By the time Lyra and Gabrielle had managed to convince Ros that it was an urgent, essential matter of hospitality to ask the Castle to put a balcony outside of Lyra's window — and explained their plan to sleep out there, because veela didn't like enclosed spaces (even if rooms were acceptable, and it was just the smaller enclosed space of the actual bed which had made Gabbie too uncomfortable to sleep) and Lyra had never considered sleeping in the open air before (without even a tent), but had instantly decided that this was a thing she must do — it was rather late. Lyra suspected, in fact, that Ros had only capitulated because she needed to go to sleep in order to be sufficiently well-rested to supervise the morning baking. Elves, like Lyra, didn't need much sleep, but morning baking began at four.

As such, Maïa and Gin had long since gone to bed by the time Lyra and Gabbie made their way up to the dorm. Lyra had offered Gabrielle her bed again because she wasn't terribly tired yet, and settled in to continue working through the implications of the weird time-freezing thing Angel had done the night before...or even just how she might've done that. It wasn't until about the time the elves would be waking up that she decided she could use a nap, flopped into bed beside Gabrielle, and promptly passed out.

She was awakened what couldn't have been more than a few hours later — it was still dark out — by Maïa hissing her name increasingly loudly and, when she didn't immediately respond, Gin hitting her with a fucking stinging jinx, which was not on her list of top ten ways to be woken up. Her wand was in her hand and a sizzling dark cutting curse flying at the little red-headed bitch before she was awake enough to realise she probably shouldn't do that. Gin did manage to deflect it though, and it didn't have any effect on non-biological materials, so it didn't hurt the wall. So, it was fine, right?

"Jesus Christ, Lyra, what was that?!"

"...Non-fatal." Probably. "You started it." She yawned. "What do you want?"

"Why is there a veela in your bed, Lyra?!" Maïa...sort of whisper-yelled, it was weird.

Lyra was...pretty sure she didn't understand the question. Not fair, asking stupid questions when she'd only been conscious for about five seconds. It didn't look like Maïa had been up much longer, either — she was still in her nightclothes, her curls sleep-tousled and wild, a crease from her pillow pressed into her right cheek — but that was no excuse. Also, since Gabbie hadn't even twitched at Gin bloody shouting over there, she was pretty sure Maïa wasn't going to wake her up just talking. She, accordingly, made no effort to moderate her own volume. "Er...where else would she sleep?"

"Somewhere she's not wrapped around my naked girlfriend, maybe?!"

She wasn't literally, not like Dora or Zee, though she had migrated in her sleep to snuggle up next to Lyra, all tense and curled in on herself. Probably cold. It was actually unseasonably warm for November, Lyra hadn't felt it necessary to start wearing even a nightshirt yet this year, but it did tend to be warmer in Aquitania. "What does that have to do with anything?"

She idly cast a warming charm on the kid, who relaxed immediately. Called it.

"What does—?!"

"Also, why are you doing that, with the whispering? It sounds like it hurts."

Maïa huffed at her. "In what universe is it not significant to find your girlfriend lying naked in bed with a bloody sex demon?!"

"Sex demon? Where did you read that?" Because that wasn't accurate at all. She meant, the People didn't, as a rule, tell outsiders much about themselves, and English books on non-human beings were notoriously terrible, but that one struck her as being unusually wrong.

"It doesn't matter, Lyra!"

"I think it does. I mean, for one thing, the People—" whose name for themselves was one of the few words she knew in their language, "—are completely mundane, they just did some blood magic ritual a ways back to turn themselves into birds." A ways back meaning prehistoric times, though Lyra wasn't really certain how many millennia they were talking. Sirius, who was her primary source of information on veela, was not nearly as interested in the history of the species as he was in the after-effects of their weird mental sex magic, which was, in his words, very floaty and just...calm and slow and nice. "And I...don't think they have to screw people to siphon mental energy from them, it's just fun. I mean, psychic vampire is closer than sex demon, and even that's not close, close."

Of course, they did have an aura of sexiness, supposedly, to people who weren't completely blind to mind-magic — that was why Zee didn't like them, she actually had to work to charm and/or seduce any random human she happened to come across. But Lyra didn't think it was that big a deal? Not unless they panicked because some arsehole was accosting them and lost control, or they were purposefully teasing an entire quidditch stadium, or something.

"Do not change the subject, Lyra!"

Lyra checked the time with a flick of her wand, and let herself flop back down beside Gabrielle. She'd only been asleep for about two hours.

