Into the distance [Gemma]

Throwing her winter cloak over her outfit, Linnet checked she had everything in her bag before leaving the dorm and heading out of the Hufflepuff common room, up through the castle and into the school grounds. Although it was already February there was still plenty of snow of the ground, and she was glad of her heavy, still-mostly-waterproof boots. She shivered slightly as a gust of icy wind blew across the grounds, and for the briefest of moments wished she could cast a charm to protect her from the wind. Most NEWT students would manage that without even thinking. But Linnet wasn't most students. At least she wasn't a fire elemental, she thought to herself with a grin as she hurried towards the school gates where she had arranged to meet Gemma.

The girls had planned to spend the afternoon in Hogsmeade, and while she wasn't the sort of girl who could spend hours shopping for the latest fashions, the sixth year was looking forward to the trip. Not least because she had birthday money from her parents that she was planning to spend. Being muggles, they hadn't had the faintest idea what to send her, nor had they quite come to terms with the fact that, in the eyes of the wizarding world, their seventeen year old daughter was now an adult. Linnet didn't mind that - it just meant she could have another 'special' birthday next year as well!

She had almost reached the gates - could see Gemma in the distance, in fact, and hoped the other girl hadn't been waiting more than a couple of minutes, when

"Waugh!"

The familiar meow caused her to turn on her heel in a mixture of amusement and frustration. "Dylan, go home!" she told the big, fluffy cat, who completely ignored her and began meticulously washing his front left paw, oblivious to the snow on the ground. Presumably he had such a thick coat the cold didn't bother him. Shaking her head, the girl waved to her friend and hurried to meet her. After a respectable wait of a couple of seconds, the cat got to his feet and followed.

The school grounds were mostly deserted. Only a few students hurried through the courtyard, bound for either the dorms or Hogsmead. Few people cared to linger when the cold was this biting. Gemma waited at the gates for Linnet to arrive. She would take a few steps, then pirouette back to face the opposite direction before repeating the process. The movement kept her warm, although she wasn’t terribly cold as she had dressed for the weather. She was facing away from the school when she heard a cat's indignant yowl. She turned around, spotting Linnet and her cat Dylan. The male cat's thick fluffy coat must be protecting him from the weather. Gemma's own cat, Coda, was not so well equipped and had elected to remain snuggled under blankets rather than brave the cold with her mistress.

Gemma waved back at Linnet, waiting for the other girl to catch up to her. "Hello Linnet, Dylan," she said, her vowels elongated and her N's still nasal even after several months of speaking English. It seemed like her accent was determined to hang around until she graduated. "I have something for you," she told the other girl, handing her a wrapped package. "Happy birthday! I know I am late, but this one took longer than I anticipated." Once Linnet unwrapped and opened the small box, she would find a round brooch about 4 cm in diameter. The brooch was a riot of sunflowers, their petals a warm gold and the flower heads made of a brown smokey quartz. A close inspection of the petals would also reveal minuscule runes carved onto their surface; runes for warmth and warding.

"If you pin it to your coat, it will keep the wind off. It does not do anything flashy, so you can wear it around Muggles without attracting notice." Gemma was proud of her design, but it had taken forever to get the runes small enough to be hard to detect with the naked eye, not to mention making the spell subtle enough to be almost undetectable. This was the first major work she'd made for another person that was not family, and she hoped her friend liked it.

Something for her? Linnet was confused for a moment until her birthday was mentioned, and then she broke into a smile. She wouldn't say it aloud, but she hadn't actually realised that Gemma hadn't given her a present at her party. She'd spent the evening chatting with her friends and opening gifts and, while she'd said thank you to everyone at the time, she hadn't made a note of who had given her what, particularly given that a lot of her gifts had been of the edible kind (or, in one case, a bottle of mead which she had hidden at the bottom of her trunk with the intention of trying next time she and her dormmates had a sleepless night). But her eyes lit up as she took the small package.

