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Age: 119
Sign: Aquarius
Country: United Kingdom

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February 12, 2020

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08/23/2020 08:17 PM 

Friendly Advice

21 August, 1995

Percy walked out into the garden, a small nod given to the wizard that allowed him through and into the sea of color that filled his line of vision. Flowers cascaded and bloomed in every direction he could see, an army of yellow lining the fence that obscured the setting sun. Sunflowers stood rooted, soaking up every last bit of the sun that they could. It was hard to spot her out in the garden at first, the shock of red hair absorbed by the enormity of nature's colors, her stillness blending her in beautifully with all that surrounded her. 

The round face turned slowly at him, the smile sent in his direction that broke the tension built inside him, shoulders released as he crossed for her. He didn’t realize until then how much he longed to see her, was desperately looking for a mind like his own to pick the moment Fudge offered him the position but nothing went accordingly from the moment he left the Minister’s office. 

“Ah, so you are alive?”

There was a softness in her tease as Percy sat beside her at the small table, his eyes dancing through the picturesque landscape before him, the glowing hue of the sun that set off different shades of the flowers he didn’t know existed and stole his breath away. “Just barely. What do you need?” 

The words sounded beaten down to his own ears, no attempt to cover it and pretend that he was his usual self, that everything was okay. That he was okay. He could feel her eyes on him, the calculating stare as Zoshia took in what he said and analyzed it, picked it apart. 

“Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were alright.” There was a pause, the stare remaining locked on him as Percy glanced over at her in question. “You weren’t at work again and you left early yesterday. To be fair, you never missed a day at school and work is following that same path for you. So, either you’re dying or something’s happened.”

“You sent a fire message, I thought this was important.”

A single brow arched with a daring look. “Well, I tried to owl you twice, but they returned to me.”

Misery ran his mind ragged, constant wishes to go back in time and change everything that had happened the last two days. He left the Burrow earlier, not on better terms or even an understanding with his mother but somehow managed to make things worse for himself. All the anguish he felt from his argument with his father materialized in the conversation with his mother, things he spent years bottling up boiling over. She knew now. Knew exactly what Percy felt and his standing with his father, a subtle way of saying that nothing would ever go back to the way it was.

“I heard the rumors,” Zoshia spoke up softly. “That’s all anyone’s been talking about today and I wanted to make sure you were okay. That’s what friends do.”

Percy kept his face forward as the full weight of her words fell on him. He wanted to ask about the rumors but he knew how the Ministry worked, how the entire wizarding world worked. Nothing was ever a private matter, eyes and ears everywhere. He had no doubt that Fudge leaked the news of his promotion, another way to bully Percy into taking it because if he didn’t everyone would view him as ungrateful and insane. And the faces he recognized the moment he stepped into the Leaky Cauldron, the whispers he heard rise as the key to the room was handed over; Percy knew as he walked off that the fire was already spreading. 

“Percy, what the hell’s happened?”

He didn’t know where to begin, hands lifting as his mind worked to put thoughts and words together. Zoshia sat patiently, no pressure placed on him as he struggled at first, disjointed words that were slowly forming sentences. Percy felt alone and helpless as it all began tumbling out from him, nothing held back in fear that he would drive Zoshia away like he did his family, meanings lost in half-lies to cover the brutality of the truth. Everything Fudge had said, the promotion that was given on a silver platter covered in weaved thorns of what would be expected of him and the consequence of declining. Fudge attached the first string to him, was carefully and slowly making him into a puppet without choice. His words crept to silence, all of it out in the open, laid bare for Zoshia to judge him on.

“I don’t know what to do.”

“Seriously?” Through a mouthful of biscuits, Zoshia gawked at him, a look that told him the answer was simple. “You have to take the position.”

“Did you not hear a word I said?” The question came off as more brash than he expected, an apology quickly following but Zoshia remained unphased, her eyes steadily on him in a look of understanding. 

“Yes. You take the position and Fudge is expecting you to spy on your family. You don’t take it and he’s going to destroy your life. But you rejecting this position won’t stop him from spying on your family. He’ll find someone else, at least you will control what information is being filtered in.” She let out an exasperated yell to Percy’s sudden look of awe, an idea that never dawned on him before. “How hasn’t that crossed you mind?”

As much sense as it made, Percy refused to entertain the idea. “Because if I take this job I will lose my family. They won’t care that I am trying to protect them, to them I’ll be a traitor. I don’t think I can mentally handle that, that’s my deepest fear coming to life; being hated and disowned. No job is worth that.” 

The sudden honesty in his words caught Percy off guard, an admission he to his deepest fears that no one but him knew. He valued his privacy, kept much of his feelings locked away from others, nothing more than generic attacks for people to come at him with. Even with Penelope, someone he once entrusted with his heart, Percy kept a lot of his beliefs and fears to himself. But with Zoshia, someone he was just getting to know, it was shocking how easy it was to be open with her, to allow her into his world, skim the edges of what his mind was really like.

