Mirror, Mirror

Something had been off with Percy since he was hurt. Marcus had even come to the hospital wing to apologize. He told him that he hadn’t ever realized what the spell would do. It was just something he had known, something that wasn’t real. It wasn’t until Percy screamed out in pain and started convulsing, not being able to do anything but stare him in the eyes and wish for death that he realized what he had done. He dropped his wand, but his wild magic had taken over because he was so distraught. The Slytherins had given him a wide berth after that too. It felt good not to be teased, even his brothers and their blond minion had stopped harassing him. Instead, he was ignored, no one knew what to say to him. None of them had suffered an Unforgivable. He was glad he didn’t remember any of that, in fact, he didn’t remember anything since Christmas during his Fourth Year. It was all something he just heard from by everyone else…Marcus included.

It seemed that he had started dating Terence Higgs of all people, he couldn’t even imagine what caused that. Terence had also kept his distance, but he didn’t know why. Maybe it was because of the attacks. Terence knew he wasn’t the one to attack him, but he was different around Percy. He had to be filled in on everything that happened. Percy had been surprised when he found out the Harry Potter had attacked Terence with his little brother Ron there. When they were still in the hospital wing Terence kept asking weird questions. Talking crazy about pregnancies and babies.

It was strange. Then he kept talking about something called Horcruxes. In Percy’s room he found a book about them, the little of the book he could stomach was scary. He wouldn’t want to have anything to do with such dark magic. He decided it would be best to break up with Terence, he didn’t remember falling for him or even liking him. In truth his last real memory of Terence Higgs was the older boy dumping pumpkin juice on his head when he told Terence and Marcus that he would tell Professor McGonagall if they didn’t stop picking on First Years. Sebastian Cleary still wasn’t the same. He couldn’t believe he actually dated the Slytherin. The only thing worse would be dating a real Death Eater.

It was strange, sometimes he would get the impression his Potions professor was watching him. No one wanted to be the focus of Professor Snape, he’s wanted the job of the Defense of the Dark Arts forever, probably because he fancies the dark arts so much.

One more thing he was trying to understand was how he wasn’t Prefect; it had been all he wanted to be. When he asked around, Professor McGonagall said that he had turned down the position. Why would he do something so uncharacteristic?

“He thinks he’s fifteen,” Terence snarled angerly, throwing a pebble into the Black Lake.

“He is fifteen,” Harry said sadly.

“Not in here,” he said tapping his index finger to his temple.

“I thought he was fine after the attack. You said he even spoke about…you know…the thing,” Ron said, his ears reddening.

The eleven-year-olds were still so young where everything about sex and birth control either made them giggle or get embarrassed. He hadn’t told them about the loss, he was still processing it himself.

The only people he could talk to about the future were the four Gryffindor turned Slytherins. Snape, one of his biological parents was completely ignoring him. Once after class he stayed back to see if the man would give Percy some of the mind healing potion. He didn’t even respond to Terence, just walked away.

“I don’t understand why no one will give him the potion,” he lamented.

“Maybe because they didn’t know he was really from the future,” Neville said unhelpfully.

“But he doesn’t even remember Lucy, they all know about Lucy.”

“What did Dumbledore say?” Harry asked.

“That these things take time. Percy wasn’t tortured long enough to have permanent damage to his mind.”

Neville’s face lost a little bit of color. He knew it was because while his parents were now living with his grandmother getting their lives back together, for ten years they were lost in their own minds.

“As sorry as I am about Percy, I have to ask. What about the Horcruxes?” Hermione asked. That was Hermione, always on task.

“Before everything went to hell, Percy told me he figured out a way to destroy them,” he said, dropping his head in exhaustion. It felt like he hadn’t slept since they came back to school.

“That’s great. How?” Ron asked.

“He didn’t tell me. As much as Percy has changed from his old pompous self, he still has that want to not be the joke. Of course, now he’s back to the Percy that most people want to hex constantly.

“Where are the Horcruxes?” Harry asked.

Terence hung his head again. “Percy told me it was best if only he dealt with them because of the dark magic. He said the magic caused dark thoughts and he didn’t want anyone else to suffer.”

“That git,” Ron said with an annoyed tone.

“Don’t call him that, he was trying to save anyone else from being hurt by the Horcruxes.”

It was like Percy’s family would never look at him as anything other than a know-it-all git. That wasn’t anything like the Percy he knew. He had to admit, back in their first time in school, he was not kind to the redheaded Prefect. Some of the things he did to him made him feel so much shame. Once he followed Marcus in bullying some first year Hufflepuffs. He had been young and trying to impress the other Slytherin. By his Seventh Year, he didn’t care about any of them, but he was young and stupid. Percy: skinny, nerdy Percy had stood up to two much bigger and older Slytherins. It was the first time that he had really noticed the boy. It proved why Percy was in Gryffindor.

The only reason he poured pumpkin juice over Percy’s head was because Marcus was planning something much darker. Not like an Unforgivable but not pleasant. So, he poured the pumpkin juice on Percy knowing that Snape would see. His biological father sent Percy to his dorm to get cleaned up and Terence was scrubbing cauldrons for a month. Percy hadn’t even mentioned the incident since they got reconnected. Now the Percy that looked at him still had that memory fresh in his mind.

