Chapter 4: glitter is always a good idea

Saturday, 12th September 1987

You're a bandit like me

Eyes full of stars

Hustling for the good life

Never thought I'd meet you here

It could be love

We could be the way forward

And I know I'll pay for it

- cowboy like me

The owls came into the Great Hall on that Saturday morning while Oliver told Andrew and Sam how everything played out at the end of the night before. How both he and Percy had detention during the whole weekend. Percy seemed to be more than ready to die when an owl interrupted the other boy by stopping before him.

Oliver took the letter as carefully as he could from the owl, immediately beginning to read, not bothering to finish whatever he was saying before.

After finishing it, with a smile on his face, he turned to Percy, who looked at the letter with curiosity. Oliver simply gave it to him without saying a word. Percy hesitated a second before opening it.

It said:

Our dearest boy,

we hope you are well. The house without you is too empty, somehow very much wrong, so your father and I often found ourselves at your bedroom’s door, calling you for a quick chess game before dinner.

We miss you dearly.

Nonetheless, we are happy to see you’re already making new friends at Hogwarts. Your father has been talking nonstop about his years at Hogwarts and how much he misses every adventure he had had there. As for me, I prefer not to comment anything about my adventures, seeing you are my son and I must keep some authority, even if not much.

The Weasley boy you told us about seems to be as amazing as you described, staying with you a whole day at the Hospital Wing! I would like to ask something of you, son. Please give this boy my sincerest thanks for being there for my boy when I couldn’t be.

As for the rest you told us in your letter, there is not much to say. We’re glad the classes please you, such as your dormmates.

About your accident, though, I will be forced to side with Percy, you should never do anything like that ever again, Oliver. I would actually prefer if you stayed away from broom for another decade, but I know my son, I know how you sound when something really amazes you. And that’s exactly how you sounded when you wrote about flying. I’m aware there’s nothing I can do to keep you distant from Quidditch or flying in general, but as your mother, I must insist for you to be extra careful about it.

I must go now, I have to prepare dinner and your father is awfully dull during the weekend to accompany me during it, so I must endure it alone. Goodbye now, kid, and remember we love you too much - don’t forget to be careful!

With love,

Mom.

Percy stared at the letter for a second after he finished reading. It was so full of love it actually hurt looking at it, reading it. Knowing he would never get such a letter from his parents. Not because they didn’t care for him as much as Mr. and Ms. Wood cared for Oliver, but because they were a bit too busy to focus so closely on each of their son's life.

Not that Percy tried to reach out as Oliver clearly had, he didn’t, however it was mostly to avoid being disappointed when they responded something quick. Or perhaps he just wasn’t as close to his parents as Oliver.

Which was fine, he told himself. Completely fine, really.

_________________________________

The two Griffyndoor’s stared at the filthy bathroom silently as Professor McGonagall repeated the words “NO MAGIC!” for what seemed like the sixth time. Percy couldn’t help but wonder how smart she considered them, having in mind she had already taken their wands. He also wondered why she was there, and not Filch, as he thought would be the case. The professor certainly had something better to be doing than leading to that… place (“bathroom” wasn’t exactly the right word to describe it, it was too… well, dirty, really. No one in their right mind would dare to enter that place)/ However, McGonagall appeared to be watching both of them very closely, as if expecting them to say something stupid or… well, use magic, he guessed. Which wasn’t very smart, if he intended to clean that mess with mafic he wouldn’t do it with the professor looking at him.

Honestly, Percy pitied her a bit. Who had been so mischievous to cause a professor to be so suspicious of every other student? He didn’t know, although he was certain he didn’t want to meet whoever it was.

“I’ll be back in four hours, and if this place isn’t shining by then, the two of you will be in a lot of trouble!”, before Percy could point out they were already in a lot of trouble, the professor added, “And NO MAGIC!”

Oliver was quick to nod and Percy did the same a second later. The professor was out of there before any of them could say anything. When Percy turned to look at Wood, he held something in his hand, smiling broadly. Percy didn’t like it a bit. Or perhaps he liked it a lot, he couldn't quite decide.

“What’s that?”, he asked, already fearing the other boy's response, as they entered the bathroom.

The floor was so sticky it was hard to walk and Percy had the sudden realization that, if he didn’t have to clean it later, he might have vomited. That place was disgusting. He had the impression McGonagall used that bathroom for one purpose only: making sure students regretted doing whatever brought them there so much they never dared to step out of line ever again. And if that was the case, the strategy was completely wasted on them, mostly because Percy already regretted it so much he wouldn’t dare to do anything like that ever again. Actually, he had regretted it the second he followed the three boys out of the common room. And Oliver? Well, Oliver didn’t regret it at all, probably never would, it didn’t matter what McGonagall made them do, Oliver wasn’t capable of regretting flying, not even for a second.

