AN: I have been listening to Edd Sheeran's "photograph" while writing parts of this chapter and thought that it fits perfectly as a soundtrack for the chapter. So yeah. soundtrack: Edd Sheeran, Photograph

"In my wildest dreams!- I wouldn't have EVER EVER imagined that you could be that mean!" Harry said shoving another piece of chocolate cake in his mouth.

"In your wildest dreams?" Nada giggled teasingly, he swallowed thickly and seamed suddenly interested in his chocolate smudged fingers. She took another piece and shoved her in her mouth as well, not caring the least that her hands and probably her face as well was all smudged with chocolate.

The chocolate cake was her Nanna's recipe, it was a far cry from the real thing but it tasted good nevertheless. She wasn't very good at celebrating birthdays, but has always done her best to make her presents as personal as possible. However, when she realized that it is Harry's birthday, she was shocked to discover that she didn't actually know much about him to get him a personal present.

She didn't know what movies he liked, or his favorite band, his favorite color or even his favorite ice cream flavor. For a moment she contemplated buying him something nice, like a new shirt or a Kashmir jumper, then she shook away the idea deciding that she definitely spent too much time with her Dad that he was starting to rub off on her.

So she settled on chocolate cake; everyone loves chocolate cake, even if you forget to get anything to eat it with and end up eating it directly from the serving dish.

She wiped her hand on one of the paper napkins she thankfully didn't forget and continued "besides, It is not like you are so innocent yourself- I have heard the people talk you know."

His expression hardened a bit but he kept his chewing pace "and what do they say?"

"That you are a bad boy- that you go for some school for criminals" she tried to keep the humor in the conversation, but couldn't hide the tinge of curiosity that lined her voice.

"Who told you this?" he said somewhere between ashamed and angry.

"The ladies in the park" she said sensing his distress, then added as an afterthought "that day we fought in the park."

"When I shouted at you" he didn't know why he felt that he had to correct this.

"Well, or that" she said nonchalantly.

"And why did you stay then?" he said, looking at her in the eyes, the afternoon sun reflecting in his green orbs the way it did the other day in his bedroom.

"Because I know you, I know that they were lying" she sighed dropping the nonchalant façade "or that they were not- but there must be a full story, I know that even if it is the truth there's certainly an explanation". She then took a small piece of cake and bit it the way she bit the cookies back at his aunt's "Besides, I like Bad boys."

He smiled at that "stop doing that- I am trying to make an effort here to forget that- that you!"

She started licking each finger of her hand "oh- really? And why is that if I may ask?- am I making you uncomfortable? "

He laughed despite of his embarrassment, "STOP IT!" then he took both her wrists in his hand to make her.

She giggled while he wrestled her arms away, then she changed her strategy from defense to attack by targeting his face with her chocolate smudged fingers, somehow managing to grab actual cake and rub it in to his face and hair which fueled his aggression as he reached for the cake as well, grabbed a piece and was about to retaliate but stopped abruptly when he realized how they were positioned.

She, lying there on the dusty floor on her back, her wide eyes full of mirth, her soft curls surrounding her face, and there was that dimple that appears only on one cheek when she smiles. He, absorbing her image from above.

Her smile faded a bit and her face rested into more contemplating expression, not really sure why did they stop fighting.

"You are making me uncomfortable," he said slightly breathless, most probably not because of the cake fight. He sat back on his heels and then to a more comfortable position looking to the distance, not sure why he felt suddenly so sad.

It was as if reality has slowly washed upon him, replacing the giddy feeling he felt with anxiety and insecurity, all the happiness he felt evaporating like smoke. He felt angry as well, that he lost control that he forgot who he was and what he should do, that he naively thought that he can just think about here and now, and forget all about what lies ahead. He was even angry that he forgot what has happened a couple of months ago. His godfather was dead, because of him. He has a mission to accomplish, and he didn't have the slightest idea how. The world is collapsing around him and he was lying on top of a girl on a rooftop in the neatest mugglest neighborhood that can ever exist.

