Nico Di Angelo at Hogwarts

Her Flag

This isn't a part of the story, it's just a heartwarming story my childhood best friend told me about her and her little sister ❤️

From her time as a child, she knew. She knew that she liked both genders, each was just as beautiful to her. She didn't often have full fletched crushes, but when she did they would be a boy or a girl. She knew that not everyone approved of this, she always knew. Yet from an early age, she found that it was much easier to not only not care if the world didn't like it, but to also be proud of who she was. This was why, when she got older, that rainbow flag held so much meaning.

She has one in her room, and one dangling from her backpack, a sign that she was very, very happy to love both boys and girls. A few days prior to this incident, the dowel upon which her flag was proudly displayed, had broken. So the fabric was laying peacefully in her open desk drawer until she could fix it, or find a replacement. She was sitting at said desk, working on her overwhelming amount of homework when her little sister strolled into the room.

Her little sister was around nine years younger than her, only in first grade. She was small, and like her sister, completely unfazed by the world's hatred, as it had not reached her thoughts yet. She was the spitting image of her sister.

"Hey, sissy what's that?" She asked as she noticed the brightly colored flag in her older sister's drawer.

"That's my pride flag," She noted as she glanced to where the child's finger was pointing.

"What's that?" She asked, crawling onto her sister's bed, a glass of apple juice balanced carefully in her hand.

"It's something that represents people like me, sweetheart." She sighed, putting down her pencil.

"People like you? What's different?"

"You see, I like both boys and girls, but there are some people who think that since I am a girl, I should like boys and only boys. When someone likes their same gender, then they are labeled as gay. There are a lot of gay people, or people like me, so we use this flag to represent us. It shows that we are gay, and proud of it. "

"Oh. Why is it in your drawer?"

"Because the stick broke, so I need to get it fixed, then I can put it back up." The little girl hummed quietly.

"Okay. Can I take it with me?" The teenager was hesitant, but eventually decided to let her sister take it, on the terms that she wouldn't damage or stain it and would return it later. She then turned back to her chemistry homework, frustrated that she had yet again done a problem wrong.

A little while later, she heard her little sister come back into the room. "Sissy?" The girl asked.

"Yes?" She hadn't turned to look back at her sister, the combination of Chlorine and Sulfur Dioxide currently demanding her attention.

"I fixed your proud-to-be-gay flag." She saw the colorful flag out of the corner of her eye, propped up on a not broken stick. She turned and her heart gushed with pride.

The stick was the little girl's favorite Barbie pencil.