Hedwig stared at Harry for a long moment before grumpily turning her head away, but she stuck her leg out. Stuck to it was a roll of parchment.
“I’m sorry Hedwig, that was too abrupt of me,” Harry apologized immediately. Her displeasure was all too clear.
Harry stroked her back gently as he spoke soothingly to her till she finally agreed and gave Harry an affectionate nip on the ear. Harry smiled slightly as he pulled the parchment off her leg and unfurled it.
There were two letters on that parchment, one on each side.
The compulsively good handwriting was, of course, Hermione’s, while the letter that looked like a Hippogryph with arthritis wrote it was Ron’s.
Reading through both, Harry frowned. Neither had said anything of note. Only that they were currently a little busy and wouldn’t be able to write much over the summer. That they wanted to see Harry soon, and that they hoped he would stay out of trouble as much as possible.
Hearing that from Hermione was expected, Harry would have been disappointed if she hadn’t told him to stay out of trouble, but hearing that from Ron somehow felt like a slap in the face.
After having read those letters, Harry felt tempted to fly over to their houses and holler at them.
‘Fine, then!’ thought Harry angrily. ‘If that’s how you want to go about it, I won’t bother with you either.’
Harry balled the letter up and threw it into a corner of the room before slumping down on the bed.
He stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours before drifting off to sleep.
The next day, Harry woke up in a better mood than the night before. ‘Just because they won’t write to me doesn’t mean I have to spend all my time wallowing in self-pity,’ thought Harry. ‘At least I have Lily to look forward to today.’
Smiling lightly at the thought of the bright, cheerful girl, Harry walked out of his room to get his morning routine over with. The same annoying, painful routine that would either involve making breakfast for the most ungrateful family on the planet or cleaning some extremely unsavory place for no rhyme or reason.
‘Maybe I should just leave. I have enough gold in my bank at Gringotts,’ thought Harry, ‘not to mention, I have no reason to stay with these horrible people every summer when I know I can take care of myself just fine.’
Finally done with work, he would much rather leave far behind him. Harry rushed out of the house. Reaching the park she had mentioned, just as the clock struck ten, he saw her sitting on a bench, reading a book.
“Hey Lily!” called Harry, “sorry I made you wait.”
Lily looked up, and her expression brightened immediately. She waved energetically.
“Harry! It’s fine. I didn’t wait long.”
Harry took a seat next to her. He turned towards Lily as she spoke with a barely concealed blush.
“You know my aunt teased me to no end when I told her I met you yesterday.”
“Oh? Has Ms. Lily taken a shine to me, perhaps?” teased Harry.
“Oh har har, hilarious,” Lily replied with a snort. She watched Harry laugh for a few moments before her lips curled into a smile of her own, a small giggle escaping them.
“It’s nice seeing you smiling, Harry,” remarked Lily.
“What do you mean?” Harry asked quizzically.
“Well, you just seemed so down when I saw you yesterday. Not to mention, everything that happened last school term. I don’t think I saw you smile at all after the triwizard tournament finished,” she replied softly, watching Harry’s expression carefully.
Harry sighed and shook his head. “I was upset yesterday. Though the stuff that happened at the end of the triwizard tournament has been bothering me constantly, it’s not just that.”
Harry paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “I was in the thick of things. I know exactly what happened. I witnessed everything that happened, so shouldn’t I at least be kept in the loop?”
Lily nodded as Harry continued to speak.
“I’m not saying I need to be the first person to know everything that happens, but shouldn’t I at least be given some idea of what is going on?”
Harry’s voice grew more and more agitated as he spoke.
“At least, that’s what I thought would happen at first, but no. What happens instead is that I’m kept in the dark. I have friends who won’t tell me anything at all while they themselves seem to be in the thick of things and to top it all off, I’m stuck here with a family that would much rather pretend that I don’t even exist.”
Lily gazed up at Harry as he ranted, getting all his frustrations out. She placed a hand on his arm and caressed it lightly.
