Order Only Private Message to Hermione

[alt_cedric]

So this is a bit awkward. I need some advice and I think you might be the best person to ask.

My family acquired a muggleborn girl after Shelley was born. Since I was at Hogwarts at the time, she was just there when I arrived home next. She was introduced to me as Jenni. Last spring watching the littles talk to her was one of the final straws in me realising how messed up the protectorate is. I've been trying to figure out what I really know about her and everything I keep coming up with my parents told me and I don't know if I can trust it. I'm actually not even sure Jenni's her real name. Is it Jennifer? Something else and Mum just picked Jenni out of the air?

I don't know how to approach her or what to say. I don't want to get my family in trouble and draw attention to us by helping her escape, so I don't want to get her hopes up that direction. I also don't want to come across like Jeremy. I'm not interested her that way. I'd like to get to know her a bit and get her to trust me enough that she'll listen when I'm able to tell her I have somewhere for her to run to when the time is right, if she wants. It's like setting up for a Wronski Feint, once I start the dive err conversation when to pull out becomes a question I'll have to be able to answer in a heartbeat before it splatters all over the pitch. She's just a girl in a bad situation, so I can't ignore her and her situation like I used to.

Comments

[alt_hermione]

If you don't want to seem creepy or make her think you're interested, then just talk to her like normal.

But you can't rush it, so it might take a while.

[alt_cedric]

If she was new to the house, it'd be easier. But I've known her for years now, even if it's only been in bits and bobs, a week here, a couple months there. I'm not sure where to start that doesn't look either creepy or seditious. All our interaction before have been purely functional. 'Mum says bring the littles in for washup before dinner.' 'Jaspar ran that way.'

If I ask her 'What's your real name?' she's going to answer 'Jenni' because she has to. Legally, for someone in her situation whatever her masters call her is her 'real' name. All the ways I see that going lead to implications of disloyalty on my part or hers. If I ask her what she would want me to call her, it looks like I'm implying I have a special relationship with her and that only ends in my looking like a creep.

[alt_hermione]

How do you get to know a student who's been at school alongside you for years but you never really talked to before?

[alt_cedric]

I'd probably try to talk about stuff we have in common. She hasn't been to Hogwarts, she can't play quidditch or even go riding. Talking about spells and what it feels like to cast magic would seem to be truly insensitive or sound like a trap. What House are you in? What NEWTS did you take? What do you want to do after school? All out. It all seems to come back to sounding like a pickup line or pointing out the stuff that she can't do.

[alt_hermione]

Life doesn't begin and end at Hogwarts, you know. She comes from somewhere, she had parents of her own, maybe siblings or cousins too. And there were probably things she wanted to do with her life besides be a nanny.

I suppose I'd start by just apologising that in all this time you haven't bothered to ask her about herself. And then ask, if it wouldn't be too painful for her, to tell you her story. What camp did she come from, did she have any brothers and sisters of her own, that kind of thing. (And if she says she'd rather not, or if she looks uncomfortable, back off and apologise for intruding.) Treat her with respect and listen.