You people probably think I'm crazy to be writing another one. But I really really wanted to do it! The plot bunnies are irresistible!
Together All These Years
Acte 1: Prolouge
Three Years After Harry Defeated Voldemort...
"Harry, are you alright?" asked Ginny, my wife of a year. I sighed.
"I'm okay, Gin. I really don't want to go to this reunion—after all, the only person from primary school who will recognize me is probably Dudley—I suppose we'll have a laugh about it when we get home. It might even get my mind off of everyone we lost . . . I shouldn't think about it now, but still."
"They died nobly," she told me solemnly.
"That doesn't mean that they deserved to die at all," I said quietly.
"No one does—except maybe Voldemort himself—so just calm down. They wouldn't want you beating yourself up over them after all this time," she kissed my cheek and I smiled. She was right.
"Well, I'd better get ready then." Soon enough we were on our way, me in a white dress shirt, plain black pants, and wearing contacts for the occasion, and Ginny in a pretty mint-colored summer dress. We drove up to the school in my car—a nice one that I got a few months ago. It was conspicuously different from the other cars in the parking lot, as the others were definitely not new or very expensive. We came in to the entrance, where my first grade teacher was shaking hands and handing out nametags.
"Hello, sir, and welcome back. I don't believe I recognize you," she said to me with a warm smile. In the gray business suit she wore, it wasn't hard to see that this was the same woman who had supervised recess and turned her head when Dudley and his gang beat me up. So I just smiled back.
"Hello, Mrs. Favers. I'm Harry Potter." She looked taken aback at the sight of me. Obviously, I was not the scrawny ten-year-old she once knew. Nor was I a twenty-year-old replica of said ten-year-old. I had grown out of the scrawny stage a long time ago—probably fifth year. Ginny and I walked in with the little nametags stuck on us. I had a small smirk of satisfaction to see Ginny Potter on hers.
We sat by Dudley and his fiancée at one of the tables in the gym. There was food and drinks on the side, but we just talked. Did I mention that Dudley had been dating Padma Patil herself?
"Hello, Padma, Big D. How are things?" I smiled. They both responded that they were well, and we talked for a little while about what's happened since we last saw one another. Dudley and I were on much better terms.
"Remember Piers? That little rat-faced kid that followed me around all the time?" he asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"There he is, with his wife. They were the ones who funded this little event," he explained. I looked over to find the rat-faced man and a woman that bore a striking resemblance to Aunt Petunia.
"Hello, everyone," announced Mrs. Favers on the microphone. She was now onstage.
"We will now show a video of your class and some of the best memories. Also, we would like to have people come up and explain what has happened since we last saw you all. Piers Polkeiss volunteered to be the first." The video was of the kids—mostly everyone else—playing around at recess. There was only one picture of me on my own, sitting on the swing in the park. Otherwise, I was in the background or being teased. But on the picture of me from the yearbook, everyone looked around, confused.
"I haven't seen Potter all night," said Piers to begin his speech, "So I'd appreciate if he'd come up here sometime after me. But anyway, I'd like to say that though the years have passed, I'm lucky to have known you all, and I hope we can keep in touch, if only for old times' sake." There were a few awww sounds from some of the prissier girls. Ginny and Padma looked like they were ready to barf. I watched Elizabeth Hansen, a girl who now reminded me of Bellatrix LeStrange if she'd been muggle, go up.
"Thank you, Piers. As I'm sure you can all recall, I had been one of the most flirtatious five year olds at this school. I recall being the one to push many a boy into the mud after it rained—and getting into mudball fights when the snow had just melted and we didn't know any better. I can assure all of the men here that I still play just as dirty," she giggled. Ginny looked ready to take the woman's head off. I just smiled at her and reassured her that I liked that woman about as much as I had liked Bellatrix herself.
I decided then to go up. Or rather, Ginny threatened me with a Bat Bogey hex if I didn't. There were murmurs that were not well-hidden. I heard a vast majority of them.
"Who is he?"
"Man, he's hot!"
"Shut up you idiots, and he'll tell us who he is," hissed another. I smiled in the general direction of that person. I could practically hear them swooning, and Ginny giving them a death glare.
"Hello everyone. I can see things have changed a lot since I left—well, at least, I think the entire place has shrunk. Either that or I'm not a midget anymore," I said. Some laughter.
"But in any case, it hasn't really changed at all. I recognize most everyone here from back when I was a midget, and I can tell you, I'm definitely not the same person I was. Back then, I had no clue as to what I was going to do when I was older, and I never would have guessed what I'd be doing when I turned eleven. I ended up going to a school that's in Scotland on a full-ride scholarship. I learned so much there that I never would have known . . . I grew up there with fantastic friends. Little did I know, getting to the very first train, that the little redhead girl holding her mother's hand would one day be my wife. I love you, Ginny! And if someone had told me that I'd be here tonight, on good terms with my cousin no less, back then, I would have said they were barmy. Or drinking. But here I am—Harry James Potter." And all the whispering began. I just smiled and sat down next to Ginny again.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that it had been fun to mess with the minds of all my former classmates, I was painfully brought back to those days. I hadn't known a thing then but work, humiliation, and often pain. That was when I hadn't known a thing about my family, where I came from. And despite the fact that I knew they were in a better place, I still missed them. Getting home from the reunion, I ruefully wondered if I should have taken the train at King's Cross, just to see them again. Ginny obviously noticed my depression.
"Harry?" she asked as we got dinner together.
"Yes, Gin?"
"I got an owl from Hermione a minute ago—while you were changing out of your dress clothes. It said to come meet them tomorrow at noon, at the Leaky Cauldron. What do you say?"
"It'd be nice to see them," I said, draining the water from the pasta. None of the food at the reunion had seemed edible. That night, a dream I'd had a million times before invaded my mind—mum screaming, a green light, and a high, cold laugh . . . I hadn't had one of those since the battle. Only this dream continued. The graveyard, with Cedric dead at my side, as I was about to be slaughtered. The laugh echoed again, only now it led to the veil, and Sirius falling in what seemed to be slow motion through it. And on the tower, I shuddered inwardly, knowing full well what had come there. This part wasn't as bad as the others, because I'd known already that this was how he chose to die. But worst of all was the battle. I stood frozen and invisible to the figures falling at my feet. Mad-Eye, Dobby, Fred, Tonks, Remus, and so many others were lying before me, staring blindly up at the sky where the Dark Mark smoked into existence. And the laugh repeated, only taking words with it: He was killed, running to save his own life while you laid down yours for him. I woke up in a cold sweat, sunlight streaming through the windows, the laugh like a knife scraping across ice still ringing in my ears.
"Harry?" Ginny asked next to me.
"Huh? Oh . . . sorry. Nightmare. That hasn't happened in a while." She sighed.
"Maybe that reunion was a bad idea."
"No, it wasn't—I had a good time, I can't deny that. I'm just remembering old things, I suppose . . . maybe seeing Ron and Hermione will do me good," I said.
Had I known what I was going to do then, I wouldn't have said maybe. And I wouldn't have taken so much time getting breakfast.
Well, see you guys later. I mean waaay later. One week of school has already made me exhausted. Farenheit 451 is a weird book I have to read for English... anyways, I'll update when possible. Bye!