Magizoology for Muggle-borns Open

Kat nodded along to Quinn's description of Voldemort, ready to jump in at any given moment to fill in any gaps. It was clear that the Gryffindor was very familiar with the magical world, as she was. Her eyes were wide as she looked between the two of them, urging George to understand the severity of Voldemort's crimes. Once, people feared to even speak his name. She was taught all about the Slytherin as a child by her parents (and by her tutor, from an academic perspective). Both of them had been around during the Second Wizarding War, after all, although they were only teenagers at the time. Her maternal grandparents knew far more about it, having worked closely with the Ministry throughout the whole ordeal. Either way, the entire magical community agreed that this mass genocide was one of the greatest downfalls of wizard-kind.

When Quinn finished their explanation, Katherine eagerly added, "Yeah, Voldemort was just awful. He had his first downfall about fourteen years before the actual war. Even though he was on a ruthless killing spree, murdering loads of magical people and muggles alike, one of his spells rebounded off this baby. Harry Potter is super famous, you should read his biography, actually." At her suggestion she stuck a thumb over her shoulder towards the section of the library that housed all the life stories of famous witches and wizards. No doubt they had about a million copies of Harry Potter's, considering what a popular read it was.

"Anyway, he didn't die. He should have done, but Voldemort... well, he, uh..." Eyes darting back and forth, she leaned in closer, cautious to keep her voice down as she spoke to the two of them. "He made these things called... called horcruxes." Kat glanced to the table to their left, making sure she wasn't heard. "We're not meant to know about them, but my grandmother told me. They're seriously dark magic, horcruxes. To make one you have to split your soul. Do something unforgivably evil... Voldemort did plenty of that, of course. They make you immortal."

Not wanting to shake the poor muggleborn any further, Kat let Quinn change the subject of conversation. They seemed to be in deep thought, anyway.

"I was under the impression that you're not quite familiar with the term "agender"...? Would you like me to explain it a little more?"

Kat scrunched her face up. She was quite sure their explanation from before was sufficient. She didn't particularly care either. Gender expression was never a big deal to her. People could do what they wanted; it was none of her business anyway. But, wanting to perhaps amuse her new acquaintance, she shrugged and nodded. "Go on then."

@Katherine Cobwebbe and @Quinn Prescott

George had no quill to take notes, so he just listened intently, making sure he remembered every word. It seemed like quite serious business, this Voldemort fellow. The boy wrinkled his nose as he heard Quinn's words about how that Voldemort would have treated muggles. It's a good thing there were more good wizards than ones like him, he supposed, because those poor muggles wouldn't stand a bloody chance. The thought made him pause - it was the first time he'd really considered of himself as something separate from muggles. But he was separate. He was a wizard. Even if his family were muggles.

"Couldn't even kill a baby," George says with a sneer, looking off into space for a moment as if he was taunting the dark wizard's ghost. It sounded like something out of a fairy-tale, the story of a dark wizard trying to enslave humanity. Well, the half of humanity with no spells. A quite rotten way to spend your power, when you could just transfigure yourself a plate of pancakes every morning and Bob's your uncle. George had already decided that he'd use his power for good - like by being magical police, or selling magic candy or enchanting toys or whatever it was that wizards liked having done.

Katherine's revelation on horcruxes makes George throw his hands up with an indignant huff, rolling his eyes. Horrible, evil, dark magic makes you immortal? The world was so unfair. The irritation was obvious in the boy, as he picked at the hem of his robe and grumbled something under his breath.

"What a rotten egg," he understates. "It's a bit bad luck that the way to live forever is just to be horrible and tear your soul to bits. Not really much of a way to live at all, really. You'd hope that something a bit more pleasant would make you immortal, like... picking up litter, or something."

He shrugs. That didn't sound like something that was wroth being made immortal over, but neither did doing horrible evil, so it balanced out just as well. Besides, Quinn said he was dead, so that was some immortality that lets you die. The magic world was a pure mad place. Quinn's offer to further explain their gender is met with a dramatic sigh and a raise of his hands.

