Percy didn't know quite what he wanted to do with his life when he was young. He was sensitive and adverse to the rough housing of Charlie and Bill. When Molly taught him to read during their home schooling sessions, Percy only left his comfy chair in the living room if Bill dragged him outside. With the amount of books Percy went through, Molly started begging Arthur to bring home new material for Percy to sink his teeth into. Arthur obliged bringing not only wizarding novels but muggle ones he thought sounded interesting that he found at work.

Percy's favorites had kings and monarchs and heroes overcoming strict dictators. He loved the muggle books The Chronicles of Narnia for their talking beasts and accurate portrayal of centaurs. He believed C.S. Lewis had to have been either a squib or married a witch to get everything right about the magical world. He especially loved The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, how the four siblings stumbled upon a magical world where they were destined to overthrow an evil witch. He often tried to get Charlie and Bill to play make believe with him, though this didn't always work out quite well.

"And then Edmund felt a fire deep in his bones. Soon they were shifting and bending and giant wings burst from his back! The fire burst from his throat melting the ice queens throne to water! Clutching Mr. Tumnus in his claws, Edmund leaped for the skies to fly back to his siblings because he was secretly a spy the entire time!" Charlie exclaimed while running through the garden and roaring more like a lion cub than a dragon. Six-year-old Percy was not amused.

"No no no!" He said stomping his foot. "I told you, Edmund does not turn into a dragon! Eustace does in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. This is The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Edmund betrays his siblings and Aslan has to save him from his mistake. I wrote you a script for a reason Charlie. Can't you just follow it?" Ever the peacemaker, Bill cut in.

"How about we do it Percy's way first considering he spent all this time writing us a script" gesturing to the parchment in his hand using the prop 'sword' Percy fashioned for him out of a fallen tree branch, "and then we can do it your way Charlie." Sighing, Charlie stopped flying around and wandered back over to their clearing.

"Fine. But do I have to play Edmund? He's lame and betrays his family which is just stupid."

When Percy started at Hogwarts he was very nervous, but still held the belief that with enough bravery he could fix the problems of the world. Some in his year nicknamed him the Raven's Lion for how often he spent in the library with the Ravenclaws. Surrounded by his favorite companions, Percy quickly became a friend of Madam Pince and soon she was writing him notes to stay late in the library to study for an hour past curfew. Percy's professors also adored him for, though he knew every answer to their questions, he always waited to see if someone else wanted to answer first. After class he would stay and chat with the professor about some of the other reading he had done.

This was how Percy had achieved prefect and despite the twins' jokes and pokes about Percy elating about the position, he just couldn't keep it in. He felt he finally had the influence to fix some of the reoccurring problems at Hogwarts. He could patrol the halls with another prefect to stop first years from getting scarred when searching for a broom like he had his own first year; he had the authority finally to take and give points to those who actually deserved them, and he could go to Dumbledore with some ounce of authority on any issues he encountered that were out of his control.

During his fifth year Percy finally realized that the reason he wanted the prefect position so terribly was he wanted to make a difference in his society. That lead him down the path of service filled fields that he could go into in order to achieve this goal. He looked at St. Mungos and though he found he enjoyed helping people, the sight of blood and different ailments made him queasy. He looked into teaching at some of the wizarding pre-Hogwarts schools, but found as cute as the children were, he needed someone to hold sensible conversations with. The last place he toured was the Ministry of Magic. Shadowing his father Percy was able to view all the problems of law making, department communication errors, and the problems with his father's own department. There was so much Percy saw that he wanted to change, so much potential with which to make a difference that Percy didn't want to leave. Arthur had to drag him home.

Percy headed straight up to his room that night, taking care to avoid all the odd traps of the twins, and pulled out a new quill and some parchment and began to write. He took each department of the Ministry separately and laid out their mission statements and how/why they were founded. His research took him well into the night, but though he was blurry eyed from lack of sleep and exhausted he gazed at his list with pride. It contained lists rights and wrongs each department had made, what reforms could be added in order to fix the problems surrounding each area and plans to implement each reform.

That year at Hogwarts as Head Boy, he took his prized list to Dumbledore to ask for his opinion on all of Percy's ideas. Albus too ample time going over each item on Percy's list and tried to argue the opposition.

