An unexpected choice

Disclaimer: anything that you recognize from the booksbelongs to J.K. Rowling. anything you might not recognize belongs to me and please don't steal it. If you think I'm making any financial or materialistic profit from this you are welcome to try and sue, although I really wouldn't like you to do so ;P

A/N: this a slyth Percy fic (yeah you read correctly, a slyth Percy fic, probably the fist one too.) that will probably turn into a slyth Harry fic. After reading books four and five I saw how percy had a lot of ambition and that he was horribly misusing it so I decided to writ this (hopefully) worthwhile fic. . Enjoy!

Chapter one: The sorting

September 1st 1987

"Percy! Stop reading that book and hurry up or we'll be late for the train!" Molly Weasely exasperatedly said to her third son, Percival Ignatius Weasley. "Oh fine, but let me put a bookmark from where I left off" he replied. Molly shook her head in wonder to herself, and mused, how the boy could read this much, if he kept this up he'd probably end up in Ravenclaw, which was a good house to be in except that Percy had his family reputation to hold up. It would be much better if he just got landed in Gryffindor like the rest of the family. Molly was rudely pulled back into reality by a loud bang and strong odor of burnt material. "FRED! GEORGE!" she hollered into the general direction where the sound had come from (upstairs)."Come down here right this minute!" They probably stole Arthur's wand again, and by the smell of things they probably blew something up too. Fred and George came running down from the second floor so heavily that the whole house trembled. "Fred and George Weasley first of all how many times have I told you not to run in the house like that, and second of all why were you playing with your father's wand!? Again!" It was amazing how such a small person could radiate the basic aura and fierceness of a saber-toothed tiger.

Immediately they started denying what they did, finishing off each other's sentences in that annoying and sometimes fascinating way they always did.

'We weren't..." "...Doing anything..."

"...with dad's..."

"...wand" They said with innocent looks on their faces about as convincing as David Blaine's magic tricks...oh wait they sometimes are convincing...never mind then ... "Well, then what's that smell of something burnt? Go degnome the garden!"

"Awww mum..."

"...we promise..."

"...we won't do this..."

"...again."

"No! Now go start degnoming the garden! I've wasted enough time arguing with you we'll now be lucky if we manage get to the Hogwarts express on time. Come Percy, we need to hurry."

He trotted up to his mother and they started walking outside. When Percy looked back Fred and George both pulled different faces at him, he just glared back at them disapprovingly.

When they finally reached the station Percy ran through the barrier for his first time. The sight that greeted him was an amazing amount of people, parents hugging goodbye to their children and the children greeting their friends from previous years in Hogwarts. On the railway stood a magnificent scarlet steam engine with big windows that showed students getting into their compartments.

"Percy behave yourself at Hogwarts and remember to send letters every week" Molly said, her eyes glistening with something that looked suspiciously like tears.

"Don't worry mum, I won't forget"

Just then the whistle of the train blew piercingly through the air and Percy rushed off onto the train, waving goodbye to his mother just as he got on the train. Almost the exact moment Percy got on the train it lurched into movement.

As he got on the train, Percy found an empty compartment and sat down.

This was it he thought; he was going away to study at the most prominent magical school in the United Kingdom. He was going to have to study very hard if he wanted to get into the ministry; he read that it was really difficult and that he had to have top marks to get in. He hoped that someday he might become the youngest minister of magic and finally bring some honor to the name Weasley. Percy's ambitious thoughts were interrupted when the compartment door opened and a shy girl came into the compartment. She was a bit a bit short and had long dark slightly curly hair and big hazel eyes.

"May I sit here?" She asked quietly "All the other compartments are full."

"Umm, sure no problem"

"Thanks" she blushed and sat down

"So...er...what's your name?"

"Penelope, Penelope Clearwater"

Percy had heard of the surname Clearwater, There was a young Auror by the name of Patrick Clearwater. He was second only to the unfortunate pair, Frank and Alice Longbottom.

