I Was Younger Then

You're Too Young

Life moved quickly, too quickly in January. Due to the nature of drowning in her homework and extra coursework, Penny did not notice, as life became naturally busy again. It was odd how she recovered herself and returned to normal life. Though, her and Snape definitely were not on normal terms. Since their weird moment in the potions classroom when he stormed out, he'd been distant and brisk with her.

Both he and Penny were being uncharacteristically restrained during their Friday lessons where Snape endeavored to lecture to her the importance of controlling one's emotions, delving into the theories of Legilimency and Occlumency. What was conveniently absent was any real information on what expression was capable of and how emotions related to living with it, along with any practical testing of the connection between the two regarding her outbursts.

Snape seemed especially reluctant to broach said topics and dodged all of Penny's questions, leaving her frustrated and feeling liks she was wasting her Friday nights. She'd much prefer to spend her time catching up with homework, or napping. But she made no remarks, determining to find information herself, seeing as everyone felt the need to use a lot of words to tell her absolutely nothing. It gave her the inkling suspicion that they were hiding something from her, and if anything motivated Penny it was a good mystery, she was after-all, Harry's twin.

On the topic of Harry, he'd finally admitted that he lied about the progress he'd suggested he'd made with the mysterious egg. It should not have been a shock to Penny, but she kicked herself for not realizing her twin was hiding something from her sooner. Not knowing what he would be facing was a horrible prospect that Penny dedicated most of her time to, resulting in her falling behind in her homework. So she started pulling all nighters to catch up and was looking like a walking zombie. But in comparison to Harry getting hurt during the task, lack of sleep was a small price to pay.

Unfortunately, her Professors took notice of Penny's uncharacteristic drowsiness. Professor McGonagall even pulled her aside to speak with her on the topic. While she did not directly broach the topic of Harry, she insinuated realizing Penny was worried about her twin and offered her an extension on her essay on how environments impact transfiguration. Penny was unsettled but grateful, and woefully unprepared for McGonagall to take on an oddly maternal tone in lieu of her normal harsh one to tell Penny she was proud of her and continually impressed with how hard she worked. The conversation made Penny feel the same swell in her chest Lupin normally caused.

After weeks of struggling to no avail to decipher the egg, Harry finally caved and confessed that Cedric had suggested to him he should take the egg with him for a bath, saying he owed Harry one after the first task. Penny tried to pretend to be unperturbed by the mention of Cedric, whom she had not spoken to in almost a month. (Apparently her invitation to honesty wasn't appealing to him.) Burying her scowl, Penny turned her fury on Harry who agreed to try Cedric's advice soon. Satisfied they might actually make progress, Penny let it go and focused her energy on eating. Remedial lessons with the nuisance, Mad-Eye Moody was in ten minutes and Penny needed to be on her game to deal with the man and his unorthodox methods for teaching.

Needless to say, the lesson was not going well half-way in, with Penny struggling to get her wand to produce a stunning spell, and as a result was knocked backward on the floor by Moody's own spell. Laying on her back, her body aching, Penny seriously considered the legality of a professor forcing a student to endure their attacks. But seeing as the DADA position was cursed and Dumbledore had such a hard time finding a willing professor this year, she suspected he was turning a blind eye to such questionable practices.

"That was lazy Potter, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you thought this was a waste of time," Moony growled, fixing her with his magical eye.

"I mean, you're not wrong, what's the point of all this?" Penny snapped, getting up and dusting herself off.