"No," Silas frowned for a moment, before recalling the gentleman's name again, "I'm none too sure how tall this Valenduris is, but mine was delivered by a Professor Griffith, and he was taller than a small tree." Or near enough, by the boy's measuring. His eyes squinted for a moment, looking to measure the same on Miss Rosier, and without much success given a lack of trees nearby. He stood and motioned like the minister after the sermon, tilting his chin up just a bit, "How tall are you then?"

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   Cressida Rosier

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The girl answered promptly: "About four foot and six inches. My papa is very tall but my mama was not." She quieted for a moment and chewed on her lip, a very unladylike habit that had not been sufficiently prevented; she seemed disquieted. Then she quickly changed the topic. "Professor Griffith! Why, he came by last spring to look after the monster in our attic. To be of service to papa."

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   Silas Merlion

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The movement of the train under his feet was very unfamiliar and not at all like a boat. Unmoored, Silas sat back down, though part of him was a little grateful Miss Rosier hadn't felt a need to demonstrate her towering height over his. Her focus drew in his curiosity once more, "Monsters can't hurt you. I had one in a closet once, it was so big and frightening when I was even smaller. But Mama told me that one's size is often unequal to one's courage, and all I needed for the monster to vanish was to face it and declare that I was unafraid."

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   Cressida Rosier

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Ida sat down opposite to Mr. Merlion and neatly folded her hands into her lap. "The monster is not to hurt us, it is to hurt our enemies." She sat exceedingly straight and only the heel of her right foot tapped rhythmically against the wooden bench. "I dare say, Mr. Merlion, should you chance upon a monster on the castle grounds—a dragon or troll perhaps—your courage alone shan't vanquish it." She smiled to herself, thinking she worded it most prettily, before she hastened to add: "Although I am sure you are a very valiant boy!"

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   Silas Merlion

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"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil. For Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me. " Silas recited, the words of the psalm were his greatest weapon against monsters next to courage alone. Faith would guide him, at Hogwarts or in the face of any monsters. Nor did the boy come unarmed, as he suddenly recalled, "I suppose a wand could be the rod, you can take comfort in that, too. I dare say your faith in me will not be misplaced, Miss Rosier."

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   Cressida Rosier

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Miss Rosier undertook some effort not to giggle at the repeated quoting of religious verses — Oh, how this boy would balk at the ways of wizard folk. She was almost saddened to think that he would take place at the table of Hufflepuff Or Gryffindor, and she would miss much of the entertainment! "Do you have A house you wish to be sorted in? I am certainly going to Slytherin.” , she announced with just a little less confidence than she ought to.

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   Silas Merlion

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If Miss Rosier did, indeed, see a renewed sense of confidence in him, Silas couldn't quite tell. He found it hard to read this proud child of magical royalty, which he supposed might be true of all magical people. They had such strange terms, like Muggleborn or wands, but a school house was one that, at last, the boy could speak of from some familiarity. "From what I read about Hogwarts, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw seem to be the strongest of the Houses, and I could see myself among them."

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"Hufflepuff the strongest? Oh they would be unjustly flattered, I bet, but this can't be true — Slytherin is strongest," Ida rebutted, kicking her feet in excitement at the discussion. "You ought to have at least said Gryffindor, Mr. Merlion. After all, you would take on a dragon; that's quite brave!" And Ida snickered and imagined the slight boy with such a monster, one like father kept taxidermied in his library, just that was not such a large specimen at all, so she imagined it with the size of a carriage, perhaps a house!

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   Silas Merlion

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Silas listened to the girl weigh the different houses on merits that did not seem to be in the book he read, though he supposed she must have a deeper understanding of these differences than he. Perhaps young magical folk had a form of Sunday School where they learned the beginnings of lessons long before Hogwarts. "I think true bravery would be for one to stand alone with only faith to guide him. And while I do not know who Mr. Griffith looks to for a guide, I should think he is both brave and strong."

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"Well Griffith is a Slytherin", Ida pointed out about the Alchemy Professor, "Although certainly not the finest of our kind. There are a lot of very fine families in Slytherin. The Malfoys, the Blacks and the Lestranges and -oh!,- the Flints,- they are all exceedingly well-bred", she recounted proudly, feeling that she had a lot of things to offer to clueless Merlion in this regard; there could be hardly a girl more informed about Hogwarts gossip in their year, for it was all she ever asked her siblings about, and all they deigned to tell her without making up the meanest lies.

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   Silas Merlion

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"What does it take?" he asked, curiosity overtaking him for a moment between talk of Hogwarts and dragons, "to be the finest of our kind?" The boy supposed he was one of her kind as well now, though he knew not what that meant. The fine family names meant as little to him as her family history, but if they were as well-bred as Miss Rosier suggested then Silas should be able to find something in common after all.

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