Headline News

[Luitpold Striebel]

@Andren Lovegood
Saturday, November 15, 1884

Poldi couldn't honestly say that he was a regular reader of the Daily Prophet. With required reading for classes and listening to professors and peers talk all day, he had always felt that he spent enough of his time deciphering English. Besides, even if he had wanted a subscription, there was little chance that Vati would get him one considering that he'd repeatedly turned down Gogo's requests for one and, between them, Gogo was by far the favorite son in Vati's eyes. This morning, however, along with a plate of linzer kekse wrapped in brown paper from Mutti, a letter from her and another from Gogo (sadly none from Anke that day) he got a copy of yesterday's newspaper which was rather crumpled and worse for the wear (most likely after being salvaged from a bench in Hogsmeade as he knew Gogo sometimes did) with an article about a three-headed dog being found in Spain circled and underlined with such vigor that the tip of the pen had torn through the paper in places. Having just finished breakfast around the tail end of its availability, he didn't spare the time to read it just then, writing it off as just an exciting story about an interesting creature which had captured his little brother's attention. 

It wasn't until later, when he'd made it back to his dorm that he spared it any more thought. He had the paper tucked under his arm along with the letters and the now unwrapped plate of Linzer kekse in his other hand as he entered the room. He dropped the latter down on a communal table (which had formerly been near his bed, but which he had moved for just this purpose at the beginning of term when his mother had first started sending him things to share with Andren and Harvey) and gave an acknowledging nod to Andren, who was already in the room, before grabbing one of the biscuits for himself and heading to his bed to read the mail. The paper just happened to be at the top of the stack, so it merited his attention first. 

He read the first paragraph with little trouble and only partial attention, taking a bite of the biscuit before moving on to the second paragraph. The paper was much easier to read than his textbooks and it was only made easier by the fact that it said little more than the the title had suggested. A three headed dog had been on the loose and was found in Spain. He knew that Gogo would be interested in a story like that, but he was sure why the younger boy had thought that he would be too until he saw the bit about the finder having been from Bavaria. He took a rather ill-timed swallow before reading on and encountering with a gasp, which quickly morphed into a violent string of coughs, a very familiar name. Even as he strove to clear his airways of the inhaled bits of biscuit he reread the name a few times, his eyes widened in shock, just to be sure he had it right.

  

[Andren Lovegood]

Frequently, Andren questioned the wisdom of people who took six or even seven N.E.W.T. classes. The workload of four made him want to set himself on fire sometime, so anything more than that was practically unimaginable - especially when he was neck-deep in an essay, like he was right now. At least he wasn't taking any classes that he hated anymore.

Andren gave a little wave to his roommate and grabbed one of the German cookies off of the communal table, taking a bite of it as he began the topic sentence for his next paragraph. He had another foot of writing to go but at least most of it was done - and then he would be free to do his less pressing work for another class.

Interrupted from his reading only by the sound of his roommate choking, Andren looked up, quill still in hand.

"Raise your hand if you're dying?" he said, genuinely unsure as to how much concern this did or did not warrant.

  

[Luitpold Striebel]

Poldi raised a slightly shaking hand as the coughing died down, but didn't bother looking up at his roommate until he had reread the name in the article at least ten times. When he did finally look up, one might have thought that he had seen a ghost (well, if that weren't an everyday, expected occurrence, anyhow). “I’m fine." He replied, clearing his throat and looking back down at the paper. "It’s just... how often do you think people of the same name from the same place travel abroad to the same spot at the same time?" It didn't seem entirely likely, but it couldn't have been impossible. After all, the article had said that this Alfons Siefert was from Bavaria, not Cham. Cham was fairly small, but Bavaria was much larger. There must have been thousands upon thousands of young men in Bavaria and Alfons was a very common name. Siefert was common surname as well. Surely, they came together often enough. And Spain was a popular vacation spot as well, wasn't it? It might have been a bit of an anomaly for two young Alfons Sieferts from Bavaria to be visiting Spain at the same time, but it was certainly more likely than his cousin being mentioned in the Daily Prophet. He wasn't even a wizard. How could he have been? There were already two muggleborns in their family and almost all of the other muggleborns that he knew were the only ones out of all of their relations. It didn't make sense for there to be a third in his generation alone.

Still, he was unable to convince himself of the likelihood of this all being coincidence and turned back to Andren for reassurance. "It must happen sometimes…mustn’t it?” he added in an almost desperate tone, turning his gaze back up to the other boy. I wasn't as if he could write Alfons and ask if he was a wizard, could he? If he wasn't, all that would do was make him think that his cousin had gone mad. It might even get him in trouble with the ministry for discussing the wizarding world with a muggle. He was family, but not close enough for that sort of disclosure. He could be expelled and then what would he do? No, the only way to lay any questions about this to rest would be for him to believe that it was, indeed, a different Alfons. But it would be hard to believe that was the case if nobody else was able to convince themselves of it more thoroughly than he could manage to at the moment.

  

[Andren Lovegood]

His roommate wasn't dying, so Andren continued his reluctant trudge through his essay. Until Striebel spoke, that was - then he looked up and pressed his lips together into a thin line, considering the question.

How likely could it be?

So you had two people with the same name. That was one unlikelihood. Another appeared in their being from the same place - which Andren thought was possible! Because places tended to have pretty similar names. He bet that there were going to be a ton of Balthazars and Darcys entering Hogwarts in a little over a decade. But if they had the same last name, too? That was really strange.

It was their travelling to the same place that really tripped him up - especially since they were doing so at the same time!

"I seriously doubt it," Andren said finally, "It's just far too many coincidences."

  

[Luitpold Striebel]

It wasn't the answer that Poldi had wanted to hear, but, honestly, he wasn't surprised. It did sound a bit like something out of a storybook. Two people with the same name from the same region traveling to Spain at the same time, one making headline news in the wizarding community and the other going about his business, entirely oblivious of it all. But still, it had to be. His cousin may not have told him that he was or wasn't a wizard, but he certainly knew enough about him to know that he couldn't have been. After all, Alfons was four years older than him. If he was a wizard, he would have had to have gone off to school long before Poldi's part of the family left Germany...which he had, but only to a gymnasium in Nürnberg...though they had never visited him there.

"It has happened, though." He insisted, a bit more firmly than he might normally thanks to his lingering doubts, and held the battered newspaper out towards the other boy with the circled article facing upward. "My cousin Alfons is a muggle. He went to a muggle Gymnasium, the first in our family to go. His parents were very proud. We even have a picture of him in his uniform." They did, in fact have a picture and those uniforms were expensive. He tried to tell himself that his aunt and uncle wouldn't have spent so much money just to maintain a ruse about Alfons being away at Gymnasium. However, he couldn't quite shake the little voice in the back of his head reminding him that the picture in question had been his mother's idea. Indeed, Tante Agnes had been surprisingly opposed to it, nearly as opposed as Vati had been to wasting the film on a free picture if they didn't even want it. It had taken months of prodding on his mother's and grandmother's parts to get them to concede to the picture and even then, they had put it off until the end of the summer until he had almost gone away to school.

  

[Andren Lovegood]

Andren didn't know what a capital G Gymnasium was, but wasn't curious enough to ask, either. If it bothered him later he could always ask during muggle studies. Professor Doveston would probably know; Professor Doveston seemed to know most things, even if he also seemed to be a little bit off his rocker.

"He could probably fake the uniform with magic if he really wanted to," Andren said, giving his roommate an 'I really don't know what you want from me' shrug, "And I'm not German or anything, but 'Alfons Siefert' doesn't seem like the most common name, either."