Chapter Text
"I reserved Courtroom Ten for eight o'clock tomorrow," said Percy Weasley. "Shall I inform the Wizengamot and Madam Bones of the change?"
"Send owls to the Wizengamot before you leave," said Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, "I'll tell Amelia personally this evening at dinner."
"Let me take care of informing the accused and Dumbledore," said Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister.
"Dolores," started the Minister, "you don't think a trial in front of the full Wizengamot for a case of underage magic may be overplaying our position?"
"Not at all. We need to expose his recklessness and disregard for proper authority in front of as many influential witches and wizards as possible. Expulsion from Hogwarts is the best outcome for everyone. The poor boy needs to be removed from the company of other children and be put in a place to keep them and himself safe. St. Mungo's would be ideal.
"Both Dumbledore and Harry Potter have benefited from a sympathetic public for years. It creates perfect ground for them to spread fear and lies. Thankfully the Prophet is on our side." said Dolores.
"Maybe after this hearing we can get some answers. Dumbledore has blocked our every attempt to have Potter tell us himself about Cedric Diggory's death. The Diggory's aren't even consenting to an inquest."
Percy adjusted his glasses and gathered his notes. His own family had sided with Harry and Dumbledore while he stayed loyal to the Ministry. Percy had fallen out with his family as a result. They had not spoken in more than a month.
Percy remembered it was his sister Ginny's birthday today, the first birthday in his family since they had become estranged. His nineteenth birthday was in eleven days, it would be the first one he spent alone.
"No need to check in with me before you leave, Weasley," said the Minister. "The Department heads and I are hosting a dinner for our representatives to the International Confederation tonight."
"Good evening, Minister. Madam Umbridge." They both nodded to Percy as he left. He closed the door behind him and stood in the main office.
Everyone else had gone home for the day. They wouldn't be able to help him send fifty notices to the members of the Wizengamot. Percy wrote one generic memo and tapped it with his wand several times to duplicate it. It would have gone faster if Matilda, Lorna, Hazel, or Rodney were there to take a stack. Well, perhaps not Rodney.
Rodney worked at the Ministry for ten years and in the Minister's office for three years. He had expected the Junior Assistant to the Minister position before Cornelius Fudge offered it to Percy. Percy thought himself an obvious choice for the position. His time in the Department of International Magical Cooperation had demonstrated that he was not only capable, but excelled at administrative and management duties required for executive positions at the Ministry.
He had run the Department in Mr. Crouch’s absence. No one noticed until Mr. Crouch turned up half-crazed at Hogwarts. It turned out that for nearly the entire time Percy had worked for Mr. Crouch, he had been under the Imperius curse, placed on him by his son. The son ended up suffering a Dementor's Kiss. Mr. Crouch had still not been located and was feared to be dead.
The whole situation turned into a disaster. It not only enabled Albus Dumbledore to exploit Harry Potter to claim the whole thing was orchestrated by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, but Percy was in jeopardy of losing his job. Senior staff in the Department of International Magical Cooperation thought he should have realized something was wrong and informed them.
An inquiry was convened to determine fault. The Minister saw that Percy's superiors were trying to scapegoat him. Percy was new and if anyone should have realized something was wrong with the head of the Department, the senior staff should have. The Minister even said Percy had done quite well under the increased responsibilities. It was decided that Percy should leave the Department of International Magical Cooperation and be placed in the Minister's own office. Percy was offered the position of Junior Assistant to the Minister when it became available soon after.
Percy finished up the notices to the Wizengamot and enchanted them to fly to the Ministry Owl Dispatch. Done for the day, he stood by his desk intending to disapparate to home, but went nowhere. He felt on edge. The Minister expected everything to run smoothly tomorrow.
Percy's flat was about an hour walk from the Ministry. He could have chosen closer lodgings, but the Ministry-provided flat he selected was across the road from a café operated by a distant muggle cousin. After the death of his mother's two brothers, and only siblings, fifteen years ago, she had developed an interest in filling out the unknown branches of her family tree.
Many of the branches wound up as dead ends, but one line descending from Molly's great uncle, who was a Squib, showed muggle relatives living in London. There was Paul Moss, an accountant, and his son, Harvey Moss, who owned a café. Molly found the information amusing, but never made contact.
