Title: Going Away
Author: Jagged Fel
Category: General
Rating: G
Spoilers: none…unless you've never read the 1st book or seen the movie.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters, they all belong to J.K.
Summary: Harry's POV at the end of his first year at Hogwarts
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Going Away
I'm going away for a while, back to the Dursleys. Back into the Muggle world, where no mirrors talk, no owls drop mail in your lap and no broomsticks fly. I know I'll be here again next year, but that doesn't make it any easier to leave. I feel like I've known this place all my life and not just a year…
I remember the first time I saw the castle…rising, dignified out of the charcoal waters, perched solidly on its rocky base. Its walls dully reflecting the moonlight, innumerable turrets echoing the faint glow that seemed to emanate from deep within the castle walls. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the name sounding quite grand the first time I heard it. Well, you know that saying 'A picture's worth a thousand words'? Well this sight was ten thousand, in my opinion. It was simply amazing. As I gazed upon the castle walls, I felt almost unworthy to enter. It felt so old, yet so strong; it felt so much a part of history, like it had stood there, throughout time. I was coming to live here? It seemed like a crazy idea, and I couldn't believe it. So this was my future? If this would be the rest of my life, then every minute of the Dursleys was worth it. Looking back, that was a fairly large judgement to make, just by assessing the grandeur of a building, but Hogwarts had lived up to its looks and everyone's expectations…
"It's seems strange to be going home, doesn't it?" Hermione says to me.
I look to the great Hogwarts castle, drawing on the warmth that it radiates in my heart. I can almost see Professor Dumbledore, McGonagall and the other professors, already planning for next year. I can just picture the Hogwarts ghosts, milling idly through the Great Hall, with Peeves plotting some disruptive prank. I can imagine the Gryffindor Common Room, spick and span as always, glowing with warmth from the roaring fireplace. It's squashy leather armchairs that make me feel straight at home…
Home? I've never had a proper one before. Privet Drive was never a 'home' to me, never a safe haven from my worries and problems, and more often than none, the root of them. A home is a comforting place where your worries are dispersed, you are surrounded by your family and you feel safe and secure. I never knew my real family, but Ron, Hermione and the other Gryffindors have made up for that, and you couldn't feel safer with Albus Dumbledore around.
I take in every inch of the castle, branding it in my mind forever…
"No," I reply, "I'm not going home…Not really."
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~THE END~