The Power of Brotherly Love

The fact that the flat was quiet wasn’t what seemed to be weird. But the fact that Percy was all alone had it’s effect. This wasn’t the first time he was by himself there, yet growing up next to six other children made him get used to always having someone by his side. George wrote a note; Percy knew George left it, because it was his handwriting and no one else’s. People often asked him how he was always able to tell the twins apart. One of their main differences was their handwriting. George was a lot neater than Fred was. Fred loved to make his letters artistic. The effects of having ADHD. While George always knew how to word the things he wanted to say. He always knew what to write, and what not to write. He always knew how to form the letters to emphasize his mood and the meaning of the text. The boy could’ve been an author. But he didn’t become one, because his true desire was to make people laugh. While Percy did tell him many times that he could just easily write next to working at the shop, George laughed in his face every single time.

After Fred’s death however, the twin did began to write down his thoughts. It was the only suggestion he took from Percy, even though the Weasley had ran through countless amount of books to help him with grief. Percy was just like that. Always searching for a written solution, not understanding that sometimes there isn’t one. George kept a diary. It was a thick booklet with nothing on the cover, just his name. His safe place. Percy knew how much it meant for his brother along with everything else that reminded him of Fred, so he made sure to watch out for them.

He decided to clean the house. Yes, he was a neat-freak, but what could he do about that? He couldn’t just leave the dust to consume their home! Molly would be disappointed and furious. And besides, that was the only thing Percy was actually useful of. He couldn’t do anything else, because his choices were limited. So he got the cleaning stuff together, shut the binders in case anyone could see inside, and swished his wand, murmuring quietly to himself. Moments later, the objects began to work by themselves, destroying all the dirt around the place. Magic was one of the most useful things he learned. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to get by. Percy was glad he was a wizard.

(…)

St. Mungo’s was barely any sane man’s dream workplace. Lots of communicating, paperwork and constant dull mood all over the place. But luckily, the ministry had barely anything else to offer, So Percy was used to working at shitty places. Before graduating from Hogwarts, he used to work at a cafe at Hogsmeade, as a part time job, so he could have some money for himself. He recalled many sleepless nights, full of work and studying, and the realization of the roots of his insomnia hit hard. The owner of the shop he worked at, rightfully Batty’s sweet-cakes, was an old, chubby woman. She reminded Percy of his Mother, after all, they did share a lot in their appearance. Sometimes, he slipped up and actually called her Mother, but thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she looked to be oblivious of every problem around her! When customers complained, she replied with the same smile, the same sweet voice and charming characteristics. Even Percy wasn’t as patient and understanding. He had never seen her angry or distressed, hell not even sad! She was the definition of happiness. And she was also very lean. Because of his busy schedule, there were times when Percy was late, but she never cared, and always told him the same thing: “Students must always focus on their studies first. Work comes after.” Even if he was late, he always worked twice as much as he should’ve normally, and obviously for that, she paid him twice as much, even though Percy told her not to, but she insisted.

Those were some nice memories. Back then, everything was alright, the crime rates weren’t skyrocketing, and even if they were, Percy wasn’t aware of it. The Weasley knew a lot of things even when he was a child, but had no clue of half of the things he does now. And how the boy wished things would change back just like that! How he wished to be capable of forgetting! Yet Percy doubted, that even the strongest spell of obliviate could erase years of pain and suffering. And he also doubted, that this is the best solution to his problems. Percy was never an emotional man, but nowadays, he really feels like a wreck, even with all the good things happening around and with him.

He entered the building, looking for somebody that could help. The halls and the signs weren’t foreign to him. He’s been here countless times before, mostly with siblings, less by himself. There was a short timespan when he had to check in there daily, since he caught some horrible flue at the ministry, and even St. Mungo’s couldn’t figure out what it was. Those were some busy, tiring days of his new adult life. Since then, he rarely got sick, and when he did, it was weak. His immune system, even though he barely ate, was strong.

The Weasley went up to the receptionist and tried to help himself up, but couldn’t.

