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Chapter 6

Penelope

On the third Friday in September, during a fifteen minute break, Jessica found herself in the library with Remus, Sirius, and Sophia poring over large volumes of books. Sirius and Sophia were working together on a Charms essay, while Remus was attempting to help Jessica with her Potions essay. Jessica, however, found herself getting frustrated with herself and Remus.

"I just don't get it. I think I'm going to go to Slughorn and tell him I'm dropping out of the class," she said slamming the book closed and pushing it back in disgust.

Remus calmly slid the back towards her and opened it again. "You're not dropping out of the class just because you're struggling a bit. Now, come on, the answers are all here."

Jessica leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temples. "It's making my brain hurt. Can I please just stop for now?"

Sirius paused from his writing and looked up. "You're kidding, right? You're going to use the "my brain hurts" excuse to get out of writing this essay? I finished it yesterday. It's way too easy."

Jessica bit down on her tongue before she said something that she regretted to Sirius. "I'm just not as good at this stuff as you guys," she muttered dejectedly.

"Oh, would you stop?" Sophia snapped. "You're as good as you allow yourself to be. Your problem is that you always want to throw in a towel whenever something presents itself as a challenge. A perfect example would be the Potions Essay. You say you want to try, but all I see you doing is whining."

Jessica opened her mouth to say something, but closed it immediately. To say that she was shocked by Sophia's words would be an understatement. They had been good friends since their first year, but Sophia had never spoken to her this way, until now. Deep down inside the darkest crevices of her mind, Jessica felt a small drop of resentment towards her. But it was hidden behind her desire to avoid confrontation. Jessica wondered if Sophia had been holding her tongue for so long that it just built up until she couldn't hold back any longer?

While Remus was not one to take sides, especially when they involved his girlfriend and his friends, he couldn't help, but agree with Sophia. As long as he had known Jessica, she always had a knack for wanting to run away whenever something became too hard for her. Unfortuantely, the break ended soon after that. Jessica headed to Care of Magical Creatures, but the three Gryffindors had a spare period, so they remained in the library.

"I didn't mean to snap at her," Sophia said as she closed the book she was using to help with her essay. "I've just been holding back for years, now. You just don't understand what it's like to hear her complain all the time that this sort of thing is too hard. I mean, she seems to grasp Transfiguration pretty well, and that's ten times as hard as Potions."

Remus began gathering the books that Jessica was using and set them aside. He would bring them to her later. "I'm not disagreeing with you, but I also understand her insecurities. However, I don't know how to get it through to her that its all in her head."

"Maybe if you told her like it is, instead of beating around the bush because you're afraid to hurt her feelings, it might help," Sirius suggested. "I understand that you love her, but that doesn't mean you can't be firm with her from time to time."

"Remus doesn't have a firm bone in his body," Sophia pointed out. "He'd never be able to tell Jessica off like I just did."

"You act like you're proud of it," Remus said, not liking Sophia's tone.

Sophia began closing her ink bottle. "I'm not proud of what I said. I know how sensitive she is, and the last thing I want to do is hurt her feelings, but sometimes I think we take it too easy on her. We've been doing it for about six years now. It's not my fault that I finally just snapped."

"Er...it kind of is," Sirius teased.

"Shut up. Anyways, I guess I'll apologize to her later, after I've had time to cool down."

After their spare period, the three of them had lunch. As they were sitting down with James, Lily, and Peter, an attractive dark-haired girl in green Slytherin robes approached them. Sophia grimaced and began piling a few sandwiches onto her plate.

"Hey, you lot," she said, sitting down next to Sirius. "So, Potter, the Slytherin team is looking great this year. We got two new Beaters who are bound to knock you off your broomstick."

"They'd have to catch me first," James said with a smug grin.

"So, Penelope, what's a pretty girl like you doing at our table?" Sirius said with his signature charming grin as he ran his fingers through his hair. Sophia rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I just wanted to see what a sexy beast like you was up to," she said suggestively.

Sophia made gagging noises, causing Penelope to look up at her. "You jealous, Jones?" she smirked and raised her perfectly arched left eyebrow.

"Of you? Please. Who could ever be jealous of you?"

"Well, you, apparently. You're not very good at hiding it."

"At least I don't go around shamelessly flirting with guys."

Penelope flipped her long hair over her shoulders. "I don't shamelessly flirt. I'm just confident."

"Sure, call it what you will if that makes you sleep better at night."

Penelope snorted. "Whatever. Anyways, Sirius, do you think you could help me this weekend? I'm having a little trouble with the Glacius spell and can't seem to get it to work. I think it might be the way I'm holding my wand."

