Merlot: Parts one and two
Jan. 22nd, 2005 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mhalachaiSo, Merlot was pulled off TTH last night, and I'm assuming it's because I didn't have a HP/BtVS story. I'd had word from a mod that I could use my FFA entries in order to qualify for the crossover in this case, but it must have been another mod who yanked the story. Oh well.
Below is Chapters one and two of Merlot. Please enjoy.
Title: Merlot (Part one)
Author: Mhalachai
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and these fine characters belong to J.K. Rowing. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Author's note: Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kaz814's Percy-a-thon, which means it has to be done by the end of the month. Eek.
~~~~~~~~
Voldemort was dead, but life would never be the same.
The Ministry had been decimated and was only now rebuilding. Percy's work kept him very busy, often at the office for ten hours a day or more.
That was for the best, really. It wasn't as if he had anything else going for him.
His family was through with him, for the most part. He and his father had gotten to the point where they could speak civilly to each other in the halls at the new Ministry offices. But it was always there, hiding behind the strained smiles and unimportant how-do-you-dos.
His mother still wasn't speaking to him. Percy didn't know what to do about it. He hadn't been totally wrong, and she hadn't been totally right. Some days, he wanted to go and beg his mother to forgive him. If he had been sure she would, he'd have done it in a heartbeat.
But he wasn't sure. And so he didn't.
The twins, Ron, and surprisingly Bill, they had been the worst. Even now, after what he had done to help take Voldemort down, they blamed him for his initial attitude, then how things had snowballed.
Bill's attitude hurt worst of all. When Percy had been little, Bill had been his hero. Head boy, Quidditch captain. The oldest, the strongest. The best. Who now wanted nothing to do with him.
Charlie had been in London recently. He'd stopped by and had lunch with Percy. Percy had been so nervous about it that he'd thrown up his breakfast that morning. But it had been okay. Not good, still a bit strained, but okay. Charlie had promised to stop by the next time he was in England.
And Ginny... Ginny was always hard to read. She was alternately quiet and impossibly loud, sometimes so easy to understand, and other times as incomprehensible as time itself.
His little sister had appeared before him one sullen London day, a glower on her still-scarred face. The scar made most people uncomfortable, a reminder of the last battle against the Death Eaters, not big and loud as everyone expected. It had been quiet, sneaky, early.
Deadly.
But they won. Some had lost. Not the Weasleys, although eight of nine had been on the field. There were scars, there was pain. Ron's foot had to be amputated, but he was apparently getting along fine with his new magical prosthesis.
But not a red-headed Weasley amongst the dead. Percy had heard that the muggles sometimes prayed to their Christian God in times like these. Like most wizards, Percy wasn't Christian, but he still thanked everyone, everything, every day that his family was still intact. They could keep on hating him forever, as long as they lived. As long as they lived.
But back to Ginny. She asked Percy a simple question. "What now?"
"What do you mean, what now?" Percy asked, flustered. His work was piling out the door, he had so much to do. The old Percy would have told Ginny to come back later, when he wasn't so busy. But he'd learned that there was no later. Only now.
"What do you do now?" she demanded. "What do I do now? What do any of us do now?" She flung herself into a chair by Percy's desk, ignoring the way he winced as she squashed several rolls of parchment. "What is there left for us, Percy?"
He frowned at that. Ginny hadn't always sounded so... tired.
"What's wrong, Gin?" he asked. He kept his other thoughts silent. Why are you here with me? Why aren't you home with mum and dad asking them? Why not your little school friends? What made you so tired, baby sister?
Ginny sighed and closed her eyes for a second, just a second. "I'm not sure, you know? Tom's finally gone and I'm just so exhausted."
Percy wondered if it was a slip, Ginny calling Voldemort 'Tom'. "Are you getting any sleep?" he asked carefully.
Ginny snorted, that old familiar sound. "Yes, mum, and eating my veggies." Then she realized what she had said. "Percy, I'm sorry--"
"No, don't be," he interrupted. "It's-- I think I understand. But, you know." He looked up at his bookshelf, saying over and over in his mind, I will not cry. I will not cry.
"I don't know why I came," Ginny said, standing up abruptly. "I've got to go."
"Ginny, wait!" Percy exclaimed, jumping up. "Don't leave, not like this." I can't lose another one of you.
Ginny smiled wanly, her big brown eyes empty. "It's okay, Perce. I'm just going to go home." She hesitated, looked down. "Can I come by again, some time?" she asked, examining his floor carefully.
Percy let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Any time, day or night."
Ginny gave him one final nod as she left.
~~~~~~~~
Percy found it hard to concentrate on work for the rest of the day. His thoughts kept straying back to Ginny. The hollow sound in her voice. The empty look in her eyes.
He finally threw his quill across the room. Something was wrong with his baby sister. He couldn't let it go.
He had no right to interfere in her life, he told himself as he strode down the halls, looking around. But he couldn't not. Not this time. Not after he failed her so badly with the diary in her second year.
Finally, Percy spotted who he was looking for, a red balding head down the hall. He was tempted to call out, but he didn't know what to say. 'Arthur' was too painful. And he wasn't sure if the man would respond to 'Dad'.
