Lady Stardust

32. November 1976

November 1st

Ariene slammed her book shut, waking up the ghost that tended to the library.

"Shhhh!"

"My bad." Ariene rolled her eyes and flicked her wrist, sending the book back to its place on the shelf. She stepped up from the desk and slung her book bag over her shoulder before storming out of the library and down the hallway, not moving out of the way when she saw first years huddled up. They moved apart, letting her through, and Ariene continued walking down the hallway, ignoring their daunting thoughts.

"Ariene!" Ariene groaned inwardly and turned around.

"Hi."

"Are you mad at me?" Dorcas made a concerned face as if she was forced to ask. Maybe that was just what it seemed like to Ariene.

"No. I've got to get to my dorm though." Dorcas put her hand on Ariene's shoulder.

"I actually have a lot to tell you," Dorcas smiled at her, and Ariene wanted to shrug her hand off.

"Can it wait? I actually have to get back." Ariene left without waiting for an answer. She walked all the way up to her dorm and slammed the door before chucking her book bag on Peter's bed.

"Bowie-" Ariene scowled when she saw the mess that was her divination homework. It was torn up and scattered on the dorm floor. Ariene quickly picked the scraps up and put them on her desk.

"Fuck off," Ariene breathed when she got a small vision of a knock at the door. Sure enough, a light knock came at the door moments later.

"Um, is anyone there?"

"Fuck off," Ariene said in a fake sing-song voice.

"Ariene, let me in. Come on," Ariene paused when she recognized the voice.

"Oh, sure." Ariene opened the door. "Sorry Lily," She muttered.

"Don't worry about it. Anyways," Lily stood awkwardly before walking over to Ariene's desk.

"Oh, yeah. It's all shredded." Ariene said, gesturing to her divination homework.

"I can see that. Here, conglutino." Ariene watched as the paper shuffled itself before returning to how it was before Bowie took his claws to it.

"Thank you. I've never heard of that spell."

"Oh, I've had to get pretty used to it. Sometimes we all find our homework shredded up. It's probably just a ghost." Lily shrugged and cocked her head as she looked through the dorm. Ariene tried to hide the smile that started at her lips. Ghost my ass. That has 'padfoot' written all over it.

"So," Ariene said, making Lily jump.

"Yes?"

"Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?" Lily nodded and brought her fingers to her lips. Ariene saw that they were bitten up.

"You're friends with Dorcas, right?" Ariene raised her eyebrows.

"I guess,"

"I think she- um- is..."

"Yes?" Ariene sighed, refusing to help Lily out.

"Like you?" Ariene stopped and stared at Lily dead in the eyes.

"Like me? For fucks sake Lily, just say she's queer."

"Right! Right. Um, so yeah, she's queer. I mean- I think she is. Do... do you think she is?"

"What? Lily-" Ariene pinched her temple, trying to ignore all the surrounding thoughts as well as the severe headache that was coming on.

"I'm sorry, it's not right of me to ask you. Also-"
"Yes?"