it wasn't always like this (don't you remember?)

a/n: for the hunger games fanfic style iii

also, in canon percy was about one and a half when the twins were born, but for the purposes of the story he is around three.

It was an April morning, an unexpected sunny day after a week of gloom and rain, when Percy Weasley became a big brother.

He'd known for months now that his mummy was going to have a baby, and like his older brothers waited impatiently to see the new arrival for the first time. It took a long time, longer than Percy had expected. No matter when he asked, the only answer he ever got was, "Soon, dear."

Percy had expected the new baby, and was excited to see them when they finally arrived.

What he didn't expect was that instead of one baby in his mother's arms, taking in their surroundings for the first time, there were two.

The baby sibling the family had expected was a pair of twins.

And for the older children, as well as their parents, life changed dramatically.

It seemed that if one twin wasn't crying, the other most certainly was. If they weren't crying, they were asleep, and the other children were always listening to their piercing cries or being told to be quiet so they could sleep. Not that it truly mattered, as they would inevitably wake up again and the whole cycle would begin again.

Dinner came later and later, and the boys noticed their parents were usually falling asleep at the table. One night, the spaghetti sauce arrived tasting like watery cough potion. Percy refused to eat it. His mother was so tired she barely cared, simply handing him a Chocolate Frog and excusing him from the table.

He was young, but Percy knew this was unusual for her. She never just gave him chocolate and let him move on with his day. But since the twins had been born, everything had been so strange.

What was also new to Percy was all the attention the new babies received. Family members came over to fuss over them, his parents were usually busy feeding or soothing or otherwise providing care. Bill and Charlie told him that that was normal, having received younger siblings before and being a bit more used to it, but Percy couldn't help but wish his parents would pay him a little more attention every now and again.

They definitely tried, but it was hard for Percy to grasp this.

As far as he knew, no one cared about him anymore. Everything was about the twins now, and Percy had been cast aside so that his family could pay them more attention.

But Bill had noticed something seemed different with his little brother. Percy had always been so inquisitive, always needing to know why and how and when. But now he seemed so sullen, always so quiet these days.

It didn't seem right.

So he sought to fix it as best he could.

Percy sat on the floor of his bedroom, absently looking through the pictures in a storybook, when Bill gently knocked on the door. The younger boy murmured, "Come in," and Bill did so, sitting next to his brother.

"What's going on, Perce?" he asked.

Percy looked up briefly, shrugged, and returned to his book.

"Do you want to tell me about it?"

The younger boy shook his head, this time with his gaze trained on the colorful animals in his book.

"Does it have to do with the twins being born?"

No response of any kind, not even a blink. Under normal circumstances, Bill might take this as a no. But Percy hadn't been like this before they were born. He was his normal self.

No, the change had come soon after the twins arrived, and Bill, having dealt with this with Charlie when Percy himself was born, knew better.

"I know it seems strange, but...it's not so much. It's like that when a new baby's born, really."

Percy gazed over at his brother disbelievingly, dropping the book to the floor. Suddenly the pictures didn't seem so interesting.

"I don't really remember when Charlie was that little," Bill admitted. "but I know it was like that when you were born. Everything was crazy for a while and Mummy and Daddy were tired all the time. But it was fine after a while."

Bill waited a bit, trying to gauge his brother's response. All he got was another look of disbelief. Percy clearly didn't believe that things would settle down, go back to normal, become peaceful again. Well, as peaceful as was possible with five boys in the house.

Finally, his little voice said, "Not so sure."

"About what, Perce?"

"I'm not so sure about this."

"What I said," Bill asked, "or what you were worried about?"

A pause. Then, "Both."

Bill smiled gently and patted Percy's back. "Just trust me. I know what I'm talking about."

Percy wanted to let it go, just convince himself that Bill was right and he would find out soon enough. Maybe that would indeed be the case. But for now, while dinners tasted like watery cough potion and the twins kept everyone up most of the night with their crying, it was hard to believe him.

He would try, of course, as he'd learned that Bill did usually know what he was doing when he advised one of his siblings. He just didn't know if it was going to work. It wasn't often, but Bill had been wrong before, and Percy couldn't shake the feeling that he was wrong again.