Work Text:
Deciding exactly what he was going to do when he asked Virgil out weighed constantly on Logan’s mind. For an entire day, he went through everything he knew Virgil liked, from piano music to the little short stories Virgil refused to let anyone read. In the end, Logan decided that the best dates would include things that both of them enjoyed and while Logan was always willing to lend an ear to Virgil's more creative side, it wasn’t something he could participate in. So he made a list of everything he enjoyed and looked at the overlaps.
It turned out that there was a lot of overlap and Logan spent the next week agonizing over what the best date would be.
Virgil answered that for him.
“Is it true?!” Virgil half-asked, half-yelled at him. The palms of his hands hit the table, making Logan jump.
Logan, who had been going over exactly how to hack into the scientific records and name a star after Virgil in the library, looked up quickly and shut his book with a hurried snap.
The question “is it true?” was incredibly open-ended but after two and half years (approximately) with Logan, many of Virgil's questions were vague. After all, Logan had proven himself more than capable of figuring out the context without needing to have it explained to him.
It took him a second to figure it out.
“Is it true,” especially when delivered with passion, generally had two meanings. The person was either incredibly happy by what had happened and wanted clarification that they were correct in feeling that way, or, the person was upset by the occurrence and wanted to be told that they had just imagined it. Virgil was clearly the latter. His face was dark, hands curled into fists on the wooden table.
Whatever had happened, Logan was supposed to know more about it than Virgil. In Virgil's opinion, this meant practically everything but Virgil generally felt nervous asking Logan things that he assumed he should know as well. There was no sign of nervousness. (This also ruled out anything Roman might’ve done because Virgil still hadn’t escaped the small part of himself that wanted to please that horrendous Gryffindor). Which meant it wasn’t something that had happened in school.
Something that happened outside of school, that Logan would know a lot about, and that Virgil would have less information on.
Magical politics.
Not only that but magical politics that drove Virgil into a complete and total rage.
Rights violations.
And then there was the pebble of guilt in his eye that Logan knew meant that Virgil was taking this personally. It was one thing to be angry on someone else’s behalf, but when Virgil got worked up because he felt wronged, there was this strange guilt. Almost as if the Ravenclaw didn’t believe he was allowed to feel upset about what was happening in his life.
Magical politics. Rights violation. Personal. Recent.
“Yes,” Logan said simply. “The Magical Court voted not to legalize gay marriage. They claimed it untraditional and that it would prevent the furthering of magical heirs.”
Virgil slammed his hands against the table again. “That is so unfair!” Frustrated tears burned in his eyes. “We’re human too!”
“I know,” Logan said quietly.
“We can’t even fucking do anything, L! We just have to watch as they take away our rights! I want- I want to find The Man and punch him in his stupid face!”
Logan blinked. He blinked again.
“Virgil.”
“What?!” Virgil snapped. Then he winced and dropped into a seat beside Logan, head in hands. “Sorry man. I just… sorry.”
“It’s perfectly understandable,” Logan told him. “But on the subject of you doing something on the rejection of the repeal of the law that forbids gay marriage, there are massive protests scheduled for this weekend. I could speak to Dumbledore and see about going.”
Virgil looked up at him. “Really?!”
“Certainly. I was actually considering asking you if you wanted to go before you learned about the court case.”
Instantly, Virgil lit up. It wasn’t just the smile on his face that brought Logan’s heart to its knees- it was the gleam in his dark brown eyes, the slight straightening of his back, the way he drummed his fingers on the table to keep himself calm.
“Let’s do that then!” Virgil grinned. “I’m sure Janus and Patton-”
“Actually,” Logan coughed, “I was wondering if you would want to go with just me. Without them. Alone. Together.”
He was not good at this. His hands felt clammy, and his fingers had whitened around its edges. Already he could feel his face heating up and he wasn’t even sure if Virgil had gotten his meaning-
Oh.
He had.
Virgil's cheeks darkened and he looked down. A bashful smile appeared on his face and Logan felt himself relaxing ever so slightly.
“L,” Virgil teased, “are you asking me to a protest on a date?”
Logan’s tongue was suddenly too big for his mouth. He opened and closed it several times before Virgil took pity on him and patted his right hand.
“Of course.” Virgil suddenly couldn’t look at him, but his words remained strong. “I would be happy to go with you, Logan.”
Logan’s chest erupted in light and he had to keep himself from getting to his feet and dancing around. The only thing offering him any sort of comfort was that Virgil appeared to be experiencing the same feelings as he was, at least judging from the frantic tapping of his friend’s… his date’s? feet.
