It is our choices (A Harry/Severus friendship fic post DH) (Watty Awards 2011)

Chapter 6- I can't shut myself away

Author's note: There are many reasons why i dedicate this chapter to TraceSukirata. I always look forward to his comments for they are long and a running commentary of his reactions as he reads. That's really awesome and enjoyable for me to read! He also has sad that he wishes this fic was the next Harry Potter book! Thank you so much for feeling my story is good enough to be a part of the Harry Potter series JK Rowling created! Please take note that this is quite a long chapter. Nevertheless, i hope you still enjoy reading it!

Chapter 6- '...I can't shut myself away...' 

18 years later

"Tomorrow I'm going to Hogwarts, tomorrow I'm going to Hogwarts, tomorrow I'm going to Hogwarts..." 

"Daddy, this isn't fair, I want to go to Hogwarts!" 

"You will in three years time Lily, so while we wait why don't we try to help James pack?" Harry suggested kindly, realizing that something as boring as packing would never deter his daughter from James' chants. 

"Tomorrow I'm going to Hogwarts, tomorrow I'm going to Hogwarts-' 

"James, I know you're excited but you really should continue packing, sweetie." Ginny had entered the room shocked that her husband and children had made so little progress with the packing. "Your father is trying to do the best he can, but he doesn't know what you want to take." 

James ceased chanting and began to help his dad, still humming the tune under his breath. 

Finally, James' trunk was packed and sitting next to the door, ready to be levitated down the stairs the following morning. 

"Mum, Dad, can you tell me about Hogwarts again?" James asked, getting into bed, his little sister still congregating nearby. 

"You are going to see the castle for yourself tomorrow, James. Why don't you wait and see for yourself?" Harry reasoned with his eldest son, knowing too well that such reasoning was fruitless. 

"Please, Dad just once more," James begged. 

"Please, Daddy; I want to hear it too." 

"And me," said Albus who had just walked into his brother's room having finished brushing his teeth. 

Harry and Ginny looked at each other and smiled. They had lost track of how many times they had told the 'Hogwart's story' to their children, but enjoyed telling it all the same. Nevertheless, they were a little surprised that their children weren't sick of it yet. Both of them silently knew that this story, though exciting, was nothing compared to the several other things that happened to them whilst at Hogwarts, but they always told themselves that the children were still too young to know everything about their past. 

"Well, Hogwarts is a magnificent castle full of surprises and secrets. When you sit down for meals, the food appears by magic and has an endless supply (Harry thought that telling his children that house elves in fact made the food would take away some of that magic). Sometimes you'll see the house ghosts floating around and if they fly through you, it doesn't hurt, but feels like you've been dunked into a bucket of ice." Lily shivered. "There are so many paintings on the walls that you could probably just sit all day and watch them run in and out of one another's frames, talking to each other, playing cards or having tea. Hogwarts is so big that sometimes you get lost, especially when the staircases decide to play a trick on you early in the morning and change direction or otherwise all the stairs disappear and you simply slide down." 

"That would be so much fun!" Albus exclaimed. 

"Well normally it would be if you weren't carrying a bowl of ice cream at the time," Harry explained, grinning broadly at the memory of Ron's expression when he walked into Gryffindor tower covered in icecream back in their fourth year.