Open LGBTQ+ Pride 2049

[Rose Holland]

Event ID# 91115

Rose's final act as the Queen of Flowers would be to co-host the annual Hogwarts Pride event along with the King of Flowers, Norton Gillespie. It was a sort of tradition for the Wild Patch Club to host the event, and Rose had seen over the years how important this event was for many students. She had always been happy to help out, and now she was happy to help organize it. She'd let Norton make a lot of decisions too, and had asked advice from her younger sister. Rose was pretty sure by now that she was straight herself, so she wanted to make sure LGBT+ students had the chance to have a say in what was happening. She had also placed a box with 'feedback' on it and some scraps of paper near the entrance, where everyone could scribble down ideas for next year if they got to host it again. Rose knew she wouldn't be here next year, but Norton or anyone else who wanted to host it would probably get some use out of that.

There were many booths and tables around the edges of the great hall, but what Rose liked most was how they had made one big table at the center with seats around it. Here, everyone could come together as a community. People could sit and eat snacks together and simply talk and chat. Rose thought that was important for an event like this. But it wasn't the only thing of importance, along with the usual booths, she and Norton had thought of a few other things.

There was a booth where people could grab a flower crown, but at the same booth they could also make one of their own or simply make a bouquet with flowers in all the colors of the rainbow to take home, the flowers were provided by the Wild Patch Club. There was the usual informational booth with pamphlets on sexual orientation and gender identity for anyone to take. Another booth offered magically enhanced drinks and mocktails, many in rainbow colors or with glitter for the pride theme. Of course they weren't alcoholic, but they looked like a lot of fun and Rose wanted to get one before the event was over. Another new addition had been Norton's idea. It was a stand with books that featured LGBT+ characters, and they had worked together to wrap the books up in flowers so it would be a surprise for the person what book it was. The old staple of a booth for face-painting was of course present as well. And a final addition had been something Rose had worked on herself, she had knitted a lot of scarves and beanies with different pride flags and placed them on a table, free for the taking.

With everything coming together in the great hall, including snacks and decorations, Rose was proud of the result. She hoped members of the Wild Patch Club would help man the different booths and help it run smoothly, but she was sure that would be no problem. From what she had seen in the previous years, all sorts of students came together to make this event work, and that was one of the things that made it so beautiful. When the first students started trickling into the great hall, Rose turned to Norton with a grin. "I think we can be proud of this." She said, offering him a high five.

 

[Norton Gillespie]

Norton glanced around the great hall, unable to help but think that it looked awesome. As part of his role with Rose, as king and queen of flowers they’d decided to continue the tradition of the wild patch club hosting the Hogwarts Pride event and Norton couldn’t help but feel rather proud of it. He identified as pansexual for a little while, but it had been after he and April had started going out that he’d really come to terms with it. He was happily in his relationship and happily true to himself, able to be his most authentic self. Norton had painted the colours of pansexual flag on to his cheeks, and his t-shirt was aptly that of the three colours of pansexuality. He liked the flags, but with something to organise he felt it would be better if he wore something that wouldn’t accidentally get caught up behind him. He was putting the final touches on the flower crowns. He’d organised them and changed a few, making it so that some were in the colours of the various flags, making sure that there was for each identification that they knew about. So that people could just go for a normal flower crown with a mixture of colours of go for something that was a little more specific. The boy finished up with the crowns, knowing that one of the wild patch members would be around to help them out and be able to hand them out. Norton would be remaining with the one addition he’d made to the event, a book stall. Maybe people wouldn’t want to read but he figured that it would be good to see if people were. If not, he’d be able to get rid of it for the next time. His gaze shifted over to Rose and nodded excitedly. ”Very much so!” he replied with a wide grin meeting her high five, ”I’ll probably stick by the books stall, but if you need me elsewhere just let me know,” He told her, knowing that people would start arriving and it would get a little busy soon as people started arriving. ​

 

[Tristan Collins]

