Mirror, Mirror

“Let me get this straight, you did a memory charm on Mum and Dad to make them forget about your baby. I’m just making sure that’s what I heard,” Bill ground out.

Percy knew his eldest brother very well; he knew he was about two minutes from yelling. Bill was the most laidback one of all his brothers, including the twins. So, it took a lot to set him off but when he got going, there wasn’t anyway to stop him. Percy would need to stop the explosion before it happened.

“Technically, it was Sirius and Remus who did the memory charms on them.” Bill’s face reddened more, so not that way.

“You had an ex-convict and his friend mess with out family’s memories?”

“The word is exonerated. I had to do it. They forced me to give up my baby. I carried her and birthed her. It would be like asking mum to give up one of us. If that wasn’t bad enough, they just handed her to Lucius.”

“Lucius is he now?” Bill asked him suspiciously.

“You’ll have to tell him,” Sirius said, raising his wand and bringing a chair closer for Percy to sit. “You need to rest. I remember how tired Lily was after Harry.”

Percy sat down; the potions again were working so the pain was bearable. Bill glared at Sirius and Percy didn’t like the assumptions in his brother’s eyes.

“What are you two adults doing with my underage little brother?” Bill crossed his arms over his chest.

“I agree, you should tell him,” Remus said. Looking unbothered by the implications from Bill.

Terence descended the stairs, he quietly sat down in a seat by the floo.

“Is she alright?” Percy asked.

“She’s asleep, I put a charm on the room if she wakes, we’ll know. I agree, you should tell him. Bill Weasley would be an asset to us.”

“Why did you just talk about me like I was someone else?” Bill asked. “Who are you?”

“Terence Higgs, pleasure to meet you again.” Terence tipped his head but didn’t get up.

“I don’t remember you.”

“You questioned me with the assistance of Auror Moody.”

“I’ve never met Mad-Eye Moody.” Bill was now looking at Terence like he was mad.

“Thanks for that,” Percy said. Now he would be forced to tell Bill about him. The only reason they were able to do the memory charms on fully skilled wizards was because they weren’t expecting it. Bill would be and that wouldn’t be easy and could end in a charm damage, much like what had happened to Professor Lockhart.

“When I tell you this you have to believe me, I’m not joking.”

“Of course not, Perce, you’ve never made a joke in your life.”

“I did once.” The pain of the memory of Fred’s death still was there almost tangible enough he could touch.

There were many things he could say but the truth was the only way to explain this. Out of all his brothers Bill was his favorite but he was also the one he didn’t want to disappoint the most. He still remembered his first night at Hogwarts. The other boys in his dorm didn’t like him. Too pompous even then, all he wanted to do was show them he belonged there. So, he had to eat alone. He was homesick the whole first week, but he remembered every night Bill would come and sleep in his bed with him.

He remembered when he was very little and the first wizarding war was happening around them, murders every day. His mother didn’t want any of them out of her sight. The twins shared a cot and she put him and his older brothers in a bed together. He remembered it was the safest he had ever felt because he knew in his heart his big brother would always protect him. It was a childish thought because Bill had just been a little boy himself. But that first week of Hogwarts, Bill sleeping in the bed with him, talking about home. It was the only thing that got him through it. The next week he told his brother he was alright, and he could do this now. A week later was the first time Oliver ate with him instead of his other friends. Soon, he didn’t feel quite as alone anymore.

“Percy, please tell me what’s going on. You’re scaring me. This is so unlike you. I don’t believe for a second the story dad gave me in the letter. You have always wanted one thing since you could talk, I don’t believe you would purposely conceive a baby and making a dark wizard your baby’s father. Did he attack you?”

“No, we were in love when my daughter was conceived.”

“He’s old enough to be your father. Whatever he told you was a lie, he was using your youth to take advantage of you. What he did was illegal.”

Percy smiled at his brother. He liked when any of his family was protective of him. After all the time he spent separated from them, no one giving a damn if he lived or died, he relished in the attention. He was ashamed of feeling that way but after so long as being the joke of the family, he liked when he wasn’t.

“No, it wasn’t because when my daughter was conceived, I was twenty-nine years old.”

Bill opened his mouth but shut it, tried again then closed it again. He reminded Percy of a little of a fish. Another chair was moved across the room, looking over he saw Sirius with his wand out. After all the years without one, it must be a luxury to have it back.

“Thought he needed to sit down.”

Remus gently pushed Percy’s older brother into the chair. Bill sat, looking a little sick. Finally, after a few more breaths, Bill looked up and Percy could see the tears start to form in him eyes.

“We’ll get you help, the best mind healers there are. I’ve heard of one in Hong Kong, she’s the best.”

Terence huffed a laugh. “Gryffindors, all the same.”

Bill turned his head, looking at Terence now. Percy could see the temper rising again.

“Who are you?”

“Terence Higgs.”

