Harry was moving out. Him and Ginny were moving in together in a new and bigger space.It felt right and it was right but it was one of the first times he was asked to pack up memories. The first time he was departing not because he needed to escape but because he wanted to. He was in control of his life and future and now he had managed to make happy memories here. With friends, with people he considered as close as family.
Over the years he had learned a lot about what it meant to have people you considered like family, to have people you consider to be your support system.
And now he had what he hadn’t dared believe he’d ever have the right to hope for. Happiness and freedom. His life was still messy and all over the place but at least now it felt like he was going somewhere and he was finally able to make his decisions and was able to find a path for himself. Him and Ginny had been back together for a little over a year now.
They were moving closer to the city, it was easier anyway for the both of them, to be close to family and close to their works. Close to friends. They weren’t moving to anything too big. It was just the two of them, with too much space it would feel empty. They were moving into a place with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room. There was also a small office space that Harry was planning on using for work. He was on his way to become a teacher. He was going to muggle university. It was a new feeling of making friends with people who look and act like you but it was also the first time in a long time where he felt like he was allowed to be himself.A sense of normalcy.
Given that he wanted to become a Defense against the dark arts teacher, he wasn’t forced to take this course but it was something Harry had wanted to do instead of going directly from Quidditch player to professor
He looked past the mess on the desk in his room over to a little envelope and opened it to find a Claires bracelet and his eyes instantly lit up at the recognition of the little bracelet that Ginny gave him so many years ago during his first year at Hogwarts
Harry,
I was told recently that you’ve never made many friends and that growing up you never shared friendship bracelets. I wanted to give you one.
In hopes that we one day become friends,
Ginny.
He smiled, they had become friends throughout the course of the first few years. Becoming close, helping each other out. It grew into something more, that's how they had come to be today. Dating.It felt like nothing changed when it happened. It felt like a natural next step and it was messy at first but it felt right.
“Harry?” He turned to see Ginny in the doorway.
“Gin?” he replied as he turned around to the task at hand of deliberating on which of these letters to keep or not. Some from Luna, some from Ron & Hermione. Some from Cho. Cho and him parted ways when it became all too clear that the foundation of their so-called relationship was too fragile. They were really good friends now though.
“Look, I found this album.” She held up a small leather bound book that Harry recognized immediately as the album that Hagrid had given him at the end of his first year.
Ginny walked over to his bed and sat down and Harry suddenly felt like the world was too much to bear as he walked over to sit down next to her.
“Your parents?” She said as she turned to the page where James and Lily stood. Happiness flooding from the newly wed couple. Lily looked eerily like her sister. Harry recognized the same glint in her eyes, the same smile he had only seen once or twice on Petunia. Looking at James made him stop in his tracks the first few times he had seen a picture of him. They looked so much alike, it was a little like looking in a mirror.
He looked around at all the other faces in the photos and he recognized Sirius and Remus, he recognized Peter, he recognized Pandora and Mary wool looked exactly like their kids, Luna and Dean. Frank and Alice. So many faces most of which stood still be here but weren’t, taken away from this world too soon
“Yeah”he nodded and tried a smile
She looked up to meet his eyes “I’m sorry I probably shouldn’t have looked. Its something personal”
Harry brushed her off and managed a little more genuine of a smile this time as he put his arms around her
“It's fine, truly.You’d have loved them.” he said “We’d have loved them.”
She pushed him back a little to look at him and Harry found it hard to look at her, overcome with sorrow whenever he remembered that he never got to experience the joy of a happy childhood and overcome with the amount of love he had for Ginny and the desire to allow himself to be happy.To live in the present and continue to hope that the future would bring happiness. He looked up and met her brown eyes, that were so full of love and determination and strength.
“They’re not gone, not really” she whispered as she buried her head into his neck
“I’ve heard that a couple times” he snorts
“I’m serious, Harry. I know you know that they still live within you. Be easy on yourself okay?” There was an amount of hurt in her voice and Harry knew that it wasn’t always easy to be around. There were days where he wondered how many days were left until people decided it was too much to be around him.
“I’ll try” He wrapped his hands around her. Holding her close to him.
“It hurts a lot, when you refuse to see yourself the way that I see you. You’re loved and appreciated and you’re incredible. What do Remus and Sirius say they were like?” She held on to him refusing to let him let go as they at there on the bed in the middle of all of the memories and remaining pieces that were left of this room.
