Common Room

"Ah, that explains it. Are you German?" Caroline asked, twiddling her thumbs.

"My mum is half-German, my dad is half-Irish. So we go 'visit our heritage' and stuff. The reason is pretty lame, but it's always fun."

"We took a trip to Japan once. It was just great. My great-grandpa is kind of crazy, though. Like, really crazy."

"Oh, you're Japanese?" Matilda asked, cocking her head to the side. "That's so cool! And I don't know my great-grandparents. They're all dead," she said bluntly.

"Oh, you couldn't tell?" Caroline said, smiling. "My great-grandpa is really strong. I think he's immortal, in fact. He's rather.. wrinkly."

"A lot of Asian people look the same," Matilda explained. "My cousin, Blake, is Chinese but doesn't look that much different than you. And are you quite sure he's immortal? Those kinds of things don't exist!"

"I'm sure!" Caroline said. Deep inside, her self-esteem sank a little bit. Not that she cared on the surface. They all look the same? Wasn't the best thing to say. "I'm positive. He's ancient, all wrinkly and crazy. Can't even see his eyes."

Matilda, naturally, was oblivious to the fact that she had just hurt Caroline's feelings. "Is he really energetic and stuff?"

"Ugh, YES!" Caroline said angrily. "He's so enthusiastic. It got sickening, in Japan."

"Oh, I bet... old, crazy, energetic great-grandpa, along with some other family members? That doesn't sound like a good mix."

"He acts like he's in love with my mom, and then my dad gets into fights with him, and with my regular grandpa and.. It's just crazy."

"That sounds kind of entertaining, actually," Matilda admitted. "You should film it!"

"The Yashnid Family Brawl, series 1.." Caroline muttered, starting to laugh. "Watch as Great-Grandpa Yashnid kicks Father Yashnid's ass.."

Matilda laughed. "You really should film that next time you go to Japan! Is it nice there?"

"The temperature is rather chilly sometimes, but I do really like the buildings and stuff. They're all gorgeous."

"Oh, yeah, those houses are nice..." Matilda mentioned. She didn't really know what Japanese houses looked like, but she figured she may as well play along.

"And of course, they're just so different from here, so it's really great to tour around and stuff. And everything is so packed. But where we were was kind of outside of the cities.."

"Doesn't Tokyo have millions and millions of people? I can't imagine living in a city that big..."

"I know. It was so big! And there were so many lights.." Caroline was smiling at it- she was quite fond of the memory, as Charlotte had tripped and fell into a large puddle. "I just loved Tokyo."

"Hey, did you do your Charms homework?" Matilda asked, suddenly changing the subject.

"Oh, shit.." Caroline mumbled to herself. "I'll do it tomorrow, before Charms!"

"Aww, damn! I was hoping you'd done it, because I haven't."

"You're so irresponsible!" Caroline admonished. "I was hoping to copy off you."

"You haven't done yours either!" Matilda hissed. "We both want to copy off of each other, but neither of us have done it... I say we do it together."

"Or, you could do it and I could copy off you." Caroline said, still trying to get her way.