Chapter Text
Percy had been alive when they reached St. Mungo's. Had been with his sharp angles and feeble breaths but he had been alive. Alive but shabby and without the sharp outfits he purchased as soon as he could and neatly styled hair to seem professional but effortless.
Bill hadn’t known what to do when he saw his little brother on the apartment floor. Percy had been almost entirely unrecognisable and undeniably cursed even through the fickle magic he still emanated.
Bill had been afraid to touch Percy in case it would take his last energy. What if even the smallest shift in the air would take Percy’s life? He seemed fragile enough for that too happen.
"Do something!" Charlie had demanded in a scream that sent Hermes flying away from Percy momentarily. "You're the curse breaker, so do something!"
Bill looked down at Percy. He was filthy and had both owl excrements on his trousers and drool down his chin and Bill was at a lost about how to help him.
“I don't know. I can't. It's not anything that I know of.”
Bill was panicking and he had no idea how it got so bad and how he could have sent a howler for Percy not visiting Fred when Percy was going through whatever this was. Fred, Bill thought, he’s at St. Mungo’s. Percy needs to go there.
“St. Mungo's! He needs to go to St. Mungo's, and then I can call the team. They'll come if I call for them. Or-or St. Mungo’s can have the curse team who checked out Fred do something."
“Okay,” Charlie said in an exhale. “We can do that.”
Bill nodded and looked for a fireplace that was connected to the Floo Network. There was none and Bill sprinted back to Charlie who had Percy in his arms. None of them said anything as they ran out of the door to the public Floo that they had used to get to Percy’s apartment.
The distance was short, but it felt like it was towns away as they ran with Hermes following them. Bill wasn’t sure how much money he threw before the brothers went to St. Mungo’s without Percy’s feathered companion.
"Bill," Charlie hissed out just as they ran to the reception desk.
Bill turned around and saw Charlie standing still and was just looking down at Percy. Bill wanted to shout at his brother to move but he stopped himself and walked over to Charlie with long steps.
Bill felt like his heart stopped when Percy inhaled even more shallowly than he had before before letting out a last exhale shuttering exhale. The whole world compressed itself into Percy’s still chest and time stopped.
Then it started again with a vengeance. Healers talking, visitors laughing, patients crying, and Charlie taking in enough shaken breathes for him and Percy. Bill couldn't think. He was on a mission, and he didn't register what he was doing until Percy was in his own arms and he ran past the reception desk to the healers he saw walking through a door with a relaxed stroll.
“Help!” he yelled. “He’s dead. Help!”
The healers stopped strolling and ran to Bill and suddenly Percy was out of Bill’s arms and pulled away from his sight.
Bill didn’t notice that he was barely breathing himself until an unfamiliar woman made him sit down and follow her breathes but his chest was too tight for any inhales and the lack of air made his head spin even more than it did before.
She handed him a tissue and he dried his face with jagged movements and only then realised that he was sobbing.
The fog lifted slightly, and Bill asked her in a strained voice, “What’s happening?”
Her eyes were kind and the crow’s feet made her blue eyes seem even softer. “The healers are doing what they can and then you can see him.”
“Will he be okay?” Bill asked. His voice had broken over a decade ago, but he felt like the small boy he had once been.
She hesitated for only a moment. “He’s in the best hands in all of Britain.”
Bill didn’t understand but he nodded anyway. She seemed to know that he needed more and stayed until the world had colour once more and Bill looked around the room. He was in a strange but small room. There was a blackboard and a white table with pale green chairs and a painting of what Bill assumed was a mermaid, but the non-fish part looked far more human and attractive than the mermaids at Hogwarts. Bill had no idea how he ended up here or where Charlie was.
“Where’s my brother?” Bill’s voice was sore and thick with phlegm.
“He’s still being treated. The healers are doing the best they can.
Bill felt a chill through his body until he realised that she was talking about Percy.
“Charlie, where’s Charlie?”
The woman’s eyebrows furrowed for a little over a second before they lifted and her whole face turned into a pleasant expression once more. “Are you talking about the man that you arrived with? The one who was carrying the thin redhaired man?” She didn’t wait for any kind of verbal or nonverbal answer. “He’s sitting in a patient room a little down the hall. He needed a few calming draghts.”
She turned around and brought a small bottle closer to Bill.
“Here’s one for you too. I tried to give it to you before.”
Bill should ask about strange blue potions from strange people, but he was too worn-down to even question if it was a calming draught or poison.
Bill quickly felt calm enough to be embarrassed but choose to hid it the best that he could with asking another more urgent question.
“Can I see Charlie now?”
“I’ll check.”
The woman was away for only a minute before she came back and guided Bill to the room on shaky legs.
Charlie looked terrible. His cheeks were bright red and he was keeping a painfully tight grip on an identical bottle to the one Bill had consumed until he heard Bill’s steps.
Charlie almost threw the bottle as he needed both arms to pull Bill towards him and sob into his shoulder. Bill couldn’t remember Charlie sobbing like this since Percy had been born and Charlie had decided that he needed to be strong now that he had his own little brother.
However Bill had two more years to learn to be a big brother than Charlie and he knew exactly how to best make even someone as beefy as Charlie feel protected.