minor warning: explicit mentions/details regarding menstruation. yes. you read that right. yes, this chapter is an... interesting one. also, it's well-implied in this fanfic that Penelope's mother is not able to take care of her, and thus, it's easy to assume that it's her father that did most of the 'taking care of' part so to speak and is a reason for why Penelope is completely clueless when it comes to menstruation. the problem is i wasn't sure how to word this into Penelope's point of view! i think she'd realise it later on when she's grown up, rather than now, when she's eleven years old and unsure of the idea of menstruation in the first place.

this is one of my most favourite chapters thus far. i feel like Penelope is a very real character, especially in this chapter.

Chapter Twenty-One

"Adrian, no."

"Percy, please."

"Adrian, stop it."

"Peeerrrrcyyy..."

"No."

"I'll love you forever."

"No."

"Not even for three Galleons?"

"No."

When did no mean yes? How did Percy find himself in this compromising situation where he was – Merlin forbid – breaking the rules! And for what? To spy on Slytherin girls changing their underpants through a carefully designed key-hole apparatus that Adrian had made for himself. For someone that could barely transfigure a desk into a cat (a very deranged cat Percy would like to add), he surely had no trouble at all calling out a spell to make the keyhole bigger, but not big enough to alert anyone in the room. Percy had caught sight of St Patrick's Day knickers despite it being smack in the middle of November, and a pair of floral underpants.

This was beneath him so much so. Percy shoved Adrian away to get a good look at the knickers one girl had on, and managed to let himself gape.

"My mum has better knickers than those," were those puffapod underpants? Blimey, this lass would be a virgin forever. Wait, wasn't this the girl that made fun of his patriotic choices of underpants? What bollocks!

"I know," Adrian insisted, shaking his head, keeping his voice low and below whisper level. "I come here not because I'm that bent on having a girl ask me out. I come here because of hilarious views like this one. Did you have any idea that that toffee-nosed Morgan doesn't wear any underpants at all? I'm bloody tempted to make a strange and unexpected swift wind pull her skirt up one of these days just to—"

Percy's icy glare was all that Adrian needed to keep that thought at bay.

"This is wrong. We should leave," Percy insisted, grabbing Adrian's arm and tugging him down the Slytherin girls' dormitory before they got caught. He had no idea how he was going to explain this to Charlie. He was pretty sure that Charlie would have to owl mum about this and mention that Percy's been sticking his nose where it didn't belong and discovering all kinds of new things, such as that the girl that Miles Bletchley had a crush on had very pink underpants. "I cannot believe that you pushed me into this."

Exiting the dormitory through the steps, Adrian and Percy immediately slid off the staircase where an irritated looking Charlie was tapping his foot, standing next to the Slytherin prefect, whom looked more disinterested than normal.

"What are you two doing?" Charlie hissed in annoyance. "Ten points from Slytherin."

"We were just researching," Adrian insisted, voice bubbly and ecstatic. "And Percy had to use the loo, and you know how the lavatories in the male dormitories look like. I'm pretty sure that I once saw a ghost follow me into the toilet."

Unfortunately, that wasn't a lie. Percy was surprised at how clean the female lavatories were. He was, however, highly startled when he saw what he could only term as a feminine hygiene product, and a pair of soiled, bloody white knickers tossed into the trashcan. The smell of it! Percy was having flashbacks just remembering. Adrian had explained to him just five seconds ago that girls had these things called periods, and they bled a lot during. It was completely normal. Apparently, it had something to do with the fact that females could carry babies.

"When will you two learn?" Charlie huffed, groaning as he escorted them towards the boy dormitories.

"I'm sure that Percy's learned his lesson," Adrian snorted, snickering as he glanced over towards Percy, whom was strawberry red from how intensely he was flushing. "He'd caught sight of one of those female things that they use when it's the time of the month. I think Perce's become a little bent since he's seen them. Scarred him for life but seriously, what took you an hour in the bathroom?"

"I was disinfecting whatever that was," Percy winced in memory. "Why is it so metallic smelling?"

Charlie looked like he was close to vomiting, but Adrian was just laughing.

WHEN they'd gotten back down to the boy's dormitories, Adrian collapsed towards his bed, an ecstatic smile still etched on his features. Today was a brilliant day by his standards, and he'd shared every waking moment of it with Percy Weasley. They'd gone to classes together. They'd had the same breakfast, lunch and supper together. They'd practiced enough schoolwork for the week together—and best of all; Adrian had finally pushed Percy into peering into the girls' dormitory with him. It only took weeks of incessant nagging. He did not regret it one bit, but he was sure that Percy wouldn't go there if Merlin himself had risen from the dead and planted some kind of forlorn treasure.

"Adrian, go to sleep," Percy begged, burying his head into his big, fluffy pillow and wrinkling his nose.

