Far From Home [Camila]

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Late March 2028

It was hard to remember where you came from. Bianca had moved to London over a decade ago, fresh from school and ready to tackle the big wide world. Her dad had told her, all those years ago, to remember her family and her roots – but she’d only brushed that off as an old person’s nostalgia. It seemed obvious enough to her at the time, and it had been easy enough at the beginning. But these days…she rarely spoke in Spanish anymore. Only when she called her mother or her tías to hear about their day-to-day troubles in Chile. And she barely saw signs that she’d ever spent seven meaningful years in Brazil, except for her old textbooks and hardcore support for the Brazilian National Quidditch Team. In fact, over the years she’d found herself caught between the obvious observation that she wasn’t English, and the growing realization that she wasn’t quite fully Latina anymore…

So the alumni reunion in Castelobruxo had been important to her. An opportunity to see her old classmates, to spend a weekend remembering the cringey fashion trends they’d followed and reminiscing over old jokes and faded memories. But from the moment the Portkey landed back in England…there was that sense of missing something. A sharper awareness than before. It was one of the few times that Bianca felt ready to initiate a deeper conversation about a difficult subject, instead of waiting to be asked about it. She’d sat down with Cade to remember all the times she’d tried hard to combat the feeling of being the ‘foreigner’ in Auror training, and she’d discussed with Xiulan the dilemmas of making compromises about doing things the ‘English’ way to try and fit in, who had her own set of experiences and culture shocks…

But Bianca didn’t want to just talk about the strange sense of dislocation. No, she had always been a woman of action and it felt right to do something active to try and change it. The opportunity came soon enough. She wasn’t the only one who struggled with the changes, and Camila had called her just like Bianca had offered during their quick run-in at Castelobruxo. So Bianca had kicked Cade out for the night (he did have his own place…) and her apartment would be a Latina-only zone for the space of an evening. Mate ready to serve, empanadas in the oven, and Spanish only. Maybe Portuguese if Quidditch came up as a subject. Bianca refilled her owl’s water (even if he was out hunting for the night) while the TV played faintly in the background.

camila calderón

[camila calderón]

Late March 2028

One of the weirdest parts about being an adult—never mind being a famous singer who was known by audiences across the magical world—that no one had really bothered to tell her when she was younger, Camila realized, was how hard it was to make and keep friends. She wasn't in school anymore and had left Castelobruxo before she had officially graduated, and it wasn't as though she had a lot in common with many of the people she saw on a regular basis. A lot of them were significantly older and just doing their jobs. Hanging out with younger people meant using Polyjuice potion, as she once had done, or hoping that someone on the other side of the globe happened to be awake (and not busy with something else) at a time during which she was also awake and not busy with something else.

Camila wasn't sure if it was homesickness or what, exactly, that had gotten into her, but she had kept Bianca Rivera's card since the two of them had met at a reunion event at Castelobruxo over a year before. And finally, she had decided to contact her. She didn't need anything from the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement that she could solve in an official capacity; she just needed to be around someone else who understood her culture and some of what she went through on a daily basis, even though there was much more at stake in politics than in the music industry.

Being invited over to Bianca's apartment worked out well for Camila from a privacy standpoint, both in terms of privacy from the prying eyes of the magical world and from the Muggles who might have been out and about somewhere else. They could discuss what they wanted without being so worried about it.

Although Camila hadn't dressed up as much as she might have for an event where she knew that she would be photographed, she had made sure that she looked presentable before leaving for Bianca's place. On top of that, she brought a token of her appreciation with her to give to her host, a bottle of a quality Malbec from Argentina. She didn't really drink alcohol herself, but a nice bottle of wine from her own country felt like the kind of thing that one would bring to visit a Ministry official at her home.

With her wine bottle for Bianca in a gift bag meant for that very purpose, Camila got out her mobile phone and texted Bianca to let her know that she had arrived. Her English had continued to improve with time, but just being able to write that message in Spanish without agonizing over it made Camila feel as though a weight had lifted off her shoulders.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Besides the obvious dangers of being an Auror, there were some side effects that nobody told you about until it was too late. Like Bianca’s somewhat obsessive paranoia with security. She couldn’t help it, really. Over a decade of working gory cases had shown her every potential location for a crime scene – by the river, off the pathways at the parks, even at home – and every motive someone might have for going Dark. There were basic measures to take to at least have a chance of being prepared for a crime, like keeping your wand with you and learning Occlumency, but Bianca had taken it one step further over the years. She liked to live in Muggle areas, because most wizards were still incompetent at blending in, and she couldn’t help but pick out the best spots for cover or a fast exit whenever she walked into a new space.

