Chapter Two: Percy, Abby, And Scabbers

Five years later . . . .

“It’s not fair!” The seven year old whispered harshly to himself as he sat against the far side of the barn with tears in his eyes. Beside him, in the grass, a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles lay upside down, having been roughly discarded by their new owner.

Percy Weasley cried softly into his arms, not looking at the stupid glasses that his father just bought for him earlier today.

For the last few months, or so, young Percy kept running into things around the house. At first it happened in the evenings when it was darker. He would accidentally bump into one of his siblings, or the edge of a chair, or the table. His mother kept telling him to be more careful and he would tell her that it wasn’t his fault, that he just couldn’t see well sometimes. Then he started having trouble during the daytime as well. Things that once seemed clear before now seemed to be slightly hazy to him, even blurry at a distance. He also started having headaches when he strained to look at something. His brothers found this very amusing, much to his annoyance. Once his twin brothers, Fred and George, led him one evening into a closet upstairs and locked him inside in the dark. He yelled and cried until his mother came upstairs and found him. Even the sound of the spankings that the twins got didn’t make Percy feel any better . . . well, maybe just a little better at the time.

Finally, his father took him to see a healer at St. Mungos Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, who examined his eyes and told them that Percy needed glasses. When Percy heard those words he frowned and thought, ‘I can’t need glasses! Glasses are for old people!’ He said as much to the adults, both of whom laughed and explained that people of all ages had glasses. Percy tried to protest, asking in there was any spell, or magical potion he could take to fix his eyes. Unfortunately, he was told by the healer that there were some things that even wizards couldn’t do, and fixing blurry vision was one of them.

Afterwards, his father took him to Diagon Alley. It wasn’t Percy’s first time going there, since his older brothers, Bill and Charlie, both went to Hogwarts (Charlie just started this year though) but it was his first time going alone with his dad. He hated that he couldn’t look around very well because of his blurry vision. They went to a lens shop and a pair of glasses were made for him. When he put them on, Percy could almost have laughed out of joy at his newly restored vision. As it was he did smile and exclaim, “I can see now! Dad, I can see things good!” On their way back home, Percy could see all of the displays in the shops now very clearly. He smiled the whole way back to the Leaky Cauldron and even in the floo back to the Burrow.

When he got back home, his mother stood there in the living room, along with his five-and-a-half-year-old brothers Fred and George, and one of his two adopted siblings, Derek Black. All of them were playing a silly game of exploding snap, which Percy never found all that interesting. His mother smiled at him when he bragged about his new glasses and said he looked very distinguished in them. Percy didn’t know what ‘distinguished’ meant, but she smiled when she said it, so it just had to be good. Then she and his father went into the kitchen.

The moment they were gone, Fred, George, and Derek all ganged up on him laughing so hard that their faces were turning red. Fred started out teasing him, saying, “You look all bug-eyed, just like a house elf, Percy!” George added, “With freckles!” Derek laughed harder at the twins words and just barely managed to heave out, “You can see – how much – his ears stick out!” At those words the twins burst out into even louder laughs.

Percy got so mad his ears turned red. “You’re just jealous! I can see now! Better than you little midgets can!” He borrowed the term from Bill, who being the oldest, always referred to his younger siblings (even Charlie) as midgets. Right now Percy was the oldest of the Weasley siblings still at home.

“Yeah, Percy. You can probably see all the way to France with those glasses,” Fred said and laughed more.

“Bet you can see better than Errol right now!” George added, referring to the family owl sitting over by the window on his perch asleep.

It was Derek who then added the last insult, “Go stare at the clouds, four-eyes! Maybe now you can see how to get out the door.” All three of them howled in laughter. In the nearby crib, baby Ginny began to laugh also, though Percy knew it was more because the boys were than at his expense, so he wasn’t mad at her.

“Comeon, guys,” Fred said standing up and grinning. “Let’s go wake up Ron and Abby.” He smirked a little. “Let’s go get dad’s wand. I overheard a spell we can use too.”

Percy frowned at them. “You can’t use magic till you’re old enough! Plus you’re not allowed to touch dad’s wand! I’m telling mom!” They ignored him and left. He frowned more and turned toward the kitchen and stopped when he saw both of his parents laughing over by the stove. They were talking low and then laughing. Percy didn’t know why, but he just somehow knew that they were laughing about him. He turned away and ran out the door, unseen by either of his parents. Had he waited a moment later, he would have heard his father mention the name of the unfortunate ministry official who somehow ended up getting covered in stink sap after an office prank.

Percy ran out behind the barn where he threw off the stupid, ugly glasses, sat down and sobbed his heart out. Everyone though he looked stupid now, even his parents! He even felt stupid now. How could he think that those glasses would be a good thing. He didn’t care if he couldn’t see very well, he didn’t want to be laughed at. Even though Percy always tried to act like he didn’t care what everyone thought of him, deep down all of the picking and teasing did hurt.

