Percy begun to feel his eyelids droop. He could feel the hours of sleeplessness wash over him in a haze. He, quite frankly, was terrified to fall asleep. He knew that the moment his eyes closed, Fred would revisit him in his dreams. Or even worse-just behind his eyelids. He wondered how long it took for someone to go mad with grief, and figured that he would soon find out so it was no use pondering over it.

Fighting sleep was never a strong point with him. Even during school; if he was tired, then he would fall asleep almost immediately. So he wondered why he was trying so vainly to stay awake. He knew he would lose this battle. He knew it. So why was he fighting it?

Today however, Percy knew exactly why he was so keen to fight it.

Audrey walked past his sleeping bag again to attend to the patient across from him. She smiled at him every time she walked by. Percy was surprised at how tired she looked. The bags under her eyes were the most prominent feature on her face so far. Her skin was sallow and pale. She seemed to walk slightly clumsy, like she was trying to stay upright.

"Audrey?" he called out to her finally, for she looked in danger of just keeling over asleep. "Why don't you take a break or something?"

Audrey smiled at him sleepily. "I'm working Percy."

"I realize that," he told her matter-a-factly. "But wouldn't your work be more efficient if you rested first?"

She walked over to him and sat down on the ground in the same position that she was in earlier.

"I suppose," she finally conceded. "But not working means more people hurting."

"There are people taking shifts. They can easily wake someone up to relieve you. The healer that helped me earlier, she's been asleep for a good six hours now."

"Agnes has been working longer hours than me," she told Percy. "And she needs her sleep."

"So do you."

"No, I don't." She emphasized the opposite with a rather large yawn.

"Everyone else on the ward is asleep. They don't need your help." Percy thought this would be a great diversionary tactic. Sadly, his attempt was futile.

"Then I can watch over you."

He held up his hands.

"I'm not going anywhere."

She giggled. "I know."

He chuckled with her. Bass and soprano mixed in the air.

"So, if you're so determined to stay up, you can tell me more about yourself."

Audrey nodded. "Alright. You already told me about you, I suppose I should return the favor..." She looked at him. "I grew up in Yorkshire in a town called Knaresborough. I lived in a small house on a good amount of land, I suppose. My father was a farmer and my mother's job was to teach us. You see, both my parents are magic, but my father is Muggleborn, so he was taught by his father to farm.

"I lived a quiet childhood, with my only human interaction being family. I have a rather large family on my dad's side and a small family on my mam's. I enjoyed my childhood, though. I used to take a book out to a small wooded area behind my house and read during the summertime. When I got older, I would travel down into the town to look around."

She painted such a beautiful picture in his head. The picture was a younger girl with curly brown hair and bright, curious hazel eyes sitting against a tree, reading. The next image was of an older girl with brown hair and hazel eyes walking through her Muggle town. As he thought about it, the name Knaresborough sounded familiar, but it was probably a place with some historical-cultural attachment.

"My father is very ill, so my sister and I stayed home to learn, to be by him. I took my NEWTs through the ministry when I was seventeen, and when I qualified, I applied to be a Healer." She smiled. "So here I am today."

Percy nodded. Audrey stared into space for a while before turning her head towards him.

"Are you in pain?"

She meant his leg, and he knew it. But her words sounded like a double-edged sword. She meant more than the obvious implications.

"My leg doesn't hurt anymore." He took a deep breath before continuing, "But I have a reason to believe that that's not what you're talking about."

Audrey smiled at him shyly.

"I'm sorry if I'm being..." She paused, searching for the right word. "Assertive? Forward?"

"It's fine," he muttered, not wanting to think about him.

"It does help, you know, talking about it."

Now it was his turn to stare into space. He let the thoughts that he didn't want to think invade his mind, to hold him captive.

Fred was gone.

Gone and never coming back. Percy was never going to see his brother again. Not alive, anyways. Was there a Heaven? Was he happy up there? Didn't he know how much he was missed?! How much he will miss? He'll never see his other siblings get married. He'll never see Ginny, his only little sister, fall in love. (Though, truth be told, from what Percy has seen so far of Ginny around Harry Potter, Fred has seen his little sister fall in love.) That was a slightly comforting thought. It was until it crashed down on him that Fred himself will never fall in love or get married or have children...

Percy could feel himself breathing hard. The grief crushed him, hung on every breath. Every movement was labored. Every thought near impossible to finish...

He felt warm weight enclose around his middle and he immediately welcomed the warmth.

The warmth was Audrey.

She was hugging him, tears for an unknown person falling down from her eyes. He felt wetness on his cheeks and he was crying. Crying for Fred, for everything he had lost. For everything Percy had lost. He'll never fully be able to make up his disloyalty towards the family to Fred ever. He died before he had the chance.

That cut him deep.

What made the cut heal a little, was the short woman who was hugging him currently. She was crying. Crying for Fred, whom she had never met. She was compassionate.

Percy hugged her back and eventually the two fell asleep in each others arms.