Books vs. Trees

@lizzy

Date: 5/20/2017
Location: Dumbledore Conservation Park
With a nervous glance back, Henry quickly walked away from the playground. He had just lied. And he already felt guilty. He made a face because he knew that if he hadn't lied, he would have been in a bad mood all day. The problem just was that, well, having a bad conscience was little better than a bad mood. He looked back to his aunt who was busy writing. Writing to his father as far as Henry knew. Even after all these years, he wasn't sure whether he liked this or not. Yes, that man was his father, but, first, he had abandoned him and, second, he was a criminal. He deserved what he got. But it was also necessary to be forgiving. It was complex, horribly complex, and Henry simply couldn't wrap his mind around it.

Worrying about his father had the huge advantage that he couldn't concentrate as much on the fact that he was a liar. He would not, as he had told his aunt, go to play hide-and-seek with some other children. No, he would do what he loved and could do best. He would go climbing trees. Slowly he would clamber from one branch to another until he was at the top and could look down on the ant-sized humans on the ground. He would look up into the sky and feel the wind and the sun, enjoying the feeling of height and exercise. Then, the best part would follow. He'd seek the branch that was both furthest from the ground and providing a clear view of it, and then, then he'd jump. There was no better feeling than these precious seconds of falling, of absolute freedom.

Henry quickened his pace. As soon as he knew that he would be completely hidden from view, he broke into a run. The next best thing to being near a tree was a lawn full of obstacles. He slalomed around the passers-by and the picnickers, trying not to trod on anybody's shadow (something that wasn't very difficult as the sun stood high), and finally was right before his favourite oak tree. He was less than 15 feet away and just about to jump, certain that his magic would carry him to the lowest branch, when he skidded to a halt. There was a small family, most likely a mother and a daughter behind a fortress of books, sitting just beside the tree. All of a sudden, it occurred to him that he didn't know whether this place was just for wizards or whether there were Muggles around. With his jumps he might - might break the Statute of Secrecy and breaking the Statute meant being a criminal and being a criminal meant - Azkaban. Henry gulped, his eyes darting from the tree to his own suddenly trembling hands.

The only reason that she knew something was off was because her mum had agreed to take her to the park for a bit. She was supposed to stay in Singapore with her Ah Ma, but when her mother had realized that she was on edge the witch had very eagerly taken her to the park for a bit of relaxation. Of course, by relaxation she had meant fresh air for her to do homework in, and Lizzy had been a bit frustrated but agreeable to the task. It was supposed to be the perfect time for her to interrogate her mum, but it had quickly turned into the typical period for her to do homework instead. She didn't complain; she was quite used to doing her work among the grass and flowers. It was just annoying that she wasn't being allowed to figure out what was happening.

She knew that something was up when her father had received an owl early on in the morning, and she had been hustled out of the room almost as soon as she had tried to ask what it was. That wasn't all too strange. Her parents very rarely liked to let her know what was going on, and she often had to use subterfuge and lying to get the current events. She knew she was young, but she wasn't that young. She would be starting Hogwarts in the fall, and she didn't want to be clueless about what was going on. Well, she would hopefully be starting Hogwarts the next term, but she didn't know for sure. She hadn't gotten her letter yet, but she was sure that she was going, and she didn't want to sound like an idiot when she had to ask her housemates what was going on. She also blamed her brother for that, but he was still at Hogwarts, celebrating the end of term dance.

Sighing, Lizzy ducked her head back into her work. Spread out in front of her were basic history textbooks and a few mathematics tomes, each opened to a random page. She wasn't really paying attention, but if her mum turned around she wanted it to look like she was paying attention. Before she could scribble something ridiculous down, Lizzy whipped her head around at the sound of somebody approaching. Behind her was a boy, and he looked around her age, but she wasn't sure. Edging a bit of her books so that her small frame was disguised, she shifted onto her heels and moved so she was sort of facing the other child. What was he doing? Would talking to him be intruding? She could never tell.

