This idea has been nagging at me for a while, so I finally sat down and wrote it. Hope you like! (:
It's set sort of sixth year, because Harry is sixteen (: It doesn't follow the HBP storyline, though.
ENJOY.
I also own nothing (:
He'd never tell, but sometimes, on nights when he can't sleep because of the many thoughts running through his head, or because he still feels the prolonged loneliness, aching inside him that not even his best friends can budge…sometimes he visits them. He knows he shouldn't, and he remembers Dumbledore's wise words, but Dumbledore isn't always right, even if Harry liked to think so.
So, sometimes, Harry visited his parents.
As such on this particular night, he's lies with the brightly coloured Gryffindor hangings drawn around his bed (hangings so colourful, but so dim in the dead of night, he thinks) and he listens for the shallow breathing of the four other boys occupying his dorm. When he's sure he can hear four different types of inhaling and exhaling, he slips out from under his hangings, making only the slightest of sounds.
Donning his slippers and draping the inherited invisibility cloak over his burly figure, he makes his way towards the door, and as he clambers down the staircase oh so quietly he performs the lumos charm to guide his way, the marauders map tucked securely under his arm.
The light from his wand tip assures him that the path is clear, and he does not trip or stumble on the way to the portrait hole. He glides through, clear of all obstacles. If a single soul other than he was awake at that precise moment in time, it would appear that the invisible man was opening doors and making slight a slight breeze on your face, as he rushes past, desperate to see his parents again.
He clears the staircase as quietly he can, and with a hushed whisper of 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good' checks his father's map. The coast is clear, and with this news secured firmly in this mind, the sixteen year old wizard breaks into a run. The invisibility cloak shows flashes of ankle as he runs, but he does not trip or make much noise, and to him the minor things do not matter. He has one focus, one aim, one objective, and that is to reach the un-used classroom where his Mother and Father would be waiting.
He un-latches the door quickly, and disappears inside. His breathing is heavy as he yanks off the invisibility cloak and makes his way over to the place his parents are sure to be standing.
He presses his hand up against the cool glass, which should be reflecting his features, his round, youthful face, his glasses and black hair. The only features he recognises in the mirror are his eyes, and he isn't the one to which they belong to.
"Hello Mum" he says, his hand still pressed against the surface of the mirror. Lily, stuck youthful and lovely as ever in her early twenties, smiles back, and his heart fills with warmth.
Sometimes it is like this, sometimes his Dad doesn't visit. Perhaps on nights when he is most yearning to tell his Mum things. He babbles endlessly about Quidditch and school and Ron and Hermione to her, taking a seat on the cool stone floor and talking whilst looking up at her lovely face and vibrant red curls. He likes to imagine she's listening, so he talks early into the morning, till light streams through the disused, dirty windows. He talks about everything he can think of, besides the bad things, because he doesn't want to concentrate on the bad things whilst she is around, and Lily stays there the whole night.
His eyes begin to droop as it turns six in the morning, and he clings to the silky fabric of the invisibility cloak, still halfway through his story about Ron and Hermione's latest banter. He feels himself slipping into unconsciousness, but as his head starts to droop, such as his eyes were doing, he hears his name.
"Mum?" he asks, shooting up. The image of his Mother is still present, but her face stays smiling and her mouth silent. His eyebrows furrow in confusion, until he turns around.
Ginny is standing there, matching his look of confusion. She then smiles at Harry, a faint blush creeping up on her cheeks as she does so.
"Hello, Ron woke up and you weren't there… Hermione sent me to look for you" she explains, wringing her hands together nervously. He gives her a reassuring smile, but he also wonders what she's doing up so early, he questions whether Hermione really sent her. He beams at her anyway.
Her brown eyes slide past Harry's sleep deprived figure, and to the mirror, which for Ginny, held a completely different image, a different version of her hearts desire to which Harry viewed. Harry steps in her line of vision, feeling that she doesn't need to become obsessed with the mirror. Sweet Ginny doesn't need to spend countless hours pouring over lost hopes and dreams; even if it was too late for him.
"Are you coming up to the common room?" she asks eventually, to which he replies with a nod. She smiles and slips outside, leaving Harry to pick up his things and say goodbye to his Mother.
Lily's face is full of knowing, and concern for her son as he whispers his goodbyes. He knows Ginny is waiting, so he gives his Mother one last wave, and disappears, but not before whispering one last message….
"That's the girl I've been telling you about."
