4 pm

The sun glowered overhead on that Friday afternoon. There were a few ominous clouds up in the sky. But, so far they failed to conceal the sun for any length of time to begin pouring. Despite this source of stormy weather, it was still warm outside, just as it always was so close to summer. Along with the sun, there was a calm breeze that occasionally swept across the grounds. Even though there were a few ominous signs, it still seemed like a good day to be outside.

Exactly that, there were a few students outside. One of these students was Meg, but she wasn't exactly outside. She was in the sense that she wasn't in the castle anywhere. At the same time, the Greenhouses weren't exactly outside. It was more like it was made to feel like outside. Yes, just like the greenhouses in the muggle world. Both were about the same. The only real difference was that muggle greenhouses had muggle plants, and magical greenhouses had magical plants. Yes, it was as simple as that.

Meg was in the Greenhouses on Hogwarts. She was wearing a black tank top, a pair of baggy jeans, and brown sandals on her feet. On her earlobes, she was wearing peace sign earrings. It had been six days since she took apart in the student art booth in Hogsmeade, where her anonymous art promoted hope, and peace. The young muggle-born Ravenclaw had never grew to fully appreciate the Remembering Day holiday, but she could at the very least act as if she did. After all, it was the most respectable thing that she could do.

Despite the three days that had just passed since the end of the ceremonies, Meg was already at work for a bit. She was sitting on a bench next to a table in the greenhouse. She had a few pieces of parchment with her, along with her Herbology textbook. Even though the OWL exams were in a year, she figured that it wouldn't hurt to start to get acquainted with the plants that the students studied up to that point of her fourth year. In addition, it would be an opportunity to study for her Herbology final that year. She would draw neat sketches of the plants on the paper, and then she would name it based off of the Herbology textbook. She would then tend to the plant a bit, based on her knowledge of the plants.

Meg stopped at the Flutterby Bush in front of her, and smiled lightly. 'Yes, the fourth years had recently studied this plant,' she thought to herself. It took her a few seconds to draw the Flutterby Bush on the paper, and thus name it. She hummed quietly to herself as she began to prune the bush with a pair of scissors.

outfit

It appeared as though Sasha wasn't the only one that was taking advantage of some free time to catch up on studying and homework.  When he stepped into the damp, warm air of greenhouse, he had expected the building to be otherwise empty.  While the greenhouse wasn't empty as he'd expected, he wasn't entirely surprised to find another Ravenclaw sitting at one of the benches. 

Like himself, Megan was very close to the quintessential Ravenclaw.  Studious and attentive to details, it wasn't surprising that she would be the other one who'd be found carefully working on herbology sketches during their free time.  She had always been a friendly and easy going person - outgoing enough to offset Sasha's own social awkwardness.  The awkwardness might have been uncomfortably strong if Sasha had walked on most other classmates in the greenhouse but the dark-haired girl's easy demeanor often put him at ease. 

He made his way over to the bench opposite Megan and set his textbook and notebook down before taking a seat.  "Allo," he said, quietly, not wanting to intrude too much into her concentration.  He pulled his own notebook towards him and slipped through the pages.  "Are you just doing some review, too?" he asked.  Then it occurred to him - maybe she was doing something more timely.  In the craziness of the Remembrance Day activities had he forgotten an assignment?  It seemed highly unlikely, but it'd be better to find out now then when it was do. 

"Are you ... we don't have anything due, do we?" he asked, flipping hastily through the pages of parchment, scanning the smooth, curved writing for any notes about pending assignments. 

Pushing a piece of her brunette hair out of her eyes, Meg finished up pruning the Flutterby Bush. She always found the Herbology Greenhouses as one of the few places at the castle that were generally quiet. Of course, she did not spend that much time in the Greenhouses, but it always was a relief to go to a place where loud students did not always gather. In addition, it was outdoors, which was always a plus to her.

