"It is terrible," he continued on, missing any of the verbal cues that might suggest his sister was anything other than in agreement. "I'd much rather be out playing quidditch. We had such a good year—Maddie and I did fine, but Sloane did better than anyone." He paused, remembering that Greta had likely never met nor heard of any of his friends apart from conversations between himself and Maddie.

"But yes," he said, "the essays are awful."

---