Tristan hadn't gone to many events since his reputation had been practically destroyed by Vivian, but pride was something special to him. He couldn't not show his face there for his final year, even if he didn't think he would stay very long. The boy was impressed by all the new things the Wild Patch Club had dreamed up, but at the same time wasn't that interested in many of them. He headed over to get himself a drink, and found a spot to stand and watch more people walk in and enjoy themselves. He'd had fun flirting with Shane last year, and maybe he'd have something else like that happen this time. If not, it would still be nice to just be here for a bit, even if he didn't really participate in most of the activities. Tristan felt like part of the community, even if he didn't really know many of the other people here. It was good to see everyone come together, even if most of the things that were offered at the event were a bit silly. Getting your face painted or wearing flowers on your head didn't really have anything to do with pride, in his opinion, but he knew a lot of younger students enjoyed those activities and wouldn't begrudge them that. He might get a flag painted on his face again, but that was about it for him.

 

[Mazikeen Roe]

Mazikeen had decided to come to the pride celebrations this year, she might’ve missed out on it in the last few years but being out and proud now, she thought it would be a good idea to attend and to be able to be open with other people. The girl arrived at the hall and noted that she was one of the first. She greeted the leaders of the wild patch loudly, she was also a part of that club, so it doubly made sense that she take part in the event. Mazikeen wasn’t dressed in any of the colours, just mostly in the colours that she always wore. The teen decided against getting her face painted and went to the flower crowns, she could help there more than anywhere else. She also from within the pile was able to find a flower crown with very obvious colours from the lesbian flag and decided to wear that on her head, and remain within the flower crowns area, handing them out to people as they arrived or came over to her in the room. It was a good way to take part in the event and still help out. She held on to a few of the non-specific crowns, ready to hand those out to people as they wanted them. Not everyone would want to have a crown specific, maybe some of the people there wouldn’t want to be identified as out just yet and Maze knew it was important to respect that journey. She had and it had been without having to worry too hard about other people so everyone else should get that. ​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane had enjoyed the last Pride celebrations at the school, he’d met Tristan and that had been fun. Shane didn’t need that to happen again, but it would still be fun for him. He walked into the great hall, spotting all of the differences in the room from the year before and all of the things which were the same. Of course easily spotting both the face painting and then Tristan. He’d heard rumours about the boy’s love life and the things he had done, all of which Shane thought were dumb, wasn’t their youth supposed to be spent having fun. He had never really tied himself down to someone, instead he just flirted and dated and that was more than enough for him. He looked to Tristan and gave the older boy a confident and flirty wink as he made his way to the face painting table. He’d be happy to help out at it, but took the time to first paint his own face, putting the bisexual flag on both of his cheeks with near practiced ease. He sat around in his seat, now done, and just letting the paint dry on his cheeks as looked around. He’d be happy to help out in this capacity but he’d be lying if he didn’t also think it would be a good opportunity to flirt with people. But really, when was Shane not flirting with people that were around him.​

 

[Aonghas Fergusson]

Aonghas had attended the pride celebrations in the year before, if only because he was a part of the wild patch club, this was the same for this year, but where in the last year he’d been somewhat clueless about why they did this and about a lot of the information that existed in the room, with what sexuality and gender could be, he was much more knowledge now. He had also come to the realisation in himself that it wouldn’t matter what he was, he was fairly certain he was heterosexual, but even if he wasn’t, there wasn’t like he had much of a choice. He had his family to do right by, he had to do what his family wanted of him so that Rory could come home, so that he could take over and end the old prejudice ways of his family. To stop the loss of siblings from continuing, to stop his family from remaining so isolated in their little section of his home country. But on this occasion, he’d put a little more effort into the occasion, showing his support with a pride tartan kilt. It had been something he’d suggested at home, and his parents knowing that they could build more customers had been all for it. He didn’t mind wearing it, though he knew he would stand out somewhat against the sea of non-kilts. He spotted the same arts and crafts booth as the last year, where he’d spoke with Lars and just took to that table. He still didn’t have anything in mind for something to draw but he didn’t want his face painted, he didn’t want to read anything or wear a crown so this seemed like as good a spot as any to sit and hopefully he might see Lars or someone else again. ​

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Their last Pride at Hogwarts. There had been many events this year that Hayley had been very aware she would be attending for the last time, and Pride was the last such event of the school year. As with most of them, Hayley was glad to have Harley by her side. It seemed so very long ago now that Hayley had realised that she was gay and that she loved Harley, and they had come so far together since. Hayley walked into the Great Hall hand in hand with her girlfriend, her jacket covered with her usual ever-growing collection of pride badges. Who knew what they'd be doing for Pride this time next year, where they'd be? Hayley couldn't say, but that was part of the adventure. For now, though, she was happy to be here. She looked around, grinning at the flags and the flowers, then glanced at Harley. "I propose we go say hi to Rose, then get ourselves some of those cool drinks. What do you say?"

