Her mum worked in... Sloane Square? Surely not? Clue's eyes widened briefly as he thought of the butcher, and wondered irresistibly if Sloane's mother worked right there in the butcher, perhaps selling pork chops behind the counter or cleaning out the meat fridge...

No no, he mustn't make dark associations like that. Besides, as ignorant as he was of society and its ways, he knew Sloane did not dress or behave like a girl whose mother worked in a butcher shop.

"I'm from all over", Clue replied dully, fiddling with a dandelion in the grass. "Someone once told me I was born in Blackpool, but I don't know where that is. It sounds haunted. Then I was moved to Coventry. I know where that is. Then... well, then London. But now I'm somewhere better", his grey eyes lifted to the distant sight between the trees — Hogwarts castle. Sanctuary.

That, at last, was something they had very much in common: Hogwarts. And so the two children and the quaint little spider remained beneath the tree for a short while longer, speaking of school and classes and books and Houses until the rain eased and sun spilled through.

-fade out-