Toby enters the common room from the hallway and makes his way toward one of the comfortable chairs near a window, not paying much attention to the girl sitting on the window seat. He drops a stack of books on the floor and flops into the chair with a great deal of noise. He lets loose an audible sigh as he gets comfortable and picks up a textbook which he begins to thumb through.

Startled from her until-now quiet reverie into the story of Rhea and Altair’s tragic romance, Paige drops her book into her lap to shoot a rather pointed glare in Toby’s direction. “Do you mind?” she tells him, her voice barely above a whisper (as if she is in the library and trying to keep her voice down), “Some of us are trying to enjoy a good book and you’re…” she trails off momentarily. “Uh, slamming your books around like you’re the only one here.” With a toss of her hair, she tries to return to her book but finds her eye drawn to his pile of textbooks. Paige blushes a little as she clears her throat. “You’re – er, you’re taking Muggle Studies, too? Are you any good in it?”

Toby shifts uncomfortably in his chair at the girl’s annoyance. “Oh, uh. Sorry.” He looks down at his pile of books. “Yeah, Muggle Studies. It’s not really too hard, I guess.” He looks back at the girl, his eyes a little squinted. “You know, I don’t think we’ve actually ever had a conversation before. Peggy, right?”

It takes everything within Paige’s soul not to scowl at him for calling her by the wrong name, and it is only with a slightly strained – but still quiet – voice that she answers, “Paige, actually.” She pulls her bookmark out of the cushion and shoves it into the book she had earlier been so engrossed in. “I’m having a hard time with it. I don’t understand how muggles do it. I suppose I’m not supposed to understand everything this year, though.” A pause. “You’re Toby, right? Your grandmum works in the pub, right?”

So many people have mentioned to Toby that they know his grandmother that it doesn’t phase him in the least anymore. “Yeah, that’s my Grandma Darling. She says she’s going to retire some day.” He smiles weakly. He likes that the whole town of Silverdale knows and loves his grandmother but he does wish he had more in common with people now and then. “My mom is a Muggle. She seems to get by okay.”

“How?” is all that Paige can seem to think of to ask. “I – um – I mean, obviously magic isn’t necessary for everything, but how do they manage to get places quickly at all without floo? What about work? Surely everything must take longer if they have to do it by hand!” Paige blushes as her voice escalates ever so slightly and she glances around self-consciously. “All my family are wizards so I suppose I just don’t know how anyone could live like that, really.” She pauses. “Though I guess they don’t have much choice. Poor things.”

“It’s not so bad. I spent the summer with my other grandparents- the Muggle ones. I kind of had to.” Toby frowns a bit. “I didn’t really want to, but I got used to it. My mom made me go.” He sets his book down in his lap and leans forward toward Paige. “They do all sorts of things to make up for magic. Like machines, and cars, and electricity.” His eyes glow a little at the thought of electricity.

“What’s electricity?” Clearly the Muggle Studies class hasn’t progressed quite that far yet. Paige, who has been essentially holed up in the window seat for a good portion of the afternoon, swings her legs out to hang down toward the floor, smoothing her skirt as she does so. She sets aside the book, leaving it atop the pile of novels at the end of the seat where her feet had been, now apparently set aside completely.

“What’s electricity?” Toby never really thought about that. What is electricity? “Oh! It’s… uh… it’s. Kind of like magic, but without the magic. It makes lights turn on and machines run.” Toby nods as though that explains everything. Then he pauses, takes a deep breath, and continues. “Actually, I don’t know what it is. But it makes things happen.”

“Oh.” Paige’s face falls a little bit at this, but she shrugs it off quickly. “So, what was it like, living with muggles? What do they do for fun? I imagine they can’t play snaps or wizard’s chess or anything like that. Do they have a wireless? I love the wireless. The Six Seraphs are just terrific.” Paige hums a little bit very quietly one of the group’s more recent hits and almost seems to get distracted from her own barrage of questions.

“Muggles are people, too.” Toby says flatly. “And most of them don’t know thing about magic so they don’t know what they’re missing. Like those uncontacted tribes in the rainforest. They run around naked and just don’t know any better.” He tosses the book from his lap down on to the pile on the floor with a thunk. “What other electives are you taking?”