Despite how she felt about the Greenhouses, Meg had no idea what she was going to do when she left Hogwarts. After all, OWLs were just next year, and she would need to do well on the subjects relating to the field that she wanted to go into. Yet, she had no idea what career she was going to strive for. Yes, just because she was a muggleborn, she was not completely aware of what she should do eventually when it was time to graduate. Oh sure, she had three more years at Hogwarts. Yet, she needed to choose fast, so she could study for her OWLs accordingly. She could already tell, that next year will be pretty stressful for her.

Bending over the parchment that she had just drew a sketch of the Flutterby bush, Meg wrote down a few pieces of information and observations. While she was writing, she was unaware that someone else had joined her in the Greenhouse. When she heard a voice, she instantly looked up. She smiled to Sasha as she noticed that he came in. "Hey," she responded back to him. After hearing Sasha's question, she nodded. "Yeah. I figured that it might be a good idea to get started on some of the studying for our exams later this month. I'll take it that you're getting ready too?," she responded.

With the Remembering Day ceremonies and other activities, Meg had put studying on hold for a while. A combination of the nerves and stress from painting the mural and the student art booth, it had been hectic for her, especially since she was not entirely willing to show off her own artwork. Yes, she was afraid of criticism, and thus, she failed to even sign her own artwork, nor did she really have anything that connected her to her own artwork. Criticism did scare her a bit.

As Sasha questioned her about any work due, Meg stopped writing and looked up at him with a questionable look. "I don't think so. I don't remember hearing about any, did you?" she questioned him in a surprised tone. Immediately, she looked through her pieces of parchment, trying to see if there was any work that she failed to do.

There were no notes of assignments anywhere in the last several pages of his notes.  It seemed unlikely that he'd have forgotten to write it down - it seemed unlikely he'd have forgotten it completely in the first place.  "Yeah..." he said, absentmindedly, trying to be polite but his mind only partly on the conversation at hand.  Despite agreeing with the brunette, Sasha shook his head.  He stopped and looked up, blinking a few times as the question ran through his head a second time.

"Oh ... yea, I'm studying.  Reviewing.  I figured I'd go over the mundane herbs again - for potions, you know?"  The mundane plants were, of course, not as flashy as the magical ones but, during the year, he usually gave them less due interest for that reason.  They were easy, simple, familiar and, therefore, easy to pass over to spend more time on the more exciting stuff.  "They're boring and ... well mundane ... but they are ones I might be able to grow at home over the summer."

He looked up from the pages of notes and let the pages fall flat on the table.  "We don't?  Ok.  Good.  I didn't think so," he said, trying to say it while appearing non-plussed.  "It's getting to be a bit stressful with exams, you know?  I mean, I know I'm alright - but, it still is nerve wrecking."  The change of atmosphere had been one of the hardest adjustments Sasha had had to make when he arrived at Hogwarts.  The private, Catholic preparatory school he'd gone to before coming to Hogwarts had been highly demanding and quite intolerant of insufficiency.  It had taken some time for him to fully accept that most of the professors at Hogwarts wouldn't be as stern.  For the few that were, he'd been well prepared.

He pushed himself up off the bench and crossed the greenhouse to retrieve a tray of herbs before returning to his seat.  He pulled out a quill and bottle of ink and turned to his notes.  "Do you think it'll be that bad next year?" Sasha asked, setting into a carefully sketching the leaves of a stalk of sage on his page.  "I mean...do you know what happens to kids that don't get any O.W.Ls?"

As Meg finally finished writing notes down about the Flutterby Bush, she turned to a different piece of parchment. Deciding to move onto the Bubotuber plant, she turned around, and carefully lifted the plant off of a nearby table. She placed it down on the table where Sasha and she were sitting. It was clearly not the most attractive plant available in the Herbology Greenhouse, but it was certainly a plant with extraordinary properties.

After writing down the name of the plant, Meg began to draw a sketch of the Bubotuber plant. She looked over at Sasha as he commented on the mundane herbs, like what were used in potions. "How could the herbs be boring if they are used to make potions?" she asked him with a smile on her face. Indeed, the herbs could be boring when not used for anything. But, since the herbs were used for potions, they weren't exactly that boring after all. "Good luck at growing them," she commented on his idea to grow the herbs. She clearly could never grow a magical plant back at home. She lived with muggles, and thus would be unable to do much in the way of anything magical during the summer. Yes, it was during the summer where her knowledge took a nose dive.

