Chapter Text
Even if most people would beg to disagree, Percy Weasley did not consider himself a cynical person. He would like to think he was more of a realist, sometimes even leaning towards optimism — which has caused him some great disappointments in life. It wasn’t exactly his fault that very often his realistic predictions sounded to the more obtuse audiences like fear mongering of a grumpy old codger.
Now though, Percy felt vindicated, because no matter how miserable his predictions or hopes for the summer had been at the end of the previous school year, it could not possibly compare with the absolute fuckery his life has devolved into.
And yes he does swear, but he believed it to be an activity best left to do around one's friends. At leats if he fucking had any. Maybe then he would write them an owl describing his woes, which might have helped him not to lose his goddamn mind in this house.
But he didn’t have anyone to write, besides his girlfriend, who was visiting her muggle family and would therefore not appreciate an owl – especially not one as unsubtle as Errol. He obviously had no way of contacting her the muggle way without leaving this blasted house, which was what all of his problems seemed to boil down to.
“Percy?” A small voice pierced through the chaos downstairs and his quickly spiralling thoughts. It’s source was the only person he’s interacted with lately who didn’t seem hellbent on pissing him off. And now that small person was peeking into his room with a wild nest on her head and pink hairbrush in hand. He couldn’t help but smile softly.
“Come in Ginny,” he waved her in. “Do you need help with brushing your hair?”
His sister nodded eagerly, making herself comfortable on the floor next to his bed.”And braiding as well! I want the ones you did before you left last summer, they held really well!”
He hummed thoughtfully, trying to remember the hairstyle in question — he always did her hair in a special way when she was sad and she always took it hard when any of them left for school. “I thought most braids held well,” he said in the meantime, already brushing gently through the auburn hair.
“Well, I kept them in for a few days,” she said, a bit shy. “I knew I wouldn’t be getting another one in a while. Though it got a bit matted in the end, so mum wasn’t too happy with me.”
And if that didn’t absolutely skewer through his heart, leaving him miserable at the thought of his little sister refusing to take down the braids he made for her, because he left for school. Though he had to admit, that seeing someone care was like a balm on all the times he burned himself counting on his family. So he did what he could to express his care and gratitude – he braided her hair.
“You know,” he started after a brief moment of silence. “You’ll need to learn to do your own hair soon. I know you can at least brush it yourself, cause you somehow manage when I’m not home.”
“But I can’t do it, so it doesn’t hurt! And mom always makes it all puffy!” She flailed her arms around in frustration, careful not to move her head and disturb Percy’s handiwork.
“As I said, you need to learn to manage it yourself,” the boy reiterated, amused. “I can teach you if you’d like.”
“Yeah, alright,” she sighed, defeated. “Though I figure I still have some time to learn. If I can’t manage it before Hogwarts next year, I’ll just come to you.”
Damn, he must have done something pretty fucked up in his past life, to now have to break to his little sister — who was looking at him with a conviction of someone certain he would always be there for her– that he would in fact not be there in a year.
“Ginny, I…,” he took a steadying breath, not knowing how to breach the topic. “Do you know what an exchange program is?” Well that was one place to start.
“Where you go to a different school for a while?” She asked, clearly confused at the change of topic. “Yeah I do, but what does that have to do with my hair?”
Well, here it goes.
“I got into a program like that and I’ll be somewhere else when you go to Hogwarts,” he held his breath, waiting for an answer.
“Oh,” her shoulders slumped a little. After a moment she softly added,”I’ll miss you”.
He was going to bawl his eyes out. Out of all the trials and tribulations associated with getting into the program and following his plan for the future in general, he has never been so tempted to just throw it all away, as when looking at the distraught girl in front of him.
He needed to stay strong though, he was doing this for her as well.
“I know and I hate to miss your introduction to Hogwarts, but I’ll make sure you’re taken care of,” he said, finishing off the last braid and pulling his sister up onto the bed. “And believe me I will write you twice as often once you’ll have access to owls other than Errol.”
“When do you leave? For how long?” She didn’t seem reassured by his promises.
“At the latest, I’ll leave by the end of this school year. I won’t be coming home for the next summer.” He gave her a moment to process this information, before continuing.
“As for the second question – I’m not sure. But for however long they will let me, I really want to get as much as I can from this. At the very least half a year though.”
She seemed to ponder all this for a long moment. “What’s the longest you could be gone?”
“Well let me start by saying, that anything longer than ten months and I get some visitation privileges, so in that case you’ll be seeing me sporadically –wether you like it or not,” he punctuated that with a jab to her side, which made her squeal and brighten up a bit. “But at the absolute longest, I still have to do my last year in Britain, so up till then. About a year or so if I leave in June.”
“And you promise to write all the time?”
“Only if you promise as well!” That made her smile.
“Alright then. I can tell you want to go. I’ll be happy for you!” She smiled sweetly and hugged him.
“And you still have me for the rest of the summer! We can stock up on some good memories together!” He wrapped his arm tightly around her shoulders.
As nice as that plan sounded, even this didn’t seem to go Percy’s way. Which brings us to all the reasons he was raging in the first place, before his sister distracted him.
Firstly there were the usual unpleasantries of existing in the Weasley household, when one was unlucky enough to bear the name of Perseus — a mix of too many responsibilities, no positive attention, the absolute lack of respect for any boundaries or privacy and general feeling of otherness and isolation.
Then there came the latest obsession of the twins with making him regret either their birth or his, every minute of everyday.
There was also all the stress and frustration with straightening out all the formalities with his exchange.
He was attempting to stay on top of his studies while learning three new languages, in one of which he was supposed to be proficient in soon.
His family has somehow learned of his relationship with Penelope Clearwater, which gave them all the more ammunition for their teasing.
And lastly, Bill has come to stay at the house for a while in hopes of softening the blow of Charlie getting ready to leave for Romania, but he knew that it would only distract their mother until they were gone. Then it would be up to Percy to deal with the aftermath.
That last issue on his list was the one currently interfering with his plans for spending some quality time with his sister. It seemed both Bill and Charlie were hell-bent on bonding with their two youngest siblings in hope of making up for not being there when they’ll start their schooling.
And as amusing as it was, watching the bewildered reactions of his older brothers to Ginny choosing ‘Percy the Ponce’ over them, he was worried they might bring too much attention to his plans of also leaving the country. Not that he was hiding it from anybody — he wouldn’t dare give them something to hold over him— but he did rely heavily on the general apathy and disinterest they had for his life.
For now he just did his best to power through the summer, while bonding with his sister, to try and make it to September with his mind intact and temper in check.
But this hope — as everything else this summer also seemed to — would soon turn to shit.
Because together with the school letters, came another heavy blow.