Mirror, Mirror

Even with Remus saying it would be done within the week, he was shocked when he was called to Dumbledore’s office. Inside was Snape and Mad-Eye Moody. His brother had a lot of guilt for Mad-eye’s death, not being able to save him. His father told him that if Mad-Eye couldn’t save himself, he wasn’t able to be saved. Bill said that didn’t make him feel any better. Percy had not been there for that; he was so stubborn at the time.

Another face in the office gave Percy a little thrill, a stupid childish crush reared its head. Kingsley Shacklebolt was everything Percy envied, liked, and yes lusted after. When Shacklebolt became the Minister of Magic, he thought it was the right call. After so many missteps it was good to have a real hero. Scrimgeour was a hero and died as one, but he didn’t have the charisma as Shacklebolt. The crush had run its course when he worked under the man. He liked him but knew they would never be suited together, mostly because Kingsley never saw him as an equal to his family. They were the heroes; Percy was the other one. It didn’t matter that he fought in the last battle with them, he wasn’t like them. That was probably why he had slept with Flint, he was drinking and feeling pretty low.

Flint hadn’t been that bad when they slept together but it still wasn’t something he would like to repeat. He had just broken up with his on again/off again boyfriend when he ran into Flint at the Leaky Cauldron. Being in a secret relationship had been hard on him and he finally got tired of it and broke up. The man hadn’t thought he was serious and maybe he wouldn’t have been if he hadn’t gotten pregnant. There was no way his ex would accept him having another man’s baby. At first, he hoped that it would have been his boyfriend’s baby, because then he maybe would leave his wife for him. But the healer was clear, the dates matched Flint.

“Are we keeping you from something?” Snape said with that annoyed voice of his.

Percy looked around realizing everyone was looking at him. He was cross with himself because he hated to be caught out not paying attention. That was very unlike him, he prided himself on being very studious.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that?” he asked, using his usual tone, the tone that usually annoyed his family.

“Clearly,” Snape sneered.

Just then the fireplace came to life and out stepped Remus Lupin, he looked a little more haggard than last time he saw him. The full moon must be nearing.

“Where is he?” Remus asked.

“He’s in my dorm room, sleeping in his cage.” His roommates didn’t like Scabbers having free reign of the room. Just because one year he ate all of Oliver’s sweets his mum had sent him.

“Why don’t you tell everyone what you told me,” Remus said.

“Everything?” He didn’t feel comfortable with that. There were too many people here. Too much can go wrong.

“As much as you can,” he said but there was a glint in his eye. Percy took that to mean that he didn’t have to share the whole time-travel thing.

“Alright, I found this map and saw Peter Pettigrew on it. I know that he’s supposed to have been killed by Sirius Black the night Voldemort lost to Harry. I’ve had Scabbers for years and never knew he was an unregistered Animagus.”

Percy noticed none in the room was scared of Voldemort because none told him to not say his name. They all just accepted the name like it wasn’t the most horrific wizard in the last fifty years.

“Do you mind telling us how you know Pettigrew is unregistered?” Kingsley asked. Kingsley was always so sharp.

“I just assumed; I mean if he was registered it would have been looked into once his body wasn’t found.”

“You seem to know a lot about a crime that you weren’t old enough to read about when it happened,” Snape said.

“I’ve been able to read since I was three,” he said, a little smugly.

“Please go retrieve Pettigrew,” Dumbledore told the aurors. They nodded and left the office only leaving him, Snape, Dumbledore, and Remus.

Now all three were looking at him and he felt very out of place. Dumbledore looked like he could look right through him, the man always had that the effect on him. Snape was just sneering, normal. Remus was looking a bit uncomfortable, making Percy wonder if he had told them something.

“May I please leave now?”

“Not quite yet. We may have questions when the aurors come back with Mr. Pettigrew. It’s worrying to find out that I’ve had a suspected dark wizard around such young children,” Dumbledore said, leaning back in his chair. Snape was standing by the headmaster like a good house pet. He hadn’t realized until after everything went wrong how much he despised Dumbledore.

It had nothing to do with anything Fudge or anyone else said. It had everything to do with the man knowing his brother and his friends were putting their lives in danger on a daily basis and encouraged it. If Ron would have died, he didn’t think Dumbledore would even care, same for Hermoine. Just as long as Harry died when he was supposed to so he could ‘maybe’ defeat Voldemort at the right time.

“Mr. Weasley, I do have a question for you. During any discussion there has ever been about Lord Voldemort you never say his name. Where has this new backbone come from?” Snape asked.

