A/N: Wooh! Sorry, y'all. I don't know if this is me just being hard on myself, but I just reread through the last chapter and some parts were a little rough! I'll be sure to edit more carefully next time. Also, thank y'all soooo much for the reviews! Y'all have no idea how much those little words and follows and favorites mean to me. Seriously! Thanks! Also, is the story moving to slowly? Like is there too much description/dialogue, not enough happening? Or is it too early to tell? Feel free to leave your complaints and compliments! Also, I got a new job like a month ago, and then quit, plus school is hammering, etc… I blame that for my absence. But do not fret! I can't get this story out of my head.

Mornings were by far not Penny's favorite time of day. She was never completely awake until she had at least a goblet or two of Hogwarts' strongest tea, half a breakfast, and an interesting conversation to wake her mind.

So, the first day of classes were no different. Penny woke up with a particularly excessive amount of pain in her back, though she couldn't recall why. After about 10 minutes of pondering why he was in pain, she slowly stepped out of her bed and looked around her dorm.

Josie, Katharine, and Madison were already out of their dorm, much to Penny's delight. Penny also inferred that they had already made it to the Great Hall, based upon the tidiness of their dorm. Being the mess-making, unorganized person that Penny was, she knew very well how incredibly particular her three roommates were about the organization of everything, especially their room. Unless fire was raining from the sky, Josie, Katharine, and Madison would never leave a room without making sure that every Ravenclaw blue tapestry was straight and every bottle of enchanted perfume was returned to its proper place.

Speaking of which, Penny's room smelt of a strange scent this morning. Was it lavender? It reminded her of an accident that James and she had caused one year in Potions class.

Deliberately not giving a damn about her roommates' need to have everything tidy and clean, Penny threw off her pajama shirt and bent down, flipping open her trunk to find a shirt to wear under her Hogwarts robes. Eventually, she decided to wear a light purple t-shirt that had the name of a singer who her mom used to listen to. Penny glanced down at her plaid pajama pants, and decided that they were too comfortable to take off. So she picked up her robes that she'd thrown on the side of her bed and slid them on.

A quick toothbrushing, hair and bag check, and she was on her way down the stairs. Penny looked at her simple silver watch on her left wrist and figured that she had a good 20 minutes until classes started. Just enough time to eat a little, grab her schedule, and make it to her first class. Hopefully, the class wasn't completely across the campus. She'd might have to run, and that was not going to happen.

Penny rested her hand on her back as she walked into the Great Hall. She looked around and found her friends sitting together at the beginning of the table. She readjusted her bag that held her books and wand and walked over to them. Remus was the first one to notice her walk over.

"You ok, Penny?" Remus asked. He scooted over to make room for her between him and James. Lily, Sirius and Peter sat across from them.

"Yeah." Penny groaned and swung her leg over the bench to sit down. She flung her bag underneath her seat and then leaned her elbows on the table in front of her to get comfortable. "I just woke up with a bad back pain."

"You're getting old." James warned.

"I am not old." Penny said. "I'm just… older than any of you."

"You're old."

"Fuck you." Penny sighed. "It's too early for this." Penny scanned the table for her tea. "Where's my…"

"Here you go." Remus handed her a large goblet filled to the top with her favorite tea.

"Oh, thank you, dear friend." Penny took the goblet gratefully and took a large gulp. "You see, Sirius? This is what boyfriends are supposed to do."

"Do what?" Sirius asked.

"Get their girlfriends food and stuff."

"I wasn't aware that I was being a bad boyfriend."

"Not usually, no." Penny took another sip and then put an arm around Remus' shoulders. "But as I walked in this morning, Remus was the one who noticed that I was in pain, and then also gave me my goblet of delicious caffeinated tea." She let her arm fall and took another sip. "Whatever flavor this glorious leaf water is."

"'Glorious leaf water'." Remus and Lily laughed.

"But Penny," Sirius leaned forward, "you always look like that in the morning."

James laughed as Penny threw a few pieces of some sort of food at Sirius' face.

"Careful, Sirius," Lily warned and smiled, "you might have some competition this year."

"With Moony over here?" Sirius pointed his thumb at Remus. "Fat chance," he laughed.

"Oi." Remus said.

"Now, now," Penny said slowly as she piled some food onto her plate, "Just because you're hot, Sirius, and I'm as loyal as a Hufflepuff, does not mean that Remus looks like a troll, and that he doesn't have a chance with me…"

"Ok, ok," Sirius waved his hands around as his friends burst into laughter, "you know what? No. We're not having this conversation."

"Whatever you say, love." Penny smiled to Sirius as she took her last bite of food. "Now, what classes do we have first?"

Eventually, everyone's class schedules were shared and their stomaches filled, and the group of friends went their separate ways to their first classes. Sirius and Penny stuck together, however, seeing as how they shared Transfiguration together first. The walk there was relatively silent until Sirius spoke.