"Can I open it now?" she asked excitedly, barely waiting for a reply before she was ripping the paper off, shoving the scraps into her bag before opening the box. "Oh! It's beautiful - Hufflepuff colours!" she exclaimed delightedly, lifting out the brooch and holding it up so the colours caught the light. She bit her lip as Gemma told her that it wasn't only decorative. How strange that she'd been thinking about ways to ward off the cold only moments earlier.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, flinging her arms around the other girl before stepping back and fastening the brooch to her cloak. "Is it pinned straight?" she asked, already feeling warmer now that the wind had ceased to buffet against her. Satisfied that the gift was safely attached and wouldn't become unpinned (though she suspected Gemma might have added in a charm to make sure that wouldn't happen either)  another thought occurred to her.

"Have you been waiting long?" she sounded a little anxious now. Linnet didn't like to keep people waiting, especially not her friends when they'd just given her lovely late birthday presents. "I thought we could go to the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer first - my treat." she added, as they set off towards the village.

Gemma was glad that Linnet liked her present, and she laughed at her slightly puzzled look. “You seem surprised. I remember how much you enjoyed the more mild winter at Beauxbatons and how cold a Scottish winter can be. You were only gone for a year. I have not forgotten everything about you.” The brooch looked good on her friend. She knew the girl would love the Hufflepuff colors, but Gemma had also hoped the colors would work well with her skin tone. She was proud to have made something which suited her friend so well.

At Linnet’s question, Gemma nodded. “It is on straight. And no, I have not been waiting long. It is nice to be heading off the grounds. Even Dylan seems to think so.” At the sound of his name, Dylan looked at the two girls before quickly ignoring them again. Gemma knew Dylan was devoted to Linnet, but he was also his own cat and would join them if he wanted to without much care for their opinion on the matter. It didn’t bother her. As a wizarding town, Hogsmeade would be used to familiars wandering around.

“A butterbeer sounds wonderful,” Gemma replied. “Afterwards, did you have any specific stores you want to visit? Or are we simply window shopping today?” Gemma was always up for gazing into shop windows. She loved getting inspired by the work of others and inspiration can come from the most unexpected places. “I have been looking forward to walking around town with you. It seems like there is so little time to just catch up. How have you been?”

Linnet felt a little flustered at her friend's words. For some reason she always found it a little strange when people appreciated her, or gave her compliments. The idea that anyone, even a friend, would remember small things about her made her feel a little embarrassed and pleased at the same time. "Yeah. I love the snow...when I'm sitting in the warm beside the fire watching it!" she agreed with a giggle. Only then did she remember her cat, who had apparently decided he was coming to Hogsmeade with them...or, more likely, going independently to Hogsmeade but just happened to be taking the same path at the same time. Such were the ways of cats! In the muggle world it might have worried her, but here there were no cars, and the worst thing she would need to worry about would be whether he chased someone else's pet rat.

She grinned at the thought of a nice glass of butterbeer, and sitting in the warm pub for a chat for a while. Even with the brooch, which was without doubt one of the most useful presents she could remember, she could still imagine the bite of the wind. After that, though - there was something specific she wanted to do. "Actually, I need to get my grandma a birthday present" she said, remembering " you remember her, she's still living in Chatoeil, having a wonderful time." Gemma would know that Gwynedd Willowsong was a squib, and one of the few people to have ended up benefitting from the wizarding war, in that now, for the first time in her life, she found herself living in wizarding society and perfectly content. "I thought...you know, something from the Quidditch shop, nice pair of keeper's gloves or something!" Linnet could barely get the words out for laughing. It was good to just chat with a friend without worrying about school work or getting her runic incantations right.

As for how she'd been... that would have taken far longer than a walk and a glass of butterbeer to describe. Linnet was seventeen now, and had assumed she would feel freer now she was allowed to do magic out of school, but of course things were different for her. Her wandwork had almost completely vanished now, she could persuade a faint light from her wand, but that was about all. The fact that she could now conjure a whole pile of earth or heal a sick tree didn't always feel like reasonable compensation. She forced a smile.

