I Was Younger Then

I Simply Do Not Like You

"Hold on, say that again," Penny said, looking up from her paper to peer at her twin, who rolled his eyes at her.

"Can you not do that," he said.

"Do what?"

"Pretend to be listening when you're clearly not."

"Sorry, I can't help it after years of Uncle Vernon's long winded rants."

Harry grinned at her while he idly scratched his lightning-bolt scar. Now that Penny was looking at him, really looking at him, she noticed he seemed agitated, or perhaps uncertain, so she set down her quill and gave her twin her full attention. Seemingly satisfied she was mentally present this time, he began again. "Hermione asked if I would teach some defense against the dark arts lessons."
"Hermione? Did she get hit on the head? She realizes that Umbridge would have a hayday if she found out, seeing as she is doing her damndest to ensure we don't learn anything this year."

"Yes, Hermione. She seems to think there are no rules against it, but it'd be in our interest to keep it quiet. Obviously she's completely--"

"Hmm, well if she's sure. Count me in," Penny cut across.

"What?" Harry said, flabbergasted.

"You weren't going to invite me?" Penny replied, her eyes narrowed, Harry knew Penny did not like it when he forgot to include her in his little posse, they'd had many fights about it, the biggest one happening in their first year when Harry had snuck out of the Gryffindor common room with Ron and Hermione and gone through the trap door on the third-floor corridor to protect the sorcerer's stone from Professor Quirrell and ended up facing Voldemort. At no point did any of them consider waking Penny, meaning she was forced to discover what had happened the next morning when she found Harry in the Hospital Wing, which she then thoroughly chewed him out out for in front of a very amused Dumbledore. Since then, invites were a sensitive topic for Penny.

"What can I teach you? You're way better at school work than me!"

Penny gave Harry an 'you-have-to-be-kidding-me look' but he merely folded his arms in resolution.

"You know, sometimes that humility of yours makes you come across really stupid, just sayin'"

Harry kicked her in the shin from beneath the table and said, "I'm being serious, Ron and Hermione acted the same way, I thought you would have understood. . ." he said not finishing his sentence, but Penny didn't need him to, she felt his thoughts as keenly as if they were her own; that sobering reality that existed in Harry as he remembered the times he'd come face-to-face with death, thinking of the sheer dumb luck that was involved in his surviving.

"Of course they don't understand it, and I hope you didn't lose your temper because of it," Penny said in a tone of exasperation.

"They think it's some big joke, like facing that kind of stuff is a game," Harry said, defensively, telling Penny he had lost his temper.

"Because they're 15, and normal 15-year olds don't know what it's actually like! But they understand that, which is why they asked you!"

"I can't teach them what it's like--"

"No you can't, but he's back, Harry, and sooner or later we will all learn. What you can teach them is what you learned, what helped you," Penny said, deciding it was probably better to sound less antagonistic, so she took his hand in hers.

"I don't know, Penny. You'd be great at this, but me?"

"If I can manage not to give myself a complex being the sister of the chosen one, you can accept that even though I have better grades than you, you are much more qualified to teach this. And if you hadn't noticed recently, my wandwork sucks, so it'd be really nice to have an excuse to practice it."