A pair of Ravenclaw girls who seem to have already made fast friends sit at the table next to Alli, under the apparent direction of the one with all the teeny braids in her hair.

"Uh, Miranda, we could - sit up front," says the one whose apparent hairstyling of choice involves a potion of some sort.

"Professor Flitwick is little, I don't want to have to crane my neck to see him when he compensates by standing on his desk."

Alli snerks. It's a better reason then she had for picking a desk, at least. "You'll get called on more there, too," she points out lazily, "but that might not bother you."

Miranda shrugs. "I don't know anything about how Professor Flitwick decides who to call on."

"Well, the front probably gets more attention than the middle."

"Not everybody's here yet, Karen, if we sit up front we might wind up next to a Slytherin just as easily and it's not like she's literally venomous."

Alli smiles, unbothered. She has the same opinion of Slytherins, she will not hold it against them. "Not yet," she says, deadpan. "Us Slytherins sprout our fangs in second year."

Karen laughs nervously.

"What's your name? I'm Miranda."

"Alli." Alli proffers her hand. "Nice t'meet you. I like your braids." She has no immediate ideas how to calm Karen except... not being evil... but she's not worried. It's not like worrying about it will do anything. She will just continue to- not be evil. And hope that works.

"Thanks. The incantation's plectere, my mum does them."

"Nice! I might try it, I'm allowed now finally, it's great," Alli says, looking satisfied. "But maybe not on my hair first. I used to explode all sorts of things by accident, I would like to not continue that trend on my head." She nods towards their Ravenclaw outfits. "Bet you don't have that problem, yeah?"

"Not everything works for Ravenclaws on the first try. I did get plectere to work yesterday on three uniform ties, but I've seen Renée do it about a thousand times, so."

"Gold star!" Alli tells her, not (completely) sarcastically. "Careful though. Now I might ask you questions. Why to Never be Good at Anything, Alli edition."

"I don't mind being asked questions, but I might not answer them if I'm busy."

Ravenclaws watch the wand motion, and begin working on levitating their feathers. This is complicated enough to put a damper on further conversation.

"It gets what you flick at, not what you swish at," Miranda says helpfully.

"Thanks," Alli sighs, and tries again. A slightly more pronounced wobble, at least. "How're you doing?"

"I'm doing okay with this wand. I'm going to try my other one once I have it every time."

"You have two? How'd you pull that off?"

"Wicked!" Alli says, impressed. "Which one's that one?"

"This is the Ollivander one. My other gets really dramatic results so far, so I'm trying to learn everything with this one first to get a feel for the spells." Waft, goes the feather. Waft waft.

"Dramatic? Come on, that is just begging for a story." This time the feather actually rises slightly before flopping back down. Alli nudges it in annoyance with her wand and starts again.

"When I first picked it up I got a huge globe of light big enough to swallow me up, for a couple seconds. And since then I tried making my bed with it with a spell from a book my mum got me, but wound up with the bed made but the duvet and pillowcases turned inside out and the mattress flipped over. And I tried heating up my scrambled eggs because they got a little cold this morning and they burned. I'm just glad it seems to aim okay."

"Your feather is going to end up somewhere near the moon," Alli predicts.

"I don't know about that."

"Well. Fair. Probably just the roof," Alli admits. "Least you have the aim down, though. Imagine if it was your textbook?" She prods her misbehaving textbook disconsolately. "Roofs are not good places for them."

"They're not," agrees Miranda. "And yeah, the feather will probably hit the ceiling. Unless my theory about getting the spell down with the one wand first is correct."

"Do we get bonus points for that?" Alli wonders. "I mean. You're levitating it extra."

"Probably after a certain point it matters if I'm levitating it controllably."

"Nope. Control is strictly week two," Alli says with a suspiciously straight face.

"And you, what, stole the grading rubric?" dares Karen.

Karen twitches her wand; her feather bobs. She lets it settle, repeats the incantation, and nudges it up.

"Still better than mine," Alli points out. "Unless you count my textbook. But textbooks make really weird feathers.."

"I tried my second wand," says Miranda. "It does things really dramatically. I had it okay with the other one..."

