Disclaimer: I own nothing recognizable, including the LGBT flag.

A/N: So this is actually my very first piece centered around gay/bi characters, and even then half of it is an emotional talk between family members. I was incredibly nervous to write it, which I suppose is why I limited myself, but I wanted to in honor of the incredible LGBT ruling here in the states two or so weeks back. God Bless the USA! I'm really sorry this is coming in late for the LL but I wanted to say good luck to both teams as I am the reserve and should be impartial, and also that the idea for this story came from the fact that I seriously could not figure out who I wanted to be gay in next gen but now I do :P I hope I pulled it off and that you enjoy it, feedback is appreciated :) Also, I wanted to put here that I'm trying to make this a sort of partial discovery for herself, and not really have her defined by labels, and I hope I pulled that off. Written for: (skip!)

LLfinals: puffs: reserve chaser 2: mollyII; prompts - 6. Blackman quote, 9. periwinkle, 13. "Where did that come from?"; open cat 4 comp: femslash; ultimate battle comp: matching accessory set; hogwarts school comp: yr 3 and extra curricular: charms (reparo, cheering, glacius), arithmancy (0, 1, 2, 4, 8), potions (shrinking solution), advanced arithmancy studies (compare, replace, silent, bloody, thought, call, move); prompts: character-OFC; word-bloody,hell,maybe; mood-courageous,hesitant; emotion-kind; dotw-Wednesday; item-inkpot,parchment; action-hit,cringe; adjective-neat; quote-'certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart'-ancientindianproverb; phrase-shut up; dialogue-'you're an idiot'; uwc-2000; lwc-1243; genre-teen; opening-I hadn't seen him all week and he just strolled into the room like nothing was wrong; closing-this was it; sentence- With a deep breath, he launched himself upwards in a swift motion., Adjusting himself to get comfortable, he sighed and waited.;

The higher you climb, the further you have to fall. - Malorie Blackman, Noughts & Crosses

Go For It

Molly hadn't seen him all week and he just strolled into the room like nothing was wrong. Couldn't her cousin tell that she was freaking out? Molly hardly ever asked Louis of anything, he couldn't possibly have read so little into this.

But there it was: the famous nonchalance this Weasley was never without prevalent as he took each step to her incredibly neat bed, shooting a dazzling grin that made many a witch weak in the knees as he fell back on it. Noticing her less-than-dazzled expression, he dropped his grin and pouted at her. Adjusting himself to get comfortable, he sighed and waited. He raised just one eyebrow, and she pondered for a moment how a person could be so completely carefree. "You wanted something? I have care of magical creatures today at two and I'm supposed to hand in an essay of an unknown topic so..."

Molly hit him swiftly on the shoulder, narrowing her eyes when he looked annoyed. "You're an idiot. Bloody hell, could you maybe do your homework the night before for once? It was a Tuesday night, no parties or anything. It was so easy, too: compare and contrast unicorns and graphorns. Hagrid is practically giving us all top marks."

Louis scowled. "Shut up. I'm passing, I love Quidditch, and I'm happy. That's enough for me. Want me to cheer you up? That charm is my specialty."

"Trust me, I know," she responded with an eye roll, but then began to feel incredibly happy. She felt the warmth in her stomach spread to her toes and fingertips and couldn't help but giggle even though she was about to kill Louis. "I don't know what I was talking about. You're a genius, Louis."

"Trust me, I know," he mimicked her with a grin. "Now what did you want?" The warmth spreading was replaced with a harsh cold, and Molly hit Louis again for putting the cheeriness there in the first place.

Molly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Nervousness overcoming, she cast a silent Glacius at the door knob, freezing it slightly. Her roommates were at classes anyway, but this was important and was privacy so much to ask? She really hadn't wanted to talk to anyone, but she and Louis had always been close. "I think I like someone," she said quietly, hesitantly opening her eyes to see a reaction.

He was cringing. "Don't you have girlfriends for this? And what's the big deal? You're great with the wizards, always make the first move and everything. Just ask the guy out. You've never needed my advice for anything like this before. I'm the one for fun, Molly, just ask my zero long lasting relationships."

"Don't demiguise yourself right now. You're smart and you know it and I love you so just listen for a minute okay?"

Louis looked puzzled. "Demiguise?"

She laughed quietly. "You really need to pay attention in that class."

He gave her a soft smile. "So, who is it?"

She gave herself a few seconds to say it aloud. "It is a she."

The effect was instant. Louis' eyes expanded to the size of dinner plates, and he thrust himself upward, nearly falling in the process and knocking the inkpot from her nightstand to her parchment stack on the floor. "No way! Where did that come from?"

Molly shook her head back and forth for a moment, smiling despite herself and not quite believing it, too. "Yeah, way. And I've no idea. I just sort of felt it, I guess."

"That's crazy, Molly. Crazy and amazing, though. I mean, I'm happy you're figuring stuff out. It's all up to you who you like and if you like both or one who cares? Like, this is you. Say it: I'm Molly, and I'm amazing."

Molly looked at Louis and smiled. She knew he would be this way, and she couldn't be happier that she had the best cousins in the entire world, but she had wanted help. She shook her head, smile disappearing. "I can't."

With a deep breath, he launched himself upward in a swift motion. He put his hand on her shoulder and knelt to look into her eyes. "Why?"

Unable to resist, she launched forward and put her arms around him. "Hey… what's wrong?" Louis patted her softly on the back.

