QLFC, Chaser 1, Round 3
Main Prompt- Coven
Additional Prompts- (creature) cat, (color) pink, (dialogue) "I feel like perhaps I am not being taken seriously."
Word Count- 1215
It started innocently enough, Lily Luna supposed. It was nearing Halloween during her fifth year and she'd simply wanted to throw a little tea party by the lake before it became too cold and rainy to go outside. She'd invited her five female cousins who hadn't graduated yet, meaning Rose, Dominique, Roxanne, Molly, and Lucy were all in attendance, as well as a few of their roommates. All in all, Lily had managed to gather thirteen witches together for tea, biscuits, and civil conversation.
It was Lucy who suggested they make this a weekly occurrence and it was Dominique who went to the Headmistress and asked to make their social club a sanctioned group at Hogwarts.
Lily had only wanted to drink tea with her friends. She had no idea she'd start a feminist club in the process.
"Professor Foster hardly even glanced at my potion," said Annabelle Tristain, a sixth year Ravenclaw who roomed with Molly. It was early November and she was petting her cat for comfort. "It's so frustrating!"
Some of the other girls hummed their agreement as if they too had experienced this slight.
"I bet he oohed and aahed over Jonathan's," Molly enthused, slapping her hand on the table with annoyance.
"Of course he did," scoffed Annabelle. "And his potion wasn't nearly as clear as mine!"
Rose, who had been named Head Girl, poured Annabelle some more tea and smiled sadly when she picked up her own cup and brought it to her lips. "I heard that Jonathan is Professor Foster's nephew."
Molly rolled her eyes. "Still no excuse."
The girls hummed again in agreement. The conversation moved on to safer topics.
"You will not believe what Malfoy said today," exclaimed Rose the second she walked through the door to the third floor classroom in mid-December.
"I'm sure we would," Roxanne said, snickering around the biscuit in her mouth. "But do tell."
Rose groaned in frustration as she slipped easily into what had become her seat in the social club. There was a new girl, Yolanda Ruiz, seated to Rose's left. She'd halted in the scratching of her cat's ears as she waited eagerly for the Headgirl's story.
"He said my mum didn't have a chance in hell of being elected Minister."
"That arse!" cried Dominique.
"And I asked why he thought that and you know what he answered?"
"What?" asked Yolanda, timidly resuming the scratching of her cat's ears.
"He told me it was because people found her to be too intense. Too intense! As if the current minister isn't constantly inserting himself in other people's business!"
"Your mum is definitely going to be the next Minister of Magic, or I'll leave the country after I graduate," announced Remi Weston, her tone brokering no argument.
The girls were quiet for a second before Rose burst into giggles. "Wow, Remi, talk about intense!"
The room erupted with laughter.
Roxanne was crying when she entered the classroom the week after winter holiday. There were seventeen girls already there and they swarmed Roxy into a group hug immediately. A cat was thrust into her arms and she buried her face in its fur while she sobbed.
"What happened?" demanded Eliza Dawlish.
"M-my mum… My mum has breast cancer."
Auntie Angelina had breast cancer?
Lily Luna collapsed heavily into her armchair trying and failing to picture her life without Angelina Johnson-Weasley. But what could she do about it? She was no healer.
All she had was this stupid club.
Teddy's letter was extremely helpful. They were a healer-in-training at St. Mungo's with emphasis on muggle sciences, and they explained concisely how the process of breast cancer treatment would go for Auntie Angelina. They also included a pamphlet and a pink ribbon in the envelope, both of which were easily duplicated. Lily set about to do just that, and with permission from the Headmistress once again, she was able to hand them out at lunch as a member of her social club that didn't yet have a name.
All the girls wore their ribbons with pride.
All the boys did not.
She approached Fred one day about his lack of ribbon.
"It's just… such a girly color."
Lily almost decked him.
The Slytherin Quidditch team still didn't start any female players.
Fiona Parkinson, who'd started attending the social club in early February, asked for help on this matter one morning, a look of pure determination in her eyes.
"Are you any good?" asked Greta Short.
Fiona turned to Greta with a hard, emerald gaze. "Would you ask that if I was a boy?"
The social club grew quiet. Contemplative.
And then it happened in an instant. The tea and biscuits were forgotten as every single girl straightened their spines one-by-one and set about creating a plan to help Fiona.
Every once and awhile an extra cat with dark circular markings around her eyes would sit in on the proceedings of what the girls had started referring to as The Coven. All the girls knew that this cat was their Headmistress, but no one bothered to shy away from their topics anyway. McGonnagal was one of them. There were now 39 girls in the social club and it grew every week.
The other students and teachers at Hogwarts were beginning to take notice.
Especially when they held a rally to allow females on the Slytherin quidditch team.
The whole school was feeling the effect of women standing up for themselves.
That's when the war began.
They called for McGonnagal's resignation. Aunt Hermione was losing in the polls. Auntie Angelina was in hospital full-time.
Lily was fed up.
It was late May when Lily stood up from her desk in Herbology class with all the other girls, her long auburn hair done up in a thousand pink ribbons, the comforting presence of her new cat, Morgana, in her arms. A sea of women in pink proceeded to make their way to the lake where the original thirteen members of the Coven held their first tea party. That seemed like a lifetime ago.
The boys laughed and booed and were generally rowdy and disrespectful as the girls silently exited that school, but the girls did not stop.
The sun was bright. Summer was drawing near.
Nearly a hundred girls gathered on the beach waiting for their leader to make her speech.
Lily stepped onto the stump of an old oak tree and stared out over her coven. Rose held her wand up to Lily's face whispering a sonorous spell.
"I don't know about you, but I feel like perhaps I am not being taken seriously," declared Lily Luna Potter. A single thunderous clap echoed over the lake. "I don't know about you, but I feel like perhaps our thoughts don't matter, like we can't make a difference! Is it because we wear pink?! Is it because we own cats?! Is it because we drink tea from little rose cups?! Is it because we are girls?!"
The silence was deafening.
"I think it is," continued Lily, her tone solemn. "And I'm tired of it."
Another single thunderous clap and Lily's chest filled with pride.
This would not be the end of the battle. Perhaps they would never see an end of this war.
But it was a start.