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Author: Antosha Story: Contrapunto Rating: Mature Status: Completed Reviews: 8 Words: 18,212
October 23, 2003 - 5.12PM Ginny reached down, and for a moment Percy was seized with the fear that she was about to punch Audrey. His sister was certainly capable of it; she had given him a bloody nose once during his last year at Hogwarts when he had had the temerity to say something uncomplimentary about Harry, and the ripple of her shoulder muscles brought home to Percy the fact—which Percy, scarcely following Quidditch, could easily forget—that Ginny was a world-class athlete. Instead, Ginny held out an open hand to Audrey. “Thanks so much for coming! We were so worried about Percy, here, after he kicked Hysteria out! I’m so happy that you could come to my wedding!” Timidly—it was the first time that Percy could think of Audrey acting so—Audrey took Ginny’s hand and was pulled upright. “Wow, you’re quite tall!” burbled Ginny, and Percy noticed that her eyes had a distinctly Luna-like width to them. Apparently not having anything to say to that, Audrey shook Ginny’s hand a bit grimly. “Congratulations.” It wouldn’t be accurate to say that Ginny’s eyes narrowed, but at the very least they returned to their normal size. She cocked her head toward Percy. “Did you say… Audrey?” She looked back to the woman in question. “Audrey Abbott?” Percy’s mouth went dry when he saw the look of brave resignation settle on Audrey’s face; it told him more than he wanted to know. Harry was on detached duty in New York while he and Ginny… She forced a polished smile—not too bright—and answered simply, “Yes. That’s right.” Ginny stared at Audrey, the fluttering of her white veil the only movement to show that she wasn’t a statue. Behind her, Hermione was chewing madly on her lower lip, her hands fluttering at shoulder height in what seemed to be an attempt to keep Ginny from exploding out of her lovely strapless wedding gown. Audrey shook Ginny’s hand again and began to withdraw it when Ginny’s mouth curved into a manic grin and she held onto Audrey’s hand hard enough that Audrey winced. With a loud bark of laughter, Ginny pulled Audrey into an embrace. Surprise bloomed in Audrey’s face—and Hermione’s—like sunflowers. Both of them looked to Percy, but he had nothing to offer them. “This is so wonderful!” squealed Ginny. “Does Harry know you’re here!?” Harry. Harry Potter. Harry Potter and Audrey Abbott. “Uh, I think so,” answered Audrey, blinking as Ginny continued to squeeze her. “He waved at me.” “Wonderful!” Ginny burbled. “Promise me you’ll have a dance with him!” “Uh… Okay?” Audrey was staring at Percy still, but he still could not think of a way to help her. “I’ve got you to thank for the fact that he can dance at all! That and…”—Ginny sniggered. It was a positively unsettling sound—”other things as well!” Other things? Percy couldn’t imagine what that could mean, and Audrey looked as if she might be ready to die rather than to tell him. “Ginny,” said Hermione hoarsely, “your father is here.” “There you are, Ginnikins,” said Arthur Weasley, taking off his Muggle top hat and entering the kitchen. “Merlin, you look… You look beautiful. Like a bride.” “Oh.” Ginny let go of Audrey and turned, her lower lip trembling as Percy had not seen it do in over a decade. With a sob, she embraced their father. “Oh, Daddy.” “There, there, dear.” Arthur too was looking rather teary, but he patted her back. “It’s wonderful to see you, Percy. And you must be the renowned Miss Abbott. We’re very excited that you could join us today.” Audrey was still looking at Percy, but she had the presence to answer. “Thank you, Mr. Weasley. And… congratulations.” Arthur Weasley flashed a rather wet smile while his daughter continued to sniffle into his chest. “Thank you.” “Well…” Hermione offered, clearly trying to move things away from the inexplicable and back onto the agenda. “Hullo, Hermione,” Luna’s breathy voice said from just behind Percy’s ear. “Hullo again, Audrey.” She hugged Percy from behind, which pushed him well over the edge of self-control to which he had scarcely been clinging. “Ginny, you shouldn’t be crying, you know. It’s well-known that estivating Nargles frequently swarm around crying brides.” Ginny giggled. “That’s better!” said Luna. “They’re waiting for you, by the way. Ron and Harry. They are both looking quite serious.” “I’m the bride!” Ginny laughed. “They’ll wait!" “I’ve no doubt they will,” said their father, “but are you sure you want to make them?” Now Ginny sighed, even as she smiled. “No. Come on. Let’s do this.” As the walked out the door, Hermione in their wake, Percy turned to Audrey. Her expression was bruised and tentative. “Percy—” “‘Skinny Brits with glasses’?” Audrey’s sigh was nowhere near as energetic as Ginny’s had been. “Harry?” he said, looking down. “For a few weeks at the end of the summer.” He could hear her robes rustle. A