Listening to what Sasha said, Meg nodded. "Yep. Oh, I know. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet, plus combined with this last week, it's been stressful for me," she commented to him. Sure, he probably couldn't exactly relate to her problems, since she was raised as a muggle-born, and did not have nearly any of the knowledge that others in her year clearly had. She would need to choose an occupation herself, with barely a clue on what half of them were. It was definitely not a good thing. 

As Meg was drawing the odd shape of the plant in front of her, she tilted her head to the side. She shrugged at his question. "I hope not, but I guess anything's possible," she commented to him as she looked up. "What…What happens?" she questioned, with a hint of worry in her voice. She had never thought on what happened to someone who didn't get a single OWL. She highly doubted that she wasn't smart enough to pass none of her OWLs, but the thought didn't help the stress that she was feeling on it.

Sasha glanced up as Megan exchanged the Flutterby Bush for the Bubotuber and considered the plant a moment before turning back to his tray of herbs.  With the tip of his quill, he separated the leaves of a few green stalks from each other and straightened a bright yellow petal of one of the flowers.  He flipped through a few pages, looking for the name of that specific plant.  It was an aconite - but which one was it?

Winter aconite, he wrote, before looking over at Megan at her response.  He regarded her a moment before shrugging slightly.  "They don't try to bite back?" he offered in explanation.  He understood her point; it was remarkable what these plants could do when cooked in potions.  "I mean, we use ginger in cooking all the time.  Muggles use it.  And, then in a potion it can make you concentrate better.  Who would have thought those brown nubby things would have been so ... useful?"  Sasha didn't speak much about his home life, nor did he really even know his blood status, but he'd been raised by muggles.  For all intents and purposes, he was muggleborn. 

Sasha grinned softly before turning his attention back to his page.  "I don't think growing them will be difficult," he said.  "It'd be harder to explain why I'm suddenly herb gardening."  Herb gardening?  You want to do herb gardening?  Sasha could just hear his step-father grumbling now.  "And, keeping the cows out of them," he added as an after thought.  Ginger was the exception, despite being classified as mundane by Ministry standards, most of the herbs were quite poisonous.  The last thing he needed was to explain to his step-father why the cows had all suddenly died of asphodel poisoning. 

"I have no idea, either," he admitted.  Sasha looked up, curiously, unsure what she meant by 'this last week.'  He was tempted to ask; it had seemed like one of those statements that made one feel like the person might have something to talk about, but it might also be prying into the personal.  Uncertain about whether he should ask, he offered an alternate, though related question.  Curiously, he asked, "what did you want to be before this?  You know, before you knew about all this?" 

Sasha nodded, returning her worried look with a blank one.  He really didn't know and the idea unnerved him.  Would he be told to leave?  Could he, somehow, actually transfer to some school in Switzerland so he wouldn't have to tell his family what happened?  Were you not a wizard anymore?  It seemed like O.W.Ls crept up on them without any warning.  A year ago, he hadn't given the things a second thought.  It was a little unfair if he thought about it - it should have been explained his first year.  "I don't know," he answered meekly.

It took Meg a few moments, but she finished her sketch of the Bubotuber plant. She didn't put the same hard work on the current sketches that she was drawing. But, she did enough to be able to distinctively distinguish the plant. Of course, this plant would be pretty hard to miss, given its distinguished shape, and Bubotuber pus in the pods around itself. She took out her wand, and started to water the plant a bit. She didn't want to experiment with the Bubotuber pus, not just because she was clearly not dressed appropriately and nor was she actually prepared to do that, but that she knew of its properties when not diluted. She didn't want to cause an accident on herself, and she certainly didn't want to get any of it on Sasha. Thus, she'd rather not experiment with it.

