"And nowhere in town's any better, come to that." You had to get pretty far away from Hogsmeade to find a winter meal that wasn't half flour and lard. "It's a wasteland." One he expected she'd be escaping, come the holidays. But he let himself think that they would, at least, both be at more liberty to travel ...
"At least the students have the decency to go away, for the most part," he said, as a few who looked not much older than Hogwarts age pushed past on the pavement outside.