Dahlia leaned over the railing of her balcony. The sun beamed down on her back as she looked out at the skyline of Downtown London. Sometimes she missed the simple suburbia of her home town but it was was nothing compared to the view up here. Unlike her sister she had completely embraced the move to London and while she did miss having a back yard their penthouse was more than enough room for the five member family and the balcony had almost become a place of solace for her. She was able to come out here with her thoughts and read a book or simply enjoy the quiet. She loved her twin brother but sometimes he was bit of a handful and as fun as it had been to hang out with the guys this summer she was in desperate need of girl time. Thankfully she had finally patched things up with her sister but there were a few things on her mind that she wasn't comfortable talking to her about.

In search of a friend she could confide in Dahlia had sent out an owl to her fellow Hufflepuff Obderedria. Drea was one of her room mates and had become a good friend during their first year at Hogwarts. Dahlia realized she had become friends with all of the hufflepuff girls and she was definitely in need of one of them right now. After all the things weighing on her mind would be a lot easier to explain to someone her own age. She feared that Ayla would over react or make fun of her for how naive she was or how inexperienced she was. She definitely was not going to talk to her sister about this, not at all.

She glanced at her watch before pulling her sweater tighter around her body. Though it wasn't cold out, especially with the sun shining bright Dahlia had been wrapping herself up for days now, it was only a matter of time before someone in her family noticed and asked her about it but until then she was going to continue to act as if everything was perfectly normal.

Luckily, Patricia Pienas had an easier time accepting the witches and wizards if they lived in muggle London. Mum hadn't been home for the owl, thank goodness, she might have jumped like a scared cat. When Obderedria called her mother at work and said a friend from school had invited her to visit, and she lived reasonably close that Drea could go on her own, Patricia gave permission as long as Obderedria called before she left and after she arrived. Had Dahlia lived in Diagon Alley, mum might not have been so willing. There were things about the magical world she still couldn't comprehend.

Obderedria was still marveling at the penthouse. She suspected the entirety of the cramped flat she lived in with mum would fit in the living room. The balcony was unlike anything at her apartment complex, nothing but narrow window ledges there.

"Thanks for inviting me. Should we trade numbers? I mean, we're together at school but if we both live in places with phones it might save your owl its wings."

She was glad she was dressed in her baggiest, the railing was getting quite hot with the sun. "Are you cold?" Obderedria had noticed the thicker clothes Dahlia was wearing, having thought the AC was set to blizzard. Maybe she was slightly cold blooded, like Heliotrope. Although that couldn't be right, Dahlia wasn't related to any fish.

"Oh yeah." Dahlia had gotten so submerged in the Wizarding world during her first year at Hogwarts she had completely forgotten that some of her friends had come from part - or whole - muggle families like herself and would be accustomed this things like telephones. She grabbed her note book off the table on the balcony and scratched down two sets of numbers, "The first is the home phone, you can call whenever, my mom definitely prefers phone calls to owls." She handed the paper to Drea, "Umm the second is my cell number. My mom insists I have one but I rarely use it."

She leaned against the balcony railing again letting the gentle summer breeze tickle her hair. When Drea asked if she was cold she bit her lower lip and leaned forward checking to see if either of her siblings were in ear shot. Thankfully she knew neither of her parents would be home, "No I'm not." She said almost begrudgingly, "Can you keep a secret?" She already knew her friend would but she figured she'd ask anyway.

She let out a big sigh, "I've read everything about it and I knew it was going to happen I just never expected it to all happen so fast," She took another deep breath and unzipped her sweater. Underneath she wore a simple yellow tank top that wouldn't have been so out of place if the straps for the black bra underneath hadn't been showing. What Dahlia had been desperately trying to hide the past month was that she had gone through a growth spurt of the pubescent kind and was now sporting a very obvious B cup, "All of the guys are going to make fun of me when I show up to school with these."

The half of the page with Dahlia’s numbers was ripped off, and Obderedria wrote her numbers on the remaining paper. “That’s the apartment, and this is mum’s old cell phone, but when her work gave her a new mobile I got to keep the old one. Although you’ll probably reach me at home easily enough. I don’t go out much, and if I go to Diagon the cell phone wouldn’t work anyways."

