𝗕𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗔𝗟

ACT ONE, CHAPTER EIGHT
slytherin represent.

PENELOPE WISHED SHE had a photograph of Draco Malfoy's face the second Ron Weasley came up to her in the corridor.

She was walking to dinner with him — she would've gone with Daphne, Tracey, Millicent, and Pansy, but they were honestly taking too long and she was hungry. And, of course, Draco had found her leaving the common room and decided to follow her, apparently getting impatient on waiting for Crabbe and Goyle, or maybe Theodore and Blaise — whatever. Penelope didn't really care.

"You know, Draco, one of these days I should take you to go see a Muggle movie," Penelope revealed as they climbed the steps to the entrance hall from the dungeons. "Aunt Andromeda took me a couple years ago to go see one called Beauty and the Beast. They're quite fascinating."

Draco's lip curled. "A Muggle movie? Merlin, Nel, you can't be serious."

"Don't knock it till you try it," Penelope told him. She groaned once she noticed the disbelieving look on his face. "Come on, Draco. Get out of your Manor once in a while and, I don't know, get some sunshine. Your skin makes you look like a fucking ghost."

"Look who's talking."

"I, unlike you, get tan in the summer. You, unlike me, stay in your cold, cold house all day staring at the wall."

"You don't know what I do in the summer."

"Um, yes I do. I visited once, and all we did was sit there in absolute silence."

"Penelope," a familiar voice suddenly called once they were in the entrance hall.

The girl stopped in her tracks and turned around, just smiling at the presence of Ron. He smiled back at her, making her heart beat against her chest. Penelope quickly looked over to Draco and almost laughed. His jaw was dropped, like he couldn't believe Ron had said her first name.

Ron glanced at Draco for a moment before looking back to Penelope. "Uh, can I talk to you for a moment."

"Sure," Penelope agreed.

Draco blinked at her. "Penelope—"

"Go, Draco. Save me a seat or something — maybe not one next to Theo, though. If the girls are there, tell them I'll just be a minute." Draco just continued to stare at her incredulously. "Did I stutter or something?"

Draco shook his head. He glared at Ron — Ron glaring back at him — before he went into the Great Hall. Penelope watched after him for a moment before walking closer to Ron. The tips of his ears turned a little pink, and she smiled at it.

"What's up?" Penelope questioned.

"Harry found a place to practice," Ron told her. "You know, Defense. Our first meeting is tonight."

She nodded. "Okay, wicked. Where's it at?"

"Seventh floor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by trolls."

"Quite the trek from the dungeons," Penelope commented. She shrugged. "Eh, I'll make it."

"Yeah, sorry," Ron responded sheepishly. "Hopefully sneaking out of the Slytherin common room won't present you with too many problems."

Penelope raised an eyebrow. "I'll just say I'm going to the kitchens or something." She glanced back to see Blaise and Theodore walking into the Great Hall before turning back to Ron. "I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah," Ron confirmed. "See you later."

He waved at her a little bit before she walked off. Penelope entered the Great Hall, her expression bright. She was excited about tonight. Ignoring the glances she was getting from Draco, she sat at the Slytherin table next to Blaise and began to pile some potatoes onto her plate.

"What was that all about?" Draco demanded once he realized she wasn't going to give him what he wanted. "Talking with Weasley?"

"He was just asking me something about homework," Penelope lied, but it sounded casual and natural. "Got a problem with that?"

"Can't he ask Granger or something?"

"Drop it, Draco. It doesn't matter."

"But—"

"Drop it."

The rest of Penelope's dinner — even when her friends arrived — was pretty silent. She went back down to the common room, not even bothering to make her way up to the dormitory, to wait for the time when she would leave. Finally, at about seven-thirty, she told her friends she was making a trip quick to the kitchens to get walk outside for fresh air instead of being cooped up in the dungeons underneath the Black Lake. They didn't look fully convinced, but they didn't follow her as she left.

She glanced behind her, watching as the door concealed itself back into the stone wall. Penelope let out a deep breath and began to climb the steps.

"Penelope," a voice suddenly whispered.

She whirled around, her eyes wide, until she noticed it was only Charlotte Thomas standing there, apparently just getting out of the common room as well. "Oh, hey, Thomas. What's up?"

Thomas shrugged. "Saw you leaving, and thought I could join . . . you know, we're going to the same place . . . unless you want to be alone—"

"No, no, it's fine," Penelope reassured her. "We've got a long way until the seventh floor. Come on."