Azkaban was fear, Azkaban was darkness. Azkaban was the absence of everything Henry loved. Azkaban was there for those who had done evil deeds, who had harmed others. Henry really didn't want to break any laws, he certainly didn't want to harm anybody, no, he wanted to be a good person. But right now, he also wanted to climb up that beautiful oak tree with its leaves in a wonderful shade of green in the light of the sun. The grass beneath his feet was soft. The sun was everywhere, everything was light. There was nothing to be afraid of.

Henry breathed deeply, relaxing again as the general cheerfulness of his surroundings chased away his fears. From the corner of his eye, Henry noticed that the girl had lifted her gaze from the book before her and seemed to be looking in his direction. Now that she had noticed him, it would probably be wiser to make sure whether she was magical. Statute of Secrecy or not, he didn't want to frighten anyone by doing things that would be unwise to do without magic (and many adults also considered unwise with magic as Henry had repeatedly experienced to his annoyance).

Tentatively he smiled at the girl. She seemed to be around his age. If she was a witch, she might become his classmate at Hogwarts. In that case, it would be nice to get to know her; it would be good to see a familiar face when they lined up before the Sorting Hat. And there was a very simple way to discover what sort of person she was. He only had to read the titles of the books around her. If she was studying, they might even tell him how old she was, whether she would really start Hogwarts this fall. Henry slowly walked towards her, wondering why she had brought all these books with her. He certainly loved reading when he was snuggled on the sofa with Gunther on his lap. He even loved to read out loud and talk about his books, but outdoors, he wanted to run, to jump, to climb, in short, to move. The girl had to be really obsessed with reading. A future Ravenclaw, he guessed. But maybe he could convince her to let her books be and climb around with him. Company would certainly be fun and if her mother had a more reasonable view on climbing experiments and she kept watch over them, his behaviour could even be considered far less reckless.

"Hi," he addressed her, glancing at the books, "what are you reading? Is it exciting? Sorry, I don't want to interrupt you, I'm just curious."

Elizabeth tried not to get too frustrated. She had to just accept what was happening and then try to find her own way around it. That was how it would work best, and that was the way for her to make sure that she didn't get in trouble and that she didn't hurt her parents. She would have to figure out a way to figure out what was going on, especially when her mum was being overly secretive and not gossipy in any way. The witch was never like that with her daughter, but she did chatter with other mothers and her aunties, and that was how she got her information most of the time. She wasn't getting anything now because they weren't in Singapore, and she thought that the best way to solve that problem was going to be to sneak the Daily Prophet from somewhere when her mother wasn't looking. The major problem was that her mother was keeping an extremely watchful eye on her as of late, trying to make sure that she didn't wander off. She hated it, but there wasn't anything that she could do to solve that.

That was another reason why she was sure that something had happened. Her mother was always watchful, and Lizzy had a history of wandering off so she couldn't quite blame her. She always made sure that she was doing her maths, that she was writing down her history notes, that she was actually paying attention. This was nearly doubled. Every time that Lizzy looked up she noticed her mother staring at her, and it was getting concerning. So she doubled down to look at her history book, worrying her bottom lip as she frowned down at the pages. Nothing was really making sense to her, but she blamed the fact that it was a book that most first years needed- 'History of Magic' by Bathilda Bagshot. It was something that her brother treasured, a book that he had mentioned really liking. That had meant that her mother had decided that it was a book that Lizzy should like, too, despite the fact that the words were swimming around the page and she wasn't sure what was what.

She hated how long it took her to read, and hated the way that it never really seemed to bother her mother. It was to her great relief that she had found something distracting, even if it was a boy (gross) that looked like he was poised to do something really odd. "I'm doing school," she complained, smoothing down her dress as she moved. "It's not very interesting. I don't really like reading." She fixed him with a serious gaze, trying to gouge the conversation. Lizzy very much liked making friends, so after deeming him good enough to talk to (which everybody was), she grinned brightly. 

"You can interrupt me, 'cause that's better than taking notes."