"If you knew your wand was dramatic, Miss Swan, you should mention it before attempting spells," Flitwick sighs. He summons the feather down from the ceiling with a flick of his wand. "You'll need to concentrate much more carefully with a high power wand. For your first class, perhaps a return to your- other?- wand?"

Alli rolls her eyes at Flitwick behind his back- what's it matter if Miranda uses her wand today or next week?- and then winks at Miranda.

Miranda puts the chimaera wand away, but says, "Can you be more specific about concentrating with my higher-power one, please, Professor?"

"It requires extreme precision to work with high power wands!" he squeaks. "Concentrating on exactly how the spell should work, and not just the spell itself! Normally taught, hmm, let me see, fourth year? Practice will help, though! Practice, practice, practice." He eyes her pine wand. "First, with the pine, of course."

"Professor, what advice would you give me if I only had my hazel wand?"

He puffs up, looking mildly indignant. "Still to practice! But with a borrowed wand. But with the wand, well- attention. Very careful attention! Focus on how much power the wand may have, at all times." He waves his arms rather wildly at the ceiling. "Since whatever power the wand normally draws is clearly too much!"

Once he's gone, Alli looks over at Miranda's wand skeptically. "You'd think he wouldn't mind a little drama. You know, in between the feathers, feathers and more feathers."

Miranda shrugs. "At least now I know that in theory I can tell wands how much power they can draw. I though they did that all by themselves." She swishes and flicks the pine again. Her feather nudges up ever so gently.

"Well, guess they do," Alli says, pointing at Miranda's feather, "cause if it was us throwing power around, that feather would be on the ceiling just like the last one, yeah?"

"Maybe it's like drinking from a straw, and the pine wand is a skinnier straw so I have to push harder to get more power out."

"But regular wand power is fine for getting everything done," says Karen. "Miranda had the charm right with the pine wand to start out."

Alli shrugs. "If it's as hard as he says, you're not going to be sticking anything else to the ceiling," she points out.

"Look at that," Alli says, impressed. "Already with the power management."

"I believe you not at all," Alli informs her placidly.

"But I'm so trustworthy."

"I'm pretty sure that's not actually your House motto."

"Doesn't matter," Alli says breezily. "I am an extremely un-Slytherin sort of Slytherin." She looks around at her year mates. A couple of them are glaring at her for chatting with Ravenclaws, but by and large they just look confused. "Betting most of us are, at that."

"How so?"

"I'm sure we match on some level," she amends unwillingly. "I'd give me 'ambitious', I guess." And, in her head, and kind of a bitch, that too. "But all that Dark Magic and pureblood stuff is bloody nonsense. Best guess, the Hat stuck me here because it's still closer than the other three, but I don't think anyone would actually volunteer."

Alli sighs. "Maybe if it stays unappealing long enough, we'll get some actual human beings? Outnumber the snobs?" she says. She does not sound optimistic.

"The snobs have to go somewhere, although I guess they could wind up concentrating someplace else."

"Let's just forbid snobs," Alli suggests whimsically. "Sorry, you're a snob, no Hogwarts for you."

"I don't know if the hat could be re-enchanted to accomplish that."

"You're the Ravenclaw," Alli says with a laugh, "so I'm just gonna take your word for it."

"Honestly, we just started. So far all that means is that we're probably better than seventieth percentile intelligence and sleep in a different dorm. It's not like we have advanced technical certifications."

"No Hogwarts for you either then," Alli informs her solemnly. "All Ravenclaws must have at least two degrees before joining."

"Oh no. I'll have to go to the Owly after all. What a disaster. Oh no."

"Owly?"

"The Owly is the Oceanic Wizarding Lyceum and it's for Australians and Kiwis and such. I lived in Australia for the last while before moving back here this summer. The Owly sent me a letter and I was all set to go there instead of here until Renée moved us back again after the war was over."

"That explains it. Is it true all the animals in Australia are super deadly?" Alli sounds far more fascinated than scared by this prospect.

"Not all of them. Koalas are harmless! Renée did make me carry an antivenom potion if I was going somewhere alone but I never needed it."

"Someday," Alli says dreamily. "Someday, I will travel. That is now officially my Slytherin Ambition."

"Good for you." Nice harmless ambition.

"You're welcome."

