Work Text:
Que Yue didn’t know why she was here at a wedding for people she hadn’t spoken to in years. Harry and Ginny were getting married today, and for whatever reason she had been invited. It was not jealousy that had left her uncomfortable; she did not want to be in the bride’s shoes anymore than she wanted to be sixteen again. Merlin had she been such a knob, “Harry this” and “Harry that.” She had followed him around like a lost puppy trying to desperately get whatever piece of attention from him that she possibly could. But Potter too, had been a lovestruck fool. It had not been about a life that they could imagine together but the life of a boy who had been murdered.
Cedric Diggory.
Even just thinking his name made her heart lurch. Que loved him and she always would. It was not in the silly teenager girl way that “I want to marry him one day” and writing their names together on parchment scraps. It wasn’t in the form of sitting next to them when they were old and grey. It was something different. It had long ago grown wild and deep, but it was stunned and torn. Cedric Diggory would always be to her the boy with the crooked smile who laughed at her terrible jokes. He was dead and buried before he should of finished Hogwarts. His was life gone before he had even gotten a real chance to live it.
Que had done her best to move on in the years that had followed the war. She had filled her life therapy, travelling, and work. She had been doing just fine until the invitation had arrived and with it everything was dragged right back up to the surface. Marietta had tried to convince her not to bother that those people weren’t worth it and she might have agreed with her friend if it had been the Granger-Weasley wedding. But she needed to be there to move on. In her heart, Que had to know that she had done the right thing and had been right when she walked away from the boy-who-lived.
‘It was also going to be the wedding of the century and who wouldn’t want to tell their grandchildren one day they went to something like that?’ She thought sarcastically.
The wedding itself had been beautiful with white lilies and red roses, a blushing bride, bridesmaids who looked like they walked straight out of magazines. Well if Granger would have bothered to tame her hair and Lovegood wasn’t wearing bottle cap earrings; there was only so much a little polishing up could change.
Que was at the table of outcasts at the reception; those invited but the ones that the happy couple might have preferred leaving off the list. Draco and Astoria Malfoy both looking as if they had been carved from ice, but softly smiling at one another. Pansy Parkinson was staring longingly at the groom, Que couldn’t help but wonder if maybe the newlyweds weren’t as happy as they seemed. She did her best to set that aside what they did was their business. The oddest among them, however, was Percy Weasley. He should be with his family, yet he wasn’t. He intrigued and fascinated her in the way that he seemed to be so different than the rest of his family. He was prim and proper like wanted to rise above his station, as if he wanted to be something more than he was. He sat there in a dark blue suit staring at a bit of white drapery as if was the most important thing in the world. Percy was twisting a sickle between his fingers. He flipped it back and forth mindlessly. He seemed like an odd man, but sometimes that was a good thing.
“I know why the rest of us are at the shite table, but why are you, Percy?” Que asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “You are a Weasley after all, and they must like you a little bit, don’t they?”
“What does it matter to you?” He sighed, not even bothering to look at her.
“Just trying to make small talk.”
“Small talk is for children, Yue. I can tell you about the inner workings of the Ministry of Magic, about how to take a car engine apart, and even the purpose of a rubber duck,” Percy laughed his tone slightly off. “But don’t ask me about the weather or the latest issue of Witch Weekly because then I have nothing for you, at least nothing interesting.”
“I happen to find all those things far more interesting,” she said. For a half of a second, she allowed herself to glance over at the couples on the dance floor Harry and Ginny were dancing and laughing. The two seemed to care little about the other people in the room and only had eyes for each other.
He looked at her with those crystal blue eyes and deadpanned, “well then you might be just as strange as I am.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Que…” Percy said her name like it was some prayer as if he thought she was something special, leaving an odd feeling in her stomach. “I am here because of my own choices. I was a bloody fool during the war. I nearly sold out my own family for useless things like power and money. I am rather lucky they didn’t disown me, and if they had, I would have deserved it.”
Draco huffed but didn’t say anything. He and Astoria joined the others on the dance floor.
“You assume that you are the only one who has ever done anything wrong?” She questioned, anger smouldering under her skin but giving her courage. “If that’s the case, everyone in this room should join you, and I don’t just mean the people at this table. Percy, I once did not correct a boy when he called me the wrong name because I liked him. My parents gave me a gift when they named me. It was about our heritage and history, but all I cared about was what other people thought of me. So if you want to bloody disown yourself for the choices you made? Then I should join you in that. Now, I want to stop pretending care what other people think of me I am going to dance and you are going to join me. Understood?”
Que stood up and brushed her royal purple cocktail dress down. Her mother had once told her purple was the colour of royalty, power, and strength. Now it seemed she needed every single bit of those things. She didn’t wait for Percy’s response, but she was not shocked when he followed her, though she was grateful that he did. She caught sight of the fairy lights that twinkled in the moonlight. She looked at the flowers, the tablecloths, the musicians playing their instruments, and all of the beautiful things around her. This was a happy place and time. Nothing was ever going to change that. The Potters deserved their wedding and their happy marriage, but she deserved happiness too.
Percy stood next to her; his hands were shoved deep into his pockets. There was something about him, something unspeakable and glorious that put a spell on her, everything about him changing in an instant. He wasn’t the most handsome man she had ever seen, that title went to a boy long since buried in the ground, but he was someone who she wanted to get to know. He was one of the quiet ones. Percy was a man you might not notice in a crowd of people. A tactic he might have learned after growing up with so many brothers. She knew it all too well. It wasn’t because she had enough siblings to make up a quidditch team, no, Que’s reason was far more sinister. People saw only as the men she had dated. The boys she had long ago loved; the one who died far too soon and the one who had lived against all odds.
Percy’s thin frame softened. He was looking at her once more like she was someone worthy of adoration. She took a step towards and crashed their lips together, and her hands rested on his shoulders. He grabbed onto her hips, pulling Que closer to him, their bodies brushing against one another. It was like she had shoved her hand into a lightning storm. Sparks danced across her skin and for once in a long time she was sad when they separated.
Someone in the crowd whistled, but she didn’t bother guessing who it was.
Percy rested his forehead against hers, “you’re amazing, has anyone ever told you that?”
“Well yes,” Que said, brushing her fingers along his collar. “But that does not mean I don’t like to hear it.”
“Now, why don’t we do what you asked and have that dance?” He took her in his arms and they danced.
Percy spun her around like he was born to do this their bodies moving together with ease. Que barely heard the music it could have been anything or even no music at all, but she wouldn’t care if that was the case. They danced for at least an hour on and off, not paying mind to the people around them. The party was dying down and it was time to send the bride and groom o on their honeymoon. Percy held onto her hand like it was his anchor, which Yue didn’t mind at all.
She set aside her feelings and watched the young couple. Harry and Ginny did seem happy, and when the two of them reached out to hug her before they left, it was genuine. They both seemed to have let go of the past, and Que would do her best to do the same.
After the newlyweds had Apparated away, Percy said, “I am not usually someone who does things like this.”
“Neither do I,” Que remarked.
“I don’t even know what you do for work or anything else.”
“My name is Que Yue. I was born in Dublin, I was a Ravenclaw, and I played seeker at Hogwarts. I love to travel, I am a horrible cook, and I work in Muggles relations for the ministry but the most important thing about me now Percy Weasley is I want to go home with you, can we do that?”
He smiled at her and mused, “we can.”
Not everything is about forever. Sometimes it’s just about tonight and that’s okay.