Gideon nodded at Billie's explanations. It would explain her mother's wilder days. Days that lead them to cross paths over a vigorous one night stand that had apparently resulted in Billie. He'd vanished as he always did, though, and had never seen the woman again. He hadn't had a clue Billie had even existed. Not until the little scamp had shown up in Hogsmeade willing to do whatever he could do to earn a knut. But at the time, Billie had been a he. A random street urchin that had become an odd little friend of Gideon's. Now it was changing.

Smiling at her, Gideon nodded. "If you want me to just be a friend, I can be that, too," he answered simply, "Though it would make me feel a bit better if we built you a room in the shop. You'd always be warm and I'd see to it your belly was always full." He glanced down to her boots, too, and smirked. "And maybe a new pair of boots," he added as he looked back up to her, "But just as a friend. If that's what you want."

---

  

Billie wasn't sure what she wanted, but the desire to have friends trumped anything else, so she quickly nodded to Gideon. She hadn't been allowed to keep any friends she made. Her mother had been afraid that others would discover her unnatural abilities, or, worse, that it was somehow contagious. For a while, her only form of reliable social contact had been her brother.

From the way the ragamuffin's eyes widened, it was clear she had become overwhelmed. A place to sleep? Food? New boots? Nobody had every offered such things to her. She had such a heightened sense of self-preservation, that it wasn't in her to refuse. Of course, she was going to say yes if it meant not starving or freezing to death. As much as she would prefer never to be an adult, she didn't want to perish at the ripe old age of nine.

"But...but I'll still help ya in the shop. To pay ya back. Okay?"

  

---

MJ, yet again working her magic.  <3 <3 Thank you

Gideon responded with a nod of his own as he watched Billie. Clearly, she was mulling it all over and he could hardly blame her. The widening of her eyes was enough to indicate he'd shocked her some and it was enough to send a pang of pain to his heart. The poor thing clearly hadn't had such kindness shown to her before, not even by her own blood. Until now.

He chuckled lightly when she did respond though. His first instinct was to tell her it wouldn't be necessary but.. he had a feeling that wouldn't exactly work out. It was clear she wanted what he was offering but not without offering something in return. It was pride, he was sure, and he'd let her have that. She'd already lost enough.

"That would be fine," he said as he moved to stand up but smiled down at her, "I think, for the sake of wagging tongues, we'll say I've noticed something in you. A spark that could do well with wandmaking so you're a little apprentice in the making. It could easily explain everything that way." Or, at least, he hoped it would.

---

  

Billie grinned widely, glad that she would be allowed to work for it. It was definitely partly pride, but she had also learned nothing was free to the point she often overcompensated for her lack of any true talent.

Brows scrunching together, she peered up at Gideon, "Wagging tongues? What ya mean?" She blurted out, but she soon smiled again in surprise, "'M gonna learn to make them wands?"

Stashing her hands into her pockets, Billie glanced around, particularly in the direction her mother had stormed off in. She wanted to be sure the woman wasn't going to suddenly reappear. She had another question, but she wasn't so sure it was a polite one to ask, not that she always used her manners. She just couldn't figure out what a guy like Gideon could possibly have seen in her mother that made him want to spend time with her. Maybe she'd understand when she was grown. Maybe.

Turning back, the child awkwardly shifted from one foot to the other, for once not sure what else to say.

  

---

MJ, yet again working her magic.  <3 <3 Thank you

Gideon shook his head, waving off the comment about wagging tongues. "Nothing to worry about right now," he said sinply with a shrug, "And we'll see what happens. Can't do much until you've been to school though."

He nodded down another road then, "Should we be on our way? To Diagon Alley?"

---