Penelope + Terry - Blog Posts

aterryboot·:

“She had fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, I’m assuming they know she isn’t on their side,” Terry offered. He felt really bad that he was the one having to tell Penelope about all of this, she was a good person she didn’t deserve to find out this way. On the flip side, Padma didn’t deserve to be taken either even though the details on her being missing were still unclear. There was no proof that she was taken just a simultaneous event and an assumption. Along with that also came no reason on why Padma specifically.

It could have just been she was in the right place at the right time but Terry had no idea. He was even more out of the loop since he hadn’t decided to join the New Order, his parents still sending him constant letters almost as if a reminder of what they’d said to him. He really didn’t know what the right choice was. “Anthony’s been pretty worried since then so he wants me to check in with him every so often. You might want to talk to him– um, he can probably update you better than I can.”

-----

Pen felt a familiar guilt creep up on her when Terry talked about the Battle of Hogwarts. She hadn’t been there, she hadn’t even been in the country. It was an unexpected extra pain in her chest that she tried to ignore. Padma was what was important here, not Penelope’s own failures. “Of course,” she said quietly, trying to reconcile all of this new information. “The Redeemers must have long memories.” 

“I’ll go talk to him, check in,” Penelope promised Terry. It had been years since Hogwarts, even longer since she was their Prefect, but it still made Pen warm with pride and fondness when she saw ‘her’ Ravenclaws, especially together. “I’m glad Anthony has you. Padma, too,” she said, before pausing, the words almost stuck in her throat. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked, before rephrasing, “At least, will you be safe?” 

aterryboot·:

“Yeah, I was just visiting Anthony. Making sure he was okay,” Terry told her though even he himself could hear the lie in his words. There was no need to really tell her the full story, that maybe if he checked in with his best friend once or twice a day he’d give up on the plan of locking him inside his house. That would probably just confuse and worry her though there was no way to avoid the bad news in answer to her question.

With a tired look, Terry tried to make his next words come out softer. It was already bad enough that she hadn’t heard and he’d have to tell her, and he didn’t want her to freak out if she could help it. “Oh um, you haven’t heard? The night at the celebration… she was taken.”

-----

Was there something wrong with Anthony? This conversation with Terry was starting to feel decidedly ominous. Penelope felt her shoulders tensing, fingers clenching around the handle of her bag. She had absolutely no idea what was going on, but it was becoming very clear she had missed something big. 

Terry’s words sent a shock of ice down Pen’s spine. What? Taken; a word all too reminiscent of the last war. Penelope’s thoughts spun wildly in her head as she tried to reconcile the terror from only a few years ago with Padma, one of her Ravenclaws and a friend. “Taken?” Penelope whispered, almost to herself. “But, she’s a pureblood, why didn’t that protect her?” She had always mentally counted her pureblood friends as safe, and this revelation threatened to shake the uncertain footing she’d found again in the magical world. 

aterryboot·:

Terry had somehow managed to escape Anthony’s plan to lock him up inside of his house forever, rubbing one of his temples with his hand. He was taking the elevator down from Anthony’s office after checking in with his friend and letting him know it was safe. Now that he was alone he could finally digest everything that was happening. Michael and Padma, snatched up at the festival and now who knows where they were being kept. Terry sighed, the heavy weight of two friends being gone finally resting on his shoulders. No matter how much that he and Michael argued, Terry still cared about him and Padma was too nice of a person to deserve something like this.

He felt exhausted, and not to mention out of the loop since he wasn’t a part of the New Order. His parent’s words of warning were fresh in his mind from the amount fo times he’d gone over them, their warning to not ruin his father’s political career. 

It was then that Penelope came through the open elevator doors, the movement causing Terry to slowly look up. “It’s no problem,” he told her, shuffling to make plenty of room for her in the small space. In normal circumstances he might have tried to be friendlier, or given her a polite smile but now he couldn’t help the feeling of helplessness.

-----

Terry was one of the last people Pen would have expected to run into in a Ministry elevator, but she hadn’t seen him in ages, and if it took running into him in the middle of the night Penelope wouldn’t complain. Terry’s age group of Ravenclaws had a special place in her heart, her first group of first years when she was made a prefect in her fifth year. It was good to see him, even if frankly, he looked terrible. 

“Terry! What are you doing here, is everything okay?” she asked concernedly, knowing that no sane person should be in the Ministry at this hour. And he really did look out of sorts. But while she had him, “Have you seen Padma recently? She missed our lunch date earlier, but usually she sends a note when she’s caught up in a project.”