A/N:
Okay, so I figure I might as well make a romance fic out of my favorite het pairing from Harry Potter, beside DracoHermione. And I was just watching this episode of Teen Titans where Jinx meets Kid Flash and they sort of hit it off, but only with Jinx being the bratty angsty little devil that she is, and I sort of got inspired to write this thing.
I like this pairing, mainly because it's so cute and predictable, and there are no complicated emo problems like in HarryDraco and DracoHermione pairings. Shucks. Actually, just Draco.
Anyway, go read, enjoy the fic, and I apologize for the cheesiness of it all. If fluff ain't your thing, then move on.
Disclaimer:
Penelope is a screwball, I'll tell you that, but she's completely mine. Unless there's a Penelope in past Hogwarts that I don't know about, in which case, then she's all JK Rowling's.
Dense and Predictability
"What's that?"
"What's what?" Lily responded, not bothering to look up from her notes. There was going to be a test in Configuration that day, and she refused to have a failing mark on her pristine record.
"Lily, isn't that YOUR desk?"
"First row fourth column, if you're asking. Although you should know that already, Penelope, you're seated right beside me."
"Well what I want to know," Penelope exasperated, "is why you seem to be the only one in the room who is not paying attention to that thing on your desk."
Lily sighed. Distraction was not one of her favorite things in the world. She tore her eyes away from her studying and instead transfixed her gaze on whatever it was that was bothering her focus.
After which all the things she had been previously studying disappeared from her trail of thought.
Lily Evans walked up to it, picked it up and studied it carefully.
"Is this… a rose?"
Penelope laughed. "For the smartest girl in Gryffindor, you certainly are the densest. Yes Lily, it's a rose. Rosa Grandiflora, if you want the exact species."
"But… why?"
"Oh, my mum's a florist, and you pick up a few things…"
"No, no, no, why is there a rose on my desk?"
Penelope shrugged. "You ask why, and the rest of us want to know who. Funny how the mind works when in shock."
It didn't stop there. As the morning drove on, Lily found roses sitting on her desk each time she entered a class. By lunch, she had acquired four roses, three scoldings for distracting the class from the lesson proper (and three more for trying to explain that she had nothing to do with it), and a dread hatred for the phrase—
"So, any idea who put them there?"
Lily groaned into her pumpkin juice. "No comment. Don't you have anything better to ask?"
Sirius Black grinned. "I'm just curious Evans. No need to get wanky on me. I'm just wondering on whether you KNOW who did it, for the sake of everyone else here."
"Don't tell me you have anything…" Lily sat up. "You know who did it, don't you?"
"Well, I wouldn't say."
"You DO know. Spill it Black, before I hex you."
"Even if I did, why would I tell you?" The long haired shenanigan teased, leaning against his chair and putting his feet up on the table in the most satisfied expression.
"Because, because… oh never mind. Remus, what do you think?"
Remus Lupin shrugged. "I think that you should wait it out and see what happens. You never know with these kinds of things."
"Don't bother Lily. You won't be getting anything out of those two." Penelope sighed, taking a seat. "Speaking of which, it's a bit too quiet in here."
"I believe Peter is in Potions for extra credit." Remus replied. "James, however…"
"Let's not talk about that git, my day's ruined already."
"You're only saying that because you like him."
"I do not!" Lily retorted, "Who in their right mind would like that selfish, conniving, no-good aleck of a—"
"Ouch, I'm hurt. Really Evans, are the graphic insults necessary?"
Lily felt a blush rise to her cheeks. James Potter was there, leaning against the frame of the doorway to the common room, as if he apparated there. "Always necessary whenever it has YOU involved, Potter. What do you want?"
"Confirmation. I've heard about the roses."
"Don't tell me you're jealous."
"Jealous? Me? I wouldn't dream of it, would I Sirius?"
"Never."
"I'm sure he is a dashing young man with dreams of sweeping you off your feet." James finished. "And I'm very happy for you."
"I'm not sure if happy would cover it. It's quite alarming, what if he turns out to be a maniac? Or worse, a Slytherin?"
"You think Snape or Malfoy could have planted those?" Penelope wondered.
"Those two?" Sirius scoffed. "Neither of them have a romantic bone in their body. The only woman to ever look at that Snape lovingly is his own mother."
"Not even, I hear!" Penelope laughed.
"I don't know… they say Lucius is pretty soft when it comes to Narcissa." Remus replied.
"But that's because they're already engaged. And besides, both of them abhor Lily. No offense."
"None taken. I'd rather they abhor me in this situation."
"Or," Penelope cried "He could turn out to be a SHE!"
"In any case," James interrupted, glancing towards the grandfather clock in the corner. "I believe Care of Magical Creatures has already started, not that it would bother the rest of us, but Remus and Lily…" James continued, "You have three minutes before you both end up with late remarks on your permanent records."
The two most academically competent students in Gryffindor house were out the door before James could finish his sentence.
Apparently the rose-giver was turning out to be quite persistent in his consistency to give Lily a rose per subject. He (or she, as corrected by Penelope), seeing as Care of Magical Creatures involved no particular classroom, managed to get a Mooncalf to hold it in its mouth as it approached her.
"So we definitely rule out anyone from Slytherin then," chuckled Penelope. "None of them have enough wits about them to train a Mooncalf. Unless Snape fed it something he shouldn't have…"
And so it continued for the rest of the day. It came to her surprise however, when she didn't find a rose on her desk at Defense against Dark Arts, her last class for the day. She relayed her surprise to Penelope, who translated the surprise into disappointment.
"Maybe he ("or she", Penelope chirped) gave up." Lily shrugged, going back to her books.
That night, both girls stayed up in the apparently empty common room, doing Care of Magical Creatures homework. At ten o' clock in the evening, Penelope was exhausted. Lily, however, was just getting started.
"I think I'm going to retire." Penelope groaned, picking up her things and staggering towards the girls' dormitories. "Don't stay up too late Lily."
"Good night Pen." Lily bid, waving her quill. "I'm just going to finish this."
"Night."
The common room was silent. The only sounds were that of the grandfather clock in the corner, ticking away the hours, and Lily's own quill scratching against the parchment. A comforting kind of silence, the kind that made you think about things even if you didn't want to. I just so happened it made Lily drop her pen in frustration, because she couldn't figure out why there wasn't any rose there during her last class.
A frustration because it actually made her feel disappointed.
As if she was hoping it would be there.
As if she actually liked it.
And that she, Lily Evans, the most notoriously cynical girl in the entirety of Hogwarts, was actually being swept off her feet.
And she had absolutely no idea WHO.
"Problems? I don't care much for Defense against Dark Arts either, but that shouldn't give you enough confusion as to put down your quill."
"Go away James. I'm feeling horrible as it is."
"I heard about the missing rose. Is that what you're thinking of?"
Lily sniffed. "I just don't understand why. I mean, such inconsistency. And no clue as to who that person is. It's disturbing."
"Did it affect you that much?"
"If you must know, Potter, yes, it affected me very much. Why did they bother giving me a rose each period if only to come up short, and with no closure? Oh, just go away, I'm in no mood for explaining."
"Well, to cheer you up, I have a story for you." James chirped. "Professor McGonagall dismissed us a bit late just before my last class, so I wasn't able to do something very important."
"And what was that?"
"Just something very important. So I figure I'll do it now."
And with that, James took out a single rose and gently laid it on top of Lily's parchments.
A/N:
BITIN-NESS!!! WOOHOO!!
In all author's license, the rest is up to your imagination. And if anyone cares to make a sequel for me, then do, and send me the link, for chrissakes.
Ayt, Review!