“You’re going to sacrifice a part of yourself either way, there’s no way around that. It’s either your family or something you truly love, which is working at the Ministry. You can protect your family but at the cost of also betraying them. Or you do the Gryffindor thing by walking away, at the expense of your career but still possibly end up hated by your family in the end.”

“That’s the most rubbish advice I’ve ever been given.”

Zoshia laughed, a light noise that carried through the soft wind. “It’s not advice, it’s weighing your choices. Personally, I don’t really see you as a shopkeeper.”

“I dunno, I think I’d rather dapper as an owl keeper.”

Her laughter grew in volume, Zoshia’s entire body pressed back into her chair, her face turned up to the darkening sky. “I’m sorry, you used the word dapper and my mind immediately went to you in a suit surrounded by owls, lecturing some poor child about preening feathers.”

Percy's brows knitted together in bafflement despite the smile that curved against his lips. “You do know birds preen themselves, right?”

“Owl keeper is starting to make sense now.”

The laughter between them faded after a moment, Percy’s cheeks aching from the lack of smiling and laughter over the past few days. He still didn’t have a solution, no idea of what the next step should be, but he felt lighter. Happier.

“You do need to talk to your dad though.” She broke the silence with the obvious. “If you don’t want the position or don’t want to risk losing a relationship with your family, don’t take it. But the first thing you need to do is talk to him.”

“I tried that and it ended with us both saying some pretty terrible things.”

Zoshia’s nose scrunched, her head tilted from side to side. “Nothing that wasn’t true and that he won’t forgive you for.”

“I said he was pig-headed for having so many children that he clearly cannot afford to care for while remaining in a dead-end position.”

Lips pressed out, Zoshia froze mid-bite of her biscuit. “Okay, that is pretty horrible. But . . .” She talked over Percy’s groan, his face falling into his hands. “He’s not exactly being fair to you. My dad, for example. He loathes Fudge but had I been given such a position so early in my career, he would have celebrated with me, not belittle me or call me a traitor. He might not have liked it, warmed me but ultimately supported me.”

Her words dug small holes into Percy’s mind, knocked down the remaining hero-worshiping he held for his father. She was right and it crushed him. Support was all he needed, all that he ever wanted from his father and it was never given freely. There was always a comparison to someone else, a joke about how one of his siblings beat him to it, did it better. He was always made to learn on his own, do things his own way while everyone else received guidance and while Percy tried to believe it was because he was smarter than them, he knew it was because the idea of Arthur spending time with his son made him ill.

“I can’t take the position.” The hollowness of his words sat between them. Percy considered himself decent at hiding the immense loneliness, masking it over with ego and knowledge, but it crept through more each day, shined brighter now more than ever. He’d sacrifice everything he ever wanted for them in knowing that he still would be overlooked by them, forgotten. 

Zoshia didn’t disagree, didn’t fight him on the decision he had made. She only smiled as she offered him a biscuit. “You still need to talk to your dad, tell him what Fudge is doing.”

He wasn’t eager to talk to dad, but it needed to be done. “I’ll do that tomorrow, stop in before I decline Fudge’s offer.”

Leaving the Burrow Series; Part 4
Prompt for 𝔖𝔱𝔞𝔯𝔣𝔦𝔯𝔢 "I heard the rumours"

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Dragon Seeker

 

Sep 1st 2020 - 9:28 PM

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Live commentary
- I have to agree with Zoshia here. Percy missing anything for two days means death or something horrible happened
- Rumors are flying, both around the promotion and him leaving. Close-knit community and things spread just as described
-makes a note to self, that if ever in the need for a biscuit, Zoshia will always have some on her, like some biscuit queen-
- "you rejecting this position won’t stop him from spying on your family." < Oh. Ohhh shit, she is right! -has that same reaction as Percy to this news-
- Percy is so torn and I want to focus on that but I can't because he's letting Zoshia into his life in a way he shuts everyone else out and that just makes me so happy. But is he letting her in because to him, nothing else can hurt him and he just doesn't care anymore?
- She is such a Ravenclaw! Even if I didn't already know this from talking with her it's clear as hell here. She's taking everything, breaking it down and finding the most logical solution, which is take the position. 
- Percy as a dapper owl keeper, I'm on board with that. -is dying happily at this interaction between them-
- Percy really regrets saying that to Arthur, and that's breaking my heart. This piece was mending it for five seconds, stop!

This was 100% the best thing ever! You gave us 3 hard hitting pieces and then this little gem follows! Percy is still struggling and you can see that but Zoshia stole the show for me. She didn't react emotionally and instead talked to Percy rationally and listened to him which calmed him down. She got him to laugh and smile in a time where his life is yet again, falling apart. She showed she cared about him to owl twice and then send a fire message. And Percy's first reaction when seeing her was relief. 

-sails away on Percy/Zoshia ship, never planning to come back-

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