“Hello, miss? Could you help me?” the woman looked up from the papers spread on her desk and scanned the room. She frowned when she didn’t see the source of the voice. Percy groaned. “Over here, behind the table!” he raised his voice, a bit more bitter this time. The lady noticed him and seemed to be debating whether to say ‘I’m sorry’ or ignore the awkwardness of the situation. She chose the latter.

“Good morning mister! How can I help you?” she asked in a cheerful tone, easily hiding her embarrassment.

“My name is Percival Ignatius Weasley, and I’m looking for Audrey Smithen,” Percy answered, smiling at the woman. She returned the gesture as she got up from her chair. Percy had a chance to examine her while she went to his side. She was short and slim, had a nice shape for a fairly young lady. Her chocolate skin made her blue eyes shine, but one of them was unfortunately covered by a lock of black hair. Her body looked young, however her face didn’t. She was unnervingly pale with dark bags under her eyes. Yet she still kept the grin on her face, even if she looked close to breaking down.

“Alright. I’ll assist you to her office,” the nurse grabbed Percy’s chair, however he quickly shook it off. The Weasley shot an apologetic glance towards the lady, rubbing his neck.

“I apologize… I don’t require any assistance. I can get by on my own,” she didn’t seem surprised by the request, in fact, it seemed to not affect her at all, like she’d heard it a thousand times before. She nodded understandingly, and buried her hands into the pockets of her white, hospital dress.

They turned into one of the many halls Percy had been before. This one was the hall for cases regarding of muggle injuries. There were many occasions he had to be there. For example, when they were four, Ronald broke his leg while trying to climb one of the trees in their garden. Their Mother was furious, mainly at Arthur, since he was in charge while she left for a check-up with Ginny. But another instance was when Bill broke his nose by fainting off the chair at dinner. As it turned out, he overworked himself, and that’s why he blacked out. Ever since then, their Mother set the time of how long they can study. Thankfully, that rule had never been applied on Percy. Molly trusted him to much to limit him. And he didn’t have anything else to do besides studying either.

At the end of the white hall, they reached a funny-looking door. It was full of colours, different stickers and children’s drawings. Audrey was the one to introduce him to stickers in their first year! Percy remembered sticking them everywhere in the castle. The professors weren’t mad at them, in fact, Dumbledore even praised them for trying to bring some colour into the gloomy, old castle.

Percy missed Dumbledore. Even if he was a liar and a coward, he was still a funny, understanding teacher. And even if he caused Percy a lot of trouble, he still missed the old man. Percy missed a lot of people he shouldn’t have missed.

“Ah, Percy, great to see you! I thought you’d never show up!” Audrey greeted, embracing her friend. The Weasley snapped out of his thoughts, putting his hands on Audrey’s back, almost melting into the touch. “We have many, many things to talk about, so buckle up, cause this will be a heck of an interview!” she used television expressions again, Percy could tell from the sudden accent change.

“What reference was that?” he asked, raising his eyebrows. Audrey smiled.

“Steve Harvey. I’m glad you noticed,” Percy laughed.

“I’m trying.”

As they entered, Percy was blinded by even more colours and even more drawings from children, all of them hung on the wall somewhere. There were cartoon characters painted on the walls, and the bookshelves were colourful too. The books… Those were colourful too. In fact, every furniture and item was full of shade.

“Are you planning to get your next volunteer an epilepsy attack?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. The girl grinned.

“Yea, why not? But it’s nice, isn’t it?”

“After you get used to it, then probably…”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t be hard to,” she nudged him in the shoulder, earning a more harder push. Audrey laughed, ruffling the Weasley’s hair before walking over and taking a seat behind her desk. She picked up a pen and began to mess with it, while looking at Percy with a cold and stern expression, like she was scanning him or something. Percy gulped.

“I don’t want to be murdered in a rainbow…” that alone was able to break Audrey’s facade, as she began to laugh uncontrollably.

“I-I’m sorry, I was just testing you! Merlin, I’m a nurse, my last thought is murdering you!” Percy let out a relieved breath, while his friend just kept on laughing. “Tho seriously, we need to have some important talk about this job.”

