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George backed into the wall, spitting out his butterbeer with a loud wail and cheer that made Hermione roll her eyes and retort. Fred grabbed onto her shoulders, as George skipped in front of her, pulling the book out of her hands and sniggering.
"Gryffindor have just won the Quidditch cup." The taller of the two twins rejoiced. "And you're sat here reading a book."
"We have our exams in a few weeks." She snatched it back, throwing herself down on the common room sofa with a squint. "Besides, Gryffindor have won the Inter-House Quidditch cup exactly three years in a row, so it's hardly worth celebrating."
"Wood! Wood! Wood!" Fred imitated a chant, skipping in front of Hermione and throwing himself down to his knees in front of her. "You could still celebrate with your house though."
"I'm here, aren't I?" She smirked, making Fred laugh. "I could be-"
"In the Library, yes." He finished her sentence. "What you studying anyway?"
"Something dull." Ron chimed in, which made Hermione roll her eyes once again. "Isn't that right, 'Mione?"
"No." She puffed up her cheeks, brimming.
"Speaking of Wood, where is he?" George asked, interrupting Ron from sitting down in the middle of Fred and Hermione.
"Star player!" Ron exclaimed. "And he's not even here to celebrate."
"Hey, Gin, have you seen Oliver?" Fred called over, making Ginny's eyes flare.
"No." She wiped her lips, hoping her brothers couldn't smell the alcohol aroming from them. "But Harry's going to be back soon, isn't he? With the fireworks?"
"Hagrid's being really irresponsible letting us use them in the common room." Hermione stated, her eyes trailing on the sight of her best friend dragging in a large box of illicit fireworks. "I know." She said, pushing her hand into Ron's shoulder. "I'm such a buzzkill."
"No, I agree." He said, taking a swill of butterbeer. "I - quite like this room." He blushed, noticing she was staring at him with an exasperated look.
"The room will be fine." Hermione reassured him. "It's impenetrable." She said. "I was more so thinking we were likely to get injured. The whole house."
"Yeah, the whole house except our dweeby little brother." George sniggered, tilting his head towards the direction of Percy, who was sitting on the stairs of the common room with his back to the rest of the house. “Who is sat completely alone in the corner of the room.”
Beside him sat Oliver Wood, who was sitting cross-legged and looking up at him.
“Not completely alone.” Fred chimed in.
"I'll never understand what McGonagall was thinking putting those two as dorm mates." Ron folded his arms and retorted.
"Maybe she was thinking the same as she did when she put you with the Boy-Who-Lived." Ginny teased, sticking her tongue out towards Ron, who had lowered his eyebrows and was looking rather cross at her joke. "I don't know either. But Oliver seems to get on with him."
"Oliver gets on with everyone." Ron stated. "Percy's no exception."
“Maybe not.” She sucked in her cheeks. “But I’m glad he has somebody to talk to. Merlin knows he won’t speak to us about anything.” She let out a breath as she said, knowing it was only her that felt that sort of pain when it came to Percy. She wished he would speak to them – she wished he was in their circle. “I’m going to go and – see if he’s okay.”
“He’ll be fine.” Ron scoffed, throwing himself down on the chair beside Hermione, who shuffled away from him slightly.
“There’s no use trying to talk her out of it – she’s already gone.” George laughed.
“And she does have a point – he does look rough.” Fred furrowed his eyebrows. Percy’s eyes were dark as he looked around the room, his leg shaking and his arms wrapped around his knees.
“I don’t think that’s what Ginny said.” The other twin sniggered. “But you’re not wrong.”
Ginny was cautious with her steps as she dodged around the rowdy Gryffindor students dancing around the common room. She blinked, pushing passed Dean and Seamus. Percy rested his head in his hands, crossing his legs to imitate the way Oliver Wood was sitting. For someone that had just won a Quidditch final, he wasn’t appearing very joyous. Instead, his attention was completely interlocked on his friend – on Ginny’s distant brother.
"Do you want to head up?" Oliver whispered into Percy's ear, leaning in front of him as Percy leaned against the wall. "It's getting rowdy down here."
"They're celebrating you." Percy said, offering a small smile that Ginny rarely got to see from her brother. "Don't you want to stay down here?"
"I'd rather we get away from all this." Oliver looked around, cautiously. "Be alone. We can celebrate together.” He placed his finger onto Percy’s knee, which made Ginny stop in her tracks – her breath getting caught in her throat. It was a discreet touch, but it was there. “What do you think?”