"Are you related to Patrick Clearwater?" Percy inquired interestedly

"Yeah, he's my brother" She said, and then continued staring at the floor. Puzzled, Percy looked down to see if there was anything unusual about the carriage floor that made the Clearwater girl stare at it so intently. Nope, nothing unusual about the floor.

Once Percy had accidentally broken Charlie's broomstick while trying to ride it. He rode it a bit until he started losing control of it. The broomstick shot out from under him and smashed into a large rock nearby. No matter how hard Percy tried, it was irreparable. Charlie had been terribly upset about the loss, he knew they wouldn't be able to afford another broomstick so he couldn't play on the house team anymore. Luckily, The team refused to lose such a valuable player and they all pitched in to buy him a new and even better broomstick since the school ones were unfit for a seeker. Later, His mother had asked him who broke the broom, and while looking down at the floor Percy replied that it was Fred and George. His mother immediately knew that he was lying, she told him that people found the floor interesting when they were lying or shy. It was obvious that Percy wasn't simply shy.

Percy remembered that incident and guessed that Penelope was just a shy person. He got out his book to read. (The standard book of spells, Grade 3 by Miranda Goshawk) The book wasn't in the greatest condition even considering that it had been bought secondhand.

After a bit of reading Percy got bored and he decided to try to make a bit of smalltalk with Penelope.

"So, er, which house do want to be in?" Asked Percy

Surprised, Penelope looked up from the book she was reading. (Hogwarts, A history, the revised edition)

"Oh, um, well I just finished reading about the houses and I think that Ravenclaw would be the best house, they're supposed to be really smart you know, although I suppose Slytherin wouldn't be too bad they're very cunning and ambitious."

For a few seconds there was silence, Percy was honestly surprised, his first impression of her was a shy quite person but now she seemed to be quite a bit different then how he had perceived her. Oh well, he guessed his mother wasn't always right, when a person looked down at the floor it didn't necessarily mean they were shy.

"I wouldn't want to go to Slytherin, all the dark wizards come from that house. I want to go to Gryffindor, it's the best house, that's where the all brave people get sorted into."

Penelope looked scandalized for a moment before telling Percy off.

"It's not fair to judge people by what house they're in, its not even fair to judge the house before you've met the people in it!"

"Er, alright" said Percy, not totally convinced. Penelope didn't reply and they both resumed their reading.

After a short while the sky darkened and it started to rain heavily. When they finally got to the station they heard a booming voice shout out:

"Firs' years'! Firs' years over here!"

Percy looked towards the direction the voice was coming from and saw a gigantic man about twice the height of any normal man and four times the girth. He must be Hagrid, Charlie had told Percy all about him. He told Percy that Hagrid was half giant and that he shouldn't mention that little detail to anybody.

He walked over to Hagrid, Hagrid recognized Percy as a Weasley.

"I'll be bettin' you're another of Arthur's children. Well, get into a boat, only four to a boat" Hagrid had to almost yell to be heard over the howling wind. Percy got into a boat with Penelope and two other first years, one of which was a not too tall girl with waist length black hair set in a braid and dark heavy lidded eyes that looked at the world in a haughty I-am-superior-and-you-should-be-my-lowly-servant kind of look. They were also sitting with a short friendly looking blond boy who seemed to be intimidated by the girl. Suddenly the boats set off across the lake. The boy and the girl looked surprised, but Percy and Penelope weren't, they both read about the charmed boats in Hogwart, a history. When Hogwarts came into view it was magnificent. Even though Percy had seen its picture in Hogwart, a history he wasn't prepared for the sights of it with its many towers, immense size and glittering lights. Soon their boats entered into what seemed to be an underground chamber and stopped with a bump on the pebbly shore. As the new first years got out and were led through the doors that were there they were greeted by sight of a stern looking woman with gray hair and piercing eyes. The woman (who introduced herself as professor McGonagall) proceeded to tell the nervous students about the houses and the house points. Once she was done they entered into the great hall to be greeted by the sight of four tables filled with talking students.

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