 

[Sierra Woodlock]

Sierra had never been to the Pride event before, and didn't really know what to expect or what it was about. She had never even heard the word sexuality before, and it made her giggle, but she knew it was an important word to some people. Sierra was definitely starting to notice different butterfly feelings in her stomach when she was around people, but she didn't notice a pattern, some of it was older girls, some younger girls, some were boys with blonde hair and some boys with brown hair. Still, the girl was happy to just go with the flow; she had long ago decided that her head decided things that she didn't always understand. Skipping into the Hall, her eyes went wide with all the wonderful and exciting things to do, she didn't have a clue where to start, heading towards one thing always ended with her getting distracted by something else. In the end, she decided getting her face painted would be a good place to start, so she sat down in the seat. "Can my whole face be a rainbow please!?" Sierra asked, loving that the theme was rainbows and glitter.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe had been pleased to hear that Pride would be organized at Hogwarts again this year. She hoped Charlie would go too, as it had been a while since she'd spent any time with her girlfriend. She had helped Rose with organizing things a bit, just offering her some suggestions. As she entered the great hall, she was proud of her sister for organizing this. Phoebe grabbed a scarf with the lesbian flag colors and draped it around her neck even though it wasn't really cold. Then she headed over to the drinks. She grabbed one that was colorful and looked like it had little fireworks exploding within the liquid. That was definitely her style. She hoped she could chat to some people here today, or simply have a blast with her girlfriend.

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader hadn’t thought he would go to the pride celebrations this year, given that he just did not have the time to spare for it, but all of his photographers were pretty busy, with exams and the fact that they were close to the Accio deadline, so he had to pitch in more, he was the leader, he had to do more. The boy had his camera around his neck, and the tripod strapped to his back in case he needed it. Vader knew that he might, he’d chugged a whole coffee before coming to celebration and he could feel his hands beginning to lightly shake from it. He couldn’t help it, his sleep had been truly rubbish recently, and with the deadlines for the yearbook and exams so close, he just couldn’t get calm enough at night to sleep properly, but the end was in sit, he just had to try and get to it. For now, he would just live off some coffee and whatever sleep he could get, use the rest of the time as wisely as possible. But, Vader felt nervous about being at the pride celebrations, he had been coming to some realisations that he was not willing to admit to. They brought back old memories he would rather forget, insults that had been so prevalent and harsh that he never wanted to even hear that once, even if Hogwarts seemed more open than his last school. But he just couldn’t be, he was just tired and stressed and he could learn to like Isabelle or Pho. He could learn to like them like that, like, at least, how Pho liked him. Vader had his usual flower crown on his head and wandered into the room, spotting familiar people in the room already. He took a few pictures of the hall as it began filling with people but wandered over to Rose Holland, he smiled easily at her, he yawned quickly before waving lightly at her as he approached. ”Picture?” he asked when he got close enough, holding up the camera as if to clarify.​

 

[Shane Ackley]

Shane was unsurprised that some younger student came to him to get their face painted. He looked at them with a little smile, they seemed excitable, they seemed nice enough. He listened as they said what they wanted and nodded, "Course," he replied as he grabbed a paint brush and began getting the first colour. "You're going to need to remain still though, do you think you can manage kid?" he said to her, having moved to sit right in front of her, a light and playful smile on his features. He was sure this kid probably would have some difficulty staying still and he would do his best to not take too long, but the less she moved the easier that would be for him. He began painting her face regardless of her answer, if she moved and it ended up messy she would only have herself to blame, not him.​