When Dahlia asked her to keep a secret, Obderedria nodded and said “Of course!” She wouldn’t tell anybody, not even write about it to Beverly. Drea may write her own secrets but you didn’t write about a friend’s secrets, not even to your imaginary friend. Her imagination was getting the better of her as she pictured strange colored skin splotches or funny magical diseases as the reason for the layers of clothing. When Dahila unzipped her shirt it didn’t take too long to figure out. Breasts.

“Oh,” Obderedria blushed not only for Dahlia but for her own reasons. “T-that’s happening to you too?” It wasn’t obvious under her baggy, formless shirt and the young Hufflepuff was known for carrying a little extra pudge. She pulled her shirt taunt until her own budding bosom was outlined.

“Mum said this would happen around our age. We just haven’t had, err, ‘The Shop’ yet.” One step down from ‘The Talk’ that made parents and their offspring uncomfortable for generations, was ‘The Shop’ for the first training bra. She let her shirt slacken again. “Usually she’s very punctual about things like this but she’s been rather busy lately. Is there ever, like, a cut-off point to them growing?”

It had seemingly snuck up on her without notice. Growing up chubbier than average, Obderedria had known she had more lumps than other girls. She could sympathize with Dahlia, though, about this new turn of development. “Well, I don’t know about your brother, but the other boys shouldn’t, should they? Do they even notice at twelve to thirteen? With all the different people in our year maybe you won’t stand out.” Obderedria folded her hands together, looking a little downcast. “At least you don’t have those plus spotted hair and…other things.”

Dahlia zipped her sweater back up, just in case her brother was lurking around somewhere but her look of concern was turning to one of relief. It made her feel much better knowing that Drea was going through the same thing. Perhaps the other girls in their year were all having the same problem. She could just imagine the look on all the boys faces if the entire second year class of females showed up with breasts. She suddenly began to systematically predict what each girls response to the transformation would be. She could imagine Mairead doing everything she could hide hers, Noriko would likely become scared of herself (she was already scared of everything else, she might as well) and Dahlia found herself chuckling at the thought of Eirene flaunting hers, saying they were better than everyone else's.

Dahlia nodded when Drea mentioned the shop, "I haven't even told my Mom yet. She's spent most of the summer in Paris and there's no way I'm going to tell my Dad about it and Ayla would just blow it all out of proportion. I'm just wearing one of her old bra's I managed to find without her finding out." She hoped that when her Mom got back from Paris she could talk to her about it all.

She gave her friend a slight melancholy look, "From all the research I've managed to collect it seems they never stop growing. They'll grow to what will be your body's standard size but then any time you gain or lose weight they can get bigger or smaller respectively and that's not even beginning to touch what happens when you have a baby." She sighed and sat down at the patio table that was set up on the balcony.

"Sorry." She apologized for going all text book on her friend, "Well I can guarantee Erik's going to make fun of me, but isn't that what the guys just do? I doubt like Alvis or Philo would but Keegan and Tynan?" She shook her head, lowering it after feeling the familiar flush of heat reaching her cheeks. During the past year she had become used to the sensation but it wasn't until a few weeks before that she fully understood what it meant. For all of her book smarts she hadn't been able to recognize the signs of a blush and now they were becoming more and more frequent, especially when she thought of the two Gryffindor boys, she was trying to do everything she could to ignore them.

Obderedria went from biting her lip to swallowing her lip into an impassive face when listening to Dahlia's explanations. Particularly one line of reasoning. Mum could be called top heavy but she balanced that out by being bottom heavy too. "Do you think most girls would take after their mother? Or your sister, is hers a good fit for you?" Another thought became words, although Obderedria softened her voice into silence as she realized how stupid this was sounding. "If mum and I do the shop, I could, make sure there's an extra one for you if you didn't want to tell anybody yet..." The remaining words hissed out of her mouth like a tire loosing air before you put the cap back on.

