An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Six

I woke up the next morning and headed downstairs, ready to go pick up Harry, but the only person downstairs was Ron, eating breakfast and still looking mostly asleep. Apparently the details of the plan had gone in one ear and out the other last night, since I was so focused on dragon talk; we weren't getting Harry until five o'clock that night.

The Weasley's, Hermione, and I spent the day lounging around and playing games again, and it was great. Everyone was having fun outside except Percy, who'd just decided to lock himself in his room with work, apparently. A little after eleven, I decided that was bullshit.

"Hey, I'll be right back guys. I'm gonna go get Percy," I announced between rounds of hide and seek.

"Oh, come on Alexa. Why?" whined Ron.

"Yeah, we were having so much fun without him!" agreed Fred.

"Oh come on, it'll be fine! We need to get Percy to loosen up a little, this'll be good for him. We'll still have plenty of fun."

The twins rolled their eyes, but Bill and Charlie were smiling as I marched determinedly into the house. Even after we'd had a little heart to heart at the Ministry, Percy was still locked up in his room and dead focused on work, singing the praises of his asshole boss. We hadn't talked much since then, and I was determined to drag this kid out of his recluse den.

"Percy!" I yelled, hammering on his bedroom door. I didn't stop until the door came flying open, and I was met with a giant scowl from the workaholic. I just grinned at him in response.

"Alexa, what on Earth are you doing? I'm trying to work in here."

"Yeah, I know, that's the problem. You've done nothing but work literally this entire time. That's just not healthy. Take it from someone with experience."

"Alexa, I enjoy my work. And it's very important, which I know you can relate to. I don't have time for breaks, I need to get this finished."

"So, I know you were pretty focused on other things last year, but did you happen to notice how my friends got me to take a break when I refused?"

"No..."

"Great! It was like this." I grabbed Percy by the arm without warning, dragging him from the doorway and down the stairs. Percy didn't work out much, and I'd spent the summer lifting with Captain America, so it wasn't hard to get him out of his room.

"Alexa! Enough of this, I'm very busy!"

Percy tried to wriggle free, but as soon as I had space I grabbed him in an elbow hold that Natasha had taught me. It was specifically for criminals, and it hurt like hell if you struggled against it.

"OW!" yelled Percy.

"Sorry Perce, but I promise this is for your own good."

I dragged him outside like that, only letting him go as we got closer to the rest of his siblings. I stopped him just out of earshot of everyone else, and I could tell he wanted to go straight back inside.

I needed to make sure he didn't.

"Listen, Perce, I know that you can probably use magic and whatever to get back in there and get to work if you really want to, but I've made it my mission today to get you out here having fun in the fresh air. So, either you play a few rounds of hide and seek with us and maybe some tag, and we can all get our way just fine, or I recruit the twins and maybe Bill and Charlie to help me get you out here at all cost."

Percy glowered at me for a minute, looking extremely unhappy. I think he was hoping that just his disapproving gaze would be enough to get me to change my mind and back off, but he was fresh out of luck. Half of my family had scarier looks than that, and all of them stopped working on me when I was eleven.