The mere mention of nakedness causes Paige to blush against her own will, though Toby’s gentle reprimand about muggles does contribute to the pink cheeks. She wisely chooses to let the interrogation about muggles cease for the time being. “Primrose and I chose Care of Magical Creatures together, and I’m also taking Magical Music. I’m not sure if I like the music class, though. Professor Katsaros is a little… scary.”

“I’m taking magical creatures, too! I’m usually toward the back, though. I try to stay out of the way. It’s sort of a dull class. Do I really need to be educated on how to feed an owl? It’s not rocket science. I mean you give them food, they eat it. What more is there?” Toby rambles, growing more energetic toward the end. “But Transfiguration, now that’s useful! Make things something they’re not. I will bet you that I can turn your book there into an omelet!”

“I suppose the professor has to start somewhere. Feeding owls is probably important information for… uh… muggle-borns?” Paige shrugs at her own answer and then shakes her head. “I’m always near the front. I, uh… I don’t have to wear my glasses that way,” the girl admits somewhat uneasily. “Rocket… nevermind.” A pause. “Why… would you want to turn my book into an omelet? That doesn’t seem very useful. Then if someone ate it, my book would be gone. The librarian would not be very happy. I bet I could turn yours into a… hmmm… a chess bishop! Shall I try?”

“Omelets taste well!( Why else would I want an omelet? Though now that I think about it, you might not really want to try to turn something into food. What if you do it really poorly and it doesn’t transfigure all the way on the inside? Then you have eaten part of a book.” Toby smiles. “But, uh. No. I don’t like chess. I’m really bad at it.”

“Good. They taste good,” Paige corrects automatically. “I don’t think a book would taste very good, so it’s probably best not to transfigure something into food. At least, not a book.” At Toby’s comment regarding chess, Paige shrugs yet again. She is apparently a shrugging kind of girl. “I’m not overly fond of it myself, but my older sisters like to play, so they often convince me to play with them. It just seemed like something a little… safer than an omelet, if you understand.” The girl then seems to come to a realization suddenly. “Oh – oh, I’m sorry. I’m keeping you from studying, aren’t I? I really didn’t mean to do that – I’m so sorry. I can go, if you like.” She seems to have forgotten that it was he who was the noisy one at the start.

Toby looks blankly at Paige for a moment. “Maybe the omelet would be really good at tasting,” he says completely flatly, ignoring the rest of Paige’s speech. He blinks a few times at her and continues. “You’re one of those girls that reads the dictionary, aren’t you?”

“No!” Paige protests, perhaps a little too eagerly. “I just… have to do vocabulary exercises at home. It’s important to be able to express oneself as clearly as possible.” She clears her throat a little bit. “It reduces the opportunities for misunderstanding,” she continues, or more like recites. Her cheeks are bordering on red now and she looks hard at her shoes. “Anyway, at least if my essays come back with corrections, they’re for content instead of form. It’s something to be proud of, I think.” She takes a deep breath. “You really shouldn’t let me keep you from studying, though.” She stands abruptly and starts to haphazardly pile books into her arms. “It would be bad if I kept you from finishing your work.”

Toby has never been much for perfect grammar. He knows it’s important to some people, but it doesn’t bother him much. “Uh… okay. Vocabulary exercises? Really? That’s a little weird. But don’t let me keep you from leaving me alone, by all means. I hear that Waller is having a Scrabble tournament tonight. Maybe you could enter.”

“You don’t have to be mean,” Paige responds with a near pout. “Besides, we’re not allowed in the other halls. You ought to know that by now.” She continues trying to gather her books and finds it a bit of a difficult proposition. “Besides, if my sisters thought I was playing a word game, they would want to play, too, and that would ruin it.” Paige finds herself forced to be somewhat silent as the stack of books gets more precarious, and it dawns on her just a bit too late that she probably has too many books to carry at once. This realization comes just in time for her to lose her balance and topple onto the floor, books falling all around her and landing on top of her. “Ow…” she whines quietly, rubbing her back and making no moves to get up just as yet.