Meg smiled to what he said. "Yes, it is. I've helped my mother from time to time with the cooking before I first came here. They do have such different properties when used in different ways. And to think, the muggle and magical worlds are connected by such plants," she responded to him. Before starting Hogwarts, and every summer for that matter, she lived as a muggle, since she knew that she was a muggle-born. It had its disadvantages and advantages at times. Despite how she might think contrary sometimes, she did like being a muggle-born. At the very least, it allowed her to see different things from different views. Plus, it helped in her art.

Meg shrugged to what Sasha said. "Well, you could tell your parents that you use some to cook. And, if I remember correctly, some herbs could be used as a part of medicine to heal. My parents would certainly not want me doing that at all," she replied with a smile. Yes, it would be an odd subject to approach to her family. The whole magic thing startled them at first, and certainly this wouldn't help.

Meg looked over at Sasha questioningly at his question. It wasn't the type of answer that she had actually thought of. Make that, she was sure that she had never had been asked that before. "Um, do you mean before Hogwarts, or before magic? Because, both of these happened at the same time. I honestly never thought of that before, but I probably would've guessed an artist, but that would've, and still is, impractical," she responded to him. It was true. She would love to be an artist by profession, but the art industry suffered its ups and downs a lot. Thus, she probably wouldn't be able to live correctly. She would eventually need to find herself a different job.

The worrisome look was still etched on Meg's face. She had no idea what could happen, and she definitely never thought of it before. "I-I doubt th-that any-anything c-could h-hap-happen right?"she stammered to him. It was exactly something like that, that she would worry about.

Sasha sat in silence for a few moments, watching as Megan tended to her sketch, momentarily distracted from his own studying.  They were, in many ways, quite similar.  Both had come to Hogwarts as relative strangers to the wizarding world and both put a fair share of their free time into their studies.  They were fellow chasers on the Ravenclaw team and both were in the art club.  Between classes and those two activities, they spent a great deal of time together and, though the girl sitting across from him was far more open than he usually was, he'd always appreciated being around her.  Though bright and, unlike him, less reserved, she was comfortable and unassuming to be around.  Something he'd always appreciated.  Even if he'd never said so. 

She spoke and Sasha turned his attention back to his own tray of plants, and, finally, his own notebook.  He set his quill to his page and began sketching - a random shape, at first which had nothing to do with the plant or any of the work at hand.  He nodded his head; it was things like mundane herbs crossing the boundaries of the magical and non-magical world that was curious, at times, to ponder.  "It's not like I thought it would be," Sasha remarked.  "Magic.  You know?  Before I came here, I'd always thought it was like card tricks and puffs of smoke.  Rabbits and top hats."  It was strange to look back on. 

Sasha chuckled at the recommendation.  It would be nice to be able to simply tell them the herbs were for cooking.  It seemed a logical and reasonable explanation, save one detail.  "I ... I don't really - I'm not supposed to cook much at home.  My mother and step-father are pretty, you know, traditional muggles.  My mother and sisters do the cooking - well, sister, now.  It'd probably be easier to say they are for a science experiment," he said, at first to illustrate how unlikely it was that saying he was cooking would work.  But, as he gave it more thought, it wasn't a bad idea.  "Which, might work.  I could claim it's some sort of exercise with ... genetics or something." 

"Well, either.  Or both," Sasha elaborated.  He'd assumed that before magic and before Hogwarts were, likely, one in the same.  At least, for him they'd been.  Unless... he knew that kids showed different levels of magic before they started school.  Maybe she was one of those that was, inadvertently, doing a lot of magic before she started school.  His eyes widened curiously, though part of him wondered if the question would come across as prying too much.  "Did you ... were you, you know, doing magic before you came here?"

Though some concern about his own academic fate still lingered, Sasha felt a twinge of guilt at the worry in Megan's features.  He really hadn't intended on making her that worried.  "I'm ... I'm sure you'll do fine," he said, hoping to offer some reassurance.  "I'm sure you'll get all O's."

