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"You didn't tell me the ghosts were so friendly," Albus Severus said through a mouthful of Christmas turkey. He had to repeat himself over the din of Christmas dinner at Grandmum and Granddad Weasley's.
"They are?" Harry said, surprised. Nick was nice enough, but with Al in Slytherin... surely he didn't mean... "The Baron's friendly?"
"No, not him," Al said, rolling his eyes as if to say 'please stop being so thick and embarrassing me dad'. James sniggered and threw a pea at Hugo.
"If the Baron's friendly, I'm Helga Hufflepuff," James said. "Should've got Gryffindor, Nick's a riot." He poked Al with his fork as he said this. Harry wondered if James had been giving Al more of a hard time about Slytherin than either boy let on.
"Maybe I didn't want you ordering me about every day till you leave school," Al said, poking James back with his own fork.
"Ow! Mum--" James cut short at Ginny's disbelieving look. "Doesn't matter anyway," he muttered. "We've got Scorpius, and he's shaping up to be a right flash flyer. Probably make seeker after Jones leaves next year."
Harry glanced at Ron, who was choking on a bit of potato. Their eyes met, and they both burst out laughing.
"What?" James said. "What did I say? Al's the one hanging around with ghosts."
"Yeah, go on Al, tell us about this friendly ghost," Harry said, still chuckling at the thought of a Malfoy in Gryffindor. "It's not Myrtle, is it?"
"No, all she does is spy on people in bathrooms," Al said. "He's really old, though. He said he knew Dumbledore and Snape!"
Harry suppressed a smile at this indication of age. "Well, how is he friendly?"
"Oh, he knows all sorts of stuff about Hogwarts, like secret passageways and, uh, other things... to help us get to class faster and stuff." Al glanced at Harry.
"I'm sure you use secret passageways to get to class faster," Ginny said with a grin. "I'm not sure I like some strange ghost telling my son to go down secret passageways."
"But he said he knows you, too mum!" Albus said. "He's not strange, he's nice!"
"He knows me?" Ginny said. All eyes at the table made a show of not looking at George.
Harry cleared his throat. "So what's this ghost's name, Al?"
Al chewed and swallowed his bite of food, oblivious to the subtle rise in tension amongst the adults. "Tom."