I looked at the house in front of me and checked one last time before moving forward and knocking on the door.
After waiting a few seconds, the door opened, and a mature woman came out to greet me. She looked at me with surprise, probably because of the color of my hair, which is still that intense red. My eyes, on the other hand, I changed to avoid standing out too much in the Muggle world, although my hair is already quite striking. I've gotten so used to this color that I didn't want to change it.
"Good morning, Mrs. Clearwater?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied with some uncertainty. Not every day does a red-haired boy visit your door.
"My name is Red Weasley, I'm a friend of your daughter, Penelope. I came to visit her. Is she home?"
Mrs. Clearwater was surprised to hear me but still invited me in politely. I could see her curiosity and nervousness about me, and I think even doubts due to my age, as Penelope was already a developed teenager while I was noticeably younger.
The woman called her daughter and then turned back to me, asking about my life while Penelope appeared. I answered each of her questions naturally. Penelope had received friends before, but I was, at least, the most remarkable of them.
To clarify our relationship and reduce the woman's doubts, I explained (lied) that I was a first-year student at Hogwarts, now second, who had received tutoring from her daughter. I told her that I was very grateful to her and considered her a very good friend.
The woman became interested in my story, especially when I told her that I was Percy's brother. It seemed that Penelope had told her mother about her interest in my brother at one point, but that all of a sudden, he had disappeared, and she never understood why. I wasn't going to explain that to her.
Penelope appeared coming down the stairs with surprise in her eyes. I don't think she expected to see me, but here I am, smiling sincerely at her next to her mother.
"Red?!" Penelope exclaimed.
"Hello, Penny. I told you I'd visit," I stood up to greet her. "Sorry for not giving you a heads-up, but I was nearby and thought it would be nice to stop by and say hi."
"That's... good," she replied, feeling a mix of awkwardness and insecurity.
"Can we talk for a bit? I have some time before I have to go back home, and I wanted to ask you a few things."
"Uh... yes, let's go to my room."
She grabbed my arm and dragged me with her to her room, despite her mother's disapproving gestures. It seemed that Penelope didn't want to leave me alone with her mother. Who knows why? I suppose she didn't want even the remote possibility of her mother finding out about some of the things that had happened between us.
Penelope's room was simple but cozy. The decoration was mainly Muggle; it had some things from the magical world, but they were well hidden and generally out of sight.
I looked around and saw that everything was quite tidy, no random objects scattered on the floor or dirty clothes lying around... Yes, I think this room puts Tonks to shame... Maybe I should get her a personal house-elf. It's not that she's too messy, but she can be quite lazy.
Returning to my situation, I looked at the bed that seemed freshly made and sat on it, then patted the spot next to me, looking at Penelope.
"Red, what are you doing here?" she asked, still standing with some nervousness.
"What's up, Penny? Why so tense?" I asked seriously, but without being intimidating.
"Hmm... nothing," she replied, showing some resolve, sighing, and releasing the tension from her body. It seemed as if she had let go of something that was worrying her. When she looked up, she appeared more relaxed and approached to sit not far from me on the bed.
"..."(Red)
"..."(Penelope)
"You have a nice room."(Red)
"Thanks."(Penelope)
"..."(Red)
"..."(Penelope)
For a few moments, there was an awkward silence; neither of us spoke. I certainly had things to tell her, but I didn't want to be the first to speak. I wanted her to do it, to respond... to see what she would do, what she was thinking.
"What are you doing here, Red?" Penelope asked again, with that mix of nervousness and curiosity.
"I wanted to see you. Can't I come to see you? I thought we were close enough to visit each other."(Red)
"Yes, but..." She seemed withdrawn at that moment, as if she didn't know what to answer or didn't want to reveal what she really wanted to say. "You... can use your ability, that magical letter, to let me know if you're coming. Why show up out of nowhere without warning?"(Penelope)
"I think you're more nervous than you should be about something like this, aren't you?"(Red)
"I..."(Penelope)
"Wait," I interrupted her.
I made myself comfortable on the bed, pulling a book on magic from my inventory, and I stared at her before asking a question about the irregular application of heat in potion-making and its adverse effects. This threw her off the situation and confused her a lot, at least until she heard the door to her room open.
Penelope's mother entered the room with a tray in her hands. She saw us in my improvisation and approached to leave us cookies and something to drink. Penelope realized what I did and played along, especially since her mother didn't show any intention of leaving.
Penelope and I had studied together before, and we weren't having a completely nonsensical conversation. It was necessary just to remember our studies to get well into character. The terms we used were increasingly distant from the Muggle world, and the lady, seeing us almost ignoring her completely while immersed in our "studies," decided to leave slowly. Maybe she had questions, maybe she just wanted to keep an eye on us, but after our act, she left us alone.
I continued with my act until my [Life Sense] told me that Penelope's mother had gone downstairs and wasn't nearby. I stopped and put my book back into my inventory.
"Alright, we can talk now..." I paused, looking at her intently and seriously, not letting her speak due to my intimidating gaze. "Will you tell me what's going on? What was that the other day, and why are you keeping such a distance from me now? I have an idea, but I want you to say it."