Meg was completely oblivious to Sasha watching her. She just continued to do her work, without any notice at all. It was typical of her, since it would usually take someone talking to her, or a strange noise, to bring her back to full conscious thought. Make that, she usually became like that, without her own knowledge. Since she was an artist, and needed to concentrate on her work, she tended to tune out others when it was needed. She did the same when she read, or did her work. Thus, she could complete her work in the noisy common room if she chose to do so.

Finishing watering the Bubotuber plant, she thus continued her work on the plant, by writing down specific details and other useful information about the plant. Clearly, this list would be the longest, and contain the most information, mainly about the plant's strange appearance. Looking up at Sasha, she listened as he spoke to her, and nodded. "Yes, those seemed mesmerizing back before Hogwarts, but now they seem futile," she commented back to him.

Meg smiled, and shrugged to what he said to her. "Well, muggle schools do manage to teach cooking to both boys and girls, so if your family thinks you go to a muggle school, that could be possible? True, a science experiment probably would make more sense. Add to it that you are studying the herbs and their effects on something, then that'll be believable," she offered to him. She didn't know that much about Sasha's family, and she figured that it was a subject that she didn't want to ask him about, since he probably didn't want to talk about his family. But, she tried to offer advice that could work.

With Sasha's question, Meg looked confused again. "Um, Sasha, I'm pretty sure that I told you that I'm a muggle-born, right? I have never been able to perform magic at all until my first signs of magic. Otherwise, I never used it until I first came here. If you don't mind me asking, where did you get that from?" she asked him questionably. She didn't want to get on Sash's nerves, and certainly didn't want to ask him anything offending. So, she would need to be careful with what she was asking him. She wasn't able to tell where he got the sudden question from, and thus asked. If he didn't want to tell her, she'd accept that, and just drop the subject. But, it couldn't hurt to ask, right?

A small smile appeared on her face as Sasha comforted her. "Thanks for the reassurance. But, you'd do better than me. You're way smarter than I am," she responded back to him. Her response was less about her low self-confidence, and more about helping him. "Besides, I'm sure that that would probably never happen," she replied to him. She figured that both of them worrying about not getting a single OWL would be disastrous. Besides, if it happened before, then the students probably would've been warned about it.

Comfortable in both the relative quiet of the herbology greenhouse and present company, Sasha shuffled on his bench slightly.  He pushed his bench back a little so he could lean against the edge of the table, propping his head up on his hand.  His attention was divided between the casual conversation and the evolving sketch in his own notebook.  Halfway through the development of the sketched aconite petal, the sketch had started to deviate from its intended original form. 

"I don't know," Sasha said, with a shrug, grinning slightly.  "I mean ... pulling a rabbit from your hat might be ... maybe useful?"  He couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what use it would have.  Maybe someone needed rabbits in a hurry.  And, happened to have top hats around.  Chances were slim, but oh well. 

The small curl of the folded aconite petal extended slightly and the began to take a shape that more closely resembled a flared nostril.  As the lines continued to grow under his quill, a delicate equine muzzle began to form.  Focusing on the sketch made it considerably easier to talk of subjects that weren't, necessarily, the most comfortable.  "Not my muggle school," Sasha shook his head.  "It was all boys and, no, they don't teach cooking."  Chances were, his step-father wouldn't buy the idea that he was studying the herbs in some way. 

Sasha looked up, surprised and nodded his head.  "Of ... of course," he said, quickly.  He certainly hadn't forgotten she was muggleborn but he'd always heard that even muggleborns were prone to strange occurrences.  He knew he'd had his share of them.  Those inexplicable events that really only made meaning when those strangely dressed folks arrived on their doorstep to deliver a letter.  "So, you didn't have any ... nothing strange happened before you came here?  Nothing at all?"  He had to admit, he felt a slight tinge of jealousy.  THat would have made his life so much easier.  "I thought that happened to everybody.  Cups breaking for no reason or ... I don't know ... weird stuff."

