THC

House: Ravenclaw

Class: Head of House

Category: Standard

Prompt(s) chosen: [Theme] trying to be something/someone you're not, [Object] Photograph

Word count: 1188

Notes: Modern College AU, Ginny's scared to come out so slight fear of rejection due to possible homophobia is mentioned.

Out in the open

There's a lot of pressure being the youngest child of seven, but there's even more pressure being the only girl. Ginny's brothers all have to make names for themselves in comparison to the others, and she acknowledges how difficult that is, but she's held to an even higher standard. She has to be ladylike and the perfect daughter for her parents. They expect her to marry a nice man and then be the perfect wife.

They want her to be everything that Ginny isn't. She can't be ladylike because all she knows is how to behave like her brothers. She can't be the perfect daughter because she can't marry a man and then be the perfect wife. She doesn't want that.

But Ginny pretends that she wants that because she doesn't know what else to do. She's seen videos online of people coming out to their parents, but there's no way that she can do that. Sure, her parents love her, but there's no way they'd accept her once their vision of her was destroyed.

She thought about telling one of her brothers just to have someone on her side, but she didn't know who to tell. There were so many scenarios that could happen depending on who she picked. That and they were all protective of her and would never let her keep her charade up if they found out. Ginny didn't even know how much longer she'd be able to pretend.

Every time she comes home from college, her parents ask her about any new love interest. Of course, they're waiting to hear all about a handsome man when, in reality, Ginny can only tell them about the pretty girl who lives down the hall. Although there isn't much to tell since Ginny can't even work up the confidence to talk to her. She doesn't even know the girl's name. It wouldn't be too difficult to walk down the hallway and look at the names on the door, but that would just be creepy.

"Oh, sorry," Ginny startled from where she was sitting on the dryer in the laundry room. Her clothes were almost done in the wash, and she didn't want to risk someone moving them. The pretty blonde girl stood in the doorway of the small laundry room. "Are you almost done with the washing machine?"

"Yes," Ginny nodded. The timer on the machine blinked a green three at her. "In a couple of minutes."

"Do you mind if I stay?" The girl moved further into the laundry room and placed her laundry basket down. "Seems like a waste to walk all the way back to my room."

"It's fine," Ginny smiled but now was her chance to finally talk to the girl, "My name's Ginny by the way."

"I'm Luna," She walked closer to Ginny to lean on the dryer by Ginny's legs. "What's your major?"

"I'm still undecided," Because she never had the time to figure out what she wanted to do while she was busy pretending to be someone she wasn't. "Hopefully, I'll figure it out before next semester."

"I'm studying zoology," Ginny didn't even know that was a major offered at the school.

"That sounds really cool—," The washing machine buzzed beside them causing both girls' to jump. They laughed, and Ginny slid off the dryer to switch her clothes. Luna moved back, so she would be out of the way.

"Do you want to hang out in my room while we wait for our clothes?" Luna asked and Ginny nodded in response.

Once they were both done in the laundry room, they made their way down to Luna's room. Ginny felt awkward because she hadn't hung out with anyone besides Ron and his friends.

"You can sit on my bed," Luna pointed to her bed on the left side of the room when she saw Ginny standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.

Ginny hopped up on the slightly raised bed and waited for Luna to join her. She watched the girl dig around in her desk for something. Luna walked back over with a polaroid camera in hand.

"Do you want to take some photos?" Luna asked, "I like using the camera since it feels retro."

Ginny laughed, "Sure, sounds fun."

They took two photos, one for Luna to have, and one for Ginny. The conversation carried naturally after that, and Ginny was a little sad to go back to her room once her laundry was done, so she could put it away. They did exchange phone numbers and a text conversation was already booming between them.

"What's this?" Percy asked as he picked up the polaroid that fell out of one of Ginny's books. He had come in to help her take care of her things and talk to her about school.

"A photograph?" Ginny didn't know why he was asking since the answer seemed quite obvious.

"You should hang it up or put it somewhere else," Percy explained. "The book isn't a good place for the film to be stored."

Ginny rolled her eyes and snatched the photo out of Percy's hand, "Whatever."

"Who's the girl in the photo?" Percy glanced over Ginny's shoulder, and she quickly tried to hide it by holding the photo to her chest.

"Just a friend," But her tone gave it away.

Percy smiled at her, "If it's more than that, you know that's okay, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm just saying, hypothetically, of course, if you liked this girl as more than a friend, it would be okay." Percy ruffled her hair.

"But, what if it isn't okay?" Ginny whispered.

"Well, you don't have to make any decisions until you're ready, but just know that it's okay with me." Percy pulled her into a hug, "Besides, my boyfriend is joining us for dinner, so I'll be the guinea pig to see how it goes."

"Boyfriend?" Ginny pulled back from the hug. "But you only ever talk about Oliver…"

Percy laughed, "Yeah, Oliver's my boyfriend."

"For how long?"

"A bit," Percy shrugged, "Guess I was in the same place you're in right now. Was scared to tell anyone just in case it went bad, but Oliver and I finally decided that we were both in a place where it would be okay if some things did go wrong."

"I just feel like it's going to ruin everything," Ginny said still in a whisper, "They have so many expectations for me."

"From what I've learned, pretending to be someone else isn't going to make things better," Percy smiled, "You'll just end up losing yourself in the process."

It took a while for Ginny to take Percy's advice to heart, even after the dinner where he came out. It was hard relearning who she actually was versus what everyone wanted her to be. Luna did help her come out of her shell and eventually, their friendship did turn into a relationship. She introduced Luna to Percy and Oliver first before bringing her home.

But it felt nice to finally step out into the open and be herself.