A Walk In The Dark
In the evening, Harry was reminded of dinner at the Dursleys with Aunt Marge. He had to concentrate on eating very hard, so as to block out any giggling or smooching noises, Ginny's voice drowning every feeble attempt at conversation with a shower of "Gildy, my dahling", and Hermione's voice being remarkably void of words… He could hardly stand it all.
"Bill and Fleur were absolutely tame compared to this", Ron muttered, and they agreed to finish quickly and take a walk until everyone had hopefully gone to sleep.
Ron, however, was called back by Mrs Weasley the moment they had reached the front door. "I've got something to talk about with you. Harry, dear, if you don't mind, please go ahead…"
As the door slammed shut behind him, Harry felt more miserable than he had in a long time, probably since he had left the Dursleys, and he would not have thought this possible before. "It's simply that they are relieved of their worries since Voldemort is gone. I have to start over again, too", he told himself. "I have just defeated Voldemort and my life needs a new goal… The insanity of this place just prevents me from finding it…"
He glanced at Krum through the window. Ginny's tinkling laughter could be heard. Harry's stomach clenched painfully, setting a stream of thoughts loose. Hadn't his goal been to return here and settle down with Ginny as soon as possible? After all, they had exchanged a promise at the wedding… His desire to be with Ginny had been extinguished completely, she had seen to that. All the tear-stained letters she had written to him, they were not worth the parchment they were written on.
He was still dreaming about Voldemort sometimes, but had come to accept this as something that would never completely fade from his life…
The Burrow had turned into some sort of a mad house, upsetting the safe haven he had always found here… Hermione… he could not even get started on Hermione and her betrayal. Once she left with Krum, things would probably settle down a little. There would only be Ginny and Lockhart around, and he felt he could handle them if nothing else was there to trouble him. And then, he would move to London with Ron, and they'd tackle their careers as Aurors.
Harry found that his stomach had not unclenched considerably, even though it did seem to improve whenever he hit a thought that seemed perfectly in tune with what he was truly feeling. Harry had found himself increasingly out of touch with his emotions for a longer period now. For example, Ginny's betrayal should have completely thrown him, even though she had revealed an entirely unknown façade of her character… but was he even shocked? Had he not expected something like this to occur? After all, what girl in her right mind waited for a man running of to defeat the most evil wizard of the time, to maybe never return?
It was probably why she had chosen Lockhart… After all, Gilderoy Lockhart had never set out on one single adventure himself - he had 'borrowed' greedily to become famous, but there was no danger of him setting his life on the line.
Harry smiled bitterly. For Lockhart, to come across a bottle of Youth-Returning Elixir! It did not matter that he had lost his memories; he could create new ones from a fresh start. Little though were the chances that his new life would be much different to the one he had led before…
It took Harry a while to realize that he was no longer watching Krum and Hermione, but that his feet had set themselves into motion, and were now soaking - he had walked straight through a puddle. He looked around… He was alone. The path he was walking had taken him into the middle of a field. Wheat spikes were towering over his head, and far above him, the sky stretched endlessly, punctuated by a few stars. If not for them and a last glow of the setting sun far away at the horizon, it would have been pitch-dark; light would certainly fade within the next hour. Should he return? But there was no need to at the moment, Ron might still be talking to Mrs Weasley, and the other - persons - present tonight cared little about him being there.
Lost in thought as he was, Harry only noticed the sound of feet asit suddenly died away and someone touched his shoulder. He jumped, and found himself face to face with one of the people he was least anxious to meet at the moment.
"Krum!"
"Call me Viktor", said Krum in a friendly tone. "We have been through so much together."
"Your English has improved", said Harry, in spite of himself.
"I have been training for Hermione", Krum answered proudly, watching Harry.
"That's, erm, nice…" Harry could not help peering over Krum's shoulder into the darkness, but no-one seemed to be there…
"I need to talk to you", Krum stated. "Let's walk a little further down this path…"
For one wild moment, Harry considered actually refusing and turning his back on Krum, but then, he merely nodded.
Five minutes passed, and nothing happened except that the sky went completely dark, yet neither of them lit their wands, as the moon had come out and the path was clearly visible. Harry wondered what on earth Krum might want with him, but Hermione's boyfriend remained silent.
Their path entered a wood, and so did they, muttering "Lumos" as darkness immediately swallowed them. Roughly another twenty minutes were spent in silence; Harry, however, had already forgotten that Krum was there. He enjoyed just walking wherever the path took them, slopes, bends, and even a few cross paths, on which the pair instinctively chose the same direction without so much as looking at each other.
Harry felt like he was floating along through the night in a bubble, but suddenly, Krum coughed, and the illusion collapsed with another start of Harry's. Krum said nothing, but pulled a bottle of orange juice, which Hermione must have given to him, out of his sleeve, and drank. He did not offer anything to Harry, whose throat was sore, but who would rather have chewed his tongue than asked Krum for the juice.