STRIVE TO BE THE BEST

She felt a new rush of adrenalin and wetness as Willow ripped her robes open and grabbed her breast through her shirt. She moaned into the kiss and thrust her hips against Willow’s. The wetness in her panties was becoming almost uncomfortable now and she desperately needed Willow to touch her. Gemma let her own hands slip under Willow’s shirt and raked her nails down her back just short of drawing blood.

She didn’t care that her robes were ripped, she could fix them later. She also didn’t care that now the first of her scars on her thigh were visible. Willow had already seen them, although not quite this close, and had been the only one who hadn’t reacted like she was made out of glass afterwards. It was one of the things she really liked about the other girl; that she didn’t treat her any differently although she knew that she would basically be a helpless cripple if not for magic.

Willow wasn't pleased that she had pulled away from her, but the Gryffindor’s words satisfied her more than she could have possibly imagined. She used her head to push Gemma's to the side, her teeth sinking into the now exposed skin on her neck. She didn't hold back wanting to hear the reaction of pain uttered from the blonde's lips. When she felt fulfilled, she lazily let her tongue roll over the wound smiling as metallic taste of blood found her. She hadn’t known that the sensation could be so exhilarating, but she was now determined to have more.

With all this tension building for weeks now there was only one way this could end, now that this last line was crossed. The teasing was over, there was no going back anymore. As if she wanted to.

Kissing Brenda had been nice and fun, but it had been gentle, careful and almost innocent. And it didn’t even come close to the sensations she was feeling now. Kissing Willow was raw and untamed and it drove her wild unlike anything else had done before. She felt her whole body hum in anticipation and moaned again, trying to press herself impossibly closer to the other witch.

As soon as Brenda had cleared the room she smirked at Willow wickedly, pushing lightly against the hold but not really trying to break free. “So you like it rough huh?” she asked leaning lightly forward until just mere millimeters were separating their lips. “Come on Willow, I know you want to. It’s what you’re thinking and dreaming about for weeks.”

Brenda knew that what Willow said shouldn’t have bothered her. It wasn’t like she wanted to kiss the older girl anyway. Not at all. But if the seventh year thought there was something wrong with Brenda… she was probably right. Probably no one wanted to kiss her. Most likely Gemma had just done it to be nice. The thoughts swirled in her head, driving away the panic, if nothing else.

The stutter in Willow’s voice drew her attention back to the other girls. They were standing closer to each other now. And then instead of… whatever had caused Willow to stutter, the older girl was angry. Furious, it seemed, because Gemma had called her a coward. Brenda could see the wand in her hand, and knew that Gemma didn’t have hers out. She was still terrified, but she couldn’t let Willow curse her only friend. Without even thinking about it, she took a step forward and said “No!” It wasn’t particularly loud or forceful, but she didn’t stutter, and it came out clearly in the momentary silence between the two girls.

She realized too late that she might have overdone it when she called Willow a coward but was surprisingly saved by Brenda speaking up. It made her smile honestly and her worry about Willow vanished. “See Willow, that’s courage. Even if you’d never agree to that. But sticking up for your friends, even though you know you’ll get your ass handed to you, that’s courage.” She was very proud of Brenda, and a little worried too so she tried to get Willow’s attention right back. “Brenda has more courage than the two of us combined. Because doing something despite being afraid of it takes more courage than doing it without fear.”

The sound of defiance uttered from the girl behind her made her blood go from hot to boiling. Had she really just told her no? Then the stuttering began again and her lips curled upwards. Yes, that was what she was expecting and all the little Hufflepuff was good for. Willow turned on her heel to face her again. “No?” She took a step towards the younger female once more only to be called back by Gemma’s words. “You call that courage?” She snapped throwing an arm back to indicate the girl now sniveling in the corner again. “No, Gemma that is not courage.” She shook her head and advanced on the blonde her fist wrapped tightly around her wand. 

When she realized that Gemma had walked in, she sagged with relief. Her friend wouldn’t let Willow do anything overly awful to her. The seventh year threw a withering glance at Brenda but put down her wand. Brenda’s heart was still pounding in her chest. Now that she wasn’t in immediate danger, she could feel the panic of what had almost happened welling up in her chest. It hurt. She dug her fingernails into her palm, trying to will herself not to have a panic attack right now. In front of anyone but Willow, honestly.

