"And I'm Dr. Catherine Maxwell. I had known about you," she tells Kero, "but not that you'd be quite so..." She finds herself at a loss for words.

"Cute? Adorable? Fluffy?" suggests Willow.

"Yes."

"I am a powerful magical beast! This isn't my true form."

"Aww. And he's plenty frightening as he is," says Tyler. "Very frightening."

Theo raises an eyebrow.

He pokes his tongue out at Tyler.

Tyler snorts a bit. "I'm sure you're scary in your full form."

Anyway! Perhaps they should sit.

And they do sit! And the food is served: roast salmon with passion fruit sauce and baked fruits, pear risotto, a very varied salad, and eggplant à parmegiana.

Sadde will stare at it in silence for a bit.

Willow will dig in!

The others will do likewise! After a bit of staring.

Tyler doesn't seem to be particularly hungry, and he mostly avoids the fish where possible.

"So, did you make any magical discoveries today?" asks Mrs. Maxwell.

Maya laughs a bit and holds out the notebook. "I have quite a few notes on stuff we've done. Which has mainly been testing of various sorcery things that is– apparently a thing we can do."

She accepts the notebook and takes a look at the notes. "Quite comprehensive," she says, approvingly.

Smile. "Thanks."

"Is there anything you need? I can't be around during the day due to work, and I'm not sure how much help if any I would be."

Maya looks around and shrugs.

"I think we've got most of the stuff we need, actually? It seems– like we have lots of things to do, actually, with what we know already."

"Well, I'm glad. On a different matter, I have found a way to get you legal identities. I expect you will want to be listed as siblings...?" she asks the Matthews and the Farron twins.

"Yeah," says Jess, glancing a Maya. "Probably a good idea because of the resemblance."

Tyler nods in agreement.

"Excellent. How about schools? Juniper will enroll in a different one so it won't be weird that she hadn't ever been mentioned before."

"That sounds reasonable," says Maya. "I think we only need one more year of school – well, college or sixth form – legally, and it's nearing the end of term anyway. I can probably take my GCSEs in November? Should be able to sign up to take them then, and then hopefully the sixth form will accept a late entrant or whatever?"

"I'm sure it won't be a problem," which is Mrs. Maxwell's polite way of saying "most problems vanish when you throw enough money at them."

Sounds useful.