For the next few minutes, Adrian tried to fall asleep but he couldn't. A congregation of memories seemed to hit him, swirling into his mind.

"Percy?" Adrian called out in a whispery squeak, ignoring Terence's loud snoring and the way that Bletchley's breathing sounded like a cross between that terrible band, the Rhythmic Runes, and a croup slowly dying. Meanwhile, Marcus was grunting in his sleep.

"Adrian," Percy called out in annoyance. "What is it now?"

Adrian simply turned to stare at Percy with a longing in his eyes. "My father was an Auror. He disappeared off to do a bunch of missions years ago. I don't even remember where he went, but he hadn't come back since I was seven. Mum still complains about the way that he keeps his coffee on the desk. We both know she made it that morning and she pretended that he'd spilled it over the counter."

Adrian played with the thin sheets. "Mum likes to think that he's left on some sort of super secret mission and that he'll come back one day with a good explanation but I think... I think he just left."

A loud, discerning sound came from Miles' bed. Adrian would think he was dying if not for the fact that he'd heard this sound every night.

"Do I also sound like the lot of them when I'm asleep?" Adrian murmured. He'd Incendio his own vocal cords if that was the case.

"Well, you make a sound that reminds me of this one time that George dislocated his shoulder," Percy offered smoothly, his voice weaker than normal. He'd probably been thinking about Adrian's father as well.

Adrian rolled his eyes. "You wheeze when you sleep. Like Miles does."

"I do not," Percy insisted, rolling his eyes but Adrian wasn't deaf. He knew that Percy and Miles had a very nice cacophonous rhythm going on when they fell asleep. It was so bad that it was nearly funny sometimes when Marcus woke up in the middle of the night, asking Adrian to place just suffocate either of them so that he could get some proper sleep.

On another note, Adrian was fairly certain that if they all left Marcus alone, he'd slowly fall into a voluntary coma and not wake up for the subsequent century.

"Charlie is not going to be happy tomorrow," Adrian mentioned. "We really should go to sleep."

Along with the watch that allowed Percy to save his essay dates for future reference, he had also been given a watch that monitored how much he slept throughout the day. Needless to say that last time that Charlie snatched the watch to have a reading, he was furious and had dragged Percy from his morning Herbology class down to his bed with a permission slip from Pomfrey. It did help that Percy was starting to make weird sounds that sounded a lot like Elvish.

"And if I were to go to sleep, who will cleverly finish the Charms essay I have—"

Miles seemed to be groaning in his sleep. "Would you two please shut up? Merlin, they should've thrown you in the bloody Forbidden Forest as punishment for getting into the girls' dormitories."

Adrian flushed deeply, and for fifteen minutes, the whole room stood still.

After those fifteen minutes, Miles' troubled breathing seemed to fill the room again and Marcus' grunting seemed to be louder.

Adrian knew that it was wrong, but he couldn't help but think how troll-like it was that Marcus was grunting in his bleeding sleep. Adrian, however, was very sure that trolls did not hibernate. This was just a special Marcus-like feature that no other part-troll other than Marcus had.

Adrian didn't hear Percy's wheezes, which meant that he wasn't asleep. If Percy was right about the dislocating-shoulder-like-sounds he made during sleep, then Percy should know that Adrian was awake.

The black-haired Slytherin tried to remember the last time he'd seen his father.

He couldn't really remember what he looked like...

"I wish I'd never left," Percy commented all of a sudden, his voice soft. "I wish I'd never made the mistake of leaving because if I didn't, I wouldn't be in this consistent pain. I wouldn't have possible wizarding epilepsy. Merlin knows how the Ministry treats epileptics. I might not have been sorted into—"

He paused, obviously realising that he probably shouldn't be saying this to Adrian.

"Goodnight, Adrian," Percy replied gruffly, whilst Adrian watched with tired dark eyes and nodded his head.

The dormitory was so cold and the blankets were so warm. It helped that Adrian's mum's first priority was to show him how to make sure that his blankets stayed warm during the colder days. He was so grateful for her, and would not replace her for anything else in the whole world. He was proud to carry the masculine version of her name. He was proud of where he was from. He wouldn't understand why someone had to run away, especially after his father did to him but there was no contempt in Adrian's lithe body. He just felt... sad. Sad for Percy. His mate seemed so little and alone in a big world where everything used to be black and white before he walked down a grey patchiness that didn't seem to end.

Just before Adrian slipped into a coma-like state of sleep, he found himself muttering, "I'm glad you ended up in Slytherin," This was followed by a yawn, and then, "Even if you're not."

PENELOPE Clearwater was frustrated beyond belief, trying to look for Percy but seeing no signs of him. She had just finished reading one of the best books that she'd ever read in her life and she did not have Percy to share this astounding feeling with. Their schedules were so chaotic these days. She had found herself multiple times looking for him after a class that involved Ravenclaw and Gryffindor together until she had realised that Percy was not sorted into Gryffindor. Unfortunately, she kept on forgetting this multiple times throughout the past few weeks.

