Gemma had left his side and he guessed she was hugging Mei from the muffled sound of Mei's sobs. He stood there holding the plate of biscuits and feeling like a jackass.
"Sorry," he muttered to Bing.
"No worries, man. It's messed up. It's all messed up."
"Yeah, I guess so."
There was a plinking sound like someone had dropped some beads and a whiff of fish that made Harry wonder if they were having fish for dinner.
"Did someone break a necklace," Harry asked.
"Oh, no, I'll get those." Bing had gone down on the floor and was picking up the rolling beads.
Harry, feeling a bit useless, fished a biscuit off the plate and ate it.
Mmm. A chocolate bourbon.
Soon, Mei's sobs quieted to hiccups. Harry got his staff out his pocket and summoned a clean handkerchief from it without managing to spill the biscuits (he was feeling pretty skilled about that) and offered it to Mei, taking a step toward her wet sounds.
"Oi!" Harry exclaimed as something rolled under his foot and he almost fell, but Bing caught his elbow.
"Oops, missed one," Bing said.
"Thanks, mate."
Harry tried again to hand the handkerchief to Mei.
"Cheers," she replied, sniffling while taking it from him.
"Want to have some tea with us at our table?" Harry invited.
"Sure, I guess," said Mei.
"The charm is Scribunt loqui if you'd like Gemma to be able to understand what you're saying," Harry suggested.
Mei huffed.
"Hey, Mei," Bing said. "I'll help you do it."
Harry repeated it. After many attempts, Harry heard the tattletale crinkling of paper.
Gemma had come back over to him as they worked on the charm, her hand on his arm.
Mei hesitantly greeted Gemma and Harry could sense her hands moving in a signed response. He also heard a little bit of paper flapping by Gemma which he hadn't noticed before.
"Gemma, do you have a charmed bit of paper, too, for your signs?"
She tapped his arm twice, "yes."
"Oh, that's cool." He felt a bit sad, a little left out and then he shook his head to get rid of the feeling.
She tapped his hand and he took her arm and they made their way to the table. Gemma guided Harry's hand to the tabletop and he placed the plate on it. Harry felt for his lunch plate, worried that he'd put the biscuits on top of them accidentally, but couldn't find them.
"Did someone clear our plates?" Gemma tapped twice on his arm.
Bing was moving a chair away so that Mei had a place at the table next to Gemma, and Harry sat on her other side, and Bing next to him.
Harry had a moment of thankfulness that the spilled pitcher earlier had not been hot tea when he took a sip of the tea that Bing had poured out for him.
He became aware that Mei and Gemma were in an intense conversation from Mei's responses. It sounded like Gemma was really telling Mei a lot more than he'd ever known her to say.
Well, probably because our communication is limited to writing in the palm of my hand. It's hard to get into depth when it is so slow, he thought.
"Bing? Can you tell me what Gemma's saying?"
"Sure. She was signing a bit, but I think she's just learning how to sign, because now she's actually just writing on a notepad to Mei. That must be faster," Bing said.
Bing was leaning around Harry, trying to see what Gemma was writing.
"Hey, Mei, Gemma!" Bing interrupted, "Can you sit so that I can see what you're writing? I can read it to Harry."
He turned to Harry, "Let's trade seats, then I can see what Gemma's writing and read it to you."
"Geez, Bing. Why do you have to make everything so complicated?" Mei whinged.
"Come on, Mei. Don't be so difficult. Let's include Harry, too. You know you hate to be left out."
She responded with a harumphing sigh.
Harry was ready to let it go, but he heard Bing stand up, so he pushed back his chair and followed the edge of the table to find Bing's seat as Bing walked behind him and took his seat. Bing helped sort out their tea and plates. Harry moved his fingertips forward on the tablecloth until he located the saucer of his tea cup, then took a sip and waited. He wondered where Mrs. Boot was.
"Bing, is Mrs. Boot at the table," Harry asked.
"No, why?"
"Oh, she just wanted some shortbread. Could you put some on a plate for her?"
"Oh, I think Gemma already did that. There is a plate where she was sitting with the biscuits on it," Bing replied.
"Oh, okay. That's good."
"Okay, Gemma's pointing to spot on the page that she wants me to share with you, Harry," Bing said, his voice directed away from Harry, but loud enough for Harry to hear even over the din of the dining room.
"She was telling Mei about how she was really sick with spattergoit last year and they thought she was going to die, but she pulled through. She missed her first year at Hogwarts because of it. She said at first when she started recovering, she was so out of it that she didn't realize that she couldn't hear anymore or speak… all she did was sleep and she barely ate or drank. I guess she lost a lot of weight. When she did finally feel well enough to notice that she couldn't hear anything at first she was really scared and she tried to hide it from her family. I guess she was afraid that they wouldn't want her anymore if they knew that she couldn't hear or talk on top of being disfigured."
Mei seemed to be comforting Gemma now. Harry wondered if Gemma knew what Mei had said earlier about her face… if she had read Mei's lips. He wondered at Gemma's capacity for forgiveness… What would cross her line?
"But her family figured it out and, of course, they weren't going to kick her out. She and her family have been learning sign language at home with a private tutor, but she was finally well enough to come to the Center for more diverse training—not just sign language, but also to learn other things such as nonverbal spell casting so that she can go to Hogwarts in September."
Harry leaned forward, hoping that Gemma could see that he wanted to speak to her and said, "I'm chuffed you're here now and that you'll be at Hogwarts in the autumn."
He was glad to hear more of her story and was curious about Mei's, but knew how it felt to have people constantly wanting you to recount a dreadful experience. He wondered if this was the time to tell Gemma and Mei about what happened to him.
It might make Gemma not want to go to Hogwarts! A giant serpent roaming the corridors turning students to stone and a mind-controlling diary that almost stole a first-year's soul.
He thought about Hermione—of all people—lying to her parents about what happened because she was afraid they wouldn't let her return. He wondered what she told them about what happened their first year when Professor Quirrell taught the whole year with Voldemort living in the back of his head.
He decided to wait.
Harry nibbled on another biscuit, a shortbread. He slipped one in his pocket for later, for Hedwig. He had put a piece of roll in there, too, earlier.
"Looks like you've got quite the stash of food in your pocket, Potter," Bing teased.
"Oh, er." Harry felt his face grow hot. "It's for my owl, Hedwig."
"Yeah, right," Bing laughed.
"Do you go to Hogwarts, Bing?"
"Yeah, I'll be a sixth year. I'm in Hufflepuff."
"Do you play Quidditch?"
"Yeah, but I'm not on the team. But I saw you play. You're really good," Bing said enthusiastically, but then uttered a heavy, "Oh," and got quiet.
"Yeah," Harry said, addressing the unsaid thing. "It sucks."
He kicked himself for bringing up Quidditch at all.
Mei and Gemma were quiet, too.
"Mei, too," Bing said heavily. "She was really good at Quidditch before… "
"I turned into a fish… " Mei angrily interjected.
That surprised Harry. "Wait—What?"
"Oh, come on! No one told you?" Mei hissed. "That prissy, frizzy-haired know-it-all didn't tell you that I have a fishtail? I can't believe that after the looks she gave me when I accidentally dumped you in the sand. I didn't know that would happen. No one told me!"
Harry noticed that the rest of the dining hall seemed to be quiet as if everyone was listening to Mei ranting.
"No… no one told me," Harry said.