[thd] electric shock • • a r t h u r

Percival's day had been long and tedious.

Usually tedious wasn't such a problem for Percy; he'd always been an exceptionally hard worker bee, and when he set his mind to something he usually powered through it like a machine, but for some reason today had seemed more difficult than usual. Perhaps it had something to do with the increased budget for his department this financial year. He was working through a list of employees, trying to decide who deserved a raise more than the others. Edith? Kendrick? That was difficult. More than likely, however, was that Percy was struggling because his assistant was on sick leave and without her here he often forgot to do things like eat food or go home after anything less than four hours overtime.

The young man looked up as someone appeared at his office door. He beckoned them in and they dropped off two large parcels on his desk. He stared at the things for a moment before thanking the messenger and setting aside his current papers. He checked his watch. A few minutes spent on this mystery task would be okay, he thought. The day was drawing to a close for most of the nine-to-fivers in his department, but Percy rarely clocked off at five; there was always so much extra work to do, and who would do it if he didn't? He was a dedicated department head, at least.

Inspecting the packages, it became evident very quickly that they were old, battered brooms wrapped in brown paper packaging. Odd. Percy didn't like mysteries that set him back like this. The redhead picked up the bit of paper that had his name and office address on it, then looked at the second one. The second one was addressed - for some reason - to his father. The deliverer must have just checked the surnames and then given them both to him by mistake. With a sigh, Percy wrote a quick note on a piece of paper which promptly folded itself into a paper aeroplane and took off. Hopefully Arthur would still be at the ministry and had the time to swing by to sort this out.

Paperwork.

He always waited until the end of his day to do such things. It always took the longest and seemed to me more rinse and repeat then anything. Arthur was nearly done for the day, ready to get home to Molly. It had been a rather long day on very little sleep. He always found himself lost in his own thoughts these days. Moments of flickering emotions clouding his better judgment to actually sleep at night. Dark blue eyes closed as he rubbed his lids to wash away the exhaustion.  Putting the last bit of his days work in the bin the man smiled, standing up and grabbing the lunch he hadn’t had the time to eat.

As he moved to exit his office, fixing his less than spectacular robes, a small aeroplane flew directly at him. The former Gryfinndor turned the paper over in his hand as he gave a chuckle. Those kinds of things always intrigued him. Percy. He moved quickly closing his door as he did. It would be nice to see one of his children. It seemed everyone had gotten so busy. The absence of early morning bickering or the creaking of the floorboards from various areas of the house, it was daunting at times. Everyone had grown up, too fast. They had left, far too soon.

The man gave a smile to those he passed. “Thomas, I told you I would be right about my Quidditch predictions!” He spoke in a cheerful voice as he passed a man talking to a sectary. Arthur knocked with two fingers before walking into his son’s office. His face was plastered with a silly grin. “What’s this I hear of a wrong;y delivered package?” He asked as he moved forward, towards Percival’s desk, resting his lunch down so he could scratch his head thinking. “Some kind of broom you say?” How curious.

Percy had to admit, he didn't really like seeing his father at work. The redhead wasn't sure if it had something to do with the fact that he'd spent over a year ignoring the man on purpose a while back or if it had more to do with the way that he liked keeping work life seperate to family life. Probably a mixture of both, he thought distantly. Percival Ignatius Weasley was good at compartmentalisation. He preferred his life to be split into neat little boxes. He liked his life like he liked his meat and veggies; neat and seperate. Work was for interacting with people like Kendrick and Edith; they were work people. Still, on occasions like this there wasn't anything to be done about it.

The man removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger before placing them perfectly back on his face. "Come in!" he called as his father knocked on his office. That was another thing that made him a little uncomfortable about seeing his father at work, he thought. He had a higher position and a nicer office. Arthur loved his job, but Percy still felt a little strange about the weirdness of being higher up in the ministry than his father. Not that he'd say anything to Arthur or Molly about any of that of course.

"Yes," he said, motioning to the chair on the other side of his desk. "Hello father. Yes, I'm not really sure why they were delivered to me. One seems to be for me and one for you. I was hoping you'd be able to shed some light on the matter...?" Percy surveyed his father's expression as he spoke, looking for signs of familiarity or knowledge about the brooms on his desk.

