Word count: 4,319

Daphne learned about Muggle gay bars on accident. She'd taken to exploring Muggle London because it was easier than going places where people might recognize her. Plus, there was a newness to everything that she found exciting. Muggles had more options for entertainment than she had even realized. Diagon Alley couldn't begin to complete with the sheer number of stores in just one neighborhood in London.

She'd been learning more about London for several years before she found her first gay bar by simply walking past it and noticing that the atmosphere around the place was different from the others she'd visited. In some strange way, it had called to her almost as if it had been charmed.

She'd noticed the number of same-sex couples around her before she'd even stepped inside, even though she hadn't quite understood the reason for it. Her heart raced as she watched couples holding hands and even kissing. She'd been light-headed and left soon after.

Over the years, she'd accepted her sexuality, or at least she thought she had. She had yet to share the truth with anyone, but she felt more comfortable about it within herself. If no one else knew, that was only because she knew how they would react. Keeping it to herself was simpler.

But it also meant that she hadn't even attempted to date since leaving Hogwarts.

If asked, she had a number of excuses up her sleeve: The wizarding world was small, and she already knew most people her age. Dating a Muggle was a disaster waiting to happen. She was busy with her career.

Yet whatever excuses she provided, it didn't change the reality, and Daphne was becoming increasingly frustrated by that reality. So, ignoring the adrenaline rushing through her veins, she went back to that same bar she had stumbled upon.

She'd finished off one beer and started on a second when she noticed a woman smiling at her from further down the bar, and Daphne tried to smile back without revealing any of her unease. The woman's auburn hair hung just past her shoulders in large curls. Her eyes were dark in the light of the bar. Daphne's cheeks flushed, and she turned away.

She saw the woman moving towards her from the corner of her eye and stiffened, her hand tightening around the handle of her drink.

Talking to other women was the reason she'd come in the first place, yet she wanted to run.

"Hi."

Daphne turned to the woman with a nervous smile.

"Hi," she echoed.

Up close, she saw that the woman's eyes were brown with gold flecks that hadn't been visible from a distance. Daphne could have gotten lost in them if she let herself, but she didn't. She kept her hands around her beer to keep them from shaking.

"Is it your first time here?" the woman asked, leaning against the bar.

Daphne's cheeks warmed with the confirmation that her nerves were as obvious as she'd feared they were. After a lifetime of keeping her own feelings at a distance, she didn't know how to just let herself be.

"Yes?"

Her nerves made her answer lilt upward and sound like a question without her meaning for it to.

The woman laughed, her curls bouncing. Daphne swallowed and willed herself not to look away. If there was one place where she didn't have to worry about looking, this was it.

"How exciting," the woman said, taking another step toward Daphne and closing what personal space there'd still been between them.

The fire inside Daphne was unlike anything she had experienced before. Though her mind had run through many fantasies, she hadn't really expected something like this when she'd arrived at the bar, but she couldn't pull away from the intoxicating atmosphere between her and the woman.

"I'm Daphne," she managed to choke out.

The woman laughed and held out a hand. Daphne shook her, trying not to think about how soft the woman's skin was beneath her fingers.

"Delia," she said. "And I'll make you a deal, Daphne. You're very attractive, and I think you might be interested in me. I came here tonight looking for something fun with no strings attached. I could show you the ropes and get you better acquainted with yourself if you're up for it."

She tilted her head to the side, exposing her neck as she waited for Daphne's answer. Her skin was bronzed, and Daphne had never wanted to kiss someone's skin as much as she did in that moment. Delia's hand found her waist, and when Daphne didn't protest, she went as far as slipping her fingers under the hem of Daphne's shirt and tracing her skin at the top of her jeans.

Daphne's brain short-circuited as she nodded frantically.

"That sounds perfect," she said in a rush.

But Delia wasn't put off by the clear effect she was having on Daphne, she laughed, and Daphne mourned the loss of her fingers against her skin as she pulled away. A second later, Daphne's hand was in hers, and she was tugging Daphne off her stool.

