Harry Potter and the Wandless Magic

Chapter Eight: Flourish and Blotts

"Harry?" Hermione wrapped herself around him in a bone-crushing hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, shopping?" He grinned.

She slapped his arms playfully. "I can see that, you prat. I meant why are you here so early? And what happened with your relatives? Was that why you were in St. Mungo's? I was so worried when I read about it. Did you—"

"Merlin's Beard, girl, breathe!" Andromeda snapped.

Hermione blushed. "Sorry. I'm Hermione Granger, one of Harry's friends from school. Nice to meet you."

"A pleasure," Andromeda returned. "I'm Andromeda Tonks, Harry's new guardian. I understand that you were one of the students who were petrified this year."

Hermione looked down and nodded.

"Even still as stone, she solved the riddle of what the monster was though," Harry put in quickly. "Without Hermione, they probably would have closed Hogwarts."

"Oh stop it, Harry." She gave him a small smile which he gave right back.

Harry suddenly felt his cheeks growing very warm and wasn't sure why. He hadn't said or done anything embarrassing. Had he?

"I'm about to head to Flourish and Blotts, Harry. Do you want to come with me and tell me what really happened? I trust the Daily Prophet about as far as I could throw a mountain troll."

He laughed but looked to Andromeda. With a smile, she shooed them away.

"So . . ." Hermione urged as soon as they were inside the bookstore.

"So . . . oh! Right."

They walked through the rows of books as Harry recounted his tale of how he ended up in St. Mungo's and afterwards, with the Tonkses. He described Dora's vivaciousness, Andromeda's motherly kindness and Ted's love of books. Deciding to stop there, he hoped she wouldn't ask what he had been doing the last two days.

"Wow. That's enough excitement for a whole summer even for you, Harry."

"I'd usually be locked in my room for the summer except to do chores."

Her head whipped around so fast, her neck popped. "What did you just say?"

"You're smart, Hermione. You had to know my relatives weren't treating me right." Irritation was lying just beneath the surface, but he wasn't in any danger of losing his temper. He just wanted to know for sure if she hadn't seen the signs.

"I . . . I thought maybe there was something bad at home. But you were so kind and I read a couple books on the subject for you." She let out a short breath. "There should have been signs of abuse. Flinching at physical touch, eating food like you're starving and other things like that."

"I leave that kind of eating to Ron," Harry said, trying to lighten the mood. He was sorry that he had initiated this conversation.

Her eyes welled up with tears, but she refused to let them fall. "Harry, I . . . I really never knew for sure. I'm so sorry that I didn't ask you bluntly about it. It's just . . . you're going to think I'm pathetic or selfish. You were my first friend, and if you didn't want to share, I didn't want to ruin our friendship by accusing your relatives of beating you. I'm so sorry. Please, I'm so very sorry."

Harry wrapped her in a hug. "I forgive you. Don't worry, Hermione."

When they broke apart, he gave her an easy smile. "Come on. I know you didn't come in here to cry. Let's go look at some books."