Toby winces as Paige falls to the floor and then stands up abruptly. A group of boys at the other side of the room stand and gawk. “Are you okay?” He offers a hand to her. “You know you’re supposed to hit the books, not them hit you.” He giggles at his own joke. He’s so funny.

Paige reaches up to take Toby’s hand as he gives her a hand up, only to find herself standing a bit closer than expected. An unexpected blush creeps into her face and she looks up at him tentatively before she shakes herself and kneels down to pick up a few of the scattered books. “Thank you,” she tells him quietly, pointedly making no comment at his joke as she attempts to pick the books up and check that they’re alright. “I suppose I should take some of these back to the library. I may have taken out more than I should have.” She starts stacking up the volumes on the window seat again slowly. “Do you think you could help me? I’ve finished all of them but Rhea and Altair. That’s the red one with the bookmark in it over there.”

As Paige stands close to Toby he smiles awkwardly, also blushing a bit, though he would never admit it. “Uh, yeah. Don’t mention it,” he says as he releases her hand a little slower than he probably should have. “I can help, sure. I’ll carry these over here.” He points to the books on the window seat as he walks toward them and begins to pile them into his arms. “Rhea and Altair sounds like one of those love stories. You’re not a fan of those, are you?”

“So what if I am? They’re good stories. At least as good as those action adventure ones that Lanie is always reading. At least these are about real people, not strange super-people who never seem to die no matter what happens to them.” Paige reaches for the volume and hugs it to her chest tightly. “Besides, this one is just so tragic so far.” The books have all now been gathered together and Paige stands up, a much more reasonable stack of books in her arms this time. “The librarian will be glad to see some of these back, at least,” she comments off-hand as she starts toward the door.

Toby follows her, weighted down by his stack of books. He lags behind a bit and takes a few quick steps to catch up. “Hey, wait for me. These are heavy!”

The little girl’s eyes widen when she is spoken to, and for a moment she looks almost terrified. But then the pouting creeps back into her features as she responds, a little haughtily, “I know.”, and turns her curly head quickly away. At her sister’s voice, Michele finally looks up from her book, first at her sibling, then at Paige. She looks the girl over almost appraisingly for a moment before speaking, “Hello. I hope I’m not in your way.”

Looking up as she hears a voice, Paige seems startled. “Oh, hello,” she greets quietly. “No, you’re not at all. I’m just… waiting for my sister.” Paige’s face settles into a bit of a glare as she admits this. “Hey, you’re in my year, aren’t you? At school?” She leaves off at this, clearly unsure of any of the further details. “I’m Paige.” This is spoke quietly and she almost blushes as she continues. “Paige Brennan.”

“I’m Michele Rossignolet”, she replies with exquisite proununciation of the French syllables. “I suppose you must be in my year, because your name sounds familiar.” She seems to look over Paige again, trying to recognize her, but only gives a very slight shake of her head. At her side, her sister appears to have found distraction in a dusty looking old book, which she flips through silently. Michele spares a relieved sort of glance. “What’s your Hall? Mine is Yates.”"

“I’m in, ehm, Brennan Hall,” Paige answers as casually as she can manage, biting her lip as she does so. “How old is she?” Paige asks quietly, inclining her head toward Michele’s sister subtly. “Is she going to Scattergood soon?” She pauses again. “I do think I’ve seen you around. I don’t… really talk a lot to people, though. What classes are you picking up? I picked music and Muggle Studies.”

“Laure, how old are you?” Michele taps the girl on the head, questioning her with a sweet, half sing-song voice. “Six.” Laure replies, looking up at her sister as if she’s gone mad, having to ask her age! The elder girl shrugs gracefully at Paige. “She’s shy.”, she explains, “I suppose she’ll go to Scattergood eventually, unless she goes to Beauxbatons. In any case, ” she rests her hand absently on the little one’s hair, “I’m taking music as well, and Acient Runes.” Judging from the enthusiasm in her voice, she seems rather more excited about the latter.