Percy settled on catching up to his father. The look of surprise on Arthur's face hurt. "Percy, how are you?"
Percy felt the formality in his father's voice like a shaft of ice in his heart. But he wasn't here for selfish reasons, he told himself. He was there for Ginny. "I'm well, and yourself?"
There was no mention of the family. Nor would there be.
"Fine, thank you." There was an awkward pause. "What can I do for you?"
"Actually, I'm wondering about Ginny. She came to visit today and left her cloak in my office," Percy said, stretching the truth only a little. "I was wondering if she's well?"
"Yes, she's fine," Arthur said with a frown. "She came to see you?"
"Yes," Percy replied, all the while raging at his father. "Do you happen to have her address? I'd like to return her cloak."
"I could do it," Arthur offered, quickly.
Percy licked his lips. "I was hoping maybe to stop by and see her, as well." There is was, the unspoken question. Had Ginny told their parents that she didn't want to see him?
Arthur looked at his son for a very long moment. "I've got it back at my office," he finally said. "I can send it down."
Knees weak, Percy managed not to yelp aloud. "Thank you," was all he let himself say. "I'll let you get back to work."
Arthur nodded and continued off down the hall.
Once his father had vanished from sight, Percy leaned back against the wall. One step completed. Next, to see Ginny.
~~~~~~~~
It had taken Percy the better part of an hour to find the flat, deep in muggle London. He folded up the scrap of parchment and put it back into his cloak before he knocked.
There were small sounds in the apartment, like someone was coming to the door. Percy told his heart to calm down, to stop trying to beat its way out of his chest. After all, Ginny might just tell him to bugger off.
The door opened slowly, and the first time Percy saw was a huge blue eye. For a wild moment, Percy though that Ginny was living with Mad-Eye Moody, then the door swung open the rest of the way.
"You're Ginny's brother, aren't you?" the little blonde slip of a girl asked. "The Ministry one."
"Yes, I am. Percy." He tried desperately to remember her name. Wasn't she a Ravenclaw, Ginny's year?
She smiled lightly. "I'm Luna Lovegood, Gin's roommate."
Of course. He remembered her now. She was one of the ones who went into the Ministry to try and save Sirius Black, and ended up facing the Death Eaters. When Percy almost lost both his youngest siblings.
"Is Ginny in?" Percy asked as formally as he could.
The smile on the girl's face faltered. "Yes." She hesitated. "But she's gone to bed."
"Bed?" Percy frowned. "But it's only seven."
"I know," Luna said softly. "I-- would you care to come in anyway? For some tea?"
Torn between barging into Ginny's bedroom and shaking the answer out of her, and leaving with his tail between his legs, Percy made himself nod. "Tea sounds lovely."
~~~~~~~~
She had made chamomile tea. Percy hadn't had chamomile tea in ages. It was warm and smelled sweet.
They'd sipped those first cups in silence. The lights were off in the flat, and Luna had somehow charmed the fire place to burn a nice, clean light. It should have been calming.
"What's wrong with her?" Percy finally asked.
Luna sighed, a long expressive sound, and set her cup down on the saucer. "Something. But I don't know what."
"How long have you been roommates?"
Luna looked up at him, and smiled softly. It was a sweet smile. Percy wondered how often she smiled. What made her smile. "Ever since we graduated from Hogwarts. My father offered to let me stay at home, but I couldn't. I'd seen too much, and I guess I wanted to see more. What better place to start looking?"
Percy looked around the apartment. There were books stacked to the ceiling, parchments scattered around. Amongst the papers were little memories. A shiny blue rock. An augurey feather. The place felt like home.
"And Ginny?"
"Ginny." Luna tapped her nail against her cup. The clink on the china was loud in the stillness. "She was fine. Enjoying life without the cloud of the Death Eater hanging over her head. But in the last year, something's changed. She's not..."
Luna waved her hands as she searched for the right word. Percy watched the flight of her fingers through the shadowy air. "What?" he finally asked. "Happy? Safe?"
"She doesn't care," Luna replied. "Ginny used to be so full of life, and it's now slipping away and for the life of me, I can't figure out why."
Percy slumped back in his chair. He wanted to go into Ginny's room, toss her over his shoulder and carry her away to St. Mungos. He wanted to carry her home and have mum and dad fix it, fix her. But it didn't work that way.
"Do you think she'd mind if I came back?" Percy asked.
Luna poured herself some more tea. "What do you mean, mind?"
Percy didn't want to tell this girl... no, this woman, what his family through of him, but knowing Ginny, she'd probably told Luna everything. In excruciating detail. "I just--" Saying that no one else in his family seemed to care was selfish, not what Percy wanted to say. Telling her that he was lonely was pathetic.
Bloody hell, stop being such a fucking git, Percy told himself. "She's the only one who seems to care, and it's wrong that she's like this," he stammered.
Strangely enough, Luna didn't misinterpret him. "Can you come by tomorrow?" she asked. "I can make dinner, and you and Ginny can catch up."
Percy mentally reviewed his schedule. If he went into work at the crack of dawn, then he could be done in time for dinner. "That sounds like it would work," he said cautiously. "But... are you sure Ginny would be up for it?"
