Percy's First Love

Percy stepped in to the playground in rather a good mood. He had got ten out of ten on the spelling test, he had managed to recite the seven times table backwards (though he couldn't do it forwards, he'd spent too much time learning it backwards), he had been picked second to last in Quidditch (a vast improvement on his previous stance - not being picked at all) and he had gained a total of four stickers and it was only break. It was his first day of year three and he was having the best morning of his life.

Although, as he walked out for playtime, a sixth sense seemed to warn him, something wasn't right. With a deep sense of foreboding he remembered, it was only the reception children that had their own penned up playground. The kids in year one were allowed to run loose amongst the older pupils.

"Percy!"

Two red blurs pounced on him and pinned him to the ground.

"Percy Percy Percy!"

"Yeah yeah gerrof."

Percy peeled his younger brother off of him and got to his feet.

"I'm going to tell mum what you did," he threatened the twins.

"Aww how sweet!"

A girl Percy recognised as Rebecca Walton had come over.

"Aren't they adorable!" she cooed. "Are they your brothers?"

Percy nodded dumbly. Rebecca was quite pretty he decided, with golden hair that came down to her shoulders and the sort of blue eyes that sparkled.

"Biscuit," Fred demanded.

"Fred," Percy snapped.

The twins looked up at him innocently.

"We were just wondering if the pretty lady would give us a biscuit," said George.

"Because we've been very good."

"And worked ever so hard."

"So, in a way, we deserve it."

Rebecca smiled and gave them both a biscuit.

"Thank you!" they chorused.

"Our brother fancies you," said Fred before they both ran off giggling.

Percy grinned nervously at Rebecca who smiled back.

"Um... er... hi."

"Hi."

Percy examined his feet. "Er... That was Fred and George."

"That's nice."

"They're twins."

"Yeah, they looked like twins."

"They're five."

"Really?"

"I'm seven and eleven thirteenths."

"I'm seven too."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Amazing."

"Yeah."

"Er... are you eleven thirteenths as well?"

"I don't know."

"Oh."

"You're really smart, aren't you?"

Percy blushed. "Well... um... I... er... well..."

"Becky! Are you playing?"

A girl from their class was calling her.

"Sure," Rebecca replied.

Rebecca wandered over to where the year three class were gathering. Percy followed her like a puppy.

"Kiss chase!" declared the girl. "Girls versus boys. Go!"

Everyone ran except Percy who was suffering from a mild case of shock. Rebecca came up to him and kissed him on the cheek.

The world span like it had never done for Percy before. Birds sang beautifully, flowers opened and the air was filled with the wonderful smell of blossoms. The whole world was a shade of fluffy pink. All because of one tiny kiss.

Percy walked home feeling light-headed.

"So how was your day at school, Fred and George?"

"Fed 'nd Dorge!" cried Ginny in delight from the stroller.

She then continued to chant their names. Ron, also in the twin stroller, joined in and when she stopped to examine a butterfly they had a squabbling match over who got to touch it.

"We got seven biscuits," Fred told their mother proudly over the shouts of "No, no, no! Mine, mine, mine!"

"Each," said George.

Ginny and Ron moaned as the butterfly flapped away. Fred and George tried to chase it but were held back by their springy leads.

"How about you, Percy? How was your day?"

"Perce!" declared Ginny.

"Perce Perce Perce!" chanted Ron with enthusiasm.

Ginny glared at him. "But-fly," she snapped by way of explanation.

"Percy?" Molly Weasley prompted.

"What?"

Percy glanced up at his mother. He opened his mouth to tell of his morning's achievements when he was interrupted.

"Percy's got a girlfriend," George told her.

"They're gonna get married," added Fred.

"She gave us a biscuit."

"Each."

"We like her."

Obviously to Fred or George whether or not biscuits were provided was a key factor in Percy's choice of girlfriend. Percy shook himself. What was he doing? Had he worked so hard to be promoted from water duty to table duty to toss it away now? Was he going to ruin his chances of being hall monitor over an icky girl? Of course not. He would forget her and retreat to the library at break.

"Why don't you invite your new friend round for tea sometime?"

Then again, that was an idea.

"And this is Errol."

"Hello Errol," said Rebecca stroking the creature.

Percy, having completed his tour, was now devoid of anything to say. He groped around for a topic.

"Errol's an owl."

"Yes. I know."

"Er..." This was not going well. Oh well, better stick with the topic of choice, there was no going back now. "He delivers post."

"So does ours."

"Oh! What's his name?"

"He's a she."

"Oh."

Percy suddenly became very intrigued by his shoes.

"You can hold my hand if you like," Rebecca offered.

Percy blushed.

Percy waited at the gates to the school praying that the chocolate frog in his pocket wouldn't melt. He knew she collected the cards and he'd seen her enjoying them before. This had to be the perfect gift. What else did you get girls?

He saw her off in the distance.

"Rebecca!" he called. "Rebecca I've got a-"

Percy froze mid sentence. Rebecca was walking to school with Oliver Wood. They were chatting as they walked along. Oliver had obviously just told a joke as Rebecca threw back her head a laughed causing her hair to fly in a perfect curve behind her.

He was just a classmate, Percy thought. It didn't mean anything. It's perfectly allowed to chat with a classmate.

Percy's mouth stumbled open as Rebecca's hand slipped in to Oliver's. Percy felt as though he was watching them gaze in to each other's eyes through a fog. Rising tears were beginning to cloud his vision. He reached in to his pocket and felt the chocolate frog. He lifted it out and stared at it. He threw it to the ground for anyone to find and ran to the boys' toilets. As he stared at his own tear stained face in the mirror he wondered why he could ever have been so foolish. Rebecca had never liked him. He was teacher's pet, for crying out loud. Girls didn't like boys who got top marks for their papier-mâché pyramids. Girls liked boys that were popular like Oliver. Oliver Wood who was always picked first in Quidditch.

Percy wiped the tears away and washed his face. He stared at his reflection again and wondered sadly who would ever like a geek like him.