The similarities between the Schlagenweits and Reids ran through her head, making her understand better why Sasha shouldered so much to try and please his family, why Jacoba was the outcast sister. She said nothing, refusing to share in kind with someone she still considered an outsider. Aileen tended to veer off the purist path and broom-crash every now and then, but she had limits.

Like now. Let Jacoba borrow her wand? Aileen had only let Abby try it out that day at St. Mungo’s because she was her sister.

At least Jacoba seemed to understand this. Abby’s face fell, while Aileen’s aggravation was tempered by relief.

“It is very unlikely that my wand would work for you.” She and Jacoba were too different, in her opinion.

Aileen paused, trying to think of the best way to explain. “Each wand suits the witch who picks it. Or I should say, the wand picks the witch. If you tried to borrow someone else's, it would respond unpredictably, or it wouldn't work at all."

She glanced at Abby.

"Borrowing my wand really wouldn't tell us much, unless it decided to blow up the teapot," Aileen continued dryly.

Abby let out a huge sigh, “If I were you, I’d want to know,” she told Jacoba pointedly. “What are you going to do then? Sit around and talk about what-ifs, and unlikelys and maybes? Sit and wonder the next time you have a lucky magical accident? ‘Cause that’s really helpful.”

Jacoba glanced between the two sisters, starting to feel a wee bit caught between them.  She was, obviously, more likely to side with Aileen though for entirely different reasons.  But, she'd be foolish (and, admittedly, a bit selfish) if she were to simply dismiss Abby's question. 

"I don't know," Jacoba answered.  Actually, Abby had pretty much nailed it on the head.  Sitting around and dismissing the next event as a simple coincidence had been precisely her plan. 

Jacoba let out a large sigh that mirrored Abby's and shook her head. 

"I'm not entirely sure what difference it would make, anyway.  I'm too old for that school and I'm not - my brother's the smart one.  He's the one who'd be able to figure this all out on his own.  Everyone already assumes I'm a muggle - and there's a lot who resent me for being here.  They already accuse me of being a 'tourist' but, at least, I've never made any pretenses of pretending to be one of 'the locals'.  If any of them get wind that I'm claiming to be a witch - but can't use any magic - I'll - they're bound to test it.  Or, just run me out with pitchforks." 

But, if Aileen was confident waving the wand would do nothing, maybe seeing that would appease Abby and settle the discussion.  The older witch seemed just as eager as Jacoba to put the conversation behind them.  "If I try and nothing happens, will you be satisfied enough to let the issue drop?" Jacoba asked, looking pointedly at Aileen before turning back to Abby. 

Jacoba had a point, which was one reason why Aileen had been worried, beyond the concern of Abby being associated with someone so controversial. She felt a touch sympathetic as the young woman rattled off excuses, reminding her both of Sasha when he didn’t want to admit something and Abby when she claimed that Aileen was the smart one. Abby was quite intelligent, only in a different way.

“That is why it is of the utmost importance,” Aileen looked at Abby. “To keep this strictly between ourselves.” And Sasha, obviously. She raised her eyebrows at her sister until the teenager nodded (while widening her eyes mockingly, but Aileen ignored it).

Then Jacoba offered to try it. Aileen’s back stiffened. She took a deep breath, glancing at Jacoba and then Abby, where her gaze lingered. If Jacoba had seemed at all eager or excited, her answer would have been a resolute no. She hesitated.

Aileen had never quite bought into purist paranoia about bloodlines and muggleborn inferiority. She had believed it as a child, but growing up she’d understood it and used it for what it was: a way to elevate a select few and trod on all the rest. Even so, her unease intensified. Aileen could sense her ancestors rolling in their graves, her mother fainting in horror, and her ex-husband sputtering water at this very moment. That was, if she gave the muggle her wand.

Ridiculous or not, she couldn't do it.

"I really don't think that's necessary," Aileen told her, her voice soft with a defensive hint of apology.