A Corgi. He thought absentmindedly about what he could add to the household that would feel the gap of missing children. A dog would be nice; they seemed to give a person the love they needed. They were excitable and most of all loyal. Though he wasn’t sure Molly would be too pleased with the possibly potty mistakes in the house. “Do you think your mother would enjoy a dog?” The grey redhead asked, his brows lifted and the excitement clear in his eyes as he spoke to his son.  “What about one of those small, yappy ones?” He couldn’t be sure which would go over well with his wife, but it was a nice thought none the same.

“Hmmm, what?” Arthur looked at the brooms and then Percy. His lips pursed a bit as he thought. “It must be some sort of common mistake son, I assure you I was not expec-“ Before he could finish his sentence, the broom closest to him gave a sputter. “Well, I’ll be…” The aging man shifted in the seat he’d taken when he walked in and as if the broom could feel his uncertainty it shot across the room. Arthur’s eyes grew wide as the broom zigged and zagged knowing things from the shelves and nearly missing his head as it flew over.

“Percival watch…” The broom slammed into the wall, putting a hole there and leaving most of the paper wrapping it behind. The man lifted his hands to keep his head safe as the other broom gave a loud whistle. What in Merlin’s name was going on here? He felt a bit bad that his son’s beautiful office was being destroyed by a rouge broom, he moved to reach for his wand but the broom collided with his elbow causing it to fall. “Now just hang on a good second!” He yelled at the broom as his funny bone pulsed painfully. What an end of the day if he ever saw one.

"Excuse me?" Percy frowned a little, his father's random mentions of dogs taking him totally off guard. This was the sort of thing he'd been stressing about before, he thought. He didn't like the mixing of work life and home life. He wasn't used to sitting in his office discusssing his mother's taste in dogs. Small yappy dogs? Percy supposed that that Molly might like those kinds of dogs, but quietly thought that she'd probably prefer something bigger that she could put her arms around... The young man shook his head, removing his glasses for a moment so he could rub his eyes again. This was what happened when his assistant was away, he thought. He forgot to eat, sleep and ended up talking about dogs with his father in his office.

Percy sighed a little as he realised his father clearly had no idea what he was talking about with the brooms. Percy had half a mind to just have them filed away somewhere or destroyed. He remembered the time his brothers had mailed him literal shit right to his desk. In his new workplace. As a "prank". He didn't think it was overly cynical of him to be suspicious of random items showing up. Suddenly, one of the brooms shot off from his desk and hit his bookshelf, then ricocheted to the ceiling and down to the ground. Things were falling down all around him. Percy quickly pushed his glasses back onto his long nose and got to his feet, wand in hand. Percy Weasley had many faults, but being able to act in moments of chaos was not one of them. He flicked his wand at the rogue broom, stopping it in its tracks. Then he swished his wand at the hole in the wall, satisfied as the wallpaper stitched itself back together again.

"Honestly, if this is some kind of George prank..." he said in clipped tones. Percy's sentence trailed off at the end as his eyes flicked to the other broom, which was now sort of pulsating in a weird way. Percy gripped his wand, ready to make the thing disappear as necessary.

Well if had hadn’t seen it all. Arthur adjusted his robes, brushing the permanent wrinkle as his son took care of the violently flying broom. He gave an exaggerated sigh as his eyes drifted to the second broom. “I can’t say that I would put this passed your brother…” He nearly said brothers but he remembered that George no longer had his second half, that they all were missing a big part of what made them whole. For a just a second the pain that he had hidden away showed, the corners of his mouth turned down and his brows came together. Fred. Gone forever and each time his he saw that familiar shade of hair he remembered that he would never see one of his children again.

Arthur looked intrigued reaching out to touch the second broom, his hand snatched back. “My goodness that is hot.” As he said this the broom whistled and his lunch rocked back and forth. Strange, the man leaned and as he did the top flew from the container. He would defentaly have to speak to Molly about not putting so much kick into his meals. His graying hair was now home to a meal he hoped to enjoy later that night. The older for Hogwarts student leaned back, picking chicken off his robes. He reached into those robes who didn’t look any worse than they had, even with food covering him.

“Oh Percival.” Came his father’s concern as he looked up to see the boy covered in mashed potatoes. Pulling his hanky free, Arthur leaned to wipe at the boys glasses. “Well, your mother sure put a bit of kick into that meal.” He gave his son a grin as he attempted to get the mash from him hair. “Maybe a Saint Bernard!” He exclaimed suddenly, nodding with a sense of purpose. Leaning back, and having not helped but made Percy’s appearance worse, Arthur simply cocked his head to the side. “You can say lunch was on you.” The man laughed, really laughed, at his attempt at a joke.

Boy did he crack himself up.