A/N: I do not own or profit from Harry Potter. Nor any other various work mentioned herein. Nor am I Drew Barrymore.

This chapter is mostly fluff-ish-ness. And updates could get crazy from here on out, even though I'm trying to write ahead. Am I the only one hereabouts participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)?

Chapter 17: Evening Out

Percy flipped through his papers as he continued filing. The clock ticked and the walls of books around him were looming invitingly, but he was forced to ignore them. Oh, how long had it been since he'd spent a good long night just reading the hours away until dawn.

Something collided with the back of his head, scattering his neat papers. "GEORGE!"

A giggle told him otherwise. "No, it's not George." Penny flopped down onto one of his chairs. "It's me."

He glared at her, picking up the green hospital garment and holding it away from himself. "Penelope, do you have any idea how many viral germs are on this...thing which you have just flung at my head?"

"I do. You want to know the exact number?"

"No."

"Didn't think so." She put her feet up comfortably on the table as she summoned a book from a shelf at random. "So. How's Audrey?"

He shrugged.

"Does my overwhelming reason not convince you?"

He pushed up his glasses. "It did, thank you. My mind is convinced, and for your information, we did go out for tea and walk."

"Try something a little more...engaging. Something longer, something more like a date and less like a meeting."

"Such as...?"

The door opened again behind him and Percy let his eyes roll. "Has anyone ever heard of knocking?"

"Sorry, Perce." He didn't have to look, the casually unapologetic voice was Charlie's. His brother sauntered into view and plopped down on the arm of the couch.

"Shouldn't you be with George?"

"Nope, Lee's with him tonight, so I get the night off." Charlie glanced over at Penny, grinned in welcome, and then checked himself. "Oh. Wait...are you two...?" He looked with confusion between the two of them as Penny regarded him calmly. "Er, did I just walk in on something?"

"Nope." Penny flipped a page in the book she was perusing.

"Then what...?" Charlie looked suspiciously at Percy, who glared back, not sure why he was glaring but certain that it was the characteristic thing for him to do. "Er, I thought you two hated each other."

"No, we're over that." Penny waved it off casually.

"Really?"

"Yup. We never really hated each other, right Percy?"

"Right." Percy said tiredly.

Charlie stared at her, obviously unconvinced. "You called him a workaholic turd-faced weasel. And then you threw a book at him. And then you broke his glasses."

Penny's book had slipped a little higher, as she slouched a little more. There was a long moment of silence, broken at last by Percy.

"Hey, you did break my glasses!" He remembered suddenly. "I can't believe you did that!"

The book came down and she glared at him. "You stood me up four times in a row for Mr. Crouch." She turned to Charlie as Percy shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Honestly, you think I'd get back with that? I'm not so desperate."

Percy let out a loud cough. "So, anyways, what were we talking about?"

"Dating."

"Oh." Percy cast a sidewise glance at Charlie, who was again looking with interest between the two of them.

"Take her to the cinema." Penny suggested, making Charlie's face fall as she roundly returned the topic to Audrey. "It's easy, fun, not too expensive. And you won't have to talk about yourself."

"Her? Who's her? Is her the girl who spent the night here?"

Percy considered her points as he ignored Charlie, deliberately-accidentally stepping on his foot. "Well...I don't know much about muggle films." He debated. "I mean, there was last time..."

Penny rolled her eyes. "That was four years ago!"

"It was a fiasco."

"Just because you have no taste..."

"Taste!" Percy spluttered. He rounded on Charlie to defend himself. "It was the most atrocious butchering of a literary classic I have ever seen. You know of the Elizabethan stage works of the great muggle bard playwright William Shakespeare?"

"Who?"

"It was a rewrite of his play, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark." Percy glared at Penny as he began to warm to his topic. "Except it was set in Africa, and Hamlet was a lion, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were hyenas, and Horatio was a warthog!" He expounded as Charlie stared between him and Penny, clearly bemused. "And everyone was singing. There were singing giraffes, Charlie! In Kronborg castle!"

"It's called The Lion King, and for your information, it's become an instant classic."

"Classic?" Percy seemed horrified as Penny watched his blood rise with a smug grin. "And I thought our world was in a bad state..."

"I'll have you know they've made a sequel. It's coming out this year."

Percy was ignoring her. "Giraffes. Singing. Singing giraffes."

