Untitled - HP - Harry/Percy

[benebu.livejournal.com]

Author: benebu
Prompt: #233, Wrong Time, Wrong Place
Word Count: 500
Fandom: Harry Potter
Pairing: Harry/Percy
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Notes: Heartfelt thanks to lonetread - the story wasn't the same before he betaed and made helpful suggestions. Really. It wasn't.
Also, you may read it in French there.

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Zigzag. Never be where the enemy's curse expects you to be. Never stop. Never look back. It was all coming back to him so easily that he would have cried, had he had that kind of time. It was as if everything he had built in the last ten years, all of his plain, ordinary life, had only been a façade, a pretext. Were circumstances to demand it, he could become the One Who Lived again in the blink of an eye.

He caught Percy's arm. "Don't stop running! No matter what, Percy, don't stop running."

Percy was short of breath; he didn't answer. His heart was thumping in his chest and he was doing his best not to endanger Harry - not to endanger him more, that was. Maybe he should, in fact, stop running: stop, and make some desperate attempt to buy Harry some time, some time to escape, some time to live. Maybe he should, but he couldn't will himself to. Deep down, a selfish core, a small, stubborn voice was telling him that he couldn't die, that he still had things to do, and that maybe he could make himself useful if he were to live….

"Careful! We're Apparating… now!"

With nary time enough to ready himself for a Tandem-Apparition, Percy blindly followed Harry.

They landed hard in a deserted, wind-blown, dusty house, but there were more urgent things to think of than cleaning spells or asking where, exactly, they were. It was starting again. The world was on the brink of chaos; friends, families would be forced apart. He didn't know when they'd see each other again. He had to tell him now. "Harry…." Percy swallowed, feeling his cheeks redden under those green eyes raised straight at him. Thrown off, he couldn't find the words, didn't know how to tell him, so he said his name again, Harry, slowly raising his arm to caress Harry's cheek with the back of his hand. Harry's hand flew up, and caught Percy's at a speed reminiscent of his Quidditch days. Slowly, he upturned Percy's hand to kiss the small of his wrist, as if with reverence. Percy let out a long sigh, almost missing the tug on his wrist. He took a shy step forward. Harry wrapped a hand at the back of his neck, bringing him closer for an urgent, desperate, and all too short kiss that was over too soon….

Harry stepped back, and both he and Percy pushed their glasses up their noses in mirror movements.

"Go to the Burrow," Harry instructed. "Tell Molly. Have her alert everyone. I'll try to find Kingsley."

Percy nodded, determined. "Be careful," he couldn't help saying.

Harry smiled bitterly. "Don't worry. This isn't the first time someone's tried to kill me." He took a step forward, raised himself on tiptoe to give Percy a peck on the cheek. "It's going to be all right," he told him, Apparating away.

Percy wasted no time disappearing, a hand pressed against his cheek.