Her voice was muffled in his shoulder. "This is insane. What if she doesn't feel the same way, you know? And what if people are weird about it? Not everyone is like you and this family. I'm nervous about telling Mum and Dad, too, but that will come. I can't... I don't want to keep this in, but how would you feel if a guy came up and told you he liked you? You would feel awful because you're straight and you would feel obligated to go out with him or something."

"That's not true. And you never know what could happen. People are people, and they may have preferences for what's on the outside, but they fall in love with what's on the inside. And trust me, you're beautiful in both respects."

She wiped a away a tear she hadn't been expecting. "I love you, Lou."

"I love you, too. Now tell her. Use that Gryffindor courage and go for it."

It took a few minutes, but after a bit, she nodded so tightly you could barely see it.

But Louis could feel it.

Molly looked over her cauldron to Haddie Pentland, decisively distracted. Molly was tall like her Dad, but the Hufflepuff was as well. Her fingers were long and moved meticulously over her potions book, in between brushing back long strands of blonde hair, the ends of which were dyed periwinkle, out of focused brown eyes. They had been potions partners since they both decided to pursue the NEWT last year, and she was a good friend, just not a close one. But these past four months, and it was nearly winter now, Haddie had really captured her attention. It was only recently that she had realized why.

Molly's first crush had been on one of Teddy's friends. He was much older than her and paid attention to her at a gigantic Weasley gathering, and she had been flattered. Her first date was in third year, and it was with a boy in Ravenclaw who she not only thought had the prettiest eyes she'd ever seen but also shared her love of books. He was sweet and kind and also her first kiss, but after a couple weeks they figured they were better off as friends. In the winter of fifth year, she had actually started dating one of Louis' friends from Hufflepuff; it was she who had asked him out, and they were together for a year, and Molly had thought, then, that she had loved him.

Once in awhile in the past ten years, once in a very long while, Molly would catch herself taking a second glance at girls: bright red lips, long lashes, the curves of hips. She never given it too much thought, though, dismissing it in what she thought was a rather logical way: sure, she could be slightly attracted to these girls, but she looked at boys just the same, and she actually fancied them. Always had, always will.

Until Haddie. Haddie was a friend, a good one. She made her smile, she made her laugh, she let her speak her mind, and all the while, there were other things, too. Butterflies in her stomach. A rapidly beating heart. Stolen glances. It felt good to fancy this girl, right, and she knew she shouldn't fight it.

Molly's train of thought came to a halt as Haddie voiced her thoughts. "So this should be the color of a fwoopor, huh?"

"You were listening when Hagrid went off on that rant of things we don't actually need to know?"

Haddie grinned. "It's starting to be my favorite subject. I just think Hagrid's a great teacher."

Molly matched her expression. "Hagrid is the best. I've known him since I was really young."

"I assumed. I always see you or your cousins talking to him outside of classes." Haddie found her eyes, and there was silence for a moment, and for some reason Molly became incredibly awkward. Her partner looked away and back to the book, a slight pink tint to her cheeks. "So, eight caterpillars. Slice them up for me?"

"Sure." Molly counted out her caterpillars and as she laid them on her cutting board arranged them; arranging ingredients into random shapes had been a habit of hers that had never gone away. She liked potions, but putting in little weird shapes on her cutting board she had always supposed just kept her interested. "Look, they make a great acromantula."

Haddie laughed, and Molly felt a rush of slight giddiness. "Noted."

They worked in silence until the shrinking solution was finished. As it was completed and turned the correct acid green color, Molly fished for a tube to submit their assignment. There shouldn't be any reason for them not to get a great mark; this was an incredibly easy potion, and everyone knew Slughorn has assigned it because he had a bit too much mead last night.

"Wanna head to dinner?" Haddie's voice startled Molly from her thoughts, and the vial in her hand bumped against the table as she swiftly turned, falling to the floor with a crack at the bottom.

She looked down at the broken glass and the potion, spread all over the floor. The potion was in contact, it was whole and right, but it had a broken shell. At first, she was horrified, and then there was something inside her that just cracked, and maybe it was a side effect Louis' cheering charm, but she started laughing. It grew until she was clutching her sides and gasping for breath, and it was only then that she stopped long enough to notice Haddie was laughing too. When they both calmed down, Haddie drew her wand and pointed. "Reparo. It's cool."

Molly smiled. "Yeah, thanks. And I'm starving."

They walked in silence, but Molly knew Louis was right. She couldn't just leave this to hang in the air. "Hey, could I talk to you for a minute? I had, something to tell you, I guess."

Haddie looked curious, but shrugged and gestured for her to lead the way. Molly tried to contain her nervousness as she lead her to an abandoned classroom.

Haddie looked at her expectantly. "What's up?"

"I just...I wanted to tell you that I, er - can I ask you something?"

"...okay?"

"I was just wondering if maybe, you could - " Molly cut herself short and looked down. She felt a hand on her elbow and looked up.

"Are you okay right now?"

And Molly decided to throw the caution to the wind; that's what people did, after all.

Molly leaned forward only slightly, meeting her lips with Haddie's. She stayed there, feeling amazing but waiting for some sort of response. It took a few seconds, but she didn't pull away, and before she knew it, there was a response as Haddie slowly molded her lips to hers and she felt amazing, because whether this worked out or didn't someone understood.

Molly smiled against Haddie's lips, feeling as if she was exposing her true self to someone for the very first time.

This was it.

Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. - Ancient Indian Proverb