shrug, perhaps. “He… He was the one—“ “The one who made you think about marriage.” Unable to restrain himself, he looked back up. “I’m so sorry, Percy. I had no idea…” She flashed him something like a smile. Mouth the color of dew-washed roses… “Would it help at all if I told you that I honestly thought this was the last place on earth I’d run into Harry?” “Really?” That seemed a rather odd thing to believe, but Audrey looked completely earnest, and while she may have been an extremely skilled negotiator, he didn’t think that she would have made much of a liar, and so he had to take her at face value. “I don’t know whether it helps or not, to be honest.” “Fair enough.” Audrey smiled again, a less tentative smile this time, but sadder. “Look, I’m keeping you. I’ll wait at the Calico Cat. If you don’t come by, I’ll under—” “I’ll bring you there,” said Percy, surprising himself. “Please, I want—” “Don’t be silly, Percy,” said a moist, airy voice, and Percy and Audrey both turned in surprise toward the kitchen sink, on which Luna was sitting, peering out the window toward the marquee, tears dribbling out of her ridiculously large eyes. “I’ll stay here with Audrey.” She looked at them, blinked, and then stared back out the window. “Do you know, it’s odd—estivating Nargles seem terribly sensitive to the tears of brides. But when a bride’s friend, who has been in love with the bride and with the groom for a terribly long time, starts to cry, nothing at all seems terribly sensitive to that.” Audrey looked as if Luna had just kicked her in the stomach, but Percy had been around the odd blonde much longer and had learned to take her peculiar, disconcerting statements more in stride. “I don’t know that that’s true, Luna. Audrey, can you keep the Nargles away from Luna while the wedding is going on? My mother made the wedding cake, and from what I’ve heard, you won’t want to miss it.” She lifted her chin, looked him in the eye, and decided to play along. “Is it chocolate?” “With raspberry jam and lots of sticky icing, I believe.” “Sticky… icing?” “The, um, goopy stuff? On the outside?” Though Percy considered himself a passable cook, baking was an art that he had never picked up. Perhaps I should speak with Mother…. “Oh, well, can’t miss that.” Her smile actually brightened slightly. “And we wouldn’t want those Nargles to come after Luna.” “No.” Percy reached out and squeezed her hand. “Not to mention the fact that you just promised Ginny that you would dance with her soon-to-be-husband. I’ll be back as soon as the ceremony is over.” “Okay.” As Percy entered the marquee, his father and sister were already half way down the aisle, and yet he could not help but look back toward The Burrow, and could not help but see Audrey there, her chin rested on Luna’s shoulder, neither of them willing to attend the wedding, but both of them watching with no apparent ability to turn away. October 23, 2003 - 5.30PM Two months before, Percy had been planning his wedding to Asteria. Well, more properly, he had been listening to Asteria plan it; her ideas about what their wedding should entail were so particular that his job was mostly limited to nodding, hmming, occasionally lodging an official protest if Asteria’s plans seemed to be getting too elaborate, and keeping his mouth shut. Of course, their planned wedding date had been the following summer. It hadn’t felt particularly real—all of the plans for holding the reception in the Ministry Atrium and for importing Antarctic shellfish had seemed quite fantastical, all the more so when he returned to their flat early one evening, hoping to surprise Asteria by cooking dinner, and found that she was already entertaining… If he had taken the time to visualize how he would have liked his own wedding to look, he realized—as he watched from the back as Ginny and Harry exchanged rings and vows on that unseasonably warm October (Octopus) evening—that it would have looked very much as that one did: just close friends and family, all clearly overjoyed to watch, nothing so extravagant that it took anyone’s mind away from the couple and the act that they were undertaking. At home. That surprised Percy, since it had never occurred to him that he might want to get married at The Burrow as his eldest and youngest sibling had chosen to do. In spite of that, however, he found that the idea that Ginny and Harry were starting their married life there, at the home that so represented the ideas of love, commitment and family for Percy himself, struck some part of Percy’s core. As Harry lifted Ginny’s veil and kissed her, as their locked gazes made it clear that, for tonight at least, there was nothing in the world for either of them but the other, Percy was shocked to find himself beginning to cry. Harry and Ginny. Harry and Audrey. Ginny and Scott Whatsit, from the World Cup side. Percy and Luna. Percy and Asteria… Percy and Audrey? There was no way to be certain of what had happened