"If you want to know with little doubt," she continued before Abby could butt in. "You could arrange a trip to Ollivander's. Visit right when they open, on a weekday, when not many are about. Ask the wandmaker for his discretion, no matter what happens." She frowned. "I could owl him for you."

She could do that much, if Jacoba followed through with this.

Abby made a disgusted sound, hopped off the counter, and flounced out of the kitchen, the crup following at her heels.

Jacoba watched, quiet, as Abby exited the kitchen, her gaze lingering on the door a few moments after it swung closed behind the squib.  Abby was, of course, a sweet girl and Jacoba appreciated what the girl was trying to do.  But, it was a relief to have her gone.  This whole mess was confusing enough with only one set of emotions involved.  And...

"I'm sorry," Jacoba offered, finally looking back towards Aileen.  "It wasn't my intention to start any disagreements.  Or, make you uncomfortable."  She'd, after all, offered to try the wand more for Abby's benefit than her own.  "I'm really not very good at family stuff.  Hopefully, she won't be angry long?" 

Slowly, Jacoba shook her head.  With Abby gone, Jacoba didn't have to balance her own conflict with what she knew Abby was hoping to see or hear. 

"What's the worst that would happen?  Realistically?"  Jacoba asked, shrugging her shoulders, looking at Aileen with a refreshed unease and uncertainty.  "If I don't find out?  I mean, you seem pretty confident nothing will happen.  And, I'm really alright with that - I'd rather stay the way I am.  Even if a wand does something, it's not going to make me a witch.  At most, I'll just be ... what?  The delayed witch?" 

Jacoba sighed and shook her head.  "Look - I don't know how much my brother's told you.  I think he talks more to one of the other professors.  But I - for the first time, I've found a place in my brother's life where I'm not in his shadow.  I'm not ready for that to change." 

Aileen put her hand up to stop her from apologizing. "I wouldn't worry. Her anger rarely lasts."

This was a touchy situation for Abby. She glanced at the kitchen doors, feeling calmer now that her sister was gone, but unable to forget the look on her face.

As Jacoba spoke, attempting to justify her inclination to bury her head in the sand, Aileen nodded. It was easier to pretend things were the same. Whether that was the best course of action, she couldn't quite tell at this point.

And then there was the family aspect, her relationship with her brother. Aileen chose not to comment on that. Sasha was her student, and she wouldn't know what to do with the girl's feelings anyway.

"Well," Aileen began to straighten up the already clean kitchen, keeping busy. "These incidents you're having now don't seem to be hurting you or anyone else."

If anything, they had been positive.

"If you do have magical abilities of any sort, revealing them could actually be dangerous. As far as how people treat you, if they'd believe you, how they'd react," she waved her hand in the air.

"On the other hand," Aileen paused, turning to face her. "If you do nothing, and something strange happens in public, you risk being discovered. A low chance, but still. The wrong person could see you and begin to speculate openly, and that would be outside of your control."

In other words, Jacoba ran the risk of being accused of lying, whichever way the cards fell.  They could find out she was a witch and people would test it, only to find out she had as much ability to actually use it as a penguin had of flying.  Or, she could not find out and someone might notice some sort of 'hiccup' and she'd wind up back in the same predicament. 

How ironic it was, then, that confirming her being a muggle might actually be the simplest outcome. 

"Both routes seem to end up at the same place," Jacoba reasoned aloud.  "The biggest difference is whether or not I'm claiming it, directly."  Or, leaving it up to speculation.  On one hand she was in control, on the other she could at least still argue she wasn't claiming to be of the in crowd, now. 

The younger woman shrugged, visibly torn.  "If someone sees me coming in or out of Ollivander's, it'll do the same thing.  There are just shops I don't go into in Diagon.  On principle."  And, Ollivanders was one of them.  The apothecary, as well.  She was even a little hesitant to go into Flourish and Blotts.  Jacoba chewed her lip, slightly. 