When Percy moved out of his family home, he saw that one of the options for lodgings was on the same street as the café owned by Harvey. Percy chose this location thinking he might look in on his cousin out of curiosity.
He had lived in London for more than a month and had never gone in. He hadn't even walked home from the Ministry, it was easier just to apparate straight into his flat. Percy was stressed enough about tomorrow that the exertion might do him good, so he made sure his clothes were muggle appropriate and set off home.
After the chaos and cacophony of the Burrow, Percy loved the quiet of his new home. The only noises he heard were those he made himself. Percy did consider sending an owl to his former girlfriend, Penelope, on the rare occasions he was lonely but never did. They had talked often about his goals at the Ministry while still at Hogwarts and she would no doubt be impressed by his position now. Although they had never officially broken things off, they had had no communication since winter.
Percy turned onto his street and passed in front of a café. He glanced in the front window and saw the place was empty except for a young white woman with blonde hair sitting alone at one of the six tables and a light skinned black man behind the counter. He thought Harvey must be in the back somewhere. Not wanting to go home yet, Percy decided to observe and maybe even interact with his distant muggle relation.
Percy never had significant interactions with non‐magic people. Penelope was muggle-born, but they didn't spend time together in the muggle world. Still, he felt confident in his own ability to observe and interact. He had gotten top marks on his Muggle Studies O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. Percy entered the café and the man behind the counter called out to him.
"Sit anywhere you like. What'll it be?"
"Coffee and a biscuit, please," Percy said, sitting a few tables away from the blonde.
Percy pulled out his notepad to review next week's schedule while he waited. After a minute, the man brought Percy his order. As he walked back to the counter, a new song started on the radio and the blonde groaned.
"What?" The man laughed. "You don't like this song?"
"I liked it when I first heard it in May." Percy thought she might be American or Canadian.
"They just released it here. Connie and I like it, but I can understand getting tired of it."
"Also I tend to embarrass myself when I try to rap along with Left Eye." The man gave a big laugh. The blonde continued, "It never occurred to me that songs release at different times here."
"Movies too. I first discovered that as a kid. I have family in America. Some of my cousins used to tease me about the movies they got to see before me." If his cousin wasn't here, Percy could try to interact with these muggles. He listened intently to their conversation.
"I saw Apollo 13 before leaving the U.S.," said the woman. "I think it's coming here soon. It's pretty good. I didn't feel the need to see it more than once, but I know you really like space stuff. Do you remember that whole thing?" Feeling like the conversation was already lost to him, Percy drank his coffee faster.
"I do. I remember the Apollo 11 landing more. I was five. My father woke me up at four in the morning to watch Armstrong walk on the moon." Percy finally understood one thing they were talking about, the moon. Had muggles actually walked on the moon? Out of all the classes at Hogwarts, Percy showed the greatest interest and aptitude in Astronomy. He knew all the Celestial bodies, their positions in the universe, and how to navigate by them, but he didn't know that muggles had actually traveled up there.
"The Apollo missions were a bit before my time. I don't think I'll ever forget the Challenger explosion though. I saw it live on TV at school." She took a sip of her coffee and flinched. "I remember reading that they were likely alive and conscious after the explosion. Some may have still been alive when they hit the water."
"I read that too. I think people were holding on to the hope that they all died instantly." After a pause, the man said, "Connie says I need to start timing how long it takes you to bring up death in a conversation." He chuckled.
"At least Apollo 13 ended well. Speaking of the moon," she continued brightly. The man laughed. "Did you see it last night?"
"Yeah, it's called a supermoon. It's the closest the moon comes to Earth in its orbit. Makes it seem bigger and brighter." Percy perked up, looking for an opening to speak to them.
"It was almost bright enough to read by moonlight." She paused. "Is 'moonlight' a misnomer?"
"Yes," answered Percy. The man and the woman turned to look at him. "The moon doesn't produce its own light," he continued, "but reflects the Sun's."
"I love facts like that about the physical world. Sometimes they are quite beautiful," she said. "Encountered a lot of them in my physical science and math courses."
"Maths," said the man behind the counter.
"Don't start," said the woman. The man laughed.
