He walked down the aisle between rows of empty benches. Deciding upon one, he sat down and looked around. The stone walls and high ceiling coupled with a complete absence of people and any kind of sound gave the place an eerie sort of feeling.
Harry didn't mind the silence, he welcomed it. Silence was his constant companion for the first eleven years of his life. His relatives most often treated him like he didn't exist, locking him in a cupboard and maybe hoping that if he was out of their sight, everything would go back to how it used to be, they would be a normal family again…
Normal. Harry chuckled mirthlessly, the sound echoing around him. He no longer pretended to be normal, and how could he, when every single event in his life was anything but. There was a time when he would have given anything just to be normal, for them, to have even a smallest bit of affection they always showered Dudley with offered to him… But his dreams of a loving family crashed and burned around him, like everything else. Harry sometimes wondered if he was cursed. He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. No, he wasn't being bitter, just realistic. When your life is marred by sadness, hate and tragedy, bitterness is something that slowly loses its appeal. Who would want to be bitter all the time?
Now anger, anger Harry had plenty of. He was angry at Voldemort for making him an orphan, angry at the Ministry for imprisoning his innocent godfather, at Dumbledore for leaving him with the Dursleys and making him go back every summer, and at Dursleys, for… Well, everything. But most of all, Harry was angry at him, for leaving him alone in all of this…
Harry felt a sharp pain in his chest thinking about it, and for a moment he forgot to breathe…
"You deserve love, Harry, more than anyone else, and if you will allow it I will spend my life trying to prove it to you…"
A tear slid down his cheek as he struggled to breathe around the overwhelming grief that was crushing him more and more with each passing day. He didn't think it would ever get better, easier to deal with… And yet, all he wanted was a moment of peace, of rest, so he could forget everything. The darkness that he could feel settling over Britain, the nightmares that he couldn't get rid of, the surprised look in his eyes just before…
"You can do this, I know you can. We'll do it together. I know you, Harry, like no one else, and I believe in you…"
Harry forcefully shook his head, as if trying to make the memories disappear. Just a moment of peace, that was all he was asking. That is why he came here, anyway. Didn't they say that people found comfort in places like this? He wasn't looking for answers, he knew that none would help. But some comfort, some temporary semblance of peace…
Didn't he deserve at least that?