"Fuck, I'm running late! I'll see you later!" Gin exclaimed, charming her hair up and booking it toward the door.

Lyra was pretty sure she was lying, it was barely six, she had plenty of time yet for her run. If she had to guess, she'd say Gin just didn't want to suffer through whatever baffling argument was about to ensue. To be perfectly honest, Lyra didn't really, either. Not that she really had a problem with arguments, she just hated it when people — especially objectively intelligent people who actually knew her — decided to be fucking stupid and confusing for reasons which were never satisfactorily explained. And this was definitely going to be one of those (entirely un-fun) arguments: she'd already been accused of trying to change the subject, and they'd only been talking for about a minute, so. "You're going to have to tell me what the subject is, then. Because I have no idea."

"You! Sleeping with another girl!"

"...Did you want me to sleep with you? Because you were all sprawled out, I don't think I could've gotten in your bed without waking you up. Besides, you didn't want to share a bed back in September."

That had been the source of a similarly confusing conversation, because Lyra had been under the impression that 'dating' implied that they weren't obligated to sleep in separate beds, which meant they could transfigure one of them a little bigger and get rid of the other, which seemed like a really good idea, because the room had gotten kind of cramped when the elves moved Gin's furniture in with them last year. Maïa had had equally inarticulate objections to that entirely reasonable plan — though in that case they'd been flushed and stuttery objections, rather than inexplicably furious objections.

"Why is she in your bed at all, Lyra?!"

"Er...she had to sleep somewhere, didn't she?" A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Is relegating children to parlours a muggle thing?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Lyra?"

"Oh, well, when I first got here, I stayed with Meda for a few days, and Dora wanted me to sleep on a sofa, which is admittedly appealing because, well, that is not what sofas are meant for, but also not as comfortable as a bed, so I had to explain to her that even when you do have more guests than beds — which doesn't exactly happen often, but sometimes, like at weddings and funerals — you don't start assigning children to parlours, you just share with your cousins."

"She isn't your cousin, Lyra! She's a veela!" Well, that didn't mean they weren't cousins of some degree. Like, step- step-third cousins once removed, or something? Jamie was her second cousin once removed, which would make Liz a step-second cousin once removed, and...she wasn't really sure how Lizzie's wife and Gabbie were related, but still... And what difference did it make if they were or weren't cousins, anyway? "Excuse me for having a problem with my girlfriend being seduced by some—"

She cut herself off as Gabbie finally realised it was time to get up (apparently), stirring and groaning, "What time is it?" She managed to prise her eyes open and added, sounding slightly outraged, "It's still dark out! Not morning!" but quickly realised that there was another person present, sitting up with an eager grin. "Oh! You are Lyra's Maïa! Hello! Good morning! I can talk to you now! I have been waiting for two whole days to— You're really pretty! Your mind is all sparkly, like snow falling in moonlight! But swirly, and more colourful. I'm Gabbie. Hi."

For a long moment, Maïa just stared, obviously somewhat put off by her enthusiasm. "...Why are you in my girlfriend's bed, Gabbie?"

"Oh! Because, see, okay, wait. We need to start from yesterday. Or, maybe from the day before. Or last summer? See, I promised Papa I would not come to Hogwarts with the other students from Beauxbatons, because he was so very worried that British people are racist and terrible and dangerous, so obviously I had to come alone, so I was following Madame's carriage to here, but I was very tired because maps are stupid, Britain is not that close to Provença! And the quiet girl shadow walked out of the air, I thought I was hallucinating, honestly, because she's so very, you know, quiet, and she said I should use the floo network to get here instead of flying, which, yes, okay, that is a good idea, but she didn't say it was bad that I was coming here, and helped me get here, and then I met Gin and Harry and Blaise, and kind of you, except not, because I was hiding from you so that you wouldn't tell my father about my super brilliant clever-person plan to prove he is wrong about British people, so I did not say hi, even though you're very pretty.

"And then Fleur became our Champion — Fleur is my sister, she's amazing and perfect and the best big sister ever — but somehow Papa found out that I was not at school almost immediately, and then Lord Sirius told me I had to take off the Press Hat of Unobtrusiveness, which is sad, because it's a gorgeous hat, so he knew I was there, and he tried to make me leave, but I told him even if he made me go home, I would just come back, and it will be easier now that I know not to fly myself, and so he and Mean Master Snape tried to convince me that British people are terrible racists who will rape and/or kill me — mostly Mean Master Snape, Papa would never say such things himself. But I told them no, I was staying, and they could not stop me, and all British people are not so awful, Harry was there, too, he came to visit me, all worried that I would leave, he's so cute! And so Mean Master Snape said Lyra must keep me safe, even if we both told him I would have gotten here by myself and I don't need a minder, I'm fourteen! I've met the sky! I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself! Except with maps, because maps are stupid.