“It must really be hard for you. I know this might not mean much, but I’ll be here if you ever need any help, or even if you just want someone to rant to.” Lily said with a comforting smile.
Harry took a deep, steadying breath as he turned to Lily.
“You don’t know how much that means to me right now.” He said with a smile, “I might just take you up on that.”
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Lily smiled widely. “Anytime!”
“Though I have to say, Harry, you’re taking the whole Daily Prophet thing really well.”
“What Daily Prophet thing?” asked Harry.
“Uh… you know the one where the Daily Prophet has been saying that you and Dumbledore are liars and attention seekers?”
“What!” yelled Harry as he jumped to his feet.
“I’ll take it you didn’t actually know,” said Lily sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. “Don’t you get the Daily Prophet delivered, though?”
Harry heaved a deep sigh as he settled back down on the bench, a displeased frown hanging on his face.
“I have, though I haven’t really bothered reading it cover to cover. Wouldn’t anything important about Voldemort be on the front page, anyway?” asked Harry defensively. “Though I can’t say my aunt and uncle are too happy about me getting those newspapers.”
Lily flinched before continuing.
“Why? What could they possibly have against newspapers?” she asked, seeing Harry calm down slightly.
“Nothing against newspapers per se. They have everything against magic, though.” He replied. “They can’t stand anything they don’t consider normal and unfortunately, I don’t fall under normal.”
“Wow, they must be the life of any party.”
“Yeah, they’re a hoot and a half,” Harry replied, though his displeased demeanour showed no signs of relenting. “What have they been saying about me?”
“Well, they’ve been writing about you as if you were this deluded attention-seeker. They keep throwing in snide remarks about you. If some far-fetched story shows up, they would write something like ‘a tale worthy of Harry Potter’” said Lily delicately.
“Those ungrateful bastards,” cursed Harry.
“If it helps, my aunt and uncle feel everything is just a big smear campaign against you and Dumbledore, and I completely agree with them,” said Lily. She placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder and continued. “They’re probably doing this to make you seem like a liar and attention-seeker that no one will believe.”
“Why would I even want any attention?” Harry exclaimed, “I got famous for Voldemort killing my parents! I would much rather that never have happened!”
“I know, Harry” said Lily placatingly, “If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly happened at the end of the triwizard tournament?”
Harry heaved a sigh and leaned back before he narrated the events of that night. Everything was so clear in his mind that he felt like he had experienced it just the day before. He could recall even the most excruciatingly minor detail vividly, especially the more painful ones.
After he was done, Lily stared at him, slack jawed.
“That…” she started, but paused, trying to find the right words. “That was much crazier than I was expecting.”
“Yeah, well. Even though I lived through it, it’s still pretty darn crazy for me, too,” said Harry.
The two descended into silence, lost in thought. A few minutes pass before Harry opens his mouth again.
“Sometimes I wonder. If I were part of one of those old, powerful, ‘so-called’ pure-blood families, then would I still have to put up with all this? Couldn’t I just pull some strings and everything would just happen as I want it to,” mused Harry, a forlorn expression colouring his face. “Don’t get me wrong, most of them are full of horrible people, but at least life might have been much simpler in that situation.”
Harry turned to the side as he spoke. He watched as Lily’s face scrunched up in pain, then morphed into a frown and finally settled into sadness.
“It’s not better to be in one of those families, you know?” she said. “In most situations, the ones who get hurt the most in those families are the family members themselves.”
“What do you mean?” asked Harry.
Lily just shook her head with a sad smile, leaned back on the bench, and stared at the clouds passing by.
Unable to figure out how best to improve her mood on impulse, Harry took her hand in his and squeezed it lightly.
Lily turned a surprised gaze at Harry for a moment, before a sweet smile blossomed on her face. She entwined her fingers with Harry’s and squeezed his hand back gently.
They descended back into silence, though it no longer seemed as melancholic.