"I'm fine. NEWTs are harder than I expected, though I still love herbology. Though I swear I've still got scratches from that snargaluff last month!" she hesitated, then added "And you know I'm learning gaelic, so that takes up time when I should be doing homework..." It was the closest to openly speaking of her elemental nature to a non-elemental student she had dared come, and quickly she continued "how about you? How's it feel to be back at Hogwarts again?"

Gemma nodded, smiling. She had fond memories of Linnet's grandmother, how Gwynedd had taken Gemma in like family when she had found out that Gemma had no wizard relations nearby. "I think she would like that. Maybe something with a little bit of decorative stitching. Nothing too flashy; some subtle vines or animals would suit her well, I think." Gemma was not a proud person by nature, but if there was one thing she was sure of it was her sense of fashion and taste in clothing and accessories. She could find something to flatter anyone's figure or outfit. She took people's tastes into account and had a keen eye for quality which she liked to think she inherited from her grandmother. It could well have been one reason why Linnet had asked her out today.

"The snargaluff was quite a handful," she said. For a moment, Gemma shivered and it had nothing to do with the cold. The greenhouses at Hogwarts were a far cry from the horror that the Beauxbatons halls had been her first year there, but on nights before Herbology classes she still sometimes had nightmares that smelled like rotting green things and were crowded with the ghosts of thorns and vines. Her professor had even taken her aside and asked if she would like to be excused from working with the snargaluff, but Gemma had insisted that she could do all the work required for the class. In her group, she was the one who had to stick their hand in the stump to retrieve the pod. She spent the entire class in a cold sweat, but she had done it.

She shook head to clear her mind of the bad memories. "If you need help, remember I am always available for a study session," she told Linnet. "I would be happy to help you in any subject, save Defense. You already know I'm rubbish at that." It was a sore point that she couldn't excel in all her classes, but Gemma was coming to terms with the fact that she would never be good at DADA. She looked at her friend with a curious smile. "Gaelic?" she asked, wondering why Linnet had chosen to learn that particular tongue. "Maybe you can teach me a little as well," she said, thinking out loud. "I'm finding that Gaelic pops up quite frequently when researching runes. Knowing some key concepts could help me better interpret them rather than having to rely solely on other translations."

Gemma shrugged. "It's hard to tell whether everyone has changed or if they only seem different because I have changed. So much happened while I was away, to me and to my friends here. Everyone is so busy that it is hard to find a moment to catch up on three years of lost time." Gemma was only so comfortable talking to Linnet because they had gotten close during Linnet's stay in France. But while the Hufflepuff girl had returned after the fall of Voldemort, Gemma had stayed behind, unable to face the reality of post-war Hogwarts. It had been Linnet who had held Gemma while she cried over the death of her best friend, a Hufflepuff boy named Kelly McCarthy that they had both known. "It is getting easier to talk to people. I have made new friends," she thought of Terry; and then of Nathalie, "and something that is not really a friend." She smiled at Linnet. "It feels like I am starting my life over, but it is not a terrible feeling."

Linnet always felt a little uncomfortable when someone offered help. It stemmed back to when she was younger and didn't understand why she struggled so much with her wand work. Her friends had tried to help on numerous occasions, of course with almost no success, and it made her feel useless. Now she understood the reason why - and more importantly, had dropped all the classes that needed wand magic - she didn't feel quite the same sense of dread as previously, but it was still at the back of her mind. That wasn't Gemma's fault, though. So she smiled.

