October 14, 1893 — Lower Levels
Wren Burroughs

One of the things Lucy appreciated about Hogsmeade weekends as a second year was how quiet the castle felt while most of the school was in town. She got a great deal done without as many distractions. Though she was still looking forward to next year, so she supposed it was all the same in the end.

Lucy was headed back toward the common room, her arms full of books from the library. It was getting on in the afternoon, so she was less surprised to see the corridors filling out now. "Miss Burroughs!" she called as she came upon the Hufflepuff. "Are you back from Hogsmeade, or did you stay in today?"

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Being a third year had meant a whole new world opening up for Wren, that being the world of accompanied trips to Hogsmeade. She loved spending time with the other students, being in a place that might have been home for many, but for her was a fascinating world of mostly magical things, unlike London, which had some Muggle mixed in.

“Miss Tatting!” Wren greeted her friend. “I came back early. Most of the group I was with had family they wished to spend time with.”

Wren shrugged, “They're lucky! But it’s quite boring to be alone.”

She looked at the Slytherin and tilted her head “How has your day been? Full of studying, it seems”

Wren gestured at the books that the other girl was carrying, almost asking to see.

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Thank you so much, Bee!

Lucy nodded. She imagined her first stop next year during her first Hogsmeade trip would be to Twilifit & Tatting's. Although she was certainly more used to it this year, it was still strange to spend so much time away! At least the presence of her siblings at Hogwarts made it harder to feel homesick.

"Oh, yes," she said, looking down at her books. "It's so much easier to concentrate when so many people are gone today--it's so quiet!" Lucy smiled. "I thought I'd take as much advantage of it as I can."

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Wren nodded. It made perfect sense. It was something she had noticed in her earlier years, that the older students left on these weekends. Instead of using the time for studying, she and a few friends had used it to socialize in a spot usually occupied by a few rather rude sixth years. Well, she supposed they'd be seventh years, now.

"That's quite clever," Wren said, smiling at Miss Tatting. She tried to remember what she had studied at this point last year, but found her mind occupied much more by what she was learning at the moment. Still, it would be rude not to offer her experience as the older (and therefore more wise) of the two. "Are you finding any of it particularly difficult?" Wren asked.

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Thank you so much, Bee!

At Miss Burroughs' question, Lucy sighed a little dejectedly. "Anything theoretical is a chore," she confessed. "Or anything that doesn't have a hands-on component at all. It's maddening." Lucy prided herself on doing her best, always, and usually, that worked out quite well for her! But she'd read and reread her latest essay for History of Magic and still wasn't convinced that the professor would find it acceptable.

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Wren laughed. She wasn't sure she agreed, not exactly, but it was certainly a lot more fun to be waving her wand around.

"Except for Potions." Wren made a face. She hated waiting to stir or add an ingredient until the right time. "Is it the heavy textbooks that are tricky? Or the loooong essays we must write?"

Wren stretched out the word and giggled a little bit. She knew that there was probably a reason for professors to demand a certain essay length, but that didn't mean she liked giving up an afternoon or two of socializing to write the essay.

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Thank you so much, Bee!

"The essays," Lucy said, with a dramatic sigh to match Miss Burroughs' tone. "They take so much time that I'm sure I could be using for something more practical!" Like practicing her spell work. Or working on something personal. Or reading a book that wasn't specifically for school.

"Did you at least see anything interesting while you were in Hogsmeade?" Lucy asked. She supposed not interesting enough to stay, of course, but that didn't mean the day had been a total loss.

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Wren laughed at that, enjoying the way Miss Tatting continued the joke. "Indeed! At the very least, my penmanship is improving." She wasn't sure she would ever need to write anything like the essays outside of Hogwarts. She didn't imagine most people of her class and gender spent time writing about Potions or History.

Wren grinned, "I live in London, so I haven't really been there all that many times. It's fantastic to go by ourselves, even with the chaperone." She tried to think of something specific. Wasn't Miss Tatting from Hogsmeade? Wren had seen a store with her name on it, after all. "Padmore Park looked lovely, but nobody in my group wanted to stop for a visit, so we didn't."