"So, Penny…" he began vaguely.

"Yeah?" Penny was a little concerned about what came next.

"I, uh…"

"Sirius, love," she faced him, "if this is about what Remus said…"

"What?" Sirius lied, "Of course not." They turned a corner.

"Merlin, seriously?" Sirius began to smile at the word, but Penny interrupted him. "Don't."

"Listen." Sirius stopped walking and lightly grabbed Penny's hands. "Remus is an amazing bloke, and you know he's one of my best mates. Family, really…"

Penny rolled her eyes and rested her hands on Sirius' sharp jaw line. She took a step forward to avoid the other students walking to their first class and looked into Sirius' grey eyes. They looked alot like hers. She stood on her toes and kissed her boyfriend to shut him up. She slowly slouched back down. "You're an ass sometimes, you know that right?"

Sirius frowned. "That's what you tell a guy to cheer him up."

"You know what I mean." She took his hand and led him towards their first class. "You still speak Penny, right? You didn't lose that over the summer?"

"How could I?" Sirius and Penny entered the classroom together. "You hardly shut up."

Penny gaped and lightly slapped Sirius' rear.

"Ms. Rider!" McGonagall shrieked from a few desks ahead of them. Her face was one of extreme disapproval and regret.

"Sorry, McGonagall." Penny tried not to smile as she and Sirius sat at two desks to the left.

"For the last time, Ms. Rider, it's Professor McGonagall."

This was how the remainder of Sirius and Penny's Transfiguration class passed. Disapproving glares from McGonagall and hidden smiles and laughter from Sirius and the other students. The three Ravenclaws in the class were not in this category, as usual. They were on McGonagall's side.

After McGonagall had finished explaining the differences in the make up of all transfiguring spells that had to do with fire, the class was dismissed. Except for Penny.

"Ms. Rider, can I see you for a moment, please?"

"Good luck." Sirius whispered to Penny as he slipped out of the classroom with the rest of the students.

McGonagall was writing something on a scroll with a purple quill. She made a last few scribbles and then slowly stood up and peered down at Penny from behind her desk. "Ms. Rider." McGonagall walked around her desk and stood tall, now in front of Penny. Her face held a look that Penny wasn't expecting. It seemed disappointed, but not like the kind that she usually showed. This was more of a saddened disappointment than an annoyed one.

Penny waited for her professor to continue.

"As you know, as part of being Deputy Headmistress, I have to make sure that each and every student is headed on the right path for themselves, and that they remain on this path. And as you remember, at the end of your 5th year, you had not yet chosen a career path…"

"No, Professor," Penny interrupted tiredly, "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I'm not even 18 yet."

"But you almost are," McGonagall reminded her. She then hesitated. "Have you at least decided whether or not to…"

"To live in the muggle or the wizard world?" Penny hated when people asked her that. Just because people knew her back story about her possessive muggle dad and her dead witch mother didn't mean that people could ask her which lifestyle she was going to abandon. "No, I haven't." Penny had grown impatient and was ready to leave.

"Ok," McGonagall said finally. "Ms. Rider, just remember…"

"Yeah, I know Professor." If only Penny had a galleon for every time a teacher had said that they were always there to talk to her if she needed to. The Bullshit Pity Line, she'd begun to call it. Penny turned and walked away, slinging her bag sloppily over her shoulder.

"Ms. Rider, wait." McGonagall called sternly.

Penny slowly turned around and looked tiredly up at her professor. McGonagall seemed to be holding a sheet of parchment, neatly folding it in her lap. Her fingers traced the creases repeatedly.

McGonagall slowly walked towards Penny. "Have you thought about going into a career…"

"Professor…"

"Hear me out, Ms. Rider."

Penny was willing to see what was making McGonagall so nervous.

McGonagall was going to continue what she was saying, but then changed her mind. "Have you thought about possibly joining the Quidditch team?"

Penny squinted her eyes at the unexpected question. "Um, first of all, Professor, I am about the most unsporty person in the school, and most certainly would injure myself and the entire team within one try of flying a broom." Penny crossed her arms. "And aren't you like, Gryffindor's number one Quidditch fan, anyway?"

McGonagall smiled a bit. "Of course I am. And I wasn't talking about being on the pitch as part of the team."

"Oh?"

"As you know, the recent model of brooms that the school has invested in for those who cannot afford their own broom is not a very… quality model. This years' model is much faster, but much less stable than last years'. A bad investment on Hogwarts' part."

Penny was lost.

"What the school needs, is a broom repair girl."

So she wanted Penny to sit around and fix broken and sweaty brooms that the players had used and abused? Oh Merlin… she was going to be a roadie. For Ravenclaws, none the less. "Um. Yeah. Professor? Listen…"

"It's not what you think it is," McGonagall explained, "I promise that it's very interesting work…"

"Thanks, Professor," Penny hesitantly smiled to be polite, "but I don't really think that it sounds like my kind of thing…"

"Just," she held out the parchment, "look into this book. Madam Pince will help you locate it in the library. Quidditch starts in November, so you have some time to decide."

