This story was written for the House Competition by Moonlight Forgotten (Year 3)
Round 9
House: Gryffindor
Position: Year 1
Category: Standard
Prompt: Torrential downpour
Words: 1312
Harry was caught in a torrential downpour at Hogsmeade. He hadn't brought an umbrella or raincoat as he hadn't expected such a storm. Rather than immediately trying to gain shelter, the messy, black-haired boy found himself, oddly, wanting to endure the rain. There was something about it that felt magical. Harry thought how nice it would be to dance in the rain but controlled himself as not to look like a maniac to a passing crowd. Instead, he just stood there, and absent-mindedly observed it.
"Boy, you'll catch a cold out here," Harry heard a voice from behind him.
He turned around to see a man in a raincoat and an umbrella.
"You look familiar," the man began to ponder. "You wouldn't happen to be James and Lily's son, would you?"
Harry felt a leap of pleasure.
"You knew my parents?" Harry inquired.
"Yes, in school. You look so much like your father; that's how I recognized you. And your eyes are your mum's of course," said the man. "You should get under my umbrella."
"Thanks," said Harry.
"Shall we get in the café, so we can chat?" asked the man as he pointed to the Rikers Café on his left.
Harry heartily agreed as he was eager to know more about his parents.
They entered the café and got themselves dried with a drying spell before they sat down at one of the tables and ordered hot chocolate. The man who introduced himself as Robert Hanson was reasonably good looking with wavy, dark blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked to be in his mid to late thirties. Robert broke the ice by congratulating Harry on his defeat of Voldemort.
"So how did you know my parents?" asked Harry.
"I used to be your mother's ex-boyfriend," said Robert said plainly.
"Oh. Umm," Harry paused, it was kind of awkward being face to face with his mother's ex boyfriend.
"We went out for a few months in our fourth year. Your mother was a lovely girl, but we simply grew apart and weren't very compatible in the end. We split on amicable terms and remained friends. I was happy for your mother when she found true love with your father," Robert said. "But I'll be honest with you, Harry, it was far from love at first sight for your parents."
Harry gulped. He already knew this of course, but he yearned for more information. The only information he had, aside from the Pensive scene, were the words of his father's best friends. He did accept their explanation regarding his father and the relationship of his parents for the most part, but he was glad to have a more objective account.
"During their initial years, your father thought your mother was an annoying lecture queen, and he did sort of have a point there." Robert said grinning. "Your mother, on the other hand, thought your father was an arrogant toerag."
This was slightly new to Harry. He didn't know his father had found his mother annoying at first. His parents now started to remind him of Ron and Hermione.
"I'll be honest with you again, Harry. Your mother was quite right in calling your father an arrogant toerag back then. Your father began fancying your mother around fourth year, shortly before your mother and I began our relationship. That's around the time he developed the habits of messing with hair and showing off with his Snitch. Your mother on the other hand couldn't stand him. I was afraid of getting hexed by your father since he had a habit of hexing kids who annoyed him. But surprisingly, he never did. Years later, he admitted to having the urge to jelly-leg jinx me, but he controlled himself because I was a decent person."
Harry grinned as he remembered how he himself had the urge to jelly-leg jinx Dean out of jealousy when he was with Ginny. He was glad to know something more relatable about his father after viewing that horrible Pensive memory.
"I'm sure you're wondering how your mother came around to accepting your father."
Harry nodded with a mixture of eagerness and apprehension. He wondered if Robert's account would be the same or different from Sirius and Remus's account.
"Your mother might have been physically attracted to your father, even back in fourth and fifth year, but she was too sensible to go out with a boy based on shallow reasons. Fifth year and prior, I wouldn't have ever believed she would end up marrying and having a kid with your father. But by sixth year, your father had mellowed down. He wasn't quite a grandstanding show-off anymore. He stopped doing silly things to get your mother's attention. He was no longer arrogant enough to hex people who annoyed him for fun. The way he carried himself was significantly less arrogant and for the love of everything sane, he stopped messing with his hair and showing off with that Snitch." Robert shook his head with laughter.
"He was finally someone I could see hanging out with," Robert continued. "I assume your mother felt the same as she eventually befriended your father in sixth year. Your father, as far as I know, had genuinely wanted to move on from your mother despite harboring feelings for her deep inside. He had probably given up on her ever returning his feelings. But in seventh year, their friendship had blossomed into more and they began going out."
Harry told Robert about the memory he had viewed about his father and the memories about Snape and his mother.
"Ah, yes, Severus Snape. Don't get me wrong, Harry. I never approved of your father's treatment of Severus Snape, but I quite understand why your father hated him. He was hanging out with aspiring Death Eaters to your mother's aversion. He constantly tried to get your father and his friends in trouble. He was into the Dark Arts, adding a layer of creepiness to him, at least to us Gryffindors. He was so jealous of my relationship with your mother that he was occasionally rude to me and constantly glared at me. That creeped me out as I was afraid he would use his dark magic curses on me. His specialty was a spell that slashed you like a knife. Though to be fair, Snape never did attack me either."
"My father and Snape, they continued fighting in seventh year, didn't they?"
"Yes, by then too much had happened between them that neither boy was willing to back down. Their hatred was too intense and being seventeen-year-old boys, neither was mature enough to handle their hatred. I wouldn't say either one of them was more at fault at that point. They were both fighting each other. Snape wanted revenge for your father's previous bullying of him and his jealousy of your father getting your mother. This, along with Snape being obsessed with exposing your father's wrongdoing, in turn provoked your father," Robert explained.
Harry admitted to previously being averse about his father's character.
"Initially, I did sort of dislike your father, Harry, but that dislike gradually turned to a formidable respect once he toned down his arrogance, more so after he chose to fight against You-Know-Who's reign of terror and died trying to protect your mother and you. Regardless of his teenage sins, I think you can without a doubt be proud to call him your father," Robert said reassuringly.
Harry saw that the heavy rain had begun to subside. He felt a new-found peace about his father's memory. He did make peace with his father's bullying past after speaking to Sirius and Remus, and especially after seeing Ron mess with his hair like his father had, but this felt even better. He now had the objective account of his mother's ex-boyfriend who had no need to be biased.