And after all the protective enchantments that had been added after her promotion – well, you were unlikely to find somewhere safer than the flat belonging to the Head of Magical Law Enforcement. It did make it somewhat tricky to invite guests over sometimes. Anyway, it meant that Bianca got her first heads-up that Camila had arrived just seconds before her text came in. Closing the owl cage, Bianca stopped by the kitchen on her way to the door to triple-check that nothing had caught on fire. Because she hadn’t cooked in almost two years now and a kitchen fire wasn’t outside the realm of possibility. But there were no obvious safety issues and the empanadas were starting to turn golden brown. Snapping a picture on her phone for Cade later (See I can cook if I want to), Bianca moved to let Camila in.

“…home office is through there, and then we’ve reached the salon again,” Bianca finished as they completed their quick circle through the apartment and stood by the couch. She rarely had people over so there’d never been many opportunities to perfect a smooth narration of her living space. Actually, Bianca had rarely spent any time at all here until her promotion and being withdrawn from the field. Back then, it had just been a place to sleep and it had looked barely lived-in. Now? There were definitely signs of two different personalities in the apartment – a clean and practical look alongside someone who had tried to make it a more friendly space. Bianca cleared one of the couch cushions by shifting her files to the coffee table and gestured for Camila to sit. “You can change the channel if you want,” Bianca said with a shrug as she glanced at the TV before she moved back to the kitchen to finish the yerba mate.

camila calderón
[Italics = Spanish!]

[camila calderón]

Late March 2028

Considering Bianca's rank in the Ministry of Magic, Camila wouldn't have been surprised to see a more opulent apartment, but it was nice that it seemed pretty normal. Then again, Camila doubted that Bianca would be the one hosting foreign dignitaries herself, and there was nothing to suggest that Bianca wouldn't be as down-to-earth as she had come across before. The tour Bianca gave her of her apartment was considerate of her, though, and Camila complimented Bianca's home as they went through.

They soon were back to where they had started at the couch. Bianca moved some files and invited her to sit, mentioning that she could change the television channel if she wanted to. Camila nodded and thanked her, but she also didn't want to sit around watching TV while Bianca was finishing cooking and seem like a diva.

"Do you want help with anything?" she offered Bianca, stepping away from the couch and towards the kitchen. "I don't want to get in your way, but I brought a bottle of Malbec for you…"

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

As Bianca moved back towards the kitchen, Camila shadowed her – and really, she couldn’t blame her. Glancing at the screen, Bianca frowned slightly at the sock puppets tussling with each other and turned back towards the counter. She’d never been particularly interested in TV, since her family had been too poor to own one and the TV at her grandparents’ place seemed to only have one channel. Football, of course, and a slap ‘round the head for anyone who dared to reach for the dial. Still, she’d turned it on for Camila because she wasn’t quite sure what kind of home environment the girl was used to and the goal of the night was supposed to be comfort.

In reality, Bianca didn’t know much about the younger girl at all. They shared a few similarities that had let them bond at a difficult moment – reminders of home were always difficult for Bianca, at least – but she didn’t read teen magazines (anymore) and didn’t know much more about Camila than what was public knowledge. But she really did seem like a normal person, grounded at least and not like the diva one might expect her to be. Bianca turned to examine the bottle of wine in Camila’s hands and gave an impressed nod. “Thank you. Glasses are over there,” she nodded at the proper cabinet as she closed the oven door again. “My mama always keeps a bottle of Malbec in the house,” she remembered out-loud with a snort, “Although she’d complain about anything that isn’t a Barolo.” Bianca herself wasn't so picky, and eagerly anticipated the glass of wine – you really couldn’t make a career at the Ministry without developing a slight problem. Coping mechanism, really. She did have her little insistent quirks when it came to her home or things she didn't like to talk about -- but wine? She'd take whatever she could get.

camila calderón

[camila calderón]

Late March 2028

Although she hailed from a country that was known for its wine, Camila Calderón was far from being a sommelier. She wasn't oblivious to its importance, but she had never particularly cared for the taste of it. The adults in her life had told her when she was younger that she would grow to appreciate alcohol. Somehow, she still hadn't at twenty-one and questioned if she ever would. While some of her famous peers were busy getting so drunk that they might as well have been Obliviated, that wasn't the case for Camila. She was… tame for a celebrity, probably even a bore to some. Risking her career over something so tiny had never seemed like the best move to her.