"My place isn't far," she whispered in Daphne's ear, making her skin erupt in goose bumps.

Daphne couldn't speak as she let herself be pulled from the bar on jelly-like legs.

It wasn't as if Daphne's first night with a girl meant everything fell into place and was easy. Feeling comfortable in her own skin took time, but Daphne felt a little better each day.

She began frequenting places where she felt that she could be herself, and she no longer felt nervous when she entered. Instead, their atmosphere was invigorating. At first, it was the only time she felt truly herself.

She had a number of several short-lived attempts at dating before she met Anna, a Muggleborn from America who had moved to London less than a year earlier.

Daphne fell hard and fast. Anna was part of Daphne's world in a way none of the Muggle girls she'd tried dating before had been, but she was also enough removed from it that Daphne could be with her without worries of things getting complicated or messy with her family or school friends.

While Daphne had become more comfortable in her skin in her new life, she wasn't yet ready to completely unite new and old. Sometimes, she wondered if she ever would be.

In most ways, what happened between her and Anna felt entirely divorced from her old life. Though a witch who had attended Ilvermorny and currently worked in a shop on Diagon Alley, Anna was entrenched in Muggle society in more ways than Daphne could count.

On their third date, the conversation had drifted towards families. While Daphne had tried to reveal as little as possible about her own, Anna had joked, "My mom's kind of a hardcore feminist. I hope that doesn't scare you off."

Anna had been surprised when Daphne hadn't known what she was talking about. Apparently feminism was a bigger deal in the American wizarding community than the British one, or at least that was the case in Anna's group of friends.

Before long, Daphne had learned that it wasn't just Anna's mum but Anna herself who was invested in Muggle feminism.

Daphne watched from a distance as Anna posted things on Muggle websites—a kind of technology she didn't understand no matter how many times Anna explained it—and attended protests. Anna may have joked about scaring her off at the beginning, but Daphne wasn't scared. At first, she was just baffled about why any of it mattered.

As Anna explained her beliefs more and more, Daphne's thoughts on the topic shifted. It became difficult to understand why more people didn't care. Anna gave her new vocabulary and new ways of describing things she had noticed her whole life and just accepted as reality.

She opened up about the arranged marriage her parents had wanted and her childhood dreams of being an Auror, which had been given up long ago. Instead of being scared off like Daphne had feared, Anna was furious on her behalf, and Daphne blossomed upon having her anger justified, getting drawn even farther into the world Anna occupied.

Depending on who you asked, Daphne had become too drawn in, but Daphne would contend that such a judgement was a matter of perspective.

Protests were invigorating, it turned out. Even after years of her family keeping her in a box, Daphne had the perfect personality for confrontation. She loved a good argument, and there was always at least one at the protests she attended. The hardest part was not drawing her wand when certain Muggles made categorically false comments or, at times, threw insults their way.

Yes, Daphne loved protests; she loved them even more than Anna, who viewed them merely as something required to achieve change. Daphne would have happily protested any day of the week. She lived for the high of it.

It was only a matter of time before she organized one herself in the Ministry atrium. Wizarding Britain was behind the times, and she was determined to bring them into the future. There may have been certain parts of her new life that she was unwilling to share with her family, but this wasn't one of them. It made her feel powerful to know her parents might get wind of her saying such audacious things after she'd refused Blaise Zabini.

If Hermione Granger could advocate for house elf rights without being laughed out of the Ministry, then the same bureaucrats could listen to Daphne talk about the underrepresentation of women within the Ministry's ranks.

The Aurors clearly didn't know what to do with the—admittedly small—group of protestors Daphne had gathered around her. They hovered near them in the atrium, hardly glancing away as they ushered other Ministry visitors past as quickly as possible.

"What are you looking at?" Daphne snapped at one Auror in particular who was incapable of looking anywhere but at her. "Am I that interesting?"

The Auror's face remained unreadable as he continued staring at her, but Anna put a hand on Daphne's arm and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Are you trying to get us arrested? Maybe don't piss off law enforcement."

