Hard to Explain

“He’s had the job nearly ten years, so it probably is his fault. He’s not... very fond of people who aren’t from prominent families, and so there probably are several cases that went overlooked.”

“I don’t know,” Josh says, not wanting to really dwell on it. “I turned out okay, regardless, and I wasn’t one of the really destructive cases. It just would’ve been nice to have that option. Or, like, to even know it was an option.”

“Yeah....”

“With magical families, it’s an option, you know? They can decide if they want to raise their child in a primarily muggle household and send them to muggle school, or if they can teach their children more about magic than about muggle stuff. Their kids know there is magic in the family, in a lot of cases. With us kids with two muggle parents, we’re out on our own. I didn’t even know magic existed as an actual thing until I got my SAS letter.”

“I can’t even imagine not knowing that magic exists. It’s always been there in my life, especially since both of my parents have it.”

“So you’re on the opposite end of the spectrum from me, then.”

“Basically.”

“Did you use a lot of magic growing up?” Josh asked curiously.

“Not really.”

“You know, I’ve met a lot of magical people here, and almost none of them used a lot of magic growing up. I always find that weird.”

“Really?”

“My boyfriend had magical parents, and he uses his magic about a third of the amount that I do.”

“Maybe we don’t use it because it’s not new or interesting to us. It’s just there. Always has been.”

“See, with him, I think that it’s that his family raised him. He went to magical elementary school - the same one as Dodge, actually - but his family never really used it much around the house. Plus, RJ doesn’t actually have a ton of magic, really. With me, not using magic isn’t really even an option. If I don’t actively use it, it just leaks out and causes trouble on its own.”

“That sounds really troublesome.”

“It probably doesn’t make sense for a muggle kid to wind up with this much magic, but it is the way it is.”

“Magic doesn’t make much sense.”

“Genetically, it would make more sense if it weren’t for muggleborns,” Josh said.

He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.”

“I didn’t say it would make perfect sense. It’d just make more sense.”

“I’ve never really thought about it.”

“I think a lot about that kind of stuff,” Josh said, “but it’s not something I can exactly explain, you know? People who have studied it their whole lifetimes can’t explain it, so I don’t stand a chance.”

“Magic is magic and it exists everywhere.”

“But it’s different, everywhere, isn’t it? It’s different from person to person. It’s really interesting.”

Aiden shrugged. “I suppose it is.”