Written for The Houses Competition.

House: Gryffindor

Class: History of Magic (Stand-in)

Prompts: [Song] Human by Christina Perri

Standard

Word Count: 1150

Percy sat on his bed, staring at the same patch of wall that he had been contemplating for the past two weeks. Not for the first time, he wondered whether he would be able to silence the thoughts in his head by connecting said head with the wall. Any pain he experienced would be nothing compared to what he was experiencing right now, what he had been experiencing ever since he watched a different wall explode.

Percy felt that he could never escape the need to escape. When he was young, all he wanted was to get out of his family and into a high Ministerial position. However, he had tasted that life and hated it. The job he had once been proud of became a prison, and he had spent two years wishing that he could return to the family he had once been so ashamed of. Percy couldn't count the number of times that he had contemplated approaching Dumbledore, proposing that he become a spy for the Order. Something had always stopped him, however – the watchful eye of colleagues, the glimpse of his siblings at Hogwarts and, more than once, his own cowardice.

When the news came through about the battle occurring at Hogwarts, Percy had thought that his chance had finally come. His connections with the Minister got him there, but it was his rediscovered allegiance to Dumbledore – and his family – that had him fighting. He had let his family down once, and he wasn't going to stand aside and watch as they were murdered.

Except, that was exactly what he had done. He had stood and watched as the laughter on Fred's face turned to shock, and then all emotion died away completely. He had felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the world. Laughing, Fred had been laughing. At him, Percy. If he hadn't, maybe he would have seen the coming spell, maybe he would have survived. Instead, he had been distracted and now no amount of yelling or shaking was waking him up.

Percy had to force himself back into reality. He had been spending far too much time living in the past recently, and he didn't know how to stop.

Percy had never been one to show his emotions. Everything he had felt had been hidden behind a carefully crafted mask. Ginny had quipped that he was actually a machine; maybe she was right. Or at least, she was right about his past self. He had been a machine, going through the motions of living, following a strict formula. These days, he didn't know what he was.

He didn't know just how long he had been staring at that wall, indulging in his daily pity-party. All he knew was that the once-silent house was now bubbling with noise – his siblings and their friends must be back from helping fix Hogwarts. He should have been helping too, but he just couldn't go there again, to the very memories he was trying so hard to escape.

He had been focusing so much on the voices downstairs that he missed the footsteps in the hallway until it was too late.

"Percy?" His sister looked exhausted, with sunken cheeks and dark circles around her eyes. "Can I come in?"

Percy gestured to a place on the bed, unable – or maybe unwilling – to speak.

"Perce, you haven't left this room for two weeks. We're all worried about you."

"Don't," he croaked, his throat dry from disuse. It was a far cry from the cool and controlled tone he had cultivated not that long ago. "I'm not worth it."

"Oh, Perce. Of course, you're worth it. Why wouldn't you be?" Percy couldn't bear to look at his little sister, too scared to see the pity he was sure on her face.

"I abandoned you."

"Yes, you did." Her frankness shocked him, bringing his eyes up to meet hers. But instead of pity or even anger, he only saw understanding.

"You left us, but do you know what you did then?" He shook his head, not understanding where this conversation was going. "You came back, Perce."

"But it wasn't soon enough! Fred died, and maybe if I'd come back sooner, he would have lived! Maybe if I hadn't have come back at all, he wouldn't have been distracted and you'd be talking to him, not me!" All of the emotions, the self-doubt and self-loathing, of the past two weeks were now bubbling to the surface.

"Maybe he would have survived, but maybe he would have still died. Ron and Harry told me what happened in that hallway, and they said he died laughing, which I know is how he would have wanted to go. You did that Percy, you made him die happy. I think of all of those kids who died scared or angry or confused, and Fred died happy. That's all that we could ask for."

"I never thought of it that way," Percy answered slowly, trying to wrap his head around this new revelation.

"You never thought of it that way, because you've never really understood emotions, have you?" Percy shook his head ruefully – she had him there. "You've spent almost twenty-two years perfecting the art of being this perfect machine, and you've forgotten what you truly are – a human. And this is what humans do, Perce. We love and fight and scream and laugh and we make mistakes and then we make them right again. And sometimes, we break down, because we weren't made to keep running forever."

"I don't think I know how to do all of that, Ginny," Percy was choking back tears now, much to his astonishment. "I don't think I'm very good at being a human."

"Percy, that's the whole point of being a human. None of us are good at it, but if we all help each other we can grow into something – someone – amazing. Will you let me help you?"

"Are you sure I'm worth it, Ginny? I mean, at the time you needed me the most, I could only see my own needs and ambitions. Why would you help me now?"

"You're my brother, Perce. It's what family does – we forgive each other for our mistakes and help us do better." She reached out and took his hand. "Besides, I'm not perfect either, and I have a lot of growing to do too. What do you say to helping each other out?"

"I'd say I just got luckier than I ever thought I would be. Thank you, Ginny." Percy smiled, the first genuine smile he'd worn in more than two weeks. It felt good.

"Anytime. Now come on, there are more humans downstairs waiting to see you."

The two siblings left the room, ready to join their family for some reminiscing – and maybe a little crying. They were only human, after all.