Charlie was scratching his neck, looking confused, and Penny waved away the idea. "All right, fine. You could take her to see Ever After. She'd love that."

"What is it?"

"It's a new film, it's just come out the other day. I went to see it on opening night, and it was so romantic!"

"Well then I'm not seeing it." Percy voted at once.

"Drew Barrymore is in it."

"Who's he?" Charlie asked.

"I mean, is nothing sacred? What's next?" Percy demanded of Penny, cutting across his brother to return to his own topic. "Henry V? Or what about Harry Potter himself? Yes, that's just the thing you muggles would do, made a long cinema-film about Harry Potter and make it the worst retelling ever! They'd probably...I don't know, try and make Hermione attractive, or something equally ludicrous. And then take away my glasses and make me look like a fool!"

"That's not nice. Hermione's a lovely girl." Penny started.

"I bet I wouldn't look like a fool." Charlie smirked.

"Yes, because you probably wouldn't be in the story until the very end." Percy crossed his arms, daring Penny to disagree with him.

"I would, too! I'd have to be, I'm a member of the Order of the Phoenix!" Charlie pointed empathetically at his arm, where the Order Mark rested, then checked himself and glanced at Penny.

"It's all right, I know." She said calmly, her voice and expression not changing. She cast a half-glare at Percy. "Anyways...I give up on you. Choose your own date."

"No, wait...I need your help." He pleaded.

"And," She interrupted, "On a side note, I am so glad I didn't get back with you when we were staying at the House of Ladislav." She cast another glare at him, this one half-playful.

"All right!" Percy threw his own hands into the air, surrendering before Charlie asked him who Ladislav was and why they'd been in his house. "Fine! I'll take her to see one of your muggle long-moving-pictures."

.

Percy fiddled with his sleeve as Audrey gazed at him, wondering just why he always wore long sleeves like that. It was summer, surely he was hot.

"So." He glanced across at her. "I was, um, wondering what you were doing this weekend."

"Not much..." She ran her hand over the countertop. "I've got a job interview on Thursday, and I'm doing my laundry. So basically I'm free. Why?"

He shrugged. "Well...I was wondering if you wanted to go out together." He could feel the tips of his ears tingeing just the slightest bit and was glad they were hidden behind his hair. Why was it so easy to stand in an elevator with the Minister of Magic, to give well-written reports on complex social issues, to orate on difficult mathematical concepts, yet so hard to talk to another person about ordinary things? Percy supposed it was the lack of plan. No plan, no plot, no format to put his words into. "I mean, just a casual evening out. Maybe for a moo-vee." He tried to imitate his memories of Charlie talking to one of his many past Ravenclaw dates. Or Fred flirting with the shopgirl at Ottery St. Catchpole. It didn't sound as good coming out of his mouth.

She cocked her head and a grin quirked her mouth a little. "I'd love that."

"Great." He could breathe again. Amazing what oxygen could do for the brain.

"So what time?"

Ah, back to familiar ground. Schedules, times, and plans. "About six o'clock?"

"Fine." She agreed.

"Copacetic." He bit back the urge to grin down at her.

.

In the end, Percy thought, Penny had been mostly right about the film idea. He still had a hard time comprehending that muggles did this often, stared at hours-long pictures for entertainment when they could be in a library somewhere, reading. But still. Audrey was there, and that made it more interesting. Before, Penny had never spoken, had always shushed him when the toucan or the hyena started talking. Audrey, on the other hand, would lean over to whisper a comment every now and then, a habit he much preferred. They were talking; but not about magic.

"I'm sorry if I'm talking too much." She whispered once. "It's a bad habit."

"There's almost nobody else here to hear." He pointed out, deliberately leaving her the sweetened spots in their popcorn. "I don't mind." He watched the characters on the screen for a moment more, then glanced back to find her looking at him.

"What?" He asked as she quickly returned her eyes to the screen.

"Nothing."

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

"Audrey." He bit his tongue as soon as he used that tone. It was the tone he used with Ginny. Or Penny. Women he knew, and women who knew him. A rather…controlling tone.

She looked back at him at last. "Nice tone."

"Sorry. I have siblings."

"Control freak?"

"A bit." He admitted. Why did people insist upon considering him with that term?

"That's okay." She looked comfortably back at the screen.

A long moment passed before... "Wait, you just changed the topic."