"Don't worry - I dropped that after I failed my OWL!" she joked. Knowing she had the choice of learning the theory inside-out and scraping an A, or concentrating on the subject in which she could excel, Linnet had sensibly taken the latter option, and thus scored a D. She might have felt badly, but for the fact she had received her results whilst staying with Kyle's family, and they had positively celebrated their terrible wandwork grades. "But a study session would be good. Are you still taking Arithmancy? It's my favourite subject, but the NEWT level work's so much harder, I swear it takes me three times as long as it used to!" Not many of her housemates seemed to be taking the subject, so having someone else to study with would be great, especially Gemma, who she had always got on well with. Then for a moment she panicked. Why had she mentioned gaelic? But maybe it was okay if she could pretend it was just something she was learning to better understand runes. The sixth year had become so good at not mentioning her elementalism that she didn't even think of telling the truth.

But still, she felt strange now. She nodded and smiled when Gemma spoke about life back at Hogwarts, but her mind was elsewhere. It wasn't until after the other girl finished speaking that she focussed in on what had been said. Her heart was pounding, and she knew now, if ever, was the time to admit what she was. While Linnet knew it wasn't normal to reveal one's abilities to the wider world, friends were an exception, surely? She took a deep breath, then another. "I guess I know what you mean" she began, staring at the ground as they walked "While I was at Beauxbatons something happened. That is... well, you know how bad I am at wand magic..." she paused. Swallowed. "There's a reason for that. The same reason I'm learning gaelic. It's...I'm.."

She trailed off, and stopped. Should she have said something while she was at Beauxbatons? What if Gemma was so horrified she stopped speaking to her on the spot? Linnet hated upsetting people, and it was a frightening prospect, but there was no way she could un-say what she'd already said.

"I'm an elemental. I found out about halfway through my fourth year, but at first...I hated it. I didn't want to be any more different that I already was by being muggleborn, and I tried to hide it. It's only in the last year I've accepted it and taken my training and studies seriously, but I haven't told anyone. Until now." She kept walking slowly, not daring to stop, or even look up, in case she had just lost a friend. 

Gemma noticed the sudden shift in Linnet's demeanor, but she let her friend talk through whatever she felt she had to say. It would have been a complete understatement to say that Gemma was surprised, but as Linnet was looking down she missed the look of shock which briefly crossed Gemma's face. For a few minutes, she couldn't think of what to say or do. She just kept quietly walking next to Linnet.

Linnet an elemental? She tried to reconcile this new bit of information with the things she already knew about her friend. It felt strange, but not unnatural. Gemma knew slightly more about elementals than the average wizard or witch. She had reason to look into them after her transfer to Beauxbatons, but there was not a lot of information out there to be found. It was one of the reasons she had focused on runes; she wanted to know more about elementals and the way their magic operated.

Her interaction with elementals, she had assumed, was pretty much negative. But now here was a friend, if Gemma was honest one of her only friends, and she was trusting her with something very big and very secret. Gemma had told Linnet how frightening the attacks had been, how they had been controlled. She was sure that this had taken a lot of courage. After a bit of time, she let Linnet's hand drop, but she stayed close to her.

After those few minutes of intense thoughts passed, Gemma reached out and took Linnet's hand, squeezing it gently until the other girl looked up from her deep contemplation of the slushy ground. When their eyes met, Gemma gave Linnet a reassuring smile. "Thank you fr trusting me," she said. "Everything is fine. I will be discrete. You are my friend, and an elemental." Gemma chuckled a little. "I must admit, I never thought that was a sentence I would be saying, but life is full of surprises." Having a friend who was an elemental was strange, but Gemma refused to make the mistake her father made by assuming all elementals were dangerous just because of a bad experience.

"Shall we exchange secrets, then? It seems like two great revelations are too much for right now, so I will share mine once we reach the town. Don't let me chicken out, either," she told Linnet, with mock sternness. "It seems only fair."

Several centuries seemed to pass after Linnet finished speaking. She felt simultaneously terrified that she'd said the wrong thing, and relieved that she'd finally told someone. It was one thing to talk to other elementals, but they were all going to react positively, and even with the other elementals in her own house, she sometimes felt she was carrying some heavy secret on her shoulders. There was the sudden fear that Gemma would be horrified, tell people, turn against her, turn others against her, that she'd just made a terrible mistake.

