Books and Silence Open

Ainsley watched as Lyra began reading on whatever she was curious about. She glanced at Allie quietly, listening to the two girls speak for a moment, but her eyes eventually fell back to her bag. She had received a letter from her sister that morning, and one from Marshal as well, but his simply congratulated her on getting into Gryffindor, and apologized for Wren’s behavior. He claimed that Wren was quite stressed without having Ainsley’s help around the house. Wren, however, claimed that Ainsley was a rude and ungrateful little girl, and that she better not ever step into her home again, because she would not have her son grow up to be anything like Ainsley.
Ainsley glared at the bag, angrily, glancing up at Allie when she noticed the girl trying to hide a laugh. She followed Allie’s eyes to Lyra, who appeared to be apologizing for being deeply engrossed in a book. She smiled slightly, shaking her head and glancing down at her bag once more, sighing. She had gotten in trouble more than once for having her nose stuck in a book.
Suddenly, Ainsley realized that Allie was staring at her and glanced between the two girls, confused. Was I spoken to?, she thought, thinking about what they’d been saying. She couldn’t recall either girl saying something to her, but...maybe they had and she’d simply missed it?
“I’m sorry,” she apologized, shifting slightly. “I was thinking about...something. Er...what’s happening?”


Quercus alba, though native to most eastern parts of the United States, and some areas of Canada, was largely imported into Britain sometime between 1707 and 1765. At least, that's according to my bff, so I don't know if it's entirely accurate.

Lyra nodded as Allie clasped the book and put it away in her bag. “No problem.” She was pretty uncomfortable with lending her books, but the girl was a fellow Ravenclaw, so she was sure she could find Allie somewhere around the Common Room if she ever needed it back early, although that would be disrespectful. Still, it was a valid reassurance. “It is pretty different fro- from Wizarding books,” the first-year explained, reddening as she stuttered. ‘Well, I had made it so far without stuttering, I suppose it couldn’t last much longer.’ Lyra had gotten much better since she was a child. At 5 or 6, the girl was barely able to utter a sentence properly. But after years with speech therapists, it had improved. Sadly there were no speech therapists at Hogwarts, so she would have to work extra-hard by herself to keep the improvement going.

She snapped back to focus as Allie admitted having noticed the white oak herself, and Lyra relaxed in her seat. “Yes I thought so. There was an import in the 1700s or something, so these tables must’ve been brought over from America by ship. That’s according to my book anyway.” The first-year took a deep breath before continuing. ”This book is actually a sort of Google for nature in the Wizarding world, since they don’t have internet. You basically speak your search out loud, and if it relates to nature you’ll find it with great accuracy, since fake news can’t be posted on there anyways.” Lyra inwardly congratulated herself on her fluent speaking for that.

Ainsley, who had seemingly zoned out, came back to reality and asked in a quiet voice what was going on. “We were just discussing the presence of white oak tables here.” The Ravenclaw replied.

Interacting with @Ainsley Thatchere and @Allie Lewis

Oh, alright, I edited my previous post to the 1700s instead then, thanks for telling me!

Interacting with @Ainsley Thatchere and @Lyra Lake

As Lyra explained to Ainsley what they had been talking about, Allie looked out the window. The sun was already high in the sky, and shimmering strands of sunlight had started to brighten up the dim room. Allie looked over at the two girls sitting across from her and smiled, realizing that she had been talking to them for a while now. It was nice just talking to other people, especially when they had a few of the same interests as she did, like reading. That's what made people such good friends, she realized.

Shaking her head a little to clear the long line of thoughts she had just had, Allie remembered what Lyra had said about her book. "What's Google?" she asked, her curiosity piqued. If she had to guess, Allie would have thought it was a sort of Muggle thing, but she couldn't tell for sure, being raised by witches and wizards and all that. "Some sort of Muggle device?" she said with interest, looking closely at the book Lyra had set on the table in front of her and read the title. The Magical Book of Nature, it read. Clearly it was something quite useful, if anything related to what you said showed up on the page in front of you. . .

