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Usually Molly Weasley ran The Burrow on a very tight schedule; Breakfast at seven, Lunch at twelve and dinner at five. Then some tea and toast before bed. Except the last few weeks. Recently, Molly had been on strict bed rest, and Arthur had been looking after their six sons. Now, the once orderly house was in chaos.
This was chaos the twins Fred and George seemed to enjoy immensely.
It was chaos that Percy found difficult to cope with.
It was the kind of chaos that made Percy disappear to everyone but Charlie.
Charlie climbed up the ladder to the very top attic of the Burrow, smiling when he found who he was looking for: five year old Percy huddled in a small fort made from a pile of old blankets and knitted jumpers. There were some picture books stacked neatly in the corner and stuffed animals sitting up straight listening to Percy talk about his mummy being away from him.
“There you are.” Charlie called. Percy poked his head out from the blanket he was hiding under. He frowned at his brother and then after a moment, slowly signed the word ‘HI’.
Charlie grinned. Percy wasn’t Hard of Hearing like him, their father or Baby Ron. But all of the Weasley’s were able to use sign fairly well. Sometimes Percy was more fluent in sign than he was in speech. Until he was two, they thought that Percy was hard of hearing as well.
Charlie sat down beside him, knowing better than to try and hug his younger brother who had obviously been crying.
“You need to come down for lunch, Perce.”
Percy shook his head.
It was one o’clock in the afternoon. Lunch was at twelve.
“I know it’s different to usual…”
“Because mummy is having a baby.” Percy finished what Charlie was saying. Repeating what their father had told them the previous night when they had left for saint Mungo’s in a hurry. Charlie had to sleep with Percy last night because he was so worried about how much mummy had been crying.
When Molly and Arthur left, Aunt Tessy was called. She came quick, but the reality was that Aunt Tessy was an adult body to be in the home while eleven-year-old Bill and eight-year-old Charlie were left to watch over their younger brothers.
“That’s right. She’s gone to have the baby” The eight-year-old told his younger brother gently “So, things are going to be different for a bit. Just like when baby Ron was born, but we still need to have lunch.”
Percy nodded reluctantly and stood up, still wrapped up in a blanket he started to walk to the door and down the ladder. Charlie followed him to the kitchen where the boy in the blanket sat at the table in his usual place, waiting for food. He stared at the family clock, mummy and daddy were still not at home and there was a new hand on the clock that didn’t have a picture yet, for the new baby.
Then he stared at Charlie who sat beside him as he always did, his eyes shifting to look at the sandwich Charlie had just placed in front of him. They both stared for a moment, so Charlie pushed the plate a little closer to his younger brother.
“Go on, eat,” Charlie encouraged Percy.
Charlie couldn’t figure out why Percy wouldn’t eat the sandwich. It was better than the dry rye bread one dad had made the day before. And Charlie knew it was better than what Bill had made the other kids last week when mum was taking her nap. They’d refused to wake her.
“No.” Percy’s response came off as defiant and Charlie was frustrated by it.
“What do you mean no? It’s your favorite?”
“No.”
Percy pushed the plate away from himself. It took Charlie a moment, but as he watched Percy he realized what he’d missed. It was stupid of him, really. He only remembered because he was watching Percy tap his fingers against the edge of his milk glass, counting to eight in between small sips.
Charlie pulled the plate back towards himself and tugged at the peanut butter sandwich, ripping the pieces apart slowly and carefully. Charlie made eye contact with Percy and he smiled, knowing deep in his gut that this was what Percy needed.
With eight pieces of bread on the plate, Charlie moved it back over to his younger brother. Percy counted slowly.
“One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight,” counted out to himself. As he said each number, Percy stacked the rectangles atop of one another. The bottom was much larger than the other seven pieces, a result of Charlie having ripped the first sections smaller to be sure he had enough bread to make an eighth. Percy pushed it away again and shook his head fiercely. The well kept fringe Percy had fallen into his eyes and he rushed to push it away.
“No. It’s not right.”
“Dude, what do you mean it’s not right?” Charlie could feel himself get frustrated, which was only heightened when Fred and George came through and ran past and knocked the glass of milk over on the table. The liquid dispersed quickly across the wooden table and Charlie groaned. Another thing. “You two, get outta here.”
Charlie snatched a rag from the counter and wiped up the milk, but not before it got on Percy’s shirt. He watched his brother tug at the material that was clinging to his skin.
“Bill!” Charlie shouted from his place cleaning. The twins had run out, but he was still annoyed that the twins were running around unsupervised. “I need a shirt for Percy!!”
There was a grumble from the other room, a quick clamor, and curse words from the voice of his eleven year old brother. Charlie didn’t like that Bill sometimes talked like an adult. It wasn’t right.
“Why couldn’t you have Aunt Tessy get it?” Bill asked when he came into the kitchen with a squirming Ron on his scrawny hip. Percy was still clawing at the cotton top and Charlie had just rinsed the rag of the milk it had collected.
“Do you see Aunt Tessy?” Charlie asked, waving to the empty room. Their parents didn’t know that when Aunt Tessy watched them it just meant that she was napping in the living room with a silencing charm around her. “Give that to me.”
Charlie’s words were curt and he nearly ripped the shirt from Bill. He tugged the shirt off of Percy and put the clean one on his brother. He was sure to straighten the seams right and tuck the right hems up.
By the time Percy was situated and clean again it was 1:42 and Charlie was sure he would refuse to eat again. He needed to try anyway because he wasn’t sure when there would be dinner again. Charlie took the plate to the counter and stretched his arms across the counter and stood on the top of his toes to reach a knife. Carefully, he cut the edges of the sandwich so the pieces were even. The plate sat gently in front of Percy, who was still silently crying, and he tossed the scraps of the peanut butted edges into the rat cage.