Together, the two walked up the floors of Hogwarts in a semi-comfortable silence. A little awkward since some of Penelope's friends truly believed Thomas didn't belong in Slytherin due to her being a Muggle-born, but Penelope hoped Thomas didn't think she was one of those people, too. In Penelope's eyes, Thomas highlighted all of the Slytherin values. It was kind of a big fuck you to the prejudiced bitches when the Sorting Hat announced she was in the house of the snake.

Despite the fact that fifth years were allowed to be out until nine o'clock, Penelope and Thomas continued to keep an eye out for Umbridge specifically. Finally, just as Ron had instructed, they reached the seventh floor with the blank stretch of wall opposite to an enormous tapestry depicting Barbara's the Barmy being clubbed by trolls after trying to teach them ballet. However, as they stood in front of it, a highly polished door in the wall faded into existence. Penelope stared up at it.

"You all right?" Thomas suddenly questioned. "You're looking a little . . . anxious, dare I say."

"I don't get anxious," Penelope lied smoothly, keeping that cool and collected Slytherin mask over her face.

Thomas raised an eyebrow. "That Slytherin glare is not going to fool me. We're in the same House."

She crossed her arms across her chest. "I just . . . I don't want them to think that I'm coming here to learn spells so I can eventually use them on the Death Eater side."

"Nobody thinks that, Penelope."

Penelope scoffed. "Zacharias Smith sure does."

"That's because he's a dumbass," Thomas responded, making Penelope slightly chuckle. "No, but seriously. If anybody gives you a problem, just send them my way." She nudged Penelope with her elbow. "Us Slytherins have to stick together, right?"

"Thanks . . . Charlotte," Penelope told her.

Charlotte winked at her. "Call me Charlie. Now, come on. We have a lesson to attend to."

She pushed open the door and entered the room. Already there were Harry, Venus Black, Ron, Hermione (who was reading), Ginny, Longbottom, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Elijah Rogers, and Dean Thomas. Penelope looked around the room as she wandered in. It was pretty spacious and was illuminated by flickering torches, just like the dungeons. Large wooden bookcases filled with books about Defense Against the Dark Arts lined the walls. Large silk cushions were scattered across the floor in place of chairs. A set of shelves at the far end of the room held instruments used to detect Dark wizards.

"You made it," Ron stated, interrupting her look at the room. "Uh . . . cool."

Penelope nodded. "This place is impressive. How'd Harry find it."

"Dobby."

She blinked. "Dobby?"

"Yeah. Apparently he came to Venus and Harry in the Gryffindor common room last night and told them about this room. It's, um . . . kind of weird."

"Interesting," Penelope commented.

She took her wand out of the waistband of her skirt and began to twirl it between her fingers, seemingly not noticing the way Ron swallowed nervously as she did so. Penelope stayed by his side the rest of the time until eight o'clock, when basically every cushion in the room was occupied. Harry crossed the room to the door and turned the key that was portending from the lock. I t clicked in a satisfyingly loud way, which made everyone fall silent and look at him. Hermione carefully marked her page in the boom she was reading and set the book to the side of her.

"Well," Harry began, nerves evident in his voice. "This is the place we've found for practices, and you've — er — obviously found it okay—"

"It's fantastic!" Chang exclaimed, several people murmuring in agreement.

"It's bizarre," Fred admitted, a frown on his face as he stared around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then . . ."

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" Thomas questioned from the rear side of the room.

"Dark Detectors," Harry explained, navigating his way around the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled . . ." He turned back around to face the group. "Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and — er — what, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," Hermione voiced, her hand raised.

"Harry," Black said at once, and Penelope smirked at both the way Chang was kind of disheartened by it and how Harry and Black were sharing smiles. "Obviously."

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," Hermione continued. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So — everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Penelope raised her hand. Everyone else did as well, even Smith, who was a little hesitant about it.

"Er — right, thanks," Harry replied. "And — what, Hermione?"

Hermione's hand was still in the air. "I also think we ought to have a name. It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" Johnson hopefully suggested.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" Fred added.

Penelope pointed at him in agreement. "Good one."

"Thanks, Lestrange."

Hermione frowned in between them, but Penelope pretended not to notice. "I was thinking more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" Chang offered. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," Ginny agreed. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

"All in favor of the D.A.?" Hermione bossily inquired, kneeling up on her cushion to count the hands — Penelope's hand was raised, even though she liked Fred's name better. "That's a majority — motion passed!"

