Penny scowled into her cauldron as it let out an unexplained hiss. Stood in the dark Potions classroom she groaned as she realised she had gotten carried away stirring and the contents of her cauldron was letting of unhealthy amounts of green smoke. She sighed as she looked around the classroom. Her preoccupied mind had lead to a sharp drop in her performance in classes, not that it mattered as she was still far ahead of everyone else.
Neither she nor Ginny had exchanged a word in the weeks following their unexplained kiss. Both had avoided each other's gaze sitting in silence in detention, and had successfully navigated the castle without coming into contact. How much longer they could keep this up for, Penny wasn't sure. She missed Ginny, her Slytherin friends had a bit too dark humour for her taste but as neither she nor Ginny seemed to know how to handle the situation, avoiding each other appeared the only option to deal with what had happened.
One good thing that had come of this was Penny and Hermione were speaking again. Penny had gone into one of the girl's bathrooms to hear the older witch crying in one of the cubicles.
'Hermione?' Penny had enquired through the door. There was a pause and a sniff before she had replied.
'Go away!'
'Hermione...please, I didn't mean what I said before' Penny pleaded through the door. A few seconds later Hermione there was a click and the cubicle door opened slightly. Hermione's brown eyes were bloodshot and she looked unusually pale.
'No Penny, it's not your fault, I just don't feel very good' Hermione said quietly
'What's wrong?' Penny said at once 'If you are sick I can go ask Madam Pomfrey to let me make you something up' She went on enthusiastically. Hermione looked a bit sheepish before replying.
'Erm...well I am not sick exactly...I'm...' She faltered blushing, seemingly unaware one of her hands subconsciously moved to her stomach. Penny watched the movement and wide eyed burst out.
'You're pregnant?!' Penny shrieked high pitched, her wand emitting sparks.
'No!' Hermione yelped out before looking around and dropping to a whisper 'No, of course I am not pregnant...I'm just...on' she gestured awkwardly 'I only started last month.' She mumbled so quietly Penny barely heard her. Penny stared for a second as comprehension sunk in. No wonder she had been so all over the place, the older girls at the orphanage became near psychotic when they were on.
'Look stay here, I'll be back in a few minutes' Penny assured the bushy haired witch and darted quickly to the Hospital Wing, after a few murmured exchanges between her and the matron Penny had gathered a couple quick ingredients in a mixture that she stirred with her wand on the way back. She found Hermione sat on a bench near the bathroom, furiously making notes from one of her many textbooks. Penny suppressed the urge to roll her eyes as she reached her.
'Here' The younger witch said passing the small glass phial over. Hermione took a curious sniff before taking a small gulp. The effect was instant and she visibly relaxed as the potion took effect.
'What is this?' She sighed happily as she drank.
'Musculus Relaxat. Just a basic mixture that makes tensed muscles relax.' Penny shrugged modestly 'It's not hard to make, you just have to take it in small amounts or you'll be unable to control any muscles at all, at least until the effects wear off.'
'Thanks Penny' Hermione smiled at the dark witch who looked away, looking pleased with herself none the less. 'I'm sorry about what I said before, I've just been so stressed, with this' She gestured overfilled bag 'And now this' She carried on gesturing her stomach as Penny giggled 'I tell you, if anyone says you can study as many subjects as you like, just say no, time travel is more hassle than it's worth!' Hermione finished downing the last of the small phial. Penny looked at her puzzled.
'What do you mean time travel?' Hermione froze as she seemed to realise what she had said.
'Oh...erm...I was just joking' She said her hand fiddling with her necklace, which Penny now spotted looked like an hour glass. Penny quickly grabbed it to examine it.
'You are a rubbish liar' Penny said coolly as she leant to take a closer look, Hermione snatched the necklace back out of Penny hands and quickly shoved it down her jumper. Penny glared at Hermione who stared back. 'What is that?' Penny asked gesturing the necklace.
'I am not meant to tell anyone' Hermione said biting her lip. Penny sighed heavily.
'Well if you don't trust me' Penny said in a purposefully sad voice.