"Thank you for not being evil?" dares Karen.

Alli laughs. Then the finger wiggling returns! "WhoooOOOOOooooo fear my evil powers!"

A few days later, Professor Reed is in her classroom, putting papers on desks while she waits for the Ravenclaws to arrive. It took some fiddling to get her usual Defense Against the Dark Arts curriculum to match the British one, but Tamara is satisfied with what she's managed to put together. Now, time to test it out.

Here are some Ravenclaws! There are just eight of them this year, two girls and six boys.

"Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts, class," she greets them once they have all settled in at their desks. "I'm Professor Reed and I'll be your Defense teacher for the foreseeable future. You have a curriculum for the year on your desk; to start out, today we'll be working on the Knockback Jinx. Does anyone have any questions before I begin the demonstration?"

"Oh, right, you were gone," murmurs Karen, "they're all wild now."

"Hey guys!" Jenny says cheerfully, then dives back into her book. Unicorns.

"Hey," Emma says. Then, because she is far less distracted by unicorns, "What're you guys up to?"

"I'm browsing because my homework is all done and Miranda is reading about Dementors in kind of a panic because she didn't know until Defense that they've gone wild recently."

"But- we're safe at Hogwarts, right?" Emma asks, somewhere between hopeful, confused and worried.

Jenny looks up from her book. "Dement-whats?"

"More magic monsters," Karen tells Jenny. "I think we're safe at Hogwarts, but apparently Miranda's really especially freaked out by Dementors instead of being scared of Acromantulas or something like a normal person? So she's reading all about them to see if there's anything she can do - maybe with her overpowered wand - to get them if they try to get her. Here or wherever, I guess, there's holidays."

"More death creatures," Jenny says with a sigh. "So? What's it look like? Can we 'get them', is that a thing?"

"There's spells," Emma murmurs. "I just- I guess I didn't think about it. They were always in Azkaban."

"But now they're not. She found a spell called the Patronus Charm but it's supposed to be advanced, but she's going to try it if she can't find anything else. And they look like giant zombie things in black cloaks."

"I think I've heard of that?" Emma says, thinking. "It's supposed to be really hard, though. Do you know what the incantation is?"

"Cloaked zombies," Jenny says sadly. "Magic is a roller coaster of super awesomeness and murder-death, really it is."

"It's expecto patronum, Miranda said, but it's supposed to be hard magically, not - pronunciation-wise."

"Hard magically? That's- actually. You said overpowered wand. That might help. But I don't- is that the weird one? What happened?"

"She lodged her feather into the ceiling in Charms," says Karen. "With the one that the shopkeeper said was cored with chimaera, the hazel one. I still don't know if it's chimaera hair, but it's something for sure."

Jenny stares. "That sounds so neat, can you do it again? I want to see! Pretty please?" she begs.

"Not in the library, Pince would curse us," says Miranda, consulting her book's index. "I'll show you outside sometime maybe."

"Deal!" Jenny says promptly.

"You're only saying that because now you get to see the feather and you don't get cursed."

"Which is obviously the best!"

"Seems sensible to me."

"Have you actually tried the spell yet?"

"No. Not in the library. I'll see if I can maybe do it despite being not even quite eleven yet after I'm done with this book."

"Uh, you're not? But letters go out on your eleventh birthday?"

"Hogwarts letters do but the Owly has a different cutoff date, and I told Renée that I would go to Hogwarts if I could go this year but otherwise I'd just as soon go to the Owly whether we lived in Britain or not, and she wrote Professor McGonagall and she made an exception. Since my birthday is on the thirteenth of September, not in spring or something."

"We are officially way less cool than you," Emma informs her. "You got into Hogwarts at ten, that's insane."

"I don't think it's because I'm cool. I think it's because they're low on students," says Miranda. "When Renée was in school there were twenty Ravenclaws counting her in her year. This year there are eight. Me and Karen are the only girl Ravenclaw first years."

"My dad hasn't mentioned," Emma says thoughtfully, "but I think my mom said hers was bigger too. I... guess the war..."

"There's probably a lot of families who left, and didn't come back like I did," says Miranda. "Plus everyone who just died and didn't have any children."

