Kiss Me, I'm A Gryffindor
The silence in the library was often maddening. Each second that passed was met only with the scratching of quills so that the sounds of feather on parchment grated on the ear threatening to literally make it bleed.
And in the last twenty minutes, all Percy had written on his paper besides his name, date, and a title was, "There are three potions that are the most effective in healing minor abrasions:"
Across from him, Penelope Clearwater sat, a Ravenclaw and fellow prefect. She had already written four inches of the same assignment. Percy glanced across the table toward her admiring her hair, soft and brown, and her dark blue eyes. Percy wasn't going to admit it to anyone, but he had fancied the prefect for a very long time now.
Now he was sixteen, had never been kissed, and was probably going to die a sad and angry hermit. Fred and George had taken a notice to his lack of girlfriends—they had both kissed plenty of girls—and they were beginning to tease him about it. If only he could work up the nerve to ask Ms. Clearwater out. Unfortunately, the thought of doing just that made him nervous and sweaty. This whole dating thing seemed to come a lot easier to everyone else.
"Percy?" Penelope asked. "Keep your eyes up if you're going to look at me at all."
Percy felt his cheeks burn when he realized his gaze had fallen somewhere…below her neck. He muttered something inaudible and returned his quill hastily to its inkbottle. This proved to be a bad decision when he knocked over his bottle and spilled ink all over the table.
"Damn," he muttered, using a charm to sop up most of the ink.
"Are you okay, Percy?" asked Penelope, checking the stopper on her own inkbottle to make sure it was tight enough. "You seem a bit…flustered."
"Fine fine, I'm absolutely perfect!" Percy said with a little bit too much enthusiasm.
"Are you sure, Perce? Because you haven't even written a sentence yet, and you're usually faster than me."
Percy sighed. He knew Penelope could see through his lies like they were glass. The two had been friends since the beginning of the year when they both found out they were prefects. And in that time, they had spent a lot of time together—just as friends, lamentably.
"Okay fine, Fred-and-george-have-been-on-my-case-about-not-having-a-girlfriend-so-i-was-going-to-ask-if-you-would-pretend-to-be-my-girlfriend-so-that-they-stop-teasing-me-all-the-time," Percy blurted at top speed.
"I didn't even have a bloody chance of understanding what you just said," Penelope pointed out, tickling her quill across the bottom of her chin. "Again. And slower."
Percy said the sentence again but not without turning twenty shades of red bordering purple. "Fred and George have been teasing me because I've never actually…uh…er…snogged a girl," he confessed. He braced himself for Penelope to start laughing, but it never came. "And I was wondering…I was wondering…I was wondering if maybe-you-would-pretend-to-be-my-girlfriend-so-that-they-would-at-least-stop-badgering-me-about-it ."
"Enough with the verbal vomit," Penelope said sweetly. There was a long, drawn-out pause between them. "I suppose we're good enough friends that I could…maybe…pretend for you."
"Brilliant!" Percy said enthusiastically. "We can start tonight!"
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, darlin'!" Penelope joked.
The next day, a Saturday, Percy escorted Penelope to the Gryffindor common room. Just outside the door he laced the fingers of his right hand into her left hand.
"M'lady," Percy said holding open the portrait hole for her while the Fat Lady prattled, "Percy's finally got a girl!" in his ear. He turned red around the tips of his ears.
They stepped through the hole together hand in hand, and walked straight toward where Fred and George were sitting in a corner, playing Exploding Snap. A soft December snow shook down cheerily out the window in the background. Percy and Penelope hopped up on the window seat, right above where the twins were on the floor.
"Who is the girl, Perce?" Fred asked putting down a card.
"Penelope," Percy couldn't help but grin. He put his arm around her, and she nuzzled her head in his shoulder. She was very good at pretending to be his girlfriend.
George raised an eyebrow at the sight of them. "Oh. You've finally gotten one. Took you long enough. I'm assuming she's a prefect."
"Percy and Penelope. We should start calling you Percelope or Prefect Lovers. Two bloody P's in a pod," Fred said, making gagging sounds.
Percy grinned again.
"Okay Perce, you might have confunded this poor girl into thinking she likes you for now, but have you two actually done anything besides hold hands? Because I've held hands with Auntie Muriel for crying out loud, and I still do not like her in the slighte—" George's speech was interrupted when the deck of cards exploded in his face. Percy laughed cruelly.
