Harry Potter One Shots

Faded Dreams

It was Christmas. Christmas, and Percy was here. Her Percy. Molly wasn't stupid. She knew the Minister was using him as a means to talk to Harry. But she threw her arms around Percy all the same. He was her boy, after all. Not the first, not even the second - he was in the middle.

Molly remembered when he was little, and would run up to her with a book in hand, eyes wide with excitement.

"Mum!" he'd say. "Mum, guess what I want to be when I grow up!"

She had smiled and straightened his tiny glasses for him.

"What's that, Perce?" she'd said.

And he had puffed his chest out and said proudly, "I want to be Minister for Magic."

Molly had suppressed a laugh and nodded her head at him seriously.

"You'll have to work very hard when you go to Hogwarts, Percy."

"I know. I can do it," Percy had said, so determined, so sure of what he wanted.

Molly had never thought those dreams of becoming Minister would last. She'd never thought he would actually work at the Ministry, much less for a part of the Ministry so corrupt. And she'd never thought those dreams, those little boy dreams that had once seemed fanciful, that he had been so eager to share with her, would grow to be bigger than his love for his family.

Molly was crying now, and Percy pulled back, his hands patting her back awkwardly. But she couldn't wipe the smile off her face. He was here. Her Percy was here, at home, where he belonged. For the precious moments when he was beside her, she didn't have to worry endlessly about him. She didn't have to see the clock, with its hands all pointed at "Mortal Peril", count each of her family members at the table, and agonise over Percy's absence. At the fact she didn't know whether he was okay.

Looking at him now, he didn't seem okay. There was a slightly pinched look to his face (probably due to lack of her cooking), and the usual spark in his eyes wasn't there. He was also looking at the Minister differently. Not with the same reverence and admiration he always had, but with something like exhaustion. It hurt that Molly couldn't do anything to help him. There was a physical ache in her chest when he left, slouching and never once glancing back at his family.

Molly was his mother, but she'd long stopped being his mum. He didn't come running to her with his dreams. Worse, he didn't come running to her when all the dreams had faded from him.

That night, Molly didn't sleep. She kept picturing Percy's face, and telling herself she was imagining the way he'd kissed her cheek, like he always did when he was saying goodbye. 

a/n

i've got a two part story thingo to publish next so stay tuned!

hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

thank you to the people who still comment, it means the world.

Cate x