"So... as the confused Muggle." She looks at Karen. "Muggleborn. This means what? If anything?"

"There aren't as many witches and wizards in Britain as there used to be, especially young ones," says Miranda. "They're overseas or dead instead."

"Well, yeah, but like- if England has fewer wizards, total, what happens? Nothing? Does Hogwarts have to close? Or Diagon Alley?"

"Well, not yet, obviously, but - I don't know, I guess they seem to be filling in the faculty with Americans. Things seem to be running okay. There were still a lot of closed storefronts in Diagon Alley and our apartment building is half-empty but - it could bounce back, I guess."

"Huh. I thought the faculty thing was just, um, that curse thing on Defense class? Not finding teachers for it?" Emma says. "But I guess there isn't a curse on Transfiguration too."

"If the curse was still working after all this time I'd think they should change the class around enough that it wouldn't be cursed anymore. Maybe add a section of Charms and have it cover more defensive things and add a dueling elective, maybe. The Patronus Charm is a Charm. We could learn it in Charms."

"Everyone said... uh... it was supposed to be, um, You Know Who. Who did the curse. So, maybe it's gone? Since he is?"

"Maybe. I guess we'll see if Professor Reed sticks around for more than one year."

"I'd like a dueling elective. I don't know if I'd take it, but I like watching duels, there's a ring for it near my house and sometimes my mum lets me watch the ones with more rules about what hexes they can use. Not the no-holds-barred ones though."

"The Prophet said they used to have one. Not an elective, I think, but a club? Um, I think Harry Potter started it, actually. Maybe it was just him."

"Duels? Real actual duels?" Jenny asks in fascination. "Like the olden days but with wands?"

"Yeah! They can get really exciting."

"Harry Potter's not in school anymore, anyway, I think one of his friends came back to do her seventh year after taking the year off on account of the war but if there's still a dueling club I haven't heard of it."

"I hope the club's still around, now I want to see!"

"If I catch a dueling club existing I will tell you," promises Karen.

"You're the beeeeest!" Jenny beams.

"We could pick up some harmless hexes and jinxes - and their counters - and try dueling each other. If it's not against the rules? It might be against the rules even just to do it for fun."

"I'm pretty sure that's against the rules. Join the club or start it up again if there isn't one," advises Miranda.

"It's against the rules," Emma confirms. She's read them.

"Blast," Jenny sighs. "That sounds like fun. Karen, if there is not a dueling club, do you wanna start one with me?" She grins. "You will beat me so badly but it sounds like fun!"

"What makes you think I'd win?"

"You've been watching it forever? You know tricks and stuff I don't? It's not like either of us knows lots of spells," she laughs, "it's what, our first week?"

"I don't think we're going to learn dueling-friendly hexes in first year, anyway, that's the sort of thing we're supposed to pick up from students a couple years ahead of us, not formally in class."

"The Knockback Jinx might work?" Emma offers. "I mean, as long as you're both first years."

"I guess, but if we only know one jinx each that's boring."

"But we could still learn more... more... baby-duel spells!" Jenny says eagerly. "I mean, if we're learning one already, right? So maybe we don't have to wait till, like, fourth year."

"Maybe there are books of them in here. Or the second- and third-years will teach us."

"I know you're Ravenclaws, and it's way less a thing for you, but I would also have to be able to learn the spells," Emma giggles.

"Dueling hexes - at least the kinds second- and third-years would know - tend to be pretty simple point-and-shoot," says Miranda. "Since timing counts."

"Ooooh, simple spells. I like simple, let's do simple."

"I'll see if I can find any books on it," says Karen, and off she goes into the stacks.

Jenny blinks in surprise. That is more efficient than she was expecting!

"Now you're trapped," Emma tells her. "No more unicorns. Just studying."

"Well, you could let Karen have an even bigger head start on learning to duel," says Miranda. "If you don't feel like working on hexes right now and would rather read about unicorns."

Jenny looks woefully at her book, but closes it. "No, then I'll just be forever behind. And the unicorns will still be here."

"When we get to third year you can take Care of Magical Creatures. Maybe there will be unicorns."

"And I will be happy forever!" Jenny says brightly. "Until then- dueling."

