"And Slytherin...?"

"The founder didn't want Muggleborns at the school, and definitely not in his house. And fifty years ago, a powerful Dark wizard from Slytherin house started collecting followers. There were two wars fought to stop him from taking over Britain and rounding up Muggles."

"...so Slytherin is full of racists who will hate me?"

"Things should get better, but that's how it will be now."

"Well. Guess I have to be a Slytherin to fix them."

"I told you what she was like. Oh, is 'she' okay for when you're being a girl? And 'he' for when you're a boy?"

"Yeah, that's alright."

"You should probably talk to your parents about Slytherin. You can't completely choose what house you get, but you don't want to be stuck somewhere because you thought you could handle the pressure." 

"Her mom. Not her parents." 

"Oh. I'm sorry, Sadde." 

"He's not dead, just awful." 

He sips his tea.

"And I know I can handle the pressure, I have before. For being sometimes-a-girl-sometimes-a-boy, a freak, and I stood up to them, and I can stand up to Slytherin, too. But I can also make them better."

"How can you do that? Isn't it usually hard to convince people they're wrong?" 

"A Ravenclaw would have less influence in Slytherin, but more everywhere else. Are you sure you want making Slytherins better to be your main mission?" 

"No, but I don't need to convince anyone of anything for my other main missions so I can do this. And I'll figure it out."

"I still think you should talk about this with your mother, but I'll stop trying to talk you out of it." 

"Have you learned anything interesting?"

"Sure, I'll talk with my mum," she shrugs. "And what, you mean from the books?"

"Yeah! Did I tell you about goblins? And mermaids! There are so many more kinds of people than I thought."

"I read all of Charms and Transfig and Potions! I didn't know about goblins and mermaids, what are they like?"

"Goblins run the wizarding bank in Britain. I'm trying to find out what they do other places, if they're there. They have lots of rebellions about how wizards treat them. Mermaids live in the water. There are some in the lake at school, so I'm going to try to learn Mermish."

"No one really talks to the mermaids. I don't think I even knew we had any, when I was there." 

"Do magical people treat goblins that bad? Why?"

"You might want to use sources besides my son. Wizards don't treat goblins badly at all. Their rebellions are more like labor strikes than anything else."