When he returned to Ron and Hermione's quarters, Hermione, Luna, and Matthew were nowhere to be seen. Ron and Neville looked up.
"They went to show Matthew some old pictures of us all. We thought it best to not be present during that kind of embarrassment," Ron said.
Neville looked at Harry with slight concern. "You want to play, Harry?"
It was something strange and special that the other four members of the band (except sometimes Ron) always knew when Harry just needed to stop, sit down, and play a song.
"Can we go outside?" Harry asked, looking at the floor. It was a mark of how much Neville and Ron understood that they did not make any remarks about the fact that it was December.
After all three had thick cloaks, and Neville and Harry had their guitars, they stepped through the main doors of Hogwarts to sit on the front steps. The enormous doors behind them stayed open, flooding the dark grass with light from lit torch brackets within. None of them saw the tall shadow that paused at the top of the corridor leading up from the dungeons, having been on his way upstairs but distracted by the sight of the three of them with instruments.
Once they were settled in a slightly deformed circle, each on a different step, Harry started to play. Neville and Ron recognised the song and played right along, Ron tapping the beat on both his knee and the stone step he was sat on. (A/N: Acoustic version of It's Not My Time by 3 Doors Down)
Looking back at the beginning of this
And how life was
Just you and me and loving all of our friends
Living life like an ocean
But now the current's only pulling me down
It's getting harder to breathe
It won't be too long and I'll be going under
Can you save me from this?
Cause it's not my time I'm not going
There's a fear in me it's not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Ooh but I won't go
I look ahead to all the plans that we made
And the dreams that we had
I'm in a world that tries to take them away
Oh but I'm taking them back
Cause all this time I've just been too blind to understand
What should matter to me
My friend this life we live, it's not what we have
It's what we believe
The tall shadow continued to watch, deep in thought.
And it's not my time I'm not going
There's a fear in me but it's not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
But it's not my time I'm not going
There's a will in me and now I know that
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Ooh but I won't go
I won't go
There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see
But it's not my time I'm not going
There's a fear in me it's not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
But it's not my time I'm not going
There's a will in me and now it's gonna show
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Oh
There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see
But I won't go
No I won't go down
Yeah
They sat in silence for a moment, the cold stinging their faces and fingers. Finally, in a quiet voice, Harry said to Ron and Neville, "Thank you."
And the tall shadow receded back down to the dungeons, a strange sense of calm curling around his insides, pondering where the defiant Harry Potter he'd known six years ago had gone.
Somewhere deep in his mind, Severus knew that something bigger than the War had happened to Harry Potter.
What he didn't know, was that it was him.
He had happened to Harry Potter.