"There's a wandmaker in Germany," Jacoba voiced, as much thinking aloud as anything.  "We went there to get Sasha a new wand.  After the first broke.  Or, the second, I can't remember.  But, there's no reason anyone there'd know me.  Or suspect.  It's, I suppose, an option." 

An option, though it still didn't answer the question of whether Jacoba wanted to know.  But that, of course, wasn't an answer Aileen could provide. 

“It is,” Aileen agreed. “That seems like a wise choice.”

At least Jacoba was trying to be careful, and understood enough about the wizarding world to know that they couldn’t plan for every variable. Even if she went to Ollivander’s at five in the morning for a private meeting, it would be just the girl’s luck to be spotted by someone like Skeeter.

Heading to Germany would require more effort on her part, but it would lessen the risk.

“If you can wait,” she added, “Perhaps your brother would accompany you in December.”

Wands were a private, family matter. That, and Aileen didn’t particularly want to take responsibility for whatever happened, or become more involved than she already had.

It was true that traveling to Germany for the Great Wand Experiment would require a bit more effort but effort was neither the biggest concern nor deciding factor.  She was confident it'd be easy to get the time off and the train ticket would be inexpensive enough.  Traveling really wasn't a concern. 

Convincing herself to go was and would remain the biggest obstacle.  Whether the wandmaker was a few doors down or on the other side of the channel simply didn't make that big of a difference on that front. 

"I don't think that's a good idea," Jacoba admitted when Aileen mentioned going with her brother.  "That's not really something that he'd be well-suited for.  He'd overanalyze whatever happened.  And, that's not what I need."  Jacoba loved her brother, she really did.  But, there were some things he was good and and many things he wasn't.  Empathetic support for something that was outside of his realm of understanding just wasn't on his list of skills.

Jacoba sighed and set her cup down on the counter.  "I appreciate your effort and advice," Jacoba said, earnestly.  "We'll see.  I appreciate you taking the time.  I'll think about it.  We'll see." 

Aileen raised her eyebrows when Jacoba said she would not want to bring Sasha along on any trips to the wand shop. She understood it to a degree, and merely nodded. Specific magic issues aside, Aileen was much more willing to help Abby with something than she was to allow her or even tell her she needed help. The age difference between the two sisters and the differences in personality only seemed to accentuate this.

But without Sasha, Jacoba would be going alone, if she decided to go at all. A muggle alone in a wand shop - possibly in Germany. Aileen suddenly wished she hadn't had so much tea, since it wasn't sitting well in her stomach.

She pushed her unease away for the moment. "Either way, Abby and I will keep this to ourselves," she reassured her, glancing at the door.

"Do let me know what you decide to do?" Aileen asked on impulse, looking back at her.

If Jacoba had been at all aware of the amount of doubt and uncertainty in the older woman's head, she would have been quite surprised and even a little unsettled.  Perhaps there was some lingering naivety or perhaps she was putting too much faith in the safety of anonymity.  Or, more likely, she'd just grown far too used to making it through on her own. 

Whatever the reason was, knowing of Aileen's uncertainty would have also only fortified the idea that going with her brother would have been a mistake.  Jacoba would have quickly dismissed the notion that he could offer any sort of protection, if that's what it came to, and he was more likely to draw unwanted attention than help avoid it. 

"Thank you," Jacoba offered, earnestly.  "I suppose I should remind my brother of that need, as well."  At least he did seem to be careful about who he told. 

"And I do appreciate everything.  I probably will go.  At some point.  I was planning on heading down there in a month or so.  Get some holiday things once the markets opened up."  This would be the first Christmas Jacoba would have spent with her brother since he was seven - unless one counted last year.  Which, Jacoba didn't.  She didn't know if keeping a few of the family traditions alive this year would help make it easier and less disjointed, but she figured it was worth a shot. 

"I might as well just give it a try, then."