No Laughing Matter

Chapter Nineteen

The small group apparated into the large garden outside of the house that Percy had specified in his letter. It was a frigid night. Two of their number were charmed, and so were well camouflaged, but for the plumes of steam that issued forth from the warmth of their breath; they tried to breathe shallowly or through their noses to lessen the effect. One wore an invisibility cloak, the easier for him to discard if he needed to apparate to the Ministry quickly to summon help. The three that were visible approached in full sight of the house and anyone who cared to look out. They all had their wands out and ready, incase of an ambush, though Bill, Arthur and Molly made sure to keep their hands in plain sight to keep potential snipers form getting twitchy. There were lights on inside, and a light by the front door. Fred, George and Mundungus gave the house a wide berth as they circled, looking for signs of activity within and a window through which they could observe. Mundungus held back at the edge of the property, ready to go for help, and to act as lookout. Fred found an extendable ear in his pocket (he rarely went anywhere without a set), and gave it to Mundungus, for use in hearing what was going on near the house. The twins heard the front door open, and Percy's voice asking, "Why are you here? I asked for Dumbledore."

"Did you really expect him to come personally?" The sound of Arthur's voice carried well in the still night.

There was a pause, as Percy appeared to consider his father's question, and then he answered, "No. I guess I didn't. Come in."

The sound of the door closing was ominous to Fred as he stood to the right of a window that looked into the sitting room. George was on the left side of the window, squinting through the lacy curtains that covered the glass from the inside. The room within was cast in shadows, and the only light came from the kitchen, which appeared to be adjacent to this room. He felt exposed here against the house, and images from the last time he'd used the Disillusionment Charm to look into a window flash through his mind, reminding him of how badly that had ended. He said a little prayer of thanks that Rowan wasn't in harm's way this time as he saw his parent's forms move into the kitchen through the far doorway. It looked as though they would be conducting their meeting in the kitchen.

Fred motioned to his brother, nothing more than a ripple of the air, signaling the need to move to the other side of the house. George nodded, knowing that Fred would sense the movement, then spotting a familiar flesh-colored string on the ground at their feet, whispered, "We need to move to a kitchen window, Dung. Keep your ears open." The string was pulled away from its spot on the ground, and George knew that he had been heard, then turned to follow the vague ripple of air that was the form of Fred rounding the corner of the house.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" George heard Fred hiss out the swear words as he approached.

Dreading what he was about to see, he eased around his brother and peered into the brightly lit kitchen. The room held three chairs, and Bill, their Mum and their Dad were all bound to them with ropes. Percy, mask-less, held his wand over them, and another mask-less man stood beside him, holding the wands that had been taken from the captives. There were three other Death Eaters in attendance, all masked, wands out at their sides, seemingly staying passive until there was action to be taken.

"It's a trap," Fred pointed out needlessly, keeping his voice low. "Go for help, Dung."

They could hear the crack from a short way off that told them that Dung had gone.

"Okay," George said. "If we break out this window, how many can we take out before they start throwing out curses?"

"Not enough," Fred said firmly. "It'll only take one, and any of them could be killed. These guys aren't going to bother with anything other than Avada Kedavra if things turn sour for them, and we don't know how many more of them are in the house or on the property. We hold tight here until we find out if help is coming, unless something happens to force our hand."

"I don't like it," George said. "If they want them dead, why haven't they killed them yet?"

"Hostages?" Fred suggested quietly, not taking his eyes from the scene in the kitchen. If he listened with all of his attention, he might be able to just make out what was being said inside.

That made sense. They might try to use their captive to try to force Dumbledore to leave the school. A foolish goal, however, if even You-Know-Who wasn't able to best Dumbledore in a duel, did they really think that they had any chance of subduing him? Maybe they didn't need to subdue him, only detain him long enough for something else to happen? They could easily count of Dumbledore's nobility to keep them from serious harm should they be forced to duel him... there were just too many variables here to guess the true purpose of this whole set up.

Beside him, Fred heard George mutter something under his breath, and suddenly the conversation in the kitchen floated out to them with crystal clarity. He had vanished the glass from one of the upper windowpanes, where it was unlikely to be noticed with the way the curtains were hung. He felt George's hand on his shoulder and settled in to listen for clues as to what their next step should be.