"Like I haven't got enough on me plate now?" he says, gesturing down at the stack of books, and then to Katherine. These had put enough on his mind, with the new threat of dark wizards and lycanthropy and vampires now looming on his mind. He'd only come up here to find out what those freaky lumpy rhinos he could see out of his dorm window were called. (They were called Erumpents.) "With all the due respect, I think I get the gist. I'm awful worried now about all these magical beasts and this bad wizard and dark magic and all. It's a bit much."

Kat couldn't help but sympathise with George's frustration. It wasn't that she didn't feel for Quinn and their predicament, but dark wizards were a far more interesting route of conversation. Moreover, it was a topic that she was well-educated on, and she felt very clever, revealing history to this muggleborn like it was some glorious fairy tale. His engaged comments and reactions encouraged her.

It was only a moment later that Kat realised how she'd unnerved the poor Hufflepuff. It would frighten anyone, of course, the prospect of evil wizards. They're scarier than evil muggles. Magic is a powerful weapon; with great power comes great responsibility, and not everyone is responsible. "You shouldn't worry about it, George. Stuff like that doesn't really happen anymore. The whole wizarding community is tighter knit than ever, after all this Voldemort nonsense," she assured him, before adding rather unhelpfully, "Besides, danger is part of what makes being a wizard fun. Duelling and the likes."

Reclining back on the chair and stretching out, Kat gazed around the library. People were still hard at work, writing their essays and pouring over enormous, thick, leather-bound books. This was her first time at a public school. She'd been here for a month or so now, and was doing surprisingly well adjusting. Her brother had struggled, but he was more emotional than her. Thinking back to her new friends, she wondered about their circumstances. George, having come from a muggle family, would likely have done what the majority of muggles do: attend a normal school. She wasn't so sure about Quinn, though...

"What's it like, being a muggle, then? Not that you are, or anything, but what about school? Hey, if you weren't a wizard, you'd probably be doing algebra right now!"She then turned to Quinn. "What about you? Go to a different school before Hogwarts?"

George returns his eyes to Kat with rapt attention, clasping his hands together and resting his elbows on the table. He kept his knuckles under his chin, rolling back and forth against his jaw. There was a certain fantastical element present in the whole of magical history - it felt more like a fairy-tale, or at least some sort of planned narrative. Muggle history was all a mess of wars and politicians and old dead men who wrote books. Wizards were a rare breed, it seemed, so there were fewer faces, and they were by far more memorable.

Dark wizards, evil witches, werewolves, vampires - the magical world was chock full of horrible hazards, and the boy figured he'd be wise to remember them all. Katherine's halfhearted reassurance regarding the wizarding community and the following comment about the excitement of danger did a bit to comfort him. A smirk crept in at the corner of the boy's lip while he peered at her. Dueling? The magic world was certainly outdated. George recalled seeing a book on the 'metal wands' of the muggles. Those kinds of wands couldn't perform any sort of dark magic, but no doubt they could strike fear into any wizard who ever came to know them intimately. He wondered, briefly, about American wizards, and added another topic to the reading list in his head.

"Aye, but you know what the muggles did right after they got done with the first World War? They went and did another one, twenty years after," George says, his face pulled into a pout as he criticized the nature of those flighty muggles. Lacking in the wisdom of wizards, maybe, but a wizard and a muggle were both made out of the same stuff. What's to say some Slytherin graduate wouldn't decide to go and transfigure all of parliament into snakes? That was another difference between muggles and wizards. Normally, it took a lot of idiots to start a crisis - with wizards, it only took a single particularly large one. "My uncle said that. He said they said the first one'd be the last war ever. Oops!"

Then, Katherine started to inquire about his muggle education. Suddenly, he reclined opposite Kat, mirroring her posture as he assumed the role of the subject matter expert. Unlike her, he didn't have quite as much a desire to enlighten as he did to see what sort of a lie he could get away with, however. He bit his tongue in his mouth when he thought of that. It'd be cruel to do that after she'd been so truthful. If she had been truthful. But Quinn had corroborated the story, so until he had the books to verify, he'd take her at her word.

