wintery visits

[peterxy]

 So it goes.

Sadde doesn't come up with a good idea for a club for most Slytherins. Their intersecting interests seem to lie in the vicinity of "Pureblood club" and that's something Sadde will not support. They haven't managed to befriend all firsties, but their consistent association with the Ravenclaws coupled with helping people out pretty consistently has gotten most people to give them the benefit of the doubt. The trickster-ish streak does mean people are a bit confused about them, though.

Older Slytherins are still pretty resolutely against Sadde, but that's not too bad, and it's only been three and a half months.

(Also, Sadde has managed to not ask Miranda about her plans for a month and a half. Even if the curiosity is eating them inside.)

And Winter Holidays are next week.

Comments

[chanuphis]

"I'm not sure I'd characterize it that way."

[mswoods]

"How would you characterise it?"

[chanuphis]

"They... ignore it and come up with ways to use it anyway. Like gravity. Nobody except physicists thinks about it very much, but we have stairs."

[mswoods]

"I'm not so sure. I mean, personally I have thought about death way more than about gravity, but even in general, I don't know if people would be so... fixated on stuff like religion and the afterlife if death didn't scare them at least a little."

[chanuphis]

"Even people who aren't religious are like that though."

[mswoods]

"Right! I mean, I suppose when it comes to you ending death isn't much about courage, maybe. I don't know if I'm scared of death but I think if I'm not it has something to do with being eleven. It feels like it makes sense to be afraid of death."

[chanuphis]

"I mean... I'm not not afraid to die but going around being afraid seems like a waste of time to me and it looks like everybody else thinks so too, they just need to do more complicated things to not go around being afraid," says Miranda.

"This conversation doesn't sound especially Christmasy," remarks Renée, offering the girls mugs of cider.

[mswoods]

"It's not particularly un-Christmasy to us," Sadde comments, accepting the mug, and Laura nods in agreement. "And I see what you mean," she tells Miranda.

[chanuphis]

"Good, because I didn't have a better way to explain it handy."

[mswoods]

"Analogies and comparisons are good! I like them, you can use them to explain things."

[chanuphis]

"Good."

[mswoods]

Sip sip.

Look around.

"So, is your dad... like, do you spend time with him?"

[chanuphis]

"Yes."

"Miranda!" exclaims Renée.

Miranda winces.

[mswoods]

She looks between the both of them. "Er?"

[chanuphis]

"Although Miranda's father and I are no longer together," says Renée, "he is alive and well and I am astonished to hear that you have been friends all semester and not heard of him and I hope it is not why I think it is."

"Mum, we left the entire country over people being horrid about blood status, and if anyone thinks I'm a bigot I can just mention you, and I haven't been lying!"

[mswoods]

She blinks slowly. "I had kind of assumed he was just not very present because of... reasons," she says, eloquently.

[chanuphis]

"No," sighs Miranda, "they're divorced and I mostly live with Mum but he's alive and he's nice and he'll be here tomorrow and I'll be at his place Boxing Day to when school starts again, but I preferred to sound people out while sounding like I was completely wix-raised and explaining all my Muggle knowledge through Mum being Muggleborn."

Renée shakes her head.

[mswoods]

She scratches her head. "Did you expect people- non-Slytherins, anyway, would treat you any worse if they knew your dad was a muggle? I mean, I think even to most snakes the difference between muggle and muggleborn is basically how often they have to see one."

Laura does not really react. Apparently Sadde has explained the things to her.

[chanuphis]

"I didn't know, and I wanted to know before it got rumored around the entire school the way things sometimes are. And I know at least a couple people have been assuming my dad is a dead wizard."

[mswoods]

She shrugs. "Fair enough, I guess. My dad was only a jerkwad."

"Language!" Laura admonishes.

"Wasn't he?"

Laura just sighs.

[chanuphis]

"I don't want you picking up from those terrorists that you ought to be ashamed of your father, Miranda."

"I'm not ashamed of him! That's not what I said!"

[mswoods]

Sadde looks between them again. She's not sure whether she should say anything so better not. Probably.

[chanuphis]

"Well - not tomorrow, tomorrow's Christmas, but the day after, you're going to explain this to him," Renée says.

"And he'll say that he's glad I'm keeping safe," says Miranda stubbornly.

"We'll see."

[mswoods]

"For what it's worth, I understand what she's saying," Sadde tells Renée tentatively.

[chanuphis]

"You went to school years before we did," Miranda adds to Renée. "And you noticed things were bad in regular wix society but you went to school the first year after Harry Potter was born and that was years ago and it's different and I'm not being horrible just for the sake of it."