More fic! Cho/Alicia "The Masculine Girls"
Title: The Masculine Girls
Fandom: HP
Genre: femslash
Pairing: Cho/Alicia
Rating: PG
Word count: 1,546
Summary: Cho grows up watching Alicia.
Aithor's notes: Serious themes, but not heavy. I wrote this in one mad evening when I couldn't sleep. I just wrote and wrote for hours. And, yes, it is still only 1,546 words. I'd love comments muchly.
The Masculine Girls
Cho Chang is a girly girl. Her long hair frames a face that is always made up - lightly, tastefully, but still, undeniably, made up. She has had a daily beauty regime since the age of eleven. She loves her school skirt and, in fact, she is fascinated by all kinds of clothes. Her voice is suitably soft and high-pitched, and her manners endearingly expressive.
There is only one thing about her which is not quite so ladylike, and that is her prowess at Quidditch. This is also what first leads her to notice Alicia Spinnet.
Cho always knows Alicia’s name and face, but in the second year, Cho begins to look at her more closely, watch her, even. Alicia seems to be the best flier in their lessons with Madame Hooch. She has control, she has quick thinking and fitness, but most of all she has confidence. She looks more comfortable in her own body than any of the boys, thinks Cho.
In the third year, Alicia suddenly cuts her hair short. Combined with her lack of makeup, trousers, and athletic body, she starts to look like a boy. Cho is even more intrigued, especially as she now has a boyfriend - Kevin Shakers - and she’s hit puberty. She likes Kevin, she admires him, and she likes to kiss him (they do this rarely); but touching him isn’t terribly exciting, not like she somehow thinks it should be; and whenever she thinks about going further with him (not that she would yet, of course, this is all speculative), she feels uninspired. The few times she’s seen a penis have just left her cold and slightly queasy.
It never gets that far with Kevin, though, and they have a tearful break-up after a few months. Cho is now free to stalk - no, not stalk, occasionally watch, occasionally follow - Alicia Spinnet as she slouches around the school. Alicia does not shave her legs or wear makeup, and she still does not have a boyfriend.
At the beginning of the fourth year, both Alicia and Cho are in their respective Quidditch teams. Cho is very proud of her appointment, and it brings with it a renewed spate of male interest. She accepts a date with a good-looking Slytherin from the fifth year and goes to Hogsmeade with him - she likes his swagger, and the way he flops his hair out of his eyes. Off the school grounds, he also reveals himself as a smoker, which Cho feels half-impressed, half-contemptuous, about. She declines ‘a fag’.
When he puts his arm around her and kisses her - quite hard, and on their first date - Cho is shocked. She likes his confidence but she hates his smell - not the nicotine, she can stand that, but the groiny, sweaty smell of a teenage boy - and she pushes him away. He laughs and kisses her again, which angers her. Blushing, she shoves him off and returns to the castle in tears.
That evening, she sits on her bed and stares into a mirror, thinking about Alicia Spinnet. She considers cutting her hair really short like her, to show the boys she’s not to be trifled with, but she knows it would be no good. She loves Alicia’s style, but she herself is a feminine girl and she knows it. Mascara and frilly dresses suit her soft features and curves, they suit her personality too, and make her feel complete. Besides, that’s just what she’s used to. A - dare she say it? - butchy look excites her, but it’s not for her. Still, she goes to sleep with musings in her mind that are changing her.
Later, Cho lands herself the seeker position, which is pleasing in more ways than one - as a chaser, she sometimes had to play against Alicia. Mid-game, she would find herself watching the youth fly rather than the Quaffle’s progress, and always felt intimidated when confronted with her suave, self-aware movements. Chasing the snitch affords much less opportunity for distraction.
The fifth year sees Cho become involved with Cedric Diggory, and Alicia - well, we’ll come to that later. Some people say Diggory is gay, but he asks Cho out and she says yes. They make a picture perfect couple and have a nice time together - Cedric a perfect gentleman, Cho a perfect lady. They take it slowly, and there’s not much of a spark - but when he takes her in his arms, Cho definitely feels happier than with Kevin or the Slytherin.
