“I bribed Seamus Finnigan to spy on Harry during our first year, you know”, Lyra smiled at Hermione as they finally had some rest and the babies were asleep.

“No way!”, Hermione gasped. “Devious”, she grinned.

“Slytherin”, Lyra grinned back. “I love boys, they are so decent and straightforward. Seamus had a taste for both gossip and expensive things, and he had no money. So, I approached him and offered to solve his luxury problem if he told me things about Harry – his muggle caretakers, his family, what he’s like and so on. Seamus vetted me out; he basically checked what I wanted to know first, making sure I wasn’t trying to find stuff that would hurt Harry. When he concluded that I was vetting out a prospective boyfriend, he was very helpful. Later, when he saw us holding hands and talking, he approached me in passing, whispered ‘good girl’ and smiled”, she laughed. “He later told me he thought it was the most awesome, straightforward thing he ever saw a girl do – basically, check a guy out because I liked him, then when I figured out everything is as it should be, I went for him”.

“Woah”, Hermione looked stunned. “They really do have a bro code. A girl would usually back-stab another girl in a blink of an eye”.

“I considered spying on you, too, but I didn’t dare”, Lyra grinned. “There were plenty of girls who hated you and would gossip, but if I approached them, they would instantly blackmail me and threaten to tell you that I asked, so I didn’t want to touch that nest of vipers with a long pole”, she snickered. “Instead, I listened to the second or third hand gossip in our common room; the Patil sisters were the source, and somebody always heard something”.

“What did they say?”, Hermione couldn’t resist.

“They hated you for just reading books, not caring about dresses or makeup, not wanting to gossip ‘because you think you’re better than they’, and trying to figure out whether you have any romantic interests or you’re only about grades”, Lyra remembered. “Honestly, hearing them made me want to be your friend even harder, because I was also into old books and I imagined what it would be like to talk to you, compare what we’ve read, get ideas about things I didn’t already hear of, or recommend books I’ve read or saw. I also dreamed of teaching you my cosmetics routine, because I knew you think it’s a terrible waste of time, but I learned it’s important to look good”.

“It’s not a waste of time, now that it means talking to you for hours, and you’re a huge girl-shaped library”, Hermione giggled. “But if I imagine just sitting there with that giggly bunch for hours dressing up, my brain seizes”.

“I know. I tried to filter them out as much as possible, but if you antagonise them too hard, it gets worse. I played the role of a haughty princess who is above those things but I always tried to look good so they had nothing to talk about, and also I may have hinted that those caught gossiping me will be buried in the forbidden forest in a dark hour of the night”, she made a convincing impression of a villain.

Hermione snickered. “I wish I tried that. I just hexed a few of them and after that they avoided me because I was very good at magic, and I also had a hot temper”.

“I was yearning and longing, basically. I wanted to be together with Harry, and I wanted to be your friend so much. I knew there’s a smart girl with a huge overlap in interests with me that I wanted to talk to, and yet all that ideology taught me that you’re a danger to our community and I didn’t know enough to disprove it and apologize to you for insults and stupid stuff. I felt as if I’m causing my own problems but I didn’t know how to do anything constructive about it”.

“All of us had a complicated mess to deal with”, Hermione acknowledged. “Even worse than what you have to deal with when you’re doing my hair”, she smiled.

“About that…” She closed her eyes, and Hermione’s hair glowed with magic.

“There we go. Washed, conditioned, dried and braided”, Lyra smiled. “Sorry for not doing it by hand. It’s more fun but I’m afraid the babies aren’t going to give us enough time”, she listened as a baby was fussing in the nursery. “Yup, that was bound to happen”, she nodded.

“I love you doing my hair”, Hermione hugged her. “Ow. Let’s go feed them, my breasts are so full of milk they hurt already”.

“Same”, Lyra nodded, taking her sister’s hand.