Paige stares for a moment at the exchange, opening her mouth to speak, then deciding against it. “I am excited for the music class. Mother doesn’t let me do much music at home. She says it gives her a headache. Ancient Runes sounds hard. Aren’t you worried about the workload?” Paige quirks her head, tucking a stray curl behind her ear and pushing her glasses back into place. “My sisters said that I shouldn’t take classes like that anyway. It isn’t, um… becoming for a lady or something. I don’t remember exactly.”

“Intelligence is a fine characteristic for a lady.” Michele responds flatly, as if it were a fact of the same nature as one plus one equalling two. “But, no, I’m not concerned about the workload. I enjoy the work, and Ancient Runes sounds like a fascinating class.” After a short pause she speaks again, sounding a little like she is confiding a secret, “I can’t say I have much interest in music, however, but, well, you know how parents are. My father wants me to take it.”

“I — just know what my sisters told me, that’s all,” Paige whispers, blushing as she looks down at her feet. She rubs the toe of her shoe on the floor as if trying to rub out a spot for a moment before looking up again. “I — suppose you’re right, though.” She pauses. “Lucie and Lanie say that ladies are supposed to be pretty and charming and that if I’m to be either I should focus on fixing my hair and not learning, erm, mumbo-jumbo.” She shrugs vaguely at this. “I think music is fascinating, though. It can be so emotional, you know?” She stops short, unsure of what else to say. “Are you looking for a specific book?”

“No, I’m only browsing.” Michele shakes her head, fine, dark curls bouncing against her cheeks. “My, but you certainly change the topic quickly.” She adds, then blinks, and smiles a bit apologetically. “Er– not that I mean that badly. Forgive me, I can be a bit…tactless. In any case,” she continues rapidly, as if she’d rather not give Paige time to agree, “I can hardly imagine a person who charming without being intelligent. There’s nothing worse than someone who is vain and vapid.”

“I guess I’m just… awkward. My sisters tell me that’s why I, um… don’t have normal conversation.” Paige pauses. “I think my sisters are vain, but mother encourages them. They enjoy it, though, so I guess it can’t be all bad, right?” She shrugs. “Your name is French, right? Maybe you can help me with my French. Mother wants us all to learn, but I am dismal at it and my sisters won’t help me.”

Michele makes a disgusted face. “I can’t imagine encouraging vanity. At least…not without a reason. Anyway, I’m always being accused of having odd conversations, myself. It drives my mother crazy. She’s always correcting my behavior.” Her lips form a slight smile now. “And, yes, my name is French. Both of my parents are from Paris. Perhaps when we’re at Scattergood I can help you with. It isn’t a difficult language, and I’d like to keep in practice.”

Shrugging vaguely at the comment about vanity, Paige chooses to say nothing – perhaps because she has nothing to say in defense of her flighty older sisters. “It would be nice if you would help me. I’m so horrid at it and I just don’t want to be so bad anymore. My parents will leave me alone about it after that, maybe.” She shrugs again then smiles. “So are you excited about school — oh, I guess I already asked that.” She looks down at her feet again for a moment. “Mayb–” Paige is interrupted. “Paige. I have been looking for you. It’s time to go. Tell your little friend goodbye.” Lanie taps her foot impatiently, looking somewhat dissheveled as she attempts to look nonchalant. “I guess I, er, have to go. I’ll see you around, right?” Paige starts to walk slowly toward her sister.

“I’m sure you will.” Michele replies, with a flicker of a frown on her face as she glances from Lanie to Paige, but then she smiles slightly at the younger girl. “It nice to meet you.” She adds, then buries herself back into her book, not bothering to watch her schoolmate leave. Laure, still at her sister’s side, begins a new attack of whining in earnest with Paige’s departure.

“A-alright,” Paige replies and as she gets within arm’s reach of her sister, she gasps. Lanie has grabbed her arm and started to stalk off. “It was nice to meet you, Michele, bye–ooof!” she calls as she is dragged out of the store abruptly.”