And then she felt her friend's hand in hers. Linnet stopped walking and looked up slowly, knowing that everything was alright and at the same time not quite wanting to hear whatever was said next. The truth was, she hadn't intended to blurt everything out like that. She'd thought about telling her friend before, but had always talked herself out of it. Today, she'd been thinking about it like she had many times before, and somehow the words had started to come out before she could think better of it. And now she was terrified she was going to get tears in her eyes and look all pathetic and girly just because Gemma hadn't screamed at her for being weird.

Instead she found herself giggling. Not much, just a little quiet chuckle. Enough to break the tension that she had been feeling. "Yeah, I'll bet" she agreed, with a rueful smile. "Can you imagine how scary it was to be told I WAS one in the first place? I think I refused to accept it for about a month!" A bit more than refused to accept it; once she had got over the initial shock, Linnet had been furious that there was yet another thing singling her out as different, even as she realised there was finally a legitimate reason for her inability to cast even simple spells. "Anyway. I promise never to turn into a tree in front of you. Not that I can" she added hurriedly, quietly omitting the word yet. There had been enough surprised for one day.

Or had there? Now it was her turn to be on the receiving end, it seemed. "Okay - but I'm buying the first butterbeers. And there's no way I'm letting you chicken out. if you're secretly a werewolf or a fanged geranium or something, I want to know about it!" she teased with a genuine smile as they approached the outskirts of the village. Suddenly the day seemed a little bit brighter.

Gemma was glad to see her friend smile, glad to be out of the castle, just glad to be in this moment. It seemed to the Ravenclaw that they day sparkled with potential. She felt her spirits lift, felt some of the weight she had carried slip from her shoulders. She was spending the day doing something fun with Linnet; she really did love shopping, especially for other people. They would get butterbeers and gossip about classes. Gemma would get a chance to talk out her feelings. It was going to be a perfect day.

At the mention of turning into a tree, Gemma giggled. "Well that would be interesting to see. Just do me a favor and don't turn into a Whomping Willow. Not sure I could handle anything that agressive. Besides, I see you as more of a lily-of-the-valley kind of plant." This conversation was weird, even by wizard standards. She decided to continue in the same vein, being silly for the first time in months. "I myself shall be a birch tree. Or maybe one of those great pines in the States I read about as a child. Redwoods, they call them."

Gemma squeezed Linnet's hand excitedly. "When we graduate, we should go to the States! Drive across it, like in those road-trip movies!" This was a complete flight of fancy; neither she nor Linnet could afford a long trip abroad. "We can watch all the Yankees swoon at our exotic accents. I will beat off your suitors with a stick so Kyle will have no need to be jealous." Her smile became a little sly as she gave her friend an exaggerated, sidelong glance. "So, how is Kyle doing nowadays?" If Linnet and Kyle were a secret, they were one of the worst-kept secrets in Hogwarts. "Doing alright, is he?" She really shouldn't tease her friend, but after the great revelation, she felt a little easy gossip was in order.

The clouds blew across the sky in a grey parade. The wind was crisp and wet, smelling like ice but Gemma could swear there was the slightest hint of spring in the air. Behind them, the castle stood like a sentry. In front, she could see the lights of Hogsmeade glowing warmly. Gemma waited patiently for Linnet to work out a response to her friendly prying, her smile warm and genuine.

When Gemma started making jokes Linnet finally relaxed. Maybe she'd been imagining things, but there had been a certain seriousness over both of them since they'd left the castle. Probably just the amount of homework they had playing on both their minds, but Linnet felt better now she'd 'confessed', and it seemed that a weight had been taken off Gemma's mind as well. While she'd been looking forward to their Hogsmeade visit, now the whole day seemed brighter and more exciting, and she suddenly wanted to say ridiculous things as well.

