#so it isn't that he's saying these bright robes and these gold rings are who i am

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

after he’s left hogwarts and put the war behind him, harry kinda has to start thinking about like. who he is. like who he is beyond being expected to disappear (his childhood with the dursleys) or save the day (his adolescence in the wizarding world). not only figure out who he is but how he wants to present himself. 

he feels frivolous at first, experimenting with how he presents himself. like he shouldn’t care what he looks like. or like no one else does. but he’s tired of being a blank slate that people project onto, and he wants his appearance to make a more definite statement about who he is. first he changes his glasses. he’s out and about one day, maybe in diagon alley with ron and hermione and he sees round glasses that have golden frames. and they’re familiar but new and he just buys them on a whim. 

next he starts to update his clothes. he’s never really chosen clothes for himself. first he had castoffs from the dursleys and then he wore school uniforms. but now he has an opportunity to choose his own clothes that suit him. and he find he likes color! he starts out relatively safe. indigo blues, forest greens, pearl grays. then he has an idea that he could go seasonal. different greens in the spring moss, sage, grass greens. yellows and oranges in the summer. sun colors that bring out the warmth in his skin and his hair. in the autumn, aubergines and plums in the fall. and he tends to be a little sad in the winter. maybe he wears bright colors to cheer himself up. cardinal red, royal blue, golden yellow. 

and then it’s like he’s uncorked and he has so much of himself that he wants to bring to the surface and share. he cuts his hair. or maybe he grows it out. it’s a fade and then it’s an afro and then it’s cornrows and then it’s locs. he pierces his ear, he pierces his nose. he gets tattooed. he wears rings he wears bracelets. 

he has the chance now to fill himself in, to adorn himself. and he’s going to take it.