Hearth and Home [Open]

[head-heldhigh.livejournal.com]

The world had ended. Worlds, plural, had ended, and there was a war on, a war to save all of existence. It was a war Harry'd been recruited for, apparently, just when he'd finished fighting the last one.

It was quite a bit to take in, and Harry Potter wasn't exactly taking it well. It certainly helped that some of the people he knew were awake and had been saved by the talking ship, but he would have felt much better if all the people he cared about were, so he was sure they'd even been saved.

Still, in the end, there was another war to fight. Another one. He was "Chosen" twice over. How could someone have such rotten luck? How could he lose parents, be raised by people like the Dursleys, be a marked man, spend all that time fighting, and then lose his whole world? A world was not the sort of thing you lost, in general. It wasn't as if you could go out for the day, have a hole in your pocket and have the world fall out. A world was an awfully large thing to lose.

The only thing that had offset the despair shock he was currently going through was the fact that Harry Potter had found a magic room on the ship. First day there, no map and he'd found it--how was that for luck? It was clearly some sort of Room of Requirement--all you had to do was walk outside, think very hard about what you wanted on the inside, and there it was, just like that. Unlike the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, it got around the limitations on magic that existed back home for Harry and even did food.

This remarkable room could even duplicate other places perfectly. This was how Harry found himself in the Gryffindor Common Room, eating chocolate frogs, and playing wizard's chess against the board itself. The opposing pieces were floundering without a player to call the shots, and because of it, it wasn't really fun at all.

Then again, he wasn't sure if he was even allowed to have fun.

Ever again.

After all, Harry though, shouldn't he be grieving? For all the people lost? It was difficult, though, to wrap his head around the numbers, around a loss of that magnitude, and part of him didn't even want to try. As a result, he spent his day holed away in the past, pretending Ron and Hermione would come bounding in through the entrance to the Common Room any minute, and trying his best to quell that tiny voice in the back of his head that told him that what he was doing wasn't healthy at all.

Chess, anyone?

Comments

[head-heldhigh.livejournal.com]

"I didn't get my picture into the newspapers much until my teens, because I was raised by my muggle aunt and uncle, so people mostly recognized me by the scar."

How exactly had he wound up explaining all this anyway? Oh right, because his entire existence was tangled up in it.

"Remember how I said only one person's survived the death curse when I explained how it worked?"

He'd also told him about Voldemort and the Death Eaters, in case they ever showed up on the ship.

"I survived it when I was a baby, after Voldemort killed my parents and tried to use it on me. It scarred me and destroyed his body, even though he couldn't be killed entirely. It wasn't until the end of my fourth year at school that he'd returned and started taking over the Wizarding World, like I said."

He waved a hand vaguely. That had a scar on it, too, though it was difficult to see that it was one that spelled out worlds if you didn't look closely enough.

"There's this...prophecy, and the whole thing is just--it's a bit--"

It was a lot to have to deal with, but it didn't matter now, did it?

"You can't imagine what it's like to be told you've got to go and stop a war, that you're the only one that can really do it. When you're not really all that bright, and not as brave as everyone thinks you are, when haven't the faintest idea how to even go about it--and all you have is that sometimes you're really very lucky."

He looked up from the chess set and then looked away, slightly embarrassed that he'd blurted all that out.

[livestoannoy]

Okay. That was one hell of a crazy story. For a moment, Marco just stared.

"Dude, that sucks," he said simply. He'd lost his mother, and in a way, his father as well for a while there - but he'd still had them. And he got them back. He couldn't really imagine what it would be liking having your parents murdered before you could even remember them, and then having to face the man that killed them when you were older.

But then Harry started talking about the prophecy. About how he couldn't imagine what it was like being the only one who had to stop a war. Except, Marco could, because he and the other Animorphs had gone through just that. For that Harry was...jeez, he was just like him, someone who'd had to fight an impossible war, who'd had to deal with innocent people that were being controlled by the enemy, Marco couldn't trust him. Not someone he'd just met.

"Right," he said, just a brief flicker of his eyes the only hint that there was something more to his reaction to Harry's words. "That's pretty insane, man."

[head-heldhigh.livejournal.com]

That wasn't even getting into the Dursleys, which was something he generally just did not talk about, even with Ron and Hermione, and even then, it was matter-of-fact. 'The Dursleys are not letting me eat, send food please.'

"Well, I s'pose it doesn't matter now, does it? it At least that war's over. Hopefully, I'll never have to face him again."

Even if it was all fixed and they went back home, he'd be going back to his death and that meant no more fighting--or so he thought.

"Now I've got a whole new one to fight."

Hoooray for him.

[livestoannoy]

"So you guys won then?" Marco asked, titling his head. He'd gotten the impression that Harry's war was still ongoing, but if that was was over...

Then he scowled. Harry wasn't the only one less than happy to get tossed into some other war. "Just our luck, huh?"

[head-heldhigh.livejournal.com]

"Came close enough to winning," was all Harry said quietly, not explaining that, setting up the chess board again, and quickly changing the subject.

"You up to another game? I like losing at chess. Makes me feel at home--my best mate Ron beats me almost every time."

[livestoannoy]

Close enough wasn't a guarantee, but Marco wasn't about to go and bust Harry's bubble.

"Sure. But I'm pretty sure I know why your friend kicks your ass so much. You suck."

[head-heldhigh.livejournal.com]

"That's basically what he says," Harry pointed out with that same amused smile cropping up on his lips again. "You Yanks are a bit more to the point with it all, though, aren't you."