"We can’t keep him like that, Harry. That’s what the other side would do. And I don’t want to be like them," Hermione ended softly, and there was a brief silence in their little nook beside the stair. In the dining room and lounge noise and chatter resounded, but Hermione and Harry stood in a little bubble of fraught silence. The moment broke when Harry let out a little puff of breath and scratched at his head, looking an odd mix of rueful and defensive.