before i divulge into this chapter, i would like to thank anyone that has taken their precious time and energy to leave their feedback / comments / suggestions. i could be having a unmotivated, coffee-less morning, only to check my e-mail and see that a few have left me some delightful feedback (i do, in fact, read it and take it into account). i would also like to apologise for advance for some of the spelling or grammar mistakes that i've been making, as it seems that the more i proofread it, the more mistakes i end up with. also to add on, this fanfiction will later on deal with darker themes, including: isolation, imprisonment, physical and mental abuse - some described in great detail, some only hinted, unlawful discrimination and God knows what else i decide to put in last minute. in contrast, the original draft of this fanfic had implications of sexual abuse and heavy suicidal ideology after passing about 8 or so chapters... it also ended in a way that made Oedipus Rex look like a children's book (obviously i've watched far too much Game of Thrones at this point.) hence the complete and utter re-write because re-reading said fanfiction left me feeling like i must've taken a mind-altering substance when i've first written it. i do not think that this fanfiction will be veering off in a similar manner, considering that it is T-rated for one. also to note, so far - out of the fifteen additional chapters i've written (other than this one), Percy and Penelope do not form a romantic relationship and i do not plan that they do. unfortunately, i am not sure if this fanfic needs a pairing, or what pairing would be suited best for it. at any point, in any chapter, feel free to drop any suggestions if you think you would like to see a particular pairing and i'll take it into account. i do not mind most, if any, Percy-based pairings as long as i can write the pairing without making Percy's partner highly out of character.

in another note, i enjoy the comments on Molly and Arthur's parenting skills or even the comments about Percy and the twins. i do not know how out of character you might find it or how in character you might find it the rest of the fanfic. unfortunately, as the fanfiction goes along, it definitely gets worse. that's why the abuse warning is partially for. it's only a sporadic scene (thus far), but i'm very self-aware of it because from what i've read, it's difficult for many people to write a scene with either Arthur or Molly with one of them being intentionally abusive whilst trying to stay in canon. the (few) ones i've read ends up being so out of canon but hopefully, i don't diverge them too much out of what most people think Molly and Arthur are capable of. i know it's shameless exploitation of their characters. i honestly think they do have well intentions, but it usually does not come across well (at least for this particular fanfic). so, i install a warning for general ridiculousness when it comes to them.

to Crazy 109, "I'm rather nervous that the illness in the story summary might be lycanthropy." it's not. if it helps, whenever i normally do an illness in a story, it's usually just a muggle illness that has a 'wizarding' twist to it.

Chapter Four

By the time that they'd woken up in the morning, Penelope noted that Percy's brothers had set up camp. It was a small camp, and the two brothers looked filthy and completely exhausted from what she could see. She couldn't help but feel slightly angry at Percy for not even considering returning to his family seeing the drawn-out look on the long-haired boy's – Bill's – face. This anger amplified when she saw Charlie scratch a patch of skin that was obviously bitten by something.

"You really should go home," Penelope had said in a soft whisper.

Percy raised an eyebrow before shaking his head, "No."

Penelope was getting agitated with Percy. "Look at how worried they are about you! You can't just sit here and pretend like they don't care about you because they do."

"I'm not sitting here and listening to this," Percy huffed, grabbing his bag. Wait, he was going to leave her over this itty bitty argument? For Merlin's sake!

Penelope rolled her eyes. "You're being so childish!"

Percy gave her a hard look. "I am not."

"You are the most idiotic, self-absorbed and careless wizard I have had the displeasure of ever meeting," Penelope huffed towards his direction, not even caring if Bill and Charlie had heard or seen them. She honestly hoped that they would, "How dare you leave your family!"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Simple… I got up from my bed and slid out the door," he said coldly.

"Go back home, Percival," Penelope warned.

"Or what?" he chimed. "Will you report me to the Ministry for having an opinion that clashes with the rest of my family?"

Penelope rolled her eyes. "You're so overdramatic."

"That isn't the first time I've heard it, but I disagree," Percy huffed in a dull tone.

She groaned in annoyance. "Why won't you just go back home? Would you rather frolic about in the woods where we could get seriously harmed just because you're touchy about who've stolen your biscuit?"

"I am not touchy," Percy icily snapped, ears red and cheeks hot. "And I've not left my family because someone's stolen a bloody biscuit from me!"

Penelope just raised an eyebrow at this. "Where do you think that stupid trail you're following will take you? You're eleven years old, Percy – in fact, you're not even eleven yet! What are you going to do out in the woods with a wand you could barely use?"

Percy rolled his eyes and then stated, "Funny how the wand I could barely use is the reason Alec Lestrange didn't turn you into papier-mâché… though I suppose I shouldn't let such things get to me so I wouldn't seem – Merlin forbid – touchy or overdramatic now!"