“Okay then, get on with it Miss Smith,” Percy grinned. Audrey nodded.

“Alright, so. Since the second wizarding war, the number of patients doubled, and our staff decreased for many reasons I won’t be sharing. So you see the problem here, right? More patients, less people to take care of them. That’s exactly why we’re accepting people with no background experience of Biology, yet still capable of doing the job. There are many workers around who have no idea of the location of the kidney in a normal human body, but they’re still useful in other unique ways. But you Percy, you aced Herbology, Muggle Studies and you also have a knack for learning! That’s exactly why I’m giving you upper role than other people around. But beware, if you make a mistake, I won’t hesitate to put you in the office with only paperwork to do,” the last one was meant to be a warning, but for Percy, it sounded more as a joke. Seriously? Punishing him with paperwork? Percy has done paperwork all his life, he won’t be scared to do more! In fact, if that’s the only thing he can help in, then be it. At least he’ll get some money for that too!

“Okay. Do you need any of my personal info?”

“Nah. I’ve got it. I know you enough,” Percy rolled his eyes playfully, making Audrey giggle.

“Alright then, anything else?”

“Yes, some basic rules of the place and your schedule,” and after the endless rambling about rules, restrictions, priorities and an odd discussion about the dangers of vending machines, Percy was good to go. He couldn’t help but give out a relieved sigh the moment he rolled out of the office.

“So she gave you the talk too, huh?” someone asked. Percy jumped in surprise, grabbing his wand. “Wow, wow, wow, chill. You don’t even notice your old bro?” The Weasley gaped.

“Marcus?”

“Yup. The one and only!” Percy laughed and pulled the boy into a hug.

“Oh my Merlin, Marc, it’s so good to see you! What are you doing here?” he ruffled the ex-Slytherin’s hair.

“Nice to see you too. Ah, nothing. Just came to see my girlfriend.”

“And wife in the future, right?” Marcus blushed, but nodded nonetheless. They talked for a while, discussing the things that have happened while they were distant. Meanwhile, Percy looked at the list he was given. Audrey told him to read it. There were room numbers next to the names, some of them were normal rooms, some of them were straight to the morgue. Percy has been in the morgue once. He was taken there to say goodbye to his uncle. Arthur and Molly thought it was the best this way, and they trusted Percy’s maturity enough. Yet no matter how mature one is, trauma hits the same. He still remembered looking into the man’s eyes. Those lifeless, pale one, half covered by lids. There was a blanket on him, a white one, Percy recalled, he touched it, and demanded a new one, a cleaner one. No one listened. No one listened when the boy wept, begging to be let out. He banged on the door, scared of the person who once cradled him in his arms.

Those were one of the memories Percy chose to try and forget over the years, but no matter the effort, it seemed stuck. Buried inside of his brain, and it flashed before the boy’s eyes every time he read the name ‘Billius’. He never looked at Ronald’s papers.

“Wait, Penny’s here?” Percy blinked, scanning through the name once more just for confirmation. Luckily, there was only a number next to the name. Morgue rooms had both numbers and letters, since there were a lot more of them than patient’s room, which was sad, but understandable. Marcus nodded.

“Yea. They brought her in after she tried to use one of the unforgivable spells on herself. She went totally bonkers Perce! At first, I barely recognized her,” the Slytherin boy had this sour look on his face that weighted his words even more, and Percy’s stomach twisted.

“Oh… Can I- can I see her?” Marcus seemed hesitant about an answer.

“I’m not sure if you can take it,” Percy was starting to become nervous, yet he looked more furious than scared.

“That is not your choice to make! Marcus, am I allowed to see her or not?” he raised his voice dangerously, warning, that if he dares to oppose him one more time, he might start to shout. The Slytherin nodded with a sigh.

“I understand your reaction. It was the same for me, but damn how much I regret it now… Alright, come on! This way to her room,” why did Percy feel like he just made the worst choice of his life?

(...)