With Bianca as her host, though, Camila wasn't exactly being peer-pressured. Drinking a glass of wine was perfectly normal and grown-up, which was something that she guessed she qualified as being despite not always feeling it. As such, she nodded her head when directed to where the wine glasses were. "Perfect. Thank you."

To avoid breaking said wine glasses and embarrassing herself, Camila opted to set the bottle of Malbec onto the counter and get out the glasses by hand. Bianca mentioned that her mother kept a bottle of Malbec on hand herself, and Camila worried for a moment that perhaps she had made a misstep in bringing it by Bianca's tone. No, as it turned out, it was alright. Bianca's mother, apparently, was more particular about her wine, so Camila supposed it was a good thing that she wasn't there. Being a pop star didn't come with an instruction manual, but "not offending high-ranking Ministry officials' mothers" sounded like a decent rule to follow for just about anyone.

Camila remained careful to grab each of the two glasses by the stem, feeling like she probably should have taken some sort of etiquette course. Again, that wasn't in the nonexistent guidebook to being a celebrity, so she would have to hope that what she had picked up over the years wasn't going to mark her as horrendously ill-mannered. At least, she thought to herself, uncorking a bottle of wine could be achieved with magic. It wasn't any sort of sparkling wine, luckily, so the likelihood of its flying off and damaging anything seemed miniscule.

That didn't mean that Camila wasn't overly cautious about removing the cork from the bottle with the aid of her wand, however, making sure not to break off any of it—or the bottle—in the process. She found that her approach was a success on the first try, as was pouring the wine into the glasses without spilling any. What was more, she had gotten the amounts even without looking like she was in a Potions class.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Bianca reflected on the fact that she hadn’t hosted much at her place. It wasn’t like she had much time for a social life, anyway, since there was always something at work to keep her occupied. That was the price of being the head of a department, of having gone as high as you could without making the jump to Minister (which to Bianca, at least, was a distasteful move from policeman to politician). Sometimes the other Department Heads would organize a do, but Bianca had never enjoyed herself at one of those. Being much younger than the rest, and a foreigner to boot, meant that her interests were different. And then of course, her actual social life was always limited to her friends’ flats or the bar – because Merlin forbid someone visited her home only to stumble onto her secret boyfriend.

So Camila was a unique guest in that regard and Bianca racked her mind to remember the proper things a host should do. The wine seemed like a good start, and she noted with amusement that Camila had filled the two glasses exactly even. Bianca picked up a glass and tried to remember the last time she’d toasted in Spanish. It must’ve been on one of her rare trips home from before her dad’s death, when the entire family would get together and some of the cousins would bring tequila. “Arriba, abajo, al centro, adentro,” Bianca toasted, unable to smother the small smile that came with the nostalgia of the saying. Yeah, she’d definitely missed her culture and the feeling of being exactly herself without trying too hard to fit in.

She sipped at the wine and leaned against the counter, trying not to get too lost in the memories. It was way too early in the evening (and the bottle of wine) for that. Instead she glanced over her young guest. It was likely that if neither of them had left Latin America, then they’d never have met – but sometimes you needed to travel far from home just to find a reminder of it. And in this case, it was almost like looking at a warped mirror. Bianca’s life in her early 20’s had been very different, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that Camila was still making many of the same choices. “Do you visit home?” Bianca asked. Camila had hinted at her busy schedule before, but it would be a shame if she didn’t. Sometimes Bianca wondered if she would feel less disassociated if she’d made more of an effort at the beginning to hold on to that part of her identity. In any case, it seemed too late to do anything about it.

camila calderón

[camila calderón]

Late March 2028

Camila didn't find Bianca to be lacking as a host at all. Of course, she didn't entertain people at her flat much, either. She didn't have that kind of effortless elegance—or the space—to hold dinner parties or anything beyond having maybe two or three people over at a time. A lot of people would have been surprised by that, she assumed, but she had never been one for wild parties, at least. The odd slumber party was as crazy as she got—and that was essentially at a thirteen-year-old's level of partying it up despite being an adult.