'Of course I do' Hermione said looking a little offended 'But I am not meant to show anyone not even Ron and Harry. Professor McGonagall had to work really hard and speak very highly of me and I won't let her down.' She finished, sitting up very straight and proud. Penny watched her, a smile on her face at this Gryffindor's high sense of pride. Still she was curious, as she'd never heard of time travel being possible.
'Is it dangerous then?' Penny asked, Hermione hesitated, clearly debating how much to share.
'It could be, I mean people would always be tempted to go really far back in time, for example a tragic event they want to change' Penny's mind started racing as her Nana face swam behind her eyes... 'But obviously you can't' Hermione went on, as she noticed the hungry look on Penny's face as she eyed where the necklace sat.
'Why not?' Penny said, a dangerous edge to her voice...maybe if she could just stun the older witch? 'I could go back, stop Voldemort when he was young, stop all this happening' Penny said quickly only half trying to justify herself, her hand travelling to her wand. Seeing the look on Penny's face Hermione grabbed her wrist and held it in a death grip.
'No Penny, please, listen to me' Hermione begged. Her tone reached Penny through her grief driven haze 'Penny, you go back and do that, you getting rid of Voldemort would mean you would never be born to stop him anyway. A paradox. And even any tiny alterations you make in the past would have devastating consequences in the future, like a tiny stone in a pond, the ripples spread far beyond where the stone landed. The further you go back the bigger the ripples you will make. The consequences are impossible to predict and potentially devastating. Do you understand?' Hermione said, looking the darker witch deep in the eyes. Penny stared back as Hermione gripped her. She wanted to argue, to find a way around the truth of the older witch's words. But the intensity of Hermione's gaze reinforced what she had said. No matter how much she wanted to, what was done was done. Lowering her gaze, Penny slowly and reluctantly nodded. Hermione relaxed her grip on the young witch's wrist, before surprising the smaller girl and pulling her into a gentle hug. Penny slowly returned the hug, noticing just how warm the older witch was.
'You can't tell anyone about this' Hermione said into the top of Penny's head as she wordlessly nodded again. 'Thank you.'
Penny had gone to Potions, her thoughts swimming around the necklace and the forbidden changes she could make, if only she could. But she understood what Hermione had said, even if she hadn't wanted to hear it. Glancing up from her cauldron she saw a familiar pair of grey eyes staring at her intently. Scowling again she turned to her Slytherin friend Heather Greengrass who shared her table, Theodore Fawley and Ursula Flint on Heather's other side.
'What is it with that Lovegood girl?' Penny muttered under her breath to Heather. The four Slytherins all looked over at the blonde girl who either didn't notice or didn't care they were looking at her, and continued to stare at Penny away.
'Dunno' Heather sniggered, her light brown hair in a braid down her back 'My sis Daphne says her dad writes this nuts mag though, talking all about fantasy creatures and conspiracies.' Heather's green eyes glanced back over and sniggered into her cauldron again. 'She probably thinks you are a vampire or something' Penny laughed at this.
'That or maybe she is a dyke' Theodore interjected, quickly nervously chuckling, having been watching this exchange intently. Standing at their work bench, the top of his badly spiked hair barely rose above Penny's chaotic curls.
'Eww Theo, that's gross' Ursula said, wrinkling her small nose. Theo looked disappointed when Penny frowned at him and looked away.
'She is definitely crazy though' Penny continued, trying to ignore any thoughts of Ginny following the 'dyke' jibe. 'She was telling me some rubbish about letting cauldrons boil a few weeks ago' Penny said as her friends looked nonplussed.
'Well if she is into cauldrons boiling' Theo whispered glancing to check Snape's back was turned before flicking his wand towards Luna's cauldron. The contents suddenly boiled out of control and began overflowing rapidly. The blonde witch let of an uncharacteristic shriek of pain as some it splashing her in the face and coated her hands. Penny turned to glare at the boy on her table who shrank under her intense gaze. Snape was quickly at Luna's side, preventing the contents of the cauldron spreading any further.
'Stupid girl, you heated it up too fast!' Snape scolded the whimpering girl. 'Hospital Wing. Now.' The blonde girl looked up at him innocently.
