Chapter Text
Percy Weasley lay still, pale as a ghost, in the bed. Madam Pomfrey had tried all she could, and while transferring him to St. Mungos wasn't an option, Arthur Weasley was still desperate enough to hope that they might be able to help his son. While his heart may have hoped beyond reason, his intellect knew that sending his son to the wizarding hospital would be a sure death sentence for his third born.
He still couldn't wrap his brain around the events that led up to this entire situation. It has been two weeks since Percy had shown up in the hospital wing at Hogwarts after he had been port-keyed out of the Ministry to Voldemort, to the shock and hope of the entire Weasley clan, who had had no hope of trying to recover the boy. After all, Percy had made himself into a formidable opponent of Voldemort with the wards he had made. They had all been shocked into muteness, when they had first seen the blasted things in action, and that had brought Percy Voldemort's personal attention when those same wards not only completely thwarted a Death Eater attack on the Burrow during Bill's wedding, but they had completely drained the magic out of the attacking Death Eaters.
It had been a month later that the boy, the stubborn boy, had been port-keyed away. From what they could gather, Voldemort hadn't been happy with the failure, and tracked that failure to Percy. He also hadn't been happy with his most powerful lieutenant being turned into a squib with the wards, and so had decided to take the inventor of those wards in for questioning, whether he was willing or not. Percy had been missing for two weeks, and his hand on the clock had been stubbornly stuck on "Mortal Peril" for those two weeks (they had fixed the clock to only show if any of the family would be in immediate danger).
It had been as everyone was begining to lose hope that Percy had appeared suddenly in the Healing wing at Hogwarts. With apparition impossible inside the school wards, and no port-keys able to work without having been created by a seated Headmaster or Headmistress, it had been a mystery how the boy had showed up. Another mystery was how he had even managed to escape from Voldemort's clutches. And the only person with all the answers wouldn't be able to talk for a while, if he would ever be able to even talk again.
That thought broke through Arthur's restraint, and the grieve and guilt of how much he had mishandled his third born son came flooding in again. He collapsed into the chair by the curtain of the bed, unable to keep his anxious pacing as he had been doing. The tears are interrupted by the doors to the healing wing opening, and he didn't look up, expecting it to be another Weasley, as everyone had been dropping in any chance they got.
"Mister Weasley?" The unknown female voice caused Arthur's head to jerk up in surprise. The woman, girl really, he was looking up at was vaguely familiar to him, and he realized that he'd seen her around the Ministry. He also soon realized that he'd seen her most often with Percy. He struggled to remember her name, even as he stood to greet her.
"Hello. I wasn't expecting to see you here, Miss - " He trailed off, kicking himself internally. Of course he should have expected it, if she was a friend of Percy's, after all, even Oliver had shown up to see the boy. He had even brought her as a date to Bill's wedding. She smiled genially, not commenting on his faux pas.
"I'm Audrey Mitchels. I was out of the country for the past month, and had just heard what happened a week ago. I'm sorry it took so long to come see him."
"Oh no, my dear. It's quite understandable. Don't worry yourself over it." Even grieving, Arthur had always been a polite man, and as he waved her over to Percy's bedside through the privacy curtain, he remembered something that had driven the guilt even further through him. "I must warn you though, my dear, that there's a ward - "
Arthur trailed off for the second time, for as he waved her into Percy's little room, the wards that had been keeping him and most of his family firmly away shimmered, allowing the girl entrance, even as they kept him firmly out. She continued on as if she hadn't noticed, stepping up to Percy's side and placing a gentle hand on his head. Arthur froze, reeling at the fact those wards had allowed her in so easily, when blood family was rejected so thoroughly. She turned to ask for something just as Arthur felt himself swaying dangerously, shock having joined in with the guilt and grieve he had been feeling.
She rushed over, grabbing him and lowering him into the abandoned seat, legs unable to keep him up through all the blood rushing out of his face. He couldn't hear her frantic questions over the ringing in his ears, or the other voices that joined hers. He felt his head tilted up, and the disgusting taste of a calming potion being poured down his throat brought him out of his shock.
"Arthur?" Poppy's voice asked. Arthur shook his head, swallowing convulsively as he tried to get the taste out of his mouth. "What happened? You were in shock and weren't responding to any of us." At that he looked around, and saw that he had been joined by Minerva and his dear Molly wobbles, who looked to be on the verge of tears. The Mitchels girl had been pushed to the back, and he could see her wringing her hands anxiously.
