Harry Potter sat alone on a small bench facing the Great Lake, as had become his normal routine.
Just four months ago, he had fought Voldemort and won. However, he had lost as well, he had lost his two best friends, and he had lost his girlfriend. Now, he spent his final days at Hogwarts studying and sitting alone, blocking himself from the company of others.
“Hi, Harry,” came a soft voice from beside him.
“Hello, Eloise, how are you?” Harry replied politely to the chubby, quiet girl next to him.
“Oh, I’m all right, you?” she asked, a slight blush on her cheeks as she stared at the ground in front of her.
“I’m fine, thank you.” Harry continued looking out at the lake, ignoring the girl next to him.
“Harry, may I ask you something?” Eloise’s timid voice broke into his haze of thought.
“Sure, what is it?” he tried to sound as nice as possible, but he wanted her to leave so he could be alone.
“Um, well, McGonagall restarted the end of school dance. It used to happen every year, but Dumbledore ended it to put more money towards protecting Hogwarts. Anyway, I know you don’t know me very well and that I am not pretty or anything, but I was wondering if you would go with me… or not,” she spoke fast, with her head pointed down at her hands as they tangled together.
Harry just stared at her. She wasn’t fat by any means, she was just chubbier than what most considered the norm for a young girl. She wasn’t ugly either. Her acne had long since cleared up and she had a sweet look to her. Slumping was her problem. She always had this defeated look about her, her shoulders sagged and her eyes were always downcast.
Eloise seemed to wilt more as Harry’s silence dragged on. With a sigh, she stood up and began to walk away.
“Wait, Eloise,” Harry called after her as he stood from the stone bench. “I can’t promise you I will be a good date or anything, but, yeah, I will go with you.”
A smile spread across her face, her soft blue eyes crinkling in the corners in a happy way.
“Okay, do you want to meet at the top of the main stairs at around seven o’clock the night of the dance?” she asked with the look of fear in her eyes, as though he would take back his answer.
He nodded and then turned to sit back down and stare at the lake again.
June 19th, 1998
Why did I say yes to her? Harry stood in front of his floor length mirror, fidgeting with the tie of his dress robes. His hair, of course, stuck out in every direction and his dress robes were lightly crumpled from storage. He could have calmed his hair a bit and with a quick spell, ironed his robes, but what did it matter to him how he looked?
Ever since he had accepted Eloise’s invitation, he had been kicking himself. He was going to have to spend the evening with another fanatic girl who just wanted to be seen with The Harry Potter.
However, she had seemed sincere about wanting to go with him, and she had never been in any of the “get Harry” groups of girls that seemed to flock after him wherever he went. Those girls were getting very annoying; he had gone as far as to cast a Confundus Charm on them just to get away.
Looking at his watch, he realized it was time to go. Straightening his infernal tie once more, he walked out of his dorm and out of the Gryffindor common room towards the main staircase.
He had been waiting for nearly half an hour for Eloise now, and he was about to leave.
“I am so sorry I’m late!” came a breathless voice from behind him. “Some of the girls thought it would be funny to hide my shoes.”
Harry turned to see Eloise standing a few meters away in a long pale blue dress robes with her hair pulled up in a messy bun. She looked flushed, as though she had just finished running a mile.
“It’s fine. You look pretty.” He offered his arm to her.
Deep scarlet spread across her face, as she hooked her arm over his.
Harry hadn’t been lying about how she looked, the blue of her dress robes was the same color as her eyes, and it set off her pale skin perfectly.
Harry was somewhat shocked she could look that beautiful; he was rather proud to have her as his date.
The two walked down the stairs and into the Great Hall, where the Summer Ball was taking place. The hall was decorated in light, airy colors with a small stage at one end, a large dance floor in the middle and tables and chairs set up near the entryway.
The night wore on, Harry danced with Eloise many times, and neither spoke much. They were dancing to a slow song when Eloise seemed tired of the silence.
“What will you do after Hogwarts?” She looked up at him, with an expression of curiosity on her face.
“I don’t know.”
“No idea at all? What about the planning we all did a few years back, did you have no idea then?” she prodded.
“I was planning on becoming an Auror. But, I think I have had enough of dark wizards to last me a lifetime.”
“Well, what do you like to do?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” he shot back, giving her an odd look.
“What are some of the things you enjoy, maybe you can figure out what you want to do from that,” she explained.
“Maybe.”
Silence filled the air between the two again as they danced.
“So, what are you doing after Hogwarts?” Harry asked, returning the question.
“I am going to work at a portrait studio, a magical one. I am a painter, so I am going to learn the trade from a few people there until…yeah that is what I am doing.” She looked down at her hand on his shoulder.
“Until what?” this time he prodded.