He could have kicked himself, he forgot how fearful he was of that name, his whole family. It wasn’t until after the war that they started to use it, mostly to take the bite out of it.

“Why should I be scared of a name? He’s dead, is he not?” he asked, looking Dumbledore in the eye. The twinkle in the man’s eyes dimmed but only for a moment.

“Right,” Snape said, distain for him clear to anyone. Professor Snape had never been his favorite teacher, but he wasn’t his worst. Snape used to even like him to a point, nothing like his snakes though.

Soon Kingsley and Moody were back with a struggling Peter Pettigrew. His former rat was being held by a shackle spell.

“Peter, it’s wonderful to see you again,” Dumbledore said. Even to Percy Dumbledore sounded like he was greeting an old friend.

Remus and Snape looked at the old wizard like he lost his mind. Maybe that wasn’t far from the truth.

“Please, let me go. I’ve been in hiding from Sirius Black, you’ve no idea what he’s capable of,” the human rat said. He looked ragged, like he hadn’t bathed in years, which was probably true. Wait, that wasn’t true, he usually bathed him every month until he came back to this time. Gross.

“I guess we’ll know the full truth once you’re given Veritaserum,” Moody said.

“What? No. I can’t. Remus, dear friend, you won’t let them take me.”

“You betrayed James and Lily, what for? What did the dark lord promise you?”

“No, not I. It was Sirius, I swear it.”

“Get this thing out of here,” Snape said, glaring at Pettigrew.

“Snivellus is the Death Eater. Take him,” Pettigrew said, his voice high-pitched now.

A few more screams and denials, the aurors took him away, Remus following.

“Severus, you may go let the other Professors know what has transpired,” Dumbledore said, eyeing Percy.

Snape just looked at both of them before nodding and leaving the office.

“Please, have a seat, Mr. Weasley.”

“I’d rather stand.”

“It’s very odd.”

“What is?”

“You’ve seemed to have changed quite a lot over the summer.”

He suspected that something had changed with Percy. But the question was did he have a clue what it really was or something else.

“Didn’t know growing up was a crime.”

Where did this smart mouth come from all of the sudden? Sure, after the war he was a little more laidback and less annoyingly proper according to his brother Charlie but nothing like this. Maybe it was a side effect from the time travel. Wouldn’t his siblings think this was hilarious.

“That will be all, Mr. Weasley.” Dumbledore didn’t seem upset more like curious.

Not wanting to risk Dumbledore discovering his secret, he quickly left. As he made the slow walk back to the Gryffindor common room, he started to wonder what he had all changed. Would it mess everything up? Had saving Harry from having to go back to the Dursleys made some horrible repercussion? What if in the new timeline Voldemort won? What if in the new one instead of Fred dying, his whole family dies? Would he be able to go back to his own time? How different would it be if he did?

“What do you think you are doing?” a voice hissed at him, and his arm was grabbed.

He turned around and his eyes widened. “What do you want Higgs?” he demanded. Seeing the boy who would go on to make his life miserable as adults, he did his best not to hex him.

“What do I want? Let’s see, I want to not be in my sixteen-year-old body anymore. I saw you taking your ‘short cuts’ and then saw you disappear into a mirror. I touch the mirror and all of the sudden I’m in my parents’ house. Listening to them fight and blame each other for their horrible lives. I swore to myself I wouldn’t have to put up with those people again.”

“Wait…you went through the mirror too?”

“Merlin, Weasley, I thought you were supposed to be smart. That’s what I just said, isn’t it? I just saw Kingsley and Moody bringing Pettigrew through the halls. What were you thinking? You change something that big and think everything is right in the world? Do you know what you’ve done?”

“Saved Harry,” he said weakly.

Higgs was just saying his own fears. Terrence Higgs was from a rich pureblood family. He was never a dark wizard, just too much like Fred and George for his liking. Higgs was the Slytherin seeker before Malfoy. And back before the time travel, he had been his career rival. Everything Percy did, Higgs had to do better. It bothered him out of everyone, Higgs was here too.

“Saved Harry,” Higgs mocked. “That’s great, I’m sure he’ll be so happy when he actually dies this time.”

“It’s been months. Why is this the first time you’ve come to talk to me?”

“Because I wasn’t sure you were actually here too, and I didn’t want to mess anything up. But here you are playing hero, guess what Weasley, you’re no hero.” Higgs turned on his heel and marched away, grumbling.