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Harry was six-years-old the first time he found refuge in the local library.
If he was honest, he didn't even realize what the building he ran into was until he was already inside. All he knew was that he desperately wanted to get away from Dudley and his friends, and it seemed like the most likely option. Then he'd found himself surrounded by more books than he even knew existed, guarded by a librarian who was as kind as she was strict, and Harry had known without a doubt that he'd finally found somewhere he could actually belong.
Looking back, that was the beginning of everything. Harry just hadn't known it at the time.
"I suppose that it better be RAVENCLAW!"
There was just a tiny moment of silence, a pause where it felt like the entirety of Hogwarts was holding its breath, before the Great Hall broke out into cheers. If Harry hadn't been watching and listening for it, he might not have even noticed. But as it was, well, he would have had to be blind not to notice that everyone seemed to expect him to be a carbon copy of his parents.
Harry took a surreptitious look around as he made his way towards the Ravenclaw table. There was surprise on some people's faces, and others looked intrigued like they hadn't considered the fact that their precious Boy Who Lived could have a brain. No one looked particularly upset or angry, though. Not like he knew they would have if he'd let the Sorting Hat talk him into accepting Slytherin as his house.
Yes, he had his ambitions. Plus he knew very well that knowledge was power after spending so much of his life among books. But, really, did the Hat not realize subtlety was just as important? No one would have trusted him if he was a snake. An eagle, though, that was something else entirely.
It was better that way.
Harry hated to admit it, but he was lonely. It was ridiculous, and he knew it, but he couldn't push the feeling down for the life of him. Not always at least.
It hadn't been so bad during his first year at Hogwarts or even the beginning of his second year. He'd found companions to study with if not friends, other Ravenclaws and the occasional Hufflepuff or Slytherin who cared more about passing their classes than sticking to house boundaries. No Gryffindors, of course, but that wasn't all that surprising. Most of them didn't particularly care about grades other than Granger, and she refused to study with anyone.
Ever since the aftermath of the Halloween feast, when Mrs. Norris had been petrified, the other students had been clinging to their actual friends. More casual acquaintances had been let go, study groups becoming smaller and more insular. And Harry, who had always been on the fringes during any such get-togethers, had been cut out of them.
At least he hadn't been foolish enough to reveal that he could speak with snakes during Lockhart's farce of a dueling lesson. He couldn't even imagine how much worse things might have been then.
Harry blinked as someone sat down beside him at his small table near the back of the library, pulled out a book, and immediately started reading without a word. "Nott?" he asked curiously.
He recognized the other boy, of course, even if he didn't know him all that well. Ravenclaws and Slytherins often shared classes together, and Nott had even joined in a few of the more Ravenclaw-centric study periods in the past along with Zabini and Greengrass. Harry hadn't seen much of him since third year had started, though, at least outside of their shared classes.
Nott glanced up from his book. "Potter," he said with a nod. Then he went right back to reading.
Well, two could play that game. With a mental shrug, Harry went back to reading himself.
Just because he wasn't a Slytherin didn't mean he couldn't play their games.
Theo's eyebrows went up as he took a look around Grimmauld Place. "I have to admit," he said, "this isn't what I was expecting."
Harry let his own gaze drift over their surroundings, his eyes lingering on the wall where house-elf heads had once hung that was now covered by tasteful landscapes and the open area where Walburga Black's portrait had been until Sirius had take a sledgehammer to the wall. The entire house looked much more bright and cheerful than it had the first time Harry had stepped inside it, the day after Sirius officially won custody of him.
"Sirius wanted to decorate the entire house in crimson and gold," Harry admitted. "I convinced him that something a bit more subtle might be called for."
Theo shook his head. "Gryffindors."
As first kisses went, it wasn't a particularly good or bad one. It just felt right, Theo's lips pressed against his and the scent of musty old books filling the air around them.
Harry's life had been made up of libraries, each of them telling their own story and helping to build on his. He'd been in a library when he'd read his Hogwarts acceptance letter and found out there was so much more to both his past and future than he'd known. He'd been in a library when he had found out that Sirius had been granted custody of him and that he'd never have to return to the Dursleys.
It made sense that a library was where his friendship with Theo Nott turned into something more.
"Madam Pince will strangle us both if she notices what we're doing back here," Harry teased as Theo finally, albeit reluctantly, pulled away.
Theo rolled his eyes. "Madam Pince worships the ground you walk on," he said. "Also, I really don't want to think about her just now."
Harry grinned as he breathed in the familiar smell of old tomes and dust. The smell of the library.
Then he kissed him back.