Notes: So, discussions about sex but this is fanfic and raunchier things are out there.

February 14, 1997

With Misty and Zara now sharing an apartment their living room was a fascinating mixture of both of their major interests and was, as a result, very fun to look at. Zara had some Holyhead Harpies posters on various spots on the wall, the players flying between the posters in a practice game. Misty had a large bookshelf next to the couch, there were books of goblin lore and placed between each section were various small, metal objects that looked handmade. Misty said they were from her grandfather and would be returned to the head of the family, whichever full blooded goblin that would be, after Misty's death. They were charms of protection and could apparently see around the apartment, telling Misty who was at her door before they even knocked.

Fascinating and useful.

Also creepy.

Zara filled the wine glasses as Misty sat down on the floor with her back pressed against the couch with a very smug expression as she examined me from across the table. It was like she was a shark who could sense weeks worth of guilt about things I had been hiding for a few weeks. Misty played with a stray red curl as Zara sat down next to her, her bright blue eyes shimmering with anticipation.

"So, how've you been?" Misty asked in her usual playful tones.

It was like that, huh?

"It's been interesting." I took a sip of wine and did my best to stay calm, curling my toes in the fluffy dark carpet.

Misty leaned back against the couch, relaxed and unhurried, but her expression was one of a kind of smug knowledge.

"So, how's Percy?"

"He's fine. Why do you ask?" I tried not to think about the flowers I had received this morning from the man in question and the fancy chocolate I had sent back with Hermes.

Zara spoke next, her smile was wolfish. "Just curious. Unless it's an American thing to kiss your coworkers at the door of your home."

I could feel my face take a shade of red hence unknown to the world at large. "I don't what you think you saw-"

"A lot."

Well, they both knew.

"Why were you at my apartment building?"

Zara waved her hand before taking a drink of wine. "One of my teammates had to borrow my weights. I can't send an owl carrying thirty pounds, but that's not the point. The real questions are how long has this been going on? Did you drag him into your flat for a passionate night?"

My head tilted slightly like a confused crup. "After one date? That's a thing?"

It was more than one date at this point, but I'm not going to open that door myself. Also, I had legitimate concerns that maybe I had screwed something up already.

Misty pinched Zara's arm before she summoned another bottle of wine from the kitchen and placed it in the center of the table. "Zara, I don't think either of them would be into that on the first date."

"True, but there's always a chance we're wrong about that." Zara waved her hand dismissively, "I mean, I didn't expect either of them to snog at a Ministry party but here we are. Besides, war tends to speed up romance doesn't it?"

The wine was swirling inside my head like a white fog as I put my glass down on the table with a clink. "Wha-?"

"Sex darling. Sex."

My face was so warm at this point I was sure it was glowing as my head moved slowly down until my forehead hit the table with a soft bang.

I felt someone move closer by shuffling along on the carpet to put a hand on my back in a rather maternal gesture. "Zara, be nice. Americans don't really have good sex education." Misty rubbed my back slowly, tinges of laughter evident in her tone.

"Right, Puritans."

The noise I made was somewhere between choking and laughter as I picked my head up off the table to retort. "I'd hardly call it a wartime romance, not at the speed we're going."

Zara and Misty looked at each other before looking back at me with matching expressions.

"I thought you two were going to be all over each other?" Misty's eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Yeah, like rabbits."

"I… We're… It's complicated."

"Situations are never complicated if you break them down into small parts," Misty's voice was soft and confident, compelling me to consider speaking of things that had long dogged my heels. A part of me wanted to mention my complicated family, that it was past time for honesty and I knew it would have to be a discussion in the future, but a part of me was not ready, there was too much going on and I liked the normality that I was treated with. I did not want that to change. Some part of me suspected Misty may have put the pieces together, but if she had the good grace not to mention it or confront me on the matter then I assumed it was not an issue if she had found out the truth of my relations. My opinion of Misty being a perceptive, politically informed individual had always held water.

"The extent of my relationship talk at home was don't have sex, don't get pregnant, it'll embarrass the family, though there was no talk about how that worked." Zara looked at me with wide eyes and Misty winced, seemingly not prepared for the talk about where babies came from. "I figured it out eventually, we had a very active school Healer who left pamphlets out about health on 'accident' whenever she had the opportunity."

