"Yes."

"What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"You know, having—that, being you? Do you remember it?"

"The memories I have are vague at best and I've been pretty insulated from my fame."

"So you were raised by muggles, too?"

"I was."

"Muggle pals!" he says, offering a fist for a fist bump.

Sarah laughs but returns the gesture.

Ron also blinks at this bizarre display of muggleness. "What are muggles like?"

"It's hard to say muggles are like anything, there's so many of them. That's part of why I laughed."

"...okay, I guess. What about the ones you lived with?"

Sarah sighs, "They are very fearful people, they're afraid of magic and anything else that might shatter their illusion of normality. We aren't close."

"How about you?" he asks Dayo, as the train starts moving.

"It's only Mum, and she's great and I love her very much and she treats me like a real person and listens to me and is great."

"That's good, I'm glad you have that Dayo."

"My mum's nice about that, I guess. But it's kinda hard 'cause—I have five older brothers."

"I can't really imagine what it would be like to have that many siblings. It sounds very busy."

"Yeah. I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left—Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good grades and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

He reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a fat gray rat, which is asleep.

"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff—I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Ron's ears go pink.

"It's hard having the weight of expectations like that. My fame is like that too. Everyone expects me to be some sort of hero, but that isn't what I am. Even if I lived up to their expectations it would be, like you said, just what was expected."

"That must suck. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I'll find my way somehow. I might disappoint people but the only person I need to live my life for is me. You can do that too."

"...huh. I guess."

"It's up to you in the end, who you choose to be."

"Deep."