qswa

[slythervivian]

Vivian is a quiet child. Shy and easily overwhelmed, she is most often found at home studying quietly under her mother's approving eye. She does well enough in school that her parents start to talk about sending her to a fancy boarding school when she's older; St. Paul's, perhaps, or maybe Sevenoaks. Vivian doesn't object. She is always well behaved, and she never speaks unless spoken to. If her parents think she should go away to school, she's sure they know best. She doesn't need to talk to them about it. And she certainly doesn't need to mention the strange things that happen sometimes in her room, late at night when she's falling asleep. Her books can't actually float. The street lights don't actually make pretty moving shadow designs on the wall. It's just a pleasant fancy.

And then suddenly it isn't just a child's fancy anymore. There's an older couple showing up to Explain Things to her parents carrying a fancy letter on parchment- sealed with wax, even- and an entirely different kind of boarding school to attend. Her parents seem more confused and afraid than anything else, but the wizard couple is very insistently, politely persuasive. Vivian gets the feeling her parents don't quite know what to do with her. But having been presented with such a convenient answer, the arrangements are made.

She'll be attending Hogwarts in the fall.

---

It becomes obvious to Vivian very quickly that the helpful couple left a lot of things out. Until recently the school was, literally, a war zone. Perhaps they'd done it on purpose; they'd said something vague about fetching her "because the faculty were busy", but Vivian suspects belatedly that they really meant "because the faculty are recovering from an enormous magical battle, yes seriously." She doesn't tell her parents; they would worry, or pull her out of school, and she doesn't really think she'd be any safer if they did. She is, as always, quiet. The Sorting Hat puts her in Slytherin, and she gets quieter. She doesn't socialize, she doesn't answer questions about her home life, she spends as much time as she can in the library. Eventually the older students write her off as "one of those weird Asian witches", and she sees no need to correct them. She is a weird Asian witch. Better than a pureblooded snob, as far as she's concerned.

She does well in school. She's not inspiring awe and admiration in Ravenclaw hearts or anything like that, but when you do nothing but study you do well in school, and Vivian does little else. She likes the work, and doesn't feel the loss. She finishes year one, then year two. Her parents are pleased she's doing well, and don't otherwise ask questions; magic makes them uncomfortable. It certainly never occurs to them to ask if she's making friends. She's not, but she prefers it that way. She likes her cozy armchair in the library much more than the older Slytherins, that's for sure.

Her disinterest in socialization does not survive the onset of puberty.

---

Vivian isn't clear on when, exactly, she realizes that other witches are pretty. But other witches are definitely pretty. So Vivian starts attempting to meet some. Her studying starts moving closer and closer to other students' study groups. There's one group in particular, with a beautiful Ravenclaw witch her age... Vivian watches them. She's not the only one, this group is awfully famous so she doesn't stand out much, but she's still too shy. She tries not to stare as much. (She fails. She's so smart. And that smile.) She tries to at least stare at other girls. (More successful, but it's not a large student body; she only has so many options). And she worries and daydreams and panics that she'll say something and be crushed in the process. (She says nothing.)

But there's no one to talk to about this. Why can't she find any gay witches or wizards to talk to? She listens to gossip. She asks innocent questions when she dares. She only comes up with three names, in the whole school, and the two girls are dating each other. That's probably the only reason anyone knows about them at all, she decides glumly. This is just not talked about at Hogwarts. And it's not like she has friends to ask or compare notes with. She's "that quiet Asian witch" who doesn't make friends.

She decides that if no one is talking about it, she's going to make them.

She gets permission from the Headmistress. She talks Madame Hooch- on the principle that the flying instructor has the most free time- into acting as the faculty adviser. And she starts distributing flyers.

Queer/Straight Wix Alliance introductory meetup, Monday October 2 at 7pm in the Charms classroom. Cauldron cakes and chatting.

Comments

[slythervivian]

"Oh..." Vivian looks at Karen anxiously. "Do you think widdershins is better? I mean, I wanted everyone to feel comfortable, not just- widdershins, right?- and putting 'straight' seemed like it might convince people who were hesitant? In a 'we can just say we came to be supportive' way? I want this to be inclusive!"

[pleating]

"It's fine, it just isn't as instantly recognizable as 'widdershins'? I mean, to wizardborns, anyway, it might be really obvious for Muggleborns. And for 'straight' it'd usually be 'deosil' but that's just to match with widdershins, it wouldn't make sense next to 'queer'."

[slythervivian]

"Thank you," Vivian tells her. "I don't- have a lot of background on this, really. That's one of the reasons I started the group."

[pleating]

"Are you Muggleborn altogether or did you just grow up with a Muggle parent or something? It's fine, it's only, Slytherin."