"Wow," Zara breathed, her expression a combination of confused and concerned. "I didn't think you all were so… Prudish."

An unbidden memory came upon me. "My father said once that my name was almost Prudence, after a distant ancestor or something."

"Ew."

I agreed with the sentiment. Constance as a middle name seemed an acceptable compromise by comparison.

Misty sighed and moved her empty wine glass aside "Anyway, let's have this discussion. Weasleys are famously fertile."

I fumbled about for my glass of wine. I was intrigued by this conversation, but not drunk enough to get through it. I quickly threw back my head to down the rest of the wine in my glass as Misty propped her elbows on the coffee table with an absolutely delighted grin.

"Okay, I have actually had a man or two-" Zara rolled her eyes as Misty continued, "it's not as bad as you think it's gonna be."

My shoulders rolled in a shrug, "I've never put much thought into it to be honest."

Zara's mouth fell open, while Misty giggled. "Too busy thinking about politics I'll bet."

Lack of interest from the opposite sex actually, but let's go with that.

I smiled awkwardly, "Mostly that."

"Mostly?" Zara's tone was incredulous. "You're cute, you should have had a line of idiots waiting for you to be single! Really, if you ever want to try women I can make introductions!"

"Thank you." I did not think my face could get any redder, but here I was.

"Okay, let's establish a baseline here," Misty started, her aura growing more maternal as she tapped her wand a couple of times on the table before waving it around over her head in a grand motion as books flew out of her private office down the short hallway. I caught a glimpse of a few of the covers featuring muscled men ripping off their robes while caressing beautiful women as I refilled my wine glass. Some part of me knew she had been waiting for an opportunity like this. "How much dating did you do at Ilvermorny?"

"Not much, just that idiot Gavin Bowman I told you about. The guy who shoved his tongue down my throat behind the Rose Garden the day before graduation and I never saw or heard from him again."

The books landed next to Misty who started sorting them quickly into two piles. One in the far corner of the table, the spines with the titles facing away from me, the other pile was on Misty's other side where I could not see anything at all.

"Ugh!" Zara huffed, "What an idiot!"

"He was!" I nodded solemnly in agreement as I played with the hem of my sleeve. "All he did was play Quadpot, alarmingly good at Charms too."

"So, he was basically Oliver Wood then?"

The three of us laughed.

The ice broken, Misty tossed a thick tome on the coffee table from the stack next to her. "This is a woman's bible. Everything you need to know about your body, pregnancy prevention, relationships, wellness exams, sex positions etcetera." I pulled the book closer to me, opening it to a random page in an inexplicable curiosity. "The pictures move."

"Oh goodness!" I slammed the book closed after glimpsing awkward things crafted by writhing diagrams of tongues and hands and other things in full detail. I thought it would be like a medical textbook with drawings that had the good grace to stay still for educational purposes. Not photographs and silhouettes of… touching themselves and others. Reading about the act in vague detail in my novels was a far different experience then this pure visuality.

Misty pulled up some more books from the other side of the coffee table, as I recollected my composure. "These are some romance novels I got while I was in Saint Mungo's with Verrons disease a few years ago."

Zara raised an eyebrow, "I never pegged you as the romance novelist type."

"I was high as a broom tester, couldn't focus on anything heavier because I would forget the details. I could pick these up and piece everything together from the melodrama." Misty put the books on top of the other book she had given to me. "Anyway, they're fun if nothing else. I have a few more substantial classics in there also."

I examined a copy of The Hedgewitch's Lover with trepidation.

"This was banned in the states when it was published." I turned it over to read the back cover. "I've never actually read it."

"The one that started it all," Misty sighed. "It's good, it's not just a classic for the scandal it caused at publication." She dug through the pile of books some more. "This one is about a lesbian couple, terrifically raunchy, lots of oral which is why I'm recommending it."

My wine stupor had slowed the part of my brain I often used for word definitions.

Misty was quick to catch on to my wine fog. "We'll let you figure that out on your own. I promise it sounds weird and feels better than you think it does." Her smile was teasing as she looked over at a flushed Zara.

