We used to be (Summer 1988/Netherlands)

[Loanne Parker]

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Continued from here.

Trey shrugged, not at all bothered by the fact that Loanne was laughing at her – in fact, she was pretty much oblivious to it, thinking the girl had seen something that she had found humourous. Sometimes, Trey could be rather blonde. Did it matter? Well, Trey didn’t really see it as much as a problem but for some reason, her parents had a tendency to laugh at her when she made some weird comment; she never could work out why but all the same, she was used to it.

The brunette nodded. “Wow.” Trey lived in boring old England, so she was rather excited at the prospect of her new friend being from somewhere that wasn’t London (of course, she’d already worked that out but hey, she was slow; it took her a while to cotton on sometimes). All of her friends lived in England too, so they had the same stories to share. It sucked sometimes but Tritta had gotten used to it that she barely realised now. Suddenly, she felt rather excited at the fact that Loanne was from all these nice places that had cool names.

Loanne was pretty confused when Tritta's only comment to her story about where she came from was "Wow". She looked at her with her eyebrows raised and her mouth in a non-understanding grimace. "Wow? What's wow about that? Where are you from, eh?" The German girl was a bit suspicious now; and thinking that Tritta maybe was a bit odd.

[Tritta Stone]

Trey couldn't quite understand why Loanne wasn't excited as her. When you came from boring England, anywhere was exotic; anywhere was exciting. It rained a lot in England. And it was always cold. And everyone had the same, boring accent. How could that be any fun? Compared to Loanne though... well, surely that was exciting? It didn't occur to Trey that Loanne might feel about her hometown how she felt about London. She was naive enough to think that Loanne would understand how utterly boring London was. Everyone knew London, right?

"Wow?" she repeated. "Because... London's boring! Anywhere is better than grey rain and smoke billowing from factories!" she complained. "Anything, I promise you. All that's in London is Buckingham Palace, and you can only press yourself up against the gates. You can't even go inside!" Her face was serious as she explained. She didn't hate London exactly; just wished she could be elsewhere.

[Loanne Parker]

Well, admittedly, Loanne was rather used to London. She didn't remember when she'd gone there for the first time, but she knew that they went every year. Every summer, every winter. Loanne's mother Georgina's family lived in Great Britain, so London was a frequent sight. It was just as exotic as Hamburg to her, which was the closest real big city to her hometown. And as exciting as Cuxhaven or Bremerhaven. Nothing special.

"Well, all there is in Cuxhaven is fish. And in Bremerhaven there's fish. And in Hamburg there's even more fish, man, there's this insanely big fish market! And it stinks and they go 'You girl, buy this fish, it tastes awesometasticalism and you do want it!' right into your ear. Quite creepy." She spoke, then shrugged, then grinned. "London's more interesting with all those funny-looking people and cool looks."

[Tritta Stone]

Trey really couldn't understand Loanne; she was so weird! The brunette raised her eyebrow and then did a little hop thing, which consisted of her standing on one leg and jumping on to the other in an agitated way as she listened to Loanne. She pursed her lips and then, hesitantly, she gave a small nod. "Okay, so London is kinda cool. There are shops and stuff and there are always awesome places to get ice cream but..." She threw her hands up in the air, stopping in her little dance for a moment to do so before continuing. "It's boring, Loanne."

She ran her hands through her hair and then pulled it up into a ponytail before fastening it with a bobble. Then, she turned back to her new-found friend, obviously kind bored with the conversation about London. "But never mind. I'm nearly old enough to leave." She grinned, thinking of Hogwarts.

[Loanne Parker]

"If it's so boring, we should go there and ahve a real cool party or something! Or build a new building and put all sorts of amazing stuff in! We'll make it fun, Trit!" Suddenly Loanne was really excited, joining the other girl in her jumping, grinning like a mad man and shaking her head. Re-designing London would be so exciting!

"Old enough to leave? Why, you're joining the girl scouts out in the forest or what?" She wasn't really listening and concentrating on her little dance.

[Tritta Stone]

Trey's jumping became more vigourous the more Loanne spoke, excitement lighting the little girl's eyes. She was young enough to believe that it was possible, old enough that she could actually begin to picture it in her mind's eye. She grabbed Loanne's hands and made sure they were jumping together. "That's so awesome!" Tritta stopped bouncing for a moment, stopping to look at the older girl like she was a God. Which, in Trey's eyes, she was.

The brunette realised her mistake again. She'd almost mentioned Hogwarts. Trey shrugged. "I get to go to a Boarding School in Scotland." She grinned, watching Loanne's little dance. "It's going to be so awesome."

[Loanne Parker]

"Har har, yes, we'll become all famous for making some super duper amazing adventure park out of boring old London," Loanne said, grinning widely and looking into some far away distance real dramatically. She was quite excited about this crazy plan, admittedly. And at this moment, I don't see myself capable of deciding whether Loanne actually believed they might re-design London or whether she was just messing around. We'll probably never find out.

At the mention of boarding school, though, the German girl stopped to jump and looked at her new friend with a doubting glance in her eyes. "Boarding school in Scotland? Isn't Scotland like.. on the very different side of this island? If you say you live in london, why will you go to school so far away from home?" No, it didn't make any sense to Loanne at all.

