DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter and his universe belong to JKR…the `boys' are mine! LOL
Hope you enjoy. Reviews are always welcome!
(Note: the use of the word `mom' is intentional in this story. It is not spoken by Harry.)
{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}{+}
Old Man Potter
"They say he's like 130 years old, Kenny" the young boy whispered to his friend as they watched from a distance as Harry Potter tinkered with an old car.
"No way," Kenny whispered in reply, "no one can live that long, Roger."
Roger crossed his arms and frowned. "That's what my mom said, and she never lies to me," he whispered sternly, his voice rising a notch.
"It's true, Kenny," Ralphie, Roger's twin brother, whispered fiercely.
"Go ask him then," Kenny challenged. "I dare you to go ask him. He's gonna tell you the same thing. No one can live to be that old."
"Fine," Roger said, grabbing Kenny by his shirt. "But you're coming with me so you can hear the truth."
Roger stalked forward as fast as he could, practically dragging a frightened Kenny behind him. Ralphie walked behind Kenny, pushing him along whenever he felt it necessary. Kenny fell to the ground and Roger and Ralphie grabbed his arms and pulled the struggling boy to his feet.
Harry Potter turned when the noise of the boys' wrestling reached his ears. He started walking slowly toward them. "What're you boys doing here? What do you want?" he nearly shouted, startled by the sudden intrusion.
The boys froze where they stood. Three sets of eyes staring wide and unblinkingly at old man Potter. Roger took a deep, shaky breath, and with a determined look, he stepped forward, closing the distance between them. "Hi, Mr. Potter," he said, his voice shaking with uncontrollable fear. "We were uh…" he turned to look at the other two boys who had not made a move to follow him, he jerked his head in their direction and stammered on breathlessly, "we were wondering, um, how true the uh, the rumors were."
Harry stared at him quizzically. "Go on," he said gruffly.
The boy looked surprised. He'd expected a `go on, get outta here,' not a `go on' finish your question. He suddenly felt emboldened. "My name's Roger, and that's my twin brother Ralphie, and our friend Kenny," he said, pointing to the boys behind him. "We were just talking about the rumor about how um," the boy hesitated and dropped his head in embarrassment, knowing his mom would skin him if she knew he was about to ask an adult his age.
"You wanna know how old I am." Harry stated evenly.
Roger looked up at him in surprised relief. "Uh, yeah. Yeah, actually, that is what we wanted to know. Kenny here doesn't believe that you're 130," he said, pointing directly at the boy who now stood nervously by his side.
Despite himself, Harry laughed, the sound foreign to him after so many years of having nothing to laugh about. "130, huh? Do I look that young to you, boy?"
"Do you…huh?" Ralphie asked. All three boys stood staring at him in disbelief.
"I said, do I look that young to you?" Harry repeated, amusement evident in his deep green eyes.
"That…that young?" Kenny said incredulously. "That's…130…well, that's not, not young, is it?" He looked between his two friends and was relieved to see their expressions were similar to his.
"Well," Harry replied thoughtfully, "that might depend on how old you are, right?"
The boys' eyes grew surprisingly wider. "O…older?" they stammered together.
Harry looked skyward and then closed his eyes. "Boys, I remember my 130th birthday well," he said, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he thought back on that time with a smile. "Nearly 20 years ago, it was."
The boys dropped down to the ground and put their fingers together, trying to calculate how old that would make him now. Roger spoke up first, "You mean you're…" he gulped audibly, "you're almost 150?"
Harry laughed, it felt good to laugh, it reminded him of days long since past…of days when she was still with him. "Almost," he said softly, his mind still wandering backward through time.
"You don't look as old as my grandpa," Ralphie quipped. "How come you don't look so old?"
Harry looked momentarily taken aback and at a loss for an answer. "Well, guess I just inherited good genes, huh?" he said, feeling good about his quick thinking.
"Wish I had them jeans," Ralphie said, eyeing Harry's pants. "I'd give `em to my grandpa for sure."
Harry couldn't contain the boisterous laughter that erupted from within him. "I'd give `em to you if I thought it'd help," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes. It'd been a long time since he'd laughed like that, he'd forgotten how good it felt. He took a few deep breaths and looked up to sky; he closed his eyes and nodded his head as though he was speaking with someone unseen. Another chuckle escaped him and he opened his eyes, continuing to stare upward.
"Mr. Potter?"
"Hmm?" Harry replied, looking down only long enough to acknowledge that he'd heard someone speak, before looking skyward again.
"What are you looking at when you do that?" Ralphie asked, his voice softer than it'd ever been.
Harry sighed. "I'm looking up to heaven, son."
"Do you see anything?"
"Oh yes," he sighed. "I see something. The most beautiful sight I've seen in all of my life."
"What is it?" Ralphie asked. He, like the other boys, was looking to the sky, wanting to see the most beautiful sight Mr. Potter had seen in nearly 150 years of life.
Harry looked at them sharply. The boys' eyes caught his and they shifted uncomfortably in their places on the ground, but not one of them looked away. Harry smiled at their show of bravery. He returned his gaze to the heavens. "I see my life up there, boys. My beautiful Hermione…my wife."
"When did she die?" Kenny asked softly. "My grandma died last year. We were all really sad, my grandpa the most."
Harry looked at each of the boys in turn and asked, "You boys want to hear a story?"
The boys nodded eagerly.
Harry sat down on the ground before him as though he wasn't a day over a wizard's 100 and the boys looked at him in surprise. "My grandpa can't do that," Ralphie said, his eyes wide with surprise.
"Yeah," Roger confirmed. "He can't sit on the ground at all. He sat down with us once to play a game and he was stuck there for nearly two hours before our mom came home and picked him up. Can you get up or will we have to help you? Cause we're pretty good at it now if you need us to."
