Veraisy: Their Story

Daisy- Silvie Drops a Bomb

I didn't know what to think. Harry had been found with the two, but he had looked just as horrified as the rest of us. It was possible he could have been at the wrong place at the wrong time, right? The thing was, it was getting harder and harder to believe.

I was still holding on to the shred of hope that it wasn't Harry, wasn't any of the students, but... I found myself growing nervous when Harry was around. And not the kind of stuttering, red faced kind of nervous that I always was around Vera. This was like the first startings of fear, and I felt terrible about it.

Winter break couldn't come fast enough. The train back to London was completely full this year, unsurprisingly. I sat in a compartment with Carrie and the other girls from my dorm, but I kind of wanted to go find Vera, just to see her because I went home for the holidays.

We had met in the kitchens a few times since Mrs. Norris's attack, but aside from that I didn't really get to talk to her, and the thought upset me. I wanted to talk to her as much as I possibly could, but at the same time I didn't. That nervous, fluttery feeling had never gone away, and it scared me.

I spent so long thinking about it that by the time I decided to do it, it was too late. The train pulled into the station, and I couldn't find her in the crowd.

***

At least I got to see Silvie again. Our two breaks had about a four day overlap before she had to go back to school and I would be alone with dad again. We took advantage of the time, and I was over at her house for most of those four days. It wasn't like my dad was going to notice anyway.

"Okay, so catch me up," Silvie said, balancing cross legged on her beam. Her icy blue hair was pulled into a neater bun than usual, and I was able to see the dirty blonde roots starting to grow out. "What's been going on at your fancy botany school?"

I shrugged. "A bunch of plants keep getting... frozen, I guess. Even with the greenhouses, they just... they look like they're dying. No one knows why." it was the closest I could get to the petrified students. I never wanted to lie to Silvie, but there were laws in place. I couldn't just tell her.

"Well, I'm sure Dumbledore will figure it out."

"I don't know, he's—" I blinked. "What?"

Silvie cackled. "I knew it! You do go to Hogwarts!"

"How—"

"I'm a squib, kid," Silvie said, snorting. "I've known for the past... oh, I don't know, three years? You're a bad liar."

"Why didn't you say anything?" I exclaimed, my mouth hanging open.

Silvie shrugged. "You never asked about it. Want to work on the bar today?"

"Um... I guess?"

"Cool. Go get the chalk. It's over there now by the wall."

I wasn't really sure how I was supposed to be reacting, so I just got up and went over to the wall of shelves near the back. Silvie had long ago converted this basement into her own personal gymnastics gym, but her mom's old shelves from its paint studio days were still there. No one had ever bothered to remove them, and after a while, they just accumulated weights and bands and Silvie's random keepsakes, so Silvie just kept it.

The box full of chalk was on a shelf at the perfect height to rub some on my hands. It also put me at eye level with a bunch of pictures of Silvie and her friends. There was one with the bunch of them holding paintball guns, looking ready to take out a bunch of kids, them in an inflatable boat that was clearly sinking, them in what looked like an abandoned building, and...

"Is this a mugshot?" I picked up the photo, examining Silvie in front of a giant ruler, holding a tablet with her name on it and the words Breaking and Entering.

"Oh, we don't have to look at that!" Silvie bound up from her spot on the beam and plucked the photo out of my hand, clearing her throat. "Or models of certain body parts locked in the Dean's office."

"What?"

"What? Nothing. I said nothing. What's been going on with you? I can tell you have something to tell me."

"Um..." she was clearly trying to change the subject, but I had been aching to tell her about Vera ever since that first night in the kitchens. Then there were all the attacks, and the speculations, and the fear going around school. My mind went back to Vera. Could Silvie tell me what was going on with me? Would confirm what I was already thinking, that there was something wrong with me? Or would she actually have an explanation? I was tired of keeping it all to myself, too. I had to tell her.

"Well..." I started. "I guess so. There's this girl at school, and I think we're friends, but... every time I'm around her, it's like my heart is trying to beat out of my chest and I've just run a mile, and I can't speak when she's near and I get so nervous around her, and... I don't know what's going on. If she were a boy, I guess it would make sense, but she's not, but... it's still happening, and I don't know what's wrong with me or if I'm broken or messed up or—or—why are you laughing?"

Silvie raised her mugshot to her mouth to hide her grin, but I still heard her laughing. Why was she laughing? I was trying to confide in her, and she was snorting.

"Oh, honey," Silvie said in a voice thick with laughter. "Oh, Daisy, oh, sweet baby angel... you're not broken. You're gay."

"I'm—what?"

"You're a lesbian, Daisy."

"I'm a what?"

Silvie laughed again. "Okay, sit down. I'll tell you everything."