In The Midnight Hour || Lucy

Leaving Hogwarts late had resulted in Lucy being out after hours. Since she knew detention would no doubt be in the cards for her when she returned, she decided to make the most of her deviance. If she was going to get detention for being out an hour later than she should have been, she decided she may as well stay even later. The sun had long since set considering it was February. The cold set in rough and hard for her and she disliked it. She pulled her jacket tighter around herself. Like usual, Lucy was alone. She didn’t really like Hogsmeade weekends due to the rush, hence she had left late in order for it to be calmer. She wasn’t even sure why she was there, so she put it down to boredom. She didn’t usually go into Hogsmeade as she typically enjoyed the quiet of Hogwarts when everyone was gone. 

A bitter wind hit Lucy which made her eyes water. She looked around for somewhere to go. Most of the shops had closed up because the students were gone, but the Three Broomsticks was still open. She frowned. It was better than the Hog’s Head. The Hog’s Head was always full of extremely unsavoury people, and most of them seemed to hit on her. They all seemed to be missing teeth or balding or just seemed to be creepy. Lucy didn’t really like The Three Broomsticks much better with the overly cheery people and chatter. Overly cheery was almost as bad to her as overly creepy, but she entered anyway. Immediately the warmth touched her and she let out a sigh of relief – that was, until she looked around and noticed all the snogging couples.

“What is this, an orgy party?” she asked under her breath as she took off her jacket and hung it up. She figured she’d be around long enough that her jacket would be unnecessary. Lucy walked up to the counter and ordered a Butterbeer. No one ever believed that she was of age and therefore couldn’t get away with ordering whiskey like everyone else seemed to be able to. 

When Lucy turned around, she noticed that not only was there many snogging couples, but they also took up all the usual seats. She groaned to herself before she noticed an empty chair. She immediately filled it, especially when she noticed some boy about to do the same thing. She grinned to herself and took a sip of her Butterbeer, pleased with herself for snatching it up before he did. Only then did Lucy notice that she wasn’t alone at the table. A blonde girl sat there. She looked vaguely familiar, and her age definitely put her at Hogwarts. Lucy rolled her still-red eyes from the wind, unable to stop herself. She knew that there was nowhere else to sit, so this was it for her.

“I’m Lucy Lantieri, and you are?” she asked, getting straight to the point. She looked at the cookies the other girl had and realized that her own stomach growled. She only then remembered that she had missed dinner. She caught a nearby pretty waitress and ordered some wings before she turned herself back to the blonde. “Have we met before? You look familiar,” she admitted. The other girl looked more familiar than just a passing face at Hogwarts, although she couldn’t put her finger on it. 

Lucy hadn’t noticed anything in particular about the boy other than the fact that she had successfully beaten him to the seat. Despite the fact that Lucy didn’t particularly care for sports, she was highly competitive. Then again, it was a trait that she seemed to notice in most Slytherins. They all seemed to want to be on top, but that wasn’t such a bad trait, was it? It usually meant that one got what they wanted, and Lucy typically got what she wanted. However, the blonde seemed somewhat surprised to see Lucy sitting there instead of the boy.

“Oh, were you waiting for him?” Lucy wondered. She looked over her shoulder at the boy. “He’s not very good looking, is he?” she continued onward even though the boy could have been the girl’s boyfriend or something. Lucy grinned a bit despite herself when she realized the pretty girl across from her wasn’t actually wanting that boy to sit down, nor did she appear to know him. 

“I’ll beat anyone to a seat if I want it bad enough,” she commented lightly as she accepted the piece of cookie. The wings seemed to take longer than necessary even though she swore she spotted a few people already receive some. Lucy neglected to thank the other girl for the cookie, but it was purely by accident. Lucy cringed at the word Quidditch. “Oh. Another one of you, then,” she said with a slight frown. How many of there could there be? She seemed to be running into them left, right, and centre. “I wouldn’t recognize you from that. I don’t watch Quidditch,” she continued in a matter-of-fact tone. 

Lucy raised an eyebrow at her companion. She really was excited at the concept of being out of school after-hours. “I’m not a big people person so I tried to avoid everyone by coming late and I ended up losing track of time,” she explained simply. She was tempted to point out how Gryffindor it was of her to be so excited about breaking the rules, but something about Kat actually stopped Lucy for once. “What about you? Is this how you get your kicks?” the statement was probably about just as rude as the one that Lucy had held back, but she said it regardless. 