“So, you’re saying we have to wait until Percy gets his memory back?” Ron asked.

“If he gets his memory back,” Hermione added.

“He will, he just needs a little help. Wild magic can be more dangerous than any other kind because there is no control. Because of that, the curse was stronger than a seventeen-year-old should ever be able to do. He was luckier than most, he only had one cursing him and it ended quickly, just not quickly enough,” Terence said, not being able to look at Neville.

There was something he had to be able to do to help Percy. It would hurt him so much if he knew he didn’t remember his daughter. For a few minutes after he woke up, Percy was clear-headed and whole. But then like a snap of a finger, his Percy was gone.

Knowing that the man who didn’t care where his child was taken would be doing rounds, he snuck into Snape’s office and looked for the potion that could cure Percy. It was actually quite easy to find, a little too easy if you asked him. Brushing off that thought he headed to the Library where he knew Percy liked to go before curfew.

He was right where he thought he would be, his nose in an Ancient Ruins book, a N.E.W.T. level book. Since Percy couldn’t remember he really a full-grown wizard, he was impressed.

“Hey,” he said quietly, startling Percy. “Sorry.”

Suspicious blue eyes narrowed at him. “What are you doing here? Come to dump more pumpkin juice on me?”

He sighed. “I know I’ve never said I was sorry for that but I really am. I was a stupid kid.”

“It was last year.”

“Really? Feels like it’s been much longer. I’m here because I thought you would want your memory back.”

He could tell Percy didn’t believe him. “Professor Snape made this potion. I know you’ve heard about it curing the Longbottoms.”

“I don’t need it. I just can’t remember a year and a half; I’ve not been in the hospital for ten years. Dumbledore says I’ll get better on my own.”

“And you trust him?”

Percy’s eyes widened. “Of course, I do, he’s the greatest wizard of all time.”

Terence thought that was a bit of a stretch. There was no doubt the Headmaster was a powerful wizard but of all time? No.

“Please, Perce, believe me. You’ll want to take this and get your memory back. For me. Please.”

“Only if you take it too.”

“Deal.”

Percy couldn’t believe he was doing this. Taking a potion from a Slytherin. If he died it would be all his own fault. But there was something in the other boy’s voice that made him believe him. The potion was apparently two doses, so Terence down one half and Percy did the other.

At first, he didn’t feel anything but then memories flooded his mind.

He was so excited; his uncles were taking him out…just him. They would do stuff he wanted to do. He had wandered off from his uncles during a trip to Diagon Alley. They wanted to do something special because they felt he was getting lost in madness of his family. His older brothers thought he was a baby and didn’t want him to play with them. Then there were the twins at four who were driving their mother mad. Not to mention she had one year old Ron and just had his baby sister; she was so small. He knew his mum was happy to have a girl, but he missed her reading to him and her hugs. She was always too busy with the younger kids, and he had to be a big boy.

The uncles made a mistake and forgot that children, even well-behaved ones like to look at pretty things in the shop windows. Percy’s parents never took any of the kids to Diagon Alley when they were small, so it was a new experience. He had seen the books in the bookstore and went in. When he realized his uncles were nowhere in sight he got scared and left the shop and looked for them. He had gotten lost and found his way to Knockturn Alley.

He heard screaming but no one seemed bothered, no one even went to help. That was when he saw a horrible sight. Three men and one woman were standing over two bodies that were shaking on the ground, scary noises coming out of their mouths. Two on each person held their wands at them saying a curse he hadn’t known what it was. They were laughing at the people on the ground, and it scared him, but he couldn’t move. Percy then saw two big brown eyes lock on to him.

“Run,” the man on the ground silently mouthed as the woman beside him saw him too. She started fighting harder. A near impossible feat Percy thought as he remembered that day. Even while they were being tortured into insanity, their only thought was to save the little boy with that was silently crying.

He turned and ran as fast as his little legs could take him. When his uncles found him, he was openly sobbing. They asked him what was wrong, and he told them about the bad people hurting the man and the woman. His uncles told him to lead him to the couple and he did. There weren’t any others except the couple now that stared out with vacant eyes.

There had been a huge fight, his mother hadn’t wanted him to have anything to do with the trial. Dumbledore had given the option of just sharing the memory, but she still refused saying they all would know Percy was there and his life would be in danger.

His father was the one to take him to the trial and told him to look at him while he answered the questions, that he would always protect him. Then his memory was still taken from him and shared because five-year old’s can be confused. They all had watched him witness the torture of the Longbottoms. Then he went to a pretty room that had Dumbledore and a woman that he didn’t know. She said she was an Obliviator, he didn’t know what that was at the time. She asked him to tell her about himself, his likes, and dislikes. He talked about how much he liked books and he wished his brothers would follow the rules. He didn’t like when they broke the rules because it made his mum sad, and he didn’t like that.

“So, you love your mother, like rules and love books?”

He happily nodded his head; he did like all those things. “Yes. I also want to be like my big brother Billy. He’s the best big brother, Mum says he’ll probably be Prefect and Headboy because he’s so smart. I want to be just like him.”

She smiled. “That’s great. I want you to think about those happy thoughts while you close your eyes.”

That’s when things got hazy for a bit. Now he knew what she had done, she obliviated him and created the Percy Weasley that was always hurt and picked on. How much of that was him and how much of it was her rewriting him?