"And so we talked to the chieftess of the elves and asked her to ask the castle to make a balcony for us so we can sleep under the stars because the quiet girl is far too serious, obviously, because she has never thought of this before, but the elf, Ros, she would not talk to the castle then because it was late and she wanted us to go away, and she would do it today, so—"

Maïa seemed to be slowly recovering from the overwhelming deluge of...explanation (kind of), because that was the point at which she interrupted to ask, "Gabbie. What does all of this have to do with you and Lyra being in bed, naked, together?"

"I am getting there! Because Ros would not ask the castle to make us a balcony last night, and it was late and I was tired because Beauxbatons is very far away, and I'm still so sore, I should not have flown so far, that was, yes, silly of me, and we do not have hanging beds yet, anyway, the quiet girl said I could sleep here again. And, er...I guess she also decided to sleep, even though she said she wasn't sleepy?"

"That was before I spent four hours trying to work out whether Angel broke the universe on Samhain, or if everything I thought I knew about cross-planar dimensional dynamics is wrong," Lyra explained. (It really could go either way, and Eris refused to give her a hint.) "I figured you wouldn't mind sharing a bed. You know, seeing as you still don't even believe I'm real."

"No, no, it's fine, I don't mind. And I have come to be convinced that you are real, but possibly only magic — dark, tingly, wild magic — pretending to be some odd human-vampire hybrid, like my cousins who are part human, because things that do not feel are not living beings, this is a fact."

Maïa's glare grew even narrower. "Don't be ridiculous, of course she's a living being!"

...Though she might also kind of sort of be magic just pretending to be human, Lyra realised. Never mind that she actually did feel things, or some things, at least (even if Gabrielle couldn't feel her feeling them), living being and magic pretending to be human weren't actually mutually exclusive categories. Consciousness and magic were fundamentally entwined, and she clearly wasn't actually human anymore, in any sense of the term. She still hadn't had a chance to talk to Maïa about that whole avatar conversation with Angel and Persephone and Lily Evans. Maïa had been too wiped out immediately after the ritual, and... Well, there had been time yesterday, it just hadn't come up, really. And she couldn't bring it up now, that really would be changing the subject.

Gabrielle gave the only human in the room a noncommittal shrug. "I didn't even know she was there. Like waking up with a very large, warm, breathing doll. And as to why we are nude, clothes are just so...confining. How can anyone stand to sleep wearing clothes?"

"So...you didn't sleep together?"

"Well, for a couple of hours, I guess," Lyra admitted, still not getting the problem.

This was apparently a wrong answer, because Maïa only grew more annoyed. "You know what I mean, Lyra! And I have to say, being deliberately evasive like this only leads me to think the answer is yes!"

Lyra let her eyes drift up to the canopy, fighting back her annoyance at being told that she must understand some ridiculous thing, and was simply lying about it, for some inexplicable reason. "I really don't. I know we've talked about this..."

"Ah...I think she means as a euphemism? For sex?"

"Yes! Obviously!" That hadn't been at all obvious to Lyra, but okay...

"Er...no. Please don't be offended, pretty, sparkly Maïa, I'm certain your relationship is very satisfying for you, but you are human. I would not have sex with the quiet girl. I don't think any veela would. It is... It would just be physical, and so what would be the point?"

Maïa did look as though she might be slightly offended, though Lyra wasn't certain why. She also seemed to need a moment to think of a response.

"Pretty sure the point would be the orgasms," Lyra pointed out.

"Orgasms without passion are just chemistry," Gabbie insisted. "There are charms for that, they aren't special."

"And here I thought orgasm-inducing charms were just cheating because they don't require any skill." Lyra smirked, thinking of Zee's opinion on the matter.

The veela shook her head violently. "No, dedication to perfecting a skill is passion, even if your partner is a stranger and there is no personal connection. That's what makes it different."

"I'm definitely introducing you to Zee... See, she has this theory that orgasms—"

"Could you two please stop talking about orgasms?!"

"Um...sure? Why would you care if I were having sex with Gabbie? You know, assuming veela didn't think I'm even creepier than dementors do."