Finally her wings were delivered to her. They were of the dry variety, which Lucy was grateful for. She always hated making a mess while eating. She began to dig in while she kept her eyes on the pretty blonde girl sitting opposite of her. It occurred to her that the two of them could be easily mistaken for just another couple in the room. Then again, probably no one would mainly because they were both girls. Lucy almost snorted at her own thoughts. Sometimes she forgot that what came to her naturally other people actually had to consciously think about in order to remember that some girls liked other girls and that they weren’t all just a couple of girl friends. 

Lucy allowed herself a small grin at Kat’s giggle. “Well, if I were you I’d prefer myself being here as well, compared to that.” She looked over her shoulder at the rejected boy who was now doing a horrible job of consoling his now-ex-girlfriend. “Why do little boys do that, anyway? Like, go away.” She rolled her eyes at the thought. “They do it all the time to me, too. Such a bloody waste of time considering I’m pretty sure I give off an aura of ‘Get the hell away from me.’”

Lucy eyed the other girl. How young was she? She seriously doubted that Kat was older, so if they weren’t in the same year, she had to be younger. She didn’t want to have any inappropriate thoughts about another girl who was significantly younger, that was disgusting. The other girl was attractive, though, so it was hard for Lucy’s mind not to wander a little bit. “What Year you in, then? I’m sixth. We might not have met. I might have just noticed you around the castle or something.” She tried to sound off-hand, but immediately realized that it was true. She had merely noticed the blonde around. Certain girls always seemed to grab Lucy’s attention, and in that moment she knew that Kat had been one of them. She suddenly had a memory of glancing at the other girl at a different table during dinner, and once again in the corridors. The thought made her feel silly and childish. But wasn’t it normal to notice certain people of the gender one was attracted to? Lucy seemed to think not. She didn’t notice anyone, she was the one who was noticed… that was how it worked, wasn’t it?

“Very much loner type.” Lucy said, suddenly a little coldly. She didn’t want to seem too forward. “I don’t really like other people, at Hogsmeade or otherwise. They’re just so…” she allowed herself a shiver as if other people were disgusting vile creatures. However, she became immediately interested again after what Kat said. “You went into the Shrieking Shack? No way, you’ve got to be shitting me. By yourself? Why?” she realized she had leaned forward in her chair so she sat back again casually. “Peeves is a gift to the castle. I don’t know why people hate him so much. And don’t get me started on gossip or else the two of us might never get back to Hogwarts.” Lucy was pretty straight-forward about herself, and gossiping was one of her favourite hobbies. 

“I don’t know, but it’s disgusting,” Lucy complained as well as she looked around between eating wings and flopping the bones back down on the table. It didn’t take her long to finish them off, and then mimicking Kat she ordered herself a tea too. “I wouldn’t have come in but lately The Hog’s Head is worse than normal for undesirable people. All they want to talk about is Death Eaters and it’s a little obsessive if you ask me.” She pondered the question for a moment. “I suppose I had. I didn’t really have a plan when I came here, but I suppose I do now.” She didn’t know where the nice comment had come from. It had slipped from her mouth quickly and she hadn’t even thought about it. It almost came off as flirty, and one thing Lucy wasn’t was flirty. 

“Not waiting for anyone,” she assured Kat. “Were you?” she wondered maybe if the seat had been empty for a reason. “I’m literally just wasting time. No reason to get back too early if I’m facing detention anyway.”

Lucy wasn’t one much to particularly enjoy giggling, but clearly Kat did. Although Lucy didn’t really understand the whole giggling thing, she was rather pleased with herself that Kat had enjoyed the comment Lucy had made. She wasn’t sure if the other girl was agreeing with the fact that boys should just go away or that Lucy gave off an irritable aura, but she didn’t really care either way.

“Still a baby, then,” Lucy teased. “I’ll be seventeen in March. I suppose not that far apart,” she conceded. She flicked her long hair over her shoulder. Lucy actually snorted at the idea of Kat being sat on. “I wouldn’t say that you were that unnoticeable, but apparently I’m the only one.” She paused for a moment and then couldn’t help but add, “You were actually sat on?” Lucy laughed. The mental image was certainly quite funny. “I’m always noticed,” Lucy told Kat. “I think it’s because of my hair. Or because I’m tall. I’m not sure, but people talk to me all the time.” She neglected to mention the fact that she was the one who spoke to others, but that’s also because it wasn’t really the way Lucy saw it.

