Stacked With: Hogwarts
Individual Challenges: In a Flash (N); Gryffindor MC (N); Death's Inevitable Master (Y); Yellow Ribbon (N); Yellow Ribbon Redux (N)
Representations: Harry Potter; Immortality
Prompts: All Night - Walk the Moon (auction); 600 words exactly (Insane Prompts)
Word count: 600
Harry sat on a spire of the roof of what had once been Hogwarts Castle. The ruins below him had been his home at one point, long ago. It was the place he had met his first friends, where he had outlasted the Dark Lord that had been so determined to kill him. His first truly happy memory since his parents died had been created in the castle he sat on.
He twirled the Elder Wand around in his fingers, the wood brushing against the metal of the ring that held the Resurrection Stone as it rolled around. The silky material of the Invisibility Cloak lay across his back, moving with the breeze that buffeted him from all sides. He paid no attention to the wind that was desperately trying to make him fall from his precarious perch.
Instead he stared out across time and saw moments from his youth play out before him. There was Draco Malfoy taking Neville's Remembrall and Harry flying on a broom for the first time. Fluffy growled at him, Ron, and Hermione as they stumbled into the third-floor corridor and he swallowed the Snitch in his first Quidditch game.
Memories replayed themselves as he watched. His time at Hogwarts laid out in the space in front of him. This was how he had spent his time before collecting the three items that cemented his role as Master of Death. It had already been in his blood from the time Death herself had appointed his ancestor a guardian, the Hallows merely affirmed the blessing (or curse) he carried within him.
He smiled softly as Luna appeared in front of him. She was beautiful; she knew what everyone thought of her and yet she carried on without a care. She had never changed for anyone but herself and never forced anyone else to change for her. Harry hadn't realized how much he needed that until she had entered his life.
He watched through the ripples of time as he and Luna lay curled together on a purple beanbag in the Room of Requirement. It had been marvellous just spending time with her after the DA meetings; those moments had been brief breaks from the madness that was happening outside of the room as Umbridge controlled Hogwarts with an iron fist.
He wanted to go home. He wished he could enter the home he had shared with Luna and have her still be there but that was impossible. Even the Master of Death couldn't keep a shade away from the afterlife indefinitely if they didn't want to stay. Harry would never force Luna to stay for him when all their friends and family were waiting where he could not go for many years yet.
So instead he sat upon Hogwarts, his first home, and watched his life with his family. It was something he would never tire of. Here, with the memories and the past surrounding him, he was as close to home as he could get. He had had the best life for a full lifetime, and he would never regret living it to the extent that he had. His problem lay in the fact that his lifetime was much longer than his family's.
His first home was in ruins from disuse and the home he had shared with Luna was held together by preservation charms and a cycle of house-elves. The only anchor he had left was his memories and his past. So even as the wind tried to dislodge him from his seat, he stayed where he was, transfixed by the people he saw.