Anomaly
chapter two – Penelope Bennett, subject changer extraordinaire

Eleanor Rigby died in the church
and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from
his hands as he walks from the grave
No one was saved
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?
-The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby

Seventh year is not getting off to a very good start. First of all, I've got this strange Remus Lupin guy being a total and complete ass to me, and I've got the worst first day of class schedule going on… except Herbology, that one's good. I had been able to avoid Lupin for the rest of the day after the disastrous Transfiguration class, that is until I came to Potions, my last class of the day.

I was almost late, so close to late that all of the tables were full. All the tables but one. And guess who was at that table? My very best friend, Mr. Lupin himself. He was sitting with Lily Evans and Sirius Black. I hadn't seen Sirius yet that day, and I was hoping that I wouldn't have to. He irritated me with his immaturity, loudness, and his complete disregard of any female who isn't tall and blonde. He had never even glanced at me before, so I'm sure you can imagine my surprise when he grinned at me and beckoned me over.

Reluctantly I headed over to his table, willing to sit with the person who seemed more likely to jump off the astronomy tower than talk to me only because I didn't want to be on my own. So I sat, and for a moment I thought that Remus was going to get up and leave. I was sitting diagonally from him, across from Sirius, and next to Lily. He actually rose a little from his seat, but Sirius put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back down.

I sensed that there was something going on that I wasn't aware of, but I wasn't about to ask. Lily turned to me, and was about to open her mouth when Professor Slughorn entered, his large stomach preceding him into the room. I knew I was sitting at a table of Slughorn's favorites; Lily Evans the potions prodigy, Sirius Black the one who excels at everything he does without even trying, and Remus Lupin the quietly brilliant pupil. I was terribly average, and had never received much attention during potions classes.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Remus crossing his arms and facing away from me, trying to avoid looking at me at all. Just as before, I tried to ignore him and pay attention to what the professor was saying. "…Amortentia is possibly the most difficult of all the potions we will be making this year. If you can excel at this, I have no doubt you will excel in my class. Please open your books to page five, and begin. You have one hour."

I had always been good at potions, not amazing like Lily or Severus but fair all the same. I opened my book and I could feel my eyes bug out of my head. The potion wouldn't take very long to make, but there were so many ingredients it made my head hurt. They all had to be added at the precisely right time, stirred a very particular about of times, and I was sure that I would mess it up somehow. I gulped and began cutting up the lavender I was supposed to add first while waiting for the water in my cauldron to boil.

About five minutes in I thought I could feel someone watching me, and I looked up just in time to see Remus look away. He had been looking at me for some reason, possibly trying to find something else wrong with me other than what he had already discovered. With a sigh I returned to my potion, which was turning the light shade of pink it was supposed to be after the lacewing flies I added had stewed for a while. I returned to work and was determined not to look at Remus for the remainder of the class.

Soon the classroom was filled with heavenly smells, and everyone seemed to have relaxed into a dreamy state of mind. Even Remus was staring off into space; the hand that had been clenched on the table was now flat and his posture was slumped and less stiff. It took a few moments of observing him before I remembered that I had vowed not to look at him. I refocused my line of vision and stared at the ceiling instead. My potion began to smell of pine trees and vanilla, mingled with something that smelled a bit like cologne. I knew I had smelled it recently, but I had no idea where.

It took me a second to realize that Professor Slughorn had been walking around the room, observing potions and then vanishing them after he marked them. He was at our table, smiling approvingly down at my potion while he made a note on his clipboard. "Very nice miss…"

"Bennett" I supplied automatically, used to people not knowing my name. It came with the territory of being the awkward and average Hufflepuff girl. He nodded at me, smiling and waving his wand to make my potion disappear. My head instantly cleared, and the warm fuzzy feeling that had come into me when the potion was complete left me and I felt cold and empty inside. As soon as all the potions had been vanished I could see that Remus' posture went back to the way it had been, stiff and tense. He glared over at me, his eyes that cold and piercing blue that I remembered from the first time he looked… or rather, glared at me. Instead of looking away I held his gaze, looking into his eyes with determination until he diverted them, looking instead at the wall behind me.

"How was your summer, Penelope?" I gave a little start as Lily spoke to me, a little surprised that she had chosen to say anything to me instead of Sirius or Remus.

"It's was… interesting, I went to stay with my dad in America, and I must say New York city is the most confusing city I've ever been in… way too many cars. How was your summer?" Before Lily could respond, Sirius spoke.

