Now I'm hoping I'll be torn open

Selwyn cleared his throat. Nodded.

"Gender," he confirmed. "A woman who can make any man fall at her feet is a femme fatale. A man who can do that is a potential rapist."

He stretched his arms over his head.

"And then you have all the human hang ups," he said. "Though I'm not sure if that's particular to humans or just the British."

He had no idea what a vardo was, but she seemed to think he ought so he wasn't going to ask. He had a whole library at his fingertips when he got back up to the school, anyway.

She was doing a competent job on Cu-sith, he was pleased to see.

"How are you finding Hogsmeade, anyway?"

"Hadn't thought of that," she said, when he mentioned the differences between how men and women were perceived. "You're right, of course. I probably had more exposure to that from a veela perspective. I remember my grandmother telling me that I'd never have to work hard to get a man. She said since I was veela, all I'd ever need to do was learn to dance. 'Just give him a little shimmy,' she'd say." Solstice shook her head. "I'm not a very good veela, in that case. I just don't need to do that to be happy. Not my style, I guess."

"I love Hogsmeade," she brightened when he asked. "I did try to learn to like London, but I don't like big cities. I like it here. I like the people, and I love having all the woods around here. The view of the castle is great from here. Haven't been there for a long time, but then, Hogwarts is one of those great unchangeable places, I think.

"What about you? What brings you to Hogsmeade?" she asked.

Treacherous though it was to his Scottish blood, Selwyn could not imagine why someone wouldn't like London.  Perhaps most big cities were as hideous as she described, but London had everything a heart could desire.  Even castles and woods, though Selwyn preferred the food.

He snorted at her description of Hogwarts as unchangable.  Yeah, right.

"Well, it's easy to think that from this far away.  You can't see the damage," he said.  "But I think if you went up there today, you'd probably change your mind.  Especially if you met some of the students."

"I work up there, in case you hadn't guessed," he added.