He followed in his father's footsteps, but his gait was somewhat erratic.
~Nicolas Bentley
Percy Weasley stood outside the door of his daughter’s bedroom, one hand resting on the doorknob, hardly believing that it had all come to this point.
It was like life was playing some cruel joke on him. He had gone from being a highly respected official in the Ministry to official laughingstock, and from Minister of Magic candidate to living off his parent’s charity. He suspected that Fred would have found it all very funny, but not even George had been laughing at him these past few months. In fact, George had even…
Percy sighed and turned his back to the door. There wasn’t much point in reliving what happened; he had managed to do things he swore that he never do. And yet, at the end of it all, he could say that he would do it all over again if he had to.
It was odd that at this moment of finality, Percy wasn’t even sure how he was supposed to be feeling. Which was why knew he couldn’t bring himself to open the door and face that empty bed.
That realization and with it the promise of a sleepless night brought Percy down the steps and into the Burrow’s living room. Settling into a large overstuffed armchair, Percy debated how he was going to spend the first night of the rest of his life. He considered picking up the Daily Prophet on the stand next to him, but he already knew what the headlines would say; he had been living in them for far too long.
Left with nothing else to do, Percy studied the wall of photographs that his mother had hung around the fireplace. The always-large Weasley family had grown even larger with every marriage and birth, but Mum kept photo evidence of it all. Percy’s eyes glanced over to where he knew his family’s photo would be.
She had changed it. Percy was twirling a laughing Molly in the air while Lucy was grinning with her arms wrapped around his waist. He hadn’t even known the picture existed. As Percy walked over to look at it closer, another picture caught his eye; it was an old Weasley family photo from the summer after he graduated Hogwarts. Looking at himself, Percy saw his pride at his new job at the Ministry, the twins’ laughter, Ron’s excitement for the Quidditch World Cup, and Mum’s enjoyment at the having the whole family together. It was the last picture that they had taken as a family…and that was his fault. He had left the family mostly out of anger at his father, and hadn’t returned until the night Fred died. And he had lost with his betrayal the opportunity for any more complete Weasley family photos.
Staring at that picture on the wall, with everyone’s smiling faces, was when Percy finally understood the sacrifices his father had made. The same sacrifices that Percy had walked away from his family because of… The same sacrifices that Percy had now made for his own daughters…
Sometime, in the past few months, without ever realizing it, Percy Weasley had become his father.
That revelation broke him, and finally he allowed long held back tears to flow.
Becoming My Father by Gonz
Chapter Notes: Thanks to Mapoi (Mublood_and_proud_of_it) for being an amazing Beta!