"Alright my boy, let's say we do create a reservation for werewolves. What if they do not want to stay in the reservations? One might want to integrate himself into society and live in a nice apartment on Diagon Ally rather than in a cabin in the middle of a forest far from other civilizations." Albus said.

"Well that's the beauty of the reservation Headmaster. The place itself is a society. It will be fully functioning with its own businesses and stores. It will have a school where all the children can go to and restaurants for couples to go to on date nights. It will have even a joke shop for people like my brothers to go to and play pranks on their families. It will be a perfect haven for them where they can escape the hatred of the purebloods. The purebloods won't have a reason to hate the werewolves anymore because they won't be a threat anymore. Any unregistered werewolf that bites another human will be sent to Askaban and the human will relocate to the reservation to receive counseling and get used to his new surroundings." Percy countered.

"What about the human who has to leave their family to live on the reservation? So far your reservation is for werewolves only. Do you expect those cursed to live without those that care about them?"

"Well no…not exactly. The families of course could not live on the reservation, but they would be more than welcome to visit any time they wanted. The person afflicted with the disease shouldn't live outside the reservation, but they would be more than welcome to go and visit their family outside the reservation as long as it wasn't the week of the full moon, for as long as they wished."

"That plan works well for any adult that receives the bite well into their independence, but what about children that get bitten? It's rare but it happens. Remus Lupin received the bite when he was only four-years-old. What would you do with a four-year-old dependent child on your reservation."

"See this is the part I get excited about." Percy said with a sparkle in his eye. "There would be a foster program similar to the foster program in the States on the reservation. A child that receives the bite should be with a family that understands their pain and can help them through the transformations rather than with a normal family. The child will be adopted into a new family that understands them and will grow to love them. The family will be reimbursed to help pay for the new addition to their family. Everything works out. The child's original family can visit the child any time they wish, and the child receives the exact care it needs to live a healthy life as a werewolf."

"Well Percy, it seems that we've discussed things right up to curfew again haven't we? You have patrols soon if I'm not mistaken and I have some work I still need to address before tomorrow. You have some very good ideas my boy, but you need to be open to change. Sometimes things are not quite as good as they seem and there are always different aspects of a problem that are not always blatantly obvious." Dumbledore smiled gently at the enthusiastic ginger in front of his desk.

He chose Percy for Head Boy precisely for this reason. The boy had great ideas and with some good guidance would do well at the Ministry. Dumbledore worried for Percy's lack of flexibility, but then again everyone had their flaws. Goodness knows he himself had many. Not all flaws were easily overcome, and he could see a hard path in front of the young seventeen-year-old, but Percy would learn and become a fine man one day. The similarities between young Percy and himself at that age…

Like always, Percy stood up trying to mask his pleasure from Dumbledore's praise oblivious to the blatant warnings and advise Dumbledore always gave at the end of their talks in hopes of breaking through Percy's thick utopia. Some things had to be learned the hard way however, and Percy went on his way down the hall rethinking some of his plans to incorporate Dumbledore's infinite wisdom.

After Hogwarts, Percy worked hard on his application to the Ministry. He applied for the open position of Barty Crouch's assistant. He figured that the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was the most straight forward and Percy had few, if any, reforms for that area. He got the job and was so delighted. Though it didn't pay well, Mr. Crouch often forgot his name, and the hours were long and arduous, Percy finally felt well on his way to changing the world. He was slowly getting more and more recognition from Crouch till he was basically doing Crouch's job for him. Rather than see this as a warning sign like the rest of his family did, Percy believed that Crouch all along had been training him to take over the position. Crouch was nearing retirement. He probably meant for Percy to take over.

When everything went to shit so to say, Percy couldn't quite believe Harry's tale. Of course, the boy did look shaken and pale, but that could be from any of the dangers in the maze. Percy himself recalled feeling similar after encountering Hagrid's Blast Ended Skrewts for the first time. Surely Harry's story of Voldemort coming back was just the boy's hysteria talking after finding Diggory dead. Of course, Dumbledore would have to take the child's size being his Headmaster in a normal situation, but this was ludicrous. Obviously, Dumbledore too was getting up in age and with Harry being the Golden Boy Who Lived, why, of course Dumbledore believed him for the image. What person would want their children to attend a school where their kids weren't taken seriously?

