Into the distance [Gemma]

As the first of Linnet's giggles came out, Gemma felt her shoulders relax. When the giggles turned into full-blow laughter, the Ravenclaw found herself laughing along helplessly. The two of them sat at their table in the crowded pub laughing like lunatics and it was the first moment of untainted joy that Gemma had felt since she found out that Kelly had died. It was liberating. No matter what came after with her other friends, no matter how many people she alienated because of what she was, she would always have this moment with Linnet.

Gemma's laughter dissolved into the occasional hiccup as Linnet confirmed what Gemma had thought might be going through her friend's mind. She waved her hand, dismissing the entire spectacle. "It's nothing," she told Linnet as she finally managed to regain control of herself. "This is all so new to me, but I think I can safely say that you're not my type." From the few moments of attraction to others that Gemma had felt, she knew without a doubt that she had absolutely none of those feelings around Linnet. If she did, she would have turned into a mess the moment she started talking to her. Gemma lost all her good sense and reason when confronted with a girl that she found appealing. It was rather disheartening; turning into a gibbering wreck at the first sing of a pretty face.

The Ravenclaw nodded as Linnet compared the current situation with the pureblood and muggle conflict. It was something she couldn't help but think about, given her history. "It does bear an uncanny similarity," she mused. "And as with blood status, I've decided that I'm not going to hide or be ashamed of what I am. I have to accept all of me, or spend the rest of my life hiding from my own happiness." It had not been an easy decision to make, being open about her sexuality even if it meant losing the people she cared about. "I just hope I get more reactions like yours," she told Linnet with a smile. "I'd much rather laugh about it afterwards."

Gemma giggled again as Linnet flicked the butterbeer at her. "Well, who wants to be normal anyway?" she said with a touch of humorous defiance. "I hear they lead terribly boring lives. We can be weird friends together and go on adventures." She was feeling playful again, more like the peppy girl she had been before she had moved and her life had turned upside-down by the war.

Since they were going to wait until they'd finished their drinks to decide where they were going, Gemma wanted to ask Linnet a few questions. She didn't want to make her friend uncomfortable, but she was dying to know more about her elemental nature. It was unlikely that Gemma would meet another elemental who would be willing to talk about it. Leaning in towards the Hufflepuff, Gemma said quietly, "What can you tell me about being an elemental? I'd like to know more, but if you can't tell me, that's okay. I don't want you to get in trouble." From the little information Gemma had been able to uncover about them, elementals were very secretive and they hid among regular witches and wizards to keep their true natures unknown.

Okay, so if she ever found herself in this situation again, Linnet would know how to deal with it. Friend tells you they're gay = make jokes and laugh. That thought in itself brought on a fresh round of giggles, because she knew that it definitely, absolutely wasn't the right way to deal with the situation at all, but somehow things had turned out alright and they were better friends than ever. "Well, I'm offended now!" she exclaimed with a mock pout at the news that she wasn't Gemma's type "but I'll let you into a secret..." she leaned across the table and whispered "you're not my type, either!"

And of course, even without all this, they weren't normal anyway. The magical world was a small one, hidden in plain sight in amongst the millions of muggles, and even sitting here in a magical pub drinking something that was unknown in the wider world would be considered strange if not frightening by the general populace. "Weird it is, then" the Hufflepuff agreed "So, which of us is going to learn to drive a muggle car so we can go on that road trip across America? We probably need to wait until we graduate, though!" It had been a joke earlier, and it was still a joke now, but maybe after they graduated they could take a trip somewhere, though using magical means. Linnet's fear of flying notwithstanding, she quite fancied the idea of a magic carpet ride somewhere exotic.

She took a long drink of her butterbeer, not surprised when Gemma asked her about elementals. It wasn't something anyone else had asked her, simply because she'd never told anyone about her nature. Not even her parents knew - her mother found it hard enough knowing she was a witch. But she didn't mind the question from Gemma, though it was a bit tricky knowing what she could share. "Sure, I can tell you some stuff" she agreed "though I might go a bit quiet about some things. I can't tell you who else is an elemental because it's not fair on them...though I'm not the only one in the school" Linnet wondered if her friend would guess that Kyle was an elemental as well, and what she would say if she was asked directly. She thought for a minute.

"Okay, you already know a few things, right?" she glanced over her shoulder to reassure herself that nobody else was listening and continued in a quieter voice "There are six elements, and in order of power they're Ice, Earth, um...Air, Stone, Water and Fire... I think. I always mix air and stone up. My element's earth, so I can already manipulate plants and the earth. I can heal damaged plants and make them grow faster. We did that after the battle of Hogwarts. Lots of us...well, about ten - that's a lot of elementals in one place at a time -got together and worked to heal the school grounds. That was really nice. I think that was the first time I really talked to...um..." Bother, she'd almost mentioned Kyle! This was harder than she thought! She looked down at the table and asked "Does any of that make sense? Or did you just want to ask questions and I'll answer anything I can?"