The book lying next to the girl looked like an ordinary math book, but Henry immediately recognized the one she was currently reading. The pages, the font, there could be no mistaking; no Muggle would ever read A History of Magic, Bathilda Bagshot's classic. But Henry had. In general, he preferred adventure novels even when he knew that they didn't portray wizardry correctly (in such novels, magicians tended to be perfect Animagi, Legilimens and Patronus casters all at once). Nevertheless, history books clearly ranged second place on his favourite reading list. And he had truly and thoroughly enjoyed reading A History of Magic, at least over the largest parts. He wasn't the biggest fan of conventions where wizards were just bickering. Yet, sooner or later, there would be a Troll problem, or a Goblin riot, and these were always fun to read. He had read the whole book to Gunther and it had been easy to tell when the cat was bored and tried to get away. Then, Henry would skip a couple of paragraphs until the text became entertaining again. In the progress, he had become rather good at rendering the text in an exciting fashion.

But on this particularly sunny day, Henry was not even half as much interested in literature as he was eager to climb the tree nearby and was bewildered that the girl could ignore her surroundings. He was even more surprised that she was reading the book for school. It was on the curriculum for Hogwarts, but the girl couldn't be going to Hogwarts. He was quite certain that the term only ended in June. He tried to figure out this mystery for a moment until the girl spoke on and turned the picture he had made of her - a model pupil and ardent learner - upside down. Continuing to stare at her in disbelief, he interpreted her grin as an invitation and kneeled down next to her.

"You don't like reading?" he repeated. "But… why have brought all these books outside? And how can you not like Bathilda Bagshot? And are you of Hogwarts age and why didn't you go? Or why are you already studying Hogwarts stuff? Especially when you don't even want to?" Henry stopped himself. He had a thousand more questions, but he had been told over and over again that it was impolite to ask too much at once, especially when he didn't know the other person. And as odd as the girl might be, general courtesy still applied to her. After all, the fact that she was not completely immersed in her studies meant that she very well might agree to climb around with him. Just as he wanted to suggest to her that trees were a far more enjoyable option than books on such a beautiful day, he remembered that he had forgotten to introduce himself. When he asked many questions, it was only proper to also give information about himself, he thought and hastily added, "I'm Henry by the way, and I'll be going to Hogwarts this autumn."

She was never the biggest fan of reading, and sometimes she blamed it on the fact that it was extremely hard work. Lizzy didn't often shirk difficult matters, but she found herself much more excited about the rewards of such things, and for school she decided that there wasn't enough of a pay-off. Her grades never made her feel satisfied, not even when she managed to get a coveted 'acceptable work' from her mother. Besides, she found reading and writing to be one of the more difficult subjects, the issue being primarily related to her problems with words. Her dyslexia was often hidden behind her poor attitude towards school, and the girl instead daydreamed instead of working towards her academic future. She knew that any classes at Hogwarts would be a struggle, and she understood that her mother wanted her to be ahead of her year so that she could fall somewhere in the middle when she got there. But it all seemed so trivial, and it had nothing to do with her possible future as a Quidditch player. They didn't have to be smart- some of them had to repeat their final years at Hogwarts due to failing exams. That wasn't to say that Lizzy had dreams of failing school, but she felt like her own struggles wouldn't negate her desires.

Lizzy knew that such a train of thought would appall her mother. Although Eleanor wasn't too fond of playing the perfect daughter, she wanted her own child to follow those rules, and the girl hated how she had to fall under the societal rules. Follow your mother, respect your elders, never cause a ruckus. It always reminded her of her future, of the way that she would be married off to somehow secure the fortune of the Young family. At least she wasn't her brother, she could be thankful for that. She wasn't like Nick, who had to follow everything that their Ah Ma said. Nick didn't have much of a choice as to his future. He had to become a Healer because that was what was expected of him; he could choose Healing or an accountant job, or even something in politics. She had nearly laughed when their parents had suggested the latter two careers. Nick had been practically taking care of her since she was a baby, and it wasn't because it was expected of him. It was because he wanted to, and that was hysterical to her. Lizzy knew that she was a pain, so the fact that her brother voluntarily had babysat her was actually a pretty decent clue as to how he was going to grow up. But Lizzy... She thought it was going to be fun to see what house she even got into at Hogwarts, because she knew her career path already, even if it was one that her Ah Ma had accepted with a bit of frustration.

