Nerves, wands and butterbeers

René was so nervous and terrified and anxious. Here he was at La Petit Dragon, the most recent stop on his journey to Beauxbatons. His mother had to leave to go to work after he got his wand with him at Ollivander's. She ordered him a butterbeer and sat him down at a table. She gave him a hug goodbye and hurried off to another tavern. René sighed and sipped at the strange yellowish orange liquid and found it to be a rather sweet but pleasant taste. He probably looked really uncool and he sighed looking around the place he saw all sorts of things, cups flying around, wizards reading newspapers with animated photos. Then he saw a girl who looked about his age.

Fiona was extremely gleeful about having received her letter. That was two Millers in a row now after the non-arrival for Patrick. She hadn't been able to keep the grin off her face for days now except maybe when she was in her cousin's presence. It was a little hard to keep happy around him knowing he would never hold a wand. Today though there was no Patrick around. Just herself and her mother.

Right now Mum had given Fiona some money for a drink and a bite to eat whilst she went off to the bank. The eleven year old had been really gleeful about that. Mum thought she was old enough to stay on her own and hadn't even given her a lecture of any kind.

All kinds of ideas of what she could do flew through her head until she heard her tummy growl. Oh yeah. She'd forgotten to have breakfast. First thing was first and that was food. Mum wasn't around and thus she could order something she would totally disapprove of for the first meal of the day; chocolate mousse with butterbeer.

With her order in hand Fiona glanced around and spied a boy who looked her own age at one of the tables. Perfection. She made a beeline right for him and placed her meal on the table. "Hi. Fiona Miller. Pleased to make your acquaintance. Have you been here long?"

René practically jumped ten feet in the air out of shock. "H-Hi. N-Nice to meet you. I-I'm René Pendlebrook." He mumbled quickly before giving her a smile. "Are you a first year too?" He asked, rubbing his arm, before gingerly taking a sip of butterbeer. He quickly thought of anything his Abuela (grandmother) or Tía (aunt) had taught him about speaking to girls and almost chuckled as he pictured the thick Castillian accent telling him to straighten up his back, which he did, smile, and he was already doing that. He fumbled with his wand and slipped it into his pocket, it probably wasn't proper to eat with company and have your wand out.

Fiona nodded. "That's right. I'm a first year too." The boy looked very nervous and she felt and obligation to put him at his ease. "Oh have you got your wand already? I have to wait until mum's gone to the bank before I go and get mine."

She dipped a spoon into her mousse and held it up to her mouth before adding, "so what type of wand is it?" The dessert entered her mouth and she placed the spoon back into the glass. A small amount of the mousse was left on the tip of her nose as she moved her hand to pick up her drink.

He smiled "It's cherry oak with dragon heart string core." He said with a grin and chuckled a little when he saw the little bit on her nose. He picked up a napkin and lightly cleaned it off her nose after she sipped, then he smiled. "There you go." He grinned. René sighed gently and sipped at his butterbeer. "This wizarding stuff is all new to me, my mum didn't talk about it that much." He admitted. "But it's really cool now that it's part of my life. It's like this whole different part of me, a much cooler more interesting part of my life. It excites me a lot."

"Very nice," Fiona replied. "I wonder what my wand will be. It's just so much fun to picture it." Fiona startled when René moved toward her with the napkin and then laughed. "Oops. I never can eat without getting into a bit of a mess. Thanks. If mum saw that she'd know I had something unhealthy to eat without permission."

Her eyes widened at his words. "So your mum knew about it and didn't tell you?" she asked. She nodded. "It is rather exciting. I finally get to learn how to do the sorts of things my parents do." She picked up another spoonful of mousse and this time managed to spill some on the table. "My cousin though...one of my cousins...will never be able to wave a wand around and make things move and stuff."

"Yea she never told me." He shrugged. "That's too bad." René murmured wondering what it would be like to be unable to do magic, it sounded positively terrible. Then again he had lived pretty much the same existence to this point because he lived with so many muggles. "Does everyone else in your family do magic?" He asked curiously. She certainly seemed to know more about this than he did and her clothes were much more new than his almost to tight t shirt and jeans, he sighed wistfully.

