The Girl By The Lake

Chapter 3: The Room of Requirement

"You are dismissed," Professor Flitwick said at the end of charms class. Penny began to gather up all of her textbooks. She sat at the back of the class with Luna, seated closest to the door. It was their last class of the day and Penny was excited to play Exploding Snaps with Luna and Felicity. She'd been looking forward to it all day.

"Ready for the game?" she said to Luna as she stuffed her last textbook into her bag.

"I do love Exploding Snaps," Luna replied, serenely. Just as Penny was throwing her bag over her shoulder, she heard Professor Flitwick beckon to her.

"Miss Montgomery," he said. Penny gave a look to Luna that said 'don't wait up' to which Luna gave a smile and a nod and went out the door. Penny took a deep breath, she knew what Professor Flitwick was going to say.

"Yes, Professor," she said when she reached his desk.

"Please take a seat, Miss Montgomery," Professor Flitwick gestured to the seat on the opposite side of his desk; Penny sat. "Do you know that you excel in every one of your classes except mine?"

Penny nodded; she was awful at charms. Just a few minutes ago, she was struggling to use the Aqua Eructo spell, a pretty common one for a fifth year like herself. The spell conjured a stream of water from the tip of the user's wand.

"Yes sir, I do. I'm really very sorry, I am trying. Just the other day I used a-"

He put up a hand to silence her. "You are friends with Mr. Potter, yes?"

She didn't know how to answer. She used to be friends with Harry. More than friends. But-

"Did he ever teach you to fly a broom?" he asked. Again, she couldn't answer. He did teach her to fly a broom but what did that have to do with anything? What did that have to do with her grade? She had often played three-on-three games at the Weasley's over summer and Christmas breaks with Harry, Ginny and her brothers. Sure, she could fly decently well and she could play chaser all right, but she really wasn't that good.

"Would you ever consider playing for the team?"

"The Ravenclaw quidditch team?" Penny stared wide-eyed at Professor Flitwick. "Have you ever even seen me fly, do I need to try out?"

"Well yes, you would need to try out of course," he laughed. "Did you hear about Jeremy Stretton and his accident?"

Penny did in fact hear that Jeremy had fallen off his broom when he got hit by a Bludger mid-game. A nasty fall.

"I don't know Professor I'm not very good."

"Well our next game is in two days so I need an answer soon. Just come to tryouts tomorrow night, okay? I'll even raise your grade a bit just by showing up."

"Really? You can do that?"

"Of course I can! I'm the Professor," he chuckled at that.

"Thank you sir, I'll try to come!" she stood up.

"You will come," Professor Flitwick said.

"Of course," Penny beamed and left the room. She was so excited to possibly play for the Ravenclaw quidditch team. She couldn't wait!

Suddenly, she felt a yank on her arm and was pulled into a strange room. It looked familiar but, different. She spun around to see who had pulled her in.

"Harry!" she started. "What on Earth do you-"

"Please, I just want to talk,"

"I have nothing to say to you," Penny turned to go out the door but it was gone. Then the room spun around her and turned into a large sitting room with two red-brown couches adjacent from each other with a fireplace crackling on the side. The room was carpeted white and had an extravagant chandelier made of diamonds. There was even a quaint coffee table in the middle of the room, between the two elegant couches.