When the boy asked the slew of questions, she had to smile. She liked talking, adored making friends, and generally had fun meeting other kids that were close to her age. She really didn't have many friends, but she had met Vza at the park, and she was a super nice girl who also liked Quidditch. "I hate reading," she said, crinkling her nose. Lizzy shifted slightly to allow more room for this boy, and she looked over to see her mother fixing her with an arched brow. She offered the witch a grin, and when she didn't come storming over, Lizzy interpreted it as a 'go ahead' sign. She supposed her mother just realized how bored she was without Nick, because when she was in Singapore she only really had her two cousins. Ava was all right, but she was turning into a real piece of work, and it was annoying. "I'm doing school with my mum, 'cause she wants me to be on top of things when I get to school next year. I'm going to Hogwarts this year, too! I'm very excited. Oh, I'm Lizzy. It's very nice to meet you." She said this all without much of a breath, and her eyes lit up when she heard that Henry was to attend school in the same year. She would already have a friend when she went! No, she would have four friends. Nick said that Carin was going to school the next year, and she already loved Amelia (she thought that Amelia's twin brother was kinda weird, but Nick really liked him), and Ruby would be there too! Things were going to be great.

There was one thing Henry was never in need of - questions that he burnt to ask. The world was full of mysteries that needed to be explored, that he had to unravel. It didn't matter in the least what kind of mysteries were in question. He was as much fascinated by how a Healer dealt with a broken arm as he was with how a Muggle light bulb worked. He wanted to know about past events (and it didn't matter whether "past" meant "ten" or "thousand years ago") as much as he was eager to get to know anyone he stumbled across. No matter whether the stranger would be of his age or not, a wizard or a Muggle, Henry wanted to know, to understand, who the other one was. He had been told many times not to grill everyone he met, but he couldn’t help himself. When he was curious about something, he had to satisfy this curiosity. And the girl before him had raised his curiosity excessively.

Various emotions with as many different sets of questions were fighting about which would have priority while the old tree climbing ideal still called for attention. For one, Henry remained utterly confused that anyone could not like reading - no, "hate" had been the girl’s choice of word. A strong desire of converting the girl to the love of books added itself to his longing to be up in the tree. Trying to concentrate through the onslaught of questions he absolutely needed to ask, he started to build strategies that would allow him, first, to inquire about everything he wanted to know, second, to climb up the tree, and, third, to show her what fun reading was. It was a lot to do, but if he would succeed, Henry was sure that the result would be perfection. He only had to figure out the right row and combination of acting.

Before he could form any kind of plan, the information that the girl, Lizzy she had said, would be his classmate brought a whole new armada of questions upfront. "That’s great!" he exclaimed. "I’m excited too! What house do you think you’ll be in? I want to be in Ravenclaw like my aunt. Or in Hufflepuff because my aunt says I’d fit in very well there. Or in Slytherin like my father. Or in Gryffindor like all the war heroes. I can’t wait to hear from the Sorting Hat about who I am." Henry interrupted his flow of words for a second, an old worry creeping up on him. Who was he really, and did he want to know? If the Hat told him that he was a bad person, what should he do then? He didn’t want to hurt anyone, but if the Sorting Hat told him that he would, how could he escape this destiny? Pushing these terrifying ideas away from himself, he quickly finished his little speech with, "I think Hufflepuff would be nice. And you…" He looked thoughtfully at her. From what he had heard from her until now, he concluded that it would hardly be Ravenclaw as the original premises that had made him place her there had all disappeared.

This memory brought him back to an idea he had just had before Hogwarts demanded dominance over his thoughts. As much as Henry wanted to talk about the school, his original plan, getting up the tree, was more urgent right now as was his newly-found mission to make Lizzy love reading. "I’ve got an idea," he declared. "You are too close to the ground. When you are in close proximity of earth, all your thoughts drop down and you can’t concentrate and enjoy your work." Henry nodded to give his improvisation more weight. "Therefore you have to get up in the air so that your head becomes light and you can learn more freely. How about that tree? I’m sure that once you’re up it, you’ll seat yourself on a nice branch and get immediately into the text. You know what," Henry continued as he had a slightly bad feeling about making such stuff up, "I can help you. We can climb up together and then, I’ll read to you. You'll see, Bathilda Bagshot is great. There are some exciting chapters about the Goblin rebellions. Or how the English Dragon population got under control. Gunther loved them and he’s got excellent taste. I can carry the book for you, I know the tree." Full of enthusiasm, Henry beamed at his new friend, ready to jump to his feet.

