10 Thing's I hate About You

Chapter 10

So this was it then; he was no longer a Hogwarts student, he was free and he had his entire life ahead of him... but he just couldn't be happy about that.

Harry looked to his right where all of his friends and fellow graduates stood conversing jovially; all except one, Draco Malfoy.

As Harry approached, Draco snapped out his thoughts and spoke, "So Potter, finally done eh?"

"Finally," answered Harry in a monotone, "How are you really, Draco? I know you wished until the last minute that Severus would show up..."

Draco clenched his jaw, "Can we just not talk about that? Besides, it's you that I'm more worried about... Are you really ready to leave the castle forever without seeing him once?"

"No, Harry!" exclaimed Hermione in a hushed tone as appeared at their side, "You promised not to and besides, the carriages are going to leave in 15 minutes."

"Tell me," said Ron joining the conversation, "why are we discussing this in the middle of the Great Hall surrounded by half the school? Snape will kill us if this gets out."

"There's nothing to discuss," said Draco, "You have to give it one last shot before you leave or you'll always wonder."

"He'll come to you if it's meant to be," countered Hermione.

"It's a difficult choice Harry but you've spent all year doing what everyone else says," said Luna, making everyone turn to her, "maybe this time you should do what you feel is right... what your heart tells you to do..."

"My heart tells me to go to him, even if it's just to say goodbye..."

Hermione appeared beside Harry and patted his shoulder, "Then do it Harry. I'm sorry, all of us are just observing from the outside, we have no idea exactly what you're going through... of course you deserve to see him one-"

Hermione stopped abruptly and coughed to cover up her slip but Harry continued, "-to see him one last time..." he sighed, "yeah I'm going to go now but I'll meet you back at the carriages yeah?"

"Sure mate," replied Ron.

Harry gave his friends one last nod and headed for the door.

"Mr Potter, I'll be expecting an owl from you soon."

Harry stopped in his tracks and turned to face McGonagall, "Of course Professor; there's just still some things I need to sort out first."

McGonagall smiled at him warmly before sending him on his way.

Harry raced up to Gryffindor tower and prayed that the house-elves hadn't taken their luggage to the train yet.

He almost fell over once he had entered the common room, tripping over the large pile of suitcases arranged at the entrance. Harry counted his lucky stars and immediately located his own. One of the house-elves looked at him suspiciously as he rummaged in his trunk for a few seconds, finally surfacing with a brown package before saying a hasty "see you" to the elf and dashing out again.

It was another mad dash to get down to the dungeons but once he reached Severus' door he stopped for a moment to compose himself.

It was the first time that he was here since last Christmas and he felt all sorts of feelings bombard him, but mostly the feeling of sadness dominated in washing over him. There was a dull ache in his heart and he felt as if he couldn't breathe but he was used to all of this, he felt it every single day.

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath; it wouldn't do to approach Severus in this state.

He'd finally regained some semblance of control and so he knocked.