Bianca offered a toast in Spanish, though it was much more casual than Camila had anticipated. Although surprised, she grinned, toasting and then taking a sip of her wine.

After they had drank their toast, Bianca leaned up against her counter. "Do you visit home?" she asked.

"Yes, sometimes." Camila nodded. She knew that she probably could have visited Argentina more frequently. With magic, it was relatively easy to travel from one place to another, even between continents. She did feel bad that she didn't return to her own country as often as she had once anticipated doing, but there were a lot of factors that had affected that beyond her desire to go home or not. "Not for every birthday and holiday like I anticipated initially," she clarified for Bianca with a laugh. That would have been the dream. "But it's okay. I even went to Argentina with one of my friends from here in London, Sienna."

"And you?" By contrast, Camila assumed that it must have been harder for Bianca to return home to visit just because of the nature of her job. They both lived high-profile lives because of their respective careers, but they were very different. Being a celebrity, Camila could still uphold her work commitments despite traveling or find a way to work around them. Bianca, on the other hand, probably had to plan out her travels well ahead of time.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

It was a very casual switch for Bianca to turn on her interrogation mode, to the point where she rarely noticed it anymore outside of work. That had been the bulk of her professional life, after all. If she wasn’t in the interrogation room with a suspect, working an angle…well, then she was out in the field questioning witnesses and hunting for leads. It was right out of the basic Auror handbook, collecting scraps of information and trying to build a complete picture based on them. So she might’ve started to learn the basics during her training, but it had been a quick and easy upgrade to do the same outside the Ministry too. If one of her friends had gone through a break-up, or gotten their hands on a new piece of chisme, or was hiding a secret…then Bianca was always the first to know.

So it seemed natural enough to ask Camila a few questions, broad enough and vague enough to get a complete picture without being too invasive. Bianca hummed in understanding as Camila reflected on the fact that she didn’t go home as much as she would like and took another sip of wine. “I’m sure it was also more difficult to visit for a while because of Hag’s Fever,” Bianca noted, shaking her head at the thought. The lockdown had been a headache to enforce and life had completely ground to a halt for a while in the British Isles. Bianca had spent long hours on the phone with her mother as a result, arguing and trying to explain why she couldn’t just call it off to come and visit ('it’s a pandemic mama, how would it look if I violated quarantine?'). Not that she’d successfully convinced her of anything, of course.

She shook her head again quickly as Camila asked about her own habits. “I tried to, at the beginning. During my time as an Auror, I could manage Easter and Christmas most years. But then you cancel one trip here, and another a while later, because you tell yourself it’s necessary. That you’ll fall behind if you don’t, or that you’ll have more time later once you’ve become more successful. Then one day you realize its been years, but by then it’s a routine. So it’s easy to continue doing what you’ve always done.” Bianca considered that for a moment, then took a long sip of wine. “I’m overdue,” she decided, wincing at the thought that she’d have to suck it up and visit her mother. The thought seemed unpleasant in light of the interrogation she was sure to get. For all of Bianca’s professional skills, she’d never been able to surpass her mother when it came to winning an argument or avoiding that Latina mom guilt.

camila calderón

[camila calderón]

Late March 2028

When Bianca brought up that Hag's Fever, too, must have made it difficult because of the restrictions on travel that had been imposed on those trying to get in or out of the British Isles as a result of the disease's spread, Camila simply nodded. She could get into her own experience with Hag's Fever and having to be hospitalized at St. Mungo's for it at another time, because that had turned into quite a story. Magical illnesses shutting down plans aside, it was hard enough as it was to travel back home to South America, as Bianca herself said.

She had tried to visit home frequently in the beginning, Bianca told her, and it was understandable that she would have wanted to make the effort. Being an immigrant, expatriate, or whatever they wanted to call themselves was hard, and Camila could only imagine how hard it was to be an Auror abroad. She got a lot of things handed to her because she was already famous by the time she came to London; Bianca hadn't had that experience at all.

"But then you cancel one trip here, and another a while later, because you tell yourself it's necessary. That you'll fall behind if you don't, or that you'll have more time later once you've become more successful," Bianca elaborated, describing how easy it was to fall into a cycle of putting off visits home. "Then one day you realize it's been years, but by then it’s a routine. So it's easy to continue doing what you've always done."

