What Happened Afterwards

*NOTES* Enjoy this chapter because who knows when the next one is going to show up. Hopefully not to far away from soon but not completely soon. School is already getting extremely busy and it is only the first week back. I will find time to type on weekends but if that is all the time I can find then well that's life. Anyway please review and enjoy and make guesses about what is to come because I love reading those.

Tonks was just arriving back from the graveyard shift at work when she saw the kitchen light on at home. Smiling, she picked up the pace and made it to the door in ten seconds flat. Remus and she had been hoping that one of the three teenagers would open up before they left but they hadn't yet. And seeing as how it was going into their fourth week soon they were getting a little nervous that they never would.

She went through the wards and opened the door to her house to see only Hermione sitting at the kitchen isle. The girl didn't even look up as Tonks entered the room instead she kept staring at the picture frame in her hand. Gently Tonks sat down beside Hermione and glanced at the picture that had captured the girl's attention.

It was clearly a muggle photo as none of the occupants were moving. And Tonks let out a sigh as she took in the image of a ten year old Hermione surrounded by her two parents, and from the looks of it the young girl had just received her Hogwarts letter.

“Sometimes I think it would be easier if I could just blame them,” Hermione said as she sat the picture down on the table. Tonks took in the girl's face and saw that it was stained from tears. Hermione collapsed against her chest and Tonks wrapped the younger girl into a warm embrace, “But I can't because it was my choice and yet I hate them for not telling me I couldn't go.”

“I did the right thing, right?” Tonks felt Hermione pull away as the girl posed the question. This, she realized, is what she was waiting for to happen, Hermione was starting to doubt the decisions she had made, this is what she needed to reassure her in. “Tonks please tell me I did the right thing by going to Hogwarts? By becoming Harry's friend and then girlfriend? By fighting in an impossible to win war?”

“Do you think you did the right thing?” Tonks questioned her back. It was a question she had been asked many times by the Auror shrink and it was the one question she hated the most.

“I…to be honest I'm not sure anymore. And it is killing me. I've always had the answers. But now I'm free falling and it scares me.” She took a deep shuddering breath before glancing out at the sun filled yard. “I did everything they taught me. My parents I mean. They taught me to be honest and to love knowledge and to fight with and for my friends, but most importantly they taught me to never turn my back on the ones I love, my family. Didn't I do that when I left for this war?”

“Hermione the war is over,” Tonks said gently as she smoothed the girl's hair down. “Remember you helped destroy Voldemort and most of his faithful followers.”

“I wasn't talking about that war, Tonks. I'm talking about this one; the one that has no crazy out to destroy the world guy in it. This one is completely inside us and no magic can get us through it. We are completely alone.”

“No you aren't,” Tonks grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and made the younger girl look at her in the eyes. “Hermione, they teach us this during the first time we get back from battle in Auror training, you are never alone. The stuff you have seen and done others have seen and done it too. What you need is to talk with someone about it all.”

“I know!” Hermione heard people upstairs starting to stir at the sound of her shout and she saw Tonks put a curse on the door leading into the kitchen. “I just can't,” and with the sounds of feet banging on the stairs she fled out the backdoor and apparated away from the prying older girl.

Once she counted to ten and opened her eyes Hermione found herself in her parent's backyard. She admittedly admitted that running way was foolish but she wanted someplace safe and warm. Her first thought was Harry but she didn't want to trouble him and so her thoughts flew to the one other person in the world whom she told everything to, her mother.

Gradually she made her way to the backdoor and into the kitchen where her mother sat holding a cup of tea and one set out waiting for her. “Is this how it is going to be from now on? At least this is one of the times you weren't hurt.” Hermione and Harry and Ron had used the Grangers twice during their “hunting trip” and each time it was an extreme emergency. In both cases Hermione had swiped their memory so that they wouldn't get any visits from Death Eaters wanting to know their whereabouts. That morning she had reversed the curse and knew that if she did come here it might mean trouble.

“I'm sorry about that, mum, but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. But now all I seem to do is doubt what I did,” Hermione felt herself starting to break down again. This wasn't how it was suppose to be. They were suppose to be happy and everything was going to go back to normal, but instead everything got screwed up along the way.

