Gus knew she had been invited on this outing for a reason, but to be quite honest she could have been perfectly happy as a fly on the wall here, just listening to Billie and Mr. Ollivander discussing jinxes and wandmaking and kelpies, none of which she knew anything about but which were providing a fairly entertaining conversation. She had to wonder if all their days together were like this. (She expected Billie - in spite of, or perhaps because she was eleven - was an endless fount of questions and stories.)

“No dragons in class that I remember,” Gus said with a grin and a shake of her head, “but then I only took it to OWLs so who knows.” (She had only taken everything to OWL level, because she’d left school after that, but she fancied she was better off not mentioning that. Billie hadn’t even left for Hogwarts yet; no need to worry her about things as far off as that. Besides, Mr. Ollivander would probably have that covered, if she was still his ward then.

“I do know nifflers though,” she said cheerily, tossing the girl’s guardian a sidelong look to see what he’d made of that statement about niffler babies. She didn’t fancy they made the most practical of pets, but - “Well, broomsticks and pet nifflers and getting to start at Hogwarts,” Gus remarked teasingly, with a barely-suppressed chuckle. “You’ve certainly got a lot to be looking forward to, Billie. You’re almost making me jealous.”

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