Order Only: Private message to Alice and Bill

[alt_charlie]

Right, realised I hadn't updated you on us all talking over the past few days about what we could do about Percy. We went over and over and over it, and everyone tried as hard as they could to come up with something we could do to keep him from getting killed, and we just couldn't, any more than we could come up with a way to get him out of Malfoy's clutches before.

We thought about Saltash, but Percy wouldn't want to stay there, he'd tell everyone once he escaped, and we couldn't risk giving him the secret. We thought of a regular safehouse, but look what happened with Ridley. We even thought of trying to get some of our more Slytherin members to come up with some brilliant scheme that Percy could go through with to get more prestige, and to work out some way to save himself, but of course there's the problem of getting him to listen, and it's not as if he's been all that eager to do much listening.

Eventually we all decided -- pretty reluctantly -- that it wasn't fair for us to ask the Order to put loads of time and effort into saving Percy from the consequences of his own decisions.

Mind you, Mum's not happy about it. (Nor was she happy at overhearing Rachel and Ron talking about his Auror internship, I don't think it had really sunk in for her what he was having to do, but that's another story. It wasn't a big blowup, just a little awkward for a while.) So I'd step a bit cautiously with her for a while.

Bill, am I missing anything?

Comments

[alt_bill]

I think that about covers the gist of it, yeah.

Having Mum over for tea would be greatly appreciated, Alice. I think this is something it would be best for her to talk out with another parent.

Private message to Alice Longbottom

[alt_bill]

I may have struggled with the decision the longest.

Charlie and the twins and Ron and I all agree that Percy's made his choices, and sometimes it's impossible to save someone who seems determined to drown himself. Mum and Ginny argued with us, but you could tell their hearts weren't quite in it. He's hurt them, too.

But there's a part of me that still the protective older brother who wants to rescue him, even if he doesn't deserve it.

And since Dad died, I've felt like the head of the family (although for Merlin's sake, never repeat that to Ron). I keep thinking about Dad, that he always thought there was hope for everyone. He even died saving Selwyn.

Those two things are what makes it so painful and difficult for me to let him go and suffer the natural consequences of his actions.

Re: Private message to Alice Longbottom

[alt_alice]

Oh, Bill.

I'm so very sorry.

Yes, your dad did save Selwyn -- because he believed it was the right and decent thing to do, regardless of Selwyn's position and past actions. Because he saw Selwyn as a person. Not necessarily even a good person, or someone who might end up doing something redeeming, but as a fellow human being in immediate and critical need.

This is not a single moment of crisis. It is a slow, agonising slip down a treacherous path of his own making. It is difficult to watch, as there is not a single point of intervention that could halt it, but it is the accumulation of a million choices made along the way. And you have made an effort, all of you, to show him the consequences of his actions.

Yes. All people are worth trying to save. But sometimes, people do their very best to make saving them impossible, which is a hard reality to face.

Although we can hold hope in our hearts, ultimately, redemption is up to him. We cannot force it, or assume its inevitability, and holding him against his will would only harden his heart. But these things take time if they are to happen at all, and it is a tragedy pure and simple that he may not have enough of it remaining to sort things out on his own, and that is what makes me the most sorrowful.