The coldness of Britain had startled Lillian at first, but she had soon grown accustomed to it. It was nothing at all like where she was raised, where the sun always shone and the days were filled with heat, hunger and thirst. Those had been the harder days, the days that she didn't miss. She missed her old family, but she did love her new mother. It seemed she had upset Nora with her saying that she wished to attend Durmstrang instead of Hogwart's, but Nora had soon come to not mind that much and deemed it a good opportunity. Lillian had always heard tales of the wonderful school, Durmstrang, so she wished to attend it. However, she hadn't expected the coldness of Germany to be so much worse than Britain.

Lillian had managed to sway Nora into allowing her to visit Germany so she could adjust to the climate. She chuckled as her breath became visible in such cold air. She was bundled up in a large, fur coat with the thickest gloves on and a beane, along with long pants and snow boots. She looked at the 'stream' before her, and grinned as it was iced over. The ground was caked with snow, and the ice made the few rays of sun that hit its surface turn into tiny little, sparkling rainbows. It was beautiful, and Lillian edged closer to inspect it. She took a step onto the surface and tapped it with her toe, but she did not want to step on it. Instead, she stood and stared at the diamond-like surface whilst she sung what she used to sing to the children of the village she'd lived in. "Eh regedza zuva penya pa isu eh regedza mwedzi penya pa isu regedza uswa kura ne regedza denga zadza ne makore regedza i kunaya regedza i kunaya oh ti yangu ri kuitira edu gifts ti ri kuitira edu rudo regedza i penya regedza i penya regedza zuva penya zasi pa ini!"

Alexandre was strolling along the frozen river wearing a warm jacket and sneakers. He had been walking for a while so he was feeling rather warm. He stopped and inspected the ice, and found that it was truly frozen. He put his weight on it and smirked as he didn't fall through. He then stepped fully on it and started sliding down. Then he saw that ahead, the ice would get a bit thinner, and he casually strolled off. Then he heard something. A song of some sort.

He blinked and walked towards the sound, wondering who was singing. It was a nice song, though maybe a bit too childlike for his taste. After all, he was seeking to be an adult before he became one. Not that he cared about his childhood, it hadn't been good even when he was a child.

Then he saw a girl. He hadn't seen her before. Not that that was so weird. There were new people here constantly. He figured that he was bored enough to make conversation and walked over to her.

"Hey," he said, some meters away so she wouldn't be scared.

Lillian's singing ceased immediately as she was brought back from the distant lands she had grown up in, where the wind was scarce and the sun was always shining, where food was hard to find but love was all around, where water was a rarity yet peace was a delicacy, those were her homelands. Her eyes drifted shut as she was thinking about them, her lyrics drifting across the wind, but as previously mentioned they had now ceased when he had spoken. Her eyes fluttered open and she flicked her hair out of her face as she was brought back to the cold lands that was to be her home for quite a while.

This boy looked as if he were accustomed to such cold and barren lands, and she frowned at the thought. How one could live her their entire life was a wonder to her, for she knew she couldn't. Then again, she was quite used to the scorching heat and knew she shouldn't be thinking so selfishly when she had been ever so blessed. A smile lit up her face as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger and waved with her other hand. "Hi there!"

The girl smiled at him when she saw him and he gave a polite smile back. He then frowned slightly. She seemed to be wearing a whole lot of clothes.

"You're not from here, are you?" he asked suspiciously, though meant in a kind way.

He then reached out his hand. "I'm Alexandre Grindelwald, but you may call me Alex," he said kindly.

"What were you singing?" he then asked, remembering the soft, soothing tone.

Lillian relaxed slightly under his smile, but tensed when he frowned and looked around wildly. Was something coming at her, she wondered? Seeing nothing other than the two of them here, she looked back to him.

At his words, Lillian laughed and shook her head. "Nope, not here, not anywhere near here. Im from Africa, actually." Lillian supplied in her accented tone. She was proud of where she had been raised, even if it was in the midst of poverty.

Lillian took his hand and shook it eagerly, a huge smile on her face. She loved to meet new people. "Im Lillian Smith, but you can call me Lils. Its what Nora calls me, I still haven't gotten the hang of calling her 'mum' yet." Lillian rambled.

As he asked what she was singing, her smile widened - if that was possible - and her eyes were lit up with joy. "Its my language, Shova. Im from Zimbabwe in Africa, if im being precise." The reason Lillian's english was so good was because in Zimbabwe, though their main language was Shova they also spoke English.

[[Btw, the writing style changed cause Debby gave the charrie to moi, Molly. ]]

Alexandre blinked. She was a far way from home. What was she doing here in Germany?

"Really? Well, that's ... unexpected," he said, smiling slightly; he had not seen that one coming. "So what are you doing here in Germany?" he asked.

He listened to her ramble, and wondered if she was nervous or something. But maybe she just always rambled. He shrugged it off mentally.

