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wunderkind

STUFF GOES IN HERE

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From:

bitty_justice

[And Miles takes it, but his eyes are fixed on Sirius' face. He tilts his head very slightly to the side and asks, with hardly a bit of self-consciousness:]

Is something the matter with him?

From:

parumcanis

[He shrugs, kicking at the floor a little.]

Nah. He was a really great wizard.

[A beat.]

Did you hear about all of the Houses, yet?

From:

bitty_justice

[That sounds like a lie - maybe? Miles can't quite tell, but there's something else there. He can't tell...but he's been asked a question, and so he answers:]

No, I - I don't think so. What are they?

From:

parumcanis

Really?

[He's genuinely surprised by that answer, but he's also please just to have something else to talk about. It will lead back to Slytherin, of course, but that's all right, for now--]

The four Hogwarts houses. Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. When you get Sorted. You do know about the Sorting, right?

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles shakes his head. Apologetically, with a hesitant smile:]

Sorry. I'm...pretty new to this.

From:

parumcanis

Whaaaaat!

[His disbelief is more fond and amused than anything accusatory.]

Merlin! What do you know-- well, c'mon, let's get in the compartment, I'll tell you about it. You can't get to Hogwarts and know absolutely nothing--

[He ducks past Edgeworth, to the compartment he and James claimed for themselves--that girl Evans and the greasy Snape have long since fled, thank God, so it's blessedly empty. He holds the door open for Edgeworth, expectantly.]

Come on!

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles' luggage is three compartments back, and he does hesitate a moment, because they'd spent a good amount of that strange money on robes and cauldrons and all of that, and if it ends up stolen - But a worse prospect, he thinks, than losing a few books is losing the possibility of earning the friendship of Sirius Black, who's strange and a little bit barbaric but also really nice and funny. So it's a short moment he pauses - and then he ducks inside after him, answering that (possibly rhetorical) question.]

There was a man from the Ministry of Magic who came to our home, but he only was there for about ten minutes before he left. He hardly answered any questions. And the boy in my compartment was very, very rude and wouldn't talk to me.

[There, Miles feels no compunctions about having a bad word to say about someone. The translucently pale boy had turned up his lip in a blatant sneer when Miles had tried to strike up a shy conversation. There were many things Miles had been taught to forgive; such base unpleasantness wasn't one.]

I know that Hogwarts is very architecturally impressive. The man from the ministry left us a, um, pamphlet.

From:

parumcanis

Who was he?

[Sirius will know the boy, whoever he is. He'll have met him before, at one stilted party or another, and he will not like him, but he will have had to pretend as if he did.

Dismissively, he snorts, as he climbs back into his seat. James' trunk is shoved above their heads, precarious. Sirius' is wedged very particularly into place. The side of it bears his initials in gleaming gold; he stares at it a moment before he looks at Edgeworth, his nose wrinkled.]

A pamphlet. Hogwarts is too great for a pamphlet. There's four Houses, right--Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Slytherin is for the clever and the crafty--Gryffindors are courageous and foolish-- [Though despite himself there's a touch of admiration to his tone, foolish, it's brilliant, being brave and foolish, too much time spent with James Potter already--] Ravenclaw is for those clever with books and things, and Hufflepuff is crap, you don't want to be Sorted into Hufflepuff.

From:

bitty_justice

The man from the ministry? I think it was - Cogswallow. Um - Romulus Cogswallow. Dad thought that was a fake name.

[Still, Miles sits down and listens attentively. Each bit of information he considers, turns over in his mind, and then nods. He reserves judgment on Hufflepuff - you can't hold faith with someone saying something is terrible, Dad taught him; you can believe the good that people say, but not the bad - but listens to the others. And he says, dubiously:]

So Ravenclaw is the best, then?

From:

parumcanis

I meant the kid. Cogswallow is a stupid name, though.

[He observes that without any real rancor--it's just true, he might as well say it. But Edgeworth's question gets a snort out of him.]

They aren't. Are you really that keen on being brainy?

From:

bitty_justice

Oh. He wouldn't even tell me his name when I asked. He was really tall, though, and was really pale.

Anyway, being brainy is good. My Dad always says that you should try to be clever, and you should try to be brave. But you already said that the Gryffindors are also fools, and so that sort of leaves them out.

From:

parumcanis

[Really pale describes a great many people--and it doesn't actually matter, so Sirius just snorts dismissively.]

Fools because they're so brave, yeah. They're better than Ravenclaw.

[He glances towards the door, like someone is going to burst in and tell him off for suggesting that. But of course there's no one, and he glances back at Edgeworth. There's a beat of silence, and then he confesses:]

Everyone in my family's been in Slytherin.

From:

bitty_justice

[It's not hard to tell that this was quite a big thing for Sirius to have admitted; Miles isn't really sure why, because even if Miles doesn't envision himself as being crafty there's nothing altogether wrong with it. Maybe because Sirius wants to be in Gryffindor? That's not hard to tell at all.]

Well, I'm sure Slytherin's really good. It sounds like the - the man from the card did a lot of really impressive things.

[But that's mostly diplomatic rather than genuine - not because Miles has anything against Slytherin, but just because of Sirius' attitude.]

But I bet you'd be really happy if you ended up in Gryffindor, too. You seem pretty brave.

From:

parumcanis

[He screws up his nose a little, like he's going to defer that braveness--but he likes that it was observed about him, it lights something in him, gives him a feeling of warmth and pride. So what if Edgeworth is probably just making the observance because it's clear that's what Sirius wants. Maybe he isn't. Maybe it's more than that. Maybe there really is something in Sirius that rates Gryffindor, and that testament to his bravery urges a new boldness in him.]