Luna gave him a look, one he couldn't quite decipher. "Yes, I do." She placed her cup back onto the saucer. "I'll see you out now."
Percy knew a dismissal when he heard one, but it somehow didn't bother him.
Title: Merlot (Part two)
Author: Mhalachai
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and these fine characters belong to J.K. Rowing. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Note: In case you're wondering, the challenge was to write a story where Percy gets the girl. He will, in the end, but I needed to write something with more meat for my first Harry Potter story. Hence the story.
~~~~~~~~
Here he was again, knocking on Ginny's door. Only this time, he was holding a bottle of merlot. Stupid, he thought. Ginny's not going to expect wine from her brother. But maybe Luna would.
How much did he know about Luna Lovegood, anyway? Her father ran the Quibbler, an out-there magazine Percy never had the time for. She had been a member of Harry Potter's little defence group at Hogworts. Other than that, nothing about her stuck in Percy's mind.
Except her startling blue eyes.
The door opened, bringing him back to himself. It was Ginny. She smiled faintly up at Percy. "Luna said you were coming."
His breath caught in his throat. "Is that all right?" he had to ask.
Ginny rolled her eyes and opened the door wide. "Of course. Come in, Luna's been cooking all day."
"All day?" Percy repeated as he passed into the apartment. It was cleaner than the previous day, and better lit. It still felt a thousand times more comfortable than his own flat.
"Not all day," Luna's voice drifted out of the kitchen. "Just for a couple of hours. And it's nice to be able to whip out some of my mum's old recipes."
"It smells nice," Percy offered as he set the bottle of wine on the table and undid his cloak. "What are we having?"
Luna's reply was muffled. Ginny giggled. "She said chicken and rice and green beans, but with fancy French names I can't recall. You like chicken, right?" Ginny asked.
Percy nodded. "It sounds quite nice."
There was an awkward moment while Percy tried to figure out what to say next.
"Can I take your cloak?" Ginny asked.
Relieved, Percy handed his sister the cloak and waited while she marched it over to the wardrobe by the door.
Luna swept into the room, wearing a faded apron over her muggle clothing. "I told you she'd be up for it," she whispered conspiratorially to Percy. "Is that wine for dinner?" she asked louder.
Percy nodded. "I thought..." He wasn't sure what he thought.
"Oh, come off it, Percy," Ginny said as she came back. "I'll make you a deal. We'll pretend that things are okay. And we'll have a nice evening. Deal?"
Percy closed his eyes for a second. Just a second. "I can't do that, Gin. I can't pretend that things are okay. With me, with you, with any of this. I wish I could, but I can't."
He stared at his sister. The scar on her face, that ran along her cheek down to the edge of her jaw, stood out starkly against her pale, almost sickly, skin. He realized with a jolt that he had never asked how she got the scar. At the time, they had all been too busy healing, or burying the dead, to waste time talking.
"If I may make a suggestion?"
Both Weasleys looked over at Luna.
"Trying to pretend something didn't help only ever wrecks things. After my mum died, I tried it." The blonde witch took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "But what happened, happened. If it's too painful to talk about, then don't. So we talk about something else."
Something dinged in the kitchen, and Luna ducked out of sight.
After a minute, Ginny shook her head. "So what do we talk about?" she asked. "Quidditch? Art?"
"I don't know much about Quidditch," Percy said. "Same with art." He tried to think of something. Something safe. "How about Luna?"
"What about her?"
"We could talk about Luna."
Ginny's expression never changed, but Percy could have sworn she was laughing at him. "A safe topic area. What do you want to know?"
Percy narrowed his eyes at his sister. Of all of his siblings, she was the only one he never minded teasing him. Of course, she was the one who did it the most. "Why is she in muggle clothes?"
"She had a meeting with her publisher today," Ginny said blandly.
"Luna has a muggle publisher?" Percy asked, puzzled. "How do you mean?"
Ginny took her brother's arm and pulled him over to the couch. "See, it's like this."
~~~~~~~~
After dinner, they ended up back on the couches. "And you have how many books published now?" Percy asked as he swirled the last of his wine in the pretty glasses Luna had produced from the depths of a cupboard.
"Fourteen," Luna giggled. "One series is already done and I'm halfway through another. Those muggle children do love to read about magic."
"What level of detail do you use, about the magic?" Percy had to ask.
"Percy," Ginny said in a warning tone.
"No, Ginny, it's a legitimate question." Luna stared into the fire, loose blonde curls falling across her cheek. "Not much. I did a lot of research into their own stories on magic. It's a lot of junk, all Mother Earth and stuff. Some of it's sort of close to what we have. So I just keep the details vague."
"Do you have any copies of your works here?" Percy asked, leaning forward.
Luna shook her head. "I've only got a couple of marked up copies here. But I can get some copies from my publisher." Her eyes flicked from Percy over to Ginny. "Can you come back later in the week? I can get them for you then."
"I know what you're doing, Luna," Ginny said from the depths of the couch.
"What am I doing?" Luna asked, an innocent expression on her face.
"Get me interacting with people so I don't crawl into a cocoon." Ginny lifted her head. "You don't need to be so worried about me, I keep telling you. I'm fine."
