"That sounds tough."

Shrug. "Yeah. But luckily my letter was all the ID I needed, too..."

"What were you doing before?"

"Before I got my letter?"

"Yeah."

Shuffle.

"...I was homeless."

"I'm sorry."

Shrug. "Was better than before that."

Nod.

She huffs, a bit. "But that's sad stuff. Magic's better."

"Yeah."

"Can you show me the Unlocking Spell?"

"Yeah! My trunk's got a lock, so we can practice on that."

"The incantation's alohamora, and this's the wand motion," she demonstrates. "And I just think really hard about how much I want it to be unlocked..."

Ellie switches to her fir wand and starts practicing the motion.

"You've got two wands?" Anathema asks, watching her.

"Mm. This one's better for control and precision..."

"Huh. I only had one that liked me."

"Felt like we had to go through half the store to find these two."

She giggles. "Maybe pickiness is a sign of good taste."

"Must be."

Hee.

And: practicing magic! Anathema's not as good a teacher as Professor Reynolds, of course, but she's still really enthusiastic about the spell, and she's clearly done some reading.

Ellie has also done some reading, and she is starting to get a feel for how one goes about learning a new spell in general.

Having spell buddies is fun. And they can occupy themselves with this for an awful lot of the train ride.

Also - "You're good at magic," Anathema says at one early point, when Ellie gets the lock to undo for the first time (albeit not very smoothly, subtly, or quietly). 

"Ha! -Thanks. I'm trying to be."

She grins. "You should teach me a spell next."

"Okay. Which one?"