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Even when it was Jessamine’s day to get her Hogwarts supplies for the first time, it was still not about her. Despite them being able to make the trip to Diagon Alley whenever they wanted, her parents and a couple of her siblings had taken to the street for some retail therapy of their own, leaving Jessamine to spent the bulk of her time with the Hemlocks’ house elf. She quickly brushed off the miserable feeling though, deciding to take the shops of the alley by storm and hopefully making a sizable dent in her parents’ galleon pouches.

When enough time had passed to describe her arrival to her Madam Malkins appointment as fashionably late, Jessamine strolled in with two bags on each arm. Bolo, the house elf, hobbled in behind her, dragging three more. She immediately spotted her mother who had her arms folded. Once they locked eyes, the woman surged forward, grabbing Jessamine by the arms and shoving her onto one of the fitting stands. Nearby, a seamstress stood with a pissy expression. Good.

She unloaded her bags onto Bolo and stretched her arms out with a pleased look while the seamstress got to work on mapping out some custom-fit work robes. Though, before Jessamine could get too bored with standing still, she caught an interaction through the mirror in front of her. An elegant couple approached her parents and a young girl about Jessamine’s age trailed behind them. Both pairs shook hands and launched into animated conversation with each other.

Jessamine eyed the newcomers closely, not instantly recognizing them by appearance. The mother’s skin was brown and her features looked quite South Asian. In contrast, the father looked like a typical Englishman. Could these be the Rohrs? She moved her gaze to the daughter, tilting her head and observing the girl from head to toe, wondering if, come September, they would be on a train to Hogwarts for the first time.

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───────────────@Violet Rohr ────── August 5th, 2023 ───────────────

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Jessamine, with her head still tilted, gave the possible Rohr girl a smile. Condescending or enigmatic, it was up to the one on the receiving end to interpret. She didn’t know much about the Rohrs, but on occasion, she did hear her father mention the name in relation to his work with the Ministry. So the girl was a Ministry brat then. Well, Jessamine couldn’t complain since she was half of one too.

After a few beats of eyeing the girl up and down, Jessamine wiggled the fingers of her outstretched right hand, returning the girl’s wave. She pasted on a smile more appropriate for meeting new friends. With a glance through the mirror to their parents, Jessamine could tell that they were having a good time conversing with each other. At least, that’s the way they appeared. She knew all too well about the masks that her parents wore when they wanted to hide what they were truly feeling. This family was clearly in the same social bracket as the Hemlocks, so could they be the same?

“Seems like our parents know each other well,” Jessamine started, breaking the silence between her and the girl. “My name’s Jessamine. Hemlock. Will you be attending Hogwarts next month?"

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───────────────@Violet Rohr ────── August 5th, 2023 ───────────────

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Jessamine’s smile deepened as she heard her name repeated back to her in a stutter. She did love the shy ones, and while she couldn’t yet label this girl as timid, the signs were definitely there. Though, it seemed that Jessamine was right about her being a Rohr. She was unsure if that complicated things for her, or made them so much easier. A pure-blood would probably have zero tolerance for the kind of things she liked to put others through, but if Jessamine wanted to cause some waves in the pure-blood scene, then their children were the perfect place to start. Oh… she was getting ahead of herself. A full conversation hadn’t even passed between her and this girl.

“Violet, huh? That’s a pretty name too. Put your first name and my family name together and we’d make a convincing plant,” she joked. Jessamine always saw violets as a rich flower – purple in color and beautiful when used as decoration. In contrast, hemlock had always been labelled as poisonous. The two of them could make a pretty deadly combination, but Jessamine preferred herself alone. Still, making conversation was always fun. “What do I think of Hogwarts? Well, I haven’t given it much thought beyond,” she leaned in closer to Violet and whispered, much to the annoyance of the seamstress, “being away from our parents for like… a whole ten months.” She rocked back, smiling. “Have you given Hogwarts much thought?”

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───────────────@Violet Rohr ────── August 5th, 2023 ───────────────

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