between Audrey and Harry in New York—though Percy’s mind, coupled with his memorable recent experience, painted him several vivid scenes. Nor was there any way to know what Audrey felt about him. About Harry. About him. Could he trust again? As everyone began to cheer, Percy hurried back toward the house, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Audrey and Luna striding toward him, arm in arm, cackling madly. “I take it you managed to keep the Nargles at bay?” “Oh, yes,” said Luna, wiping a tear from one enormous eye. “Good,” said Percy, uncertain what else to say. “May I ask… what caused you such… merriment, just now?” Audrey paused in thought, but her silence once again told Percy more than he wanted to know. Of course, had he any doubt as to what it was that Audrey wasn’t sure that she wanted to tell him, he should have known that he could count on Luna. Just as cheerfully as before, Luna said, “Well, I was asking Audrey about what it was like to have sex with Harry, of course. I had always wanted to know, and I had had sex with Ginny, but I hadn’t—” “You…?” Percy tried to keep his voice to a whisper, tried not to look around too wildly and attract the attention that he hoped that they had managed to avoid to that point. “You slept with… Ginny?” He shook his head, trying to clear it. “But… you were sharing a flat!” “Yes,” sighed Luna. “For a little while. After she and Harry split up.” She gave the wan, waifish smile that always broke Percy’s heart. “I know that I wasn’t what she actually wanted, but I think that I helped a little.” “I’m sure you did,” said Percy and Audrey together. “In any case, I asked Harry to have sex with me too, just after he came back to Britain, but I think that he had finally realized that he wanted to marry Ginny. At least, I rather hope that that is why he refused.” “I’m sure it was,” Percy said. Mostly, he was wondering how this girl could break his heart and make him so thoroughly uncomfortable at the same time. Audrey cleared her throat and offered an apologetic smile. “But that isn’t why we were laughing just now.” “No?” “No,” offered Luna, grinning sunnily. “We were talking about what a funny lover you were.” Cold flooded into Percy’s middle. “Funny?” he asked through clenched teeth. “Fun,” whispered Audrey, looking down now. “Oh. Yes. That too,” agreed Luna emphatically. “You are so passionate and yet such a…” Luna blinked her huge eyes—always disconcerting—and turned to Audrey. “What was the word you used?” Audrey mumbled, eyes still downcast. “A… patchutchnik.” “A… what?” Percy asked, conscious that he was feeling very angry, and not certain why. “A…” Audrey looked up now, and smiled—part apology, part amusement, her expression did soften his rage. He wasn’t sure why that was, either. “It was a word my mom used to use, a Yiddish word meaning a, uh, very particular person.” “Particular?” She nodded very quickly. “At least I think it was Yiddish. I’ve never heard anyone else use it.” “I see.” Percy took a deep breath. “And that was… funny?” “Well,” tittered Luna, “yes. And it is a rather funny word. Oh, people are lining up to kiss Ginny. I think I’ll join them.” And without looking back, she skipped off toward the receiving line. Audrey’s smile managed to maintain itself once Luna was gone. “Percy—” “I’ve been trying to think how you could possibly not have known about the wedding. I don’t remember saying anything about him being Ginny’s fiancé, it’s true. But… the newspapers have been full of it for days—‘Boy Who Lived to Marry’ and all of that. You can’t have missed that!” “Boy who… lived?” Audrey blinked at him, a model of honest perplexity. “Who’s that?” “WHO…?” growled Percy. “Come now, Audrey! Harry—! He defeated Voldemort when he was an infant—the only known person to have survived the Killing Curse! And again, five years ago! Every schoolchild…!” But as he said the words, Percy heard too Mr. Crouch grumbling, Never assume that what’s the center of the universe in Britain is going to be a matter of interest in any other country. Audrey shrugged. “They didn’t teach us that at Salem. I mean, some about the first war, yeah. And… He survived the Killing Curse? I thought that was impossible.” “It is. For everyone but Harry Potter.” Audrey’s eyes opened to Luna-like enormity. She peered over Percy’s shoulder—presumably at where Harry was standing, shaking hands while Ginny got… kissed. “Oh. Wow.” Audrey shook her head. “So, he…?” “Yes.” “I… I had no idea, Percy. Honest, I really didn’t.” Trying to collect his thoughts and his emotions, Percy removed his glasses and cleaned them. Tried not to think of Audrey handing them to him as they lay naked in the bed at the Calico Cat. “I imagine that must have been very nice for Harry. He doesn’t like being a celebrity over here.” “I bet not.” Audrey’s eyes were still focused past Percy, her brows furrowed in sympathy. She shivered, and her gaze returned to Percy. “I… When you invited me to the