To cover up her embarrassment Obderedria began to fiddle with her hair, looping strands around the four fingers of her left hand until she had a good tug on it. This obliterated two green spots into the snarl held in her fist. "Alvis or P-Philo? I wouldn't think they should. They're ones to have their nose in a book. Philo always looks the other away whenever I've seen him," she added, witless to any other possible readings of that statement.

Her face scrunched up a bit more when it came to scrutinizing the Gryffindors, it was harder to place them. Tynan was very stoic and silent, though he did loose his stony expression in front of Professor Vaillancourt sometimes. But then so did half the boys at one point or another. Obderedria decided that French ladies had a particular command over men that no one would be able to explain. Keegan was a jokester like Erik, so there was a greater chance he would notice and do something about it.

"It would be nice if there was someone at Hogwarts that wouldn't care. Like, a boy our age, I meant, although I've just thought that might be something else Heliotrope would be indifferent about." That brought to mind equally vivid imagining about Heliotrope as a girl would respond to growing up. And further bewilderment as how that would work. Sirens were the most human looking mermaids but Heliotrope was a Selkie, gray skinned merpeople that looked very fishlike yet the females still had...well, for how it looked in a book Obderedria had perused at Flourish and Blotts once, breast like physiology although that was something you weren't supposed to find on anything not mammalian. "I suppose her human half would cover that. But she's so lithe I can't see them developing on her that much."

Dahlia sighed, "I'm sure it has something to do with genetics. Though if it does I'm screwed." He shook her head. She had never really thought much of it before but her mother was a rather shapely and attractive woman. Ayla had gone though puberty at a very young age and while Dahlia doubted that the measurements were all that big her sister was no stranger to flaunting them. After all there was a reason someone had decided to spread rumors about Ayla magically modifying her body. Though if the bra she was currently wearing was anything to go by she'd likely end up in the super curvy category, she was sure it wasn't just your average training piece but one with a full blown cup size.

"Thanks for the offer but I think I'm going to tell my mom as soon as she gets back. I just don't want Ayla or Erik to find out before her."

She nodded along with Drea's assessment of the boys in their year, mesmerized as she always was when the other girl twisted up her hair. Dahlia had always been fascinated by the green spots in her hair but the particular way Drea twirled them when she was nervous or anxious always brought her attention back to it, "Hopefully there's someone that will be normal about it. Probably Pax. I can't imagine him being mean or anything about it, actually he'd probably just be really encouraging about it all."

Dahlia chuckled, "I don't even know if she'll get any I mean, how much of her is actually human and how much is mermaid?" Dahlia was usually rather quiet about her opinions on their fishy room mate. It wasn't that she didn't like the girl, she was actually really fond of her but half breeds had always been a great interest of hers. It often made her think that if she hadn't been a witch she would have ended up as some kind of scientist.

"If we're lucky when we get back to school, everyone will have them."

"Right, silly idea," Obderedria mumbled, "every girl's supposed to have a different fit." She tried finding topics of the conversation that wouldn't make her think of genetics and her own mother. While Obderedria didn't know that Dahlia was worried about taking after her sister, she didn't feel comfortable dwelling on how genetics might influence how much she looked like her mother. Their hair and skin were different, though, beyond the obvious choice of speckled hair. Patricia had black hair and darker skin like a tan, plus a few features that noted her Hispanic origins like most of the family that lived near the southern American border. Any of these features were very diluted with Obderedria. She supposed like her magic, most of her appearance had been influenced by her father.

"Pax is always encouraging in class, isn't he? Like in Herbology." The thought made Obderedria smile warmer until her imagination jumped the gun and pictured a cheerleading Pax firing off supportive rally cries as the girls in Hufflepuff House went through puberty. Heavens! Just where had that thought come from?? Noticing just how warm it was and how her throat was dry, Obderedria hoped Dahlia wouldn't be able to figure any parts of that wild notion out just by looking at her face.