“Well, what I really want to be is a mum. So, I will stop working there when I have kids, and just paint for fun. Maybe sell some paintings from home,” she blushed as she spoke, as though she were sharing her deepest secret with him.
“That’s nice,” he replied, growing silent again now that he had returned conversation.
“Attention, everyone!” Headmistress McGonagall stood on the small stage with her arms raised to gather everyone’s notice. “We will be heading to the Great Lake now, for our memorial for fallen students. Please make your way to the lake.”
All of the students and professors made their way towards the lake shining in the starlight. Harry kept his head down and jammed his hands into his pockets.
On the lake, there were twenty-four little candles on what looked like flat floating stars. The candles were different colors to show which House the fallen student had been part of. Harry’s eyes never left three red candles that seemed to group together.
McGonagall spoke, all the candles were released, and they started to float away. Harry panicked. He didn’t want them to go away, he wanted them with him forever. While the other students and faculty turned back toward the school, Harry walked towards the lake.
“Harry, what are you doing?” Eloise asked, grabbing his arm to stop him.
“I can’t let them go. I have to have them with me…or I have to go with them.” He tried to shrug her hand off him.
“Harry, stop. They’re dead. They can’t stay here. Harry!” Eloise whispered into Harry’s ear, trying to pull him back from the water’s edge.
“You don’t know anything! You have no idea what I am feeling, and I am sick of people faking it and saying they do!” Harry turned on her, glaring down at her.
“You’re right; I have no idea what you are feeling or what you went through. But, I do know that they are dead, and you are alive. That didn’t happen for nothing, Harry. You are alive; there is a reason for it, even if you can’t see it. You can’t live like the dead or like they are still here. You must move on. You have to live,” she instructed him in her gentle voice.
Harry turned from the lake and sat down on the bank of the shore.
“Can you be honest with me, Harry?” she asked, sitting next to him.
“When haven’t I been?” he asked in return, giving her a look.
“How about the times I ask how you are and you say you’re fine, even when I know you are not fine.”
“Okay, you have a point, but will you be honest with me?”
“Of course, ask anything,” she offered, smoothing her skirt.
“Why do you want to be a mum?” he questioned, staring at her.
“What?” She stared back at him, not expecting the question. “Well, I guess I want to do it right. My parents are not bad people, but they should never have had kids. I want to be a mum so I can show a child real love, all children deserve that.”
“Why?” Upon her confused look, he explained more, “Your parents, why should they not have had kids?”
“My dad doesn’t know how to give praise, just criticism. When you do something right, he ignores it, when you do something wrong, you never hear the end of it. When I return home from school for the year, it isn’t, ‘Good grades,’ it’s, ‘Why can’t you be thin like the other girls?’ My dad never means to be cruel; he just doesn’t know how to nicely say…anything.
“My mum, she is a perfectionist. I am never good enough for her. No one is.
“When I have kids, they can be whatever they wish to be. They can be artists; I won’t tell them that only stupid people paint for a living, I will support them. If they don’t get perfect grades, I won’t put them down, but praise them for the things they do well and help them do their best.” Eloise wiped a few tears away as she finished.
“You sound like you will be a great mum,” Harry quietly said, looking at his hands.
“How are you?” Eloise asked, looking in his eyes when he glanced up at her.
“I…don’t know,” Harry’s voice cracked as he spoke. “I have been trying to just act like they are still here, but I can’t. No matter how hard I try. I wish I could go back and change time, but I can’t. I want to get over what happened, but I feel like I am forgetting them if I try. I can’t seem to do anything.”
Harry could feel Eloise’s eyes on him, but he didn’t feel like she was judging him or trying to get him to feel better quick and stop sulking. No, she was just there, if he needed her to be.
He broke.
Sobs racked his body and cried, as he hadn’t been able to do since the night they died. Eloise moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around him. Harry clung to her and cried against her shoulder.
They sat there for hours, after he finished crying, just talking.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
June 26th, 1998
During their last week of school, Harry and Eloise were inseparable. Harry started acting human again and Eloise stopped slumping so much.
Harry realized he liked her, maybe even the beginnings of more; he tried to ignore those feelings though.
“So, the train leaves in an hour. I can’t believe we aren’t coming back at the end of summer,” Eloise said as they walked their trunks through Hogwarts for the trip back to London.
“I know, it’s an odd feeling. However, we are adults now. Wow, that is even an odder feeling.” Harry shook his head at the thought.
Eloise giggled as they left the castle and got into a carriage.
“So, any ideas about you are going to do now?” Eloise asked as they settled down in a train compartment.
“I still have no idea. I do have money I can live off for a while, until I make up my mind. I think I may travel, go someplace where no one recognizes me.”
They both fell into a comfortable silence, Harry thinking and Eloise reading a novel.
