Statistics and Friends

Stephanie never really liked the idea of a lot of people being in one place. Too much people around her made her feel uncomfortable. She wasn't unsociable or anything, she just felt that she could interact better with fewer people. Social studies have shown such results about human social interactions too, and she could definitely not ignore scientific proofs about pretty much anything. 

Despite all these, she had to return to Le Petit Dragon. She tried to convince herself that she was going there to eat, but she just wanted to make another friend. Statistically her previous visit there was a victory of odds...she made a new friend in her first visit. Stephanie never really wanted a lot of friends. She just wanted to be able to talk to people at her new school. She didn't really like being the lonely girl of some random corner...Having somebody to care about you is a great feeling, she thought and sighed.

So, she entered inside the restaurant and decided to sit at the same table she had before, hoping for the same kind of success.

Andrea looked down at the strange coins Mr. Smith had given her with the order to buy herself a drink. Something called butterbeer whilst he speak to her aunt about something important. She shrugged at his order but after a warning glare from Aunt Lisa decided maybe she should do as told.

Well half do as she was told. She left the table but didn't go buy a drink. She wasn't thirsty yet. Thus she pocketed the coins and looked around for some form of entertainment which didn't involve trying to figure out this weird money before she asked Mr. Smith. He was English but that didn't change the fact that he was also the fount of all knowledge in this strange place.

And then she found something or rather someone to help with her small problem. "Excuse me," she said as she sat down across from a girl who looked to be around her own age, "could I ask you a question?"

Stephanie had sat down thinking of how her new friend would be like...she hoped him or her to be quiet like her...It's not that she didn't like loud people, but they kinda annoyed her. Well still, she should leave her options open. She wasn't really the extroverted type of person, so she couldn't really choose her friends...they'd choose her.

As she was thinking of all these a girl sat down across her . Wow, she thought. Statistically rare...both times a girl approached her? Maybe she was lucky...but she shouldn't be thinking of these now. It was time to meet that girl...

"Um, sure go on..." She said with a quiet tone in her voice. Hmm...was she too quiet? Should she say something else to sound more friendly...she tended to overthink such stuff all the time. Sometimes she overthinks of things so much that her brain hurts...literary...

"Ah thanks. My question is..." Now she was in a real state of problems. What sort of question to ask this girl. Andrea wasn't used to coming up to strangers to talk to them and now she'd done it twice in one day. Twice with no preparation. "Right so have you ever heard of Beauxbatons before you received a letter inviting you to go?" Well she assumed the girl was going and she received a letter. From the way Mr. Smith spoke it was the way things were done in this world of magic.

And then she began to wonder if maybe she chose the wrong question. Perhaps she should have asked her about the oddly named butterbeer Mr. Smith suggested she buy with the strange coins he gave her. She glanced over at where Mr. Smith and Aunt Lisa were having some sort of intense conversation. Whatever it was Aunt Lisa didn't look very happy. She returned her attention back to the other girl. "Sorry. Did you say something?"

That girl seemed surely weird...not in a bad way...she just seemed to think of other things as she was talking...Stephanie understood that probably the girl didn't even plan what to ask her...Stephanie could never do that. She always has to make a schedule to follow. Otherwise she is lost...both literary and metaphorically.

"Yes...I know about it for quite some time...My family is pureblood and they told me everything about the magic schools of France."

Wow...She thought. She said so many things! Maybe she's becoming more open to people...she liked that! She smiled slightly (Smiling isn't really her thing), and looked at that girl. She didn't seem to pay attention on Stephanie. Stephanie of course didn't mind...she's used to people not really caring about her.

"Um, yeah I did...would you like me to repeat?"

This talking to someone without fear of ridicule was an odd feeling for Andrea and she felt bad for not having really listened. "That might be a good thing," she replied. "All I heard was pureblood and I'm not at all sure what that means." Mr. Smith hadn't mentioned that word. Well he hadn't mentioned much at all other than having been sent by someone (no name given) to guide the child who received the letter. Seriously weird stuff and now Andrea was sure he was giving Aunt Lisa the full explanation.

She pushed the worry about stuff being kept from her out of her mind and focused on the girl in front of her. "I'm listening now. Really I am and I'm sorry about before. I don't usually get distracted. Well I do but I won't now." Not if that pureblood word was something she needed to know.

