“Oh how lovely, I've been on holiday to Devon,” Myfanwy trilled. “My Mam had an old friend who lives near Bere Ferres so we stayed in a campsite in Devon nearby.” It was adorable that this girl and her brothers wanted to go to the same school as their mother. It was interesting she said her mom was an American, like she wasn't one anymore just because she lived in England now. Myfanwy and her sister both went to the same school as their parents, more or less. There was only one school in their village so they all went there but their Dad had gone to Hogwarts, but then he didn't like it much and he didn't think Cledan and Myfanwy would like to be away from everyone they knew. The blue-eyed girls had agreed but now the family was living in a commune it wasn't practical for Dad to be teaching them magic lessons any more so it just made sense for Myfanwy to go to school. She was ready now, anyway. Fifteen was old enough to have some independence.

“Rose is a lovely name,” Myffi beamed at the introduction. She had just seen Pearl Street that morning, not all of it because basically they had just gone to the bookshop to get to school, but she knew what and where it was. It sounded absolutely amazing and Myfanwy couldn't wait to go exploring. “I'm in Lyra, what about you?” she answered the question before going back to the amazing Pearl Street suggestion. “I would absolutely love for you to show me around,” she enthused. She's noticed Rose glance at her dress; it was one of her favourites, all different right colours with a swirl in the middle. It had been very pale pink when they bought it on eBay - most of everything Myfanwy and her sister owned was bought on the internet or when they sometimes went into the towns to visit a charity shop, which wasn't often because they didn't have a car so they had to wait until someone else in the village was going and wanted to give them a lift - but they liked to dye clothes in all kinds of bright colours. “Back home there's a food shop, a post office and a hardware store,” she counted the retailers off on her fingers. “And there's a pub but that's it. Can you really go up to the shops then whenever you like? That's unbelievable.”

Rose didn't know about where the food came from. Myfanwy would need to find out soon, but the teachers she could see were also eating their breakfasts and it probably wouldn't hurt to just have one piece of toast because it was already there anyway. Myffi took a slice and spread it thinly with orange marmalade. While she was chewing she thought of a thousand more questions to ask Rose. Swallowing her first bite, she said, “So are you in fifth year, too? And what's your roommate like? I'd love a roommate - Oh, you might know, do I have one?” It was a small school so if Rose had been here a while she should know if there was anyone else in Myfanwy’s year in Lyra.