WHO: Scorpius Malfoy and Winifred Wimple. WHAT: Scorpius has a secret he needs to get off his chest. WHERE: A bench near the greenhouses. WHEN: Friday.
Somewhere between realizing that he wasn’t the straightest arrow in the quiver and figuring out what that really meant, Scorpius had developed a very thick shell. He worked so hard at not being discovered that he nearly forgot that some people were actually okay with the notion of homosexuality. He’d spent such a large portion of his life at school harping on other boys for their gay actions and their swishy behaviours that it was slightly amazing that the thought that he might be into dudes still occasionally crossed people’s minds. Of course, his short lived relationship with one miss Marguerite Travers had done something to aid his reputation, but it didn’t do much for turning him straight. After almost a month it had become clear to Marguerite that he was never going to give in and kiss her. So she dumped him. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to kiss her. It was that he couldn’t. He tried. He really did. But when they touched, there was nothing. No spark of romance. No passion. Nothing.
So he decided that if he couldn’t fix it, he needed to deal with it. He would probably never be okay with it (in fact it made him feel somehow violated by nature) but he figured he had to try. He wasn’t exactly gearing up to have steamy man-on-man sexual reawakening (or, er, awakening) but he figured telling his best friend what was up was probably a good start.
So he sat. And waited. And fretted. He’d gotten there a little earlier than they agreed to get his wits together, but it turned out to be a bad idea. He had gotten up with the idea of leaving twice now, but both times he had sat back down. He stood, fully intending to leave this time (he wasn’t ready! he might never be ready!) but it was that moment that Winnie chose to appear. He tried to look casual. Standing by a bench. Not planning to run away or anything. Nothing to see here.
He stepped forward and gave her a hug, “Hey, Winnie...”