She hated the fact that ten was still considered too young to know things, because Lizzy was certain that she had the world figured out. She knew what she wanted to be when she grew up, and she new exactly how to get it. She had to tell her Ah Ma that she wanted to do Quidditch- which she had done, and now she had her very own broom and she was able to fly around easily. She was getting tutored in Quidditch so that she could be better, because she wanted to make the house team as soon as she could. Even if she wasn't going to make it on at eleven, she wanted to be a reserve- no, she needed to be a reserve. She had to play Quidditch, because she wasn't sure what she was going to do otherwise. Not everyone had their lives planned out this much when they were ten, so she was sure that she was a special case. A special, smarter case. Lizzy held herself proudly everywhere that she went, just because she thought that she was as good as the rest or better. It was something that her mother was trying to knock out of her. She knew that being humble was good. She knew the reasons, too. She had to be humble because they were rich, and she had to make sure that people didn't take advantage of that. But she sometimes forgot the things that her mother said, even if she was an all-knowing ten-year-old. She had forgotten, but she remembered as soon as the boy started talking. He talked just as quickly as she did, and he had an awful lot of thoughts.

He mentioned all of the houses, and that made her laugh. Lizzy didn't know where she was going to end up because neither of her parents had gone to Hogwarts. They had both attended private schools in Singapore, though she knew that her mother had thought about going to one of the bigger schools. They didn't have houses there, and it was a day school. That was where they were supposed to go, before they had moved to London so that Nick could get a Hogwarts education. That was funny, in an ironic sort of way. She could have gone to the other school, Mahoutokoro, even though it was for a mixed group and her family did not want her mixing with the other students. She thought that it would have been interesting to attend, especially with how obsessed they were with flying, but that would have been going against her Ah Ma's wishes, and also her mother's. There were times where she tuned them out and times where she listened, and it was a time where she decided to listen. Of course, that only gave her Nick as framework for Hogwarts. Nick was smart, but he was a different person, and she wasn't surprised that he was a Hufflepuff. He was nice, and he always followed the rules. "You know," she began, crinkling her nose. "You just said that you wanted to be in all of them. That's pretty silly." She didn't mean to be rude, but she wanted to make sure that he knew that. At least, that was what the book had told her. That much had stuck.

"I don't know if I want to hear what the Hat has to say." It was truth, at least. She was scared that it could read the future, or that it wouldn't like her. Where would it even put her, anyway? She thought that she was brave, and she knew that she wasn't hard-working, but she was sneaky at times and that was a Slytherin trait. She wouldn't mind that one; that was where Amelia was, and Amelia was nice to her. She was sure that the girl would show her all around the school and not leave anything out like she was sure her brother was going to do. She also didn't think she would be in Ravenclaw, because she hated books and learning. And she wasn't witty- she wasn't even sure what it really meant. Maybe she would end up in Hufflepuff, and they would ignore that she didn't work so hard because she knew how to make people smile. Well, sometimes. Like now, the boy was beaming at her, but she was sure it was for some other reason. She wasn't that dense, like her brother. Fixing Henry with a grin, she tilted her head. "I think you'll be in Slytherin." She wasn't going to believe him, not at all about the tree thing, but she was willing to give it a try. Lizzy quickly removed herself from the ground and looked hesitantly at her mother, who fixed her with a serious gaze. After carefully taking a step towards the witch and murmuring in fast-paced Singlish, Lizzy was given permission to play for a small period of time.

