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When Harry Potter was six years old, he killed a bug. He was walking down the driveway to put out the trash, and he stepped on it. He realized a second after it happened, what he had done. Harry lifted up his shoe and stared, and then began to cry. He sat down there in the street, crying and holding his shoe next to a stinking pile of trash until he was found by his Aunt Petunia. She quickly ushered him inside,
"What would the neighbors think!?"
And put the trash out herself. Then, she sat down and had what some would call a conversation with Harry.
"Listen." A pause.
"Boys do not cry."
Now Harry had heard this phrase before, tens if not hundreds of times, from almost everyone in his life. Teachers, students, strangers, Dudley, and most of all, Uncle Vernon.
It had been said to him so many times but in almost the exact same way.
Scolding, anger, mocking, cruelty.
But when Aunt Petunia knelt down close to Harry, gave him a brief smile and what was almost a hug, and said those same words quietly, as a fact, Harry for the first time understood what they meant.
Crying wasn't just another thing that made Uncle Vernon mad. It was something that could just not be done. It was a law, a rule, but most importantly it was a fact.
Boys do not cry.
One day, Harry Potter would be given access to a world of beauty. A world of magic, adventure, friendship, and family. But all throughout his life he would carry that fact with him like a weight on his back, next to every hardship he would face.
But when he killed a man at eleven, he cried.
When he was sure that he would die from the Basilisk venom, he cried.
When he lost a chance at a relationship with his godfather, he cried.
When he watched his friend, a boy not much older than him die, he cried.
When he lost his godfather, his friend, Sirius Black, forever, he cried.
When his mentor, his hero, Albus Dumbledore died, while he stood paralyzed, he silently cried.
So many times after that, he cried.
Because sometimes the strongest, bravest, most Gryffindor boys cry.
And that's okay.