"Nice necklace," Charlie said amiably to Dudley, who was eating with his head down. A smile spread across his broad, good-natured face. "Did you buy it yourself?"
"No, a girl gave it to me." Dudley glanced at the big, shiny burn scar on Charlie's arm and said a little thickly, "I thought they said in class that Dittany could heal that?"
"It healed, but that doesn't mean I won't get burned again. I probably fix it once a year... when my mum can't stand looking at it anymore and starts nagging me." Charlie shrugged his dark-brown face. "But if a girl's giving you things, she must like you, right?"
"Yeah, she's my biggest fan in class." Dudley spread his thick hands and said rather helplessly, as if he was not especially pleased about it.
Charlie looked puzzled. "What, isn't she cute enough?"
"It's not about whether she's cute..." Dudley scooped up a large chunk of cake with his spoon.
"But you don't look very happy about it." Ginny had clearly noticed the conversation too. Interested in this sort of topic, she suppressed her dislike for the Dursleys, who had bullied Harry, and took the initiative to speak to them for the first time. "So... her family isn't very happy about it? Which Pureblood family is she from?"
"Maybe Malfoy has a sister no one knows about?" Ron guessed as he gnawed on a chicken leg. "Then Lucius and the others definitely wouldn't be happy."
"I'm not happy," Dudley mumbled as he swallowed a big mouthful of cake. "It's not the Malfoys. It's the Macmillans. I think they're Pureblood? But it's got nothing to do with her family... they don't discriminate against people..."
"Oh, then why? If I weren't always studying dragons, having a cute girl like me would be something