"That it was easy true love" Harry half laughed
"And you don't believe in that?" she raised an eyebrows as there eyes met
"No, I do. I do. The whole idea just seems a little out of place sometimes. They also said that Lily was a thrill seeker. Always pushing for adrenaline buzzes, pushing herself to the limit mentally" he smled at it because to an extent he was a little like that as well. Never understandig the full severity of a situation "She was very academically driven as well. Top of her class"
"And James?" Ginny seemed interested to know more about them.
"He had this subtle type of humour. He was the type of guy that could make you laugh when you least wanted to apparetly. He had a big heart, a little to a fault because it often led him to trust the wrong people. He was competitive too, a little snarky and abnoxious, Remus words. Lily loved to draw portraits, she drew her friends a lot, wether as a group or inidividually. She was pretty talented in that domain"
"And together?"
"Sirius and Remus claim they always knew it was going to happen. They brought out the best in each other. Never giving up on each other and challenging the other. They would of done anything for each other and for there friends and loved ones. They were determined that no one was to be left out."
. . .
After a couple more hours of boxing up his room, he took a break.
“You okay?” Harry turned around to look at his girlfriend whose hand was shaking as she tried to write her letter sitting at her desk her hair tucked behind her ear
“Yeah. It’s a little stupid but I’m writing a letter to your parents-“
“Ginny, they’re not going to get the letter” Harry rolled his eyes, trying hard to hide the sadness that talking about his parents invoked
“It’s just, I never met them and I felt like introducing myself. It’s god, it's dumb and I sound like a prick. They’re your parents you barely spent any time with them and I’m composing about not having any in laws” she put her head in her hands and Harry walked over to put her hands in his
“For the record. They’d love you if they ever met you. Sirius and Remus do. You’re incredible. And I don’t think you’re a prick for wanting them to get to know you. If anything I’m beyond grateful that you want to get to know them. They’re a part of who I am”
Truth is, Harry couldn’t see it any other way. His parents had always been full of love and there was just no way that they wouldn’t love Ginny, what was there not to love.
“Can I read it?” He smiled. She nodded and he picked up the letter
Dear Lily and James,
I didn’t really know how I wanted to start this but I love your son. Its stupid and cliche but I believe in true love and that's what he is to me. It feels like I’m falling in love again every single day.
We’ll never meet. You were taken from this earth far too early. A whole life ahead of you and it was crossed out. A life full of drive and memories.
I see your son in you. I see the way he continues to carry on your legacy every single day. I see the way that the power your love has left shaped him into the person that he is today.
I wanted to make this letter to hold myself accountable that to honor your sacrifice, we’d never give up on your son. We’d live the life you never got to have. All of us. We’d make happy memories and sad ones. We’d learn to appreciate the little things a little more. That not a minute of it would go to waste.
I'm passionate and determined to day by day make this world a better place. Determined to appreciate what's given to me. Learn to laugh a little more because staying in a constant state of depression won’t help anyone but learning that you can choose your own path, make your life whatever you want. Surround yourself with people that uplift you. Your son does that. He can be naive in his way of always choosing to see the best in people but I chose to think that it's a quality. I chose to think that were you standing here with us you would be proud of him and proud of us and how far we have come.
Ginny
Him and Ginny sat in silence for a little while. Both probably wondered how different life could be if they hadn’t lost as much during the war. If so many of the memories that they had made since were tainted with the disastrous aftermath of the war. It was painful and it was a never ending road of reconstruction and it felt like they would never make it out alive sometimes but being there for each other. Knowing they had each other helped ease the pain.
It was hard not to feel guilty sometimes because so many people had had to give up their lives for this new found freedom.
Harry remembered how falling in love with Ginny a few years after the war felt like things were suddenly becoming more clear. He stopped telling himself that healing was selfish because it meant that he wasn’t paying his full debt towards all of the people that had died in the war. He stopped believing that obtaining happiness was unfathomable because why should he be allowed to be happy when so many others were robbed of that. There were still days where he felt like it was all too good to be true but he learned to remind himself that he was allowed to be happy. Allowed to reconstruct himself piece by piece. It wasn’t selfish to do that right ?
“Do you ever think about how different life would be if you changed even one decision that you’ve made?”
“Yeah.” She looked up slightly puzzled before continuing to pick up different items from the floor. “Why are you regretting the decision to move out?
“No. It's not that I just started to wonder how many different variables had to happen for it to come to this. To us”
“Never. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me” He pulled her in for a hug. Letting himself savour the happiness of the moment
“Promise that when push comes to shove, you put yourself first.”
“Ginny-”
“I’m serious, I can’t lose you, not again”
“I promise you won’t lose me”