“Perfect,” Logan managed to get out.
Virgil stood to leave- and probably to let out a little bit of the energy Logan could see coursing through him. As he left the library, he kept glancing behind him, going even darker, and speeding up.
Logan was pretty sure he was smiling like a maniac.
Dumbledore had been very happy to let them leave for the protest. He had given them a special kind of portkey shaped like a galleon that worked when you said “Pickle Squash” at any point in time and brought them right to the Three Broomsticks. Apparently, he was good friends with the owner of the place.
That didn’t stop Virgil from worrying. After all, what happened if they lost one? What if they accidentally spent it on a shop? What if it got stolen?
Still, he kept those worries to himself. At the moment, Virgil could tell Logan was already nervous the date wouldn’t work out and Virgil going to him with concerns would only make the genius feel bad.
Still, Logan needn’t have worried. The moment he appeared in front of him, decked out in winter/protest/date clothes, Virgil suddenly truly understood what the term “gay panic” meant.
Sure, he thought he had gotten it before. Watching Logan get really passionate about something, listening to him nerding out. Just seeing him outside of his school robes on weekends had Virgil's little heart keeling over.
But…
Logan was dressed in a stylish dark blue jacket with three rainbow buttons going down the left of it. His neck was wrapped in a gorgeous white scarf that turned rainbow right at the ends. Black pants complimented the outfit perfectly and the white sneakers he wore matched the scarf. His rainbow laces tied it all together.
Just looking at him turned Virgil's heart into melted butter and he suddenly felt incredibly underdressed. That is, until Logan store right up to him, put a hand on either one of Virgil's shoulders, and said:
“You look amazing.”
Virgil wore a black sweatshirt that looked smooth and professional on the outside but was actually a fluffy mess within. With it, he had his favorite choker on (a plain black one), hoops in all of his ears, and a pair of bald ripped jeans. He had been planning on wearing black boots but eventually decided on purple sneakers- they would probably be doing a lot of walking.
What had taken him the longest amount of time was the rainbow eyeshadow he had delicately painted beneath his eyes and it was all worth it when Logan brushed a finger just underneath it, eyes wide.
“This is beautiful.” The genius swallowed. “You’re beautiful.”
Everything around them came to a standstill and it took all of Virgil's strength not to fall to his knees.
“Please.” Virgil waved the compliment away even as his heart pounded so loudly he was sure Logan could hear it. “Look at you.”
A pleased grin fleeting across Logan’s face before he offered Virgil an arm. With a slight amount of hesitation, Virgil took it and headed out of Hogwarts and down to Hogsmeade, where Dumbledore and an empty soda can were waiting.
“You have your Portkeys for heading home?” Dumbledore asked cheerfully.
Both Virgil and Logan nodded, Logan a bit more “are you serious, of course, I do” then Virgil's jerkier yes.
“Perfect. I believe the protest ends at 10 pm-”
Virgil did his best to hide his surprise at the number, not because of how late it was, but because it was a blatant lie. Logan had told him the protest went from 2-6 (approximately) so Virgil didn’t know where this 10 number was coming from.
Whatever. He trusted Logan.
“-so I’ll expect you back by 10:30 at the latest.” Dumbledore checked his watch. “And this about concludes our time. Virgil, Logan, if you’d be so kind as to touch the Portkey?”
When they arrived in Magical London (wizards were so inventive) Virgil's eyes grew to the size of saucers. He clung to Logan’s arm and spun slowly in a 360 motion, needing to make sure he took absolutely everything in.
Muggle London was nothing like Wizard London.
Wizard London had shops on the streets filled with all kinds of trinkets. The one closest to Virgil had different kinds of jewelry that would play music only the wearer would hear when they hit a certain button and besides that was a shop with tiny versions of animals, all that moved and communicated like the actual create, including dragons, griffons, unicorns, pegasi- it was amazing.
And the gay!
Most shops had put up a tiny gay flag in the corner of their store. Some had huge ones and Virgil's favorite was the one that said “Go away homophobes- we don’t serve assholes.”
He grinned, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. His breath fogged up in front of him but Virgil couldn’t feel the cold. His heart heated the rest of his body, from the very tips of his head down to his toes.
“This is amazing,” he breathed to Logan. “Do they all have gay flags up for the protest?”
Logan’s eyes narrowed slightly and he got that expression he always got when he was deducing something. In less than a second, he turned back to Virgil.