Out and about with his aunt Zelda, Seth Daringer is dragging a cart behind him stacked high with books and what appear to be school supplies. The two appear to be out shopping for Seth’s first year at school. Aunt Zelda seems to be checking down a list in her mauve gloved hands, peering through a pair of spectacles. “Aunt Zelda can I please try some of the candy we saw before?” Says the small boy tugging at the corner of the witch’s mauve colored robes. Seth himself is dressed in a tanned cotton shirt and a pair of blue jeans, slightly faded with ware. “After we finish your shopping we will have ourselves a nice big dinner dear. But for now we simply haven’t the time.” The elderly witch says softly never taking her eyes from the shopping list. “Yes, next is the part that usually takes the longest my boy. We must go and get you a wand.” As Zelda looks up from her list she spots the four girls. “Oh! If it’s isn’t the Brennan girls! Lanie, Lucie and Maylie!” Aunt Zelda turns to Seth who is busily watching a goblin walk a dog. “Come along dear. I’ve someone for you to meet.”

The older girls sit and chat amiably to passersby as several of them stop to chat. A swarm of boys hovers nearby, shoving one another and none of them getting too close to the confident, attractive Brennan sisters. Nobody would claim that Paige would be among the beautiful sisters, as she continues to read her novel, despite being chastised by her older sister. She seems to almost blend into the scenery in comparison to her exuberant sisters. Each of them seems perfectly well suited to the life of a public figure as they continue to greet those who stop to chat with them.

Nearly being dragged by the arm Seth is taken by Aunt Zelda over to the girls. Zelda smiles with her hand on Seth’s shoulder and begins speaking to the three eldest, apparently knowing them. “Why hello girls.” She says with a sweet smile. “How are Harris and Maylie doing?” “It’s been too long since I’ve seen them you know.” Seth looks up at his aunt and then between the three girls. He blushes a bit and hides behind Zelda. He hadn’t known many girls where he lived and meeting older ones now was a bit intimidating. Zelda however brings him back around. “This is my great nephew, Seth.” She says positively beaming. “He’ll be joining you at Scattergood this year.”

“Hello, Seth!” Maylie leans forward, greeting the boy. “What hall are you going to be in?” Paige looks up from her book, a bit red-faced as yet another person stops to chat with them. Did they really have to do this? Or if they did, did they have to bring her along? “Hi, Seth,” she greets the boy, only a little younger than herself. “Oh, Granddad and Grandmum are doing just fine. They took a tour of Canada this summer. They are thinking of moving there now. Apparently there’s a lot of space. Dad would rather they stayed here but you must know how they are,” Lanie answers with a ringing laugh. “I’m terribly sorry – I didn’t catch your name. I’m Lanie, by the way. This is Lucie. She’s my twin, hence the very obvious similarity.” This elicits a laugh from both Lucie and Lanie and at this, Maylie also turns her attention to the older woman. “I’m Maylie, named for Grandmum as you must already know.” She laughs a bit as she divulges this rather obvious fact. Paige does not introduce herself, instead choosing to pay attention to Seth.

Trying to remember what hall he’s to be put in Seth scratches his head for a moment before reaching into his pocket and pulling out the crumpled letter from Scattergood. “Oh um… it says I am going to Yates hall.” He smiles and holds up the letter as if the subject required some proof. “What hall are you all in?” Apparently the name his aunt said earlier had not rung a bell. Aunt Zelda smiles seemingly happy to hear that her schoolmates are well. “Canada! How wonderful for them!” She nods as each girl introduces herself. “I am Zelda Silverman.” She says with a delighted grin. “But you may call me Auntie Zelda.” Seth looks up at his aunt, more than a tad embarrassed. He looks again to Paige giving her a quick shrug as if to dismiss the chattiness that is going on between the (what Seth considers) adults. He decides it’s better to try and talk up the youngest. “So what’s Scattergood like?” He asks Paige, fidgeting his hands at his sides.

“We’re all in Brennan hall,” Paige answers quietly, and this doesn’t seem to draw the attention of her sisters. Apparently they’re disinterested in the conversation of ‘mere’ children. “It’s a family thing, of course. Almost all of our ancestors have been in that hall since the school started. Some of us went to Maguire hall, though. Our great-great… something, grandmother was Pleasance Maguire, and she married Campbell Brennan.” Paige shrugs at this. “Scattergood is pretty fun, I guess. There’s a lot to learn, but I like my classes and the people in my hall are pretty nice people. I think you’ll like Yates hall. I haven’t seen inside it, though, I’ve just seen some of the students. Are you excited to go?” Paige leans forward a bit on the bench, away from her sisters.