"Percy," their mother's tearful voice could be heard, though they couldn't see her face. The captives were seated with their back to the window that George and Fred were crouching at. "You don't have to do this."

"Yes, Mother, I do," came Percy's acerbic reply. "Things have been working up to this for a long time."

"Perce," Bill began.

"Don't you talk to me!" Percy shouted suddenly at his brother, his composed veneer cracking and his face reddening. "None of you ever appreciated me! Ever!"

George's grip on Fred's shoulder tightened as they watched Percy begin to pace in front of Bill and their parents.

"That's not true, son." Arthur said quietly. His voice sounded sad and resigned.

"Not true?" There was incredulity in Percy's voice. "Not true!"

The man standing beside Percy chuckled nastily in amusement, though whether at Percy's expense, or his captive's it was hard to tell.

"Percy, all we've ever wanted was for you to be happy!" Molly said desperately.

"Oh you did a great job of that, didn't you?" he raged. "You were always so proud of me until I started doing better than him." He pointed his wand in Arthur's direction. "Once I started moving up in the Ministry, all I ever heard was, 'You're making the wrong choices!' or 'Why would they hire you for that position after the way you screwed up?' I couldn't possibly have earned the position on my own merit! No! The Minister must want to use me to spy on you!" He laughed humorlessly as he began pacing once more. "As if you were so important to anyone. What a joke! Do you know what Fudge always said about dear old Dad? Do you?"

"Of course we know," said Molly sadly. "And that's precisely the reason we didn't want...."

"Well Dad might have been willing to stay in a humiliating dead-end position with no respect, year after year, only one step away from the Centaur Liaison Office; but I wanted something better!" It was clear that Percy wasn't going to listen to reason. The words tumbling from his mouth dripped with the venom that had been building inside of him for years. "I used to tell myself that someday my wonderful, supportive parents would pull their attention away from my good-for-nothing, rule-breaking twin brothers long enough to notice that I was the one who never got into trouble with stupid stunts and practical jokes. Did you ever? No. You just stood aside and let them humiliate me time and time again, completely unprovoked, laughing at their stupid stunts and put-downs! When I complained, you'd just say, 'That's just their way'.

"I told myself that you would see past the acts that Ron and Potter put up every year and realize that I was the one with all the potential. Every time I accomplished something worthwhile, you'd pat me on the head and send me off with a 'that's nice, dear!' and then spend all your time and energy on everyone else and their problems! Well I don't need that from you anymore."

"That's right," the man beside Percy spoke suddenly. He seemed to want to stem the flow of Percy's speech before he got started again. "He's got us now. We'll take care of him."

'I'll just bet you will,' thought Fred, not even feeling the fingernails that George had dug into his shoulder as he fought with his emotions. He couldn't fool himself into believing that Percy would be coming back to them now, and tried to force his mind past the fact that it was his brother standing inside. He needed some of the detachment that Bill was so good at maintaining, so that when the time came, he could do what he needed to do. He felt instinctively that their time was quickly running out. He could feel George beginning to fidget uneasily, as if he too knew that time was short. 'Where is our backup? Surely Dung should have returned by now, with or without aid,' he thought with agitation. It was nearing midnight.

"I have a new job now, Mother," Percy said, calming himself once more, "An important one."

"That's right," the other man said once more. "And he'll get even more important jobs after he finishes this one." He turned to Percy and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "It's time. Which one will it be?"

"Which one?" Percy asked. It was suddenly as if some part of all of this was hitting home, and his voice and expression were slightly confused.

"You only have to kill one of them. It's your first time, after all," the man said conversationally. "I'll take care of the others, then we can join the rest of our team and celebrate."

George stood up and would have pitched himself bodily through the window if Fred had not thrown out an arm to stop him. He pulled his brother close, until he could feel the stubble of his brother's cheek graze his own, not caring that his own were wet with the tears that had fallen during Percy's speech. "They can hear us if we're not careful. We need a plan. We'll hit the window with a Reductor, then I'll take the left side of the room, you take the right. If you get a chance, free Bill and Mum and Dad. This is it."

George looked through the window as he listened to Fred's plan of action. Percy had moved to face Bill, and held his wand high in the air. But he wasn't saying the words; he wasn't saying the curse yet that would damn him forever. It was as if the entire horrible scene was taking place in slow motion. 'Don't do it!' he pleaded silently, a tear running down his cheek. He steeled himself for what was about to happen and nodded firmly.