"Hmm, I don't know..." she mused,"I thought I might try being a Devil's snare...or maybe a mandrake, that could be fun! And you could be... oh, I know - a slimemould!" As she said this, she had been edging away, now she giggled and held her hands up in mock surrender, as if expecting to find herself on the receiving end of a hex or jinx. After a moment she took her friend's hand again. "Okay, you can be a tree, too. Just make sure you're not the kind squirrels like to next in, can you imagine how much that would tickle?"

The idea of a road trip was just that - an idea. Plus there was the fact that Linnet wouldn't want to travel that far by muggle means, and a a portkey across continents was ridiculously expensive. At the back of her mind, she knew all this, but at the same time, despite never having had any desire to go to America she was immediately excited. "Yes! We'll get one of those really long cars...a bright red one - or bright pink - and wear sunglasses and stay in motels and see wild clabberts!" and then she blushed, because even though she and Kyle had been seeing each other for a year now she still didn't know how to react when anyone mentioned it.

"He's...fine" she said, staring down at the ground "I think he's working in the library today, or he'd have come to Hogsmeade as well."  That worked out fine, because while Linnet loved spending time with her boyfriend, she also enjoyed seeing her friends as well, and hadn't quite worked out how to combine the two without feeling embarrassed. "Ill probably take him something back as well." She hadn't really intended to mention that, but it sort of slipped out, along with everything else. It was a good thing they were coming into the village now, or goodness knows what else she might have said. "Anyway. First butterbeer's on me, I think?" she suggested, as the sign for the Three Broomsticks came into view.

Gemma wrinkled her nose dramatically at Linnet's suggestion of a slime-mold. "Don't make me tickle you into submission," she warned her friend, exaggerating her slight French accent for effect. She hid a smile behind her hand as poor Linnet stumbled and mumbled through an explanation of where Kyle was today. "We can definitely find something for him. If nothing else, we'll bring him candy. Boys are bottomless pits," she said teasingly.

Seeing the windows of the Three Broomsticks in view, Gemma grabbed Linnet's hand again and pulled the both of them towards the building at a faster pace. "Come on," she said, smiling at her friend, "it looks nice and warm inside!" The two girls tumbled through the doorway, Gemma giggling as she tugged Linnet to an open table in a corner near the fireplace. She waved at one of the waitresses, getting her attention and giving a quick sign for two butterbeers. The harried waitress gave her a nod and a smile to show she had seen her request. A quick look around showed that there were a few tables with Hogwarts students, but no one she knew particularly well. She either didn't see or ignored the looks a few of the older boys gave her as she passed, smoothing out her skirt as she sat down at the small table. It was just big enough for two people and their drinks, which was probably why it was still empty despite the bustle inside the pub.

The waitress was there in a flash with their drinks, and Gemma sipped, enjoying the sweet, nutty flavor. "You know," she told Linnet, "this is my first time in the Three Broomsticks since I got back." She drank again, thinking of what she had wanted to talk about and the best way to start. "Linnet," she said after a brief silence, "how did you know you liked Kyle? It's just..." here Gemma hesitated a moment, still trying to organize her thoughts. "You remember Kelly McCarthy." It wasn't really a question. Kelly had been a Hufflepuff in their year, and he had been an outgoing and friendly boy. It had been a shock to the entire house when he had been killed in the final battle. "We were best friends, and I know he liked me, but I never felt the same way about him. I've never had a crush on any boy." She looked up at Linnet, a little crease of worry between her eyebrows. "I see all my friends finding nice boyfriends and I wonder if there's something wrong with me."

Linnet squealed and dodged away from the imaginary threat, glad for an excuse to end that conversation. "Yes, chocolate would be good" she agreed, not wanting to elaborate further. Actually she'd been thinking of looking in the advanced potion making section of the bookshop to find something for Kyle, but somehow that felt weird when she wasn't on her own. Which was silly, it wasn't as if Gemma was going to laugh at her. Maybe later, once they'd had a drink and talked for a while, she would feel differently. All the same, she was glad when the Three Broomsticks came into view and they could change the subject. Besides, she could murder a butterbeer!

