A/N: This is my first one shot, so any constructive crtit or comment would be great…
Disclaimer: I forgot this earlier…I don't own this song or Harry Potter, "Photographs" belongs to Nickelback and Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, all characters are JKs, but the idea is mine.
A young man of about 23 sat on the floor of his bedroom. He was surrounded by photographs, some moving, some not, and photo albums that were scattered across the floor. Behind him were various cardboard boxes and trunks stacked atop each other, but the man took no notice. If one were to look closely at this young man, they would see that his unruly black hair, emerald green eyes, and lightening bolt scar, indeed made him Harry James Potter.
And this one Harry James Potter was currently reliving his childhood memories.
Look at this photograph,
Every time I do it makes me laugh,
How did our eyes get so red?
And what the hell is on Joey's head?
Harry grinned at this one particular photograph. It was right after the defeat of Lord Voldemort, before i it /i happened. He sighed when he thought about i it /i but nonetheless focused on the picture. It was a moving one of him and a man of red hair, with a face full of freckles, and anyone who knew Harry Potter, would know that it was his best friend: Ronald Weasley. This photograph was taken right after 7th year, when Voldemort's reign came to an end. The people in the background were all cheering and clapping the two boys on the back, Harry held a bottle of butterbeer, while Ron clinked his glass of firewhiskey to him. Ron was wearing one of Dobby's old tea cozies and was looking particularly inebriated at the moment.
This is where I grew up,
I think the present owner fixed it up,
I never knew we'd ever went without,
The second floor is hard for sneaking out.
He frowned at the next picture he came by; it was one of the rubble that used to be No. 4 Privet Drive. This picture was taken for wizard evidence of Voldemort's destruction. This one was not moving. He looked at it long and hard, remembering where he grew up, and the bad times he had had there, but as well as any good he had managed to come by.
This is where I went to school,
Most of the time I had better things to do,
Criminal record says I broke in twice,
I must've done it half a dozen times.
I wonder if it's too late,
Should I go back and try to graduate?
Life's better now than it was back then,
If I was them I wouldn't let me in…
Harry sifted through the old pictures until he came across one that was taken of the Golden Trio back at the end of 1st year. The three of them were smiling and laughing, arms around each other, and Harry felt his heart ache. He looked at Hogwarts castle in the background. That place was like a home to him. He smiled as he remembered the times that Snape was convinced he had broken into his store-cupboards. He sighed, and grabbed a new photo album to flip through.
Oh no no, oh god I-I.
Every memory of looking out the back door,
I had the photo albums spread out on my bedroom floor,
It's hard to say it, time to say it.
Good-Bye. Good-bye.
Every memory of walking out the front door,
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for,
It's hard to say it, time to say it.
Good-bye. Good-bye.
He looked out of his back window for a moment and sighed. Before turning back to the photo album. This one was labeled "One big happy family: Weasley+Potter+GrangerFriends 4lyfe." this one was put together at the end of 7th year, right before the final battle. He looked at pictures of the Gryffindor team flying around the pitch and sighed, lost in thought.
Remember the old arcade,
Blew every dollar that we ever made,
The cops hated us hanging out,
They say somebody went and burned it down.
He flipped the page and saw a picture of him and Ron at the Three Broomsticks. Ron was complaining wildly about how girls were a waste of time, and Harry would merely grin at him sympathetically, before the whole reel would start all over again. Rosmerta would let them stay in for hours after Dumbledore died, and it was only a matter of time before it was burned to ashes before the Final Battle.
We used to listen to the radio,
And sing along with every song we'd know,
We said someday we'd find out how it feels,
To sing to more than just the steering wheel.
The next picture brought an almost genuine smile to Harry's face. It was one of Ginny and Hermione head banging to a popular Weird Sister's song "Dance like a Hippogriff". They were going wild in their room, jumping on beds and doing air guitar. Ginny had once said that she would love to go into the music business as a career. Harry sighed…she was so close.
Kim's the first girl I kissed,
I was so nervous that I nearly missed,
She's had a couple of kids since then,
I haven't seen her since god knows when.
He flipped over the page and saw a picture of him and Ginny sitting in each other's arms by the big tree in the Hogwarts courtyard. This was taken in Ginny's 6th year, at the beginning. Leaves were just beginning to brown in the picture, and the lake behind them looked gorgeous, with the giant squid waving at the camera every now-and-then. Harry sighed again, he was almost through.
Oh no no, oh god I-I.
Every memory of looking out the back door,
I had the photo albums spread out on my bedroom floor,
It's hard to say it, time to say it.
Good-Bye. Good-bye.
Every memory of walking out the front door,
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for,
It's hard to say it, time to say it.
Good-bye. Good-bye.
He looked out the back window again. It was almost reaching sun-down, and then he would have to leave.
I miss that town,
I miss their faces,
You can't erase,
You can't replace it,
I miss it now,
I can't believe,
So hard to stay,
Too hard to leave it.
He looked at the next photograph. This one was a still shot of his and Ron's new flat together, right before the Final Battle. It was in Gordric's Hollow, where his parent's had once lived. And it was a quiet little town. That's where Harry was now, re-living his memories in a place where he would never come back. Because no matter how hard it was to leave, it was still too hard to stay.
If I could relive those days,
I know the one thing that would never change…
Every memory of looking out the back door,
I had the photo albums spread out on my bedroom floor,
It's hard to say it, time to say it.
Good-Bye. Good-bye.
Every memory of walking out the front door,
I found the photo of the friend that I was looking for,
It's hard to say it, time to say it.
Good-bye. Good-bye
Harry looked out the back window once again, seeing that it was in fact sun-down. He waved his wand which was lying on the floor next to him, and watched as the photos zoomed into one of his trunks. He shrunk everything down to small size, and put them in a small back pack, which he let rest on his back. He looked at the last picture in his hand…
Look at this photograph,
Every time I do it makes me laugh,
Every time I do it makes me…
Harry grinned at the photo. The last ever photo of Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Harry all together. They were all laughing and having a great time. If one looked in the background, he would see Mad-Eye Moody coming with something in his hand. That something would be the note letting them know that there was an attack that they needed to stop. It would be their last mission he said, though at that time they didn't actually believe him…
It was in fact their last mission, as neither Hermione, Ron, nor Ginny survived that attack, along with the rest of the Weasley clan, save for Percy, Aurther, and Bill who had died earlier in the war.
Harry smiled slightly and tucked the photo away. He was off to relive the dreams of his final friend. He had already played seeker for the Cannons for Ron, produced a song with the Weird Sisters for Ginny, and now he was off to teach at Hogwarts for Hermione. It's what they would have wanted.
And with that, Harry Potter, the Chosen One, the boy-who-lived, the boy-who-won, the man-who-conquered, locked up his flat, and closed his windows, glancing out the back door, just one more time…