The Confrontation Consultation
“Right” James said to himself as he got up, climbing out from under his thin sheets. He went to the bathroom to shower, thinking if he freshens up he might feel better.
In the bathroom he turns on the shower and steps right in.“SHIT” he screamed, that sure woke him up. He forgot to wait for it to warm up. As he stepped out of the shower he screamed again " FUCK”. There he was like bambi on ice. He tried his best to stay up straight but obviously today wasn't his day.
After the catastrophe that was his shower James got dressed. He decided to wear deep blue jeans and a yellow top. James had always, since he was young, associated yellow with happiness. James loves yellow. When he was brushing his hair James sighed he couldn't find his SleakEazy gel. “Ugh Sirius!” James knew Sirius had used it in the morning for he slightly remembered Sirius saying something to him this morning about “hair” and “borrowing”. James was so tired he just groaned in what Sirius took as approval.
James found his gel in Sirius’ bedside table. Big surprise.
James decided he was going to talk to someone. Someone other than Remus. Someone he knew took mental health, sexuality and gender very seriously. Pandora Rosier. A whimsical Ravenclaw who was close friends with Regulus and his Slytherin friends. But James was sure they wouldn't say anything to them. He's talked to her before about mental health advice and they are so lovely that they have become friends. James has told Pandora they can come to him with anything they need but other than inside information about Regulus from Sirius it hasn't been much.
James sent Pandora an owl that morning. Technically Peter sent the owl but it was from James. James asked Pandora to meet him by The Great Lake at 12 o'clock.
It was 11:56 and James was only leaving his dorm when Remus came up the stairs and almost bumped into James. “Oh! James, you're up! I was coming to get you. You alright?” Remus said breathing slightly heavier than usual, probably from running up the stairs. “Yeah, I'm going to meet someone now. Sorry mate, I'm going to be late” James said, starting to descend down the stairs. “Oh great, have fun. Talk to me later, yeah?” Remus replied, giving James a knowing look, squeezing his shoulder. Remus knew this was worse than his usual mini meltdowns. James could tell he knew. He's glad he has Remus. “Yeah, I will. Now really I have to go” James breathed out “Right, go on” Remus said letting go of James’ shoulder.
James sprinted down the dorm stairs, through the portrait hole, down the main stairs (nearly falling through a gap as the stairs were about to change as he got to the end of one of the stairs cases) and through the main door. He slowed down as he looked at his watch: 11:58. The lake was 6 meters away, he could make that in 2 minutes. He saw Pandora sitting there, waiting, inspecting a leaf? Pandora was always quite odd but that's what James loved about them.
“Hi Pandora” James said once he was close enough to the tree they were sitting at. Pandora looked up smiling a huge smile “ Hi James! How are you?” they asked, motioning him to sit down beside her. “I don't know anymore,” James confessed. “Oh?” Pandora said, raising an eyebrow. James sat and began to explain what was going on. “Ahh I see” they said a moment after he finished explaining what was going on. “Well, I believe that I have some books on sexuality with me. Would you like to have a look and we can figure it out together?” they said quite quickly. “Oh” James said surprised, “Do you just always bring that around?” James asked quizzingly. “Yes actually, many people in the school know I know quite a lot about all this stuff and how to deal with it, so I get asked for advice quite often.” they replied smiling. “Oh. I'm sorry.” James says shamefully “it's probably quite bothersome”. “Not really, I enjoy helping people find themselves. Everyone should have a chance to know who they are” they replied soothingly.
Pandora takes the book out of her sage crochet bag and opens a page with a flag , pink on top, then a thin line of purple and a blue on the bottom. “This is the bisexual flag, this means you like boys and girls but you said you like Ash right?” they said pointing to the flag. “Yeah, Ash is just” James sighs smiling. “Right so,” Pandora said, pulling another book from her bag. “Ash is non-binary, like I am. You know what that means, right?” They said looking up from the flag that they were pointing at now, it was yellow, white, purple and black. “Yes, it means you're not a boy or a girl and instead of saying he or she you say they, right?” James replied feeling proud. “Yes,exactly! so bi might not be the one for you” they said, turning back to the other book and flipping the page. She pointed at a new flag that looked quite like the bi flag but also quite different. It had different shades and the lines were thinner. “This is the omnisexual flag” they explained “this means you like all genders but prefer some to others. How does that sound?”
James sat there thinking for a moment. “I don't think I prefer anyone because of their gender, I think I like them all the same. Is there something for that?” James asked hopefully. “Yes, that's called pansexual” they confirmed, “here” they said, flipping the page to show a flag that had bright pink, yellow and blue. His flag had yellow in it! Just the shade he likes, the colour of happiness. “Yes, that's the one! Thank you, Pandora” he said smiling. James felt much better now he had that sorted.
Now that the whole sexuality dilemma was sorted and he knew what he was labeled as, him and Pandora could just hang out and catch up.