Chapter Text
Percy Weasley was fed up, he was tired of doing everything the ministry asked of him and more. His boss didn’t remember his first name and he was always asking him to do minor tasks like he was some kind of tea boy or an intern!.
He was so stressed he was hardly sleeping and if that wasn’t enough, he broke up with his girlfriend Pennolope Clearwater. She said she was bored of him, like he was supposed to enterain her all the time like some show animal.
He wrote furiously on a typewriter, half of the people in his office at Ministry didn’t even do their paperwork. He wrote furiously on a type writer, it was three o’clock and he hadn’t had lunch yet. His boss in his section was an old man named David Malsupp and the man had been dumping all of his paper work on him for months saying he was too busy.
“Peverall, could you finish up that work and go get us something from a bakery” Malsupp asked, he had been walking around doing the more minor tasks and was currently taking a break.
Percy stood, his jaw clenching. That’s it, he was done, he grabbed his typewriter off of his desk and threw it on the ground. It smashed into a million pieces and made everyone in the office turn to look at him. “No, I won’t. I’ve put up with everyone’s fucking laziness for months and almost a year. I’m done.”
“Peverall” Malsupp looked shocked.
“My name is Percy Weasley, I’ve been here for a year and you can’t fucking remember my name, you dolt? Fine, but I’m not a fucking tea boy or your bloody intern. You’re the laziest sloth of an old man I’ve ever met and you and your fucking workers don’t ever do your paperwork.” Percy said coldly. Everyone looked stunned. He looked back at the mound of papers and pointed his wand and muttered an incantation. The papers scattered everywhere like confetti.
“Good luck getting your paperwork done without me, I quit” he said then in a flash of anger, he reached in his desk and threw one of Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes smokebombs down and turned to leave the office.
He found himself in the hall ways and walked to a room where he was allowed to apparate and did. He found himself in an alley in muggle london. He tore off his tie and unbuttoned a few buttons from his shirt then took off his cloak. He stewed in anger for a few more minutes as he walked around realizing he must be near the Leaky Cauldron.
As his anger cooled a bit, he realized he didn’t regret a thing. It felt good, great even. He smiled and walked further to the Leaky Cauldron hoping to get a drink. Some Firewhisky would be great to celebrate. He walked in and sat down and asked for one. He tossed back the first shot he recieved, savoring the burn that went down his throat.
“I haven’t seen you drink firewhisky since we decided to get pissed before we graduated” he turned to see Oliver Wood.
“Yeah well, I think I’m allowed a bit, I quit my job” he said.
Oliver looked shocked and sat in the seat next to him. “What?” he asked, he laughed and tossed back another shot.
“Had enough, and Merlin, it felt good” he added.
“Who are you and what have you done with Percy Weasley?” Oliver raised an eyebrow, leaning over the bar with his thick arms, toned from playing Quidditch professionally.
Percy felt the whisky warm him from the inside, feeling a little buzzed already “He’s a stupid git, so I tossed him along with the bomb from my brother’s shop” he said. It was true, he hated everything he’d done since he finished school. It was no wonder his family didn’t like him. He didn’t even really like himself.
Oliver was quiet for a pause “wait, what? You threw a smoke bomb… where?” he asked.
“Stink bomb” he corrected then once again tossed another shot, his last shot of firewhisky back. “Threw it at that lazy bums feet after I scattered papers all around. Should’ve seen their faces, you’d think I’d just turned into a Hippogriff or something” he mumbled.
“Yeah, or something. That’s just not like you” Oliver said.
Percy winced “aren’t I a Weasley too?” he asked, the fact that he was now extremely tipsy at only 4 o’clock in the evening had something to do with the looseness of his emotions.
“Of course you are” Oliver replied, looking very concerned now, his tone had gone soft.
“No, I don’t think I am” Percy’s eyes watered “we protect our own and I just ran, my stupid pride made me leave my family at the most important time.”
“You were at the battle” Oliver said hurriedly.
“But I still couldn’t protect anyone, Fred, I couldn’t do a thing. I act like I’m so self-important but I’m not. I’m not important, I don’t even think they’d notice I was gone. They hate me anyway” he said.
“No” Oliver grabbed his arm and Percy felt his warmth wanting to fold into it but pulled back.
“I hate myself so naturally-”
“Shut up, Percy” Oliver said “you need to calm down, okay? No one hates you, least of all your family. Come on” Oliver lifted Percy from stool to the ground and started pulling him out of the bar.
“Where are we going” Percy said, stumbling a bit. Oliver then wrapped an arm around him and apparated. Percy teetered when they arrived.
“This is my flat,” Oliver said steadying Percy and dumped him on the couch. “Listen, your obviously stressed or something and you looked like you were gonna cry. I don’t think you’d forgive me if I let you cry in front of the entire Leaky Cauldron. That place might as well called the Gossip Cauldron. So cry if you want” Oliver said sitting on the couch beside him.