Penelope Clearwater used to be Percy’s girlfriend during his fifth year. He wasn’t sure when they lost the sparkles of love, or even if they had that to begin with. Their relationship was never intimate or even romantic, it was more for benefits and not for love. Never for love. In fact, back then they both refused to accept that they are capable of feeling emotions, coming from families that they had to stand out from. Penelope came from an orphanage, Percy came from the home of six other talented children. They were overshadowed and felt the need to climb out of the darkness. To be superior, better. That’s what made them such a powerful duo.

When his friends couldn’t understand, he went to Penelope instead. She listened and Percy knew she could relate. They were each other’s therapists, one the other could rely on, if there was too much going on. However, what Penelope didn’t know was that he constantly hid his thoughts so he could help her, seeing she needed more reassurement than he did. Yes, Percy sacrificed a lot back then with that choice, even almost his life once (though he won’t think back of that, since that memory strongly included Oliver, and he did not want to think too much of Oliver).

So when Percy saw his ex-girlfriend on the hospital bed, tied down, shaking as she muttered to herself, his surprise was an understatement. The girl noticed the two rather quickly, considering how out of it she seemed,

“Percyyyy,” she hissed happily, sounding like she was high on some form of drug. Percy gulped.

“Hey Penny. How are you?” the girl thought for a while, then erupted into laughter.

“Haven’t been better, excluding the feeling of wanting to die every second. Oh, wait actually. Now that you’re here, maybe you can help me!” Percy frowned. How could he help her? “Please Perce, kill me,” the words seemed to be rolling off her tongue easily, yet the Weasley could barely process them. Did she seriously ask him to kill her? He stayed silent, unable to even think. Penelope pouted. “Come on, murdering is easy! You’ve murdered before, haven’t you? Yea, you did, I know! You told me about it before!”

“Penelope, that’s enough,” Marcus states sternly, placing a hand on Percy’s shoulder. The girl rolled her eyes.

“Come on Perce, you can kill me just easily. Killing your brother must’ve been harder-”

“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Marcus shouted, and suddenly Percy felt himself drifting away. To where? He had no idea. But he wanted to go somewhere safe, somewhere the truth can’t hurt him. At times like these, everything was calm. Percy felt at peace, collected, happy. Yet he heard someone trying to pull him out. He didn’t want to go. He never wanted to go. But the hand kept grasping, and it grabbed his hand and- “-rcy, Percy! Come on buds, are you in here with me? We’re at St. Mungo’s right now, are you here with me at St. Mungo’s?” Percy could barely focus on his friend’s face. His face looked worried and angry. Was he angry at him for pushing it? Maybe he should’ve believed Marcus. After all, Marcus only wanted good for him. Merlin, why was he such a bloody awful friend?

“Marcus…” he mouthed weakly, lifting his hand to rub his forehead. Marcus sighed in relief, helping him out the room. “Damn…” he whispered, shaking his head.

“Yea, double damn…” Marcus nodded.

“Triple damn…”

“Quadruple damn…” they sat down onto two nearby chairs and thought in silence. Their shoulders rubbed together, which created a sense of comfort, making things less awkward and more nice.

“Listen, Marcus I-”

“Hush… Don’t apologize. I had the same reaction. Only Penelope didn’t go that far with me. Gosh, I can’t believe he mentioned Fred,” you mentioned Fred just now. Percy shook his head again, sighing.

“No, it’s fine. His name shouldn’t be taboo. That’s like he would he the new Voldemort,” Marcus slightly chuckled, trying to lift the mood. Thankfully, Audrey stepped in. Wait, Audrey?

“Hello boys, I knew I’d find you here,” she smiled, then showed papers into Percy’s hands. He looked at her in slight amusement but more confusion. “This is one of my patients and I need you to look at him. He has a rather… Interesting problem.”

Percy flipped through the papers curiously, scanning the written lines and the attached pictures quickly. He had advanced reading speed, and that paid off.

“A man, who apparently got stabbed in the lungs, however has no internal bleeding, or lung fracture. Truly intriguing Audrey. I’ll take a look.”