"Buried, almost tangible secrets filled the space between them, and so, without a second to think, she closed it."
The scars of war opened more wounds than Harry Potter thought possible. As he returns to Hogwarts for his eighth and final year, he le...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
for those getting the update notification: i totally changed the ending starting from "quite the bright witch you are."
everyone else, ignore this and ily
——————
The skies were getting darker, the wind colder, and the days shorter. Before long, all of the leaves had fallen off the surrounding trees.
The days flew by fleeting and forced; Hermione pressed schedules and homework on Ron and Harry that were obviously meant to keep them occupied and distracted from whatever depression she thought Harry had sunken into. She was much like Mrs. Weasley, who had convinced everyone in the Burrow to treat Harry like a severely ill person after coming home from the Battle of Hogwarts. It was very annoying to have Hermione fretting over him, practically shoving food down his throat, and pretending to be interested in Quidditch to get him to talk more, but he was still grateful. He would never admit how much he needed it.
Quidditch was going well; Annabelle had quickly proven herself to be an excellent choice for the team. She and Ginny had gotten along very well, though Annabelle never missed a chance to send occasional Bludgers in Ron's direction or spin energized circles around Harry and Meryn. Harry was proud of his decision to recruit her for the team: Annabelle brought a boost of energy to any practice she attended, no matter how early in the morning it was. No one seemed to grow tired of her, all except for Ron, who was definitely not a morning person around Annabelle and her unwavering energy.
Mornings were getting much harder for Harry. His classes were useless, yet professors flooded him with work. It took so much strength to get out of bed that Harry had been dragged out of his four-poster by Ron on multiple occasions.
One morning, when Harry had thrown a book at Ron for waking him up, Ron grabbed him by the waist and threw him surprisingly easily over his shoulder. Though Harry pounded at his back with his fists, demanding to be let down, Ron had carried him through the corridors and into breakfast like a lazy sack of pajama-clad potatoes.
It had taken fifteen minutes to get Annabelle to stop giggling, and when she finally had, they were met with surprising news.
It was delivered to the four of them by Dennis Creevey. After a brief, quiet conversation with Annabelle, he informed them that they had all been summoned into Professor Sweeney's office.
Harry, who was slightly apprehensive about his stern professor, greeted this news with indignation.
"It's seven thirty in the morning! Is she a vampire or something?" he asked angrily.
He was the only one not eating breakfast: he was too livid at Ron for being forcibly dragged into the Great Hall to eat. Annabelle was swirling her fork absently around the rim of her plate while Hermione jotted down extra notes onto her essay and Ron scarfed down a large plate of kipper.
