Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(87) Bad Mornings

It was a very long, and complicated story, Molly Weasley knew. But she was running out of time, and eventually she just had to tell her children about the Order. Dumbledore had sent out the second letter that week, the Black family house was ready for use. They needed to move in soon.

To say that it was hard to tell the story of the Order of the Phoenix to Fred, George, Percy and Ginny—and supposedly to Ron, who, as it turned out, knew of Sirius Black's arrival before Molly even did— was an understatement. She had tried to distract herself by cooking a big, lovely breakfast for her family, but her anxiousness had caused her to whip up twice the amount of sunny side eggs than normal. She cursed slightly, under her breath, but placed it on the breakfast table nonetheless.

She called her children downstairs, hearing a distinct cracking sound seconds after her call. There, Fred and George stood, in the middle of the kitchen, before anyone else could, making Molly glare at them exasperatedly. However, she decided to save her energy for important things.

Ginny and Ron raced down the stairs a few minutes later, to be followed by Arthur, who was enjoying the last few hours of his day off by skimming through a pile of muggle newspapers. He found it odd, and mildly fascinating how apparently, you could contact someone from miles away using a bunch of random numbers in the muggle world. He had lingered in the ads section for too long.

"Come see what you lot have from the mail," Molly called, gesturing to the stack of envelopes near the sink, Errol, the family owl, perched a few feet away from it, "Fred, I think you have one from Florence, dear. Might want to get to that." a chorus of teasing erupted as Fred scrambled to snatch his letter from the pile, before any of his siblings could get their hands on it.

They were all rounded up at the table for a meal within ten minutes, the dining room alive with animated talking about anything at all. Charlie had arrived from Romania a couple days ago, per Dumbledore's request. He sat there, talking with his siblings as they all enjoyed the platter of eggs and breakfast foods laid down in front of them.

Sure enough, halfway into breakfast, Percy had arrived from work. Setting down his briefcase and shrugging off his jacket to hang on the rack, he did not look as tired as he always was whenever he came from overnight shifts. Instead, he slid in to his seat on the table, an enthusiastic smile on his face, no longer able to hold back his excitement. So, he broke out the news to his family.

"Mum, dad," he said, reaching over across the table for the sandwiches, setting a few slices on his plate, "I got a promotion today." Percy said, pride evident in his voice. Molly let out a small gasp, clasping her hands together in sheer delight, "Oh my! That's wonderful news, Percy! I'm so proud..."

He beamed happily as Arthur patted his firmly on his shoulder, "That's my boy!" he cheered, while the rest of his siblings gave a brief congratulations for his news. They couldn't care less, really, as Percy had been more annoying ever since he's started with his career at the ministry, obsessing over Fudge as if he was his religion.

"What position have you got now, Perce?" asked Bill, before shoving a spoonful of eggs in to his mouth.

"I'm Junior Assistant to Cornelius Fudge himself,"

Arthur glanced quizzically at his son, while Molly let herself swallow her food, before going on to further talk about it, "Just a year out of Hogwarts, dear. Isn't that a very high rank to take on?"

"Yeah I suppose it is." Percy said, paying no heed to the surprise that was growing among his family members, mistaking it for being impressed of his achievements, "The Minister probably sees a great deal of potential in me, is why I've moved up very early. Great pay too.. maybe I can get my own place when I've saved enough..."