Hermione pulled the piece of parchment with all their signatures on it out of her bag and walked to the wall. She pinned it onto the wall, and in large letters, she wrote DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY across the top of it.

"Right, shall we get practicing then?" Harry stated once Hermione had settled back on her cushion. "I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful—"

"Oh please," Smith interrupted, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"Didn't I say that I had enough of your bullshit for the rest of my life?" Penelope muttered, though it was still very audible to the group. "Still holds up."

Ron laughed next to her, quickly covering his mouth to hide it. Penelope grinned at the sound and looked away from him, butterflies fluttering throughout her stomach.

"I've used it against him," Harry quietly revealed, making Penelope's eyes widen — fucking hell, she didn't know that. "It saved my life last June." While the rest of the room was very quiet, Smith kept opening his mouth stupidly like he wanted to say something but couldn't. "But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave." Nobody moved. "Okay. I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

Penelope and Ron immediately looked at each other, like they were already expecting to be each other's partners. Ron gave her a shy smile with his cheeks turning pink — which made Penelope grin back at him — before they got up and made their way to a part of the room that was big enough for practice. Meanwhile, Charlotte was paired up with Neville, Rogers was paired up with Hermione, and Black was paired up with Harry.

"Don't worry," Ron told her quietly before leaving her side. "I'll go easy on you."

Penelope raised an eyebrow. "Oh, no way. I'm a big girl, I can handle myself." She smirked at the way his cheeks turned even redder. "Hit me with your best shot, Weasley."

"Right — on the count of three, then — one, two, three—" Harry instructed.

"Expelliarmus!" Penelope shouted before Ron could even blink.

A red jet of light flew from her wand. It hit Ron's hand, and instantly, his wand went flying into hers. Her smirk only widened at the shocked expression on his face.

"Told you," Penelope voiced, tossing his wand back to him.

It went on like that the rest of their time there. Penelope kept disarming Ron multiple times in a row. She knew that all Ron had to do was really focus, but she didn't tell him that because she enjoyed the way he was shocked every time his wand flew out of his hand. Ron actually managed to get her a couple times — although one of those times he tripped over his feet and knocked her wand out of her hand physically. Penelope couldn't help the small smile on her face at all times. She was having a lot of fun, especially with Ron.

Don't tell anyone she said that.

"You're doing well, Penelope," Harry said when he walked past them, the general performance of the room increasing as time went on. "And Ron . . . there's room for improvement, mate."

"How are you so bloody good at this?" Ron complained to Penelope. "I don't get it."

"I kind of always had a knack for Defense," Penelope admitted with a shrug. "Not sure why. That and Charms . . . anyways—"

"Hey, Harry, have you checked the time?" Hermione suddenly questioned.

Harry looked down at his watch and blew the whistle he had found to gather their attention — making everyone stop shouting Expelliarmus and wands clatter to the floor. "Well, that was pretty good, but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!" Thomas eagerly urged, many others nodding in agreement.

"The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!" Angelina Johnson insisted.

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then, and we can decide on additional meetings then . . ." Harry announced. "Come on, we'd better get going . . ."

Harry pulled out this large piece of parchment. Penelope apparently looked confused, but Ron quietly explained to her that it was the Marauder's Map — a map created by James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin — that could tell where anyone was in the castle. Harry was allowing them to leave in groups of three and four — the Hufflepuffs to the basement corridor by the kitchens, the Ravenclaws to their tower on the west side of the castle, the Gryffindors along the corridor to the seventh floor where the Fat Lady's portrait was, and finally, the only two Slytherins — Penelope and Charlotte — to the dungeons.

"Penelope," Charlotte called, making her look over. "You ready?"

"Hold on a sec, Charlie," Penelope replied. She turned back to Ron, knowing that him, Harry, Hermione, and Black would be the last group to leave. "Gryffindor's playing Slytherin soon, right?"

Ron's face turned a little pale. "Oh, um, yeah."

She smiled at him and reached over, squeezing his shoulder — making tingles flow throughout her body. "Good luck."

And with a wide grin, a racing heart, and a butterfly-filled stomach, she left a very good Defense lesson behind and headed back down to the dungeons.

☆ 彡

no thoughts head empty just joshua bassett's version of bet on it playing on a loop

the way I finished this chapter . . . this morning. GOODBYE

anyways me and my friends watched three and a half harry potter movies yesterday and we're watching the rest today YEEHAW pls pray for us