"Nah but like she wants a continent when Timothy takes over the world -"

"...he's gonna take over the world?"

"Probably. He's planning to, anyway."

"That's definitely an ambition."

"Timothy is the Slytherinest Slytherin ever to Slytherin. Salazar would have named the house for him if he'd had good enough divination."

Trembley giggles.

"That's why we try to figure out which nefarious plot everything is part of, there usually actually is one. Well. Not very nefarious. He doesn't want to be a dark lord especially, just for everything to be up to him-"

"That's a bit dark lordish."

"A bit. I don't know how dark lordish most dark lords were when they were sixteen."

"Me either."

"You don't have to do the experiments if you think they're boring I just don't know what people do to be friendly that isn't magic experiments."

"They're not boring exactly but I don't know if I like that Timothy told you to make friends with me."

"You want me to ask him which nefarious plot we're serving? Or is it more that if I'd make friends with anyone Timothy told me to then my being friendly isn't evidence of positive qualities you possess?"

"It isn't evidence that you like me," clarifies Trembley.

"So then that's just solved if I'd tell you if I didn't like you, right? I'd tell you if I didn't like you."

"...okay."

"I'm not any good at lying and wouldn't anyway."

"Okay. Thanks."

"Sure. So the next set of things we tried..."

Spiders do his bidding; he moves up to mice. 

Miranda bursts in. "Timothy, the first years caught a merperson and -" blink.

" - out by the lake? Which direction -"

"- about four o clock if the front entrance is noon and they're pouring water on it but I don't think that's enough -"

"Don't think so." He takes off at a run.

She looks at the mouse.