"...Because we're dating, Lyra!"

"Blaise and Harry are dating, and Blaise still has sex with his Hufflepuffs. Granted, Harry doesn't, but I'm pretty sure that's because he doesn't even have the confidence to snog Gabbie, so."

Gabrielle's eyes lit up, a brilliant grin splitting her face. "Ooh! Do you think he really wants to? I thought so, but I wasn't sure how much was him wanting to, and how much was me wanting him to want to..."

"Pretty sure, yeah? I mean, I'm terrible at people, but he was all fae-struck and googly-eyed like he is over you for Blaise before they started sleeping together, literally or euphemistically. Though, it was months before he finally did anything about it, so you might have to make the first move if you're planning on shagging him before Easter."

"Yes, about Blaise, do you think he would be interested, too? They are so cute together, and there is less chance I would hurt them if we are all three together..."

Hurt them? Presumably that was something to do with the weird mind magic sex thing, though Sirius hadn't actually said anything about it being potentially dangerous. And Harry was a legilimens, shouldn't that make weird mind magic things less dangerous for him? Hmmm... Maybe she should tell Siri to talk to him about it, just in case there was anything he should know ahead of time. But it wasn't like it wouldn't take even a veela a few days to work through Harry's eternal awkwardness, so there was time. Lyra shrugged. "Sure? I don't know. I mean, he's a Zabini, so I assume he'd be up for it."

"Lyra! Focus!"

"What am I focusing on, Maïa?"

"Us, Lyra!"

"What about us?"

"Dating! We're dating, Lyra! You're my girlfriend!"

"Er...yes? What does that have to do with this conversation?"

"You don't go around having sex with people you aren't dating, Lyra!"

Well, that was just...categorically false. "That can't possibly be right. I mean, there's Zee and Sirius and Blaise, obviously, but then, I'm pretty sure Snape's still shagging Sinistra, even though he's actually 'dating' Dora." Who was also fucking multiple people, or had been before she ran off to play Black Cloaks, but she claimed she was dating all of them — they went out to dinner and concerts and such — so that probably didn't count. "And conservatively, I'd guess at least half of the married adults I know are fucking people they aren't married to," which she thought did count, because marriage did kind of follow on dating (or courting). "I mean, Dru and Cygnus both did. Bella was definitely fucking both Riddle and Zee, and I don't think you could really call either of those relationship dating, and I don't know if you'd count Marc but I'd definitely say that torturing a willing victim is more...meaningful than having sex with someone—" Lyra hadn't been the least bit surprised to learn (from Hati, who was the werewolf most willing to give Bella shite) that their cousin Marcus had followed Bella into the Death Eaters and volunteered to be one of her playthings. He'd been what, ten, when she'd left? And he'd already been gratifyingly willing to do anything she told him to, or else. Not unlike teasing Blaise, actually. "—and I'm pretty sure she wasn't dating him, either... And now we're doing the horrified staring thing again. Why?"

And why was there never a Zabini around when she needed one?!

Gabbie giggled, high and hesitant. The monitoring spell she'd worked between them tingled slightly as the mark which signified Gabrielle's fear grew visible, so probably nervously.

Lyra grinned down at the little sparrow silhouette. She'd kind of been exaggerating when she'd told Régis that she was making that spell up at that very moment. She hadn't actually worked through the implications of using blood-runes for the enchantment beforehand — she had been planning on using runic casting, or maybe a tattoo — and obviously she'd used some elements that she hadn't tried together before, but she'd been working on a way to keep track of Emma for months, now, it was practically inevitable that someone would try to kidnap or assassinate her eventually. It seemed that the relating element she'd stolen from Gabbie's shadow-tracking charm was exactly what she'd been looking for. And the image she'd used for the visual representation had turned out just as she'd pictured it, too. She'd give it a few more weeks just to make sure there were no obvious side-effects on either end, but that looked like one major project more or less done! Now if she could figure out how to get that muggle wand working...

"Because pretty, sparkly Maïa does not find pleasure in pain." Oh, right, focus, Lyra! "She is afraid that this means you do not enjoy having sex with her."

