I Was Younger Then

Under Pressure Precious Things Can Break

Penny's reading load was at crisis level by the time the afternoon rolled around. It would likely require an all nighter with her first drama club meeting of the term and then detention with Snape. It was a highly inconvenient time to be in trouble, especially when all she wanted to do was devote her time to the rewriting of her essay. It needed to be perfect, her OCD was getting the better of her and she made very little progress in the library.

Autumn days were always sunny and only mildly chilly which meant the production would meet in the courtyard with professor Flitwick to brainstorm what they would perform for Christmas. Fred and George always managed to steal snacks from the kitchens, and everyone spent a better part of an hour laughing and engaging in various forms of improv while others scribbled the ideas on piles of parchment.

"Madam" George said, taking Penny's hand. He was wearing very old, emerald robes made of velvet, and a crown.

"Are we going to do a rendition of King George then," Penny grinned, pondering how well all the beheadings would go over at Christmas.

"The one man cast would bore our audience to death, we both know I have the acting talent in the family," Fred said.

Penny turned to look at him, he was laying various delectable treats on a table in the middle of the courtyard, a pile of costumes sitting next to him. The props were always Penny's favorite part of their shows. Fred and George had a serious talent when it came to stage managing. She relied on them more than anyone else to ensure everything went smoothly and everyone was entertained. They had been first to sign up for her club and were the reason they had a fanbase now. Naturally, everyone liked them with their ability to become so many different characters.

"Let me snack early, I missed lunch," Penny said, snatching a pumpkin pastry from George.

"Better get used to it, in your 5th year you will never have time to eat with preparation for OWLs." said George, jumping onto the cement ledge near the table.

"I don't envy you," said Penny.

"Like we worry ourselves with OWLs, we are too busy working on an aging potion," said Fred, nonchalantly.

"You two actually want to compete?"

"Of course," they replied in unison.

A group of 5th year Ravenclaws entered the courtyard before Penny could respond, they were laughing boisterously. Moments after them, more students began trickling in until there were about 50 or so interested students in the courtyard. Professor Flitwick arrived last, squealing with glee when he saw so many students. For the first 20 minutes they all snacked and chatted, Penny finding a place by Cedric Diggory, a handsome 7th year Hufflepuff. Penny liked him, he was charming and made for the stage. Unfortunately, so did everyone else, he was very popular, especially with the girls. He liked chatting to Penny after they played leading roles together in their last production. They had probably spent more time bursting into hysterical fits of laughter than actually reciting their lines. They had been cast as Matteous Conway and Paisley Prue in a play named Carrying Conway, a somewhat alternate universe Romeo and Juliet where Paisley is raised in a pure blood family, but is not pure blood herself and falls for Matteous, who is set to wed a very high ranking pure-blood woman.

Cedric and Penny had a hard time taking their romantic lines seriously, and spent much of their time pranking each other. Even Fred and George believed the show doomed until the day of their full run through before the actual performance. As it turned out, Penny and Cedric had amazing chemistry, a chemistry a lot of people murmured about. Their performance had been so convincing that Penny had been exiled by Cedric's fan club, who were distraught at the thought they were dating. It didn't matter that Penny and Cedric had no interest in dating and returned to their absurd shenanigans as soon as their roles concluded.