PENNY
Penny’s mission was easy yet very difficult.
Few days before, their father had come home telling them that Harry had received a warning from the Ministry because he had used magic in front of his muggles. And in that moment Ron snapped finally telling Fred and George that it was time to go and take Harry and bring him at the Barrow. Of course, their older brothers hadn’t thought twice about that, immediately starting to tell them what was their perfect plan; the two of them and Ron would have left in the middle of the night, while everyone was asleep to take their father’s car and fly to Surrey, take Harry and get back. Penny’s job would have started in the morning; she had to take their mother away from their rooms so that she wouldn’t know that they had gone.
“You’re perfect for the job Squirrel” said Fred as they finished to tell them their plan
“Oh wow” she said “Really?”
“Sure” exclaimed George “she could never get mad at you” but that made her frown a little.
“I’m not entirely sure about it, but alright”
Ron was getting more anxious by the minute; he was really worried about Harry and Penny felt it too. Even because it was really strange that he had used magic in front of his muggle family. why would he do that?
That night Penny hadn’t been able to close her eyes. As Ron had left, she had watched them starting the car and fly away and after that it was impossible to sleep. It wasn’t because she was worried, her brothers were amazing, what worried her most was what she had to do in the morning. Molly Weasley wasn’t easy to fool, and she always knew when something was up with her children and Penny didn’t find herself a great liar. With her father it would have been easier, probably he would have even liked their idea.
As the first sun rays started to shown up Penny’s heart started to beat faster and faster.
“Oh wow” she muttered as she heard her mother beginning her usual choirs.
“Normal” Penny muttered to herself “I have to act normal. Normal” then she frowned “what do I normally do?”
The girl turned towards her bedside table, to see her harmonica. Right! She usually went out to play. She got up and put on her Occamy shaped slippers and Bill’s nightie and careful not to trip over it, since it was very big.
Penny tried to be as quite as possible as she walked down the stairs. Usually, she was the first to wake up, so if she had to act ‘normal’ she should be outside, playing her harmonica.
When she arrived at the end of the stairs, she tried to look around the corner to spot her mother, so to not get noticed. When she saw that the way was clear she tiptoed towards the exit, gasping when she heard their cat meowing to her.
“Shush” she whispered “I’ve got no time; I have to act normal.”
“Penny” her mother’s voice made her gasp as she quickly looked up to see Molly Waesley stepping down the last step of the stairs. Her mother seemed a very sweet woman; curly red hair, bright eyes and a lovely cubby figure, but she was anything but sweet when her children got in trouble. In fact, she was the one they were all scared to make angry. With their father, Arthur Weasley, it was easier to get out of trouble, but not with Mrs Weasley.
“Good morning, sweety” she said as Penny felt her lips turn up in a giant, and probably not ‘normal’ smile.
“Mommy!” she exclaimed, maybe far too high-pitched, because her mother frowned at her. Penny rarely got angry with her brothers, but that morning they were making it difficult for her. The girl almost gasped when she saw her mother walking towards her; the frown didn’t leave her face.
“You didn’t sleep again, Penny?” her mother asked touching her forehead delicately with her fingers “Are you feeling well?”
“I’m ok, mommy” Penny tried to reassure her, nodding her head even if the worried expression on her mother face was still there.
“I was about to go out a bit” Penny said again. Her mother smiled at her, putting a strand of hair behind the girl’s ear.
“I have to go out too” Molly said “I need to give some water in the vegetable garden.”
Penny smiled brightly “I can help you with that” her mother looked almost proudly at her, before looking at Penny’s feet.
“Remember though” she warned “Slippers inside the house”
“Oh wow, sure” Penny said ready to take off her slippers, but she suddenly felt herself getting pale when, as her mother opened the door of the house, Penny noticed that the empty spot of the car was right in front of them, so before her mother could look outside, Penny let out a gasp grabbing her mother forearm to pull her into her direction.
“Mommy!”
“What is it?” exclaimed Molly looking at her daughter with eyes wide with surprise. “I’m a bit hungry” Penny said trying to sound as innocent as possible.
“And you had to scream like that?” her mother argued “You’ve scared me”
The only thing Penny could do was let out a little, unsure giggle that made her mother scoff.
“I’m really hungry, mommy.”
“Can’t you wait a bit?” Molly asked, the frown again appearing on her face and Penny tried her best to seem sweet, innocent and normal as she shook her head. Molly observed her for a moment, before took a breath.
