"What's exploding snap? The girls who I was sitting with earlier mentioned it."

"Oh, it's a card game—explaining it's no fun, I'll show you when we get there, can't play it here—but it's fun I promise."

"Alright. What house are you hoping to be in? I'm thinking Ravenclaw."

"Gryffindor, but I don't feel very brave..."

"I'm gonna be Slytherin," he repeats.

"—why?"

"I think I might know but I'd be interested in hearing it from you. Also, why do you want Gryffindor?"

"Well, everyone in my family was a Gryffindor, and—it's good, it's for people who help others and are brave and all that..."

"Well I'm extremely ambitious," he shrugs.

"Interesting, I tend to see Hufflepuff as the house more focused around helping others. That's kinda why it'd be my second choice. Though Gryffindor does have a side about helping others too, just in a more adversarial way."

"Yeah, it's—helping people who can't help themselves, right? And standing up to evil and bullies and all that."

"That's a nice sentiment. I still don't really think I'm that sort of person though. I don't like to fight."

Shrug. "I don't either, that's why I dunno."

"I don't think any of the houses are better than the others. I think it's just that each house sorts different sorts of people. I think it's easier to go wrong in Gryffindor or Slytherin, but the other houses can also lead you astray."

"Mmhm. I guess."

Okay time to change the subject.

"So when'd you find out you were a witch?"

"I first heard the term as a real thing not just a story when I got my Hogwarts letter."

"Which was when?"

"The first letter came on July twenty fourth."

"—letter?"

"I think the staff expected my aunt and uncle to tell me, and know how to get to Diagon Alley. I intercepted the first letter, the second one got to my aunt and uncle and got them up in a small tizzy that worked out rather well, and then I caught the owl delivering the third and sent a reply. I'm not sure why they sent the same letter three times."

"...that's bizarre. Professor McGonagall visited me in—November, just before my birthday."

"That would probably have been more convenient. Hagrid took me to get my supplies, he was nice but maybe not the best person for the job. He couldn't answer most of my questions."

"Who's Hagrid?"

"He's the groundskeeper."