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose beamed as Norton returned her high five. She liked the boy a lot, had grown closer to him over the past year of working together at the Wild Patch club. She nodded when he said he would be over at the book stall. "No, go ahead. I'll stay near the information booth for now." She said with a smile. "I'll walk around a bit too." She nodded to him to go on to the stall with books. It had been his idea, and it was fair to let him run the stall how he wanted to. Rose just wanted to experience everything, to help out where needed. She smiled as Vader Hume approached her, looking cute with a flower crown on his head. She wondered if he was here for Pride, or just for pictures for the yearbook. But she wasn't going to ask him, he was welcome here for whatever reason he wanted to be here. "Hi! Sure!" Rose said, smiling brightly. Rose had braided a few flowers into her hair, opting for that instead of a flower crown this time. She wanted to keep those for the people attending pride. "Do you want me to do something?" She asked, never quite knowing how to pose for these pictures.

 

[Therese Fergusson]

Therese was always for events like this one. As a member of the Wild Patch she was proud that they were hosting such things. It had been long since she had actually been to events and she figured this end of the year was a good one. The brunette walked into the great hall and tried to see if she saw some familliar faces. And it didn't lasted long. She saw a lot of different boots and she was try to see if she could help somewhere in case they needed. Therese would love to help and bring people together and she would totally go along with those happy colours and all. She walked over to the book stall and noticed Norton. The brunette smiled and decided to hang out there. Therese liked to chat with people more than to read books, but she believed you learned a lot from reading and looking into others experiances of life.
'' Hey Norton!'' The blonde than said with a smile. She than looked at some books in front of her. '' How are things? Do you need help around here somewhere?'' The brunette asked friendly and was willing to help out in case needed. But she was just glad to see Norton too. She liked the boy and they were both in the Quidditch Team. Therese though hoped that next year she would play more.

 

[Tres Bear II]

Tres didn't even know what LGBTQ stood for, but hearing there was event down in the Great Hall she was eager as ever to take a look. Entering the room she tried to take in what she saw, although she still wasn't immediately certain of what this was in celebration of. All the students seemed to be older than her, and there wasn't anyone in her classes she could ask either. Instead, the first year began to slowly walk around the room at each stall, watching for a few minutes out of curiosity before moving on. She stopped in front of two students, one of whom was having their face painted, and Tres observed the older boy who started the artwork. The Slytherin had never had her face painted before; she wasn't allowed to. She wasn't sure she would have wanted an entire rainbow on her face, but a little one on one cheek would have been fun. "What's the rainbow for?" she asked them, wondering if it had any specific significance.

 

[Monty Pendleton]

Monty had been to every Pride event the school had hosted so far, and he didn't intend to miss this one just because he was struggling with his sexuality. Although he was certainly struggling. He didn't think about Hezekiah romantically any more, which suggested to him that, much like with Ava, he had preferred the idea of a relationship to the reality of it. This relieved him somewhat. But it didn't answer the more pressing question as to whether or not he was gay.

He paused outside the great hall and looked down at his purple, constellation-spotted waistcoat. Anybody could wear purple, this was true, but Monty’s wardrobe almost looked like a statement. He knew people drew assumptions from the way he acted and dressed; they’d been doing it since he was a child, starting with his parents. It wasn’t like he tried to present himself a particular way. He only wore the clothes that made him feel confident, and acted in the way that felt most true to himself. But he’d never tried very hard to deflect suspicion, either. Why? Anyone who didn’t know him better would think he wanted people to make assumptions, so that he would never have to explicitly state it.

But he'd still only been attracted to two men in his entire life. Maybe three. Maybe four - it depended on how you defined attraction. And if finding somebody's face and personality pleasing counted, then he'd found just as many women attractive. So was he bisexual?

How was anybody supposed to figure it out?

He was jealous of the people who just seemed to know. His whole life he'd been waiting for it to click - for a eureka moment where he suddenly understood what it was all about - but it had never come. It made him feel alien. Different. Broken. Like he was missing something integral to being human. Still, at least now he was thinking about it. For a long time he'd pushed it all to the back of his mind, afraid to even contemplate his feelings - or lack thereof. Maybe this was the first step towards figuring out who on earth he was.