“So you didn’t find out what made it shriek? Why are people so afraid of if even if it is haunted? Hogwarts is haunted and people don’t get their panties in a twist over that,” Lucy pointed out. Their conversation about Peeves certainly fit with their conversation about the Shack considering he was a poltergeist and that was what a lot of people seemed to be wary of. She didn’t get it, but nor did she want to go to the Shack. As much as she made fun of others for their fear, she was admittedly a bit frightened of it herself. 

“I’m sure they’d find something to talk about… or at least something on each other to punch, scratch, or kick,” Lucy said as her mind wandered to the potential scene. “Peeves tells me things all the time. Sometimes they’re true, sometimes they’re not. He was telling me this grand adventure McGonagall went on with some man as a date. He was really getting into it… that was, before McGonagall actually showed up.” She wasn’t sure if that one was true, but Lucy could definitely see the potential of it being so. “I always imagined that McGonagall was some sort of freaky chick.”

Lucy didn’t pick up on Kat’s hint. “Yeah, well, good for you. There’s no boy in the world that interests me. Or at least, hasn’t as of yet.” She always figured that if a boy came along that interested her she would probably date them, but she had never been attracted to a boy yet – not once, so therefore she figured none ever would. 

“I guess you’ll have to sneak me in later, then,” Lucy said, simply. She stirred her tea and took a sip. A little sweet, but that was how she liked it. “I don’t really care for another detention.”

Lucy grinned mischieviously. “Almost, but not quite. If you were an adult, I would have gotten you to get me a whiskey by now instead of this,” she said as she lifted her forgotten Butterbeer that she had abandoned in favour of her tea. She surveyed the girl in front of her, then looked under the table to see how short Kat’s legs were. “Yeah, I suppose some people might confuse you for a house elf,” she joked as she sipped her tea. She wondered if the comment would make Kat mad or upset, or even laugh. Lucy wasn’t very good at reading other people so she never really knew when she was crossing the line so she just said whatever she wanted and just went with it.

“Are you sure he sat on you by accident?” Lucy wondered curiously. “Perhaps he was just trying to get your attention.” She knew boys did stupider things than that in order to try to get girls’ attention. 

Lucy admittedly blushed at the other girl’s compliments and it was a feeling she wasn’t used to. Kat’s comments seemed well-meant, which didn’t happen to Lucy too much. Most of her compliments came from people she didn’t want to. Then again, did she want Kat to compliment her? The heat in her cheeks said yes, although she didn’t consciously know why. Lucy never blushed and so she didn’t know what to make of it. “Well that’s exactly why I get noticed,” she said simply as if the other girl hadn’t complimented her at all. Good, the best way to mask blushing was to pretend that it didn’t happen. “’Ooh your eyes are so beautiful, girl,’ or ‘I bet you get the weather before anyone else.’ Like oh ha ha, I’m so amused.” 

Lucy thought about it for a moment. Peeves wasn’t exactly friendly, and he could be downright cruel at times. “I’ve never really thought about ghosts being worse than the ones at Hogwarts,” Lucy admitted. “What would they do? Glare at you menacingly? I mean, they couldn’t cause real harm, could they?” she didn’t want to seem as interested as she really was, but she couldn’t help it. Sometimes not paying attention in class really made her seem ignorant, and this was one of those cases. 

“Pfft, McGonagall only acts so prudish is because she doesn’t want the students to know how crazy she is outside Hogwarts walls,” Lucy explained as if it were fact. “She’s so powerful. She likes to get up to fun stuff outside of school. She has to be so proper as a professor that she probably just needs to act normal when she’s off-duty, but it’s all built up so she goes overboard. That woman, I tell you, everyone admires her but no one should admire her as much as the Slytherins.” She wasn’t even sure if she was lying anymore. She just had all this stuff built up in her head and the words just flowed as if it were truthful. Did that make her a liar? She wasn’t sure, but didn’t think about it. Calling McGonagall a secret party animal was hardly reputation-ruining. 

Lucy noticed Kat’s small changes in her pose at the mention of her not having any interest in any boy. She wasn’t sure what it meant. It could have meant a hundred thousand different things, but she didn’t allow herself to try to interpret it because that would have to mean that she cared what Kat thought. 

Lucy smirked. “Well, now, I’ll have to take you up on your offer. I knew Gryffindors had their uses somehow,” she joked. She looked around them and realized that the bar was emptying. Finally. “I think I can wait another hour with you.” She didn’t even know what she meant by that herself. She ordered another tea in order to busy herself so she wouldn’t have to see Kat’s reaction to her words.