And here is Karen with a book entitled Beginners and Practice Dueling: Spells, Conventions, and More.

Jenny peers over her shoulder. Spells!

Miranda is startled, but giggles and continues to the Great Hall.

Emma and Jenny are waiting for her by the door. "Happy birthday!" Emma says shyly. She holds out a present. It's wrapped neatly in red paper and tied with a string bow, and is distinctly book shaped.

"Ooh, thank you -" Miranda tucks the book from Karen into her bag and unwraps the one from Emma.

The book reads Thinking Inside The Wand: Rare and Unusual Wand Cores. Emma shuffles her feet. "I didn't know if Karen's wand books had anything about yours, so I thought, maybe? I haven't actually read it, sorry..."

"Ooh, thanks! Karen's books don't have anything much about funny cores," exclaims Miranda. "Maybe it'll say how to tell."

"You're welcome! I'm glad you like it."

"Karen got me a trivia book. Facts about things like the longest Puffskein tongue on record and how many Crups were owned by Wilfred the Unassuming. She was up really late last night so she's not coming to breakfast yet though."

"I know what none of those are but it sounds cool!" Jenny says cheerfully, sounding not at all bothered by her lack of knowledge.

"Crups and Puffskeins are both magical creatures. Puffskeins are cuter," says Miranda as she heads into the Great Hall. "Hey - have either of you met Alli? She's our year in Slytherin."

"I've seen them around, but I don't think I've met any, why?"

"She seems nice and I'm not sure if anybody's actually talking to the Slytherins. Maybe even other Slytherins."

"Aww, that sounds lonely!"

"I... am a little confused by the idea of a nice Slytherin," Emma admits.

"She really does seem nice. We have Charms with Slytherins and she talks to us there. Karen was scared of her but isn't any more. Do you want to be introduced?"

"Sure, why not!"

Now lacking ways to say maybe later, Emma just shrugs and mumbles, "Uh, sure, I guess."

"I could introduce you both later," says Miranda. "I'm just thinking about it now because I'm pretty sure she's the one who made fireworks spell 'Happy Birthday" outside the Ravenclaw dormitory when I went out."

"As long as it's come up," Emma shrugs, "whenever is fine."

She's over at the Slytherin table! When she sees Miranda looking, she winks.

Miranda attempts to wave her over. She likes Alli, but an entire table of Slytherins might be a bit much.

"Somebody," says Miranda, "greeted me with friendly fireworks when I walked out of my common room this morning. And I have gotten books, and will probably get more things from Renée's owl sometime today. It's a good birthday!"

"Well, that was very nice of somebody," Alli says innocently. "I'm glad it's been good!" She laughs. "Complete with new books. Ravenclaw." She sticks her tongue out, then returns to normal. (For her.) "So, who're the ducklings? Hi, I'm Alli."

"This is Jenny, and this is Emma."

"Hi."

"You're following Mama Duck here, of course," Alli says, waving at Miranda. "Also, you're a Metamorphmagus, wicked! Miranda, you have the coolest friends. (Like me, obviously.)" She eyes Emma. "You're probably a Special Snowflake too, yeah? Overpowered wands and shapeshifting and... what?"

Jenny beams at the praise. She dismisses the bill- they're rather awkward in her vision- but turns her hair a rather glittery shade of silver. Snowflake!

Karen catches up soon enough to ask, "Do I have a special snowflake trait too?"

"Hi sunshine, where'd you sprout from?" Alli says with a smile. "You get the 'infinitely better at classes than Alli' Snowflake." She rolls her eyes at herself. "No escaping textbooks or misbehaving feathers for you!"

"But Miranda's as good as me."

"You're doing better in a couple classes than I am," says Miranda.

"You haven't thrown anything into a ceiling," Alli points out loftily. "However! It is Miranda's birthday and so she is the specialest anyway."

"It's not against the rules, not officially," Emma provides. "Just- uncommon."

"I'm in!" Jenny agrees. "The other Hufflepuffs always tell us to hang out with our friends, anyway." She looks at Alli uncertainly. "But, er..."

"Ask me if I care what my housemates think," Alli snorts. "The older kids might be mean about it, but I have a few more weeks to play the Stupid First Year card, so they'll just lecture me and I'll ignore them and we'll all go our merry ways."

