milliways_bar | (no subject)

"A good, black, British tea. No other flavor."

Sometimes you just have to get back to the basics.

"For my niece Rachel," she says. "It's a while yet before her next birthday, but it's been years since I've been able to get anything from the Wizarding World. I was thinking to get her a little something now and save something big like the toy broom for her actual birthday."

Mia pulls a picture out of a pocket: a little girl, about a year and a half old, with dark skin, blonde hair, marks under her eyes, and fangs.

"If you were that enchanting little girl, what do you suppose your favorite treat out of here would be?"

She's already got a kettle going, so when her fingers have run along the bins and located the appropriate tea, she dumps some into a tea ball and sets it into a pretty faceted glass tea cup.

"Hmm... When I was that age, I loved my moblie of the solar system and my set of prisms best. Nothing like setting up a system of five or ten prisms to revolve around each other."

Prisms were easy enough to find at home, so Mia will go for the solar system idea.

"Oh, I'm sure I could find something like that in here. My husband knows spells to send little solar systems revolving around rooms. Surely there must be some here."

And what would light up a child's room like their very own shooting stars?

"I should keep that in mind for when we start having children. My husband's family traditionally names children after stars."

Wouldn't that be quite the welcome into the world, a nursery that had your very own stars in it, so to speak?

"What a lovely tradition."

The catalogue is upside down, so it's a little harder to read.

"The best sets include the asteroid belt. Much more fun that way. I used to catch little handfuls of them and make them orbit my sisters' heads."

"I think so. While I'm certain I would love my husband if his name was Charles, Andrew, Timothy, or something like that, nothing fits him quite like Draco."

Mia turns the catalog over, having gone over it a time or two already.

"Oh, that would be such fun. I'm sure Rachel would just love that."

"It's important that the planets be tangible though. A projection isn't as good as being able to hold Pluto in your hand."

No matter what anyone says, Pluto will always be a planet to Rai.

"I agree; it's more fun when you can catch them."

Mia, being from a world where magic comes before astronomy, doesn't even know about the Pluto debate.

"It would be strange and thrilling, being able to hold Lunar or the Blue Star in her tiny hands."

Rai nods enthusiastically.

"See if there's a set with stars that glow or twinkle. Holding lights is great. It's so... magical."

Mia gives a tiny giggle.

"Well yes, but Draco and I would be poor mages if we couldn't manage to make something feel magical."

"Sometimes it's more special when it happens naturally."

Not that floating orbiting glowing models of the solar system are natural.

Mia nods in understanding.

"Like the rain."

"Exactly. Do you remember the first time you stood in the rain? More magical than half what wizards can accomplish."

"Of course I do. It was less than five years ago."

Mia has been at home for three years, so she's forgotten that she's something of a special case when it comes to the rain.

"A rainy empty beach, just water and sand, you can let go of everything and just be present."

For a girl with one foot in the future half the time, being in the moment is a rare and magical treat.

"Mine was a garden. At night. Draco was there, at the time he was my fiancè, and the rain came down and made the flowers sparkle like my engagement ring."

She shows her left hand, where, next to a rose gold band, is a flower of opals with dragon diamonds for the center.

"Lovely. Lucky you, to share a moment like that with the man you love."

"Moments like that always seem to come about with him. That might be expected when one marries a man from a different world, though."

She taps the catalog.

"These toys are from his old home in England. He's lived with me in Katarina since we got married."

"He must love you very much, to leave his whole world."

"I would have done the same for him," she says. "But he said he wanted to live in my home, that he wouldn't make me give up my home. He moved to my world right after a war in his."

She twiddles her thumbs a little.

"They consider him a traitor. But I know him, know that he wants to do the right thing now. Second chances, though, can be hard to come by in his home."

"Earth is a hard place. Difficult people. But if he means it, eventually, they may thaw."

"I hope so. For his sake and, when we have them, our children. He so wants to see them attend his school there."

"I believe it will happen. Humans have a remarkable capacity for forgiveness sometimes."

Mia smiles.

"I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one on that side."

"Exile is cruel. To be a man without a home... A cage is kinder, I think, than being bound away from everything one loves."

"Draco will be able to go back. Discreetly. We are mages, we have our ways to disguise ourselves if need be."

Mia starts to giggle.

"Oh goodness, our first trip back after we got married, he disguised himself as a former sweetheart of mine. While we were talking in a shop, he jumped to the conclusion that I was pregnant and fainted dead away before getting hit in the head with a bludger. I was so shocked that I kept the ruse up by mistake and called him by the former sweetheart's name."