He didn’t know how long he was there crying and feeling sorry for himself. It felt like forever. He almost hoped that his parents would come find him, tell him how sorry they were for laughing at him. But they never did.

Someone however did find him.

There was a pair of loud, high-pitched screams from the house. Percy sat up and blinked. ‘What’s going on?’ He though to himself. He was about to get up when someone came running around the corner yelling. That someone was a small, five-year-old girl, with long blonde hair. She was crying and sobbing hard.

Percy jumped up in an instant. “Abby? What happened?”

Abby ran over and wrapped her arms around Percy’s waist and buried her face into his chest. “Oh P-P-Percy! It was Fred and George and Derek!” She sobbed.

He frowned at the names. “What did they do to you?”

The young girl sobbed some more, now hiccuping. “I w-was (hiccup) asleep with Ron upstairs and (hiccup) and Fred turned Ron’s teddy bear into (hiccup) into a – a SPIDER!” She yelled the last word and cried harder.

Percy hugged Abby, even though he didn’t like having her cry on him and she was squeezing a little tightly. His own worries were gone for the moment. “Please don’t cry, Abby. Please don’t.” He patted her back lightly.

“B-but I was (hiccup) I was s-sooo scared, Percy!” She whimpered shaking in fear. “It was in Ron’s arms (hiccup) and – and then it jumped on my (hiccup) my b-back!”

‘Those three have really done it now!’ Percy thought to himself angry. ‘Mom and Dad are going to whip them good this time!’ In many ways it was wishful thinking on Percy’s part when it came to Derek. Neither him, nor Abby, were spanked by the elder Weasleys, though they were disciplined when they did something wrong. Percy didn’t know why. Maybe it was because they were both adopted and his parents just thought that was bad enough that they didn’t have real parents?

“It’ll be OK, Abby,” Percy said trying his best to get the small girl to stop crying. “Those three pick on everyone. They picked on me earlier too.”

Abby looked up at him, her bright blue eyes were now red and teary. She wasn’t crying or hiccuping now, but she was curious. “Why, Percy?” Then she blinked seeing his own eyes and let him go. “Were you crying, Percy?”

Percy bit his lip and said, “No, I wasn’t crying.” He was lying and he could tell Abby knew it too. Her face was red from all the tears and he knew his probably was too

“Why were you crying, Percy? What did they do to you?” Abby asked, now having totally forgotten about her own fears for the moment.

He looked away and frowned. Percy didn’t know why, but for some reason he didn’t want Abby to start laughing at him for having to need glasses. That would have made her happier anyway, but it would have made Percy feel worse, even if she was just a little kid. He sighed and told her. “I had to get glasses to fix my eyes.” He pointed at the ground where they were still laying.

Abby looked over at them, then walked over and picked them up by one of the ear pieces.She turned them over in her hand just looking at them and put them on. Her eyes looked huge in them and she took them off when she tried to walk around and almost ran face-first into the barn. “They make things look all blurry,” she said, looking down at the glasses in her hand and frowning at them.

Percy just smiled at her and then said, “That’s how I see things without them.”

She looked at him and asked, “You see better with them then?”

He just sighed and said, “Yeah, but they make me look dumb. I hate them. They make my ears stick out and Fred said that I looked like a house elf with freckles.”

Abby walked over to him and looked down at the glasses in her hand a moment then said, “Let me see. Please Percy.” She gave him the cutest pouting face she had. Percy sighed and took the glasses from her, wiped his eyes, then put them on. The lenses were a little dirty from the ground, but he could see Abby clearly now as she looked up at him. She blinked and then grinned at him. “Wow, they make you look older, and smart too!”

He raised an eyebrow. “They don’t make my ears look bigger?”

Abby smiled and then let out a small girlish laugh, “They make you look like the Minister of Magic.”

Even though Abby was just a little girl, her words somehow made Percy feel a whole lot better. Things seemed a bit brighter now, and his glasses did make him see much better. He smiled and said, “Mom said that they made me look – um, so-fist-icated.”

“What does that mean?” She blinked looking up at him.

“I don’t know, but I think it means something good,” Percy answered.

The little blonde girl nodded, wiping the last of the tears from her eyes. “I think it means handsome.”

Percy looked at her and his face split into a grin. He nodded and said, “Handsome Percy Weasley. I like that.”

Abby just giggled and said, “Yeah me too.”