"I found out the other day," says Miranda, heading for the Ravenclaw table, "that technically people are allowed in the Ravenclaw common room. It's not a password to get in like the others, it's a riddle. If you can solve the riddle you can be there."

"...is it about, like, magical stuff?" asks Jenny, concerned. "Cause, hi."

"The riddles are calibrated," says Karen. "The older students get harder ones than we do - I think maybe non-Ravenclaws also get harder ones, because it is the Ravenclaw common room, but since it's not not-allowed for you to be there, we can just let you in anyway."

"I'm down," Alli says. "Seeing other common rooms? Yes please."

Emma is slightly more skeptical. "Is it just- a common room?" She asks. "I assume it's like ours, and, it'd be fun to see and all, but, um. Just chairs and stuff?"

"Well, and books. It has its own little library. And a few rows of study carrels for fifth and seventh years, and a soundproofed arguing corner."

"Oh my god I want an arguing corner!"

"The arguing corner is really fun, if you're outside of it you can't hear a thing but you can see that people in it are yelling at each other. People sometimes go just inside the border of it to listen to the arguments."

"What do they argue about?" Emma wonders.

Jenny grins. "And is watching better than dueling?"

"They argue about politics and magic theory and whether a hippocampus could beat a hippogriff in a fight if it took place in a tank of chest-deep water and anything else," says Miranda. "I think it's more interesting than dueling, but maybe if there was a dueling corner that would change my mind."

"Noooo, the dueling corner should be in Hufflepuff! Then we could each have a corner!"

"Hey now. It should be in Slytherin. It'd keep all the angry older kids occupied."

"Do they take it out in unfortunate ways if they're unoccupied?"

"I haven't seen much. I would like to keep it that way forever. But you hear things, y'know? Complaints about how they were locked up during the Battle, that kind of thing." She sighs. "My year is going to be the year of Sit Down and Shut Up, at this rate. Seems safer."

Emma squirms. She doesn't like thinking of Hogwarts as unsafe. Disagreeing with a houseful of Slytherins sounds like it qualifies, though. "There isn't, um, a transfer option or something...?" she offers weakly. No one questions the Sorting Hat, she's sure Alli has no chance, but- unsafe.

"Not after you're sorted, I think. I could probably have gone to the Owly, but if you aren't lined up for another school I think your only option is to withdraw completely."

"I'll live," Alli shrugs. "What kind of Slytherin would I be if I couldn't avoid consequences?"

"Not a very effective one, I guess."

"You seem sorta normal for a Slytherin anyway," Jenny points out merrily.

"I am a not-effective Slytherin in the best ways," Alli drawls.

"Why are you a Slytherin, did the hat say?" asks Karen. "It didn't talk to me very much, apparently I was easy to sort, but Miranda says it talks?"

"It talks," confirms Miranda.

"It didn't talk to me either," Alli says with a nod at Karen. "Which means, I have no clue. I don't know what I would fit better, though, and it's not like people are exactly lining up to be in Slytherin nowadays, so maybe it just took what it could get?"

"I got a couple sentences," Emma offers. "It, um, mostly just said I didn't have an opinion so it was picking for me."

"It told me it doesn't see many Metamorph people," Jenny adds. "And that if I wasn't Hufflepuff I would have been Gryffindor."

"I wonder how it gets the numbers even, if people later in the alphabet get sorted differently because it knows how many it still wants for each of the houses? Not that the numbers are very even this year but I think they're supposed to be."

"I thought it just- knew, somehow," Emma says. "I guess we don't really know how it works."

"You're the one who brought up re-enchanting the hat," Alli points out to Karen, "got any thoughts?

"I have no idea how the hat works or how to re-enchant it! I've only been studying magic for two weeks."

"I think it lives in Professor McGonagall's office the rest of the year. Maybe she'd let us ask it, if she didn't just get annoyed about us taking up her time on that."

"I don't really care all that much," Alli admits. "I can't change it now. I just have to live with it."

"Is it really bad?"

"Not now. I don't know if that'll change? They don't care much about first years, they call us the 'baby idiots'. And being ignored is fine. They might care more once we're older, but then there will be less of them and more of us. Hopefully."

