Re: Savannah/Jamie
Jamie pulled up short at the accusation. He had said it to his Dad. He was trying to protect him. But, that had been before, at home. He hadn't felt the urge to protect his father here in the two months he'd been in this time. Until now. "You're right. I am trying to protect him. He's given up everything for society and he will continue to sacrifice every part of him that he thinks society needs because that's who he is. But, I've seen how that drains him, what the weight of that does to him. And I can't watch him go through that again. So, yeah, I'm trying to protect him."
Honestly, he was surprised Savannah felt so strongly about this. She'd never seemed particularly interested in things like history and legacies in the time he'd known her. "Dumbledore's birthday isn't a national holiday. Or a European one. It wasn't when he was alive and it wasn't when we were growing up. Did you know that the muggle Kings and Queens of England designate a separate day from their real birthday as a national holiday? Most heroes with holidays aren't honoured until after they're dead. And that's why I suggested the fifth of October, the day Dad and the others founded Dumbledore's Army. I get the social obligations, the need people have to look toward that symbol. But, it doesn't have to come at the price of that symbol. Call a different day his birthday. Those of us who care will be able to celebrate Harry Potter, the flawed man who makes our lives better not because he saved the world but because he's in it, on his actual birthday. Those who just need the symbol, the legend of the hero, won't honestly care if the holiday is in July or October or February so long as they have their legend and can tell their version of the stories of what he did and what they think he did."
He reached out to take her hand and squeeze gently. "A hundred years from now, most of society will still be the descendents of the people here who are just as heroic as Dad. Five Hundred years from now, it's not going to matter what day they celebrate him on, so long as they do. I'm not asking you not to celebrate him, Savannah, for forget him. I'm asking you to do it in a way that doesn't hurt him in the process, that's all."