Take Me To the Riot
I'm there; yeah I serve them,
The one with the empty looking eyes.
Come closer, you'll see me:
The face that is used to telling lies.
August 19, 2017
"Harry! Are you even listening to me?"
"Of course, Ginny," He lied easily.
She nodded, pleased. "Good. Now change out of those old jeans and clean up. Teddy will be here soon."
"Why should I clean up for Teddy? He comes over at least four times a week."
"You should always look your best, Harry." She said with a frown. "No matter who the company is.
He looked up at her briefly. Her appearance certainly mirrored this belief. With her hair flowing around her face without a hair out of place and her elegant, short black dress, Ginny looked as though she were getting ready for a photo shoot, not a family dinner.
"I've laid out your clothes," she added.
"Okay." He grumbled, heading in the direction of the stairs.
"Harry?"
He stopped on the stairs, not turning around. "Yes?"
"You haven't told me what you thought of my outfit."
"You look fine." He responded immediately, continuing up the stairs.
A green, silk dress shirt accompanied by a black tie and pants lay out on their bed, neatly pressed. A black, dressy robe with green embroidery floated magically along-side the ensemble. He frowned at the outfit, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. Ginny liked to buy nice things; liked to wear nice things, and liked her family to wear nice things. Flaunting of wealth always served to make him uncomfortable, so naturally Ginny's choice in his outfits never sit well with him.
He ran his hand over the fine silk, sighing deeply.
"Harry! Merlin, will you hurry up? Teddy will be here any moment," came the shrill cry from below.
Harry, grumbling, quickly dressed, foregoing the tie and robes and rolling up the sleeves of his shirt.
She'll just have to deal with it. I can't be perfect all the bloody time.
"Teddy's always late anyways," he replied belatedly as he walked down the stairs.
Ginny frowned at his appearance, but said nothing.
"Daddy!"
Harry grinned, scooping up his daughter in his arms and spinning her around. "Well, there's my favorite girl!"
She giggled. "Do you like my dress robes Daddy? Mummy bought them for me in France!"
Merlin, Ginny is going to spoil this kid rotten.
"You look beautiful; just like a princess." She beamed. He set her on the ground and watched, amused, as she flicked her hair over her shoulder and straightened out her robes.
"Will Teddy be here soon?" She asked hopefully.
"Lily's got a crush on Teddy!"
Lily spun around to face her eldest brother. "I do not, James!"
"Lily and Teddy, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"
"Shut it!"
"Lily. James. Stop fighting and come help your mother with setting the table. Harry, go check on Al. I have no idea where that boy has gone off to."
Harry looked around the room, feeling guilty for not noticing Al's lack of presence. Al had the ability to get lost in a crowd, to escape unwanted attention. In that way, he was very much like Harry.
Harry climbed back up the staircase and headed toward Al's room, knocking gently on the door as he reached it.
"Come in." Came the soft voice from within.
Al was sitting on his bed, hands in his lap, looking little a perfect little gentleman. He wore silk, emerald green robes, polished, brown shoes, and his hair, though usually as unmanageable as Harry's, was smoothed down with a liberal amount of gel.
Harry felt his heart well with pride.
"Teddy'll be here soon, kiddo."
Al nodded, then glanced up at Harry, his brown eyes shinning with something Harry couldn't quite define. "Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"What was your first day of Hogwarts like?"
Harry smiled, sitting down on the bed next to Al. "Still worried a bit about school, eh?"
Al nodded sheepishly. "Just a bit. James keeps telling me these scary stories."
"Al, you know you shouldn't believe a word out of that boy's mouth."
"I know." He paused. "Can you still tell me though?"
"Well, as you know, I grew up in the muggle world, so I had absolutely no idea what I was doing." Harry grinned. "Hagrid was enormously unhelpful in his helpfulness; he didn't tell me how to get on the train, just that it was at platform 9 ¾. So I wandered around the train station, asking around for 9 ¾, which of course made everyone think I was completely mad. I was at the point of giving up when I came across a rather large family of redheads, nearly all of whom were pushing trolleys."
