July 24th, 1890 — Gillenwater-Bell Household, Godric's Hollow

Only a few days more until he got his letter; then he'd know what supplies he'd need, what books were required for his classes, and, most importantly, if he was going to be quidditch captain. He knew he was silly for hoping that [Gryffindor HoH] would think him the best for the post, but it wasn't like there was anyone older than him left on the team. It was him and Selwyn, and Selwyn was a complete prat—and, if he was being honest, better off in Slytherin.

Being trapped in Godric's Hollow didn't help with the waiting. Life had gotten easier since his mother had married Maddy's dad, but trips to Hogsmeade didn't happen every day. Usually afternoons were spent trying to entertain Greta and Oakshaft without a wand or a broomstick. Oakshaft had wandered upstairs in search of Maddy, though, leaving him seated across the room from his little sister.

"Only more month," he breathed, watching the grandfather clock tick from across the room. "Then Maddy and I will be gone and you'll have the run of the house again." He never really bothered to ask Greta what she thought of having magical siblings. As interested as she might be, it was better to avoid talk of magic altogether than having her feel left out.

---

  

---

Greta had had her head tucked into another book and was relishing Oakshaft’s abandonment in search of his sister because it meant that she got to spend time with Cameron by herself.  Without Oakshaft. She tried to not let it colour her relationship with him but she was jealous of her stepbrother. He was magical in a magical family that probably suited her magical elder brother far better than she did. She felt the odd one out and it was lonely.

They all got to do lots of things and go lots of places she simply couldn't go because she didn't have magic. It was very boring and every year it got more and more dull and she could literally feel her life ticking away. She knew that even if she got married to a magical person like her mother it wouldn't mean anything. She still would be living the exact same magicless lonely life.

Magic, from what she had read from snooping in her step-father's office, from her brother and from Maddie, and from all the books she could get her hands, was exciting! And even women had exciting lives because of it.

Oh how she wished she could become a witch! She wanted to be one so bad that she could’ve sworn magic was happening around her constantly but... She was trying to be realistic and not get her hopes up afterall. It could've just been Oakshaft or her brother.

She'd be twelve in September which meant when her brothers letter arrived it would be the end of that dream and she'd be stuck. She'd be stuck following a boring magicless path whilst the rest of her family went off to magic school and excitement. What was she even going to do? She defineately was not looking forward to having the run of the house again as her brother called it.

"Oh what fun." She said sourly. It was unfair she knew but it was also unfair how much her brother was looking forward to going away and how he had been gifted with magic and she had not.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.

It was true: he hadn't spent as much time with Greta since starting Hogwarts. She was a muggle an he was a wizard, meaning their only commonalities were their shared parentage and their appearances. He had more in common with Oakshaft, who'd he only known for two years and was five years his junior! It was sad, but he'd resigned to the fact that he and Greta were unlikely to ever be closer than they were now. Before he knew it she'd be married off to some muggle man in the village, and he'd be off playing quidditch—and that would be that.

But despite that, hearing the sourness in his tone evoked a sense of guilt. Before their mother married Mr. Bell, Cameron had hardly given a thought to Greta's opinion of his magical abilities. Now, he knew she felt left out.

"Trust me, you don't want to be writing three-page-long reports for Professor Darrow in History of Magic. He's a great teacher, but I usually end up pestering Ned until he helps me do them," he said, blind to how insensitive it really sounded. For a muggleborn, he wasn't very fond of his classwork. He liked the magic itself and all things practical, but papers? When they had wands?

He didn't get it.

---

  

---

She tried not to let it get to her. The jealousy that was growing deep inside the pit of her stomach and the feeling that the world was just unfair. She wanted to be a part of the world so bad that it felt like it ate at her and was turning her into a person that she didn't very much like.

She knew that it wasn't Cam's fault.

She knew that and that logically it wasn't a good idea to take her frustrations out on Cam but she wasn't very good at keeping secrets. Well... not that she wasn't good at it she just didn't have very good practice at it because she didn't understand the point of them.  Keeping the wizarding world a secret had been hard enough as had explaining it all to the local children that her brother got to go off to a special school and was only home for the holidays when they asked what he was doing.

She'd fumbled it then and she was fumbling it now.

She tried not to let her jealousy and desire show and tried to focus on the book infront of her. Cam was just so lucky and yet here he was complaining about having to do something that had to do with magic. The length while it sounding daunting was probably just Cam exaggerating the work load. She very much doubted that a teacher, a professor would get them to do something they couldn't do.