A party of eight entered the café and the man was suddenly busy. Percy was pleased with himself for testing his conversation skills with muggles, even if it was only one sentence. He was running words through his mind that he didn't recognise to look up in his Muggle Studies books when he got home. He decided to stay a few more minutes to see if his cousin would show up.
Percy saw the blonde looking at him. He met her gaze. "Are you here on holiday?" he asked her. She pointed to her ear and shook her head. Since the new group entered, the noise in the café had grown. She pointed to the seat in front of him and he nodded. Here would be a real test.
She rose, placed her empty coffee cup on the counter, walked towards Percy's table and sat down. "Nice to meet you," she offered her hand, "I'm Heather."
Percy took her hand and shook it, her skin was soft, but her grip was firm. Now that she was closer, he could get a better look at her. She had high cheekbones and a strong jaw. Her deep brown eyes complimented her honey blonde hair. She seemed his age, maybe a little older. Percy found her quite pleasing.
"Nice to meet you, too. My name is Percy. Are you here on holiday?"
"No," said Heather. "I moved here a couple of months ago after graduating college, or you say university here," she corrected herself.
"What do you do?"
"I'm starting teacher training next month."
"What will you be teaching?" This conversation resembled his Muggle Conversation drills in Muggle Studies class. During the in class practice, he always tried to position himself as the one asking questions.
"Computer Science. That's what my degree is in." Percy remembered that his Muggle Studies professor, Charity Burbage, thought that if there was any way muggles could surpass wizards in power, it would be through computer technology. Muggles had rapidly advanced in this technology over the last few decades, and they showed no sign of slowing down. Percy could not even understand computers in a theoretical sense.
"What can one do with a computer? I'm sorry, that's probably a dumb question."
"It really isn't. I used to get that question all the time. Most people use them in their offices, or use them at home as word processors or to play simple games. More people are getting computers for e-mail, electronic mail," she clarified. "Have you heard of the internet?" Percy shook his head. "It's sort of a way for many people to share what's on their computers with, well, everyone. Some engineers even transmitted video and audio over the internet a little while ago. People can communicate in real time with people anywhere in the world. There is a new operating system coming out later this month that is supposed to make computers easier for home users. I don't even know what computers are going to be able to do in a few years, but that's what I like about it." She smiled. "The magic is really in the software. There's no rules." Percy stiffened. Heather looked at him and her smile faded. "I guess that sounds a little geeky."
Percy realized that she wasn't telling him that she knew about magic, but Professor Burbage had been right. Muggles would be able to get close to their own magic with this new technology.
"No, not at all. It sounds really interesting."
"I had a job as a programmer for a little while here, but now I'm going to be trained to teach it." Heather took a deep breath and let it out. "Are you at university here?"
"No I left school a year ago and have been working as," Percy tried to recall professions from his Muggle Studies class, but was drawing a blank. "I work in an office." Percy needed to change the subject. He was now in the position of answering questions. Percy pointed to the man she had been talking to when he came in, "He seems nice."
"He is. He owns the place. Harvey lives upstairs with his wife, Connie. I'm here all the time. I live in that house across the street."
"I live in the one next," Percy responded without thinking. Percy had always pictured Harvey Moss as white and supposed it was foolish for him to assume anything about his distant relations.
“That one?” Heather asked, pointing to Percy's house. He nodded, then glanced back at his third cousin, looking for any common features with his mother's family.
"Oh," Heather said. Percy was jarred out of studying Harvey, detecting a mixture of surprise and confusion in her tone. "I've never seen anyone go in or out of that house, and none of my electronics work when they are near the adjoining wall." She smiled. "I thought it might be a secret spy facility," she laughed, but stopped when Percy frowned. "Not seriously, of course." Her voice trailed off and she started looking around the café.
Observant muggles were dangerous. No doubt someone from the Obliviator Headquarters would be needed to modify Heather's memory. Maybe everyone's on the street as well. He looked at Heather. Her gaze had wandered back to him. Her eyes were so deep and warm. Maybe this wasn't serious enough to get an Obliviator involved. They could send someone from the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee. Percy thought he could come up with something. He wasn't doing a bad job so far.
"We have another entrance, through the uh, basement. We work long and sometimes odd hours, and the other entrance is easier."
