@sizeisnoguarantee | continued from (x)
Being around so many people can be so exhausting. Especially when the thoughts of who should be celebrating with them keeps slipping through his mind. At least he isn’t the center of attention. It helps when it’s a day dedicated to Hermione and Ginny. He’s proud of them, for graduating. It couldn’t have been easy with all the changes at Hogwarts. Hermione, without Harry or Ron for the first time since the troll. She’s seemed breathless all night, standing close to Ron in a way that makes Harry remember all the changes since the war. He knows how important education is to her.
He's spent part of the night watching Ginny, trying not to linger too closely near her. The other part catching up with people he hasn’t seen in a while. Earlier, Luna talked wrackspurts and it was the first time in a long time that his smile came easily. But he can’t deny the feeling of relief as the Burrow starts to clear, only the Weasley’s left over, saying their goodbyes. And he catches her eye, something unspoken between them as she jerks her head and he knows what she means.
Hermione’s eyes are knowing as he hastily makes an excuse to retreat, waiting a few minutes before he follows Ginny up the stairs to her room. She’s left the door creaked open for him and he stops in front of it, hesitating. There’s so much he wants to talk to her about — the words swarming through his mind over the past six months. But now that he’s here, it’s like they’ve all floated away, leaving him with a nervousness that makes sense and an anger he can’t quite explain.
He pushes the door open and sees her sitting on the bed. It’s dark — she hasn’t turned on any of the lights — but the moon streaming through the windows hits her hair and leaves a halo around her figure. Harry’s glasses shift down on his face as he looks at the ground, the thing that’s been bothering him the most coming to his lips.
They’d slept together and she’d just left. For the first time, he wonders if that’s how it felt to her, being left behind as he ran off to hunt Voldemort. He sighs and pushes his glasses up. Moves to sit next to her, not quite touching, but close enough that he could if he wanted. This is only the second time he’s been in this room. ❛ Do — do you regret it? ❜
