Hazel laughed. "Pleasant guy, isn't he?"

Forty minutes later, Remus, Hazel, Violet, and I all went to the Great Hall for breakfast. As far as we could tell, Rome was still fast asleep. I'd wanted to wait for him, but in the end, we were too hungry.

So we walked out of our room, through the crowded common room, down the passage, out of the barrels, through the hallway with the painted fruit, and up the set of stairs. When we entered the Great Hall, about half of the teachers were in their seats, talking. The four tables were about half full as well but were quickly filling. The four of us sat at our table together, and a little while later the food appeared.

"Where does the food come from, d'you think?" asked Violet, buttering a slice of toast. "I mean, who makes it?"

Remus shrugged. "Probably magic-ed into existence, or whatever."

Hazel shook her head, spooning a serving of strawberries onto her plate. "You can't conjure food. It's one of the five-or-so things you can't do with magic."

I blinked. "Really? Why?"

Hazel shrugged. "I dunno why, I just know you can't. You can make food bigger or smaller, you can cook it, and you can duplicate it, but you can't conjure or transfigure food. Something to do with molecules."

"How do you know that?" Remus asked. "Did you read that in one of your books?"

Hazel shook her head and blushed a little bit. "I asked Mary, my sister if she could transfigure me a birthday cake on my half-birthday when I was nine, and then she went into this whole lecture. I remember bits and pieces."

Remus grinned. "That's nothing. Violet tried to get my mum to transfigure butterfly wings onto my dog. My brother ended up in the St. Mungo's ward that's for Creature-Induced Injuries when it bit him with some weird venomous spit! He turned out fine, though, and now it's just a story we laugh about on Christmas."

Violet blushed. "I'd heard you telling the neighbors that you wished your dog could fly, and I had been having a bit of a butterfly obsession. How would I have known that your mum can't do a proper Transfiguration?"

Remus gasped in mock horror. "Are you blaming this on my mum? I'll have you know she does excellent Transfiguration." He hesitated. "When she's not under pressure?"

The cousins both kept their mock-angry expressions on their faces for a moment longer before bursting into laughter, as Hazel and I traded expressions of amusement.

"Jeezum, you two could be twins!" Hazel laughed. "I don't even get how it's funny!"

Remus grinned widely. "My mum is amazing under pressure. She's better under pressure than normal life. If she has time to choose, she'll take ages trying to decide what will be best for everyone, but if you give her five minutes to choose a birthday present she somehow manages to get the best thing."

Violet and Remus kept talking, telling us stories of their family. I kind of stopped paying attention after a while and tried to find Trinity at the Slytherin table. I couldn't see very well, since the Ravenclaw table was in between the Slytherin and Hufflepuff tables. I must have been craning quite a bit because eventually, Hazel noticed.

"Who're you looking for, Ret?"

I sighed, sitting all the way down. "There's a Slytherin girl, Trinity Harris, that I met on the train. She was really nice, and I was hoping I could find her after breakfast. I don't see her, though."

Hazel blinked. "Aren't the Slytherins all supposed to be mean?"

Violet shook her head. "Not really. Technically, as the Sorting Hat said, they're just supposed to be ambitious and cunning. It's just an old prejudice that makes everyone assume they're evil."

I huffed. "I think the whole sorting bias is dumb. At Ilvermorny, you're sorted based more on what your job would be in real life than what your "personality" is. Horned Serpent is supposed to be scholars, Wampus is warriors, Thunderbird is adventurers, and Pukwudgie is healers."

"Now how in the world d'you know that? And what was that last one? Puke-wedgie?!" Remus looked incredulous.

"Horned Serpent, Wampus, Thunderbird, and puck-wudge-ee are the houses," I said slowly. "I know things about Ilvermorny because I lived in California. Until this month, I'd never left the US. All three of my siblings went to Ilvermorny." At this point I was getting a little tired of explaining this.

Violet opened her mouth to ask another question, but I interrupted her. "Before you ask, I have no idea why I'm going to Hogwarts instead of Ilvermorny. I got the letter for Hogwarts, and I came."

Hazel looked mind-blown. "Somehow it hadn't even occurred to me that there were other magical schools besides Hogwarts. It definitely makes sense, but discovering one magical country was mind-blowing enough for me. There are more?!"

I grinned. "I only know a few, but there is Ilvermorny in the US, Hogwarts in Britain, Beauxbatons in France, and Durmstrang in Russia. Apparently, there's also one in the Amazon Rainforest, but I can never remember what it's called."

Hazel managed to look more mind-blown, and Violent laughed at her facial expression. "Are you muggle-born then?"

Hazel nodded. "Yeah, never heard of Hogwarts before the letter came in July."

Violet looked intrigued. "What's the thing that muggles use for lights? El-eck-tree?"

Remus groaned. "Violet here is obsessed with muggle technology. She has been trying to figure out if she could use el-eck-tree to trigger a spell."

Hazel laughed. "I dunno if that'll work, but I do know that it is pronounced Electricity. Uh-lek-tri-suh-tee."

We spent the rest of breakfast laughing at Remus and Violet's dreadful attempts at pronouncing the word. I had some no-maj family, so I at least knew the very bare basics of wire, lightbulbs, and electricity, but Remus and Violet were practically hopeless. By the time we'd finished eating, Remus was convinced he'd got it right at Uh-lek-tree, and Violet was arguing that he was wrong, it was Uh-lick-tri-tee.

As we were starting to head back to our common room I spotted Trinity across the hall. "Hang on guys, I just spotted Trinity. Go ahead to our room, I just want to talk to her real quick."

Before they could reply I hurried across the room, weaving and dodging students.

"Hey, Trinity!" I called, ducking under a tall Ravenclaw's arm. "Trinity!"

She turned and saw me. "Hey! Ret!" She beamed. "Do you have double Transfiguration Monday?"

I smiled widely. "Yes! Could we spend some of today and tomorrow looking for our classes? I've barely left the great hall, my common rooms really close."

She nodded. "Absolutely. Could we meet after lunch? It ends at 1:30, and my roommates want to show me something."

I smiled. "Sure! My roommates are already back at our common room, I should probably catch up with them. Can I meet you at the entrance to the great hall after lunch?"

She nodded, and I headed back to my common room, already unable to wait to talk to her after lunch.