"That is really weird."

"Yeah! It's one of the big mysteries."

"I can see why."

"Maybe when we run out of all the other mysteries, we can solve that."

"We might find clues along the way. Seems the sort of thing that ought to leave a trail..."

"Yeah!!!"

"We'll want to space it out a bit after all of our other amazing inventions, though. Give the newspapers some breathing room."

"Nothing says we have to make it public right away..."

"Exactly. Have fun with the secret for a bit, first."

"Find his secret stash of knowledge that he hid with his dying breath and take the best bits for ourselves."

"Ooo, yeah. And then we can leak out the historically interesting bits as we invent better versions for ourselves."

"The best plan."

"A perfect balance between hoarding secrets and spreading knowledge."

"The best of both worlds."

Hee. "For the best girls."

"That's us."

Best Ellie.

Anathema giggles a bit, wiggling as she settles into the couch more with her latest article.

A fine way to spend the evening.

Yeah.

They'll probably get all the way through the background reading by the winter break, even!

If they're diligent about it.

Anathema is nothing but diligent about reading.

Then probably they get quite a bit done, working together.

They certainly can.

"I'm gonna stay at Hogwarts over break," Anathema says one day as the winter holidays slide ever closer.

"Me too." It's not like she really has anywhere else to go.

She hums. "Do you celebrate that muggle holiday - uh, Christmas?"

"Never really had a chance to. My aunt and uncle preferred to ignore me as much as possible."