Silver Claws [Drarry] ✔

Chapter 1: We've all changed

  Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating their food (which was pretty delicious seeing as the welcoming feast always had delectable food), and chatting with Ginny and Neville. Everything seemed normal.

  The Sorting Ceremony had just ended but there were never less students to sort.

Professors were eating and chatting at the Head Table but they weren't the same people that Harry and the rest of the students knew. In the middle, in the chair where Dumbledore sat, a new person was sitting, McGonagall. On the left side of the table there was no sight of black, greasy hair, because Snape was no longer with them. There was no Trelawney either. There was so many changed faces at that table; a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, a new divination teacher, a new Muggle Studies professor... but there was some old faces too. Like Flitwick, Slughorn and Hagrid.

'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' Harry thought bittersweetly. He pried his eyes from his food and glanced over the crowd. A lot of people were missing.

  But he couldn't think about that now. He must be happy. If not for himself then for Ron and Hermione. He need to fight back to all thoughts that were running in his head lately.

  Sentences, pictures, scenes, thoughts... he wanted them to leave him alone, to let him live just for one day. To tell him that everything is fine and that the Battle of Hogwarts hadn't happened, that all of his friends were still alive, that he had a family, that he was just a normal boy....

  He wanted to be nobody. Someone that people don't recognize in the streets, someone who had parents and little sister, someone who could invite their friends over, someone who could have a girlfriend, 'or a boyfriend...' Harry mused, without a fear that their feelings weren't real and that the person liked him just because of his name. He wished he was someone else, not someone famous, someone happy.

But he wasn't. He was Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, the Savior of the Wizarding World. Famous boy who lived in a cupboard under the stairs at his aunt's and uncle's until he was 11, and then he was given the mission to save everybody. And he did it. He saved the whole fucking world! And all he wanted was a normal year. Just one!

"Are you okay, mate?" Ron asked Harry and put his hand on his back. While Hermione gave him a worried look.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Harry muttered forcing himself to put a piece of grilled chicken into his mouth. He didn't feel like eating. "I just have a headache."

"We could go to the hospital wing if you like? To get some potions for that headache of yours" Hermione suggested. She took her fork and grabbed the one last piece of her potatoes and ate it.

"Yeah, whatever..." Harry just said, so quietly you could barely hear it.

He got up and started to walk toward the exit. The two followed sharing worried glances.

  When they exited the Great Hall, Harry felt that he needed to pee, so he asked Ron if he is going with him or not. Ron, being worried about his friend, came along. Hermione went back to their dorm.

  The nearest toilets were those on the way to dungeons, so the boys turned and went that way.

  Harry tried to remember when they were in this hallway last time, but he couldn't, he didn't feel like remembering.

  He actually didn't feel like anything. Maybe just sleep because he was extremely tired, but he knew he couldn't sleep. Maybe if he just decided to stop breathing - every problem would be solved.

  They were just about to enter the toilet when someone ran into Harry knocking him over

"Watch where you're going Malfoy!" Ron yelled and pulled Harry up.