Harry ran his hands through his thinning dark hair. The days were getting colder. The chill breeze would be coming through the cloisters in Hogwarts. The late afternoon sun would be bouncing off the lake. He should visit there soon. It had been too long.
Thirty years on and not once had he had any desire to set foot on this street again. And yet here he was.
The pumpkins were all out. Harry smiled to see decorations at number 4 at last. The Dursleys had never really gone for Halloween. Harry supposed now that they were probably worried it would have brought out his true nature or something equally absurd. Dudley and his friends had just used to steal the sweets off any kids that were unlucky enough to have wandered into Privet Drive.
The door of number four opened and a small girl tumbled out. In both hands she clutched a Barbie doll, whose hairdos had been mangled into small bunches and had war paint daubed on their faces, smaller counterparts of their owner, who had dressed herself similarly. She ran onto the front garden and sat herself down in front of the sapling tree that had sprouted since Harry had been gone. The Petunia Dursley would never have had any sort of obstruction hindering her ability to spy on the neighbours. The girl however was completely caught up in her own world. It was clear from the raised voices and ensuing mauling that the dolls were mortal enemies and the standoff finished dramatically when one of them was thrown up into the branches of the tree. The winning doll then proceeded to do a victory dance round the trunk.
Harry smiled into his turned up coat collar. He found himself strolling slowly towards his old home. He could see the hydrangea bushes he'd lain in, in an attempt to overhear any news on Voldemort on the Dursley's TV. It was strange, even the painful memories had some sense of nostalgia for Harry now. The beginning of his life being so full of turmoil and grief had made these past thirty years seem like a dream. It had been hard to get used to, and even now there was a slight sense of the unreal to it all, a kind of emptiness that crept up on him and he would just sit in his darkened study, lost in thought. Ginny would worry, would send one of the kids to go cheer him up, but now the house had emptied of children and Ginny would leave him to his moods. He couldn't tell her what he suspected was the problem. That he really missed those days of common rooms and Great Halls. Of Quidditch matches and Hagrid's hut. If he was really honest with himself, he even missed those truly dark days, when there had been little hope, because even then he had been the one they looked up to, the hero.
Harry was standing slightly behind the tree. The girl was jumping up, trying to dislodge the doll that was dangling from between the amber leaves. She gave him a wary glance, but continued. He reached up easily and brought the doll down to her. She smiled shyly.
"Thanks" she mumbled. Held the dolls in each hand again and hopped from side to side.
"No problem," smiled Harry and went down on his haunches so they were eye level. "Hey, its Hallowe'en tonight, did you know?"
"Yup," she said, slightly defiantly. "See? I'm an warrior girl." She proudly showed off her war paint.
"Well, since its Hallowe'en..." Harry lowered his voice to a whisper. "Want to see a magic trick?"