"Hey Lissie!" Gwynn said. The real Felicity Meristem had long brown hair and bright blue eyes. She was very pretty. They ate lunch at a small café in the heart of Manhattan. IT was very nice. They talked the entire time. Gwynn smiled. She loved Lissie so very much and felt so guilty about using her name. Oh well, she thought.
"Someone asked about you on Saturday," she said.
"Really? Who?" Gwynn asked curiously.
"A guy was bringing something more for me to read (Lissie is a publisher) and he saw the picture of you I have on my desk. He was very handsome and asked your name."
"Did you tell it to him?" Gwynn asked nervously. She didn't want to be stalked.
"Just first name. You should be flattered. Actually I have guys asking about you all the time. You're a very hot topic in the writing world, Gwynn." Gwynn felt her face blush and she playfully hit Lissie on the arm.
"You are too much. Guys are asking about you too. Just all the guys I work with are totally nerdy and still play video games, so I don't think you'd be interested." Gwynn smiled.
"How old are they?" Lissie asked in disgust.
"They range, from about thirty to my dad's age." They both started laughing hard. Lissie always made everything better.
It was Monday already. James, no Harry, was already there. He smiled at her.
"Hey Gwynn, how's it going?" he said casually.
"Oh, everything's fine…" she trailed off. He called her Gwynn. How did he know? Oh, stupid her, he was the one who asked about Lissie about her. Stupid Gwynn. SO much for being one step ahead of him.
"Meeting the real Felicity Meristem was kind of a red flag that you've been lying to me." He commented coldly. His eyes narrowed. "What else have you lied to me about?" he asked.
"Look who's talking Harry." She said angrily. His eyes widened. "Yeah, I do my research too."
"How much do you know about me?" he asked meekly.
"I know your name is Harry Potter, and that you didn't go to the Wiltshire Academy for Young Boys. In fact, no boarding school in London has ever heard of you. No one has heard of you. Who are you Harry?"
"Well, who are you Gwynn?" he asked. "You know, I think we need to start over. My name is Harry Potter. And you are?"
"Gwyneth Amblers. I'm a divorced twenty four year old Stamford graduate with a major in computer science and a minor in drama. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up there." She said. "Your turn."
"I'm a once engaged twenty one year old. I was born in England to Lily and James Potter, who died in a car crash when I was a baby. I was raised by my Aunt and Uncle in Surrey, then I went of to a private boarding school in Scotland. I didn't go to college, and I chose writing because it was something I could do. "Harry said. "Anything else?"
"My best friend in the world is Felicity Meristem, we met when we were eight, and have been best friends ever since. I made up her nickname Lissie because I thought it was cute. It kind of stuck. I really do have two sisters, Grace and Catherine, ages twenty and nineteen. Grace is in England studying at Oxford University, and Catherine is at Harvard. I would have gone to Harvard too but we then couldn't afford it." Gwynn was relieved to get everything out. "Anything to add Harry?"
"No, that's about it," he said. "What about your ex-husband?" he asked,
"If I tell you about him you get to tell me about your fiancee."
"Agreed," Harry said. "But you go first."
"OK. Listen, this is hard, because the only other person who knows all this is Lissie. Even my sisters don't know everything." She said.
"OK. I'll be nice," he said.
"When I was a sophomore in high school, I started dating Charles. We were friends at first, so we got along well. We dated all through high school and I really loved him. He asked me to marry him one day our senior year but I turned him down. He was going to Emory, a local school, that I couldn't afford. If I stayed I would go to Georgia State, but I would get a better opportunity at Stamford. It hurt like hell, but I turned him down. I put my career first. My dad was in computer science and I knew it well, so I decided to go into it. I wanted to be an actress, but it wasn't practical."
"Who cares about practical? My entire life hasn't been practical," Harry asked.
"I care about it. I didn't want to go to Hollywood and become an actress and figure out I wasn't any good. So I went to Stamford. I still was really healing from Charles. Then I started to date Rob. I skipped two years in college, and he was a junior like me, but he was two years older than me. Rob was really cool and handsome, I often wondered what he saw in me. We started dating. One night we were fighting and he slapped me. I should have left then, but I didn't. I don't know why."
"I'm sorry," Harry said. He was starting to see where Gwynn's story was going.
