Grimmauld Place, Christmas 1995:
"That's why me and Tonksy here are still so close!" Charlie exclaimed.
"Yeah! Hell, we're even going to hire Lee, when we get our joke shop because we hate being away from him." George added.
Arthur thought for a moment, he could name every single one of his children's friends. Friends they'd made at Hogwarts, friends they'd made when they moved away, friends they'd made on holiday but he just couldn't place any friend of Percy's. He coughed before he chimed in.
"What about Percy?"
The room went quiet for only a moment.
"Dad, Percy hasn't got any friends." Ron said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yeah, people can't stand him." Ginny added.
"But surely, he must have had someone he was close to? What about that Clearsprings girl he dated?" Arthur needed to know, for some reason, who his son had.
"Clearwater, dad, and she only went out with him as a joke. Her friends dared her to, it was absolutely class when we found out." Fred answered with a laugh.
"Even the least popular girl in the school didn't like him." He continued. Arthur's heart ached at the thought that his son, his baby had been pranked in such a way.
"Oh my God, remember his tooth gap?" Ginny piped up.
"Remember how even the first years used to say he flossed with a mattress?" George was nearly in tears with laughter as he answered. Arthur hadn't known why Percy chose to close his tooth gap, it wasn't very big and Arthur always thought it to be rather endearing.
"Or when Oliver Wood 'tripped' him as the stair case moved and he got stuck?" Bill finally joined in. Arthur remembered that in his second year, Percy had broken his arm, said he fell as the stair case changed. He was incredibly hurt, silent in the hospital wing, face red with embarrassment. Oh yes, Arthur remembered that.
"But, he must have had a friend, at least."
"Nope, no one likes him, Dad. It's why he spent all his time in the library, 'cause even some of the teacher used to tease him." He was even being teased by the teachers? Arthur felt his stomach churn at the thought of his son being so alone for so many years.
"Remember when Colin Creevey took that really ugly photo of him and people put so many copies of it through the halls? That was class that was." No it wasn't, his poor boy had been bullied. Bullied for seven years, with not a friend to turn to.
"Or when he was walking round with half his face bruised after he'd accidentally bumped into Rodger Davies?" Ron added, his tone light.
"I'm sick of hearing this now."
All eyes turned to Remus, who'd stayed silent the entire discussion at the dinner table. His eyes down turned, staring at the table.
"Why? This is the best laugh I've had in a while!" George argued.
"Do you think Percy's laughing? Think, if he really hasn't got any friends, he's sat around a table, laughing and joking, on Christmas day? Don't you think that everything you're laughing about, might have really hurt him?"
"Who cares? He made his choice and made it obvious he doesn't like us?"
"Did he make it obvious he didn't like you? Or did you make it obvious you don't like him? Do you think it's fun, having no one? Do you think being lonely is a nice thing to feel? Imagine you had no one, no friends, no family to turn to, and you're being terrorised. Because I guarantee, if he was being picked on so horribly in Hogwarts, the same is happening at the ministry. That stuff follows you, he wouldn't be the only person in his year to work at the ministry and people are cruel. They'll see that and they'll join in."
At least Ron had the decency to look guilty.
Arthur looked out the window, staring at the snow falling. "Where do you think he went? After our argument?" If he didn't have a friend, who did he turn to when he needed someone? Normally, whenever Percy was in trouble he would go running to...him. Whenever Percy was I'm trouble he'd come running to his dad. His dad who'd yelled horrible nasty words at him. His dad who'd thrown him out.
Arthur sat on the couch, looking through an old photograph album he'd brought to headquarters with him. In every single photo, every single child of his was smiling, other than Percy. Percy, in every photo, was pushed off to the side and Arthur realised, he'd done that. He and Molly.
He remembered the hopeful look on his little boy's face on his nineth birthday. He'd come bounding down the stairs with the biggest eyes Arthur had ever seen.
"what's for breakfast, can I choose?"
"Why would you get to chose, Percy? Doesn't it look like I'm busy enough as it is. Just sit still and be quiet."
"But mu-"
"Listen to your mother, son."
"...but it's my birthday."
He remembered his son's eyes, full of tears as he realised his parents had forgotten his birthday. He remembered the way he went mute for weeks after. He remembered the way he practically dragged Percy to the hospital because he'd stopped eating.
He remembered when Ron wrote home, his first year, saying he never saw Percy in the great hall for dinner, that he stopped turning up for breakfast or lunch when his OWLS were approaching.
As he thumbed through the photo album, he saw his son become more and more melancholy. He saw how his son looked perpetually exhausted, deep bags underneath his eyes and a near empty look in his dulled blue eyes.
Why hadn't he ever noticed? Why hadn't he spent more time with his son? The more he tried, he could only recall spending time with him when it was necessary.
He'd been a terrible father.
He sat at the coffee table and wrote a letter. He wrote and wrote and poured his heart out to his son. They'd gone in to hiding and hadn't given him a second thought. He wrote to his son, he wrote how proud he was of his son, he wrote how sorry he was, he wrote how he missed him.
The letter arrive back at Grimmauld Place on Christmas morning, folded to carefully into a delecate paper flower.