Disclaimer: Actually, I think this song works well with the plot. What do you think? Okay, it isn't really a disclaimer. Sue me... oh wait. No! Don't sue me.


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Another turning point,
A fork stuck in the road.
Time grabs you by the wrists,
Directs you where to go.
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Harry stood in silence. His thoughts raced for a second. This morning his only worries were hauling crates and getting food. His pain was in his past and was just that, a memory. Nothing around him to really bring him back into any sense of reality. He lived in a cloud of ignorance and neither knew or cared to know anything of the current wizarding world. But now, not just a voice from the past, but one of the main characters in his life had returned to find him, returned to bring him back to his pain- to his life. She and the rest of the wizarding world were going to forgive his actions? They were going to forgive his cowardice?
Harry's eye twitched involuntarily. He stared at Hermione. Her hair was still as uncontrollable as when she was fifteen. There had been obvious attempts to control it, a clip here or there, but it was for naught. Her eyes looked up into his, he could see the dispair of the entire world in her eyes. She was silent, but her mind screamed for him to come back and defeat a great evil as if he were some fairy tale hero.
But in his mind he knew that it wasn't him that actually defeated Voldemort and he wondered why everyone thought it was him. It was his mother's spell of love that enchanted him to protect him from death. It was Voldemort's curse that rebounded onto himself. Harry was more or less a magical mirror in his role in defeating Voldemort the first time. But now he's back. He's been growing silently for eight years, plotting better than before. Working slower to plan his strategies. How was Harry supposed to play any part in defeating him, when a simple spell could now kill him as easily any other person?

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So make the best of this test
And don't ask why
It's not a question
but a lesson learned in time.
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"He is back. Harry, he is back. When he wants to, he will find you. Even hidden as a Muggle, you aren't safe," she sighed to tell him that she didn't just mean him- no one was safe, "He wanted to kill you for a reason. He was afraid of something in you. If you came back, it wouldn't just be you. It would be the entire wizarding community to back you up- to fight him with you." She knew his fears. He had obvious eyes and she read him like a book as he looked at her. Harry was still being dragged under by his thoughts, he hardly heard her.
"I can't go back."
"Yes! Yes, Harry you can," she grabbed his arm in plea.
"I don't think I could face any of them anymore," Harry meant his peers, "They haven't forgotten. You haven't forgotten- I can tell it in your eyes." Harry's tone was soft but a constant tone, he tried to show as little emotion as possible. Hermione looked away.
"I don't care. Don't expect us to forget it, Harry. It doesn't work like that. But don't make it worse by being a coward. You've faced up to evil- you can face up to your mistakes. No one's forgotten, but no one condemns you anymore. They just want you back," Hermione was speaking truths, but Harry still didn't believe her.
"If I can't forgive myself, what makes me think that any of you've forgiven me?"
"Damnit, Harry! You aren't Christ! You make mistakes, too. And when you do? Guess what. People forgive you! You know why? Because that's what people do! They are willing to look past your actions and to see your intentions, and in this world, intentions are what matters." Her eyes glowed and secretly she was amazed she said all that without stumbling.

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It's something unpredictable
But in the end is right...
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"I can't think now. I need time to think," Harry looked down at her. It started to rain heavily again.
"This isn't a week's decision, this is urgent. With each passing hour he gets stronger. He's been brewing for eight years, we can give him no more time."
Harry really couldn't think and the rain was coming down hard. He led Hermoine back to his apartment where they could talk in a warm environment, Harry was getting sick of the rain.
She sat down at his table and looked around. It was a three-room flat. A bathroom, a bedroom and then a small, but not uncomfortable livingroom/kitchen. He had kept it amazingly clean for a single guy in his twenties.
"Tea?" Harry was already boiling water at the stove.
"Yes, could you?" They didn't have any conversation until he sat down with two steaming mugs, one with tea and one with coffee. Hermione glanced with resignation for a second at Harry's cup. How could he drink that?
When his chair finally scooted into place he took a breath to signify that he wanted to say something first, but he just didn't know yet. Hermione stayed silent so he could make his move. But sat back realizing that this conversation wasn't going to be a contest.
"Voldemort's back," Harry went over the facts out loud, "Everyone wants me back-"
"Don't think of it like that... I want you back," Hermione cut in. She had been his friend for five years and after being seperated for eight, she apparently still was. Harry accepted this change of views."
"You want me back," he repeated, "You've forgiven me... and you want me back," he thought more, "You've traveled-"
"-pretty much all of England."
"You've traveled England to find me to get me back." Harry was now very serious. He was contemplating hard over the 'facts' before moving on.
"Harry, come back. Please," Hermoine said impatiently.

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Take the photographs and still-frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
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She had changed the subject after that. Not only had she wanted to bring him back, she also just wanted to talk to him; it had been eight years. They sat at the table, long after their cups were empty. She told him everything that had happened since he left, brushing lightly over the bad, of course. The tone lightened between them. Things no longer felt so drastic. Harry soon found himself accepting Hermione back as a friend, as if he had never left. But then it dawned on him that she was actually convincing him to come back- not in conversation but the very fact that they were talking. She had done it again, she broke through his thick barrier.
"Oh goodness look at the time," Harry looked at his wrist, not noticing there was no watch there.
"Wha-" Hermione got up from her chair in reaction. Harry was already around the table and was physically shuffling her to his door.
"It's been nice talking to you, but this sort of thing I really need to think on," He opened the door with one hand his other leading Hermione to it.
"Will you talk in the morning?" Hermione asked as Harry led her out the door.
"If you come to find me...probably. Good-night," Harry said quickly.
"Good ni-" but he closed the door on her. She walked away perturbed, "Damn, that close."
Harry leaned against the door. His mind was now conflicting itself. He really did need to sleep on it.

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Tatoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth, it was worth all the while
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He knew he was not going to get to sleep tonight. He fell onto his bed and let everything flow in and out and back in his mind. He closed his eyes, but it just aided what seemed to be a restless and painful process. Harry soon fell into a half sleep, thinking about everything Hermione said, but his mind had hardly control on its order or method.

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It's something unpredictable
That in the end is right.
I hope you had the time of your life.
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