Even with Gemma's charm pinned to her cloak, it was good to be out of the biting wind. She gave a quick wave to a few people she knew on one of the larger tables, but didn't make any effort to join them. Sometimes it was fun to be out in a group, but today she wanted to catch up with her friend.

"It's the first time I've been in here since I came of age" she said, glancing towards the bar with a smile. There was something exhilarating in the knowledge that she could order a pint of real ale, a glass of mead, even a shot of firewhisky if she chose. She didn't want to try any of them, not this afternoon, but the thought made her happy. But then it seemed Gemma wasn't quite finished with their earlier topic of conversation. Linnet made an exasperated noise of mock frustration and rolled her eyes to the ceiling, but quickly she became serious again when she realised her friend wasn't in the mood for teasing any more.

"I don't know. I mean, we were friends, and then when I got back from Beauxbatons we found out we had something in common, uh..." she paused, a little flustered, not wanting to reveal that Kyle was an elemental as well, and a more experienced one than she... "Anyway, I was kind of struggling with my... well, my being different, and it helped us grow closer, and then one day I just sort of realised that I didn't just want him to be my friend and..." she was blushing now, she was sure of it "well, I think he was sort of waiting for me to realise, and he was just too much of a gentleman to do anything until he knew I felt the same way." That was probably the worst description of something lovely and romantic ever, but she felt uncomfortable talking about it with anyone, even a close friend.

Then her eyes widened "Of course there's nothing wrong with you! You're really pretty - and there's plenty of girls in my house who haven't got boyfriends yet or even dated anyone! And..." suddenly something Gemma had said earlier that she'd overlooked struck her, and put a different meaning on the words. "Oh." That wasn't the right thing to say, but Linnet couldn't think past it just then. "Oh." she said again, more quietly now, barely noticing the butterbeers that arrived on their table. The silence stretched out. "You think..?" Oh, this was hard! There was only one thing she could think of right now that didn't involve voicing exactly what Gemma was hinting at. And maybe it was the right thing after all. Judging someone no who they dated was just as bad as judging them on their blood status, right?

"There's nothing wrong with you. No matter what...who...you like or don't like." she said, hoping she hadn't got completely the wrong idea.

Gemma blushed scarlet right up to her ears. Trust Linnet to hear the confession she hadn't even been meaning to say. She listened anxiously as her friend stuttered to a halt mid-reassurances. This was nerve-wracking to say the least. She hadn't meant to say that she was more interested in girls than boys, but it was out now and Gemma wouldn't try to deny it or take it back. She didn't want to lose friends, but this truth about her turn everyone she knew away from her. This was really a moment of truth, to see if at least some o her friends could continue to accept her even if she wasn't... attracted to boys. The poor Ravenclaw was so new to these feelings that she could barely think the word "lesbian" let alone say it out loud.

After a few false starts, where Gemma resisted the urge to sink into the floor, Linnet managed to get over what Gemma assumed to be a rather big shock. As she offered words of support, Gemma felt her shoulders relax. She hadn't realized how tense she was, how afraid that what she was would drive Linnet away from her. She looked at the Hufflepuff with a grateful smile. "Thank you," she said quietly but with warmth and sincerity. "You're the first person I've ever told and it really means the world to me that you haven't run screaming from the building. Merlin knows I wanted to run from myself once I realized." That was a slight exaggeration, but she did have trouble looking at herself in the mirror for a week once she knew she was a lesbian. "Being this way, it feels like another difference. Something to make me unlike everyone else. I'm not like Muggles and now I'm not like most witches either."

Gemma reached out and took Linnet's hand, squeezing it. "I guess I can understand how you felt when you found out you were, well you know," she evaded, not wanting to say the word 'elemental' in a crowded establishment. "I've lost so much in my life. I just wanted to be normal, and it hurt to find out that I couldn't even have that. So, thank you again for sticking around." Her smiled broadened as she let go of Linnet's hand. "You've given me hope that maybe I'll be able to keep more of my friends than I thought."