Penelope's cheeks had darkened into a red hue.

"Goodbye, Penelope," Percy announced. "Remember – you're still in debt to me, and you are not allowed to disclose my whereabouts."

He really was leaving her! The uncouth little…

"As if I would!" she exclaimed. Penelope scoffed to herself before she added on, "Go on! Go down your little trail that leads to nowhere."

He didn't seem fazed by the demeaning tone that she used. "Very well."

For the first few seconds, Percy did not leave he, and then he decided to climb down, eyes on hers. Penelope feared for his life out there in the woods all by himself. He pulled out his hand all of a sudden. She pulled out hers, unsure of what he wanted.

When he shook her hand, she felt herself grow thick with shame for a few seconds as he descended down to follow the path that he made for himself a while ago.

Penelope sighed, aggravated with the whole situation… his elder brothers were absolute fools if Percy was just standing there practically right in front of them and they didn't even notice in their semi-addled, barely coherent "Charlie, what did we pack for breakfast?" state.

Still, the nerve of him! Perhaps her mum was right about men taking an incredibly long time to mature!

She did find it a bit overdramatic that he left her after their first fight. Penelope attempted to look at the bright side. All she had to do was present herself to the elder Weasley's – they'd take her back home! She was legitimately only minutes away from returning to the safety of her pretty, purple bedroom with all her posters of the Weird Sisters, whereas Percy would probably be attacked and killed by a Whomping Willow somewhere along his beloved trail! Merlin help the man that tried to swerve him back to his loving family!

She watched them cook sausages. They ate whilst having a bit of a morning chat. The sky was rather clear, and in any other day, she'd be amazed at how blue it was.

"These apple sausages are nice," Charlie stated. "We should tell Mum to bring them more often."

Bill nodded his head, offering a beaming smile as he ate one of the bigger sausages. "They are good, aren't they? We still should've bought some eggs on our way from the chickens, though Dad did say something about the chickens making less and less eggs nowadays."

"It's because you've been fondling the big one again," Charlie joked, eyes light.

Bill glared coldly at him. "I was not."

Charlie snorted. "When do you think we should be setting down to look for Percy? Should we stay together or split up? The trails dry up quickly here and there are no footprints anywhere. The place is pretty scolded."

"Best to split," Bill announced before adding on, "Bettering the chances of finding Percy before he gets into trouble with another dark wizard."

Bill's voice was jovial, and comical? Penelope found this odd and rather discomforting. What was funny about Percy fighting off Alec Lestrange? It wasn't funny at all.

Charlie nodded his head, laughing before shaking his own head. "What do you think happened to Penelope Clearwater? I've heard that she'd just run off when the Auror came about."

"I'm not sure what happened to her, last night, Ayden Clearwater had the woods torn to the ground, looking for her. The bloody lunatic sent three search parties yesterday, scouting the area that Alec Lestrange's body was found!" Bill said, sounding alarmed.

Penelope allowed herself to feel a bit of comfort, hearing that.

Bill's face suddenly fell. "Do you think Percy was actually there?"

Penelope was furrowing her eyebrow. Of course Percy was there! He was the one that had saved her. Why were they acting like it was a big old joke? What Percy had done to save her life?

"Merlin, Perce take on a dark wizard?" Charlie shook his head. "I love him with all my heart, but even if Dumbledore himself came to me and told me that it was possible, I wouldn't believe it."

Bill nodded his head. "I remember a while ago when Dad sent me an owl telling me that he didn't know how to stop Percy from getting in his bed late at night when he was frightened. Merlin, a few days ago, we thought that Percy might be sorted into another House. Ravenclaw probably. I think I speak for us all when I say that we've tried everything possible to get Percy out of his room, away from his bloody books. No ten-year-old should be reading that much. Nothing could probably be that interesting."

Penelope didn't know how to feel around this. Why wouldn't they believe that Percy had saved her? Why did they doubt his bravery?

Bill laughed, even though Penelope didn't find the situation funny at all. "I can't believe he tried to run away. Percy! He's never done anything that Mum's disapproved of before! I wonder why he would even try. I've never laid a hand on him. Well, I suppose that night before he left, he did make a fuss about the whole thing with the twins. He'd torn his books too Mum said. Merlin, maybe our little brother went mad. Whatever the reason is, Mum's going to talk his bloody ear off when we take him home."

Penelope wanted to scoff. She wondered why he'd torn his books though. She did know that he was rather overdramatic but…

Charlie suddenly stared back at Bill with a genuinely frightened expression. "What if we don't find him?"

Bill raised an eyebrow. "How far can he get along without a wand?"

"I don't know, Bill. Our family's beat the odds several times," Charlie commented. "Just last week, Ron accidentally Flooed himself to a funeral!"