Alicia has not been known for romantic trysts before this year, but at the same time as and Cho and Cedric are tentatively playing snap, it becomes rumoured that she’s - well, you know, with Angelina Johnson. This is only a rumour, of course, but it reaches Cho’s ears. Intrigued, she watched Alicia even more closely, and although she sees no suspicious moments between her and Angelina, she does notice a change.
Alicia now strolls the corridors in an unashamedly masculine way. Hanging out with Fred and George Weasley, she is one of the lads. Her physical presence begins to intoxicate Cho, who is mesmerised by her louche gait and jutting hips. Her hair, perhaps aided by magic, is rakishly floppy these days, and her flying oozes self-confidence. Even when the rumours change and she starts to be linked to Millicent Bulstrode, Demelza Robbins, and almost every plausible lesbian in the school, Alicia keeps her cool.
Cedric’s death irrevocably changes Cho. She finally feels the scales fall from her eyes a little, and lets herself acknowledge what she’s known for a while: she fancies Alicia Spinnet. She doesn’t use the word love, because that would be silly, but there is definitely lust there, and she thinks gay several times too.
Used to meeting people’s expectations of a pretty young thing, however, she doesn’t go shouting from the rooftops, and allows herself to fall into a semi-romance with Harry Potter. But she’s finally realising what she wants, and she somehow feels that it would be an insult to poor Cedric’s memory not to explore this Alicia thing.
The Gryffindor makes no rebuttal of the now popular opinion that she is queer. As well as hanging around with boys and Quidditch girls, she has an almost public relationship with Roberta Fenix, the second most masculine girl in the school. Cho sometimes thinks about them together at night, and the thought of those two strong female wills makes her sweat.
One day in the early summer, when Cho/Harry and Alicia/Roberta have both disintegrated and Cho has reached fever-pitch in her increasingly self-aware obsession with Alicia, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw have a hot and strenuous Quidditch showdown.
Afterwards, all the sweating girls change languorously back into their normal clothes. Long showers to cool their inflamed muscles are in order. Cho is just putting her hair up into a loose bun when she hears someone start to hum "I believe in Miracles", and titillated giggling. She turns, to see Alicia wearing nothing but her shin pads and helmet, and starting an impromptu ‘Full Monty’ style dance. Angelina laughs and claps and more of the girls start to look their way, as Alicia cocks her head back and waggles her hips, grinning. Others who know the song join in and those in the shower come out to see, as Alicia struts to and fro, peeling off an imaginary police uniform. Cho watches, delighted that she can do so freely; but she doesn’t laugh like that others, because, actually, those muscles in Alicia’s chest and thighs make it somewhat hard to breathe.
When Alicia finishes, the other girls retire in dribs and drabs with some applause, catcalls, and laughter reaching right up to the castle. Alicia, flushed, takes a shower at last. Cho feels gripped by and invisible hand to stay in the changing room - she suspects it is Alicia’s charisma - and sits on a bench listening to the last shower. She half feels she needs to take another already.
Eventually the consummate performer comes out, her hair dripping down her neck.
"Hi," she says to Cho, the only other left, and unselfconsciously changes into her robes. Cho watches, a coil in her stomach.
When she is finished, Alicia straightens up and looks at Cho. She knows there is something up with the nervous, patient girl in front of her.
Cho squeaks, "Is it true you went out with Roberta Fenix?"
Alicia leans against the wall, hips jutted out.
"Perhaps," she says slowly.
Cho stands. "I really liked your dance. I think you’re very… handsome. And pretty." A pause. The Cho thinks No more waiting. "I find you very attractive."
Alicia neither looks shocked nor replies. She merely looks at Cho - knowing, yet compassionate and, strangely, regretful. When Cho has had enough of this, she blurts out "So. Are you a lesbian? Don’t you want to kiss me?" She feels immediately that these words were a mistake, but she has lost control over both herself and the situation, and the time has come to be blunt.
Alicia straightens up and rubs her neck with her hand. "Right… I see," she says. "I’m very flattered, Cho, and I think you’re a very pretty girl too. But I’m actually more interested in the masculine girls." She smiles apologetically, and leaves.