Author: Lyta Padfoot
Category: General
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling. Characters and situations are used without permission, no infringement is intended.
Summary: When Penelope Clearwater finds herself alone in a strange place with an awful color scheme she can only conclude that she has been petrified.
* * *
Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Penelope Clearwater felt the mental haze that usually accompanied dreams surround her like a gauze veil. Everything beyond twenty feet was obscured. She thought she might be asleep - there were many times she was aware of dreaming while asleep - but a pinch to her upper arm dispelled that notion. She had felt fear before in her dreams but never physical pain.
"Don't panic," Penelope told herself firmly in her best 'prefect' voice. The sound came back to her and Penelope winced a little: it was an odd mix of her mother and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio program she was fond of listening to on dull afternoons.
"I haven't been drinking," she mused aloud. Ravenclaws did not have the same inhibition about conversing with themselves that others suffered from. "So I can't blame a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. Think Clearwater! What's the last thing you remember?"
A hallway at school. A younger girl with bushy brown hair urgently explaining something. Her small make-up mirror with a reflection of something horrible that filled her insides with an icy wind.
Penelope sat down on the ground. It was identical to the sky and other surroundings, but she could not think as well while standing up.
I must have been petrified. Is this what it is like? How dreadfully dull, not even a book to while a way the time with. It will take several more weeks for the Mandrakes to be ready - how can I prevent myself from going insane? I suppose I could magic up a deck of cards, but I never liked solitaire. No challenge playing a game of chance against anything besides than another person.
Penelope stood back up and took off her school tie and slipped it into her pocket. If she was going to be here for a while, she might as well be comfortable and learn everything she could about the place. One never knew what was out there. She started to walk in a random direction.
There was no way to determine distance or time, no markers to allow her to backtrack, but had she been in Hogwarts wandering the corridors for this long, Penelope would have been both starving and exhausted. Thankfully she did not appear to require food or sleep in this place.
The color of her surroundings began to change slightly, a pinkish tone threaded through the bland blue-gray she was so utterly sick of looking at.
Penelope kept moving. She had nothing better to do. Then she heard the sound of crying.
"Who's out there?" She called, a bit surprised that her voice did not echo anymore. No answer came.
Penelope used the sobbing as her beacon as she walked on. She noticed that the pinkish thread grew stronger and stronger until it edged out the blue all together. After the pink had become boring to her eyes, Penelope spied a small figure in a Hogwarts uniform lying on the ground.
It was Hermione Granger, the girl who gave her the warning. She did not appear to have heard Penelope approach, which gave the prefect time to think. Percy told her a great deal about his family and friends. She sifted through what little she knew of Hermione, both from others and her own observations, to composed a plan to reveal herself without scaring her.
She won fifty points last year for her "cool use of logic". She has the highest grades of her year. Percy considers her a positive influence on his brother and Harry Potter. She was able to determine what was causing the attacks when the faculty was apparently unable to. She has a reputation for being respectful of authority. McGonagall is her head of house.
"Miss Granger!" Penelope said in her sharpest tone, gazing down her nose at the girl, hands on her hips. She thought she sounded rather like Professor McGonagall. She hoped Hermione would respond to that.
Hermione jumped up and stared at her with glassy eyes.
"I would have thought," Penelope continued in a softer tone with just a hint of censure, "that a Gryffindor would demonstrate more courage."
Hermione digested her words for a moment before rushing forward and hugging Penelope so hard the older girl wondered if her ribs would crack under the pressure.
"I am brave," Hermione huffed after she stepped back from Penelope. "For myself anyway. I was scared for you."
Penelope was touched by her concern. "I'm all right, bored to tears with the color scheme, but otherwise all right."
"Where are we?"
The prefect shrugged. "Wherever people who are petrified go before they are revived."
Hermione shuddered. "We'll be here until the Mandrake drought is ready..."
"Since I don't have a watch - and I don't know how long it was before I was aware of my surroundings - I have no idea how long it will be."
"What will we do?"
Penelope pulled out her wand and conjured up a deck of cards. She gestured for Hermione to sit opposite her. "Refine our card playing abilities."
It was, after all, better to play card games with two players.