Chapter 16: A Meeting with Bones
Susan Bones was both excited and nervous. She was excited because her friend, Harry Potter, would actually be coming over to visit. It had only been a week give or take a few days since summer started, and already the person who had made the biggest impact on not just her but all of Hogwarts last year would be coming to her house.
Sure, it was because her aunty wanted to talk to him about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named being alive, but that didn't change the fact that she was going to see him only a week and a half after school had ended. He was even staying over for dinner.
She was also nervous because Harry Potter was coming over for dinner. Harry Potter, the boy who had befriended her and Hannah during the train ride to Hogwarts at the start of the term. Harry Potter, the boy whose knowledge of magic was unparalleled in their year. Harry Potter, who was smart and wise and kind, who had killed a troll in his first year protecting her and her friends, who was unafraid of doing things that went against the flow, who had broken through house barriers and earned the respect of student and teacher alike.
Those weren't the only reasons she was nervous. There was also the fact that she had not had any friends other than Hannah over at her house, ever. Because her aunty was almost always busy with her work, Susan never really got out much, so she never spent much time with other kids. Hannah was the only person her age she spent a considerable amount of time with, and that was because the Abbotts were longtime allies of the Ancient and Most Noble House of Bones.
That is not to say she had only ever spent time with Hannah. There were occasions where she had met with Neville when her aunty would go over to the Longbottom estates for minor politicking and take her with. Their families had run in the same circles for centuries and they tried to maintain those ties.
She had also met with other children from other pureblood families, such as Cormac McGlaggen and Morag MacDougal, but none of them had ever been over to her house for a visit. Ever. Out of all the kids she knew, the only one who had come over, who she had invited over, was Hannah.
And now Harry Potter would be coming over to visit. Harry Potter, her friend and the boy who just so happened to be the Boy-Who-Lived.
So yes, she was nervous. Very nervous. Had been nervous ever since her aunty had told her that Harry was coming over yesterday.
Hundreds of thoughts and questions ran through her mind. All of them coming at the same time, threatening to overload her brain with anxiety. What should she do? How should she act? What should she wear? What would they talk about? Would her aunty hog all of Harry's time? What if he found spending time with her boring? These questions and more consumed her, making her a literal boiling pot of worry and anxiety.
"Are you alright, Susan?"
The sound of her aunty's voice snapped Susan out of her worry long enough to look up and see the woman who had raised her looking at her in concern. She and her aunty were sitting at the breakfast table. Her aunty had apparently finished her English breakfast while Susan had been fretting over today and was now reading the Daily Prophet while drinking a cup of black coffee.
Susan never could understand how her aunty could like coffee so much. It was so bitter.
"I'm fine, aunty," Susan tried to reassure her aunty that there was nothing wrong. She probably shouldn't have bothered. Her aunty always knew when she was lying, and this time was no different.
"It's when you say you're fine that I know you are not fine," the interim Head of the Bones family said in the kind of tone that would have let anyone know this particular situation was not a one time occurrence. And it wasn't. Susan had lost track of the number of times Aunt Amelia had called her bluff like that. "Are you worried about Harry coming over?"
Susan shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She should have known her aunty would figure things out on her own. In a society that was predominantly ruled by men, women do not get far unless they were incredibly gifted and perceptive.
That was why only one woman had risen to a position higher than her aunty. And even to this day, Minister Bagnold's election was suspect of fraud. Though that may have had more to do with how poorly the war against You-Know-Who went when she was in charge rather than because she was a woman.
Of course, there were many pureblood hardliners who said that Minister Bagnold had led the war so poorly because she was a woman. That was the reason very few women held high posts anymore.
"Yes," Susan answered truthfully, knowing better to hide her feelings now that the truth was out, if it had ever been hidden to begin with.
"Well you shouldn't," her aunty answered with the same blunt honesty she was known for in politics, albeit, she probably sounded much kinder now than she ever did when dealing with grubby, greedy politicians. "Harry Potter is your friend. He wouldn't have given you that bracelet otherwise."
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