The Ravenclaw was just beginning to relax and was taking a sip of her butterbeer when something occurred to her and she set her mug down a little too fast, sloshing her drink around violently. "Oh! I was just thinking that because I told you that I'm... well, I just wanted you to know that I don't like you like that. I mean," she went on, babbling a little nervously, "you're very pretty and kind and sweet but you're my friend and of course I know you like boys and Kyle is very lucky and it's not like I wouldn't like you if you were interested but... oh I'm going to stop talking and wait for the floor to swallow me up..." Gemma petered out and took a large swig of her butterbeer, her blush now extending from her forehead all the way down to her chest in a pretty shade of pink embarrassment.

"So!" she began again with a kind of desperate brightness, "What shops shall we go to first?"

Had she said the right thing? Linnet's heart was racing and she was quite sure she must be turning a fetching shade of scarlet, and she didn't dare to look her friend in the eye. What if she'd completely misunderstood and Gemma hadn't really meant what she'd seemed to imply, but something totally different? Even when the other girl thanked her she didn't dare look up for more than a second, though she managed to smile and did force herself to meet Gemma's gaze, because otherwise...otherwise she might think, oh, all sorts of things. That perhaps Linnet hadn't meant it, that they'd been empty words, that now it was out in the open she was having some sort of delayed reaction and freaking out... Not like muggles and not like most witches was pretty much how Linnet summed herself up, so that at least was something she could relate to.

But them Gemma took her hand and the Hufflepuff's mind started racing. She didn't want to pull away, but after what they'd said about Kyle - what if Gemma had been trying to find out how serious they were because... her heart pounded even faster and she was sure her hand was starting to sweat as well, because this absolutely had to be the most awkward situation she'd ever been in  and whatever she said or did was going to be horrible. Gemma let go of her hand and she managed to look up, and her friend was smiling, reaching for her butterbeer and Linnet knew that these next few minutes were going to be the worst of her life. It was bad enough having to turn someone down when they asked you on a date - there'd been a muggle boy last summer who worked in the local supermarket who asked her out, and even though he was tall and lanky and had acne and she didn't fancy him at all she'd still felt mean saying no, sorry, I've got a boyfriend - but this was going to be...

Oh.

It wasn't going to be anything. Linnet couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, a sort of near-hysterical gasping kind of laugh that left her breathless and with tears running down her cheeks. "It's okay. I didn't think you..." and then she stopped herself, though it was more accurate to say she stopped because she'd dissolved into helpless laughter again. This time she waited for the giggles to subside before she tried to speak.

"I'm sorry. I did think you might...well, you know, like me, and I was trying to think of a way to say I wasn't interested and I think I just totally overthought everything" she admitted, face blazing red as an inferno as she reached for her own drink. She did feel better now though, if a little foolish, and reminded herself that Gemma surely felt at least three times as uncomfortable as she did, because Linnet wasn't the one who'd just admitted something that not everyone was going to accept as normal and she wasn't the one scared she might lose friends over it. Though if anyone did decided to stop being friends with her...

"You know, this is just like the muggles versus purebloods thing again, isn't it?" she mused "I mean, if anyone really wants to judge you for something that's not your choice, it's them who've got the problem, not you" That probably wouldn't help if any of their friends did turn out to be that intolerant, but she felt she had to say it. "Anyway, who says you'd be normal even if you did like boys!" she teased, dipping a finger in her butterbeer and flicking it across the table. From having felt like something shameful was about to happen it seemed as if the sun had come out and brightened the whole day, even if it was still cold and windy outside. She picked up her glass and drank almost half the contents as she considered the question.

"We could toss a coin... heads it's the bookshop, tails we go and buy chocolate!" she suggested "Though not until after I finish my butterbeer!"