milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Magic, of course," she says, cheerfully.

She moves the wand in her left hand and the teapot floats easily back down to rest on the tabletop.

"Lily Evans."

"Peeta Mellark."

Who is watching the dowel she's directing with.

"Not from any of the 'Earth's' most here seems to be."

"Really?"

That's interesting.

"Where are you from?"

"Panem."

No one's heard of it.

"Don't know it, I'm afraid."

His attention to her wand has not gone unnoticed.

Which, really, is very sensible. There are people Lily keeps a close watch on when they have their wands out.

"I'm not planning to hex you or anything. Promise."

"To hex me." The way he sounds out the word, putting the syllables together as a mimic, it's obvious he's never heard it before no less has any idea she's trying to be comforting.

Right.

"I'm not going to cast any spells on you, and particularly not any that are in any way intended to be harmful.

"Those are hexes. Well, up to a point. They're not curses; hexes usually don't any permanant damage or kill you, but they can be very uncomforable and quite embarassing."

Which might have helped. If he knew what spells or curses were. If the first thing that didn't make pristine sense was the reference to permanent damage and killing.

Curses, whatever they were, equaled bad.

Even while that's working itself into place, Peeta's going to make the wise (and not entirely dishonest) choice to continue looking at her like he hasn't a clue what she's talking about at all. "Right."

"I'm making a right mess of this, aren't I?" Lily says.

She sets the wand down on the table.

"No magic in Panem?"

Peeta shook his head. "Not like that."

Not unless it had to do with science somehow. "There are things that look magical, but it's all science and technology."

Like broken and bloodied dead bodies being lifted through the air, frozen by electric current, directed by hovercrafts.

Edited 2010-12-15 03:07 (UTC)

Lily nods. "All right.

"Well, let's see, then. I'm a witch; I was born able to use magic. The wand --" she gestures to it, on the table, "-- is what lets me focus and control it. Without it I can't do much of anything.

"And when I use magic, that's a spell of some kind. Usually it involves saying the right words -- outloud, unless you're very good -- and making the right gesture with the wand."

She is trying. He has to give her that.

"And this is normal where you come from?" Peeta has the grace to mix both studious curiosity and a very aware apology-of-inconvenient-terms into the word normal.

"For witches and wizards -- people who can use magic -- yes, it's perfectly normal.

"For the rest of the population of the planet, which is most of it, no. They'd probably think I was barking mad if I told them."

Her last few words cracks a small bit of smile out of the snowy, confused, and discerning expressions Peeta had been shifting back and forth through.

"How can they not know about you?" He gestures with his free hand toward the teapot. "It'd be a little hard for anyone to miss that."

Lily grins back.

"We go to great lengths to keep it secret.

"We don't perform magic in front of people who don't know about it. There are laws and everything. But people here already seem to know, and I haven't gotten any warnings about using it from the Ministry, so I figure it's all right here."

She looks less like she could be a threat when she smiles. Not that a smile is anything to go on. District 1 and the little TV they can see make that proof enough.

But it feels like she's less of one.

"But the government knows about you?"

Ministry is a recognizable word.

"Well, our government knows about us. We have our own, to oversee the issues specifically related to magic.

"And I think there's some kind of communication between our government and the Muggle -- non-magic user, everyone else -- government, when there are things they need to know.

"Look, do you want to sit down? Only it'd be a bit easier to talk."

"Sure."

He set down his basket on the table. Which had an abundance loaves of bread. Small, about the size of palm, and green-tinted, in the shapes of fish, all piled up together filling it. And one packet of cookies inside white and yellow ribbons.

"You have two different governments." Just to be sure he heard that.

Her wand stays on the table top, where he can see it, but she can reach it if she had to.

(Not that she thinks she'll have to, of course.)

Lily considers this, all the nuances of it, and then nods.

"Basically."

She peers into the basket.

"Those are lovely. Is there a reason they're shaped like fish?"

There's a look to it for a moment. Weighing more than pleased.
Like he's not quite sure what to make of it all himself.
He doesn't exactly bake just to bake anymore.

"I'm experimenting with making all the different kind of breads from the Districts back home. This one is for District Four, where the fishing industry is." Beat. "They're green because of the wide use of seaweed there."

Edited 2010-12-15 04:02 (UTC)

"So they make their loaves look like fish?

"Wouldn't you think that if you'd spent all day fishing, the last thing you'd want would be bread shaped like more fish?

"What are the Districts?"

"I'm not certain if they do use the shape yet."

Only that The Capitol did. He'll know in a few months. If he can get out into the District's while they are on the Tour. They might be locked in the train or in rooms under guard, but he would like to.

"The Districts are what make up Panem. There are twelve, once there were thirteen, and they are all broken up by their production industries."

"So they're like, what, counties?"

"Maybe. The twelve districts break up the whole area of the continent." Different worlds and different terms, but he was making the effort to put it all together.

"Same idea, then, I think, though I'm certainly not from a country big enough to cover a whole continent."