[Tritta Stone]

Even if Loanne wasn't serious, it wasn't obvious to Tritta who looked like she might burst with excitement. Ah, the joys of being that young. You could believe you could do anything. You believed you could hold the tiny earth in the palm of your hand. Dreams, at that age, were possible. It was a shame that one day, Trey and Loanne would have to find out that not everything out of reach could be handed to them by somebody taller. The world didn't work like that. Unfortunately, it was just that depressing.

Trey forgot their plans for a moment in the face of Loanne's question. In all honesty, she hadn't really thought about it. She just knew that was what was expected, that was what was going to happen. She didn't question it, like most of the other kids that grew up in Wizarding families. Her face crumpled as she struggled to think. "Because it's the best school ever," she said finally.

[Loanne Parker]

“Ah yeah, of course, right, the best school ever,” Loanne repeated and nodded her head in an attempt to be dramatic. The answer sounded ridiculous to the German girl, in all honesty. Why were you okay with going to boarding school on the other end of your country? You would have to leave behind all of your friends and everything! Little did Loanne know at this point that she’d go even further for her education. After all, the distance between Russia and Germany was much bigger than the way from one side of Great Britain to the other.

[Tritta Stone]

In Trey's opinion, Hogwarts really was the most amazing school ever, especially from all the stories that her adoptive parents had told her about it. Tritta herself was a muggleborn and had shown signs of magic but she had been lucky enough to be placed with a magical family and it was so much so that she had pretty much grown up the way any wizarding child would've. In some ways, Trey was glad that she had been adopted by her family. She couldn't imagine not being surrounded by magic. It was so cool! "What about you?" she asked, not noticing Loanne's sarcasm. "What school do you want to go to?"

[Loanne Parker]

Loanne shrugged, admittedly never having thought about what school she would go to. Being a muggle, or well, a muggle-born, it would be some sort of high school, most likely in Cuxhaven since that was where she was from. Why the heck would she go to school in another city if there was a place to be educated at within her hometown? Loanne wasn’t too bothered about her schooling, so it would really be her parents who decided where she’d go. Little did the purple-haired child know that she’d receive an invitation to join the student body of a school called Durmstrang located in Russia, where she’d learn to perform magic. No, that was still secret information.

“I don’t really know, but my parents most likely have something in mind,” Loanne said and shrugged, looking around to try and spot her parents. She couldn’t see them.

[Tritta Stone]

Trey nodded, understanding. Her parents hadn't really chosen Hogwarts. It was more that Hogwarts had chosen her. She didn't know if she was even in yet as she hadn't received her letter but still, the fact that she could perform accidental magic had to mean something, right? They weren't going to completely disregard it; of that, she was almost certain. In fact, her biological parents would rather her go off to some stupid muggle high school anyway, idiots that they were. But all the same, she would be going to Hogwarts whether she got in or not. She was a very persuasive young lady.

"That's cool." Trey looked up as Loanne did, her own eyes casting for her parents. She could see them in the distance (or what she thought were them but couldn't properly distinguish). "Hey, so what kind of things are we going to put in London then?" she asked, her eyes relighting, all thought of school flying from her head.

[Loanne Parker]

Loanne laughed when Tritta asked what they were gonna put in London, and then she tilted her head to look as if she were in deep thought. "Hmmm, that is a very good question. Lots of ice cream shops and pizza parlors, I suppose," the purple-haired child said and giggled.

Then her head shot up and she looked around, because she thought she'd heard someone shouting her name. And well, how likely was it that some random stranger shouted her name on this beach in the Netherlands? Right, not likely at all. So it had to be her mother, because it was a female voice. Loanne was able to spot a waving person in the distance, and as she concentrated on that figure coming nearer, it was quite obvious that that was indeed Georgina Parker. Well, it seemed like it was time to say goodbye. But this German 10-year-old didn't want to say goodbye to Tritta yet. So she decided to say goodbye to her parents instead, and reached out for the brunette girl's arm, already starting to move farther away from her mother.

"Come on, let's get away," she said to Tritta, pulling at the girl's arm, wanting to run away. Well, had it been just Georgina, the rebellious girl would've been successful, but her father was there, too. And Mister Jonah Parker was much more powerful when it came to handling his daughter. "Loanne Georgina Parker! If you run away, my revenge will be terrible!" the man shouted, and if it hadn't been for the horribly serious tone in his voice, Loanne would've been a hundred percent sure he was joking. Oh darn, no such luck.

With an eyeroll and a scoff, Loanne turned back to Tritta and let go of her arm, sighing annoyedly. Parents were such useless creatures. At least in moments like this one. "Oh man, I guess I better get back to them or Daddy's gonna let me hang down from the kitchen ceiling with my fingers touching the table tonight. Don't want that to happen," she said, biting her lip slightly, but also grinning some. Jonah wouldn't ever punish her, at least not badly, and the girl knew it. Still, he was pretty good with taming her when she was about to go crazy once again. "Hey, wait," the German girl then said and pulled a black marker out of the back-pocket of her surf shorts. Girl was way too addicted to doodling on random surfaces to not have a marker with her, even when she was on the beach and in a bikini. Loanne scribbled something down on Tritta's arm without asking permission (as usual). "This is my address, and my phone number. We keep in contact, okay?" It wasn't really a question. Loanne didn't want to lose Tritta as her friend. They seemed to get along rather wonderfully.

"Well, I suppose I will see you around," Loanne said, grinned once more and then ran back to her parents, jumping onto her father's back when she reached them. The purple-haired child gave another wave to the brunette, and then the family left.