“The far one-” he pointed to a café down the street with a large pride flag in their window with a single gloved hand- “is up year-round. Everyone else’s is up for the protest.” Logan linked their fingers together. “Shall we go?”
Virgil nodded eagerly.
It didn’t take them long to find the protest. All gathered around a stage blasting music were hundreds of people. Some wore entire rainbow suits and hats, while others had painted their face the correct color code. Signs were all up in the air and Virgil found himself craning to look at every one.
Marriage now!
Love wins!
I support my gay son.
Did you choose your sexuality?
Coexist!
His heart burned within him and gentle tears began to prick on the outside of his face. Virgil was quick to rub that away, not wanting Logan to see (he didn’t want to make his new boyfriend think he was a crybaby [even if Logan pretty much already knew from the one-two many times Virgil broke down in front of him]). However, when he turned to look at the genius, he noticed that his eyes were filled with tears as well.
Virgil nudged him. “What’s reduced my big strong nerd into tears?”
Logan was quick to wipe his eyes. “My apologies. I’m just deducing everyone here and they’re all… they’re all so happy, and yet sad and angry- so much anger.”
Logan pointed to a man holding up a sign about his son. “That man thought the new bill allowing gay marriage would pass. He told all of his friends it was going to and made plans for his son and his son’s boyfriend's wedding. When it didn’t pass, his son started crying and he felt like it was his fault.”
His finger shifted to three women. “Two of them are dating. The third’s girlfriend was hospitalized, most likely from a homophobic attack.”
Virgil watched him with wide eyes. No matter how many times Logan did it, his heart always skipped a beat whenever his Ravenclaw was able to piece together somebody’s entire history from the tiniest pieces of information.
“Those two were planning on getting married right after the bill passed as a way of celebration. When it didn’t pass, it hurt.” Logan paused. “But they’re all happy.”
“Happy?” Virgil whispered.
“They’re happy because of all the people here!” Logan gestured around them. “They feel heard.” He paused. “I suppose I feel heard as well. I sent several letters to the government asking them to legalize gay marriage. It’s nice to know people agree with me.”
Virgil could feel his chest exploding into thousands of different fireworks. Without thinking, he reached out and brushed his gloved hand over Logan's cheek; almost instantly he regretted it but instead of pulling away as Virgil had expected, Logan lay his face more into it.
“You’re nervous,” Logan told him.
“Well, I’m glad to see your deducing skills are still as good as ever.”
Logan smiled slightly. “You don’t need to be nervous. There’s nothing you can do that I wouldn’t find adorable.”
Virgil instantly dropped his gaze. He cursed his awful cheeks, already heating, and dropped his hand from Logan’s face to brush off his pants. Even though his stomach was fluttering around, there was no push to raise his hand to his mouth and clamp down it, an instinct he was much more used to ignoring. Instead, all Virgil wanted to do was curl against Logan and enjoy his bearings.
It took him a moment to realize he could.
Slowly, cautiously, Virgil leaned into Logan’s side- and was guiltily delighted when his date gulped. Then Logan dropped his hand to wrap an arm around Virgil’s shoulders and the little firework in his chest went off again.
He didn’t know what had convinced Logan to confess to him, but Virgil was incredibly happy it had happened.
Slowly, the two of them inched through the crowd together until they were nearly at the front. By that point, a speaker had gotten up onto the stage. He was black, with curly dyed hair cascading down his shoulder. The top of his hair was red but as it traveled down, it shifted to orange, yellow, green, until it completed the whole rainbow. To complete this look, he wore a black suit and gay tie, along with a rainbow pair of plastic shutter shades.
The man held a wand up to his throat. He whispered something Virgil couldn’t hear, but his next word came out loud and shut up the chattering of the people around him.
“Hello and thank you for coming here today!”
The crowd cheered. The energy from one person seemed to seep into the next until the entire place was booming. Normally the noise would’ve pushed Virgil away but today, with Logan by his side and the deafening roar of those like him, all he could do was smile.
“My name is Jon Morris! I am 27 years old! I just finished my training as a healer! And I am gay!”
The crowd cheered again, much louder than the first. Virgil glanced over at Logan and was startled to find the boy glancing down at him. It was easy to smile up at him, and his grin only grew when he noticed how Logan beamed back.
It was unusual to see his genius smiling and Virgil could feel his heart picking up just from looking at it.
“Since I was sixteen, I have fought for my human right to marry and love who I choose!” Jon screamed. “I have fought my parents, my friends, strangers, but most importantly, I have fought the government. I have fought Minister Fudge-”
The boos started at the beginning but rippled across the entire platform. Virgil didn’t know much about Fudge- he didn’t know much about politics in general- but he knew what Logan looked like when he was angry.
