InsaneJournal

Who: Percy and Bill Weasley
What: Brotherly Reunion
When: Late Thursday and Early Friday, May 14-15, 1998 (BACKDATED)
Where: The Burrow and The Leaky Cauldron
Warnings: Frank political opinions. Armchair philosophy. The History of Magic. Sir Walter Scott.



Bill found his younger brother outside, sitting on the back porch, his elbows resting upon his knees as he head hung down. So wrapped up in his thoughts, that he didn't notice Bill there until he lifted his head and caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his eye. Immediately feeling nervous, he looked away.

"I'm alright," Percy said, but he neither sounded nor looked alright, and it would be ridiculous to assume he was, under the circumstances.

Bill leaned against the porch rail. "Somebody once told me that you shouldn't ask someone who is grieving if they're alright, because they can't really tell. What matters is being there. And making sure we don't forget to take care of ourselves because we need to take care of our family."

A grimace formed upon Percy's face. "But how? How do we do that when everybody is grieving?" At that moment, he looked past Bill and noticed Vicky stepping outside, and Percy realized she was searching for him.

Bill followed his gaze, and straightened up. "Good question. Each in their own way. Some by solitude, some by thinking, Mum is feeding and nurturing everyone, George is talking. What I'm doing is trying to make sure everyone is busy enough that time will pass, because that's supposed to help.

"I see you've got more company. I'll be heading back to London after the Uncles are all asleep. If you and Vicky want to join me, I'll be at the Leaky doing my mental sorting there."

And Later

The bartender pointed Percy to a table near the back, where Bill Weasley sat with a half a glass of firewhiskey in front of him. Bill smiled as his brother approached, but it was not a happy smile. Bill looked tired.

The table was charmed to provide some privacy, and Bill didn't bother speaking until Percy was inside the spell's radius. "Thanks for coming," he said. "I was a bit overwhelmed back there."

Percy couldn't even manage a smile of any type. He looked just as lost and frightened as he did at the Burrow. At first, he simply nodded his head in agreement. "Yes. So was I." He cleared his throat to get a passing waiter's attention. "I'll have what he's having er better bring a whole bottle. "Vicky couldn't make it," he explained. "She has to work in the morning."

The waiter nodded and left. Bill picked up his glass but didn't actually drink any of the firewhiskey. "Well, we'll have to get together with her another time. She seems nice."

"She's very nice, Percy quickly replied, relieved that they began with a topic that didn't immediately deal with Gideon's death. "Better than nice. She's fabulous. I'm lucky to have her. She complements me so well."

"She's a caregiver, or at least that's what she does in a crisis." Bill put his glass down. "You know Mum's going to start making plans, if you haven't already. I assume she approves of her."

Plans? Percy's eyebrows rose when he realized what Bill meant, and then chuckled. "I'm sure she has. Mum really does like her and I do, too." He fiddled with his hands upon the table, releasing nervous energy. "We've only been dating for a few months now. Do you do you think it's too early to be making plans?"

Bill matched Percy's raised eyebrows. "Your confirmed bachelor brother? I think that the most normal reaction to a crisis like a Dark Lord is that people try to hang on to the love they find. It's why there was a baby boom after the Grindelwald War and it's why I have six of you as my minions instead of two. I knew a couple in Cairo who married after five weeks. On the other hand, I know others who've been together unmarried for five years and don't look like they'll change that.

"You should do whatever feels right for you and her. Not Mum, not her Mum, not the Ministry, and definitely not WICCA. And also, not me. I don't know the first thing about timing. See also, my triumphant return to Britain."

The waiter returned with a bottle and an empty glass; again, Percy was grateful. This topic of marriage, while not as intense as Gideon's death, was still quite harrowing in a different way. Percy, the idealist, who was always concerned about doing what was proper, was worried. "I know what feels right. But is it right? Sometimes I'm afraid we're rushing things. But then again, our relationship seems so natural."

Percy opened the bottle and poured some whiskey into his glass. "What brought you back to Britain? Is everything alright with your job?"

