Oz sneered; an easy, practiced expression. "That's not what society is saying," he said. Maybe a missed strike, because he did not know how much, if at all, she cared about what society was saying. He had always cared, but never in the way people expected him to. He didn't care when what people was saying was wrong, because people were largely stupid; he only cared when what they were saying was glancingly close to the truth, and he tried his best to give them plenty to talk about in other areas so that this never happened. So yes, while it was true that there had been rumors and whispers about Thomasina's fitness, or lack thereof, to be the Minister's wife, he didn't know whether this would matter to her. They were unavoidable, really; anyone married to the Minister of Magic who also worked, who did not delight in hosting parties, who was not the darling of society, would have had all the same things said about them. But maybe she cared; maybe this would make her angry enough to distract her from everything else.

"Is that what this is about?" he asked, as though he did not already know what it was about; as though she had not caught him on the verge of diving through the door to the catwalks in pursuit of a ballerina. "You never wanted to be the Minister's wife, and now you're so self-conscious you can't stand it. Does it just eat you up, having people really pay attention to you for the first time? Knowing that they won't be terribly impressed?"

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