Maybe. The Sorting Hat will work it out, it's good at things like that. Godric Gryffindor was great, too--he's on a card. If you open another one, you might get him.

Are you hoping for Ravenclaw, then?

From:

bitty_justice

[And Miles can see that pride. It's not hard to. He guesses - probably Sirius' mom and dad want him to end up in Slytherin like them. Dad never pressured Miles or anything, but Miles is pretty sure that Dad was always so happy that Miles wanted to be a lawyer (and he still will be a lawyer, he's decided, just a magical one). It's probably the same thing here - Mr and Mrs Black would just be really happy if they saw Sirius ending up like them, and Sirius must be scared of the possibility of not making them happy.

But Dad's said time and again that he'd be happy if Miles ends up a lawyer and he'll be happy if he ends up a wizard and he'll be happy if he ends up a garbageman back in America. Miles knows, in his heart of hearts, that Mr and Mrs Black would be proud of Sirius even if he were put into Hufflepuff.]

I don't know. I guess I'm not really hoping for anything. I like to read - [He gives a little nod, like he's confirming something that isn't obvious.] And I get good marks. So I guess that would be...natural. [He hesitates - ] People still get to be friends with people in other houses, right?

From:

parumcanis

Oh, yeah.

[He says it with full confidence, but he's not entirely sure. Probably they're allowed, yeah? It would make sense. Just because most of the people he knows who have been to Hogwarts have nothing to do with the other houses doesn't mean that it's not allowed--mostly they haven't anything to do with the other houses, there's always exceptions. Even in Hufflepuff. Plenty of decent pure-blood witches and wizards have been in Hufflepuff.

It's just that Sirius won't be. He kicks his heel against the floor, a little moody.]

You have classes together, and meals, and study periods and all. And Hogsmeade weekends. [Hogsmeade is a good topic; he brightens.] You don't know about Hogsmeade, do you? It's the largest magical settlement in England--and when we're third years, we'll be allowed to go down to the village by ourselves.

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles watches Sirius droop, then brighten again. There's a lot he doesn't know, and he thinks there must be a lot he doesn't understand right now, too. There's...so much he's looking forward to learning, to finding out, but...there's a bit that makes him nervous, too. Like whatever it is that's making Sirius scuff his feet on the floor like that.

Still, he gives a little smile:]

That sounds cool. Do they have museums there? Stuff like that?

From:

parumcanis

[Sirius isn't yet old enough to scoff outright at the mere mention of museums. There are still, in his young, uneducated opinion--some cool museums out there, and so he takes Edgeworth's question quite seriously, giving it some real thought.]

Maybe one. Or two. But you'd be better going to Diagon Alley for stuff like that. You went there, right? To get all of your supplies and things? Isn't it brilliant?

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles gives a tentative little grin, nodding.]

Yeah. I thought I was going to...go mad at first, with all of it. It's so much different from what I grew up with.

[He drums his heels lightly against the bench he's sitting on.]

Have you been around stuff like that all your life?

From:

parumcanis

[Sirius grins back, proud. It's not even a muggle-borns versus purebloods thing, he just likes the world that he's from. It's vastly superior to the boring old muggle world, isn't it? Like Christmas compared to every other day: one of them is drab and boring and plain, and the other is bright and shiny, full of surprises and random explosions--Sirius has always been around magic, so it's only been in recent years that he's noticed any contrast at all. His forays into the muggle world are very brief, very limited, but he can sense what is boring better than anything else.]

Yeah. Everyone in my family is a witch or a wizard--
[And here's where he ought to say something impressive about the Blacks, to this kid that doesn't know anything--pity him for not recognising the surname and treating Sirius accordingly--but something stops Sirius. It's sort of refreshing, being unknown, for now.]

Always have been. I didn't even really know about muggles for ages, not properly. My father works with the Ministry, so we didn't have to go out into the muggle world for very much.

From:

bitty_justice

That's so strange.

[But Miles says it with a smile, warm and wondering, because it's strange in the good way. Strange in the way of hidden things, mysteries to uncover; he likes that strangeness so very much. He loves his life back home; there's no question of that. He loves his dad, and he loves his home, and he loves his old school. But there's so much here to explore and to know. People living their lives with magic and only magic.

Though on the downside - ]

Though I guess that means you're going to be at a different level from me at school, aren't you? If you've been doing magic all your life.

From:

parumcanis

small>[He was ready to defend, but Edgeworth's smile is enough to confirm what he'd suspected: that he's suitably impressed and pleased and happy with the world, and that's good enough for Sirius. Less work for him to do to convince him.]

Nah, we're not allowed to do magic outside of school. Underage magic isn't permitted. [And he has to boast--] 'Course, I've still done a little.

From:

bitty_justice

[Miles' glance is a bit chiding. But not too much so. Because Sirius Black is weird, and mad, and a little rude, and ridiculous, and Miles desperately hopes they end up in lessons together and maybe even in the same House together. Miles doesn't think he's ever been so comfortable speaking with anyone.]

So I'm not going to be very behind? I've already read the textbooks. The basic concepts don't seem so hard to grasp.

From:

parumcanis

[Sirius only grins in the face of that glance, entirely unashamed. Really, he's proud if anything. Why shouldn't he have done a bit of magic on the side? He's entitled to, if his uncle offers his wand for a test run, who in their right mind would refuse?

But he's quickly distracted by his disbelief.]

You read a textbook?

From:

bitty_justice

[And Miles is surprised in turn by Sirius' surprise. He tilts his head to the side curiously.]

Yes. The - textbooks we were assigned to buy. I read through the first three chapters of each of them at the very least. A bit more on some of the others. Transfiguration seems fascinating.