Percy didn’t cry but turned to face Oliver “you know I had a crush on you pretty much since 4th year at Hogwarts?” he asked instead, throwing Oliver off completely.
“Oh?” Oliver said, flushing a bit.
“Yeah, everyone liked you and for a slight moment I was jealous because the twins treated you more like a brother than me. Then I saw you fly and how happy you were when you did and everything. And from then on I pretty much noticed everything. How toned your arse looked in-” Oliver went redder than a Weasley then and covered Percy’s mouth.
“Stop, wait a minute, since when did you even like men?” Oliver said, he didn’t know how to handle a Percy like this. A Percy who had no filter, the usual Percy was always calculating and thought before he spoke and so straight it was painful.
“I’m about as straight as feather quill, Olly” Percy said, his eyes a little glazed.
“And- Oh” Oliver said thinking about it, Percy had always been with Penolope for a while now so of course Oliver would never have seen his interest in men. It’s just Percy was always so strict, so no-nonsense that it hadn’t occured to Oliver to ever ask because he was afraid to offend him so he just assumed things. But this was too much, Oliver had always been pretty open to everyone who interested him and it was obvious who he liked. He was a bloody open book with a sign over his head “this person fancies so-and-so.”
But Percy simply wasn’t like that, he was closed off, convinced he had to hide to protect himself. Oliver could remember a Percy he met his second year, a painfully shy boy who pretty much floored everybody with ability to remember pretty much everything he’d ever read in a book. He’d never met anyone like him until that little Hermione Granger girl but she still was pretty on par with Percy. They made an odd pair when Oliver started inviting Percy whever he went.
“I’m sorry” Percy said “I’m a lot drunk so.” Percy shrugged down now and on the verge of crying again. Fuck, Percy looked so tired and skinny then and Oliver realized he was a bad friend. A horrible friend, Percy had been so busy with work so each time Oliver asked if he wanted to sit for a drink he turned it down. He had shrugged it off thinking maybe Percy was fine but just busy.
“I- do you still have a crush?” Oliver asked, waiting for Percy to reply and hoped he wouldn’t break into sobs. As much as Oliver was prepared to comfort, he hated to deal with crying.
Percy was quiet and pulled his legs up off the floor and tucked them to his chest. “I’m sorry” he said, looking down. Oliver had no freaking idea now, did he kiss him? Percy was kind of one of those “what if” people he’d thought of for a long time.
He honestly did like him but always thought it was here nor there. “Don’t be sorry, I like you, I really do” Oliver said sitting next to him. It probably wasn’t the best thing to kiss when he was so drunk and stressed, he wasn’t even thinking straight.
“Why?” Percy said curiously looking younger than how he usually did. He’d always tried to be a grown up, always.
Oliver considered this sincerely “I like how your so smart and you know it, I like that you take pride in what you do, I like that your always thinking about how all people have some kind of thing they do that’s important. I like that your stubborn when you need to be but you come out of it when something more important is at stake” he said.
“Oh” Percy looked small, torn between looking happy or sad. “But not that way?” he asked.
“What way?” Oliver asked.
“You know, the I want to sit on your thighs and kiss you sort of way” Percy said.
“Oh, no I do want that sort of way” Oliver grinned, that sounded awsome especially since Percy’s thighs were amazingly thick and shapely. He bet with the pants off he’d look like a gazelle or something.
Percy smiled hesitantly then surged forward to kiss him and Oliver barely had time react because Percy’s thighs were suddenly on his lap sideways. His lips were pressed his own and were a tongue quickly parted them. Oliver gasped and eventually pried Percy back for a second.
“Wait, Percy your drunk. Can we pick this up when your sober?” Oliver asked and Percy looked disappointed.
“I’m not that drunk” Percy said.
“I know but please?” Oliver said. He wanted him to have a clear mind when he wakes up and then they can talk about dating and the things that with especially since he was pretty close to get a hard on just by Percy sitting on him.
Percy laid against his chest then “okay…” he said. Eventually Percy fell asleep around ten o’clock so Oliver just took him to his bed and went to sleep himself.
XXX
Percy woke up on a Saturday morning to an arm wrapped around his thin waist. He groaned and looked back and blinked to find himself very close to Oliver Wood. It slowly came to him and he gasped. Oliver’s opened slowly.
“Hey” he said sleepily and Percy sat up suddenly “oh my Merlin, I am so sorry” he said putting his face in his hands. He said such embarassing things and he’d even jumped into Oliver’s lap.
Oliver sat up too “it’s fine, do you remember everything?” he asked and Percy reddened and nodded.
“Do you really want to…” Percy hesitated and Oliver nodded.