A moment later, a pair of high pitched yells could be heard from the house. Both of them turned and looked around the side of the barn in time to see Fred walking out of the house by the kitchen doorway, rubbing his backside and crying, while inside the sound of spanking could clearly be heard and George shouted out: “Dad, we didn’t mean to take you . . . OW! It was all Fred’s idea! OW!” Arthur Weasley could be heard clearly saying: “Wands are dangerous and shouldn’t be taken lightly!” and Molly Weasley bellowing out: “TURNING YOUR BROTHER”S BEAR INTO A SPIDER! UNDERAGE MAGIC! OF ALL THE THINGS!” Then more sounds of kids getting spankings and sobbing.

Both Percy and Abby began to chuckle, then laugh with a lot of satisfaction. They looked at each other grinning over their tormentor’s punishments.

Now Percy felt a lot better and he turned to look at Abby. “Say, Abigail, want me to fly you around on one of the broomsticks for awhile?” Normally Percy wasn’t much of a flier, but he often saw Charlie fly Abby around on his broomstick when he was home.

Abby thought about it a moment then just smiled and nodded, “Yeah, can we?!” He grinned at her enthusiasm and nodded. “Yay!”

Percy was just about to go to the nearby broom shed and retrieve one of the broomsticks when there was a loud commotion inside the barn. It sounded as if the chickens were being attacked inside. Both of the kids jumped at the sound of things being knocked over and loud cackling.

“What’s going on in there?” Abby asked, looking up at Percy with her large blue eyes worried. Percy just shook his head, “I – I don’t know.” He started toward the doors and paused when he felt Abby grab his hand. He squeezed back and they both walked nervously to the door. He gulped a little and then slowly opened the door . . .

A tan-feathered hen flew through the opening clucking angrily. Both Percy and Abby let out yells and jumped out of the way. From the open barn door, several more hens came out clucking loudly and pecking away at something on the ground between them.

“Break it up!” Percy yelled at the chickens shooing them away. At first they ignored him, but when he stomped over they got out of the way and revealed the object of their outrage. Percy stopped and knelt down to get a closer look.

Laying there on the ground was a large, half-starved brown rat, with drooping whiskers and a long, nude tail. It was all covered in scratches and cuts, probably from the beaks of the chickens and other creatures (some of the wounds were scabbed over and were older) and there was a toe missing on it’s right front paw.

“Poor little guy,” Percy thought when he saw it breathing hard, all of it’s small ribs were showing through it’s thin, furry coat.

“What is it, Percy?” Abby asked behind him.

“It’s a rat,” he said, looking back at her. “Abby, go in the house and get me a shoe box. Hurry.” The young girl just nodded and did so. After she left, Percy looked down at the poor miserable creature through his new glasses with a pitying look. The rat’s dark eyes looked up at him and didn’t seem to be afraid. It squeaked low, almost weakly. ‘He must be starved,’ Percy thought, and then looked back at the open barn door. Just inside, laying in the hay and dirt covered floor was a chicken egg.

Percy smiled and understood what happened now. He looked back at the rat and said, “Stealing eggs then, was it? Well you must of been desperate, those hens nearly had your hide back there.” He smiled more. “Good thing I was there then, wasn’t it?” The rat gave a weak squeak, as if to say thanks. Percy blinked and wondered if it was possible that this rat did understand him?

A moment later, Abby ran back to him carrying an empty shoe box. She handed it to him and Percy told her to go get a handful of hay from the barn and return the egg. When the girl did so, Percy looked down at the rat and said, “I’m going to take care of you now. I’ll pick you up and put you inside. Promise you won’t bite then?” He waited and then heard another low squeak and smiled taking that for a yes. Ever so carefully, Percy picked the hurt rat up with both hands and gently put it down in the box when Abby came back with the hay.

“Are you going to keep him, Percy?” Abby asked, looking at him.

Percy already considered those words and then he answered, “I need to talk to Mum and Dad about it, but yes, I will.” He looked at the rat and smiled. He found a new pet that seemed to understand him. This more than made up for having to wear stupid glasses.

“What are you going to call him?”

Abby’s question was an important one. He had to have a name. Percy looked down at the rat in the box and saw it was still looking at him. He looked at the scarred and scab-covered fur and then it came to him.

“I think I’ll call him Scabbers,” Percy said. The name seemed to fit considering the state of the poor creature that Percy already resolved to restore to health.

“Scabbers.” Abby said slowly, as if tasting the word. She smiled and nodded, “That sounds like a good name.”

There was a squeak from the shoe box in Percy’s hands. Percy grinned and said, “I think he agrees with you, Abby.” Both of the young kids laughed together as they took Percy’s new pet back into the house to get cleaned up and fed.

To Be Continued . . . .

A little bit more foreshadowing for this story. More coming soon, including Sirius in Azkaban. Read and Review and I may have the next chapter ready faster . . . (winks) Stay Tuned. -Carl