The Hogwarts Express sat contentedly steaming in the familiarly worn tracks of Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters, like a glistening wedding cake forming the centrepiece of a particularly busy reception. School children of assorted shapes and sizes swarmed across the heaving station, filling it with a churning sea of laughter, banter and excited conversation. The Sun was formless and distant, composed of watery lemons and the odd streak of buttery yellow, weak and irrelevant in a crisp, autumnal sky.
Towering over most of those bustling around the platform, a statuesque brunette sauntered breezily through the chest-level crowds like a plough bulldozing through snow, the tips of her long fingers in the grip of another, less assured woman. Nervously, this woman squeezed the brunette's hand tightly. "Kennedy? Are you sure we're in the right place?"
The taller woman turned to face the other, hints of a smile smudging the corners of her mouth. "I'm preeeetty sure, Will." She gestured to the 'Hogwart's Express' logo emblazoned on the train like a game-show hostess with a fridge-freezer, then jabbed a finger towards some twelve-year-olds who were using their wands to turn a caged owl into various shades of purple. "I think," she grinned, "that it's safe to say we're in the right place."
"Noo, that's not what I-I meant!" insisted Willow. "I mean, look!" She flapped her arms about like a newborn bird hopelessly trying to fly. "We're the only people here who aren't pupils or parents! M-maybe I got the wrong end of the stick and there's a separate train for teachers or something!" She waited agitatedly for the other woman to answer, becoming slightly confused when Kennedy merely stood there, gazing at her silently as if watching the sun set.
"Ken?" Willow whimpered at length. "What is it? Do I have something on my forehead?"
As she brushed maniacally at her forehead with her knuckles, Kennedy, moving forward, gently put both hands on Willow's shoulders as if to steady her. Then, she kissed her gently but firmly on the lips, allowing the plump softness of her own to glide over her lover's, silk on silk. Instantly, Willow felt calm and safe. She felt her mind drift, eyes glaze and tongue wander. Her arms slid around Kennedy's slender waist, and she purred gently, impossibly content until she heard the hisses of spitefully incredulous laughter. Instantly, the impropriety of her behaviour slapped her around the face, and she pushed herself away from Kennedy, sweeping back the hair from her face, her cheeks burning.
She turned to see a group of kids looking and pointing at her from beside the train. All looked to be in their mid-teens. The ringleader appeared to be an Aryan boy with too-bright, white-blond hair and a look of supercilious arrogance spread smugly over his face. He was whispering something to a huge hulk of a boy beside him as he looked directly at Willow, almost daring her to maintain eye-contact. Willow instantly disliked him. In front of him stood a toxic looking young lady who was cackling patently fake laughter and shrieking something about 'lezzas'. Kennedy squeezed her jaw and began to storm over to the puddle of adolescents, but Willow grabbed her, holding her back.
"Ken, leave it," she begged, barely above a whisper. Kennedy did so, spitting the group one long, threatening look before spinning around on her heel and sweeping off towards the front of the train, her mane of long, dark hair billowing majestically in the wind. She stayed pointedly ahead of Willow until reaching the train, at which point she turned to face her girlfriend, looking as if she was chewing a wasp.
"Ken…" Willow began, "I know it's hard sometimes, but you just have to accept that not everyone is okay with stuff like this."
"Stuff like what!?" Kennedy growled. "Stuff like two people being in love?"
"Stuff like teachers kissing nubile young hotties," smiled Willow. "I'm a teacher now. I must be prim and proper at all times." She nodded as Kennedy threw her a withering look. "No really, it's in the rulebook they gave me. Right alongside the part where we have to spit on the kids in the first few rows as we talk, a-and covert to lesbianism if we're teaching gym."
Kennedy couldn't help let as smile crack through her angry façade, though it faded almost instantly. "It just irritates me. I refuse to hide who I am from anyone."
"But, see, honey? That's the thing. This is my first job…ever! And I know Giles said that they were desperate for a Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, but I think he was just saying that so I'd be less nervous. I mean, Hogwarts is internationally renowned- it's one of the most prestigious schools of magic there is! I can't screw this up, and the fact is…they're conservative. About a lot of things- not just sexuality, I've told you before, they can't even know that-"
"That I'm a Slayer" recited Kennedy, affecting a pointedly bored tone. "I know, Will. I've heard it a thousand times. They don't trust Slayers, or werewolves, or anything vaguely non-human. Wait, not non-human. Super-human. And I'm fine with that. I'll pretend I'm just 'your lovely assistant'. Hey, I'll even try not to mack you during classes. But I will not hide my sexuality. I did that for too long, and that way leads only to Screwed-Up-ville, twinned with Closet Town."
"Okay, okay", said Willow, desperately trying to soothe her as she noticed that the two were drawing attention to themselves- not least because the obnoxious girl who had been laughing at them was now pointing to them and talking excitedly to a huddle of grown-ups. "I'm not saying hide. The staff can know, I think Dumbledore already does. But just…no more kissing in front of pupils, okay?"
Kennedy stood silently for a long time. Then, as if nothing had happened, she cheerfully sang, "Okay!" jumping on board the train. Just as the door was about to close, she asked, putting a finger to the corner of her mouth with faux-naivety; "Wait, does that mean second base is off limits, too?"