Color rose in Sasha's face.  He was, admittedly, pleased to hear she thought he was smart, but it felt somewhat awkward as well.  "I don't think I'm ... You do just as well as I do, don't you?  I mean, not that it's any of my business.  But, I guess, - I don't know," he finished awkwardly.  He couldn't help but consider that it didn't bode well for the rest of their classmates if both of them were destined for ruin in the exams.  "I'm sure it'll be fine," he concluded.

Yes, Meg found the Bubotuber plant had a lot of notes that could be taken about it. It made her wonder exactly how did the class manage to finish the lesson on the plant in one day. But, she was not their teacher, and could not make those decisions herself. She continued to write the sentences on the piece of parchment, mainly describing on the plant looked, and the various qualities the plant had, and how those qualities could change with water.

Meg couldn't help, but laugh at what Sasha said. She wasn't about to figure out what good pulling a rabbit out of a hat could actually have. "I guess it could. It's just a weird idea though. And to think, that muggles think that is entertainment," she responded. 

Shrugging briefly, Meg had no idea what was taught to Sasha before he came to Hogwarts. Make that, he didn't talk much about his family or before he came to Hogwarts. It wasn't a subject that she would normally bring up, since it would most likely be a touchy subject on his part. "Oh. Sorry. Mine did, simple cooking though," she commented to him.

The next comment by Sasha made her think. Before she came to Hogwarts, Meg did experience a few strange things. "Well...come to think of it, there were a few odd things. Nothing major, just moving objects and books without touching them. Oh, and I once attacked one of my schoolmates with a blue light, knocking her unconscious. I was actually evaluated by many psychiatrists, given different medications, called insane, and almost sent to a boarding school," she responded with a frown. "Naturally, that was all for nothing," she added. She actually still had side effects from those very medications, and became a little moody.

Noticing that Sasha was blushing, color came to Meg's cheeks as well. She did find him smart, despite how she felt of herself. "I guess I do. I don't know, it's kind of…well, I guess that we might do the same, but I don't know," she stammered a little. Now, that was clearly an awkward subject between them.

Sasha grinned quietly when Megan laughed, continuing to scratch his quill over the page, the sketch of the horse continuing to grow.  "Yeah.  Wonder who first thought of that.  I mean, it's like, who sits around trying to ponder magical tricks and decides to pull rabbits out of hats?  If someone needs a rabbit, who goes looking for one in a hat, anyway?  I can't imagine it's that easy to get the rabbit in the hat in the first ..." Sasha's voice trailed off as he realized he'd started rambling on about rabbits and hats and redoubled his efforts in his sketch.

After a few more sketched lines, Sasha looked up across the bench at Megan.  He wasn't entirely sure why she'd apologized.  He didn't, exactly, miss having taken cooking classes.  It wasn't as if he needed it; he wasn't going to be doing much cooking at home.  That's what his mother and sister did.  He was usually too tired to cook by the time he got finished with school, evening chores and homework.  "Oh," he said, quietly, looking back down at his page.

So, her parents had been critical of her less-than-normal behavior as well.  It was never a comfortable subject but she seemed more comfortable sharing than he was.  He hated the topic and avoided talking about it if he could.  Strange things seemed to happen all the time; his sister had always tried to offer support and words of comfort but they were usually much smaller and were easily overridden by his mother and step-father's perspective.  "So, but now that your parents know you're ... know why it happens ... do they accept it now?"

"I'm sure we'll both do fine," Sasha said, as much for her benefit as his own.  It was a bit of an awkward topic but it seemed strange that it would be.  Both were strong students - as far as Sasha knew.  He wasn't exactly one to snoop on other's grades. 

Meg continued to finish writing the notes on the Bubotuber plant. As she finished, she placed her quill down on the table, and decided to rest her writing arm for a bit. Nothing was worse, then to get cramps in her arm for writing so much in such a small amount of time. Looking back over to Sasha, she nodded in agreement to what he said. "I know, it's such a small hat anyway, and sometimes the rabbits are big. It makes me wonder, why would pulling a rabbit out of a hat even be considered entertainment? It is just a rabbit after all, and just lifting it up is nothing special at all," she responded back to Sasha, not realizing that he had trailed off his sentence before.

