Naturally Shirley had known, as they slid stock words and phrases back and forth between them like beads on an abacus, that Howard must be as brimful of ecstasy as she was; but to express these feelings out loud, when the news of death was still fresh in the air, would have been tantamount to dancing naked and shrieking obscenities, and Howard and Shirley were clothed, always, in an invisible layer of decorum that they never laid aside.

I'm a very distracted person.

She had a way of seeing the beauty in others, even, and perhaps most especially, when that person couldn't see it in themselves.

Look...at...me..." he whispered. The green eyes found the black, but after a second, something in the depths of the dark pair seemed to vanish, leaving them fixed, blank, and empty. The hand holding Harry thudded to the floor, and Snape moved no more.

Like the fact that the person Sirius cared for the most about in the world was you," said Dumbledore quietly.

How’s Norbert doin’?” Norbert?” Charlie laughed. “The Norwegian Ridgeback? We call her Norberta now.” Wha—Norbert’s a girl?

Are — you — insane?” said Hermione in a hushed voice. 'I don't think so,' said Harry, shrugging.