Maybe shopping for school at Hogwarts was getting old hat. Which, Obderedria had never really understood that phrase, old hat. The oldest hat she had ever seen was the Sorting Hat at Hogwarts, they said it was ancient, but you only ever got sorted the once. What did age have to do with routine? Or deja-vous feelings?

Well, now that she was going into her second year, Obderedria old-hat'ed the routine of back to school shopping, even if her mother Patricia was still unnerved by everything from the delivery owl with the start of term letter with supply list to exchanging money with the goblins. And, that meant that one of the first things to do was to have Obderedria's school robes altered from accumulated growth spurts.

The kind that weren't always additions of height.

Summer had been rather quiet, as mother and daughter lived in the 'all muggle' area of extended London. Made it hard to visit friends. Very different from life at Hogwarts. Rather lonely too, back to routines -- or older hats? -- of her primary years, mum being swamped with work and only home in the evenings. Plenty of takeouts or leftovers or around the block visits to favorite haunts. While the meals at Hogwarts were plenty varied it didn't match the scope of the neighborhood around their flat, a very multicultural area. About ten months at Hogwarts denied visits to the Indian grocers, the Turkish diner, the soul fool shoppe and, like any English city there were at least three nearby chippies all vying to be the best, amongst others.

So, at this point mother and daughter were browsing around at other clothes, the stock in house colors that came out every August. Patricia was comparing details. Obderedria? Maybe trying to stave off the inevitable as she pawed through the yellow and black trimmed clothing.