When he mentioned all of this to the Minister, Fudge offered him a job. Percy couldn't have been more excited. He was comfortable, for now, sharing his ideas as a background adviser to the Minister than having his name on all the laws like he truly aspired. Besides he'd go down in history as the Minister's best friend and people would know in the end of Percy's good influence on the slightly silly Fudge.

All changed with the attack on the Ministry. Percy saw with horror the second rise of Voldemort in all his terror. He watched people he was friends with and ate lunch with, flock to the dark lord's side. He watched his girlfriend, Penelope, forced into hiding because of the new laws against muggleborns. All Percy could think was "What good are any of my laws and reforms against such a brilliant, psychotic, evil, madman."

Instead of wallowing in his pain, Percy took it upon himself to return to his Gryffindor heritage. Sure, he screwed up by supporting the wrong people when he should've stayed with his family and those who loved him, but there was nothing for that now. There was no real time for regret in the face of this terror. So Percy did what he did best. He planned.

"Look we've already got the order to register any muggleborns, halfbloods, and other non-pureblooded witches and wizards. What's next? An order for them to report to the Ministry for questioning and an examination of their wands in order to prove they haven't been using any magic other than their own?" Percy said at the lunch table with his friends.

"Come on Percy that's ridiculous. I'm sure we're just tracking muggleborns right now to verify that they're being safe when spending time in muggle populated areas. You have to admit that there's a risk." Barnabe argued.

"Of course, there's a risk. There's been a risk for years and will always be a risk. That's why we have a team of Obliviators always on standby. The real risk is to the muggleborns. You-Know-Who has already taken over. We know he terrorized muggles and muggleborns in the last war. I don't know why you would think he'd stop this time around. We need to come up with some way to fix this or if we can't to protect them!"

"Look, I think you're overreacting but if it makes you feel better, my parents have some land. It's unplottable. There isn't much there, but I've got a couple tents left over from the Quidditch World Cup a couple years back. We can set them up and if things get too bad, we send people there." Barnabe said.

"Thanks. I appreciate it." Percy said making a note on a charmed piece of parchment.

"Just out of curiosity," Barnabe continued, "how many other places have you got sorted out now?"

"I think I'm up to around thirty different locations? It helps that Mum was a Prewitt. I've got a few relatives with some unplottable land. Then the Weasley's had a couple squibs that volunteered to help out since they're affected in all this too I think. So that gave me the first ten spots."

Gathering only the most loyal of his ministry friends, Percy started the underground railroad for the muggleborns. As much as Fred and George believed in Harry, Percy didn't want to put his trust so thoroughly in another person ever again. Besides while Harry was a remarkable seventeen-year-old-boy, he was just that, a seventeen-year-old-boy. Percy created a back-up system to save magical kind outside of Britain and hopefully later on they could develop a war strategy to fight back against Voldemort's tyrannical reign. He cut off all contact with his family and their associates due to his role as a double agent in the Ministry. No one could think he was anything but loyal toward the Ministry and therefore Umbridge and Voldemort by association for the protection of those he managed to smuggle out. He worried so much about Ron wandering around who knows where, doing who knows what with Harry and Hermione. Without any contact with the family, he listened to Fred and George's reports faithfully savoring every scrap of news he heard about the three.

Meanwhile he smuggled muggleborn after muggleborn out of England using Polyjuice and his connections in France. During the Triwizard's Tournament, Percy met with many French diplomats as Crouch's representative. While some despised him because of Crouch's rude behavior, others were sympathetic to his plight then and they maintained contact through the years.

The system Percy and Penelope set up used a discreet underground railroad. Pureblood witches and wizards on Harry's side volunteered their homes and their livelihoods to protect those in their society who were being attacked. Percy started the system by smuggling out as many muggleborns that were rounded up for investigation through his job at the ministry. His friends then planted illegal portkeys to Percy's apartment where Penelope met them and gave them Polyjuice potion to travel to the Hogs Head as Percy himself to meet with Aberforth who would then give them floo access to Beauxbatons. From there, French ambassadors met with the refugees and brought them to a safe house where they could assume new identities like a witness protection program. Though France itself thus far had remained neutral in the war, the people of France still wished to help those in trouble. Those with families used Percy's floo to go to the various safehouses in Britain he managed to provide each under the Fidelius charm by their various owners.

