She giggled a bit at the mention of cleaning spells. She supposed she might end up in the same boat as Gus, only being adept at a handful of useful spells. Billie didn't think of herself as the smartest kid. After all, most others her age could already read very well and had been writing for years before she could. She just hoped she didn't fail out of Hogwarts and become a disappointment to Gideon. Maybe he wouldn't want her around anymore after that. That was something she didn't think she could bear. "Yeah, I'll jinx everyone!" Okay, maybe that wouldn't exactly make Gideon happy, but she didn't realize that, yet.

"Did you get to see dragons in Care of Magical Creatures?" Billie suddenly blurted out at the pair of them, her own excitement about the subject not allowing her to think through what she was even saying. "And nifflers? I have a niffler friend. Her name is Ginger, and she's Mr. Scamander's pet. I hope she has babies one day 'cause I want one of 'em."

She quieted long enough to hear that creatures classes helped with wandmaking, and she tilted her head slightly. "Maybe if I'm real good at it, I can help you get your wand cores, okay?" Which could be a disaster, but all she wished to do was help repay Gideon for all of his kindness.

Her eyes widened a bit at the mention of kelpies. Even muggles told tales of them. "Yeah, that might be useful."

  

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MJ, yet again working her magic.  <3 <3 Thank you

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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gorgeous set by Lady!

"I doubt they'd take you off to meet dragons, when you're not even allowed to do magic off the school grounds until you're seventeen," he pointed out. He personally thought underage magic restrictions were quite silly — particularly as he'd left school and started his career after his OWLs, and magic had been an integral part of that — but he didn't need to go advertising that, particularly when Miss Robins was still, for all intents and purposes, a stranger. "And there's certainly not enough room on the Hogwarts grounds for them to be keeping them there. Dragons need a lot of space," he informed Billie. Not that he was exactly an expert, but he had made a few trips to the Hebrides to harvest dragon heartstrings shortly after a dragon had died — too much time between death and collection would lesson the magic, and the work itself was too precise to be trusted to a dragon handler — so he had some relevant experience.

This was the first he'd heard of Billie's "friend" niffler, and the idea of baby nifflers honestly made him more nervous than the idea of Billie going off to confront dragons. His workshop was full of all sorts of small magical items, both for use in wands and for use in the process of constructing them, and a fair few of them were shiny. He'd never be able to get anything done again. "I — ah — I doubt Soot would take kindly to a baby niffler," he said, not quite wanting to shut her down (particularly when it was unlikely to ever come up) but absolutely not wanting to open the door to pet nifflers. "But — yes, lots to look forward to, nifflers or no."

  

Billie scrunched up her face in disappointment about dragons, but, if she were to be honest, she wasn't so sure she wanted to meet one face-to-face. Her smile soon returned, and she stood up straighter. "Well, maybe if quidditch people keep making dumb rules, you could come teach flying at Hogwarts! Well, I mean, if the person who does it already quits or something." Gus would certainly make school more fun.

Not being able to do magic when not at school wasn't something on her mind, at the moment. It wasn't as if she knew any spells, yet, so the reality of the fact hadn't fully set it. Come summer, or even Christmas break, she'd probably realize that disappointment when she couldn't show Gideon all the amazing things she learned.

"Soot likes everyone, but maybe you're right. He might get jealous." She conceded in response to Gideon's niffler comments. Despite it, she seemed to walk with a spring in her step, her imagination running wild about all of her Hogwarts expectations. Despite the serious anxiety about having to go there as a girl, there seemed to be so much she wished to do.

"I hope it's as good as everyone says."

  

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MJ, yet again working her magic.  <3 <3 Thank you

Teaching... much as she loved the sport, she could not envision being a very good teacher, but she smiled indulgently at the mention of it, just the same. (She supposed she ought to be thinking of what to do when the day came to retire, but... she had avoided that question thus far, and would continue until it became inevitable, thank you kindly.)

Nor did Gus have the faintest idea who or what Soot was - probably not a person, though there had been stranger nicknames than that - but she didn’t interrupt to ask, amused enough as it was at the way Mr. Ollivander headed off the niffler possibility. He must’ve had a lot of practice with children. She had not thought the Ollivander men had families of their own, but she supposed between this ward and the younger customers they were fairly used to children at the wandshop.

Unused as she was, Billie had been nothing short of a delight, and Gus was in no hurry to cut short the stroll. She was not sure how helpful she had been thus far, but Billie seemed as cheerful a girl as could be, and Gus had no intentions of being the gloom on a summer’s day, so she supposed she would call this outing a success. “Even better, I bet. You’ll see.”

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wrap?

  

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gorgeous set by Lady!