Mediation
The day after the big fight and weird reconciliation Percy has with Charlie, Percy goes to Penelope’s building’s leasing office.
His shoulder is feeling better than it has in literal years, and he’s got a little pep in his step when an employee takes him on a tour of the newly renovated flat next to Penelope’s.
It’s not fantastic or anything, in fact it’s rather plain. Things look shiny and new, but it really seems more like they’d sort of painted over everything rather than replace it. The appliances don’t matter, Percy’s a wizard after all, and it’s an okay size. The biggest selling point is that it’s w two bedroom He can fit the girl’s beds in the master bedroom and take the smaller one for himself. When he inquiries about it, he learns it’s available immediately for move-in and its sort of in his price range. He can figure it out; he just needs to tighten his belt a little. Percy signs the paperwork, and he’s set to move in the next day
He's slowly running out of days off, and he’s grateful for a quick turnaround. Once he’s moved in (which won’t take long. Again, wizard), he can finally see about going back into the office. Having a place of his own instead of camping out in his childhood bedroom makes the divorce feel more permanent.
When he tells Penelope she’s delighted, and after getting lunch together the following day, Percy is handed the keys. They don’t have a lot of time, but it’s a quick process. Percy doesn’t have any furniture, having left it all at the house. They only need to move some personal items and clothes. True to her word, Penelope helps.
Surprisingly, when Ron hears that Percy’s moving out of the Burrow, despite the short notice, he appears bright and early to help them move.
For the girl’s there’s a sense of novelty to it- they’ve lived in the same home their whole lives. For Percy, he feels like he’s about to have a breakdown.
While he had been excited at first, facing it was a different matter. He wishes badly that Oliver was there, but he was playing an away game in France. He would be returning in the afternoon tomorrow.
While Penny babysat the girls, he and Ron went to Diagon Alley and found some basic furniture- all originally muggle but charmed to last. They had wanted to go to a muggle flea market at first until Penelope pointed out it would be weird to see a couch levitating. They get a basic set of everything-a table and chairs, a couch, and three beds. It’s enough, and Percy decides to just keep staying at the Burrow until the end of the summer. That way if the girls get into Hogwarts, it’ll be easier.
The morning after they start to move, he kisses the girls farewell and makes his way to the mediation.
The mediator is man with a dark grey suit and beard. He greets Percy warmly with a handshake. He and Mara had talked earlier before coming into the conference room- he was a well-known muggle mediator who came from a magical family. He’d been born a Squib and capitalized on it heavily. Percy had seen the sports car in the parking lot.
When they arrive, Audrey is already there, sitting on one side of a long wooden table. She looks the same as the she left; beautiful. She’s got her lovely hair pinned back and is wearing a flowy dress with bluebells on it. He has to fight back a wince when he sees the pattern. Her wedding bouquet had been lilies and bluebells.
He can’t quite look her in the eye, so instead his lets his gaze rest on her shoulder as he sits down.
“Carter.” Mara greets Audrey’s solicitor with a shallow nod.
“Daniels. I’d say it’s good to see you-,”
“Shut it.”
Percy glances from Mara’s stony face to the other solicitors annoyed. One. There was some history there. He wonders if they had dated or something.
The mediator shuffles some papers together and clear his throat.
“Okay, let’s get started. My name is Dave Sordillo, and I will be your mediator for today. First, I’d like to congratulate the both of you for agreeing to mediation. Before we start, how would you each like to be addressed?”
Audrey clears his throat. “Audrey is fine.”
Dave looks to Percy.
“Percy.” He mumbles.
“Okay. So, just to get your expectations right about today; it’s all about you. Mediation is a way of helping you work through conflict. My role here is of an independent facilitator to help guide you to a high-quality conversation. We will be focusing on issues that you want to discuss with the attempt to possibly find a settlement. I am not a judge, and I will not judge you. I will not render a decision. I am not a legal advisor. Do you have any questions?”
“Will we get a final decision today?” Audrey asks.
“You will get a final decision today if the two of you agree to something, but I will not be able to make the decision for you. Is that clear?”
They both nod.
“Mediation is a voluntary process, and you have both agreed to be here today. I have no previous connections or relationship with any of you. I am unbiased toward the substance of issues we will be discussing. However, if at any point you feel I am losing my impartiality, please raises this to me and I’ll attend to the issue, and we’ll try to make it work.”
The mediator pushes up his glasses and settle into his chair.
“Okay, in a minute we will be asking each of you to tell us your side of the story. This is just to make the matter clear for us as the Mediators today. It is preferable that neither of you interrupt the other. Instead, you can make notes, and these can be discussed later when it’s your turn to have the opportunity to state your views. After all your statements have been given, we will go back and check to see if we have your stories straight. In keeping with confidentiality all notes will be destroyed after today’s mediation”.
Dave looks at Mara and Audrey’s solicitor, a mousey looking man that reminds Percy of Peter Pettigrew as if he's giving them a warning look.
“As you know, if either party needs to talk to me in private or I feel that a separate meeting with each of you and myself would be helpful we will have private meetings. Everything said during the private meetings are confidential. Having private meetings may help you to speak to me more freely which could then help myself to get the discussion back on the right track.”
He looks back at Audrey and Percy. “There are no rules except; one person speaks at a time, and we ask that you treat each other with respect. Is this clear to everyone?”
“Yes.” Audrey says. Percy can only nods.
“Okay,” he looks down at a pile of paper in front of him. “From what I’ve been told it seems like one of the first issues we need to address is who has the children when. This is what is referred to as the time share. What we want to talk about today is what makes most sense based on the needs of your children, and your schedule, your flexibility or lack thereof and how we can come up with something practical both in the short term and long term. Would one of you like to start with what you’re looking for?”
Audrey beat him to it.