“Yes I would, actually I do like you but um maybe go on a date or two before we y’know” Oliver said chuckling and Percy nodded.
“I hate to ask but… do you have some clothes I could borrow?” Percy asked “I should probably go and speak to my parents if they’ve even heard” he added.
“Oh yeah, that’s fine, you can have a shower too. I’ve got an extra toothbrush somewhere” Oliver sat up and went to find Percy some clothing and managed to find some jeans a bit too small for him and a Puddemere United shirt he’d been given before he’d started training full time. He’d literally went up an entire size in muscle.
“Thanks” Percy said smiling. As soon as Percy was all set to take a shower with some clothing, Oliver went to make some eggs to have with some toast. He’d already dressed in some casual clothing. As soon as he was done making the toast, Percy walked in wearing his shirt and jeans. Oliver swallowed soon, it was little big on him but damn if that wasn’t sexy with his bare feet barely visible as the bottoms of jeans covered his heels. “You really do like me” Percy said catching Oliver in the act of checking him out.
“Well of course I do” Oliver said, Percy had said he hated himself when they met. He’d have to talk to him about that later, Percy smiled brighter than he had in a while.
“I wonder if my parents even heard about what happened” Percy said as he ducked into his plate, piling eggs on buttered toast.
“Well, do people throw stink bombs often in the Ministry?” Oliver asked teasingly.
“No, Ministry is quite uptight about a lot of things. If your not a head of a department your not important and most heads are old farts” Percy shrugged.
“Hm… well what are you going to do now, then?’ Oliver asked.
“Dunno yet” Percy said shrugging. Percy looked worried so Oliver didn’t bring it up again.
“I’ll go with you to your parents house if you want. Actually I kind of want to see their reactions, I’ll bet George will knock himself off his seat in hysterics” Oliver said grinning and Percy cracked a smile too.
“Be great, haven’t seen him in a while, haven’t seen anyone really cept dad sometimes,” he said.
“Well then you quitting is a good thing, you can see them more” Oliver said and Percy nodded. They finished eating pretty quickly and brushed their teeth then apparated to the Burrow. Percy wavered at the door a moment before it was flung open and Mrs. Weasley flung herself at Percy in a tight hug.
“Where have been, Percy. Your father heard about what happened and immedietly went to look for you but we could find you. Someone said you’d been at the Leaky Cauldron and then left. We thought you’d had a break down or something. Goodness” she said rapid fire not giving Percy a single word in edgewise.
She let him go and turned to Oliver “hello Oliver, want to come in? Thank you for bringing him back to us. Percy… explain” she said, her eyes narrowed as they were ushered in.
Almost the whole family was waiting at the table for them: Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, George, Mr. Weasley, Bill, Fleur, and of course Mrs. Weasley who conjured up extra chairs for Percy and Oliver. Percy swallowed and sat.
“Breakfast?” Mrs. Weasley asked.
“Er, we already ate” Oliver said and Mrs. Weasley raised her eyebrows and George smirked while Percy reddened from ear to ear.
“Fine, now Percy, explanations” Mrs. Weasley said sitting down.
“I was fed up” Percy began telling the story of him smashing the typewriter and scattering papers and yelling at his boss and then quitting and throwing a stinkbomb. He explained that he was done working for the Ministry and didn’t regret qutting or the way he quit a single bit. He then explained that he went to the Leaky Cauldron and got drunk off Firewhisky then Oliver took him home because he was too drunk to get home himself. He left out the rest about Oliver and him confessing and other things.
There was a pause and then George grinned “I have never been prouder to call you my brother, throwing a stinkbomb in the bloody Ministry of Magic. Brilliant” he said, laughing.
“George” Mrs. Weasley admonished “I won’t lecture you since you seem pretty set that you don’t regret a thing but tell us where you are after doing something rash like that. We were so worried” she said.
“Yeah, we thought you’d gone mad or something, Perce. It’s so unlike you” Ron said.
“I think it’s exactly like him” Oliver spoke up and everyone looked up “he’s a bloody spit fire, a Weasley through and through, him and the lot of you” he said. Percy smiled.
“Well, he’s not wrong. Percy always knows exactly what he wants and it’s not like him to stay some place where he’s not getting what he wants” Ginny said. Mr. Weasley sighed and leaned back.
“Thank Merlin that’s sorted,” he said then blinked at Percy’s shirt “is that a Puddlemere united shirt?” he asked Percy who blushed, realizing that he knew fully well that Oliver had given him a shirt and that said Wood and his number on the back.
“Bloody traitor,” Ron crossed his arms, being a Chudley Canons fan meant opposing Puddemere’s team. Percy grinned at him making Ron and the rest of their family a little dumbstruck because nobody had seen Percy smile that big in a long time.
“Yes, yes it is” Percy leaned on Oliver and grabbed his hand holding in his lap.