A sirius matter

Chapter 17 - Changes

A miserable-looking young man with red hair walked through the door with his head hung down. He knew he'd get taunted at home. He glanced up to see exactly what he'd expected.

"Hello, Percy. How was work?" asked Fred innocently.

Percy's ears turned red. "Just fine," he replied coldly.

"Has Mr. Crouch assigned you any new reports to do?" added George. The red had now spread into Percy's cheeks.

"Perhaps one on prison bar thickness?" suggested Ginny.

Percy's whole face was red, and he responded, "Mr. Crouch is no longer at the ministry. He made a mistake he…."

"That's not what you said yesterday," reminded Fred.

"Or the day before," said George.

"Or the weeks before that!" added Ginny. "You've been worshipping the ground that criminal walks on since you started working for him, and he is a criminal! You've insulted all of us, claiming how much better than us Crouch is."

"You've been licking the boots of a real lawbreaker…" started Fred.

"While acting like making a little noise was a crime," finished George.

"I HAVE NOT BEEN LICKING HIS BOOTS!" yelled Percy.

Ginny did her best Percy imitation. "Oh, Mr. Crouch is of the opinion…"

Fred joined in. "Mr. Crouch can speak so many languages."

George added, "I've left Penelope for Mr. Crouch. We'll be married soon."

"Is he still your role model, Percy?" asked Ginny.

"I'm sure he had a good reason…"

"To break a Death Eater out of Azkaban?" suggested Molly, who'd just walked in. She'd been putting up with Percy's Crouch worship as much as anyone else.

"Or keep his own son under the Imperius Curse?" added Arthur, who'd been with Molly.

"My question is why he'd bother to break him out just to be a prisoner at home," commented Molly.

"I used to think, along with everybody at the ministry besides you, Mr. Crouch had a heart of stone," said Mr. Weasley, "but I was wrong. To do that to his own son, your idol must not have any heart at all."

"But he was so dedicated to the rules…"

"That he broke the most important ones," stated Arthur. He sighed. "So, did you find anyone to give you a job? I know you were running around from department to department."

"He lost his job?" asked Ginny.

"Well," explained Arthur, "Percy had gotten the person who took over his department in trouble with Mr. Crouch for getting back from lunch five minutes late while he was visiting his wife in St. Mungo's last week. The first thing he did was fire Percy."

"The rules state that the lunch break is exactly…"

"Nobody I talked to wanted to hire Percy. They've all heard him worshipping Crouch in the lunch room and think Percy's a joke."

"For your information father, I did find another position in the ministry!" snapped Percy. "I'm now assistant to the Senior Undersecretary to Minister Fudge himself, Madam Umbridge," he bragged proudly.

Arthur's jaw dropped. "You're working for that bi…"

"Arthur!" snapped Mrs. Weasley. "You must mind your language no matter whom you're describing, although I admit it's hard to when it's that…woman."