“Why are you here?”

Percy got up and stepped in front of Terence. “I want him here. He’s from my time.”

Bill shook his head and looked over at Remus and Sirius. “You two can’t believe this.”

“We do. If you shut your mouth and listen, you will too,” Sirius told him.

His brother opened his hands. “Fine. Say I believe you, that doesn’t explain you having a baby.”

“Turns out, when you travel in time pregnant, the baby goes with you. You live you learn, what can I say,” he said shrugging.

“What is wrong with you? You’ve never spoken so…freely before. It’s weird.”

“People change when you spend every day trying not to die.”

“You were in danger?” Bill finally looked like he might actually believe him.

“We all were. I was wrong but I was in too deep to find my way out. Then I was fighting with all of you, I said the worst things to Dad. We were always taught that the Ministry only had our best interest at heart. They just didn’t teach us if the head is diseased the body rots. When it rots, it rots from the inside out.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, when it came down to it, he picked the wrong side,” Terence said.

Bill’s eyes darkened. “You’re a Slytherin, aren’t you?” Terence nodded. “You would say anything.”

“Brave but dumber than a box of rocks. You Gryffindors really do get caught up in your house, don’t you?” Terance said with a smirk.

“Like you Slytherins are any different,” Percy pointed out.

“Right there, Weatherby.”

At the time, Percy bit back the anger at being called the wrong name. He never understood because they all knew his father’s name and knew he was his son. He still didn’t, he knew now that Crouch Sr. was going through all that with his son, but would it have killed him to show a little kindness. Percy did everything for him and he was just thrown away.

His family never really understood how dangerous it was for him after Voldemort reemerged. When he realized how wrong he had been, he had alienated everyone except Oliver. But his pride wouldn’t allow him to apologize, and he just kept digging himself in deeper and deeper until the Battle of Hogwarts. When Aberforth told him his family were fighting Death Eaters and it was the end, he knew he had to get over himself.

“Does anyone else feel like they’re missing something?” Remus asked.

“Nope,” Sirius said.

“It’s not important. What is important is where we go from here. I’m sure you want to protect Harry from Voldemort, right?” Percy asked the remaining members of the Marauders.

“What does that even mean?” Bill asked.

“I don’t want to keep explaining this, we need to get the last member of this group,” Percy said.

“Who’s that?” Sirius asked.

“Someone who is excellent at legilimency and occlumency. Can heal most curses, better than most seasoned healers. Can make potions that can stop death,” Percy said, he could see the wicked smile on Terence’s face.

“He was also one of the biggest heroes of the second wizarding war. He fell in the final battle,” Terence added.

Percy knew from stories that as soon as Sirius found out it was Snape; he would go mental.

“We need someone like that,” Remus said.

“I’m glad you agree. Terence was going to speak to him tomorrow. If he can get him to come over, we can work out a real plan. Trust me when I say this, we will need this man to win. We don’t have what we did in the future and unless we wait until Harry is older, we won’t. But when I tell you it’s not an optimal choice. Harry never had a childhood with the muggles. Then when he went to Hogwarts, he almost died every year. We need this man’s knowledge and talent. In the future, we would have lost the war and a lot sooner without it.”

They would have to play it right because they wouldn’t be able to lie to him. This is a man so good at occlumency that he tricked Voldemort for years. Snape was temperamental at best. It was funny, he never had a problem with the potion’s professor. He did his work and studied the text. He excelled at potions, but he excelled at all his classes. Transfiguration was his specialty, turning Thicknesse into a sea urchin.

He had no one watching his back like the rest of his family did. It was always just him. When the Ministry fell it was like the end of the world, but he was being watched so closely. He had to be careful on everything he did.

“You need to know, even people with the purest of intentions can be wrong,” Terence said, looking at him. They hadn’t been purest of intentions but what young adult is. Even the great Harry Potter wanted something, although Percy never knew what it was. That thing was only known by his best friends, Hermione, and Ron.

“What does that mean?” Bill asked.

“That we’ll have to be honest with you all about our parts in the second war and we’re not innocent,” Terence told them, looking at Percy with sad eyes.

He knew Terence wasn’t worried about what they thought of him, it was because he knew what Percy’s worry about what family would think of him. They had discussed things in his room and decided to keep his family in the dark. Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny were much too young to be involved. That also mean his parents needed to protect them so they couldn’t get them involved either. Truth be told, he was still hurting about the whole Lucius and Lucy thing but if it were for the best, he would tell them. There just wasn’t any benefit to telling them. He was still unsure about Charlie. Charlie was the one he was the most distant from because Charlie just acted like he didn’t exist. Even the twins when they were pranking and mocking him at least acknowledged him.

“I’m going to bed, tomorrow will be a long day,” he told them.

Sirius, Remus, and Bill were going to not like bringing Snape in. That was only if they could convince Snape to help them without telling Dumbledore.