Why you gotta be so mean (Gina)

Bea made her way down to the Great Hall early, wanting to get away from the Ravenclaws. Everyone was nervous about the midterms and were studying frantically. Well, they were yelling at one another about having to study and arguing loudly about the correct usage of unicorn's horn or whatever. It was all getting on Bea's nerves and even though she usually liked her Common Room, she needed to get out. She was almost hit by no less than seven spells and was actually hit by three of them.

Thankfully, she was able to get rid of the warts that had sprouted on her arms (she put the kid in detention for that) and water had stopped running out of her ears (another detention). However, she didn't even attempt to cancel out the third spell. It made her short hair bright green and she thought it quite suited her.

When she got to the Hall, she went straight to the Hufflepuff table and was a little disappointed her friends weren't there. The witch quite liked Allie and Victoria and had taken to eating with them, instead of at the Ravenclaw table, like she was probably supposed to. She didn't really have any friends in Ravenclaw and nobody's said anything to her about not being allowed to sit at another table, so she kept doing it.

Even though neither Allie or Victoria were there, Bea sat down at the almost empty Hufflepuff table, grinned brightly at the people around her and started piling food on her plate. It took a while to get used to English food and she still missed the gourmet food of France, but the Hogwarts House Elves made everything delicious. Well, everything except haggis. She was tricked into trying it once and hasn't forgiven the bastard yet. It was one of the Ravenclaw boys and was one of the reasons she preferred the Hufflepuff table.

The witch ate her roasted duck with great gusto and ignored the way people pointed at her green hair. Honestly, was it really that unusual? She sighed as some first year actually squealed and shook her head. There was no way she would even consider getting her hair back to normal that soon, but the reaction she was getting was a little annoying.

Someone greeted her suddenly and Bea looked up with a bright grin, expecting either Allie or Victoria. She was definitely not expecting the hot Hufflepuff girl with glasses. Her grin went from excited to surprised, but she quickly regained control over herself and greeted the girl back. This was amazing, Georgina has never spoken to her just like that before.

"How are you? And why are you sat at the Hufflepuff table?"

"I'm well, thank you! Oh, I always sit here. Allie and Victorie are so much nicer than people at the Ravenclaw table." she explained with a fond smile. She loved saying the names together, as they rhymed the way she said them.

"Though... I don't think I've ever actually seen you here." Lie. A total lie. She always kept an eye out for the girl and always got a little excited when she saw her, even if it was only for a few minutes. Georgina always seemed to get to the meals very late and sat by herself and usually Bea got the urge to go say hi, but never actually did. The girl seemed to prefer silence and solitude and Bea could respect that.

"Got any interesting packages lately?" Bea asked casually before eating a spicy chicken wing in what her Maman would call 'unlady like manner'. She had green hair, who on Earth would care how she ate her food, anyway?

Bea frowned at the Hufflepuff when she commented on Victoria. True, she hasn't spent a lot of time with Victoria, but she knew enough about the girl to know she was sweet, thoughtful and cheerful. Maybe sometimes a bit too cheerful, but it was all a part of her charm.

"Victoria's a good friend." she said, a bit coldly. The map thing made up for Georgina's comment though, but she wasn't about to say that. She didn't want to come across as a lovesick puppy who adored every little thing the Hufflepuff did. And anyway, if the girl would be rude to her friends, then Bea didn't really want to like her, no matter how hot she was. Beatrice had principles, you see.

"Then we can quite clearly see I should have been a Slytherin."

"Slytherin is ambitious and conniving, right? I could see you there, yes." Bea asked, trying to remember what the Headmaster had said at her tour. She didn't really want to listen to rumours about Slytherins being evil and things like that. Honestly, that was all just prejudice and she didn't want anything to do with that. Prejudice about Ravenclaws being studious and clever is what only heightened her parents' expectation about her academic career, after all. Prejudice is what made her be afraid of who she was for some time back in France and it was the shittiest she had ever felt. It was not nice at all and she didn't want to make anyone feel that way.

"You'd look good in green and silver." she added with a small smirk. Of course, she thought Georgina would look good in anything, but that was completely besides the point.

Bea smiled when the Hufflepuff said she got sweets from her parents. It was adorable. She perked up at the mention of the Mode Magazine, as it reminded her she needed to get herself a copy. She didn't really know what had possessed her, but she wrote to the advice column a couple of weeks ago, asking for advice on how to "seduce" Georgina. Of course, she didn't expect the magazine to actually post her letter or give her any sound advice, but the letter was out there and she was getting sort of desperate. Any help would be welcomed.

As Georgina leaned down to get something out of her bag, Bea went to drink some of her pumpkin juice and then almost choked on it when she saw her letter printed in the magazine. She spluttered and coughed, and could feel her cheeks heating up. Could this be any more embarrassing?

"Look at what some loved up idiot wrote in to say!" She said, letting out a soft giggle and shaking her head. "I mean, if you like someone, just tell them. It's really not that difficult. Playing games is just stupid."

Yes. Yes it could get more embarrassing.

Bea was finally able to breathe again and she set her glass down, reaching for a napkin. She was trying to take it all in, but she wasn't doing a very good job of it.

There Georgina was, showing her the letter she wrote and calling her a 'loved up idiot' to her face! Granted, the Hufflepuff didn't know - couldn't possibly, right? - that Beatrice was the one who wrote the letter, but still. And that wasn't all, she was giving her some more advice!

She decided to read the article first and see what the lady from the magazine said and then see which advice she liked better. The prospect of just telling Georgina how she felt was terrifying, mostly because of the mixed signals the girl was sending; flirting one minute and then closing up the next, acting as though Bea was the worst person in the world. It was very confusing and scary.

