Short again, but I'm counting a job application I wrote today in my word count lol. This is basically: LOOK NOBODY IS STRAIGHT. Warning, homophobic comments.
It was the third of March in their fourth year. Well, actually it was very nearly the fourth of March, but the Gryffindor girls' dorm still had its lights on, courtesy of Mathilda's newest cute floating lights. They were green, as usual, with delicate golden wings: she had modelled them unashamedly on the Golden Snitch. She said it was her way of celebrating Gryffindor's recent victory against Slytherin. The lights did have a bad habit of setting themselves on fire if she left them on for too long, but Kenny and Tyson had managed to tie the charm to a location, namely the flagstone at the top of the stairs near their door. If anyone stood on that, the lights would all go out. So the girls put up with fire hazards for the ability to see each other as they talked late into the night.
They'd been doing that a lot more recently, even Mathilda who could get very tetchy about sleeping the correct number of hours. The teachers were talking more about OWLS now, and making dark comments about their pupils' futures if they didn't do that homework this time, Tyson. The future was a big and scary place, and it seemed closer than ever at quarter to midnight.
But, as with all late-night conversations, the topic varied and shifted. They'd just finished wondering when and where the Hogwarts house-elves slept when Mathilda dropped a conversational bomb:
"What do your parents think about gay people?"
There was a long, tense silence in the room. They managed to all look at each other without making any eye contact at all. Julia was usually the one to break silences like these, but right now her heart had flown into her throat and she was having to concentrate to breathe and swallow normally. Finally, Mathilda carried on.
"I asked mine the other day." Her voice had the familiar dreamy edge it got when she was sleepy. "Father said that they should learn to control themselves, then he hid behind his newspaper for the rest of the conversation."
(Julia always forgot that Mathilda preferred Floo-calling her parents over almost any other form of communication.)
"And then mother called me again later that evening and said, really nervously, that she supposed they couldn't help it, and that they shouldn't be blamed for it."
They lay there in silence for a bit longer. Julia was so full of adrenaline that she felt like she was vibrating. If she was holding her wand, it would definitely be giving off sparks. She couldn't help but notice Hilary's utter silence too. Finally, after a while composing herself and trying to make sure her voice sounded ok, she asked:
"Why did you ask them that, anyway?"
"Mm?" Mathilda sounded nearly asleep.
"Yeah." Hilary joined in at last. Her voice was accusatory. "Why did you even ask?"
Mathilda made a grumbling sound and rolled back over to face them. "Wanted to see how awful they'd be." She yawned. "It went better than I'd hoped, actually."
Julia stared at her soft round sleepy face and thought, I wouldn't just send sparks out my wand, I'd fucking set it on fire.
All opinions welcome!
xIlbx