"Everyone in that house works together?"
"Yes, our office owns the building and lets the flats to some of us." Percy reassured himself he could handle this. He was also pleased her full attention was on him again.
"Do a lot of you live there?"
"I wouldn't say a lot."
"How many flats are in that house?"
Percy knew that the real answer, twenty, would raise suspicion. Muggles couldn't enchant spaces, but Percy had no idea how they would divide a house that size.
"Three."
"Wow! Really cramming you in there. They converted my house into two flats. London prices are insane. I'm lucky my bursary is generous."
"We do get other benefits."
"Like some of those big law firms in New York? Other major cities too, I guess. There new lawyers get high salaries, meals delivered to their desks and memberships to gyms in their office buildings so they can workout and shower. But it's designed to make sure they never go home."
"It's something like that," Percy mumbled. "My work for the, uh, my manager sometimes keeps me at work all hours." Percy knew he needed to be more cautious. He understood little of what she was saying and she was now controlling the conversation.
"Sounds like an important position for someone just out of school," she said. Percy stiffened. "Oh, I didn't mean…I am so sorry, that was rude." Her face did show real concern. She didn't know that was one of the accusations his father threw at him. That didn't mean he couldn't prove to her that he was worthy of his position.
"I was Head Boy at…my school. I excelled and showed myself capable of leadership and challenging tasks. I am new in my career, but I am rising fast. Tomorrow we are…doing something vitally important." Percy was getting too excited, saying everything he wanted to say to his family before the yelling started. But he needed to be careful.
"Tomorrow? Saturday?" she asked.
"As I said, it is vitally important," said Percy. It was a little odd to convene the Wizengamot on a Saturday, but tomorrow was a normal workday at the Ministry. Their offices were open one Saturday a month.
"What do you do in your office?"
Percy started to stammer. Just then, Harvey called out from the other end of the café.
"Hey, Heather! Didn't you say you wanted to be out of here now?" Percy thought that sometimes family does help out, even if they don't know it.
"Shit!" She exclaimed, looking at her watch. She opened her purse.
"Go,” Harvey waved her on, smiling. “I know you'll be back.”
"Thanks, Harvey," she said, getting up. "Nice meeting you, Percy. Hope to see you around." She got up quickly and left the café.
Percy sat there, processing the interaction. Did she still suspect something was wrong? Would she tell anyone about her suspicions? He needed to let the landlady know their carelessness had caused suspicion in the local muggles and Obliviators would have to be dispatched.
Harvey came by the table to pick up Percy's empty cup. Percy was able to get a better look at his cousin. Freckles were noticeable under the light brown skin of Harvey’s nose and cheeks. Along with ginger hair, all the Weasley siblings and their parents were freckled. Percy, as well as his oldest brother, Bill, and youngest brother, Ron, were tall and lean like their father. Harvey was shorter and stockier like his brothers Charlie, Fred and George. His mother often said that Fred and George reminded her of her own brothers, Gideon and Fabian.
"You ok, mate? You look completely knackered."
"Long day."
"Heather can be a bit of a whirlwind to talk to."
"She asks a lot of questions."
"She does. I think she's just a naturally curious person."
"I didn't mind," Percy said, stunned by his own words. He looked at Harvey, wanting to say anything else, but he was too mentally exhausted to carry on another conversation with a muggle, so he paid him and went to leave.
"Enjoy your night. Come again," Harvey called out.
"Yes, I think I will," said Percy. He left the café. He looked at the sky before crossing the road. The moon was large and bright.
Percy entered his building. His landlady was in the entryway.
"Oh, Mr. Weasley! You gave me a start. No one ever comes in that way."
"Good evening, Mrs. Simpson. I will be using this door more often." Then Percy put on his most authoritative voice, "An unused door in this part of London will raise curiosity and suspicion with our muggle neighbors."
"Of course, you are right, Mr. Weasley. We have all been too lax around here. Thank you for your example. Do you think the local muggles have noticed?"
Percy hesitated, but finally said, "Not that I am aware, but we should not neglect preventative measures. Good evening, Mrs. Simpson." He headed towards his rooms.
"Good evening, Mr. Weasley."
Percy entered his flat and went straight to his bookshelf. He started pulling out some of his old textbooks.