𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤 | Harry James Potter x Reader

YR 6 ☆•°~'* 12

"I see you, you see me, how pleasant this feeling
The moment you hold me - I missed you, I'm sorry."

❈🌠➵9¾♌ ⚯ 🗲━━━━━★. *･｡ﾟ✧⁺

On Christmas night, the Weasleys and their guests were sitting in the living room, which Y/N and Ginny had decorated so lavishly that it was rather like sitting in a paper-chain explosion. 

Remus Lupin had come over a few hours prior and was sitting with Tonks beside the fire. Harry, Ron, Fred and George were sitting in another corner, admiring the angel on top of the Christmas tree, which was actually a Stupefied garden gnome painted in gold. 

Over in another corner, near where Fleur and Bill were sitting, Y/N kept shooting furtive looks towards Harry who, even though he laughed at whatever joke Fred and George were telling, did not at all seem as enthusiastic as anyone else in the room. 

Y/N had made sure to avoid him carefully over the last few days, but without making it so obvious that anyone in the house who didn't go to Hogwarts would pick up their strange behaviour. 

Feeling as though he was being watched, Harry glanced around and his eyes fell on Y/N, who quickly looked away and engaged Ginny in a conversation. 

Fred and George seemed to be in the middle of an argument about haircutting, of all things.

'Who cuts people's hair in the middle of the night?' George was saying.

'I do!' exclaimed Fred, rather proudly. 'They call me the midnight barber.'

'Well, that's an infringement of people's liberties,' said George.

'Is it?'

'Yeah, so don't ever be doing that to me,' George warned.

'I do do it to you,' said Fred, matter-of-factly.

'What?' 

'Who do you think cuts your hair, Einstein?'

'My hair just doesn't grow very fast,' George replied slowly.

'What, you think it stays that length naturally?' said Fred. 'I'm in there in the night styling away!'

'How dare you do that to me at night when I'm oblivious,' said George, looking appalled.

'I do my best work when you're oblivious,' retorted Fred, grinning.

Ron roared with laughter and Harry sniggered. George was now examining his hair on the back of a spoon, picking strands at random and examining their length.

They were all supposed to be listening to a Christmas broadcast by Mrs Weasley's favourite singer, Celestina Warbeck, whose voice was warbling out of the large wooden wireless. Fleur, who seemed to find Celestina very dull, was talking loudly in the corner with Bill.

'Oh, come and stir my cauldron
And if you do it right
I'll boil you up some hot, strong love
To keep you warm tonight.'

'We danced to this when we were eighteen!' said Mrs Weasley, wiping her eyes on her knitting. 'Do you remember, Arthur?'

'Mphf?' said Mr Weasley, whose head had been nodding over the satsuma he was peeling. 'Oh yes... marvellous tune...'

'Anyone fancy a game of Exploding Snap?' George called around the room.

'Me!' said Ginny, getting up. 'Coming, Y/N?'

'Oh- no, you go ahead,' said Y/N, forcing a smile. 

'All right, I'm right there if you need me,' said Ginny and she went over to the corner where the twins, Ron and Harry were sitting.