“What do you want me to say, Hermione?” She knew her mother wasn't judging her but instead she was trying to make everything right. That is what she had always done but this time, like the last, Hermione wasn't sure it was going to work.

“I want you to tell me I did the right thing,” she fell onto the cold tile floor and hugged her knees to her chest. Tears streamed down her face and she tried desperately to make them stop but the harder she tried the worse they got. “I just want to know that I did the right thing.”

“Oh honey,” Her mother's voice was soothing but Hermione could tell she was trying hard not to cry too. She felt warm arms embrace her and she felt safe, almost as safe as she felt in Harry's arms. “Would it help if I told you what you did was right?” It was several moments before her mum posed this question but Hermione knew it was coming and once it did she didn't know how to respond.

“Mum, I love Harry and Ron. They have become my world and I have done things for them that seem beyond reason…but what I did to you and Daddy was inexcusable. I left you to wonder and worry and when I did show up those two times I was so hurt and tired…I didn't want to come here but it was the easiest to access. And then when all was said and done I swiped your memory. Of course you should never have a memory of your child being hurt and frail and completely out of your control to heal.”

Hermione could tell her mother had heard enough but she couldn't stop talking. The damn was broken and it just wasn't going to stop until she had said everything that was until her mother grabbed her shoulders in a death like grip.

“Hermione, listen to me. You are my daughter and even if you are ten of ten thousand feet away I will always worry about you. It is part of being a mother; it is something I wouldn't give up for the world because only when the worrying stops do I know something awful has happened.”

“I don't think I can do this anymore, Mum.” Hermione started sobbing again as she thought of how much was costing her. She should just quit now, she thought, then it would all end. She could go back to living a normal life with no magic and no fighting and no worries. She could but there would be no Harry and no Ron.

“Hermione, you were born a witch and you just can't quit that.”

“I want to. Please just make it all stop.” Hermione sobbed uncontrollably into her mother's sweater but her mother pushed her away. It was the first time she could remember her mother ever doing something like that and she just couldn't believe it.

“No, Hermione,” she looked at her mother's face to see it full of sympathy and regret and even some anger. “Now I want you to pick yourself up off that floor and head back to Harry and Ron. You are not giving up on your dreams and I won't let you. So please leave this house and go home.”

It was the hardest thing a mother had to do but as Jane granger watched her daughter pick herself off the floor she knew it was the right thing to do. She also knew that she would never tell her husband that she purposely pushed their daughter away.

“I love you, Mum.” She felt as if the world was crashing in around her but for the first time, in a long time, she knew everything was going to be okay. As long as she took it one moment at a time and not all at once. That was the purpose of this lesson, she thought, as she made her way from her childhood backyard and into the backyard of her new life.

The sound of raised voices greeted her as she entered the kitchen. It would seem that Harry was a bit angry at Tonks. “How could you just let her leave like that? We don't know where she is or what is wrong. And it isn't like we can find her; Hermione is too smart to just let us do a locator spell on her.”

“I right here so stop shouting at her,” Hermione didn't know someone could move that quickly, but the minute she spoke Harry's arms were around her body and his face was in her hair. “This is just way too much hugging in one morning.”

Harry heard her mumbling and quickly pulled away. “Are you hurt?” His green eyes mirrored exactly what she needed to see, someone so completely worried about her and ready to do whatever it took to make things right.

“I'm going to be fine one day but for now Tonks and I need to have a couple of long chats.”

Harry left the room after making sure that Hermione was truly okay and he went up to visit with Ron. But before he entered the door he heard Ron talking. It seemed that Ron had finally opened up to Remus. Overall his two best friends were on their way to healing and he was left in the dark.

Unconsciously he made his way out the front door and with a pop he found himself standing in a forest. The trees were pretty dense and Harry could just barely make out a clearing in the distance. Determined he began making his way to the clearing and upon closer inspection he realized where he was.

“How do I get myself in these messes?” He questioned himself as he took in the graveyard before him.

It was unlike the graveyard he had been in when he was in his fourth year at Hogwarts. In this graveyard there were no menacing statues and no crazy guy waiting to kill him. Every grave marker was white and pure and the whole place had a sense of calm to it, Harry felt like he was home as he wove his way through the markers and finally reached two at the back of the site.