Gemma was still giggling happily, and she wondered if this giddy feeling of relief would last all day. "I should hope I'm not your type," she replied with a little cheeky smile. "I'm not sure who would be more distressed by that; me or Kyle." The trip was brought up again, and Gemma continued to play along. "I used to watch my father drive our car when I was a child, before I showed any signs of magic. I'm sure I could manage. It's only been 11 years since I last watched him do it. How hard could it be?"

The Ravenclaw also gave the room a quick once-over to make sure no one was heading over or showing any undue interest in their table. She knew that elementals were every secretive about their existence and she didn't want Linnet to get into any kind of trouble. She briefly considered who else in the school might be an elemental, but she stopped that train of thought before it could get too far. She would surely drive herself crazy trying to guess who might be hidden in plain sight. She nodded, listening to Linnet's description of the elemental hierarchy. This at least was information she had been able to figure out doing her own research. She smiled, thinking of how Linnet had always loved working on the gardens during their time at Beauxbatons. "That explains why you're such an ace at herbology," Gemma mused with a chuckle.

"It seems like it might be easier for me to ask questions," Gemma replied diplomatically. Linnet had come dangerously close to letting some information slip which the Ravenclaw was pretty sure the Hufflepuff had not intended to divulge. "I know you can't really talk about the others, but if there are any other elementals on campus that I might know, you can tell them that they can talk to me. I promise I won't freak out or tell anyone else." Gemma was good as her word and she had no intention of outing any elementals around the school.

Gemma considered her first questions, thinking over the information she had been able to gather on her own. "Well, can elementals only control a single element? When Beauxbatons was attacked my first year there, I saw a few of them using a few different ones; like air and fire. And how do you cast magic at all? I know you use runes, but the ones I saw didn't need to draw any runes and I only saw a few using any rune stones at all."

"Yeah, I hadn't thought of that" she agreed, pointedly ignoring the comment about Kyle "Both my parents drive, I'm sure I could manage. Well, the bits that just need hands...I never watched what they did with their feet, and I'm pretty sure the brakes there that makes the car stop. Still, we could always use a charm...well, you could. I could grow a nice pile of soft earth for us to crash into..." she giggled, even as she glanced over her shoulder to check nobody had heard. Even knowing that Gemma knew about elementals and had known before Linnet had mentioned the subject, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was doing something wrong in discussing it at all. The way they kept glancing over their shoulders, someone was going to guess they were up to no good before long!

"Thanks...it's a relief that I'm good at something, at least" she said with a smile. "I was lucky. I asked...uh, I got help from one of the, um, older elementals last year and he helped me convince Professor McGonagall to let me drop transfiguration. It almost caused..." and then she stopped. The kind stone elemental - Mr Cairns, she recalled - who had been so helpful hadn't assisted any of her yearmates, and when Kyle had found out, it had caused their biggest disagreement to date, particularly because she hadn't told him precisely how she'd been able to drop the subject. "Yeah. It almost caused something that I can't talk about...but it's okay now, honest!" she finished, glad that Gemma was just going to ask questions before she said something she shouldn't. It was such a relief to be able to talk to someone, Linnet was finding it hard not to just blurt out everything she'd been keeping secret for the past few years.

"Okay, I'll let them know if it feels like the right thing to do" she said. It was as much as she dared, because one didn't talk about elementalism, and if she just told the others that they could trust Gemma, they'd want to know exactly what Linnet had said, and things might get complicated. If the conversation got around to her time at Beauxbatons, she could mention the elemental attack there and that Gemma had heard about it, and then...yeah, that could work. Lifting her glass, the Hufflepuff finished her butterbeer and set the glass back onto the table.

"Did you want another drink or shall we hit the shops now?" she asked quickly, before turning her attention to her friend's other question. She thought for a moment, trying to decide how best to answer without being confusing. "We're all connected to one element, but some of the adults...I think most of them... study a second element as well. The older ones - I mean, the ones who are a hundred or two hundred years old - can cast spells using both elements, but they have to use runes for their second affinity. Adults have a rune implanted in their body, and that gives them the power. I'm getting mine...soon. Then I shouldn't need rune stones, but I'll probably still use them for a while because it's tiring to cast elemental spells." She stopped to think about what else she should explain, quite forgetting that the idea of people living to be several hundred years old might be disturbing to non-elementals. And she hadn't even mentioned morphing yet!