Open Just Some Research

[Indira Khatri]

Indi walked around Obsidain Harbor keeping her eyes peeled for every little detail she could take in. She had known about magic for years since her mother was a witch although she hardly did magic herself. She preferred a more muggle lifestyle and even married one after her dad left. Indi had received her letter only a few weeks ago and now she knew for sure this is where she was headed in less then half a year. It was all very exciting but she could have done without the visit to see her grandmother and her magical side of the family. For some reason her mother had the idea in her head, that now she was a witch, Indi had to go spend time with family she barely knew. It was silly, if they really had anything useful to share with her it wouldn't have taken them this long to do just that. But Indi had managed to sneak away from her mother, who had volunteered to do some shopping for her grandmother, and was taking this brief independent time to explore the area and try to see what she could find out for herself. She took note of the bookshop and the quill shop for the next time she visited before pausing to look in one of the shop windows to watch a handful of owls fluttering around on the inside.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson certainly enjoyed being able to wander around outside of the house on his own. Of course his father was not that far away but it was not that far away, doing some last minute shopping for the family, so he was close by enough. However that didn’t mean that he wasn’t independent enough, his father trusted him more and would do so more and more as he got closer to the school age. He wasn’t too long away from it and Bran was looking forward to being able to go to school but he did have a few more weeks to wait until he got to it. He was making his way down the street when he got briefly distracted by some of the new book in his hands, and just barely stopped himself from walking into a girl. ”Oh dear, sorry,” he exclaimed loudly.​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi looked up quickly from where she had been observing the owls inside the shop. She had been startled by his shouting and was also surprised to see it was a boy who looked to be her age. It really shouldn’t have been that surprising to her. She should have known that obviously there would be kids her age around. “There’s no need to shout.” she said with an indignant sigh. “You should watch where you’re going?” she said and crossed her arms over her chest. Indi wondered if it was worth asking him any questions and when she spied the book in his hands she figured it was probably worth a shot. “Do you live around here?” she asked.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson looked at the girl a little surprised by her tone, he nodded a little visibly taken aback, ”Sorry, I was just reading,” he told her though he felt embarrassment flush his cheeks as he knew that didn’t help the case of if he was looking where he was going. It very firmly put it in the department of not paying attention. At the question he gave a half shrug, ”Not too far from here,” he told her, ”My parents can apparate, so we can get here pretty easily, but we live in the middle of nowhere,” he told her with a little shrug, there was no sense in lying about that. They lived close enough and his dad when not working always had him or his sister’s with him. Especially if mum was working. ”Do you live around here?” he returned the question. ​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi looked again at the book he was holding.“What are you reading?” she asked genuinely curious as to what could be so interesting. And if it really was something good she wondered how hard it would be to convince her mother to get one for her. “Interesting.” she said trying to sound decidedly disinterested as the boy talked about apparation. She didn't want to seem as unfamiliar as she truly was on the topic. Her mother had told her about apparation before and it seemed absolutely fascinating. Although Indi had never done it before since her mother didn’t have a license. “No. I’m just visiting. I have some family that lives nearby.” she explained a little vaguely. She was sure that giving too much information to strangers was not a very good idea. “What’s your name?” she asked next.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson held the book up and showed the title to the girl, it was an old muggle book, not one from this century. ”It’s called The Library of the Unwritten,” he said, it wasn’t really a children’s book and but it was good and interesting. His dad was helpful in bits that he didn’t get but he liked to think he was independently reading it. He nodded at her words, she didn’t seem all that interested in the apparition but she was visiting family. ”Oh that must be nice, where do you live normally?” he asked. Perhaps she was from like Auckland or something. ”I’m Branson,” he replied before holding out his hand to her, ”What’s your name” he returned. ​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi didn’t recognize the name of the book or the cover of the book when he showed it to her. But it didn’t sound particularly magical and she didn’t want to sound dumb so she quickly nodded aprovingly and moved on. “I live in Melbourne with my mom...and my step-dad, and little sister.” she said, adding the last part a little begrudgingly. She hardly remembered life before them but still. Simply knowing that she was an only child at one point made the injustice of having to share things with her even more unbearable. “Nice to meet you Branson.” she said, standing up straight and shaking his hand. “My name is Indira but everyone calls me Indi.” she explained. “So are you going to Hogwarts next year?” she asked.

 

[Branson Archer]

There were so many books in the world, he wasn’t too surprised that the book he was reading didn’t really register with her, why would it? He listened as she told him where she was from originally and he thought it was cool. He’d never been to australia. They tended to go on holidays in New Zealand, which was nice and he liked it, but it would be cool to travel further, he knew uncle Tybalt travelled a lot. The girl didn’t seem too happy about the fact she had a step-dad and sister, but he wouldn’t mention it. If she was bothered by it, his input wouldn’t help. If books had taught him anything it was to know when to not ask questions. ”Nice to meet you Indi,” he said back to her before nodding, ”I am! Been looking forward to it for years,” he told her. And he had, though he’d be the first of his siblings to go, it was impossible to ignore Hogwarts in his life given that his dad worked there. ”Will you?”​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi was starting to like talking to Branson, after all he was answering all of her questions. "For years?" she asked thoughtfully as she considered his answer. "So both you're parent's are magical?" she deduced. With only one magical parent who decided to study in the muggle world after Hogwarts, she had a criminally nonexistent knowledge of the magical world and it annoyed her constantly. "Looks like it." she answered proudly but it wasn't like it was that special of a thing if he was also going. "I was supposed to go to this boring prep-school but things have changed, and I imagine Hogwarts will be much better" she added.

 

[Branson Archer]

Branson nodded, ”Yeah, they both went to Hogwarts here in New Zealand,” he told the girl, he knew that his father had had some issues at school, but they’d both gone, both attended. ”Are your parents magical?” he asked, he didn’t want to seem rude but perhaps she was from magical parents too. He was returning the question. He’d answered - though it had been obvious given his comments that he had magical parents. Though he knew if he was new to the world he would do everything in his power to read as much as possible to not be too far behind and to know everything but that was just him. ”Whats a prep-school?” he asked, he was sure he’d read something in which it had been mentioned but he was sure exactly what they were. ​

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi stood up straighter as the boy asked her about her parents, and she got frustrated with her mom all over again. "They are." she said with a little more force then she needed it. "But they split up before I was born and my mom decided to study science after she left Hogwarts and we don't visit often." she explained. "My step-dad is a muggle though. So we don't talk about it much" she added, and hated how complicated all that was to explain. But she did enjoy the opportunity to explain something to Branson. "It's a school that focuses a lot on academics and gets you ready for university." she said with a disinterested shrug, like it was no big deal but stopped suddenly when a thought occurred to her. "Do wizards have university?" she asked suddenly, not even pausing to think how a question like that might make her seem ignorant. Surely they did. Being done with school completely after seven years seemed highly unlikely.