Percy scrunched up his nose, giving a small nod of confirmation before they both disappeared up the stairs to their shared dorm.
“At least nobody will see us together up there.” Oliver had said, in a throwaway tone that made Ginny feel unwell. Ginny felt her stomach churn beneath her, not liking the insinuation that she had just overheard. She felt a shiver fall down her spine, rushing back over to her three other brothers.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” George asked.
“He probably just told her to leave him alone because he ‘doesn’t need any help’,” He did an impression of Percy’s monotone and started to laugh. “Right, Gin?”
Ginny said nothing, her eyebrows raising as she grabbed hold of Harry’s arm.
“How can I get up to the Gryffindor boys’ corridor?”
“Why are you asking me?” Harry had exclaimed, his voice almost a squeak. “Hermione will know.”
“I don’t care for that insinuation, Harry.” Hermione raised her eyebrows. Ron let out a small laugh at the expression on his best friend’s face. “But – come on. I’ll show you.”
Ginny nodded, her face still pale and stoic as she followed Hermione across the common room, avoiding everyone once again and tripping slightly over Neville Longbottom’s stack of books. He mouthed a quick ‘sorry’ and Ginny offered him a forced smile, unable to shake the concern away from her mind about her brother and his situation.
Maybe she was thinking too much into it, but Percy wouldn’t talk to her even if there was a problem. And she loved her brother, even if they didn’t speak much nowadays. She knew he was isolated – and she had always assumed that was the way he wanted it to be.
“What is this about anyway?” Hermione whispered, holding onto Ginny’s forearm with a concerned expression.
“I’m worried about Percy.”
“He’s got his exams soon – he’s probably feeling the strain.”
“It’s not that – it’s something else. But I could be wrong.”
“You’re rarely wrong. And whatever it is, it’s always best to check in.” She offered her friend a reassuring smile and whispered an incantation. “You have 15 seconds to reach the top before the charm wears off. If that happens then-“
“Got it.” Ginny nodded, taking off in a sprint.
“Right. Talking too much.” Hermione pointed her finger up to the ceiling, smiling as Ginny reached the top.
The youngest Weasley took in a breath before walking down the corridor; she’d never been to the boy’s corridor of the Gryffindor common room before and it was certainly different to the girls’ one. It had a certain odour to it that she couldn’t ignore, and it was messier than she thought was allowed at Hogwarts. That was, the corridor was messy until she reached Percy’s dorm, which was neatly tucked away in the corner. She thought about walking away from the situation and not knocking on the door – afraid of what she was going to find or of the reaction she was inevitably going to receive, but she couldn’t shake away the feeling of guilt. She wanted to speak to him – to let Percy know that she was there for him.
She didn’t think anymore of it and knocked, smally. She heard muffled voices and fidgeted with her fingers, taking in another forced breath and trying to ground herself.
“Oh.” Oliver choked, once he opened the door. “How did you get – is everything okay?”
Ginny had rarely spoken to Oliver Wood in her time at Hogwarts, despite them both sharing the same interest in Quidditch. Truthfully, Ginny would have tried out for the team if she hadn’t spent the last year doing the bidding for Lucius Malfoy and Tom Riddle. She shuddered at the thought. Now, she hated, she would never be on the same team as Oliver even if she wanted to be. Because she was a Third-Year now, she was practicing alongside the team but she wasn’t playing just yet – that was going to be next year.
“I was wondering if I could speak to my brother.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to seem older than she was. Oliver looked stunned by her tone, and turned on his heels, looking over to Percy with raised eyebrows. “Please.”
“Er – one moment.” Oliver rushed across the room, closing the door slightly. “Do you feel up to talking to Ginny?”
“What does she want?” He asked, voice small.
“I don’t know, Perce, she just got here. I heard exactly what you heard.”
Ginny didn’t care for his tone, and she shuffled in her stance. Percy must have whispered a ‘yes’, though, because he came back over to the door and let her in. Oliver offered Percy a small, reassuring smile, and then left the room.
“How are you?” The older Weasley asked.
“How are you?” She mirrored him.
“You’re the one that – that was – well, you know.” He shivered, dropping his head in shame and remembering the stern words that his mother had offered him when they found out about the Chamber of Secrets. Ginny nodded.
