Disclaimer: I do not own Percy, Penelope, Hogwarts or any of the other characters/places/ concepts/occurrences mentioned. How's that for a formal disclaimer?

AN: Yep, still on that Percy kick… wanting to write something about Seamus, though. But I've got no ideas for him so, for now, Percy. This time at the end of his 6th year, so it's the second book.

This Is What It's Like To Be Perfect

Percy Weasley has everything. Top marks in everything; outstanding's all around, even in the seventh-year classes he was enrolled in a year early. Outstanding. Outstanding. Outstanding. Perfect. He is probably the best student at Hogwarts, even including the Ravenclaws, although he tries not to show that he knows this. It doesn't matter anyway; even the most daft of the students can see it.

He is ending his second year as a prefect, the best one Hogwarts has seen in a long time, in his opinion. And if he has correctly interpreted Professor McGonagall's subtle wink as he filed by her, exiting the castle, he is up to be Head Boy next year. And he will be the best at that, as well.

Sometimes Percy wonders if there's anything he can't do. Within logical boundaries of course: he has never deluded himself into visions of Quidditch Glory or the like, but he wouldn't want that anyway. He wonders if, besides that, there is anything out of his reach. Each teacher he has ever had thinks he favors their class most; each teacher he has ever had thinks he will become their protégé and excel in the field beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

But everyone knows the position he's after: Minister of Magic. And everyone knows that he'll get there, and he'll be the best one ever.

He is dating the most beautiful girl in school, in his eyes: Penelope Clearwater, with the translucent silver eyes that her surname suggests, and whose mind is rivaled perhaps only by his own. And he is handsome, in her eyes, in a slender sort of bookish way. Penny, his queen, who has been restored to him, whose recent absence only made his cold, crystal heart grow fonder. He smiles at her as they walk to the carriages together. And they are in love. And someday they will marry, and he will be the best husband ever.

And Ginny! His sister has come back as well. He puts his hand on her shoulder and helps her into a carriage, climbing into it with her, Penny beside him. Their family is whole again. He is overjoyed that she is alive. From now on, he will be the best brother ever.

His parents don't understand sometimes, the pressure of being perfect. Sometimes he and they don't see eye-to-eye. But they will come around, he will make them see. He will be the perfect son.

If there anything Percy Weasley can't have? He wonders as he leaves the carriage and boards the train that will take him home as another term ends. If perfection is possible, hasn't he attained it? At least come as close as any mortal before him?

He hopes so. More desperately than he has ever hoped for anything in his life. And his hope blinds him until he cannot see how flawed he is, until he cannot feel how miserable he truly is inside. Until he does not acknowledge the tears that fall every night, for they are imperfections.

In his eyes, he is perfect. He tells himself that he is perfect, and wills it so strongly that it happens. This is what it's like to be perfect, he says to himself as he looks in the mirror.

And this is what it's like to be empty, his reflection says back.

But he doesn't hear.