A Strange New World

Myles was in the middle of nowhere. Well, the middle of somewhere by way of nowhere. He just didn't know where to go. There were moving walls and funny hats and funny faces. Honestly, he just felt vulnerable in a way he'd never felt vulnerable before. In Houston, sure, people felt vulnerable all the time, but that didn't mean he didn't fit in. Things just weren't always safe, but that was a place he was certainly included.

He wasn't afraid to approach someone in Houston. Here he definitely was. He definitely wasn't a part of the world around him. He was a conscious observer. He was the fish dead center in the school. All his little fishy brothers and sisters were swimming around him and he was coasting. He wanted to approach someone, but doing that meant putting the spotlight on himself.

So he just tucked himself away in a corner of the pub, drinking water, hoping someone would stop and see him for what he was: a scared little kid.

Serah didn't plan on lingering in Paris when Garnet left. But she felt like she needed to be in La Petit Dragon, for whatever reason. She would occasionally get that feeling. She felt like maybe it was part of her magic, but that was just her background.

And Serah suddenly spotted someone sitting alone. A child. Could that be why she was here? Serah honestly couldn't fathom why in a busy restaurant any kid should have to sit alone.

Serah knew she wasn't a kid and probably not the wanted company, but she was all there was at the moment. Well, obviously the only one that would respond at the moment. So she walked up over to the boy's table in the corner. "Hi. You look a little lost. Are you okay?" Serah asked, trying to sound friendly and not creepy. She wasn't really that much older than a Beauxbatons kid, right? Only by about ten years...

To be fair, stranger danger courses definitely taught him that now was a time to scream about adults randomly sitting with you or tell them your mom was right there, but Myles was pretty desperate.

"Yeah." He nodded a little tentatively. "I have no idea where anything is or how to get there. I need all this weird stuff that I've never heard of. I'm not from this kind of a place. I don't even know what some of this menu means, plus there's a lot of French which I only barely can grasp some of. I've been working on it though." Myles sighed softly. "If you could just give me some pointers on what to get, I'd really appreciate it. All I know is that I want to get a pet."

Serah smiled. "What language do you prefer?' Serah asked. She hadn't spoken English in a while, but she still felt fine with it. She lived in America for four years, after all. In all honesty, she was more comfortable with English than she was with French anyway. But it was probably best to not make assumptions. She'd stick with French for now.

"It's been a while since I went to Beauxbatons, but I can try to help. I can at least tell you what you have to buy. Let's see your school list," she said. "My name is Serah, by the way. And I can definitely help you with the menu. All the food here is pretty good, so everything is safe."

"English." Myles said softly. He fished around in his pocket and pulled out the crumpled list. "Okay, I need all this stuff, but half of it can't actually be real stuff. It all sounds fake. Like something from a Halloween special." Myles sighed. "I wish I had a map. Or a genie in the bottle. Those aren't real too, are they?" Myles was getting really frustrated with this whole wizard thing and was really wondering if he was in a coma or something. It just couldn't be real life.

He glanced over the menu again. "Butterbeer? Is it just rootbeer? Or butterscotch soda?" He scratched his head confused. "Why would there be a hot option for a soda? God, this place is so weird."

"I can do that," Serah replied, beginning to speak the boy's language, clumsily and with probably the world's worst Russian-esque accent, but she'd get the hang of it shortly. She glanced down at the list the boy produced from his pocket and Serah pulled a quill from her bag. "Don't be alarmed. It will write what I tell it to. I'm just going to write the translations," she explained.

"The first thing on your list are your school robes," Serah said, gesturing to her quill to write 'robes' on the paper near the French counterpart. "Then the next thing is your wand. And also your books. You can tell nearly anyone that you are a first year and they will help you. Lots of students are just like you and you can learn together if they don't know. That was my favorite part of school. You are part of a community. It's great."

Serah smiled at the boy's genie comment. "All of it is real. Even genies... but not the same way Muggles believe them. At least not that I'm aware of. I don't know much about them. Genies, not Muggles. I know Muggles fairly well."

Serah opened her own menu. "Butterbeer is sort of like cream soda. It's unlike anything else I can explain. And hot soda is sort of like tea. It's uncarbonated," she replied. She didn't see hot soda on the menu, though. "Unless you're talking about the fire whiskey, in which case, don't worry about it. It's alcohol."

"Thank you for your help." It was a little bit of information overload, but he caught at least most of it. He ordered the butterbeer out of curiosity. "I'm so confused by all of this. I mean this can't be real. It's...it's silly." He said softly. "But yet here the people are all around me. I just it's so...so...I don't know." He said softly. Myles looked up as his frothy beverage was sat on the counter and he looked at it curiously before taking a sip.

It was interesting. It was very sweet, and had a pretty amber color, and he found himself going for another sip very quickly. It was almost like if you soaked a butterscotch candy piece in cream soda. He very much liked this treat.