Hellooo! It's been a while since I uploaded anything on here, but I've had this idea for a couple of days now and really wanted to write it down. So here we go:

The first time Ginny Weasley saw him again, he looked like they'd spent years apart, instead of just nine months. Granted, those nine months had been the longest nine months of her life, but still. They were just nine months. He had looked up at her, climbing out of the secret passage to the hogs' head, and although he was surrounded by some of her closest friends, people she hadn't seen in either weeks or months, and her brother and best friend, whose lives she had feared for every hour, for nine months, all she had eyes for was him.

For a second, just a second, her breath caught in her throat. He looked so much older. Then she smiled at him.

For a moment he looked surprised and, perhaps, pleased? But it could be possible that it was just her imagination, for his expression changed to exasperation and desperation, before she'd been certain what it was. He was not happy that she was here.

She hadn't realized it then, not yet. Everything about him looked so different then that she hadn't realized what it was. But it unsettled her, nonetheless. His hair had clearly not been cut for over nine months, there were bags under his eyes, though those were not that unfamiliar, his cheeks looked somewhat sunken, his skin had a greyish tinge and there were bruises, cuts and burns, littering every inch of his skin that was visible.

She'd looked away. Later. Later there would be time to talk, time to observe him, make sure he was alright.

After the battle, in the days that followed, she'd caught him looking at her several times, when he'd thought she hadn't noticed him. But she always noticed him, though she pretended not to. She had been looking at him too. Always looking, but not yet talking. There was always too much to do, too many people around or just not the right time. But still she noticed it. It unsettled her, but she pushed it away. Later, she told herself. Later there would be time.

The first time she'd realized what it was had been a week after the battle had ended, the evening after Fred's funeral. He'd come back to the Burrow with them. His hair had been cut, his worst injuries had been treated and he'd washed himself. He still wasn't eating right, and she wondered if he slept at all, but for the first time, she had realized that that was not it. Not the thing that had been so unsettling to her.

It was his eyes.

Remus had shown them a picture of Lily Potter that Christmas. Him and Tonks had spent it at the Burrow with Ginny and her family. All day everyone had done their best to pretend that everything was normal, and that celebrating Christmas without all the people missing from their lives did not hurt beyond words.

Especially her mother had been driving her mad that day, pretending that everything was okay and determined to celebrate Christmas as they always had, while being on the verge of an emotional breakdown all day. When they'd retired to the living room after dinner, Ginny had snapped. She didn't want to pretend like everything was alright, she'd rather spend her Christmas depressed and sad, but be able to talk about it and share it together than being forced to pretend like she was happy when they all knew that no one was.

They'd cried a little then, and they'd had a good and honest conversation. The conversation had turned to the previous war, as it often did around that time, and Remus had reminisced about the last Christmas that he'd spent together with Lily, James, Sirius and unfortunately, Peter. Ginny had asked about them then, Lily and James Potter, and what they had been like. Remus had observed her for a minute and smiled.

"I think you'd have gotten along with them very well", he'd told her. "Especially Lily".

Fred had asked if he had any pictures of them, and Remus had quickly gone and retrieved them from his apartment. When he'd returned, a few minutes later, he passed around a small album containing what looked like his most treasured pictures of his old friends.

The moment the album landed on her lap, and she looked down into the face of Lily Potter, a jolt went through her stomach. She'd always heard that Harry's eyes were so much like his mother's, but seeing hers, when she missed him so dearly, was not something she'd been prepared for.

It was different seeing James. Although she agreed that Harry was his spitting image, she could clearly see that it wasn't him. But Lily's eyes, they were exactly his. Piercing green and full of life and emotions.

That's how his had been as well. Green and, well… Open. There was no other way to say it. He'd always been an open book, very easy to read and she could always see how he was feeling or what he was thinking, even when he was as withdrawn as he'd been during some of his worst times at Hogwarts. She'd always been able to read his feelings in his eyes. But not anymore.

She'd asked Hermione about it, one evening, after Harry had spent another day hauled up in Ron's room, barely speaking to anyone. She was a bit embarrassed to ask, really, because she was afraid it made her sound lovesick and soppy, but the two of them had been alone in the garden of the Burrow, in the dark and quiet of the night, and she'd asked anyway.

Hermione had looked at her for a minute, deciding how to phrase her answer. Then she'd responded in a thoughtful manner. She'd said that she'd noticed it too, and that the first time she had, had been at Shell Cottage, after their ordeal at Malfoy Manor. She thought it must have happened there, somewhere between getting captured by those snatchers and their escape. They didn't discuss it any further.

His eyes were blank now. Empty, almost. Still as beautifully green and still his but somehow… The life and emotion that they'd always shown had gone from them.

It was only weeks later that she saw some of that life return, if only briefly. She and Harry had been alone. They'd been flying for hours and now they were lying on the grass, her hand in his, warmed by the August sun. He smiled at her, and her breath caught again, but this time of happiness. For a moment, his eyes looked like Lily's again.

She squeezed his hand and kissed the tip of his nose lightly, and when he asked her what she was so happy about, she told him. He replied with a sad smile.

"I finally learned to close them off", he said. "Just like they told me to".

I hope you liked it! Please leave a review, and if you think something could be improved, please let me know too!