“Eat this, Scabs,” Charlie said, leaning down and looking at the rat in the cage. It was getting quite fat now that he’d been living with them a while––when they first found him, Charlie was sure he’d die. Really, Scabbers was lucky he loved animals so much because his mum wanted to just curse the rat when they found it wandering in the garden. “Promise I’ll get you some good snacks from the garden when mum and dad come home.”
Charlie glanced up. Percy was watching Charlie chat with the rat, but at the same time he was taking small bites of his sandwich. Lunch. Percy ate lunch.
Percy was almost finished eating his late lunch when they heard Fred and George bellow from the living room. Ron squirmed out of Bill’s hands and wobble-ran to where the twins were.
“MUMMY IS HOME!” The two squealed in unison.
Bill wrangled the twins from the sitting room into the kitchen, but that was a mistake. Percy dropped the second piece of his sandwich and covered his ears.
Charlie threw an annoyed look at Bill.
“How about you get them out of here, yeah?” Charlie suggested. Bill grinned apologetically and then chased the twins away from Percy who was humming anxiously.
Bill may have been the first born, but Charlie was the one who took care of the younger siblings on a more paternal level and Bill just made sure no one set the Burrow ablaze.
“MUM! MUM! MUM! MUM!” The twins screeched again, pulling on Ronald’s arm. He was a year old and had recently started unsteadily trotting around the heels of Fred and George.
Arthur walked in, his glasses lopsided and a smile on his face as he herded his sons into the living room. Picking up Ron, he kissed him on the cheek. Ron giggled and snuggled into Arthur’s shoulder, watching his dad’s beaming face when he looked at his other sons with a smile and announced, “You’ve got a little sister!”
Bill and Charlie cheered, the twins were screaming excitedly in response to their older brother's reactions and Ron gurgled happily. Percy covered his ears with his hands.
Mr Weasley suddenly became quite serious.
“Mummy is very tired.” He told them all. Looking particularly at the three-year-old Fred and George who’s grins faded slightly. They seemed to scowl a little, but Bill put a hand on each of their shoulders and squeezed gently.
“We want mummy to sleep so we can play with the baby,” the boys muttered in unison, almost unintelligible, whispering and then signing to each other.
“Her name is Ginevra. We'll call her Ginny.” Arthur told them all with a soft smile, moving his hands to show them how to spell her name in sign. “And she can’t play yet.”
Arthur carefully led Molly up to their bedroom, holding onto the Muggle baby carrier that he had bought especially for the new baby. Molly however clutched Ginny to her chest, not trusting the Muggle contraption to hold her baby girl any safer than she could.
They slowly made their way up the winding staircase, followed by six boys, the twins practically dragging baby Ron who seemed completely unphased and even amused when he bumped his head on the banister.
When they reached the bedroom they all followed them in. Except for Percy who kept walking up, towards his attic hideout once again. Voices chattered in the distance but were then muffled by the Attic door being shut. It was Charlie who first noticed Percy’s absence.
It was hours later when Percy came down from the attic. He found Charlie and grabbed hold of his older brother.
‘Hungry.” Percy signed to his older brother.
Charlie nodded and for the second time that day, they went to the kitchen together and he started to make tea and toast for both of them.
Charlie used a knife to carefully cut Percy’s toast into even pieces and smiled when his younger brother counted all eight pieces.
He poured lots of milk into their tea and stirred a spoonful of sugar into each cup.
They ate quietly.
“Do you want to come and see Mummy and Baby Ginny?” Charlie asked once they had tidied up their plates.
Percy ignored him as he looked intently at the hands on the family clock. All now pointed to Home.
Bill, Charlie, Percy and the twins were all in their pyjamas, in the living room.
Arthur was on the sofa, reading to them from the Tales of Beedle and the Bard, one twin sitting either side of him. Bill slouched on an armchair pretending to be too old for bedtime stories though he could go up to his room if he wanted to. Percy sat on the floor beside Charlie.
When the story was over. Arthur picked up Fred and George to take them to bed and Bill jumped up to help as the three year olds immediately looked wide awake and ready for mischief.
Percy looked into the fire and Charlie stood up, holding his hand out
“Do you want to go and see mummy?”
Percy didn’t answer but took hold of his hand and together they went to their parents room.
Molly was sitting in the middle of the bed, cradling her new baby girl in her arms. Baby Ron sat beside her, sleepily chewing on his favourite teddy bear.
Molly looked up and smiled when she saw Percy. The only one of her boys who hadn’t met Ginny yet.
Charlie gently climbed onto the bed to sit beside her but Percy remained in the doorway.
“Percy?” Molly smiled tiredly and the five-year old carefully approached her and climbed up onto the bed. He leant heavily against her and she moved carefully so that she could wrap her arm around him.
“This is Ginny.” Molly said softly, looking down at the sleeping baby girl adoringly.
Percy looked at Ginny. Then he moved his hand to his ear, to ask if she was like Baby Ron.
Molly smiled, “We think she’s hearing.” she explained gently. “Do you want to hold her?”
Percy hummed and when she asked again he nodded slightly, moving his arms to how they had shown him how to hold Ron when he was a little baby.
“Good boy.” Molly told him as he carefully held onto Ginny. After a few moments, Percy held out Baby ginny when Charlie asked to hold her. Charlie confidently took hold of Ginny and gently rocked his new baby sister, showing her to Ron.
Percy climbed into Molly’s arms and she hugged him closely, it wasn’t often that he wanted cuddles from her.
“No more crying, Mummy.” he mumbled.
“No more crying.” She promised, rocking him as carefully as if he were Ron or Ginny.