“Alright then” she said “I’ll start cooking something, but we’ll wait for the others to get up, like we always do”
“Of course, of course” said Penny starting to follow her mother to the kitchen, but once again her breath got caught in her throat as she noticed the clock. In the Barrow, there was an enchanted clock that didn’t show hours though. Its hands where eight and on each one of them there was the moving picture of one of the Weasley children and their locations; for example, Bill’s and Charlie’s were set on work, Ginny’s, Percy’s and Penny’s were set on home and Fred’s, George’s and Ronnie’s were sent on unknown.
“Oh wow” Penny said before running to her mother taking a pan before she could have any chance on turn on the direction of the clock, making her mother gasp.
“You are right” Penny said “I should wait” but Molly’s frown got back.
“What’s gotten into you this morning?” she asked, making Penny force a smile as she shrugged her shoulders “You’re acting all kind of bizarre.”
Probably her brothers’ plan of her acting normal wasn’t going as it should. She was trying so hard, but she had never lied to her mother, even if she had made her angry before. And Molly Weasley angry was a very frightening sight. So frightening that Penny was sure that she would have scared even Dumbledore. Or even Godric Gryffindor himself.
“Where’s Ron?” at her mother’s question, Penny felt her eyes getting wide.
“Asleep?” answered the girl, hoping that she seemed sure of what she was saying.
“Lately he is always with you” Molly said.
It was true, since Penny had started to get trouble sleeping Ronnie always made sure that she was ok. So, he woke up early and sit with her until the others got up.
“Oh, wow” Penny said “Then it’s a good thing he is sleeping again.” Molly’s eyes studied her, slowly and painfully. She knew something was wrong. She knew and Penny had no idea how to stop her.
“What is it, Penny?”
Penny’s mouth was dry and the only thing she could do was shrugging her shoulders. But that didn’t stop her mother’s suspiciousness.
“I’m going to wake Ron up” Molly’s said starting to walk towards the stairs.
“But mommy” Penny said running to surpass her and put herself before her mother, to not let her go upstairs “Ronnie is finally sleeping a bit more”
“We have choirs to do anyway” her mother stated glaring at her “Let me through”
Penny was about to say something, but suddenly a loud sound of crashing shards made them turn. The cat had pushed on the ground one of the jars that were set on the window and it was looking at them innocently waving his tail as Penny became pale, since the window faced perfectly the empty space of her father’s car.
Penny's heart was beating so fast, she was sure her mother could hear it. There was no way Molly Weasley hadn’t noticed at that point.
“Penelope Weasley” her mother’s voice made her freeze, of course, her tone was anything but good.
“Mommy” she said with a forced smile, but her mother just glared at her and when she put her hands on her hips, Penny knew that nothing would have made Molly Weasley think that she was behaving normally.
“Where is the car?” her mother asked and Penny widened her eyes. What could she do? What was she supposed to do?
“Oh wow” she said “The car is gone?”
It was the only thing that came up to her mind.
She tried to sound as surprised as possible, but her she almost shivered when she saw her mother clench her jaw.
“Oh dear” Penny whispered.
“Fred! George!” her mother started to yell loudly “Ron! Get down, now!”
They were doomed, they were all doomed. Penny could only set down on the red sofa as Molly run up the stairs, keep yelling her children names. The cat jumped next to her starting to nuzzling its head against Penny’s arm.
“Oh wow, really?” she said with a little glare “First you report us, then you want cuddles?”
As she listened to her mother’s steps to come downstairs, Penny braced herself to the screams, angry glare and terrible ideas to ground them. They were so doomed.
“You are unbelievable, honestly” Molly Weasley exclaimed angrily marching towards her daughter “What part of wait, you all don’t understand?!”
As Harry didn’t answer back at another letter Ron had panicked and they talked with their parents, but what they said didn’t help uplifting their spit. They just told them to wait. But that didn’t mean anything. What did they had to wait?
“But mummy” Penny said “We were worried about Harry.”
“So you plot on stealing the car?!” her mother yelled once again “Fly to Surrey in the middle of the night? Risking your lives, when your father and I could have handled it?!” Penny beat her big blue eyes as she stared at her mother.
“You wanted to handle it?” Penny asked surprised. Molly glared at her.
“Well, of course!” she exclaimed “We are worried too!”
“Oh, wow” Penny said “It could have been a good plan actually, if only we all had spoken clearly about it.”
“Are you serious right now, Penny?” Penny was totally serious, even if she didn’t quite understand why her mother was looking at her with murderous eyes, and probably intentions. But they both got distracted by the roaring sound of the car approaching the house.
