comfort.
Ron’s face is furious, his grip on Harry’s other arm bruising. “Did anyone know he wasn’t working at the Ministry anymore? Does anyone know anything about this company of his?”
Hermione places her trembling hands flat on the table. “I do,” she says quietly. “It’s an anonymous organization, there’s no public face. But people have been hailing it as the one of the largest private benefactors in the last three hundred years. It’s established a system of education and employment for nearly two thousand non-human clients.”
“I also know of zis company,” Fleur declares viciously. “It ‘elped me to transfer my credentials to zee British Ministry, and to bypass several bigoted regulations.”
“Yeah,” Bill says quietly. “There’s a support group for Greyback’s victims. There’s a girl who comes in that’s Ron’s age– Lavender Brown.”
Ron curses. “She was in Gryffindor with us. Fuck.”
Ginny’s eyes are still aflame. “Yeah, and she’s our friend. And Percy is our brother.”
Arthur scrubs a hand over his face. “I know this is– nothing I can say will make this right. This is something that shouldn’t have happened. Molly and I should have exercised better judgement, and failing that, we should have rectified the situation. I know it’s far too late for empty words. Percy is the one who needs to hear this, and he will, but I’m truly sorry for my role in this. I made an oversight regarding my children, and that is unforgivable. It will not happen again.”
He stands, the tired lines in his face thrown into sharp relief. “George, I’m very proud of you for being brave enough to tell us about your boyfriend. I’ll always love you and support you. I’d love to meet your boyfriend one day, if both of you would be amenable. I’m– I’m going to chase after Percy.”
He Disapparates with a sharp crack, and Molly stands abruptly, pushing back her chair. She storms away into her bedroom, and there’s the sharp click of a lock being turned.
George heaves a large sigh. “I can’t believe Percy tried to defend me from Mum’s wrath by giving away his secret marriage.”
The weight of these words weighs heavy for a moment, and then Harry begins to chuckle at George’s shoulder. He catches Hermione’s eye, and she too begins to giggle, and soon enough the whole table is roaring in laughter.
“Percy!” Bill says, throwing his hands in the air. “A secret marriage! Double date vacations! A hot Quidditch player beefcake of a husband!”
“I can’t believe he was a spy!” Ron cries. “I can’t– it’s Percy!”
Charlie chokes on his laughter. “I had my suspicions about a relationship, but the undercover bit threw me!”
Even George is smiling by this point, and slowly they all stop laughing to gasp for air.
“Did anyone else hear Percy offer zis vacation to George and ‘Arry?” Fleur asks, leaning forward with a smirk.
Harry flushes bright red and George grins leerily. “Jealous?”
Ron groans. “Don’t be gross.”
“I wonder how he knew,” Hermione says thoughtfully.
“It’s always the quiet ones,” Ginny smirks. Charlie guffaws.
Bill shakes his head. “This is such a mess. How do we fix this?”
“I want to know what his last name is,” Ron declares, and Hermione stands suddenly.
“I can figure that out,” she says. “Give me a day, and I’ll have the full legal names of whoever owns the Ignatius Wood Foundation. If it’s not Percy, then I might have to resort to illegal methods.”
“When have the laws ever stopped you?” Harry asks, and she throws him a severe glance.
“You and I, Harry James Potter, are going to have a discussion about communication when this is over.”
Harry sinks in his seat and Bill snickers.
“Well,” George says, pulling Harry back to his side. “What say us kids have brunch with Percy sometime this week?”
Bill nods. “We’ll invite you all to Shell Cottage. Mum and Dad aren’t allowed.”
Ginny suddenly groans.
“What is it?” Asks Ron.
“It’s just– I thought he saw– but it was Percy, so there was no way he knew– but he was smirking, and I was so confused–”
“Gin!” Ron interrupts. “What in the bloody hell are you talking about?”
Ginny is red faced. “I think Percy knows who my girlfriend is.”
There is silence, and then George grins. “Dear Merlin– Mum has three gay kids, however will she cope?”
Charlie laughs. “As long as we’re doing confessions– I don’t do romance. Or sex.”
“Well, you’ve already got the dragons,” Bill says.
“Little tykes,” Charlie agrees fondly, and Ron shudders.
“So, wait–” It’s Harry who says this, and he’s leaning forward with a smirk. “Who is your girlfriend, Gin? And how does Percy know?”
She groans. “Well, I had something of hers that was rather recognizable, and Percy saw me with it. I figured that even if he knew who it belonged to, there was no way he’d figure we were dating. I mean, we were friends first, and I didn’t really even think he understood romance, much less gay romance.”
“But he smirked,” Georges leers.
“He smirked,” she sighed. “And he had this knowing glance. I was so jumpy that day.”
“So who is it?” Charlie asks. “And why haven’t you brought her to Sunday dinner yet?”
“It’s Luna,” she mumbles, and Harry throws his hands in the air.
“I knew it! I knew it, Dean owes me ten Galleons!”
Ginny gapes. “My exes put ten Galleons on my love life?”
Harry scoffs. “And how much did you put on my love life? With– probably also Dean, now that I’m thinking.”
“Got you there,” Bill grins, and Ginny glares at him from across the table.
Ron suddenly jumps up and steps away from her, and she takes her spoonful of Shepherd’s pie and flicks it at him. It hits Bill’s blinking face dead on.
Fleur stands, pushing Victoire into her father’s arms. “Ginevra,” she declares, flipping her silvery hair over her shoulder, “you ‘ave started a war.” She flicks her wand, and a pan full of bread pudding tips itself onto Ginny’s head.
Bill sighs, laying his head on Charlie’s shoulder. “Godric, I’m in love.”
He’s unceremoniously shoved away. “Don’t make me a target,” Charlie hisses, and the Weasley-family food fight begins.