When Comfort Is Instinct

Summary:

Oliver has a nightmare. Percy, half-asleep and having grown up with six siblings, crawls into his bed on auto-pilot and holds him.

Oliver woke up with a scream, his heart beating far too rapidly within his chest. Within a few blinks, he'd forgotten whatever it was that had haunted his dreamscape. The fear, however, remained.

He took some deep breaths, putting his hands over his eyes so he didn't have to see how dark it was around him. His night vision was terrible, and despite the bright light of the nearly-full moon, he couldn't see anything that wasn't right in front of his face. Normally, it didn't bother him, but right after being so shaken up...

"Hmm?" a voice called sleepily from one of the other beds. "Wh'sss th' m'tt'r?" it slurred, and now Oliver could recognize its owner: Percy.

"Nothing, Perce," Oliver whispered, not wanting to wake up any more of his dormmates. "Just a nightmare."

It was silent for a moment, and Oliver assumed the other had gone back to sleep. Calmer now, Oliver decided to follow suit.

A blanket rustled, startling him. There was the sound of footsteps, and then Oliver felt his own blanket being lifted, a weight dipping down his mattress.

"Shhh," Percy's voice whispered. An arm wrapped around Oliver, and a warm form snuggled up against him. "'t's 'kay n'w. 've g't you. Sleep."

In the time it took Oliver's brain to boot back up enough to speak, it was too late — Percy's chest was rising and falling steadily, slowed breath telling Oliver that he had slipped back into unconsciousness.

This was... weird. Oliver knew it was weird, and had an inkling that Percy never would've done anything like this had he been even a bit more awake. He should have probably woken the other up and let him get back to his own bed, right?

But, well... Percy was a right grump when he didn't get enough sleep, and Oliver hadn't been held like this in maybe a bit too long, and he just felt so safe.

It's not like it would hurt anything to just go back to sleep with his best friend's arms wrapped tightly, protectively around him, right?

Right.

* * *

Percy grew up with two older brothers, four younger siblings, and rather loving parents. He had shared a bedroom until well into his Hogwarts years, and even after getting his own, he more often than not found himself sharing a bed with someone or other. The comforting power of a good snuggle after a nightmare or just a bad day was something on which he had lots of experience, both as comforter and comfortee.

All this is to say, when Percy awoke in someone else's bed and with said someone in his arms, he didn't immediately register anything wrong.

His first thought was that it was the weekend and he didn't have classes, so maybe he could just go back to bed. His second was that he couldn't listen to the first, as he had far too much studying to do. His third was whether Oliver would let him drag him to the library to do said studying, or if this would be one of the days where Oliver won out and he ended up doing his homework outside while the other practiced ridiculous tricks on his broom.

His fourth thought was I SLEPT IN OLIVER'S BED LAST NIGHT.

Percy's eyes shot open, properly taking in his surroundings for the first time that morning. He was on his side, his head resting on Oliver's shoulder and his arm thrown over his waist. Oliver, meanwhile, was laying on his back. To Percy's surprise, the arm belonging to the shoulder he was laying on was loosely curled around him, while Oliver's other arm held some sort of book. The book was too far away for Percy to see without his glasses, but he had no doubts it was something to do with Quidditch.

"Er... Good morning," Percy croaked, his voice hoarse with sleep and embarrassment.

Oliver turned to him, smiling. "Morning, sleepyhead."

There was, perhaps, the slightest tinge of mockery in Oliver's voice. Instead of getting annoyed, Percy found himself relaxing a little — Oliver found the situation amusing, which meant he couldn't be all that upset that Percy had invaded his private space like this.

A long, quiet moment passed as Percy tried to bring up the courage to speak again. But he was a Gryffindor, so eventually he managed to say, "Well, this is... awkward."

"Yeah, a little," Oliver agreed lightly, setting down his book. He grabbed his wand from under his pillow, using it to accio Percy's glasses for him. Percy took them gratefully, blinking the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up. "Didn't take you to be much of a cuddler, if I'm honest."

"I'm a Weasley; we're all cuddlers," Percy reminded him absently. Scowling, he glanced around the room. Luckily, he and Oliver were both early risers, and it didn't seem like any of the others were awake yet. He still had time to get to his own bed. Which he would definitely do soon. Any minute now... "I apologize, Wood. This was an unacceptable breach of boundaries, and I–"

He was cut off by Oliver's chuckle. "Shh, mate. It's fine, I'm not upset. You were barely awake. And besides..."

"Besides..?" Percy prompted after the other had trailed off for too long.

"I don't think I would've slept very well last night if it hadn't been for you," Oliver admitted, looking away. "Again, I know you weren't really thinking clearly and I shouldn't have let you do it — sorry for not waking you up, by the way — but I want to say thank you anyways."

"Oh. You're welcome, then," Percy answered stiffly, not entirely sure what else to say to that. Silence fell over them again. Oliver's arm, the one he'd been laying on, was still wrapped around him. They were both sitting up now, their sides pressed lightly together. Neither moved to widen the space between them. "Do you get nightmares often?" Percy asked, more to break the tension than anything else, though a part of him was curious.

"Nah, but when I do they're awful," Oliver answered with a small laugh. He didn't bother asking Percy the same; they both knew that failed tests and pranks-gone-wrong filled his dreams more often than not. "I almost never remember them."

"Hmm," Percy hummed. He shifted his body absentmindedly. Oliver, thinking he was trying to get up, started to move his arm. Without thinking, Percy locked their hands together to stop him, like he would with one of his family. He froze, blushing. "Uh, s-sorry. I should get back to my bed now, should've done it as soon as I woke up, really, I'll just..."

His attempts to get up, along with his rambling, were stopped by Oliver's hold on him tightening just slightly. "You don't have to," Oliver told him. "This is actually kind of nice. I've never really held someone like this."

Oliver was blushing from the admission, but Percy barely noticed. His brain was too caught up on what was, perhaps, entirely the wrong thing to focus on. "What do you mean you've never held someone? What about your parents?"

"I said I've never held someone like this," Oliver corrected. "I mean, I don't have any siblings and I was a lot smaller when I was young enough for my parents to hold me–"

Percy gasped. The concept of being too old to be held was not one that his family had ever taught him, and though he logically knew it was something some people believed, he had never thought about whether his friends' families were such people.

Percy Weasley was stuffy and arrogant and far too stuck-up on even the dumbest of rules. But he was also a Weasley and an older brother of four, and so he shoved aside his own reservations and immediately pulled his friend closer. In the back of his head, he made a note to ask the rest of his friends about the last time they'd been held.

"Um, Perce?" Oliver asked, surprised at suddenly being squished against the other.

"Shhh, it's okay now," Percy muttered, this time fully awake. "I've got you."

With a mental shrug, Oliver decided to not ask too many questions and just go along with it. That was usually the best tactic when it came to Percival Weasley, after all.

Besides, it really did feel rather nice. And it wasn't like cuddling with his best friend while both of them were fully awake could hurt more than doing so while one was pretty much still asleep and the other was recovering from a nightmare, right?

Right.