wheresmytoad: The new job

The new job
I'll probably be quite tan by the end of the summer. Right now, though, I have peeling sunburn, and pulled muscles all up and down my back and arms from hoisting giant sacks of compost, peat and mulch. Maybe I'll end up losing some weight. That would be good--I could probably stand to drop a stone or two.

I'm on a work crew of about ten other people, and things are going well--mostly. I like everyone, and I think they mostly like me. But I've found that working with muggles is much more complicated than I thought it would be. It's astonishing how many little things there are that can trip me up.

For instance, I should have thought about this before the first day on the job: people just naturally talk about themselves when they're getting to know each other. I was caught without a good answer by a chap on my team when he asked me a perfectly reasonable question: 'Where do you go to school?'

Well, I couldn't say 'Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry,' could I? I thought of saying Eton, because I'd heard of that one at least, but I had the impression somehow that it was quite well known amongst muggles, and so I was afraid that maybe he might be going to Eton, or know someone else who did. So I came up with the only other name for a muggle school I'd ever heard of, the one that Harry said his uncle told all their muggle friends that Harry attended. 'I go to St. Brutus's Centre for, uh--,' I said, and stopped, because I couldn't remember the rest of the name of the school.

One of the girls who was working with us looked up at me. 'St. Brutus's?' she said, wrinkling her nose

'It's really small,' I said quickly. 'I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't heard of it.'

'What do you like to study best there?' she asked.

That was easy. 'Herbology.'

She brightened right up. 'Me, too, at my school. What do you like the least?'

I just barely stopped myself in time from saying 'Potions.' 'Um, History of M--um, History.'

Apparently that answer was acceptable enough, because she sat by me when we took our break to eat our sack lunches. Her name is Sara, and she's about my age, I think, though she's rather shorter than me. She has a snub nose covered with freckles, and a mop of wildly curly brownish-blond hair that she's always shoving out of her eyes. We talked all through lunch, and I did all right for the most part, mostly by asking questions about her school. I only made one other mistake. Someone on the crew had turned on a radio, and I heard a song that sort of caught my attention, and I said without thinking, 'Turn that up, will you? I've never heard it before.'

Sara looked at me as if I were mad and said, 'You've never heard "Yesterday"? By the Beetles?' (At least that's what I think she said.)

'Well, not . . . not lately, I mean.' I said, and took a hasty bite of my sandwich to hide my confusion.

Must find out more about the Beetles. Did they do any other songs, I wonder?

Neville

lupercus @ 2003-07-09 08:04 pm UTC

Neville, I suggest you owl Professor Wiglorn, she has a smashing record collection and I think she'd be more than willing to educate you on Muggle music. It might be something nice to talk about with your new friend, there. She sounds quite lovely.

And, they're called the Beatles.

- Professor Lupin

wheresmytoad @ 2003-07-11 06:38 am UTC
Oh, that's right!

When I see it spelled that way, now I remember: Professor Black has sometimes mentioned Beatles songs in his LiveJournal entries, hasn't he? I'll owl Professor Wiglorn. Thanks, Professor.

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