Harry jumped up to his feet. A little slower with his age but still quite spry, all things considered.
"Whoa," the boys said together. Ralphie looked at Roger with wide eyes. "We gotta find some of them jeans," he said incredulously.
"All right," Harry said, sitting back down on the ground. "You ready for that story?"
The boys all nodded again.
"First off, how old are you boys?"
"We're nine," Roger said, pointing between him and Ralphie.
"I'm eight, nine next week," Kenny said happily.
"Nine? Well boys, would you believe me if I told you that I met the love of my life when I was only a couple of years older than you are right now? Met her when I was eleven."
"Really?" they asked incredulously. "We don't even like girls yet. You suppose we will when we're eleven? Ick!" Ralphie said, looking at Roger and shuddering. Roger nodded his head fervently in agreement.
"Well, I didn't know she was the love of my life at the time. It happened gradually. Want to hear how we met?"
At their nods, Harry continued. "Well, it was my first time on a train. I was leaving my house to go away to school. I was sitting in a compartment with another boy, Ron, who would become my best friend. The door opens and this bushy-haired, bossy little know-it-all girl comes barging in," Harry paused as the boys laughed.
"Aren't all girls bossy know-it-alls?" Kenny asked. "I know my sister is."
"Not all girls," Harry replied, smiling. "And sometimes, first impressions aren't always right. Remember that," he said, looking at each of them in turn. "Now, I knew there was something special about her the moment I saw her. Can't tell you what it was, don't really know myself, but I liked her right away and I remember hoping that we'd be friends. My friend, Ron, kept telling me over and over how much of a pain she was and, well, since I'd never really had any friends before him, I just sort of went along with what he said and I avoided her, was rude to her, that sort of thing."
"Our mom says that's how you can tell a girl likes you. Figure it goes both ways," Ralphie said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, I didn't like her in that way for a long time. The boarding school we went to was a seven year school. I didn't realize I had a crush on her until the end of our final year…when I thought I was going to lose her."
"Lose her?"
"She had a different boyfriend at the time. He lived in another country and she was planning to move there as
soon as possible after school ended. As the time drew nearer, I realized I couldn't just let that happen. So, just
before she boarded the train, I pulled her aside, and I took my chances on telling her I loved her."
"What happened?"
"She slapped me," Harry said, chuckling and raising his mindlessly to his cheek. "She smacks pretty hard too. Always did have a good right hook."
The boys giggled. "What'd she do that for?"
"Said I should've told her sooner and that it was too late for all that. Told me I'd just have to learn to live without her because she was going regardless. I was devastated…I walked away without another word and without a backward glance. She boarded the train, and she was gone."
"But she came back?" Ralphie asked hopefully.
"Course she did, Ralphie," Roger said, swatting his brother's arm. "He said they got married, `member?"
"Oh yeah," he said, looking relieved.
"She was gone for about a week and I couldn't get her off my mind. I made the decision right then and there that I was going to find her. I had to see her one more time…I just prayed it wouldn't be the last. I packed my bag and ran straight for the train station that very afternoon. I bought my ticket and began searching for my train. Behind me I heard someone scream my name, "Harry!" I turned around and the next thing I knew, she was in my arms. Kissing me ("ick," the boys said, exchanging disgusted glances), hugging me, and laughing through her tears. It was the first time in my life I could remember crying out of sheer joy. We were married less than a month later and we were together every day until the day she died." Harry's eyes were glazed as he thought back on that day and everything that'd happened to them since.
"How long is that?" Roger asked. "How long were you together?"
Harry closed his eyes and attempted to swallow the pain. "We've been married for 132 years, 121 years when she left this place for heaven. This September 1st, it'll be 139 years since we first met. See that old car over there?" Harry asked, pointing to the car he'd been tinkering with when he'd heard the boys approaching.
They nodded.
"That's the last gift she gave to me. We were planning to fix it up. We don't know a lot about cars, but we were determined to make it work. The fun was in doing it together."
"So what you been doing since she…died?" Roger asked hesitantly.
"Missing her. Spending my time thinking about her, hoping time would show me mercy and let me go so I could join her."
"Do you have kids?" Kenny asked curiously.
"No kids," Harry said, regret for long past mistakes, etched in his voice. "I was a bit famous at the time we were married. We both were, really. We made the decision to not bring children into the chaos that was our lives. Didn't think it would be fair to burden a child that way. We lived in the middle of it, unable to escape, until the time came we couldn't take it anymore and we were finally able to disappear. Came here," he said, looking around. "She was a smart woman. Wasn't anything my Hermione couldn't do once she set her mind to it. We built this house together…every nail, every piece of wood was hammered, cut, and set in place carefully with the knowledge that this would be our home, the place where we would grow old together, side by side. She was an amazing woman."
"What about that car?" Ralphie asked, pointing toward it. "What were going to do with it once you fixed it up?"
"Go on a date. I wanted to take her to the drive-in movie. We didn't need more than that. It was the simple things that made us happiest."
"So what now?"
Harry looked heavenward. "Now," he said softly, "now I fix up that old car and I drive it…right through the gates of heaven. And when I get there, I'll pick her up proper and we'll go anywhere she wants to go. Hopefully, there'll be a drive-in movie in heaven."
"But why a drive-in movie?" Ralphie asked curiously.
Harry smiled slyly. "Always wanted to kiss her with the top down, an old love story-the kind she liked so well-playing in the background," he said. He smiled up at her and winked, knowing she was always watching.
~*~The End~*~
A/N: I know that drive-in movies are few and far between these days…but I'm imagining how great they'll be years and years from now. Just because we see so few of them doesn't mean we can discount them in the future. Most everything seems to cycle back around at some point. I'm standing by my drive-in movie date! LOL (Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt Lady_Starlight. ;-) )
-->