" 'Mione and Viktor are back in town" Harry informed a few days later as he sifted through the bundle of mail he'd received. It'd been coming in droves ever since he'd announced his second book would be released later that year. "They want us to come to a party after Viktor's game Friday night"

"Alright then" Ron answered from the bathroom

Parties, he couldn't remember one party he'd gone to, before, with Ron, without him acting like a complete idiot. But since he'd stopped drinking Ron had avoided Parties especially if they weren't important and Harry thought maybe he'd changed. But still he felt it was important to ask.

"Are you, um, gonna be alright in the party atmosphere? I mean there's most likely going to be alcohol there and I know parties have never really been your thing so . . . " he trailed off as Ron peered angrily at him from the bathroom "A . . . are you?"

"I'll be fine" he said stiffly through clenched teeth while glaring at him

Harry shrugged his shoulders "Ok, then I was just checking"

"Well who the hell asked you to?! What are you my sponsor?" he raged

"No Ron look"

"Then what the hell are you asking for? You don't think I can do it? Think I don't have any will power is that it?!"

"That's not it" Harry told him scrambling off of the plush carpet he sat on, because now Ron was out of the bathroom and making his way over to him. "It's because I care about you and look I don't feel like arguing. I shouldn't have asked, of course you'll be ok. I'm sorry"

He tried to embrace him but Ron pushed him onto the bed "Do I look like a child?! I don't need you holding me all the time!"

He landed a hard blow across his cheek. Harry tried to hold back the tears that sprang to his eye's "Ron Stop it!" he cried

But that did not deter the red head who continued to land blow after blow. Seeing that this was going to be a repeat of a few nights before, when he almost had to be taken to the hospital, Harry lifted his own fist to Ron striking him square in his nose.

"Fuck!" Ron spat angrily holding his nose as the blood began running down the front of his face.

Harry had shuffled over toward the bathroom. He was bleeding from his lip and nose. He'd only just closed the door when Ron burst in, knocking him down. He'd fallen just inches from the glass door and cracked his head on the hard tile instead. He let out a roar of pain that was abruptly cut off by Ron's long fingers encircling his throat. And try as the dark-haired wizard might he couldn't pry Ron's fingers from around his neck and soon began to panic.

"You don't like me when I'm in a good mood" Ron muttered pressing ever harder on the other man's throat "You don't like me when I'm in a bad mood, I'm starting to think you don't like me at all"

Harry tried to say, or at least mouth to him that he did care but he couldn't, and instead began feeling lightheaded. His fighting back fleeting, Ron smiled a sick smile of satisfaction and finally let him go. Harry turned on his side, gasping and coughing, tears streaming down his face. Ron watched him for a few moments, took a tissue and wiped his nose, then left. Harry was left there gasping until he regained semi-normal breathing. Pulling himself up he stared deeply into the mirror, so much so that he began to wonder if maybe he was the reflection and that he was looking at someone else's life.

"Look at you" someone said "What the hell happened to you . . . Did you not live your entire life at the Dursleys and outsmart them every day of your life? Are you not the man who took on Lord Voldemort every summer and faced him in the final battle? Have you not been through hell and back? And now you're standing here, being beaten by a Weasley?! You're no hero if you're letting this happen, you're nothing, you're a punk"

The glass to the mirror suddenly shattered, falling into the sink below in hundreds of pieces. It was then as he peered into the sink full of shimmering glass that he realized that he wasn't the reflection peering into someone else's life. This was his life. He slid back down onto the floor, his hand clutched tightly over his mouth. He was the one saying those thing's, and he knew every word was true. Oh so true.