Second floor common room- Friday morning

[imawizard]

Harry wasn't huge on caffeine but he was kind of dragging some by now. It also hasn't occurred to him that there was maybe a spell or something that would take care of this. More than likely the letter he'd sent back to Hermione this week complaining would get a response of "if only you had tried ____" the day after this ended.

For now though he was contemplating a chocolate Pop Tart in the kitchen. Chocolate had caffeine, right? Did chocolate count? Would this help? Would he try either way? (Yes, no, no, yes.)


[Open!]

Comments

[outofthequiver]

"Those poor employees!" Libby said, but she couldn't help a small laugh as she tried to picture. "I might have to stop in just to give them an extra tip for having to deal with all that."

A real one, not one of those bullshit pamphlets that looked like a twenty dollar bill but actually was just telling you how much you needed to find Jesus, thank you.

[imawizard]

"If you want company, I'll walk down with you," Harry offered. "I can watch the antics while you be nice."

[outofthequiver]

"You might wind up being terribly disappointed," Libby warned. "Maybe everyone will be perfectly reasonable and orderly and kind."

Okay, yeah, even the sheltered fundie kid who'd barely left her own yard until these last few months knew enough to not be able to say that one with a straight face.

[imawizard]

"I'm picturing a lot of people silently drinking several cups at their own tables," Harry said. "Focusing on what's really important."

He's been considering the caffeine content of a Pop Tart, he should maybe not judge.

[outofthequiver]

Libby had to giggle a little as she was picturing it now, too.

"Clinging desperately to them," she, who could and definitely would judge (but not too much!), "for dear life..."

[imawizard]

"Hopefully for them this isn't one of those yearly things," Harry realized.

[outofthequiver]

Libby's head tilted with a curious confusion. "...those yearly things?" she asked.

She had somehow managed to still go blissfully unaware of some of this place's more....consistent quirks so far.

Honestly, she was still grappling with some of the others ones.

[imawizard]

"I guess there are some things that come back around sometimes," he said. "I usually hear kids mentioned."

[outofthequiver]

"Kids?" That explanation didn't seem to help Libby's confusion much, considering, well, they were all kids. Some more than others, sure, but still. Also, she wasn't sure if it was another Normal School Thing that just flew way over her head. "You mean, like students that leave for a bit and come back?"

[imawizard]

"No, like actual children. But I've never gotten the context."

Maybe because it could mean a couple things.

[outofthequiver]

"So...like, just Littles?" Libby asked, and she had to laugh, at the idea of a bunch of tiny children just swarming the place. "Little kids, just randomly showing up? Really?"

She actually wouldn't mind that, actually, even though she was sure it would just make her moss wrangling up her own little siblings all that much more. But she liked kids (she kind of had to!), and, even more, she felt she was pretty good with them, too.

[imawizard]

"I guess," he said, smiling. "You call them littles?"

[outofthequiver]

"Yeah," Libby admitted, ducking her head a little sheepishly, wondering if that was odd, but it was so natural, she didn't even think about it. "At least, me and my older siblings do, as a way to distinguish us big kids from...well, the Little ones. And then it's a big deal, too, when one of the Littles moves up to being a Big."

[imawizard]

"I like that," Harry said. "I don't have any siblings, really. I had no idea there was a hierarchy."

There were the Weasleys, but he couldn't see Ginny putting up with being called a Little.

[outofthequiver]

"I have six," said Libby, rolling her eyes a little, although that still didn't feel like all that much to her. That was pretty small for a quiverfull family (and not likely to get much bigger, she knew, with a small pang in her chest), but she knew, to more worldly people, it still felt like a lot. Especially probably to someone who didn't have any.

"And there's definitely a hierarchy. I'd be at the top as the oldest, but since Justice is a boy, he outranks me."

In theory, anyway.

[imawizard]

"My best friend is one of seven," Harry said. "It's a lot. But really nice, too."

And he wasn't usually around when they were all home.