I Was Younger Then

The Tale of the Three Brothers

**the portion of the tale of the three brothers IS NOT MINE it comes straight from JKR and the books!

*****

By some miracle, Penny remained under the radar of Professor Umbridge, who seemed to be ignoring Penny for some reason. It made her wonder if something had transpired while she'd been away, but she could not complain, though she felt the beady eyes watching her whenever she was in class, and Umbridge often made a point of calling on Penny to answer questions, yet she did not approach Penny outside of classes.

The only person harassing Penny outside of classes was Angelina Johnson, who spent all of her waking hours making arguments for why Penny needed to join the Gryffindor quidditch team now that Harry, Fred and George had lifetime bans. More out of loyalty to her twin than any conviction not to play, Penny repeatedly refused. Harry tried, half heartedly, to convince her to join but Penny knew he was happy she refused, even though he tried to hide it from her. Penny knew how miserable Harry was without quidditch, and she could not watch him enduring that while being a part of the team. So, in solidarity with her twin she resisted the demands, and Ginny joined the team instead.

"Thank god it's just you and not your girlfriend too," George said when Penny entered the room of requirement and found them hard at work.

"That's a bit rude, she is your sister," Penny pointed out.

"Precisely why we can't stand another moment of your snogging."

"You two really need to find somewhere else for that," Fred interjected, looking up from what he was doing.

"What's that?" Penny said, reaching for the orange and purple sweet Fred was admiring.

"A Nosebleed Nougat," he grinned.

"Another Skiving Snackbox?" said Penny with half a grin and a shake of her head.

"Finally perfected it, you can have it for free—if you swear to stop kissing Ginny when we're around," said George.

With a roll of the eyes, she pocketed the sweet before plopping into a chair. The day had been long, classes, just as everyone had warned Penny, were absurdly demanding this year. She'd managed to write three essays, but still had not made it through her pile of homework due by Friday and she wondered where she would find the time. She was already going to sleep later than usual, perhaps she would ask for Hermione's help on the essay for Umbridge, Penny really had no talent or interest in Defense Against the Dark Arts, though her bland, by the book essays had earned her O's in all her work. Umbridge would be the type of professor to like uncreative and uncritical pieces of work.

"Speaking of siblings and their annoying dating choices," Fred said, shooting a look at George. "I think we need to reconsider the proposal about Cho Chang."

"What are you not telling me?" Penny said, her eyes narrowing on the twins who looked to be shifting uneasily.

" We have only ever looked out for our third," George said, feigning indignation.

"Your accusations wound us," Fred said, leaning back in his chair and teetering back and forth, "It's your brother whom you should be accusing!"

"Harry? What does this have to do with Harry?" Penny said, flabbergasted.

"She hasn't heard," "She really hasn't heard," they said consecutively.

"Heard what. . ." Penny said, not liking where this conversation was going.

"He's 15, you can't blame him," Fred reasoned, as though it might lessen the blow that was coming.

"An older woman, who can resist!" added George.