"Someone writes them, and then someone with nice handwriting and an illustrator make a clearly legible version with pictures, and then they're copied over with wizard magic as many times as necessary," Raha says.

"That's interesting! Publishing in my world works differently, we don't use magic, but I'm not sure exactly how we do it instead," says Matilda.

"It seems like it would probably take a lot longer without magic involved," remarks Raha.

"Well, I don't know how long it takes you, but I know we can make a lot of copies of a book in not very much time at all," says Matilda. "And the writing looks different, because it wasn't handwritten by a person."

"There are machines for it. I think they're called printing presses."

"Huh! They must be pretty complicated machines."

"They are! If Lesirra is this excited about them, maybe I can find a book about how they work and bring that," says Matilda.

"I would love to see more or less any books from your world you'd like to bring me," says Lesirra earnestly.

So many ingredients! "They didn't have one in the store but I've also ordered a book of quizzes on this, so we can make sure you've got the principles down without risking things blowing up in real potion tests," says Raha.

"That's a good idea! Do potions blow up if you do them wrong?"

"Some of them can. You've already learned about two ingredients that will blow up if you put them together without the right stabilizers; can you figure out which from what you remember?"

She ponders this for about a tick, and then comes up with the right answer.

Raha congratulates her and moves on. So many ingredients.

Matilda is very smart and has an excellent memory. She is going to learn all about the many ingredients.

Raha seems generally impressed with her, though she makes no specific comments on Matilda's speed (beyond remarking that usually people who want to be witches start sometime between the ages of ten and eighteen).

"I'm learning a lot of things earlier or faster than most people," says Matilda. "Because I like learning things more than most people and I'm better at it than most people."

"Well, that makes perfect sense to me," says Raha. "Do you go to an accelerated school when school's in session?"

"I go to an ordinary school, but I get lots of extra books and things and I can skip ahead when I want."

"Do they not have accelerated schools?" wonders Raha.

"I'm not sure. What's an accelerated school?"

"Well, around here, if you were in a public school and learned a lot faster than the other students your age, they'd put you in one that went through the curriculum a lot faster and got to more advanced topics. My niece goes to one of those."

"That sounds like fun! I don't think we have anything exactly like that. But I don't mind going to Miss Honey's school instead."