Camila didn't feel that she had fallen into the same trap, exactly, but she understood Bianca's point and sympathized with her when she added that she was overdue to visit. Unfortunately, Camila didn't know anything about Bianca's family life to try to be helpful to her, nor did she want to assume what her relationships with her family members were like. What little she knew was that Bianca was Muggle-born, which probably played some role in her family's dynamics. With a Muggle father, Camila understood some of it, but she couldn't relate completely because her mother was a witch.

From Bianca's tone, though, Camila could sense that she was uncomfortable with the idea of returning home after so long. "I don't know your family or how they feel about magic," she acknowledged to Bianca, "but you should do what feels right to you." If there was an underlying reason why Bianca felt uneasy about making that trip, then Camila didn't feel that it was wrong for her to listen to her gut.

Bianca Alia Rivera

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Maybe Bianca wasn’t the only one who was good at prying details out of people. Camila hit on a sensitive point almost immediately, and Bianca didn’t respond to it. Yeah, her family’s relationship to the magical world had always been complicated. Her father had been supportive – because he’d always been, and he wanted the absolute best for his little princess. But when he’d died, so had the only member of her family who’d ever encouraged her to embrace the magical part of herself. Because Chile was still a very Catholic country, and magic was still considered witchcraft for many people. Bianca’s mother was no different. She’d reacted badly to the Metamorphmagus professor who’d shown up to break the news that Bianca was a witch, and she’d spent all the years since denying where Bianca had gone and what she was.

So in that sense, magic was the tiptoed-around subject in all those conversations with her mama. The big elephant in the room while Bianca tried to phrase her sentences in a way that only implied but never outright stated. It was exhausting, but that was the price of having a relationship with her mother. She’d accepted it a while ago, and pushed down the feelings that told her it wasn’t okay whenever they occasionally bubbled to the surface. So she didn’t respond to Camila’s eerily accurate observations, and instead bent down to check on the empanadas.

When she straightened, she took another sip of wine and examined Camila again. “Your earlier songs were all in Spanish,” she noted, “Do you still perform them?” Bianca wasn’t quite up-to-date with all the young pop stars, and she’d never been one to read celebrity gossip. But Cade had done a profile on Camila Calderón once and she’d drilled him for some insights after her first meeting with Camila at Castelobruxo. Because sure, the Wiznet could rattle off basic details but it wasn’t the same as having an actual insight into the celebrity. And above all, tonight was about being open and comfortable. Bianca didn’t have many opportunities anymore to express herself in her native language, or think about long-lost topics like home. She was sure Camila didn’t either.

camila calderón

[camila calderón]

Late March 2028

Instead of discussing whether or not going home was worthwhile, Bianca checked on what she had in the oven and then changed the subject. She didn't seem offended, but she didn't seem eager to discuss her family, either, so Camila didn't push it. It was better than awkwardly shutting down their whole conversation and remaining in silence, which might have been the alternative. With that in mind, Camila wasn't against having the focus put back on her. Still, she took another sip of her wine.

"Your earlier songs were all in Spanish," Bianca observed after that slight pause. "Do you still perform them?"

"Yeah," Camila replied, exhaling a little when she realized that she wasn't going to be put on the spot. It was more comfortable for her to write and perform in Spanish than in English. Everything came to her more easily in her native language. "I emphasized the songs in English for a while," she explained, "but it's not my passion, you know?" That wasn't to say that Camila was only in it for the money, but putting out a full English-language album had been a strategic move. "Obviously, I love the music, but I don't want to seem like I'm forgetting my roots." She especially didn't want to alienate the fans who had been with her since the beginning. "At the same time, I don't want to be known as just the girl from Argentina who had some hit songs…" That thought was always there in the back of Camila's mind, too, because she didn't have anything to fall back on. What would she do if her career dried up? She had to keep chasing the next thing to remain relevant yet balance that with not looking desperate.

More positively, she added, "I'm scheduled to appear on Vertic Alley in a few weeks. The children's television series on Witch TV." It was entirely possible that Bianca hadn't heard of it, since she didn't have children. "I've never acted before, but I'm playing myself. Like a guest appearance with the puppets." Hopefully, that would be easy enough to do.

Bianca Alia Rivera