"Are you?" Percy asked quietly.
Ginny glared at him. "Is this some kind of intervention?"
"What?" Percy put his wine glass down. "No, of course not. If you say you're fine, Gin, then you're fine. But if you're not, and there's anything I can do to help, please let me." He took a shaky breath. "I know I messed things up with the family. There's nothing I can do to make things better. But this whole mess made me realize how important you all are."
Ginny pushed herself off the couch and walked over to the window. The room was quiet, but not silent. The fire burned with little soft noises; the cars motored by outside.
"You never realize what you have until it's gone, is that it?" Ginny finally said.
"You sound like you know." Percy said.
"Something like that."
Percy wondered what his sister was talking about. Maybe someone she had lost in the battle against Voldemort? Did he dare ask?
Then Ginny turned back around and leaned against the window sill. "It's funny. You and me, Percy, the outcasts in the family. Me, I'm the girl. You, you're the stuffed shirt with no interest in Quidditch or jokes or contraptions. And here we are."
Percy adjusted his glasses uncomfortably. "Is there something you're trying to say, Ginny?"
Ginny shook her head. "I don't know what I'm saying." Her hair slid around her face, almost obscuring her scar.
Luna stood up slowly, hands nervously tugging at her jeans. "Gin, are you okay?"
Ginny pushed her hair back from her face. "No, I'm not." She lifted her gaze to meet Percy's. "But then, no one is. Not anymore."
Luna silently crossed the room and put her hand on Ginny's shoulder. "We will be. I promise."
Percy found himself wishing he could find such ready reassurance. He felt awkward, sitting there while this stranger comforted his sister. But he had no idea what he should do.
Then Luna folded Ginny into a hug, and Percy felt his desire to be anywhere else in the world skyrocket. Maybe he had misread Luna's comment that she and Ginny were roommates? Not that there was anything wrong with that. Only he had never heard of his sister being interested in girls.
Finally, Luna let go of Ginny and guided her back over to the couches. Ginny stared off into space for a minute.
Percy coughed, and that was enough to draw Ginny's attention. "Sorry," she murmured apologetically.
"There's no need to be sorry," Percy replied. He shifted nervously. "I know we've never really been close, but if you want to talk or anything, you can always talk to me."
He was met with abject silence from Ginny. He hurried on. "What I mean is, I know I'm not your favourite brother, but if you wish to discuss anything with a family member, then I am certainly willing. If you have no objections to dealing with--"
"Percy, shut it," Ginny finally interrupted. "I get what you're saying, you don't have to be so pretentious." She sighed and slouched back into the cushions. "Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes, I'd like to talk to you occasionally. If, that is, you want to," she ended awkwardly.
Percy suddenly felt so light he thought he could fly without a broom. "I do. Want to, that is."
Ginny smiled, and it turned into a wide yawn. Right. Percy had not realized the lateness of the hour. He stood up. "Perhaps we should talk again another night, then?"
Ginny nodded and pushed herself off the couch. "Promise not to be a stranger, all right?" She hugged him with a surprising ferocity. Percy was a bit startled that he could feel her ribs, even through her robes.
"I promise," he replied. He would keep these thoughts to himself, for now. "But I'm coming back."
Ginny sighed deeply. "Good," she murmured.
~~~~~~~~
Over the next week, Percy went back to Ginny and Luna's flat twice. Just to talk, he told himself. And talk they did. The first night, Percy sat on the couch with Ginny and Luna for hours, just nattering away about anything. School, work, friends. Eventually, after half a bottle of muggle whiskey, they started talking about family. The battles. Pain. Death.
He woke up the next morning on the couch in their too-bright apartment, hung-over and feeling wretched. He stumbled through his day at work, managing to get things done well enough, not messing things up too badly.
The following night with Ginny and Luna, they went out. It had all started with an innocent whiskey-fuelled question, when Percy asked Luna what made the muggle world so interesting to her. After Luna recovered from her giggle fit, she had promised that they would go out and see what was good about the muggle world.
So Luna had arranged the night. She'd transfigured some of Ginny's old robes into muggle clothes for Percy. It had taken Ginny half an hour to convince Percy that yes, it was all right that he was wearing trousers with no robe over top and no, no one would be looking at his bum.
The restaurant was nice. More than nice. Percy had never realized that food prepared without magic could be so delicious. Luna had ordered everything with a cool competence that Percy wouldn't have credited her with, although he didn't know why. Her company was charming, bridging the quiet awkward moments with Ginny and Percy. She told Percy more about her books and what compelled her to write. He told her about the work at the Ministry, and how things were going in getting their world back together.
If Ginny was quieter than normal, it was hardly noticeable.
Percy walked them both home through the streets of London, back to their quiet apartment. Luna had thanked him for a lovely evening, but the best part was when Ginny had given him a small kiss on the cheek and said thank you.
The next day at work, Percy had been swamped. There were four other people in his department, and one had been taken sick with the dragon pox, and the other went into labour late the previous night.
Percy and his remaining two coworkers were stuck with mounds of work, piles of paperwork. A whole flock of emergency owls swamped the office just before quitting time, guaranteeing that Percy didn't get to go home until well after midnight.
