Scars

Harry Potter

"Why don't you ever cut your hair adequately?" Hermione had asked.

There was a reason for his messy mop of hair, Harry though. It wasn't that it made him look a perfect copy of his father, nor that it gave him some sort of mysterious allure that really only worked because he was the chosen one. It wasn't even that he knew if he really wanted to, he could just make his hair grow back to its raven nest. Harry kept his hair askew and covering his forehead in order to cover that thing he'd had to see every single day of his life.

The scar was a reminder of everything in his life that had gone wrong. That little lightning bolt represented everything Harry never had—a family, a childhood, a normal life as just Harry, not the Boy Who Lived or the Chosen One. Because of this, he kept his scar covered, burying that small reminder under strands upon strands of hair.

"I've never felt like it." Harry had replied, lying through his teeth. Hermione nodded, accepting his answer. Had this been the old Hermione, before the war and the horcruxes and all the rubbish of the war, she would have pursued the subject pressing for Harry to answer precisely, but this Hermione let the subject drop.

But Harry could handle lying to Hermione; he'd done it so many times before it was just too easy.

"Harry." Of course she would send Ginny; in all honesty he should have seen this coming. When Hermione wants to know something she'll get the information some way or another. Merlin knows as hard as he tried, Harry couldn't lie to Ginny of all people.

There was no use keeping it bottled up, Harry figured. "It reminds me, of everything." Recognizing Ginny's look of confusion Harry continued." When I see this, I think of all the rubbish: Voldemort, everyone who died for me. It's a reminder of everything that's gone wrong, how I don't have a family, how-"

"But you do have a family. You have me and Ron and Hermione and my whole bloody family. You also need to stop with thinking you're some high and powerful king because everyone who died in the war didn't do it for you. They died so people like you and me could live together and just be with each other, all have scars, some are useful and some, are reminders. They aren't always bad though." Ginny walked away from Harry leaving him to think.

For the first time, Harry wore his scar with pride and decided that first thing tomorrow he was getting a haircut.