[slythervivian]

"Muggleborn," she admits (quietly). "But I wouldn't say, and I guess the Asian community keeps itself pretty separate? So none of the older students were sure."

[pleating]

"Yeah - my family knows a family that's got a Korean Muggle who married in, in it, but that's all off the top of my head. I won't tell anyone if you don't want."

[slythervivian]

"Thanks," Vivian says with a smile. "I'm going to tell eventually, I like being Muggleborn! And I am not inferior, whatever they say. I just didn't want to bring up old war stuff? I don't really get it, I didn't want to make it worse for anyone."

[pleating]

"I really don't know enough about your house politics to say whether it would bring up anything," blinks Karen, "but it's all up to you."

[slythervivian]

"Well, I don't really know enough about the war, so call it even?"

[pleating]

"Nobody in our year knows that much unless we have older siblings."

[slythervivian]

There's a happier topic! "Well, it's just me, so I guess I'm doomed either way. What about you? Any siblings?"

[pleating]

"Nope, just cousins. Although my parents are thinking of having another kid or two soon, since everything's calmed down and I'm out of the house most of the year."

[slythervivian]

Ask how she feels about that? No, probably too personal. "I only have the one cousin. Lots of single children in my family. Do you see yours much? What's growing up with wizards like?"

[pleating]

"I see my cousins pretty often - mostly during holidays, none of them are in Hogwarts right now. I really don't know how to describe what it's like? They... use... magic for things? And send letters with owls instead of stamps."

[slythervivian]

"Yes, but- you even have different sports. Have you never seen football or rugby? Are there special wizard restaurants, or is it really just Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade? What are the jobs, do you still have rubbish bins that need collecting or do you magic that away too?"

Yes, good, Vivian, talk about rubbish bins. Great start, A+.

[pleating]

"I've never seen football or rugby! There are other alleys in London, and there's little wizard neighborhoods, Hogsmeade is the only entire village that's all magic but I live in Nottingham and there's a couple blocks of magic housing. I... don't actually know about what happens to rubbish. I can ask my mum if you want. I want to be a wandmaker but there's all kinds of jobs."

[slythervivian]

"I don't actually either," Vivian admits with a laugh. "It just seemed very Muggle. Sorry, hang on a sec-" The Known Couple from the last meetup has arrived. Vivian takes a minute to thank them for coming and direct them to the chocolate frogs before turning back to Karen. "Sorry," she apologizes, "just hosting. Did you want a chocolate frog? We can sit- if you want- I'd love to hear more about the wizarding world? From a more reasonable perspective then I used to get in my house, I mean."

Older Slytherins are as prone to story telling in the common room late at night as anyone else, but their stories are generally more like "our servants this" and "my expensive presents that". Vivian would like to think that's not the entirety of the wizarding world.

[pleating]

"I'd love a frog. I'll tell you whatever you'd like but I don't know where to start, you know? Jenny's mostly interested in how unicorns and fairies and so on are real."

[slythervivian]

"I don't know where to start asking!" Vivian laughs. "I guess I know basic stuff. I mean, I couldn't have gotten this far without understanding things like money. I don't know, what kind of stuff do wix find confusing about Muggles? I almost took Muggle Studies to find out, but that seemed like such a waste."

[pleating]

"I might be fresh out of questions like that, I got in the habit of just asking Jenny. Or Miranda, she knows stuff too. And I didn't take note of what the questions were!"

[slythervivian]

"Well, what did you do for fun? I've seen Quidditch and chess and... that was it?"

[pleating]

"There's more games! I don't like Exploding Snap myself but it's popular. There's always the wireless and, uh, books - I might be too Ravenclaw to have a really good answer to this besides 'books'? - why, what seems obviously missing?"

[slythervivian]

"I didn't do much, I did a lot of reading too. But do people play cards? Or instruments? Or do silly little acting groups as a kid? Go to dances? I guess you wouldn't have a telly, that seems to be a Muggle thing, but we could watch shows on it. My parents let me go to the cinema for parties sometimes. There was a park where kids could swim or use the swings or play tag. Diagon Alley seemed to be mostly shops?"

[pleating]

"Exploding Snap is cards. You mean, like, generic cards? Sometimes but not that often. Instruments - I guess, I don't think it's that common, do a lot of Muggles pick it up? I did an acting bit in a regular theater production once when I was six, but that doesn't sound like what you mean. Sometimes somebody will throw a cotillion. We don't have telly or cinema. I know how to swim but we don't go to the seaside all that often. I'm not sure what swings are and tag would be more fun on brooms... Diagon Alley's mostly shopping, yeah, but there's other alleys with residences."

[slythervivian]

"Well, I think there's lots of kinds of cards. But yeah, wix just seem so... scattered? Unless there's places the size of London that are just wizards, but it doesn't seem like it."