“Yeah I’m pretty excited a I guess.” Replies Seth happy to ignore the conversations of the “grownups”. “I’m a little worried though. Besides my Aunt Zelda my family are all um…” And he stops to try and think of the words for a moment before remembering it. “Oh yeah, Muggles. Me and her are the only magical ones in the family.” Seth grins and continues talking now that he’s broken the gender shyness barrier. “I guess we’re going to get my wand next. I wonder if I’ll be allowed to use it right away?” “I’ve always wanted to do magic stuff.” And then he stops for a moment to ask. “What sorts of magic will I learn anyway?”

“You’re supposed to wait until you’re at school,” Paige informs the younger boy. “You can get into trouble for doing magic when you aren’t at school so they tell you not to do it at all except at school. I guess it’s for safety or something.” She shrugs idly and pushes her makeshift bookmark into her book, finally closing it and setting it gingerly onto her lap. “It is fun to get a wand, though. I love mine. It’s made of walnut and has a bronze thread core. Mr. Wyndham said it was well suited to me.” She pauses once again to ponder his question about magic. “You learn to move things with magic, and change their appearances. You also learn about protecting yourself and things like that. I’m going to start learning about muggles this year, and how to make music. I’m excited about that. Only third years and up can do those classes, though. Not that I imagine you would want to learn about Muggles. There are so many charms and things to learn. You’ll be very busy.”

“Oh that’s too bad.” Seth seems a little disappointed that he wont be able to use his new wand right away but he smiles as Paige informs him of the different things he will be learning. “Changing things huh? Mice into toads and stuff like that?” He grins at the prospects imagining all the fun he could have at school. “Yeah I don’t really need to learn about muggles. I live with them.” He looks to see if his Aunt is listening and leans in to whisper. “Between you an’ me, muggles aren’t very interesting anyway. Kind of boring anyway.” “Here you have things…. like goblins. We saw goblins at the bank! And you’ve got elves. And trolls… and things.” As Seth is about to go on naming all the things he’s seen that he’s never seen before he’s nudged gently in the arm by Aunt Zelda. “It’s time to go Seth. We have to get your wand and then we will go out and have our diner.” “Good by girls! Give my best to your grandparents!” With that Zelda turns to walk away. Seth smiles and waves a goodbye to the three older girls. “Goodbye Paige, see you at school!” He says to the youngest before turning to follow Zelda.

Quite unfortunately for Paige, Stephanie Stolarz is either not paying much attention to what or who is in her way or just feels like being objectionable – either way, as she moves towards the bakery, while she does not walk directly into Paige, she passes so closely by they might as well have collided, stopping only as she pauses to turn and look at the girl in alarm. “What are you doing standing in the street?”

“Oh, um. Sorry,” Paige Brennan essentially mumbles in response. “I was just trying to decide whether to go into the bakery or not. I really shouldn’t… my sisters will just nag me for it again.” She sighs in a fairly defeatist way and turns to face the person who she almost walked smack into. “I hope I didn’t hurt you or anything. I’m Paige.” She stops and tentatively holds out her hand to the other girl, blushing slightly.

“Stephanie – Stephanie Stolarz,” the girl introduces herself promply in turn, taking Paige’s hand firmly and giving it a solid shake. “I think I’ve seen you at school, haven’t I? Well, you do look awfully familiar somehow.” She cants her head to one side as she speaks, inspecting Paige almost appraisingly. The more she speaks, the more it becomes evident that she has a distinct German accent.

“You might have seen my sisters. I’ve got three of them at school.” She sighs a bit. “Lanie, Lucie and Maylie are all in Brennan hall with me.” Paige Brennan conveniently leaves her last name out of the conversation for the time being. “Maybe you’ve seen them.” She pauses. “I’ve seen you, though. You’re in, um… Wa– Waller Hall, right? I think you’re in my year.”