James grinned. "The Weasleys!"
"Yes, of course. Molly, your grandmum, took pity on me of course, and helped me get onto the platform, though I must tell you how terrifying it was going through that wall the first time. I lost sight of the Weasleys and boarded the train, finding an empty compartment to sit in and feeling like a complete outsider."
Harry must have looked a bit sad, for Albus patted him on the shoulder.
"That's when your Uncle Ron barged into the compartment, looking utterly disheveled. He sat down and then started gaping at me. We were both fascinated with each other, really. I had a scar and he had a normal wizard lifestyle. We got along rather famously, as you can imagine. Ron was just about to show me a spell and then, Hermione barged in."
Harry couldn't help the large grin that spread across his face. "'Has anyone seen a toad? A boy named Neville's lost one.'" He mocked in a high voice.
Al laughed.
"Ron tried the spell, and of course, it didn't work. Hermione took the mickey out of him, naturally, and Ron, unsurprisingly didn't like her very much. She was rather high-strung in her early years, I suppose, and Ron couldn't appreciate her brilliance, and neither could I, for that matter." Harry's smile faded a bit. "I didn't become friends with Hermione until the troll incident, which you've heard all about. As horrible as it was, I thank Merlin constantly for that troll storming the girl's bathroom. I doubt I'd be alive if it wasn't for Hermione's help over the years."
"What about Mum? Did you meet her on your first day?"
Harry's brow furrowed. "Well, yes, I met her with the rest of the Weasleys. She didn't say anything to me. In fact, your Mum and I didn't start to become close until my 5th year."
"James said that some of the older years told him that everyone met their 'true love'," Al grimaced, "on the first day at Hogwarts."
For a moment, Harry pictured a young girl with rather large front teeth and bushy, brown hair bursting into his compartment.
"Hmm… maybe." He shook his head slightly, clearing his thoughts. "But then again, you meet most of the school on your first day of Hogwarts, and most wizards tend to marry someone they met in school, so that has something to do with it."
Al blanched. "I don't want to marry anyone! Girls are weird."
"Well, you might change your mind later, son."
"But Dad, Rose said-"
Harry raised his eyebrows.
"-Rose said that sometimes there's a difference between the person you marry and your 'true love'."
"Did she?" Harry swallowed, wiping his palms on his pants and avoiding Al's inquiring gaze.
"Yeah, is that true? Because I said that nobody would ever marry someone that wasn't best for them, and isn't that what a 'true love' is? Someone that's best for you?"
"Ah, well, I dunno, son."
"Did you ever know anyone who didn't marry their 'true love'?"
Harry grinned, rather weakly. "What's with all these questions?"
"Oh, it's just Rose was talking about it because-er-I was just curious, that's all."
A loud chime rang throughout the house.
Harry ruffled Al's hair, much to Al's displeasure. "Come on kiddo, sounds like Teddy's here."
Al jumped up, excited, and ran out of the room. Harry heard him thunder down the stairs. "Teddy! Teddy!"
He followed at a much slower pace, smiling at the sight of his three children jumping Teddy in their enthusiasm.
"Harry, is everything alright?" Ginny asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs.
No, Ginny, nothing's 'alright'. I'm trapped in a marriage, with a woman I don't love. I have to see the woman I do love everyday, without being able to touch her, to kiss her, to show any sort of affection for, because I know that if I do any of those things I won't be able to stop. And to top it all off, I feel a horrible guilt every time I think about her. So, no, everything isn't 'alright'.
"Yeah, Ginny." He replied with a false grin. "Everything's fine."
A/N: A chapter from Harry's point of view; we'll have a few of those.
For some reason, I'm having trouble with formatting; none of my italics are showing up, so I apologize for the excessive use of bold font.