A/N: Penelope asks Percy to help her study for her OWLs. pre-Percy/Penelope. Set in their Fifth Year. This could be slightly related to my fic, Late Night Snogs, since they meet similarly, though Percy does shout his feelings out loud in that one.

Submission for:

The Trio's Era Competition: Round 2: Your character asks for help - Penelope Clearwater. Prompts: confuse, scare, stress, breakdown, tear

Open Category Competition 2: Trio Era

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Penelope scratched her head as the words swam off the pages before her eyes. If only they would float into her head through her ears and stay in there but she just wasn't retaining anything.

Penelope felt like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown with all the stress piling on her head. With OWLs only a month away, she felt no more ready than she did yesterday, the day before or last week. She had been studying diligently in library after classes everyday for three hours and nothing seemed to be sticking. It didn't help that the professors were still assigning homework, which took a large bulk of that three hours to complete.

She pulled her head out of the textbook and looked about the Library, desperate for a distraction, before her eyes landed on the boy sitting at the table next to her.

Percy Weasley, the third Weasley boy, was diligently taking notes from a thick book on his table. They shared Charms and Transfiguration classes and he always seemed to be in the Library when she was, always sitting at the table near hers. If she wasn't so stressed over her exams, she would have thought something of it.

Instead, she just studied him. He always looked calm and collected. He wasn't worried about his OWLs, the books and the words didn't confuse or scare him. Maybe he could help her with her own studies.

But now she wasn't sure if she should ask him. She'd never spoken to him personally but she heard he was a bit arrogant and snobbish. He might tell her to get lost, insult her Ravenclaw intelligence, and then she'd be in the same situation but with a bruised ego.

Penelope sighed and looked back into her text. She would have to do this herself.

But a few minutes later, Penelope couldn't take it anymore. She could feel the anxiety rising and she knew it would be only a matter of time before she began crying in front of the entire Library, a tear already waiting at the corner of her right eye.

She turned back to see Percy, closing one book and opening another. She would swallow her pride and ask him, accepting his insults as they came.

"Percy?" she asked, rubbing the tear from her eye.

He made no indication that he had heard her, which he probably didn't. He was so absorbed in his textbook and she hadn't been particularly loud.

"Percy!" Penelope half-shouted.

He jumped, his head whipping around before he realized she had called to him. He gave her a shy smile and asked, "Hello Penelope, how is your studying going?"

"Good, good," she said. She didn't want to seem desperate, but maybe she had done too good of a job since Percy just nodded and moved to go back to his text.

"No!" she said suddenly. He turned back to her with a raised eyebrow. "It's been going horribly actually. Can you help me?"

There was a pause and Penelope's eyes drifted towards the Library exit hidden behind the high shelves. Maybe she could make a break for it before he teased her.

He smiled and picked up his books at his table and came over to hers. "What subject are you studying now?" he asked as he drew out the chair across from her.

"Charms," she said, showing him the purple cover of the book.

Percy nodded before pulling his own copy from his stack of books. "We'll start with that then."