Solicitor
It’s next day when the girls can tell something is off; the joy of being on their holiday early has worn down, leaving them with questions. So when Lucy asks for the third time when they’re going back home and where their mother is, Percy decides he needs to sit them down and have an important conversation. It’s just after lunch when he finds them in Ron’s old room in the attic.
They’re staring up at him from one of the beds in the room. He’s sitting on the other. He leans down putting his elbows on his knees.
“Girls,” he starts “I need to have a very serious conversation with you about what’s going on.”
He sees Molly stiffen and her eyes widen in recognition.
“Is this about Mum?” she asks. Percy swallows, trying to hide a wince.
“Er, yes. and Dad are not happy together right now, and we want to take time out from each other, so we’ve decided to live in different places for a while. We have… tried to work out things but we haven’t been able to. And I don’t believe that we will.”
Of course, he’s leaving out the whole part where he left Audrey a note and they hadn’t talked about anything at all, but he was trying to protect them. He didn’t want them to Audrey as a bad person. She was still their mother, after all.
“Do you have any questions? You can ask or say anything, and I won’t be mad at you.”
“What’s going to happen to us?” Lucy asks, tears threatening to prickle from her eyes. Percy quickly gets down on his knees in front of the girls and picks up both of their hands in his, one in each.
“I want you to know that we are still a family, okay? Just under two roofs. We’ll stay here for now while your mother and I work out all the adult stuff. If you get your Hogwarts letters, you’ll still go. If not, we’ll find a good secondary school. None of that will change. You’ll still have Christmas and birthdays and sleepovers with your friends.”
He licks his lips. “No matter what, we love you very much. The kind of love we have for you is the kind that never ends. We will always be your parents, and we will continue to take care of you.”
Lucy starts to sniffle, so Percy pushes some of her hair from her face and tucks it behind her ears.
“I need you both to know it may be hard for a while but that we will all be okay after we get used to the new arrangements. I know you hate change, Lucy. I’m so sorry you must go through this.” She starts to shed a very quiet tears, and Percy rubs her back gently.
Lucy sniffs more and Percy squeezes her shoulder. He glances over at Molly whose face it a bit pinched.
“Molly. How are you feeling, love? Are you feeling sad? Angry? It’s okay if you are.”
His daughter shakes her head.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s okay, too.”
“Are you sad?” she asks. Percy blinks, trying to come up with a way to answer without quite saying exactly how he was feeling; sort of like flinging himself over the side of a cliff.
“Mom and Dad are also upset. You may see us looking upset or even crying— even though we are sad, we are OK and here to take care of you. I am not upset because of anything you said or did.”
“Are you sure?” Lucy asks in that small voice of her, thick with tears and Percy feels his heart break a little. The poor girl was blaming herself.”
“Lucy, it isn’t your fault. It’s not yours either, Molly. Neither of you caused this.”
“It’s because Mum was being mean to Dad.” Molly says and Percy splutters, feeling pink rise in his cheeks. “I saw it.”
His daughters look up at him with wide eyes.
“Is that why you were in the hospital?” Lucy asks suddenly. “Molly said she saw you and Mum-,”
“How did you-,” he shakes his head. Not the time. He needed to be honest with children.
“Yes. I want to be honest with you both. When you saw us… arguing, Molly, I decided we needed to leave., Mum’s been… hurt-,” he winces. “Upsetting Dad for a long time. But I would never let her hurt you. I love you both, so, so much. And I, er, we decided this is for the best. You keep you both safe and well.”
The girls are quiet for a long, long moment. Lucy’s tears begin to dry a little.
“Then why did you let her hurt you?” Lucy inquires.
Percy feels his chest tighten. He had promised to be honest but… he honestly didn’t know. It was a good question. It’s not like he intended anything to happen. Any sane, rational person would have left Audrey ages ago if they were in his position. But he hadn’t. And he wasn’t sure why.
“It’s complicated. Adults sometimes make decisions because they think things will go one way and they go another. But I realized I wasn’t happy. I mean, we weren’t happy-,” he quickly amends. “And that’s why.”
Molly withdraws her hand from Percy’s and he watches as she stands and goes to tiny attic window and looks out it. Lucy’s tears have dried, but it seems that she, too, is pulling away a little.
“Do you want some time alone?” he asks.
“Yeah.” Lucy says quietly.
Percy swallows, and it feels like he’s swallowing bees.
“Okay. That’s fine. I’ll be here if you need anything or have any questions.”
The girls both nod and Percy stands from where he was kneeling on the floor and walks to the door. He spares a glace at the girls over his shoulder. They’ve both turned away from him and he can’t see their faces. He’s secretly grateful they’re twins. If they don’t want to talk to him, they can lean on each other.
He leaves them alone in the quiet attic, gently shutting the door behind him.