He staggered home to his cold flat in Diagon Alley, but even so late, he couldn't sleep. He lit a fire with his wand and stared at it, wondering. Wondering about life, and death. Family and foes. What to do now. What was left.
...tbc
Below is Chapters one and two of Merlot. Please enjoy.
Title: Merlot (Part one)
Author: Mhalachai
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and these fine characters belong to J.K. Rowing. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Author's note: Written for
kaz814's Percy-a-thon, which means it has to be done by the end of the month. Eek.Voldemort was dead, but life would never be the same.
The Ministry had been decimated and was only now rebuilding. Percy's work kept him very busy, often at the office for ten hours a day or more.
That was for the best, really. It wasn't as if he had anything else going for him.
His family was through with him, for the most part. He and his father had gotten to the point where they could speak civilly to each other in the halls at the new Ministry offices. But it was always there, hiding behind the strained smiles and unimportant how-do-you-dos.
His mother still wasn't speaking to him. Percy didn't know what to do about it. He hadn't been totally wrong, and she hadn't been totally right. Some days, he wanted to go and beg his mother to forgive him. If he had been sure she would, he'd have done it in a heartbeat.
But he wasn't sure. And so he didn't.
The twins, Ron, and surprisingly Bill, they had been the worst. Even now, after what he had done to help take Voldemort down, they blamed him for his initial attitude, then how things had snowballed.
Bill's attitude hurt worst of all. When Percy had been little, Bill had been his hero. Head boy, Quidditch captain. The oldest, the strongest. The best. Who now wanted nothing to do with him.
Charlie had been in London recently. He'd stopped by and had lunch with Percy. Percy had been so nervous about it that he'd thrown up his breakfast that morning. But it had been okay. Not good, still a bit strained, but okay. Charlie had promised to stop by the next time he was in England.
And Ginny... Ginny was always hard to read. She was alternately quiet and impossibly loud, sometimes so easy to understand, and other times as incomprehensible as time itself.
His little sister had appeared before him one sullen London day, a glower on her still-scarred face. The scar made most people uncomfortable, a reminder of the last battle against the Death Eaters, not big and loud as everyone expected. It had been quiet, sneaky, early.
Deadly.
But they won. Some had lost. Not the Weasleys, although eight of nine had been on the field. There were scars, there was pain. Ron's foot had to be amputated, but he was apparently getting along fine with his new magical prosthesis.
But not a red-headed Weasley amongst the dead. Percy had heard that the muggles sometimes prayed to their Christian God in times like these. Like most wizards, Percy wasn't Christian, but he still thanked everyone, everything, every day that his family was still intact. They could keep on hating him forever, as long as they lived. As long as they lived.
But back to Ginny. She asked Percy a simple question. "What now?"
"What do you mean, what now?" Percy asked, flustered. His work was piling out the door, he had so much to do. The old Percy would have told Ginny to come back later, when he wasn't so busy. But he'd learned that there was no later. Only now.
"What do you do now?" she demanded. "What do I do now? What do any of us do now?" She flung herself into a chair by Percy's desk, ignoring the way he winced as she squashed several rolls of parchment. "What is there left for us, Percy?"
He frowned at that. Ginny hadn't always sounded so... tired.
"What's wrong, Gin?" he asked. He kept his other thoughts silent. Why are you here with me? Why aren't you home with mum and dad asking them? Why not your little school friends? What made you so tired, baby sister?
Ginny sighed and closed her eyes for a second, just a second. "I'm not sure, you know? Tom's finally gone and I'm just so exhausted."
Percy wondered if it was a slip, Ginny calling Voldemort 'Tom'. "Are you getting any sleep?" he asked carefully.
Ginny snorted, that old familiar sound. "Yes, mum, and eating my veggies." Then she realized what she had said. "Percy, I'm sorry--"
"No, don't be," he interrupted. "It's-- I think I understand. But, you know." He looked up at his bookshelf, saying over and over in his mind, I will not cry. I will not cry.
"I don't know why I came," Ginny said, standing up abruptly. "I've got to go."
"Ginny, wait!" Percy exclaimed, jumping up. "Don't leave, not like this." I can't lose another one of you.
Ginny smiled wanly, her big brown eyes empty. "It's okay, Perce. I'm just going to go home." She hesitated, looked down. "Can I come by again, some time?" she asked, examining his floor carefully.
Percy let out the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Any time, day or night."
Ginny gave him one final nod as she left.
Percy found it hard to concentrate on work for the rest of the day. His thoughts kept straying back to Ginny. The hollow sound in her voice. The empty look in her eyes.
He finally threw his quill across the room. Something was wrong with his baby sister. He couldn't let it go.
He had no right to interfere in her life, he told himself as he strode down the halls, looking around. But he couldn't not. Not this time. Not after he failed her so badly with the diary in her second year.
Finally, Percy spotted who he was looking for, a red balding head down the hall. He was tempted to call out, but he didn't know what to say. 'Arthur' was too painful. And he wasn't sure if the man would respond to 'Dad'.
Percy settled on catching up to his father. The look of surprise on Arthur's face hurt. "Percy, how are you?"