With a deep breath, he strode into the hall. The children were much braver than him. Then again, if he'd grown up surrounded by so much acceptance and understanding, maybe he would have been braver, too. He considered sitting at the table in the centre of the room, but his legs refused to walk him there. In fact they were refusing to walk him anywhere. He'd stopped a few meters from one of the booths and was now stuck. This was suddenly the very last place on earth he wanted to be. - yet he couldn't just turn around and leave. He reminded himself he was here to support the children, and with that thought in mind managed to force himself to carry on up to a fairly quiet table covered in colourful knitted scarves and beanies. He stopped there, wondering who had made them, but not quite able to muster the courage to approach somebody and ask.

 

[Professor Kahurangi Josephs]

There were a lot of events on the Hogwarts calendar that Kahurangi found enjoyable, but pride would always have an important place in her heart. It was something she hadn't had when she had been a student, and she had spent years feeling like she and Matt were the only gay people in the entire school. Kahurangi knew now that that couldn't possibly be true, of course, but at the time it had been extremely isolating. Now, though, students at Hogwarts wouldn't have to feel that way. They had a community, a place to meet up and support each other, and members of staff who they could come to for help.

And Kahurangi was proud to be one of those members of staff. While in her first few years teaching she had been nervous to let students know she was gay, Kahurangi had become determined to get over that. She had seen firsthand how helpful she could be as a lesbian and a role model, and she was going to be visible in that position, for any students who might need her help. So Kahurangi had made no bones about it, donning a denim jacket with the lesbian flag painted on the back before making her way down to the Great Hall to join the pride festivities. There was a smile on her face as she looked around the room, heart warming at the sight of so many students celebrating who they were. Looking around the room her eyes landed on Monty and she gave her colleague a cheerful smile, making her way over to join him at the booth. "Reckon these'll be warm in winter, eh?" She commented, picking up a scarf knitted in the colours of the lesbian flag. It was only once she was up close that she saw the tension in Monty's face, her smile slipping. "Are you alright?" Kahurangi asked in an undertone, resting a hand gently on his arm.

 

[Sierra Woodlock]

Sierra grinned when the older boy said he'd paint her whole face. She nodded her head enthusiastically when he asked if she could manage staying still. "Of course!" Sierra beamed, before realizing that she was already failing because she was nodding her head. She sent the boy an apologetic smile, before trying to sit very still. It was quite difficult, she didn't think she was even this still when she was sleeping, and there was so much to look at. Still she didn't quite care if it wasn't perfect.
Upon hearing a voice near them, Sierra turned her head and gave the girl a huge smile. "I don't know! But it's a rainbow! And they're pretty! Is it because we're all pretty?" Sierra wondered aloud, looking back at her artist.

@Shane Ackley @Tres Bear II

 

[Tres Bear II]

Tres watched the girl as she tried to get her face painted, although it looked like it might get quite messy because she kept moving. When she told her that everyone was pretty, she wasn’t sure if she believed them, some people were definitely prettier than others. Her sister Dos for example could never compare to Uno. “Can I get one too?” She asked the older boy, pointing to just one side of her face. She didn’t need to struggle to take it off later. “Are you a first year?” She asked the girl, wondering if they had the same classes.

 

[Monty Pendleton]

There was a scarf on the table with an asexual flag knitted onto it. Monty was looking at it when Kahurangi appeared at his side, making him startle. He smiled tensely, avoiding her face. Of all his colleagues, he knew Kahurangi would understand. Suddenly he found himself thinking again about what Hezekiah had said - that everybody knew Monty had developed feelings for him. Did Kahurangi know? Did she think he was gay? Presumably - after all, he turned up to every school Pride, happy to show his support, consenting to have rainbows painted on his face. A cog of realisation began to turn. Until now, he’d been so confident in his asexuality that he hadn’t really minded what anybody else thought. But now that they might actually be right…

It was like suddenly discovering that everybody already knew his deepest, most personal secret - a secret he hadn't even known he was keeping. He felt completely exposed. Worse still, he hadn't had time to figure out whether or not the rumour was true.

He flinched automatically away from Kahurangi’s touch, and then immediately felt awful about it. ”Sorry,” he said, blushing. ”Sorry, I didn’t mean to - yes - yes, I’m fine, thank you. I was just, er, wondering who made these.” He nodded at the assorted knitwear, clasping his hands together to keep them steady. ”They’re extraordinary, don’t you think?”

