I Was Younger Then

The Hogwarts Howler

Warnings: implied and referenced homophobia

*****

Penny had never been bothered by the things other people said about her before. In fact, she'd always found it peculiar how worked up Harry seemed to get when people talked about him. But in reality, she'd never actually experienced the kind of invasion and bullying he'd endured. She knew he and Malfoy were always at odds, but a part of her just tuned it out because she found it too tiresome to get involved. At some point they'd both (Harry and Malfoy) just accepted Penny would forever remain neutral, which Penny was beginning to understand was a true act of unconditional sibling love on Harry's part.

With word of Penny's relationship with Ginny spreading like wildfire in the school, Penny found herself at the center of more attention, a lot of which was negative, than she cared to have. Penny had been bullied by the Durmstrangs the year before, but she found that much more tolerable, even though they'd definitely gone out of their way to cause her bodily harm. She'd found some sense of comfort in how her peers had come to her defense and rallied around her, even with the knowledge that the Durmstrangs had good cause for disliking Penny.

That goodwill was long dead, with many people, mostly Ravenclaws, believing her moving on was an insult to Cedric's memory and that Penny's relationship with him must have been fake, and even speculated she'd been cheating on Cedric long before he died. Others, mostly awful boys like Nott, harassed Penny ceaselessly, making derogatory remarks any chance they got. Her less vocal critics opted for stealing her things if she left them unattended, filling her bag with stink pods when she wasn't looking, and tripping her if they passed her in the halls.

About the only good thing to come from the entire situation was her and Harry being able to resolve (her) anger over their fight. Harry was the rock Penny needed, more and more, Penny felt like he was the only one to understand her feelings on the subject. Hermione, from the goodness of her heart, expressed her sympathies, but they felt shallow at best, especially when she followed it with suggesting Penny speak to the headmaster, as though Dumbledore could magically garner favor for Penny in everyone's mind's eye. And Ron, he could not begin to comprehend how the relationship came to be, and became horrendously awkward if Ginny even sat near Penny. However, when the harassment started, he seemed to change his tune, and began using his position as a prefect to make life annoying for anyone he caught so much as mentioning Ginny or Penny's names.

But none of them except for Harry understood how much Penny wished for a private moment, for the ability to enter the Great Hall without someone muttering about her. It was in the solace of Harry's mind, in that connection no one else could intrude on, that Penny felt at peace and like she could just be herself again.

After their fight, or whatever their mortifying encounter had been, Penny had been successfully avoiding Snape, who at first, seemed to also be ignoring Penny. But as Penny persisted in brushing him off and not so much as looking at him, he seemed to become more intent upon demanding her attention. Seeing as Penny was forced to be alone in his company every couple of days, there was only so much avoidance she could do, so she had to quickly work out how to pretend to be unfazed by the man. So far, she'd barely managed and nearly given into getting into an argument, but had managed to make her escape before he'd succeeded in breaking her.

This morning, her head throbbing and whole body aching, she walked to his office and entered without so much as knocking. Kicking the chair aside, she plopped herself onto her usual spot on the top of his desk and tapped her foot impatiently.

"You're late," said Snape's cool voice as he snapped the door she'd left open shut.

"You do realize the Gryffindor tower is on the complete opposite side of the castle, right?"

Snape stepped up to her, his cold eyes scanning her appearance critically. "Cold are we?" he said with a damning arch of his brow, gesturing that she should remove her cloak, which she had wound tightly around herself as though it would protect her somehow.

Yanking it off, she tossed it onto the chair just behind her and folded her arms.

"What is this?" he said, displeasure heavy in his tone, telling Penny this encounter would not go as smoothly as she wished it would.

"You have eyes, they're called bruises."