Percy felt the formality in his father's voice like a shaft of ice in his heart. But he wasn't here for selfish reasons, he told himself. He was there for Ginny. "I'm well, and yourself?"
There was no mention of the family. Nor would there be.
"Fine, thank you." There was an awkward pause. "What can I do for you?"
"Actually, I'm wondering about Ginny. She came to visit today and left her cloak in my office," Percy said, stretching the truth only a little. "I was wondering if she's well?"
"Yes, she's fine," Arthur said with a frown. "She came to see you?"
"Yes," Percy replied, all the while raging at his father. "Do you happen to have her address? I'd like to return her cloak."
"I could do it," Arthur offered, quickly.
Percy licked his lips. "I was hoping maybe to stop by and see her, as well." There is was, the unspoken question. Had Ginny told their parents that she didn't want to see him?
Arthur looked at his son for a very long moment. "I've got it back at my office," he finally said. "I can send it down."
Knees weak, Percy managed not to yelp aloud. "Thank you," was all he let himself say. "I'll let you get back to work."
Arthur nodded and continued off down the hall.
Once his father had vanished from sight, Percy leaned back against the wall. One step completed. Next, to see Ginny.
It had taken Percy the better part of an hour to find the flat, deep in muggle London. He folded up the scrap of parchment and put it back into his cloak before he knocked.
There were small sounds in the apartment, like someone was coming to the door. Percy told his heart to calm down, to stop trying to beat its way out of his chest. After all, Ginny might just tell him to bugger off.
The door opened slowly, and the first time Percy saw was a huge blue eye. For a wild moment, Percy though that Ginny was living with Mad-Eye Moody, then the door swung open the rest of the way.
"You're Ginny's brother, aren't you?" the little blonde slip of a girl asked. "The Ministry one."
"Yes, I am. Percy." He tried desperately to remember her name. Wasn't she a Ravenclaw, Ginny's year?
She smiled lightly. "I'm Luna Lovegood, Gin's roommate."
Of course. He remembered her now. She was one of the ones who went into the Ministry to try and save Sirius Black, and ended up facing the Death Eaters. When Percy almost lost both his youngest siblings.
"Is Ginny in?" Percy asked as formally as he could.
The smile on the girl's face faltered. "Yes." She hesitated. "But she's gone to bed."
"Bed?" Percy frowned. "But it's only seven."
"I know," Luna said softly. "I-- would you care to come in anyway? For some tea?"
Torn between barging into Ginny's bedroom and shaking the answer out of her, and leaving with his tail between his legs, Percy made himself nod. "Tea sounds lovely."
She had made chamomile tea. Percy hadn't had chamomile tea in ages. It was warm and smelled sweet.
They'd sipped those first cups in silence. The lights were off in the flat, and Luna had somehow charmed the fire place to burn a nice, clean light. It should have been calming.
"What's wrong with her?" Percy finally asked.
Luna sighed, a long expressive sound, and set her cup down on the saucer. "Something. But I don't know what."
"How long have you been roommates?"
Luna looked up at him, and smiled softly. It was a sweet smile. Percy wondered how often she smiled. What made her smile. "Ever since we graduated from Hogwarts. My father offered to let me stay at home, but I couldn't. I'd seen too much, and I guess I wanted to see more. What better place to start looking?"
Percy looked around the apartment. There were books stacked to the ceiling, parchments scattered around. Amongst the papers were little memories. A shiny blue rock. An augurey feather. The place felt like home.
"And Ginny?"
"Ginny." Luna tapped her nail against her cup. The clink on the china was loud in the stillness. "She was fine. Enjoying life without the cloud of the Death Eater hanging over her head. But in the last year, something's changed. She's not..."
Luna waved her hands as she searched for the right word. Percy watched the flight of her fingers through the shadowy air. "What?" he finally asked. "Happy? Safe?"
"She doesn't care," Luna replied. "Ginny used to be so full of life, and it's now slipping away and for the life of me, I can't figure out why."
Percy slumped back in his chair. He wanted to go into Ginny's room, toss her over his shoulder and carry her away to St. Mungos. He wanted to carry her home and have mum and dad fix it, fix her. But it didn't work that way.
"Do you think she'd mind if I came back?" Percy asked.
Luna poured herself some more tea. "What do you mean, mind?"
Percy didn't want to tell this girl... no, this woman, what his family through of him, but knowing Ginny, she'd probably told Luna everything. In excruciating detail. "I just--" Saying that no one else in his family seemed to care was selfish, not what Percy wanted to say. Telling her that he was lonely was pathetic.
Bloody hell, stop being such a fucking git, Percy told himself. "She's the only one who seems to care, and it's wrong that she's like this," he stammered.
Strangely enough, Luna didn't misinterpret him. "Can you come by tomorrow?" she asked. "I can make dinner, and you and Ginny can catch up."
Percy mentally reviewed his schedule. If he went into work at the crack of dawn, then he could be done in time for dinner. "That sounds like it would work," he said cautiously. "But... are you sure Ginny would be up for it?"
Luna gave him a look, one he couldn't quite decipher. "Yes, I do." She placed her cup back onto the saucer. "I'll see you out now."
Percy knew a dismissal when he heard one, but it somehow didn't bother him.