Penelope was not sure that she would ever remember that Percy was in Slytherin, so she made it her top priority not to forget.

As October had come to a close and November was beginning, Penelope began producing her little December project – a small scarf that she had began knitting. She knew that most Slytherins' parents would normally buy them scarves, gloves and other apparels for the impending weather but she was just about nearly certain that Charlie Weasley's major distresses included not telling Percy's parents about him being sorted into Slytherin (she may admit that this may have required a little bit of eavesdropping on Penelope's end but her intentions were pure).

Penelope was being taught by a second year Ravenclaw named Holly how to knit and Penelope declined a few times but finally accepted her offer with determination in her short, chubby frame.

Her hair was fast growing, but it was not straight like it had been before. It was forming small, circular ringlets down to her shoulders and was showing no signs of growing any slower. There were people that were staring at it these days, almost in love with it. Penelope did not know what the potion that Lestrange had given her had done to her hair. Nobody in her family had hair like this, but Penelope was told multiple times that it was an improvement. A shy first year lad once told her that she had the prettiest hair in all of Hogwarts, which had led with Penelope being instantly flustered. She didn't know how to handle it when any boy complimented her.

She did find herself wishing that Percy would say something about it, but Percy was not the type to say anything. Penelope was not sure how much she liked Percy, but enough that she thought of him often.

Why couldn't he have been in Ravenclaw? Why was it so difficult for her to find a time where he wasn't with his friends, or wasn't going to class? It didn't help that it seemed like Percy and Adrian had been bound together and if one of them was away from the other for about five seconds, a big black hole would form and the world would cease to exist as they knew it. Penelope didn't know how to approach Percy with that fumbling uncouth friend of his tied to him. She'd already had the whole of Ravenclaw joking about how obsessed she was with Percy, but honestly, he saved her life! How could she not be grateful for that?

Especially knowing what Alec Lestrange did to those poor girls...

She would also admit that she might have a small crush on him, but she knew that he didn't return the feelings. Penelope was sure that Percy didn't even notice her existence most days, even more so now that he had his own friends and the lot that he was with...

Penelope heard that Percy and Adrian were caught sneaking around the girls' dormitories.

Was it so pathetic that Penelope was very cautious not to wear any comfortable and ugly looking underpants since she'd heard? Just in case they'd somehow made their way to the Ravenclaw dormitories? She had been trying to eat less, because her prettier underpants were so suffocating that she swore that it cut off the circulation down to her legs. She knew that she was being abnormally pathetic but she couldn't help it.

She really liked Percy.

THAT morning, Penelope found herself glancing towards the Slytherin table where Percy was swatting Adrian's hand away from a stack of parchment papers. Terence Higgs was pinching Miles Bletchley and glaring over at him and Marcus Flint looked like he was planning to burn the whole castle down. Penelope, thus, concluded that this seemed to be like the normal morning. It was a Saturday morning, so there weren't a lot of students there. They usually slept well into noon.

Penelope found herself blushing when she picked up a jam doughnut. She knew that nobody was looking at her, but she felt rather chubby for wanting one. Her stomach was becoming softer and Holly said that Penelope probably had PMS, and was going to have her period, so she had this white thing wedged up into her. Penelope honestly felt like this was a prank but she'd seen older girls walk with big bags of whatever it was before. The one that Holly had given her said something like Charmed to Get Rid of Any Blood for the First 12 Hours! Penelope did not think that was very smart, considering that if she did get whatever it was and the white thing cleared it up, how was Penelope supposed to know she had it? Unless she was the white thing for more than twelve hours...

Penelope pushed the thought away and chewed softly onto the jam doughnut, feeling fatter than she'd felt like in months. She couldn't help but be hungry enough to eat stodgy doughnuts in the morning.

Holly ate them too, but Holly was skinny and pretty.

Beyond her hair, Penelope didn't really have any redeeming features like Holly did. Holly had pretty eyes, nicer hair and a nice nose, and every day, Ravenclaw boys seemed to be running after her and doing stupid things for her like carrying her books even though they also were carrying a heavy load themselves. Two days ago, they even fought about it and Penelope just stood there, feeling like an ugly toad of a thing.

Penelope tried to ignore the comments in her head about not being deserving of a jam doughnut.

"Oi, Clearwater, do you really need a jam doughnut?" it took a few minutes for Penelope to process that masculine sound did not come from her head, but came from a third year Ravenclaw boy that looked bloody pleased with himself for crushing whatever ounce of self-worth Penelope had.

Holly shot him a glare. "What's wrong, you twat? You're sad that she turned you down?"