 

[Lauren Carter]

Lauren felt like this event was something her parents would never approve, and she hated that. With all that happend she became more and more rebels and wanted to do things that her parents didn't approve. It didn't matter what she did and her grades were the worst ever, so it was no point in studying for exams too. But she was afraid of going home of what would happend again. She would enjoy the food here and eat more than ever, because it would be long nights with no food in her room she figured. The only stuff she would be seeing were books than she figured. And she hated them. When did her parents would understand that she was not a copy of Gabriella? The blonde wanted to enjoy the time on Hogwarts left, because she was afraid her parents would get her off school. It was the only thing and closer than a home to her than when she was at her actual home.

The blonde entered the Great Hall and saw a lot of happy colours. A small grin on her face appeared and she noticed a lot of rainbow flags. She had learned of the meaning of them, because hell no her parents would not understand or approve. She walked through the Great Hall and looked around her. Than she spotted a familliar face that she actually was glad to see, she wanted to thank him for the rose. The blonde girl slowly walked towards Aonghas and smiled a bit too happy. '' Hey! What are you drawing?'' The blonde than went sitting next to him and put a bag of candy out of her bag. And one and than a whole hand inside of her mouth. '' SThnaks for the ftrose'' The blonde said with a mouth full.

 

[Mark Ross]

A lot was going through Mark's mind. He knew that he has to attend pride event. Mark always felt like one of those who didn't fit in, who wasn't made to fit in. Sometimes he just felt like a leftover and Mark felt that this event would help him get that feeling away from him at least for a while. He never really spoke to anyone about his possible sexual orientation, yet he was really too young to care about that. Mark knew he might have liked someone, although he wasn't brave enough to talk about that with someone.. and then again.. he was the shy kid, the one who really didn't have a chance to talk to someone about that. Maybe parents wanted Mark to feel that way and that was the reason they isolated him from their lives? Mark knew nothing much about his mother other than her workaholic attitude towards everything and his dad didn't seem to have that much of an interest in helping Mark with characteristics that could help him in the future..

Mark has been the lonely kid for quite a while, he had so much going through his mind pretty much all the time and he never really could talk to someone about all of that, because it just seemed wrong. It seemed like no one would care anyone and why would Mark want to waste his time? Everyone just waited for their turn to talk, people don't listen. Mark felt that pride was also made with the though to celebrate those who don't fit in. Maybe Mark would actually get a chance to actually talk to someone, get a feeling that he isn't a leftover and he actually isn't just an useless thing that he had thought he was.

Before going inside the great hall, Mark took a deep breath. He noticed that the great hall looked very beautiful and Mark noticed the beautiful crowns that people were wearing. Young Gryffindor didn't have the courage to actually ask someone, where did they get them, so he walked around the hall to notice a booth where he grabbed a flower crown and put it on top of his head. Mark knew that his parents would disapprove this gesture and that they wouldn't want Mark to attend an event like this... or most possibly they wouldn't even care as they never really did.. Mark loved seeing all the colours everywhere, beautiful flower crowns and so much people that celebrated their pride.. pride of being proud of who they are and just accepting themselves.. This was beautiful to experience.. Mark decided to just sit near a table and grab some snacks, still looking around, trying to gather the courage to approach someone..

 

[Lars van Houten]

Lars had attended Pride last year and had really enjoyed himself. He knew by now that he was... well.. definitely someone who liked boys. He didn't know if he could dare to think of another word for that yet, even just to himself. Pride felt like a comforting event to him, even if it was also terrifying. Lars knew about himself that he liked boys, but he didn't know how much he wanted other people to know it. Of course, being part of the Wild Patch Club gave him a good reason to be here anyway, but there was a part of him that wanted to embrace the meaning of Pride and join all those happy people with rainbows on their faces or on their clothes.

