"I invited dear Tonks to come along today," said Molly, setting down the carrots with unnecessary force and glaring at Fleur the next morning. "But she wouldn't come. Have you spoken to her lately, Remus?"
"No, I haven't been in contact with anybody very much," said Lupin. "But Tonks has got her own family to go to, hasn't she?"
"Hmmm," said Will. "Maybe. I got the impression she was planning to spend Christmas alone, actually."
Molly gave Lupin an annoyed look, as though it was all his fault she was getting Fleur for a daughter-in-law instead of Tonks.
"Tonks's Patronus has changed its form," he told him. "Snape said so anyway. I didn't know that could happen. Why would your Patronus change?"
Lupin took his time chewing his turkey and swallowing before saying slowly, "Sometimes... a great shock... an emotional upheaval..."
"Please elaborate emotional upheaval," Will said, smirking knowingly.
Remus did not elaborate, but turned a slight peach. It was a very good morning, considering that it would be Nico's last with us for a while.
He had decided that he wouldn't be attending Hogwarts due to the fact that the Underworld needed his help, and we couldn't deny Hades.
He would go missing that very day, with a bit of help from Frank Zhang, who will be arriving as a flock of bees. (School of bees?- whatever) Hades will do us a favor with some Mist magic.
"It looked big, and it had four legs," said Harry. "Hey... it couldn't be--?"
"Arthur!" said Molly suddenly. She had risen from her chair; her hand was pressed over her heart and she was staring out of the kitchen window. "Arthur--it's Percy!"
"What?"
"Are you talking about me?" I asked, dumbstruck.
Arthur looked around. Everybody looked quickly at the window; Ginny stood up for a better look. There, sure enough, was Percy Weasley, striding across the snowy yard, his horn-rimmed glasses glinting in the sunlight. He was not, however, alone.
"Arthur, he's--he's with the Minister!"
And sure enough, the man I had seen in the Daily Prophet was following along in Percy's wake, limping slightly, his mane of graying hair and his black cloak flecked with snow. Before any of us could say anything, before the Mr. and Mrs. Weasley could do more than exchange stunned looks, the back door opened and there stood Percy.
There was a moment's painful silence. Then Percy said rather stiffly, "Merry Christmas, Mother."
"Oh, Percy!" said Molly, and she threw herself into his arms.
Rufus Scrimgeour paused in the doorway, leaning on his walking stick and smiling as he observed this affecting scene.
"You must forgive this intrusion," he said, when Molly looked around at him, beaming and wiping her eyes. "Percy and I were in the vicinity--working, you know -- and he couldn't resist dropping in and seeing you all."
But Percy showed no sign of wanting to greet any of the rest of the family. He stood, poker-straight and awkward-looking, and stared over everybody else's heads. Arthur, Fred, and George were all observing him, stony-faced.
"Please, come in, sit down, Minister!" fluttered Molly, straightening her hat. "Have a little purkey, or some tooding... I mean --"
"No, no, my dear Molly," said Scrimgeour. "I don't want to intrude, wouldn't be here at all if Percy hadn't wanted to see you all so badly..."
"Oh, Perce!" said Molly tearfully, reaching up to kiss him.
"...we've only looked in for five minutes, so I'll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with Percy. No, no, I assure you I don't want to butt in! Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden... ah, that young man's finished, why doesn't he take a stroll with me?"
The atmosphere around the table changed perceptibly. Everybody looked from Scrimgeour to Harry. Nobody seemed to find Scrimgeour's pretense that he did not know Harry's name convincing, or find it natural that he should be chosen to accompany the Minister around the garden when Ginny, Fleur, and George also had clean plates.
"Yeah, all right," said Harry into the silence.
"It's fine," he said quietly, as he passed Remus, who had half risen from his chair. "Fine," he added, as Arthur opened his mouth to speak.
"Wonderful!" said Scrimgeour, standing back to let Harry pass through the door ahead of him. "We'll just take a turn around the garden, and Percy and I'll be off. Carry on, everyone!"
