Chapter 3
Charlie was done waiting. It had been more than an hour, and Percy still hadn’t come out of his room. In fact, it was almost two in the afternoon, and there had been no sight, sign, nor hair of him. Percy had always been a bit more private, and his room reflected that. Charlie wasn’t sure who had bought him the locks for his room, but he suspected it was his father by how muggle they were. Regardless, they were no more helpful in keeping Charlie out as they had ever been, considering that he knew the key was kept in his parent’s room.
Stealing the key hadn’t been an issue. With so many children, it was easy to slip away for a moment. Now, as he fed the key into the lock and twisted it slowly, he was grateful for his large family.
“Hope you’re decent,” he joked half-heartedly as he pushed the door open to find…
Nothing. The room was empty. The window was open, and no one was inside.
Charlie froze, and his heart dropped to his stomach.
“Fuck.” He cursed. “Fuckity fuck fuck. Motherfuck.”
“Charles Septimus Weasley! Watch your language in this house young man.” His mother said from downstairs.
“Percy’s gone, mum!”
There was a particularly pregnant pause.
“What do you mean gone?”
“I mean he’s not here!” Charlie yelled as he thundered down the stairs. “He’s gone!”
“Well where is he?”
“I don’t know! I don’t know!”
“Where’s who?” Bill asked cheerfully as he walked in.
“Percy’s missing.”
Bill blanched, and looked out the door as if Percy would randomly appear in the fields. “How long has he been gone?”
“Maybe since this morning?” Charlie guessed.
“We would have heard.” His mother disputed him, obviously fretting. “Did this happen last time? Oh, I should have checked in on him.” She groaned.
“It couldn’t have, we would have remembered.” Bill paced the floor. “Which means he remembers. I bet he doesn’t know that we remember though.”
“I should have checked on him at breakfast.” Charlie felt close to tears. “I should have checked on him at lunch. We could have had so much more time to look for him.”
Their Dad walked in and paused.
“What’s with all the long faces?” He asked.
“Percy’s missing.” Bill said.
Their Dad swung his head to look at the family clock and froze. Charlie turned to look at it too. Their Mum cursed. They all watched together as Percy’s little image turned from ‘traveling’ to ‘mortal peril.’
Percy was not having a good time. Dementors, he decided, were the worst. He had made it into the wards perfectly fine— they were miniscule compared to the Hogwarts wards, and he had dealt with those plenty of times in his past life. Not for any nefarious purposes, mind you, he was just interested in runes. That particular experience was worth everything that followed, considering that there was now very few wards that could hold him back.
But now? Now he had to go through the dementors, and still row the boat. Unlike last time, the patronus seemed above his current skill level. His core felt underdeveloped and depleted from transfiguring the boat. He settled on rowing a ways, and then turning into a kitten evey time a dementor swooped down to check out his boat. Once the danger passed, he turned into a boy again and kept rowing.
By the time he made it to the island, Percy’s arms were burning, and he was almost ready to give up. Pushing his way up onto the shore, he quicky transfigured himself right as the first dementor arrived to investigate him. It came right up close, and looked about the place as if searching for something, but flew away soon enough. Percy sat still and shivered.
After securing the bag back around his neck once more, he started into the massive complex. It took him a while to circle the triangular building looking for a side door or a window to hop through. Percy gave up before he made it all the way around, and turned into a child to spell the massive front doors open. He turned back quickly though, before the dementors could find him.
His target was high up, and the stairs were hard to navigate with little legs. This entire thing was turning into more of a pain then Percy had thought it would be. The higher he traveled, the worse the screaming became, until it died down and everything was just quiet and miserable. Peering into each cell, Percy padded softly through the halls until he found his target.
Sirius Black was a dog when Percy finally found him. Perfect. The two stared at each other for a few moments, before Percy pushed his way between the bars, and turned back into a human boy again.
“I know you don’t know me, but I know you, and I also know you’re innocent. We need to get out of here. I’ve got a way off the island, but I need you to follow me.” He blurted out in a whispered rush. Placing the pouch on the ground, he opened it up slightly so that Pettigrew could get out. Then, he spelled the door unlocked and set the man free. The doors yielded nicely to a simple alahamora which Percy attributed less to laziness, and more to the fact that wands weren’t allowed in the building. Wandless magic was rare in a place like this, as it required intense concentration. Dementors did not lend themselves well to intense concentration.
