"Thank you,"  Nemo murmured from behind her ice cream. She was delightfully weird and the boys back there could ahem suck it.

She appreciated Abby restraining herself with the romance talk, but Nemo shrugged a little. "I'm not against it or anything. Just ... not right now."

Nemo really meant that. She liked her independence right now, but having a partner in things someone to go back to, she appreciated that. And also, you know, intimacy. She kept picking at her ice cream, happy to be talking and relaxing and just feeling settled.

"Hm?" Nemo looked up. Was she planning on staying? "Yeah, I mean, I love it here. I've always wanted to come to London. It feels so ... old and every crack steeped in stories and arcana. You can feel it everywhere. I mean, Diagon Alley, it's world famous. I'd have killed to go to a real magic school."

She smiled apologetically.

"Sorry." Abby didn't get to go to a real magic school either or get to have hands on the magic of London that Nemo loved so much.

Abby smiled, glad to hear that Nemo, bright Nemo, would be brightening up London with her music and her spooky tales for at least the next few months. Maybe the next year or so, if Abby could convince her.

She had time to play matchmaker later.

"No sorries, it's all good," she wiggled her magicless fingers at her. She meant it. "I was just curious. I've traveled a lot but I've never wanted to run too far from home."

Abby stilled in her seat. She hadn't meant to phrase that so precisely. Iona! Iona drifted back in her head as Abby gave Nemo an apologetic look.

"When I was 16," she decided to ramble on, "I left my stuffy house and my stuffy parents and I went to my stuffy sister's place, but it wasn't far at all. She grew up the same, but it's easier to be around her. She doesn't expect me to be any one thing or one person. My parents just wanted me to do what I was told. Poor them, I didn't," she laughed, a little too brightly, as she considered that she had given in, eventually.

"I've never been to the States. I wouldn't mind seeing all the shiny new places someday. You didn't go to any of the schools there? They have like a dozen?"

Was that? For a short second, Nemo thought she noticed something in Abby. Someone. She let it go and filed it away to ask about some other time. What had happened to Abby's Pentral? The Pentral that rode with Abby, worked with Abby, had coffee with Abby, remembered with Abby, slumbered with Abby. It was strange to reconcile the Pentral Song and its warning with what she'd seen in Abby.

But no. The two friends tonight both seemed keen to keep things breezy; they could both be left to their bad dreams later, to toss and turn on their own.

Nemo set down her bowl and snuggled up in the blanket more, let her head rest on the couch and listened to Abby's story. It was actually kind of familiar and Nemo smiled, a smile that said, 'same dude'.  "Poor them," Nemo agreed.

"Not everyone can go to those schools," Nemo replied with performed indifference. They were mostly on the coasts and many of them were expensive boarding schools. "Uh," she paused, wondering if she felt like talking about this. She had always wanted to leave it all behind, but things were getting different here. She was making friends who seemed to want to know her. Different than the other fleeting acquaintances who came and went with where she was staying, friends for a minute but they all moved on, Nemo included.

"Uh, yeah, so magic school for us is more of an after school thing. We all go to muggle school for elementary, then start magic school in, like, middle school or junior high. I'm sorry, this is boring." 

"It's not boring!" Abby shook her head. Maybe for Nemo, but not for Abby, who was always fascinated by how magical schools in other countries functioned. She'd avoided asking once upon a time due to jealousy, but that didn't matter as much to her anymore now that she was past Hogwarts age.

"When the Salem kids sailed over for the tournament a few years ago, I thought everyone just went to boarding schools. This makes more sense. It's a huge country."

Abby glanced at her, curious if Nemo was muggleborn. She'd always assumed so because she was so tech savvy, but perhaps not, if most wix went to school with muggles when they were young.

"It boggles my mind that everyone goes to school together, at least in the early years. Seriously? The pureblood families don't throw fits about oh no, muggle influence?" She made air quotes and gestured in amazement. "What else do they do with their time?"

Abby giggled. It was actually really brill, to give everyone the same foundation of knowledge. She had no idea if the muggle elementary schools in the U.S. varied in structure or content or resources.

"So, you go to magical middle school, you learn magic, and then you fly home at the end of the day?"

Nemo had given her a knowing smile earlier, and Abby realized that there was no way to get away from parents if that was the case.

Abby was really interested which was a bummer. Nemo wanted to try and brush her off again, but Abby was so forthcoming about her own deal with her life and the Pentral and her boyfriend. It was starting to feel imbalanced not sharing. Abby would understand but she and Virgil were the first real friends she'd made, and she hadn't seen Virgil in weeks. Maybe it wouldn't be as much of a pain in the ass as she thought - Abby was different than the Hogwarts kids and that seemed to matter to Nemo.

"No. You go to muggle school all the way to graduation, but staring in like sixth grade you start going to the local magic school after, and sometimes weekends. It sucks. I mean you get all your basic math and Spanish and science or whatever, and learn spells and potions. It's, like, mostly local. Really small. It sucks."

She shrugged and sank further down in the cozy couch with a sigh.