"Penelope, that's a very nice name… very nice." He was leaning across the table and giving me the smile that I had seen melt many a girl into a pile of goo. I was not one of those girls, and I was not going to melt.

"I suppose so, I guess it's better than Prudence, my twin's name." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Remus' glare intensify. I thought that maybe he was angry with me for taking his friends away, for talking to them. Maybe he thought that whatever I had wrong with me would rub off on them.

"Oh ho, you have a twin do you? Identical?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason." He smirked to himself, and then to Remus, who turned his glare to Sirius for a moment, and then turned it back to me. I thought I knew why Sirius liked the fact that I was a twin, but I didn't want to confirm it. He was a well known play boy, and went through girls like he did socks, and I had absolutely no interest in him. I knew that he was a good guy, loyal to his friends and he liked treating people with equality, but I wasn't sure if I could get to know him without him trying to get under my skirt.

"But really, Lily, how has your summer?" Wasn't that smooth? I had always been able to turn a conversation in the direction I wanted it to go, it was one of my special talents. Penelope Bennett, subject changer extraordinaire. Sirius looked a bit put out at being brushed aside, but Lily brightened and began to chatter on about her summer. I felt a little bad a tuning her out, but I had more things on my mind than her trip to Costa Rica.

Later that night, stressed from my first day of classes, and wanting to get away from everyone, I decided to head to my one and only sanctuary. The library. Since my first year I have always loved the library, it was big, open, quiet, and best of all I knew quite a few people who I didn't want to talk to that wouldn't be caught dead in a library. I picked one of my favorite books, Emma by Jane Austen. I loved most of Austen's books, but this one in particular was my favorite. I sat on one of the reading couches, propped up my feet, and allowed myself to be immersed in the world of Emma Woodhouse.

Weather is was minutes or hours later, I couldn't tell, the book was taken from my hands. I looked up to see the handsome smiling face of Sirius Black, dangling Emma just above my head. I have him my best glare and reached for it just as he pulled it a bit higher to make it out of my reach. What made him so comfortable around me that he thought he could take my book and get away with it without me hexing him. Perhaps it was because most girls fell at his feet, and he was used to them giving him whatever he wants.

"Sirius Black, give me back my book." He had never chosen to interact with me before, why did he think he was allowed to goof around with me now?

"What will you do to get it back?" His cheeky grin was annoying, slightly adorable, but annoying nonetheless.

"I'll hex you so you can't walk and then take the book from you by force." His face fell a little bit and all of the sudden he vaulted over the back of the couch to sit by my head. I sat up and leaned over him grabbing my book. Instead of being able to pull away like I had intended, I felt his very large arm wrap around me and hold me to him. He reminded me of my brother in the way that he could overpower me in a second, but I never thought that he would ever hurt me. "What makes you think I want you to be close to me?"

"What girl wouldn't want to be close to me? Just relax, lovely. I want to talk to you about something." What could he possibly have to talk to me about? In spite of myself, I relaxed into his arm and leaned back against his chest. Whatever it was, I was pretty sure he wasn't here to spite or hurt me, so I was going to listen. I liked to give people fair chances.

"Talk away then." I found the page of the book I had been in, marked it, then closed the book again. I planned to go back to reading as soon as he told me what he needed to tell me.

"I want to know why Remus dislikes you so much. Did you do something to upset him or something? Remus isn't the type to hate on someone for no reason." My heart stopped for a second. His best friend was asking me what I did to him? I wanted to know that very thing, what had a I done to offend him?

"Why don't you ask him? He's the one who has the problem, not me." I crossed my arms and huffed, why did he automatically assume this was my fault?

"I did ask him, I saw him going all 'if looks could kill' on you, and I wanted to know why… especially because we don't know you. He really didn't open his heart up to me, if you know what I mean." Alright, I really didn't know how to respond to that, so I decided to employ one of my other many talents. I was going to wing it.

"I honestly don't know what I did to offend him, unless he finds me particularly ugly or something. Or maybe I smell bad. Do I smell bad?" I felt him lean down and press his nose into my hair, and I sunk deeper into the couch to get away from him.

"I promise you, you are one of the most un-ugly girls I know. And you smell rather delicious."

