A/N: Nothing belongs to me, it all belongs to JK Rowling. The last big of dialogue came directly from DH.
He stared at the paper. ‘I can’t do this,’ he thought as he crumpled it up and threw it over his shoulder to join the ever growing pile. He tried starting the letter differently every time, but it always ended in the same awkward apology. The last one had been the worst, which in simple words, had asked how the family had been doing over the years he had lost correspondence with them.
Percy Weasley rested his head in his hands and sighed. Despite his overall coldness, he loved his family. He cared for them, and as time went on, he found ignoring them harder and harder. It was hard when the Triwizard Tournament came to Hogwarts. He had tried to write letters to his brother, but he was just harshly rejected. He grew into a shell that he found difficult to escape. That shell was cutting ties with his family, and he was afraid to come back to them. The next year, his father was brutally attacked. No, Percy did not visit him at St. Mungos, but he asked any anyone who would have any news. He wouldn’t have been able to stand being rejected at his father’s bedside. The year after that, the brother who he had always had a soft spot for, was poisoned. Not only this, his older brother Bill was bitten by a werewolf. Percy was devastated.
He could no longer take it. The time had come to apologize and just pray they would forgive him. Percy pulled out a new piece of parchment and dipped his quill, only to be at a loss for words. The war was going to happen soon, and Percy knew he had to help his family in anyway possible. He had finally come to the conclusion that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had returned. Percy knew You-Know-Who had been back since the attack on the Department of Mysteries. Percy was very uncomfortable with the fact that the Ministry had failed him, but he never turned his back on them.
As he sat there racking his brain for possible ways to word his letter, he remembered the day Bill got married. Percy had tried to write a letter of congratulations, but much like now, he failed miserably. That same day, the Ministry had been taken over by Death Eaters. It became apparent to him that he had to get out of the Ministry at that point.
Percy was still with the Ministry, and he had no way out. He glanced up at the clock and realized it was time to leave. He got up with a heavy sigh and apparated to work.
He was in the same position as before, but now there was a risk. The only thing protecting him was the closed door that read ‘Junior Assistant.’ He looked at the waste basket where more pieces of crumpled parchment were. He finally concluded that the letter would never work and there had to be another way. The clock told him it was time to go home, and he did just that, only to go out again: to Hogsmeade.
He wandered by the Hog’s Head to find Aberforth Dumbledore serving there and he hesitantly walked into the bar. No one was there but the bar tender. Percy walked up to him and leaned in close, realizing that before he made up with his family, he would officially have to join Harry’s side, and not the Ministry’s.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?”
Aberforth looked at him suspiciously, “Yes.”
“Then I want in,” Percy replied in a barely audible, though very determined whisper.
“Well, I suppose you’re in,” Aberforth responded at the same volume.
Percy waited, he visited the Hog’s Head, but nothing came up. He waited more, until the month of May when he received a letter at his home. It had the simple words “The time has come.” Percy rushed through the Hog’s Head and stumbled through the portrait.
“Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I-I-“ Percy stopped. His family was there, and now was his time. He tried to speak, but stopped. He had no idea what to say.
Just then, Fleur asked Lupin about little Teddy as Percy searched for the words he knew were true.
“I was a fool!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a-a-“ Percy paused, knowing he could still go on.
“Ministry loving, family disowning, power-hungry moron,” finished Fred. Percy knew he was right.
He looked into his younger brother’s eyes and simply stated “Yes, I was!”
Fred gave a slight smile as he held out his hand and said “Well, you can’t say fairer than that.”
Just as Percy was about to take it, his mother who had burst out crying came running at him and engulfed him in a hug. Percy hugged her back and looked at the person he needed to apologize to the most.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
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