A/N - I know, it's been forever since I've updated this collection. This was written for Round 4 of the QLFC. My only prompt was I had to start and end my fic with the same pronoun. The idea of what happened between Percy and Penelope has been in my mind for awhile and was inspired by the song "If I Loved You" by Delta Rae. Enjoy!

It isn't you.

Three words. Three small, seemingly insignificant words that had shattered his perfectly planned future completely. Percy snorted and took another swig of his firewhiskey. It most certainly was him or she wouldn't have left.

He leaned back against the headboard of his bed and closed his eyes, his hand tightening around the ring he still held. Her face when he'd presented it to her swam before his closed lids and he grimaced. He had known immediately that the look of shock she had worn wasn't the kind he wanted to see, but in his normal Percy way he'd plunged on and asked her anyway. The tears and the apology that had followed would fade from his mind eventually, but the words would not.

I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner. I wish I could give you everything you want but I can't.

At the last, he downed the rest of his drink in one go and then threw the glass across the room. It shattered with a rather satisfying crash and he idly thought it was a good thing he had remembered to set a silencing spell. The last thing he needed was his mother's hovering and questions. He laughed bitterly before he closed his eyes and hung his head.

It isn't you.

Penelope sniffled in the darkness, not even bothering to turn on any of the lights in her flat. She was a horrible, terrible, unfeeling harpy who didn't deserve any kind of happiness. Well, maybe that was pushing it a bit too far, but she was still a horrible person. She rolled onto her back where she lay on the sofa and stared up at the ceiling.

I don't love him.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. She did love him, just not the way that she should or he needed her to. Not the way that he deserved someone to love him. There was a time that she thought she could, a time when she imagined strawberry blonde, blue-eyed babies and a cottage in a little village somewhere with a garden. But she knew now that had just been schoolgirl wishes, the way she thought things were supposed to be.

She hadn't made this decision lightly. The first time the thought had niggled at her mind was six months ago, just after she'd moved out of her parents' house and into her flat. At first, she had thought it had just been getting used to having him here so often and the privacy that they most certainly had not had at the Burrow or even her quieter, less populated childhood home. But it was more than that, she knew.

Percy was ambitious. She always known it of course and she even loved that about him. And he had that want, no need, to prove himself. She didn't begrudge him any of it. She saw the way his brothers teased him, almost mercilessly at times in her opinion. But she could no longer embrace his ambition. Not like he needed her to.

She wasn't sure why exactly, as she'd held excelling and accomplishment in the same high regard he had while they were still in school. But it didn't seem to matter as much to her anymore and it was still almost all Percy talked about. Perhaps it was because she only had one sibling and her sister was so much younger than Penelope that competition had never entered into their relationship. And while there had been competition at Hogwarts amongst her year mates, she had never worried about it as much as Percy seemed to.

I don't love him.

The excitement of the stolen kisses in deserted classrooms and trying to avoid their parents once they had left school had given way to all the privacy they wanted. While it should have made things better, she thought it had done the opposite instead. Things were fine, comfortable even, but her heart no longer raced when she saw him and there were some days when she'd rather she didn't see him at all. The fact that this had happened after only a little over two years of dating, did not escape her and she wanted, no deserved more. They both did.

She was quite sure that she had subconsciously made the decision quite some time ago. But it wasn't until he brought out the ring that the realization had hit her. She hadn't had time to plan or practice the words that followed, but maybe it was better that way. More honest, more real. Or something.

I don't love him.

She rolled to her side and sniffed again.

Percy woke to the soft gray light of early dawn and rolled over in his bed. He grimaced at the pain in his hand and when he opened it he realized he had been clutching the ring all night. Maybe if it had been bigger or maybe if he waited longer until he was more established at the Ministry. But instinctively he knew that it wouldn't have mattered. He might not want to admit it just yet, but he knew.

It isn't you.

Those words were such a lie. He'd always thought so. If it wasn't him, then she would still be here, wouldn't she? There had to be something inherently lacking in him if she didn't want to marry him, didn't even want to be with him any longer.

If he were honest with himself, he had sensed it. The pulling away, the difference between the times before she'd moved into her flat and after. There was less affection, even at a time when there should have been more given the fact that they had as much privacy as they wanted. There had been fewer genuine smiles, less joking and banter. Things had been more serious and reserved than they ever had been before. But still, he had barreled forward like a typical Gryffindor, something that he had made every effort to rise above. Not being a Gryffindor in general, just a typical one.

And now he had to lie here and hear those words echo in his head over and over.

It isn't you.

He squeezed his hand closed again, the points of the stone digging into his palm, the slight pain he felt the only thing keeping him from completely losing it.

And then there was a tap at the window and Percy looked up to realize he had been lying here for much longer than he realized. The sun was fully up in the sky and an owl hovered outside his window. He rose and opened the window, allowing the bird inside. It landed rather imperiously on his bedside table and Percy took the letter it carried, recognizing the Ministry seal immediately.

His eyes widened as he read the contents. The Minister had requested a meeting with him later that morning to discuss the furthering of his career. Percy squeezed the ring again and then opened his hand and looked down at it. He opened a drawer in his desk and stared at the ring for a few more seconds. He placed it inside and shut the drawer with a decisive snap.

It isn't you.

He then sat down and wrote out a response to the letter, handing it back to the owl once he'd finished. He pushed all thoughts of Penny from his mind. He would focus on his career and forget about romantic entanglements, for really, they weren't worth it.