At my words, she got up and walked a bit farther from me, scratching her arm and closing her eyes. She took a deep breath before turning to look at me and starting to speak.
"Yes..." she replied, pausing. "I realized that what we were doing was wrong."
"Go on," I said, still with seriousness in my gaze.
"You know what I'm talking about," she said in a complaining tone, though she didn't show much confidence. "I saw you with Hermione, and I realized that's how things should be. What we were... it's wrong."
"Wrong?"(Red)
"I'm a fool for realizing it so late. I was lying to myself thinking I could continue like this for longer."(Penelope)
"..."(Red)
"Red, what we tried wasn't right and... I have to end this... I..."(Penelope)
"Stop," I interrupted her. "What are you trying to say?" I asked in an authoritative tone, although I already understood what she meant.
"Look, you got a girlfriend and I'm happy for you... that's how things should be. What we were doing... the relationship we had... it can't continue, let's end it. We can still be friends..." She finished speaking, seeming relieved to finally say it and waiting for my reaction.
"..." I stayed silent, looking at her for a while before saying a few words. "What's wrong? Just say it, show me your excuses for saying that." I demanded.
"... I'm several years older than you," she replied. She knew I would be difficult about it, so although she didn't feel emotionally stable in this sort of breakup, she went ahead, wanting me to see the problem.
"I'm sure that's hardly valid. I think with minimal research, you could find couples with a 15-year age difference. Besides, wizards and witches live longer than Muggles, so four years isn't a big difference."(Red)
Thus, the first round was won by me, as her silence and inability to refute it gave me the upper hand.
"For Merlin's sake, I was about to date your older brother," she continued. "And you have at least two other brothers between him and you."
"Well, that could be more complicated... if you had ever really been Percy's girlfriend. As far as I know, you never became anything really official." I replied with confidence; this wouldn't stop me.(Red)
"But..."(Penelope)
"But for some reason, you chose me over Percy." I interrupted her, thinking of changing the direction of the conversation and also resolving some of my doubts. "Yes, I know I'm somewhat to blame for your loss of interest in Percy, but there's also something else that made us start what we did... which now makes me wonder, what did you see in me? I know I insisted a lot, but I knew there was something in me that caught your attention. What was it?"
Penelope seemed to freeze for a moment, but before she instinctively stepped back, I held her hand and prevented her from moving more than a few steps away from me.
"Tell me, I have the right to know if you're trying to break my heart," I said, maintaining the serious tone I already had.
"I... you..." She seemed to be fighting with her own thoughts, doubting herself. Part of her didn't want to accept that she had seen something in me that led us to this, but she managed to force herself to do so in order to move forward. "You had something special..."
"What?"(Red)
"I don't know... When I met you, I knew a bit about you from Percy, I had an image of you, but..."
"But?"(Red)
"You were nothing like what I expected. You were exotic, something different, so different that it caught my attention. When I met you, I also discovered that you weren't as Percy described you. I was curious and, more and more, I was attracted by how different you were from the others. You were so strange that, when I was with you, I felt that I was strange too, that I was special. To my parents, I was special for being a Muggle-born witch, and at Hogwarts, where everyone is magical and special, there was you, who was more special than the rest..."(Penelope)
I looked at her as she seemed to discover a truth she wasn't even aware of. The need to stand out is very common, but she hadn't noticed how strong it was in her.
"You were also cute, but no one could see it. Your magic made everyone terrified, but I saw the truth. That made me feel even more peculiar, more remarkable among the others. Cute, strange, and in a place where I was just one more, you made me feel like I stood out," she took a breath as her eyes clouded a bit from the tears she shed, releasing accumulated stress. "If things had been just that for a bit longer, maybe that emotion would have faded over time and everything would have continued normally, but then you... you started to... I didn't realize when I started accepting your advances, I felt so comfortable and excited that I didn't think..."
I pulled her by the hand, drawing her towards me, and as she fell, I hugged her to console her. I stroked her head while giving her small kisses.
"It's okay, no one can reproach you for seeking your happiness. You felt good and saw no problem, you didn't harm anyone, you didn't do anything wrong," I continued consoling her.
"Why are you so calm about this?!" she complained weakly.
She was dissatisfied that I was taking this calmly while she was so upset. She was supposed to be the older one, the adult, and I the child, but she couldn't maintain her composure in something that was supposed to affect me more... that's what she thought.
"Let's say I have experience. Tonks also had doubts like that, though not as strong. She had other doubts."
"Tonks? The Hufflepuff who left Hogwarts?"
"Yes."
"Another girlfriend?" she asked, her voice breaking.
"Yes, the first one, actually," I replied, and she broke into tears.
"And that's the biggest problem. You and your idea of having multiple women, how do you expect me to accept something like that? I wanted to fall in love, love, marry, have children... How am I going to have that with you if I'm just one among many?" she said with tears of fury and helplessness. In part, this was also the most important reason.
"Hehe, this was one of the problems Tonks had," I laughed, but that earned me a hit from her, as she became furious at the mention of another even at this moment.