Lily flopped on Beth's bed and picked up the 35mm camera lying there. "I haven't used a muggle camera in a long time," she told Beth framing Beth through the lens and snapping the shutter. "My dad always takes photos in the summer, but I have a wizard camera that I use here."
"How does a wizard camera work?" Beth asked curiously.
"I'm not sure," Lily chewed her lip. "The people in the pictures move though. Just for a few seconds, like a short moving picture." She handed the camera back to Beth.
Beth framed Lily and adjusted the aperture to make the depth of field shallow. "I'm shooting with black and white film." She took a few photos where only Lily's eyes were in sharp focus, the rest of her face soft and her hair blurry. It was early afternoon and the winter sun was bright outside giving her perfect lighting. "I love how classic it looks."
"So how do you like it here so far?" Lily rolled on to her back and stretched her arms over her head.
"Good first day yesterday," Beth nodded. She set the camera on her bedside table and stretched out next to Lily. "Were you surprised Dumbledore let me come here?"
"Very," Lily was also surprised Beth brought this up so soon. "He told me and James it was to create goodwill with the Department of Magic in the States."
"Mostly," Beth nodded. "There's a little more to it. My uncle and Dumbledore go way back. Dumbledore owes Uncle John a favor. Uncle John called it in so I could come here."
Lily turned on to her side, propping her head up with her elbow. "Why did you want to come here so much?"
Beth shrugged. "Let's just say I really needed to get away from my school for personal reasons. Plus I've always been fascinated with the wizard world—really, I've always wished I was born with magical powers like you." She smiled at Lily wistfully. "Being able to come here for a few months is really special for me."
"Aren't you homesick?" Lily asked.
"No," Beth smiled. "I miss my family, of course, but it feels nice to be somewhere different." Lily shot her a puzzled look that Beth didn't see. She had heard Beth's muffled sobs as she cried herself to sleep last night.
"Let's look at your schedule and make sure you have someone to take you to each class tomorrow," Lily suggested, deciding it might be best to change the subject.
"I have Arithmancy first," Beth pulled out the official looking parchment she'd received from Professor McGonagall when she met with her before lunch.
"Perfect," Lily said. "James and Sirius are in that class. We'll meet up with them at breakfast."
Beth rolled more comfortably on her back. "Tell me about your friends and Hogwarts." For the next hour, Lily told Beth about the Marauders (Beth snickered, "I seriously hope they came up with that lame name when they were eleven and first started here-not last year"), how wizard mail worked ("Owls? You've got to be kidding?"), what courses they took ("I have no idea what most of you just said even means"), sports ("You only have one school sport? And it's played on a broom? This I've got to see"), and the house elves ("Are they paid to do all the dirty work?").
Lily asked about Beth's school and listened as Beth told her that she played water polo, was on the swim team and managed the boy's water polo team ("If you've ever seen water polo player's bodies, you'd know why I'm willing to put in the extra time"), her older brother ("He's away at college so we only see each other when he's on break but he's awesome"), her uncle ("We're really close but he lives clear across the country from us so we don't see him as much as we'd like") and her desire to be a teacher. Surprisingly, Beth became evasive when Lily asked about Beth's close friends. Lily was puzzled when Beth's face closed off and after a few questions she gave up. They'd just met and Lily shouldn't expect Beth to confide in her. Still, it was, well weird.