Since she was taking her book with her, she was sure she could buy some more moments anyway. Scooping up the heavy and pompous tome, Lizzy smiled at her new friend. "Alright, heavy thoughts. I'm willing to give it a shot." She handed him the book without much thought, almost forgetting that she would have to get it back. All thoughts of academics were shoved aside as she moved towards the tree, craning her neck to see the top of it. "This tree?" she asked, worrying her lower lip with her teeth. "And who's Gunther? Do you have a brother as well? I have a big brother, and his name is Nick. I guess they all get weird names if they're older, and then our parents settle down and come up with something that makes more sense for us. I think that I'm a good Lizzy, but Nicholas is such a weird name. You make a good Henry, though."

The longer he had to stay on the ground, the more eager Henry grew to finally get to the tree and feel the bark under his hands as he steadily progressed upwards. He couldn’t wait to show the way to the oak’s crown to his new friend. For he had decided that he wanted to classify the girl as a friend because her company would be fun (and, of course, he still had the task of a Bathilda Bagshot missionary). Therefore, he chose not to be output when she pointed out what he knew himself, namely that he had named all four houses in his outburst. It might not have been reasonable of him, but Henry didn’t lack arguments why he had felt compelled to mention all of them. After all, he was only an eleven-year old boy and not qualified to choose entirely by himself in such important matters. Because, and that was the most important point, all four houses had a long and honourable tradition and brought forth many celebrated wizards and witches. That’s what stood in the books and what his aunt told him. To select between four excellent options was hard. And if he looked forward to being in all of them, he would hardly be disappointed. Henry was a reasonable boy.

Though, if Henry was completely sincere, he didn’t really want to be put in Slytherin. He didn’t have anything against the house, it was just… Henry had heard a lot of history, tradition, and rumours about it, and he had grown convinced that, should it be true that he was a somehow bad person, Slytherin would help him the least to overcome such tendencies. He also didn’t have the feeling that he belonged to Gryffindor. He could be reckless sometimes in the eyes of adults but brave? Henry preferred to think things through and only act when he could be relatively certain of the outcome of his actions. He knew that jumping from trees wasn’t dangerous if it was carefully done so he saw no problem with it (contrary to many grown-ups who didn’t want to believe him that he knew perfectly well what he was doing). Ravenclaw would be nice he guessed. He liked learning, at least as long as he could choose what he learnt. But the reason why he opted for Hufflepuff upon Lizzy’s critic was almost the same why he was a little afraid of being a Slytherin. Hufflepuff was the house renowned for never having brought forth dark wizards. And dark wizards were bad people. By being sorted into Hufflepuff, Henry would be allowed to face his future with much more calm.

He was slightly disappointed when Lizzy didn’t seem all too enthusiastic about the subject and didn’t even mention how she thought about the houses. He was even downright shocked when she suggested he’d fit into Slytherin. Of course, that could be meant ironically, or nicely, she hadn’t stated any opinions on the houses. But he couldn’t help dreading that she had noted that he behaved wrongly, and therefore she had weighed him and found him wanting. But a sunny day near an oak was simply not the place and time to fear. He didn’t want to know what she might have meant. Instead, he answered as ambiguously as he could, “Thanks, I hope you’ll join me there.”

The only thing that was really important now was that she got to her feet. Accordingly, Henry felt triumphant when she finally went over to her mother and talked gibberish. Of course, the next thought that popped up in Henry’s mind was to ask why she and her mother used such a strange language. He had hardly ever met foreigners and he would love to hear more about the world. Before he could decide whether he wanted to ask first what language they had used, or why her mother looked so censorious, Lizzy was back, dumped A History of Magic in his hands, and turned towards the oak. Henry lost no time and followed her under the tree, moving decidedly to where he knew the lowest branch was situated.

“No. He’s our cat. The best cat ever,” he answered her question about Gunther. He had his mind so much set on the tree before him that he missed the opportunity to ask whether she had a pet. Instead, he continued to listen to her. At first, he was only diverted at her thoughts about names (it had never crossed his mind to find a name funny, not even those of goblin kings), but then he felt a strangely drooping sensation in his stomach when he heard that her brother had the same name as his father. Naturally, he knew that his father could not be Lizzy’s brother, but it still slightly crept him out. To divert himself, he tucked the book tightly under his left arm and blurted out the first-best couple of questions that he could come up with. “Is your brother at Hogwarts now? What house is he in? But isn’t Nicholas an ordinary name? I’m used to Henry, and I don’t have a problem with you being a Lizzy. So, yes, I guess our names are okay.”

