Title: Whatever Happened to the Teenage Dream?
Author: Stay In School
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other characters appearing in the Harry Potter series. They belong to J.K. Rowling.
Notes: This is totally throwing the "epilogue" out the window and it's un-beta'd. All mistakes are mine.
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Two years ago, Harry Potter married Ginny Weasley.
No one was surprised. They had all seen it coming. It's not as if they were exactly being discreet about it.
They were the perfect match. Meant to be; happily ever after; together forever.
Despite all that, that evening when Ginny came back from her quidditch practice, Harry planned to tell her that he wanted a divorce.
Harry wasn't happy anymore. He realised he didn't love her a month before but who knows how long before that he really stopped loving her. He wonders if Ginny noticed when suddenly his kisses were empty and when they had sex, it was no longer passionate but devoid of love or meaning until they stopped having sex altogether. Harry doubts the change was "suddenly" at all.
He was jealous of his subconscious. It was so much more informed than he was.
Harry poured himself a glass of leftover wine from their honeymoon in hopes of it relaxing his nerves.
It was sweet. He had always thought it was too sweet. He hated it. But Ginny loved it and that was all that mattered at the time.
He hated himself. He wished he could love her. He wanted nothing more than to love her. He wanted everything to be simple and easy for once. But to continue to live the lie would only be damaging to both of them. Especially to Ginny. She wanted a family and to settle down for life. Harry, on the other hand, was ungrounded and didn't even have a job.
He wonders if Ginny still loves him. He doubts it. How could she? He'd be pulling back from the relationship for months whether it had been subconsciously or consciously. There was nothing left but their wedding bands to keep them together.
Mrs. Weasley was going to have a fit. Whether or not she would remain upset was unknown. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. Mr. Weasley would hold no grudge and do his best to understand. He didn't know what Ron would do. He hoped it wouldn't change their friendship. He refused to let it change their friendship. But Ron wasn't particularly predictable when it came to these kinds of things (What kind of thing was thing, anyways?). How the other members of Ginny's family would react to this would remain a mystery until it happened. Harry barely knew them well enough to even guess.
He looked at the clock. It wasn't a fancy clock. Round. Fake gold made of plastic framed it and held the plastic cover in place.
Ginny would be home any moment now.
Harry poured himself another glass of the honeymoon wine and lifted the glass to his mouth to be once again, flooded by the overwhelming and loathed sweetness.
There was barely a glass left in the bottle. He would save it for her. After all, it was just as much hers as his.
He sat in silence for ten minutes. Ginny was never late. Why now?
Twenty minutes.
He contemplated her whereabouts with no avail.
Thirty minutes.
He would have to apologise to her. She deserved better.
Forty minutes.
He hoped his head was together enough properly articulate what he had to say.
Fifty minutes.
At fifty-nine minutes, Harry heard the familiar click of the lock that indicated Ginny's homecoming.
She burst in with a smile on her face that Harry hadn't seen in a long time. Her fiery hair full of life.
And an unusual glow emanating from her skin that he hadn't noticed before.
Despite her beauty, he felt nothing when he looked at her. Harry didn't love her as much as he yearned to or as much has her radiance demanded.
He was about to open his mouth when his action was interrupted by Ginny's yelp of joy before she spoke.
"I'm pregnant!"
The only response Harry could think of was:
"Oh."