“You dodged that bludger so close today.” Gabriella proudly complimented her friend as they trudged through the entrance hall of the castle in their Quidditch robes, brooms held up in their hands. “I thought you were going to go.” It had, obviously, helped that Gabby had swooped in to bat it away just as Ariadne had dived out of its way.

“I know I’ve still not picked my career plan for after school, but healer is not one of them. Blood is so messy.” They began to march up the stairs. “But that was close, Ari. Don’t go cracking your skull open this close to exams. You know they won’t even let you get out of them if you are in your death bed! They’ll bring the papers to you!”

As they mounted the steps, Gabby’s mass of curly hair bounced in its pony tail secured high on the back of her head. As usual, she barely stopped talking, abhorring silence with a passion.

They were starting up the grand staircase when a set of footsteps could be heard above and Gabby finally stopped talking. The steps were purposeful, business-like. That of a professor. Dark eyes shot up to see none other than Professor Storm making his way down towards them.

“Shit!” The seventh year cursed as she suddenly remembered were she really should have been that evening. Grabbing Ari’s arm with her spare hand, Gabby forcefully yanked her towards the nearest door. It was opened with a quick ‘alohomora’ and they were inside.

Despite their packed schedule of last-minute revision, the two Gryffindor girls had embraced the suggestion of balance. Exercise and fresh air as well as studying, and had gone out to practice and blow off some steam on the quidditch pitch. To hell with the fact it was raining in Scotland. Ariadne’s hair was subsequently damp from rain and exertion and she was rather looking forward to showering off all the mud and slobbing out in pyjamas while she revised some herbology vocabulary.

“Aw thanks Gab- so did I- oh Merlin so messy - you think - they probably would-.”

Ariadne’s muddy boots scuffed across the floor as she stumbled, Gabby’s hand wrapped tightly around her arm. “Wha-?”

The Gryffindor prefect got a glimpse of a six-foot-something white-haired murderous-looking wizard before they were plunged into darkness in whatever room Gabby had pulled them both into. “What the hell Gabby?” Ariadne asked, suddenly muffled by her housemate. Her backside met what felt like a shelf and the dark room felt enclosed, cramped and had a distinct, strong acrid smell that Ariadne identified as Mrs Skower’s.

“Please tell me you’ve done that essay.” Ariadne hissed.

In all honesty, Gabby had expected an empty classroom, a large cupboard or at least a space big enough for them to stand in without being quite so…close. But instead, she’d dragged her friend into a cleaning cupboard and she was pressed up against a now closed door with Ariadne a mere few inches away. Both were damp from the rain and it was decidedly cosy.

There was absolutely no fooling her friend about the nature of their situation because Ari immediately clocked on and Gabby was suddenly looking decidedly guilty.

“You distracted me.” She replied, finding it much easier to blame someone else for her stupid mistake. “He expected me at detention tonight but I’m not wasting my time with that. So, the next time I see him there needs to be a lot of witnesses.” Her dark eyes danced across Ari’s face, the prefect who very rarely stepped a foot wrong. Until recently, neither had Gabriella.

“Ohhh Merlin, you’re gonna die.” Ari uttered under her breath in the gloom. “Is he still out there? Did he see us?” She pressed forwards towards Gabby in the cramped space, trying to reach her ear to the door to press against it and listen to the noise outside. She could imagine the Deputy Headmaster right outside, scowling, plotting his murderous desire to dissect Gabby piece by piece for her lack of commitment to his subject, not realising she was pinning her equally short housemate to the door with her warm, damp form.

When one grew up on a house boat with one’s father, despite all magic, cramped space became ordinary.

“Oh Merlin if he saw me I’m accessory to … late homework submission.” Ari hissed with horror, and then realised herself and spluttered (not altogether quietly), creasing against her dorm-mate in hilarity. 

Gabriella had quickly found herself pinned to the door by her friend and she was suddenly finding this very odd. Ariadne was more occupied with the fact that Gabriella had a shortened life span thanks to her lack of homework and Gabby was preoccupied with their extreme closeness.

