Vox Corpis [Harmione]

Chapter 54

The Great Hall was scantly populated with fellow students tucking into breakfast, no more than as many might be found using the Great Hall as a study hall during exams, but it was more people than Hermione and Harry had seen in the castle since their return yesterday evening. It was a bit refreshing to see other people; Hogwarts took on the aura of horribly tomb-like and glum when it was empty. No one was wearing their school robes, though a few of the pure-blood young wizards and witches wore other fashions of robes, what no doubt constituted regular attire in their homes.

The Gryffindor table was sufficiently bare that Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were able to find a place well away from anyone else so they might talk. While they filled their plates Hermione was the first to ask their redheaded comrades, "What are you two doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you still be at the Burrow with your family celebrating?"

Ron nodded and spoke around a mouthful of food, "Wu wure." He stopped to forcefully swallow his food and resumed, his eyes shifting to Harry in the process, "When your aunt and uncle's house was attacked some folks at the ministry contacted Dad. Plenty of people he works with at the ministry know you're close to our family so they were good enough to floo us as soon as they knew it was something to do with you."

Harry was eating heartily during the telling but he paused to nod for Ron to continue.

But it was Ginny who spoke next. "Mum was going spare. I don't know why, she knew you weren't at the Dursleys' for Christmas, we'd told her you'd gone off with Hermione, but she sent Dad right off to the ministry to keep his finger on things. Our whole Christmas day was Dad popping in and out giving us the latest reports on what was going on."

Harry frowned at that. Hermione could practically hear him thinking that he'd ruined two family Christmases, even if it was through absolutely no fault of his own. She didn't care for his feeling guilty for something Voldemort did (when Harry could have done nothing to prevent it), but she didn't think a lecture on his tendency to shoulder blame was appropriate at the moment. Instead, she asked Ginny, "Does the ministry know anything more about the attack? When we were at Privet Drive the Aurors on the scene didn't seem to have any real leads on finding the Death Eaters that did it."

Ron's eyes widened and his fork froze halfway to his mouth. "You two actually went there? You saw the house and everything?"

Harry nodded as he set down his glass of pumpkin juice. "Yeah... it was pretty bad."

Hermione winced. He wasn't merely talking about the state of the house. She touched his arm supportively and did all she could to draw the attention back to her. "Dumbledore showed up at my grandmother's on Christmas morning and told us about the attack. Harry insisted that he go see his aunt and uncle before coming back to Hogwarts."

Ron grimaced. "Ow. I can't imagine that went well."

Harry shook his head. "I've finally been disowned."

"Oh... I'm sorry, Harry," Ginny said.

"It's not that big a deal; they've wanted me out of their lives permanently from the day I was left on their doorstep. Ironically, it would have been better for them if they had gotten rid of me. Would have saved them and me loads of grief. And Dudley would still be alive." Harry stared down at his plate.

Ginny narrowed her eyes thoughtfully at Harry. "Did you get that cut on your lip getting disowned?"

Harry touched his fingers to the healing wound (almost completely healed now thanks to Madam Pomfrey's expert tending) at the mention of it, and he made a queer face. He didn't relish discussing how the Dursleys abused him. In fact, he tacitly avoided it. "Yeah," was all he said in answer to Ginny's question. His tone stated clearly that he would not elaborate on the incident.