Back where she lived, Meg helped to cook when she could. So, it was probably needed for her to learn how to cook. Of course, that was before she was pulled out of the muggle school. It appeared as if Sasha didn't have any need, nor any desire to cook at all.

Meg simply shrugged at Sasha's question. "Honestly, I have no idea. But, I think that they accept this explanation rather then sending me to a boarding school to get tested. I think they're happy enough to learn that what I did is considered normal here, rather than writing me off as insane," she explained with a frown. It was never a happy past to retell, and she certainly didn't tell it to everyone in the castle. It was beyond doubt, that nearly everyone in the school knew that she was muggle-born.

Meg nodded to what Sasha said. Yes, they were encouraging words. "Yes. By any chance, do you know if the OWLs determine what our future jobs could be, or just what classes we need to take?" she asked. She thought that she had read something about it once, but she couldn't remember if it said exactly what the OWLs determined.

"And, I can't imagine the rabbit really wants to go into the hat," Sasha allowed himself to point out.  That had, ultimately, been the thought that had been lingering in the back of his mind when he'd started on the mental journey.  He could just imagine how the rabbit would kick and, even worse, make that horrible rabbit scream if someone tried to stuff it in a hat.  "You'd almost need magic to immobilize the rabbit to get it in there in the first place.  And, if you could do that, how exciting is it to just pull the thing back out again?"  He grinned slightly to himself. 

Sasha looked across at Megan and nodded.  "That's good, though, right?  That they've accepted that explanation?"  He'd known for several years that he was in a rather unique situation - he didn't know what it was like to be raised in a magical family.  But, he also didn't know what it was like to go home to his muggle family as a wizard.  He didn't know what that felt like.  Did it make it easier or did it make it more alienating?  How did people go home and spend summers with their parents only able to talk about things like goblin and troll wars rather than trigonometry?  What did they ... what could they talk about?  When her parents went to parties with their friends, what did they say their daughter did? 

He'd always been curious about such questions but, unfortunately, they weren't questions he could ask.  Doing so would draw attention to his own awkward situation.

Sasha turned his attention to Megan's question and nodded his head.  "Yeah, so I hear.  I asked our head of house about it a year ago.  I'd asked about jobs in this world and he told me that certain jobs require certain NEWTs.  So, you need the OWLs for the NEWT classes you need for the jobs.  Next year, we'll meet with him and find out what we need to take."

As Sasha joked about the rabbit, Meg laughed a little. When she was living as a muggle, that was the type of magic that she saw. Yet, now that she was at Hogwarts, it was easy for her to denounce it. "I know. Also, how could the rabbit be pulled out of the hat without biting? With the way they thrust their hands into the hat, it's almost certain that the rabbit would bite them," she responded to him.

With Sasha's question, Meg couldn't help but blush a little. She honestly had no idea how her parents were taking the news that she was a witch. They didn't seem mad or anything near her, so she could only assume the positive, but she didn't really know. "I don't know. I mean, I guess that they were happy that I wasn't completely abnormal, and that they didn't need to send me to an insane asylum. Yet, anything that any of my other family members ask about me, my parents will say that they sent me to an all-girls boarding school. At times, I would wear the uniform from here at home, and claim to the rest of my family that the Ravenclaw crest is the crest for the school just to prove it to them. Thus, why I don't know what I want to be when I grow up," she responded with a small smile. It didn't bother her that she was potentially rambling to Sasha, and she just wanted him to know the cover-up that her family made at home. Besides, they were friends, and she was comfortable in talking about her family like that. She didn't expect the same from Sasha, knowing that he would tell her if he wanted to. But, she was willing to tell Sasha anything that he wanted to know about her life, if he wanted to know, that was.

Meg nodded to what Sasha said. "Oh, and the classes where we get a certain grade, we could take for the NEWTs. Hopefully our head of house will talk to each of us next year, so we could know about jobs and what grades we need to get," she responded back to him.