“Glitter”, Oliver finally said, so casually Percy had to verify it to be sure he understood it right.

“Why would you bring glitter… No”, he said, when he realized what the boy planned to do with it. “Absolutely not!”

“What? She said she wanted this place shining!”, Oliver said in a defensive tone.

“How did you know she was going to say that?” because that was the truly important question. Unless Oliver saw the future, he had no way of knowing the professor would say those words exactly.

“I didn’t”, Wood shrugged, taking the bucket to the sink, which obviously didn’t work well and the water that came out of it looked dirtier than the floor (which meant really dirty).

“Are you really telling me you carry glitter around every day?”, Percy shouted, a bit too shocked with the situation, in general, to keep his voice down.

“Yes. Are you going to help me put it in the water so it’s more evenly spread around the bathroom?”

“No”, Percy scoffed, the sound was weird and wrong coming from him, “This is a terrible idea, Wood”, because, honestly, it was. McGonagall wasn’t going to find that funny in the least and they would have to clean it up. It was also a well-known fact that glitter didn’t come out easily, there was always more waiting to be found. They would be stuck in that bloody bathroom for the rest of their years in Hogwarts.

Oliver, utterly offended by his friend’s statement, said, “Glitter is never a bad idea!”, then proceeded to close the sink and put the bucket down.

“You’re not doing that, Wood”, Percy said, he must have sounded deadly serious - which he was - because Oliver stopped moving altogether, glancing over his shoulders at him.

“Why not?”

Perhaps it was Oliver’s tone, or the poor bathroom light that made Percy’s head bloody hurt, or - most likely - the fact that he was at that very moment standing on a sticky floor in a dirty bathroom that he had to clean in less than four hours because Wood had suddenly decided the day before that he simply needed to commit some kind of felony - because stealing was a felony, Percy was almost sure - mere days after he almost died trying to do the same thing, Percy was too good of a person to let the arsehole go alone, so of course, it went terribly wrong and they got detention in the second week of classes, which brought him to the bathroom with the sticky floor, making it all start over again. Percy simply… lost it.

Before he could even start to understand what he intended, he was already pushing Oliver to the - sticky - floor, turning the - dirty - water all over the other boy’s head. “You better be bloody joking, you stupid idiot!”, he found himself saying. It clearly wasn’t planned because if it were he would have come up with something better than “stupid idiot”, however, Oliver didn’t realize how stupid Percy sounded, he simply looked… mad, “You can’t seriously mean that!”

“What the fuck was that for?”, Oliver started screaming over him, making him even madder.

“You got me into that stupid idea, and now I am in detention because of you in the bloody SECOND WEEK OF CLASSES!”

“You went with me because you wanted, Weasley”, Oliver yelled back.

“That’s bullshit, Wood, and you know it!”

“Oh, yeah?”, Oliver asked, mockingly.

“Yes!”, Percy said, because it was the truth, there was no way Oliver thought otherwise.

“So why did you come with? You didn’t have to, you could have stayed behind, I didn’t need you there, so if you didn’t want to come, why did you, huh?”

“Because you would kill yourself if I didn’t go with you! You would have been caught, otherwise!”

Oliver laughed a humorless laugh. “And how did that go? We still got caught, didn’t we?”

“That’s your fault! And at least you’re alive!”, Percy was not feeling good at all. He wanted to truly murder Wood, in a way, he never had wanted to murder anyone, not even Ron when he ripped Percy’s book apart, years earlier.

“Mistbone and Whittles were there, they could’ve saved me if needed, Weasley.”

“Well, I was worried about them too!”

It was Oliver’s turn to yell, “BULLSHIT!”

“It is not!”, Percy shot back.

“Oh, it is! It’s such bullshit, Weasley, I don’t even know how you can say it without blushing!”

“Why would I blush?”, Percy asked, in a normal voice for once, honestly confused.

Oliver simply shrugged and said, also in a normal tone, “You blush when you lie.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah. Where were we?”, Oliver asked, after what seemed like a lifetime of silence.

“You were telling me how it was such bullshit that I cared about Andrew and Sam not dying”, he offered, tired enough to not care if he was actually helping Wood yell at him when it should be him yelling at Wood.

“Oh, yeah. Right. So… uhh… IT’S BULLSHIT, WEASLEY!” and, just like that, they were screaming again.

