Ollie is definitely someone's fairy godmother
In the days since the party, Percy's prediction of having to play catch up on the work he'd left undone had been depressingly accurate. Oliver crossed his mind a few times, and the man from the garden had popped up in his thoughts more than once, but the vast majority of his time and attention had been tied up in paperwork and problem solving. There was no time to fret or pine or swoon when the fate of the wizarding world was about to be derailed by a crisis involving substandard imported newt eyes, and Percy was never one for idle dwelling anyway.
Percy might have resented when he got stuck with all the tasks his siblings were too irresponsible or independent to do, but as the "responsible one" he had some leeway in some of the areas the others got constant grief over. For instance, Percy could trade the goodwill and commitment to family he showed getting Ginny from the party against the need to actually show up for family dinner every week.
He wasn't far away and involved like his older brothers, or constantly in trouble like the twins, or the baby like Ron or Ginny. Percy was the reliable, boring middle child who never strayed far or got in over his head.
If he needed to knuckle down and work every once in a while, he could miss a few otherwise non-optional events.
~~~
Marcus had been giving up hope, felling sure he must have met all of the Weasleys by the second full family dinner. If Ginny (he wanted to just call her Weasley, but there were too damn many of them to keep track of) hadn't ended up stopping by the pitch to see him and ended up talking to Wood, he might assumed that was the end of it.
"How's your brother?" Wood had asked, which earned him a disparaging look.
"I have six brothers, Oliver." she pointed out.
"Yeah, but I can catch up with most of them myself. Percy, on the other hand..."
"Oh, you mean your favorite?" Ginny teased. "Don't worry, I won't tell the twins." She shrugged. "Busy. I haven't seen him in a while. You know how he gets."
He hated owing Wood anything, but the small spark of hope was worth it.
"I thought you were going to introduce me to all your brothers," he demanded.
She blinked. "I am, but you wouldn't know Percy. And he's the only one of my brothers that thinks Harry is overrated and I'm allowed to date whoever I want, so he won't even make hilarious faces at us."
Wood smirked. "You might like him though. What's your type again; smart with red hair?"
Ginny snorted. "Yeah, but the last time I saw my brother blush I was eleven and caught him kissing Penelope Clearwater, so I doubt he's anyone's mystery man. I'll try and get him there this week though. Oliver, you want to come?"
~~~~~
"Oh, Weatherby!" one of the proprietors of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes called out as he walked through Diagon Alley.
Percy could, if he tried, tell the twins apart. It seldom seemed worth the effort, as they were perfectly content to be inseparable (and insufferable) even past their childhoods.
"I know you're too busy and important for us lowly family members, but Ginny's gone and got herself a terrible boyfriend and you haven't bothered to even come by to help us try to scare him off."
"Our Captain will be there this weekend too," the other one trilled happily.
The twins were nearly incapable of letting things go, which was why they still called Oliver their captain and Percy by that damnable wrong name. He should probably count himself lucky they weren't still making Head Boy jokes.
[It was a toss-up if the twins or Ron annoyed him more. The twins were fiendishly clever and turned every bit of that brightness on causing mischief and mayhem. They were snide and needling and they always knew how to get under Percy's skin. Ron, on the other hand, charged into situations with all the finesse of an angry troll and then came to a halt, confused as to how he'd gotten in so deep. The twins were purposely reckless and calculated their variables well. Ron never meant to do it, but he also never had a plan once he inevitably did. Percy thought it was a wonder he hadn't pulled all his hair out during the years all three of them were his responsibility at school.]
Percy and Oliver had dormed together at Gryffindor. Oliver hadn't been a terrible roommate and they'd gotten along well enough when he wasn't frothing at the mouth over Quidditch. Unfortunately, that wasn't very often. Percy had learned to tune Oliver out about 60% of the time, and he was sure that Oliver did the same to Percy when he got on to a subject that Oliver didn't care about. Namely, Percy thought uncharitably, anything besides Quidditch.
Oliver wasn't a slob, he wasn't cruel or disrespectful, and while he kept obscene hours, Percy was also an early riser. Oliver did most of his disruptively athletic things outside of their dorms and respected Percy's own eccentricities with regards to his studies. In all honesty, Percy probably couldn't have asked for a better roommate. In some ways, Oliver Wood was Percy's best friend in school.
Percy and Oliver hadn't kept up with each other personally, but it had been easy to follow Oliver's career after Gryffindor through his various siblings' gossip. Charlie and the twins had both played with him on the school teams, although none of them had gone pro like Oliver did.
He didn't like yielding to the twins' demands, but Oliver had been on his mind lately and it probably was his brotherly duty to be able to at least recognize whoever Ginny was dating this month. Luckily he was, if not caught up, at least in moderately good shape at work for the moment and could spare an evening to see everyone.
He'd be happier about it if he didn't know the dinner would be Ginny trying to shove her beau in Harry's face, his brothers reminiscing about the joys of Quidditch with Harry and Oliver, and his mother exclaiming loudly over how nice it was to have everybody under one roof and how rare it was nowadays. Maybe his dad would take the time to talk with Percy about the ministry, but if he did it would involve advice and comparisons Percy didn't think he wanted to deal with. Arthur Weasley was a long-time employee with a moderately important position in the Ministry, but he was also a bit of an eccentric who had no interest in moving up the ladder of power. Percy didn't want to follow in his footsteps, he wanted to forge his own path and have it take him straight to the top.
"I'll be there for dinner on Friday," he told the twins anyway, because this was how all family events seemed to go and he couldn't stay away forever.
The twins' mocking voices trailed after him as he hurried to his next destination.
~~~~