Penelope placed the doughnut down after she'd taken a mouthful of it. She didn't think that she wanted this or anything else anymore. She felt herself crumbling slightly on the inside. At the same time, she couldn't just stop eating it just in case someone would figure out that she took that stupid comment seriously.

Holly placed a hand on Penelope's. "Don't worry about him."

Penelope slowly nodded her head and stared down at the offending doughnut before she took it and took a bite out of it. She couldn't help but feel ashamed for wanting it, or consuming it. Penelope glanced at the Slytherin table, catching sight of Adrian cramming a half-eaten jam doughnut onto Percy's face. A great big gob of jam covered Percy's lower lip, and the ginger shoved a laughing Adrian away. Percy caught sight of Penelope's gaze and his facial expression softened before he offered a beaming jam-covered grin.

TOSSING and turning late at night in her bed, Penelope discarded the stupid white thing that Holly gave her. There seemed to be no sign of blood, and she supposed that Holly was wrong for one about this sort of thing. Penelope glanced past the dormitories, her stomach cramping violently. She hadn't eaten since the jam doughnut incident and her entire body was screaming from hunger. She didn't notice much when she'd been busy but now, the hunger was burning something into her stomach and she could barely think of sleep. Her mind was conjuring up all kinds of images of having baths with cauldron cakes and pumpkin juice.

On her way towards the Great Hall, she accidentally bumped into Adrian Pucey. Penelope looked around, half-expecting to see Percy beside him somewhere but no, she'd happened to catch Adrian Pucey without Percy, which was pretty much the opposite of what she wanted.

"You're Penelope Clearwater? What did you put in your hair? How did it grow so quick? Can I touch it?" Adrian called out in awe, staring over at the cascade of ringlets down her shoulders.

Touch her hair? Penelope's cheeks coloured in darkly and she shook her head.

"It's so nice," Adrian insisted, looking like he was about to fall over and faint from sheer admiration. In fact, she was pretty sure the last time she'd seen someone have this look was when they were talking about how they'd met a member of the Weird Sisters spontaneously when they'd been shopping for Quidditch supplies in Diagon Alley. "Hey, did Percy really save you from—"

"Alec Lestrange?" Penelope cut him off, feeling eerie. She hadn't talked to this about anyone, and she didn't think the first person she'd be talking to about this would be Adrian Pucey. "Yes. He gave me something and it made my hair grow long and it suffocated me... if Percy wasn't there, I'd be dead. I'm sure I'd be dead. I know he doesn't think so, but I know..."

Penelope closed her eyes. She couldn't believe that she was telling Adrian Pucey this?

"And nobody really knows it," Penelope huffed in annoyance. "Percy deserves some sort of recognition for being able to outfox a dangerous wizard, but he hasn't got so much as a bleeding thank you note owled from the Ministry! It's disgusting. And his brothers—we saw a real live manticore and Percy talked to it! He talked to it for a while, answered his riddle and when Percy got it right, the thing laughed itself to death. I was there. I saw it! It was one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen in my life..."

Penelope crossed her arms over her chest.

"Alright," Adrian looked at her with a stunned expression and slowly nodded his head. "I believe you."

Adrian's eyes softened slightly. "He's in pain, so I've dragged him down so Pomfrey could get a right look at him. That leg is butchering my best mate's life. Pomfrey kicked me out. Says she was too tired of seeing me every time I brought him in."

Penelope's heart softened slightly. Percy was in pain? How did Adrian know? Did Adrian not sleep?

"What's that?" Percy said, looking terrified as he exited Pomfrey's door. His eyes were relatively bloodshot. "It smells like... oh, that Godric-awful smell..."

Penelope looked down and noticed that the front of her skirt was stained with fresh blood. Percy paled and looked close to fainting. Adrian looked like he wanted to laugh, but kept it at bay.

"Tergeo," Adrian called out, waving his wand and calling out the spell perfectly (similarly to most of her peers actually), but the liquid didn't seem to want to slop off. "Oh, Merlin... Perce? Where'd you go, you bleeding coward?"

Percy left Pomfrey's room again (when did he go inside again?) with a white pad in his hands, flushing.

Penelope, on the other hand, genuinely wanted to curl up and die in that very second. She was riddled with the utmost level of humiliation. She immediately grabbed the white thing into her hands, and ran back into the Ravenclaw dormitories where she grabbed a rather big pair of unattractive knickers with patterns of Ice Mice on them that kept her bottom cold in warmer weathers. She ran down the hallway, past Percy and Adrian again, whose eyes seemed to be glued onto her awful choice of underpants.

By the time she'd gotten down to the commons where it was empty (the girls' dorms' toilets were not and Penelope thought this would be less embarrassing – she was wrong), she'd curled up against the stall and wept so hard that her thighs started to shake.