"Do they spend as much of their time as you'd think talking about blood purity or is that thoroughly out of fashion?"

"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."

"That's not obvious if you're used to owls," Miranda points out.

"...oh, hey, it totally isn't. Sorry, Karen! Yeah. Stamps. Paying people to carry mail instead of owls." She grins. "They're like owl treats for humans!"

"...They are not like owl treats for humans. Some of them you have to lick, but people don't like doing it, it's just how you make them stick to the envelope," Miranda clarifies for Karen. "Stamps are IOUs from the post office. You buy them and the post office owes you a letter-sending."

"Ohhhh. That actually makes sense kind of!"

"Oops. They are not literally like treats. They're just what you give the creature in question in exchange for mail carrying," Jenny says contritely.

"My mum says I can't have my own owl while in school because there are plenty of school owls to use," Karen sighs. "Amber lets me pet her though!"

Alli raises her hand. "Hi, help. Aaaand Amber is whose?"

"Amber is my barn owl. Renée said I could have my own owl if I would use her to write every week at least."

"Lucky. My mom just sends her owl. All the letter writing, none of the owl owning."

"Renée has an owl but he's always busy sending letters to her friends, and now some of her friends are in Australia, so she thought I had better have my own."

"I'm 'not old enough to take care of an owl yet'," Emma says, looking slightly sour around the air quotes. "Because I have such a long history of forgetting things. Not."

"It's not that hard, Amber mostly hunts for herself. I just visit her most days so she remembers she's my owl, and I give her treats when she handles letters."

"Yep. I could totally not handle any of that. Way too complicated." Eye roll.

"I don't know what kind of owl I will want when I'm out of Hogwarts."

"I didn't pick a kind, I just picked a specific owl that seemed to like me."

"What kinds are there? Are there differences?" asks Jenny. She briefly morphs her eyes into owl eyes to smile at Miranda, but shifts them back pretty quickly; it feels weird.

"There's all kinds of species of owls. Native ones and foreign captive-bred kinds. Some people get other birds to carry letters but mostly it's various owls. Barns are a pretty common kind."

"Mostly the only reason to get a fancy foreign owl is to show off," Alli puts in. "There are, of course, a bunch in Slytherin."

"That and recognizability. I think barred owls are the prettiest," volunteers Karen. "I just don't know if they have nice personalities as owls go."

"I'm sure it depends on the owl, anyway," Jenny says. "Cats and dogs do! So owls probably do too."

"Different breeds of cats and dogs still have different temperaments," says Miranda, "I think, so different species of owls ought to even more."

"I've never had a pet, I'll just trust you," Emma says.

"I can pretend!" Jenny offers. Her face sprouts whiskers. This is faster than some of her previous changes; she maaaay have had some practice. "Look, now you have a cat!"

"Can you purr?"

"...I can purr like this?" And Jenny human-purrs. "I don't know what I'd have to change to do cat-purrs, and I don't want to screw up!"

"Do you think you'd wind up hurting yourself or something?"

"I don't think I can really hurt myself," Jenny says thoughtfully. "I tried to do a fish once, and the gills didn't make me suffocate or anything. But I also don't really want to find out?"

"That would be a great conversation with Pomfrey though," Alli snorts. "Hi, sorry, grew gills, now I'm stuck in the lake, fix it please."

"Well, I mean, I think you ought to be able to change back no matter what you do to yourself - maybe not if you were hexed but if you did it yourself in the first place I think you can. But maybe I'm wrong? Is there a 'what you really look like' or do you just look the same most of the time because you like that face?"

Jenny giggles. "This is what I look like! I have to think about it at least a little. Practice makes it easier though." She turns her hair unicorn silver. "I could probably hold this most of the day if I wanted to." She grins. "I practice it a lot."

"Yes, yes she does."

"So I don't think there would ever be much reason to involve Madam Pomfrey, unless you - got gills and inhaled a lot of water and then un-got the gills, then she'd maybe be useful."

Jenny shudders. "Ugh, lungs full of water, no thank you. I'll stick to unicorn hair. Eeeaugh." Shaking her head, she takes a determined bite of her food. Distraction via sugar!

Mmmm breakfast.