A broad smile curls about Stephanie Stolarz’s thin lips at this recognition, nodding her hair so her curls bounce. This seems to entertain her somewhat, so she shakes her hair again, a faintly impish grin lighting up her expression. “Lanie, Lucie, Maylie and Paige? Not even Paigie?” A pause, and she adds, “Can I call you Paigie, Paigie?”

A small look of horror crosses Paige’s face as she considers this suggestion. “Well, my name is just… Paige, though. I mean, I guess you could call me Paigie if you really want to…” Her voice trails off quietly and she looks down, a bit embarrassed. Deciding to quickly direct the conversation away from what could potentially be discussion of her heritage, Paige asks, “How do you get your hair to do that? I can’t get my hair to do anything but curl like this, and sometimes it even fluffs up so I can’t control it.”

“Alright, Paigie,” Stephanie trails off here, though, her attention apparently caught by something in the bakery window or something else equally irrelevant to the discussion. As the discussion turns to her hair, however, she smiles again, rearranging a few of her curls for maximum effect before answering. “My mother has a salon in our house, she does just about everybody’s hair, only she only really speak German so I suppose that puts a bit of a crimp in it actually being everybody. She’s very talented, though.”

“Wow, that’s cool! And your mom does your hair for you, then? Do you think maybe she would do my hair sometime? My sisters are good at doing their own hair but I can’t seem to get the hang of it.” Paige frowns distinctly as she thinks of this, then shrugs. “Those sweet buns are really yummy, by the way.”

“She might!” Stephanie confirms for Paige, her attention turning back to the window just as quickly as it slipped away. “Oh, I’m not sure if I’ve ever tried them… mostly I stick to things I’ve – oh, let’s go in, shall we, then?” A pause follows before she steps towards the door, canting her head to one side again and adding, “You don’t mind if she only speaks in German, do you? I don’t think she could do your hair if you minded her language.”

“Well, I don’t understand it, but I don’t think it would be a problem. I mean, the war is over with the muggles, right?” Paige shrugs. “Besides, that was a muggle thing. My parents only occasionally talked about it. My father said that there was no point in analyzing it because it was muggle stuff.” She shrugs again. “Yeah, let’s go in.” With that, she squares her shoulders and walks semi-confidently into the store. Her sisters will not make her feel bad about sticky buns!

Stephanie Stolarz looks up in alarm at Paige at this, her eyes wide for a moment before she relaxes again, clearing her throat and busying herself over with a display of cakes. Eventually, she offers, rather non-commitally, given the circumstances, “How much did you hear about everything? I only know what my parents told me, but they were in hiding for more than one reason, y’know.”

“They didn’t tell me much about it,” Paige admits. “‘It isn’t a subject for children’,” she says, waving her finger in an authoritative manner. “My father wouldn’t let us hear anything of what was going on in Europe. Maybe Lanie and Lucie heard more but they’re not telling me, either.” She sighs. “Nobody tells me anything, it seems like. Hi, Mr. Delacroix. Can I just have three sticky buns today?”

“Ah.” The response is quiet and simple, and Stephanie follows it on quickly with a, “Can I have a cupcake? That one right there – no, not that one, I know they’re the same flavour, but that one looks prettier…” She waits patiently as her very specific cupcake is chosen for her, only turning back to the conversation once she has received it. “There was… well, I heard a lot about it, and I could tell you, but I don’t know if I know everything.”

“It seems like we would learn about it in school, don’t you think?” Paige replies quietly. “It seems like there must have been something really horrible, though. Nobody talks about it.” She reaches out and takes her small parcel with her sticky buns in it and hands over the appropriate amount of money. “Yes, I’ll probably be back tomorrow,” She responds to the question directed to her as she receives her change and blushes hard.

“That’s probably why they won’t tell us about it,” Stephanie replies off-handedly, shrugging her shoulders lightly. After a moment, though, her tone takes on a much more serious note and she adds, “There were… two… muggle-born wizards and witches were being targetted in the wizarding world for muddying the blood of the magical world, and there was this thing… in the muggle world, the laws said that if you were one-eighth Jewish or more you deserved to die, or something like that, so they were being rounded up and killed.” She fingers her chai necklace for a moment, deeply thoughtful. Just as quickly, however, her happy-go-lucky nature returns and she merrily opens her bag and bites into her ‘pretty’ cupcake.