"Who's Nora? An adoptive parent?" Alex asked curiously.

He was reasonable grateful that the girl hadn't reacted to his name. Or his family name, that is. He was tired of people flinching back and their hands going to their robes as if Alex would turn into some kind of horrible dragon and spray them with flames.

"Really? So that's why you're good at speaking English?" he asked. He knew a lot about Africa, actually, because he always found it interesting to see how people suffered there, and how the government seemingly did nothing about it. It was ridiculous.

[OOC: That's perfectly okay, Mollykins. Perfectly okay. ]

Lillian laughed, though it was a very quiet, gentle, soft sound that often made her adoptive mother look bewildered. She couldn't laugh loud no matter how hard she tried, or how much she was laughing. It was always a very quiet sound.

Lillian was laughing, for he thought she was still living there, and she realised she had indeed given off the impression. It was funny to her, though he probably was confused as to why she was laughing.

"Not too far, actually. Im from Africa, but I live in Britain, now." Lillian smiled as she explained this.

When Lillian was asked who Nora was, her eyes lit up and her smile widened even more. She loved Nora, she was so kind, though there was something dark about her that always vanished when she was around Lillian.

"Oh yes, Nora Smith, she's my adoptive mother. She's the Headmistress of Hogwarts." Lillian said, hoping that maybe Alexandre might know who she was then.

Lillian, being born in Africa and also raised as a muggle naturally knew nothing about the meaning of the last name Grindelwald. It was just another German last name in her mind, and she thought nothing of it. Not that she would've cared even if she had known, a name did not make a person in her mind.

"Yes! It is!" She exclaimed, pleased that he knew that about her home country. "Do you know much about Africa?" She asked curiously, hoping he would be able to understand more about her home country. She was bored of explaining her home land to other people, as they always seemed so confused with the concept of being happy when you were poor and death was among a friend of yours.

Alexandre listened to her explanation. And that didn't make anymore sense, really. Coming from Africa, living in Britain and visiting Germany? In the middle of a war? Huh.

"That doesn't really make anymore sense. It would've been better if you were visiting from Africa, you know. Britain and Germany aren't exactly on speaking terms, as you're probably well aware of," Alexandre said kindly.

He then blinked. She wasn't just from Britain, but she was Germany's main enemy's adoptive daughter? Talk about complicated. Alexandre took no side in this war, though, but it was rather weird that Lillian was here at all.

"Yeah, I know about her. You might not wanna tell everyone about that though. They might kidnap you," he said calmly, and added, to be sure that she understood the seriousness of it; "I'm being serious. Britain and Germany may not be as bad off as France and Britain, but there's lots of German people hating the British ones. I'm not one of them, just so you know."

He gave a smirk at that and turned to the frozen river in thought. He couldn't believe that she was actually allowed to go here without a parent or something. But maybe she was good at fending for her own. Alexandre wasn't going to be stupid enough to find out at least. He respected people too much for that. Or, some people.

"Well, I don't know a whole lot about Africa, but I know a bunch about colonies, and weren't Zimbabwe a British colony? Or was is American?" he asked thoughtfully.

Lillian giggled at his confused expression and she thought over her own situation in her head. Africa, to Britain, then Germany, whilst they were all in a war was a rather strange thing to do - but Lilly hadn't know there was a war until they day before she came to Germany.

"I know that, but only because i've come here for school. Nora said she didn't want me exposed to the war, but since I'm attending Durmstrang then obviously I need to know about the war. Not that I care about it at all to be honest, wars silly. We used to have it all the time in Africa, but my little village refused to participate in it. We got beaten up for it, but we still wouldn't participate so they gave up eventually and left us alone - after planting land mines everywhere that wasn't one of our paths," Lilly's eyes darkened as she remembered when one of the little girls had been blown up when she jumped off the path. "But yes, I don't care for war." Lilly beamed at him.

Lillian tilted her head at that and wondered why they would kidnap her - but it hit her then. Her adoptive mother was the Headmistress of Hogwarts, so of course she was in the war. She almost hugged him for warning her beforehand.

"Oh! Well, thank you for telling me, I wouldn't want to be kidnapped. Promise you won't tell anyone else?" She asked with a sad tone. It made her upset that the war caused such problems, though she was glad that he didn't hate Brit's. Not that she was a Brit, mind you, but she did live there so that sort of made her one?

Lillian followed his gaze to the frozen river and pushed her foot against it once more. She tapped her foot along until she felt that the ice become harder and stronger, and she stepped onto this bit. She giggled at the feeling as she slid a bit. She'd never been in ice before, and hadn't seen snow until she'd moved to Britain. "Weird." She muttered and moved along the ice with caution, tapping at it. She stayed close to the edge before she slid and landed on her butt with a laugh. "Do you ever skate?" She asked as she looked up at him.