Through All the Pain // N. Longbottom

Summer 1995 // Chapter 3

**This chapter is longer than I thought it would be and covers the infamous Percy Weasley leaving the family for the Ministry. There is a slight mention of blood near the end of the chapter, so if blood is triggering for you please be aware of that before reading!**

"BILL! CHARLIE! FRED! GEORGE! RON! LORI! GINNY! DINNER!" Mum shouted up the stairs. We normally stormed down the stairs faster than lighting, but tonight ... we took our time. Ron and I had a race to see who could get down the stairs the slowest. Neither of us won, for Bill came up behind us and pushed us down the stairs. 

We sat down at the table and began to eat. Dad came home a little bit earlier than normal and joined us to eat. As we ate, we slowly got into a normal conversation. Dad talked about his day, Charlie commented on how he missed the dragons, and the rest of us would sit and listen. Suddenly the door slammed open and Percy came running in.

"I got it! I got it!" Percy shouted. "I got a promotion!!!" 

"Really?" I said, a smile growing on my face. 

"Who gave you this promotion?" Dad asked raising an eyebrow.

"Fudge himself!" said Percy, looking more pleased with himself than ever. "I was offered a position in his own office!!" I got up and hugged him, while everyone else just stared ahead. Mum tried to smile, while Dad was frowning.

"Aren't you happy for me, Dad?" Percy asked, the smile that lit up his face turned into a frown. I looked over and silently pleaded for Dad to be proud, but he didn't get my silent looks apparently.

"Well ... Percy ..." Dad started. "Don't you think that the promotion was mostly because ... Fudge wants to keep an eye on this family?" 

"Excuse me?!" said Percy, looking highly offended. I released him and backed off. 

"Well, Fudge knows that we're rather friendly with Dumbledore," Dad reasoned. "He's clearly stated, multiple times, that anyone who sides with Dumbledore can clear out their desks." 

"So then you believe whatever Dumbledore says to you?" Percy scoffed.

"Percy, don't-" I tried to say, but Dad's voice cut me off.

"Now what's that supposed to mean, Percival?" Dad started to sit up straighter.

"It means that he made everyone freak out about that you-know-who nonsense! We've had to work tiresomely at the ministry to hush it all down-"

"Nonsense?!" Dad shouted, shocked at the words coming out of Percy's mouth. "You-know-who's back, Percy. Harry saw him with his own eyes!"

"And you are taking his word for it?" Percy spat. "After all that was published in the Daily Prophet?"

"Since when do you agree and trust what that awful Rita Skeeter woman writes?!" Dad snapped. I back up even farther as Percy's hand started to curl into fists.

"Since she had said every right thing from the beginning! She was even right when she said you caused us all the trouble last summer at the world cup by not cooperating with the Ministry! The whole time I've been in the Ministry I've been struggling at work is because of your lousy reputation! You've no absolutely no ambition, father! Don't bother denying it either! That's the whole reason we've always been living in such a poor state!"

"Percy, please! Don't say that-" Mum whimpered from her seat. "Stop before you say something you will regret."

"Now you're just being a complete and utter idiot to side with Dumbledore-!"

"Dumbledore is the greatest man we can put our trust in!" Dad yelled. I backed up against the wall and clutched onto the small end table with some flowers on it.