“Fudge has been against gay marriage since he was elected,” Logan explained. “The gay community had to take a number of backroads to even having a chance of passing it this year.”
“Why would it pass if the head of the government doesn’t like it?”
“We got it up to the Prime Minister and he vetoed it. Somehow, we managed to pick it up again and manage to bring the matter to court. In court, the Prime Minister doesn’t have any power and we thought we had enough votes to make it legal.”
A bitter taste had formed in Virgil’s mouth. He leaned closer into Logan’s side and took comfort in the way the arm around him tightened.
“-and I have fought the courts since I was sixteen years old!”
More cheering. Virgil could feel the bitterness from earlier shifting slightly, not so that it went away but that it became something else.
Something energetic.
Something furious.
“What do I get for my hard work? What do I get for it? I get the Magical Court, the people who are supposed to represent me, looking all my work proving that I deserved a basic human right and yelling me no.
“They choose not to progress. They choose hate over love, they choose cruelty over kindness.
“However.
“If they think this is the end of things, they’ve got another thing coming.”
The crowd burst into cheers and Jon took a brief moment just to breathe.
“Because I am going to fight!”
More cheering.
“I am going to spend the rest of my life digging in my heels and looking the people who told me I was worth less than them in the eye and telling them that they can go fuck themselves.”
It was like a bomb went off. Virgil curled into Logan a bit at the noise- as much as he was enjoying the speech and the cheering, he did have his limits- but still, he clapping along with the group.
Logan's facial expression had shifted into that glazed over faraway look he always had when he was deducing.
“What is it?”
Logan blinked back to reality. “There are about 3,457 people at this square area,” Logan informed him. “However, if we take in the whole of the city, I’d say around 800,000 people were listening at the moment.”
“800,000?!”
“Taking in basic statistics and the level of noise, yes.”
“How’re they all hearing him?!”
Logan glanced down at him, a single eyebrow raised. “Virgil, we’re in the wizarding world. How do you think they’re all hearing him?”
Virgil shifted. “Magic?”
“Good job. You earn a sticker.”
“I’ll deck you,” Virgil warned.
A small smile spread across Logan’s face. “You would lose.”
Virgil just managed to flip him off before the man started talking again.
“I might lose again!” Jon screamed. “But I will never stop fighting! For me, for you, but mostly for our children who do not deserve to grow up in a world where they are ostracised and criticized for loving someone!”
Virgil blinked.
He was talking about him.
About him and about Logan, who stared at the man like he was a shooting star in a cloudy night sky.
“In my world, love is more important than what we did way back when we were still owning dragons as pets. In my world, love matters more than the pretty dime you’ll get from rich families if you do what they say, in my world-” Jon paused, for air or suspense Virgil didn’t know. “In my world, Love Wins!”
Another bomb went off and Virgil had to pull from Logan’s side and clamp his hands over his ears to keep from dying. Still, he smiled, still, his chest felt warm and light, and when Logan looked him over to make sure he was okay all Virgil could do was smile and smile and smile.
They were approached at the end of the protest by a couple of organizers. Logan took their flyers, stickers, and pins with a smile before he and Virgil made their way out of the protest area and to find some kind of sandwich shop.
He had never felt like this before. The closest Logan could come up with was the first time Virgil had accepted him on the train, 2 or so years ago.
His body felt light and fluid. Every step was like walking on clouds and Logan never wanted to come down. And of course, what made it all better was the hand tightly grasping his own and the brilliant set of brown eyes that hadn’t stopped shining since they first set foot in Wizard London.
The shine had begun to dull though and Logan glanced over Virgil quickly to figure out exactly what was troubling him. It took him less than a millisecond and it only made his chest feel warmer.
“We’ve still got 2 hours,” Logan informed him. “Or, to be more precise, 1 hour, 52 minutes, and 41 seconds. Besides, I still have plans.”
Instantly that light was back and Logan couldn’t help the way he smiled at the mere look of it. Virgil met his eyes and the light glowed all the brighter.
“Come on.” Logan squeezed Virgil’s hand. “We’re going to wizard central park.”
“Wizard central park, wizard London, magic prime minister,” Virgil bumped Logan’s hip with his own. “Guess the muggles are the real smart ones, huh?”
Logan grinned.
They grabbed sandwiches and hot chocolate at a random shop before Logan lead Virgil into wizard central park and over to an abandoned hill. They sat down across it and unwrapped their food.
