oh bloody sodding hell what to do
Nov. 1st, 2007 02:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
partheniaI've got a horrible feeling I posted this before. It's not an excerpt, more of a warm-up.
In Adrian’s mind, the need for him to leave the wizarding world for the Muggle world came down to a simple matter of statistics. He seemed to be gay. This had not been tested 100%, because he’d never actually been out with a guy, let alone kissed or made love to one, but assuming things in the future were the same as things in the past, he was probably going to continue to fancy men.
He did wonder whether he could simply ignore this and live gracefully in the wizarding world, marrying a nice witch and raising the regulation 4.5 children. He liked Verity very much. Possibly, if there was no real alternative – if, say, no one else wanted either of them – they could get married in a few years’ time.
If, for argument’s sake, he decided to go with his apparent orientation rather than struggle against it, things became even more complicated. The statistics were bleak. If you considered an incidence of homosexuality in the general population of Britain as lying between, say, 4% and 10%, that meant that somewhere between 1 in 10 and 1 in 25 people were attracted to the same sex; and assuming that the incidence in the wizarding population was the same as in the rest of Britain, then the pool of possible partners – let’s say males four years younger and up to ten years older – was, well, pretty bloody small.
As far as he could tell he was the only gay person in his year at Hogwarts.
There were maybe three or four secretly available where he worked, at the Ministry of Magic, but given Pureblood antipathy to non-breeders, there weren’t any willing to admit it.
Let’s face it, if he wanted a boyfriend from a wizarding background, he was probably going to have to emigrate.
On the other hand, he worked and lived on the edge of London, with a Muggle population of 7 million souls; 4% of 7 million was quite a lot. Hell, even 1% of 7 million was a fair few.
The chances of meeting a Muggle boyfriend locally were far higher. Far, far higher. The smartest thing for him to do was to leave the Leaky Cauldron by the back entrance one day and walk over Charing Cross Road.
He wasn’t sure about this. On a confident day it seemed like the most obvious plan in the world. On a bad day, it was unimaginable. He didn’t have any Muggle friends; he didn’t really know many Muggleborn wizards, and anyway, by the time they’d been at Hogwarts for a few years, their Muggle background was incidental. There was intermarriage, yes, but it was between two magical people. It would be like marrying a Squib.
Verity, on the few occasions that they’d talked about this, felt that gay wizards might dabble in the Muggle world, but they had to do their duty to the wizarding world and have a family. It didn’t stop them slipping out into the dark streets of Muggle London after hours, of course, and perhaps people might come to some convenient arrangement for the sake of keeping the blood line going.
Sometimes he thought Verity might have an axe to grind.
Still, he knew that the wizarding world was not big on casual sex. They liked engagements, early marriages and big families. With a population on the verge of unsustainability, and a lot of indentured help available, it was practically one’s duty to have a big harum-scarum family. Bachelor uncle wizards were not welcome anywhere, except perhaps at Hogwarts.
Perhaps I'm hoping you'll all throw flowers and beg? *sigh* Bloody fanfic writers, with your sodding crossover AUs from effing fandoms that I've never effing heard of. I hate you for FINISHING. Or starting, I forget which. Wait. Continuing! Persevering. Yes. That is the worst of all. Entitlement whores.
In Adrian’s mind, the need for him to leave the wizarding world for the Muggle world came down to a simple matter of statistics. He seemed to be gay. This had not been tested 100%, because he’d never actually been out with a guy, let alone kissed or made love to one, but assuming things in the future were the same as things in the past, he was probably going to continue to fancy men.
He did wonder whether he could simply ignore this and live gracefully in the wizarding world, marrying a nice witch and raising the regulation 4.5 children. He liked Verity very much. Possibly, if there was no real alternative – if, say, no one else wanted either of them – they could get married in a few years’ time.
If, for argument’s sake, he decided to go with his apparent orientation rather than struggle against it, things became even more complicated. The statistics were bleak. If you considered an incidence of homosexuality in the general population of Britain as lying between, say, 4% and 10%, that meant that somewhere between 1 in 10 and 1 in 25 people were attracted to the same sex; and assuming that the incidence in the wizarding population was the same as in the rest of Britain, then the pool of possible partners – let’s say males four years younger and up to ten years older – was, well, pretty bloody small.
As far as he could tell he was the only gay person in his year at Hogwarts.
There were maybe three or four secretly available where he worked, at the Ministry of Magic, but given Pureblood antipathy to non-breeders, there weren’t any willing to admit it.
Let’s face it, if he wanted a boyfriend from a wizarding background, he was probably going to have to emigrate.
On the other hand, he worked and lived on the edge of London, with a Muggle population of 7 million souls; 4% of 7 million was quite a lot. Hell, even 1% of 7 million was a fair few.
The chances of meeting a Muggle boyfriend locally were far higher. Far, far higher. The smartest thing for him to do was to leave the Leaky Cauldron by the back entrance one day and walk over Charing Cross Road.
He wasn’t sure about this. On a confident day it seemed like the most obvious plan in the world. On a bad day, it was unimaginable. He didn’t have any Muggle friends; he didn’t really know many Muggleborn wizards, and anyway, by the time they’d been at Hogwarts for a few years, their Muggle background was incidental. There was intermarriage, yes, but it was between two magical people. It would be like marrying a Squib.
Verity, on the few occasions that they’d talked about this, felt that gay wizards might dabble in the Muggle world, but they had to do their duty to the wizarding world and have a family. It didn’t stop them slipping out into the dark streets of Muggle London after hours, of course, and perhaps people might come to some convenient arrangement for the sake of keeping the blood line going.
Sometimes he thought Verity might have an axe to grind.
Still, he knew that the wizarding world was not big on casual sex. They liked engagements, early marriages and big families. With a population on the verge of unsustainability, and a lot of indentured help available, it was practically one’s duty to have a big harum-scarum family. Bachelor uncle wizards were not welcome anywhere, except perhaps at Hogwarts.
Perhaps I'm hoping you'll all throw flowers and beg? *sigh* Bloody fanfic writers, with your sodding crossover AUs from effing fandoms that I've never effing heard of. I hate you for FINISHING. Or starting, I forget which. Wait. Continuing! Persevering. Yes. That is the worst of all. Entitlement whores.