Bill just shot Charlie a look. "We'll find him. We have to. Else mum will have our heads."

Charlie shuddered at the thought. "You're right… pass the salt?"

"Of course."

Penelope found herself hesitant to approach Percy's brothers. She didn't know them very well, and they hadn't done much scouting yet considering they were busy having breakfast. The apple sausages smelled really nice. She remembered how they called Percy's name last night and the desperation in what she presumed was Percy's father's face. It made her feel angry at Percy, for deciding to risk both of their lives and running to dark places with a complete disregard to the fact that his brothers were kind enough to set up camp to look for him. She bet Percy's mum was nice too. She seemed to be very worried about him. Frankly, Percy worried for Percy too. He might've gotten hurt and she didn't want anything to happen to him when he, in fact, saved her life.

Penelope suddenly found herself being quite sad that she and Percy had to hit it off in that way.

She climbed down from the tree, a rage suddenly taking her with every step down. Here they were, talking uncertainly about Percy whilst he slipped away from under their noses! If they just stopped and looked… she walked down to their campsite, feeling fickle. Percy had literally slid out right under their noses just now! That was preposterous. At the same time, Percy was no angel either. She was angry at Bill and Charlie but also Percy. Mum was right all along. All boys were thicker than a copy of The Monster Book of Monsters.

The brothers looked flabbergasted as Penelope Clearwater approached them.

Before they could say anything, it just suddenly downed on Penelope how bad this all was. She'd been taken by Alec Lestrange. He might've genuinely harmed her. No, he would've killed her just like he would those other girls. The boy that saved her life had run off because of a stupid fight that suddenly didn't mean anything at all. She had probably eaten a good amount of the food that he'd been carrying for himself. Percy was probably going to become ill and get possibly killed with all those dangerous creatures out there. The stories of which her father used to tell her when she was young so that she would be cautious out there in the woods on her own – Whomping Willows, pixies, merpeople, doxies…?!

Penelope's eyes suddenly became filled with tears.

"Penelope?" Bill stood up immediately upon seeing her. "You—"

In that moment, all she could think about was Percy. She ran off down the path that he'd been walking in for what felt like ever. Penelope ran as quickly as she could but she was still probably slow. She had no wand, and they were two big, probably strong boys that could catch up on her quickly. She saw a small poke of red hair from close to a stream, which was charmed to stay clean. Percy was drinking from it. His hair looked mussy and tousled in the soft lighting and his hands muddy. She found herself fill with elation. She looked back and was able to see the two redheads come after her. When she'd run to Percy, she smiled as she tackled him to the ground.

Penelope laughed, hugging him tightly. She'd missed him in the while that they'd been apart!

"Let go of me!" Percy obviously wasn't used to the affection. "If you don't let go, I will stun you."

Penelope laughed again, harder this time. In tandem with her laughter, Percy seemed to have noticed that Charlie and Bill were following them and turned to run off again. Penelope followed him closely after. This time, Percy was the one with the questions.

"What is the meaning of this?" Percy announced in a rather high voice.

He glanced and was able to see that Bill and Charlie were quite a bit away, but they were tracking them down. Suddenly, he ran quicker. Due to his low body weight, Percy was a lot quicker than she was. Then again, he had a lot more incentive to run than she did.

Penelope gasped when she tripped over a branch.

Suddenly, she heard its voice. She looked up to see a big manticore standing there with blood tricking down its face, and a bone at the edge of his mouth. She was shaking from fear, what with the tears that were trickling down her face rather adamantly. This creature was smirking at her, his eyes transfixed at her body as if she was nothing but a plate of profiteroles. Immediately, she was picked up by Percy.

They ran with each other. A part of her wished that Percy would pull out the wand, but she suddenly remembered that manticores were rarely ever subdued by magic and the handful of spells that Percy knew definitely wouldn't have been enough.

They continued to run until they got to a dead end.

Weren't manticores Greek creatures? What was one doing here in England? It was then that she remembered that Alec Lestrange had a habit of subduing manticores to pets. Was this his companion? The thought made Penelope shudder as she watched a few hexes bounced off the manticore's body. Penelope was able to see both Charlie and Bill standing there, holding out their wands and looking highly startled. Of course they were frightened – there was a dangerous and insane manticore ready to kill them all.

"Let them go!" Charlie exclaimed, throwing a hex that the manticore's body dodged. "They're children."

The manticore laughed. "That's why I should let them go?" he said snidely. "Oh yes, master! Isn't that what you like? Taking manticores and dragons and training them to be your pets? The things that Lestrange did to my brothers but you see… I can't be trained, you little rodent. I hope that one day; the forest makes you its pet and feeds on your corpse!" The manticore roared, the sound of a lion rippling through the man's mouth. He seemed inhuman, vicious. The blood trickling told her that he must've eaten recently, which Penelope concluded was probably the only reason that they weren't manticore feed by now!