"I mean, I was a muggle for quite a while. When I go back in the summer, I'll just be a muggle with an odd stick, so not too different from most muggles if you discount the fact I can do magic and all," says, after a few moments delay. He had been confused when she said he wasn't a muggle, before he remember that he wasn't - on account of the fact he was magic. He'd been uplifted from that stale lifestyle and brought into one stuffed full of the bizarre. His eyes wandered with his thoughts, returning to Katherine with the word 'bizarre'. "Do wizards not know how... to do maths? We never learn more maths?"

The concept was frightening, but exciting. He'd never need to study math again. Feeling like he could cry, he looked upward and blew a kiss toward the ceiling to thank God for Hogwarts.

"My mum is the teacher at the primary school where I'm from, so she taught me. Nightmare, it was. She's quite thankful that I got sent to Hogwarts so she won't have to drive me twenty minutes to the high school every morning, either." He paused briefly. "Driving's what muggles do since we haven't got any brooms."

There seemed to be many parallels between war in the muggle and wizarding world. Kat was never really taught about muggle history at home, although she knew that the two world wars had something to do with a two minute silence her grandfather asked of the rest of the family at some point in November. With him being a muggle and all, it was hard to avoid talk of these things. The conversation was never considered too repulsive for the eleven year old's ears, but it was easy to numb yourself to the concept. Wizards and muggles could be just as bad as each other, if they wanted.

Kat though it was a little sad, that George was going to have to go back to pretending magic didn't exist for six weeks during Summer. She didn't suppose his parents would brush up on their magical knowledge to help him with his homework, even if his mum was a teacher. "We don't really need maths, I guess," Kat started in answer to his question, "Well, I mean, we do have to get the basics, but wizards don't usually become mathematicians. Why would they? If you can do magic you might as well go into a career that makes use of it. Not all wizards do, like my father for example, but it's more fun. In my opinion, at least."

She could empathise with George when he told her about being taught by his mother. That would probably be pretty embarrassing. It was similar to being the daughter of pastor in some ways, only pastors taught people about religion. People often stopped her family when they were walking in town to have a conversation with her father, who had to be friendly to everyone even when he was in a bad mood. They would politely acknowledge Kat, but were well aware of the fact that she didn't want to speak to them it seemed.

"Nightmare? Sounds like one. I'm so glad I never had to go to a public school." In all honesty, Katherine felt quite smug about her upbringing. Her education gave her a bit of a head start at Hogwarts, which she was grateful for. Anything to get ahead. "I had before coming here tutor. She's very smart."

Always a pleasure, @Katherine Cobwebbe. Sorry if this one's a bit stiff, gotta get the wheels turning in my head.

They don't need maths? Nobody needs maths, but muggles still stuff it in every which way. Seems like everywhere you go, adults are doing math, trying to get you to do it too. Magic certainly prevented a nicer alternative - Katherine was right about that. There was no way on Earth that George was going to become a mathematician after his graduation from Hogwarts, either. He's got bigger fish to fry, shaped like mythical leviathans and complex arcane tomes. And, for now, like basic historical knowledge, and like a know-it-all Ravenclaw.

"A prrrivate tutor?" The r in prrrivate rolled along as George leaned in, bumping his elbows on the edge of the table. He raised an eyebrow and lifted half his lip into a smirk. "Aren't you posh. I wouldn't have guessed - you dress cool for someone of such... elevated status."

He seems to quite enjoy the impression of the Queen he's putting on as he speaks, straining out an upper-class English accent in a croak. The smile on his face never falters, though, even as he delivers some light teasing to the girl. He had to admit he envied her - he received a lot of private tutoring from his mother, himself, but it never quite stuck. He'd never been academically inclined at all, really. His mother would cry a tear of joy if she could see him here and now - in a library, and reading more that one book, and not a single one of them was fiction. Unfortunately, they still often had pictures. Surely she'd excuse that minor crutch, though.

"So your tutor taught you... spells, and stuff like that?" George wondered, canting his head to the side slightly. Hogwarts only took you in when you turned eleven - what id they do before? If you didn't get a private tutor, did anybody teach you... anything? Could there have been other wizards from Walkerburn? "You never went to public school before you went to Hogwarts at all? Did you live among the muggles? You said your parents were wizards, but your grandfather wasn't. Did your parents go to a muggle school?"