“Oh they are so grounded” Molly said before turning to Penny “You are grounded, every single one of you is grounded until you’re seventeen!” and before Penny could say anything her mother stormed out of the house to scold her sons. The girl glared once again at the cat, before stroking his head anyway and made her way towards the door. When she glanced outside, she saw her mother already screaming at her siblings, but Penny couldn’t help but smile when she noticed Harry Potter standing next to Ron. They did it and he seemed alright; she couldn’t wait to learn what had been going on with him.
As Penny made her way towards the boys, she heard every step clearer what her mother was saying.
“You wait until your father gets home” she said threatening “We never had trouble like this from Bill, Charlie or Percy...”
“Perfect Percy” said Fred and that made their mother walk towards him, pocking his chest.
“You could do with taking a leaf out of Percy’s book!” she yelled before keep saying that they could have died, could have been seen and could have lost their father his job. As she yelled Penny moved closer, waving at Harry when he noticed her. Suddenly Molly turned towards the boy, that made a step back, but Penny’s mother’s voice become sweet.
“I’m very pleased to see you, Harry, dear” she said “Come in and have some breakfast.” then she turned to get back in the house, glaring at Penny once again. The girl observed her mother walk away before going to Harry, to hug him. The boy seemed took by surprised and he didn’t even have the chance to react because she started to talk.
“We were so worried, Harry” she said before turning towards her siblings “How was the fly?”
“It was fine, squirrel” Fred said.
“But you were supposed to keep mum busy while we were out, Penny” Ron exclaimed putting his hands on his hips.
“I’ve tried Ronnie” she argued back “I did!”
“Let’s go eat” said George “Before the general comes out once again.”
They all went in the kitchen to eat breakfast as their mother chattered around and every once in a while, she scolded her children, or reassured Harry that she didn’t blame him and that she was very happy to have him there. After a bit even Ginny arrived, blushing a little when she noticed Harry. Penny was sure that her little sister had some kind of a crush on her friend, she hadn’t stop talking about him all summer.
“Blimey, I’m tired” Fred said yawning. But that gave their mother the chance to give them their choirs for what they had done.
“You’re going to de-gnome the garden for me” said Molly making Penny widening her eyes “The situation is going out of hand.”
“But mummy” Penny argued “That’s their natural habitat.”
“Yeah, not in our garden” she said, making Penny scoff. She didn’t like to de-gnome gardens; the way to do that was take them by the head and swing them in circles before throwing them out of the garden. They had to feel dizzy to get back in the gnomeholes. Penny knew it was the only way, but it really wasn’t one of her favourite activities to do.
Their mother wanted for Harry to go rest but he decided to help them anyway. That seemed to please Molly, that looked at him fondly as she took one of the books of Gilederoy Lockheart to see how to de-gnome gardens.
“Mum, we know how to do that” Ron exclaimed rolling his eyes, but their mother ignored him, starting to say how much of a good writer Lockheart was.
“Mum fancies him” Fred said making Molly glare towards him.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Penny had seen Lockheart’s picture, he was a handsome man, she could not say otherwise, but to her no one was more beautiful than Oliver Wood, the captain of Gryffindor team. No one could compare.
“Harry saw a house-elf" Ron said as they walked towards the garden.
“Oh wow, really?” asked Penny. She had seen house-elves but her family didn’t have one. Usually they would work for rich families, very rich families. She was sure that Malfoy had one, like most of the Slytherins.
“We think someone wanted to prank him” Ron said, making Harry nod.
“He took all my letters and gave me trouble with my uncles” he explained.
“Oh, that’s why you never replied” she said turning to Harry.
It was curious that someone sent their house-elf to do something like that. It must have been someone that got bored very easily.
“We think it was Malfoy” Ron said, making her nod in agreement.
“That makes sense” she said.
Draco Malfoy was probably the nastiest person she had ever met. He liked to be mean and follow Harry around, just bothering him at every step. So probably that was what happened.
“I have to write Hermione that you’re here” Penny said as they started to get read of the gnomes “She was so worried too.”
“We could have written to Cora!” Ron suddenly exclaimed “Isn’t she your neighbour?” Harry nodded.
“I should write to her too” he said picking up a gnome by the head after Ron had shown him how to do it “She went to Professor McGonagall for some time.”
“They are close, aren’t them?” asked Ron adjusting Harry’s grip on the gnome.
“I think so” he said start swinging “But she had been nice to me and I don’t want her to worry.”
Suddenly the front door slammed.
“He is back” George exclaimed “Dad’s home!”