"You!" the manticore exclaimed, staring at Percy. "The hero that saved the damsel in distress, aren't you? From my 'master'? I can smell it. I know. Oh, I've been waiting for him to come back to face my wrath…"

"Wait, he actually—"Charlie was cut off by the manticore's swift tail moving, encasing itself around Penelope's body. He snatched her up into the air, careful that her body was not close to the end of his tail.

"Save your little friend," the manticore demanded from Percy.

Percy's eyes were staring over at the creature before him. Penelope's body was stiff with fear. Its body was large and gruesome. It was great in its size and length.

Percy suddenly asked, "It is insulting, isn't it?"

"Percy, what are you doing?" Bill suddenly asked, voice full of fright whilst Percy's was calm.

What was Percy doing? Her heart was beating rather quickly. He was going to get them both killed! She could imagine the manticore throwing Penelope down and her body would snap like a twig.

Percy moved towards the end, staring over at a small bush. "Treated like a pet. I bet you're more than a few tricks, aren't you? Your cousin, the sphinx – they enjoy riddles. Do you have any for me?"

The manticore laughed, belling out enough that Penelope found herself sliding from the tail a little bit. Her body was practically paralysed from fear. She was inches away from the stinger that might end her life in seconds.

"I enjoy riddles; you insipid weasel," the manticore replied, "but do not demote me to my stupid cousins. They think that they're very good with their riddles, but they're all fools. The answers are far too obvious, and I've heard them all."

"Percy!" the elder brothers exclaimed. "What are you—?"

"Oh yes, you can answer them very well, can't you?" Percy suddenly inquired. "I'll give you a proposition – if you give me a riddle and I can't answer it, then you have to leave us be. Show me that you can come up with a riddle better than the sphinx."

Penelope glanced back at Bill and Charlie, whom seemed to be shocked that Percy had maintained a conversation with the creature for thus far.

Percy then said, "Do you accept my proposition?"

The manticore seemed to dwell on it in seconds before accepting and adding on, "If you answer my riddles, boy, then I will allow you to subdue me to nothing more than a pet… I must warn you, little Weasley boy. Time is running out. If you don't answer your riddle, I won't just harm your precious princess. I'll kill you and your brothers too for wasting my time."

Percy's face was still for a few seconds.

"Percy, stop it," Bill obviously didn't believe the muddle that Percy was getting them into. "Don't you dare!"

"You'll get us all killed," a distressed Charlie insisted.

Honestly, Penelope doubted it too. She was frightened of what this could mean for them. All she wanted to be was in her house, in her little purple room. She wanted to hear her cat purr again and hear her mum's voice again. She wanted to see her father come home from a long day of work, slumped and defeated as he asked their mum if she'd been taking her potions like the healer told her too. She remembered the days where her mum did. Those were such beautiful days…

Penelope didn't want to die.

The manticore then spoke, "I could be used as a name. Sometimes, I have roots, and sometimes I am used to describe the colour of roots. What am I?"

Percy seemed to think about this. His silence was an awful sign to Penelope.

Immediately, the manticore seemed to laugh. "Do you want a clue?"

Percy just stared vacantly at the creature before he shook his head. He looked like he was in defeat.

"PERCY!" Bill looked angry. Penelope believed that it was validated considering that they were probably all going to die because of Percy's conceit, "… I'll bloody make you regret this well before this beast attacks either of us!"

Charlie looked too stunned to speak. He had stopped scratching the itchy-looking patch on his arm.

"WHY'D YOU RUN AWAY?! UPSET MUM LIKE THAT!" Bill exclaimed, looking startled. Penelope honestly knew how frightened he was, but it was idiotic to be yelling at Percy when he was trying to think.

"Ginger," Percy said in a soft voice to the beast.

The manticore bellowed out a laugh.

It took Penelope herself a few moments to realise the answer was, in fact, ginger – it could be a name. It could come in ginger roots, or hair roots. It was a poorly constructed riddle. That was the point of it. A riddle so simple that the manticore somehow wanted Percy to solve it? Or so it seemed.

The manticore kept on laughing. His cacophonous laughs were so loud and disruptive that they'd probably spanned across the whole of the woods. His voice rang into her ears, and she watched an assembly of horklumps beside a tree die, and an army of doxies suddenly appearing from the ground, running away from the source of the sound. Glumbumbles buzzed away. Some twitching as they left. Perhaps, Penelope realised. The creature is mad, having have been in Alec Lestrange's captive for so long…

"Goodbye, Penelope," Percy ordered sternly before he disappeared down a new trail.

"Goodbye, Percy," Penelope said to herself, as she along with a silent, aghast Bill and Charlie witnessed an event that they would never see again: a mad manticore laughing itself to death.