Harry's train of thoughts was cut brutally by the familiar sound of a camera shutter sound, his head whipped instantly to the source of the sound ready to attack, but he was shocked to see Nada holding a camera, grinning at him.

"Sorry," she said "I couldn't miss that shot."

He recovered slowly from the shock, but he couldn't hide the tinge of betrayal he felt "no cameras were mentioned in your invitation" he said.

"I told you that I will show you how good I am at this" she said "besides, what is a birthday party without a camera?" she leaned forward to wipe some chocolate from his face, not noticing the slight flinch that her touch earned. "Now, stand over there," she said excitedly gesturing to the edge of the roof.

"What?" he said, perplexed.

"You will be my model today," she said pushing him bodily to the said spot.

He was too mortified that he didn't move away from the spot she pushed him to. "NO!" he said regaining some of his concentration "NO WAY!"

The look she shot him however was enough to tell him that there's no way out of this.

"I am sure that you are good at this, you don't have to prove anything," he said sheepishly as she adjusted his position.

She stepped back and started pressing on different buttons on her camera, her expression turning from playful to serious in just seconds. She looked through the lens and then back up to him "I don't have to prove anything, yeah" she said a bit absently "but there's something about you that I was dying to shoot the moment I saw you."

They both stopped breathing for a second, trying to absorb what she just said. She pressed the shutter button in the camera, in a desperate attempt to take the attention away from the words that hung thickly in the air between them.

"At least tell me when you are going to take a photo," he said feigning irritation, playing along.

"I am going to take a photo," she said pressing the button again, he just laughed, and she caught the smile on his face in another photo.

She took his note in consideration though after that, and told him before she took a photo, in fact she gave him detailed instructions that he was starting to have a headache. He couldn't ignore though how much she seemed to enjoy it. How her eyes shone, how she knew what she was doing, how for the first time she looked really in her element.

"Take off your shoes" she said in an all business tone.

"Honestly.."

"Please" she said bouncing around like a mad potioneer who just discovered a cure for lycanthropy "and stand on this" she gestured to the low stone wall the surrounded the edge of the roof.

He raised his eyebrows "if you want to get me killed, you could just ask nicely- a lot of people could happily take care of that."

"Afraid of heights, are we?" she said ignoring how his last sentence sounded.

He stepped out of his shoes, "oh please-heights are afraid of me," he replied smugly walking to the spot she pointed to.

"Your socks too" she said adjusting the camera.

He frowned at her but quietly complied, and stepped up the stone wall feeling its rough texture with his bare feet, his toes curling slightly around the edge instinctively trying to ground himself.

"Close your eyes," she said, and he did.

"Spread your arms wide," he heard her saying "Feel the wind on your face, through your hair" he felt the pores on his skin breathing "Feel the stone with your feet, feel everything, feel with every cell of your being- and breathe". He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. His senses all working at the same time; he listened to her voice, heavy with her accent; he listened to the birds flying home; he listened to the wind, and felt it cold on his skin, as well as he felt the air filling his lungs; he felt everything, and was aware of it, even the remains of chocolate on his taste buds. He felt alive, and for the first time in forever he felt grateful for it.

He heard the shutter sound, but he didn't open his eyes.

"You are indeed good at this," he said calmly, slowly opening his eyes.

A serine smile rested on her face as well "happy birthday Harry."

He smiled and stepped down the wall, and sat on it facing her "would you believe me if I tell you that I never really liked my birthday."

She sat next to him "would you believe me if I tell you that I feel the same."

He turned his head to look at her, not really grasping why a girl like her would feel like that.

