Nora looked over at the professor and gave her an appreciative smile. It was comforting to realize she'd likely never be seen as an outcast here, and most people were bending over backwards to help her get adjusted. Her face noticeably fell when her question about her parents was answered with the opposite of what she had been hoping it'd be. At her old school, there'd been an event every holiday, and even then, there'd been events in between the holidays. Nora was hoping there would have been at least something to help with her homesickness. "Maybe it's better this way," she finally said. "I wonder if I'd just want to go back home with them if they were here." Did she even have that choice?

She hadn't thought about the possibility of a meeting in Hogsmeade, and in the next few silent seconds, she rolled the thought over and over in her mind. Maybe... "So are there any dangerous creatures here? Really dangerous creatures?" she asked. She'd honestly been expecting a wild dragon to come up through the fields one day and burn down the school. "I keep reading about all the creatures in the magical world. I'm kind of nervous about accidentally uncovering one." She did laugh a little after she said that. She'd been at Hogwarts long enough to realize things wouldn't just pop out. Or, at least, they hadn't yet. "A companion?" That sounded interesting. "Like what?"