I Was Younger Then

The Sound of Silence

Hogwarts buzzed with the same liveliness Penny remembered, students sharing stories from their holidays and showing off whatever they'd received for Christmas. It was disorientating for Penny, trying to pretend to go on with things as 'normal'. The masses of people often overwhelmed her senses and she found herself diving into cupboards for a moment of solitude to get herself under control. But this did little to ease her nerves, so Penny started avoiding halls at the busiest points in the day, which meant she would arrive to some classrooms obscenely early, and others she would inevitably be late, usually remaining in her classroom long after the others had left.

Thankfully her professors did not shoo her away nor mark her tardy, and Professor McGonagall went so far as to sit down with Penny at the desk she occupied with Harry, Ron and Hermione long after they'd left and speak to her about the holidays. Much to Penny's surprise, she apologized to Penny, something Penny tried to insist she did not need to do, but McGonagall refused to hear it, adopting an annoyed tone when she told Penny her aunt and uncle had done her and Harry a great disservice in the way that they'd treated them growing up, but that she, as a teacher and Head of Gryffindor house, took the safety of her students very seriously.

Penny blushed furiously listening to Professor McGonagall, feeling very moved by her concern and fury she harbored toward Dolores Umbridge for facilitating such an egregious infringement on Penny's personhood. By the end of it Professor McGonagall assured Penny she need not feel compelled to discuss the details, but if she required accommodations, she could rely on her to ensure she received them.

Finding the courage to dislodge the frog in her throat, Penny thanked her head of house and told her that regardless of what occurred that day, Penny thought Professor McGonagall had been a complete badass and Penny hoped to one day be as brave and talented. Looking amused and pleased with herself, Professor McGonagall sent Penny on her way, telling her if she really wanted that then she needed to study hard for her OWLs.

When people did happen upon Penny in the corridors they often pointed and muttered, Penny noticing many debating whether they should approach her and ask her if the stories were true or not. When this happened, she sped up her pace and avoided making eye contact, wishing very much that she had Harry, Ron and Hermione to walk to class with instead of wandering alone, but there was no chance in hell Harry could ever show up to potions late.

It was in potions class that Penny realized how screwed she was. In all the chaos and slow torture of Yaxley Penny had somehow managed not to realize that word would spread among the Death Eaters that Snape had asked the Dark Lord for Penny to be his bride, and that the children of those Death Eaters had returned home a day later to also discover this information, much to her horror.

"I think I've awoken in a parallel universe, tell me something only you and I would know," Penny said, taking her seat beside Malfoy ten minutes after the bell had rang, Snape glancing lazily up at her and then back to the paper he was grading when he saw it was her, eliciting many murmurs from her fellow Gryffindors.

"Can you not see I am busy? If you are having another crisis, it will need to wait."

"If I told you that you should definitely take that off the heat before it becomes a noxious gas would you have time?"

He looked sideways at her appearing as though he wanted very much to ignore her and prove her wrong, but he did as instructed, Penny dropping a small vial of purple liquid from her pile of ingredients into his hand. "3 drops if you'd like to salvage that."

"It was fine," he said, snatching the vial from her regardless. "Now what's your latest issue?"

"Last week I was headed into the Great Hall and Marcus Flint and those annoying friends of his were blocking the door, so I told him to move, and he made some vague threat before turning and seeing who I was, and when he did he apologized profusely."