“Why in hell’s name would you think I’m lying about this?”, it was only when Oliver smiled smugly that he realized he must have made a terrible mistake.

“Because you said ‘yourself’, not ‘yourselves’.”

“What?”

“You said you came with us because, I quote, “because you would kill yourself”. Not yourselves. Proving my point you were talking only about me and not about Sam nor Andrew.”

Oh. Bullocks. He had said that, hadn't he?

“Well, my bad, I didn’t think you knew the difference!”

“That’s mean! I’m not stupid, you know. Since we’re talking about it, I’m also not a stupid idiot”, then he was smiling and Percy wanted to hit him so badly.

“Oh, shut up!”

“You admit it, then”, Oliver said, triumphally.

“What, Wood?”

“That you were talking only about me”

“Yes, Wood.”

“Huh.”, silence. Then, “Why go, then? The other boys were there.”

Oh how could Oliver be so bloody stupid?, “Because I didn’t bloody trust them to keep you bloody alive, Wood! Because I kept seeing to fall down that broom and hitting the ground and DYING, OLIVER, DYING! AND IT WAS UNBEARABLE! SO OF COURSE I WENT WITH YOU, I WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO LIVE WITH MYSELF IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU!”

“BUT WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH?”

“BECAUSE YOU’RE MY BEST FRIEND AND THE BEST BLOODY THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME, BLOODY HELL!”

At that, they both fell silent, the only sound on that goddammed bathroom being Percy's shallow breaths as he tried to compose himself, Oliver only staring at him.

“Oh.”, he finally said.

“Yeah, oh, you stupid idiot”, Percy said.

Oliver burst out laughing, and before they knew it, they were on talking terms again, they were both forgiven, having only a bathroom to clean together, which, suddenly, didn’t seem too bad.

_____________________________

As Oliver watched Percy Weasley scrub the floor with a grimace, he couldn’t help himself, a very much Oliver Wood smile shaped his lips. It didn’t quite make sense and the boy wasn’t capable of explaining, but that moment felt like one of those you will forever remember.

You know which ones, those we think about years later a second, if not less, before falling asleep as we watch the seeling, lost in ourselves and the memories of another life. Memories you cannot reach, no matter how much you try to bring it back as your present, will always accompany you as a memory, nothing more. The ones that swallow you whole and make you into tiny little pieces of a broken heart, a broken life. The memories that hurt to remember once you lost it all, but you still do it, every night, a sad smile clenching your lips, always falling, almost breaking. However, you can’t quite bear the thought of not having that memory with you.

The memories that feel like a punch in your gut, butterflies in your stomach.

Everyone has those memories, bad ones, good ones, it doesn’t really matter in the end. And everyone has that person, the one that got away, the one that never belonged to you at all but you always belonged to.

It was that kind of memory. However Oliver was merely eleven years old, he had no idea what all that meant. What Percy meant.

So he simply kept smiling, unaware of the moment he was living, the painful memory he was creating.

___________________________

There was something terribly wrong with Oliver Wood, realized Percy as the other boy stared at him with a weird look on his face.

He snapped his fingers at Wood while repeating his question for the third time, “Oi! Are you okay? Are you going to throw up?”, Percy asked, honestly concerned. He wasn’t sure he could avoid vomiting too if the other boy did it. That bathroom was disgusting… well, not as it was two hours ago, but still. Disgusting enough, Percy supposed.

Oliver finally came back to reality and looked at Percy, a puzzled look on his face, “What?”

“You know what, Wood? Forget it. It doesn’t matter. Just keep cleaning.”

Oliver simply nodded and they worked in silence for a while.

The moonlight touched the floor in a way that made it almost beautiful, though Percy was too consumed by it to notice Oliver had said something.

Noticing Percy hadn’t heard, he repeated, “I thought you were a morning person”

“I am”, Weasley replied, not sure he understood the conversation.

“Oh. Well, it’s just the way you were…”

“I was…?”, Percy insisted when Oliver stopped speaking.

Wood just changed the whole conversation, though, asking, “Do you remember those summer nights you spend awoke, running around because you didn’t feel like sleeping?”

It seemed too much like Oliver wasn’t aware he was actually saying those things aloud, but it was late, Percy was tired, they had another two hours to go, way too much to clean, and perhaps he liked Oliver’s stories, so he said, “No. But it sounds cool.”

“What do you mean, no? Had you no childhood?!”

It was Oliver’s tone that made Percy laugh, “You are aware we’re still living our childhood, right?”

