Chapter 10

"Hey Percy!" Oliver smiled, hugging him warmly. "How are you?" he knew Percy had been going to see his parents today, for the first time in six years. It must have been awkward.

Percy smiled slightly. "Ok."

"Good. " Oliver grinned. "Ready for dinner?"

Percy nodded.

Oliver took him to one of the more secluded restaurants in the muggle city of Cairo. Halfway through the meal, after they had settled into a comfortable silence Oliver asked suddenly. "Are you going to take the job?"

Percy shrugged. "I'm not sure. I still have a week to consider." He had barely thought about the job offer at the Dragon reserve since the trial, but now that he thought about it…

"You want to take it though don't you?" Oliver pressed, reading the look on Percy's face easily.

Percy ducked his head to hide his emotions. "Yes."

"So why are you hesitating?"

"Well first there was the trial… and now… well now I just… I don't want to…" he trailed off, embarrassed, he didn't want to lose what he had built up with Oliver.

Oliver smiled, knowing what Percy meant. "Perce."

"Hmm?" Percy looked up, fear again in his eyes.

"I needed to know what you were going to do before I told you this. I was going to transfer if you weren't going to take the job, but anyway, my real job is in Romania." He watched Percy's reactions carefully.

"What?" Percy asked, his eyes glowing with interest and something more. "You mean…"

"If you accept the job we'll be practically be working beside each other."

"Really?"

Oliver nodded, he reached across the table, and, taking the plunge took one of Percy's hands in his, stroking the soft skin with his fingers.

"So if I accept the job we can… we can continue this…?" Percy asked, his tone shy.

Oliver's smile could have lit up the room. "I was hoping you'd say that! Of course we could Perce!" he would have leaped up and hugged him again, but Percy had been getting too much attention recently because of being gay to justify it.

"Oliver…" Percy asked after a while, his eyes fastened to where Oliver was still stroking his hand.

"Yes?"

"Would you say that we were… we were… dating?" the last word was barely above a breath, his eyes flicked up to Oliver's that fearful look back again.

Oliver smiled. "Yes Percy, I would say we were dating-why?" he felt his heart glow as a shy smile lit up Percy's face.

"Just wondering." Percy murmured, glancing up at Oliver's warm and loving brown eyes.

Maybe the world wasn't so bad after all.

So he accepted the job at the Dragon Reserve. Charlie had spent the better part of the next week, while helping him find his very own apartment (paid for by the first of the compensation money), going over the rules; drilling it into his head what he should and shouldn't do around a dragon. The other part of said week was spent muttering about how he was going to have to keep a very close eye and an amazingly reckless younger brother, how grey he was going to be by the end of the year, and how many heart attacks Percy was going to give him. Luckily, Percy wasn't actually around to hear those last comments, but Bill spent the better part of that week laughing at him.

Picking the apartment had taken a long time, Percy was agonisingly picky now that he had some of his confidence back, not that he ever said anything about it, nodding when he was supposed to, it was like he was trying to keep on their good sides, but it was obvious in his body language. But eventually they had found a nice little apartment for him.

Then Charlie suggested a house warming party, he mentioned the people from the reserve, Bill mentioned the family, and after very careful deliberation, Percy agreed.

Which was how he had come to be standing, nervously, and somewhat stiffly beside Oliver, his eyes raking the small crowd in his living room, trying to keep all his family in sight. He had avoided them so far, he knew he shouldn't have, but it was a deep-rooted fear that made him.

"Percy."

He started at Ginny's voice, heart leaping into his throat. He swallowed hard, paling slightly. "G. Ginny." He managed to squawk out, only Oliver's hand slipping deftly into his kept him from running.

Ginny seemed to be having the same kind of trouble with words as he was, finally she just came forward and hugged him. She had changed from the little girl he remembered, but obviously not by very much. Her head buried into his shoulder. "I'm sorry Percy." She whispered.

He blinked over her shoulder at Oliver, surprised. "Why are you sorry?" he asked, unsure.

She pulled back, wiping faint tears off her cheeks. "Because I was stupid enough to let my big brother get hurt for something that's not his fault." She hugged him again, as fierce as any of their mothers. "Love you." She said, giving him an extra squeeze before pulling away completely. "Nice party by the way." Her eyes darted to the crowd for a moment. "I've got to go and see if Karl is still here." She smiled at him before slipping away.

Percy watched her go, frowning lightly. Oliver coughed pointedly, drawing his attention back to him, then nodded to where the twins were standing, very serious expressions on their faces.

