June 19th, 1888 — Beaches outside the Sanditon Resort
Prudence Browne

While being away from her family (who could possibly be in the middle of Hogsmeade's second plague quarantine zone, depending on how everything ended up transpiring down in the small village) was anxiety-inducing to say the least, the presence of her friends—or rather, one specific friend and a bunch of girls she didn't find completely irritating—was enough to keep her mind off it for a portion of the day.

She and Prudence had taken to the beaches outside the Sanditon that day, the girls both donning their bathing suits as they splashed around in the water. However, it seemed the summer weather was not being as kind to them as she'd hoped, and thunder eventually started rumbling in the skies around them.

With an exasperated huff, Leah had shuffled Prudence and herself into one of the bathing machines, intent on getting them both inside before the weather decided to rain on their parade—literally.

"I have never liked thunder!" she complained as she begun to help her friend out of her suit. Their dresses were piled up in the corner, fortunately having escaped getting wet by the water dripping from their bodies. "Maybe next time we'll visit the spas instead; I'm sure the Fudges keep atmospheric charms active there."

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"Don't be a ninny," She teased as she peeled her arm out of one soaking wet sleeve and then the other, "It's only a storm. I've played plenty of quidditch in conditions worse than these and I'm still alive aren't I?" If it were modern times, Leah would be described as a girly-girl and Pru would be nearly the epitome of a tomboy. There were no terms for such things in the era, which made classifying their personalities as: ladylike and less ladylike.

The rain hit the roof of the bathing machine in heavy sheets, beating an impressive rhythm. Pru lifted her brows in and widened her eyes at her friend in exaggerated fear, "The rain is out to get us Lee, we'd better hide!" Unable to keep a straight face for more than a second, she burst out laughing.

  

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Leah huffed, teasingly tugging on the collar of Prudence's bathing suit so it would momentarily put pressure on her neck. "Well excuse me for not being well-adept to navigating the skies on a broomstick," she rebutted, sticking out her tongue despite knowing the Gryffindor couldn't see. Just as she was beginning to tug the sleeves down Prudence's arms, the rain started up—ugh! She let out an unladylike whine in protest.

"If you don't stop teasing me, I'm going to use your dress for cover and leave you here—in the nude!" she teased, eyeing the dress in the corner of the bathing machine.

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Pru let out an unladylike, exaggerated gasp for air, as if she were being strangled. The pressure on her neck had subsided after a mere second, but she used her hand to clutch at her throat as if she struggled to catch her breath anyway. Her dramatics ended in giggles, which were amplified by the fake threat.

"You wouldn't dare!" She grinned and spun around so that they were face to face, "If you did, I'd cut all of your hair off when you were sleeping!" Pru used her fingers to form a pair of scissors and 'used' them to crop a loose strand of her friend's hair close to her scalp, "You'd look terrifying!"

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   Leah Beauregard

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Leah let out a offended mock-scoff. "You would never!" she retorted, holding her hand to her heart as if she was hurt by such a threat. "Then you'd have to walk around with me! And whenever someone asked my I'd lost all my hair, I'd turn and give you the look," she baited, demonstrating the same expression.

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She pressed her lips together and raised her brows in disbelief, "Who says I'd still walk around with you? You'd turn to look and nobody is there. They'll think you're crazy. 'There goes that Leah Beauregard, saying someone cut off all of her hair. She's mental, the poor dear. She looks terrifying like that." Pru laughed and turned back around, motioning at the ribbon tied behind her. That's all she needed and then she could squeeze through the torso of her dress and lift the rest of it up over her head.

  

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Leah pouted. "Now that would be just cruel! And I thought you were the kind one!" she protested, pulling the ribbon free so Prudence could continue to undress.

"But if you were to do that, I might just have to... accidentally practice incendio around your broomstick. What a tragedy, I can hear it now—'Poor Miss Browne, her broomstick's aflame, and right before her game against Slytherin, too!'," she continued to taunt, albeit in good fun.