“No, Weasley, we are not! Is this your way of calling me a child? Because you can just say it to my face, I promise I will hide my tears and be careful to not wake you with my desperate sobs”

“That’s very considerate of you, Wood.”, he didn’t have to look to know Oliver was smiling the same old smile, “I am serious, though. We’re still kids.”

“Good for you, Weasley. I can make your childhood better than since yours was so terribly boring”, Oliver said, as he threw more dirty water around.

“It was not boring!” if Oliver didn’t know better, he would think Weasley was honestly offended.

“Yes, it was! You didn’t even know what I was talking about a second ago”, he fairly pointed out.

“That doesn’t mean anything, I rarely know what you are talking about!”

“Rude!”

Percy scoffed, “Yeah, you are.”

“I’m not going to repeat myself, Weasley.”, Oliver said.

“And I thank you for that! It does get very tiring to hear you go through your pour vocabulary at least twice every day”

“Rude!”

“I thought you were not going to repeat yourself!”

Oliver sighed but smiled.

“My bad. However, you’re the one being repetitive now”

“You so only said ‘however’ to prove me wrong about your vocabulary!”, Percy said, his voice sounding like a laugh spreading into the night.

“You are indeed right, sir. Now stop stalling, Weasley. Admit it once and for all!”

“I have no idea what you are talking about!”

“Oh, stop lying to my face!”, he said, throwing water at the other boy. Percy all but squeaked, getting a bit further away from Oliver.

“Why would I do that? It’s so entertaining to see you get mad at something so stupid.”

“You’re stupid”

Laughing, Percy said, “I thought I was rude”

“You can be both, can’t you?”

“I s’ppose”, he said, shrugging.

“So there you go!”

They both looked at each other for a while before Oliver said, “Let’s play a truth and a lie!”, Percy didn’t even bother to deny it. He would end up playing it anyway.

“‘Kay. Shoot.”

“Okay, so, winter is my favorite season and once I slept outside on a very cold night because I fell asleep as I looked at the stars”

“That’s too easy, Wood. You are such a summer person!”

“Well yeah, but I don’t want to humiliate you, Weasley. In the game, I mean.”, he pointed out that last part as if it was a piece of the very necessary information, making Percy wonder why he did it.

“Appreciate it”

“You are welcome. Now, your turn!”, Oliver didn’t seem inclined to talk about his experience sleeping outside, so Percy simply moved on.

“Hm. So. I had a cool childhood”, at that, he threw a pointed look at the other boy, who merely laughed at him, “and the fact that eight plus seven equals fifteen bothers me”

Oliver squeaked a laugh, “You’re kidding!”

“You don’t even know which one is the lie yet!”

“‘Course I do! And it’s so stupid, Weasley! It’s just numbers!”, Wood said, promptly laughing again, while shaking his head.

“I know that! But still… it’s just… wrong”

At that point, Oliver was laughing so hard tears ran down his cheeks and he had to sit down not to fall.

“Okay, enough, it’s not even funny”

“Ohmigod”, Oliver said, between laughs, “it’s so funny”

“Stop it, Wood! ‘Tis not that funny!”

_____________________________

An eternity later, they were finally done and on their way to the common room. Percy had only one thing in mind, his bed. He was certain he had never felt that tired.

That was precisely why he couldn’t understand how Oliver had the energy to keep talking, walking as if it was noon and they were simply going to lunch at the Great Hall.

“And you would think: ‘wow! I don’t think I ever felt this alive!’”, he was saying, “It was magical, which is a weird word to use considering”, he gestured around them, where the stairs magically changed their destination, “but I can’t find a more fitting one. It’s like this, Weasley. You’re under the stars, it's summer so it’s hot, your hair is still wet from the shower you took minutes ago, you’re looking up and up and suddenly you feel so insignificant…”

As Oliver paused to catch his breath (something he did a lot since he had the habit to talk really fast), Percy said the first thing since they left detention, “I don’t think feeling insignificant is magic, Oliver. If anything, it’s tragic and boring”

“Oh, you know what I meant!”, Oliver brushed the rude comment off.

“Actually, I don’t. Why would someone want to feel insignificant? It’s a terrible feeling, really.”

“Not like that, it’s not”

“Perhaps I should try it, then. It could help me like being insignificant better”, even though Percy said it as a joke, Oliver stopped walking and looked at him. When Percy didn’t slow down, Oliver caught his wrist, pushing him close.

Looking into Percy’s green eyes, he forgot what he wanted to say for a second, however, Weasley seemed as lost as he felt and didn’t notice the three seconds they both just stared at each other.

“What do you mean?”, Oliver whispered, his eyes locked with Percy’s as neither could look away.

