Someone Once Told Me, The Grass Was Much Greener on the Other Side.
Disclaimer :- I do NOT own Harry Potter.
Summary :- This is a re-work of a very old fic of mine, with the same title, it is two years after the final year of Hogwarts and everyone thinks Harry is dead. Until Ginny sees a familiar drunk in the club she works at. Who is he?
Chapter 2.
Harry Bolted out of the bar as soon as he met the singers eyes. Ginny's eyes. How could he be so stupid? He should have known it was her from the beginning he thought as he ran down the road without looking back. He had sobered up immediately and was now worried out of his head about what he was going to do. He knew that Ginny knew it was him and betting everything he owned that she still talked to Hermione and Ron they would know soon enough and send out a search party which was something that he couldn't let happen. Harry could never return to the magical world. He had refused to, Voldemort had again been beaten by Harry 2 years ago and Harry out of his head at that point had left with nothing to tell anyone he was alive. This meant that everyone had thought he was dead and to make matters worse he had had to leave Ginny. Ginny had become his closest friend after she had gotten over her shyness he had realised what a wonderful young woman she had become which made it considerably worse when he hadn't managed to tell her how he felt until the night when he had fought Voldemort and even then he didn't know how she felt about him. She must have gotten over me by then or at least by now, thought Harry rushing down the street.
Without noticing Harry had managed to reach his House and open the door. He missed Ginny so much and she had been playing his guitar that he had taught her to play 3 years previous. He smiled before walking through the house and into the kitchen.
"Mr. Potter!" came a voice when he walked in.
"Evening, Connie." He said as he poured himself a cup of tea.
"Well you surprise me everyday Harry, home at least 3 hours earlier than I expected and your not drunk out of your head." she teased. "I'm amazed Harry. You haven't drowned your sorrows. Finally learnt the answers aren't at the bottom of an alcohol Glass."
"Actually, My answers were at the bar." He replied draining the cup. "Not really answers. But the reasons I drink were there!" he said sitting down ready to talk to his Landlady/ House Mate. Knowing that even if he resisted he wouldn't be able to get away from her.
"Huh? You lost me mate." She said laughing for a short burst before realising it was no laughing matter. "Come on spill." Harry laughed at her before pouring another cup of tea and picking a biscuit out of the tin.
"Well. they had an Open Mike Night at the bar. I'd never been there before so I didn't know did I?" He started before pondering how to carry on and tell her about Ginny. "Was it bad?" asked Connie drinking her own coffee. She hated tea but was addicted to the caffeine in Coffee. Wouldn't drink anything else.
"Yeah, No. Well Kind of." Mumbled Harry. Connie was staring at him with a confused look on her face whilst motioning him to continue. "Well everyone was terrible until this girl got up on the stage. She sang wonderfully and I was watching her and listening to her. She was playing this guitar. And something clicked. It was." said Harry starting to break down.
"Who was it? Someone you know?" asked Connie quietly, she sounded like an agony aunt thought Harry.
"It was this girl who I went to school with. She was my friend, in the year below me she was my best friends sister and well he and my other friend, Hermione had got together and we just seemed to click. It was so weird this shy girl who had had a crush on me had gotten over it and we became friends. I left the school and before I went I thought I wasn't ever going to see her again. so I gave her my guitar." He said, his voice getting louder as he went on.
"The guitar the girl at the bar was playing." Murmured Connie. Realisation crossing her face. "How do you know it's the same person?"
"They called her Ginny." Harry told her. "She looked at me, and I swear I had been drunk out of my head. And I stared at her and then she looked away to talk to this woman and I bolted out of the bar. Completely sober." He lay his head on the table groaning.
"Why did you run? You obviously like this girl." Said Connie laughing at his stupidity. "Well, I thought I'd scare her just appearing after 2 years. They think I'm dead, Connie. I vanished when I left school and came to live as a Mu- person who had had nothing to do with that school. They had a funeral for me!" Harry said with his head still on the table.
"Oh, Harry. Why did you not go back to them? Why did you let them have a funeral for you?" She said completely confused about the situation and getting even more confused as the conversation went along. "Harry!" she said sharply making him jerk his head up off the table, with crumbs stuck to his forehead.
