Azure

Happenings

I was a fool. But I know now what I was missing. And I've decided to fix it. There's a war and for some reason, I'm it's star, but now I know my own place and not what Dumbledore told me. I'm someone else.

The air had cooled when Harry stepped out of Madam Malkin's with a bag heavy with clothes. A goblin had glamoured him to be another, now  sporting dark   brown hair and hazel eyes, with his skin a few shades lighter.

Harry snuck behind the store and stuffed his ratty hand me downs in a trash can. He adjusted a gray T-shirt that wrapped around his torso loosely. The label read 'form fitting', causing Harry's cheeks to dust a slight red.

Fortescue was standing idly behind the ice cream counter, scooping spoons of ice cream and smoothing them back into their hole. Harry approached the counter and stared at the options. "Uh, what does Unicorn Imitation taste like?" Harry asked, glancing at the menu.

"Bananas," replied Fortescue lazily. "Wan' it? Three sickles. An extra Knut for sprinkles." He raised an eyebrow expectantly.

"I'll just take chocolate." He set down three sickles onto the counter and took his cone.

The seating was crowded in the evening. Lurid umbrellas covered all heads. Harry headed for the only empty table near the edge of the parlor. The seat was red with smooth holes dotted across, like the muggle ice cream shop he had been to where he licked at his lemon lolly in the basking heat of the sun on Dudley's 12th birthday. The chocolate that coated his lips was far better than the cheap lemon taste that Harry still regarded as one of the more joyous occasions of his life.

He thought of the last years.

How much had changed since he was that small boy who couldn't see a day past tomorrow? He looked at himself through memories. Innocent. He couldn't call himself that anymore.

Harry has looked the eyes of a murderer. He had forgiven a betrayer. Over the last years, he had discovered more sides to man than he had thought existed. Everything used to be so black and white, good and bad. Now there were intentions that opposed actions, and there was motive behind reason.

Sometimes he felt like he could shake hand with the dark. These moments happened alone in his bed when the night was darker than a thousand midnights. It was in his solitude when his thoughts were muddled in his dreams that Harry began to see the other side. He could see why Voldemort hated the wizarding world, and in those moments, Harry thought he could hate the world too.

Feeling like that was a traitorous thing to feel. He was supposed to be an ultimate  symbol of good.  But maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was more than what the public thought he was. Maybe... 

A nasal noise broke through the taste of the ice cream. There was a familiar "hem hem hem", and Harry felt his stomach sink at the girlish voice. He jerked his head up to see a slightly uncomfortable Minister Fudge and a sickly smiling Dolores Umbridge with her hand resting on Fudge's back.

"Little boy," she said with a ghastly smile that stretched the corners of her mouth in a bizarre twist. "Our Minister has decided to bless this table with his presence. Leave."

"Dolores, I'm not sure that's completely necessary," Fudge mumbled, but Umbridge swatted him away. She looked at Harry expectantly, her glare hardening by the seconds.

Harry Potter, Harry decided, would move. But I'm not Harry. Harry doesn't have these eyes or hair. Harry Potter was a fool.

I was a fool. But I know now what I was missing. And I've decided to fix it. There's a war and for some reason, I'm it's star, but now I know my own place and not what Dumbledore told me. I'm someone else.