Intertwined || Percabeth Hogwarts AU

Chapter 40

Percy tried hard to ignore that warm feeling that bubbled in him hearing that and focused on the pictures. Then a nagging thought ate at him.

"A lot of time has passed since then so how come you never moved on?" He asked, though it pained him to say it. "I mean, you must've been so lonely."

She hummed lightly, stroking his back. "Well, I've always had you."

Percy smiled sadly and shook his head. "You know what I mean."

"There's no one else for me," she said. "You and your father are the only men I've ever loved."

Percy made a face. "So, like, is that just for consolation, or—"

Sally burst out laughing and squeezed his shoulder. "Go ahead and ask."

"Okay, so I need to know, do you still love him? Honestly?"

"Very much so," she affirmed immediately, gently brushing his hair out of his face. But then her face fell, lined with such defeat and pain that sent a pang of hurt through Percy's entire body. "He still has seven more years to go..."

Percy swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. "So you've been waiting for him... all this time he was in Azkaban—"

"I wasn't able to visit or write," she confirmed sadly. "Muggles aren't given that privilege, unfortunately. And Azkaban isn't any normal prison from what I've heard."

"Yeah, no kidding," he scoffed angrily. Then he looked directly into her eyes with a sense of burning purpose. "One day I'm gonna bring him home to you, mum. I promise."

Tears began to well in her eyes and she wrapped her arms around her son, pulling him in and holding on tightly. Percy's arms wound around her, embracing her with equal vigor and she let her body sag, her muscles coming loose. She had been strong for far too long.

"I'm tired, Percy," Sally said, sniffling when she pulled away. "We can talk more about this in the morning."

"Yeah, yeah, of course. You should go to bed; it's getting late."

She smiled softly at him and pressed a kiss to his forehead before leaving the kitchen. As soon as he couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, Percy flipped open the photo album to the picture of him and his father at his birthday party and stared long and hard at it.

"I remember this party..." He whispered to himself.

He remembered him and his friends playing hide and seek... his mum getting mad when they spilled juice on the couch... even his mum feeding him the first piece of the cake. The scene in the photograph must've followed shortly after, but he had no recollection of it whatsoever. Nor did he have any recollection of his father at all.

"Strange..."