“Hm?” was Percy's smart response.

“What did you mean by ‘like being insignificant better’?”

For more than could pass as normal, Percy stared at Oliver.

“So?”, Wood insisted, resisting the urge to shake Percy’s shoulders and make him respond.

“It was a joke”, he said, still Oliver kept holding him in place, the look on his face telling Percy he didn’t buy it, “I’m not lying!”, Percy said, exasperated.

Okay so perhaps he wasn’t joking, but so what? It wasn’t Oliver’s business and all that situation was making Percy uncomfortable.

“Bullshit”, Oliver replied.

“Not bullshit. I mean it, Wood”

“I know you meant it, I just want to know how can you think that”, for a moment, Percy didn’t understand Oliver’s sentence, but then it clicked.

“I didn’t mean ‘I meant it’s like that, I meant it like it is not bullshit”, he tried to explain.

“Are you sure you know how to construct an understandable sentence, Weasley? Or are you too busy lying to me to bother with that?”

“Wow, okay! Merlin! I’m sorry.”

Pointing a finger to his face, Oliver said in a very serious voice, “Don’t you ‘sorry’ me, Weasley!”

“Oh my god! What do you want me to say, then?”, Percy asked, pushing Oliver away and was finally able to breathe again.

“I want to know what you meant by that!”

Percy sighed, too tired and too… something to keep discussing that, “I’m not going to explain because it was a bloody joke, I’m bloody tired, Wood, so would you just drop it already?”

“Fine!”

“Okay.”

“Perfect!”

“Awesome”

They stared at each other for another second before resuming their walk to Griffyndoor’s common room.

“You’re not”, Oliver said.

“What?”, Percy asked, a bit too tired to ignore Oliver.

“Insignificant. I don’t know who said that to you, but it’s not true.”

“WOOD!”, he whispered shouted, because the fact that he was mad would not matter to McGonagall when they were both sent to her office again for having awakened half the school with that stupid fight.

Percy couldn’t explain to the other boy nobody had told him that, nobody had to, their actions were enough. He didn’t know how to explain to someone like Oliver Wood, who had everyone’s attention once he walked into a room, how you only know you’re insignificant. It’s something you are, not something you can change.

And he sure as hell wouldn’t explain to Oliver Wood how some people matter to everyone and some simply don’t. So he simply prayed Wood would shut up.

“Sorry, sorry!”, Oliver said. “Also, Weasley. You’re a bloody liar”

“What for?”

“Because you told me you used to stay up during the night watching the stars and you just told me you never laid on the grass and looked up.”

“I wasn’t lying, asshole. I used to watch the stars but never like that. I watched from my bedroom’s window.”, he defended himself.

“Oh. How boring”

Thankfully, they finally got to the common room, Percy all but ran to his bed, almost forgetting how dirty he was and going directly to the bathroom to take a shower.

Oliver though stopped at the bedroom door, the only light coming from the moon outside, the other two boys completely asleep, as he stared at the closed bathroom door. For some reason, what Percy said really bothered him, he couldn’t quite figure out why, besides the obvious. Percy said it was a joke, that Oliver should let it go, so why couldn’t he?

He looked and looked until he heard the water running, moments later stopping, Percy’s footsteps coming in his direction, and the door opening.

“You okay?”, he heard him ask.

“Yeah. Fine. Can I go?”, Oliver pointed at the bathroom door.

Percy nodded, “Yeah, sure. Go ahead”, as he walked to his bed, he said, “Night, Wood”

“Night Weasley”, Oliver replied, closing the door.

He sank to the floor as the water washed over him. He stayed there longer than he should, and when he finally came out, Percy was completely asleep.

Even though he felt utterly tired, Oliver couldn’t sleep. He kept turning on his bed, again and again, the silence was too loud. He couldn’t turn his bloody mind off.

How could Weasley think he was insignificant? How? It wasn’t possible, if the other boy thought about it for more than a second he would realize that. Somebody like Weasley couldn’t be insignificant, it was simply not possible, it wasn’t even an option. Not Weasley with his witty comments. Not Weasley when he did what he did for Oliver, days after meeting him. Not Weasley, who woke up every day to watch the sunrise. Not Weasley with that hair and those eyes.

How could anyone look at Percy Weasley and not be completely mesmerized by everything he did? He was fascinating. How could he not realize that?

It was after the sun rose that Percy awoke. He seemed upset to have lost the sunrise, still, he sat close to the window, watching the morning, the world awakening. It was only then, with Oliver watching Percy, that his mind finally calmed down, and he fell asleep.