Shiiki's prompt: Percy/Audrey "new"
This was fun to do.
The walls of the Department of Magical Games and Sports were littered with posters, half torn tickets, flyers, autographed photographs of smiling, waving Quidditch celebrities and banners for all the different teams around Britain.
Percy Weasley eyed all of it suspiciously. Quidditch matches and stunt broom flying was not his idea of the best ways to bring the international magical community together. A great deal of money would have to be spent to calm nerves and show that the British magical community had indeed quickly righted itself again after the horrors of the last war, but he didn’t see how drunken groups of screaming fans for opposing teams would do the job.
Then he saw she was there, and his day was suddenly and simultaneously wonderful and much, much worse.
He had known of her during his days at Hogwarts, of course. She had been a Chaser for Ravenclaw, until that very unfortunate accident early in her seventh year. Audrey Axelrod had been one of the prettiest girls in school. She had been very popular, and even someone like Percy Weasley, four full years younger than she, had noticed the number of boys she had dated: all handsome, big athletic types.
About a year after Percy had started work back at the Ministry, again in International Cooperation, he had seen her name posted as one of the new employees in Magical Games and Sports, working under that idiot Bagman. And, a few weeks after that, Percy had spotted her for the first time since he’d been a student at Hogwarts.
He had been crossing the Atrium, racing towards the lifts, late for his meeting with Basil Bastenchury in Transportation to go over the new regulations for international Portkeys when he had spotted her. It was like being Stunned - or cursed, perhaps. He had stopped and stared. All right, so she was pretty, but certainly not enough to cause him to remain there, pretending to be intensely reading a blank parchment in his hand as he watched her laugh with that Bainbright idiot from Import Approvals, several feet away.
And ever since then, over the last two years, the need had intensified until it seemed the rest of his life was simply the shoe leather that got him from one encounter with her to the next. Nothing else was as important or exciting as watching her, learning every detail about her, scoping out her opinion on anything from collapsible cauldrons to the new Korean broomsticks.
It was new to him, this feeling of total obsession. He had had a girlfriend before, but his feelings for Penelope Clearwater had never approached this thing that ate away at his concentration and consumed his dreams. His relationship with Penelope back at school had been happy. She had been proud of his accomplishments.
Much of the time, Audrey looked right through him. Oh, she was polite enough, but she never stopped to chat or laugh with him as she did with others. Percy knew because he watched her. She enticed him, excited him and terrified him.
So, he had started to avoid her, and that plan had worked quite well - until today.
She was casually draped over the chair, hardly the proper way to sit for an important meeting. And she wore Muggle jeans and a Chudley Cannons shirt instead of robes.
He was desperate to prove that he could help put the wizarding community to rights and could rectify the mistakes he’d made. But that shirt jolted him. It reminded Percy of his younger brother, a much braver man than him… it flung back to the forefront of his mind everything he had done wrong. He should have been an example to his younger brother, not the other way round, and Percy felt suddenly nauseous and edgy.
She was talking to someone else, a younger man who hung on her every word.
“It’s important we schedule the first match, get the season started, as soon as possible.” Her lofty tone was irritating.
“That’s not possible,” Percy heard himself say. He hadn’t meant to say it like that, but since he had he felt he’d better justify his position. “The costs of security and the personnel necessary to structure and coordinate these large matches is something we cannot, at present, afford. I have here a list -” He tapped the list in his hand. He had spent hours detailing his ideas for carnivals, summits, conferences, international markets and student exchanges.
“A list?” She snorted. “We need to spend time doing things, not listing them.”
He bit back an angry retort, silently berating himself for having wasted so much time thinking about this witch who clearly didn’t understand. Clever she was not, he told himself.
“I don’t see how Quidditch is going to -”
“You didn’t play Quidditch at Hogwarts, did you?” Her eyes had narrowed as if this was some sort of accusation. “Are you related to Charlie Weasley? He was brilliant.”
Fury charged up from his chest to his neck, heat flooding his ears. He had never been any good at Quidditch, couldn’t outpace a knat on a broomstick, and he had spent most of his life trying to prove that he was the clever Weasley, that he could accomplish things… he’d dreamed of becoming the minister of magic someday. He would never be popular as Bill or the Quidditch star that Charlie had been.
He had tried to help George at the shop in the months after they had lost Fred and had been hurt, if a bit relieved, when Ron had partnered with George instead. After all, Ron was the famous Weasley, although Ginny was gaining now that she was playing professionally.
No, Percy’d had to carve out his own reason to be important, to be respected, only for her to look at him as though he was dim-witted.
“Miss Axelrod -”
But she wasn’t listening. Her arms were waving as she gestured, regaling the man seated next to her with one of Charlie’s better maneuvers.
Watching her, Percy sighed. She would never think of him as she did Charlie. Why was he eaten up with this obsession over her? And he realized, it was an obsession. Avoiding her had not changed a thing.
“…fastest I’ve ever seen. And funny - Charlie was always a laugh.” Finally, she turned to Percy again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t wait for your answer. Are you related to Charlie?”
“Yes, I am. He’s my brother - one of them.” He sighed again. “If we could just go over these notes… I have a lot of work to do.” Maybe if he could get through this quickly, he could race back into his cramped office and lick his emotional wounds there. He prayed she didn’t ask him if Charlie was married.
“Oh! That’s right…Percy Weasley!”
His heart surged. She remembered him? She’d known his name? Or had she heard it around the Ministry? Maybe all his work was beginning to pay off. Perhaps she had heard of how hard he worked, how he -
Audrey laughed. “I remember most of us were very glad when your twin brothers came along.” She stared off at nothing in particular and smiled. “They managed things with dungbombs… kept Filch running.”
“Fond memories,” snapped Percy.
“Er… Audrey…” said the younger man awkwardly. Percy had forgotten he was there, but now he was sitting forward, placing his hand on her arm as if trying to warn her. Looking at that hand on Audrey’s arm, Percy wanted to break something, particularly the twitchy git’s skinny neck.
Where had that thought come from? Well, he had spent a lot of time with George and Ron lately…
“Oh!” Her hand covered her mouth. “Your brother… I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to stir up memories or anything.”
He couldn’t even feel glad about having her sympathy. He just wanted to leave. “It’s all right, really. Now, if we could just discuss these requests you’ve made about the international matches…”
She looked irritated that he hadn’t taken her olive branch. Well, he was there for business. And he promised himself that from now on he’d stick to just that. He wouldn’t think of her again.
If he could help it.