Bill ran his finger around the rim of his glass, still leaving it half-full. "The job couldn't be better. Promoted to Director of Asset Protection, reporting to the Managing Director. There's only one other human director, and I don't know if she has any goblins that report to her or not. Apparently there's something to treating goblins like people that really helps you get ahead in a goblin-owned business."

The glass in Percy's hand was quickly drained, and he was ready for another. Pouring himself a second portion, he was convinced getting drunk was the best thing for him, at the moment. "I had to work among Goblins a few times, in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. They're not the easiest to cooperate with. They take an awful lot of patience. I can't imagine having to deal with them on a daily basis. It's something to be admired." Percy lifted his glass to Bill before taking another sip. "Sometimes, I envy you." The words slipped out of his mouth before his brain had a chance to censor himself. "It's good to have you back, though."

"I never planned to be away for as long as I was." Bill shook his head, leaving had been difficult but it was ancient history, now. "How about you? Still trying to reform the rotten Ministry from the inside?"

Percy chuckled, mirthlessly. "That's right. You need to be updated." Percy drank again before continuing. "Several months ago, I transferred from the Department of International Magical Cooperation into the Department of Magical Education. Everything was going along, swimmingly, until the Department announced budget cuts, and my position was among those cuts. I was out of a job for a while, until I took Fred and George's offer to work for them at their shop. I've been doing that for, oh.. a couple of months now?" Percy frowned and refilled his glass. "But we've come to the conclusion that it's for the best that I move on, so while I'm still working there, I've begun actively looking for another job."

Bill considered, still playing with his glass and not drinking. "I can ask around at the Bank, but most of the good slots for humans are in Zurich or Cairo, and I don't want to do that to you. Unless you're trying to get swept into power on the coat-tails of Black being ousted?"

Percy tried to hide a small grimace from his face at the mention of a Gringotts job. "Thank you for the offer, but I'd rather not. I I don't know how well I'd be able to work with Goblins on a daily basis. A foreign post wouldn't be unwelcome, but not at this time. Not when the family needs to be together. I couldn't just up and leave." He then chuckled. "I worked on Mr. Rowle's campaign with the high hopes that I'd be thanked with a high position in the new administration, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. Minister Diggory is selecting his own people for the best jobs, and while the personnel desk still has my CV, positions are still difficult to come by."

Bill nodded. It was about as he'd expected it to be. "The part I'm not really telling anyone much about is why Gringotts finally decided to move me here. You recall how at the end of last year, two witches were murdered on Gringotts steps? This was a most unwelcome gift, and the Managing Director wasn't sure if it was a warning, a human matter, or a declaration of war on Goblinkind. The whole of the bank has been in an uproar for months, or at least the security side of the bank. This 'Lady Noir' might as well have cast a purple firecracker charm at a nest of tarantula hawks.

"You know how goblins deliberate on things? Well, this time they didn't. At the January First board meeting, they formed an action committee to address the matter, and at the April First board meeting, they pulled me out of Zurich to keep this from becoming a goblin problem. I have a staff, but I'm on special assignment until this matter is cleared up. Basically, if it's not a disaster for the goblins, I get to keep my directorship."

The story of how the Goblins' reacted to the murders made Percy fret some more. Back when it happened, Percy was upset, but he was so caught up in his own personal problems at the time, what with losing his job and all, that he was able to remove himself from what was going on with Lady Noir. Now that Gideon was dead, these previous murders hit closer to home, and Percy hung his head. "Well, it's a good thing they mobilized themselves quickly, to handle the situation," he said, trying to remain practical and less emotional. "After all, the Goblins safeguard the vast majority of Britain's economic wealth. And it's a very positive thing, if it's brought you home. Do you think you'll be reassigned once it's over? I mean, hopefully this horrible business will be over soon."

Bill considered. "Might, but it's unlikely. Goblins don't think like us. I'm probably as safe as anyone with my job title can be." Bill lifted his glass halfway and then ended up just looking into it. He'd stopped when Percy came in and hadn't really had any drink since then.

"But yeah, it's got to end soon. A few days ago, Dad told me it wasn't as bad as it was when I was 10, back when we weren't allowed out of the house and I had to keep you and Charlie busy, when Mum was dealing with Ron and the twins most of the time. We didn't play in the basement all summer because I thought Tunnels and Trolls was a fun game to play, it was on Dad's orders.

