Wizarding World one-shots

Never Enough (Perctoria)

To the outside world any party involving the Weasley family was an incredibly loud, extremely colorful (in both language and clothing), and immensely populated gathering of controlled chaos.

In Percy Weasley's opinion, this was almost entirely correct. The one inconsistency was that it was anything but controlled.

There were many reasons why he didn't want a large party for his eighteenth birthday, but this was one of the bigger ones. Every year previously had been a big, order-less festivity filled with lots of people from both the Weasley and Prewett sides of the family. It was ironic, really, how for his birthday his mum threw the last kind of celebration he wanted.

But he made a vow that it wouldn't happen again. This was going to be the year Percy stood up for what he desired. It was his birthday. He was going to celebrate it how he wanted with who he wanted.

And Merlin's Beard, Percy had been picturing it so clearly for months.

The morning would start like any other. He would get up before the sun rose but rather than heading to work, he would make eggs and grilled tomato with toast. He was going to have a large breakfast with things that he enjoyed rather than what Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny asked for.

After breakfast, Percy would head back to his bedroom and read for pleasure rather than for the Ministry. Even though he would never admit it to anyone, he was deeply invested in the storyline of Widgerton and needed to know how the second book would conclude. It had been weeks since he had last touched The Witch Who Loved Me and he was eager to see how Antonia and Kartik were going to fall in love.

He would give himself two hours for reading and then Apparate from the Burrow to Hyde Park in London where he would meet with his girlfriend of five years, Victoria Macmillan. This was the one part of Percy's plan he didn't know fully, as Victoria had been particularly secretive about what she had in store.

Still, he knew that if she was planning it, it would be perfect.

When Percy sent his mum a letter about how he wanted to have control over his own birthday (months in advance, of course. He knew parties take a long time to plan and didn't want to inconvenience her) she agreed to let him have control of his celebration this year. In fact, she seemed delighted by the idea. He had to admit that a small part of him was surprised at how easily she let him off, but he wasn't going to look at a gift broom by the bristles or however Wood said the phrase.

Percy graduated from Hogwarts, receiving "O"s on every one of his N.E.W.T.s of course, and went right into his internship with the Ministry of Magic under Bartemius Crouch Senior. Brilliant man, Crouch was. Percy was lucky to work with him. Preparations for the Quidditch World Cup as well as the Triwizard Tournament kept Percy busy, so much so that when his mum asked to speak to him about his birthday, he had nearly forgotten about it.

"Percy," Molly had started, pulling her third eldest son down next to her on the sofa, "I know you want to plan things on your own for this year, but I have gotten a few letters from most of my cousins about how they have yet to receive an invitation to your birthday party."

Percy swallowed, hard. "Well, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that—"

Molly hadn't finished speaking. "I went ahead and told them that it must have slipped your mind and invited them myself. They were all understanding, of course. With how busy you have been at the Ministry, it only makes sense that a few things slipped your mind." Molly smiled in the way that scrunched her whole face as she grabbed his hand. "We are all so proud of you, you know."

It was funny how just a few words spoken by Molly Weasley could make all of Percy's carefully coordinated plans made over months fall apart in seconds. He bit his lower lip, holding his tongue before he said something that would make things even worse.