"So why doesn't Hermione want to come over?"
Ron looked startled. Harry didn't think his friend had expected Harry to just ask outright like that. He put down a glass of chilled butterbeer he was drinking and sighed.
Harry waited. He and Ron were sitting on either side of a small table in a sitting room done all in gold, down to the canaries that chirped when the clock sounded the hour. And the Malfoy house-elves had brought them a feast: scones and biscuits and little cakes and butterbeer and tiny lemon pies that could be eaten in one swallow.
Ron hadn't acted like anything was wrong, but for Harry, the chair on the other side of the table ached like a loose tooth.
"This is just what she told me," Ron said at last.
"That's all right."
"She—thinks that you're slipping into trusting the Malfoys too much. She really didn't like that your dad and mum just took you from Hogwarts without letting Dumbledore or anyone else know where you were going." Ron frowned a little and picked up his butterbeer again. "I pointed out they were your parents and they could make that decision, and she said she knew, but it wouldn't have cost them anything to tell the Headmaster."
"Yeah, but they don't trust him."
"Then why do they let you come back to the school? Hermione thinks it would make more sense if they took you somewhere else."
Harry sighed and stared out the window, at an enchanted scene of shining snow and mountains under a dim blue sky. Mother had discussed sending him to Beauxbatons, he knew. If either he or Draco had been an only child, that one of them would probably have gone. But Harry didn't want to leave his friends, and Draco didn't want to leave his brother.
Father simply promised that there would be no need for Harry to fear anything at Hogwarts. His eyes were so sharp and cruel when he spoke those words that Harry just accepted them, and the hand that stroked his hair, and went back to trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer.
"Hermione wants the Malfoys to be logical."
Harry started and returned to the conversation with Ron. "I know, but they aren't."
"She thinks that they shouldn't make exceptions for you just because you're their son. She thinks they shouldn't make exceptions for her and invite a Muggleborn to their house just because she's one of their son's best friends."
Harry nodded, understanding. "She would want to see that Father and Mother changed their minds because of principles. Not people."
"Exactly." Ron squinted at him. "Have you been reading books or something? You sound like Hermione."
Harry laughed despite himself. "It's just something I've been thinking for a while."
"Okay." Ron reached for one of the little cakes. "So she's probably going to be standoffish around you at school for a while. Just so you know."
Harry nodded again. He understood that, too. "But I haven't started believing that purebloods are better than everyone else."
"She thinks you might as well have. Given that you've accepted all the people, she thinks that you've accepted the principles, too."
Harry sighed again. "And if I argue that I haven't, she'll just point to my behavior and says I shouldn't have associated with my parents or Draco."
"Yeah."
Harry shrugged. "I can't exactly turn my back on my parents now. I'm not going to start thinking Dumbledore is great when he didn't notice 'Moody' being a different person all last year and didn't even notice that Black didn't have a trial during the first war. I'll go to the school and I'll speak up against pureblood bigotry when I see it. That's all."
"She might not think that's enough."
Harry leaned back in his chair, staring at the wall. Words from Healer Letham played through his mind, ones she had spoken to him yesterday when Harry shared his worries that he might not be strong enough to act "like a Malfoy" and please his parents this year.
If they love you, they will wait for you. And I think they do, Harry. There are things you could argue you should do to compromise with them, but living through your trauma is not one of those things.
"I'll do the best I can to be a good person and a friend to Hermione," Harry said softly. "If that's not enough for her—if she thinks I should go back to being called Harry Potter and letting Sirius Black into my life or whatever—then it's the end of our friendship."
Ron looked badly surprised. "What?"
"Would you reject your family for Hermione, Ron?"
"Well, no. But my family's not a bunch of raging blood purists."
....
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