There was no move to push the other girl away in the tiny space, instead Gabby’s brow rose as Ariadne seemed to take the gravity of Gabby’s fate more seriously than the homework avoidee took it. Until she laughed and Gabby’s face cracked into a grin.

“You mean accessory to no homework submission. That’s a hundred times worse.” She wasn’t even sure what Storm’s next move would be. But she was more interested in what was suddenly happening inside the tiny cupboard than outside of it.

“Will you miss me when I die?”

“Deeply, til my dying day, my love.” Ariadne replied, wriggling back a bit in the space to lay a hand solemnly over her heart. Her broom was dislodged from the shelf it had landed against and thudded into her back. This sent Ariadne back up against Gabby in surprise, grabbing hold of the other Gryffindor.

“Oh f- it was just my broom, I thought there was someone else in here.” Ariadne gasped, her heart going ten to the dozen as she held her dorm-mate tight, as yet unaware her left hand had found Gabby’s boob rather than the other girls’ shoulder in her fright.

“You think anyone else would fit?” Her hand was there, where it really shouldn’t be. This and the closeness was greatly confusing her mind. Gabby stared at her friend, someone whom she’d shared a room with for 7 years and rather enjoyed their company. Someone she’d recently started spending more time with and enjoying that even more. Someone who was pressed up against her in the broom closet with her hand someone no one had ever touched.

Gabby had never kissed anyone before. She’d never really wanted to kiss anyone before.

Right now, she wanted to kiss Ariadne.

Any why would Ari be so close if she didn’t want the same.

Teenagers were supposed to experiment, weren’t they?

With that decided, Gabby leaned forward towards the other girl, her hand still gripping her broom. Her heart was suddenly beating quickly, loudly. She could hear it as her lips closed in on Ari’s.

The smell of Mrs Skower’s was fairly strong in the confined space, but Ariadne’s nose was becoming used to it, and now it noticed the smell of damp ground and wet quidditch robes and mint. She hadn’t realised how chilly she was feeling until she noticed how warm Gabby was against her damp quidditch robes. She was about to say ‘ooh, you’ve got a soft tit,’ to try and take the surprise out of realising what she’d grasped when Gabby was right in her face.

Er…

In years gone by Ariadne had never quite conformed to the whole pairing off job of girlfriends and boyfriends, but she’d never been shy of a hug or manhandling someone else in lessons to do spells or practical activities. Some people flinched away, but Gamp had never been all that bothered. She’d body tackle anyone on the quidditch pitch for the quaffle, and she’d not think twice about throwing an arm around someone even if it backfired.

It wasn’t as if she’d never been kissed hello or goodbye by closer female friends… well… on the cheek. Perhaps Gabby had been aiming for that.

Ari’s shoulders shrugged a little as their lips met, a little surprised, and her hand gripped the tit in her hand without realising what she was doing. Well, it was kind of nice, she supposed, she had nothing to compare it to - at least Gabby's lips were soft!

“Oh!” Ari exclaimed as they parted, “I…” she stumbled, “like, I really would miss you, but I don’t think you’ll actually die, Gabby,” the Gryffindor explained to her friend, wondering if Gabby had done that thinking Ariadne was serious about her lifespan being limited to tomorrow.

The kiss was nice. Soft warm lips meeting as Gabby’s eyes closed. This was what she’d been missing, what she’d not really understood for years. Ariadne didn’t jump away or push back her friend and Gabby could have gotten lost in the moment had their lips not parted.
When her eyes once more flashed open, they were inches away and Ariadne looked surprised, awkward.

Suddenly Gabby’s stomach dropped as she realised what she’d really done. She’d just kissed her friend. Her girl friend. In a broom cupboard. With cleaning liquid and mops. Ariadne wasn’t that way inclined. Neither was Gabby.

Merlins Ball this was confusing!

