No Matter How Far Away You Are Solo Harrow Closed

Maria, Avis, Alaina, Mum, Dad, Grandpa, Grandma, Daniel, Aina

If there was one thing that Ehani Marlong was good at, it was cooking. Hogwarts food was fine. Her mother's food was decent, but oh her grandmother's. Avis could smell the tangy spice before she even entered the kitchen, and she was melting. Aina and Daniel were bickering about something as they set dishes on the table and Avis licked her lips as she took her seat, between Alaina and Maria, who were already chattering away. After the prayer-the only time when one could talk without getting, interrupted-she filled her plate to the brim. She had eaten a sad lunch today, to prepare for the feast she knew was coming. A stack of poker chips lay on the counter next to a delicious-looking pastry dish, that Avis knew she needed to save room for later.

"So Avis, how was your first semester at Hogwarts?" Her father asked.

"And more importantly, how's the magic." Aunt Aina wiggled her fingers around mysteriously, winking at Avis. Alaina and Maria both sat very still.

"Give us your top ten list." Her grandfather's Nepali accent shone through as he spoke, and Avis grinned. "My top ten?" She took a large bite of food as she thought.

"10. There's this practice room, its insane. It's like a ballroom, and it's so much fun to practice in. 9. Quidditch and broom racing are super fun to watch."

"Do wizards actually fly around on brooms?" Her sister asked around a mouthful of food, causing her to earn a look from her mother.

"Yes, they do. They have a charm that make it comfortable, rather than sitting on a stick though. Its still pretty scary. 8. History of Magic classes. They're actually really interesting, and the information is fun..." Avis continued to rattle off her list, ignoring her grandmother's confused look and her grandfather's concurrent translations, making it to negative 6 before she ran out of things to say. "The best part has got to be the magic." She wiggled to fingers, mocking Aunt Aina, causing Aunt Aina to roll her eyes good-naturedly. "Hey, not all of us can do magic you know."

"At least you have electricity," Avis muttered, prompting new flurry of quesitions.

"No electricity?"

"What about air conditioning?"

"Not even lights?"

"Anywhere in the castle?"

Avis drew out an exaggerated groan as if these were all common sense things. It was a bit of a relief, though. At Hogwarts, it was as if everyone else knew more than her, she was so behind. Here, she was much further in wizarding knowledge than everyone else, a nice change. She grinned and answered each question one by one, only pausing to eat. Once she had finished her plate, her grandmother got up and took the pastry dish from the counter, serving it to each member before standing by her own chair, "Tapā'īlā'ī yō kastō lāgcha?" How do you like it?

As everyone knew, "How do you like it?" was code for "Say thank you," which is what Avis' father translated it as for the Lopezs and Avis' mum. Her mum knew enough scraps of Nepali to roll her eyes but still said "It's very good, thank you," and the rest of the group followed suit, in various languages.

Satisfied, Ehani smiled and sat down in her chair, and served herself a piece of pastry. "Tapā'īnlā'ī svāgata cha" You're welcome. The rest of the meal passed quickly, with limited noise but the sounds of chewing.

After a quieter than usual game of Poker and another joking argument (Aina had won yet again), her grandparents finally excused themselves, practically dragging Aunt Aina out of the house as they said their goodbyes and headed back to their own homes. Daniel left shortly after, hugging his daughter and offering a short "Glad you're home," to Avis.

Without half of the dinner crowd, the house felt quieter, and emptier, but not for long, as Alaina bolted past Avis with an achingly familiar piece of wood. "Alaina! Give me my wand!" Alaina simply giggled and slipped up the stairs. Avis sprinted after her. Chasing her sister was truly the majority of the exercise that Avis got. She called for Maria as she stopped in her room, inspecting her bags to make sure nothing else had gone missing. Maria appeared a moment later, having grabbed her overnight bag that was always stored in the linen closet incase of a sleepover. "Alaina took my wand."

"The little sneak. She probably wants to try and see if she can do magic."

"She won't be able to."

A dark flicker flashed across Maria's face, and she frowned. "Yeah, we know."

Oh. Avis bit her lip. She got to go off to a school for wizards, see quidditch and do magic, but Maria was still stuck in school and in the shop. "Maria..."

Maria waved her off before she could finish. "It's fine. Let's go get your wand." They chased Alaina around the house until her mum called for them to head to bed, chattering just as loudly as before, but tiptoeing around the subject of magic. A hard thing to avoid, considering Avis had breathed it for the past four months. Still, she managed to shove down her unease until she was lying in bed, her sister's soft snores echoed from across the room, Maria in the bunk below, staring at the ceiling. Maria and she had never been this quiet before.

"It's not all good. It's always dark since there aren't any lights besides candles." Maria remained quiet. "I'm not learning maths, or reading, mum would be furious." Still no sound came from below. Avis sighed. "There's a kid in my year who is haunted by dolls that cut off his hand and tried to drag him into a forest full of monsters."" A loud thud echoed below as Maria whacked her head on the top in her shock. "There was WHAT?"

Avis slipped down the ladder and sat next to Maria, who was rubbing her head but staring at shock at Avis. "It's dangerous. All these monsters exist and are so much worse than anything here. It's all very crazy." She shuddered a bit. Maria draped her arm around Avis, "I don't wish I could go to Hogwarts anymore."