Eirene's comment about muggleborns shouldn't have surprised Sasha as much as it had.  She was pureblood, after all.  And, many had interesting notions about muggleborns, even if they weren't outright purist. 

It wasn't like the handful of muggleborns in her year were doing much to convince the purebloods the rumors weren't true. 

"They do," Sasha agreed, slowly, certainly not wanting to minimize the help he, himself, received over the years.  That wasn't really what he meant, though.  It wasn't about academics.  But, it perhaps took another muggleborn to really understand that, in some ways, it's not enough.  "It's not just the muggleborns who seem unruly, though.  I don't think that really has anything to do with blood status." 

He hesitated and looked down at his plate, unsure how or even if he should try to clarify.  These were sensitive issues he was delving into and he was well aware not everyone would be receptive. He was trying to rebuild his reputation, after all.  Not tarnish it with even more unpopular ideas.

"Could you imagine what it'd be like if you found out you were going to a muggle school next year?"  Sasha shrugged.  "I mean, what if you got sick and your magic disappeared?  And, they decided to send you to a muggle public school instead?" 

Eirene nodded, withholding the comment that muggleborns seemed more likely to act unruly and cause trouble, especially in class. Though she knew some purebloods who were sneakier about it. Eirene didn't include herself in this category, of course.

She got the sense that she wasn't understanding something when he paused, focusing on his food. Eirene gave him a confused look, listening when he posed a question.

"I'm not going to get sick," her eyes widened and she shook her head. "That would be awful."

Eirene took a second to give it more thought, but still took the question very literally. "My parents wouldn't let me go to a public muggle school. They'd send me to a private one, if anything at all. But... I don't know any chemistry or physics. They have primary schools, don't they? So they would have been learning those things long before I got chance to."

She looked vaguely concerned. Good thing that would never happen!

Sasha just barely resisted the temptation to let out a long, exasperated sigh.  Whether or not it was likely to happen or whether it could even happen wasn't the point.  Though, there certainly had been times Sasha had wondered if he'd contracted some strange illness and if that was the cause of his abnormality. 

 Avoiding a massive sigh did require the conscious effort of shoving a large piece of carrot in his mouth, though.  By the time he'd finished chewing it, Eirene had offered some more thoughtful and less reactionary comments to the conversation. 

"I suppose that's true," Sasha said.  "There are more schools to chose from in the muggle world.  And, I certainly didn't know anything about potions or wands or-"  Sasha hesitated a moment, glancing from his plate to Eirene and back.  They'd been talking about career options and NEWTs and academics.  That was all.  Eirene probably hadn't really intended on getting lectured about muggleborns and all of that.  He offered Eirene an awkward half-grin before shrugging.  "I'm sorry - you're probably not interested in all of that.  I just - it's not just schoolwork that's tricky for us.  I wouldn't assume they just don't care.  It's a lot of culture shock." 

"No, I'm interested!" Eirene reassured him with wide eyes. She barely thought about the other muggleborns he was including, and focused on which part of schoolwork could be tricky for someone like him. Spells! She remembered talk about his wand acting up before.

Pax had trouble with spells too. So did she sometimes, but that was mostly due to not understanding how to pace herself.

"I know people say spell work is important, and it is, but it's not everything, is it? Because if you don't understand what's behind a spell, or why it's working, or how to combine subjects, then you're just waving your wand around like a... a five-year old," she shook her head as if being five were a huge insult. "Like a child who thinks Lumos is really impressive!"

As for combining subjects, she was thinking about potions and herbology, instead of magic and muggle studies. Still, she looked at him hopefully, trying to show she could relate.

She was still focusing on the academics of it and, as Sasha glanced over at her, it occurred to him she didn't have a whole lot of reason to relate to anything beyond that.  The academics though were, actually, the easy part.  Hogwarts was accepting enough of muggleborns like himself to start from the very beginning and assume incoming first years knew nothing.  Hogwarts was good about the academic adjustments. 

It was the cultural transitions that were often harder.  Figuring out what to do with your free time when televisions and DVD players didn't work.  Accepting food from little wrinkled beings.  The girl next to him probably didn't have much experience with cultures beyond her own - either as a witch or as a girl from the UK so it made sense that was the harder thing to relate to. 