The talk of genetics, in terms of Heliotrope that is, actually looked like a more comforting way distance herself from a bizarre view of Pax Wintergreen. "Well, I've heard the professors say that she looks like she eats gillyweed with her morning cereal. That's the weed that's supposed to make you all froggy. I mean, she looks normal if you ignore her hands, toes, gills, eyelids--" okay this was getting to be a stretch "--and the pallor of her skin. So why shouldn't she get some? She's very active, so hers might be smaller. She's all muscle." For her age, Heliotrope looked like a scrawny girl, but if anyone got a feel of her arm -- this one instance sprang to mind of Obderedria looking to use the shower and not realizing Heliotrope had been sleeping in the tub, she eventually had to shove Helio out because she was being lethargic -- they would feel hard muscle.

"After all, these aren't technically muscles, right?"

Obderedria shrugged. "I suppose if everyone had them it wouldn't draw attention to us. But I don't know. We're only second years, not everyone may have reached that stage yet." Being an older second year, because she had a fall birthday, Obderedria supposed she was old enough for this to start. She was almost a half month older than Dahlia but the latter seemed to be off to a head start on this whole 'body growing up' affair.

Dahlia chuckled. While her mind hadn't created the same mental image that Drea's had she couldn't help thinking how positive the little hufflepuff would be about the whole situation. She doubted he'd be one of the boys that would get all weird about it. In fact she doubted there was anything Pax ever got all weird about. Perhaps having friends like him around the next school year was going to make this whole experience a lot easier to bare.

When the subject went back to Heliotrope Dahlia's mind went back into textbook mode, "Well no they're not muscles, fat deposits actually but there are muscles underneath and when you have a body like Helio's that has a higher muscle to fat ratio then you're going to end up with lower fat deposits on the body. Therefore, yes I suppose hers would be smaller than ours, that is if she does get them."

Dahlia screwed up her face for a moment. Talking about Heliotrope like that made her feel a little awkward. Though she was incredibly fascinated with her friend's biological origin and genetic makeup, talking about her like she was a subject they learned in class felt wrong almost, "But everyone grows in their own way. I mean Ayla started doing this when she was nine. Imagine looking like this as a first year?"

She stood up and headed for the balcony door, "You thirsty?" Dahlia slipped inside and soon returned with a jug of lemonade with real lemon slices and a dozen ice cubes, along with two glasses, "So umm something else happened the other day . . ." She paused for a long moment holding the same expression she had when she had first revealed her steps into puberty, "Keegan kissed me."

"Ah...hmm." Obderedria made similar sounds of agreement as she nodded at all the right points of Dahlia's explanation. Anything to appear to remain pleasant while some of her concerns were confirmed. "Yeah, I wouldn't know what that would be like. But that must be an outlying case. I haven't noticed anyone else in our year, um, starting."

And Heliotrope would not even care, as she didn't think about several kinds of things. Sometimes Obderedria wondered what that would be like, having a nearly empty head, figuratively empty, where you didn't have to worry so much but just...be. It made her mildly envious but Obderedria wouldn't want to be just like Heliotrope. Her own grades were low enough.

"Oh please, thank you." When Dahlia returned with lemonade Obderedria filled up a glass to the brim, careful to not let it spill. She took a gulp as Dahlia broached a new topic. "So umm something else happened the other day . . ." Did she have a parrot eat a summer essay? Wait, why a parrot? "Keegan kissed me."

Obderedria was not the girl that would waste fine lemonade on a spit take but her cheeks bulged all the same. She set down the glass and swallowed the drink in her mouth. Barely coughed. "K-Keegan?? Kissed you??"

She wasn't too sure what to think. He was friends with some of the rowdier Gryffindors but wasn't too rude...usually. By principle Obderedria tired to avoid them. Keegan looked somewhat like that dunder-headed may-he-get-buried-in-a-snowbank Jerry Bagard that terrorized her so at primary. But unlike his muggle look alike her never said her hair made her look like a molding marshmallow. Instead, Obderedria found herself more tantalized by the admittance of a kiss.

"It was a, real kiss?" Obderedria had seen plenty of teen pop movies and heard similar songs to know that real kisses were not like affections from family pecks on the cheeks or forehead nor buttons or thimbles from Peter Pan nor teardrop chocolates in tinfoil. Time slowed down moments of lips meeting where the girl kept the guy at the end and maybe a foot bop or hands around necks or waists like a hug and you were lucky to get any chances like that before you were sixteen.