Without really intending to, her eyes widened and her face coloured at Gemma’s words, although they weren’t meant towards her. Although the idea of doing those things with Willow was, well, terrifying, but Brenda couldn’t fight the blush. Willow seemed just as embarrassed, but her response was to throw a scathing glance and words at Brenda, who tried to defend herself.

“What if I said I was looking for you?” she asked raising her eyebrows once, looking at Willow through her eye lashes. She just wanted to distract Willow from Brenda long enough for her to get a better grip on herself. Of course she had not been looking for Willow, she had been looking for Brenda, but the tension between the older girl and herself had constantly been growing for a while now. She knew it and Willow knew it too. Something was bound to happen sometime soon. The question really was, what? Either Willow would hex the crap out of her or she would jump her. Obviously Gemma would prefer the latter.

At the other girl’s instruction, Brenda leaned down to snatch up her wand before retreating quickly. Her blood felt like ice as Willow told her what she intended to do. A duel? But… Brenda could hardly cast a proper stunning spell; the older girl had just seen that. And, and, and Brenda wasn’t sure where Willow would draw the line. Would she stop at just stunning Brenda, or was she going to hurt her. Without intending to, her mind flashed towards the memory of Calithra cursing Randall. Oh Merlin. “P-please I-I can’t!” she begged. A large flinch ran through her as the Slytherin threw the dummies back.

Brenda stood there trembling in front of Willow. She didn’t know what to say to get the other girl to stop. “I’m s-so sorry. I didn’t mean to!” she insisted, but that didn’t change anything. Just when she was sure the older girl was going to cast something, Brenda heard the same footsteps. Part of her wanted speak up, to call attention to the room in case the person was just planning on walking by. But even if that did get her out of this situation, she was sure that Willow would be so angry that she would come back at Brenda later. The handle turned and the door opened, although Willow was in the way, so Brenda couldn’t see who was walking in. Still, the relief was almost enough to make the tears in her eyes fall over.

Brenda was doing a lot better since they didn’t share a tent with Willow anymore and their interaction was reduced to a minimum. Gemma always tried to keep Willow away from Brenda the best she could or at least not have them alone somewhere. Because whenever Gemma was with Brenda Willow was more likely to leave Brenda alone. And to Gemma, and Brenda too, that was perfectly fine.

She was really thirsty and thought that might have been the reason she woke up and so she put on her robes over her shirt and shorts she slept in, put on some sneakers and walked towards the kitchen, former bar or whatever it was called now, to get herself a glass of water.

Since Brenda hadn’t been in or near the kitchen either Gemma started to worry; the other girl had not said anything about an assignment and all groups that had one had left earlier in the day and would be back by morning. So where was she?

She looked into every room that was not a bedroom until finally only the training room was left. Should Brenda really be in there? Yes, Gemma realized, she totally would be in there trying to practice even though she was probably exhausted.

At first, she tried to stutter through an apology and explain that she had just been startled, but then Willow started in on how Brenda was never going to be let out of the house on a mission. Although, really, she had known that, it still hurt to have it thrown in her face. When Willow stepped into the room, Brenda took a step back. Gemma had said that Willow wouldn’t actually hurt her, but that probably didn’t extend to Brenda, and Gemma wasn’t here now. 

She took a step back and motioned to the other’s wand with her own. “Pick it up.” She held out her arms, “If you really want to practice, why don’t you do it for real.” A sneer came to her lips as she continued, “come on I challenge you to a duel.” She bowed slightly to her opponent as was customary, although she really didn’t see why should have to bow to anyone especially when she was about to destroy them. Her eyes never left the girl though and as she stood she took another step back to give them more room. Realizing she didn’t feel like there was enough space to play with her target she cast her wand towards the dummies throwing them against the back wall. “There,” she smiled, “that’s better. Now, shall we begin?”

Brenda couldn’t sleep, so she did her best to slip out of the room without waking Gemma. She was just glad it was only the two of them anymore, no Willow. Without much else to do, she headed toward the room that had been dubbed the practice room. It had a few dummies set up, so people could practice their aim and speed and the like. Since she had yet to be sent on a single mission, Brenda knew that she needed to step up her game.