"You've won for now Fred, but I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!" George cried putting on a witchy voice. "I bet you haven't kissed her."
"Of course I have!" Percy protested pompously. "I think this is the part where we kiss," he breathed in Penelope's ear.
Penelope slid closer to him and craned her neck upward toward him. She tasted like honey and cinnamon. He parted his lips slightly and hoped on his life he was doing it right. More than convincing Fred and George, he wanted to please Penelope. His cheeks were doused in warmth when she placed her hand on his cheek and broke away, staring up at him with her bright doe-eyed expression. She smiled.
"Oh, I see how it is," George said gagging slightly. "You know, it's really not polite to do that kind of thing in the common room. There are children in here who prefer their innards on the inside. If you must—and believe me, I would advise against it—you should look into an empty classroom."
Percy shrugged. "Penelope?"
Penelope sighed, but it was a happy sigh. Percy couldn't help but be wistful at how good of an actress she was. "I suppose." She hopped off the window seat and dragged Percy by his hand, giggling. The noises of Fred and George gagging could still be heard across the common room.
Penelope didn't stop dragging him until she reached an empty classroom, miles from Gryffindor Tower.
"You're a brilliant actress!" Percy complemented as the two of them hopped up on the teacher's desk in the back of the classroom. They sat in silence for a few moments, staring at each other.
"Well…" she said. She traced the edges of Percy's prefect badge with her fingers and flattened out his robes. He felt an inferno burn at his insides. "That's the thing," she explained slowly. "I wasn't exactly…acting."
Percy stared off in disbelief at what he was hearing. He hadn't even considered the possibility that Penelope actually liked him back.
"I actually…I've fancied you for a while now," she admitted, blushing slightly.
"Me too," Percy said back. "Oh why didn't I say something before? Idiot."
"Oh you're not an idiot!" she giggled, and they were kissing again. Percy felt happy. He finally had a girlfriend, and she wasn't pretending to like him.
Their moment was interrupted when the door of the classroom opened. There was a crash of books toppling to the floor and a red-haired, freckle-faced first year gagged. "Merlin, Perce! Give a girl a warning before you start doing that in front of me! Poor Penelope!"
Ginny raced from the room quickly.
Percy rolled his eyes. "Maybe we should be more secretive," he shrugged.
"Your family is going to tease you no matter what, you know."
"I know. Some secrets are fun though."
"Oh Perce, I remember that!" George said in mock enthusiasm. "Although, I had no idea that that was your first kiss. Sixteen, eh? Mine was when I was eleven, just saying..."
Percy shrugged. "One of Ginny's dolls when she isn't looking doesn't really qualify as a first kiss, Georgie."
"Rule of thumb, Perce: it's a rookie mistake to give your family something else to make fun of you over," Fleur joked. "And zey are never going to let you live zis down!"
"I remember that day," Ginny said with a disgusted look on her face. "You weren't exactly snogging her. More of a sucking the venom out of her face if she got a snake bite on the inside of her mouth sort of a thing. Everyone groaned, and George punched Percy in the shoulder. Percy looked angry against the flickering flames of the bonfire.
"I am not that bad! Am I?" he asked turning to Audrey.
"Eh. You have your ups and downs," she joked. Percy was probably bright red, but it was hard to see with only the firelight. "I'm kidding, Percy. You're wonderful." She kissed him, somewhat sloppily because of the intoxication from the Firewhiskey.
"Okay, Lovebirds," Harry said refilling the bottle of Firewhiskey with his wand. "Time for another story. I choose…" he searched around the circle for a quiet face. "I choose you, Flower of the Court." He gestured to the radiant and very pregnant Fleur Delacour, who had a huge belly and was not the least bit intoxicated.
"Oh, I suppose zat would be alright," she said, smiling mysteriously. "But I 'ave to go to ze bathroom first. Sometimes I just want to get zis baby out!"
A/N: Thanks for sticking around for another chapter! I really enjoyed writing this one. It's nice to see Percy not working or doing homework. Please leave a review if you would like, or don't if you would not like. See ya next time! P.S. Those big words with a million hyphenss in them are supposed to be all on word, but they kept disappearing when I would save it, so just pretend the hyphens aren't there and it's a big blob of verbal vomit. Thanks!
Sammie
