"Mum, there's so much more stuff I need to get," said Hester, annoyed.
"Please, darling, just let me get a drink. It's all a little overwhelming," said her mother.
They walked into the pub and Hester's mother went up to the counter.
"What do you do?" she asked cautiously.
Hester laughed when she saw her mother's face as she returned to the table.
"What on earth is that?" she asked, bent double and almost in tears.
"A... a firewhiskey, he said," her mother said.
Hester left the pub, and wondered whether her mother would still be fit to drive her home afterwards.
--
Hester entered the pub an hour later.
"Come on, mum, no more drinks. It's time to go home."
"I can't- hic- believe- hic- that you're magical..." her mother slurred. She looked as if she had been crying.
"Mum, please? It's time to go home."
Her mother attempted to get to her feet.
"We're gonna get the train," said Hester, watching her mother lose her balance. "Come on."
She had to act grown up, because she knew that it was scary. She was going to boarding school. No one in her family had ever had to deal with that before. And she was magical.
She just wished that her mum would grow up a little.
She pulled her mother out of the pub and onto the muggle street where they caught the train back to Newcastle.