"I thought it would be safer for them without me. I'm dangerous for people I really care about to be around." He told her before getting up sharply and storming out of the kitchen and to his room. He slammed his bedroom door and walked towards his closet. Carefully taking a moment to make sure Connie wasn't about to burst in and shout for slamming doors on her, while she was only trying to help. Harry looked for a box and pulled it down taking out a bottle of wine and a glass he moved over to the bed and pulled out his trunk with HP emblazoned in gold lettering on the front.
He blew the dust off it and flicked the latch almost wrenching the lid off, he stared at the contents and poured himself a glass of wine before pulling out a leather bound book. Settling himself on his bed he opened the cover and looked at the moving photographs. First was his parents and their friends, him when he was only small and they were still alive. He flicked through to the back and found the pictures of his friends, Hermione and Ron sat in the corner of the common room chatting away unaware of anyone else watching them. Himself and Ron, there were loads of them. He carried on flicking through until he found the last picture that had probably ever been taken of him. It was Ginny and himself in the snow at Christmas about 3 months before Voldemort's attack on Hogwarts. She had knocked him down and was sat on his legs tickling him mercilessly. It had been tense that day because it was the only time they had been allowed out in reason without teachers supervision. Everyone imagined an attack on Hogwarts would happen any moment. But it seemed Voldemort was still hadn't attacked there and people still had the thought it was safe there as nothing had happened for a while.
Harry drained his glass and poured himself another one. I'm not an Alcoholic, he thought to himself. I just have a drink most nights I'm not drunk all the time, Unfortunately.
Holding his head in his hands he thought of Ginny and how much she had changed he hadn't honestly recognised her until he saw the guitar and then the woman called her Ginny it couldn't have been anyone else.
Reaching down under off his bed he fumbled around in the trunk before finding what he wanted. He pulled out a box it was white and had a gold rim. Taking the top off and looking at the thing inside he pulled it out and felt a warmth spread through him, Just like that day in Ollivanders, he thought happily, I've got my wand.
Ron was pacing round his living room. He hadn't stopped since Ginny had told him she knew Harry was alive.
"But Ginny How can you be sure?" asked Hermione again. "You didn't even talk to him." This question had been going round for the past 2 hours as it was now 1am and no-one in the room was tired.
"Listen Hermione I know it was him. I'm positive." She whispered her voice was hurting from having to repeat herself over and over.
"But Gin, you can't be sure." Said Ron who looked about ready to keel over. "I mean as Hermione said you only saw him for a split second it could've been anyone."
"If it wasn't him why did he bolt when he saw me looking at him. If it had been a person who was there to get drunk and not giving a toss bout anyone who saw him he would've stayed. Do you think it's a coincidence that a guy who just happens to have messy black hair and emerald green eyes bolted when he saw me and it wasn't Harry?" she started to get really worked up because her brother and sister in law didn't believe her.
"Gin. We know you miss the guy. I mean you carry his bloody guitar everywhere with you and we know you got close to him in his last year, but he died. He did Ginny, we would've found him by now if he hadn't." Ron told her kindly but sternly as if the subject was closed.
"Just you wait and see Ron!" she shouted with a new rage inside her. "When I next turn up here I'll have Harry Potter by my side and the first thing I'll say is I told you so!" and with that she jumped out of her seat picked up her guitar and apparated home to her flat.
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Ginny stormed into her room when she had apparated into her house. She threw off her guitar and it landed in the corner. She then proceeded to go into the bathroom and have a shower. When she got into the shower she let herself cry, it was a ritual she had had for so long she couldn't remember how it all started. All she knew it was so her brothers didn't try and comfort her. She hated sympathy, the only time she thought she had ever cried in front of people was in the Chamber of Secrets and after telling that horrible ordeal to her parents.