“The first speaker was best,” Virgil told him. His arms flapped around excitedly as he spoke, sandwich drawing invisible letters across the dark sky. “He was so passionate!”
Logan nodded. “He was good, though I admit, I found the third speaker the most interesting.”
“I knew you would,” Virgil told him. “They were the most factual.”
“It was very informative.” Logan took a bite of his sandwich. “I didn’t know half of what they were saying- it offered quite a lot for me to look into when we get back to Hogwarts.”
Virgil was building up his courage to say something. Logan could see it, in the tightening of his chest and hardening of those brilliant brown eyes. Out of respect, Logan fell silent and allowed Virgil to hype himself up, to order himself to say;
“Thank you so much for this, L.” Virgil reached out and grabbed Logan’s one hand without a sandwich in it. “This was amazing. This is amazing.”
“Well it needed to be perfect,” Logan told him. “It was for you.”
Even in the dark, Logan could see Virgil’s cheeks darkening. Still, Virgil just leaned closer to Logan, so their arms brushed together and said;
“You’re very smooth.”
“Only for you.”
Virgil leaned ever closer and Logan just managed to keep himself from gulping.
Their eyes locked together and all the breath left Logan’s body. He had called Virgil’s eyes brown earlier: that wasn’t giving enough credit to the complex beauty of them.
To the brown so deep around his pupils it looked black, exploding out into a ferocious and shiny chocolate color that made Logan want to melt into a thousand little pieces. He could part of his blue eyes reflected in Virgil’s and it only added to the masterpiece in front of him.
Logan didn’t want to move.
Eventually, they broke apart and finished their food, talking about nothing- nothing that meant absolutely everything.
With a flick of his wand, Logan sent to food away. He laid across the hill and tentatively raised his arm, offering Virgil a place to curl up. With brief hesitation (which Logan read as mere confusion) Virgil placed his head on Logan’s shoulder and snuggled into Logan’s side. Instantly, Logan wrapped an arm around him.
They laid there for beautiful silent minutes until the stars twinkling above them forced Logan’s mouth open.
He used his free hand to point at the constellations he had already spotted. “That’s Pisces,” he informed Virgil. “Pisces is one of the 12 zodiacs. It has ten stars with known planets with its brightest being Eta Piscium. Eta Piscium is that one over there-” Logan pointed it out to Virgil and made sure the boy had nodded before he continued- “and it had an apparent magnitude of 3.62.
“That one’s Andromeda,” Logan told him. “It’s one of the 48 Greek constellations and first listed in Claudius Ptolemy’s Almagest in the 2nd century CE. Andromeda-” Logan cut himself off.
He was doing it again. He was talking too much, info-dumping about something nobody cared about for his own selfish reasons. Nobody he had ever met really enjoyed learning about stars, no matter how Logan attempted to word it or explained it.
But when Logan glanced at Virgil, he found none of that in his date’s eyes.
Instead, he found that Virgil’s pupils had dilated, and he was smiling softly up at him.
“What else about Andromeda?” Virgil asked him.
Logan coughed to force back the stinging in his eyes. “Andromeda was named after the princess Andromeda, daughter of Queen Cassiopeia and wife of the Greek hero Perseus. It's the 19th largest constellation in the sky, taking up an area of 722 square degrees.”
“Still smaller than Fudge’s ego.”
Logan glanced over at him, eyebrows-raising. “You barely even knew who Fudge before today.”
“Well, today was very informative.”
Logan grinned. “I’ll concur with that.”
They lay in comfortable silence once more. This time, it was Virgil’s turn to break it with a gentle near whispered question.
“You said when we first met that we were made of stardust.”
“We are,” Logan informed him. “Nearly all of the elements in the human body were made in a star and many came through supernovas. That’s why magical scientists believe we can wield magic- because we literally come from the stars.”
Logan could feel Virgil’s steady heartbeat against the side of his left chest. It mixed with his own, creating a harmony of one beat at the same time.
“That’s amazing,” Virgil breathed.
Before Logan could stop himself, he pressed a kiss against the top of Virgil’s head. Virgil froze- and then relaxed back into him, slightly warm and heart singing slightly faster.
“It’s 10:25,” Logan warned.
Virgil sighed. “Then I guess we better be going.”
Logan nodded. Slowly, as if trying to convince the time around them to still, the pair of them got to their feet. Hands locked together, breath mingling in front of them, the two of them removed their portkeys from their pockets and whispered the words:
“Pickle Squash.”
With that, the two of them vanished from the wizard central park and their first date ended.