Stephanie didn't really mind. She has got used to people not listening to her. She just smiled slightly, because she met probably a future friend.

"Of course I can repeat....I know about Beauxbatons for quite some time, because my family is pureblood and they told me everything about the magic schools of France."
She said in a serious way.

"Pureblood is when a wizard is born to 2 wizard parents. Like...both of them are not Muggles." She tried to explain simply.

The new girl tried to explain herself, but Stephanie didn't care. She didn't get offended. Although she was really shy, she tried to show her happiness with a slight smile on her face.

Andrea couldn't remember much about her parents but she was certain they weren't wizards. She gave the explanation some thought but was having a little trouble with trying to figure out that other word the girl used. "So that'd mean my parents were ... Muggles?" she asked. I didn't sound like a very nice word but maybe she was reading too much into it. "So what does that make me?" And how many more terms out there were used to describe parentage. It didn't sound like a very nice system to her.

The other girl didn't seem to say much other than to answer questions. That was odd. Well good because so many negatives had happened to Andrea at what had now become her old school. Well she wasn't shy, just a little cautious. Well usually cautious. Not today. Something about today had the effect of Andrea throwing caution to the wind. "Thanks for answering my questions. By the way my name's Andrea Ritter."

Stephanie was always really proud about he pureblood ancestry. It seemed like some sort of royal title to her. Stephanie is really a serious person who takes everything maturely, so the childlike way she thinks of her pureblood ancestry is quite surprising. Even she noticed that sometimes she was too proud about it. She shouldn't probably show that a lot...

"This means that you are a Muggle-born wizard. Both your parents are normal humans." She tried to explain in a simplistic way. She didn't know why she had to explain everything in such a way...probably her love about science forced her to over-explain things to non-scientific people...

"Um...I'm Stephanie...Nice to meet you Andrea..."

Andrea...nice name for her future friend! She just hoped she could adjust to her quickly...it's not always easy for her to get used to new people.

"Were," Andrea said automatically. "They were normal humans." Years of practice had taught her to be emotionally detached whenever mention of her parents were made. "Sometimes I wonder though if anyone is normal. I mean my aunt is hardly normal but she isn't magic." Well Andrea didn't think she was normal and that Sarah girl at her old school wasn't but Andrea put that down to her being English. The English weren't normal at all.

Andrea smiled at Stephanie. She was nice and treated Andrea like she was normal. Though that may have been because the things Andrea could do were normal in this setting. "And it's nice to meet you too. Real nice. I think I might be okay with this boarding school idea even if it means I don't get to see my cousin for months on end." Which really brought her back to the question of Mr. Smith's appearance on her aunt and uncle's doorstep. How had he known one of the cousins had received that letter but not which one?

She shifted in her seat and heard the jingle in her pocket. She pulled out the strange coins again. "Stephanie do you know what butterbeer is?"

Andrea mentioned that her parents were normal humans... They were dead? Oh my... Stephanie felt horribly. She didn't want to say something wrong or awkward but she did...She had to apologize for her behavior...

"I-I'm sorry...I didn't know.." She said, with a sad look at her face...Maybe she should keep her mouth shut and think of things even more through. She always had the fear that she won't think of something really thoroughly, which will result in her saying something that will bring everybody to an awful position...

However, even if Stephanie said something so inappropriate, Andrea smiled... Stephanie couldn't understand what was going on. She kept her serious expression, nevertheless. She was afraid that by showing her emotions, it'll make things more awkward for both of them. 

"Well, it's a really nice school. One of the best magic schools in the world, to be honest. Students from across Europe come here to study magic..." And she was right. There were several magic schools in and around Paris alone, but Beauxbatons had such a high level of education, that it could compete with schools like Hogwarts. And of course the French couldn't stand the fact that the snobbish British were even slightly better than them...She wasn't French, but she could understand the competition between the two schools. It was more than a wizard school rivalry...it was a historical-cultural one.

"Yeah, I do. It's a wizarding beverage, really famous in the wizard world, with slight alcoholic content."