Fred felt George nod decisively, and stepped away from him. He used his wand to lift the Disillusionment charm from his brother; he didn't want to accidentally hit him in the heat of battle. George did the same to him and they both turned to face the window. "On three," he whispered. "One, Two..."

"I can't!" Percy's anguished denial rent the air, and a breath that he hadn't been aware he was holding rushed out of Fred's lungs. On the other side of the window, Percy had dropped his arms with a look of torment on his face. Both he and George paused to see what would happen next, but ready to carry through on their plan at any moment.

Percy had his hands over his face, and was saying repeatedly, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" It was unclear to whom or for what he was apologizing, but it was like a mantra that he couldn't stop chanting.

"Well, that's okay then," Percy's companion said affably, raising his own wand. "Avada Kedavra!"

Percy's lifeless body fell to the ground in a flash of green light. Molly's scream hadn't even had time to pass her lips as George and Fred cried out, "Reducto!" and sent shards of glass and splintered wood exploding into the kitchen.

It was pure chaos. "Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!" It was impossible to tell who was shouting the words the loudest or fastest as the twins cast their hexes as fast as they could point their wands. They climbed through the wreckage of the window, firing spells the entire time, while the Death Eaters scrambled. More Death Eaters flooded into the kitchen from where they had been hiding in the darkened parts of the house, and joined the fray. Fred and George were cursing steadily, and were relieved when more hexes began to pour into the room from behind them. Their reinforcements had finally arrived. Fred barely had time to register that Dung had brought a most unusual team for back up, before he felt a blow to his left shoulder and felt the blood spatter his face. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten to the floor, but he didn't need to look down to know that a good chunk of him was missing; his arm was completely limp and useless. He wasn't feeling any pain at the moment, but knew in some part of his mind that it wouldn't be long before it came. He still had the use of his right arm, and intended to put it to the best use he could until the fight was over, or he lost consciousness. He got out two more hexes before a stunner hit him in the chest, and his world went black.

George saw Fred go down, and was momentarily paralyzed. A jet of red light passed close to his head, and then he was knocked bodily to the ground before he had a chance to register that he needed to keep fighting while he got himself over to check on his brother. He was surprised to find that it had been his Mother who had knocked him to the ground. Someone had freed her, and she had wasted no time in grabbing Percy's wand from the floor, and knocking George off his feet to keep him from being struck from behind by a curse. She deftly disabled his assailant, sending curses from Percy's wand while tears continued stream from her eyes. She got to her feet and sent one of the Death Eaters hurling against a far wall with a sickening crunch, and he didn't get up again.

Seeing that Bill and his Dad had been freed as well, he made his way on his belly toward the unmoving form of his brother a few feet away. He was relieved beyond measure to find him breathing rhythmically, and used his wand to bind the wound at his shoulder the best way her could. Bill, having lost his wand to Percy's Death Eater companion, had waded into the fight using his bare fists to beat an unlucky masked figure into submission. He moved on to another with out missing a beat, and look of fury and determination on his face. Arthur was also wandless, and was doing the best he could under the circumstances. He was using the rope he had been tied with to bind the arms of the man Bill had left unconscious on the floor.

Now that George was assured that his family was freed, he grabbed Fred's wand and tossed it to his Dad; Fred wouldn't be using it in the next few hours, he was sure. He was only mildly surprised when Carly crawled over to them and began to tend to Fred. His eyes roamed the dueling skirmish; if Carly was here, then Rowan was too. He spotted her and Her Uncle Nigel hexing Death Eaters from the shelter of an overturned table on the far side of the room, unhurt. The fight was beginning to wind down now, as Death Eaters began to be outnumbered by the opposition. He stayed with Fred, and sent hexes out from where he sat on the floor. When the last masked men who had been inclined to remain and fight had been restrained, the remainder of the odd assortment of witches and wizards present stood quietly catching their breath.

All but one.

Molly's quiet sobs could be heard, from her place on the floor, cradling her lost son in her arms. She was pointing his own wand at his chest and whispering hopelessly, "Enervate!" over and over through her tears, to no avail. It was Rowan and Suzette who tearfully knelt down beside her, and gently extracted the wand from her hand. Arthur came and gathered her up before, with one great shuddering sob, she fainted.