ROMEO [2] ⚡ harry potter

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"Am I the only one with sense?" Hermione said, exasperated, and Harry couldn't help but smile.

He hadn't seen his two best friends much since the Battle of Hogwarts, and he was slightly ashamed of it. He'd been far too busy making up for lost time with Charlotte to really think of them. He had been worried things would be different now Hermione and Ron had finally gotten together, but now he saw he had nothing to worry about. Nothing had changed.

"You've always been the only one with sense Hermione," Ron laughed.

"But- but Hogwarts is our home!" Hermione's face looked shocked, and worst of all, hurt. The smile on Harry's face slipped away rather quickly. "We have to go back, especially you, Harry. You loved it there!"

"You're right, Hogwarts was always home for me," Harry started, ensuring his tone was gentle. "But eventually I'm going to have to move on. And this is the perfect time. If I stay at Hogwarts, I'm never going to find a home of my own- I refuse to end up like Professor Binns."

"You won't!" Hermione laughed. "Besides, we have to finish our NEWTs."

"NEWTs are just a stepping stone for whatever is next, right?" Ron asked, before holding up the letter they had all received. An invitation from the Ministry of Magic to begin Auror Training. As soon as possible. "This is what's next."

"Don't you want to learn?" Hermione asked, exasperated. "Think of all the basic charms, and potions you won't know!"

"Frankly, that doesn't trouble me in the slightest," Harry chuckled. "All I've ever wanted to do is be an Auror, and now it's being handed to me on a silver platter-"

"Exactly!" Hermione argued. "If I get into the Ministry, I want it to be with my own merit and my own hard work, not because of circumstance! And honestly, neither of you two will understand this, but when you're female, and muggleborn, it's even harder to get places than it is for almost everybody else! And yes, it could be worse- it was worse for Remus and it would have been worse for your mother Harry, but I'm always going to be doubted, looked down upon by my pure blooded counterparts and I don't want to leave any room for that! I'm not going to take this offer- I'm going to school, with or without the two of you, and I'll make my way to the top without hand outs, thank you very much!"

"They're not hand outs, they're thank you's," Ron said.

"Well, honestly, it feels that way to me," Hermione said. "If you two choose to do this, I will support you, but only from a distance. I have to make my own way."

~

Charlotte couldn't bear leaving him again, but for the next three years they were to be apart, as she headed off for university. In a completely different city.

Of course, things were different now. At Hogwarts, Harry had no phone, and letters were the only contact. She was in school five days a week and her weekends were often spent working in the cafe- but even without her part time job, she could never make it up to Scotland fast enough on her own. Now, she had days off, and so did he.

But she still couldn't help but hurt the whole journey there.

Both her father and Harry were accompanying her across the country, the trunk packed to the brim with suitcases and boxes of kitchen utensils and textbooks and more. The radio was playing and the weather was warm despite it being October, she was still stifling. But having the window open whilst driving seventy miles per hour on the motorway wasn't comfortable either. She closed it.

Harry and Richard had been singing along to Aerosmith the entire hour of the journey so far. There were three more to go. But she truly didn't mind.

She knew she'd miss them both. Yet she'd caught herself off guard with her feelings. She expected to dread parting with Harry the most. She'd expected the same sort of pain she had felt those autumns and winters when he had left her.

He had always seemed to take the beautiful weather with him as well. As soon as he would leave in September, there would come a chilly breeze and the leaves would fall and die. When he would return in December he brought with him crisp snow and snug nights. When he left in January, there would come hailstones and grey sludge. And when he returned in summer he brought with him joy and love and happiness.

But what Charlotte realised that day, sat in the car with two of the people she loved most in the world, was that she was most concerned about leaving her father behind. She had never spent a single day without him in which she hadn't missed him deeply. Leaving Harry was hard, but she knew she would survive, she had survived so many months without him.

But leaving her father?

The only time they were separated was when she had been imprisoned, and it had almost drove her mad. In fact, she wasn't entirely confident it hadn't. Leaving her father would be the most difficult thing she'd ever had to do.

The rest of the journey was slow, and she was grateful for it. When they began to enter the city, she found herself trying to memorise the streets as they passed. A MacDonalds here, a Lewis's there- shops were her main landmarks. But regardless, it was futile.

Harry sat beside her, his glasses slipping down his nose as he held the map on its side. His nose was scrunched and his brow furrowed as he tried (and failed) to give Richard directions.

"Here," she said, warmly, reaching over and pointing to a point on the page. "We're here, and we want to go there," she pointed to another point, then turned the map the right way around. "It might be easier to read like this."

"Duh," Harry laughed, rolling his eyes at himself. "I'm lucky my girl's so smart. So smart she's off to some prestige Russell Group uni! Don't know what I'm gonna do without you."

She grinned, kissing him on the cheek. Actually, maybe she'd find it harder to leave him than she thought. "You'll just have to learn to read maps, I guess."

"And you'll have to visit," he added. "When you have holidays. And I can visit some weekends, when you're free?"

"Of course," Charlotte smiled, failing to mention that she likely wasn't going to be free for a while.

"And you will definitely call your dad," her father added from the driver's seat, as they pulled to a stop. "Every day."

"If I didn't, I think I'd die of home sickness," Charlotte laughed. Glancing out the window, she noticed how daunting the student halls looked, despite having been here before to view her rooms.

To be here, almost nine months of the year, without her father? There was no excitement. Simply bittersweetness. They parked the car, and immediately, her father moved to open up the trunk, but she stopped him.

"Dad," she started. "I saw a Wetherspoons down the road. Any chance we can get some food and drinks before we start moving everything?"

It only took one look for her to understand that her father knew precisely what she wanted. A few more hours with the two men she loved most, before she moved in to her room and everything was made final.

And she knew she would miss him even more when he gave her a knowing smile and a kiss on the head, before saying: "Anything you need."

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my current mood: the nbhd- daddy issues.
-Amber.