Title: Merlot (Part two)
Author: Mhalachai
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and these fine characters belong to J.K. Rowing. I am but borrowing the characters for a brief time and shall return them intact at the end.
Note: In case you're wondering, the challenge was to write a story where Percy gets the girl. He will, in the end, but I needed to write something with more meat for my first Harry Potter story. Hence the story.
Here he was again, knocking on Ginny's door. Only this time, he was holding a bottle of merlot. Stupid, he thought. Ginny's not going to expect wine from her brother. But maybe Luna would.
How much did he know about Luna Lovegood, anyway? Her father ran the Quibbler, an out-there magazine Percy never had the time for. She had been a member of Harry Potter's little defence group at Hogworts. Other than that, nothing about her stuck in Percy's mind.
Except her startling blue eyes.
The door opened, bringing him back to himself. It was Ginny. She smiled faintly up at Percy. "Luna said you were coming."
His breath caught in his throat. "Is that all right?" he had to ask.
Ginny rolled her eyes and opened the door wide. "Of course. Come in, Luna's been cooking all day."
"All day?" Percy repeated as he passed into the apartment. It was cleaner than the previous day, and better lit. It still felt a thousand times more comfortable than his own flat.
"Not all day," Luna's voice drifted out of the kitchen. "Just for a couple of hours. And it's nice to be able to whip out some of my mum's old recipes."
"It smells nice," Percy offered as he set the bottle of wine on the table and undid his cloak. "What are we having?"
Luna's reply was muffled. Ginny giggled. "She said chicken and rice and green beans, but with fancy French names I can't recall. You like chicken, right?" Ginny asked.
Percy nodded. "It sounds quite nice."
There was an awkward moment while Percy tried to figure out what to say next.
"Can I take your cloak?" Ginny asked.
Relieved, Percy handed his sister the cloak and waited while she marched it over to the wardrobe by the door.
Luna swept into the room, wearing a faded apron over her muggle clothing. "I told you she'd be up for it," she whispered conspiratorially to Percy. "Is that wine for dinner?" she asked louder.
Percy nodded. "I thought..." He wasn't sure what he thought.
"Oh, come off it, Percy," Ginny said as she came back. "I'll make you a deal. We'll pretend that things are okay. And we'll have a nice evening. Deal?"
Percy closed his eyes for a second. Just a second. "I can't do that, Gin. I can't pretend that things are okay. With me, with you, with any of this. I wish I could, but I can't."
He stared at his sister. The scar on her face, that ran along her cheek down to the edge of her jaw, stood out starkly against her pale, almost sickly, skin. He realized with a jolt that he had never asked how she got the scar. At the time, they had all been too busy healing, or burying the dead, to waste time talking.
"If I may make a suggestion?"
Both Weasleys looked over at Luna.
"Trying to pretend something didn't help only ever wrecks things. After my mum died, I tried it." The blonde witch took a deep breath, let it out slowly. "But what happened, happened. If it's too painful to talk about, then don't. So we talk about something else."
Something dinged in the kitchen, and Luna ducked out of sight.
After a minute, Ginny shook her head. "So what do we talk about?" she asked. "Quidditch? Art?"
"I don't know much about Quidditch," Percy said. "Same with art." He tried to think of something. Something safe. "How about Luna?"
"What about her?"
"We could talk about Luna."
Ginny's expression never changed, but Percy could have sworn she was laughing at him. "A safe topic area. What do you want to know?"
Percy narrowed his eyes at his sister. Of all of his siblings, she was the only one he never minded teasing him. Of course, she was the one who did it the most. "Why is she in muggle clothes?"
"She had a meeting with her publisher today," Ginny said blandly.
"Luna has a muggle publisher?" Percy asked, puzzled. "How do you mean?"
Ginny took her brother's arm and pulled him over to the couch. "See, it's like this."
After dinner, they ended up back on the couches. "And you have how many books published now?" Percy asked as he swirled the last of his wine in the pretty glasses Luna had produced from the depths of a cupboard.
"Fourteen," Luna giggled. "One series is already done and I'm halfway through another. Those muggle children do love to read about magic."
"What level of detail do you use, about the magic?" Percy had to ask.
"Percy," Ginny said in a warning tone.
"No, Ginny, it's a legitimate question." Luna stared into the fire, loose blonde curls falling across her cheek. "Not much. I did a lot of research into their own stories on magic. It's a lot of junk, all Mother Earth and stuff. Some of it's sort of close to what we have. So I just keep the details vague."
"Do you have any copies of your works here?" Percy asked, leaning forward.
Luna shook her head. "I've only got a couple of marked up copies here. But I can get some copies from my publisher." Her eyes flicked from Percy over to Ginny. "Can you come back later in the week? I can get them for you then."
"I know what you're doing, Luna," Ginny said from the depths of the couch.
"What am I doing?" Luna asked, an innocent expression on her face.
"Get me interacting with people so I don't crawl into a cocoon." Ginny lifted her head. "You don't need to be so worried about me, I keep telling you. I'm fine."
"Are you?" Percy asked quietly.
Ginny glared at him. "Is this some kind of intervention?"
