Harry stood beside Ron as his two best friends exchanged the vows that would bind them to each other forever. Ron was wearing what was probably his first set of new robes, and Hermione looked dazzling, but what made the couple look so beautiful together was the the love that you could see emanating from them.

And there was Harry, wearing his dress robes, a stupid false grin plastered across his face, standing on the outside of their happy bubble, forced to look in. It was a situation, he realized, that he should have gotten used to long ago.

Pre-wizard Harry standing aside in the kitchen, watching his cousin opening birthday presents while the adoring parents gushed; standing on the Hogwart's staircase, watching his fellow students going back to happy homes for the holidays; after he broke it off with Ginny, watching as Dean picked her up from the Burrow for a night on the town; and a thousand other moments where he caught a glimpse of happiness as if watching through a window. And that was before all the weddings started. First, of course, had been Bill and Fleur, closely followed by Remus and Tonks, then Neville and Luna, Fred and Angelina, George and Katie, and then almost every other couple in the wizarding world who wanted the honor of having Harry Potter, the Conquer, at their wedding. He attended all except for Ginny and Dean's. Typically he viewed the weddings as pleasant occasion to make up for all the funerals, but somehow he could not stand witnessing the girl he loved turn into Mrs. Thomas, bearer of children.

It was these same happy couples that insisted on making him godfather of at least one of their offspring. At first he loved seeing the happy couples with all their babies and toddlers, but then he would just remember the pictures he had of his own parents and the family he had been robbed of. Just like those old photographs, he could do nothing but look at the happiness and wish that he was not standing on the outside, that he could find the way in.

Then, in his mind he was eleven again, standing in front of a huge mirror in an unused classroom, and just as Ron kissed his bride he saw his parents smiling. He remembered a promise made by a little red head. He remembered his godfather offering to take him away on the night of a full moon. Countless promises never fulfilled flooded his mind and he clapped along meaninglessly as the happy couple whisked off down the aisle, husband and wife, complete, and Harry was on the permanent outside.