LIGHT ME UP, ginny weasley.

↳ ooooiv

Daphne snorts, "Why? What did our precious, little standbi do now?"

"That was the worst pun I've ever heard, you idiot," Effie said, rinsing herself of all that shampoo and soap—inwardly cursing as some shampoo got in her eye, and cursed her ancestors more.

"Effie slept like she always did—in a bra and shorts that hangs off her waist for dear life. . . you know, the kind that hot, shirtless male models on magazines do," Pansy enlightened like sharing a gossip. "But you know she had a massive glow-up this summer, and well. . . let's just say poor Millicent is very sexually confused right now."

"Sounds exactly something like Effie would do," Daphne laughs, as Effie finally finished her shower. Effie wrapped a towel around her hair, and wrapped her robe around herself, before pulling the curtains out of the way. "And the smug little shit has the audacity to stay modest."

Effie scoffed, although not hiding her smirk, "Not my fault that they see me like some sexuality wakeup call, honey." She thought back to when she first had a proper conversation with Remus Lupin.

"Do all girls look at you like that?" He asked as they watched Tracey Davis walked away.

Effie furrowed her brows. "Like what?"

Professor Lupin snorts, "There's definitely some... chemistry in there."

"Aren't you a Defense Against Dark Arts professor?" She raised an eyebrow, cursing her ancestors as she tried not to blush. A bi disaster, great. "Let's keep it that way."

The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy, heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Pansy and Effie scanned their new timetables eagerly.

Thank merlin for Eleazar Stark, who personally made sure that Pansy and Effie stayed together (like Pansy's already his second daughter—but Pansy's parents couldn't care less, so. . . ) in every class.

(He said it was so Effie had someone to talk to, but Effie and Pansy both suspect it had to do with Effie's asthmatic situation and that Pansy's the only student carrying a spare inhaler.)

Millicent blushed around Effie, hastily avoiding the blonde's half amused gaze and sitting away from her. Pansy snickers when she noticed this. Effie caught Ginny's gaze from across the room.

Ginny brightened, and waved at Effie. The blonde responds with a genuine smile, that turned wry when Ronald, Potter, and Granger turned to look at her to see who Ginny was waving at.

"I don't trust her," Pansy decides quietly, crossing her arms. "She just doesn't make a friend out of you without an ulterior move."

"I thought I was the paranoid one—"

"You know all the past lovers you had one way or another screwed you over, right?" Pansy snapped. "They were there for what you looked like, what you offered. . . they weren't there for you."

"She's just a friend, Pansy!"

"A friend who might screw you over," Pansy countered. "It got so bad once you tried to change for them, remember? I just—I don't want you giving up everything you want to do for anyone who claims to love you but only want what you can offer, not who you are."