***
Awkward silence filled the room as Percy sat down on a chair.
Molly quickly started serving him everything there was on the dining table. "Parsnip? How about gravy? Oh dear, you seem like you haven't eaten in days!"
"Percy," Fred called.
Percy Weasley turned to face his brother.
"Not you," Fred said. "I was talking to Percy, not you."
With a raised eyebrow, I turned to Fred. "Me?"
"Yeah, you," George said. "Think we'd call another Percy?"
"Now, Fred, George!" Molly said angrily.
But the twins ignored her. "Say, Percy," Fred continued, "think we can play a game of Exploding Snap later?"
I cleared my throat. "Yeah, okay, sure."
"Why are you bringing me into this?" I mouthed at them.
"Also," Fred continued, "Percy, didn't you think the parsnip was good?"
"It was, yeah," I replied. "Molly, can I have some gravy, please."
"Of course, dear," Molly replied, grinning, in a festive joy that her son had returned home. The other Percy's jaw clenched slightly.
He was just a bit jealous.
More awkward silence. Ginny, Fred and George all exchanged looks of pure mischief.
Molly was, of course, mollycoddling her child with all the affection she could give, in typical Molly fashion.
The other Weasleys began chatting behind each other, and to my surprise, all of them were grinning.
Ron and Arthur, who were seated in between Molly were the only ones left out from the plan.
"Code Teal," Annabeth mouthed at me, trying to conceal all her laughter.
I straightened up, feeling myself go red and my mouth go dry. Not Code Teal.
That was the worst one of them all.
"Oh, come on!" Annabeth signed in ASL, which we had learned from Magnus Chase. "It'll be fun. The key's in the parsnip."
I had to muster all my courage.
"Well, why not have some parsnip, brother?" Fred said, smirking and wiggling his eyebrows like crazy.
"It's alright," Percy Weasley said. He was barely eating.
I took a deep breath in and turned to the redhead to my left- "You know, Ron, I just realized - you have an awesome family- like, Ginny's extremely beautiful, she's admirable, even impressive, I wouldn't be surprised if even Harry fell in love with her- "
Sirius was nodding delightedly, waving at me to go on.
I continued, "And Fred and George, they're handsome, intelligent and rich, what a combo-"
Remus was trying not to smile. He was sort of shaking his head, telling me not to continue, but he kinda wanted to know what was going to happen.
I smiled, "And you're tall, a prefect, and you have a whole song dedicated to you," Ron raised an eyebrow at me, not knowing the plan.
"And then there's Bill.... I mean, I know I'm in love with Annabeth and all.. but if Bill was single... goddamn."
Ron was now genuinely scared now. He gave half a yelp of despair.
Bill winked at me across the table, a playful smile on his lips, knowing full well that I am straight.
"And of course, let's not forget Charlie," I added, "he's so good looking. Plus, he's a dragonologist, I mean, how cool can it get?"
Molly raised an eyebrow at me.
"Well, I don't know about Percy," I said, thinking. "What is the one good thing about Percy, Bill?"
Bill seemed to be thinking. "Hmm..." he said, "I don't know, for one, he is... well-"
Fleur was biting her lip as Annabeth revealed the plan to her.
"Well," Bill continued to think, "hmm... well... uh.... hmm.... there must be something good about him."
Fred snorted, and Percy turned bright pink.
"And about that parsnip, Molly," I added, grinning, "best one I've had yet. See, you've got a great Mum as well."
Molly turned peach, "Why thank you, Percy."
"I think the parsnip's great too, Mother," Percy said, taking deep breaths.
"Touchy, touchy," whispered George, smirking evilly.
"Then why not have some more?" Ginny said, now smirking.
"Fine!" Percy yelled at the table, and plunged the spoon into the bowl-
BANG.
Bill and Arthur ducked under the table. I forced Ron and Molly down the table as well, ducking as the parsnip bowl began to spin so fast that it's contents began to spray around.
Percy Weasley was howling in horror.
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I had so much fun writing this chapter!