"We were just talking to Bill and Charlie-"

"And they said you thought we hated you-"

"How could you even think that Perce?"

"We don't hate you."

"Well... I em…" he trailed off helplessly, looking from one to the other.

George took the first step forward and hugged Percy; he had always been the more open twin. "We really don't hate you Percy, and if we could have gotten away with it we would have done a whole lot worse to that bastard."

Fred nodded in agreement. "Like transporting him to Azkaban would have been good."

George nodded, pulling away.

Then came the awkward silence that was always reserved for that moment just after the twins had a serious moment, before finally Fred smiled. "Nice choice by the way Perce-"

"Will you be making Oliver an honorary Weasley too?"

They turned to Oliver when Percy blushed, faces serious again. "Hurt him and we have another box of those chocolates with your name on it--and we will make you eat them." They smiled devilishly.

Oliver nodded, but smiled, he was becoming quite used to the Weasely families threats of bodily harm, Charlie (if he was over) and Bill had not failed to give him one every time he took Percy somewhere--they were as bad as the twins in that regard. But he also knew they were very serious.

"Fred! George!" Percy squeaked suddenly.

They turned their hundred watt grins on him. "That's our Percy." They laughed.

They stayed a few minutes longer before heading back to find Bill and Charlie again. Oliver too made his way into the crowd to find the food table, wherever it had managed to set itself, leaving Percy standing alone by the door to the kitchen. He was still going over what the twins had said, so caught up he failed to notice when Ron had joined him--Harry and Hermione where somewhere in the room.

"Nice party Perce, so are all these people you'll be working with?" Ron asked after a minute of silence, startling Percy out of his thoughts.

Quickly considering all responses, Percy finally settled on a nod. "Yes."

"Never would have taken you for a dragon tamer, but that Vlad guys done nothing but go on about it to dad for the past hour. So you must be good."

Percy shrugged, blushing again.

"Percy, I'm sorry, I mean, sure you're a stuck up prick most of the time, but I should have known you wouldn't just turn on us like that." Ron winced, he hadn't meant for it to come out quite like that.

To Percy's great surprise, as well as Ron's he broke into a smile.

"You know, you really don't have anything to be sorry about." Percy said quietly, smile fading. "If anybodies sorry it should be me. I should have known that you wouldn't take it as badly as I expected." He shrugged.

"Wasn't your fault--we hardly gave you a reason to believe we wouldn't really, I mean, we were pretty mean to you." Ron said, looking at his brother--he had always had a connection with Percy; they both strived to be something they just weren't. "Not that you didn't deserve it sometimes."

"I suppose I was a little overbearing in school wasn't I?" he said, smiling again.

"Just a little." Ron smiled. "I'm glad your back now Percy. You'll have to come visit me at some point."

It was then Percy really realised that he knew practically nothing about what had happened to his family in those six years. Ron would be out of school now. "What do you do nowadays?" he asked quietly, trying to ignore the guilt welling up inside him.

"I have a column in the Daily Prophet." Ron replied.

"Oh."

"I should get an interview with you--youngest Dragon Tamer in how long? It would make a good story." Ron smiled.

The two talked until it was nearly time for everyone to go. Feeling more at ease now Percy went to the door to see them all out. Finally, it was only his family and Oliver left. Oliver gave him a hug and promised to take him out somewhere nice the next night. Which left his family.

Bill and Charlie were standing at the back, wearing almost identical concerned smiles, they knew the twins, Ron and Ginny had talked to Percy, their mum had, which only left their father. The relationship between father and son had been somewhat strained for years. Percy had always tried to make his father proud of him by working hard, and it always seemed that his father never noticed.

There were hugs all round and Molly, the twins, Ron and Ginny left the apartment, all sensing that Arthur and Percy had things to resolve. Bill and Charlie however stayed in the room, protective older brother instincts kicking in; they had to stay and make sure Percy was all right--not, of course, that they didn't trust their father not to hurt him.

"Percy."

"Dad."

That was all that was said, and they stood, for a long time, Arthur studying his son, Percy looking anywhere but at his father. Finally, Arthur reached over and pulled Percy into a tight embrace, landing a soft kiss to his forehead like he had not done in twenty years. "I'm proud of you son." He said softly.

Percy froze at the hug, the kiss, the words. Then he snaked his arms around his father and hugged back, feeling a closeness he was sure had never been there before. Inexplicitly his mind drifted back to when his father had first given him that battered old copy of Animal Farm.

The End

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