Forgotten Pasts
by: sl-sama

"Mummy?" The boy- he couldn't be anymore than six- asked, eyes bright as he looked at his mother over the head of the sleeping twin he was carrying, "What are we doing? Are we playing a game?"

Molly Weasley looked down at her son fondly, even as she ushered him into the closet. Placing the twins on the small bed in the smaller room, she turned to her other son.

"Yes, Percy, we're playing a game. You've played it before, but I'll tell you the rules again anyway."

The boy, Percy's, eyes lit up at the words. Hushing him before he could say anything, Molly Weasley smiled again, eyes brimming with tears.

"In this game, you have to be very quiet- keep the twins quiet too-, and stay here with them until either Mommy, Daddy, Bill, or Ms. Lily get here, no matter what happens. OK?"

"But mummy," The boy protested weakly, eyes dimming as he remembered the last time they had 'played' this 'game.' "What do we do if no one gets here in time for breakfast."

Molly smiled gently, trying to keep her fear of that possibility out of her eyes as she led Percy to a closet within the little closet that they were already in. Opening it, she turned to him.

"One can and two bottles of water each a day Percy. You know the spells-"

"Mommy?" The boy interrupted uncharacteristically as he seemed to realise something.

"Where's Ron?"

Molly could not help her fond smile when she heard the worry in his voice. "Daddy brought him to visit Ms. Minerva, Charlie and Bill today, remember?"

"Oh."

The boy looked as though he should like to like say more when his eyes grew vacant and lifeless. Molly panicked, ready to succumb to the instinct to shake him when he came back to himself. Tight lipped, and unlike the little boy that she raised and knew, he turned to her.

"They're here."

The loud creaking of a door opening reverberated through the house. Molly stood up as Percy shut his mouth.

Just before she left, he held her hand and smiled.

"You'll be okay. They," he gestured to the twins. "will be ok to, I promise."

Molly's fears abated when he said this; despite the odds, his surety of what he said mollified her in the subtle manner that would later make so many adore the boy.

"I love you, mum."

It was only after that she realised he had never said that he would be ok.

-+-

Molly Weasley awoke with a gasp, muted horror in her eyes as the memory of that night crashed through her once more. Instinctively, she turned her eyes to the "clock" which she and Arthur had gotten commissioned early in the first war.

Five hands were centered on 'dreamless sleep.'

Two on 'work.'
One on 'infirmary.'
Two on 'in hiding.'
One on 'the burrow.'
And two on 'nightmares.'

It was no surprise to see those two centered on nightmares, but then one of the hands slowly started swinging. In morbid fascination, she watched it until it stopped.

'Seer's trance.'

Then just as slowly, it turned back to 'the burrow.'

Tears seeped out of her eyes as she heard the anguished sobs that even silencing wards could not keep out.

"Oh Percy..."

t.b.c.

Yep; that was weird.

Right-- and I own not Harry Potter.