"Hm?" She looked back, feigning surprise.

"Why were you looking at me?"

"Haven't you been looked at before?"

"Well, yes, but you get my gist."

She smiled. "I was just thinking, if you must know."

He let it go, though he was fairly sure she was lying. People didn't just look over at him for no reason at all. For a moment he couldn't help but wonder just what was on her mind, just what was on her agenda. People didn't just go out with him for no reason at all either. He let the figures onscreen roll on for several minutes as he let his mind wander. She was pretty. Very pretty, actually. And smart. And (he was displeased to admit) quite gutsy. When she'd met him today and smiled as they headed for the theatre, he'd realized quite distinctly that she was far, far out of his league.

So, he asked himself rationally, what was she doing here with him? Information? Hm, possibly. If she wanted it, though, she wasn't letting on. She hadn't mentioned her father, his murder, Malfoy, Davis, the incident, anything...yet it was the most plausible guess. He didn't have much else to offer.

He risked a glance over at her. She didn't look evil. Or conniving.

She's the daughter of bloody Lucius Malfoy and God-knows-who-else!

And how was she supposed to know that? Why did she have to be evil and conniving simply because they were? You were what you chose to be, Percy reminded himself. He, his family, and the dissimilarities thereof were living proof of that.

But if she had no ulterior motive, what was she doing with him? She couldn't really like him, after all. She couldn't be interested in him. Things like that, or girls like this, didn't happen to Percy Weasley. He was predictable, and sensible, and insensitive, and well, boring.

Well. Maybe not predictable, not to a muggle. Or sensible, either, for that matter. Or boring. But that was only because he was a wizard. If he were normal...He cut off his train of thought. He wasn't normal, he wasn't that, and he was going to stay that way. So the question remained, what was in her head to make her come with him? She'd seemed to understand the gravity of the situation, seemed not to be thinking of investigating on her own again...

She was like another investigation all her own, with the same questions going in circles. What motive did she have?

You.

He blinked and discarded the thought. It sounded like the voice of Penny, Ginny, Bill, and his friend Gavin all swaddled into one. Well, yes, there was the other possible option that she was interested in him, but logically, the odds of that were small enough to be negligible.

But logic doesn't work that way, his four-part inner conscience told him. You're allowing your opinion of yourself to influence logical deduction. Leaving apart personal ideals...really. What are the odds?

He bit back the urge to glower in any direction to hush his conscience up. Fine. Audrey was either interested in her father's case, or in him. He'd see which soon enough. In the meantime...

The show ended and he gratefully rose with her as they started down the aisle of the theater. Staring at the screen did strange things to his sight, he thought as he followed her down the stairs. She paused at the bottom and turned to wait for him. "Ready?" She asked as he threw away their popcorn.

"Ready." He slipped his hand behind her elbow and guided her out. It might have been his imagination, but it seemed for a moment like she was leaning into his touch.

.

Audrey glanced down at her hand. It had been tucked into his arm for about five minutes now, ever since they'd had to sprint across the street to keep from being rained on. After leaving the cinema, they'd been forced to take refuge from the rain in a department store.

"Ever been in here?" She asked him.

He shook his head, still looking around curiously, taking turns at random. "No. I've never been in a store this big." They slowed near the electronics department, full of the latest radios, televisions, and VCRs. Percy glanced over the assorted gadgets, looking almost perplexed.

"Everything in your wor—where you live is bigger." He half-told her. "We don't have stores this big where I come from. Everything comes separately, in separate shops. Not everything in one place."

"You're from Devon, it can't be that different." She teased. "You make it sound like you're from a whole different continent."

"You'd be surprised." He told her drily. "Ever been to Devon?"

"No."

"Exactly. Especially not my part of Devon."

She glanced up at him. He was taller than he looked at first glance, now that she was standing so close to him. "Is your whole family tall?" She asked, aware the question was a bit off-topic, but wondering all the same about his family. He hadn't spoken of them much aside from the one time he'd shown her that picture.

"No." He responded promptly, then seemed to swell a little with pride. "I matched Charlie on the height chart when he was nine. Our mother is short, and he gets it from her."

"Charlie...he is a bit short, isn't he?" She mused "I only met him for a moment, and you haven't talked much about him."

"We're not close. I mean, not really close." Percy corrected himself. "Though I'll warrant," He added a little aside, "That we've been through a few things the average siblings haven't. We are close I suppose by normal standards."

