Flora began a mental bulleted list of facts about Miss Gamp that she thought would be useful later. She needed to hold her tongue with her questions, though, lest a chat with her friend become an interrogation session! Not that she needed to worry about that. Any further questions stopped themselves from forming when Hesper made the somber confession that she was writing to her parents—her dead parents.

"Oh," she said softly, her face falling almost immediately. "You must miss them lots." Flora sort of knew what it was like to have dead parents. Not that her parents were dead, but sometimes they didn't seem to take too much of an interest in her. Still it was nothing like having dead-dead parents, and Flora was not sure she could ever be an orphan.

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It worked but Hesper felt a little bad about it, Flora seemed to feel bad for her and while it wasn't like her parents weren't dead, she wasn't fishing for sympathy. "It's not so bad anymore, I wouldn't be seeing them very much now anyway." But at least she wouldn't have to spend the summer with her great aunt. "What are your parents like?" It probably wasn't a typical question to ask someone but perhaps Flora's mother was like Great Aunt Jessamine, or maybe her parents were like Hesper's had been and she could live vicariously through her for a few moments.

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There was something about the way Hesper spoke of her parents that made Flora ill to her stomach. Would life be no different without her Mama and Papa? She thought not, because they were always waiting for her no matter how long it was until her next opportunity to visit home. Mama always saw her off at the beginning of the school year and greeted her at the end of the school year. What would she do if she only had Aunt Belle or Grandma Hermione? It wouldn't be the same.

"My Mama is my favorite person," she confided, as if embarrassed to admit it. Most girls she knew wouldn't consider their mother their favorite people. They preferred their friends, or even their sisters or cousins. But Flora had always loved—no, idolized—her mother, and she could not imagine a future where she thought differently. "She's elegant and popular. She does a lot of fundraising and charity work, and she always knows what the right thing to say is." If Flora could grow up to be a miniature Rufina Mulciber, she would be mot pleased.

"My Papa is very important, too," she said, her smile faltering in spite of herself. She loved her Papa, but he wasn't as present as her Mama was. "He has an important Ministry job and works a lot. He's very smart." Smarter than anyone else in the world, in her mind. She would never be as smart as him, but she made an effort to do well in her studies to make him happy. (She could not imagine the disappointment on his face if she got anything less than an E. And besides, showing him her marks was one the best parts of the summer!)

Flora's smile fell altogether at the sudden thought that something could happen to them. What if her Papa wasn't there to see her marks? Or what if Mama wasn't around to help her through her first season? No, she couldn't think of it—it was much too painful.

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Flora's parents sounded perfect, Hesper thought. What would her own parents be like if they were still alive? Would her mother be friends with Flora's? She couldn't remember a great deal about either of her parents anymore, she remembered her mother being unwell but she wasn't sure if that was the plague or something else. Sometimes she felt it was unfair that people could have both parents while she had none at all.

"What's wrong?" Flora looked troubled suddenly. Had she somehow figured out that Hesper had lied (again) about the letter and was now upset about it? Perhaps she just found it uncomfortable now because she was an orphan, since coming to Hogwarts she'd found that there were people who seemed to care about it aside from her which she didn't really understand. True she had no parents but that didn't mean 'orphan' was her entire identity.

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What was wrong? Hesper was the girl with no parents, and Flora was the one who needed consoling. It was wrong, and Flora knew it was selfish of her to turn the attention away from her friend. She waved off the inquiry with a dismissive hand.

"I only miss my parents. If I'm being truthful, they seem rather busy with their own business even when I am at home." She supposed there could be worse things than dead parents. The tightness in her chest seemed to disagree, if only for a moment. Her eyes flickered to the letter."My grandmother once told me that it was good to write down your feelings instead of letting them consume you. I've found that having a confidant is better than that, though."

She smiled a good, genuine smile. Hesper was a nice girl, even if they had vastly different childhood experiences. Flora could see them being good friends down the road.

"I'm always here if you want to talk. I'm no psychologist, but I have a good listening ear," she offered.

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   Hesper Gamp

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Hesper would be lying if she said hearing the words 'I only miss my parents' come out of Flora's mouth had been both expected and inoffensive. Probably she was supposed to be understanding and keep in mind that people with living parents were allowed to miss them and that it wasn't selfishness to admit as much, but she was only eleven and while generally quite mature for her age, she wasn't emotionally mature in all areas. Fortunately she had just enough tact to keep it to herself.

Fortunately because it seemed Flora was being incredibly candid with her. Hesper almost felt bad for being deceitful about her letter. "Thank you," she replied demurely. Despite feeling affronted just a moment ago she was perfectly sincere. After a beat she couldn't help but add, "What's a psychologist?"

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So that was that. Now Flora missed her parents and she'd done nothing to relieve Miss Gamp's pain. (Of course, Miss Gamp had to have pain about her family no matter what she said, and Flora just assumed she was trying to be proper by hiding it.)

"Oh, it's like... someone who tries to figure out how our minds work" she explained, and then added offhandedly, "They haven't done it yet." She'd read about psychology in a book she found in Papa's library, but none of the scientific terms made much sense. It must have been one of the subjects he researched for work. "They try to study people to figure out how we think. It sounds scary."

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Well that made sense. What Flora was describing sounded like very complex and mysterious magic, to know how a person's mind worked would surely be tantamount to mind reading? "It does," she agreed. "I'm glad you're not one, even if it'd be helpful." Hesper smiled, she was trying very hard now to stay upbeat.

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With a shrug, Flora stood up and looked at the clock. It was terribly late already, and she had History of Magic with Professor Darrow so early the next morning! (For all she enjoyed peeking across her desk to see what Rex was writing across the row, she had no idea how anyone expected her to learn about history when her breakfast was still settling in her belly!)

"Well," she said, smiling awkwardly at the younger Slytherin, "I'd better be off to bed. Don't stay up to long now, you hear me? I know you'd hate to lose house points for being late to class in the morning."

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