"I think Lumos is impressive," Sasha admitted.  "Where once there was nothing, there's now a bright light but nothing is burning and no sunlight is being reflected."  Sasha tugged his wand out of his pocket and looked at the warm, golden-marbled wooden surface.  Two hufflepuffs sitting at the next table cast him a cautious glance and shifted away on their bench. 

He ignored them, glancing at Eirene and shrugging.  "I guess it's just a little bit of an adjustment, you know?  Figuring out that everything you knew about the world and yourself wasn't really true and now you've got to paint this whole new picture.  You know, most muggles are born believing in magic.  We're just taught that it's a foolish and inappropriate idea."  Was there a wizarding equivalent?  Not really. 

Eirene opened her mouth to apologize when Sasha admitted he thought Lumos was impressive, but kept quiet when he brought out his wand. She didn't notice the wary Hufflepuffs, and marveled at how he made the simple spell sound special.

"Magic isn't inappropriate," she shook her head, latching on to one of her favorite words. Keegan and Mairead were inappropriate. Magic was lovely.

Eirene paused, realizing he was saying it as what muggles were taught, not what he personally believed. Growing up in a world where magic was reserved for holidays and story books seemed so alien to her, so sad. It was like growing up without ponies, or a nice garden, or tea sets.

"Is it because they can't do it? Is that why they think it's foolish? They aren't supposed to know about the important magical things," Eirene pointed out. "Would it be easier if kids found out they were magical before they turned eleven? I started showing signs of magic when I was five," she boasted suddenly. Five wasn't so bad after all!

Sasha smiled slightly and gave a gesture with his head that was vaguely somewhere between a nod and a shake.  No, magic wasn't inappropriate but that perspective was still rather new and hard-earned.  And one that, sometimes, still wavered on bad days. 

"True," he said, though he might not have sounded completely convinced.  "But, people tend to be afraid of what they don't understand.  It's like sharks."  Or, perhaps, muggleborns.  Maybe witches and wizards didn't share muggles tendency to fear sharks.  If that was the case, the analogy was going to fall flat. 

Sasha shrugged and, after another moment's thought, nodded his head.  "Ja.  I suppose.  I mean, there are muggles that believe magic exists even if they don't have proof.  But, because they have no tangible evidence and ... you've gotten to that in History of Magic, right?  When the church started purging Europe of those they thought had magic?"  Of course, the church he'd grown up in and their History of Muggle class approached teaching the burning days in very different ways. 

"But, whatever the reason, the division is there, you know?  The end result is straightforward: wizards hide from muggles and muggles form their own, uneducated opinions about magic.  If muggles and wizards stay in their own worlds, it works.  But, for muggleborns, it's not that simple - I don't know.  It's hard to explain.  And, maybe for others it would have helped if they found out earlier.  For me, it would have made it worse, though."

Eirene understood Sasha's comparison to sharks right away. Thank you, Noriko!

She nodded when he wondered if she'd gotten to the 'purge the witches' part in History of Magic. Noriko had a reason to be so scared of muggles sometimes.

"There has to be an answer though, doesn't there?" She looked at him curiously. There had to be a solution for everything. If Sasha was talking about it with her, she wanted to sound smart and help find the answers.

"Because I think Hogwarts does it that way because it works for the majority of students. Halfbloods and purebloods," she stated the obvious.

Eirene frowned, running through what she knew about Sasha's family in her head. He'd hid his magical ability from his parents; that much was for certain. But she couldn't understand why any parents would prefer their child to be like a muggle. It was better to be normal, like a witch or wizard!

Sasha shrugged his shoulders even as he nodded his head. 

She was right.  There had to be an answer.  Right now, he didn't have one.  And, really, the fact that she was asking the question was a step in the right direction. 

He was certain what she said wasn't far from the truth.  Hogwarts did what worked for the majority of students and, in the majority of cases, it did an excellent job.  But, it seemed more could be done for those exceptions - those that weren't halfbloods or purebloods.  Or, more specifically, those that were raised as muggles for the first eleven years of their life. 

"Remember, though, for a lot of us muggleborns, coming here is a bit change.  It can be hard and intimidating.  I know I was pretty scared my first year.  Maybe that's the case for some of your classmates."