She had a point. Daphne had a habit of doing just that during the Muggle protests they'd attended, but in those situations, she knew that she had magic to protect herself if things got too out of hand. It was just hard to resist when the Aurors were standing there glowering at her like they were.

Before she could respond to Anna, Susan Bones appeared. Daphne's gaze latched onto her immediately, finding the golden badge pinned to her robes. She'd heard that Bones had made it high up in the Ministry's Internal Affairs office, mostly likely due to nepotism, but she hadn't expected to see her.

She smirked as Susan approached, realizing that her protest might have already made bigger waves than she'd realized.

Susan headed straight for her, apparently having realized that Daphne was the head of the operation before she came to speak to them. Daphne was proud of that too, but she held her tongue, only raising one eyebrow at Susan as she came to a stop in front of her.

"Miss Greengrass," Susan began in a formal tone, "I'll have to ask you to refrain from inciting the situation. We would like everyone to stay safe today."

"Of course, ma'am," Daphne replied in an overly sweet voice. "The last thing I'd want was to anger an important government official such as yourself. I know how hard you work to keep society functioning smoothly and as if it were still in the fifth century."

Susan stared at her for a long, silent moment. At first, Daphne expected her to walk away without saying anything, but the redhead surprised her.

"Well, some of us work harder than others," she said tilting her head to the side.

It took a split second for Daphne to process the statement, but once she had, she laughed. Susan smirked, and Daphne forced her expression into something neutral, embarrassed about her lack of control in front of someone she didn't want to like.

"Yes," Daphne said, "I can tell that the Aurors work harder than anyone else in this building."

Susan looked over her shoulder at the Aurors who still stood around the perimeter of the protest. Her expression was unreadable.

"They're doing what the Minister asked them to do," she said as she turned back to Daphne. "They're under strict instructions not to engage with anyone in your group unless someone disturbs the peace."

"I can assure you that won't happen, Miss Bones," Daphne said with a sweet smile. "We don't want to cause any trouble."

Susan covered a snort with her hand, but her grin was still visible when she dropped it.

"It's interesting to see where your life has taken you since Hogwarts," she said, her eyes analyzing Daphne.

Daphne laughed and shook her head.

"You too," she said with a roll of her eyes.

She tossed a pointed look at Susan's badge that made Susan shift her weight to her other foot. She cleared her throat, her gaze not quite meeting Daphne's.

"I wanted to make a difference," she said with a shrug.

Daphne was able to quell her laughter for once as she straightened her posture.

"So do I, Miss Bones. It might be that we don't see eye to eye on how to best do that."

Susan nodded absentmindedly, her eyes intent on Daphne.

"Perhaps we could discuss that sometime," she said, brushing her hair behind her shoulder.

Daphne stared back. A Ministry official was trying to flirt with her. She had little doubt that it was flirting too. Her initial lack of experience was long gone, and she would almost have considered herself an expert on how women flirted with each other.

Never in a million years had she expected it to come from a Ministry official though.

She hummed, pretending to mull it over.

"I'm afraid I don't date people who are part of corrupt systems like the Ministry of Magic," she said, placing one hand on her hip.

Susan's smile didn't wane. If anything, it grew wider. She sighed and nodded.

"I suppose I'll have to nurse my broken heart then," she said as she backed away.

"Suppose so," Daphne called after her. "I hope it's not too hard for you."

Susan had turned away from her by then, but the shake of her head was enough to tell Daphne that she'd heard her loud and clear.

Despite her strict personal policy of not dating Ministry employees, she watched the redhead go until she'd disappeared through the crowd, not even caring who noticed for once.

Sunday brunch with Astoria was the only weekly routine Daphne had that she refused to cancel no matter what the circumstances were. It was the one connection she had to the family who had cut her off after she'd run away.

Brunch was always a happy affair. Daphne carefully avoided any and all topics that she knew would upset Astoria, which meant that the version of her life that Astoria knew was whitewashed to the point of hardly being Daphne's life at all. But none of that mattered.

Daphne much preferred to keep conversations focused on Astoria's life. She needed to make sure that their parents weren't interfering too much and that Astoria was doing what she actually wanted to do, not just following their expectations.

