Ⓐ - Ⓩ ~ Paula & Marja

This is a series of studies for my long-time-in-the-writings book about the magic in the Nordic countries.
  We are in the 70es on Unicorn Island, an island off the coast of southern Zealand. A handful of teachers have gathered the broken threads of magic once again, trying to revive the magic in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Faroes and partially Greenland.
  Our main protagonist is Susan (me) from Elsinore and her three co-apprentices and friends Heidi, Tage and Lis living at Unicorn Island.
  I grasped the chance to write a little bit about some of the lesser known apprentices in this A-Z challenge.

 Ⓐ - Ⓩ

P is for Paula & Marja Koivo from Finland

Their last name means birch, and they are also known as the Birch sisters. They are born almost two years apart and lives with their mother and two older siblings in a small town near Rovaniemi in Northern Finland.
  Their father died some years ago from a work related accident at the Rovaniemi airport. Mother Irja manages the house and works part time out of home. The four daughters work in the big garden and helps out how ever they can. The two older sisters, Pihla and Pirjo are much older than Paula and Marja. They both work in town and are not very much at home. Paula and Marja are both blonde, blue eyed and clear skinned. Looking a bit like a birch would, if it was turned into a human being; they are a bit like a Finnish movie, long, elegant and melancholic.
  Paula loves to play in the river and go fishing, whereas Marja climbs trees and roams the woods looking for berries. Mama Irja often teases them saying that they take after her mother's family, where family legends will have it that there's both dryads and naiads in the ancestry.

"Mami," Paula said one morning, "I think I have a noisy feather in my doona. When I compose myself for sleep it goes eeek-skreeek-skreek, like a nail on a slate. And when I go to sleep, I wake up myself by snoring!"
"That sure sounds like a noisy feather," her mother said. "Do you want me to sing it out."
"Yes please, and before you ask. No I do not know who has picked it. There were lots of loose feathers laying about, and they were easier to collect, but it is harder to see, if they are one of the noisy ones. It could have been any one of us."
Paula looked at her mother: "When can I have my own wand?" she asked.
"Soon," her mother answered, "but first you'll have to study, and then I'll have to ask the Kuusisaaris over so that Tähti can sing you a wand."
"Oh, Mami, studying is so boring to do alone," Paula complained. "Can't Marja do it together with me?"
"Let's see. Now you're off to school, you'll have to hurry to get there in time.
Marja hurried out the door with Paula lagging after.

When they came home from school, mother Irja had some news for them: "The Kuusisaaris will be over this weekend, that is in two days. It seems they want to open a school in the holidays. A school for magic, so you won't be studying all alone. But they'll both be here Saturday morning to tell more, and to test you. We've better get working to make the house shine."
"More work!" Paula said. "Don't forget my noisy feather, I'll be no use half asleep!"
"I did already, you can see them there on the table," she pointed at three slender, white feathers. "They really had it in for you. Now throw them into the fire outside. and you'll sleep well."

 - - - - -

As we know, Marja and Paula both stand the test and go to Unicorn Farm, where we find them in the first day's wandsinging session with Tähti Kuusisaaari and Thora.
I'll let Gylfi, the wand measurer, do the presentation, we also meet Lirfan, his living tape measure. This is a bit from one of my unpublished chapters. For any new readers, Susan is the main person and teller of the story.
  Gylfi is here Measuring the wands of the Potions team and of the Nature team, Paula, Marja and Susan are all members of the latter.

Gylfi turned to the two Finnish girls. "Your wands sure matches your name, don't they, Marja and Paula?"
They nodded in unison: "Yes, our surname, Koivu, means birch in Finnish," said Marja, the younger of the two.
Susan watched with interest as Lirfan, the thick green caterpillar moved like an accordion and grew exactly as long and thick as the wand. It looked funny. With its back legs, the caterpillar held onto the end of the wand and then it curled up slightly. The front end shot through the air, the caterpillar grew longer and longer and thicker and thicker. Then it sat still for a brief moment before reading its measurements with a small, tinny voice. Then, holding on with its front legs it shrunk until it finally reached its normal size at the opposite end of the wand.
Paula's stick was a centimetre shorter than her younger sister's, but they were exactly the same thickness.

Paula's sparks were silvery, and Marja's green. None of them survived losing their magic.

 - - - - -

A note on Noisy feathers. This is my translation  of urofjer, According to old Nordic superstition these were certain feathers from the wings of geese and hens, that when used in pillows would not allow sleepers to find rest or dying people to die. If they exist and have a name in English, I have been unable to find it, so please help.

And tomorrow is Q.
I can find no apprentices, places, Nisser, teachers, or parents with Q.
So Q is for QUESTIONS. Do you have any? Please post them in the comments, and I'll try to answer the day after tomorrow.