'I don't know the way sir.' She said, now the initial pain had gone, her usual dreamy tone had returned.
'I'll take her.' Penny said suddenly, met with stunned expressions all round her. Snape's eyes said nothing as they scrutinized her face. Without a word he nodded and Penny lead Luna out of the dungeon, shooting an angry look over her shoulder at Theo as she left.
The two of the walked in silence as Penny lead the way down to the Hospital Wing. Penny could feel the blonde gaze on her but didn't question it. When they got to the Hospital Wing Madam Pomfrey was whizzing round a girl in the year above that Penny didn't know.
'Oh, just dab it with Essence of Dittany and the usual scrub down' the matron gestured distractedly as she hurried back to her other patient. Peering round the curtain Penny caught a glimpse of the girl, whose nose appeared to be missing.
'I just wanted the pimples to go away!' Penny heard the girl wail as she went to fetch the Essence of Dittany. Returning to Luna, Penny gently dabbed the scorch marks along the blonde girl's hands and along the side of her face.
'What?' Penny said grumpily, unable to ignore the blonde's stare any longer. Luna just smiled as Penny frowned.
'That boy was trying to impress you.' Luna stated bluntly causing Penny to blink in surprise.
'What makes you say that?' Penny asked as she continued to dab the burns on Luna's face.
'Well he was staring at you when that girl made you laugh, appeared to have offended you then made my cauldron boil, plus he looked disappointed when you lead me away. I think he likes you.' Penny smiled as she considered how he had said the same thing about the girl. 'Oh do you like him too?' Luna asked, clearly misinterpreting Penny's smile.
'No!' Penny said sharply.
'You and Ginny Weasley are the most girls attractive in our year' Luna continued, apparently unaware of how uncomfortable she was making the taller witch 'Everybody is always watching the two of you. Is that why you are not speaking?' Luna asked suddenly.
'What?' Penny said again wondering what else this crazy girl would come out with.
'Are you not speaking because you don't want to make everyone jealous of your combined popularity? It might be good that you aren't spending time together anymore, my dad interviewed a wizard who did an experiment that discovered that too much concentrated attractiveness in a friendship group leads to lapse of concentration and increased tempers of those surrounding them.' Luna finished nodding enthusiastically.
'What?' Penny said yet again, half amused, half exasperated. Luna looked at her sympathetically.
'Wrackspurt got your brain?' She asked.
'Wha...whatever.' Penny said, shaking herself as she rolled her eyes. Having finished with the Essence of Dittany she quickly looked over the remaining marks on Luna and pointed her wand at various spots, mumbling incantations as she went. Luna sat silently for a couple minutes as Penny did this, but seemed unable to contain herself for long.
'You seem to know what you are doing.' Luna stated in her apparent signature way 'Have you been Healing long?'
'I have been helping Madam Pomfrey on and off for about a year.' Penny replied, now examining her handy work.
'Why?' Luna asked.
'What do you mean why?' Penny replied impatiently, as she turned Luna's wrists over in her hands.
'Why have you been helping her?' Luna said, not taking her eyes off the dark witch's face.
'I want to be a Healer' Penny said shrugging evasively, releasing Luna's wrist apparently satisfied, scooping up the cloth and Essence of Dittany.
'Why?' Luna asked again.
'Why does it matter?' Penny said frowning as she half crossed her arms.
'Well usually people have a reason they want to be something.' Luna said shrugging but continuing to look expectantly at Penny.
'My Nana was a nurse, a Healer of the Muggle world' Penny said, surprising herself. She hadn't ever told anyone that before. Suddenly uncomfortable, she became very interested in the cloth she was holding.
'Your grandmother was a Muggle?' Luna asked.
'She wasn't technically..I mean...' Penny faltered, her face going red as she continued to look anywhere but at Luna. Luna smiled slightly.
'Family isn't defined by blood' Luna said quietly 'In any case wanting to be a Healer shows you have a good heart with good intentions.' Penny glanced around herself awkwardly before gesturing the healed areas.
'Those should be fine now, just try not to get the new skin near any heat sources for a few days. You are free to go now.' Penny rushed, and quick as a shot vanished into the back room, leaving a smiling Luna behind.