Written for Hogwarts (Challenges and Assignments), Pop Music Chart Day.

Prompt: 90s songs — "I Want It That Way", by Backstreet Boys


My one desire...

All I ever wanted was you. You, with your shining red hair and your sparkling emerald eyes. We first met when we were only children, but my affection and longing for you remained in my shattered heart for many more years.

I remember your beautiful smile, rosy lips stretched across pearly teeth. I remember how you used to criticize women wearing makeup. How you threw your head back and shook your mane of fiery hair when you laughed.

That laugh!

It sounded like the ringing of fairy bells. I could have happily listened to the tinkling sound all day. And the sound was so happy, as if you hadn't a care in the world.

That sound stayed with me until my death.


But we are two worlds apart...

But there was always some sort of wall between us. I was a poor abused boy with no past, no present, and — for all I knew — no future. You were a cheerful girl who had been give anything your little heart could ever want and raised in a loving family with everyone doting on you. You lived in the moment. And you had such a bright future!

I would have given anything to switch lives with you, but the thought always made me unhappy when I realized that then you would be living my life.

I would rather die than force that on you.


Ain't nothin' but a heartache...

My love for you was both a blessing and a curse. I felt so lucky to be your best friend, so special. But at the same time, I had to watch you become closer and closer to others and farther and farther away from me.

And I also had to watch him flirt with you. He knew I loved you. Oh, I knew he knew! And he did everything to make my life miserable.

Through you.


Ain't nothin' but a mistake...

I knew that it was wrong. You would never be with someone like me. You should be with someone like him, as much as it pained me to admit it. You should have been having fun with your other friends, not hanging around me, the Slytherin loser.

I knew what I was. I knew how people talked about me. I knew my infatuation with you was stupid.

But it felt so right.


Now I can see that we've fallen apart...

I hated when you were furious with me. I knew that I deserved it, yes, but it still hurt. I was furious with myself, too. How could I have called you, my best friend — my only friend — that filthy word?

It would remain with me for the rest of my life, rankling in my heart like it had happened yesterday.


You are my fire...

You were the one thing that kept me going. Your face was the one I wished to see when I died. Oh, yes, I knew that I was going to die. I wished it upon myself.

But not until my mission was complete.

I would take down the person who took you from me.

At any cost.


'Cause I want it that way...

My love for you was still as strong when I died as when I first saw you as a girl instead of my best friend. I slumped against the window of the Shrieking Shack and imagined you, as beautiful as ever.

In my arms where you belonged.

I wouldn't have it any other way.