New Love
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The day Percy marries Audrey is the best day of his life.
It’s a small ceremony at the courthouse. Charlie’s his witness, Audrey's sister, Nora, is hers. They sign the papers in front of the clerk who stamps and files it. Charlie secretly makes a copy using magic and sends it off to be registered in the wizarding world. It’s quick, taking less than a minute. Audrey wears a tea-length white dress that is somehow both practical and sophisticated at the same time. She pairs it with kitten heels and a pair of pearl earrings. Her bouquet is bluebells and white lilies.
Percy wears a smart muggle suit, light pinstripes, and polished loafers. Nora, who works as a muggle and magical photographer, snaps their portrait on the steps of the courthouse.
They both come from big families, Percy with six siblings and Audrey with three sisters, and both agree on something simple. They hold two receptions, one magical and one Muggle. Audrey’s a half-blood, and she’s not sure her Muggle grandmother would survive a ceremony with magic.
The first reception is held in Kent, at the Chilton Park Hotel.
Audrey’s wizarding side of her family is invited, but only her parents and siblings make the effort, since they’re having another one the next week. Charlie comes to this reception, as do Bill and Fleur. His parents come as well, and Percy spends half the party trying to keep his father from bothering Audrey’s family about wi-fi.
It’s a gorgeous venue, with detailed chandeliers and framed mirrors and large, floor-to-ceiling windows, covered in lavender and bluebells. They start at 2 in the afternoon and finish reasonably at 7. Percy holds Audrey’s hand as they smile and greet guests, whose names and faces Percy doesn’t remember but he thanks them all the same. Audrey’s reception dress looks more like a proper wedding dress, A-line with lace trims and more pearls. They’re both in bed by nine.
The second reception is at, of course, the Burrow. Bill tells him it’s very similar to his own wedding set-up, but there’s no Death Eaters around this time. Percy tries very hard not to feel guilty about that.
His mother goes on a warpath. Percy had tried to explain to her that they had already been married for several months at this point legally, but she won’t hear of it. Instead of just a party, they have a wizarding ceremony as well. Percy and Audrey mix colored sand together and have their hand-fasting. They kiss in front of cheering crowd. They take wedding photos of the entire bridal party, Audrey with her parents, then with her parents and Percy, then her sisters, then Percy’s sisters and sisters in-law. They spend nearly two hours on photos.
When they get developed, Percy doesn’t allow himself to look at the full family portrait.
There’s someone missing.
Then the party starts. There’s music and drinks and dancing. Percy dances with Audrey, trying very hard to not step on her toes. She dances with her father and with his. Percy dances with his mother and Ginny.
His favorite dance must have been with Penelope, though. He had been unsure about inviting her, seeing as they dated for about two years when they were teenagers, but Audrey had insisted. Penelope was his best friend, and Audrey liked her too. He twirls her around in her Ravenclaw-blue dress and glittering sapphires until they’re both dizzy and laughing before Penelope returns him to Audrey with a wink and a farewell.
It's quite literally the happiest time of his life.
Three months after the first ceremony, Percy comes home from work to find Audrey sitting on the toilet seat.
“What’s wrong? What’s the matter?” he asks her, worried. She swallows. She’s holding something in her hand that Percy’s never seen, a small plastic stick.
Her voice was barely a whisper. “Percy” she says, her voice catching. “I need to tell you something.”
She takes a deep breath and looks back down at the stick in her hand. The words escape in a rush. “I’m pregnant.”
Percy stares at her, the realization sinking in slowly, like a drop of ink spreading across a blank page. It was fast. They had moved fast- he had met her about six months before the wedding. They’ve known each other for less than a year.
She was pregnant.
The thought was both thrilling and overwhelming. Audrey puts her hand over her mouth, stifling a gasp as tears well up in her eyes. The bathroom, once an ordinary space, now felt like a sacred chamber.
Percy can’t help it. He lets out a deep, incredulous laugh “Are you serious?” His voice is filled with awe and disbelief. They hadn’t been planning, but they hadn’t been very careful ither. Kids had seemed like something in the far-away future. Not so soon.
“Yes. Look, it’s a muggle pregnancy test. Two lines means pregnant.” She hands him the stick. He examines it. She’s correct- there’s two pink lines in the center of the stick.
“Are we-,” he’s not sure how to say this.
“I think so. If you-,”
“I do!”
Audrey brushes tears from her face and tilts her head back into a joyous laugh.
“We’re going to have a baby!”
They don’t have one baby. They have two.
Audrey is pale and sweaty and slightly out of breath, but when she places two small blanket-clad bundles into his arms in a private room in the maternity ward of St. Mungo’s, he thinks he may have been wrong. His wedding hadn’t been the best day of his life.
The birth of his daughters is.
Parenthood is no easy task. Taking care of one baby is difficult, taking care of two is nearly impossible. Audrey takes six weeks off work from her job in Magical Law Enforcement, but after that she wants to go back to work. This had been one of the first big fights they had.
Percy’s sitting at the dining room table in clothes he’s been wearing for two days, a screaming, colicky baby in his arms and something that may be either throw-up or breast milk stained into his shirt. Audrey’s holding Lucy, trying to rock her to sleep. It’s not working, and the shouting Audrey is doing is not helping.
“We’re supposed to be a team!”
Percy rubs Molly’s back and tries to soothe her to no avail. She continues to scream and wiggle in his arms.
“We are, Audrey.”
She rolls her eyes. “Then why can’t you back me up on this? I want to go back to work.”
Percy sighs. “It’s only been six weeks, babe. You need more time off to bond with the girls.”
He knows this to be true, they wouldn’t shut up about it in the parenting books and classes. Truthfully, Audrey hadn’t been spending as much time with the twins as Percy would have liked. Often, she would leave for a few hours to visit her sisters or her family, leaving Percy alone, claiming she needed a break.
“You’re just saying that because you want to keep me barefoot in the kitchen.”
Percy shakes his head. “That’s not true! I’m still off work as well. We need to be in this together, you’re right. Let’s do this together. I can’t handle the girls on my own.”
“And I can?”
“No, I just mean-,” but Audrey is rolling her eyes and scoffs loudly.
“Just ask your mother for help, Percy.”
“I can’t ask her to be their full-time nanny, she has a life! She’s already raised her own kids; it wouldn’t be fair.”
Audrey sets Lucy down in the crib, seemingly giving up on getting her to stop crying.
“I don’t care, Percy. I’m going back to work next week.”
“That’s so soon, Auddie.”
“I can handle it.”
“I know you can, but-,”
There’s a great shattering noise behind Percy, causing him to flinch. He looks over his shoulder. Their wedding portrait has fallen off the wall and the frame shattered on the floor. He looks from the fallen portrait to Audrey’s red face. She’s staring at it, stunned.
“Did you just use accidental magic?” Percy asks in a hushed voice.
That was incredibly rare in adults, whose magical core was well developed. Audrey must have been more upset than she was letting on.
“I- I need to go.” Audrey turns on her heels and heads for the door.
“Audrey, wait!” but the door is slamming behind her. Percy’s left with two screaming babies, alone and a broken picture on the floor. He’s able to soothe them to sleep and cleans up the broken glass before Audrey comes back home. That was the first time he’d ever been…
Audrey goes back to work the next week.