Penelope Jace was Professor Dumbledores gravest mistake. A little girl, like so many others, dreaming of her Hogwarts letters. However, unlike other witches, hers never came. And her magic, buried deep through years of suppression, had nowhere to go...
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Penelope clutched the glass jar in both hands. Her shadows danced around a few feet from her, attached by threads of darkness to her ankles. Fireworks popped off of the sides of the jar, real evidence that she had magic within her aside from the darkness that always followed in her wake.
"Well, well, fancy finding you here." A voice sang from behind her and she jumped as though she'd been caught doing something illegal. Her shadows snapped back into her body, the chill making her jolt and the jar fell from her hand-- only to be caught in his.
Fred Weasley smiled warmly at her, tossing the jar from one hand to another. The sparkles rocketed around uncontrollably under his touch. It wasn't an effort to him to express that level of magic. Penny found herself envious of how easily he used magic.
"Do you often sneak around in your pajamas?" she wondered, walking him intently as he flopped onto the grass beside her. He was so calm and collected in her presence that it couldn't help but entirely disturb her. Never in her entire existence had anybody been so casual beside her. At least, not since--
His calm was perplexing for a number of reasons. 1) He was without his twin brother who always seemed glued to his side. 2) He barely knew her and 3) he couldn't be oblivious to the shadows living in her skin.
Fred leaned back, tossing an arm lazily behind his head as a pillow. As with a few days prior, they were beside the Lake early in the morning. She had no answer for why he was also there but he didn't seem inclined to tell her.
The morning was the only opportunity Penelope ever found to sneak away from Igor. He had been intently training Viktor since his name was pulled, seeming more convinced than ever that they had to win against all odds. Unfortunately, that meant that Penelope spent endless hours standing, bored. Her evenings had been filled with Dumbledore. He always managed to seek her out uninvited. Over the few days, he'd recited all the information he knew about the obscuras to her. It happened to be all the same information that she'd already known.
"I only sneak around when George is with Angelina Johnson," he yawned. "Did you know, we were so insufferable to live with that we were given our own dorm room in second year? Perks for George with his midnight escapades. Less beneficial to me. Luckily, I don't need much beauty sleep." He opened his eyes just to wink at her. He seemed completely unphased at sharing his brothers secrets.
"So you just wander around instead?"
"I make my own fun," Fred smiled, running his fingers through his hair and turning to face her, leaning up on one elbow to study her. Suddenly, she felt inexplicably shy. Inwardly, she knew he must've spoken to everyone in that same flirty manner. And he was (no-doubt) only talking to her now because he was bored with nothing else to do. Still, she felt like a flustered teenager under those scanning eyes. "Now it is your turn to explain why you're always out here at the crack of dawn." He plucked a blade of grass, twirling it between his thumb and forefinger and Penny found herself oddly transfixed by it.
