InsaneJournal

Percy never had anything first. Bill was the only one of them who ever had anything new—not that that happened often, but when it did, it was always Bill. Percy's first nice pair of shoes had originally been Bill's—black patent leather, scuffed at the toes. Percy knew if they'd have been his shoes first they'd still have been shiny. He'd have taken better care of them, not run through the back garden with Charlie like a stupid wild animal while Mum shrieked after them to at least change out of their nice clothes first WILLIAM WEASLEY YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT and ruined the shoes that had cost Percy knew not how much and which were summarily passed down to Percy as Charlie's fat feet wouldn't fit.

And it was more than just shoes and clothes and books and toys. It was more ephemeral things as well—Bill was Prefect, Bill was Head Boy, Bill was gloriouswonderfulsmartperfectcool. Bill was everything first, and Charlie was everything second, and Percy never thought about those younger than him—he just knew that nothing was ever his first, and he stayed in his room with his second-hand books under his second-hand quilt and he never allowed himself to sulk because what was the use? Surely there had to be something that could be his first.

He never found it, whatever it was.

And then Bill was married when Percy was twenty-two, and Percy attended the wedding (reluctantly), and he sat apart from the action at the reception and protested when Fleur attempted to drag him onto the dance floor. But she wouldn't give up, saying she'd danced with all of Bill's family that night and she wasn't going to have all-but-one. And when the waltz began, Percy found himself clasping the bride's tiny hand in his larger one, the other hand holding her waist, and Percy had honestly forgot that he had ever been any good at dancing. Fleur smiled up at him and pressed closer.

"I am glad you did come, after all," she murmured to him. "I know it means a lot to my Bill. He loves you very much, you know."

Percy nodded, not looking at her, and he counted steps in his head.

Fleur pressed closer still, tugging on Percy's shoulder.

"Can you keep a secret?"

Percy was surprised at the question, and he looked down into Fleur's silvery eyes.

"I…yes, of course I can. Are you all right?"

Fleur smiled then, and Percy had never known that one person could encompass such beauty in a single moment.

"Yes," she replied, "But you mustn't tell anyone. Not even my Bill. I have not yet told him."

Percy only nodded.

"I am pregnant," Fleur confided, and she smiled again, and Percy's eyes went wide.

Bill was going to have the first, again. The first wife, and now the first grandchild (niece-or-nephew, baby).

"Congratulations," Percy said automatically, then he thought for a moment, and then he grinned. "I'm honoured to be the first to know."