"I don't hear it much. I don't think fashion would matter, at least not in the common room, but. A, 'baby idiots'; they don't talk to us. B, I don't know if it's less of a thing or just assumed we all agree. Guessing six of one, half-dozen of the other."

"Are there any Slytherin Muggleborns?" wonders Karen. "I think there are Slytherin half-bloods and so on, but outright Muggleborns - the hat would have to be kind of mean to do that to them even if they wanted to be Minister of Magic by the time they were twenty-two and talked to snakes and - and - I don't know. If they were otherwise very Slytherin."

"I think there might be one in my year. One of the Asian girls. But it's really hard to tell, cause the Asian wizards kind of keep to themselves, so no one knows the families or anything, and she's really quiet." She shakes her head. "Older students- I don't know of any, anyway."

"You'd think this would be a particularly nice time to be Muggleborn regardless of House, relative to before, but I've heard people talking about how newer Muggleborns don't - like - understand how to talk sensitively about war things, or - someone complimented Renée for being a 'sensible Muggleborn' when I told them about how we left the country, because - they seemed to think that was only reasonable, for Muggleborns and their families to go if the Dark wizards wanted them to so badly, like it was Muggleborns insisting on hanging around that caused the entire problem, like that was it. It's a mess."

"That's horrible!" Jenny says, looking distressed. "How do they not know to be careful what they say? ...have I been insensitive about war things? You would tell me, right?"

"You've been okay, except for like - needing things explained, and you can't help that," Karen assures Jenny.

"You're a Muggleborn? Oh, won't that just bite the Slytherins," Alli cackles, "the Metamorphmagus is a Muggleborn. They'll hate that. You're so much cooler than they are."

"Don't tell them!" Emma insists in alarm.

"Why in Merlin's name would I do that? I avoid these people. They can suffer on their own time."

"How much of this are you following?" Miranda asks Jenny. "I don't think it ever occurred to me to give you, like, an introduction to blood prejudice..."

"Some...?" Jenny says uncertainly. "I mean, I know Slytherins don't like Muggles, I was warned, just not... details."

"It's not even just Slytherins, actually, there's blood purists in any House, but it should be a lot quieter these days, because the bad guys in the war were very into blood 'purity'. So - there's Muggles. There's Muggleborns, like you, or Renée. There's half-bloods, who have one magic and one Muggle parent. There's Squibs, who have one or two magic parents but aren't magic - they aren't quite Muggles, but they can't do spells or make potions or produce accidental magic anything. And there's 'purebloods', who have two magic parents and are magic, and if all their grandparents and all their great-grandparents and so on and so on were also magic then they are extra pureblood and some of them are huge racists about it. If Renée walks down a street in Muggle London sometimes she gets yelled at by stupid people for being black, and that would never happen in Diagon Alley, but she will get yelled at for being from a Muggle family. I get less of that, but still some, and Karen wouldn't get any at all unless she was hanging out with ultra-snobs."

"...Are black people the equivalent of Muggleborns for Muggles? What?"

"You don't go into Muggle areas much, do you."

"Nnnno."

"They sound similar," Jenny agrees sadly. "We even get it too, a little bit. I mean, I look however I want, duh, but my brothers are really obviously Irish redheads, we got yelled at sometimes." She looks around the group. "How can they tell, though? It's not like Muggleborns have a 'redheaded with freckles, I be So Irish' sign on their heads."

"The purebloods who care about this sort of thing know who all the other pureblood families are," says Miranda. "And what people from those families look like and often a lot about the individuals in them. They can get really obsessive. Renée could probably have pretended to be from a long line of witches back in Nigeria if she'd kept quiet about anything to do with her home life, since she came here when she was like five, but she'd have had to start very early on the pretending - every magic person within six years of her age found out while she was in school if they cared. She didn't pretend in Australia, either, but it's not as bad there and anyway she would have thought pretending was giving in to the bigots. And there's little things people pay attention to - accents and how you dress and so on."

"People are awful," Jenny mumbles sadly, hugging herself. Then she sidles closer to Emma.

Emma puts an arm around her and pets her. There, there.

"Oh, geez," Alli says, looking at Jenny's face. "I feel like I just kicked a kitten. Hey, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't know you didn't know." She looks at Miranda and Karen helplessly.

"It's not your fault," Karen says. "It's not like you called her an m-word and that's why we're explaining."

"Uh," says Miranda, "about that, Jenny, if someone makes references to - mud, around you, they are being racist."

Jenny blinks at her. "...okay," she says. "Thanks." She looks at Karen. "Should we explain about Muggles? Or, if you're not planning to meet Muggles ever I guess it wouldn't matter."

"I mean, I might meet Muggles someday? It just - doesn't come up that much. My family aren't blood purists, we're just boring and don't go to the post office watching people put stamps on things for fun when we could sit around at home playing board games." Pause. "Stamps are real, right? My cousin wasn't having me on?"

Jenny giggles at that. "Of course stamps are real! We have to pay for mail somehow."