With Pride

[Lizzie Parker-Taylor]

In Lizzie's eyes, the biggest benefit to being allowed to travel by herself this year, was being able to attend a real pride parade. A few letters back and forth with Archie and everything had been organised, Lizzie was going to get to go to her first real pride, with the mentor she hadn't seen in a year. She had missed the Pride Festival at Hogwarts this year, and wasn't quite sure why there hadn't been one, but this was even better, going to a new city where she didn't know anyone, having adventures with Archie.

Lizzie had flooed to the city early, and visited a couple of shops before meeting up with Archie. She still wasn't comfortable telling her family where she was going or why, so she had sneaked away early to buy some rainbow gloves, and was delighted to have found a little flag too. The parade was going to start soon and Lizzie could feel the electricity in the air as she waited to meet Archie, heart racing with excitement. To be in a place like this, surrounded by people like her, it felt like a dream come true.

 

[Archie Renner]

Pride events were far more infrequent than annually as they had been in school and more difficult to attend than they were to find, even for a wizard like Archie that wasn't weighed down by the responsibility of a job. In fact the only responsibility he did have was to follow his whims and do whatever made him happy. But that did not make pride events any easier to discover let alone attend. However by a stroke of dumb luck, Archie had heard about a pride parade through the grapevine. One that fit the timing of the school holidays perfectly enough for him to invite a friend he had not seen for nearly a year. And when the day finally began he couldn't wait to both experience solidarity he had not felt for a long time and to show Lizzie what a real pride parade could become when there weren't restrictions like school rules to inhibit it. That day they could both be their most honest selves, feel completely safe in a group of people just like them and able to do whatever they wanted which was all Archie could ever ask for.

He hadn't meant to be a few minutes late to see Lizzie but he did lose track of time filling his favourite satchel with the different kinds of body glitter and temporary tattoos he purchased days earlier. Choosing to bring just one thing to decorate his body seemed absurd so he eventually settled on casting a basic extension charm so he could bring everything, meaning he was late but hopefully not late enough to cause Lizzie to worry. He apparated to a nearby alley, then walked to the street corner they organized to meet, smiling and waving enthusiastically when he saw the young Gryffindor from a distance. "Hey!" He greeted when he reached her, although did not waste another second with formalities before digging one of his hands into the satchel as it hung from his shoulder. "I got a bunch of things, glitter and stuff." He said, soon retrieving only a few kinds of body glitter from the bag that he quickly handed to her. The ones he found were glitter in red and gold which he had appropriately chosen to represent their house but they weren't the particular jar he was looking for. The star of the show was holograph glitter that reflected rainbow, perfect for an event such as the one they were about to attend. "Ah! Here it is!" Archie exclaimed, pulling the jar from his bag before holding it to the light, staring at awe of the colours. He then looked back to Lizzie. "Where do you want to start, then?" He asked, figuring she should get first pick of which glitter to use despite wanting to keep the rainbow glitter all to himself.
​

 

[Lizzie Parker-Taylor]

Lizzie beamed when she saw Archie, waving happily. "Hey!" There were things that crossed her mind to ask him - how life was outside Hogwarts, what he was doing now, did he have a boyfriend - but they were quickly cut off as Archie produced a frankly staggering amount of glitter, Lizzie's eyes boggling slightly at it all. She had thought her rainbow gloves were a bold move, but you could clearly never go wrong with glitter. Lizzie laughed a little at his question, looking over all the different colours, but there was one main one that caught her eye. "The rainbow one!" She beamed.

 

[Archie Renner]

There was certainly enough glitter to go around - Archie had made sure of it. But that did not stop him sighing in mock disappointment as Lizzie's first choice was the rainbow glitter he wanted to have all to himself. Though he quickly recovered from his woes and opened the jar for his friend, smiling wide as he explained how the glitter worked. "Alright, so I got this glitter from a magical store in Sydney. It apparently turns into a gel when it touches your skin so you can rub it in and after that, it doesn't come off until you remove it with hot water." The shopkeeper said that the glitter was resilient enough to stay on all day, and its iridescence did not fade in the sun. It sounded perfect so he had brought all the colours in the store. A choice he knew he would never regret as glitter was universal. He could wear what was left over on a different day or night he was out with his friends so there was not a chance in hell getting so much glitter would be a bad purchase.

Archie handed the open jar to Lizzie, then he pulled a different jar full of pink glitter from his satchel. He opened the jar and placed the pink glitter on his hands and arms, waiting for a moment until Lizzie was done so he could ask her for assistance. "If you're done with that rainbow glitter, did you want to help me by putting some of it on my face?" Pink was a beautiful colour but it didn't distract from how awesome the rainbow glitter was and how much he wanted to see what it would look like on his skin, especially since the pride parade was going to start soon and it would feel like a cop out if Archie's skin wasn't reflecting rainbows in some kind of way.
​

 

[Lizzie Parker-Taylor]

Lizzie's eyes widened as she looked over the glitter. "Wow!" Lizzie said excitedly. She was a little nervous about putting on something as permanent as glitter, when her family just thought she was out at the shops, but it was so pretty, and if it washed off easily hopefully everything would be fine. While Archie was glittering up his arms she opened the rainbow glitter, carefully applying it in big heart shapes on her cheeks. That seemed right. Once Archie was done with his arms she leaned over, carefully drawing lines of the rainbow glitter along his cheeks, and applying a small dot on the tip of his nose. "There!" She said happily, admiring her handiwork.

Once they were finished with the glitter, the next thing in Archie's amazing bag of decorations caught Lizzie's eye right away. "No way!" Temporary tattoos were something she had loved as a kid, but hadn't worn in years. She took a couple, looking them over excitedly. "How do magic temp tatts work?"