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Thank you so much, Bee!

"You'll have to go next time," Lucy said. "Or maybe in winter--the park does look rather nice under the snow!" A fair enough consolation for how cold it got, after all.

"I think it'd be nice to be able to go home for a bit," Lucy said wistfully. She lived in Hogsmeade, of course, so it was a viable option when she was old enough to go herself, but it was still such a strange feeling to be so close to home and yet unable to go. A frustrating sort of homesickness, really.

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Wren nodded, "I plan to!" She really, really hoped that her mother would let her go. Or even take her and her siblings. It might be fun for the younger ones. Of course, they'd all be bundled up, but that was fine. Wren had a hat that she thought made her look quite beautiful.

"Oh, that's right!" Wren exclaimed, "You're from Hogsmeade, aren't you? I suppose it would be nice to visit family...like if we had London visits. But do you think your family will want to see you every trip? What if you just wanted to have a friends trip?"

She loved her family, but sometimes she needed to spend time with people her own age. Thankfully, that was understood.

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Thank you so much, Bee!

"I'm sure they'd understand if I didn't visit every time," Lucy said confidently. She was sure that her family wanted her to make the most of her time at school, after all, and part of that was enjoying the social aspect. "Though I always think those of us with family shops on the high street are incredibly lucky--it's so easy to stop in if we want to!" Many of her classmates were much better off than the Tattings, but Lucy thought that in this, at least, families like hers had the advantage. Though there was always the chance that if she stopped in at the shop, she would be expected to help out, but Lucy didn't really mind that.

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Wren nodded. That would make sense. Her mother hadn't come to visit her for this trip, but the other one was closer to her birthday, so Wren hoped she'd be there for that one. Maybe even Lilibet and Ambrose would come visit, young as they were. Elliot wouldn't, but he was a first year anyways, so he had to wait his turn. Unless someone had died. Wren momentarily shuddered at the memory of hearing that her father had died just before the Christmas holidays.

"You're right about that!" Wren imagined that they also got some discounts or something, which would've made shopping a lot more fun, but she didn't say that. She was pretty sure that sometimes people who owned shops could be poor, and she didn't want to embarrass Miss Tatting if that was the case for her family. "And then you could show everyone what fun it is to own a shop! Or maybe the tasks that you have to do...is it like chores?"

Wren understood the concept, even if she had servants doing many of the things she associated with chores. And she'd grown more familiar with it while at school, since all of the servants hadn't come with her. She was glad for that. Mother must've needed all the help that she could get while she was home without the ever-helpful Wren.

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Thank you so much, Bee!

Lucy didn't mind talking about her family's shop--it was good advertising, after all! And besides that, it was something Lucy was genuinely passionate about. "Some parts are, I suppose," she said. "Though chores makes it sound more unpleasant than I find it!" The older she got, the more responsibilities she was entrusted with, which Lucy thought was good, really. She wanted to be worthy of taking on the shop when the time came, and surely that was a good sign to that effect.

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Wren laughed. Maybe it would've been fun if she'd lived in a family store and told people about it. But maybe she wasn't built for that. "If they're not chores, what do you call them?" Wren considered it for a second. "Duties? Tasks? Just work?" It would be interesting to know about what it was like. Did Miss Tatting even get paid? That seemed like an awkward question.

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Thank you so much, Bee!

"Tasks or work, really," Lucy said. "It's not very much yet, but I'm trusted with more now that I'm older, and that's exciting, I think." Lucy couldn't imagine what her more well-to-do peers got up to in their free time away from school, since presumably they didn't have equivalent responsibilities. Lucy couldn't imagine being idle!

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Wren nodded. How fascinating! Maybe she would ask some of the older students who planned to work in their family's shops about that kind of thing. If there were any of them around. Did those types of people stay until their NEWTs? She would at least ask the OWL students to see about it.

"I couldn't imagine." Wren said earnestly. "Do you have any brothers? Or do you get the shop when you're old enough? Is that rude to ask?"

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Thank you so much, Bee!