Coming Out

Ron
He’s happy his little sister has found someone. No, really, he is. He’s glad she’s found someone he can trust, and maybe it’s even better that she’s with a girl than a boy, because at least now he doesn’t have to worry about her having sex. How much can two girls really do together, anyway? His baby sister is still innocent and chaste, and he likes it that way.

He’s not too sure if he’s happy about Hermione choosing his sister over him, though. There’s something about that that makes him feel, well, inferior. He’ll get over it. He hopes.

Harry
He’s too caught up in thinking and brooding and moping about Sirius, and Voldemort, and the general state of the universe, particularly his own life, to think too much about it. It’s not like it really affects him, anyway. They’re his friends, they’re going out together, it doesn’t have a huge impact on his day-to-day living, except instead of whispering and giggling together, they now whisper and giggle and kiss.

After a while he starts to watch them, and it makes him uncomfortable in that good sort of way, and he starts touching himself at night again, thinking of them.

Dean and Seamus
They’re cool with it, definitely. They approve, completely, even if it makes them a little awkward at first, this ‘gay’ concept being discussed and aired and made public. They watch carefully to see how everyone else deals with it, starting to cautiously press Harry and Ron and Neville for their opinion on gay people, and not just girls, because guys are supposed to like two girls together, not that either of them would know, and when the time’s right they make a quiet announcement of their own, and no one is really too shocked by it, which is a relief.

Neville
Well, he knew already, but he doesn’t tell Harry or Ron that. Ginny confided in him long before she and Hermione even got together, and he always thought it was funny that they’d both liked Hermione and ended up getting closer as a result of this shared crush. He’s still fond of Hermione, but she likes Ginny, and really he’s just so thrilled that Ginny’s got what she’s dreamed about for so long that he doesn’t have time to be jealous. He doesn’t like jealousy, anyway, the way it burns; he’s learned it doesn’t achieve anything in the long run.

Draco
Who the hell do those two think they are, prancing around together arm-in-arm as if it’s perfectly natural for two girls to be in love? And making grand announcements, like it’s something to be proud of. But what else can you expect from Gryffindor, he thinks. One’s a Mudblood and the other, though pureblood, is a Weasley, and that makes her just as bad as that Muggle-born Granger. It’s disgusting, that’s what it is. If Umbridge was still here she’d outlaw the way they’re all over each other in public, hugging and kissing, that’s for sure. It makes him sick.

Pansy and Millicent
They act like they’re disgusted by it. They watch the way Draco and the other Slytherins call them names, harsh cruel names that make both Pansy and Millicent feel somewhat ashamed inside, and disgusted with themselves, which feels odd. They should be disgusted with Hermione and Ginny, shouldn’t they? And they are, they’re trying to be, but there are little voices inside their heads whispering that they’re just like them, and it isn’t until one private conversation in the second-floor girls’ bathroom that Pansy realises that Millicent feels just like she does. It’s okay, though, because they kiss like Slytherins.

Lavender and Parvati
It makes sense to them once they think about it. This is why Hermione doesn’t care about the important things in life, like makeup and clothes. They should have realised that her lack of an interest in boys wasn’t just due to her studious nature. Funny, they’d always thought her fondness for Ginny Weasley was just another way of trying to get closer to Ron. Well, she’s a lost cause now, isn’t she? They’re perfectly fine with it, of course, they don’t care if Hermione wants to kiss girls, but they’re not going to offer to paint her nails anymore.

Luna
She’s amazed that everyone else is so shocked by this. She’s seen it coming from miles off. You’d have to blind not to notice the way Hermione and Ginny have been mooning over one another for the past few months. Definite sexual tension; they’re almost as bad as that Seamus and Dean in Hermione’s year. Well, she’s glad it’s out in the open now. She wonders if that article about the affair that one of the Weird Sisters had with Dolores Umbridge that her father printed in the Quibbler had something to do with it. The media is amazing, really.

fin