The Good Ol' Weasley Complex

Chapter three: Percy Weasley

Disclaimer: If you recognize it then it doesn't belong to me.

Percy's last memory of complete security was of when he was four. Bill was ten; Charlie was nine, and the twins two. His two older brothers had taken him down to the beach the summer before Bill went to Hogwarts and Dad took a picture of the three of them playing. A wet Percy was putting sand in his brothers' hair for throwing him into the water.

The picture burned with their house at the end of the first Wizarding War.

Things went downhill from there; Bill went to Hogwarts and became too busy between studying and Quidditch to play with him, Charlie was always either learning about dragons since Dad had taken him to a reserve one day (Molly, of course, didn't know this beforehand and promptly bit Arthur's head off upon return) or playing with the twins that Percy now had to take care of because Ron had been born and the twins... well they were the twins. Rarely was he truly given any sort of praise. His favorite belonging became a battered old copy of 'Hogwarts: A History' that their Dad had actually gotten for Bill but had ended up with him.

As time went on he withdrew more and more from the family. Escaping into books so often that Charlie warned him he would be sorted into Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor. They often made jokes like that. He was the Ravenclaw, the one who would go places in life, the one who would end up their Dad's boss...

...He was Perfect Percy...

... All he wanted to be was accepted.

So when the hat really DID want to put him into Ravenclaw he begged it to put him in Gryffindor with his brothers who hadn't even stopped their conversations to see his sorting. When the reports came from school he made sure his scores were the best possible. When he hadn't eaten an actual meal or slept at all in weeks in order to make up for the fact that in reality, he was average at best if not worse than that. When he graduated with seventeen O's. When he became prefect and then Headboy he strived to follow the rules to the letter and make everyone proud. When he got a job at the Ministry he did all he could to move up the totem pole...

... All because he wanted to be a Weasley.

Then came the day he realized he was NEVER going to be one of them and hated himself for not seeing it sooner. After all, there had been so many hints dropped by his family that the only one that even wanted him was his Mother...

...and even SHE betrayed him.

-Flashback-

Bill was going back to Hogwarts from his first Christmas as a Hogwarts student. The family was on the platform seeing him off. Bill said goodbye to his parents (getting crushed by their mother with a hug in the process), assured Charlie yet again that he would be back home for the next holiday and that he would write every other day, tickled Ron goodbye, hugged the sobbing twins as well as making them promise to be good while he was gone, and left...

...Skipping over Percy entirely...

- Flashback-

Percy watched as a twelve-year-old Charlie taught the twins how to draw one summer. Once the twins went away he went up to his older brother and asked if he could learn as well. Charlie smiled at him and nodded but before Percy could even sit down Bill was over challenging Charlie to a chess match. The future dragon handler fidgeted as he always did when he had something to do already but wanted to do something else more appealing. Percy was left with a promise of "After dinner".

All through dinner Percy was excited, he rushed through dinner looking forward to spending time learning from his brother. But afterward the twins wanted to learn more, Ron was being fussy, and the two eldest brothers hadn't finished their last game of chess...

...Ten years have come and gone and still, Charlie hasn't taught Percy how to draw...

...No one has...

-Flashback-

Eight-year-olds Fred and George were running through the Burrow away from Percy's room where they had just set up a joke they had wanted to test. Incidentally, they knock into said awkward ten-year-old brother who ends up sprawled face first on the living room carpet...

...The book he was reading, his treasured but worn copy of 'Grimm's Fairytales' that was the only possession his Father had ever bought solely for him, landing in the fire.

His stuffed pink rabbit that was his only solely his possession from his Mum also became a casualty from the twin's joke that very afternoon.

The twins were not even punished or told to apologize for causing the death of his to most prized possessions. Bill simply sighed and gave him 'Hogwarts: A History', his parents told him he was too old for them anyway. The two never apologized for their actions that day...

... Or any of the actions that followed...

-END-

Ron and Ginny hadn't particularly done more than call him names and make sure he knew he was NOT welcome with them.

The last straw came today though. He had gone into the Burrow bursting with excitement to tell everyone that he had gotten a promotion...

...Only to be told that all of his hard work meant nothing and that they thought so low of him they believed he would spy on them for the Ministry.

He had been staring at sharp objects wondering if they could make the pain disappear since he was a first year being bullied by not only Slytherins but older Gryffindors as well (Something that hadn't stopped until his seventh year when there were no older students in his house but no one had done anything about it).

This day would be the first of many he gave in and watched his worthless blood drip onto the floor of his apartment. They wouldn't notice...

...And even if they somehow managed too they wouldn't care.

Everyone was paired up with an automatic best friend in the family...

Mum and Dad

Bill and Charlie

Fred and George

Ron and Ginny

...Everyone but him. Because despite everything he had done there was simply never any room for him in a family that was made in pairs.

He didn't come back when Harry proved to be right about the Dark Lord's return; THAT had not actually been the problem. And even if it HAD been, he knew that even though they wished him dead he wouldn't be allowed to keep his knife (The one he now used daily) not because they cared; but because it would ruin their reputation to have someone like HIM in the family.

But how could he be in a family that he had only ever watched from the outside? How could HE be a Weasley...

.... When no Weasley had ever wanted him?