"However," she continued "I believe that we should celebrate birthdays, we should pause and give ourselves a round of applause because we survived another year- each birthday is a sign that we fought and won and survived," tears had formed in her eyes so she looked away "that we will survived, regardless of everything- that we survived without them"

He realized that he didn't hear that tone in her voice, since the last time they were on this roof, that bare voice of her, that distinct sound that make her voice hers, emerges and dominates it when she is the most real version of herself. He realized with some guilt that he forgot all about last time they were on that roof, about her loss. Maybe because she didn't look devastated anymore, maybe because she seemed to move on too quickly, maybe be because she laughed and chatted and found it in herself to bake him a birthday cake. He would have envied her about how she could forget so quickly, only if he didn't see that look on her face at that exact moment. He didn't envy her, he respected her.

"How do you do this?" he said softly "how can you still be you, how can you carry on, regardless of the pain?"

She sighed and looked at her folded hands in her lap " Nanna told me once, that the beauty and the pain in life lies in its ability to make us move on, instinctively, exactly like the instinct to survive- a drowning man will still fight for air even if he jumped in the water in suicide, instinct" she took another deep breath and continued "it takes a really desperate, broken man, to stop resisting when he's drowning- I have seen that, and it is ugly, I don't want to be that"

Harry looked at her in confusion, so she answered his unspoken question "my father- my father was so broken when she left that I came back from school one day and found him in a pool of his own blood"

Harry's heart skipped a beat.

"There was blood everywhere, and he just sat there only in a towel, looking at it as if it is someone else's" she continued as if she forgot that Harry's there "it took him a couple of days off work and a weekend to recover" she laughed humorlessly "I remember the day I saw him on the breakfast table, suit and cigar and all, as if nothing has happened- we never even talked about it."

Harry's muscles went stiff, a couple of minutes ago he was wondering why a girl like her wouldn't like her birthday, and now he was wondering how a girl like her can wake up each morning and live her life as if everything is fine. Throughout his life, he has never felt that anyone had it worse than him, but at this moment despised himself for ever thinking so. There are other people in the world Harry, your misery is not the center of the universe, he berated himself.

He cautiously raised his arm and curled it around her shoulder, she was startled at the beginning but relaxed in his embrace.

"You are very good at this" he said after a moment trying to cheer her up "It seems that people can be especially good at taking photos."

"I will sound too smug if it tell you I told you so, but yeah I told you so" she said lightly "want to try though?" she said offering him the camera.

"What? Me?" he said "n-no I won't have a clue what to do."

She thrusted the camera in to his hand "come on, give it a try."

He held it quickly, tightly "Whoaa- it looks, complicated- ehm and expensive," examining the camera closely "No, I am too afraid to break it."

"In that case I will have to break your neck, but that is off the point" she giggled at the expression on his face, and took a step closer to him "you adjust the focus like this," she held his hand to the lens in demonstration "and you zoom like this" she continued ignoring how he fell silent so suddenly "and when you are satisfied with everything that's the capture button on the top" she finally looked at him, secretly amused of his nervousness.

He gulped loudly, but tried to appear more confident than he felt "well, emm stand over there then" he said fumbling with the lens like she tought him "or, no- um sit , sit on the edge there."

She beamed at him and complied, sitting on the stone wall, then tossing her hair to the side "do I look good?" she asked.

You look beautiful "Just move a bit to the right- um no to your left, my right" he said looking through the camera.

She complied and grinned at him, he captured the photo and let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding, she couldn't help but laugh at him.

"You look cute when you try to concentrate like this," she said taking the camera from his hand, he blushed instantly however "and when you blush like that," she giggled.

"I am not blushing!" he mumbled "and hey, I am not cute! Puppies are cute- I am not a puppy!" he said with a louder voice, looking seriously offended and if possible even cuter.

"Ok fine- fine" she placated him "you are not cute! Rather good looking actually."

He hid his hand with his face and talked behind them "you are doing this on purpose aren't you?"

She pried his hand away from his face, and looked in to his eyes for a moment "maybe," she said "but that doesn't change the facts."

She handed him the camera abruptly in an attempt to diverse the attention away from her words, and his awkwardness "here, try one more time."

