Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter related.
A/N: I kept meaning to post this one-shot but never did until now. I wrote it a while ago, before HBP came out. I figured I might as well post it before the last book comes out. It was inspired by the Lost Prophets song Hello Again, where the first line of this story is from. Enjoy.
Hello Again
It's not the end if you just say hello again...
It had been ten years to the day since the end of the war between Voldemort and the wizarding world. On that ten-year anniversary, it just so happened that a young woman with hair the color of vibrant orange flames was walking along an almost vacant street in London. She was heading home to her empty flat after living a day that felt like it would never end. She wasn't excited to go home and live through another night alone, but it was better than having nowhere to go.
The flame-haired woman strolled along the street, in no hurry to get home, which is why she didn't bother Apparating. She had always preferred to walk to her flat anyway. For a moment the woman stopped her walking and looked up into the sky as it was on the verge of darkness. The stars were beginning to come out from their hiding spots. As her curious eyes stared endlessly into the night, she heard the sound of someone's bulky shoes meeting the pavement nearby. The woman began walking again, this time faster than before.
"Hello," spoke a deep voice from behind her.
The woman's ears caught the simple word and she froze in her tracks. She immediately recognized the man's voice. Fighting the urge to walk away from her past, she slowly turned around and faced the man that she once called her enemy, yet he was the same man that she once loved. Her chocolate colored eyes connected with his silver ones and her heart rate began to rush more rapidly. She had not seen this man since that rainy day ten years ago, and it looked as if time hadn't treated him well. His face had become more rugged and tainted with scars. His clothes were all black, 'like always' thought the woman, and his pale blond hair was the only physical characteristic that stood out.
In that moment that she connected eyes with him, thousands of memories of him and her flashed through her mind. As much as she didn't want to remember them, her memories engulfed her thoughts. She remembered their years at Hogwarts and then the rough times they spent fighting during the war.
After reliving so many memories in a matter of seconds, the woman found her voice and finally replied to the man's greeting. A reply that she'd wanted to say to him for so long and a reply that could renew an old flame.
"Hello again." Those two words slipped from her mouth and seemed to linger in the atmosphere between the two individuals. The word again made it seem as if it were only yesterday when she last saw him; why she felt the need to say that word she had no idea. The woman had spoken the two words in a voice that was barely audible, but she knew that the man had heard her. She had seen a flicker of grief pass through his worn but still young face.
"I can't believe it's been ten years," the woman spoke again while she kept her eyes locked with his. This time her words were more audible.
"Has it been that long?" the man said more as a statement than a question. He paused for a moment and looked as if he wanted to say something else, but all that came out of his mouth was the simple question, "How have you been?" only touching the surface of what he wanted to say to her.
"Fine," she replied instinctively just as if an acquaintance had asked her how her day had been. "And you?" she asked.
"I've survived," the man said with a slight chuckle.
A few odd and silent seconds passed between the two. The woman tried to think of something to talk about but couldn't think of much.
"So… are you married?" she blurted out, and the moment those words came out of her mouth, the woman couldn't believe she had asked that question of all the questions to ask. The question just innocently popped into her head and she figured it never hurt to ask, even if he wasn't wearing a wedding band.
"Way to get to the point," he laughed and replied to her question, "no, I'm not, what about you?" The woman could see the hint of curiosity in the man's eyes as he asked her.
"I'm still single."
"Really? You, single?" He spoke in a teasing tone that the woman remembered from their Hogwarts days. The slight smirk on his pale face brought back another rush of memories. "That's odd since you used to always be dating someone. Of course, I was the best out of all of them, especially over thick-headed Potter."
The woman smiled at the man's remark but didn't say anything in reply. She couldn't believe that she was talking to him again. There was so much she wanted to say to him, but she couldn't find the words. It's funny how she had imagined meeting up with him so many times before in her mind but now when she actually was here with him she could barely talk. She wanted all of the pain she felt to go away, how she wished she could just rewind time and go back to how things used to be with him.
But wait, she was here talking with him, she had a second chance. She needed to snatch that chance before it departed like it once did so many years ago.
As the woman's thoughts invaded her mind, the man stood and stared into her eyes as if he were reading her soul. He had done this so many times before with those cold gray eyes of his; however, now something was different. Now his eyes weren't so cold and distant. For once, in all the years that she had known him, his walls were down. The woman noticed a flicker of hope in his eyes that she had not seen before.
The man took his eyes off her and casually glanced around at the area. His eyes took notice of a small café that was dimly lit but looked to still be open. Years ago he would never have considered eating in a Muggle café much less walk near one, but now he didn't care.
"Are you busy right now?" he asked her breaking the long silence.
"No," she hesitated, "why?"
"How about a snack at that café?"
The woman glanced at the quiet café and turned back toward the man, whose eyes still held the flicker of hope. "A Muggle café?" the woman laughed. "Are you serious? I remember when you wouldn't step near one."
"Times have changed," he said simply while the familiar smirk graced his features once again. No matter how much some things had changed, the man's distinguished smirk had remained the same after so many years.
"I see," she said and then made a decision that would impact her life in more ways than she knew. She answered to his invitation with the simple word, "Sure." This four-letter word had invited the man that had haunted her dreams for so long back into her life.
His silver eyes lit up at her reply and he smiled playfully. "I knew you'd agree," he said and without thinking he took her hand and led her over to the café.
At his cool touch the woman shivered and smiled to herself. The flicker of hope became present in her eyes also. What she had wanted to be real for so long finally looked to be more than just a dream.
In the café, as both the man and woman sat together and talked, they tore through the many layers that each had kept hidden for so long. For hours the two sat in a quiet corner of the café and bore their lives to each other, mending old wounds and creating a new hope between them.
-fin-