Percy’s feeling awful by the time he reaches the solicitor’s office. Coming here after just telling the girls he and Audrey were separating was not the best plan. Mum had promised to mind the girls if they ever decided to come down from the attic, but from the discussion he’d just had with them, he’s not sure that they ever would. He wonders, vaguely, If he can have them do all their Hogwarts assignments from home and have them delivered to the Burrow and back via Hermes.
Out of everything, the bird had been a huge comfort to him. Not only did Mum and Dad not mind having him in the house, but they also encouraged it. The first night at the Burrow when Percy had cried so hard he’d made himself sick. When he went down the stairs to see about getting some tea or something his mum tutted and opened the kitchen window. Hermes flew in as if he’d been waiting for him.
“Why don’t you take him up? It’s been a while, I’m sure.” She had suggested gently. So, Percy did, numbly walking up the stairs with the bird perched on his shoulder. When he got into the room, Hermes had hooted merrily and flew to the bed, hoping up and down excitedly.
It had been years since Hermes and Percy had been in this room, but Hermes seemed to know exactly what to do. Percy crawl into bed, under the covers and Hermes had plopped himself right down on Percy chest, ruffled his feathers, and tucked his face down. Percy didn’t sleep at all the night, but the feeling of the devoted bird’s weight on his chest was enough to keep him solid.
He finds himself wishing for Hermes right now as he steps into the solicitor’s office. Her assist, a mousey looking young man, usher him inside where she’s waiting for him on the other side of her desk. It a bit intimidating. It feels like he’s in school about to be scolded for something.
Instead of scolding him, she gives him a mild smile and invites him to sit down. As soon as the door closes, she waves her wand, resembling casting a silencing spell, before shuffling some papers around her desk.
“Okay, Percy. I’ve arranged for the muggle bit of the divorce.”
“Not the magical one?”
She shakes her head, glasses glinting in the dim light of the room.
“It’s trickier. In my experience, providing muggle documentation first tends to fast-track it. With magical separations it’s less on the paperwork side and more on the lineage side.”
She had explained this to him earlier. While muggle marriages were based on paper, magical ones tended to be complicated. When people married, their magics were joined; woven together like thread on a tapestry. The process of getting them untangled could be a long and tedious process.
“I’ve prepared the needed documents. This will be a civil litigation. We just need to serve her papers, and we can get going.”
He stares are her mulishly.
“Right,” she mutters under her breath. “I always forget most people aren’t half-bloods. So, we give the civil papers with case details. You’d get them too if anybody were to take legal action against you in any muggle social, family, business, or even property disputes.”
“It’s just to what... say I’m trying to get a divorce?”
“Yes, but it’s a bit more than that. It ensures that a sued party receives proper notification of legal action against them. Then, the party is responsible for responding according to the demands of the court documents. Proper service of process is a fundamental aspect of the due process.”
He blinks.
“It basically means that all levels of government, including the courts, must operate within the law and provide fair procedures. It wouldn’t be fair to file for divorce and not tell the other party.”
Percy doesn’t think there’s anything like that in the wizarding community. He should bring it up next time he gets a chance at work. He’s been on leave for almost 8 days- it’s the longest he’s been away from work since his children were born.
“Once she gets the papers, she’ll probably end up contacting her solicitor.”
“Then it’s done?” he asks hopefully. She shakes her head, and he feels himself droop a little.
“You are not considered divorced in the eyes of the law until a judge signs a divorce decree or final judgment of dissolution of marriage. As part of it, we’ll also need to work things out about how your marital property will be divided, whether spousal support is owed, how much and for how long, and also how parental responsibility regarding children are treated.”
“Custody?”
“Yes.” She says with a firm nod.
“There are also different types of divorces. Fault, no fault, contested, uncontested…” she trails off and Percy is suddenly feeling very overwhelmed. She picks up on his distress because she waves her hand dismissively. “We can work that out later. It all depends on what will be best for the both of you and your children. Although I think the easiest will be no fault, but given what you’ve told me we could also consider an at-fault.”
“Which is faster?”
“No fault for irreconcilable differences. The courts will take that even if she doesn’t want one. Again, we can talk about it later. Now, thankfully this jurisdiction doesn’t have a waiting period, which means you don’t need to have been separated for a required length of time. We can just file. I’ll handle all of it on your behalf. In fact, I’ve already filed. That’s why we need to serve her paperwork, so she is formally notified.”
Percy squirms a bit in his sea. He’s not sure he can face Audrey right now. He’s certain if she smiles at him, he’ll crumble into pieces and move back in with her.
“Do I have to be the-,”
“No, Mr. Wesley.” She says quickly. “I can assure of that. You have options. We can ask the police-,”
“No.”
“The non filing spouse can just agree to accept it and waive the form service process-,”
“That won’t happen.”
“We can hire a process server- it’s not too pricy… or you can find someone to do it on your behalf. It can be anyone, family, friends… but we her to see the papers.”
