Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I would be SO rich I would not bother writing fanfiction. Plus, what's the point in writing fanfiction if you can write the actual thing and make money off it? If I owned Harry Potter, I'd actually be PUBLISHING what I write.

Summary: "I don't know why I never noticed, but you've always been there. You've always come when I needed you." They were enemies. Then they realized they were similar. Soon they were friends, and then more. Why did they fight? They don't really know. Vague HxD implications. (Part 1 / 2)

Rating: K+

Warnings: Mention of suicide attempt, implications of abuse

Smile

It's been three years now. We've been here for three years—do you believe it?

We didn't see this coming five years ago, did we? Not at all. Then, we were absolutely enemies. We couldn't stand each other. I thought you were too perfect, that it wasn't fair for everyone to love you the way they did. You thought I had everything and I didn't deserve it at all. There wasn't a day that went by that we didn't fight.

Our friends put up with a lot. They had to haul us away from each other sometimes, when we got caught up in the moment and started throwing punches.

Things were so simple then, weren't they? We hated each other, and we were comfortable there. Sure, it felt like life was hard, but we didn't even know what life was then. You didn't know what my world was like, and I'd never understand what you had to go through. But we were so used to it that we didn't know what we were missing.

You made my understanding expand so much when real life hit us that year. I finally started to understand you. I'm still learning, of course, but it was that kick-start that really hit home. It was hard for you, that year. Your home life was in ruins, you had nowhere to go…And I understood that. Because even if I had a home then, I didn't want it.

No one would have.

So you see, it was like we had our eyes shut so tight that we couldn't even see what was right in front of us. We didn't care about what we could see—we just wanted to see what we were used to.

Then I found your sketchbook in the classroom that second month back at school. It became so painfully obvious then, that everything wasn't sunshine and daisies for you. But I was stubborn. Surely you were lying, I thought. Of course you didn't understand. Why would you of all people understand what I understood?

Then after Christmas vacation, when you saw my face and you just pulled me aside and asked if there was anything you could do to help—I couldn't believe it.

Only you could take all those years we spent hating each other, and all those hours we spent taunting each other, and come up with an offer of help.

You let everything rotten between us go as soon as you knew I was falling. You tossed away all the baggage that we had, reached out your hand, and genuinely wanted to help me up. I didn't understand. No one else had helped me—why would you? Why would you even give a damn about me? I certainly had never cared about you. I decided it was a trick. I snubbed you and walked away. Because I didn't trust you.

And that night you found me in the bathroom, the night I lost it and tried to make it end in the most painful way possible. I still don't know what came over me…but you were there. You helped me get up, and you cleaned me up when I said I wouldn't go to the nurse, and you just let me sleep. You were there.

From then on, I trusted you with everything. There was nothing that I wouldn't tell you, and I think, after a while, it went both ways. I played for you, you drew for me, we talked for hours on end when no one knew where we were.

You were so strong—you were the pillar I leaned on when I just couldn't take it any more. You didn't make my problems seem insignificant compared to others and you were always there if I needed to talk, or even if I just needed a hug.

You opened up my world. You really gave me a reason to live when I thought the world hated me. You told me it would be all right when I wanted to give in to despair. You held me when I just wanted to curl up and die. You helped me with everything. No issue was too big or too insignificant for you.

I don't know why I never noticed, but you've always been there. You've always come when I needed you.

You taught me how to smile.

That's why I love you.