Breaking Protocol {Percy Weasley}

Chapter Eleven

Clara giggled as her and Percy stood just outside the Hufflepuff common room. She looked away from Percy, fiddling with a loose thread on his knitted blue jumper he had let her wear so she wasn't so exposed.

Percy had to admit, he did like the way Clara looked. The clothes fitted her much better than the baggy ones she usually wore, and her hair wasn't tied in its usually messy up-due. Although, the way his baby brother looked at Clara sent him off the edge.

A lady was not some object to be looked at, she was a blessing to be cared for and protected from guys like Fred who wanted her as only a trophy on their shelf.

"What are you laughing about?" Percy asked, frowning as Clara twirled before him, her red skirt fanning out.

"Oh come on, Percy." She smiled, stopping and wrapping her arms loosely around his neck. "It was funny. Fred, he...uh...well. It was funny." Clara giggled again, pulling away from him and covering her mouth with her hand.

"I don't find it amusing that my little brother was, erm, flirting with you." Percy said quietly, scratching the back of his neck. Clara laughed this time, resting her hand on her stomach.

"It was a little." She said, wrinkling her nose and lifting up two fingers with an centimeter between them, but Percy just shook his head.

"Well you should go inside if you want to finish up your homework. It was for McGonagall, correct?" Clara sighed, nodding her head.

"But school work...It can wait. As Fred said, it will still be there when I return." Percy shifted awkwardly where he stood before her, and Clara just watched him.

"What's your favourite colour?" She asked.

"Wh-what?" Percy looked up at her from floor. Bewildered.

"What's your favourite colour?" She asked again. Percy just stared at her.

"My favourite colour?" He repeated.

"Yes...that is what I have said two times now." Clara watched as Percy thought about it, clasping his hands nervously behind him.

"Erm. Well, t-that's a rather peculiar question... I haven't given colour much thought. It isn't really relevant to my life." Percy admitted. Clara giggled again, causing Percy to frown once more.

"Oh, Percy." Clara smiled, her genuinely sweet smile with just the right touch of shyness that spread unexpected warmth throughout Percy's body. She reached out for his hand, pulling it close to her chest as she looked up at him with silver eyes littered with sparkles of happiness.

"Colour is...so much more." She was saying, tracing her thumb in circles on the back of his hand. "Life is like a...eh...rainbow. We paint our surrounding with the colours we love, and we are all our own colour. You understand?"

Percy's heart was racing as he stood close to Clara, her hand clasped in his. "I-I do not."

"We are all unique." She explained. "We are like a colour, some are bright, and some are dim, but when the colours are put together in a picture, it creates art that some muggles spend great amounts of money on. Colour expresses the beauty of nature, the beauty of the world around us."

Clara spun in a circle again, still holding his hand in hers. She giggled as she clumsily danced around the corridor with a stiff Percy.

"W-well. What is your favourite colour, then?" Percy asked as Clara draped her arms around his neck. She swayed back and forth, as if she was dancing to music only she could hear.

"Rouge." She said, smiling. Clara reached up to Percy's hair, running her fingers through his scarlet curls. "Rouge like your hair."

"W-why like my hair?" Percy asked. Clara giggled.