Anti-Penelope
A HariPo drabble
by mew-tsubaki
Note: The Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not me. This pairing was discovered by me, so please gimme a little mention if you write them! Thanks! It is one of many of Mew and Mor's Weird Pairings, most of which you may find in the M&MWP forum. Check out and join the forum FUN! Read, review, and enjoy!
- ^-^3
It takes waking up in the wrong arms to know what you've done.
At least, that was the first thought that hit Marietta when she woke up in the middle of the night. It was almost three in the morning, and she should've been asleep. Well, she had been asleep, but she couldn't help waking. Not with her mind working against her.
Marietta looked beside her and saw Roger's arms fade into the pale color of her bed sheets. He was still asleep, and it wasn't likely he'd wake unless provoked. Then again, Marietta wasn't sure she wanted to wake him…
The witch drew her knees up to her chest and crossed her arms atop them. She looked around the room, her eyes stopping on the half-open window. It occurred to her how strange it was that Lee was not home yet.
That's a good thing, idiot, she scolded herself. She frowned and took her wand from her nightstand, conjuring a glass of water. But she wasn't able to drink it. Her fingers shook as she held the glass, and her throat swelled up at the thought of letting anything down her gullet. Before she could drop the glass, Marietta set it down on the stand, along with her wand. Then her eyes drifted again to Roger as a large snore escaped him.
Briefly, her eyes flicked over his left hand, where rested a silver band on his third finger. On her own hand was placed a gold ring with a fleck of a sapphire, because sapphires were cheaper than diamonds. Of course, there was a reason why their rings didn't match, and Marietta cupped her cheek in her palm as she thought about it.
If Penelope knew what her husband got up to when she lost herself in her work, what would she do? Similarly, if Lee knew what Marietta did to entertain guests—just Roger, actually—what would he do? In fact, would anything be done? Such things were almost expected of Marietta, she felt, because she was the youngest of the four of them, the lamest personality, and the sneak.
She would always be the sneak, wouldn't she?
It was a shame, she felt, because she'd made Roger her partner in crime. And he deserved better than this. He deserved Penelope, sweet and smarter and better than anything Marietta ever could be.
Of course, Lee deserved Penelope, too. He deserved someone faithful and beautiful and kind.
Penelope deserved not to be cheated on. Penelope… Penny deserved someone like Lee. She deserved someone who would never even think to look at another woman.
(But that's a lie, Marietta's sure, because she's seen the longing in her husband's eyes whenever Penelope visits the twins' shop.)
Marietta closed her eyes. She didn't deserve anything herself. How could she? She'd let people label her a sneak once, and she'd only lived up to that reputation. Lee said it didn't matter. Penelope, as a good friend, said it didn't matter. Everyone said it didn't matter.
Roger never talked about it.
Maybe that was why Marietta found it easy to drag him along. It wasn't just for the fun she had with him. Roger simply knew when to speak and when not to speak. It was…well, "endearing" wasn't exactly the right term, but the Ravenclaw in Marietta couldn't find the right one at this hour, so she'd settle for it.
She eased up and reclined in her spot on the bed she shared with her husband and with Roger. In the back of her mind, she vaguely recalled reading a book once—because that's what eagles do, righteous or not—and coming to the ending. She didn't like that the wife had been paralleled with a mythical faithful wife, the wife of Odysseus, because the character in the novel had been anything but faithful and good to her own husband. The chapter was even named "Penelope," for Odysseus' wife. But Marietta had always disagreed with that. Mrs. Molly Bloom was no Penelope. She was in the same boat as Marietta.
She was anti-Penelope.
Marietta closed her eyes and let the terrible comparison wash over her. Then what, she wondered, would she make of Lee, her Leopold Bloom? Her husband faithful except of the mind? Because she knew he must've entertained the thought of him and Penny on more than one occasion. But Lee was the kind of man only to entertain a thought; he was good enough not to act on it.
Other than that, the whole cast was wrong. Penelope was no Martha, the woman to tempt Marietta's husband through letters alone. And Roger was no Boylan, looking for comfort of the flesh wherever he might get it. Penelope just deserved better, Lee deserved better, and Roger never talked about Marietta being a sneak of any sorts. She liked that.
Still, she was so anti-Penelope.
- ^-^3
A little explanation… I read Ulysses by James Joyce, which I highly recommend. It was the inspiration for this drabble, and the last chapter is a change from the rest of the novel, because we get into the head of Molly Bloom, Leopold Bloom's wife, as she thinks about her affairs and loves. She actually comes to begrudge Leopold a bit just for writing letters to an unknown Martha, which seemed hypocritical to me, because Leopold never really did anything… I also thought it appropriate to consider just how much of a sneak Marietta Edgecombe would continue to be after her school days… So, the Blooms, Martha, and Boylan belong to James Joyce. Odysseus and Penelope (non-HP) are from mythology. And the pairings Lee Jordan/Marietta, Lee/Penelope Clearwater, and Roger Davies/Penelope are all M&MWPs, so credit would be nice if you wrote them, thanks.
Thanks for reading and please review!
-mew-tsubaki :s