wedding, I… I assumed your sister was marrying whatshisname. The Quidditch player.” “Scott… Whatsit? What on earth made you think that?” Percy felt heat and cold warring in his belly again, felt rage beginning to rise. Audrey’s face, however, slid from utter abashment to a polished, politic half-smile in a heartbeat. “I will be happy to tell you, but at the moment your father, a colorful lady I assume is your mother, and a very tall black man—whom I very much hope you are going to tell me is not the Minister—are walking toward us.” She smoothed his collar. “Ah.” He turned to see his beaming parents escorting a very cheery looking Kingsley Shacklebolt out of the marquee toward them. “There you are, Percy, Ms. Abott!” said Percy’s father, waving as if they were on the other side of Ottery St Catchpole, rather than ten feet away. “I thought you might have slipped away!” The Weasley paterfamilias… winked. Percy groaned inwardly. Oh. Merlin. Putting on a smile that he hoped matched Audrey’s for noncommittal cheer, he gripped her elbow as gently as he could manage. “Audrey, may I introduce…” His nerve nearly failed him, but blessedly, training won out, and he managed to soldier on. “May I introduce my mother, Molly Weasley? Mother, this is Audrey Abbott, from the American Ministry.” “So lovely!” Percy’s mother, who had been in a state of superhuman panic for the past month, reached out and clasped Audrey’s hand in both of hers. “So nice to meet you, such a lovely wedding!” “Yes,” agreed Audrey as Molly Weasley appeared to milk her fingers. “Very lovely.” “You were right, Arthur, such a nice young woman, I am sure that you and Percy—” Watching as Audrey’s celadon irises were swallowed by an expanding sea of white, Percy turned her towards a chuckling Kingsley. “And Audrey, may I introduce the British Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt.” “The miracle workers!” boomed Kingsley, and his voice was as basso as ever. “Mr. Minister, it’s an honor,” said Audrey, her voice rather higher than its usual rich alto. Kingsley laugh rumbled forth, and Percy saw a number of heads turn—even before the war, Kingsley Shacklebolt had filled every room he entered, but since assuming the post of Minister for Magic, he drew attention everywhere, even at Ginny and Harry’s wedding. “Ms. Abbott, believe me, the honor is all mine. I spent two hours this afternoon going over the preliminary report that the two of you put together with Billy”—the American Minister—”and we’re both impressed. The two of you are quite a team!” Aware that his parents were both beaming, Percy patted Audrey’s hand. “Thank you, Minister.” Kingsley chuckled again. “I hope this boy has been entertaining you properly, Ms. Abbott, as a reward for your excellent work.” “Oh, yes,” answered Audrey mildly, squeezing Percy’s fingers. “He’s been showing me the wonders of the West Country.” Percy coughed, and he could feel the red creeping up from his collar. Entertaining indeed. “I brought her to the Stone Table at Lanyon Quoit and the Grimspound Barrow and— Uh…” Percy looked back; Audrey’s face remained a practiced mask, but her eyes sparkled, and Percy was certain that his parents and the Minister would know what happened next. “I do hope you visited Merlin’s Tomb!” said Percy’s father. “Very romantic spot, that. I proposed to your mother there.” As the elder Weasleys went misty-eyed and Kingsley grinned, Percy spluttered. Audrey came to his rescue. “We ran out of time, but Percy’s promised to show it to me properly.” “Well, that’s good!” gushed Molly Weasley. “Now go and introduce this lovely girl to our newlyweds. I’m sure Ginny and Harry will love her.” Now it was Percy’s turn to come to Audrey’s rescue. While she gaped, apparently unable to come up with a response, Percy said, “She’s met them, actually. Both of them.” “How nice,” Percy’s mother said. “All the more reason for you to wish them well. Now! Time to Transfigure the tables and Summon the meal!” As Percy led Audrey away, trying to think how even to open the conversation he knew they were about to have, terrified that he might find that he’d misjudged yet another woman, allowing himself to be led to the edge of losing himself—only in this case, if Percy were truly honest with himself, past the edge—Kingsley called out, “Ms. Abbott! Tell Billy that I told you that whatever he’s paying you, you deserve a raise!” Audrey smiled and nodded, but her eyes never left Percy’s. As the approached the end of the almost-depleted receiving line, she leaned close and whispered, “Morgan. Scott Morgan, that was his name. The Quidditch player.” Clearly the intrusion of Percy’s parents and his boss hadn’t stopped their conversation for her any more than it had for him. “When Harry left, I… Percy, Harry never talked about your sister while he was with me, never even mentioned her name, but there was a hole in him—a Ginny-Weasley-sized hole that I could see as plainly as I could see