Breaking Protocol {Percy Weasley}

Chapter Fifty-Four

Heartache, Clara thought, was like a werewolf eating viciously at her chest, tearing it's way to her trembling heart. It threatened to devour her, eat her whole and leave nothing but scraps behind. She sighed, breaking off into a full blown sprint across the Hogwarts grounds. She refused to be the scraps left behind. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she let a boy tear apart her heart singlehandedly with his bare hands more than once.

Clara's trainers squeaked against the green grass damped with morning dew as she pushed herself to run faster, and faster. She pushed herself with every thought about Percy and Penny that penetrated her mind. Exams were literally eight days away, yet they were the last thing on her mind.

She just couldn't wrap her mind around the situation Penny found herself trapped in. Clara hadn't cried once last night. She couldn't. How could she? She barely understood what Penny's pregnancy meant. Did that mean Percy and Clara's relationship was over? Was it really Percy's baby?

Clara shook her head.

She had to stop trying to find excuses for Percy. Of course it was Percy's baby. Erika said so, but then again Clara figured she should probably confront Percy about the situation. He ought to know that he had impregnated a fellow student.

Clara hissed a sharp breath through her tight lips.

How could Percy do this? Not just to Clara, but to Penny. Clara couldn't even begin to understand what kind of pain Penny was going through. Seven months pregnant just before exams. Not only that, but Penny is a sixth year. She still had one more year left of Hogwarts before she could graduate. Before she could find a job, buy her own place, meet a nice gentleman, fall in love, get married, buy a home together, and start a family on her own time.

But instead, Penny was shoved into parenthood unprepared. Not only that, but the father of her baby didn't want anything to do with her.

But why should he? Percy made a mistake. He clearly didn't love Penny anymore, but she kept trying to get back with him. Clara loved Penny, but a small voice in her head cursed the girl. Cursed her for not backing off, cursed her for getting pregnant. It takes two. Clara knows Percy didn't want this, but what if this was Penny's plan all along? What if she made a mistake with someone else but decided to claim it as Percy's?

Clara shook her head. She needed to stop thinking about this. She was going to drive herself mad if she continued with these thoughts. Her boyfriend, a man she was madly in love with, was now going to have a child with another woman. Clara wasn't going to be his first anymore. She wasn't going to be the girl that he settled down with, the girl he loved for the rest of his life. The girl that stood before him in a beautiful white dress with a radiant smiling, taking his last name. Clara wasn't going to be the girl he searched for a cute little home with. She wasn't going to be the girl to carry his first child, feel the little feet of her baby pressing against her belly. She wouldn't be the girl that Percy greets every day when he comes home from work, not the girl that Percy knelt down before and kissed her growing belly.

Clara was just so confused. She wanted to be okay with this. After all, this happened seven months ago, Percy and Clara have made up since then. Percy and Clara were in love again, but it was all too good to be true. Clara just couldn't deal with this, she didn't want to deal with this. Yes, she loved Percy, but she also loved her mother and look what happened when she had a baby. Percy is going to get swept up in Penny and his baby. Percy will have to support her, support his child. He'll have to be involved in that child's life, Clara knew he wouldn't just abandon his kid. But Penny and Percy will forevermore have a bond that Clara and Percy may never have. She's the mother of his child, she was his first love, his first everything. It would only be a matter of time before they get back together. It was only a matter of time before Percy left Clara like her mother did.