“Yes. I think they need to spend their weekday nights with me so they can get their homework done and have a consistent place to live."
“Okay,” Dave says, scribbling something down. “Consistently during the weeknights is important to you.”
“It’s important to Percy, also.” Mara pipes up quickly. The mediator nods.
“Percy, what are your thoughts?”
“I’d like to spend time with them during the weeknights, too.” Percy says, feeling his heartbeat in his ears. He’s nervous.
“You don’t have your own residence.” Audrey’s solicitor points out.
“I just moved to my own flat.” Percy says. He produces the lease agreement and gives it to Mara who slides a copy to the mediator and to Audrey’s solicitor. They skim it.
“This is from a few days ago. I don’t think that represents consistency.”
The mediator sighs. “Alright, alright. Let’s think about this first- are your children magical?”
Percy shrugs. “Maybe. Molly’s done some magic, but Lucy hasn’t.”
“I’m confident they both are.” Audrey adds.
“Hmm. Schooling if they are?”
“Hogwarts.” Both Audrey and Percy say at the same time.
“If not?”
“Highlands Secondary in London.” Percy supplies quickly. The mediator looks between Audrey and Percy, expecting her to say something else but she doesn’t.
“Let’s backtrack, then. Hogwarts is a boarding school. You’ll likely only have the girls home for the holidays.”
“I’d like them for Yule.” Audrey says. “My family lives all over and that’s the only time of year we get together.”
This was something Mara had brought up with Percy when they had met before. It made sense and it was true; most of her family lived in the United States or France.
“I’m okay with that if I could have them for the New Year.”
Audrey nods and the Mediator writes it down. Okay, he can do this.
“That still begs the question if Percy can provide a stable environment.” Audey’s solicitor says.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Mara retorts. “He’s employed, he has his own residence-,”
“He just acquired it.”
“It doesn’t matter, he has it. For a year, guaranteed according to the lease.”
The mediator clears his throat. “This is not a trial, Mr. Rohan. I suggest you move on from this line of questioning.”
“My client just wants what’s best and safest for her children. Percy refused to go to therapy.”
Percy gapes at the statement. That had been why Audrey had blown up at him with the wine glass- he’d wanted to go to therapy with her. Now she was claiming he was the issue.
“No, I haven’t! I mean, I never refused anything.”
“Are you in counseling now?”
“Well, no-,”
“And didn’t your wife start counseling on her own? She asked you to go to couple’s counseling when your marriage was falling apart, didn’t she?”
Percy’s jaw drops. This was so far from anything that had happened. A horrific realization hits him that Audrey is doing the same thing she did when they were together.
“No! I’m the one who asked-,”
“Damn it Carter, this is a mediation!” Mara hisses at Audrey’s solicitor, interrupting Percy. She’s clearly worked with Audrey’s solicitor before if the look of disgust on her face is proof of anything.
“Alright, let’s just cool down here-,” Dave starts to say.
Audrey waves her hand, getting the room’s attention. For the first time, he looks at her. Really looks at her. She looks calm and collected. Percy wonders if she really is, or if she’d better at hiding it then he is.
“Percy,” she says, leaning back a bit, resting her hand on her lower stomach. “I recognize that this process has been difficult for both of us, but it’s my hope we can move forward in a positive direction.”
Percy looks from Audrey to her solicitor, and the mediator. Alarm bells start going off in his head. Her attitude. Her casualness. The hand on her stomach. She looks like a-
A mother.
It’s like someone pulls the floor out from underneath his feet. He’s completely off guard. Luckily Mara’s worth what Percy is paying her for because she realizes at the exact same moment as Percy does.
“You’re pregnant?!” Mara exclaims, nearly jumping onto her feet.
Audrey sighs a little wistfully and crossing her legs at her ankles.
“Yes. I’m pregnant.”
Percy stares at her for a long, long moment. He can’t wrap his head around it.
Pregnant. Audrey was pregnant.
“Are you lying?” are the next words that come out of Mara’s mouth.
“Hey!” protests Audrey’s solicitor. The mediator sighs and waves his hands over the table in a ‘stop’ motion.
“Okay, this changes things.”
“Why on earth did you wait to inform us of this?” Mara demands angrily. “You have a legal obligation to inform us of everything that could affect this process.”
Audrye glances at her solicitor who reaches into his bag and passes over three plastic-wrapped muggle pregnancy tests. Mara snatches them up and examines them closely. Then she sighs and passes it to Percy.
They’re positive. All three of them. He can only stare.
“I’m about four months.” Audrey explains. It’s enough to jolt Percy to look at her, now. She’s a got a small smile on her face.
“I didn’t want to tell you. To protect your feelings.”
Percy struggles to breathe as he does the mental math; he left Audrey about seven weeks ago. Four months is 17 weeks. He tries to think about the last time they’d slept together and…
The math checks out.
“We need a paternity test. Immediately.” Mara demands.
Dave makes a ‘T’ motion with his hands.
“I’m shutting this down. Listen, clearly mediation is not going to work in this case.”
“But-,” Audrey’s solicitor starts to protest.
“This is a more hostile divorce then I was led to believe. Obviously, there was some dereliction of duty on your part, counselor.” He eyes Audrey’s solicitor unapprovingly. “I am no longer comfortable mediating this.”
They start to argue among themselves in verbiage that goes over’s Percy’s head. He’s not really listening, anyway.
His wife is pregnant. Audrey is pregnant, and there’s a good chance it’s his.
“Excuse me.” He says weakly, standing up.
“Oh, Percy. Are you alright, dear? I didn’t mean to upset you.” Audrey says from the other side of the table. She’s got a concerned look on her face, lips slightly parted in worry. She sounds sincere.
The worst part is, after all this time he’s not sure if she’s telling the truth or not.