Sirius could only nod as his mouth was full of turkey, ham, and cheese. Penelope's hand lingered on his shoulder for a minute before slowly sliding off. He watched her leave. Actually, he was more or less watching her backside. Sophia hit him over the back of the head and scowled at him.

"Ow!" He rubbed the offending area. "What was that for?"

"Could you have made it any more obvious that you were ogling her?"

"I wasn't ogling her! I just happen to think she's pretty nice. I don't know what your problem with her is."

Sophia folded her arms across her chest. "I don't have a problem with her."

"I hate to say it, but you kind of do," Remus chimed in, setting his goblet down. "As far as Slytherins go, she's not so bad."

"Don't tell me you're taken in by her so called charms, too," Sophia said, glaring at the light-haired Gryffindor.

"You know I'm not. I just think that maybe you don't like her because you feel threatened."

Sophia laughed bitterly. "You couldn't be more wrong." Disgusted, she threw her last half eaten sandwich back onto her plate and stood up. "I'm going for a walk. I'll meet you guys in History of Magic."

Once she had left, they turned to stare at Sirius, who didn't seem to be in a hurry to get up. "What?" he asked when he saw them looking at him.

"Aren't you going to go after her, mate?" James asked.

"Why? Did I do something wrong?" Sirius said naively.

"You should at least go talk to her," Remus suggested as he pulled the crust off of his turkey and cheese sandwich.

Sirius leaned back, resting his hands behind his head. "I don't think so. I'll just give her some time to cool down."

Lily gave Sirius a look. "Honestly, sometimes I don't know what Sophia sees in you."

Sirius sat up. "Excuse me? What do you mean by that?"

"I'm saying that you can be such a git sometimes. As much as you try to deny it, you were checking Penelope out, and Sophia, obviously, didn't like that."

"You don't know anything about Sophia. She'll be fine," Sirius replied without much worry.

"I know her way better than you do. You may have slept with her a few times, but that doesn't mean a thing."

"Look, I'm sorry you feel that way, but Sophia and I made an agreement that we would still see other people."

"I understand that, but does it have to be someone who she hates with a passion? I'm not saying I approve of her dislike of Penelope, but you could at least think about her feelings."

"Are you saying that I'm insensitive?" Sirius asked, standing up abruptly.

Lily followed suit. "That's exactly what I'm saying."

"So, I happen to like Penelope. That doesn't make me insensitive!"

James pulled on Lily's arm. "It's not worth it to fight over this girl."

"She started it!" Sirius snapped. "She's the one who jumped down my throat!"

"Only because I'm worried about my friend!" Lily shot back.

"Are we really going to argue over one girl?" Remus asked in his usual calm tone of voice. "In my opinion, I think that we should let Sirius and Sophia deal with it on their own."

"Exactly! Thank you, Moony!" Sirius cried gratefully.

That evening, after dinner, Jessica waited outside for Remus. He had agreed to go with her to Hagrid's hut in order to help with Cinnamon and her baby, who had been named Buckbeak. They had helped taken care of him every Friday since the start of the term. Remus soon approached her, looking more weary than usual.

"Are you all right?" Jessica asked.

"I'm just a little stressed. I've had to listen to Sirius and Lily bicker all day," he said leaning down to give her a kiss.

"What are they fighting about?"

"Well, Lily thinks that Sirius is being insensitive to Sophia's feelings, and Sirius thinks that Lily should just mind her own goddamn business. His words, not mine."

If there was one thing Jessica couldn't stand, it was her friends arguing. That was why she usually disappeared whenever an argument broke out, or clammed up and didn't say a thing. So, of course, she was glad that she wasn't present for this argument. She had been in the Hufflepuff common room during lunch, so she didn't exactly hear it.

"I actually came out here to tell you that I don't think I'll be coming with you to help with Cinnamon and Buckbeak. I've had to referee their arguments all day, and I'm exhausted."

Jessica frowned. "But I was hoping we could spend some time together."

Remus sighed. "I'm sorry, Jess. I'm just too tired right now."

"But you wouldn't have to do anything. You could just watch me."

"I promise, I'll make it up to you."

Jessica sulked. They barely got to spend any time together as it was. "Fine, I guess."

Remus pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "Please don't be mad at me. You know I'd come with you if I wasn't about to fall over."

"Would you, really?" she asked cynically

"You know I would. Tomorrow is Saturday. We'll do something together."

Jessica hated to see him go. She also realized that she might have been a little selfish, but he seemed to have no problem going with her during the other Fridays, so why was this Friday any different? Dejected, she walked to Hagrid's alone.