"Yeh... that sounds terrible..." She responded trying sound sympathetic though it was highly likely that it came across as sarcasm. She hoped against hope that she would get her letter just like Cam soon and go away with him because she was not good at this lying thing at all.  She must be magic. Cam was and they were siblings even if Cam didn't think she could be magic she must be. She didn't want to live a life that was just so.... boring.  It would be so hard watching Cam, and Maddie and Oakshaft have exciting lives at a magic school while she stayed home. Inevitably if it happened just like everybody assumed it would....She promised herself she would get better at lying because if she spent her life making her family feel miserable because she was jealous of them all she would feel even more miserable than she already did right that second.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.

"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."

---

  

---

He hadn't noticed her slip.

For a moment she was happy that he hadn't caught her being petty and jealous and then she found herself getting irritated that he hadn't noticed it. He should've noticed it. He should know that she was unhappy. He was her brother after all. He was supposed to know her better than that.

And here he was talking about Quidditch.

And Sloannnnnne. Who even was Sloane? He'd also mentioned a Ned. And now he was talking about a Sloane. Who even were these people?

"Whose Sloane?" She asked in her most polite not-angry-or-threatening-because-he-had-blatantly-not-noticed-her-sarcasm voice. She knew she was being jealous because he got to meet all these fun new exciting people that she didn't get to meet because she was stuck at home but she just couldn't help herself.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.

Sloane. She was.. well... "She's a friend. One of my team-mates. I met her in second year, while she was in first." He felt his cheeks reddening, but he assumed it was because he wasn't used to talking about his friends with people who didn't know them. He wondered how his friends described him to people who weren't there. Friend? Team-mate? Best friend?

"She plays seeker, and she's really good. Don't ever tell her I said that—assuming she ever comes here to visit Maddy." He assumed girls did that sort of things sometimes.

"Don't you have friends, Greta?"

---

  

---

Cam's reaction was interesting she watched his cheeks flush and wondered if there was more to it than Cam was willing to talk about. It was on the tip of her tongue to tease him about it when she  mentioned her friends.

She blinked.

How exactly had the topic gotten around to her friends?

She had friends. She was sure she had friends.

YEP. TOTALLY.

They just.....er..... weren't talking to her right now.

It didn't have anything to with the fact that she'd caught Bobby Miller stealing Daisy Pattersons flowers to give to Sarah Bytheway, or that Frederick Johnson was sending anonymous love notes to Nathalie Smith, the vicar's wife, or that the village kids had been skinny dipping at the pond near Leon White's place when they were supposed to be in school....

None of that stuff was supposed to be happening at all. It wasn't her fault that they were trying to keep it a secret if they didn't want anybody to find out about it they shouldn't have done it in the first place.

She closed her book, tears forming in her eyes. This would all be easier if she had magic and belonged in the family and could just go away to school. She wouldn't be lonely there. She'd belong there.

"Of course I have friends. Everyone has friends." She declared, lying. Maybe Cam wouldn't be able to tell. He hadn't been able to tell when she was lying earlier so maybe she was just getting better at it;

"I have umm... Emma and errrr. Amy... and ahhh Nichole...." She shut her mouth because she knew what it sounded like and she was just making it worse.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.

Cameron gave her a weird look. Okay, she had friends; he wasn't very emotionally invested in any of them, and yet it seemed like Greta was having a difficult time thinking about it. She almost looked sad. Maybe they didn't exist? Is that why she seemed to be having such a problem naming them?

"Hey, it's okay," he said awkwardly, reaching out to pat her knee. "Let me tell you a secret. I didn't have many friends after father died. We were poor then, and my school friends thought it was pathetic." He considered going on about how Hogwarts helped him find a friend group, but decided that wouldn't be helpful. "You'll be okay. You're a Gillenwater—we get through stuff."

---

  

---

Not really comfortable with her unexpected flair of emotion Greta nodded. She could still feel the tears still in the corner of her eyes so she blinked them away, and when that failed she wiped them away quickly with the back of her hand hoping she hadn't been too obvious.

That would be embarrassing. Cam was right. Gillenwater's got through stuff. She got through stuff and it didn't really matter. She was just feeling wierd with Cam and Maddie going away. And the others would get over it eventually. They would see that the truth was always better than the lie.

"Yeah, I know. It's just I don't understand why they got so mad." She bit her lip and then realised that Cam probably didn't have a clue what she was talking about. She tried to change to safer topic.

"Can't I just go to Hogwarts with you and Maddy?" She blurted and then flushed. Instead of changing topics she'd cannonballed straight into the one  topic that she knew was not going to end well.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.

He didn't know what she was going on about, but it was clear that there was something going on at school that she didn't share with him. Oh how he'd hate to wake up one morning to find his magic gone and that his mother had decided to send him back to the local schoolhouse. Everyone there was so boring compared to his friends!

It seemed Greta, muggle or not, had picked up on that. He could not avoid the wave of guilt that overcame him; it crashed over him hard and all at once, and suddenly he was frowning at his sister.