Percy's system couldn't save everyone though. Only one person could travel per night and often his flat was filled to the bursting with people sleeping side by side on the floor of his living room without blankets. It was also difficult to floo entire families to the safehouses since Percy's floo was monitored due to his family's bloodtraitor status. Most jumps were made at night when Barnabe was watching the floo network. During the days, they had to remain silent so they didn't tip off Percy's neighbors who sympathized with Voldemort and Percy was under constant stress of getting found out by the Death Eaters that now dominated the Ministry. He worried for Penelope's safety who refused to leave him alone in his fight. He worried that eventually his neighbors would notice how he kept smuggling extra blankets and pillows into his small flat. Most of all, he worried for the muggleborns sitting in silence, constantly on edge.

When the call came about the Battle at Hogwarts, Percy immediately apparated to Hogsmeade determined to make up for his wrongs out in the open. It was him that had paved the way for Voldemort's return. He deserved to die for causing all this pain and misfortune to good people. He didn't deserve or expect the forgiveness of his family.

It wasn't until years and years later that the full story of Voldemort's second reign came out in its entirety. Though Harry protested, Hermione convinced him that everyone deserved to hear just exactly what he had done. Had anyone else asked or proposed to write it, the history probably would only exist through word of mouth and story-telling, but Hermione knew just what to say to gain Harry's acceptance of the book.

Percy had been welcomed back into the family with open arms by Molly and Arthur. The rest of the siblings however took some time. Bill and Charlie remained indifferent to the whole affair only taking him back after personal confessions and apologies. His relationship with George would probably never be the same and Percy accepted that fact. Ginny was hurt but removed enough from the situation that she accepted him back readily following Charlie and Bill. Ron…well, though Ron was still angry, he begrudgingly allowed Percy back into his life after a talking to from Hermione.

When Hermione asked Percy for an interview about his war experience Percy was shocked. He figured his story would be left out of the mix in order to focus on Harry's struggles. Hermione however was not one to cut corners. She wanted every aspect of the story for her book for a complete unbias account of the history.

"So why didn't you come back them moment you knew you were wrong?" Hermione asked over tea.

"It started out as embarrassment. I've always struggled with pride and everyone knows it. Then later I saw all the ways that I could help out from the Ministry and I knew if I contacted everyone, I would just be endangering people."

"The ways you could help out?" Hermione prodded.

"Well, when I found out just what was going on with the muggleborns, I couldn't just stand back and watch. I was actually shocked to see how much stock people had put into the whole blood and heritage thing. I had never known that people believed that rubbish. It's naïve yes, but I just assumed people had used it as an excuse to get what they wanted."

"So how did you actually help out?" Hermione asked. Percy blushed.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm still not totally used to talking about it even though it's been years. I became so good at redirecting people that it's almost second nature. I…I started an underground railroad of sorts for all the muggleborns I could help."

"That was you?" Hermione exclaimed a little loudly.

"Yes, now hush. Audrey's been having trouble with the baby lately. She's been kicking nonstop and poor Audrey's just getting some sleep after being up all night. We're so near the due date that I didn't want to leave her. It's why I asked you over here rather than meeting you somewhere which would've been much more appropriate."

"I almost forgot all about the baby with all the research I've been doing. Audrey's okay though right? No real complications with the baby or anything?" Hermione asked in a lower tone.

"No, she's doing alright besides a little discomfort now she's in the final weeks. She's handling it better than I am, but I suspect it's because she's so used to working with children herself. But we're getting off track."

"Right. How did the operation work? I know a lot of the surviving muggleborns relocated to France after the war to escape all the bad memories. I haven't had the chance to get in contact with any of them. There's been rumors of course of your system, but I haven't been able to track anyone down yet." It was clear Hermione had been getting frustrated trying to figure out all the complexities of the system Percy oversaw.