“I’m doing okay.” She smiled. “That was last year now.” She said.
It acted as a cold reminder of how little the two of them spoke when Percy heard those words. Ginny hadn’t intended it that way, he knew deep down, but it still stung.
He fell silent, and Ginny knew it was her time to plug the gap.
"Listen, Percy, I know that we don't really - talk much, but I'm worried about you." Ginny offered, holding her hand out to take Percy's wrist in her hand - to stop her older brother walking away. He had the pained expression on his face that he was often seen wearing. He wriggled out of the hold quickly, retorting.
"Don't be." He said, his voice monotone and stoic. It was a tone that Percy's siblings knew well. He would rarely offer them anything in return of conversation, and would shut himself away from them. Of them all, it was Ginny that didn't blame him for it. Ron had Harry, and Fred and George had one another. But Percy had nobody. Just like Ginny.
Sure, Molly Weasley had her favourites and her favourite was the son that was never hers to begin with, but Ginny was her daughter. Her only daughter. And Percy could never contend with that. Even if he did do his best to.
“Can we talk?” She asked, almost in a plea. “Please, Percy.”
“I have to - study.” He turned on his heels, shaking his head and fidgeting with his sleeve in the way he so often did. Ginny panicked – thinking about something she could say – anything she could say to convince him to hear her out.
“It’s about Oliver.” She said, at last.
Percy sat down on his bed, crossing his legs and furrowing his eyebrows, fiddling with the duvet that was wrapped around his feet.
“I heard him. Downstairs.” She said. He didn’t say anything, his brain trying to compute what this could be about. He was struggling. In all of his intelligence, Percy struggled immensely with reading social situations and understanding other people – especially his family. "Nobody should be making you hide your relationship from people." She said, her eyes mellow. "Least of all someone like Oliver Wood."
Percy stopped in his tracks then, turning on his heel with a splintered expression. He could barely think of something to respond with, his thoughts all flooding around his head faster than he could keep up with. He didn’t know what she meant by the last comment, but it left a sour taste in his mouth.
Before he could stop it, he let out a laugh: a cold, brass laugh that ran through Ginny's bones. She faltered, blinking.
"You don't know anything, Ginny, so just leave it."
Ginny scrunched up her nose, closing the gap between her and her brother once again.
"I know what it's like to have a partner that's ashamed of y-"
"Right." Percy rolled his eyes. He wasn't meaning to sound so cold and devoid of affection for his sister, but he couldn't help but find the whole situation hilarious. "Of course you do."
"Was that sarcasm?" She smirked, trying to lighten the mood. "You never do sarcasm, Perce."
He stared at her with a blank page look.
"You don't know anything." Was all he could say.
“You’re my brother and – and I’m worried about you.”
“You don’t have to be.”
“If Oliver is making you hide – if he doesn’t want people knowing because he’s ashamed of you then-“
"Oliver isn't ashamed of me." He finally exploded, mirroring the fireworks that Fred and George set off inside the Burrow at Christmas time. It took Ginny aback, making her take a step away from him, walking into the wall of the Gryffindor Common Room. She thanked Merlin that there was nobody else in the room. "He's-" He couldn't find the right words, his eyes stinging and aflame now. "He isn't the one that's ashamed." He softened his voice and his gaze, dropping his eyes to the floor. "I am."
Ginny stood in silence for a moment, taking the words in.
"You don't know anything." He repeated. "You don't know anything about anything - about me or Oliver - you don't know anything about me."
Ginny couldn’t move from where she was stood. Percy was in distress, she knew, because he was running his hands through his hair in the way that he so often did when he was overwhelmed. She saw him doing this very thing often at Christmas time, or over Summer when he was forced to come home to the Burrow. Being around his family always seemed to send Percy into an overdrive, and she hated that she was the cause this time.
“I’m sorry-“
“You don’t know anything.” He repeated, his hands wrapped in his hair as he rocked on his bed.
“I didn’t – Percy – I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry.” She exclaimed, looking at her brother with such a sad expression. She didn’t know what to do. “What can I do?”
Without thinking too hard about it, she rushed out of the room and slammed the door, which made Percy put his hands onto his ears and sob some more. She raced down the stairs and passed everyone celebrating, bumping into Oliver.
“Oh, hello.” He smiled, catching her in his arms. “Is everything alright?”
