"...Why's that a question?" he asks, blinking.

"I want to know. I don't know how I'd do it, especially if I was littler than I am now and didn't have my library of doggerel poems."

"I just... did stuff," he says. "I stole a lot. Sometimes somebody'd take me in for a while, but if they started talking about looking for my parents I'd skip town."

"What happened to your mom, anyway?" He doesn't seem offended by the questions, and even if he were she's never been good at repressing curiosity.

He shrugs. "I didn't stick around to find out."

"Was she awful too?"

"Nah," he says, shrugging again, "she was just... she didn't help, you know?"

Bella nods.

"So I don't care about her much. And I don't ever wanna go back."

"What do you do over summers?"

"Stay here. With the house-elves. They kinda tried to find me some fake parents but nobody wanted the job, and I like it here, and the elves keep me outta trouble."

"What do the elves do summers, when there's so many fewer people around?"

"I dunno what they usually do, but this summer they taught me to cook a bunch of stuff!"

"I only know how to cook a little. And only the Muggle way, I wouldn't even be able to do an omelet in a magic kitchen."

"I have to do a lot of stuff the Muggle way anyway because otherwise things catch fire," he admits. "That's why I usually just wash dishes when they're making something important."

"Aren't there, like, magic appliances that you wouldn't have to cast spells to use? Or do you catch things on fire even when you wand-tap them?"

"I lit up my doorknob once," he says. "The new one doesn't lock like that."

"Pfffft. Wow. At least they're making some accommodations?" says Bella.

"Yeah," he snorts, "only so I don't burn the place down."

"Place does fail fire code," snorts Bella. "I suppose if I told my parents about any of your stuff and they complained they'd get ignored because Muggles?"

"Probably, yeah," he says. "You can if you want, but I don't think it'd help, and somebody might decide to wipe 'em if they cause too much trouble."

"...Wipe them?"

"Erase their memories. That's what magic people do when Muggles find out too much about wizard stuff," he explains. "If they have magic family or friends they're mostly allowed, but if they get pushy or try to go public..." He spreads his hands.

"Works on anybody."