Maïa went red at that, suggesting she was at least close to the mark, but "That can't be right, Maïa isn't ready to have sex with me, or anyone, yet. Even though she agrees that orgasms are fun." They'd had an honestly baffling conversation in the wake of Maïa's Introduction ritual, about why Maïa was so...weird, about almost shagging Lyra in front of Gin. Lyra had pointed out that there were loads of times Gin wasn't around, if that was the problem, and Maïa had awkwardly explained that she wasn't comfortable with the idea of sex, yet...even though she was apparently comfortable with the idea of masturbating...but not talking about it...because reasons. It had been an especially annoying conversation because not only did Lyra not get it, but Maïa had also asked her not to talk to Blaise about it, because she didn't want Blaise knowing about their sex life or lack thereof — again, because...reasons. ("Dating", so far as Lyra could tell, was most easily distinguished from "being friends" by the number of baffling conversations she was expected to participate in.)

"But, if you have not met the sky, how do you know how you like to have sex?" she asked Maïa, sounding nearly as confused as Lyra still was.

"I don't understand," Maïa choked out, very red.

"Veela puberty is kind of different from humans," Lyra explained, brushing her confusion aside. Honestly, that was about all Sirius knew about it, or at least all he'd told her — that they went through some sort of birdy metamorphosis they called meeting the sky when they were about...twelve? and the weird veela mind magic sex thing kicked in as part of it, like going from being an innocent little kid to a sex-starved teenager overnight. (Assuming Sirius wasn't exaggerating, which wasn't at all out of the question.) It wasn't really relevant at the moment. "Orgasms and hurting people are different kinds of fun." Neither of them were quite as much fun as fighting for her life, but she was pretty sure they didn't need to talk about that again.

Contrary to Lyra's expectation, Maïa hadn't endlessly brought up their discussion on the train, regarding the Riot. Lyra almost thought she'd been avoiding talking about it, actually, which was fine, they could do that. They'd had more than enough baffling conversations lately she wasn't going to complain about not talking about something for once, and anyway, the less she thought about it the fainter the itch to go find someone to try to kill her became. It never entirely went away, though. Not really. (Not coincidentally, she never managed to not think about it for very long.) And she'd been absolutely right about hunting spiders not being enough anymore. And since she couldn't actually just go find a war zone to go blow off some steam, she really needed to find a duelling partner.

(She thought finding a nice war zone to holiday in seemed like a great idea, but apparently Siri had been being sarcastic about vacationing in Rwanda, and they weren't even killing people there anymore anyway. Arse.)

Ideally such a duelling partner would be at least a little better than her, so she didn't have to worry about accidentally killing them if she didn't hold back, but not so far beyond her that they'd completely crush her in two seconds if they didn't hold back — it wasn't like she'd get better if she always won, but if she couldn't fight back, there'd be no point — who wouldn't go easy on her like Siri and Dora, didn't give a shite about the legality of her spells, had the stamina to actually wear her out, and didn't think it was absolutely insane to throw around potentially lethal magic in practice bouts. Or was willing to play along, even if they did think it was absolutely insane, she wasn't picky. Though, if they actually liked fighting, that would be a plus. She didn't think that was too much to ask for? (...It was possible she'd spent a slightly absurd amount of time over the last couple of months fantasising about finding this perfect duelling partner.)

Her musing was interrupted by a sharp fingernail poking at her left temple. "Huh?" Oh, right, Gabrielle. Maïa. Sex.

"Pretty, sparkly Maïa was reminding you that you told her not so long ago that you think sex and murder are somehow analogous subjects and not in fact opposites."

"Did I?" She meant, she didn't disagree, they were both very physically intimate acts...unless you used poison, or a beheading curse from far too far away. Like, strangling someone, though, or stabbing them, though. But when...? Oh! "I was actually just implying that Professor Riddle thinks they are. Which, again, I don't really know. I do know he and Bella were into mixing up sex and pain and power games, though, so I'd be kind of surprised if they didn't get off on killing people occasionally." Get off wasn't exactly right, she imagined it was a different kind of satisfying, like hurting people was a different kind of fun, but she didn't have words for these things. Kill people for their own gratification? Whatever.

"And you don't see why I might find that disturbing?"

"Obviously, no." She was pretty sure it should be obvious, since she hadn't avoided saying it in the first place. She did try not to make Maïa all awkward and uncomfortable with her.

"Lyra! You just said torturing someone is more meaningful than having sex with them!"

"Er...yes, and?"

She didn't think she was wrong. Torturing someone tended to be much more involved — well, if it wasn't just chucking pain curses at someone, that was kind of like hitting them with an orgasm-inducing charm, just...cheap — and having an ongoing torture-thing with someone seemed more...dynamic? than just shagging them.

