Draw The Line

Last first day of school: Chapter 1

The day had come for Harry, Hermione, and Ron to get back on the train for their eighth year at Hogwarts, something that Harry was both excited for and dreading all at once. For one, Harry didn't think he'd ever be returning and that thought made him sad, but it also meant coming back to people who were sure to gawk at him.

After the war had ended, Harry had become a bit of a recluse. He stayed at the Weasly's house for the summer because while he technically had a house, he just felt that Grimmauld Place was a bit too cold and empty and much preferred the warmness of the Weasley's house. Because of his stay at their house for the summer, it meant he didn't have to go out much. This meant that the papers where going nuts trying to get interviews with him, crazy rumors started, mail from all over was showing up at the house, and when people got wind that Harry Potter was returning to Hogwarts the media had a field day. For this very reason, Harry didn't want to go back.

Just as Harry suspected, as soon as he stepped foot onto platform 9 ¾, he was swarmed by reporters asking questions in rapid succession and taking his stunned silence as answers and drawing their own conclusions. "The Savior Of the Wizarding World: rendered mute from trauma" was sure to be a headline on some article by midday. Luckily Hermione was much better at keeping her head in a swarm of reporters and managed to yank them all onto the train and in a compartment before it got too bad.

"You woulda thought he had a missing limb by the way they all looked at him! Parading around him like a spectacle like that!" Ron groaned as they sat down, drawing the blinds to the windows.

"That's what happens when you try to disappear for a couple months," Harry sighed, propping his head up with his hand, "sorry that you didn't really get to say goodbye to your parents, Ron."

"Nah it's fine, I'm sure they understand and we can write a letter when we get to Hogwarts."

"Hey guys," Ginny said, walking into the compartment, sitting down beside Harry, "you took off so fast I lost you in the crowd!"

"Sorry 'bout that," Harry said apologetically, "didn't mean to ditch you."

"Oh don't worry about it, I understand that you'd want to get out of there.

"Yeah," Harry responded feeling slightly awkward. It had been months since the war and he still hadn't asked her out again, it just hadn't felt right. Harry had thought about it, and in all honesty, he felt as though he didn't really ever like her. Sure, he cared about her, loved her even, but just not like that; which then got him thinking about other girls he liked and realized the only other one had been Cho, which had been a whole mess on it's own, and he felt as though he might have never liked her either. That had him thinking again and he wondered why he ever felt like he liked her and ended up with a whole other conclusion that he might have wanted to be with her simply because Cedric Diggory had dated her, which brought up a whole other existential crisis that he decided he didn't want to think about while sleeping on the floor of Ron's bedroom.

Even though Ginny never said anything and went on like everything was normal, he still felt awkward and felt as though he should really talk to her and give an explanation. But then again, what would he even say? "Hey, sorry I haven't asked you out again, but I don't think we should get back together because I think I might be gay"? Like hell if he was going to say that! Hell, he didn't even know what he was feeling! Sure, he never really liked any girls before, but he also never had any crushes on guys either... at least he thought not.

"I wonder how the dormitories are going to work this year as there aren't many of us coming back and the dormitories aren't made for eighth years too," Hermione said, coming to his rescue.

"Hmmmm... I haven't really even thought about that actually," Ginny replied, looking over at Hermione, "think you all will have your own dormitories? Or maybe the dormitories will expand?"