Faded scars

Harry likes hands.

He has studied his own, late at night in the pale half-light of the moon; slipped the tips of his fingers into the space between his knuckles and watched skin slide over bone; counted the lines on his palm that Trelawney claims are so short; flexed his fingers until the tips turn white and the tendons stand in stark relief. Ron says they’re girly hands, because they don’t seem to develop calluses as easily, nor does Harry bite his nails. He keeps his hands in good shape, and they serve him well for it, much to the amusement of the Gryffindor boys. But then, usually they do not talk about hands, and Harry does not have to suffer their ridicule – not on that particular subject, anyway.