A/N: My first Harry Potter fic! I obviously don't own the franchise.

This is a Percy/Penelope fic set during the second book. For the Getting Around Challenge (with Percy). I decided to start out with a canon pairing. Also for the If You Dare Challenge (95- Lonesome).


Percy had always valued order. Growing up in the Weasley household, he had found precious little of it. Against the chaos, he had learned to find solace in the familiar, in tradition and logic and rules and precedents.

Penelope understood that, he knew. She was more spontaneous than he allowed himself to be, but she didn't press him beyond his boundaries. In return, he found himself willing to test those boundaries for himself.

Percy could see himself marrying Penelope. Statistically, Hogwarts sweethearts were more likely to get married than to go their separate ways. His own parents had dated during their time at school, marrying soon after graduation. In the quiet of the evening, as quiet as that ever got in Gryffindor Tower, he imagined himself as a successful Ministry worker, coming home each day to his beautiful, intelligent wife and their children.

Yes, Percy was satisfied with the direction his relationship was going. His girlfriend became his rock, something to depend on.

And then, it was gone.

His security.

His future.

His love.

She was snatched from him by a monster, an actual monster. Never in all of his imaginings had he foreseen such a thing.

She wasn't dead, thank Merlin, but she so easily could have been.

Just like that.

Without her, Percy desperately tried to hold on to his lists and his assignments and his schedules and his duties, anything to keep him grounded, to keep him sane. He wrote notes for her and made sure to remember her eyes and her smile every day until he would see them again.

He knew, academically, that the amount of time he waited for her to wake was not truly a significant length of time. He didn't care. It felt significant. It felt like forever. He felt so alone.

Percy knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he never wanted to be without Penelope again.