"Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw. Students are sorted into them at the start of first year, mostly based on personality."

"How does that work?"

"There's a magic hat that looks at students' minds. It can't report on what it finds there to others, but you can ask to not be sorted by it - usually then you're just allowed to pick a house."

"...Weird." is Ellie's verdict.

Small smile. "I thought so too."

"Which house were you in?"

"None - I didn't actually attend Hogwarts."

"Huh."

Smile. "My father's a muggle - and a rather stubborn one - and he found the wizard who came to talk up Hogwarts... Well, a bit suspicious. I learned wandless magic in a correspondence course with an American school for a little while, until we could figure out visas to the United States."

"Regular visas or magic visas?"

"Regular, though there's an obscure category that's somewhat secretly for magicals and their families. The magical government - and culture - in the United States is much more integrated with muggles, and they seem to really like poaching British muggleborns. Usually after Hogwarts, though."

"If they don't have a bunch of dark wizards going around killing people, I can kind of see why."

"They have their problems - everywhere does - but, yes, currently they have far less of a dark terrorist problem."

She finishes her Butterbeer.

"Books next?"

Nod. "Sure."

She pays and leads the way. "The main wizarding book store is Flourish and Blotts - there's a specialty shop down in Knockturn Alley, and a used bookstore in Hogsmeade, but here's basically the only place to get textbooks." The storefront's green, narrow but tall like many in Diagon Alley - but the inside's expansive, at least three floors of crowded floor to ceiling bookshelves full of rustling books. There's an assortment of shoppers - the store's a bit too big to be really crowded, though. The textbooks are all for sale in a central display (for first years: A History of Magic; Wyrd & Wicce: Historic Magic of the British Isles; Magical Theory; The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1; A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration; One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi; Magical Drafts and Potions; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Sixtieth Anniversary Edition; Duel or Defense: A Primer on the Norms and Laws of Combat; Arm Yourself: An Illustrated Guide to Effective Self Defense).

There are also signs indicating where other genres are - fiction, wizardry, witchcraft, ritual, creatures, special topics in magic, history, languages and cultures, self help, arts... As well as a notice that the store can special order books and owl them to you.

This is a nice store. She gets all the required books, and spends about seventeen of her twenty extra galleons on more books. Mostly fiction and miscellaneous cultural things that have appealing covers, but she does get one book on food magic.

Professor Reynolds, sadly, isn't very up on the latest trends in young adult and children's fiction... Still, she can recommend some older classics if Ellie wants help sorting. (She mostly occupies herself buying a few books for her own use, though - seem to be mostly newer history and magic theory books, with one dense tome on archaeological investigations into ancient curses that she picks up at the counter.)

(Magical children's books seem to be mostly mysteries or historic action adventure - lots of medieval knights riding dragons - but there's some 'portal into a different world with different magic' books, and an apparently popular series about time travel. They're a lot cheaper than the textbooks, too, usually around ten sickles.)

Then Ellie can get a good mix of those plus some of the older ones.

They fit rather nicely into her trunk. Definitely with room for a bigger library eventually, though.

"A good haul," Professor Reynolds comments, shrinking her own purchases and tucking them into her purse. "I think, for what else... Potion supplies, miscellaneous supplies, muggle clothing... A pet, if you want one."

"I've never had a pet."

"Animals bred as familiars - an assistant to a magic user - are usually far more self sufficient than most muggle pets... But they're not required."

"Is there any, um, advantage to having one?"

She hums. "Several, though they vary with species... Nearly all of them provide companionship, of course. Owls can carry your mail - though Hogwarts has owls for general student use, too. Cats - especially ones crossed with kneazles - are intelligent and good at sussing out suspicious people... A full kneazle is a potentially fierce guardian, though they have to be registered - I have one, and it's not too arduous a process, but it's a bit of a legal headache if your kneazle attacks someone. Smarter familiars - kneazles, jays, some snakes - can be a good mirror for your thoughts. And some claim familiars help them with magical focus - something I hear a bit more often from witches than wizards, though."

"...Maybe later," she decides. "When things are- settled, more."

She nods. "A responsible attitude."