Title: I Gave My Love A Cherry
Author: emiime
Characters: Percy/Penny
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: They're underage—fifteen or so—but that's of minimal consequence as there's no actual sex.
Kinks chosen: Serenading
Word Count: 1309
Summary: Not all Gryffindors get their thrills from Quidditch and being pursued by Dark Lords. Percy Weasley finds adventure in a darkened classroom.
Author's notes: Yep, that's right. I wrote Percy het. Please pick your jaws up from the floor. I'm as surprised as you are!

Percy swallowed hard. Penny had asked difficult tasks of him before, but never one so difficult as this.

"I don't—don't think I can," he managed, his throat dry. He rubbed his suddenly sweaty palms over his robes, hoping Penny wouldn't notice how nervous her request had made him.

"Certainly you can," she replied, and she sat primly in one of the classroom chairs, folding her hands in her lap and smiling up at Percy. "Your brother George tells me you have a beautiful singing voice, and I want to hear it."

It wasn't true. Percy's singing voice left more than a little to be desired. It was weak, and it shook when he attempted anything neighbouring on a high note, and besides that, his voice hadn't quite finished changing and it tended to slide and squeak when he least expected it.

"Penny, please. I don't know why any of my brothers would tell you that, but it's honestly not true." Percy could feel a blush creeping up his cheeks, staining the tips of his ears. He knew he must look a sight, though the room was dim, the adjacent hallway dark. He shook his head, causing his glasses to slip down his nose. "Besides. Someone might hear."

Penny merely laughed and flicked her wand, closing the door, then flicked it again in a complicated little pattern that Percy couldn't quite follow.

"Silencing charm, silly," she said as if it were the easiest thing in the world to remember to do when your heart was racing and your ears were on fire and you were in a darkened classroom with your girlfriend of only a few weeks, the girl you'd pined after forever, and you weren't even supposed to be there and you'd probably be caught at any moment.

Penny waited, crossing her legs at the ankle, and Percy debated with himself, holding his breath.

"Okay," he said finally, "But it won't be pretty. I'm serious."

Penny merely waited, not even blinking, and then there was the problem of whether he should stand or sit, or should he maybe kneel in front of her, the way he thought a person should properly serenade another person?

He decided in favour of sitting in a chair adjacent to Penny's, discarding the kneeling idea as soon as he'd thought of it. That might be a bit much. He cleared his throat and began singing the first song that suggested itself to him, his voice little more than a whisper.

"I gave my love a cherry," he began, "that has no stone..." He nearly stopped there when his voice wobbled dangerously. He paused, but Penny took his hand, her face a picture of rapture.

"Do go on," she encouraged him, "Please?"

And when Percy had determined that she was serious, she wasn't just having him on, he continued, his voice growing a little stronger.

"I, I gave...my love a chicken that has no bone."

Penny smiled and squeezed his hand a little, and Percy swallowed against the excitement bubbling inside him, ploughing onwards.

"I gave my love a story that has no end." Penny licked her lips and smiled again, and Percy rushed on to the next line.

"I gave my love a baby with no crying."

Percy paused again at the end of the verse. His throat was drier than it had been when he started singing, and something was wriggling just below his stomach in a very funny sort of way. Penny was still holding his hand, giving it another encouraging little squeeze, and rubbing her thumb over his in the most distracting manner.

He squeezed back. "Shall I...er. Shall I go on?"

"Oh, yes," breathed Penny, "Do, please." She shifted a few times in her seat, her skirt making the most maddening swishing sound against her tights. Percy thought privately that she seemed to be rather uncomfortable, all that shifting and moving around and clutching onto his hand as though she might fall over, her eyelashes aflutter and her cheeks pinked, but he nodded and went on, singing the second verse of the song his mother had sung as a lullaby so long ago.

"How can there be a cherry that has no stone?"

Penny leaned forward, lowering her eyelashes, still smiling.

"How can there be a chicken that has no bone?"

Percy felt a twinge and a twitch between his legs, and he sang a little louder as if that would make up for it.

"How can there be a story that has no end?"

Penny cocked her head to the side. Percy thought she probably had no idea how lovely she was when she did that.

"How can there be a baby with no crying?"

Percy's voice still wasn't pretty, but it was wobbling a little less as Penny anchored him with her grip on his hand. The funny wriggling thing below his stomach twisted and flopped over and Percy had the most awful premonition that he wasn't going to make it out of this room without Penny noticing the fact that, despite his best efforts, he was growing hard under his robes. If Penny would only stop moving her hand like that, rubbing her thumb over his and squeezing and pressing like there was something going on.

"A, a," quavered Percy, meaning to begin the third and final verse of the song, but at that moment, Penny leaned in for a kiss, and Percy was glad of the excuse to stop singing to her, but he trembled as their lips met. Penny took his free hand in hers, and Percy curled his fingers around her smaller ones, thinking she only meant to double their hand-holding effort, but she guided his hand to one of the twin bumps underneath her jumper and Percy's heart sprang up into his throat, and he skidded backwards, out of the embrace.

The erection that had begun to form in Percy's trousers was fully hard by the time his fingers had brushed over Penny's breast, and he stood, knocking over his chair, stumbling towards the door, choking out some excuse to his bewildered girlfriend who sat still in the seat she'd chosen. He fumbled for the doorknob and nearly fell out of the classroom, pressing the heel of his hand against his erection once he was out of Penny's sight. He tripped over himself as he lurched along the hallway in search of a tapestry, a nook, a staircase, anything, anywhere where he could take care of the problem in his pants.

But he had barely turned the corner, just a little way from the classroom, when the pressure of his hand became too much and he came in his pants, staining them, choking and slumping against the wall, putting one hand out for support.

"No...no..." he whispered, yanking his wand from his robes and casting a cleansing spell that only did half its job, as his hand was trembling. He closed his eyes for a moment to allow his breath to slow and his heartbeat to return to normal.

But in that moment, he heard a footfall just around the corner, and whether it was Penny or Filch or any of his professors or the headmaster, Percy didn't wait to discover. He scurried up the nearest staircase and made his way to Gryffindor tower as fast as his long legs would carry him.

When he reached the Gryffindor common room, he collapsed onto a sofa, coughing, his lungs burning with exertion and a cold sweat washing over him.

It had been one of the most terrifying, alarming, and altogether thrilling experiences of Percy's life.

And he couldn't wait to do it again.