Who: Cassiopeia Black and Ana Jarvis What: Afternoon tea When: Sunday afternoon Where: Tea house in Summerbridge
Sometimes Cassiopeia felt that the most difficult thing about living in Preya was how narrow her social circle had become. There simply weren't many people she could associate with. The magical community was small, and there was nobody at all who understood how things were at home. The only wizard she had met with whom she had any shared frame of reference was Arcturus, and he was fourteen years old and held far too many views that belonged in the last century. He couldn't help it, but it was frustrating nonetheless.
Unsurprisingly, she hadn't mentioned her growing friendship with the Jarvises to him. They were muggles, but they couldn't help that either, and being from a time a little in advance of hers made them a wonderful source of information. Cassi asked them very many questions about the future, but always about topics of significance. She had no interest – and indeed, no knowledge – about contemporary popular culture of any sort, and was thoroughly old-fashioned in her interests. Mr Jarvis understood her situation better than most, as she had told him that she was a witch, and explained to him a little of what that meant, being as tactful as she could about her community's opinions of muggles.
She didn't know how much of her explanation he had shared with his wife, but today she was meeting Mrs Jarvis for tea in Summerbridge. They had talked of exploring the locale together, but Cassi was wary, because she worried about the extent of the other woman's injuries, and how far she had recovered. Surgery seemed barbaric to her, although she was far too polite to say so outright.
There was nothing strenuous about tea, however, and so she found herself sitting in a little tea-house on Sunday afternoon, awaiting Mrs Jarvis's arrival. The day was almost uncomfortably warm, and so she had compensated with a mild cooling spell at her table. Cassiopeia made no effort to blend in with Preya's more modern inhabitants, and today she wore a light, patterned blouse and a long skirt, a look that might have seemed outdated even in 1940. Her one concession, such as it was, was to refrain from wearing traditional robes, and she only did this because she wanted to keep her magic a secret from most.