a lovely little house in like, wiltshire or something

"Oh, really." Wallace didn't sound very interested, to say the least.

Amanda shifted in her seat awkwardly, "Yeah, I've written some books on the history of magical creatures..." Her eyes unintentionally flickered upon Wallace for a moment, "One of them actually got onto the Hogwarts list."

Hah, was she BRAGGING? "Oh, think I noticed that a couple of years ago. Back when we went for Milly's books and the rest..." How cute.

Honestly... she's bragging? What did have to prove to him? Nothing! They are just friends, if that, due to connections through his wife. Nothing more, nothing less. "Ooh, whatever Julia is cooking smells great!"

Trevor agreed wholeheartedly, leaning forward, resting his forearms limply off his knees. "I could definitely eat."

Amanda got up slowly, as if daring anyone to follow her, "I'm going to see if there's anything I can help out with!" And so she walked into the kitchen, relieved that she got out of the room, it was getting a bit awkward.

"Anything I can do, Julia?"

Julia shot Amanda a somewhat shaken smile over her shoulder from the stove. "Oh, I've got a handle on most everything here. You could pour the drinks, if you'd like."

Amanda happily did so with a few flicks of her wand. "Without you directing the conversation it sort of fell... Quite silent now." She sighed, regretting how childish she was trying to one-up Wallace.

Julia, though a bit phased by the use of a wand for such a menial task, forced herself to shrug it off. "Ohh, I see. A little odd, I'd think; Wallace has told me you two were quite the pair of chums back in your school days. Weren't you?" She had a sort of tinkling quality to her voice that went well with her cheery demeanor.

Amanda froze up a bit, blushing bright red. How much did Wallace tell Julia about him and Amanda being... 'chums'. "Oh, you could definitely say that," She said after an awkward moment of silence, "He and Clyde were much closer though."

"Oh, I see. He's a nice fellow," she mused, closing down a lid on a pot of steaming vegetables.

"He really is! I haven't seen him since school though..." Right before the battle, to be exact.

"He and... Robin (?). They've visited a few times. Yeah, very nice pair, they are." She chuckled a little under her breath. "Have you noticed how they always sort of... match eachother? Physically, that is. They always look color-coordinated or somat."

Amanda never really noticed up until Julia mentioned that. "You know, you're right... I used to be very close with her sister, Kelsi, in school, and she was a metamo-- person who could change their appearance at will, but I don't think Robin was."

"Oh, what fun that would be!" She opened the lid again, impatience tingling in her manicured fingertips. Why weren't they cooking as quickly as they ought to?

Amanda nodded, a bit over enthusiastically. She was trying to match the bubbly personality Julia was giving off, "I've always been a bit jealous of people who could do that... Never a bad hair!" She laughed.

Julia laughed as well, then fell into a silence. "Do you think it's odd that I've... well, I've never really been envious of any of it?"

Amanda wasn't quite prepared for this kind of question, but her obviously over-kill smile slid off her face, and she found it easier to stare out the window than directly at Julia. The wonders of magic... Amanda had always been so eager to imagine what life would have been like if she had been a muggle. Not an ordinary witch who lived an ordinary life unlike the great heroes and villains, just a muggle.

"Not really... All of the wonder of it is really drowned by the dark."

She shrugged a little. "It's not that," she murmured, discomfort finding its way in through a slight creaking lingering in her vowels. "I don't know, it just seems to... like, too much. You get what I'm saying?"

Amanda figured that Wallace never told Julia of the Battle, or Voldemort. Why should he though? It was all over... "I think I do."

"I'm overwhelmed enough by this world." This almost sounded like a confession. "I don't think I could bear to handle another altogether, let alone keep something like that under wraps..."

Amanda smile sadly at her friend, "Some of us are in your position. I once let it slip to a man when I was around twenty, simply because I was in a... rough spot in my relationship."

"Oh, I see... I guess that sort of thing just... happens, doesn't it?" The guilt began to ooze.

"Yes... I suppose. Julia, is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing," she answered after a brief pause. Taking up a dishcloth, she opened the oven and set a piping-hot black dish on a frosted-plastic cutting board to cool. "How are you and Trev faring, what, with the empty nest and all?"