A Book in Common Finished

Mia laughed at Mae's expression. She looked overly serene, like someone smelling something in musical theatre. People tended to over act, and Mia was no exception. Though she was getting better.

Suddenly, what Mae had said registered in her mind. Was she...judging her? No, Mae was too nice. She was just curious. Mia knew that Muggle parents didn't let their kids drink alcohol at all, or at least that was the case with Rachel. So she must have seemed strange.

"Butterbeer has a very low alcohol content, though it does have some. It's like drinking...a decaf brewed coffee. It has some caffeine, but very little."

Mia tried explaining this the best that she could. She didn't want Mae to be scared and not try butterbeer, or judge everyone who had a sip.

"Still, if you have some, you do get a little...whats the word? Tipsy. Your speech isn't going to become slurred, but you'll feel more confident than you were before. If you drink about 30 or so glasses, then you'll get full on drunk. That's why I'm only allowed two or three."

Mia smiled at the brunette girl, and then turned to the crowd of house elves.

"I think everyone has ordered! We'll just sit in a corner, maybe there"- Mia pointed to a small table with four rickety chairs -"and wait. Tell us if you need anything!"

Ami sat down with the other two girls at the creaky table, pushing her hair back from her shoulders. "Butterbeer sounds really good," she said honestly, as Mia explained what the drink was. Nope, scratch "really good", and insert "heavenly". "I've heard some good things about butterscotch, and I think butterbeer's been mentioned a few times around the castle." She made a mental note to check and see if butterbeer was vegan or not, but she had a sinking feeling that it most definitely wouldn't be.

"You seem really comfortable with the house-elves," Ami observed, mostly talking to Mia, although it could easily apply to Mae, as well. "You said you had one? A house-elf? Winky, right? What was he like? Gosh, you two must have been close." Really, imagine having everything being done for you, and you didn't have to do much in return for them. That must be a huge privilege, although Ami was pretty sure her mom had a secret one. It probably explained all the deliciously cooked meals and the constant stream of perfectly fresh flowers- if there was one thing she knows about her mom, it was that she hated to cook and was terrible at arranging flowers.

"Willy."

Mia smiled tightly. Winky was..well not a welcome name in her house. For a plethora of reasons. Mostly because she showed up drunk to a party and knocked over a priceless vase. Then Willy and the rest of the hired help had to clean all of it up and it was..well it was a mess.

"His name is Willy. Easy mistake to make."

Mia grimaced and looked down at the table. Sh was sure that Ami meant well, but now her mood had turned sour.

"And yes. We were close. As close as we could be. He was..studious. Smart. Diligent. He made the best mac n' cheese that you've ever tasted. Oh! Ami! I'm so sorry! I forgot! Butterbeer isn't vegan, at least when you make it using my recipe, but I have one that is. I'm so sorry!"

Mia scrounged around in her robes. She knew that she had the slip in there somewhere. She found it and handed it to a near by house elf, dressed in a putrid pink apron. Then she turned back to Ami.

"6 oz. apple juice or cider, 2 dashes cinnamon, 1 dash nutmeg, 1 pinch ginger, 1 tsp. imitation butter, 2 oz. nondairy milk or creamer, and additional cinnamon. So that you can have some vegan butterbeer!"

"Willy," Ami hastily corrected, catching Mia's stony expression. You screwed up, girlfriend. Mia looks like death- and that's probably what's coming your way. Why could she ever remember these things? They were so simple, the basics of conversation, and yet, she still managed to mess up- and now, Mia was probably really mad at her. "Willy. God, sorry, I am such an airhead sometimes."

Mia handed a folded sheet of paper to a house-elf, then turned back to Ami, seemingly rattling off a list of ingredients from the top of her head. "6 oz. apple juice or cider, 2 dashes cinnamon, 1 dash nutmeg, 1 pinch ginger, 1 tsp. imitation butter, 2 oz. nondairy milk or creamer, and additional cinnamon. So that you can have some vegan butterbeer!" Indeed, all the ingredients were most definitely vegan.

Ami glanced at Mia, eyebrows raised, and extremely surprised that she could remember such a random list of ingredients. "Wow. Yeah, that actually sounds incredibly amazing," she admitted, impressed at Mia's thoughtfulness. Not a lot of people went out of their way to provide Ami with edible sustenance. "Thank you- thank you both, for all of this. You don't know how much this means to me."

Mia smiled tightly and waved her hand in the air as if to say oh this is nothing! Really it was nothing. She had done much bigger things for her friends. Such as keep them alive for months after they were supposed to die and partially tarnishing her family name. So this was nothing.

Tossing her hair, Mia smiled at the little house elves around the kitchen. They looked like little bald old men and women. Some people found cat's cute. Mia found wrinkled creatures that could probably kill her with the snap of their delicate fingers cute. She was weird in that way.

She looked at Ami and Mae again, taking them in. She never had found out about their families, or their home lives. She was guessing that they knew about the Alexanders though. At least Ami did.

"Have you written any letters home yet?"