“It’s Percy – I-“ She couldn’t finish her sentence before Oliver raced off up the stairs, not needing to hear more than that. He burst into his dorm and let out a breath at the sight of Percy rocking and crying.
"Perce?" Oliver rushed to his side, kneeling down and pressing his hands to his cheeks. "Hey - what's happened?"
Ginny ran into the room after him, having panickily asked Hermione to repeat her charm to let her climb the stairs.
“It’s okay.” Oliver encased his arms around Percy, which made Ginny cringe. She knew Percy didn’t like to be touched in moments like this. Much to her surprise, though, Percy didn’t flinch or cry more, he mellowed instead. The Quidditch player looked up to Ginny, his eyes pleading her for an explanation that she didn't feel she could give. Percy melted into Oliver's touch, his head falling into the crook of his shoulder and sniffling lightly. "I'm here. You're alright." He cooed, as if he was a professional at this. Ginny supposed he must be, actually, after everything Percy had just told her. She scorned herself for being so blind to his struggles. “Shh.” He stroked his hand through his hair.
“I’m okay.” He sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve.
“Oh, you’re not using me as a tissue this time, huh?” Oliver teased, hoping to ease the stress a little. Percy let out a small laugh, rolling his eyes at the cheeky grin on his boyfriend’s face. Oliver looked over to Ginny, blinking. “Are you alright?”
“Er – yes.” She nodded. “I’m sorry.”
“No harm done, ay, Perce?” He scruffed up his hair. “What happened?”
“I – I jumped to conclusions.” Ginny said. “But I was wrong – I don’t know anything and – and I’m sorry.”
Percy pressed his head onto Oliver’s shoulder, closing his eyes and breathing gently.
“I don’t want to hide anymore.” Percy said, taking Oliver by surprise. He looked down and bridged the gap between them both. “I – I don’t want to pretend.”
“Are you sure?” Oliver couldn’t help the smile that formed on his face, his eyes sparkling in the light. “I mean – really sure?”
“I’m more than sure.” Percy smiled back, pressing a kiss onto Oliver’s cheek. “If you still want-“
“Of course, I do.” Oliver grinned. “In fact, I think this is the best way to celebrate the Quidditch win.”
Ginny couldn’t help but smile now, too. She knew that was high praise from Oliver – anything related to Quidditch was a compliment from his mouth.
“Ginevra-“ Percy coughed up, walking over to his little sister. “I know you were trying to – to help.” He said. “But you don’t have to worry about me. That’s my job. I’m supposed to look after you.”
Ginny’s heart dropped.
“I know that’s what mum said but – she’s wrong.”
Oliver watched as Percy froze in his stance, his heart pounding for him.
“We all need to look after each other.” Ginny took a step closer to her brother. “It isn’t all on your shoulders.”
Percy let a tear fall from his eye as he pulled his little sister into a tight hug.
“Thank you.” He whispered.
“I love you, Percy.”
“I love you, Ginny.”
Oliver smiled, offering Ginny a wink once the two Weasley siblings pulled apart.
“Oliver is – he’s my boyfriend.” Percy said. “We’ve been together for – for three years now and he makes me very happy.”
“How long have you had that scripted, Perce?” Oliver sniggered, taking Percy back into his arms, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. “Because I thought you said you didn’t want-“
“Don’t start.” He chewed the inside of his mouth, nudging into him.
“Sorry.” Oliver smirked. “I’m just really proud of you. And I never want to hide anything about us ever again, okay?”
“Okay.” Percy nodded. “I’m sorry that I made you hide-“
“No.” Oliver put his finger on Percy’s lips. “You don’t have to apologise.”
“But Ginny thought-“
“None of that matters.” Oliver said. “I understand. I’ve always understood.”
And he had. He knew that Percy had his reasons, and he knew what those reasons were, even if he didn’t agree with them.
“So, you don’t have to be sorry.” He told him.
“I love you.” Percy pulled Oliver into a kiss, which made Ginny turn around. “And I don’t want to hide that anymore because – because I’m not ashamed of you.”
“What’s there to be ashamed of? I just won a Quidditch cup.”
“Arrogance.” Ginny said.
“Hey!”
“She’s not wrong.” Percy laughed.
“Hey!”
“We’re not wrong.” Percy teased.
“No, you’re not wrong.” Oliver winked.
***