Fire in Green Eyes
"You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories."
-Stanislaw J. Lec
I remembered the first night of school, all the excitement in the common room. The room began to thin out around eleven and Harry, Hermione, and I found our usual seats in the red velvet squashy chairs by the fire. Harry stared into the flames silent, bits of red and gold flickering in his bright green eyes.
I looked into Harry's face; Harry had changed so much this summer. His face looked older, and wiser. The pain was visible in his face. I wanted to comfort Harry. To make all his problems go away. To hug him tightly and never let go. I noticed Hermione out of my peripheral vision. She kept glancing up at Harry and then back at her watch. I could tell that she wanted to go to bed, but that she also wanted to stay with Harry. We did have classes in the morning.
At midnight Hermione got up. "Harry-Ron, I'm going to go to bed. We--I need to get up early tomorrow. Maybe you guys should get to bed too?" Hermione stared at me trying to get me to back her up. After a few moments Harry spoke, still looking at the flames.
"I'm not tired yet. You guys can go to bed though, I don't mind being alone." Hermione slowly went up stairs. I knew that Harry wanted, needed company, but it went against his personality to ask for companionship, for help of any kind. I had a sudden urge to touch Harry. It seemed as if he was reaching out to me. I stood up and walked over to Harry. I sat down on the arm of Harry's chair. My hand slowly moved to his shoulder and then down to his hand. At first Harry's hand was limp, unmoving. Allowing my hand to grasp his fingers, but not reciporcating the gesture in any way. Then suddenly Harry squeezed back. I felt a shiver down my spine then a sense of warmth as if the fire had suddenly heated up. We sat like that for a few minutes. Then Harry spoke again. "I think I'm ready for bed now." Harry got up and so did I and we went up to the common room and to bed.
I was pulled out of my thoughts as the sound of food being pushed into my cell. I looked at it. The sharp pains in my stomach had become more pronounced. I hadn't eaten in three days. I didn't deserve to eat. I left the food there and laid back against the cold hard stone wall.
