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Percy was a time traveler.
He couldn’t exactly tell you how it happened. He’d just.. felt guilty. For how he felt. For how he’d shunned his family. ..
And the next thing he knew, he was back at the Burrow.
When Charlie and Bill were still at Hogwarts.
When Fred..
He felt horribly disoriented, and shame creeped up as he quietly watched the other Weasleys.
How could he hate this family? The one that’s worked so hard to care for him..
His heart ached, and he couldn’t even scold Fred or George for pranking him at the moment. He just..
“Fred. George..” He looked at the respective twin, and they gaped at him, turning to each other.
“Forge!” “Gred!” “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” “He knows!!”
Percy smiled, albeit strained. Of course he knew. When one twin dies, you start to notice all the other differences in the other. Just small differences.
Though they seemed to pause, and George frowned at him. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be okay.” He.. didn’t think he was lying.
Fuck, they’re so small. He never really realized how young they all were. He almost felt like his mom, not wanting her kids to fight in the war.
Percy could change that, couldn’t he?
He could do better.
The twins nodded, although a bit disjointed, before heading into the living room.
It didn’t even feel real, it felt like a dream. But it wasn’t.
Should he even tell anyone? Wasn’t time travel illegal, though? But.. Since he was always the one to follow the rules, wouldn’t he only be more believable?
He didn’t know what to do.
Percy wanted to cry, yet he took in a deep breath, walking forward, and just.. watching.
Time felt so slow, and yet so fast at the same time.
He couldn’t do this. He didn’t even know a lot of what had happened. (But Harry Potter was younger than you. Did you really want him to go again?)
Well. He didn’t need to say he had time traveled.
There was.. divination .
What if he played it off as some sort of.. Seer ability? Predicting a horrible war, but not needing any details? It wouldn’t do much except make them possibly prepare more. They might not believe him, why would they?
He could at least try. Percy wanted nothing more than for his family to be alive. For his family.. to accept him. And for him to accept them back.
Percy tried to think. He didn’t know for sure if his mom would even know about the order. He could play it off as a weird ‘dream’ that’d later be shown as a vision..?
It felt weird, preparing to build up an elaborate lie.
But who would believe him otherwise?
So nervously, he went up to her, tapping her on the shoulder. “Oh! Yes, Percy?”
The time traveler hesitated. “Do you.. Know what the Order of the Phoenix is?”
Molly jerked in place, staring at him wide-eyed. “ What?- ”
So she did know!
“..I had a weird.. dream . Something was going on.”
He could just see the cogs turning in her head, realizing what that would mean.
Before he could wait further however, she brought him to a more private room, before taking a moment to answer. “..Percy.. The Order of the Phoenix.. It was a society made to combat.. You-Know-Who .. Your uncles used to be a part of it.” And they died, went unsaid.
“..Oh.”
“How.. Did you know about it before..?”
He quickly shook his head. “I didn’t. It was..” The former adult ducked his head in embarrassment. “A scary dream.” .. “There was something happening. I.. think it came back. To fight again. Someone strong.”
Molly had never looked so hesitant. As if the idea that her child had been haunted in his dreams, or perhaps, visions of the future, was so unbearable. “..And you’re sure?”
“..I am.” Percy couldn’t help feeling guilty, but he was just a kid! No longer an adult, expected to do things at the Ministry.. What could he even do?
“Okay. Would you be okay with telling me everything?”
He nodded.
Step 1: Starting at the base. Gaining some sort of credibility. He could easily speak about how Bill would go on to be a Curse-Breaker, and Charlie would work with dragons. It’d only be a few years before they graduated and left Hogwarts, after all.
It felt so far away, though.
Maybe something sooner. Molly might’ve had some sort of idea, however, if he knew about the Order out of nowhere.
..He wished he asked more questions, understood what happened. But the truth was he didn’t, and he was far too shameful to go and ask back in the future.
Ginny had looked so tiny. His heart ached, and he could see the echoes of her future self, where she was far more rebellious, and wanted to do her own things.
He’d heard, of course, of how she’d been possessed by a diary during her first year.
Why didn’t they do anything? Did that not give off any red flags?
Or maybe it was just him, who was far more focused on studying and other things to even spare any attention for his family.
And Ron.. Every year was filled with trouble that he faced mainly headfirst with his friends.
Who thought it was okay? For children to go through horrifying things, to have to take action where the adults didn’t?
Percy might’ve not paid much attention, but he could recall very clearly the absolute smear campaign they tried on Harry, calling him ‘ The-Boy-Who-Lied ’, when he’d seen firsthand the death of a classmate. A friend.
With everyone that’d been wronged, with everything that’d gone wrong.. With it all in his head.
He resolved to do everything in his power to keep them all safe.
(Percy wondered if this would make him a Slytherin. The willingness to do anything to reach a goal. Or the self-preservation to lie and keep himself as an active player. Or the ambition to just.. do. Or was it brave and reckless of him to be willing to fight a war all over again, albeit more actively this time? He didn’t know. He never really had thought about the possibility of being in anything but Gryffindor, yet.. Grown up now, with biases aside, he could see a lot. Maybe even the Twins could be Slytherins, purely with their ambition.)
One day. It’ll all be over.
Hopefully.