“We can’t move on until then?”
She shakes her head, her blunt haircut swaying slightly. “Before you can move forward with the divorce process, you must be able to provide proof to the court that your spouse was served.”
It sounded easy enough. He could just get one of his siblings to give Audrey the paperwork.
The solicitor frowns a little.
“It’s usually cut and dry but given what you’ve told me about your ex-partner, she may refuse the papers.”
“Well can’t I say I tried, and she refused?”
She sighs. “This is when it gets tricky. You still need to attempt to ensure they receive notice of the divorce filing. If she refuses too many times, we can publish something a few local newspapers. But that’s only once you have exhausted a reasonable search for your spouse and if the court gives you permission.”
Percy sits back in his seat as she takes a few papers, shoves them into a manila folder, which she seals. She hands it to him over the desk. It feels light; lighter then something so heavy as divorce should feel.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
It was not fine.
The first person he asked to give the folder to Audrey was George. Audrey often frequented Diagon Alley, and since Percy was still trying to avoid her and his shop was there, George agreed.
According to him, the second she saw him approaching with the folder, she bolted like a deer who had heard a stick crack in the forest. According to Angelina, George put up a good run, but Audrey had made a dash for the busy Floo hub and disappeared right as he caught up to her.
He then asked Fleur, which he had originally thought was rather smart of him. Audrey had only met his sister-in-law a few times, so he figured she’d wouldn’t recognize her. But when Fleur showed up at Audrey’s work and asked to see her, the welcome witch said Audrey had taken the week off. Fleur loitered outside for a while, but with her small children at home she couldn’t stay much longer, which Percy didn’t fault her for.
Ron and especially Ginny were off the table- he’s not sure if Ron could stop himself from punching her or Ginny from hexing her. Oliver offered, but the last thing on earth Percy would want was to have Oliver, a man whom Audrey very, very clearly disliked, approach her in the street. It would end up with someone in jail.
Harry tried next, and even though Audrey had met him maybe three or four times, he was still The-Boy-Who-Lived. She caught one glimpse of his dark hair and green eyes while in Muggle London, she booked it toward the London Underground and disappeared into he crowds of muggles in the middle of rush hour.
He was running out of options. His solicitor had said there was a service he could hire, but money had been so tight recently with the separation… his parents offered, of course, as did most of his siblings, but he refused. Thousands of people did this every day. If they could just prove they kept trying to serve her papers, maybe they could do what the solicitor suggested and just put an ad out in the paper, although he’d have to get permission from a judge to do so.
It had been barely five days of trying, and it felt like it had been going on for years. He’d gotten permission from Kinglsey to take as much time as he needed. He’s not sure who or how, but someone informed him about the reasons that Percy was separating from his wife. It had been quite an embarrassing Floo call when Kingsley offered his full support of Percy and his family. Percy had quite a few leave days stacked up, he’d barely taken time off in the past ten years. Kingsley also offered to put him on a leave of absence once his time ran out, something Percy was grateful for. But he wasn’t going to be paid while on leave, and with expenses stacking up, once he burned through his time off, he’d be forced to go back to work.
This whole thing was weighing on him heavily. He kept waking up in the middle of the night in his childhood bedroom with cold sweats. He kept feeling sick to his stomach anytime his mother placed a plate of food in front of him. Percy tried his best to keep it from his family, the girls especially, but they could tell some degree that something was bothering him. They looked like they didn’t believe him when he brushed it off. He started to avoid family meals all together just to avoid the concerned looks from his parents and children. He gave them excuse, like trying to catch up on paperwork from the office or promises of joining of them later.
It was during one of these excused lunches, when Percy clamed to be needing to go over some new documents he got from his solicitor. What he had meant by that was that he felt too sick to face his family, and his girls, and instead locked himself in his room and re-read the separation notice over and over again. It was strangely reminiscent of the summer between his sixth and seventh year. He’d locked himself up in his bedroom, writing letters to Penny over and over. Poor Hermes had been used like a work horse.
His mum had left him a plate of food that was massive; there were chips and a salad the size of his face and a sandwich which must have weighed at least a kilo. He had barely managed half of a sandwich, after picking out most of the bits, without puking when there came a knock at his door.
Percy sighs and waves his wand, unlocking the door. Then he turns to face his desk and the papers that were strewn all over it.
“Come in!” he called.
The door opened, and instead of his mother’s steps or the girls, or even the solid footsteps of his father’s, he hears something different. They’re lighter than his parent’s, but sturdier than his girls’. He turns around in his chair.
Standing there in the doorway, lit from the hallway light from behind her, making her look like an angel from above, is Penelope.
She smiles at Percy beatifically, her curly blonde hair cascading around her shoulders like a cloak of gold.
“Hey Perce. I heard you needed some help.”