"And I've been thinking. Even if the terror isn't as bad, the murders are. Nobody cares if their uncle is murdered by a Dark Lord, a Dark Lady, or a dimwit, they just know their uncle is dead. Doesn't matter if it's not connected, it's your gut that gets punched."

Bill finally took a sip of his firewhiskey. "This new Ministry will live or die based on whether they get this right. You may be lucky to be out of government, if this doesn't go well."

There was a lot for Percy to think about, from childhood memories to present day concerns. He didn't have any immediate response, except to slowly nod his head. To Bill's last statement, he commented, "Well, perhaps in the Minister of Magic's office, yes. Minister Diggory has a lot of expectations and responsibility placed upon him to set things right, which I'm not entirely sure is fair, given the nature of these attacks. But in the other Departments, where I was working? Like the Department of Education or International Magical Cooperation? The pressure isn't the same. In times of turmoil, you keep your head down and carry on with your job."

Speaking of jobs, "If you were to be let go, what would you do? Have you a back-up plan? Because the way you're describing it, it sounds like you could be out of a job at any given moment."

The older Weasley leaned back for a moment, stretching out. "In an ideal world? I'd teach. It's probably what I'll retire to, eventually. If the timing isn't right, I'll either throw out a shingle on Diagon as a cursebreaker-for-hire or else I'll sign on with Prewett and Diggle. And that's assuming I don't get offered a security position elsewhere based on my Gringotts resume."

Bill leaned across the table towards his brother, closing the distance between them. "But there's the thing. Any of us could be out of a job at any moment. Look at Gwen Jones, who Uncle F is seeing. Brilliant on a broom, now she's teaching at Hogwarts. Fred and George could lose the shop. Seventy-one percent of all shops opening in Diagon Alley close in the first five years. The bank keeps track of these things. And the Minister? The Minister is at the level of accountability that it doesn't matter if anything that happens is fair. Regulus Black certainly didn't have only 5% approval. What he had was that everyone wanted a change and nobody believed he would do any different."

"It's true," Percy mused over what Bill said. "It was certainly true of me. I certainly never saw my termination coming. Budget cuts, they told me. If you want to be fatalistic, there isn't any security in this world. But that doesn't mean we don't try our best to persevere. I may not be well suited to work in a joke shop, but I've done my damnedness to make sure that I did my work, well. I even went as far as to work out trade agreements in France and Greece, to have their Pygmy Puffs exported for International sale." He looked into his glass and then reached for the bottle again for yet another refill. "You ought to give Headmistress McGonagall your CV, regardless of whether you think you'd get a position or not. At least she would know you're interest and have your record on file. You really never know."

Once his glass was filled, he held out the bottle in a gesture to ask Bill if he'd like a refill. "I take it that you didn't approve of former Minister Black."

Bill covers his glass. "Still have to get to Hogwarts before the sunrise tomorrow. Can't let the kids find out about Uncle G from the bloody Prophet."

"As for Black, I wasn't really here for most of his Ministry. In Zurich he was pretty roundly condemned for the thing with the unforgivable curses, but that's easy for people to condemn who are five hundred miles away from the scene of the crimes. I don't like it because it seems like the governments that regularly use such tactics are corrupt or become corrupt, and if our government doesn't adhere to the morality of the community, then it loses claim to representing the will of the people and becomes a tyranny.

"But one law doesn't make the entire regime corrupt, and it doesn't make him corrupt. Personally, I don't disapprove, and I don't approve, because I'm not up to speed. While I'm inclined to disapprove, I am reserving judgement. However, I try to be a close enough student of human nature that I am not willing to take his motivations at face value. " Bill leaned forward again, across the table. "And he did so badly in the election that I'd almost wonder if he was throwing the election on purpose, if I could figure out a plausible motive for him to do that."

"If Diggory gets rid of the old guard, though, it'll be a good sign for the possibility of justice. You can't always tell what kind of a person someone is by what they do, especially if they haven't had a chance to do much. I learn a lot about what kind of a person someone is by the company they keep."

