In A Time Of Uncertainty

Part Four, Chapter Five

"Eighteen years old, and already killed a man," Percy said. "Order of Merlin, second class. I always wanted Fred and George to achieve more than they did, but I never thought it would happen this way."

Oliver's hand rested next to Percy's on the space just past where the leg ended. "I suppose it'll be my job to decide whether he fights with the Aerial Branch," he said. "Fred's right, he ought to be able to fly, but well enough for combat? It won't be right after he gets out of hospital, that I know for certain. God, Perce, what the hell do I know about combat?"

"Perhaps it's like Quidditch but with weapons involved," Percy said, but he knew his response was weak, and what did Oliver know about combat? He had never fought in any sort of battle before. Percy trusted that his lover would have talent, but he also desperately hoped that a lack of experience wouldn't be lethal for Oliver.

"Today's Monday," Oliver said. "We leave for the Caribbean on Thursday and on Saturday my branch starts training. You fly to Canada on Sunday."

"And after that is Spain," Percy replied. It would be so long. "Then South Africa. Maybe I can apparate home every night."

"You can't, Perce. It's one of the rules."

Percy stepped into Oliver's embrace and rested his cheek against his lover's hair. "I'll always be thinking of you. I'll write all the time. We'll come up with absurd code phrases so that if someone - "

"We aren't supposed to write, either, love." Oliver's hands rubbed gently against Percy's back. "Any important messages go through Dumbledore."

"Then I won't write letters. I'll write you poems so that if they fall into the wrong hands all they'll know is that we're in love." He and Oliver couldn't be separated for so long, not after he'd grown used to Oliver's body lying next to his at night. Certainly there had to be some way.

"Percy. We aren't supposed to communicate in any way, shape, or form, unless it's urgent business that pertains to the Order."

"Who made these rules, anyway?" he asked irritably.

"Remus."

George stirred in his sleep; Percy saw it over Oliver's shoulder and pulled away. "Ol, look, he's moving." Oliver turned to see George's head shift on the pillow and then all was still again.

"You know, I've been alone a lot," Percy said after a few seconds had passed. "I thought I was used to it. Now I find out that I won't see you for weeks on end and suddenly it's my idea of hell on earth."

"Did you ever really like to be alone?"

"Sometimes I did. I don't think I liked it all the time. I think I thought that was the way it had to be and so I figured I'd make myself like it."

"It isn't forever," Oliver said. "You'll be home by when, August?"

"Yes, August. The very last day, just before Ron and Ginny go back to Hogwarts."

"By that time you'll probably be speaking four languages and carrying money in ten currencies."

Percy studied George for a moment. "I think he's pretty well out."

"They might have given him more medication than the others. I can't even imagine what it's like to have a part of your leg removed."

"By the time I come home he might be ready to fly with you."

Oliver bit his lip, considering. "I don't know whether I want him to go or if I don't. He'll be angry almost certainly, regardless. Once the physical element is no longer a concern - if it ever comes to that - then the question will be if he's emotionally well enough to join the division. If
his anger will work for him or against him."

"I haven't got any idea," Percy said. "If you'd asked me two years ago I would have said it would be detrimental, but now I don't know him well enough to have an opinion. I hope it'll be to his benefit. It helps, I think, to feel like your anger did something for you."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On their way to leave they found Mrs. Figg coming from Mundungus's room. "Is he still asleep?" Oliver asked.

"Out cold." There was an empty basket in her hands, tightly woven and lined with dark green fabric. "I'm giving Mr. Tibbles another five minutes and then we're going home.

The smile appeared on Percy's lips before he could stop it. "You brought Mr. Tibbles to visit?"

"Of course I did," she said tersely. "Just because a person's a cat doesn't mean he should be excluded. Besides, I don't like going visiting alone, and after Harry told me he'd be around later - "

"Harry didn't come with you?"

"He said he had something he wanted to do first. Not that he'd tell me, of course -" she gave a dismissive wave of her hand " - but apparently it's far enough away that he decided to fly."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"It isn't that they aren't welcome, Molly," they could hear Remus saying as they walked in the front door of 12 Grimmauld Place, "but considering - considering the personalities involved, I don't think it's the best idea."

"Listen to him, Mum," Ron groaned as Percy and Oliver entered the sitting room. He was sprawled across the couch - all the beds had disappeared - and his face was screwed up into a contorted mask of agony. Ginny sat on the armrest of the couch, the tense line of her mouth suggesting that any minute she was going to have a frustrated outburst.

"I'm sure that they can manage to stay here for the rest of the summer. I'm not unreasonable, I don't expect that they'll never leave, but I think that it would be in their best interests to spend most of their time in a protected place. Ron, stop doing that to your face."

"Dad, help me out here," Ron said in a voice dangerously close to a whine.

Arthur gave the wire in his hands a final twist around a piece of piping and
looked up.

"You'll be close to Diagon Alley," he said. "Besides, nothing's going on at home. You've already been living here for weeks."

"But then I didn't have to," protested Ron. "And we'll be here all by ourselves some of the time, Remus is moving back to Wiltshire."

"Really?" Oliver asked. The others glanced up, noticing he and Percy for what appeared to be the first time since they had crossed the room's threshold.

"I think it'll be good for me," Remus said.

"It's Wiltshire near the Malfoys," Ginny moaned. "How can that possibly be better for anyone?"

