Penny Haywood

Penny Haywood is a witch who began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was Sorted into Hufflepuff. She was regarded as the most popular girl in her year while attending Hogwarts. As a result of her social standing and vast network of friends, she was also very well-informed about the happenings at Hogwarts.

Hogwarts
She began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Hufflepuff. She became popular during her first year at school.

She was known for her impressive academic performance in Potions and her talent in Potion-making. She later befriended Squiggly Squinquargesimus and helped her create the Sleeping Draught she needed to break into the locked room, where she was looking for a Cursed Vaults.

During her third year, a tragedy happened. During the summer, Penny would go on vacation with her family to the country. On one of these vacations, a muggle friend of Penny's, Scarlet, accompanied them. Scarlet and Penny went wandering through the woods when they discovered a werewolf. Rather than being frightened by the creature, Scarlet was intrigued and so followed it. Penny however had been paralyzed by the sight of it and by the time she came to and wielded her wand, Scarlet had been fatally wounded by the werewolf. Feeling responsible for the death of her friend, werewolves had become the object of Penny's greatest fear, troubling her to the extent she brewed a Forgetfulness Potion to rid herself of the memory.

Guards of the unknown
Penny was one of the ealiest members (Besides the founders) who joined the guards and often assitsed them with her potions and knowledge of the rumors and gossip in Hogwarts.

She was known to value bravery and compassion greatly, thanking Squiggly for having the courage to stand up to the school bully Merula Snyde. She even befriended Squiggly shortly thereafter due to, in part, their kindness towards Ben Copper and their shared love for potions. She was also good friends with Liz Tuttle and Talbott Winger, who were both considered outcasts, showing that despite her popularity, she was still humble, decent and treated others very respectfully. This stood in direct contrast to Gryffindor Emily Tyler, whose popularity depended largely, if not solely, on her bullying and teasing of students she didn't like or who offended her and who only hung out with her so she wouldn't bully them.

Later life
Penny would go on to teach potions while Snape got the position of Defense against the dark arts. Penny taught Harry Potter, Ron Weasley (Who she told stories too about his brothers Bill and Charlie.) and even Qui Gon Kenobi who became one of her favorite students.

Magical abilities and skills

 * Potions: Penny had proven herself to be very skillful in this branch of magic, as she achieved impressive results in Potions class and often enjoyed brewing experimental mixtures in her free time. She successfully brewed the Sleeping Draught in her first year and the Forgetfulness Potion in her third year, as early examples of her talent in potion-making. She was also capable of brewing the advanced Draught of Peace in her fifth year with the help of Squiggly, which she did with success, showing her considerable proficiency in this subtle magical art and science. Other potions she made or claimed to make included Polyjuice Potion and the Animagus potion, both of which were highly advanced and further testament to her skill in this field. Indeed, Severus Snape himself openly acknowledged Penny to be his most gifted student in the subject and deemed her the only one eligible to receive a private lesson from him on the highly advanced field of Alchemy.
 * Charms: Penny was rather good with charm-work, as she was capable of successfully casting the Fire-Making Spell, Colour Change Charm along with the Knockback Jinx, showing she was skilled with the casting of such spells.
 * Social Networking: Due to her remarkably pleasant and affable nature, Penny was able to easily befriend most people at Hogwarts and swiftly establish a rapport with them, which quickly earned her a long-standing reputation for being the most popular girl in her year, to the point that she is known for knowing all the gossip traveling at Hogwarts. This was notable through her awareness of the reason behind Merula Snyde's antics, Ben Copper's cowardice, Squiggly's public scrutiny, and Albus Dumbledore's school departures. Despite being frequently well-informed and thus being renowned for knowing everybody at Hogwarts, however, Penny's network and social contacts were not always a perfect source of information, as she was unfamiliar with abrasive Quidditch player Erika Rath, and had never heard of famed Curse-Breaker Patricia Rakepick up until the latter's arrival at Hogwarts.