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That's the kind of request I came up to Sarah with, which resulted in five hours of "Etiquette for Dummies" master class. The usual etiquette was fine, or at least as close as possible to magical etiquette, except for the nuances with the wand. I had noticed some elements of the peculiarities of carrying a wand, but I had not interpreted them in any way. Also, Lady Walburga didn't pay much attention to such things, but perhaps she just couldn't imagine that someone suddenly didn't know the basics.
However, it was not Sarah's extensive knowledge of the smallest details of etiquette in various countries that surprised me, but the fact that I already knew many things, and they were carried out by themselves. Approximately estimating the reasons of such behavior, I understood that though the Knights do not pay special attention to etiquette, they taught me everything very unobtrusively and without long instructions, just by personal example. That's what experience and not being the first child in the family means. Now she was explaining to me small nuances that might not be noticed, ignored, and most of it was devoted not at all to the purpose of this or that cutlery, which, by the way, is easy to handle if the table is already served - just use the cutlery in the order of serving dishes from edge to center. However, with French serving, as practiced at Hogwarts, this is hard to do - everything on the table, take what you want, and orient yourself. In the regular world, this arrangement hasn't been practiced for a long time. Hmm, I wonder what happens in Avalon? Most likely, since there are attendants there, then the Russian serving of dishes, which is already familiar to everyone all over the world.
Sarah touched on other nuances, like, for example, styles of dress for different occasions, strict business style, not so strict, casual, and so on. How to wear certain things, how and when to button or unbutton a jacket, and many other little things that I did but did not realize. For example, I never wore a vest under a double-breasted jacket. Why? It didn't seem right to me. But you could wear something other than a shirt under a double-breasted jacket. My favorite turtleneck, for example.
My perfect memory allowed me to remember everything perfectly and immediately sort it out. Rowena took the initiative to analyze everything, which resulted in an hour and a half of almost imperceptible, at the very edge of my consciousness, mental images of modeling different situations. And, according to her, it turned out that her simulations stimulated the entire nervous system in an amusing way as if I were practicing all these situations in reality. Yes, the efficiency is fifteen times lower than for real actions, but the rate of simulation is five times higher.
In general, by the evening, we had finally figured out the various nuances of etiquette. I should note that all this heap of information, nuances, and subtleties can make a repulsive impression just by its volume for an unprepared person from a village. There is nothing to talk about, table etiquette is a little bit complicated and not understandable, and if you add wine etiquette to it, you can hang yourself. However, when you observe how other people observe these subtleties in full or in part when you yourself take part and are unobtrusively dragged into it, you may realize, as I do now, that you know and understand everything and you do many things unknowingly.
Of course, I didn't learn all the nuances of etiquette with Sarah today, far from it, but I got a good foundation for consciously applying the skills and rules I already knew.
At family dinner, I casually broached the subject of Knight's eldest son working at the BMW and asked: "Is it possible to see what it's like in Germany? Can I see a prototype of the M8, since I know for sure it's there?". In the end, John assured me that he would call his son and clarify everything because he himself was wondering what kind of a beast - the eight M-series, as a couple of 850s, though not CSi, drive around London, blurring the eyes of motorists.
After dinner, I went to my room and, until the night, worked with occlumency, trying to "engage" Rowena in the process. Since she passes through the full range of my sensations, thoughts, and other activities, she was assigned to observe my mental state during the meeting with Lady Greengrass. Her ability to visualize clearly would allow me to mentally interpret various thought processes into images. It is not practiced because it is too difficult, but it is possible to try it, and the application of such techniques with Rowena's help can quickly reach the level of semblance of reflexes and habits.
Only by midnight was I finished with everything, went to the shower, and after - a healthy sound sleep.