“Oh, I have my own supply that should last me through the school year,” Lucy assured Kat. “I always get it during the summer and that way I don’t have to pay the outrageous prices some of these students want. Besides, then I have it when I want it and don’t have to chase anyone down. However, it’s not like I can bring my own whiskey into the pub. For some reason I think that would be frowned upon.” 

Lucy seemed to hear nothing past that because of Kat’s statement about not dating boys. “So does that mean you date girls?” Lucy blurted out. She supposed it could have meant that Kat dated no one – she could have been asexual for all Lucy knew, but she supposed she was going to find out now that she asked. She took a sip of her tea again. Her bladder was beginning to feel full from all the tea she was drinking out of trying not to seem interested, but she sat there and didn’t move. She felt as if she got up their little meeting would come to an end, even though Kat had promised to get them both back into the castle. People broke their word all the time.

“Looks are important, too, though,” Lucy argued, probably just for the sake of arguing. “Yes, you’re right, it’s romantic or whatever to date someone who gets along with you, but you have to be attracted to them. Honestly, Kat, I’m not going to date someone who looks like a goblin just because they have brains, do you know what I mean? I get your point, though, I do.” She tucked her hair behind one of her ears. She didn’t want to make it sound like she was shallow, but she sort of was, and probably more shallow than she was even aware of. Kat was beautiful though, and the concept that perhaps this girl was gay too was something that was really screwing around with Lucy’s mind. 

“We have cheerleaders?” Lucy let out a loud laugh that she couldn’t control. “I had no idea.” She had lost the point completely because she was so amused by the fact that Hogwarts had cheerleaders. “He probably liked that some young girl was dropped on him,” she added darkly, but with a hint of amusement. She always got a creepy feeling off Filch, but she supposed everyone did. She highly doubted that he was attracted to any student, but she had made the comment all the same.

“You just have to keep your ears open,” Lucy instructed as if she was teaching some sort of art form. To her, though, gossip was a form of art. “Besides, I’ll pretty much talk to anyone and you’ll be surprised what people are itching to get out. Hogwarts is full of stupid things. You have to be careful, though, because some of it is just untrue, but hey, it’s fun anyway.” 

In Lucy’s opinion, it was silly not to bring your own stash, even if it was just a small mickey. It was easier to get it in once than go scurrying after it every time one needed it. “I’m not that big of a drinker,” Lucy explained. “You have to be pretty bad to bring a flask into a bar. At least, that’s what I think.” She never did any of her drinking in Hogsmeade. Trying to get past the teachers as security was a lot harder if you were tanked. It was easier to keep it to the dorms or common room, or even the Room of Requirement, but Lucy was still unsure about that room.

Lucy watched Kat think about the question, and the silence that followed her question was almost an answer within itself. “Why would I do that? I’m gay, too,” she said as if it were common. “I’m sure there are more around, they’re just closeted.” Lucy spoke about the situation in a way that made it seem like she wasn’t bothered by how gays were treated, but sometimes it got to her. It really was difficult to talk to some people, and some people avoided her altogether because of it. Due to that fact, she tended to get it out in the open right away. Lucy was also suddenly flustered. A part of her did want to leave, but she couldn’t explain why. She was a lesbian, why would she be uncomfortable? A part of her knew it had nothing to do with Kat being a lesbian, but rather a giant part of Lucy that didn’t know how to act around other girls of the same orientation. It had never happened to her before and she almost felt shy in a way. 

She merely nodded about the cheerleaders. Her uncharacteristically good mood had turned solemn and she merely fiddled with her tea cup for a moment. What was she supposed to do? Lucy couldn’t deny her attraction to Kat, and now that she knew that the attraction could be potentially reciprocated she wasn’t sure what her next move could be. Her overthinking caused her to be very quiet. After a moment, her pale eyes looked back up at the blonde. “I do. I know almost everyone. But there’s always someone knew to learn about.”

Her words had two meanings but she wasn’t sure if Kat would pick up on it. She looked around the nearly empty bar, and then to her own nearly empty cup. She glanced out the window to notice it was snowing lightly. “How about we get out of here? We still have some time to kill before we head back, and I don’t think I could down another beverage.” Really, she wanted to be alone with Kat. No matter how empty The Three Broomsticks got, there were still the bartenders and waitresses and Lucy didn’t really want eyes on them anymore.