She meant, even if you did think the pain felt good — which, it could, she knew, in certain circumstances...namely those in which she wasn't being forced to suffer them. Having Bella get rid of her scars had objectively hurt more than getting holes poked in herself, and she hadn't even been that up at the time, but she...hadn't hated it? Not like she had the piercing hexes. She definitely wasn't about to go volunteering herself to be flayed, but knowing that she could call it off and pushing herself to keep going anyway had been...kind of an interesting challenge. But even if the pain itself wasn't an all-bad thing, it was still more complicated than all-good things like orgasms.

That had to extend to the whole relationship, right? Like not just hating the Cruciatus, but also kind of liking it because of after? (Again, not enough to want to have it cast on her, just enough that it wasn't even that close to the top of her list of worst curses to suffer.) Or kind of liking losing a fight (but only if she was completely worn out and got to push herself as long and hard as she possibly could before losing) or being sore from training. It hurt, but in a good, achy sort of way.

And she liked that complexity and ambivalence. It was more meaningful than simple pleasure. "I also think writing a book together or being able to have actual conversations is more meaningful than sex. I mean, there are reasons I spend more time with you than Sylvie. Sure, sex is fun, and so is hunting, but it's like...simple fun." Not entirely unlike the way she did really like being free out in the Forest in general, but wouldn't want to live there.

She grinned, pleased to have come up with such a good explanation — and without even a Zabini to help, too! — but even though she was pretty sure Maïa now understood what she meant, she didn't look equally delighted to understand. In fact, she looked kind of...surprised. In a bad way. "Er...Maïa?"

"You're... You've been having sex with Sylvia?"

Lyra shrugged. "Yeah, so?"

"How long?"

"Er...since sometime this summer?" After Zee started shagging Siri, because they'd been in bed together when she popped in to discuss the revelation that orgasms are, in fact, fun, and maybe Zee wasn't nearly as weird as Lyra had always thought for her obsession with sex. "The first or second of August, I think?" Because she'd been all edgy after going and hanging out with Bella that first time, and then having to try to act especially normal all day because they went to a muggle amusement park for Harry's birthday (not like there were really magical amusement parks, but), and she'd really, really needed to get away from humans after that, which was the impetus for that particular hunting trip.

"So...after we started dating."

"I guess?" That had been...early-ish in July, she'd have to check her diary on the exact date. "I repeat, so what?"

"So, you didn't think you should maybe tell me? Are you sleeping with anyone else?"

She got the impression that the right answer here was, "No."

Of course, it was also true — Zee had apparently grown out of finding teenagers attractive at some point in the past thirty years, and Sirius was trying to be a "responsible" adult, which apparently meant emulating the class-traitor, Henry Black bits of their House's long and illustrious history, but not the fucking your mad, teenage cousins bits (not that it had even come up again after the riot). Blaise had actually backed off on their whole snogging-teasing thing because apparently Harry would care if he found out about it...because reasons, and... Yeah, that pretty much rounded out the list of people she was interested in touching at all, and would therefore have sex with if they wanted to.

Well, and Angel, obviously. But if Angel actually wanted to spend time with her, she was sure they could find more interesting things to do than sex.

"No, you didn't think you should tell me, or no, you're not sleeping with anyone else?"

"Er...both?" Oh! Sleeping with (as in, literally) reminded her of Dora, she should probably be on the list of people she wouldn't mind fucking, too. But she was somewhere in Italy at the moment, and if Zee fucking both Sirius and Bella was basically like Bella fucking Sirius, then Dora fucking both Snape and Lyra would be like Lyra fucking Snape, who definitely ruined her fun too often to be on the list...

"For future reference, Lyra, deliberately hiding something from me because you think I'm not going to like it is even worse than just telling me!" Maïa snapped, getting all shirty about it.

Lyra rolled her eyes. "I wasn't deliberately hiding anything. I didn't really think about whether or not I should tell you at all. I guess if it had occurred to me, I probably would have thought I shouldn't anyway, but I wouldn't bother going out of my way to avoid talking about it." If she were, she definitely wouldn't have mentioned it just now. That seemed obvious, right? "I mean, you did say you didn't want to know what I got up to out in the Forest with Sylvie, and it doesn't really have anything to do with you, so..."

"Oh, yes, my girlfriend going around sleeping with other people doesn't involve me at all!"

"I know you're being sarcastic, but obviously it doesn't. Why would it?"

"Argh!"