Harry’s mind was on one thing, Eloise. His feelings for her had gone from nothing to him thinking about their future in less than two weeks, it scared him. She was sweet and caring, she would listen to him and not interrupt, then try to help in any way she could. He found himself wanting to talk to her and wanting to hear what she had to say, even about little things. Her soft and loving personality had touched him, and he couldn’t help but fall.
Around two hours later, the train arrived at the station.
“We’re here! Time to join the real world,” Eloise quipped, repeating part of McGonagall’s end-of-year speech for the students not returning.
Harry remained silent as they gathered their bags and headed for the exit.
“Are your parents coming to pick you up?” Harry asked as they stood on the platform.
“No, they aren’t happy about my new career, remember? So, I get to start my life all by myself.” She shrunk her trunk and put in her pocket.
“Not all by yourself - you got me.” Harry smiled.
“Thank you, Harry. That means a lot to me.” She gave him a watery smile and slipped her arms around him for a hug.
He returned the hug and held her tight.
“You know, I don’t know what I want to do yet, but I know something I want to try,” he said softly into her hair.
“What is that, Harry?” she asked, looking up at him, with her arms still around him.
“I want to try and see if I…I could, possibly, be the man that you pick to have those babies with,” he blushed from head to toe as he spoke.
She just stared up at him, with shock written across her face.
“I mean, I want to court you. See if there could be more…if you want to, of course,” Harry quickly added, never feeling so insecure in his whole life as he waited for her answer.
A smile grew on her face causing her eyes to crinkle in that happy way they did when she truly smiled.
“I think I would like to try that,” she softly replied.
With a big smile and a sigh of relief, Harry leaned down and gently kissed her. Pulling back, he stared down at her flushed face and leaned in to kiss her again.
June 19th 2006
Harry walked up the steps to his two-story country home; he had just finished a twelve-hour day and was ready to relax. He liked his job, but it could be tough at times, like today.
He was Quidditch referee. Today was the junior England tournament, and he had been on his broom non-stop, all day.
He opened the door and put his coat on the rack next to the door. He turned when he heard a squeal.
“Daddy!” A flurry of dark brown hair shot down the entryway and attached itself to his leg.
“Hey, princess, how are you?” he ask as he picked up his three-year-old daughter.
“I is fine, daddy. I missed you!” the little girl announced as she snuggled into her dad’s neck.
“I missed you too, Marianne.” Harry kissed his little girl on the forehead.
Marianne’s head popped up, a huge smile on her face; her eyes crinkled with happiness as her mothers did when she was happy.
Marianne relaxed back into her father’s arms and nestled her face into his neck once again.
Harry walked towards the kitchen, carrying his precious bundle of toddler.
He stopped at the doorway at the sight that greeted him.
How did I ever think her anything but beautiful? Harry thought as he watched his nine-month-pregnant wife stir a pot on the stove.
She wiped a strand of brown hair away from her face and rubbed her large belly, trying to calm down the baby inside.
“What are you doing?” he asked as he entered the room.
“There you are, I wondered what was taking Mari so long to fetch you,” she said, a soft smile on her face.
“Don’t ignore my question. Why are you up and cooking? Dobby is here to help while you are so far along in the pregnancy. You shouldn’t be on your feet for so long.” Harry walked over to the playpen on the other side of the room and gently laid his now sleeping daughter into it.
“I know, but the baby isn’t coming for a while, and today is special so I wanted to cook.”
Harry gave her a look and walked up to her, wrapped his arms around her then leaned and gave her a lingering kiss.
“You still shouldn’t be up for so long, it could hurt baby number two,” Harry reprimanded against her lips.
“You do know we are not naming him baby number two,” Eloise teased with a sparkle in her eye.
“Why not? It is a good, strong name.” Harry grinned. “Why is today special anyway?”
Harry walked to the table and started setting it as Eloise went back to stirring the pot of potatoes on the stove.
“Today is June 19th,” Eloise explained.
“Oh! Well, that clears that up!” Harry said sarcastically.
“Eight years ago today, we went to a dance together. It started this whole thing. We don’t normally celebrate that day, but I needed an excuse to get out of bed and do something with minimal nagging on your part,” Eloise said with a smile.
Harry walked up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her, cradling her belly in his hands.
“I love you. I thank whatever deity there is, everyday, that you asked me to that dance. You saved me. Without you, I would be dead. You have given me life again, a beautiful daughter and soon a son. There is no way I could ever tell you how much I love you and thank you,” he whispered in her ear.
Eloise turned around in his arms and looked up at him with tears running down her face.
“I love you.” Before she could say anything else, his lips descended onto hers in a passionate kiss.
When he pulled away, he had to smile. She flushed, as though it was the first time she had been kissed. That was something else he loved about her, she could still blush with a single kiss.
The two sat and ate, all the while talking about the last few years, the many years they had ahead of them and what they were really going to name their son.