VIII.

[alt_lana]

My mother wrote today to say she's already received a great many applications for membership in the new St Mungo's Junior Association. She will be passing those on to the secretary for the Board of Governors, and we should expect to receive official letters of welcome very soon.

Our enthusiasm for this good work has made my mother very happy. I do believe that she's feeling the weight of organising this year's fund raising gala, and she's thrilled to think so many of us are willing to lend our assistance to the preparations at what will doubtless be the rather breathless last stages. Mama put it this way: 'You and your friends will be a welcome infusion of fresh energy just as the committee and I are sure to be feeling quite thoroughly overwhelmed.'

I know I'm looking forward both to the work and to the reward.

We weren't allowed to attend last year's gala, Orion and I. But today's letter included sketches for each of us from some of the top designers our father knows. I'm afraid I'm finding it difficult to decide between two of them, even with the swatches to look at: they're both beautiful in such different ways, and the fabrics and notions are amazing. There's not much time to dawdle over the decision, however. Even if Mama places the order this week, there will scarcely be time to have them ready for a fitting appointment the week we arrive home from school.


Also, and on another note entirely: the sign-up list for next weekend's YPL meeting is filling up on Professor Sinistra's door. As you'll remember, we will be hearing about professions involving the care and control of dangerous creatures, and I gather we will again be hosting several guest speakers. If you haven't signed up yet, Don't delay, do it today!

Comments

[alt_padma]

I still like the high-collared ones best, even if they're both black. Don't your parents want you to have anything with colour? Even a little colour?

Maybe you could get a corsage. My mum makes some corsages that stay on without getting pinholes in your robes - and they open themselves during the evening, you know, so they don't ever get all wilted before the night's even half over. You should ask your mum to see if she'll make you one.

[alt_lana]

I've all but decided on the high-collared ones. I agree with you, and it will be December, after all. As for colour, well, my father has very particular ideas about what is appropriate for his daughter to wear in public. He's very traditional in an especially Spanish way, you know.

But one of your mother's corsages is an excellent idea. I'll mention it to Mama in my letter tomorrow.

[alt_padma]

Are there a lot of Spanish traditions that other wizards don't have? I mean, I know we do loads of things slightly differently to a lot of our friends, because we're Kshatriyan.

What's particular about black, then?

[alt_lana]

Well, I suppose we do have a number of traditions that aren't common here in England.

For instance, the old Spanish families have certain ceremonies to celebrate their children's arrival and welcome their magic very early in life. Where the first child is a son, there is a special celebration in which all of the male relatives bring charms to place on the baby in order to protect and seal his deep bond to the family. And all children, girls as well as boys, have a naming ceremony on the twelfth day, though I'm not sure it's all that different from what English families do.

Many of us also have a wanding ceremony as soon as our magic manifests; for me, that meant it happened while I was still in my cradle, so I have no memory at all of the day when my wand chose me. Oh, and some Spanish families also practise rituals meant to urge their children's magic to show itself, if a child reaches five or six and has revealed no hints of the magic within.

Papa says that black is demure, and my grandfather says it is the best colour for preserving a girl's modesty. He also says that in his day, Spanish women were not allowed out of their father's houses until they were married. Grandmama rolls her eyes when he says it, though, so I think he's stretching the truth a bit, but really it just means he worries what will become of me when I leave school and take a job and live on my own.

[alt_padma]

Oh, we have something similar, too, only it's for anyone. All the women in the family bring charmed figs and banyan flowers and for girls there are silks that represent the virtues and then for boys the men of the family give the baby charmed weapons - you know, arrows, staffs, knives and so on - so that he'll be strong and have potent magic. And everyone has lots of bells to appease the gods so they'll bring the magic right away.

But it's really interesting that you get your wands right away. Do your parents hang on to them for you? Sanji keeps asking for a wand but Dad says he'll just break it if they give it to him now, so they're making him wait until he's 10.

Black is...well, I guess it's all right. Our robes are black, after all. But I think royal blue suits you very well.

And aren't you going to go into the Auror programme? I mean, that's what you told Dames you want to do, right

[alt_lana]

Oh, of course, our wands are kept safely locked away until we can be trusted to use them well.

Oh, I don't mean to say that I'm expected to wear black all the time, but at a social gathering like the hospital gala, my father would think it most inappropriate for me to wear anything gaudy or self-promoting, and I suppose that if he prefers black, I can wear it. After all, he's paying for the robes!

Yes, I'm definitely hoping to qualify for the Auror programme. It's what I've wanted to do for the longest time--really from the first moment I learned what an Auror does.