"What does he do? Your whole family is in government, yes?"

"Yes." He reached up and scratched his neck uncomfortably, a movement she wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't been pretending she wasn't watching him carefully. "He does various things, mostly security work, it's all quite boring."

He knows Malfoy well? The question was on the tip of her tongue, and she'd been longing to ask it ever since the night at the Malfoy residence. Charlie had said bluntly that he and Malfoy knew one another. The three had been downright hostile to one another. It was plain even to her: the Malfoys and the Weasleys each knew the other, and didn't think much of each other. But she couldn't ask now, couldn't risk getting him mad. It was easy to plan on nudging information out of him when he was away, but now that they were here, she didn't quite want to chance it. She hadn't had a good date in a long time. Since secondary school, actually. Always too focused on schoolwork and success to have fun...

She tugged her rambling thoughts back to the moment as they passed a window display. "The rain's stopped."

He glanced out the window. "So it has." Casting a glance down at her, he inquired, "Do you want me to take you home, or can I get dinner?"

"Dinner." She said at once. "And you don't have to pay."

"I do." They crossed the street again toward an unfamiliar eatery. "This time."

.

"All right, I've got it. Worst teacher ever."

Percy thought a moment as he chewed. "Sna...No." He seemed to discard his idea. "Quirrell...no. Binns, Grubbly-plank, Lupin. Maybe Trelawney..." Finished with his bite, he gnawed on his lip. "Difficult to say, I've had a lot of horrible professors. I think...No, I know! Lockhart! I had a Professor Lockhart in my sixth year, and he was an idiot. I hated him. I always have. He was a thousand times worse than Trelawney."

"What did he teach?" She asked, grinning at his disdain. "And how long did he last?"

"Less than a year, and that's not fair, it's my turn."

"All right."

"Your worst professor ever."

"Dr. Swarbrick." She said after a moment. "I've had a lot of good professors, but he was just mean. Horrible teacher. If I hadn't switched courses I would have failed algebra that year."

He looked horrified at the prospect as she thought of her next question.

"Best teacher eve

"Er..." He glanced down at his paper napkin. "I'll tell you if you promise to tell no one else."

"All right. But you have to tell the truth, that's the rule."

"Professor..." He gathered a deep breath and blurted it out. "Professor Snape." After a moment in which she didn't react, he seemed to relax a little.

"So who was he, what did he teach, why did you like him and why don't you want anyone to know?" She prodded, wondering if she was supposed to give a more dramatic response. She felt like he'd given her some sort of stage cue, and was waiting for her to faint, or gasp...or something.

Her fiddled with his fork. "Well. He was a genius. A really brilliant man, his essays are...a scintillating read."

"Scintillating?"

"Yes. He wasn't always...er, a very good professor. He was disgraced, and kind of fired, and...it's complicated. But in spite of his politics or his views, he did have an ineffably intellectual mind."

"You know people don't use words like scintillating and ineffable to describe other people?"

"Maybe not where you live." He gave her a look.

"All right, all right. Why'd he get fired?"

"My turn to ask a question."

"No, it isn't, because you wouldn't tell me what your Mr. Lockhart taught and you thought I didn't notice how you ducked the question. It's still my turn."

Percy swallowed some of his tea. "He murdered the headmaster." His tone was flat and straightforward.

Audrey gazed at him across the table. He looked away for a long moment, then looked back at her.

"You know," She said slowly, not sure how he would take it, "You have a pretty interesting life."

He snorted. "Define interesting, please."

"You just...seem different. From other people. And I think you know it." She commented, and then hastened to add, "I mean, not that that's a bad thing."

"I'm not sure about that." He murmured indistinctly, then pushed up his glasses and changed tone completely.

"What's the most hours you've ever spent on an academic project?"

.

He left her at the door that night, and she almost wished she could watch him walk away. It was odd how he didn't have a car, and yet was so uneducated in the ways of public transportation. Yes, he was definitely…odd.

But there had to be a reason for it all. A few inconsistencies could be dismissed as eccentricity, but as many as Percy had gathered, paired with the odd events at Malfoy Estates, amounted so some deep down reason for all things.

She rested against the door for a moment before starting for the door. Her only regret about the evening was that at the end of it, he hadn't kissed her again.