I Was Younger Then

Explain Yourself

"What're you doing here?" Penny asked, looking up into Lupin's eyes, unsure of how she felt yet.

He had not written to her, though there was so doubt in Penny's mind that he knew about her conversation with Sirius. Lupin kept information to himself, on purpose, and his not trying to discuss it with her before now hurt Penny. Every time she'd tried to pen a letter to him, she could not find the words to express what she felt. Him standing before her made it all the more difficult. She still felt the pull, the need to be near him, but she was wary of him and knew he felt it, his eyes somber watching her put unnatural distance between them.

From the corner of her eyes she saw Snape smirk, which angered Penny. What did he have to smirk about? If anything, Penny was a thousand times angrier with Snape than Lupin. It was that blasted man who sent her magic spiraling out of her control, yet again and into this mess. And of course the grownups wanted to talk now . How very inconvenient of them when all Penny was interested in was finding Harry.

"To rectify a very poor decision I made, before you have to suffer anymore for it," Lupin said, pulling a chair out for Penny to take.

"Please sit, Miss Potter," Dumbledore said.

"But sir, I'm covered in dirt. I wouldn't want to cover your chair in filth," Penny said, trying to pat her robes clean.

"I am not worried in the slightest, the man who sold it to me assured me it was dirt and child proof. Needless to say, I think I speak for all of us here when I say, I am very glad to see you before me covered in dirt and branches rather than injured," Dumbledore said pleasantly, but there was a seriousness that hid behind his half-moon spectacles.

"Where did you end up, Penny?" Lupin asked, taking the seat beside her and turning it to face her.

"Somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, Moody found me near the edge, he said someone attacked Krum," Penny answered, glancing at Lupin but being unable to hold his gaze.

"Yes, today seems to be full of the unexpected. You saw no one else in the forest with you?" Dumbledore asked.

"I didn't see any other wizards, but I ran into a centaur, he said his name was Firenze," Penny answered.

She looked at Dumbledore, but did not like holding the Headmaster's gaze for too long. However, avoiding Snape to the right of Dumbledore and Lupin to her own right proved very challenging, so she opted for staring at a spot on his desk.

"How fortunate that it was Firenze that found you and not another," said Dumbledore.

"He said the same thing, among a few other strange things," Penny replied.

"He had words for you, did he?" Dumbledore said, looking toward Lupin.

"He seemed to think so, but they made little sense to me. He said something about not being able to see my 'path,' whatever that is. But apparently, he could see the one my path is connected to, and then he gave me some weird omen about only being able to undo something through death and I have to undo it or succumb to death," Penny said, racking her brain for the exact words Firenze had spoken. It proved much harder than she anticipated.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful as his fingers stroked his long beard.

"The wisdom of the centaurs is nothing like that of ours, so there is no use trying to interpret the meaning of his words." Dumbledore finally said.

Snape did not seem to like Dumbledore's response because he crossed his arms and turned to look out the window, a vein throbbing in his temple. Dumbledore ignored the gesture, blue eyes fixed on Penny.