"I mean, did you want it to? I know you don't like Sylvie," though she didn't know why, "and I know you don't like the idea of shagging me in front of Gin, or at all, so I would've guessed—"

Maïa cut her off with another inarticulate noise of frustration.

"Being all argh, I'm so frustrated with you Lyra, why can't you just magically know what stupid normal-people things I'll get inexplicably angry about if you don't tell me, isn't going to help me understand what the fuck I'm doing wrong, here, you know."

"I'm not angry, Lyra, I'm hurt! I'm hurt that you didn't—" She cut herself off before she explained exactly what Lyra hadn't...done? said? which Lyra was pretty sure was more frustrating than her confusion.

Well Lyra was angry. Increasingly annoyed at the very least. "What the fuck is the difference?!" she snapped, trying very hard to rein in her temper, but she apparently had no idea how the universe worked anymore, and she'd been woken up with a bloody stinging jinx and now she was being told off and she had no idea why! As far as she knew she hadn't even broken any rules — Maïa had explicitly told her that she didn't want to know what she did out in the Forest! She'd changed her mind about wanting even non-detailed information about Lyra killing people (though acromantulae didn't count because practically everyone was weirdly racist about giant, man-eating spiders) or almost getting herself killed after less than two weeks of Lyra making a point to tell her, she'd assumed they were just back to I don't want to know!

Gabrielle jabbed her in the temple again, which did not help her ability to concentrate on focusing exercises, at the moment. "What, Gabbie?"

"You are being mean and making your pretty, sparkly Maïa all anxious and sad. Stop it!"

"I'm not being mean, I don't know—"

"Calling your girlfriend's feelings stupid normal-person things is mean!"

"No, it's not! Things that don't make sense are stupid! Maïa knows I don't think she's stupid, she's probably the cleverest person I know, that just makes it even more frustrating when she stops making sense!"

The little veela sniffed at her, all French and disapproving. "Well, if things that don't make sense are stupid, then you're both being stupid — you're not listening to each other!"

"I'm listening!" Lyra snapped.

"No, you are not! If you were listening, you would know your pretty, sparkly Maïa thinks that sex and companionship — physical and emotional intimacy — go together! And Maïa, you would know that the quiet girl thinks they don't, and also that the things you do with her are more important than sex and hunting with her Sylvia!" Well, that wasn't necessarily true — if it weren't for hunting with Sylvie, Lyra might've tried to burn down the school by now, or left to be anywhere she didn't have to be around so many humans, all the time, so that was pretty important, but. "Sylvia is not also her girlfriend— Euh, is she?"

"No. I don't think wolves are very formal about courting, I doubt they even have an equivalent term."

"Wait, wolves? You mean your Sylvia is wilderfolk?" Lyra nodded. Gabrielle turned a brilliant orange glare on Maïa. "And you know this?"

"Well, yes, obviously. I have met her!"

"Human companionship and wilderfolk companionship are like apples and potatoes, Maïa! Very different. Even for outsiders, there is no reason to be so jealous!"

"Outsiders?" Maïa repeated, rather than acknowledge that Gabbie was one-thousand per cent correct, and thinking that having sex with Sylvie meant, what? that Lyra preferred her over Maïa in some way? was bloody stupid. They didn't do any of the same things together! At all! It wasn't a choice between Maïa and Sylvie, it was a choice between doing something intensely intellectual or something intensely physical! And most of the time it wasn't even a choice, Maïa was usually asleep when Lyra went hunting. "You mean non-veela?"

"No, not exactly. The People are veela and lilin yes, but also humans. Outsiders are not of the People. You have different...culture, different ways of thinking, like about sex and companionship — we do not think they are always separate, but often — and how many make a family, and why to marry. And jealousy, possessiveness, is...not expected, I think, is a good way to say it. Your companions and sexual partners, you don't own them. I mean, some people are into that, of course, but it's a bit odd?"

"I don't think I own Lyra!"

"But you don't want to share her."

"Well— No, I just...want...all of her. God, that sounds so stupid," Maïa muttered, her face growing almost alarmingly red.

Lyra snorted. "No, you don't." Before her girlfriend could come up with words to go along with her instantaneous expression of outrage, she added, "I know you think you do, but even I know how uncomfortable you are with fighting and killing and being out in the wild, and even the idea of almost-but-not-quite dying — I mean, Siri said I should've invited you to the World Cup, but I kind of think it was good I didn't, because I don't think you'd've liked the riot at all."