My brain finally snapped to the pieces of my knowledge from reading various literary works to the words coming out of Misty's mouth. I felt my mouth snap closed, I was unaware of when it had fallen open.

Zara stepped in at this point, her voice low and comforting. "At no point do you need to do anything you are uncomfortable with. You can say no and kick any partner you have out of your bed or your flat at any point and if they give you attitude, call me and I'll help you handle it."

I nodded.

"Sex is a lot more than just dropping your pants and thinking of England."

I almost told them I still felt very American but thought better of it as Misty continued.

"You need to like your partner, but you also need to trust them to listen to you. You both need to know how to communicate with one another about what you like. Which means you can't expect someone to just look at you and know exactly how you work if you do not have an idea yourself. You need to be prepared to teach."

My head tilted slightly.

"Read that book there, do the exercises, it'll help. Also, I don't care if it's your first time or not, if you're relaxed and prepared it won't hurt, if it does, it won't last long or you can stop until you're less nervous and do other things. It's different, but you're supposed to have fun and you can't do that if you don't have a clue about what's going on with you, your partner or your body. Find out what you like and you'll have a much better experience. Oh, and use lube."

Zara made an agreeable noise as she summoned a cheesecake that had been left in the kitchen to soften. Plates and utensils followed suit, dancing through the air as if carried by the wind.

"If you have any questions, please ask either of us."

Zara nodded and began to place pieces of cheesecake on plates, passing them to Misty and I in turn before settling back with a happy sigh. The three of us sat in silence for a few minutes, I was happy to do so to focus on this dessert, letting the crisp crust and soft cream cheese topped with fruits rest on my tongue and consume my attention as I caught a grip on my thoughts.

"So…" I started slowly, feeling both out of my depth and prepared from spending my school years sharing a room with a rebellious pastor's daughter who had her sexual awakening relatively early. "Thank you for all of the books, but why is there a magazine about bras in here?"

Zara blushed brightly, her face a violent pink that I had never associated with her. It contrasted and complimented the streaks of purple in her hair and her green Harpies shirt.

Misty was quick to answer, "Sometimes a woman wants pretty things. Sometimes her partner likes them too."

Zara was focusing on the harpies poster behind me with a wide eyed expression.

I blinked a couple of times, feeling both very drunk and very interested.

"They're more for you, sometimes wearing nice knickers can give you the final confidence boost to seduce. Of course, men will look for thirty seconds before getting them off you because they have no sense of artistry."

There was something I wanted to ask, but I was if it was appropriate- oh, screw it!

"How bad was your ex-boyfriend?"

Misty snickered, "Oh Christopher?"

Zara rolled her eyes.

"He was fine mostly, nice man, but bad with money and equally bad in bed. Never listened to me about either topic. He was like a really bad drummer, he had no rhythm."

"I didn't like him," Zara chimed in before taking an almost spiteful bite of cheesecake. "Can't like a person who disrespects the Chudley Cannons."

"That terrible Quidditch team?"

Zara shrugged, "They're nice and a very relaxed early season match, it gives us a chance to test our weird plays in the field."

I filled my empty wine glass with water with a wave of my wand, barely noticing the dryness in the air from the spell.

"Oh!" Misty's hair seemed to perk upwards in excitement. "Birth control!"

"Yep! If you get pregnant, apparently you can't drink." Zara commented with a swish of her newly refilled wine glass. "A real shame."

That would be a shame. The wine I had picked out for this gathering was incredibly good. It would be a shame to squander my talents for a year or so through an accidental pregnancy.

I mean, I liked children and children seemed to like me back for some reason. My time as an Ilvermorny student aid was generally spent comforting homesick eleven year olds and organizing small events for them like board game nights and teaching them small, useless magic that would change the color of cheese or their glasses. One of the more unusual girls had latched onto me very hard until she managed to find some friends of her own. Meaning that I arranged the introductions at a game night for her and another awkward child. They hit it off and I got to go back to studying for my final exams.

It probably helped that I had a weird sister.

"Don't let men lie to you about this," Misty's voice cut through my thoughts and brought me back to attention. "There is a birth control potion for men, so it's not just something you need to worry about."