Mia smiled at them. She knew people like Amelia had, but others hadn't. She had, she had to. Rachel was in a dire condition, but she wasn't going to stay at home and skip a year. Though she could if she wanted to, and just get a tutor. But that would be a hassle.

"Letters..." Ami mused with a small smile on her face. Although texts were easier to write, to the Hufflepuff, letters were able to carry more of a sentimental value, and were far more romantic than a quick, Hello, yes, I'm still alive text. "Yeah, I have- I still need to find owls to send off my parents' letters, though." Mail... mail is so much easier. Why don't they just have postal service? Owls are so extra, she thought to herself, chuckling slightly. 

"I'll probably to that after dinner, if you'd like to come with me," the redhead added as an afterthought, tapping her chin. "Yeah, I should do that tonight, shouldn't I?" The last part was mostly to herself, as if she were setting a mental reminder on a to-do list. Ami really did seem rather dotty 65% of the time, but hopefully, that was a part of her charm.

As she watched the house-elves bustle about, she smiled to herself as she saw their expressions of pure delight at helping these three students out. Oh, how willingly they worked together, how seamlessly their cooperation and teamwork created a delicious meal that Ami would soon devour with pleasure. I wish I had a house-elf...

Mia looked at the girl with a questioning gaze. Find owls? What did she mean by that? The school provided owls, since almost no one bought one their first year. Mia had practically adopted one since she sent letters so frequently.

It was a little brown thing, with a poof on the top of its head, and wide wings, wider than you would expect. Every morning, Mia would go up to feed it, and it would nuzzle her pitifully flat chest, getting feathers all over her robes. She didn't mind, surprisingly.

Looking back at the red haired girl, Mia cracked a half smile.

"You know, there are school owls that you can use. Free of charge."

Mia smiled at bit at the girl. She seemed borderline intolerably forgetful, but soft at the same time. Plus they shared some sort of resemblance, so Mia just smiled and shut her lips, not wanting to offend the girl. The girl that was keeping all of them active an busy. If it wasn't for her, Mia would have been in bed, sleeping. Or reading. Her roomates weren't ones to talk, so she didn't really have to worry about that. But it was getting late.

Mae was silently enjoying the time with the two when she heard Ami talk about finding owls. She then heard Mia say "You know, there are school owls that you can use. Free of charge.". Mae was incredibly unsure as to what Ami met but she could understand where she was coming from. The mail service around here was letters and owls, and on her first week here Mae had that same mindset almost similar to Ami's, now she was fine and understood most things but she could see that it's going to take some time for Ami to adjust. "Ami, are you talking about the owls that you can send out to people like mail, but instead by owl?" Mae asked inquisitively. "Yeah don't we use owl's because their enchanted to find the way to the person we want to talk to?" Mae asked turning to Mia for her feedback. If their was anyone who would know a lot about the Wizarding world it was Mia she was a Pureblood from the questioning gaze that she gave to Ami. Today it seemed that Mae was the bridge of understanding to help out a bit and to learn a bit herself. 

Mia cocked her head to the side. She wasn't completely sure, but Mae sounded right. She wasn't sure if Mae was half-blood, because she seemed so knowledgeable.

"Actually Mae, I'm not sure. Owls, though, have many advantages. They operate under cover of darkness, to which Muggles have a superstitious aversion, so they don't get interfered with. They also are agile and stealthy, which is great. They are also capable of agression when provoked, which is great, so that muggles do not interfere with our letters."

Mia smiled at the two. She had gone on for quite a while, but she was sure they wouldn't mind. It was one cohesive thought, and it wasn't like she was just talking about herself. She was telling them useful information.

The food came and Mia took the large platter and set it on the table. There was a plate full of blueberries, a tofu chicken, and three glasses of butterbeer, one labeled in scraggly handwriting "Vegan."

Mia looked at the two other girls and smiled.

"Thank you so much for this meal. Now. Would you like to dig in?"

Mia used such a crude expression daintily, and placed the napkin that they gave her in her lap, spreading it out so that there were no creases in her lap.

Ami remained silent during the conversation about owls, however interesting it may have been, not wanting to talk about the large and pointedly obvious distance between her parents. She had yet to find an owl big enough, she forgot to add that last part on, that could bear the distance between Hogwarts and Chicago. But no, she didn't want to talk about that. Not now, not when there was food, and food freshly prepared, just to their liking. Life really couldn't get any better than this.

"Gosh, this looks flipping amazing," Ami gasped, taking her plate of vegan food, because it did. Better than anything her dad or mom had ever made, that was for sure. "Mia, you didn't get anything to eat," the Hufflepuff realized, noting that there were three butterbeers, but only two plates. Did she simply forget? Was Mia waiting for them to eat before going to the Great Hall to eat something herself? "Do you want us to take our food to the Great Hall and eat with you there? I'm sure you've gotta be starved by now, lunch was an eternity ago," she continued, eyebrows wrinkling together with concern. Mia had done so much for her in order to get her this meal, and here she was, sitting there and not eating.