Maïa wilted slightly. "Well, no, but—"

"But nothing, Maïa. You want to pretend that isn't part of who I am, fine, but you don't want all of me. Also, I'm pretty sure you're not physically capable of keeping up with me, and I'm pretty sure you shouldn't try. I mean, you always get kind of miserable after not sleeping for a couple of days. Why should you care if I'm out with Sylvie while you're unconscious?"

"Wait, are you not sleeping again?"

Ugh, were they going to have to have the you need to sleep conversation again? Shite! Clearly she did need more sleep, because she hadn't anticipated that. "Well, you did just wake me up, which does imply that, yes, I've been sleeping." Occasionally.

"Lyra..."

"I'm fine, Maïa, I promise. I sleep when I'm tired."

"You're being evasive again."

"I wasn't being evasive before!"

"Lyra! How late have you been staying up?"

"Er..." That was kind of a hard question, really. Did it count as staying up late if you just napped for a couple of hours in the middle of the day?

"You can't not sleep, Lyra! Do I need to drag you down to Madam Pomfrey so she can tell you?"

"No." Pomfrey would probably try to sedate her, which had been tried, back when she was little and this was 'up' and not 'normal'. It didn't work, just made her all fuzzy-headed and miserable. "If you recall, I just said, I'm fine. I do sleep. Occasionally. When I'm tired."

"Which is how often? Approximately?" Maïa demanded, fixing her with a narrow, disapproving glare. "And how long has this been going on?"

"Can we go back to you being annoyed with me for fucking Sylvie?" Because given her preference, she'd rather make people angry at her than worried about her. Especially because not sleeping much was perfectly normal. For her. According to Eris.

The glare only narrowed.

"You know you look like Minnie when you do that?" She sighed, already anticipating the entirely unhelpful and unnecessary objections to reality that Maïa was about to make. "And if you must know, approximately fourteen, maybe sixteen hours a week? All summer. Which is, I repeat, fine," she added quickly, even as Maïa opened her mouth to offer the anticipated objections. "Given that you haven't noticed, there are obviously no adverse effects, so—"

"Get up."

"Er...what?"

"Get up, we're going to talk to Madam Pomfrey, right now."

"No. Look, this is perfectly normal!" For a mad Black coming into her power...she thought. Zee, admittedly, had said after the riot (when they'd had that talk about not losing her temper) that Bella hadn't been quite so up and volatile as Lyra at her age, but Bella could do occlumency, and Lyra was shadow-kin (as well as a "baby avatar", apparently), so she was pretty sure she was channelling more magic than Bella would have been when she was fourteen.

"Lyra, I'm not convinced you would recognise perfectly normal if it walked up and bit you on the arse. You need to talk to a healer!"

"Zee said it's fine!" She hadn't, but Lyra couldn't exactly say that Eris had said it was with Gabrielle right there, and she was betting Zee wouldn't think this was anything to be concerned about, either.

"Lady Zabini is not a healer!"

"No, but she did know Bella when she was my age." She checked the time again before Maïa could come up with some way to dismiss that argument, too, wriggling out of bed and slipping past her very obviously still concerned girlfriend.

"Lyra, where are you going? This conversation isn't over!"

"Yes, it is. I'm not going to let Pomfrey try to sedate me — try being the operative word, and have you ever been partially sedated, it's fucking miserable — and I'm not going to argue with you about objective reality. I'm going to take a shower and head down to breakfast because I do actually need to eat, and if we don't hurry, there won't be time before Defence."

She pointedly ignored Maïa's response, stalking off toward the bathroom. She did, however, hear Gabrielle ask, "Are you sure the quiet girl isn't actually Magic pretending to be human?" and Maïa respond (her tone full of concern and annoyance), "If Magic were pretending to be human, I think it would do a better job," which, well... Lyra couldn't really disagree.

They were probably going to have to have a talk about the whole avatar thing, too.

Bugger!

Comparing apples and potatoes: pommes et pommes de terre, because they're speaking French even if no one mentions it at any point (because Lyra wouldn't notice), and humans and wilderfolk are more different than apples and pears. (And also because both Gabbie and Leigha think they're funny. —Lysandra)

I should have more notes, but I'm hung over, so deal with it. (I know you'll all be so very disappointed not having my silly rambling about random shite no one else cares about. Very sad.) —Leigha

The next chapter is finished (expect it in a couple days), and the one after that is almost done, but that's all we have written at the moment. Once we reach the end of our buffer, expect updates to slow down to as we finish them. —Lysandra