The Chosen One | Harry Potter

24 - ten months later

Y/N's POV

IT'S been ten months since I last saw Harry. Almost a year. And although I still love him, I've tried my best to move on. I don't know when I'll ever see him again. I don't know if I'll ever see him again. Some people think he's made a run for it, trying to save himself, but I know better than that. I know he's out there somewhere, trying to save us. 

Hogwarts isn't the same anymore. Snape is now Headmaster and Death Eaters roam the halls. Instead of Defence Against the Dark Arts class, it's been changed to teach us the Dark Arts. That's when Neville and I started leading a rebellion against the school. 

We restarted Dumbledore's Army to keep the hope going within the school. But it didn't take long for the Death Eaters to catch on to what we were doing. We got punished. Badly. But that didn't stop us. We kept going and when they figured that they couldn't get us to stop by hurting us, they went after the ones we love. 

My Dad died. They killed him. He didn't even bother putting up a fight. But luckily, Neville's Gran fought back, and she's been on the run ever since. Once they no longer had that against us, we knew we weren't safe roaming the halls anymore. They would kill us for sure. Pureblood or not. So now we've been hiding out in the room of requirement for the past month, with nowhere else to go, but we continue to hold on to hope.

A large group of us have been hanging around in here and currently Neville has gone through the portrait to Aberforth's pub. To do what, I don't know. But when I see him slowly approaching back to the room of requirement, I get to my feet.

He swings open the portrait and hops out.

"I got a surprise for you guys." he announces.

"Not more of Aberforth's cooking, I hope." Seamus chuckles.

Then my breath catches in my throat as I see Harry hop out of the tunnel.

*****

Harry's POV

As soon as I'm in the room of requirement, a girl is rushing into my arms. I hug her back, burying my nose in her h/c hair as I inhale the familiar and comforting scent of y/n, remembering all the sleepless nights, worrying about her safety. 

"You don't know why I listen to the radio, do you? To make sure I don't hear Ginny's name. Or Fred, or George, or Mum." Ron says. It's been a particularly frustrating week and we've barely made any progress recently so all three of us are on edge.

"You think I'm not listening too? You think I don't know how this feels?" I question.

"No, you don't know how this feels! Your parents are dead! You have no family!" Ron yells.

"And y/n? You don't think I don't think about her every passing moment of every day? I lay down every night thinking about her, wondering if she's safe. Wondering if I did the right thing, breaking things off to protect her. But maybe that wasn't enough, because if they were to find out our history, they'll use it against me. They'll hurt her. They'll hurt the woman I love just to get to me. So yeah, I do know how it feels." I say, getting frustrated.

I let out a sigh, snapping myself out of the painful memory, grateful to be reunited with y/n once again and to know she's safe and in one piece. She finally pulls away and Cormac is the next person to approach me, shaking my hand. "Glad to see you back in one piece, mate." He says seriously and I watch as he encircles his arm around y/n's waist, pulling her closer to her side.

I watch as she looks up at him, smiling like how she used to smile at me when we were together. My gaze flits between the two of them as I raise an eyebrow at y/n in question. Cormac notices. 

"We should probably talk." He says, directing his words at me, before planting a kiss on y/n's temple and then pulling me over to a corner to chat. 

"I guess she's moved on then." I comment once we're out of earshot of everyone else in the room. I can see y/n watching us with worry clear in her voice, for what Cormac is about to say to me, or what she thinks I might do to Cormac out of jealousy, I don't know. But I give her a small reassuring smile just in case to let her know that I'll be all right and I won't do anything stupid.

"Yeah. She did. But don't get mad at her. I know you've been off doing something. What you were up to, I have no idea but y/n insisted that it was important. But despite that, you have no idea how hard it's been for her. You've been gone this whole time, and some nights she would cry herself to sleep because she thought you were dead. She didn't know if you were coming back. But I was here for her." He says, but he's not done.

"When they tortured her everyday at the beginning of the year to find out about your whereabouts, she didn't cave. She took the torture and pushed through it. But you weren't here for her. I was. She rebelled against the death eaters here to try and help your cause. She was prepared to die for her rebellion and they were ready to kill her. But I was here to protect her from the pain and the nightmares. You were nowhere, off on your little scavenger hunt or whatever the hell you were up to." Cormac rants.

His words cut deep, stinging and stabbing right into my heart. But I know he's right. I broke up with her to protect her and I didn't even succeed at that. I wasn't here for her when she needed me and maybe this time I've lost her for good.