As he waited, Harry thought about Hermione. There was no doubt she was very smart—much smarter than him. She was definitely straight-laced, but she seemed so fascinated by his adventures with his friends, even as she scolded him for them, that he figured he could get her to loosen up. And when she’d talked about her life before Hogwarts, she’d never mentioned having any friends—he suspected she’d been as lonely as Ellie and Jack and Mark and he before they’d found each other, maybe even more so.