"Oh, oh." Percy grimaced. "Yes, Ron and Ginny. Of course. Good call. I'm sorry." He handled his glass, nervously, thinking about how their youngest siblings would handle the news. But then the discussion turned back to politics. "It's a tricky situation, and there's already been a good amount of debate. I don't see how the use of the Unforgivables automatically deems an administration corrupt, especially when it's being used to help apprehend the criminals responsible for these crimes. In fact," Percy paused a moment to take a deep drink. "I don't know how it'll help them at all. The problem is we don't know where they're strike next, when and who. Last time I checked, none of the Unforgivables can tell the Aurors that." Another pause. "Maybe Imperio?"

Already, Percy's speech was slurring, a result of drinking so much in such a short time.

Bill shook his head. "That wouldn't help, or at least not against Lady Noir. If they have her, they have her, and the game is over. If they catch an accomplice of hers, they don't put him under the imperius curse, they either threaten him to a fare-thee-well until he talks or they set the legilimancers on him, and probably both." Bill looked down at his journal, and drawing a few basic hieroglyphs in a private entry. He kept speaking, but was quiet, since this might technically be treason.

"No that law is aimed squarely at suppressing vigilantism, of both the 'Public Safety' neighborhood watch type and the Death Eater 'murder to enforce the social order' opportunistic revenge type. So they're making laws that reset the boundaries of wizarding society, and they're lying about why. That's the kind of thing I mean when I say that those curses make a government inclined to corruption. Possibly they're lying to themselves, but I'm not generally that charitable when it comes to the motives of the government. Present company excepted."

Bill ran his fingers through his hair, sweeping a stray strand behind his ear. It wouldn't stay, and Bill knew that, but he fought with it every day anyway. "Do you remember much from your History of Magic? One of the things Professor Binns droned on about was The Warlock's Convention of 1709, and the follow-ons that created the Unforgivables Laws in the next decade. It was a moderation of the common law at the time, from death to life in Azkaban.

"No witch or wizard was considered fit to live freely amongst their kind if they were known to have used their magic to kill another wizard, to control another wizard, or to torture another wizard. There were public debates about the last one. Some wizards argued that it should only be unforgivable if they tortured someone to the breaking point, and others thought it was the possibility of breaking the mind of a wizard that was the reason the curse was unforgivable.

"The logic was that no one who used such means could be trusted to behave in acceptable ways in the society of witches and wizards. It turns out I agree with this logic. It's no longer the fifteenth century--there are far too many witches and wizards for any of us to go live as hermits on a blasted moor if we get in a row with our second cousins.

"So I'll grant, for the sake of argument, that there are some things that it is moral for the Ministry to do that it's not moral for any citizen to do. Even so, I don't think it's necessarily true of aurors and hit witches on the ground without any kind of oversight or deliberation. If the Warlocks of the early 18th century were at all right, then the government is, by choosing these methods, no longer worthy of our trust. It's why nobody ever messes with these laws with impunity. It's dangerous to the internal and external reputation of the government. Diggory should reverse that policy and blame Regulus Black for the whole thing. Or if he's smart, throw Scrimgeour under the Night Bus like they did with old Barty Crouch when he authorized unforgivables during the war."

Bill looked up and realized that his brother not only wasn't responding, but that he was fast asleep. It looked like Percy needed to sleep more than he needed to talk. Bill dropped the privacy charm. "Tom," he said to the innkeeper. "I'm taking my brother up to my room. If you could make sure he's at least sober and has had a spot of breakfast before he's allowed to apparate home, I'd appreciate that." Tom nodded and Bill knew Percy would be taken care of.

After checking that there weren't any Muggles in the Leaky, Bill cast a levitating charm and took his brother up the stairs to his room and tucked him in bed, as if Percy was five again. Bill left a note and drank a Vitamix potion. He didn't like the hangover it gave him, but he needed the energy now.

"Sleep peacefully, my minion, and I'll have to apologize to your girlfriend for keeping you out all night. 'Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking/Morn of toil nor night of waking.'" Bill shut the room behind him and locked it. He'd already delayed his trip north long enough. It was a long way to Hogsmeade and he absolutely had to be there before the Prophet.