that weird scar on his forehead. He was beyond gaga over her, even though they weren’t together. When he left, I… I wanted to know what kind of a woman could inspire that kind of crazy devotion; it’s something I guess I’ve always wanted, but didn’t really know it. So I did some quick research. It wasn’t hard to find out who Harry had been seeing before he came to the U.S.; I picked up a couple of copies of Witch Weekly, and there they were. I thought it was because she was an athlete, you see, that they were in the scandal rags, but I guess you’re telling me he’s just as famous?” “More so,” muttered Percy. “He hates it.” “Oh.” Audrey pursed her lips and nodded. “Yeah, I bet he would. Anyway, once I had a name, that’s when I did all of that famous research about your family. I found out that she was a bit of a war hero—that a bunch of you were—that you lost a brother, that she and Harry had been seeing each other since school. That she had a really cute brother who worked in the British Ministry. Nothing that really told me why a man as great as Harry would go crazy over her. And then I saw a bunch of stories about her and my sister’s favorite Quidditch player supposedly being madly in love—‘Playing a one-on-one, winner-take-all match that doesn’t look to have any losers,’ I think I read—and I felt awful for Harry, knowing his heart must be breaking.” “I gather that it was.” Percy could see the man in question beaming at Ginny, chatting with Seamus Finnegan and a young woman whom Percy vaguely remembered as having been in Ginny’s year. Harry Potter didn’t seem terribly heartbroken at the moment. “Though he broke hers first. I gather that he refused to marry her. That’s why they stopped seeing one another.” “Yeah. That makes sense. I get the feeling Harry might have had some commitment issues. Though he clearly got over them.” When Percy looked back to her, Audrey too was looking at the happy couple, a sad frown on her warm face. “And then I forgot about it; decided that if she was the kind of woman who could break Harry’s heart, I didn’t want to be anything like her.” “I see.” “So, when I came here, it was all about the job, Percy.” She touched his shoulder. “It would have been anyway. And you…” She gave him a small grin, which he did his best not to return. “You were cute. And serious. And so damn smart. And hey, I knew you were a war hero and all yourself—” “Hardly,” spluttered Percy, feeling another blush coming on. “Yeah, well, you would say that. Anyhow, when you asked me to come yesterday, I thought she must be marrying Scott Moran.” “I see.” She shrugged. “I’ll admit, I was still curious to meet her. But mostly, Percy, I came because you asked. And because the most attractive, most interesting skinny Brit I’d ever met wanted to spend the day with me. And that’s the truth.” “Oh.” The last couple in front of them—odious cousin Mafalda and her latest boyfriend—finished wishing the newlyweds well, and suddenly there they were: Percy facing Ginny and Audrey Harry. “Best wishes, Ginevra,” Percy said, and gave his sister a brotherly kiss on the cheek. “So it was you!” Harry said to Audrey. “I’m so glad you’re here! Ginny, this is—” “We’ve already met,” Ginny and Audrey both said. “I introduced them before the wedding,” added Percy. Ginny smirked. “We… ran into each other in the kitchen.” Audrey’s face seemed to be trying to convey at least a dozen emotions. “I… Congratulations, both of you. Harry, I’m so pleased for you.” She leaned forward and gave her one-time lover and then his now-wife each a quick peck on the cheek. “Ginny, when Harry was in the States, he really did spend the whole time thinking about you.” Ginny grinned; it was her scariest, wickedest grin. “Not the whole time, from what I hear.” Both Harry and Audrey darkened, and Percy’s stomach twisted. Ginny turned to him. “Treat this one well, Perce. I wasn’t kidding in the kitchen—she did me a hell of a good turn. More than one. She definitely taught him some new tricks.” And she winked—that infuriatingly uncommunicative Weasley wink. Audrey and Harry’s faces both flushed even more. At least they weren’t turning beet red, as Percy himself would have done. “Thank you, Ginny. I’m sure that that is good to know.” They all laughed—not Percy himself, but Audrey and the Potters. Ginny Potter—Fred had teased her mercilessly when he found that written over and over on scraps of parchment when she was twelve, just after the whole disaster with the Chamber of Secrets, until George had told him to back off. That was one of the few times that Percy could remember the twins fighting. A deep gong rang. Ginny turned, peering back into the marquee, which was now set up for dining and dancing. “Oh! That was quick.” “Never let it be said,” murmured Percy to Ginny, “that our mother ever served a meal late.” Again the other three laughed. At least this time, Percy had meant to be funny.
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