She was glad the room was empty, but then again, it was pretty late. It would be strange for anyone else to be in here at this hour. Pulling out her wand, she pointed it towards the closest target. Her eyes flashed, remembering how she’d pointed her wand at Gail. Brenda shook her head and tried to steady her hand. “S-stupify.” The spell missed by a long shot. She took a deep breath and then tried again. Her hand shook a lot, but she forced it to hold still. 

She started walking the sort distance to the actual toilet when she heard what sounded like someone in the practice room. She was sure it was quite late and pulled out her wand before cracking the door to investigate. As soon as she did a jet of red light shot towards her. It was a poorly executed stunning spell and she was only pushed back a few feet. But, that was all that it took to set her on fire.

The sky was grey that day and, with the promise of lots of snow, and Gemma thought it was really fitting that the world looked dark, sad and dull. It was around noon but it seemed like the sun was already setting, the clouds covering the sky befogging everything into twilight.

Everyone else was probably sitting at lunch but Gemma had fled the camp as far as she dared, without leaving the parameter completely. She was sitting on a tree stump, knees pulled to her chest, near the stream that crossed the forest close to the camp tears flowing freely down her face.

A group had come back to camp earlier that morning, battered and bruised; they had run into an ambush and had barely made it our alive. At first Gemma had been relieved that it hadn’t been Willow’s group but the relief soon turned into worry when it became clear that one of the group had been seriously injured. Lauren and her had worked for hours under immerse pressure, trying to save his life but in the end it was a lost fight for them and he died under their hands. And when Lauren told her to go on a break and get some food she instead went to the river to be alone. She didn’t want anyone to see her like this. She felt even more useless now, weak and pathetic.

The reality that people were dying, really dying from the hands of others, and that there were cases where all the healing in the world couldn’t safe them, had hit her hard. She was just glad that it hadn’t been someone she was close with; she had no idea how she would be able to handle it when one of her friends died.

When the team had returned to headquarters there were people running about in every direction. It quickly became apparent what all the fuss was and why they had been forced to flee. The other party had been attacked in some sort of ambush and they had suffered some serious injuries. Willow didn’t have any healing skills and she didn’t know any of the people that were hurt so she decided to escape from the insanity and clean up a bit. She knew all the water stations would be taken and she figured no one would really appreciate her trying to shower in a time like this, so she decided to go down to the stream to wash. It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing.

It was cold and she knew that the water would be freezing, but she hated being dirty and if she didn’t at least try and wash some of the day’s filth off of her she would never be satisfied with herself. There was fresh snow on the ground and as she made her way towards the stream she noticed that some of it was even untouched. Willow loved walking in new snow and being the first one to mark the blanketed white. There was one other set of footprints and she wondered who else would be down there.

With a determined set to her shoulders (as determined as Brenda could manage) she made her way towards Willow, who already seemed to know that Brenda would be coming with her. Brenda’s brave face crumbled as soon as the other girl spoke to her. She didn’t know how to respond, because Willow seemed even more unhappy going with Brenda than Brenda was, although Brenda’s unhappiness seemed to present itself very differently.

The Slytherin sighed loudly in frustration. “Stop apologizing and shut up. If I wasn’t ready I wouldn’t be here.” Willow spat at the girl. “I told you to hurry up, we have to make it to the edge of the camp before we can apparate anywhere. Which in my opinion is utterly ridiculous! This whole no using magic nonsense is bloody ridiculous! I mean aren’t we fighting for the sake of being able to use magic wherever we want?! What are we doing hiding away in the forest collecting fucking firewood for Merlin’s sake?! Ugh!!!” Willow finished her rant and turned to look at the fifth year. When she noticed the girl was lagging behind she growled. “Come the fuck on! If I have to wait on your ass all day, you’re going to be sorry.” Icy eyes bore into the brunette giving her a taste of what was to come if she didn’t get her shit together then she turned and continued walking, increasing her pace and challenging the girl to keep up.

Willow had contemplated telling her pathetic companion her plan before they got there, but after the few minutes the Slytherin spent with the little Hufflepuff she realized that it was be quicker and less painful if she just had the girl follow her rather than try to explain herself. At least she knew there would be no argument. The younger female could barely form a sentence together let alone stand against a strong personality like Willow. Maybe in the end it would make things easier. At least she would be able to accomplish what she really wanted without anyone trying to fight her about it.

