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For years Hogwarts had been the beautiful sun on the horizon, but now that Penny was finally there she found herself yearning for an aurora sky.
Her entire childhood Penny had awaited the day an owl would arrive with her letter, and when that day had finally come she had been overwhelmed with ecstatic joy. Her parents both cried as they watched her unfold the parchment, their misty eyes crinkling as they smiled down at her. It had been a proud and celebratory day in the family. The day that Penny received her letter was the day her yearning for the castle across the sea truly bloomed.
Yet, now that Penny was finally at the place that she had always wanted to be, she found herself accompanied by a dull emptiness that shuddered throughout her being.
After the initial sorting and feast, the mystic of Hogwarts rapidly faded away and settled itself into mundanity.
She quickly became one of the most popular students in her year, despite the number of people who knew her name, Penny realized that she didn’t have many peers whom she could call friend. Everyone knew her, but they only knew the illusion of her. They all had their own perception of the nice pristine girl she was, never seeing the fire or dirt beneath the skin.
She was frequently asked to attend parties and gatherings, most of the time she obliged her classmates' wishes. But she couldn’t help but yearn for something more—something greater!
The Hufflepuff common room was where Penny spent most of her time, and the common room very rapidly became as familiar and comfortable to her as her own home. But Penny wanted something else, yet she found herself lacking the words to describe what.
The closest she ever felt close to it was when she was in the potions class. Penny knew the second she entered the classroom that potions would become her best and favorite subject. The class was dimly lit and held in the dungeon. It was murky and eerie, it gave the impression that at any moment something unexpected and dangerous could happen. One moment a student could be crafting their potion and then the next their cauldron exploded. The wildness and mystery of the craft made it perfect for Penny.
Within weeks Penny became renowned for her potions ability, even Professor Snape praised her and awarded her house points for her craft. Penny could spend hours bent over a cauldron. There was a pleasantness to the banality and repetitiveness that grinding and measuring ingredients created. Yet, the vapidness of the action existed side along with the riveting danger and mystery that potion making possessed. The murky solution in the cauldron represented the known and unknown, and in a single moment, Penny was roaring with renewed life and vigor.
But not even potions was enough for her, she still yearned for something more exciting. And the day she saw the student who had caused the school to buzz with gossip, she finally found the name to what she wanted.
Jacob’s sibling had maintained a quiet presence it the school that counteracted the reputation that Jacob had built. Penny had heard of Jacob’s troublesome exploits at the school, as well as his dreadful actions and deeds. Penny hadn’t given much thought to his sibling, but after witnessing the duel with Merula, Penny knew that the student was so much more than Jacob’s legacy.
They would become friends and Penny found herself yearning to be in the presence of the supposedly cursed student. Pretty soon after, Penny would journey on a death-defying adventure and she knew that this is what she wanted Hogwarts to be all along. It was in that moment that her life at Hogwarts really begun.