"He's not dying, is he?" she asked hurriedly.
"Not from lack of trying," he said dryly. "First he fell like thirty feet to land on Ginny and then the Weasleys' enchanted car took him for a spin and tried to kill him," Harry explained. "The car got banged up pretty bad, but Dobby seemed fine. I didn't know if telling him to go easy or giving him something else to do would be better for him, so I just told him he should leave anything magical alone from now on."
"Are either of you going to get into trouble for wrecking the car like that?" she asked as Tom placed a plate of fish and chips and a drink in front of Harry she hadn't seen him order before departing with a wink. Come to think of it, she hadn't ordered her meal either.
Harry shook his head as he absentmindedly popped a chip in his mouth and ate. "Molly seemed rather relieved, actually," he said as if he couldn't believe it himself. "I guess she thinks having something to fiddle around with will keep Arthur from getting anything new. He's kind of mad when it comes to muggle things."
"Arthur and Molly?" she asked with a smile.
"Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," Harry explained with a shrug. "She told me to call her Molly once, but they're Ron's parents and I'm living there, but they don't treat me like I'm one of their kids - more like a really young friend. It's kind of an odd thing to describe."
"Well, relationships can be rather elastic," Hermione said for more than one reason. "There's no need to rush off and define things right away. Take my dad," she explained, "sometimes he's the parent who has to weigh in with fatherly guidance, sometimes he's a friend to tell my problems to, and sometimes he's the annoying little brother," she finished exasperatingly.
"I can see how that could make things complicated," he said with a peculiar look. "I've just never had that kind of thing happen before."
"I'd suggest you just go with it and let things develop on their own before you label them," she said. "Who knows what the relationship with them could become in time. They might become parental figures or just really good adult friends you can talk to about things Ron or I might not be able to relate to."
"I doubt there's anything you wouldn't be able to relate to," Harry said, taking a drink.
"I just mean you shouldn't turn down the possibility for more friends simply because you don't have a pre-established role to put them in."
"I guess you're right," he said finally. "It'd just feel weird to say it to her face, you know? It'd be like calling Professor McGonagall - whatever her first name is."
"Minerva," Hermione added before halting with an odd look on her face. "You're right, that doesn't feel right at all."
Harry chuckled and continued to eat.
"Thanks for ordering this, by the way. I didn't trust my stomach before the floo but I didn't realize how hungry I really was. You hungry?" he asked, offering to share.
"No, I already ate. And I didn't order it; Tom, the barman, just brought it over. I didn't order mine either - I wonder if we owe him anything," she said, looking over to the man in question who wandering around cleaning off the now-vacant tables with little waves of his wand.
"Oh, er - I should have enough to cover it, but with everything that happened yesterday I forgot to get more money out of the bank. If there's one thing goblins have taught me though it's that you never know when you're getting your next meal," he grinned.
"Don't worry about it," the wandering Tom said with a wave as he passed close. "Watchin' your friend here's been entertaining me all morning," he said with an 'I-got-you' face at her to rival her dad's. "Jump-jump-jump-jump," he smiled, twitching his finger up-and-down at her rapidly.
Tom wandered away again, leaving her horribly embarrassed and wishing she had a book to bury her face in. Thankfully, Harry occupied himself with his food while she recovered her dignity.
"You never said why Dobby fell on Ginny," Hermione said once she thought she'd recovered enough.
Harry swallowed. "I'm not sure," he said lowering his voice as he went on. "We were talking about whatever it is the Malfoys are plotting. Dobby still couldn't say much; the only thing I know is it's got nothing to do with Voldemort-"
Hermione felt a sudden sense of doom at that, before reminding herself it was pointless to fear a name. No one freaked out and fell on the floor over Stalin or Pol Pot. Doing the same over who you meant when you said 'You-Know-Who' was just a silly learned response it'd be best to unlearn.
He finished his last chip before continuing. "Anyway, I asked if there was anything he could do to stop it and he disappeared - only the next thing I hear is him falling, so I rushed downstairs to find him on the floor and Ginny just getting back to her feet."
"But what happened?" she asked confused.
"I don't know," he said with a shrug. "I thought he might not be able to go back to the Malfoy's since I, er - kind of own him now. He said something about it feeling the same as it did there. But then again, Ginny was sitting on top of something called a wardstone, which Mrs. Weasley said is supposed to be really magical."
"And really rare," Hermione said.
"You've heard of them?"
.....
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