"I would take you if I could," he said quietly, somberly. "I don't think you'd make it through the platform." His mother had never been able to go with him to the train during his first year. He'd went alone, because he was the only one who could go. "But it's okay. Tons of people are muggles and they get by. There's far less wizards and witches in the world."

---

  

---

Greta had known what he'd say because her wishing to be a witch was an impossibility. Maddy had told her how rare it was to get multiple muggleborn witches in one family but... she'd kinda hoped that Cam of all people would have believed in her. That he would've told her that it was possible.

That he didn't even believed that she could possibly be a witch hurt.

She looked down again. At the magical text she'd squirrelled out of their step-fathers office.

It wasn't fair. Why couldn't he have said that it was possible.

"It's just not fair." She moaned, knowing she sounded whiny. "Tons of people don't know about magic. Ton's of people don't have you, or Maddy or Mr B-father." She said, catching herself at the last minute before she called their stepfather Mr. Bell. Mr. Bell had asked her to accept him as her father since she'd never known her own and she was making a conscious decision to try and do so but it was a hard habit to break.

And she knew Cam was trying to comfort her but she was sticking to her guns. Tons of people weren't him, or Maddy, or their stepfather or even Oakshaft. If she stayed just like tons of people she'd stay in this small village just like their mother and her family and get married and have children and if her husband died she'd just be like tons of people trying to support her family on what meagre thing she could.  She felt alone and misunderstood.

Why couldn't Cam have been one of those tons of people and then their mother would never have met Mr. Bell or if she had he was one of those tons of people too and then she'd never have found out about magic or what she was missing out on.

Tons of people or at least those she knew didn't understand her.

She liked to have thought that those Cam went to school with would.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.

Cameron sat there, wondering what the right thing to say was. He couldn't offer to make her a witch, and nothing would be more cruel than trying to sneak her in and only have her disappointed in the end. He couldn't help that he was a wizard anymore than she couldn't help that she was a muggle.

"Well there's enough muggleborns in the world. They all have families, and I'm sure they do just fine." Or they get thrown out or ultimately separated from them in adulthood. There had to be muggleborns out there who regularly interacted with their muggle relatives, but Cameron had once accepted—long before Maddy had become his step-sister—that he would one day grow apart from his natal family.

"If it helps, there's a whole class at Hogwarts dedicated to the study of muggles. Wizards and witches don't understand you either. They don't understand muggle inventions and lifestyles." Well, half of them believed muggles inferior on some level, even if they were not openly discriminatory. The others were interested, but did not always understand muggles.

(Cameron knew he would one day marry a witch. He could not think of marrying a woman who he could not share the magical world with. How depressing. He still wasn't sure how Mr. Bell had managed.)

---

  

---

Greta stared at her brother open mouthed. There were Enough Muggleborns in the world? That they all had families, and he was sure that they did just fine. Who? The families or the muggleborns?  This wasn't about tons of muggleborns. This was about her. This was about her not fitting in. Being the odd muggle - what even was with that world? - out.

She didn't care one iota that wizards studied muggles or their inventions or lifestyles. They could have the inventions in their lives if they really wanted to. Living with the Bells certainly proved that. Was he trying to comfort her? How was this supposed to comfort her?

Her jaw snapped closed and she stuck out her bottom lip. Stubborn to the end.

"I don't care. They are them and I am me. Hmph" She said, turning to face away from him, too mad to even look at her older brother. Cam was such an idiot. He didn't understand what she was feeling at all.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.

Cameron stared at his sister, lips pursed. Obviously she was not understanding what he was getting at. Magic was cool, but that didn't mean a lack of magic meant she was un-cool. She was a muggle, and that was who she was—just like he was a wizard.

"I'm not sure what you want me to say. Should I summon Professor Darrow to tell you you're a witch?" he asked sarcastically. As if it would help!

---

  

---

Greta's temper flared. She knew Cam was being sarcastic but yes. Yes she did. She wanted him to summon Professor Darrow to tell her that she was a witch. She doubted Cam could do it though and hated that he'd suggested it. She hated that he didn't even consider that she could be a witch just like him and automatically assumed that she was a muggle. That she hadn't even had the disappointment at not recieving a letter yet and he was trying to- trying to- shut her out of this big portion of his life and her life. Magic even if she couldn't use it was a big portion of her life and had been from the moment he had recieved his letter and it had just become increasingly part of her life since her mother marriage and the introduction of her stepfamily.

Her eyes flicked back to him. She shot him her most scathing glare but held herself back from retorting - mostly because she couldn't think of anything to say and pointedly opened her book. Her chin gutting out in a clear stubborn line.

  

---

Thanks go to the marvelous MJ for her sensational set.