I do not own Harry Potter and make no profit from this story. That's why it's listed under Fanfiction and not sitting on a store shelf somewhere making me famous.
Colin Creevey wanted to grow up to be just like Ansel Adams, only a wizard. He'd wanted to be a photographer since he was real little and his dad used to pull out his Sierra Club catalogs and show Colin the amazing pictures. When he was five his dad bought him his first camera for his birthday. Each year after that he got a newer model or better parts for it like a new zoom or a better tripod.
When he was eleven he got a wizard camera. It cost a whole lot more and it wasn't really his birthday but Colin's father had just winked and said he needed proof of this Potter character. His mother had just sighed and opened up her wallet.
Colin thought it would be the most amazing thing ever to be a famous photographer. He'd be able to see the world and capture it for others to see. It would be just fabulous to freeze celebrities and politicians and beauty forever. And wouldn't it be neat when his photographs were selling for hundreds of galleons and he was famous? Wouldn't it be amazing when people wanted his autograph and his photos were actually hanging in museums or people's walls? For people to be able to bring the Forbidden Forest or Mt. Aetna or the Wizarding Alps into their own homes.
He kept all his negatives in one box under his bed, all carefully organized by date and subject. The photos themselves were organized as well and he liked to pull them out and see if he'd improved or could get any inspirations for new angles or subjects by looking at the old photos.
There were old pictures from back in first year and he laughed to see how small and funny some of his friends looked back then. He studied one of most of the Gryffindors out by the lake, picking out Seamus Finnigan stuffing a firecracker in Dean Thomas' bookbag. There were Parvati and Lavender paging through some sort of girly magazine. Colin watched as Harry laughed at something Ron said, holding his sides as he laughed so hard. Colin briefly wondered what the joke was and thought maybe he should set that photograph aside to show his friends later so they could all tease each other about how young they had been then.
He picked up another stack of photos and the one on the bottom escaped his fingers, fluttering down to land beside the group shot. It was a newer photo, one he'd taken just a few weeks ago before developing his film. It was supposed to be a study in the way the firelight hit the black and white chess set but Colin had accidentally caught Harry in the background. He hadn't thought about it at the time but now, he watched Harry gaze back at him with eyes so different from that first year that had laughed so hard. Picture Harry stared past Colin for a few seconds before turning away but even in profile, Colin could tell his expression.
And Colin thought maybe he'd prefer to take photographs of mountains without eyes.
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