"Really? I don't remember that from the pamphlets."

"Because America wants to teach shame," Zara stated dryly, causing Misty to giggle.

"It's more complicated to make apparently. That's the excuse. Makes no sense to me but I'm not a potioneer. It's not something men have ever truly concerned themselves with in any case, it might be why it's not a mainstream idea." Misty drummed her fingers on the table in thought before taking her final bite of cheesecake. "They've gotten away with irresponsibility for centuries, why start taking responsibility now?"

"Anyway, it's very possible to get by just by taking yours, but take it on time every week. I wouldn't make this at home, I'd get a professional to do it."

I did not think I had any more questions at this point, Misty had given me a lot of material to read and far more to think about over the next few weeks when I was sober.

Oo0Oo0

I returned to my apartment to place the books Misty had given me on the trunk at the foot of my bed before falling face down in my pillows. My mind was a bit fuzzy, but the water kept me clear headed to remember the conversation I had with them about sex. Merlin that was heady.

Though… I was kind of intrigued to put a semblance of something real together instead of trying to piece together Chastity's innuendos and giggly observations.

I reached over to the trunk to pull the large, thick reference book Misty had given me from under the pile of tawdry romances.

It would be easier to face this now while I was still slightly inebriated. I was not convinced I could examine these diagrams sober.

I skipped the chapters on health and home care, I would return to those at a later date. The thing that interested me now was something that was more forbidden and foreign to my life. These passages spoke of potions and oils for lubrication and other things that I was getting an overload of information about.

Was this something I would want down the road? Some part of me had dwelled on it, allowed it to cross my mind during the lonely hours of the night. What it may be like to share my bed with another person. Was it the loneliness and the stress of living in a country at war? The urges of a young woman who had very little idea of what a healthy relationship between two involved adults looked like? Well, Tavish and Lucinda, but they were friends, not lovers, though I had heard that friendship was the basis of good relationships and that it required honesty, trust, like what Zara and Misty clearly had. Cornelius Fudge was an idiot, but he did love Elizabeth and their marriage was clearly more than politics and my parents had liked each other at one point in their lives, though whether or not the trust or affection between my parents had been more than a youthful folly remained up for debate.

I can't think about my parents and other middle aged people while I'm looking at pictures in a chapter titled Sex and Sensuality.

I turned the page quickly to remove the image from my sight to find more detailed guides and accompanying pictures about self-pleasure with a discussion on consistency and peaks.

There was a diagram of the male anatomy that made me turn the pages faster.

Is… Is that one of those adult toys Chastity was talking about in our final year?

Mortified, I flipped forward several pages, the pages becoming a blur of moving pictures and explanations from interviewees about what exactly was happening. The pages moved so quickly under my thumb that there was a cool breeze and the smell of a new book that washed over me.

I stopped on a random page.

Childbirth.

I knew about this in theory, but not with such veracity.

There was a head emerging into the world right there on the page.

I slammed the book closed and felt my legs curl up to my chest. I had dwelled on the idea of children, but also accepted the fact I may never have any if I never found the right person to share my strange circumstances in life. Sure, I had dropped Annette and cackled when Aldridge peed on Vanessa, but I generally liked children. The vacant stares of confusion from babies was amusing to me and watching Annette develop her strong personality was admittedly fascinating. I never really put much thought into what was involved in the childbirth process, I was just told to avoid any risk of a pregnancy.

I doubted that was something told to boys with the same sense of warning or threatened with the social shame of promiscuity.

There were some things I was sure I was not ready for right now and for the moment sex was pretty close to the top of the list.

Maybe I would have another look tomorrow.

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: Ex-Librarian Roguepen is stepping in for a minute for some fun banned book history. 'The Hedgewitch's Lover' is a wizard version of a familiar banned book called Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. Which caused a sensation in Europe and was banned from publication in the US. It gives me great joy to lambast American sex ed in this chapter.

I took inspiration for A Witch's Guide to Health and Wellness from such titles as Come as You Are and Our Bodies Ourselves (which has moved to an online format in the last few years), and a dash of OMGYES to make it more awkward and visceral because wizard pictures move and we're leaning in.