Challenge #89: Snakes and Lions
Title: Secret Snake
Rating/Warnings: G
Characters/Pairing: Percy Weasley, mentions of his daughters
Summary: Percy Weasley never told anyone how close he had come to being in Slytherin.
Word Count: 621
Registered Purchases: Quill, parchment is in the queue to be registered
Ah, another Weasley. What do we have to work with?
“Aren’t you going to put me in Gryffindor?”
Just a minute now, calm down. I’d like to see what you’re made of first.
“But Weasleys always go into Gryffindor!”
Most of them, yes, but not necessarily you. You’d rather follow the rules than break them, you’re quite intelligent, and very ambitious. Oh yes, you want to go far in life, don’t you?
“Well… yes, I suppose.”
I know somewhere that would help you along that path to greatness.
“You’re not talking about Slytherin, are you? I can’t go into Slytherin!”
Yes, you could, and you would likely fit in there. But if you’re so set against it, you certainly have the brains for Ravenclaw.
“No! I want to be in Gryffindor!”
Very well, very well. If you insist. GRYFFINDOR!”
He took off the Sorting Hat with a sigh of relief and trotted over to the Gryffindor table, taking a seat next to Charlie, who grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, Perce! What took you so long?”
Percy smiled nervously and shrugged. “I guess the Hat was feeling talkative."
Percy Weasley never told anyone how close he had come to being in Slytherin. Over the years, he occasionally wondered if he had made the wrong choice. No one he knew in Gryffindor was as ambitious as he was, or as likely to think things through before just jumping impulsively into them. There was a reason he preferred to date Ravenclaw girls instead of girls from his own House. Sometimes he got so fed up with his misbehaving brothers, particularly once Fred and George started school, that he wished he’d agreed to Slytherin or Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor, just so he wouldn’t have to share a tower with them.
During the troubled times when Percy had no contact with his family because he’d rather keep his job than chase after wild theories, thank you very much, he certainly felt more like a Slytherin than a Gryffindor. It wasn’t until several years later when, looking back, he realized that that his Gryffindor passion in pursuing his goals had helped him move higher up in the Ministry more quickly than a restrained and calculating Slytherin might have been able to. He had been brave enough to stand up to his family and support who he thought was right (even though, as it turned out, he had been the one in error in this case) and he had worked his way up progressively higher through sheer force of energy and enthusiasm. He seized every opportunity, regardless of whether it seemed useful or not at the time. And his effort paid off well, in the end.
Perhaps, in this way, he was a better Slytherin than most of the real Slytherins.
After he’d made this transition of thought, Percy stopped doubting whether he had really deserved to be in Gryffindor. It had got him where he was today, and there was no reason to regret that.
When his eldest daughter Molly nervously confided in him over her first Christmas home from Hogwarts that she had almost been put in Slytherin and worried that this made her a bad person and that she wouldn’t be a very good Gryffindor, he laughed for about a minute straight and then told her that the exact same thing had happened to him. And when Lucy wrote home to say that she was in Ravenclaw and felt horribly guilty about not being brave enough to be a Gryffindor, Percy wrote back a supportive letter and thought to himself that there were some pretty good Slytherins lurking in Ravenclaw as well.
But most of the best ones were actually in Gryffindor.
621/30= 20.7
21+10 for bonus items= 31 points for Hufflepuff!
Jennifer//Hufflepuff
Rating/Warnings: G
Characters/Pairing: Percy Weasley, mentions of his daughters
Summary: Percy Weasley never told anyone how close he had come to being in Slytherin.
Word Count: 621
Registered Purchases: Quill, parchment is in the queue to be registered
Ah, another Weasley. What do we have to work with?
“Aren’t you going to put me in Gryffindor?”
Just a minute now, calm down. I’d like to see what you’re made of first.
“But Weasleys always go into Gryffindor!”
Most of them, yes, but not necessarily you. You’d rather follow the rules than break them, you’re quite intelligent, and very ambitious. Oh yes, you want to go far in life, don’t you?
“Well… yes, I suppose.”
I know somewhere that would help you along that path to greatness.
“You’re not talking about Slytherin, are you? I can’t go into Slytherin!”
Yes, you could, and you would likely fit in there. But if you’re so set against it, you certainly have the brains for Ravenclaw.
“No! I want to be in Gryffindor!”
Very well, very well. If you insist. GRYFFINDOR!”
He took off the Sorting Hat with a sigh of relief and trotted over to the Gryffindor table, taking a seat next to Charlie, who grinned and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, Perce! What took you so long?”
Percy smiled nervously and shrugged. “I guess the Hat was feeling talkative."
Percy Weasley never told anyone how close he had come to being in Slytherin. Over the years, he occasionally wondered if he had made the wrong choice. No one he knew in Gryffindor was as ambitious as he was, or as likely to think things through before just jumping impulsively into them. There was a reason he preferred to date Ravenclaw girls instead of girls from his own House. Sometimes he got so fed up with his misbehaving brothers, particularly once Fred and George started school, that he wished he’d agreed to Slytherin or Ravenclaw instead of Gryffindor, just so he wouldn’t have to share a tower with them.
During the troubled times when Percy had no contact with his family because he’d rather keep his job than chase after wild theories, thank you very much, he certainly felt more like a Slytherin than a Gryffindor. It wasn’t until several years later when, looking back, he realized that that his Gryffindor passion in pursuing his goals had helped him move higher up in the Ministry more quickly than a restrained and calculating Slytherin might have been able to. He had been brave enough to stand up to his family and support who he thought was right (even though, as it turned out, he had been the one in error in this case) and he had worked his way up progressively higher through sheer force of energy and enthusiasm. He seized every opportunity, regardless of whether it seemed useful or not at the time. And his effort paid off well, in the end.
Perhaps, in this way, he was a better Slytherin than most of the real Slytherins.
After he’d made this transition of thought, Percy stopped doubting whether he had really deserved to be in Gryffindor. It had got him where he was today, and there was no reason to regret that.
When his eldest daughter Molly nervously confided in him over her first Christmas home from Hogwarts that she had almost been put in Slytherin and worried that this made her a bad person and that she wouldn’t be a very good Gryffindor, he laughed for about a minute straight and then told her that the exact same thing had happened to him. And when Lucy wrote home to say that she was in Ravenclaw and felt horribly guilty about not being brave enough to be a Gryffindor, Percy wrote back a supportive letter and thought to himself that there were some pretty good Slytherins lurking in Ravenclaw as well.
But most of the best ones were actually in Gryffindor.
621/30= 20.7
21+10 for bonus items= 31 points for Hufflepuff!
Jennifer//Hufflepuff