I Was Younger Then

The Potters Are So Strange

Penny found Harry asleep in the common room, his glasses sliding off his nose. Grabbing a blanket, she crawled onto the couch with him, squirming her way next to him. He stirred behind her, his face pressing into her hair.

"You have some explaining to do," he murmured into it.

"Are you terribly angry with me," Penny replied, quietly.

"I was worried and Snape refused to tell me anything," said Harry, wrapping his arm around her so they fit better on the couch together.

"Of course he did," Penny said with an eye roll, " it's been a strange two days, Harry, but I don't even know how or where to begin."

"A common excuse of yours lately. Just start, you'll find it gets easier, it's not good to keep it inside and expect to deal with it all yourself. We've always told each other everything, stop shutting me out," Harry said, running his fingers through her matted hair.

"I know you're right, I just don't know why it's felt so hard lately."

"I hate to say it, but you've never been abnormal, Penny. You could always explain and understand everything about yourself, even in the magical world. You've spent all your time using your normality to ignore my abnormality. Truth be told, when we found the wizarding world, it was. . .weird. I didn't know what to think of myself. You helped me figure it out, but now I need you to believe it's okay to be the one who needs help. I promise I can handle it."

"Does this mean you'll do my charms homework for me too?" Penny grinned.

"Stop deflecting," Harry said, and instead of prodding her in her back as she expected, he prodded her mind with his own.

It was something Penny had been missing without realizing it. In her avoidance of Harry, she'd been trying to keep her mental space to herself, afraid of what Harry would see, afraid of how he'd react. But it was a foolish fear, her twin was not like Snape, and he would not abandon her no matter what she was hiding in the recesses of her brain.

"I'm sorry for shutting you out," Penny said, taking a hold of his hand and pulling it close to her chest.

Closing her eyes, she opened the little door that existed in the back of her mind that connected her to Harry's own. His presence was very different from Tom's, who felt like an intruder. No, Harry walked through gently, his every step inward soothing Penny's fears. He was able to move through her thoughts and memories as if he were a part of them, the two of them exchanging every event and thought that they'd experienced in the last two months without opening their mouths. Harry's mind was so unlike Snape's, which she had a hard time interpreting. Harry's was as familiar as her own, his every thought processes laid out for her. His current thoughts and concerns were centered around the events of the evening, why Barty Crouch had arrived on the grounds seemingly not all there and in desperate need to see Dumbledore. Bizarrely, when Harry had gone to retrieve Dumbledore, Crouch had disappeared and someone knocked Krum unconscious.

Between everything going on and his hurting scar, Harry was convinced Voldemort connected somewhere into it all, but he could not pinpoint where, nor could Penny, who really did not want to believe Voldemort was anywhere near coming back. Penny and Harry both knew the first thing he would do upon his return would be to find Harry, and that thought frightened Penny more than anything else.

Harry expressed his bewilderment at the events that had taken place, but pulled Penny in closer, chuckling at the image of Snape almost busting her with weed. The two of them fell asleep like this, their dreams intermingling with the others'. Until a group of giggling girls woke them the next morning, whispering about how 'strange the Potters are'. Penny fully expected weird speculations about their relationship to make its rounds through the castle. After growing up in a cupboard under the stairs with their aunt and uncle, Harry being the only human who made life bearable, she did not care if her and Harry's comfort with sleeping next to each was weird to anyone else.