Three twelve-year-olds are gathered in a bathroom, copying a diagram from a book onto the floor in chalk.
"Do you know what all this writing means?" asks the green-eyed boy.
"No," says the bushy-haired girl, "and that worries me too, but we need to find out who the Heir of Slytherin is and this ritual is the best we've got."
Eventually, one or another of them draws the last bit of the outer circle.
"And magic in your universe isn't a secret?"
Her eyes open wider. "Hired out on what terms?"
"What do relations between the humans and the magical species look like? To what degree are you separate societies versus a single society? Do the laws advantage either one? What does a typical example of selling magic look like?"
"All the species live in separate planes of existence and can't get between them without magic, so the societies and subsets thereof are not well-integrated. Those of us with magic powers can be summoned to the human realm and offered things in exchange for our magical - or occasionally nonmagical - services. For instance, I might be summoned to conjure some steaks - eating meat that used to be an animal is unfashionable there - and offered, say, theater tickets, or straight up cash. The human laws tend to favor humans, but taking summonses is voluntary so there's some check on how much so, plus technical limitations of summoning."
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