Gemma was relieved when Willow lied down and turned away from her, so she wouldn’t notice her blush and she could think about this some more. What was going on between them? Was something going on between them? And what if Willow really wanted … something from her?

Gemma was so confused, she had never even kissed someone until now and she had not wanted to either. But the thought of kissing Willow kept creeping into her mind and made her whole body heat up while sending chills down her spine at the same time. It was a completely foreign feeling for her and she wondered what it would take to bring Willow to actually act on some of those threats she posed even if she had no idea if those threats were real or innuendos. And she wasn’t sure what she would actually prefer.

She was sure she wouldn’t find out now and decided she should try to sleep.

It wasn’t just what the younger girl had said; it was how she said it. Willow could swear that there was something different in the Gryffindor’s voice. Willow didn’t know what to do with herself. She had never felt this way before. She didn’t even know how to describe it. Part of her wanted to jump up from the ground, despite her exhaustion and attack the girl. Not even necessarily with her wand either. There were a few times as a child that strange things happened to the other children when she got mad at them. When she got her letter it made more sense. She had only used her magic on someone once after that but then another letter came, this one from the Ministry of Magic warning her that anymore acts of magic outside of school would lead to her expulsion. She was NOT going to get kicked out of school for something as ridiculous as that. She couldn’t let her father win because of her inability to control her anger. So the next time some decided to mouth off to her she used her fists. It only happened a few times before the people back home learned to avoid her, and she preferred it that way. Gemma however, made Willow want to punch her in the face and hex her at the same time.

But then there was the other side, the side that made Willow want to pounce on her in a totally different way. Images kept flashing through her mind every time she was around the other girl. First she was pushing her, then she was pulling her back in and kissing her and touching her and…

It wasn’t like Willow was inexperienced sexually, but she certainly wasn’t that practiced either and she had never even thought about another woman in a sexual way let alone done anything with one. But every day spent around Gemma made her think harder on the subject. Her mind was racing with all these questions and still no answers. After what seemed like hours of contemplation she finally drifted off to sleep. 

Willow had noticed on the last mission that she needed to work on hitting moving targets. In duelling, she hadn’t had to worry about chasing after someone while they were running and trying to hit him all at the same time. So, she had the idea to go down to the stream to try and hit some fish swimming in the water. As she walked over the hill, she noticed Gemma sitting on the water’s edge. Willow thought to sneak up behind her and push her in. The blonde had mentioned that their superiors might not like the idea of them fighting each other and while Willow had dismissed it at first, she was starting to think the other girl might have a point. But surely they wouldn’t be mad at a little horseplay. Right before Willow reached Gemma, the younger female quickly turned and tried to pull the seventh year into the water. Luckily, Willow was quicker and although she couldn’t stop herself from falling, she was able to pull Gemma in with her.

The Slytherin found herself laughing like she never had before as she hit the water and she watched the blonde chuckling right along with her as they both sat in the stream. She noticed the soaked fabric clinging to the other girl’s body and her eyes slowly climbed up to Gemma’s face. It was beaming and Willow found herself being drawn into the girl’s aura and the alluring sound of her laughter. Without a moment’s hesitation Willow found herself reaching for Gemma. One hand grasped the Gryffindor’s waist and reached around her back, pulling the female in towards her. She rose unto her knees as the fingers of her other hand tangled themselves in drenched locks of blonde hair. Willow closed the distance between them in one swift motion and thrust her lips against Gemma’s. She was so aggressive that their teeth knocked together but Willow found that that only excited her more. She pulled the other girl into her chest and smiled into the kiss as their breasts met and a shock ran through her system. Willow finally let their mouths part only to gasp for air.

She was only slightly surprised that Gemma didn’t pull away; the blonde had after all been teasing her for quite sometime now. Willow ran her hand down Gemma’s back and forcibly grabbed her buttocks trying to get the other girl even closer to her. Willow once more kissed Gemma this time even fiercer than the last. She tightened her mouth against the Gryffindor’s and felt her lips began to ache as she pressed herself harder into Gemma. She could’ve stayed like this forever, her mouth attached to that of the stupid fifth year’s she couldn’t seem to get out of her head. But she wanted more, this wasn’t enough, she needed everything that this girl had to offer.