Fairy Tales or History? PV Dennis Tumberton Closed

Nellie was pretty sure she was losing him. He was asking questions, sure, but there were only so many things you could not understand before you tuned out entirely. Did she really care if he liked history, though? She found it fascinating, but if someone didn’t like it, that was okay. Maybe.

Still, maybe she was misreading her friend. Maybe he really was enjoying the story. Nellie had the advantage of having two parents that had always told her the ways of the world in an effort to prepare her for it. That, and she read a lot, though always fiction. Even historical books without the flair of fiction didn’t hold her interest. Perhaps storytelling was just not one of her skills.

She chuckled at the suggestion. “I mean, yeah she could have married anyone. They all could have. But Henry was King. He had the most power and fame, not just in the country, but he was really powerful in Europe in general. Elizabeth would actually later rule England. She’d be the last Tudor monarch. She would never marry but she did a ton of really cool things for England. She’s actually my favorite person in history.” Flipping through the pages, she found a picture of Elizabeth I and slid it over to Dennis.

“Divorce was a thing, but for Catholics, only in really specific situations. That’s why Henry created a new religion. But he didn’t divorce Anne because politics, my dad says. I don’t really get it all, but I guess it’s complicated.” Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “So, Jane, wife number three winds up giving Henry his only son and then dies because of birth complications. After Jane, Henry married Anne of Cleves, who was German. He complained she didn’t look like her picture and divorced her six months later. She lived a nice life and never wanted for anything. I heard someone has a crush on you. Now… Kathryn Howard. He was thirty years older than her. But… it turned out that when she was really young, she’d had a secret wedding and then wasn’t faithful to Henry, so she was also beheaded.” It had been dropped so quickly, he might not hear it at all, but that was the intention.

@Dennis Tumberton

Nellie continued the story obviously not registering Dennis’ growing fatigue with the subject. He was sure the story was riveting to those who found this subject interesting. The poor boy, however, was having a hard time keeping on the twists and turns straight. Marriages, divorce, beheadings, power plays, Tudors. It was too much at last for the little Ravenclaw to handle. He looked at the time and saw that it was past curfew. They had been there a long time! Or did he just come late? Dennis couldn’t really remember.

He sat up straighter in his seat and leaned on the table, saying in a whisper, “Hey, Nellie. We will need to continue our story another night. I think it’s time to go. We better get back before we are caught!” Dennis then made a move to get up and beckoned her to follow him. He wasn’t about to be caught out with a girl but he couldn’t leave Nellie to fend for herself. That would be very un-Dennis-like indeed! He made it to the door of the library and waited to see if his friend was following.

He really didn’t want to get detention if it could be avoided. It would be his first time and really didn’t want to have that experience his first year!

@Nellie Lam