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   Prudence Browne

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With an exaggerated gasp of horror, she exclaimed, "You're a Slytherin through and through!" Giggling, she grabbed a fistful of her bathing dress and pulled it over her head. She had underestimated how heavy the fabric was. The thick hem swept over the back of her head, pulling her already sloppy chignon entirely loose. As the dress was tossed to the corner of the hut designated for their wet clothes, her stringy hair tickled her lower back.

"Brr!" She shivered and wrapped her arms around her nearly bare torso, her chemise and pantaloons clinging immodestly to her form. She peeled her chemise off and tossed it into the corner. It was then that she realized she'd never been this bare in front of her best friend. They didn't share a dorm room and they'd been modestly leaving their chemises on beneath their dresses when changing in the cottage. Granted, their underthings hadn't been soaked with saltwater so it had worked out just fine. Self-consciously, she slid her arms up a bit to cover her breasts and shuffled over to where the dry dresses were located.

Rather than let on that she was suddenly anxious, she chattered away, "You'd think they'd have a way to heat these for occasions such as this!"

  

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Leah stood back to allow Prudence to get her swimsuit off herself, feeling no desire to get herself soaking wet when Prudence seemed more than capable of dealing with it herself. The sudden shower of water droplets in her direction as the swimsuit came off with a smack left Leah jerking her head in the other direction, followed by a nasty glance in the Gryffindor's direction.

Until she realized, Merlin, she'd never actually seen Pru in the nude!

Her cheeks flushed and she immediately diverted her eyes, but her own curiosities (that's all they were, right?) keeping them that way incredibly difficult. Leah began working on getting out of her swimsuit, though did so suspiciously slowly for a girl who was so desperate to get out of the thunderstorm.

"I'm sure Hogwarts graduates have the skills to heat them themselves," she chattered along in response. "Maybe we can ask Professor -----* about it when we return to school!"

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* there's no Charms professor BOO

  

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"Maybe," She pulled her bloomers on and scooped up her chemise to pull on next, "Although I'll hardly remember to ask by then. If there's even a going back to Hogwarts..." Her mood suddenly shifted. What if they didn't go back? What if magic never existed in Hogsmeade again? Likely they would move - as it worked perfectly fine here at the Sanditon - but things would be incredibly different. She wasn't ready for that.

With her chemise scrunched against her chest, she turned to her friend and asked anxiously, "Lee, what if they don't fix it? What if it's always like this? What will we do?" She couldn't debut. Not yet! She still had two more years of schooling! Two more years to figure out how to avoid marriage and still be able to live a full, happy life that satisfied herself and her family.

  

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Leah did not appreciate the shift in subject as much as she knew the concern was well-founded. Sure, they'd joked about leaving Hogwarts and never having to come back, but not being able to go back was another story. If she didn't have her NEWTs, she would live her years as a debutante—or whatever her mother decided she would do in post-Hogwarts life—worried about finding a husband. She would have no backup plan, no opportunity to pursue another path if she suffered multiple lackluster seasons.

She wanted to go back.

"Let's just hope that they allow us back; we haven't gotten our OWL scores yet," she teased, a clear avoidance of the topic at hand. Though as she shifted her gaze back to the floor, it was obvious that she too was worried. "They'll have to let us back to our families. There's only so long they can make excuses for leaving girls our age without guidance before society starts to riot. On the bright side, we might have a few more weeks of freedom?" she suggested, a little ounce of hope in her voice.

Though she could be the biggest brat in the world, Leah cared about Prudence. She reached out and took her hand in the way a best fried would, and gave it a light squeeze.

"It'll be okay, Pru. We have each other, at least. Some aren't as fortunate, I'd imagine."

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"That's true," She squeezed Lee's hand back and felt some of the worry leave her, "We do have each other." Others were not as blessed — such as Miss Ruskin, who was an outsider, despite Pru's attempts at friendliness. There were just some things that society couldn't entirely overcome, regardless of how unfair it was. She smiled affectionately and gave one last squeeze. Briefly - for a very odd moment - her eyes lingered on the delicately curved cupid's bow of Lee's mouth.

She released her friend's hand and shimmied into her chemise, keeping the fabric pressed against her chest for modesty's sake. Once that was done, she reached for Leah's swimsuit with a laugh, "Here, let me help. You've been struggling long enough."