"I apologize, my dear, I hadn't meant to scare you. Why don't go keep Percy company. I need to speak with everyone for a minute." He smiled at her, and turned away, quickly putting up a Muffliato around the remaining women and himself. At their questioning looks, he nodded towards where the girl was heading back to Percy, and told them simply, "Just watch."
Again, the shimmer of the wards letting her in was just as shocking, and Arthur was thankful for the calming potion that made it so he could temporarily disassociate from all the feelings running through him. He pulled Molly into his lap went she went alarmingly white and the other women gasped, even as he continued to watch the girl take a seat by Percy and start talking. Molly burst into tears, and if it hadn't been for the potion Arthur would have joined her.
After all, what did it say about them as a family when their own child couldn't bear being around them to the point that he would instinctively cast a ward that would keep out most of his own flesh and blood while allowing strangers access? A ward powerful enough that even Albus Dumbledore couldn't break it.
They had lost Percy, and they had no one to blame but themselves for it. Afterall, it had been Arthur that had caused him to flee the Burrow when, instead of being proud of the boy's achievements, he had belittled his new position in the Minister's office by accusing him of having only gotten the job so he could be used as a spy against the Order by the Ministry (never mind that the boy didn't even know he'd been part of the Order), and just how much danger he was bringing to the family by working there. He remembered with shame the way Percy's face had closed off when he had finished, and the boy's response had been engraved forever into his mind.
"If working in the Ministery's such a danger to this family, then you should stop working there as well, Father. After all, you work in the Ministry, don't you? And to make matters worse, you work with Muggle artifacts, which Voldemort hates more than anything, and is the singular reason we were branded "blood traitors". If anyone is putting this family in danger, it's you, Father. And I can't stand that you sitting there, spewing such hypocrisy at me."
Percy had shaken his head then, eyes suspiciously bright and voice tight, and Arthur thought for a minute that he would cry. "Why can't anyone in this family be happy for me when I reach my goals? The younger kids are more than happy to deride any of my accomplishments, and while I could ignore their jibes, I had thought you as my Father would be proud of me. Especially since I got a high position in the Ministry like you and Mother have always wanted for us. Instead, you are just as delighted as your younger ones in putting me down. When should I expect you to start sneering "Perfect Percy the Prat" at me? Most of everyone in this house already do so anyway, and in fact, you all have made perfectly clear to me over the years, that I am too different from everyone else in this family."
Percy slumped, drooping in a very physical show of exhaustion, and Arthur opened his mouth to deny everything, to take back his comment, but was stopped by the sudden squaring of thin shoulders with a determined expression that sent dread reeling through him in an instinctive foresight that what Percy said next would forever change his family, and it wouldn't be for the better.
"I'm not going to keep trying to make myself fit into a Weasley mold any longer, Father. You have always told us that every one of us would be accepted for our differences, and while that may be true for your other children, it never was for me. You and Mother have told me time and again to be more like the others, most often like Bill and Charlie. Well I'm not either of them, I'm Percival Delphinus Weasley. And if you won't accept me for that without trying to shove me into another mold, then I'm leaving. I'll try my luck elsewhere. You should be happy, it'll also have the fortuitous effect of not putting anyone in this family in danger, since I won't be a part of you any longer, Father. Excuse me."
Percy had swept out of the house then, in a way eerily reminiscent of Severus Snape.
He had immediately regretted opening his mouth, but by then it was too late, and Percy was gone. Things had gotten even worse when the twins heard what happened and misunderstood things to mean that Percy had chosen the Ministry over them, and took it upon themselves to point out their displeasure to the "family betraying" and "Ministry loving" third son by making his life miserable. Percy, in turn, had taken this to mean that everyone in the family had rejected him, and caused him to flee even further. It had become a vicious cycle that had ended with Percy abducted by Voldemort, tortured for a fort night, and now in a deep coma from which no one sure if he would ever awaken from.
While Arthur may have had a hand in the events that pushed his third son out of the family, the actual problems had started long before then and Arthur's ill timed comment had simply been the straw that broke the camel's back, as the saying goes.
This is where the events that would lead to the breaking up of the Weasley family would start.