Dot needed very little provocation to start talking about herself, nervous or not. Everyone liked talking about themselves, and she was no exception to the rule; just self-aware enough to realize it. "Oh, normally we would have gone to Hogsmeade Hospital — we live there, in Hogsmeade, but just now we're on holiday," she explained. "Mum thought it would be a lark to get the family together and rent a little cottage on the southern seaside, so we were Dorset. We were meant to be there for three more days, only then this happened with the murtlaps. My whole family is out in the waiting room, I think," she said with a shrug. Her mother had never taken the notion of family loyalty lightly, so Dot doubted that anyone had been allowed to go back to the cottage or their home in Hogsmeade while she was still laid up in the hospital. Her sister was probably having a proper fit.

"The holiday was rather fun up until the murtlaps," she said pleasantly. "I've always liked the seaside, even in January. There's something so nice about seeing the water tumble around all stormy like that. Though I suppose I shouldn't have gone swimming," she reflected. "Even if there hadn't been murtlaps I might have caught my death of cold, as the saying goes."

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