Ainsley nodded slightly, focusing back on the two girls. She hadn't been paying attention before, but she pushed the letter out of her mind. She wouldn't allow her sister to get into her head anymore. When Allie asked about Google, Ainsley hesitated, glancing to Lyra before answering slowly.
"Google is...a muggle search browser on electronics," she paused, unsure if she was quite right. She hadn't much experience with Google, having spent most of her life in a poor household, the only time she used any electronics was when she was at school, or at Lily's. "You can search anything you'd like and get an answer." Quietly, Ainsley glanced around, her eyes falling onto the book Lyra held and then lifting to meet the girl's eyes.
"So...are you wizard-born?" she asked. "I mean...if you don't mind me asking,"
Ainsley wasn't quite sure if Lyra wouldn't want anyone to know if she wasn't a pure or half blood, but that didn't stop her from being curious. Of course, if she didn't want to answer, Ainsley would accept that. She had noticed that many of her fellow first-years, especially the muggleborns and halfbloods, didn't like for others to question their heritage, though she wasn't exactly sure why. She shook away her thoughts, focusing back on Lyra.

Allie tilted her head as Ainsley explained what Google was. "Wait, you can ask it anything and it'll give you the answer?" she asked, amazed. She had no idea that Muggles made anything like that. "Wait, could they. . . could they find out about us?" She thought it was a fair question. If Muggles could ask Google ANY question, wouldn't they know about the Wizarding World by now? How come they didn't? Or did they, and they were just hiding it? Having been raised by the magical community her whole life, she hadn't had any experience with electronics and she didn't know very much about them.

Noticing that Ainsley seemed to hesitate when telling Allie all of this, she wondered whether all Muggles had access to this browser or if only some did. If she had to guess, she would say that Ainsley might not have had as much access to it as Lyra had, because one had spoken much more certainly than the other. Allie knew better than to ask, knowing it might not be something Ainsley wanted to talk about. . .

Turning to Lyra as well, she waited for the girl's answer. Allie had been wondering this same thing herself, because Lyra seemed to know a lot about the Wizarding world as well as a lot about the Muggle world. Allie tended to think of the world like that, in two communities. The Wizarding and the Muggle. Allie snapped herself back into the present.

Interacting with @Ainsley Thatchere and @Lyra Lake

Ainsley listened to Allie asking about Google and hesitated again. She couldn't possibly answer every question she'd have about it. After all, she only ever used it when she absolutely had to. She wasn't sure how much other muggle students and muggleborns used computers, but she didn't have very much experience with it. They hadn't been able to afford a computer in their tiny home, and so Ainsley had spent most of her time reading books. She almost decided to tune out the rest of this part of the conversation, but when Allie asked about muggles knowing about wizarding kind, Ainsley quickly shook her head.
"No. Not possible." Ainsley frowned slightly. She was sure that if muggles did know about the wizarding world, she would have heard about it. "I didn't know until I got my letter. And my father is a wizard!" Ainsley giggled slightly and then paused, realizing what she'd said. "Brother, I mean." she quickly corrected.
She sat quietly for a moment, suddenly unsure if she was right. After all, the kids at her school didn't exactly like her, and she didn't really pay attention to the news very often. But Lily had a computer. Three, in fact, one for each of them. She'd never mentioned anything about the wizarding world, and Marshal had even warned Ainsley to never let anything slip. They'd gone over her story about where she was going t school for almost a week before Marshal had allowed Ainsley to tell Lily that she wasn't going to be attending school with her. So that must mean that muggles didn't know, right? She glanced at Lyra, deciding to check with the other girl.
"Right, Lyra? I've never had much experience with Google, but...my - Marshal - warned me against telling Lily," Ainsley paused, unsure if she should say more. "that...must mean muggles don't know...right?"