Warnings: None that need stated.

AN: A little over a year later. A cafe. Previously chapter 14. (Edited March 07)

The Cafe

I need coffee.

Its awful, bitter stuff but it really does the job of putting my world into perspective the morning after a drinking binge. What perspective that is I really couldn't tell you, but it puts it in some perspective and that's more than I had to begin with.

At least it's not a painfully cheerful and sunny day. It's kind of dark and overcast with the promise of showers later. Just about how I feel, as a matter of fact. With my luck, though, knowing how awful I must look at the moment, someone is going to recognize who I am. Doesn't matter I'm just on the reserve team, I'll be recognized. It's some sort of curse.

"Oliver Wood."

And the world may safely keep turning. At least the speaker is female; I'm not sure how I would have handled it if it'd been a cute guy…

I turn, gripping my coffee in one hand, smile plastered on my face. I hope it's a smile, at least. Feels like a smile. If nothing else it's a smile-like grimace. "Hello."

"You don't remember me, do you?" She takes a bite of her toast.

Now that she mentions it she does look familiar: sharp features, dark eyes, dark hair pulled back in some sort of twisty bun thing. The twisty bun thing isn't familiar, though it could be. But yes, very familiar.

"Penelope." She smiles. "Clearwater." She gestures to the chair beside her. "Have a seat. You look like I just hit you in the face with a board."

I sink down; coffee gripped in both hands until I realize the cup's just too damn hot for me to be holding it like that. When I put it on the table she wrinkles her nose at it but doesn't comment. And then she nonchalantly takes another bite of her toast.

My mouth finally manages to work. "I remember you, yes." How could I not? I'd seesawed between terrified and resigned for months at the thought of Percy and Penelope's growing friendship, and what it was growing into, until Percy had laid my fears to rest. Then I just did my damnedest to ignore her existence.

She's been studying me with a knowing smile on her face. I hate when females do that. I decide, uncharitably I know, that I really hate that expression on her face. "I wasn't sure if you would or not. I certainly remember you. Your name was every other word out of Percy's mouth for the longest time."

I wince at hearing his name.

She clucks her tongue. "Percy troubles? I know how that feels. And it looks like you're suffering from a Percy hangover."

The look on my face must be enough.

"I've seen the look enough times on my own face. Sort of. At least, I know what a long, hard night is courtesy of knowing Percy Weasley." She takes a little nibble of her toast. "So, how did you fall into the mess that is Percy Weasley?"

Mess is right. Oh, wait, she's referring to Percy, not me. "Visiting his family."

She raises her eyebrows. "Visiting his family? Oh, but you were friends with his younger brothers, right? From Quidditch." I catch the little nose wrinkle at the word Quidditch.

"Yes."

"And you play Quidditch now, if I remember correctly. You always were pretty good. Is it the off season or are you just taking a holiday?"

"Week off."

"So, you went to stay with the Weasleys?" She lifts her brows again.

"No." I want to leave it at that. I take a sip of still too-hot coffee. Her eyebrows stay up. "I stopped by to say hello." I don't have enough sleep for more weirdness today, I decide. "Somehow I was sucked into staying for several days. Hadn't really meant to."

"Ah." She gives me a little smile. "They've always been a very warm and loving family."

I scowl. I try to cover it with a sip of coffee.

"You don't think so?"

"I didn't get the impression they were very warm and loving when they were talking about Perce."

She's silent a moment, studying me again, and then she gives me a small nod. "Tell me, did you ever visit Percy and his family before you graduated from Hogwarts?"

I wince internally. I'm not sure why. "No."

She gives me another little nod, this one of understanding. "Then I can see where you would think them cold and distant toward him, because they are now. But they weren't always like that. If you'd chanced to see them together before we all left Hogwarts you would have known they really did love each other, even if they weren't certain how to go about showing it. Percy always was reserved, and his parents respected that." She sets her half eaten toast down. "His parents are at their wits end as far as Percy's concerned now."

I frown a little.

"It's Percy. He's changed. He completely dropped off the face of the earth after Hogwarts and when he came back he was different. We met up again not too long after he came back. It was very subtle at the first, this change, I didn't notice anything amiss for months, but when I did notice I was, well, shocked. This person wasn't the Percy Weasley I'd known before. This was a stranger."

I take a careful sip of the coffee. It's almost unpleasantly warm instead of hot. I take a larger sip. "He didn't drop off the face of the earth," I say after a moment. "He went to America. Some sort of further study. Then he came back and visited his brothers."

"When did you hear that?"

"He told me before he left. He didn't tell you?" I take an oddly gleeful satisfaction in that and I blame it on the hangover, or perhaps the coffee, but I can't help but make a biting comment. "I would have figured he would have told his girlfriend."

"Friend." She presses her lips together in a tight line. "I was his friend. He didn't ask me out until after he came back."

I make a vague noise. I almost want to apologize, that had to have stung more than she's letting on, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I think it's because for all that she bemoans not having a chance with Percy at Hogwarts -shut up, I'm allowed to be melodramatic, I'm suffering from a hangover- she got him in the end anyway. I push away from that thought and focus instead on my coffee. Such a strange looking liquid, really, coffee.

Penelope taps her nails lightly against the table. I glance down at them, then back to my cup. "We were just friends back at Hogwarts, and we're just friends now."

"I thought you just said he asked you out?"

"And you're thinking I didn't belong in Ravenclaw if he asked me out and I turned him down?"

I nod a little dumbly.

"Ravenclaw through and through, I'm afraid. Make no mistake. I jumped at the chance. It lasted a week at the most." She half shrugged. "I kissed him once back at Hogwarts, told him how much I cared for him, and he told me I wasn't his type. It didn't take me long to figure out his type was of the broom flying kind." Her mouth twists just a little for a moment. "In a way that week was sort of a repeat of that."

"Oh…"

Her mouth settles into a wry smile. "Really, as intelligent as I am… I should have figured that something wasn't quite right when he reappeared and shortly thereafter asked me out. I should have realized I was just this safe object he could latch onto and he wouldn't have to get emotionally involved with me. Can't have that, oh no." She's silent a moment, studying me. "I guess I was too blinded by my own emotions to see the reality. But the reality was there all along."

Something isn't quite adding up… "I'm not sure I understand."

She shrugs and pulls out a pack of fags, taps one out and lights it. "You're not the only one. Can I give you some advice?" She lets out a long stream of smoke and continues before I find my voice. "Get out before you're in over your head. The Percy Weasley you knew doesn't exist anymore."

She gives me another smile, one of those female smiles that always make me wonder what great secret the opposite sex has going on the rest of the population is barred from knowing. No wonder I'm gay.

And the coffee's just right. About damn time.