"Yes, I can hear you," Callista said, smiling. "It's a lot easier than building a special fire, isn't it?"

Blade frowned. "Why do you sound so muffled?" he asked with his ear still in the middle of the phone's screen.

"You're holding it wrong." Callista gently moved the phone in Blade's hand to the proper position. "Can you hear me now?"

"Oh hey, that's better," Blade said with a grin. "Can we do the music thing? I really liked that!"

"After you call me, I'll show you how to use iTunes," Callista replied. "You have to pay for a lot of music, but I'll give you some credits and you can pay me back later, since you don't have a credit card. But first, it's your turn to call me. Your grandfather knows the times when we're able to get service out here are few and far between, so he's probably waiting for you to call him."

She hung up, then helped him find her in his contacts. "Push that, it'll call me. And then, after iTunes, we'll talk about texting, which I find is a little easier than having a phone conversation when service is poor, and other people can't hear you doing it either."

"Okay," Blade said. "What's a credit card?" He would call his grandfather later, though he was fairly sure he wouldn't tell him anything about what was going on. "I like the sound of the texting for privacy." He pushed the call button and heard her phone starting to respond. "Ooh it makes music too!" He looked really giddy.

"Hello, Callista Zabini here," said Callie as she answered the phone. "That's my ringtone! It's a Southern All Stars song. Good job!"

She sighed. "A credit card is one of the ways that Muggles handle money, so they don't have to go to the bank and get actual coins every time they need to pay for something. When I go shopping in the mundane world, I almost never carry actual money, just the card with the number on it. You give someone the number or stick the card into the machine at the store, and they get paid, then you pay the bill when it comes and the money comes out of your bank account. When you use one to buy credits from iTunes, the artists who made the music you buy get paid for writing, making and recording it."

((sorry was super busy, catches up now))

"Hi Callista Zabini," Blade replied with a smirk. "This is pretty cool."

"Hmm sounds really interesting," he replied. He imagined a piece of paper. "I wonder how the machine can tell which card is which."

"Some of the cards have computer chips in them that store information, like the parts inside of the phone do. Others have a magnet strip in them and I'm not sure how that works. Maybe the professor can tell us?" Callista raised her hand.

Callista smiled, a little embarrassed that she'd never thought to ask this question herself. "Blade asked me how credit cards worked when I said that I would get him some iTunes credits so he could play music, and he could pay me back when he got his own cards. I explained that they let you send money to stores through your phone, but then he asked me how the card does that. I don't know. I know there are computer chips and magnet strips, but I don't know how that moves the information. I just know that it works, unless you're trying to do magic in the same place and the magic and the electrical energy interfere with each other."

Niamh looked at the picture of what the Professor called a land line, and tried to make sense of it. Although her family had lived in an area of Egypt which wasn't exclusively wizarding, she hadn't ever come across telephones before. As the mobile phone picture appeared, she felt even more confused. How could muggles have these two totally different items, and call them both "telephones"?

She looked around the group to find someone to pair up with. Much to her dismay, it looked like everyone she'd spotted so far already had someone to work with. She didn't really want to work with Paddy - she didn't think the werewolf girl would know much more about phones than Niamh did herself.

(OOC: Niamh's looking for someone to work with, if anyone's in need of a partner)

"Thank you, Professor. Are you sure, Blade?" Callista asked gently. "My family is ridiculously wealthy, and we're friends, and you don't have to pay me back next week. I'm totally fine with waiting till you're in a life situation where you don't have to depend on others financially, and also, you could pay me back in wizarding money or buy me a gift card next time you're in a Muggle town and not completely broke."

She wasn't sure what had happened with Blade but it had been pretty clear that he was broke for the moment. It had something to do with his family, that much she'd gathered.

"Oh, I thought you meant with another card," Blade replied. He'd have to keep it down but he nodded. "Okay, I can do wizard money. But free is good. How do you do this tuning eyes."

"iTunes." Callista wrote it on a scrap of parchment, then showed him where the icon was. "What kind of music do you like? There's all kinds, but there aren't a lot of wizarding musicians with stuff in the Apple Store. Though there are some. Groups that have Muggleborn members and aren't allergic to extra money, even though they can't do all the fun stuff they'd normally do on stage at concerts that are open to Muggles."

"Sorry," Blade said. "This is a lot of information." When she asked what he listened to he said, "Er, well I listen to a lot of classical. Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Mahler, Tchaikovsky... I don't mind opera... honestly most music I like. Though I hate overly repetitive beat music--like some of that whinny jazz stuff. Seriously how can you call that a song when all you are doing is repeating the same notes for five minutes with no end in sight? I also dislike really slow singing. And hate people who sing to jazz. Jazz is about feeling, soul and depth. People signing to it ruins the experience, in my opinion. It should be felt."

Callista grinned. "You get your taste in music from your grandfather, don't you? Why don't we check and see if he bought you credits or put some songs on here for you? That seems like something he might have done. I mean, all you needed was a phone and a charger, but he bought you the newest iPhone available."

She opened up the iTunes app and took a look.

(Great idea! xD For sure he can have a lot of credits ^.^ probably even added some songs on his own. And a program to make his own music. He has a keyboard as well which has a card to transfer music to.))

"He and I have similar tastes yes. He's the one who trained me in music," Blade admitted. "You think so? That would be perfect." Just then he spotted two white circles hooked together with wires and another circles that had little clips on them. He had no idea what they were. (Earbuds and over the ear headphones.) "What are these?"

Callista grinned. "Those are your earbuds, so you can listen to music without everyone else having to," she explained, a lot more confident about this than she had been about explaining how credit cards worked. "Looks like your grandfather already set you up with some music and credits, so you don't even have to borrow anything from me!"