A Blue Umbrella Story:
Harry Potter:
Familiar faces. All contorted into masks of anger, sorrow and hatred. The battle was over. The war was won. But at what cost.
The faces, dark, shadowed. Their eyes follow my every move. Watching me, judging me, fearing me. Except for one pair.
(The once) Great Hall, was now an extended Hospital Wing, teary eyed and sobbing families hunched up in groups, beds occupied by a medley of the living and the dead.
Finding a space on the ground that wasn't occupied by some crying individual. Slumping against a wall feeling the weight of the prophecy being replaced by the weight of discrimination from the entire Wizarding community that had followed him to their deaths.
He caught that one pair of eyes. The one pair that did not show him hatred and anger. It showed concern, and understanding.
Those pair of icy blue eyes. The most beautiful things he had ever seen. It did not matter that they came from an extremely beautiful girl anyway. It was that beacon, those twin beacons that proved that not the ENTIRE of his world hated him.
She waltzed across the room towards him. The crowd parted, not wanting to be near the now disgraced girl.
She sat beside him. Not speaking as they sat. Understanding being the third member of their alliance, silence being the last. Before it was evicted.
"Daphne Greengrass." The young blonde woman said, staring out to the hall and not at the recipient of her words,
"Do I need to introduce myself?" Harry asked, smirking with his new companion. Not needing to look either,
"Guess not." She laughed.
There chuckling was missed by the overwhelming feelings and sounds of sadness and grief.
"What do they hate you for?" Harry asked, looking to his companion, her face was an etched mask of sadness and regret which was curtained by lustrous golden blonde hair. Her blue eyes shimmering with tears,
"Well. I'm a Slytherin. And I didn't fight." She said, shrugging as she teared up, "My family was the Grey faction. It wasn't our war. But my stupid little sister Astoria chose a side."
She wafted a hand in the direction of a line of beds with white drapes on them.
"She thought she was in love. But one things for sure. Draco Malfoy, is incapable of loving anyone." She growled, "He only loves money and well, we weren't lacking that!"
Harry sighed as she spoke,
"you?" she asked, now looking to the former Chosen One and slayer of the Dark Lord,
"They needed me, I've done what I needed to do. They don't have any further use of me." Harry shrugged, "I didn't do it for the Ministry, so they can't take credit. Dumbledore is gone so he can't take credit either. I did it because I had to. For the people I love. And they STILL leave me."
He looked to his two best friends. Ron Weasley, wallowing in grief at Fred's death. The whole Weasley troop making a big show of their anguish, as if it were some kind of soap opera. With Hermione Granger playing the dutiful girlfriend. All forgetting, or ignoring, the fact that they still had one another, and Harry had no one.
"Hmmm. Well. The world is like that." Daphne sighed to her new comrade of sorts, "So what now?"
"We move on."
They spent days like this. By the wall. Talking, laughing, or simply just admiring one another and appreciating the company. When they needed to eat they ate, drink they drunk, sleep they slept and, you get the rest. Their lives orbited around one another and their spots by the wall, the world continued AROUND them, for they now lived in a world of their own. The days that passed were missed by the young couple. The sunlight, moonlight or utter darkness not meaning anything to them. Only the other counting for anything.
Then they were discovered.
It had been 8 days, 8 days of sitting by a wall with another. The moment when the first person looked over was when a certain conversation began, the conversation being spoken in whispers,
"Do you plan on, you know, getting married or anything? When you leave?" Harry asked, shifting when his back became slightly sore,
"If the right person comes along. They'd have to understand though…"
"Understand what?"
"Why. Why I couldn't fight. Why I am so wary of giving y heart to another person. I just…"
"Don't want to end up like Astoria." He completed the sentence for her,
"Exactly. How about you?" she said, scooting closer, their knees touching firmly when she stopped moving.
"I'm exactly like you at that point; they'd have to understand that what I- what we went through in this war. Changed us. Changed me. Completely." Harry said, looking off into space, "I thought Ginny could be that girl, but. Well…"
"She's more fan girl material if you ask me." Daphne said quietly,
"Maybe." Harry said, not thinking about defending his former girlfriend as Daphne brought up that point, "Maybe she isn't right for me. Who would be though?"
His last words were more to himself, but Daphne listened to his micro-monologue and, without thinking, slipped her hand into his. Smiling warmly when he clutched it and squeezed softly. She needn't say a word. They'd come to a mutual understanding of one another, actions speak louder than words. Harry turned and smiled warmly to her and their eyes locked. Icy blue to emerald green. More than understanding
"Harry?" Ron Weasley's voice cut into the moment,
"Harry, dear?" as did Molly Weasley's, "Oh Harry there you are!"
