(This scene occurs within Chapter 28 above — the Flourish and Blotts confrontation is the chapter's climax. See above.)
[Author's note: Chapters 28 and 29 cover the same scene in the source material — the Diagon Alley bookshop incident. The punch and its aftermath are written fully in Chapter 28 above. Chapter 29 continues from the aftermath below.]
Kevin sat on the Burrow's back step that evening while everyone else was still inside, the garden going dark around him, the chickens settled for the night.
He heard the door.
Hermione sat down beside him without asking. She had the pink bracelet on her wrist and it caught what was left of the light.
"You hit him very hard," she said.
"I pulled it," Kevin said.
"I know. That's what worries me."
He looked at her.
"He's going to remember you," she said. "He looked at you and he filed you somewhere. And people who get filed by people like that — " She stopped. "I don't want you on Lucius Malfoy's list."
"I'm probably already on it," Kevin said. "Better on it for the right reason."
"That's not reassuring."
"It's true, though."
She was quiet for a moment. The bracelet glowed faintly when she pressed a little magic into it, and the answering glow from his responded. She watched them pulse at each other.
"Harry asked me," she said, "if you were all right. After Quirrell. He said you seemed — different. Quieter. For a while."
"I was processing," Kevin said.
"Were you actually?"
"Mostly."
She leaned against him. Her shoulder found his with the ease of long habit.
"You can tell me," she said. "If something's wrong. You don't always have to be fine."
Kevin looked at the garden.
"I know," he said. "I know I can."
She pressed the bracelet against his arm. The glow connected them, warm and specific and entirely real.
"Good," she said.
They sat there until the stars came out, and then Mrs. Weasley called them in for tea, and they went.