"Can I, uh, read this? To, um, see what kind of stupid advice they gave." Wonderful safe, Bea. Truly magnificent.

"She's a kid, not my cup of tea."

Bea nodded, accepting the answer. Not everybody can like everyone at all times and as long as Georgina wouldn't be mean to Victoria, everything would be alright. Bea had no idea why she was thinking about that, though. The way things were, Victoria and Georgina probably wouldn't be hanging out that much and no matter how much Bea liked Georgina, if the Hufflepuff didn't like her back, things would stay that way. Bea realized then that she really wanted Georgina to like her back. And to like her friends.

Damn. She was in deeper than she originally thought.

"Something like that, mixing with the dark arts, generally bad people, but ultimately doing well for themselves."

"Dark arts?" Beatrice raised one of her eyebrows. What on Earth did the Hufflepuff mean by that? Bea sincerely hoped Georgina wasn't one of the people who thought that wizards and witches born to Muggle families shouldn't be able to attend schools. That would suck. Not only because it would make the girl a generally horrible human being, but also because Bea refused to date people with such horrifying opinions. She really wanted to date Georgina, or to at least get to the 'friends' stage of the relationship.

She made a great big effort not to blurt out 'I think you'd look good in anything'. She was particularly proud of herself for not saying that.

The Ravenclaw hoped that her choking would distract Georgina enough not to see her blush or the way she was flustered by the article. It was highly embarrassing on its own, but for her crush to realize she wrote the letter would be... Well, she would probably have to move. To Australia, most likely.

"The advice columnist doesn't seem to be helpful, if you ask me."

Bea took the magazine and read the article, humming noncommittally in response to Georgina's comment.

The advice was to look incredibly good and then ignore the Hufflepuff. While that would be interesting, it didn't seem as if though Georgina noticed her at all anyway, so ignoring her might not even work. Plus, Bea knew she looked good, even with neon green hair.

This was useless. She had no idea what to do or what to say. It'd be so much better if she had the opportunity to read the article while she was alone, so she would have time to think about it. Although, if that were the case, she wouldn't know Georgina thought the advice wasn't helpful.

"So... Your advice to this person would be to just tell their crush they like them?" she asked, trying to sound casual as she closed the magazine. To have something to do, she put her food away and got a piece of pie for dessert. She wasn't really hungry anymore, but this at least gave her a fork to fidget around with. "And what if the crush was absolutely confusing? You know, flirting one second and then being mean and unresponsive the next."

As Georgina explained that she meant Slytherins, not herself, Bea relaxed and smiled at the witch. Liking someone who was into Dark Arts would require so much effort on her part and she wasn't entirely sure she would be prepared for it. She was vaguely aware she was probably relieved for the wrong reasons, but she didn't particularly care. Georgina wasn't into Dark Arts and that meant she could like her all she wanted and not feel terribly horrible about it.

Beatrice raised her eyebrows when the girl used a straight couple for her advice. She felt a familiar knot in her stomach as she realized she was falling for a presumably straight girl. Again. This was unbelievable. Why were straight girls so hot?

"Or her. Or them, for that matter." she commented, seemingly casual. She wanted to see Georgina's reaction, clinging to that last thread of hope that the Hufflepuff would like girls as well.

Her eyebrows climbed higher when Georgina commented on the 'guy' not sounding very nice. Was she completely unaware that she was doing that very thing to Bea? English girls, honestly.

"Who's the lucky guy?"

At that, Bea couldn't help but laugh nervously. It was such a ridiculous and highly embarrassing situation. While she she was sure Georgina didn't know she sent the letter (she had a feeling the girl would tease her mercilessly), she still knew she was in a similar situation. What Georgina didn't know, apparently, was that she was the lucky guy. Or gal.

"Um." Bea said cleverly. "Not a guy, really. It's, uh, in fact, uh..." Mon Dieu, Beatrice, stop mumbling. "You." She forced herself to look at Georgina and to stop fiddling with her fork. She could feel she was blushing furiously and hoped to any and every deities that Georgina wouldn't notice.

Georgina only looked confused and like she wasn't believing what she heard and Beatrice had absolutely no idea what the other girl was thinking. Was it disbelief because she liked her too or because she never ever thought a girl might like her? Not knowing what Georgina was thinking was making Bea feel sick and she wanted to run away more than anything. Her eyes were wide and she was pretty sure she was blushing furiously and she couldn't calm down.

"I'm... you... what?"

"Gay." Bea blurted out and then winced. "Well, pansexual, really. Gender doesn't really matter." she said, almost calmly. It was incredibly surreal, discussing her sexuality after she just told a girl she liked her.

She should have stopped talking then. Really, she should have. She didn't. It was mostly the tiny smile that crept up on Georgina's face that was encouraging her to keep talking. That, and she didn't really have any control over her mouth anymore.

"So, um, I totally understand if you don't like me, I do. You're really pretty though so I don't feel bad or anything, 'cause you're, I mean, my god. And I would really like to, you know, see you, sometimes. Food is always good, right. Yeah. And if so, Hogsmeade? With me? You don't have to."

Beatrice winced again. Of all the ways to ask someone out on a date, Beatrice was sure this was the most horrifically awkward one. She wasn't even thinking about what she was saying anymore and only realized that she had asked Georgina to Hogsmeade a few seconds after she said it.

You are the dumbest person alive.

"I should go. Yes." the witch nodded and attempted to get up as quickly as possible, which resulted in her almost falling over. She shut her eyes in frustration and then walked out of the Great Hall, mouthing 'oh my god.' as she went.

She was only focused on getting somewhere with absolutely no people to wallow in her own idiocy and didn't even realize she had left her bag on the bench. She had never been so embarrassed in her life and she just wanted to go live in a cave somewhere.