In A Time Of Uncertainty

Part Four, Chapter Twelve

"Percy, you're mad," said Ron, his voice definitive and flat. "You can't ask someone else's mum to risk her life for you, even if she is your boyfriend-thing's mum."

"Boyfriend thing?" Ginny asked with one raised eyebrow.

"Boyfriend. Whatever." He looked over at Oliver. "Right? You aren't going to ask your mum."

Oliver exhaled and rested his head in his hand. "And after hours of training and stress - "

"I'm sorry, Ol," Percy mumbled. The floor was beginning to pitch again.

"It's okay. It's not you. I just need to think."

"About what?" Ron demanded. "What are you going to say, 'Mum, Percy's sick, I need you to go and put your life in danger'?" The impression of Oliver's accent was uncanny.

"Ron, when it comes to assigning jobs, your brother is damn good. He spent hours going all those Ministry files and we ended up with an incredibly qualified list of people."

"Yeah, and was he thinking the floor was moving when he did all that? There has to be someone else who can do it."

"Someone else we know we can trust?" Oliver shot back. "Who? They're all busy, here or somewhere else." He took his hand away from his face and looked at Percy. "To answer your original question, she spent almost all her time abroad. She even did a bit of undercover reporting. If - "

"I'll do it," Ron interrupted.

"Yeah," said Oliver, "and I'll sprout huge feathery wings and fly away. Now that the Ministry is working with the Order, and the Prophet is working with the Ministry - "

"Oliver, shut up, I'll do it," Ron insisted. "What makes you think I can't?"

"Ron," Percy muttered, "regardless of anything else, Mum's not going to let you. End of story. Isn't it enough that she let you come here in the first place? The second you get out of school you can annihilate as many Death Eaters as you want; hell, considering that you're best mates with Harry you'll probably have a chance to do some fighting within the first month of school."

"Perce, it's somebody's mum."

"And you're somebody's brother and son."

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

The ship wouldn't slow down, and the waves wouldn't stop rearing their foam-crested heads. Sometimes between the waves Oliver would come and take Percy's temperature again, or bring him soup. Once he handed him the soup bowl just as a wave hit the sodden hull and broth splattered all over the white cotton deck. Oliver wanted to clean it up, but why clean it up if the entire deck was wet already?

"Oliver, I'm soaked," Percy whispered.

Oliver told him that the water was coming from his own body, out of his skin and onto the blankets. But there were no blankets, only the fallen sails from the mast.

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

When a few days had passed he was told that the water was contagious. The ship had sailed away from the island and gone back to England. Still Percy could not make it below the deck. Still he spilled food and others wanted to clean what was already wet.

Remus was on the ship.

"Why are you the only one here?" Percy asked. "Where's Oliver?"

Remus was wearing a white shirt and black trousers, but for some reason the water stayed away from him. "I've already had Uric's Fever. I can't catch it again. Oliver's never had it."

"Is it because you're a werewolf?" Percy asked. "Are you immune to the water?"

"I suppose you could say that," Remus said, clearing his throat.

"Remus? When the storm stops, can I come and stay at Evermore?"

"No, Percy, you have to go to Canada and take over for Anne. Once you come home to Oliver the two of you can visit Evermore if you want to."

"Why is it called Evermore, Remus?"

"I'll tell you when you're well."

"But what if the boat sinks?"

"The boat won't sink."

"It might."

"It didn't sink when I had Uric's Fever."

"Maybe it did and you didn't know about it, because you're a werewolf and you're immune to the water."

"Percy," Remus said, "the boat isn't going to sink. Trust me on this one. With the medicine available today the boat doesn't sink anymore."

"Anymore and Evermore." Like the rise and fall of the ship. Anymore - up on the wave - and Evermore - the sliding of the stomach during the plunge.

"Do you really want me to tell you?" Remus asked.

"Yes."

"When Sirius bought the house, he called it Evermore because he said that was how long he would love me."

Evermore, always, even if the boards were to break open and the water were to sweep a person under.

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

After time had passed, the rain stopped, although the surges of salty water still made the ship sway. It was dry enough on deck that George could come, even with his new leg.

"I don't remember you being on the boat," Percy said to him.

"Fred and I were both on the boat when we were babies and you were little. You wouldn't remember it." George sat on the ship's rail. Percy thought it must have been awful to be a baby on the ship, until it occurred to him that Fred and George had been such strange children that the rocking of the boat was probably like the rocking of a cradle to them.

"D'you like the leg?" George asked.

He was smiling, so Percy figured it would be all right if he smiled as well. "A pirate."

"A pirate," George agreed. "Red George the Invader." He traced the wooden leg's carved design all the way down to the cloven hoof.

"Did you know Mundungus killed someone?" he said suddenly.

Percy shook his head, confused.

"In the first war. He killed one of the Death Eaters that killed Fabian and Gideon Prewett. You know. Mum's cousins."

"You and Fred are named for them," said Percy.

"Yeah. Frederick Fabian and George Gideon. They were mates of Dung's."

"I didn't know that."

"Mum always thought he was a bad influence on them."

Everything was quiet for a while.

"There was a god," Percy said at last, as the sun began to set on the horizon. "A Greek god. His name was Hephaestus, and he could make all sorts of powerful weapons and chariots. All the other gods used the things he made in battle. He didn't like war, though, he was a calm sort of person. When he wasn't forging things he sat in a high place of honor, on one of the twelve thrones of Mount Olympus. You aren't Endymion anymore."

"What?"

"Hephaestus's legs were injured when he fell to the island of Lemnos."

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

When the ship docked an angel arrived.

She was tall, with lightly tan skin and dark hair. It seemed as though she walked out of the foam and onto the beach, the sand encrusting her feet and the wind blowing her hair about like seaweed flows in the water. Perhaps she was a mermaid and not an angel, Percy thought. She had no fins but she did not have wings, either. He looked into her face and saw that she was not young; she had been a full-grown being for many years.

She smiled, the corners of her mouth spreading like unfolding wings.

"The boat's run ashore, Percy Ignatius," she said.

"Yes, it has."

"This afternoon you will be ready to depart."

As the last words left her lips he raised his head and saw a creature, her son, even more stunning behind her. He was broad and strong, with a sharp face and the deepest of brown eyes. He was Percy's own.

"Hello, Oliver," he said.

"Hey, beautiful." Oliver sat in the middle of the bed, between Percy's spread ankles. "Sick of St. Mungo's yet?"

"A bit tired of being in bed all the time. My stomach is fine now."

"I should hope so, because you and me and Mum and Dad and Ian are going to get the going-away dinner right this time."

"And then it's Canada in the morning."

"It is." Oliver leaned forward and lightly brushed his wet lips against Percy's dry ones. "But not yet."