A/N: JK owns the Potterverse, I just play in her sandbox.
lypophrenia - (n.) a vague feeling of sorrow or sadness seemingly without any apparent cause or source [english]
As mid-September approached, the feeling began again. It was a silly feeling, one that shouldn't really have even come about the first time, and yet here it was again. Why it always came this time of year rather than any other, he couldn't say. Yes, this was her birthday, what should be one of the greatest celebrations of her life, but why then and not any of the dozen other days where they personally had had something more, an adventure or an encounter of some kind? It didn't really make sense to him, but feelings never really did; he blamed his relatives for that particular feature of his life.
Harry Potter was many things: a hero, a conqueror, a friend, a father, and more. But the one thing he most certainly was not was the husband of his best friend. That position had been claimed by another, and at the time, Harry couldn't have been happier. Despite their sometimes legendary arguments, he had always carried the slight hope that his best friends would find happiness together, and when Ron and Hermione Weasley had departed their wedding reception for a honeymoon in Prague, he was the last one to see them off, an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
He would go on to marry Ginny Weasley a few months later, and for a time, everyone was happy and content. The Potters began raising a beautiful family, and soon their eldest was readying for his first trip up to Hogwarts. On Platform 9 3/4, Harry caught sight of his brother-in-law and his wife bringing their own child to the train. It was only in that moment that he realized he had no idea what the child's name was, having not seen him before now. Doing a quick bit of math in his head, he discovered that it had been years since he had talked to the woman he still thought of as his best friend. Shuffling over to say hello, he was struck by how the sun was reflecting off her deep brown eyes, how the light wind was caressing the curls of her hair. They made a bit of small talk before the train whistled its departure, promising to catch up more later.
A few weeks later, he caught himself daydreaming about his children, but something was different about them. Rather than the red hair of their mother, or his own green eyes, they instead bore the features of another. They looked more like kids he might have had with Hermione…
He shook himself from the daydream and got back to work. On that day, he first experienced the feeling. It was September 19th.