"Wow. I could never imagine my parents keeping magic secret from me. That's be so weird." She was completely shocked. It was one thing to not know because you were a muggleborn (a group of people she'd yet to meet) but another altogether to have magic in your family and not know about it.

She nodded and paused. "Well I don't know about my siblings. They're still a little too young. Everyone wasn't sure about me before I received my letter." She paused. "Or my cousin Caleb either because of Patrick." She felt sorry for the next Miller to turn eleven. All eyes would be on them now. That was the problem with a squib popping up in the family. Everyone else younger than them was watched closely.

"Well, uh, according to my grandmother my mum didn't like doing magic anymore after my dad died. She just didn't have the heart or something." René shrugged, rubbing his arm. "Anywho, I don't have anyone to shop with because my mum had to go to work, do you think it'd be okay if I tagged along with you? If it's not that's fine." He bit his lip, it'd be a bit embarrassing when he had to buy his books...well actually not buy, he had a little slip of paper from the school that let him get used things for free because of his lack of money.

"Oh I see," she replied. One question she would have loved to ask was why someone dying put you off magic? but she kept silent. It was all so very strange.

A small smile crept onto her face and she nodded, "sure you can. I'm sure my mum wouldn't mind if someone tagged along with me. Just be careful. She gets a little tetchy if you look untidy or anything. Which is me most of the time." She sighed. "It's so hard to keep tidy around her. I always want to make something messy. Do you know what I mean?"

René nodded. "Okay." He nodded and tucked his t shirt in. "I'll try my best." He said, biting his lip nervously. "Your mother won't be embarrassed by the fact I'll be getting all used stuff will she?" He rubbed his arm again, his biggest nervous habit. He suddenly was very aware of the modest amount of money his family had compared to this girl. He thought of the little kerosene heater they kept in the living room for the winter because they couldn't afford to have heating, they had to go to his abuelos' (grandparents) apartment for electricity and to shower, but his family was so close, this was hardly an out of the way thing, they lived right above him. He slept in their apartment when his own smelled too much like smoke from the heater, since they, actually had heating, he would spend hours cleaning his clothes to get the smoke smell out.

"Um erm," she replied eloquently to his question. "I don't think she'd mind if you got all used things." Fiona hadn't met anyone before who actually would go buying used things when new was available. Why would anyone do that? For the first time since she met him Fiona took a proper look at the clothes René wore. Never having been someone who could stay tidy or clean for long she didn't usually take notice of the clothes people wore. His looked clean enough but they were noticeably old and worn. Like what poor people wore.

"I think mum won't mind at all," she said with a finality. "Just so long as you're clean and tidy." She hoped she was right about that. Mum never had said anything much about people who could afford less and dad sometimes complained about the cost of clothing Fiona went through. That was different wasn't it?

"Alright, thank you." He said softly. She seemed nice enough, even for someone who was clearly very affluent. He reminded himself not all rich people were as snooty as the ones that lived in the city. He remembered the kids at the muggle school who'd looked at him like he was so different, well minus his friend Suzy, he missed her, she was a muggle though and he wouldn't be seeing her as often anymore if at all, she had been disappointed when he told her he'd be going to a boarding school, but he did promise he would write, and he would, as much as he could.

Fiona smiled kindly at him and nodded. "It's fine. Oh look. Mum's coming now." Sure enough her mother entered looking rather harrassed and then glared at the remains of the chocolate mousse still on the table. Oops. Wrapped up in her conversation with René she'd completely forgotten all about that.

She quickly spooned the last of it, some of it dripping onto the table. "Hi mum," she called out as she wiped her mouth with her serviette. "This is René. You don't mind if he tags along with us do you?" Fiona smiled back at the boy as her mother just told her to hurry up then and bring the boy along. "Come on. We'd better hurry. She's got that harassed look about her."

"Okay." René nodded and finished his butterbeer. He felt very unfit to be walking with this much more posh family. He looked at the clock, noon, his mother would be here soon an he'd look even more out of place when she showed up in he waitress outfit. That was one thing he loved about his mother, she always smelled like fresh food, sometimes she'd even sneak him some of the food or desserts they made at the taverns, all of them were so good. René smiled, thinking about his mother, she was awesome and always took good care of him, even though she worked two separate jobs, she was a power mother, like a dad and mum rolled into one.