Then, Henry pushed any further questions away and concentrated on the branch above him, imagining himself lighter and slowly feeling how his magic set to work. Then he jumped towards the trunk, pushing himself away from the bark with his free hand and landing in a crouched position right on the branch, a technique he had perfected over the years. Carefully balancing the book on the branch, he leant down and stretched out his hand towards Lizzy.

“Take my hand and put your feet against the trunk. It’ll be a lot easier once you’re up here.”

She really hadn't thought too much about the houses, if she was really paying attention to it. Lizzy had only spent a few moments pondering where she might belong, and even then it had been during a discussion where she had declared to Nick for the third time that she was going to do absolutely everything that Amelia did. Hogwarts was still practically a dream, even though she knew that it was a possibility. She personally didn't think she had shown much signs of magic, but she could fly a broom, so that meant that she was a witch. And that, in turn, sent her to Hogwarts in the future. Lizzy knew that meant she had to decide where she was going to live for the next  eight years, and what colors she was going to wear. She knew that the discussion was far more serious than she was thinking in her mind, but it was still just another thing for her to think about. Besides, she had the hat to help her, even if she didn't want it peering into her mind. That was pretty creepy. She didn't even want her mother looking into her diary, even if it was only a few sentences about her not wanting to be in Singapore. Now she was going to invite a magical object to come peek inside her mind?

Lizzy had thought her mother's reaction was the correct one. When Nicky had written about the sorting hat, her mum had freaked out for fifteen minutes about Hogwarts trying to steal secrets. She had to agree; it was scary stuff. There was a sort of unspoken rule that they weren't allowed to touch magical things until they knew what they did, and even then, that thing talked to you. And it was a hat! If anything it made her a bit nervous about wearing hats. She would just do it that once, at Hogwarts, and then never again. She didn't want anything else looking in her mind and trying to figure out what was going on. Even then, what was the hat going to do? Look at her and say that her head was full of Quidditch? She was going to be nervous the entire time that she was waiting for school to begin, and she didn't even have her Hogwarts letter yet. 

She wasn't sure what to think when the boy said he would see her in Slytherin. It didn't bother her, especially since that was where Amelia was. She knew the history of the house, though, if only because Nick had explained it all to her before. She wasn't biased, though. Great Quidditch stars were in Slytherin, just like they were in the rest of the houses. The Harpies only restriction was that girls were on the team, and they didn't care about houses. So Slytherin would be just fine. "Do you think that's where I'll be? That's just fine with me. My brother's best friend is there, and she said she'd look after me if that's where I go. Ravenclaw and Slytherin are Amelia's, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are Nick's. They're prefects." She said this all with seriousness. Her brother wanted to make sure that she was looked after, and she really didn't understand it, but she was going to follow it. Sometimes he was right, after all, even if he was a big rule follower. "Well, Slytherin won't be bad. It would be fun to be in the same place, though."

"Sometimes, names are important," she chirped, still grinning brightly. She missed his brief moments of fear, staring up at the tree in awe. She was pretty good at climbing, and she liked being outside, so this should be good. The fact that Henry seemed to like to climb made it all the better. She would have to introduce him to Carin once they got to school, and they could be like the Three Musketeers. "He's in Hufflepuff, yeah!" She knew that most of his questions were answered in the brief moments where she had started talking at rapid speed, so she tried to find something else to say that she hadn't already. Lizzy didn't mind talking; she talked a lot, really. "I suppose Nicky has an ordinary name. I like your cat's name best, though. It's an interesting one."

Lizzy was in awe when he used magic to help get himself up on the tree. She hadn't even thought of that- it would save her from loads of scratches. But she couldn't get her magic to work like that, so she had to rely on normal strength. She took his hand with determination, trying to squash the nervousness rising within her. "Okay, now what?" she asked, tugging herself up the best that she could to join him on the branch.