"They're on the other end of Wiltshire from where I'll be living. And personally, I think that these days they have other things to do with their time besides threaten me."

"There's no way they can still get the inheritance, is there?" Percy asked.

Remus turned to look at him. "No way short of breaking into Gringotts. Legally I have a far more legitimate claim than they do."

"Even though they're related to him? I thought that any convicted felons had their wills dissolved."

There was a hoarse sound as Remus cleared his throat. "Don't worry, it's fine," he said at once. "Now, getting back to Ron and Ginny."

"We aren't staying, Mum," said the latter firmly. "Now can we just finish this up and go home? It's already getting dark."

"In my mind, we have finished it," Percy's mother said. "Your father thinks you should stay here and so do I. That's the end of the conversation."

"Mum!"

"Ginny, I'm not fond of your attitude."

"Hang on a second," said Oliver. "What if they stayed with us?"

Startled, Percy's head whipped around to look at Oliver. Oliver shrugged. "Well, it makes sense, really, if you think about it. They'd be on an unplottable island. From the impression I've gotten it's big enough that they could find lots to keep them occupied. They'll be able to see everything that's going on."

"That's what worries me," said Molly. "Oliver, it's very kind of you - "

"And we accept," said Ginny, to Ron's apparent surprise. "We wouldn't be in the way, would we, Oliver."

"Not in the slightest," he said, smiling. Percy felt like kissing him.

"There'll be no one to look after you."

"Good," said Ron. "We're not helpless. We won't annoy anyone and we'll do all of our own laundry."

"They'd be staying with family, instead of being right in the middle of all the commotion," Percy pointed out.

"You won't ever be home," said his mother.

"Oliver's family," said Ginny.

From the flustered look on his mother's face, Percy could tell that she wished they were having this conversation with Oliver away from the room - or better yet, not at all. "I like Oliver very much," she said, half addressing Oliver himself and half addressing Ginny, "but I think he'd agree that - "

"He's practically Percy's husband," said Ginny matter-of-factly.

"A boyfriend is not a husband, and that isn't because they're both men, I would say the same thing - Arthur, help me out of this!"

"I can see both points of view and therefore I think I'll stay out of it," he said after a moment's thought. Molly rolled her eyes heavenward.

Ginny decided to bring in an ally. "Remus agrees with me," she said.

"Ginny, that's enough."

"He does!"

"The topic of this conversation," said Arthur, glancing back and forth between Ginny and an expressionless Remus, "is whether you and Ron are going to live with Percy and Oliver until school starts or not. Let's finish it and be done."

"If she would learn to take no for an answer, it would be finished," Molly retorted.

"I wouldn't mind living there," Ron said.

His mother regarded him silently for a second. "You wouldn't."

"No, not really. We'll be around people we know and it'll be better than staying here - no offense."

"Percy, what do you think?"

Instead of saying the first thing he thought of, he paused to consider his answer. "I'd love it if they'd come to live with us. Oliver could use the company while I'm gone and they'd most likely learn a lot."

"Come on, Mum," Ginny coaxed.

"What do you think, Arthur?"

"I think," Percy's father said, setting down the contraption he was making on the seat next to him, "that Oliver's done an excellent job taking care of one of our children, and that I trust him to be as careful with two others."

Oliver grinned and wrapped an arm around Percy's waist. "So, by Thursday?"

Molly exhaled slowly. "You'll make sure they're responsible for themselves and that they don't bother anyone?"

"Yes."

"You'll have to take them to Diagon Alley for school supplies. Ron in particular needs new robes. You have to remember that Ginny's allergic to bananas."

"Does that mean..." Ron began.

"You can stay with Oliver and Percy."

From outside the house there was a sudden sickening screech of tires, and then the sound of metal colliding with metal. Ginny and Remus raced to the windows, shortly followed by the rest of the people in the room.

"I can't see anything," Remus said. "Wait, hang on, there's this sort of dark blur. It's moving towards the house."

Voices carried from the front corridor.

"...and now you've gone and smashed it, I don't know what you were thinking, you've got to slow down before you land it - "

"I thought I had slowed down!"

"Smashed it..."

"I didn't, I dented it. That's a huge difference. We're here alive and unhurt, Hermione, so calm down."

"I hope Lupin has the same opinion you have when he finds out you've crashed Sirius's motorbike - "

"Don't worry, Harry, that thing's been in more accidents than I can count," Remus called. "We're in here."

Harry Potter and Hermione Granger staggered into the room, each of them carrying a suitcase. "Oy!" Ron shouted, and sprang over to the door and his friends.

"Ron, I feel terrible for you, when I think of Fred and George I just, oh, I'm sorry that - "

"Yeah, all right," Ron muttered, apparently embarrassed by the situation. "They're going to be all right."

Harry remained at a slight distance, a tactic that Percy recognized as one used by a person who knew he should say something but didn't know how to do it. "We've just been to see them," Harry said at last. "So...Order of Merlin, second class."

"Yeah."

"What exactly happened to the motorbike?" Remus asked, causing a visible look of relief on Harry's face.

"I couldn't quite tell where the ground was - " Hermione rolled her eyes " - and it ran into some dustbins. They were more damaged than the bike was, really." At that moment Harry froze. He had seen Percy from the corner of his eye. "Hello."

"Hello, Harry." Percy vacillated - it was so stupid, yet he could think of nothing else - then held out his hand. "If you'll allow me the honor and privilege."

Harry did.