“Don’t I just?” I turned in a slow circle. “They were a Hanukkah present from my grandma when I was a kid. I think they make me look like a duck. A big, insane duck.” I stuck my thumbs into my armpits and flapped my wings.

Jasper burst out laughing again. “Yes, you do. You look exactly like a duck.” She pulled the old red blanket off the back of the couch and draped it over her legs. “Much appreciated. I feel less alone in my idiocy now.”

“You’re very welcome,” I said, settling in beside her on the couch and clicking the TV on. “Happy to be an idiot whenever you need one. So, what are you in the mood for?”

“Oh, whatever . . . ,” said Jasper.

“No!” I insisted. “You’re the guest. You pick. Do you have a favorite movie?”

“Well, if you really want to know,” Jasper said, “I do, actually. I’m pretty much always in the mood for . . . Harry Potter.”

“No way!” I shouted. “Me too. Even though I’ve seen them all about seventeen times.”

“Really?” asked Jasper.

I nodded. “Totally. Best movies ever. Books too.”

“I don’t know why,” Jasper said with a sigh. “But no matter how old I get, nothing else ever seems quite as good. Even if the effects are kind of dumb.”

“It’s the magic for me,” I said. “The idea that all the impossible things might be possible, right there, at the other end of my chimney.” I looked at the cold fireplace that nobody had used in a year. “That the world isn’t only . . . this.”

“Exactly!” said Jasper. “For years, I seriously hoped I’d get a letter when I turned eleven. And then I’d leave for Hogwarts. You know? Run away from everything . . .”

I nodded. “I do. I really do.”

“I just feel like everything would make more sense if we all had spells and wands and we could fix things with magic, and there was another world, where things were different than they actually are in this world.”

“Right?” I said, surfing around until I found the first movie, and clicked to rent. Then I held the remote out like a wand and waved it in the air dramatically. “Accio Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone!”

The movie started, and for a little while, we were quiet, just watching and occasionally mouthing the words to the movie together, and laughing. Until the washer dinged, and Jasper got up to move her stuff to the dryer. I paused the movie.

After a minute, she came back with a big fat square of lint draped over her head. “What’s the deal? Does nobody change the lint trap in this house?”

“Oh,” I said. “Yeah, like I said, my mom forgets stuff sometimes.”