With only a small flicker of emotion on her face Andrea waved Stephanie's concern aside. "It happened years ago and I've still got family." She wished she had ordered that drink Mr. Smith recommended. It helped to keep up the facade of detachment. Later she could go be miserable. For now she had a day of shopping for a boarding school with a difference.

"All over Europe?" Andrea asked. "Well that'll be almost like my last school only with magic and dorm rooms." She considered that to be something of a comfort but there was one important question to consider. "There aren't any students from England there are there?" Probably not if it was a nice school. Her cousin may call her silly for judging and entire country on her experience with one person but Andrea didn't agree with his assessment.

Her eyes widened. "A small alcoholic content? I thought the English were against eleven year olds drinking anything with alcohol in it." Now Mr. Smith had gone from a necessary annoyance to a really weird necessary annoyance. He wasn't fitting her perception of what the English were like. Maybe it was because he was a wizard.

Andrea didn't seem to care a lot about her parents' death. She had overcome it...Stephanie admired that. To be able to continue your life no matter what has happened in the past... Stephanie wasn't really the person that was thinking about her past all the time (actually, she was mainly worrying for her future), but she was sure that if something like that ever happened to her, it would haunt her for years.

"Si, all over Europe. It's an advanced wizard school, with many things to offer. And, not really. English students mainly attend Hogwarts. Che è, la migliore scuola della Britannia." She said with a slight (as always) smile at her face. She didn't know why she said that last sentence in Italian. Maybe, it seemed more...natural to her?

"The French do as well, but the wizarding world is different..." Andrea seemed to not really know a lot of things, about the wizard world...
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*Si: "Yes" in Italian.
**Che è, la migliore scuola della Britannia: "That's the best school of Britain" in Italian.

Andrea nodded slowly taking in Stephanie's words not registering she'd switched languages. Her mind was on the information of interest. "Really?" She brightened up at the idea of the lack of English students at Beauxbaton because they were all going to a school considered the best in Britain. "So do you think Beauxbatons is better than this Hogwarts? Bigger since we have lots of countries and they only have four." Unless there were students from the Republic of Ireland who went there too. However, she didn't really care enough to ask about that.

She wasn't sure if Stephanie was right or not about the French but it did sound like the wizards didn't care so much about that. "So I guess I should try it then since Mr. Smith told me to." Well not so much told her but suggested it so he could have his intense conversation with her Aunt Lisa.

Andrea didn't seem to understand Stephanie's Italian sentence...Maybe she shouldn't speak in Italian. What if Andrea thought that Stephanie was being rude? What if she was actually being rude? It is considered rude to talk to people in a language they don't understand, right? Or not? Stephanie could've have insulted Andrea and she wouldn't even know. But she didn't...Andrea doesn't know that, though. Ugh, she was overthinking again. She must stop doing that.

"To be honest, I believe that the success of wizard schools is based on geography. The reason Beauxbatons has more students from other countries, is because its location is close to many major European countries. I think that Beauxbatons and Hogwarts are equal in terms of the level of education."

Andrea nodded. "I guess with those British kids stuck on an Island it's easier to have a school there than come to Beauxbatons." And good riddance to them too. Andrea had a gut full of them from her old school. Well Sarah Mason and her English language teacher anyway. Another thought popped into her head. "So where do you go if you live in Iceland? That's so far away from the rest of Europe. Do they have a school there?" If there did that'd be one super small school.

She looked up and saw Mr. Smith and her aunt had finished their discussion. "Oh. I've got to go." She stood. "It was good to meet you Stephanie. Maybe we'll be in the same classes at school." The girl certainly appeared to be much nicer than the ones she knew in Switzerland. That was about the only thing which made it a little less scary than it had been ever since the arrival of the letter and Mr. Smith.

"Si, true." She said and nodded. The French and English weren't particularly fond, of each other. The French were actually more than pleased to have their own school, which separated them from Britain. "I do know that there are a lot of small, regional magic schools located in each country of the world, but they don't have the level of education Beauxbatons or Hogwarts have. Probably Iceland won't have a great school, as well."

Suddenly, Andrea stood up. "Oh, alright. It was really nice to meet you, Andrea. Arrivederci." Stephanie said, smiling slightly. She was delighted, that she just made a new friend. Really delighted.
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*Si: "Yes", in Italian.
**Arrivederci: "Goodbye", in Italian.