Paige takes a sticky bun out of her parcel and takes a bite of it, then looks to Stephanie in horror as she shares this information. “How on earth is that even possible?” She looks at the other girl in disbelief. “People just couldn’t do things like that. They just… couldn’t.” The shock is apparent, and it doesn’t diminish even as Stephanie appears to have moved on.

Stephanie smiles a grim, little smile, shrugging her thin shoulders as she chews on a mouthful of her cupcake. “A lot of my family… mommy cries a lot, and dad doesn’t like to talk about it much, but we don’t have any other relatives in America.” She stuffs her mouth full of cupcake again, turning her gaze to the ground and falling silent for a period of time. There is an overhanging implication to her words, though she does not spell it out.

Paige Brennan doesn’t know what to say in response. She has no experience thinking about atrocities such as these, and for want of a better thing to do, she takes a bite of her sticky bun. After a fairly long and (for Paige) awkward pause, “What classes are you taking on this year? I’ve chosen Magical Music and Muggle Studies.”

“I’m looking forward to the new classes,” Stephanie replies promptly, a lot of her cheer returning to her. The remainder of her cupcake is forced into her mouth and followed by a period of silent gestures before she swallows and adds, “I’m taking magical music – just like you, yeah? – and magical art. I wanted to do CoMC,” which she pronounces ‘komk’, “but I thought it’d be too hard to balance all of them.” She scrunches up the bag in her hands idly as she speaks.

“I had a hard time picking between art and music, but I thought it might be nice to maybe learn to sing nicely. My mother says that women should acquire as many accomplishments as possible to be able to, um,” Paige seems to stumble as to why she’s supposed to be amassing skills. “Um, be a trophy to her future husband, I think is what she said. I don’t know if I want to be a trophy, but music will be nice, I think. Where do you live? I’m just down on High Street, but I don’t think I’ve seen you around here much.”

“Tha’s appalling,” Stephanie replies vaguely, apparently not very passionate about the subject but willing to offer an opinion anyway. “I wonder what she’d think of me. People who think like that don’t tend to think of some skills over others as being appropriate for a lady. Do you think she’d approve of a trophy that could speak three different languages?” She shrugs her shoulders, looking about the room for somewhere to throw out her garbage as she speaks.

“If one of the languages was French, she probably wouldn’t mind much. My mother says that French is a language for cultured people, so we should all learn it. I would rather learn Italian. It’s the language of music, my father told me.” Paige nods solemnly at this. “The can is over there,” she directs, pointing to a nearby corner. It’s clear that she’s probably a bit too familiar with the shop than she ought to be. At this precise moment, the door slams open loudly. “PAIGE. Mother told you to be home by three for your lesson.” It was Paige’s sister Maylie. “And you shouldn’t be eating those buns. You’re fat enough as it is.” With that, her sister flounced out in the direction from which she entered, leaving the door wide open. “Speaking of languages,” Paige mumbles. “I have a French lesson that my mom wants me to take.” She sighs heavily at this.

Looking up in annoyance as the conversation is interrupted, Stephanie lets loose a steady stream of angry German, delivered in a most upset tone to Maylie as she leaves, raising her voice slightly so the last words can be heard in the street, “<<You’re a horrible person, you ought to be ashamed of yourself! I have a pet rat and he is very cute! I have no idea what to say, but I am upset with you, now! Be ashamed!>>” As she finishes her brief tirade, she turns to Paige with a smile and finishes, “I’m sorry, Paigie. I’d like to learn French sometime. Have fun with that!”

Not knowing at all what Stephanie has said, Paige merely stares at the other girl for a moment. “I guess I’d better go. French is okay, I suppose, but I don’t take to it much.” She shrugs. “I’ll see you around, right? At school or something? It was nice talking to you,” she states cordially then pausing again, awkwardly, for a moment, she takes to her heel and runs down the street in a most unladylike fashion.