He turned into a kitten right as a patrol of dementors flew through. The dog whimpered and got close to the ground. Percy tucked himself into the dog’s side, and shivered. It took a while for the dementor’s to leave them alone. They moved on to the next prisoner, and Percy heard manical laughter. He definitely did not want to catch Bellatrix LeStrange’s eye today.
Percy nipped at the dog’s ear until he stood on shaky legs, and they were off. Black was very patient with Percy’s small legs. Percy knew they would have to go faster, and apparently Black did too, because he was soon kneeling down. Even as skinny as he was, Black was a large dog, and Percy fit easily between his shoulder blades. The dog broke out into a run down the stairs. He seemed eager to get away from the dementors.
There was one more issue with a stray patrol, but the two animagi got low to the ground, and the moment passed soon enough. They made it to the still-open door, and broke free into the chilly air. The dog’s tail started wagging slowly but surely. That was a good sign, Percy decided. Black was essential to the plan, and the saner he was, the better.
It wasn’t sunny exactly, but the air was fresh and it felt better than it did in the prison. Percy breathed a sigh of relief and tried not to imagine what it was like for Black to be emerging from that hell. He scrambled down from Black’s shoulders, and started leading him to the boat.
Of course, there was a snag. There was a snag last time Percy did this, and so there would be a snag now. Last time, it was Marcus’ insanity that almost got them caught. This time, it was a group of aurors, coming to check in a new prisoner.
“I hate this place.” One of them grumbled. Percy froze in place at the sound. The dog beside him tensed.
“Tell me about it.” Another one griped back.
Slowly, Black crept towards the wall of the prison, and hunkered down. Percy followed him. He tried to look as small as possible, but his orange and white fur stuck out in the gray and black dreary landscape. The aurors noticed him pretty much immediately.
“Who the fuck left a cat here?” A woman with mousy brown hair and a serious demeanor shouted.
“What’s with it?” Asked her collogue, a tall man with dark skin and darker hair. “Is that a dog?”
“What type of sick bastard… Here kitty kitty!” The woman started cooing at Percy and approaching slowly.
“Vance, we have a prisoner here.” The man reminded her, Vance apparently. “They’re not going anywhere, we’ll come back for them when we’re done.”
Vance sighed. “Fine, but let’s be quick about it.”
That meant they had only a little time to make it back to the boat. Percy waited until they walked through the open doors— with only some mild puzzled glances as to why it was open as they went— and then he continued to lead him to the boat. It was slow going. The shore was rocky, and Percy was small. Black followed obediently behind him.
Finally they reached the water only to find that the boat had turned back to driftwood. Percy stood stalk still. The big black dog turned to look at him expectantly, as if to ask ‘what’s the plan here?’ Percy didn’t know. He wasn’t sure he could reliably turn it back into a boat, not with how difficult and draining it was the first time around. Furthermore, turning into a human with aurors running around was risky at best and downright dangerous at worst.
He mewed pathetically.
“They’re over here!” A voice called in the distance.
The two aurors began steadily climbing their way over the rocks and sea spray. Black whined beside Percy, and huddled closer.
“How’d you get all the way over here?” Vance asked in a high pitched tone. “Poor things.”
They were trapped, and they knew it. Percy hoped beyond hope that Black would follow his lead. He tentatively mewed at her, and started walking towards her one paw after the other. Behind him, Black hesitated, but eventually started after him. Vance waited patiently until Percy was close enough to her, and she reached down and scooped him up.
“Poor thing, you’re so cold and wet.” She tucked him into her pocket, and Percy mewed with the indignity of it. He poked his head out right in time to see her wrap a hand around Black’s scruff and start guiding him back towards the prison.
Well, this wasn’t exactly what Percy had planned, but he was adaptable. As they apparated away and landed in London outside the ministry, he felt himself relax away from the dementors presence. Yeah, he could work with this.