Always Protect

Chapter 12

Fred, George, and Cedric stared at the black haired boy as though he'd lost his mind.

"Ollie?"

"Captain of the anti-Flint club?"

"Dating enemy #1?"

The boys exchanged disbelieving looks before snorting at the notion.

"Don't laugh." Percy said calmly as he spread blueberry jam on his toast. "There's a very thin line between love and hate."

Cedric raised an eyebrow at him. He just couldn't seem to figure the other boy out. Half the time, he acted like a regular kid, goofing off with their classmates, getting into trouble. But the rest of the time he was uncommonly wise. Older than his years.

Percy slipped his pill bottle from the pocket of his bag and upon opening it, paled noticeably.

George frowned.

"Hey, you alright?" He asked.

Percy shook his head slightly.

"I'm fine."

He shook a pill into the palm of his hand and quickly popped it into his mouth, washing it down with some water.

"Well, I'll see you guys later, if anybody asks, I'm going to head to charms class early." He said before he stood and made a swift exit from the hall.

The three other boys stared after him for a moment.

"Alright, you two pass on his message to whoever asks, I'll go make sure he's alright."

The twins, usually constant jokers, were uncharacteristically serious as they nodded.

Cedric grabbed the last of Percy's toast, headed out of the great hall after his friend and took about five minutes to catch up to him.

"Hey Perce, you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He said lightly.

Cedric frowned once more but didn't say anything as he fell into step beside him.

"No reason, you just left the great hall really quickly. You didn't even finish your toast." He said, handing over the food.

"Thanks." Percy said with a small smile, taking a bite as they reached the charms classroom.

The two boys sat down against the wall beside the closed door.

"So, do you usually do anything for Halloween?" Percy asked.

"Yeah, my dad takes me over to the nearby muggle village for trick-or-treating and there's a Halloween dance in the town square."

Percy smiled wistfully.

"That sounds nice. Every year, my little cousin would leave the house and return with several bags of candy. It was mine and Harry's job to sort through it under the watchful eye of our aunt Petunia. I would always manage to sneak a Mars bar from the pile for my brother."

Cedric smiled sadly. Percy didn't talk much about his home life but from what he'd gathered, it wasn't very good. There had been a few times where Cedric had seen glimpses of bandages beneath Percy's robes in the first few weeks of term.

The two of them sat there for about fifteen minutes just talking about whatever came up before professor Flitwick arrived to let them in.

Percy pulled out his wand as the rest of the students filed in only for someone to snatched it from his hands.

"Hey!" He exclaimed, jumping to his feet and spinning around to see Montague holding his wand.

"Hey runt, looks like you're missing your entourage."

"Oh yeah? That's a pretty big word there. Are you sure you know what it means?"

Percy could feel the fire in his chest, the same anger he felt every time his aunt blamed him for any food that was burnt or flower died, every time his cousin threw Harry under the bus for him to save, every time his uncle's face went red and he took off his belt. For years he was forced to just accept the unjustified punishments. The insults. No more.

As Montague went to punch him, Percy caught the fist in a tight grip and twisted it just enough that the brute of a boy forgot about the unique wand in his other hand.

Percy quickly snatched it back, pushed him away, and turned to sit down before Flitwick even turned to see what was happening.

Montague stumbled to the floor, holding his wrist as he stared at the skinny boy in shock. In fact, all the students in attendance were in shock. Over the past two months they'd gotten to know a calm, reserved boy. While Percy's facial expression had not changed from the typical impassive mask, those present had seen the storm in his eyes.

By noon, half the school knew.