"Hey, there you are," Lily greeted Fawn as she entered the dormitory that night. "Thought we lost you. You missed dinner."
"Yeah, I got distracted, sorry."
"No problem. Alice made sure to bring back some food for you. Are you hungry?"
Fawn glanced over at Alice who had looked up from her Herbology book. "Wow thank you Alice. I already snuck into the kitchens and got something but yes, I'm still hungry."
Alice pulled out a full plate, kept warm with a heating charm, filled to the brim with potatoes, chicken, carrots, peas and gravy. It was delicious, as the Hogwarts food always was.
Marlene leaned closer from her bed. "So, where did you disappear to? Any hot date we should know about?" she asked, eyebrows waggling.
Fawn nearly choked on her food while Lily hurled a pillow at Marlene. Alice just gave a small giggle.
"Really Marls?" Lily asked, sarcastically.
Marlene just shrugged. "What can I say? I like gossip."
Fawn rolled her eyes. "It's nothing special. I just did some extra flying after tryouts to clear my mind. And no, there is no 'hot' date, though I wouldn't really know what 'hotness' entails anyways."
Lily's face scrunched up in confusion. "What do you mean by that Fawn? You don't know what hot means?"
"No, no, I know what it means, it's just not a feeling I experience."
Marlene and Lily looked totally confused, this was a concept they had never heard of before. Fawn would clarify, but not yet, she found their confusion amusing.
Alice had lowered her book, but she didn't look confused. In fact, she looked almost proud, as if she understood exactly what Fawn was referring to.
"So you've never looked at someone and been like 'damn, they make me want to do ungodly things?"'
A groan of second hand embarrassment was heard from Alice's corner of the room.
Marlene looked at her in confusion. "What?"
Lily laughed awkwardly. "You can't just ask someone about when they get aroused Marlene."
"I wasn't asking that specifically, I just don't understand how she doesn't think people are hot."
This was too good. Marlene wasn't even being disrespectful, she just didn't understand. Lily was more subtle about it, she knew that this topic wasn't something to be openly discussed unless the person was comfortable. Fawn wasn't uncomfortable, she had had a similar conversation during her fourth year. Ron and Harry had been complete idiots about it but that was why she loved them. They were clueless but they tried, and that was all that mattered.
"I'm Asexual you dimwit."
"I'm not a dimwit!" Marlene defended herself, arms flailing drastically, completely skipping over the important part.
"That's the part you chose to focus on?" Lily asked, "Shouldn't you be more focused on the other thing?"
Lily then turned to Fawn. "What does it mean to be Asexual? I've only heard it in scientific terms though I highly doubt it's that."
Fawn laughed. "No it is definitely not that. It just means that I don't look at someone and automatically want to do the do with them is all."
"I'm still confused."
"Oh for Merlin's sake!" Alice exclaimed, book thudding shut. "She doesn't experience sexual attraction. It just means a person doesn't get turned on by looks. You can have other forms of attraction such as Romantic, Sensual, Platonic, or Aesthetic, just not the sexual part.
"It's actually fairly simple to understand but no one teaches about it which is why there is so much ignorance around anyone who doesn't fit into the specific binaries of Male, Female, Gay or Straight.
"Also, Asexual doesn't mean no sex ever, it just means you don't feel it as a requirement. A person can still enjoy sex without feeling sexual attraction. A person, like me, can still want kids by natural means but not want much physical intimacy outside of that. A person can still fantasize but not want it actually done to them.
"Asexuality is a spectrum and doesn't automatically make us Nuns, so please don't make ignorant remarks before doing some damn research."
Needless to say, they were shocked. Alice was usually very reserved, she never spoke up, never got angry, her main character trait was her calmness.
"Wow you really hit the nail on the head with that Alice. I'm surprised you know so much. I don't think I even had that amount of knowledge on it."
Alice's face colored slightly. "It was one of my hyperfixations for a while before Herbology," she admitted. "I spent far too much time at the Muggle library near my house during the holidays."
"So basically you want love just not the spicy part."
Fawn just shook her head in amusement. "Yeah basically. Though I'm not sex-repulsed, so I could still have it if I felt comfortable enough with the person, it'd just have to be a very specific case."
Marlene nodded. "Got it."
Lily was smiling as she reached over to give Fawn a hug. "I'm proud of you Fawn," she glanced over to Alice, "Both of you. I'm sure a lot of people won't understand, I think it's one of those things that you won't truly get unless you experience it for yourself, but I know I'll be one hundred percent supportive and Marlene will be too."
She paused, glancing at Marlene threateningly. "Right Marlene?"
Marlene had stolen the chicken leg off of Fawn's plate. She looked up mid-bite. "Huh? Oh yeah, yeah! Fully supportive. No ding dongs for any of us then."
The group spit out into laughter.
"What do you mean for any of us?" Fawn asked. "Alice and I are the only Asexuals here as far as I know."
Marlene just shrugged. "I fancy girls, and Lily's waiting for marriage. We virgins gotta stick together."
"You say that as though we're a rare breed," Lily said between giggles.
"We are."
These sorts of conversations would have never taken place at her old dorm, Fawn thought. Parvati and Lavender weren't really friends, and Hermione was always busy with something else. Now that she thought about it, their group seldom ever had time to just be kids.
She was tossed out of the thoughts as a pillow slapped her in the face and a laughter-filled shriek split the air.
"Oh you're gonna get it!" Fawn shouted as she thrust the pillow at Marlene who made a show of toppling off her bed and to the ground with a too-loud-to-be-believable thud.
As the four settled down to go to sleep, feathers settled in their hair, room a mess, Fawn couldn't help but wish that this could be a permanent arrangement.