The Wards Don't Lie, and Neither Do We novel · Chapter 12 of 32
Chapter 12: The Long Way Back
The exhibition was held on the village green, and by two o'clock the whole first year had come down the hill to see it.
There were stalls of small magics along three sides, each run by someone's aunt or someone's cousin.
Harry did not know where to look first.
A woman was folding paper birds that flew once round her head and landed in a tin.
A boy of ten was making a spoon sing.
Georgina's father stood by the cider tent in a clean apron.
Harry made for him, because the stone was still on his mind.
"Peverell."
He turned.
Draconia was standing at his elbow with a bag of toffees and a look of great innocence.
"You have a face," she said, "like a man being asked to give a speech."
"I don't have a face like that."
"You do. Everyone has noticed." She held out the bag. "Eat one. It's a village speciality. They call it the Peverell Special."
He took one, and bit it, and nearly lost a tooth.
"What's in it?" he said, through the toffee.
"Mostly sugar, and a little reverence."
She was smiling, he saw.
It was not the small sharp smile she used in the hall.
Her whole face had gone into it, and her eyes most of all, grey-green and bright, with creases at the corners.
He thought that if he looked at her much longer, he would forget what he had meant to do.
"I'll be a minute," said Harry. "I want to ask Georgina's father about the stone."
"Of course," said Draconia.
"Don't go off," said Harry.
"I never go off."
She turned to the nearest stall with her toffees, perfectly composed.
He crossed the green.
The conversation was longer than he had meant, because Georgina's father had a great deal to say about slates and gales and the way the hens had behaved on the night of the wind.
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