A House is Not a Home
Title: A House is Not a Home
Rating: PG
Pairing/Characters: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger
Genre: Gen, drama
Word Count: 450 (150x3)
Summary: In the days after the Final Battle, Harry, Ron, and Hermione think about what home means to them.
Written for Round 2, Week 4 of genhp_ldws. Prompts=The weeks after the Final Battle
*~*
Hogwarts was the first place Harry felt he belonged, but he won't return in September. Nor can he stay at the Burrow forever. He knows it's time for him to move forward. After briefly considering moving into 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry decides against it. He feels the weight of too many memories there, and he's sure Sirius didn't intend for him to live there anyway.
Not long after the battle, Harry returns to Godric's Hollow, this time without a disguise. It feels good to walk the same paths his parents once did. If they had lived, he would have called this place home. He would have invited Ron and Hermione to stay over the summer. His parents had envisioned a life here, a life together, a life with him. Something sparks in Harry, something he would have never dared to dream before. Perhaps he could envision a life here too.
~~~
Ron has mixed feelings about being back home at the Burrow. He's grateful that he doesn't have to worry anymore; everyone he loves is safe under its lopsided roof. But even though the Burrow looks the same as it always has. Ron can feel that things have changed. It's still too quiet. Even the ghoul-who he had a hell of a time coaxing out of his room and back into the attic-seems to make less noise than usual. On his worst days, Ron worries that things will never be the same.
But one night, two weeks after the battle, George surprises them all with a streak of his old self by putting beetles in Percy's soup. Laughter fills the room again. It is then that Ron knows that, in time, everything will be okay. Not the same, never the same. But better. Ron clings desperately to that hope.
~~~
Hermione's house hasn't felt like home for a long time. As she, Ron, and Harry walk from room to room, preparing for when she brings her parents back from Australia, she realizes just how little time she has spent here since she first left for Hogwarts. She feels guilty.
She worries that she won't be able to find her parents, that she won't be able to recover their memories. Her deepest fear is that even after she's restored their memories they won't recognize the person she's become.
When Hermione enters her bedroom, it seems foreign to her, like someone she doesn't know lives there. But then Ron's eyes light up, and he jokes about her wall of books. Harry laughs, and her fears fade away. She had left here a year ago, fearful that she would never return. Against all odds, they succeeded, and she will this time as well.
Rating: PG
Pairing/Characters: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger
Genre: Gen, drama
Word Count: 450 (150x3)
Summary: In the days after the Final Battle, Harry, Ron, and Hermione think about what home means to them.
Written for Round 2, Week 4 of genhp_ldws. Prompts=The weeks after the Final Battle
*~*
Hogwarts was the first place Harry felt he belonged, but he won't return in September. Nor can he stay at the Burrow forever. He knows it's time for him to move forward. After briefly considering moving into 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry decides against it. He feels the weight of too many memories there, and he's sure Sirius didn't intend for him to live there anyway.
Not long after the battle, Harry returns to Godric's Hollow, this time without a disguise. It feels good to walk the same paths his parents once did. If they had lived, he would have called this place home. He would have invited Ron and Hermione to stay over the summer. His parents had envisioned a life here, a life together, a life with him. Something sparks in Harry, something he would have never dared to dream before. Perhaps he could envision a life here too.
~~~
Ron has mixed feelings about being back home at the Burrow. He's grateful that he doesn't have to worry anymore; everyone he loves is safe under its lopsided roof. But even though the Burrow looks the same as it always has. Ron can feel that things have changed. It's still too quiet. Even the ghoul-who he had a hell of a time coaxing out of his room and back into the attic-seems to make less noise than usual. On his worst days, Ron worries that things will never be the same.
But one night, two weeks after the battle, George surprises them all with a streak of his old self by putting beetles in Percy's soup. Laughter fills the room again. It is then that Ron knows that, in time, everything will be okay. Not the same, never the same. But better. Ron clings desperately to that hope.
~~~
Hermione's house hasn't felt like home for a long time. As she, Ron, and Harry walk from room to room, preparing for when she brings her parents back from Australia, she realizes just how little time she has spent here since she first left for Hogwarts. She feels guilty.
She worries that she won't be able to find her parents, that she won't be able to recover their memories. Her deepest fear is that even after she's restored their memories they won't recognize the person she's become.
When Hermione enters her bedroom, it seems foreign to her, like someone she doesn't know lives there. But then Ron's eyes light up, and he jokes about her wall of books. Harry laughs, and her fears fade away. She had left here a year ago, fearful that she would never return. Against all odds, they succeeded, and she will this time as well.