"What do you need boy robes for?" inquires Madam Malkins.
"I'm sometimes a boy," the girl explains.
"What?"
"Look—"
"The whole world, meaning the whole magical world? And – 'evil' is – like it's really clear in my head what's evil but people seem to struggle following that and have different opinions so there is probably something going on."
"Hurting other people when they don't want to be hurt seems like it covers a lot!"
"It does, and a lot of people fail at that, but that is – probably a good first step, if 'hurting' is clear?"
"Of course it's not, and if I thought it was and got into Slytherin anyway I'd be pretty sure whatever puts people in Houses has no idea what it's doing!"
"My point was just that any good, self-respecting Slytherin would know that's not a two-step process."
The mum looks at the girl then at the boy. "Hello. I am Laura, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"He's nice and he knows a lot of stuff and I haven't even interrogated him much yet!"
"It's fine," he says. "I don't usually get to explain quite so much to people unfamiliar with the context."
"Just outside a small city in the south-west? I don't know if you'll have heard of it – Wells?"
"Wow you live even farther away than we do. How'd you get here?—was it by brooms, that'd be so cool if it was brooms."
"It was by floo!" he says. "– You might not know what that is, uh, throw powder into a fireplace and arrive at the destination you say?"
"I wasn't questioning the ability so much as wondering about the method. How exactly does that work, you throw powder in a fireplace and then...?"