Up and Down

Alike and Different

"It's nice, when you visit."

Anne's smile is warm, belying the coldness of her fingers. Anna puts her other hand on top of Anne's, trying to share her warmth.

"Uncle Solomon is doing his best to be more pleasant when other people are about. People who aren't family... or adjacent to it."

"Like Ominis?" she supplies. Anne chuckles.

"Yes, like Ominis. He might as well be his other troublesome nephew, with all the summers he spent in this house. But you're different. And I dare say, he has a higher opinion of Ravenclaws than of us troublemakers."

Anna laughs, squeezing the thin, bony hand a bit tighter. She is still so cold...

"I'm afraid I'm also a troublemaker."

"Of course you are. Sebastian and Ominis wouldn't be your friends otherwise," there is a knowing smile on the other girl's face.

With her and the boys around - mostly her and Ominis, though - Solomon felt confident enough that Anne would be safe to have a rare evening for himself at the small local pub. He did make her swear to him she will come running should Anne have another attack.

The boys are outside the back of the house, talking about some thing or another. Anna would occasionally hear the swish of a wand and a crash of a training dummy.

"Not sure Ominis considers me his friend, Anne."

"Oh shush. Of course he does. And... and I'm glad the two of them have you. I was worried what they would do without me to mediate things between them. But there is at least one other girl who can stand the both of them in the same place at the same time. I do wonder what they get up to in the Common Room, but at least you can keep an eye on things when they aren't there..."

Anne coughs into a handkerchief, but it subsides quickly and she shakes her head at the alarmed look Anna is giving her.

"I'm alright. Just hard to keep warm..."

"Here," Anna slips off her cerulean scarf and wraps it around Anne's neck. It should still be warm from her body.

"Thank you," Anne smiles and for a brief moment she can see the girl Sebastian misses so dearly.

"Would you like more tea?"

Anne's laugh is a bit weak as if it's hard for her to breathe.

"I should be the one offering. I'm quite a poor host, I fear."

"Nonsense," Anna flicks her wand, creating more water for the kettle, "it's just tea. Hot leaf water, if you think about it."

"I'll say. Father used to like a cup of coffee. He picked up the taste for it when visiting America. Which is just hot bean water. When you think about it," Anne smiles in gentle remembrance, "Mum didn't much care for it in the house. Said it smells burnt."

"Your father used to live in America?" Anna stokes the fire with another flick of her wand.

"Oh, yes. He was a professor at Hogwarts, along with Mum. But he had gone to America for a couple of years to teach a course at Ilvermorny. That was before me and Sebastian were born."

The kettle whistles, and with a small twirl of her wrist, Anna easily guides it to pour water into an old, faded but clearly well-loved teapot.

"What did the two of them teach?" She asks, curious.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts for Father, and Potions for Mum."

"I see. Also, it now makes sense Sebastian is so good at both."