Penny slowly held the parchment and slid it into her pocket. "And let me guess. You'll be here if I want to talk about it?"

McGonagall simply smiled. "I really suggest the chapter on woods. They each have their own individual personality."

Something about this book seemed promising to Penny, even if she didn't hold the least bit of interest in broom making. It was something about how persistent McGonagall. She wasn't like she usually was when she forced Penny to participate in detentions, or when she was quieting her and Sirius. This was a different McGonagall than she'd seen in the past 7 years. Less strict and more encouraging. This book must really be important to her.

"Thanks," Penny said a bit more sincerely, "I'll get Remus to help be find it."

"Good," McGonagall had finally won. "I'm sure he'd have no trouble at all helping you find this book. There are a fairly substantial amount of copies on the shelves."

Later that day at dinner, Penny debated whether or not to find the book that McGonagall had recommend. And now that she thought about it as she swallowed another scoop of soup, she couldn't recall the last time a professor had reached out to her like that. Penny reached down and pulled out the folded piece of parchment. She moved her goblet to the left and flattened out the creases. The parchment read The Magic of Brooms, Wands, and Their Properties. By Dudley Berkeley.

Lily spotted the parchment that Penny was reading next to her. She let go of James' hand and reached for the paper. "Oh, that book is dreadful! I had to read that for an Advanced Charms Essay that Stronghold had me do for extra credit."

"Is it really?" Penny whined. "I'm not getting it then."

"Wait," James interrupted, "I'm sorry. Did you just say that you needed extra credit?"

"I needed the extra points," Lily shrugged, "Josie Orleans had the highest average in class."

"Ugh," Penny groaned, "That bitch. Do you know what she told me yesterday?" Penny took a sip of her tea and prepared herself for one of her complaining rants. She knew that her friends didn't want to hear her complain about her Ravenclaw drama, but what else were friends for but to complain to about your bitchy roommates?

"What did she say?" Peter propped his head on his hands, possibly interested.

"So I walk into the Common Room last night, right? Just minding my own business. When all of a sudden Josie walks up to me and apologizes…"

"Wait wait wait," James said, "she apologized?"

"Yes!" Penny was glad that someone agreed with how insane the concept was.

"Remus, man," James sighed, "bet's off that Josie Orleans is really an emotionless bitchy vampire whose only weakness is apologizing." Remus rolled his eyes.

"Shut it," Penny begged, "Anyway. So I walk into the Common Room, and then she apologizes. For like, everything.

"Well isn't that a good thing?" Lily asked.

"Well, I mean I guess," Penny paused, "but then when I didn't really respond, just kinda said like 'Ok', then she went on all about how I should be the one forgiving her, and how it's all my fault or something, and…" Penny groaned.

"Now," Remus hesitated and shifted forward across the table, "just because it's been a long summer, would you be so kind as to remind us all why we hate Josie Orleans?"

"She's a bitch." Penny said simply.

"Have you not been here the last 7 years?" Lily asked.

"Freshman year," Penny stuck out a finger, "she told Smeortan that I cheated on her exam."

"Well did you?" Peter asked.

"Only the last section…"

"Penny!" Lily gasped angrily.

"Yeah, but Josie Orleans cheated on the entire exam! She only told on me because she saw that I saw her cheating. She just got lucky that I was cheating too," Penny said confidently. "And then just in general from there out. Josie Orleans, Katharine Lane, and Madison James are just in general evil to me, along with the rest of the Ravenclaws."

"In their defense," Sirius said slowly, "you do cost them a hell of a lot of house points."

"Who the fuck cares about house points?" Penny's voice raised slightly. "Sirius, let me ask you this:…"

"Ok."

"If you were sorted into Slytherin, would you worry about earning house points?"

"Fuck no."

"Exactly," Penny said. "Because you despise their asses. Ravenclaw is to me what Slytherin is to you. They've treated me like shit ever since Josie Orleans gave me up for cheating. Just because I'd rather spend time with my friends instead of reading a damn book all day doesn't make it ok for them to treat me like that."

"Cheers to that." James said, raising his goblet.

Lily leaned forward and spoke firmly. "Penny, they don't know you and have no right to treat you like that. You prioritize your life, and there's nothing wrong with putting friends first. Now, you know that I'm always for trying harder in school and striving for better grades…"

"Here here," Remus toasted.

"But they don't know you, or your history. You can't let them get to you like you do. You can't give them that power." Lily finished.

James whispered in Lily's ear only for her to hear so that she would blush. "That was hot."

Sirius raised his goblet, focusing his grey eyes on Penny's. "Here's to tragic backstories and hope for a better future."

"Here here." The Marauders clanked their goblets together and took large gulps.