"What?" Percy put his wine glass down. "No, of course not. If you say you're fine, Gin, then you're fine. But if you're not, and there's anything I can do to help, please let me." He took a shaky breath. "I know I messed things up with the family. There's nothing I can do to make things better. But this whole mess made me realize how important you all are."
Ginny pushed herself off the couch and walked over to the window. The room was quiet, but not silent. The fire burned with little soft noises; the cars motored by outside.
"You never realize what you have until it's gone, is that it?" Ginny finally said.
"You sound like you know." Percy said.
"Something like that."
Percy wondered what his sister was talking about. Maybe someone she had lost in the battle against Voldemort? Did he dare ask?
Then Ginny turned back around and leaned against the window sill. "It's funny. You and me, Percy, the outcasts in the family. Me, I'm the girl. You, you're the stuffed shirt with no interest in Quidditch or jokes or contraptions. And here we are."
Percy adjusted his glasses uncomfortably. "Is there something you're trying to say, Ginny?"
Ginny shook her head. "I don't know what I'm saying." Her hair slid around her face, almost obscuring her scar.
Luna stood up slowly, hands nervously tugging at her jeans. "Gin, are you okay?"
Ginny pushed her hair back from her face. "No, I'm not." She lifted her gaze to meet Percy's. "But then, no one is. Not anymore."
Luna silently crossed the room and put her hand on Ginny's shoulder. "We will be. I promise."
Percy found himself wishing he could find such ready reassurance. He felt awkward, sitting there while this stranger comforted his sister. But he had no idea what he should do.
Then Luna folded Ginny into a hug, and Percy felt his desire to be anywhere else in the world skyrocket. Maybe he had misread Luna's comment that she and Ginny were roommates? Not that there was anything wrong with that. Only he had never heard of his sister being interested in girls.
Finally, Luna let go of Ginny and guided her back over to the couches. Ginny stared off into space for a minute.
Percy coughed, and that was enough to draw Ginny's attention. "Sorry," she murmured apologetically.
"There's no need to be sorry," Percy replied. He shifted nervously. "I know we've never really been close, but if you want to talk or anything, you can always talk to me."
He was met with abject silence from Ginny. He hurried on. "What I mean is, I know I'm not your favourite brother, but if you wish to discuss anything with a family member, then I am certainly willing. If you have no objections to dealing with--"
"Percy, shut it," Ginny finally interrupted. "I get what you're saying, you don't have to be so pretentious." She sighed and slouched back into the cushions. "Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes, I'd like to talk to you occasionally. If, that is, you want to," she ended awkwardly.
Percy suddenly felt so light he thought he could fly without a broom. "I do. Want to, that is."
Ginny smiled, and it turned into a wide yawn. Right. Percy had not realized the lateness of the hour. He stood up. "Perhaps we should talk again another night, then?"
Ginny nodded and pushed herself off the couch. "Promise not to be a stranger, all right?" She hugged him with a surprising ferocity. Percy was a bit startled that he could feel her ribs, even through her robes.
"I promise," he replied. He would keep these thoughts to himself, for now. "But I'm coming back."
Ginny sighed deeply. "Good," she murmured.
Over the next week, Percy went back to Ginny and Luna's flat twice. Just to talk, he told himself. And talk they did. The first night, Percy sat on the couch with Ginny and Luna for hours, just nattering away about anything. School, work, friends. Eventually, after half a bottle of muggle whiskey, they started talking about family. The battles. Pain. Death.
He woke up the next morning on the couch in their too-bright apartment, hung-over and feeling wretched. He stumbled through his day at work, managing to get things done well enough, not messing things up too badly.
The following night with Ginny and Luna, they went out. It had all started with an innocent whiskey-fuelled question, when Percy asked Luna what made the muggle world so interesting to her. After Luna recovered from her giggle fit, she had promised that they would go out and see what was good about the muggle world.
So Luna had arranged the night. She'd transfigured some of Ginny's old robes into muggle clothes for Percy. It had taken Ginny half an hour to convince Percy that yes, it was all right that he was wearing trousers with no robe over top and no, no one would be looking at his bum.
The restaurant was nice. More than nice. Percy had never realized that food prepared without magic could be so delicious. Luna had ordered everything with a cool competence that Percy wouldn't have credited her with, although he didn't know why. Her company was charming, bridging the quiet awkward moments with Ginny and Percy. She told Percy more about her books and what compelled her to write. He told her about the work at the Ministry, and how things were going in getting their world back together.
If Ginny was quieter than normal, it was hardly noticeable.
Percy walked them both home through the streets of London, back to their quiet apartment. Luna had thanked him for a lovely evening, but the best part was when Ginny had given him a small kiss on the cheek and said thank you.
The next day at work, Percy had been swamped. There were four other people in his department, and one had been taken sick with the dragon pox, and the other went into labour late the previous night.
Percy and his remaining two coworkers were stuck with mounds of work, piles of paperwork. A whole flock of emergency owls swamped the office just before quitting time, guaranteeing that Percy didn't get to go home until well after midnight.
He staggered home to his cold flat in Diagon Alley, but even so late, he couldn't sleep. He lit a fire with his wand and stared at it, wondering. Wondering about life, and death. Family and foes. What to do now. What was left.
...tbc