Life Goes On- The Third Chapter

Chapter 1

Harry sat at the table, clutching a mug of coffee. His hair was more dishevelled than usual, and there were rings underneath his tired green eyes, due to the fact he had woken in the middle of the night.

It had been a while since the divorce. Two, three years. And Harry had barely had a full night's sleep since. He kept having dreams- well, nightmares-  and he always woke.

Not with a pain in the old lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, though; a pain in his heart.

It killed him to think of her. He missed her like hell, and the fact that she was happy- without him- while he was here, living in misery and heartbreak, made it worse.

It had been terrible just after the divorce; reminders were everywhere. The Daily Prophet's headlines screamed of how the Boy Who Lived's marriage had died. People murmured as he passed; well, that much, he was used to.

Over the years, his eyes had become dull; the familiar glint was long gone, and the constant rings caused by the nightmares underneath them made him look prematurely old.

The nightmares had been getting better. He'd had a week of full night's sleep, and he'd thought that maybe, they were gone; but then he'd had another one. It had been terrible.

Ginny had been there, arms stretched out in welcome as he came home from work. Then, he was there. Blaise. He'd drawn his wand, so had Blaise, and they'd duelled. He'd woken just as Blaise prevailed, and was pointing his wand at Harry, who lay on the floor, frozen in place. He'd turned his head and saw Ginny, who looked gleeful, before he jerked into consciousness.

He supposed the dreams were so terrible because of how they portrayed Ginny. The dream Ginny was nothing like the Ginny he'd known, the Ginny he'd loved. And he hated that his subconscious portrayed her like that.

Because after the divorce, Ginny had insisted that they stay friends. She had practically begged him to stay in her life. Blaise had seemed to have other opinions on this idea, but he stayed quiet. If Harry was to be completely truthful, he'd hoped that Blaise would argue with Ginny about it, and they would separate.

Harry downed the last of his coffee, and ran a hand through his hair. The clock read four am, and he sighed. He might as well try to get a bit of sleep before he went to work. Leaving his mug on the table, he shuffled off to the bedroom.

~

People buzzed around him, chattering to each other. Harry was distant from them all. It was like they were from a different planet; he just didn't care about their mundane conversation. He kept his eyes on the floor, trying to ignore the occasional flash of a camera.

There hadn't been much news lately; so Harry had been in the paper every day for about two months now. But the story about his divorce with Ginny was getting a bit old now, from ceaseless reporting, and he was getting so sick of seeing his picture on the front page -eyes downcast and generally looking miserable- that he didn't read the Daily Prophet anymore. Not that he'd ever been a big fan of it.

"Harry!" He heard a voice calling his name, and he jerked slightly out of recognition, but kept his eyes downwards and his feet moving.

"Harry!" The voice called again. He sighed, slightly annoyed, know that the owner of the voice wasn't going to give up. It was a female's voice, probably a junior reporter, wanting some news.

But he frowned slightly as she called again. She sounded familiar somehow; but it wasn't a voice that he heard every day. In fact, he hadn't heard her voice in years. He turned, and saw her standing there, her face flushed from running to catch up with him.

"Oh, uh, hi." He mumbled, allowing himself a small smile.

She beamed at him.

"Hey, Harry."

A/N:

Like it? Hate it? Tell me, I really want to know.

Yes, this story is about Harry, after his divorce with Ginny. I had a request from a reader and got an idea, so yeah. It's not much of an idea and probably really predictable, but I'll try to make it interesting.