Ꭺ NᎬᏔ ᏞᏆFᎬ ᏴᎬᏩᏆNᏚ

1

The creaking of a door pulled me out of my worrying. I rushed to fix my appearance but slowed down as I didn't want them to think anything was wrong. After all, the least I looked scared of what was to come then they wouldn't have much to worry about. The sound of footsteps drew closer as Ron and Hermione came further into the room until they were standing a few feet away from me. I slowly stood up to greet them, so they wouldn't know anything was up.

We quickly exchanged greetings and hugs then sat down in our respected chairs, the loveseat for me. After a few minutes of small talk, Hermione decided to get straight to the point which she was known for.

"So Harry, why did you ask us to meet you here? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah mate is there something wrong? Because the letter you sent was rushed and didn't sound right to me."

As I looked at both of their faces, the feeling about me making a mistake resurfaced but I quickly pushed it back down. I knew that the time had come and I no longer could avoid the subject. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my Gryffindor courage, and looking into their eyes, I said,

"Ron, 'Mione, you know that we've been friends for a long time, right? And sometimes friends keep secrets from each other whether or not it's intentional or to keep one safe. It's been eating me up-"

"Get on with it mate," said Ron as he interrupted my not-so-planned speech.

Shaking my head slightly, I gave a little laugh before blurting it out.

"I'm gay, mate. I've always been."

When I said this, their expressions changed to an expressionless mask that you would find on a Slytherin. They looked at me for a few minutes, searching for what I didn't know. Maybe to see if this was a big prank that I planning on them. They must have found something in my expression because they burst out laughing. That made me frown as I could see that Ron and Hermione weren't taking me seriously.

"Are you serious?" Ron asked through his laughter.

"No that was my godfather."

The two of them looked at each other then at me clearly coming to a realization that they were not being pranked and they had mistaken my words as something to laugh at. Hermione quickly apologized and Ron was just nodding his head at what she said, probably not able to say those two little words without his pride getting in the way. After the confusion was cleared, Hermione went into investigation mode.

"So how long have you known you were gay?"

"Actually I've known since I was nine. When every guy was looking at girls, I was too busy admiring them."

The questions kept coming and I could feel myself slowly relax as I answered them as truthfully as I could. A dangerous mistake on my part since after all the questions were answered, we were back to square one; silence and masks of indifference.

As the silence progressed, I started to fidget in my seat unable to sit still. The longer the silence progressed, the more my inner battle raged on. The feeling of this being a mistake surfaced and refused to be squashed back into the back of my mind.  I was just starting to bite my lower lip when Ron broke the never-ending silence.

"Mate, when you first called us to meet you, I honestly thought something was wrong, but now I can say I was wrong. I can't believe that you're gay even if you claim to be because I had always thought you would end up with Ginny just like Dumbledore promised. I mean it's unnatural to be what you are. Why would you choose to be a fairy? A poof? What you are and what you choose to be doesn't exactly sit well with me and I have to say I don't think this friendship can continue."

"Dumbledore said what?" I asked.

Instead of Ron answering, Hermione then decided it was her time to speak.

"Dumbledore promised that you would end up with Ginny and she could be Lady Potter. We were friends with you just because he promised us some things in return: fame, money, a promising career, and well for me, a high position in the Ministry. We never actually wanted to be friends with you because we, Ron and myself, knew that we might be killed by You-Know-Who. Why waste a life of opportunities if we were going to be killed being friends with you?" She shook her head, "I mean that's not what I wanted but I only did it because of Dumbledore. Honestly, I can't believe that you didn't notice that we didn't like you since we gave enough hints for you to realize which makes me believe that you're either stupid or didn't want to believe it. Now with you being gay and all, you messed up not only our plans but Dumbledores. As Ron said, I don't like the fact that you're one of those disgusting faggots and I don't think this friendship can continue."

Ron and Hermione stood and left the moment the words were spoken, leaving me sitting alone, shocked and heartbroken.

- & -

A tear escaped from my eye as I slowly became conscious of the present. Quickly, I wiped it away and busied myself with packing what little belongings I had into my trunk.  No use crying over spilled milk because I knew that nobody wanted to be friends with a freak like me. The Dursleys were right; I didn't deserve to be loved or have friends.

Time passed as I packed my belongings and soon I was boarding the Hogwarts Express. I found a compartment that was empty and warded it so that no one would bother me during the ride back to the Dursleys. One thought kept repeating through my mind as I looked at the changing scenery:

What would my life be if I could just start over?

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As you can see, I didn't completely change the chapter. There are still bits and pieces of the old chapter included in this one. However, I think this will be my last time rewriting the chapter, but I don't know yet.

Anyways thanks for reading and I do hope that you enjoyed it.

If so, please tag three people in the comment section or recommend this book to your friends/followers.

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Song for the chapter: True Color by The Weeknd.

Word Count: 1797