Written for:
February Event at Hogwarts: (title) Friends With Benefits, and (colour) lavender
200 Characters in 200 Days: Penelope Clearwater
If You Dare Challenge: 916. Fragments of Your Heart
Writing Bingo: Love Triangle - Percy/Penelope/Lee
Submitted to Fanfiction Writing Month at Hogwarts
Words: 627

Friends With Benefits: Fragments of Your Heart

Penelope was Percy's girlfriend. The whole school knew it. Percy was a very respectable partner, and he was a perfect gentleman. Everyone told Penelope how lucky she was to have caught him.

Penelope didn't feel lucky. At least, not all of the time. She knew that Percy would get a good job, and so between them, they'd earn enough to live a very comfortable lifestyle. She was looking forward to that.

But right now, at seventeen, Penelope was bored. She had a craving for excitement and passion that Percy didn't begin to satisfy. It was like an uncomfortable itch she just couldn't reach to scratch.

That was how she found herself in a broom cupboard with Lee Jordan. At least, those were the reasons she gave herself afterwards, when the guilt began to set in. Lee had scratched that itch she'd had, in a friends-with-benefits sort of way, and she'd learned it perhaps wasn't worth it in the end anyway.

It definitely wouldn't happen again.

Except, of course, that it did. It was a Saturday, and Penelope wanted to go outside and relax in the sun. Percy wanted to study, as his NEWTs were coming up. She began to head out into the grounds alone, but she didn't quite make it there.

"Fancy seeing you here," Lee began by way of a greeting.

"What do you want, Jordan?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"I think the question is: what do you want?" he replied.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, irate.

"Do you want Percy?" he asked, more directly.

"Of course I do. I wouldn't be with him if I didn't," Penelope replied.

"You wouldn't have slept with me if you did," he countered.

He began walking towards her, and before long, he was far closer than Penelope was comfortable with. She was very grateful that the corridor was deserted.

"It was a mistake," she told him.

"Are you sure that was the mistake?" he asked her.

"What do you mean? You're confusing me."

"No I'm not. You were already confused. You just don't want to admit it to yourself," he replied. He reached out to push a strand of her hair behind her ear, and Penelope felt herself relax as she sighed. As he lowered his hand, he reached out for her fingers. "Come on," he told her, pulling her gently along.

Penelope followed willingly as he led her into a broom closet. He placed all the usual charms over the door before Penelope melted into his arms. As much as she tried to deny it, she wanted Lee. She wanted him like she'd never wanted anyone before.

Fumbling for their clothes when all was said and done, Lee stopped and turned to her. She was still stood in nothing but her lavender underwear, but she felt no shame. She stopped dressing to listen to him.

"If you keep leaving fragments of your heart strewn all over the place, the wrong man's going to find them one day."

"Do you always talk in riddles?" she asked in response.

Lee smiled kindly. "Your heart is breaking with him. It's crying out for attention, for excitement. For what you really want. That's why you're here. You're throwing the pieces of your heart at me, hoping I'll catch them. But if that doesn't work, you'll just move on to the next. And you'll keep going, and you'll end up with nothing left of your heart but charred remains."

"You don't know me," Penelope replied, defensive.

"I think I do," he replied softly. "If you know what your heart wants, leave him. Come find me," he finished, and began to leave.

Penelope didn't know what to say. She was caught in the middle, and she hadn't even realised it. She watched him leave and sighed.