Dark brown eyes searched her friend’s face as she was told that she wasn’t really going to die. Of course, she knew that! But now she wanted to ground to swallow her up!

“Well that’s good.” The witch replied nervously, giving a nod. “I think he should be gone by now, yes?” she wanted out of that cupboard so bad!

“I dunno, here, let me -.” Ariadne squeezed close again and pressed her ear up against the door. Despite the unexpected kiss on the lips, Ariadne didn’t have an issue with the close personal space she was maintaining with Gabby. In her mind a kiss on the lips had just been friendly - a thank you for showing concern. She’d been around girls in a boarding school for seven years and lots of students were friendly to the point of showing a lot of physical affection to friends. Admittedly, Ariadne hadn’t exactly been involved and didn’t feel the need to reciprocate more than a hug, but she didn’t give a second thought about sharing a bed, getting changed in the same room and such.

She closed her eyes to try and focus on the noise out in the corridor, imagining the scene outside based on what she could hear. At first, just the general quiet of the school on an evening on a classroom corridor, but then feet, more feet, people on the stairs beside them. Ok, so just people,
Ariadne made a face. There was still a teacher out there, whether it be Storm or other, but she couldn’t hear a response. Some of the teachers were more likely to give a hearty greeting in return to an address, but the Deputy Headmaster was more of a curt nod sort.

“I dunno, someone just said hello to a professor, but I couldn’t hear who.” Ariadne pouted, lifting her ear. She could really do with a shower now, they were still damp from the weather. “Perhaps we better hang out in here a bit longer. He can’t linger in the corridor forever, he’ll get bored. He’s got things to do… like…” Ariadne leaned forward and pecked Gabby back on the lips with a giggle.

“He’s got things to do… like…” That was NOT what Gabby had imagined Professor Storm had to do! She’d have jumped from the peck were they not in such close proximity with Ari basically pressed up against her without a care in the world. Closeness had never affected Gabby before, it had seemed normal. But in this small cupboard with them all damp and wet and tired and close. Her lips had been so soft. She was pretty, warm.

Shit! What the hell was wrong with her? Where were these thoughts even coming from?

“We should go before we miss curfew.” For one of the very rare moments in her life, Gabby really wasn’t sure what to say and certainly wasn’t willing to fill in the gaps with nonsense blather like usual.

She reached behind her to the doorknob and twisted it, the door falling open and them practically tumbling out of the room. There was a mixture of legs trying to gain their balance before she steadied herself, pushed the mop of curly wet hair from her face to see the very person she’d tried to avoid.

“Sorry, Professor.” The young witch muttered, trying to seem innocent. “Wrong turn…”

Professor Storm was already late to leave when he encountered a particularly tardy Gryffindor and housemate climbing the stairs. Rather than confront him readily for her late homework, Dagon piled Gamp into the nearest cleaning cupboard.

The Deputy Headmaster paused, considering their tactic and remained, somewhat patiently, so see what might become of it.

Outside, other students passed by on their way back up to the dormitories, greeting him politely in an effort to stay on his good side. It was a little odd to be stood on the stairs, but with his presence and self-confident stance nobody seemed to want to directly question it. Besides, there were muffled voices within the cleaning cupboard, so the two seventh years had not gone far.

A notion of locking them in with something more difficult passed his thoughts.

Eventually the doorknob turned and the two of them bundled out, muddy, damp and bedraggled. The Professor didn’t move, but stared critically.

“After seven years you still cannot navigate the castle, nor an essay,” he remarked, “or even detention. Five points from Gryffindor for misuse of a cleaning cupboard,” Gamp seemed to flush a funny colour at this, though it was directed at Dagon, “You will report to my office at seven tomorrow evening, and don’t even entertain the thought you might play in your final match, Dagon.” His cold gaze slid from one to the other as Ariadne made to say something in defence and thought better of it, shrinking back.

Caring not to waste a moment more on silly teenage girls, the wizard swept away and down the stairs, suspecting Dagon’s fingers might be raised in rude gesture at his back.

End