"What was it like?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her awed reverence.

Dahlia looked down into her lemonade feeling that, now all too familiar, flush of heat that indicated she was blushing. She thought back to the night he had kissed her. It had not been romantic, he had not wooed her or anything of the like, it had simply just happened and who knows what would have happened if he brother hadn't burst in the middle of it. She doubted anything would have happened but it would have been nice to have properly disengaged from the kiss and be able to process what had just happened rather than pretending nothing had happened at all.

"It was, cold." She looked up from her lemonade, "He had lip balm on, long story, but it was new and interesting. As soon as he pressed his lips to mine I just sort of . . . melted. Like my brain had seeped out my ear or something. I couldn't think and my body felt like it was on fire."

She took a long drink of her lemonade as if hoping the cold beverage would dispel the heat in her cheeks, "I liked it though and I think he did too but Erik burst into the room and things just got weird." She drained her glass and poured another, "Thankfully though Ayla hadn't caught us. I can't even imagine how crazy she would have been if she saw me snogging our brother's best friend."

Cold. That wasn't a word Obderedria had expected to define a kiss. She would have thought warmth but maybe when two sets of lips came together that canceled each other out. But Dahlia had said it was like she had melted so there was still heat involved. Or was it the lip balm that had melted? Obderedria didn't wear much but she did use chapstick in the winter to protect her lips.

"Wow..." It was all Obderedria could really say. It really was like a teen pop movie since the moment was interrupted and there was drama of best friend/lover/and family, only everyone was around twelve instead of being seniors. Dahlia was lucky, Obderedria couldn't think of anybody that would want to kiss her. Although she wasn't sure if she wanted to try anyways.

"And the two of you like each other, right?" She wasn't clear on how accidental this whole thing had been. "You don't think, it's going to become something that happens at school? Regularly?"

Dahlia twisted a lock of her raven hair. The whole situation had been weighing on her mind almost as heavily as the rapid changes in her own body. She hadn't seen Keegan since and they didn't exactly get a chance to talk about it though she had no idea what they would actually say to each other. Instead she was left with information and sensation that was leading her to completely over analyze the situation like it was some kind of difficult spell she was determined to learn (despite it being for advanced witches)

"I like him, sure I like him and I think he likes me, at least he's never said any differently. We've hung out plenty of times while at school and he's never been mean to me or anything so I guess that means he likes me though - as Ayla would say - I have no idea if he likes likes me. I guess he does otherwise he wouldn't have kissed me, right?" Dahlia didn't like the feeling of being out of her element. She knew that there was one person that was practically an expert on the subject but she was still refusing to go to her sister for such a thing. Despite almost being thirteen herself and so obviously going through puberty she refused to have that kind of talk with her.

"I have no idea!" She blurted out as if horrified by the very thought of it. She could just picture herself becoming one of those girls that gets detention for snogging in the corridors, it was a terrifying image and she refused to believe it could become true, "I hope not. I mean it's not like I don't want to kiss him again. I do, at least I think I do but I don't want to be one of those girls."

On one hand, Obderedria was almost mildly envious of Dahlia's, um, luck? Fortune? But like her roommate she wouldn't want to be one of those sleazy types that hung around with boys and started nasty gossip. Rumors like the ones around Dahlia's sister or the photos that got rained down the staircases about the former Head Girl, whatever her name had been. Obderedria would have to do better to remember the students in levels of authority. But what if she turned into someone like Winnie when she was older, going about with a list of boys she wanted to kiss? Obderedria never really had a crush before. Who would she put on a list?

She swirled her glass, the dregs of lemonade swishing around. Her knowledge of movie romances weren't providing any answers, Dahlia and Keegan being younger than most protagonists. "What is so special about kisses anyways? Is it, like a taste or a tingle? Maybe you can stop and just find something else to do together. Sorta alone. Um..."

Even Obderedria's overactive imagination wasn't wanting to help add to the pile of fantasies that Dahlia had no doubts previously compiled, things that were both enticing and horrifying.