As it turned out, Astoria was much more adept at pushing against their parents rules without estranging herself from them entirely than Daphne had been. Not that Daphne would have said as much out loud, but she was nearly certain that it was because of Astoria's ongoing relationship with Draco Malfoy, who their parents could find no fault with. As long as Astoria had that relationship, their parents were willing to give her the other freedoms she pushed for, including the freedom to choose a profession among Muggles.

Astoria was also terrible at concealing her emotions, and during one such lunch, Daphne watched her with one eyebrow raised as she pushed her food around on her plate with her fork.

"What's up?" Daphne asked, leaning her elbows on the table as she fixed Astoria with the kind of look only a sister could give.

Sitting her fork down with a sigh, Astoria seemed to be preparing herself for something.

"Promise you won't get mad when I tell you?" she asked with a frown.

Daphne shook her head, not in disagreement but in amusement.

"Whatever it is can't be that bad, Tory. Just give it to me."

Astoria took one last deep breath before she confessed.

"Draco and I are engaged. We're going to get married next year."

Daphne looked at Astoria, whose own eyes were wide as she looked back at her sister. Suddenly, Daphne started laughing.

"You thought that would make me angry?" she asked, brushing a stray tear from her eye.

Astoria opened and closed her mouth several times as she struggled to process what Daphne was thinking. She shrugged defensively.

"Well, when you were meant to marry Zabini, you ran away from it. And I know how you feel about marriage…"

"Astoria," Daphne interrupted her. She reached out to take her hand. "That's about me, not you."

Astoria nodded, but she still didn't understand judging by the way she was looking at Daphne.

"Do you love him?" Daphne asked, tilting her head to the side.

Astoria gaped at her, trying and failing to speak several times before she finally did so successfully.

"Of course!" she exclaimed. "I love him so much."

"Then why would I have a problem with it?" she asked, unable to stop herself from smirking. "I didn't love Blaise; you love Draco. They're entirely different situations."

Astoria huffed and shook her head.

"But you hate marriage," she said. "It's not just Blaise, Daphne. Everytime it comes up, you go on and on about how marriage is outdated and it's better for men than women. Excuse me for thinking you wouldn't exactly be happy for me."

Daphne stared at Astoria, her palms beginning to shake as she gripped her robes beneath the table. She hadn't meant to do anything drastic when she'd met Astoria that morning, but she also hadn't expected Astoria to announce her engagement. Perhaps it was the day for big reveals and getting everything out on the table.

"Astoria, I'm gay."

The silence between them was deafening. Daphne had long since grown used to saying the words out loud as long as they weren't to her family or any of her old Hogwarts friends, so she didn't care about who in the Muggle restaurant overheard them. The only thing she cared about was Astoria's reaction, and her sister wasn't giving her much of anything as she stared at her.

"Oh," was all she said at first.

Daphne nodded, hoping Astoria would add more without her having to speak.

"I wasn't expecting that," Astoria admitted, biting at her lip. "I just…"

The two women stared at each other, Daphne fidgeting with her hands in her lap.

"So," Astoria said slowly. "Those comments you've made about marriage being a prison and whatnot…"

"Had everything to do with me, not you," Daphne finished. "As long as you love Draco, I'm not going to stand in the way of you marrying him or anything. To be honest, that sounds like time I could spend doing something more useful."

Astoria nodded.

"Does this mean you won't tease him the next time you see him?" she asked.

Daphne smirked.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Tory."

Astoria rolled her eyes, but she couldn't hide her smile.

Daphne had been shocked when her invitation arrived in the mail. Hermione Granger and Susan Bones had a new initiative for improving the gender balance at the Ministry, and Daphne Greengrass was one of the "important" people they'd decided to invite to a dinner in the initiative's honor.

She wasn't sure what she had done other than continue to be a pain in their asses. Over the years, she'd seen Susan a few more times at various protests she helped organize, but the other woman hadn't spoken to her again, and eventually, she was promoted again and stopped showing up to them at all.

