Who: Percy Weasley + Audrey When: Early September Where: Baxter Bakery (duh) What: Talking about the dreams Rating/Warning: Low / None Status: complete
Audrey was behind the counter at Baxter Bakery, contemplating the wand that she had stowed in her apron pocket. She was having a hard time concentrating at work today, because she’d brought the thing in with her. She probably shouldn’t have, but she was really looking forward to trying out some of the cleaning charms out that she’d learned in her dreams. Maybe it’d make some of her work go by faster, quicker… and she could save the cleaning crew some serious messes.
She looked up when she heard the bell on the door chime, and broke into a nervous-and-hopeful smile as she saw Percy come in.
Percy smiled right back, completely oblivious to how nervous she looked. He had been very excited to hear about how Audrey was from the same dreams he was -- and felt it made quite a bit of sense actually. He’d known there was a reason they got on so well.
“Hello, Audrey,” he greeted, stepping up to the counter, and finding himself pleased that there was no line. He had to admit, he rather wanted to show her some magic -- Percy had been practicing a lot recently and excelled at cleaning spells like nobody’s business.
“Hi, Perce.” There was another girl in charge of the register, and the barista was out mopping up the cream and sugar station, so Audrey was able to come around the counter and give Percy a hug. She wanted to talk to him about the Dreams she’d had, to ask him what he thought. She didn’t want things to get… awkward.
“How are you?” She asked, withdrawing from the quick-but-friendly hug and giving him that still slightly nervous smile.
Perce. So few people called him that, that Percy had to wonder if she’d gotten the nickname from the dreams. He didn’t mind. It was just different. He offered another smile and then shrugged, almost lazy. “I’m good. I think I know when I’m getting married now. I’ll have the details for you soon, as you seem so intent on making the cake.”
“Oh, I’ll make your cake. For sure.” Audrey said, grinning. “I can’t wait to hear all about it. I’m going to leave my girls in charge of the catering for my own wedding, so I’ll be able to focus on yours.” She added. “I think we’re going with a ‘witch and wizard’ theme for our wedding on Halloween. Since… it only makes sense. We’re both dreaming about being magical.”
“That’s a lovely theme,” Percy agreed with a half a smile even as he held his wrists behind his back in an awkward sort of mannerism. “I don’t know much about themes. I don’t know that wizard and oncologist would be very good. No matter, more on that later. Do you have a moment? We could have a seat and compare dreams.”
“Oh. Yes. Right. That.” Audrey said, a little flustered and embarrassed. She called out to one of her employees that she was taking a break, and moved with him over to a table. “...How many dreams have you had?”
He settled himself on one side of the table and considered that thoughtfully. “A good deal, but I’m still rather young in mine. Still in school. Recently I received my apparation license.”
“I dreamed about Hogwarts. But that didn’t come first. First I dreamed about…” Crap. Crap crap. Now she had to say it. “You’re not gonna believe me when I say it out loud. I’m not sure I’m gonna believe me when I say it out loud.”
Percy didn’t seem to believe her disbelief. He only rose his eyebrows, adjusted his glasses and then leaned forward a little. “I don’t know about that. We dream about learning magic from textbooks and a secret society that doesn’t belong to the real world. I’m certain absolutely nothing about that could phase me, at this point.”
“The first dream that I had was our wedding.” Audrey said, turning to look into his bespectacled eyes. She was sheepish, trying to laugh at it. But she was pretty nervous about his reaction.
Percy was oblivious. He blinked, returned the smile, albeit a little blankly. “Whose wedding?”
“Our wedding. Percy. Yours and mine.” Audrey responded, now even more nervous.
Bewilderment was a thing, and it was a thing that Percy was doing this second. He rose his eyebrows, reminded himself that keeping his mouth open was just rude and unattractive. “To each other?”
“Yes.” Audrey said, her cheeks flushing deep now. “This isn’t a joke. We were married. And um… we had two kids. Daughters. Well, eventually we have daughters. Not when we were married, but later.”
“We had daughters when we weren’t married?” Percy? Shell shocked, apparently, because he wasn’t able to connect the simplest of sentences in order to make sense of this all. He terribly wished he’d gotten tea before sitting down.
“No.” Audrey shook her head, regretting bringing up Molly and Lucy. “...No, we got married. Then, later, after we’d been married for a while, we had daughters. Two of them. Molly and Lucy.” She paused. “...I’m sorry.”
Percy only stared, torn between feeling absolutely nothing and absolutely everything. It was really a strange state to be in, but he found it strangely familiar, he always had been an anxious sort.
“You’re-- but. I mean. I don’t like--” He paused, looking shocked and embarrassed and so, so guilty. “Not that you aren’t -- I just mean -- oh.”
Audrey nodded. She wasn’t really sure what she was supposed to say to all of this. “Maybe your Dream self… does…?” She shrugged one shoulder. “It’s happy, anyway. At least, the parts where we were married. They were happy.”
That wasn’t amazingly reassuring. Not to Percy. Although he supposed it was meant to be. He glanced down at his hands in his lap and calmed himself enough to stop blurting out the first thing that came to mind. “Well.” he said, “That’s very…”
“Confusing.” Audrey said, then shrugged. “ I suppose… well, maybe you’ll get there. Eventually. But um… I’ll … I’m glad I told you, even if it’s awkward. James thinks it’s funny.”
Get there--? Oh. She meant with the dreams, not his current -- things. Percy sighed at that, finally going back to prim and just vaguely offended. “Yes. He would think that was funny, wouldn’t he?” He couldn’t help but sound bemused and fond at the same time.
“I was so nervous about telling him. About telling you, too. But he just laughed.” Audrey gave a little sigh and leaned back in her chair. “It’s not a big deal. Nothing to be concerned about. I probably should have kept that whole bit to myself.”
“Oh, no,” Percy said, finally getting ahold of himself. “It’s quite alright. It isn’t as if I wouldn’t have found out eventually anyway, right?” He shrugged, still a little awkward, but when wasn’t he? “Rightly so James laughed about it, it is rather funny, isn’t it? Knowing me? And we’re just friends here. Good friends.”
Audrey was relieved that he wasn’t… angry. She was a little nervous that he’d be angry with her. Though, her Dreams weren’t her fault, now, were they? “It is funny.” She said, finally breaking into a grin. “Very good friends.” She agreed with him. “We’ll look back on this and laugh, I’m sure.”
Percy wasn’t the sort who really got angry without a lot of prompting first. A lot of it. Like years of it. Possibly only two people on the planet really got under his skin enough to make him angry. Audrey was definitely not one of those two.
“I’m certain we will,” Percy agreed amiably enough. “Now. Would you like to learn magic? I know a very decent amount of cleaning spells that could make your workday tremendously easier.”
“Oooh, yes! Yes, please.” Audrey said, giving him a grin. “I’d love to. As soon as possible.”