Quote:
Originally Posted by
wednesday 
Ugh... Did she upset Evan with her stupid dad? Ollie noticed the frown that came to his face. Why did this always happen? She hated talking about her dad and home life because every time she did, whoever she was telling would grow upset. She didn't want any new friends to be upset. But Evan was right, she was disappointed about the sorting. She was really trying to work through her own disappointment but every time she sent a letter and got no response, it triggered that anger again! "He's a history professor at a university in London."
She couldn't help the giggle that escaped from her lips. She was really happy that Evan was really happy that Pepper was here. To Olive, Pepper was the best cat in the world. "Yeah, she does remind me of her." That wasn't really true. Pepper and her grandmother were very different. This cat was very lazy and her grandmother was soooo not. But that wasn't the only difference. One thing they did have in common was that they both seemed to really care for Ollie. And that she was thankful for. "It's okay though. I'm glad that she passed. Not that I wanted her to die!" She quickly corrected herself. That sounded really bad. "I just knew how much pain she was in. I know she's in a better place."
Okay, Ollie had enough talking about her sob story. She felt like she was making people feel sorry for her, and she didn't want pity friends. "What do your parents do for work?"
He would have felt guilty if he had noticed her reaction to his. It was just a terrible situation for her to be in and he was empathetic to her plight. It was hard for him to imagine a parent refusing to talk to their child and yet... parents were people and they did make mistakes. Not that that made it okay what her Dad was doing.
"So still should have time to answer a letter." Maybe they could figure out how to send a Howler to her house so she could yell at her father? That sounded cathartic?
Hearing the giggle he was surprised, but he smiled at her regardless.
"That's good at least." Of course a cat couldn't replace her grandmother but...as a gift, at least Pepper could serve as a tangible reminder to how much her grandmother had loved her. He didn't even have time to be surprised by her statement before she was correcting herself, and Ev smiled reassuringly,
"It's okay, I understand what you meant. There are better things than suffering." Even if it was hard to still not be able to be around them anymore.
"I'm glad to hear she's not in pain anymore."
Oh, his parents? This was a question he was leery of because it made his heritage obvious but... she didn't seem prejudiced thus far so maybe it wouldn't matter. And could he really spend the rest of his school years scared to talk about them?
"My mum's a clinical psychologist and my dad works for the British muggle government. My mum's work is pretty interesting, but I never quite understand what dad's exact duties are." Seemed like schmoozing, primarily.