"Still can't figure out how everyone here learns biology. Or trig," she said with a good-natured smirk. Clearly they at least learned some math. Sickles to knuts to galleons was some high-level nonsense.

"That sounds intense! That sounds like what Sasha volunteered to do," she smiled, unable to stop herself from mentioning it. "He went to Hogwarts and took A-levels on top of that. But he's really driven. Wow, I can't imagine every single wix getting on board with that after-school thing."

It must be difficult to balance. It must suck. Still, in a way it was awesome? They got to experience both worlds.

"This is one of the many reasons why I have a mobile, Nemo," she smirked back. "Google, Siri, Computer, what is trig?" She mimed to her hand.

She sometimes wondered what she could do if she'd had all of that background knowledge. Or at least had some choice in the matter, rather than reading about other people doing great things. No wonder she'd hated being homeschooled. Her expression settled thoughtfully for a moment.

"It's not like I'm dumb," she said aloud, surprising herself, then paused. "But I've definitely felt that way at times. Oh well!"

Abby tilted her head back and let out an exaggerated sigh. Equating squibness to smarts had done her no favors, either.

Nemo let out a little gasp.

"You're not dumb," Nemo said firmly her brow touched with sadness. "You are brave. You're a fiery star burning a thousand miles away come down in the form of a golden crowned girl and we'll all tell tales of the constellation of your life."

Nemo didn't look away. She wanted to make sure Abby believed her. There was nothing rigorous in Nemo's mind about her education, and anyway, she'd dropped out. If anyone was to be accused of being dumb, it might be her, and then Nemo would have some volunteers for getting hexed in the throat.

"I hope no one ever makes you feel like you're not smart, Abbs. You can do anything."

But she'd noticed that about here, more weight given to the amount of magical blood in a family, what school you went to, like it mattered more than who a person was.

At the gasp, Abby looked at her friend, touched by her determined expression and the fervor in her words.

She smiled a little, and swallowed, tempted to glance away, but Iona steadied her gaze for a few more moments.

Stars were never alone. Thousands of stars created constellations, and if they fell to earth they found new friends to orbit. Or maybe they never fell at all, maybe they only appeared to, Abby thought as she touched the ends of her fiery hair that had once upon a time been golden.

Friends lifted each other up, they didn't let each other feel limited by unpleasant truths and circumstances. Abby pretended not to notice how neatly Nemo stacked her things in a small bundle near the door, and Nemo pretended not to notice Abby stirring the cider with a ladle and her own two hands, playing the witch in her witchy flat.

"Do you want to write a book with me? Or a song?" She smiled playfully.

"We can call it The Day the Smartest Stars Fell, and," Abby tilted her head, "Decided to go to a magical place called Spellbucks."

She purposefully combined her knowledge of Starbucks with Spellpunk, because that was a business idea that needed to happen.

"Heck yes I will," Nemo said then stifled a yawn. "Oh my gosh," she murmured.

"She smiles down on dark Londontown, her name is on my heart," Nemo started poking through a simple melody in a minor-key alto. "Her dancing eyes light up mine... uh... a glow remains when she departs..."

She snuggled deeper into the couch and slowly came up with a little chorus.

"Hail hail Abigail, bring along your dreams. Hail hail Abigail, ... your wisdom flows in sunset beams..."

"Dude, I'm crashing," she said with a long blink and a little smile. She felt like a little kid nodding off while watching SNL with her older cool cousins, wanting to stay up but not being able to keep her eyes open. "But I want to stay up...!" she protested her fatigue with not much conviction.

Snuggled in the depths of the armchair, Abby grinned behind her hand at Nemo flopped on the couch, eyes twinkling, absolutely delighted that Nemo was actually singing. To her, even! A song on the spot, what creative genius!

And the song was so clever and sweet!

Aw, she couldn't wait to tell Virgil. He'd written her that Unicorn Girl play and sent it to her via sly owl months ago. As if it were a regular piece of mail. As if it hadn't meant the world to her, that her friends cared so much.

Inspired, she rose from her seat and hummed Nemo's song under her breath. Abby went to the closest candle flickering on the coffee table, and blew it out.

"Rest rest Nemo, you've sailed across the sea."

She sang very quietly in a higher, lighter register. What rhymed with sea?

"Sleep sleep Nemo," Abby paused to tuck one of the many throw blankets around Nemo's feet. Feet! Feet rhymed with... no. "Good luck you've brought to me."

That was better.

Abby went to the candles on the fireplace mantle, and blew those out, one, two, three.

"She rescues ghosts from hard-knock town, a melody on her lips. She'll fight for silence, fight to sing, whichever brings you bliss."

Abby smiled, pausing near the picture window, where the last candle was lit on the sill. It wouldn't do to leave Nemo in the dark. After a few minutes of stealthy rummaging, she found a glass cylinder and set it around the flame to flicker more safely.

Abby-Iona tucked her red hair behind her ears and stood before the window, glancing out into the night. Everyone needed a light in the darkness. A friend to shine the way.