  

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At Prudence's words, Leah felt a pang in her chest that she couldn't make out. Their tender moment left as fast as it came, and though Leah felt obligated to feel happy about that, she couldn't help the - the yearning that seemed to linger when Prudence pulled her hand away. Today was supposed to be fun, right? There was no need for silly emotions! She could have been mistaken; when tension was high and uncertainty was in the air, it was easy to mistake a need for comfort, for stability, for an unnatural yearning for Prudence's touch. That was it.

Prudence then offered to help her out of her own swimsuit, which, in all honestly, did little to help convince her of what she was trying tell herself. "Yes, please do," she said automatically, turning around so Prudence could help her with the straps - but also so she could hide her pink cheeks. "I - I think it's sad that we can't go swimming in the Black Lake. I know it's dangerous and all, but surely they could clear a section of it?"

Because there was definitely something in the water surrounding the Sanditon - and it needed to go away!

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"Students do it all the time on dares. I don't see why we couldn't," Pru grinned mischievously as she gently gathered the stray hairs and pulled them forward over her friend's shoulder. She didn't want them to become entangled while she worked. Her hands trembled as she began to loosen the swimsuit. She could not entirely contribute it to the cold, which struck her as odd. Perhaps she'd gone too long without a meal? She was much taller than Leah, so had to hunch forward in order to see properly in the dim light of the tent. Though she knew she shouldn't look, she could just see the slim curve of her friend's lower back as it dimpled inward just beneath her waist. Her breath caught at the sight and she felt a very new, very real tingling in parts that she had never paid much mind to before.

Wait a minute... did this mean...

Without realizing what she was doing, she gently ran the knuckle of one of her fingers down the length of Leah's spine - stopping just at her waist, as the fabric had covered everything below it. The tingle increased in confirmation. Oh. Well, that explained... quite a bit, actually. She caught herself and quickly removed her hand from Leah's bare skin, rather quickly bursting out with a sing-song, "All done!" in hopes that her friend hadn't noticed the caress and would just chalk it up to part of the swimsuit removal process.

  

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Leah was hyper-aware of Prudence's movements, of her touches, and felt her skin flushing at the sensuality of it all. Perhaps she was just overthinking it - it wasn't like the touched had any meaning, nor did they have any emotions behind them. She'd imagined a man touching her like that - his hands gently stroking down her back, not just touching her but marveling at her form - since she her fourth year was coming to a conclusion, so she supposed Prudence was just making it seem real. (Was she making any sense? She couldn't seem to rationalize the way her skin seemed to be set aflame from a simple caress, but it was there.)

The silence fortunately did not linger long, and by the time her swimsuit was pulled down to her waist, Prudence seemed to snap out of whatever quiet trance she was in. She remained face away, her mind racing. Should she pretend nothing had happened and pull the swimsuit down? She knew she should, but she felt so self-conscious!

"T-Thanks," she managed, followed by a nervous giggle-laugh, through the thickness in her throat. She swiftly pulled the swimsuit off, leaving her in complete nudity, and dashed towards her chemise. She could feel Prudence's eyes still on her, and made a conscious effort to keep those parts hidden from view.

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Leah's obvious discomfort sent an immediate wave of guilt crashing into her. Pru's face turned red and she averted her gaze. Her heart pounded away anxiously in her chest. What would Leah think of her? Clearly, she'd noticed it wasn't a normal, friendly touch. Would she want to chat about it later? What would Pru even say? She couldn't lie... but she also didn't know if Leah would be comfortable being her friend anymore if she knew the thoughts that had just run through her best friend's mind.

Pru did the only thing she knew how - prattle as a distraction as she pulled the rest of her layers of dress over her head, "When do you think the storm will let up? I'm getting hungry and I'm sure it's getting close to dinner time. Did I tell you that I ran into Holliday in her room the other day? She was in an awful state. That magazine Witch Weekly had mentioned her brother in one of the articles about the fog expedition. They predicted that he was going to die. She was near inconsolable, poor thing. I had to reassure that there wasn't an ounce of truth to it. Can you imagine?"

  

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