The boy had been planning to join Aonghas at the arts booth, but his feet had seemed to have a mind of their own and he ended up at the table with colorful knitwear. It didn't take long for Lars to realize the scarves and beanies on offer were in the colors of different pride flags, and he felt a sudden powerful yearning. His hand stretched out to a beautiful scarf with a rainbow pattern, and he gently took it from the table. He almost automatically wrapped it around his neck, only to realize he didn't know if he wanted that. He wanted the scarf, but he also feared being seen in it. What if Blake or Tyler saw? They were unlikely to be here, but if they heard anything... they might only bully him worse than they already had. And what if Elliot saw... and thought him weird? That thought was almost scarier. Lars let the scarf fall onto the table, but he was sad to do so. The sadness was reflected in his expression until he finally noticed the two nearby professors. He blushed, had they seen him do that? Why were they here? He knew both of them. Professor Pendleton was his potions professor, Professor Josephs his head of house. Were they... here for pride? Were they like him? Or just supportive? Lars stared at them for a moment. "Hello, professors..." He said then, his voice quiet and unsure. Was he interrupting?

 

[Peregrine White]

It hadn't taken Peregrine long to figure out that the way he looked at boys wasn't the way most boys looked at boys. His parents had never introduced him to the concept of homosexuality, so he was at quite a loss about his feelings. It didn't seem wrong to him - love could never, in Peregrine's mind, be a bad thing - but it was certainly confusing, and a little bit scary. The school's Pride event seemed like the best place for a boy in his shoes to be. Even the word pride was so positive, and filled him with hope that he might meet other like-minded individuals who could help explain things to him. Only, he would have to approach one of them first. That was the tricky part. It was all quite embarrassing. Even Peregrine realised there were certain subjects you couldn't talk openly about - subjects most people probably discussed with their parents, so that they didn't have to ask a friend or a professor. So while he did turn up at the great hall, and even wandered past the informational booth once or twice, he couldn't quite bring himself to pick up one of the pamphlets. He looked around instead, smiling at nobody in particular and wondering if he would bump into anybody he recognised.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian had a few crushes, two were on boys and one was on a girl. He wasn't sure why it was all happening to him at once, as it seemed a bit excessive, but he wondered if Pride held some answers for him. He was also kind of hoping to run into Jacob here, as he thought the boy had attended before. But he was disappointed when he didn't see him anywhere in the hall as he entered. Someone he did see was Vader, but he was busy talking to Rose Holland who had been part of the organisation. Abian smiled fondly when he saw Vader was taking photos, as usual. That was probably why he was here at all. There were some booths with fun things, but all of them seemed to be pretty busy. Abian was tempted by the information booth, but he didn't really want to go there while Vader was there. There was something embarrassing about grabbing a pamphlet on sexuality in front of a friend. Abian wandered around for a bit, smiling. The event was really nice, and even though Abian wasn't sure about himself, he did feel at home in this place. Eventually he ended up near a table where a young boy was sitting by himself with some snacks. He had to be a first year, maybe second. Abian wondered if he was feeling insecure too, and suddenly wanted to help the kid. It wasn't like he could do much, but a bit of company would be nice, right? Abian sat at the same table as him and smiled. "Hey, pretty cool, right?" He said, gesturing around to indicate he meant, well, pretty much everything.

@Mark Ross

 

[Mark Ross]

As he was sitting and just enjoying his snacks with his flower crown on, Mark was just enjoying looking around everything and seeing all the happy people around the Great hall. Everyone was truly celebrating pride, celebrating their lives. Mark wasn't thinking about what his possible orientation was, as he was too young to care and he wasn't feeling the vibe to start thinking about that already. Mark had to deal with his insecurities and his shyness before trying to evolve to the next level and being able to have something special with someone.. or at least get a close friend with whom he could share everything.

A lot was going through his mind, when suddenly a young boy approached him, sitting at the same time and giving Mark a smile. Young Gryffindor tried to smile too, although he only managed to give older boy just a slight smile. Mark looked over all the great hall once again as the boy gestured and tried to start the conversation somehow with Mark. He actually admired the courage that @Abian Hunter had. Mark knew that it would take him a lot to start the conversation like this with someone he doesn't knows and probably even hasn't seen before. - Hey, yeah.. Mark said, trying to sound as confident as possible, yet he probably still sounded a little bit shy.

- Oh, I'm Mark.. He said, giving the boy his hand for him to shake as a friendly gesture and to show that he is open-minded and really wanting to keep this conversation going. After all, if he couldn't step out of his comfort zone, would he ever make friends? And pride was probably the right place to meet new open-minded people and just make new friends.. finally.