When she came out of the shower she wrapped up in an old jumper over her pyjamas and picked up Harry's guitar she headed into the kitchen and fixed herself some pasta and cheese. It was her sin she was addicted to it. She ate quickly not caring if it burnt her throat and then put the bowl in the sink and swished her wand. She wandered into her living room which was more like her music room/study. She sat down on her stool and started to strum the guitar in her hands. She didn't feel like doing anything else. She had had such a terrible night all she wanted to do was play, but that reminded her of Harry considering he had taught her.
Sitting and strumming on the guitar she began to sing a new song. She tended to write best when she had an extreme mood swing and this was the perfect time.
'You know that nothing's ever gonna be the same,
You'll run in circles just playing the same old game.
But dontcha see,
This what is what you're to doing to me.
Oh, but can't you see?
You had to come back to me.'
'You used to tell me lies,
Such stories, of how we'd be.
That the world would be fine.
That I'd be ok without you
They say I'll be fine
They tell me I'll be ok'
'How can I make you see?
What you mean to me?
And everyone else in our world!
You brought their spirits high,
But in the process you had to break mine!'
'Now can you see,
See what you've been putting me through
People tell me, 'let it be'
People
say my heart will mend
But how long does it take
To put a million pieces back together?'
Ginny stood up with tears in her eyes and walked over to her desk having finished her little song. Scribbling it down so she wouldn't forget she was struck with an idea.
Grabbing a clean piece of parchment she wrote down everything she had to do. First, she had to visit Remus as soon as possible, he was probably be the only one who wouldn't laugh her thoughts away. Thinking about things rationally she decided not to go at that precise moment because it around 2am and it would be rude. Secondly, she had to go through the Muggle Phone Books at the Bar and on the internet to find Harry's address. She figured it would be a lot easier if he just appeared at the club but being no good at the 'Accio' spell (and the fact it wouldn't work anyway) she couldn't imagine him coming back without a better reason than to see her.
Sighing deeply she pinned the parchment up on her notice board and stumbled into her bedroom to get some rest, she was extremely glad the next day was her day off from the paper. Although, in contemplation of the fact, most days were.
In a sharp contrast, Harry was having a wonderful time remembering the magic he used to be able to do. Simple spells were coming back to him with great ease, of course he had the magic in his blood but he never imagined after all the time he had been running from it he would still be able to do it.
He had fallen asleep by 6am and had to be awake again by 7am which gave him an hours rest. He of course had to work. He had a job as a Cafe manager he made enough money to get by and pay his rent to Connie. He of course had to go in and collect deliveries, mess around with stocks and anything else before the Chef's and Waiting on Staff came in. He was a good boss he thought. Not harsh on people. Joking around. But he was in a trance on this particular day.
Seeing Ginny had hit him hard he was contemplating going back to the bar but sitting in a corner and not drawing attention to himself. Deciding it was the right thing to do he managed to move the glasses onto the bar without breaking anything. He greeted to staff with ease and determinedly showed that nothing was wrong until he saw a flash of red hair in the corner of the room and he dropped a glass.
"Harry?" asked Kat, one of the waitresses. "What's wrong?" Harry continued to stare at the corner of the room where the redheaded man was sat with a woman with hair that was a bit curly.
"Shit. Look what I've done!" he murmured looking at the floor. "I'll get a brush to clear it up." He whispered. Before running into the back of the café before the pair in the corner got a glimpse of him.
Oh dear God, he thought. I hope that wasn't Ron and Hermione, Please say it wasn't Ron or Hermione. He thought before saying thanks to no-one in particular and returning to the restaurant and brushing up the floor with his head bowed down low.
"Ron! Don't say that! Ginny is not delusional." He heard the Woman say. Harry bowed down even lower straining to hear the conversation.
"Listen Hermione she thinks she saw Harry! He's dead and yet she believes she saw him." Ron said with his back to Harry. Harry straightened up and retreated to the kitchen. Before he walked through the doors he heard Hermione gasp at most probably something Ron had said. What he didn't know was that she had noticed him and with his hair scrapped back his scar had been most prominent on his forehead.
"Kat? Get Janie in? I'm dog tired. I need to go home." He said as the waitress walked into the kitchen. She smiled a yes and walked back out with some food. Harry wandered out of the back of the café and got into his car before returning home.