Hermione was someone Daphne knew of from school but had only seen in the newspaper since. She was pretty sure the new Minister for Magic would hardly recognize her name if she saw it on a list of party-goers. So how, exactly, had she been deemed a good person to invite to such a shindig?

She was more than a little baffled, but she was also determined to go. It was the only way she had any chance of figuring it out, and she hated mysteries.

When she arrived, it was to a room far fancier than it needed to be. It was decorated in a similar vein to the rest of the Ministry, which was to say it was ugly and unappealing. Outside the magical window, snow danced in the air, but inside, it was warm enough that none of the women in sleeveless dresses appeared uncomfortable.

There was no one there who Daphne knew. She was well-acquainted with the members of all of the few feminist groups in wizarding Britain, and not a single person from them was there except for her. Every attendee appeared to be from the Ministry itself, and Daphne had no interest in speaking to any of them.

She headed for the snacks, even though there was nothing particularly interesting on the table. It was mostly cheese and crackers, and not even particularly fancy kinds. That didn't stop her from stuffing several in her mouth in quick succession to give herself something to do as the government officials chatted around her.

"Miss Greengrass."

Daphne stiffened before turning from the table to find Susan standing in front of her with glass in one hand and a smile on her lips. She looked different in person than she had in recent editions of the newspaper, but it suited her. She looked real.

"Miss Bones," Daphne said with an uneasy smile. "Thank you for the invitation. I wasn't expecting it."

Susan chuckled and nodded.

"Minister Granger and I are making some changes. One of the most important for us was including our most vocal critics in the dialogue."

Daphne's cheeks warmed as Susan brushed past her to get some of her own cheese and crackers from the table. For a few moments, it was silent as she chewed.

"What brought on that change?" Daphne asked once it looked like Susan would be capable of answering.

Susan laughed slightly and shook her head in amusement.

"It may be a change for the Ministry, but it's not really a change for me or Hermione. We've been talking about doing this for years. It just takes a while to get things in motion around here."

Daphne snorted.

"You don't say."

Susan shook her head, but it was with a smile.

"I understand why you want to work outside the system," she said. "But some of us here want change just as much as you do. It's only that we've decided to go about it a different way."

"By reinforcing existing power structures?"

She gave Susan her most innocent smile, and the redhead was unable to come up with an immediate response as opposed to gaping. A man called Susan's name from across the room, puncturing their bubble.

Susan sighed.

"It looks like I'm needed, but we should continue this conversation when I'm not working. I'd be interested in hearing more about your opinion. How about coffee on Saturday?"

It could have been a business meeting, but Daphne knew that Susan was asking as Susan, not a Ministry employee. Her personal policy of not dating Ministry employees was still firmly in place, but she couldn't shake her curiosity about how Susan planned to defend herself against Daphne's question.

"Sure," Daphne said with a shrug. "That should be interesting."

Susan shook her head one last time before disappearing through the crowd. This time, Daphne didn't watch her go. Instead, she turned towards the refreshment table to hide her burning cheeks.

Susan's answer in her defence was an interesting one, even if Daphne thoroughly disagreed with it.

The two of them disagreed on a lot of things, but it turned out that they also agreed on more than Daphne had believed was possible before their coffee date.

And it was a date. That was apparent by the end of it when Daphne hadn't let herself second guess her answer as she agreed to another date the following weekend. Though she had broken her rule, she hadn't come to regret it.

The years came and went, and Susan was a constant in Daphne's life as she went through several jobs, none of them lasting longer than a year. Though she always found ways to support herself, it was nice to at least have stability in who she came home to at the end of the day.

Her eyes fluttered open one morning only for her to squeeze them shut against the bright light. She reached for her wand on her bedside table, nearly knocking it off before she could catch it, and flicked it in the direction of the window, making a noise of satisfaction when the room darkened.

Without lifting her head from the pillow, she scooted towards the middle of the bed until she found Susan and snuggled into her girlfriend's side. Susan humphed in her sleep but didn't otherwise stir.

It was a Sunday morning after all. Daphne drifted back to sleep with a smile on her lips.