Short Stories

Moving Backwards to Move Forward

He shivers as he walks the path. Going back to where it had all ended, but it all started there in away.

Sometimes he wishes he had taken the train. Been done. So he wouldn't have to live with the pain of loosing.

Seeing the faces of those who lived. Seeing the smiles that never reached their eyes. Fearing that they never will.

Dreamless sleep is never achieved. Even when taking the potion, he knows he will still see.

Seeing the tears falling down dirt and blood stained faces. See people holding on to the ones still living. While crying over the ones now lost.

Hearing the crys of anguish. The mothers crying over lost children. The children weeping over lost parents.

Waking in the morning and knowing he is still living while others are not. Waking to put a mask on so people don't see how broken he really is.

Finding the spot where the curse threw him down. He falls to his knees and crys out to the dead. Over and over again saying how sorry he is. Wishing he could take their place.

He kneels, with he head down in depression. As silent tears fall to the mossy earth below him.

He doesn't know how long it has been, how long he has been kneeling. He really doesn't care.

His knees becoming numb from the cold ground. He hardly notices, his body so adapted to the cold from the many trips to this spot.

His need to torture himself. To remind himself of the past. To never forget the pain.

Slowly he rises to his feet. Looks around and turns back and walks back using the same path that brought him to the place.

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He returned home, hung his coat, and walked to the kitchen. Using a spell he congered a tumbler with two fingers worth of Jack. He took the shot quickly and before he set it down it was filled again with more.

With his tumble of the golden liquid he goes and sits on his couch and looks toward the fireplace.

"Harry?" A small voice from the back of the house called.

"In here." Harry yelled back.

Harry heard the sound of small feet walking towards him in the sitting room. Then he felt the shift on the couch as the person sat down next to him.

"You ok?" The small voice asked.

"Yes, well I will be here soon." Harry answered back.

Harry felt movement again as tiny feet where pulled up onto the couch and tucked under Harry's legs. Harry turned and smiled at the child next to him.

Teddy was the only thing keeping Harry alive. He loved the boy as his own. It took 5 years for Harry to stop seeing Remus and Tonks laying on the floor of Hogwarts lifeless, each time he looked at Teddy.

Teddy was 11 now and he was the spitting image of both parents. He was beautiful like his mother but had the amber eyes of his father. Tall like his father, paired with the lack of grace like his mother. Teddy was the perfect combination of the two.

Teddy starts Hogwarts this year. Both Harry and him are excited for him to start. Though in the back of Harry's mind he is scared to see him go. Scared he will loose his anchor in his wurlwind of a life.

-------Next Day--------

"Teddy!" Yelled Harry down the hall.

"Coming!" The boy yelled back.