She yanked Harry to his feet and into a rib cracking hug. Which Harry didn't have the energy to return,
"Harry! Where've you been mate?!" Ron roared,
"Right. Here." He said a bit forcefully, he was annoyed, that after all this time they chose THEN to try and rope him back in,
"We've looked everywhere for you!" Ginny popped in as Harry slipped out of Mrs Weasely's arms,
"Sure you did!" He said, "I've been here for days. Just sitting here. And you 'looked everywhere'?!"
"Geez Harry! What's gotten into you?!" Ron snarled, his good mood evaporating as he watched his best friend patronise him and his family. Then he watched a familiar blonde girl stand up and stand beside Harry. Her face void of any emotion as she slipped a hand into his, "Oh. I see. It's the Snake."
"I beg your pardon?" Daphne asked,
"You've bent his mind. Death Eater." Ginny growled,
"Back off! She's not a Death Eater!" Harry snarled at the three of them,
"Come on Harry." Mrs Weasley said, and with much prying and shouting form both parties, Harry and Daphne were separated and he was frog marched away. Calling for her with just as much anguish as she called for him…
The days passed like years with them. Hermione had gone to hug her best friend but he had simply slipped away from her embrace. She knew something was wrong then. Made worse when she saw the three Weasley's follow every step he took and not allow him out of their sights.
She wasn't stupid. She knew he had been happy where he was and had not wanted to return. What had they done to him? She watched as Ron made boisterous comments and accusations under the influence of some wizard liquor he had obtained, how he insulted Harry who sat as far away from them all as the Weasley's would allow. Watch as Ginny physically and verbally threw herself on the evidently and obviously uninterested Harry. What were they doing?
Meet me by the forest…
The note passed to Hermione by an utterly unfamiliar blonde for Harry. She looked ragged and tired. As if she had stayed up for nights on end. Hermione was aware of the feeling herself.
Careful as to not alert the Weasley's, she slipped him the note. Saying it was from 'a wall lingerer'. His face lit up immediately and with some persuasion the pair of them were allowed to leave unescorted from the room (under the knowledge that Hermione and to 'keep an eye' on Harry).
Harry had stayed with that vicious group out of fear. Not fear for him, but for Daphne. He couldn't have the only person in the world who understood him perfectly and had helped him step out from his horrific oppression and depression come under any harm from the drunken Ron Weasley.
The mid-summer air refreshed his lungs as he walked. A spring in his steps as he crested the hill and saw her at the bottom. Twirling strands of her hair in her perfect fingernails. Her face was slightly gaunt and her eyes were red and puffy. But the beacons were there, the two icy globes that lit up in delight when she saw him. Then horror for what was over his shoulder,
"Traitor! Murderer!" Ron Weasley screamed, smashing his half empty Fire whiskey bottle over Harry's head and whipping his wand out and pointing it at his friend, "YOU KILLED FRED! CRUCIO!"
White hot daggers of pain. Slicing through every part of his body. Making him scream, thrash and convulse violently. Before it ceased,
"You killed Fred. Say it!" ron roared, "Fucking say it!"
"I didn't-" Harry began, weak and breathless,
"CRUCIO!"
More unbearable pain. More thrashing and screams for him to stop. Not all made by Harry.
"Ronald, stop! He didn't do it!" Hermione screamed,
"SHUT UP WHORE!" Ron roared and punched Hermione in the nose. Watching it break with a sickening crack, enough to sober him up, "Hermione? Oh god!"
She snatched his wand and ran, Ron ambling after her. Begging for forgiveness. Both leaving Harry.
He felt the grass move under the pressure of her sitting down. He felt her hands in his hair, straightening his glasses as he curled up into a ball.
"I want to leave." Harry cried, sobbing as tears leaked out. "To just go far away."
Daphne stroked his cheeks as he cried. Lifting him up to his knees and engulfing the crying young man into a hug. Both on their knees as Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived, the Chosen One and the Boy who Killed cried into the arms of a girl who he never knew before the war began, or during it,
"It's okay Harry." She said, pulling away for a brief second before pressing her soft red lips to his, closing her eyes in content as she kissed him and he returned her passion, pulling away she draped her arms on his shoulders and looked him in the eyes as she delivered the words that only she could truthfully utter, "I understand."
And the world yet again moved around them, for they were in their own world, exclusively theirs and theirs alone...