"Well since I was in with the Minister as his secretary, I saw a lot of his memos before I passed them on. Before Umbridge could start rounding up the known muggleborns, she had to send a list through the line of command and Thicknesse had to sign off on it. Normally that would take a good amount of time, but since everyone in the Ministry besides a few were Voldemort sympathizers, a new list was approved every two days or so. I had a couple of friends who worked in the Ministry who wanted to help out as well and we figured out a system. As soon as I got a new list, I would make a copy, and send it off. My friends each took a couple of names and went to each person when they had the time to try and convince them to leave. If they agreed, they flooed to my flat where we then gave out Polyjuice with my hair, sent them over to the Hogs Head. Aberforth would meet with them and then they flooed directly to Beauxbatons where French ambassadors saw to their safety. I had connections with them from the Triwizard competition and after a few quick letters, they agreed to help out. There were also a couple safe houses I set up with a few other sympathizers at the Ministry. That's where I sent all the families. They were monitoring my floo so they could only leave at certain hours of the night when Barnabe was on shift. Of course, the first couple tries failed as we didn't realize that Thicknesse was monitoring owl post. Luckily, I used a regular Ministry owl, so nothing got traced back to me that time. That's when we started writing in code. Most wizards don't know anything about muggle coding so nothing tripped the scanners and I managed to get the lists out."

Throughout most of Percy's speech Hermione had remained silent trampling down all her questions to let Percy stutter out his tale. During their time searching for Horcrux's, Hermione often forgot just how bad things got for everyone else. While her, Ron, and Harry had all suffered in a number of ways, Percy's story reminded her of the other horrors Voldemort inflicted in his second reign. She remained quiet as Percy continued.

"We tried to save as many people as we could. I started with Penelope by accident. She stuck by me through everything including all my stupidity. I was so worried about her that I contrived a plan to smuggle her out and when I tried to do so, she opened my mind to the hundreds of other muggleborns who needed just as much help as she did. She refused to leave until I came up with something to help everyone else and when I did, she made sure they were all well cared for in my flat until we could smuggle them out. Our problem was that not everyone believed they were in danger.

"We tried everything to convince people to run to safety, but not much was on our side. The Daily Prophet was under Voldemort's thumb, it started claiming that the Ministry was having muggleborns register in order to protect them rather than ship them off to Askaban. I remember one woman, Mary Catterpole believed her husband's job in the Ministry would keep her safe from all the threats. I know her trial date passed at some point, but I don't know what her fate was."

"Mary Catterpole! She was one of the few we actually freed during our infiltration of the Ministry!" Hermione cut in excitedly. "Don't worry. Her and Reginold Catterpole are doing just fine. They live out in Sussex now and he's much happier not working at the Ministry!" Percy looked relieved.

"It's good to hear that. There were others though. People I don't remember the names of that we couldn't convince or weren't at home when we called. Some had disappeared before we could even help them, and I feel terrible we couldn't do anything about it."

Hermione remembered Dean Thomas' little group of refugees that they encountered on their adventures. She wondered how different things would've been had he escaped through Percy's railroad and if they would've made it out of Malfoy Manor without his help.

"It was a terrible time. I was constantly worried about them all. At one point we had fifteen people living in my flat. There was never enough food or blankets for everyone, there was always the fear that someone would hear something suspicious and call the Snatchers. It was such slow-going business because we could only send one person a night, or two people in the day time if we were lucky. Any more than that and people would start questioning things. As it was I was constantly teased about my drinking habits. No one ever saw me leave the Hog's Head so most assumed that while I was good at my job, I had terrible habits. A loss of reputation is a small price to pay for the lives of others, so I dealt with the jokes and the rumors. A couple people thought I had a crush on Aberforth and that we were having a torrid affair.

"I went to the Hog's Head the day of the battle to clear some things up with Aberforth. We were supposed to plan a way for more people to be smuggled out at the same time rather than one at a time like we had been doing. That's when he gave me the tip and I joined you all at Hogwarts."

Hermione was stunned. She had always assumed that Percy turned sides once he realized that his side was losing again. She took a sip of her now cold, tea to stall for time as she reevaluated Percy's entire character. It made sense why such a sweet muggleborn like Audrey decided to settle down with him and why Penelope ever gave him the time of day. Mentally shaking herself, Hermione got back to her questions.

"What is your account of the Battle at Hogwarts?"