“I know it has only been a month,” Harry started as he plopped down in front of the markers. “But last time I was kind of drunk. So I figured I owed you this sober visit. To be honest I'm completely confused on what I'm suppose to be doing with my life.”

Harry took out his wand and did a scourgify-ing charm so that they became sparkling clean and the weeds that had begun to creep up died back down. Now Harry could probably read the names of his parents, Lily Evans Potter and James Potter.

“I fulfilled my purpose and killed the bastard and unless there is another prophecy for me to fulfill then I'm stuck. Hermione would just tell me to get over it and move on because I was never stuck to begin with, and sometimes I think she is right. But I still have my doubts about what I'm suppose to be doing. I'm lost and I need someone to tell me that it is okay to feel this normal. I need you mum and dad probably more than I have ever needed you before.”

As Harry was talking he didn't hear another person approaching, but he distinctively heard the other person speak. “Mr. Potter I say you have finally become a normal teenager.” Harry let out a small chuckle as he turned to see Professor McGonagall standing behind him.

“Hello, Minerva. I would say what brings you here, but we both know you visit this site more than I do.” Both of them took in the site of the graveyard. This is the place where almost all the dead order members where laid to rest. All but Dumbledore, Harry reminded himself with a shake of his head.

“I've seen you've made my job a tad bit easier by taking care of two of the graves.” She placed a hand on his shoulder as he made to stand up. “Harry the feelings you are experiencing right now are no different then those in their seventh year at Hogwarts. They have no clue what they want to do with their lives and I have to say I'm glad you are feeling this way because it shows you are healing.”

“Healing?” Harry said the word as if he had never heard of it before. Minerva let out a small light laugh at this. “Yes healing, Harry. Amazing isn't it? To think that their can not only be life after a war but happiness too. You found that happiness and they are waiting back at Tonks and Remus's place.”

“Professor?” Harry said as she turned to go, “we can come back to school next term, right?”

“Hogwarts has yet to deny anyone of an education.” She gave him a small smile and then placed a lily across his the two markers, his parent's markers. “They were her favorite flower because James insisted upon giving them to her all the time to remind her that she was more beautiful than her name in his eyes.”

Twenty minutes later Harry dusted himself off and apparated out of there and back into the safe house's front yard. He could hear laughter coming from inside and as he entered the living room he saw Remus kicking Tonks' butt at chess.

“Did you have a nice relaxing walk?” Remus said as his knight took one of Tonks' pawns. Harry nodded and smiled as he heard Hermione shouting at Ron to get out of the kitchen. “Fork it over,” Remus said and Tonks let out a defeated sigh.

“Oh please don't tell me she was trying to teach him how to cook again?” Harry asked as he looked towards the kitchen door. At this Tonks let out a giggle and nodded. “How long did he last?”

“Ten minutes,” Ron said as he entered the room glaring at the door that led into the kitchen. “I swear if I didn't love that girl I would have killed her by now. Good luck with her Harry she is one piece of work.”

“Yes she is,” Harry said as he entered the kitchen. Hermione it seemed was expecting Ron as Harry dodged a hex.

She let out a stifled giggle at the look Harry threw her. “Well, you should have known better then to enter after I've thrown the giant out.”

“Lets say we forget about making dinner and go out to eat,” He said as he pulled her close to him and started to sway to some imaginary music. “Some place where we can go dancing and have some fun.”

“Sure,” she said as she started to pull away from Harry. “I'll just go tell the others to get ready.”

“Oh no you don't.” Harry said and pulled her close again but this time instead of swaying he cupped her chin and leaned down for a kiss. After a couple of seconds he pulled away, “Just you and me.”

And with that the three people in the living room heard a loud pop coming from the kitchen. “I guess I should go finish dinner,” Tonks said as Ron replaced her in the game with Remus.

“About time they did something for themselves I was starting to wonder if they had gone back to just being friends.” Ron said as he started to reset the chessboard. “But this does have a draw back. It means that Hermione is going to start pushing us to start studying again and Harry is going to start working out again.” But thankfully, Ron thought, everything was starting to turn back to normal.