"Okay, well then why does he hate me? I haven't said two words to him since fifth year when I asked to borrow a quill in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Maybe I made him mad because I didn't return it… he's holding a grudge or something." I didn't know quite why I was so comfortable talking to him. There was something about him that made me feel comfortable. Safe. Maybe that 'love me' vibe was what made all the girls in the school swoon all over the place when he came near them. It didn't make me swoon, though, just comfortable.

"Yeah, that's it. You'll forever be the quill stealer in his mind, you little thief." He pressed a finger into my side, making me squeal. I was extremely ticklish on almost every part of my body, and I really didn't want him to discover it. I had a feeling he would be the kind of person to exploit it. "I guess I'll have to talk to him, then. You don't seem like a bad enough bird, likeable even."

"Well, if you find me likeable then he just must be off his rocker to dislike me." I tried to drip sarcasm from my words, a little resentful that he felt he had to deem me 'likeable.' I didn't need the great Sirius Black to validate my existence, thank you very much.

"That's what I'm saying! Finally, someone who understands!" I turned around a little bit and smacked him on the chest. He really was slightly adorable, almost so much that it over road the annoying… almost. I was beginning to like him, or at least value him as a very large, warm, and comfortable body pillow.

"Honestly, though, did he say anything to you about me?" My curiosity was getting the better of me, and I was wondering, what, if anything, my 'admirer' was telling his closest friends about me. I didn't know why I should be concerned what the thought, we had never really been close before; maybe it was because no one has ever really hated me before. I had seen indifference, curiosity, unrecognizing stares… but never the glare that Remus Lupin gave me when we first made eye contact. I didn't like the feeling, mostly because I didn't think I had earned the amount of animosity he had for me.

"Nothing, really. I asked him after potions why he was giving you looks of death, and he didn't mention the quill thing… he just said that you rubbed him the wrong way. Then I told him that I thought you were an alright looking bird, and I didn't understand, and he seemed to get mad at me, then he stormed off. More mood swings than a pregnant woman, that one." I considered Sirius for a moment, trying to sus out weather or not he was telling the truth. He had an honest face, if that was possible, it felt like whatever came out of that face could be trusted, and was the truth. This guy has natural talent coming out of his ying-yang.

Don't ask me what a ying-yang is, because I don't know.

"That sounds like a riveting conversation, though I don't exactly know how I feel about being referred to as a 'bird.' So he really didn't give you a reason? Oh well, maybe it's just his time of the month or something." Sirius spluttered and I looked up at him to see him looking down at me with a sort of indignant curiosity, like what I had said had a whole new meaning to him. "Remus isn't secretly a girl, is he?"

"No, at least I don't think so. I don't have any proof to the contrary, though… I really should get around to asking James. It would explain a lot." Sirius chuckled and pushed my hair away from my neck, playing with the loose strands absently. I couldn't help finding it strange that two people who had never had a proper conversation with each other before could be so comfortable with each other in a matter of minutes. It was like we had known each other all our lives, and were having one of the many conversations that made up our long relationship.

"And if you have no proof, how would James have proof?" I looked up at him again, and he dropped me a wink. I really wasn't sure if I wanted to know the answer to the question, but it had already been asked, so there was no stopping the answer.

"The only answer I have for you is that it involved a lot of firewhiskey, a long game of strip poker, and Peter standing on the table singing Hotel California while playing the drums on his stomach. James woke up that morning suddenly very aware of Remus'… masculinity if you will." I felt him shudder and couldn't blame him. It sounded like one of those incidents that would be fun at the time, but you would wake up thinking 'what the hell did I do last night, and why is the name Bubah tattooed across my bicep?' Nothing like that would ever happen in the Hufflepuff common room, there was a lot of studying, reading, and maybe a chess game or two. No drunken games of strip poker, or renditions of Hotel California.

We were too normal and boring for that.

I was beginning to think that Sirius' bad boy attitude and womanizing exterior was all a façade. On the inside he seemed to be just a giant, loveable teddy bear. I felt the sudden urge to hug him, which I resisted. I didn't resist the feeling, however, that I was actually going to like Sirius Black.

A/N: yeah, mostly an intro to Sirius' character in this one. A bit more interaction with Remus, but not a lot. Sorry if it was boring, but I had to lay the groundwork for the next chapter, and for Pen and Sirius' relationship.

I don't own Harry Potter, or anything associated with the books or movies. I only own Penelope and her family. Please don't sue me, because you won't get much. I am very poor.