"Well, I didn't head over immediately as you might have noticed. I arrived about halfway through the battle. As much as I hated doing it, I knew Penelope would never forgive me if I had left her out of the news. I apparated back to my flat and raced to tell everyone there of the battle. I figured we needed the reinforcements and while I couldn't offer much, I had ten people living in my flat who were probably up to fighting. Sure enough, they were and we all made our way back to Aberforth's. Penelope and I got split up during the battle and…when I found her after…"

"It's ok Percy. You don't have to talk about it. We all remember Penelope's sacrifice." At the end of the battle, there were many casualties. Remus Lupin, Tonks, Fred, and Penelope. They found her body in the Ravenclaw common room. She had disillusioned three first years that hadn't made it out of the school in time. Pushing them up to their dormitories she told them to keep quiet and had tried to lead the battle away from them. It took six Death Eaters before an unlucky curse struck her wand arm. Percy found her bleeding out from a dark curse wound in her side. He had yet to speak of her final moments. She had done her job though. The children were safe in their dorms. Her disillusionment spell worked so well, the first sweep of the rooms missed them.

"Is there anything else you want to add before we close out the interview?" Hermione asked.

"Just that I'm sorry. I know I'll probably get mentioned in this book in a very unflattering light if this is an unbias take on the history of Voldemort's return. I've done everything I can to fix my mistakes. I don't believe I deserved to live past that battle, but since I did, I'm trying to make the most of it. My work in the Ministry is to get rid of the blood stigma pervading our society. I've been able to pass legislation for muggleborns and werewolves to help prevent other persons like Voldemort from rising again. All I ever wanted was to change the world. I just let my goal cloud my vision of the present." Hermione reached out a hand and covered Percy's. Throughout his talk, their eye contact became scarce until Hermione almost wondered if he remembered she was there. At her touch Percy looked back at her with tears in his eyes.

"We forgive you Percy. We all make mistakes, some are just louder than others." With her words, Percy sniffed and brushed his tears away. Blinking he stood and started clearing the dishes away. Hermione gave him his space marveling at the similarities between brothers. Ron did a similar tactic when experiencing intense emotions. Rather than letting them burst out like they used to when they were kids, he acted much like Percy was right now. Taking the time to step away and regain composure. When Percy turned back to her he smiled.

"So. I hear you and my brother moved in together last week." And from there they delved into normal conversation.

Weeks later as Hermione started writing she found Percy's story the most difficult to portray. Every other perspective on the war she had already known. Most of her interviews she did for cross referencing facts. Percy let her in on a part of the war that she had absolutely no part in and Hermione wanted to make sure she did it justice. After spending hours into the night writing and calling in a few favors from her friends in France, she believed she got it right.

The book appeared in bookstores on the fifth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. Flourish and Blotts sold out within three hours of opening, with people making preorders for the next shipment in. It was the talk of the magical community. Everyone wanted to know exactly what had happened during the war. Harry had refused to give any interviews and with his house under the Fidelius, not many could track him down to get one in the first place. Finally, the events of Voldemort's reign would be public knowledge.

Percy woke up to shouting a few days after the book's release. He could hear Audrey's commanding tone and his daughter crying in the next room. Sighing he climbed out of his comfortable bed and walked into his daughter's room to console her, leaving whoever it was at the front door at Audrey's mercy. After walking to the kitchen and getting his daughter fed, Audrey had still not returned. Leaving her in the high chair with a mashed banana, Percy headed to the front door. Flooding his lawn, he saw many extremely familiar faces. Some were reporters wanting an interview, but most were the people he had smuggled out of England during the war. At the forefront of them stood Hermione grinning.

"I know it's early Percy, but we wanted to surprise you. These are all the people who wanted to thank you. They probably wouldn't be alive today if it hadn't been for you."

Percy looked around tears gathering in his eyes. Audrey was still yelling at a nosy reporter she caught trying to sneak through their back window. All he could see was the happy, healthy, faces of the people who had years ago been crammed in his tiny flat. He was overcome with emotion when a small boy of no more than three shouted, "Thank you for saving my mummy Mr. Weasles!" After that the small crowd moved forward, everyone was clamoring to shake Percy's hand, thank him, or wish him well.

After all the reporters had left, the refugees returned to their homes, Percy stood with his arm around his wife. He had made mistakes. He would spend the rest of his life cleaning up after all the awful legislature that got passed during Voldemort's return, but seeing all those people reminded him that he wasn't all bad. It really was like Hermione had said, everyone makes mistakes. Some are just louder than others.