He took it wordlessly, and fumbled with it like he did earlier, focusing on how the wind messes with her hair, her wide hazel eyes, and the dimple that appeared faintly as she smiled a small smile. Then it occurred to him, to use her photography technics against her "you have a beautiful smile," he said. Her smiled grew wider engraving his beloved dimple and he captured the photo. When he did, realization has downed upon her and this time she barked a loud laugh which he captured quickly too.

"You!" she said still laughing "using my technics against me, and I thought you really thought that I have a beautiful smile!" she patted her chest feigning hurt.

"That doesn't change the facts," he smirked.

She let out another loud boisterous laugh "you are a quick learner, aren't you?" she said.

"You are a good teacher," he retorted.

"Am I?" she said, her voice calmer and if anything dreamy, she smiled at his baffled expression "I want to do this, learn it more professionally and teach it to kids- who see too much, kids from every place in the world, and we'd give the world a real memory, capturing real things, real people."

He sat beside her crossed legged on the floor, "Why haven't you tried it before?- I mean, you've been to a lot of places already."

"You are not the only one with bars on his windows Harry," she said fiddling with the lace of her shoes, then she looked at him, sadly "I can't leave him alone- I am too afraid to leave him alone, well at least I was,"

"You are not now?"

"He found someone- I saw them together the other day, when you found me in the park"

Her image, with her champagne silk dress, smoking on an empty park bench, seemed ages away.

"So he moved on, but I have to let go, and I am afraid to let go- it is life as I know it,"

He looked at her, recalling the passion that seeped out of her eyes when she held the camera as if it is a living creature, how she stroked it lovingly after each shot as if in gratitude, almost like he petted Hedwig's feathers after she delivers a letter, the warmth that she emitted when she talked about it, how she bounced with happiness, and how it was contagious that he himself felt some affection for the device. He knew that sometimes he is not a very observant person, but he was sure that this was not just a hobby of hers, and it sort of pained him that he doesn't feel similar passion to almost anything.

No, he thought, he does feel a similar passion, not for one thing but sort of for everything. For Hedwig, his broom, and the feel of the snitch under his fingers while he is panting after a fierce Quiditich match, for Ron's dirty jokes and Hermonie's incessant nagging and the warmth he feels when he is squeezed between them sipping Butter Bear at the Three Broomsticks ,for Nada, the morning dew that made the heat of his summer holiday bearable, for the sight of Hogwarts for the first time after the summer holidays, for Hagrid's bear hugs no matter how he claimed that they embarrassed him, and even for the sun that sets with the same magic both over Hogwarts and over Privet Drive. He has the same passion for life.

At this moment he swore that he won't let anyone take this away from him, from them. He swore that he will fight for a world where Nada can travel around taking photos and telling stories, where he can have a home to call his own, where the young can be young and grow up on their own pace. Not because he was trying to be a hero, or he was feeling suicidal, but because he knew that if someone can stop the upcoming storm, it was him.

"Promise me something," he said startling her after she drowned in her own thoughts, she looked at him with a frown "that you will leave someday, that you will break the bars on your windows, like you broke mine.." she was about to interrupt but he continued "you did break mine Nada, break yours and leave, let go, do what takes your breath away, the world is too cold Nada- too cold and people like you make it warmer, bearable"

She sniffed, and turned her head to watch the sunset "It is getting dark," she remarked.

"It is getting dark," he affirmed not necessarily speaking about only the sunset.

She turned to him "do you want to take one last photo, you and me together?- I can set a timer"

He smiled at her "set a timer then."

She did exactly that, and placed the camera on the most convenient spot she could found, and ran back to stand next to Harry. He looked at her, not sure how to pose, but she made it easier as she curled her arm around his waist, so he did around her shoulder, and as he smiled she whispered in his ear quickly, his smile widened and she smiled as well. They heard the shutter sound and he photo was captured.

Her words as well as the heat from her breath lingered in his ear, "I promise," she said.

AN: I know It took me forever to update, but I was having a mean writer's block and lacking motivation. The good news is, there's only a couple of chapters left. I need to know however what do you think so far so please review.