"It's not your fault," she said with a smile. "It was mine. I married the guy about six months before we graduated. I was still nineteen. We moved to a small apartment right off campus. I knew after three months of marriage that this wasn't going to work. We were so different, we fought about everything, and on our worse fights he would hit me. I guess he saw where are marriage was going, and he started drinking. When he was drunk he was awful. Most of the time I hid in my room and locked the door. I remember one night, about five months into our marriage, he came home so drunk. I was making dinner in the kitchen. He was so pissed about something. He started yelling and screaming and throwing things at me. Then he took a butcher knife from the kitchen and went after me with it. I ran into a closet, locked the door and hid. He literally tried to chop the door down. I have never been so scared in my life and I hope I never have to be that scared again. The next day, instead of going to class, I went downtown and filed for a divorce and a restraining order. I finished the rest of the year at a friends and then moved to New York with Lissie. I went to grad school here and have been here ever since."
"That's awful Gwynn." Harry looked at her.
"I know. It's been four years and I can still remember it so well. I was so pitiful."
"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You got out. You should be proud," he said.
"I am," she said softly. "All right, it's your turn. What about your fiancee?"
"She really wasn't my fiancee. She barely knew I loved her. I just kind of imagined that she was so much I started to believe it. She was killed when I was seventeen. She was murdered, trying to save me. She died for me. I kind of ran away after she was killed. I didn't fit in anymore. Some of my old friends tried to contact me, but I didn't return them. I didn't belong with them anymore."
"Why?" Gwynn asked.
Harry paused. How could he tell her this without telling her the truth? With out telling her what he was? "They all were ambitious, and my dreams died the night that my fiancee died."
"I'm so sorry Harry. We won't dwell on it. Let's change the subject. This is depressing." He nodded his head in agreement. They then started talking about other things, like plays and childhood friends.
Weeks passed, then months. It was late spring when Harry waited excitedly for Gwynn. He had news for her that would make her ecstatic. "Gwynn!" He shouted when he saw her. "Gwynn, you'll never guess what happened!"
"What?" she asked, amused.
"I got you an audition."
Her mouth dropped open. "A what?"
"I got you an audition for Chicago."
"Harry, that's a Broadway show. A major Broadway show," she said.
"I know, and you've got an audition! My neighbor works as something or another and I asked for you an audition and you got one!" he shouted. She screamed with joy and gave him a big hug.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" she shouted. Gwynn spent the entire bus ride thanking him. He never had said your welcome so many times in his life.
"Good luck!" he called as she got off the bus.
"Thank you!" she called out again.
Harry found out from his neighbor the next day that she had gotten a part. He was so happy for Gwynn, but sad at the same time. She was happy again. He was not. He could never do what he loved again, while she could. He looked around his apartment. He needed to leave. He called for the times of a bus that went to the airport. He started to pack when he heard a knock on his door. IT was Gwynn.
"I got a part! It's not the lead or anything but it pays and I love it! I love to be acting again!" she screamed. "Oh thank you Harry! Thank you!" She looked around the room. "Where are you going?"
"Away."
"Away where?"
"I don't know. I just need to leave again," he said.
"Oh Harry don't go! I'll miss you too much!" Gwynn cried.
"I have to. Look, my bus leaves in ten minutes. I need to go now," He said. Gwynn looked at him. Suddenly she threw her arms around him and Harry returned the embrace. He kissed her forehead. "Bye Gwynn," he said, and left. Gwyneth Amblers never saw him again.
Harry sat on the bus. He forced himself to think about that night. The night that ruined his life. All he remembered were bits and pieces of it. Voldemort had come back into power and wanted to kill Harry. They fought for a while, and Harry was weakening. Voldemornt was going to kill him, in one curse. Then she came. She ran up and blocked the curse. It killed her, but saved Harry. Voldemort was quickly losing his power, and he couldn't kill Harry. But he did something worse, he took Harry's powers away. Harry was a muggle. And then Dumbledore finished Voldemort off. Harry's hopes rose, and then fell again when Dumbledore said that he couldn't give him his powers back, or bring his fiancee back. With that Harry left the wizarding world. He didn't' belong anymore. His friends tried to find him but Harry didn't want to be found.
Harry out a picture of his love. She was waving to him with a big smile on her face. Oh he missed her so. Why did she do something so stupid? Why hadn't she let him die? A tear ran down his cheek. Stupid Hogwarts. Stupid Voldemort. He would never be happy again; he felt as dementors were gathered all around him.
But that was what he learned from Gwynn.
Even when you feel like you never will be happy again sometimes you find happiness is something you didn't expect. And maybe happiness was waiting for Harry. He just had to find it.
Author's Note: I love the moral to this story. Please review! I really want to know what you think.