Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or HBP would have been different.
A/N: My response to my own challenge, "The New Dark Lord". The requirements are included in the prologue. Please, if you read, leave me a comment. It makes me happy.
Starting Over
Few days after his release, Harry got an owl in his own flat. It was from Hermione, as she invited him to a dinner Luna and herself had organized to reintroduce Harry in their circle of friends.
He eagerly showered and dressed, and although a bit skeptical about being able to rebuild his life from where he had left it, he admired and appreciated Hermione's attempt. Of course, the fact that he had never stopped loving her helped, giving him a biased look on her actions.
That night he really enjoyed himself, though.
"So, mate, stopped scaring us, have you?" Neville teased, joining him and Hermione at the table holding hands with Ginny. Harry immediately noticed it, and smiled warmly at them.
"Yes, I hope I'm finished with that. The career of Dark Lord wasn't really suited for me" he joked. He was very well aware of the suspicious looks the other customers and the waiters were giving him, but he tried to shrug them off. After all, he had been in the center of the attention his whole life, that couldn't be so much worse.
Few minutes later, Ron arrived, his arm around Luna's waist. He moved to join them, and before Hermione could even ask, he reassured her.
"Lily is with Mum, at the Burrow. She's well taken care of, although our divorce seem to have convinced her that love is something stupid and unworthy of her attention" he said, chuckling. "She will change idea as soon as she finds a young wizard who will catch her eye"
Hermione smiled, although she was sorry for hurting their daughter. But the situation with Ron had become impossible to bear, and even if they were to go back together, both knew at the next big trouble, things would fall apart again. This was for the best, really.
They ordered pizzas, and ate chatting happily. Harry was filled in what all of them had been doing in the years, well, apart Ron and Hermione that he already knew about, having spied them in his dark days.
Ginny told him how she had become the first editorialist of the Daily Prophet, and although she could not intervene when some colleague wrote things like the article on him and his capture, it was a quite important spot in the newspaper.
Luna informed him that she was working with her father at the "Quibbler" and that they now and then would go for some research trips hoping to spot some of the strange things she kept mentioning, things no one knew about. Ron, however, had come to like those little journeys from reality she provided him when she talked about such matters.
Then it came Neville's turn, and the boy, not shy and botchy anymore, reported how he was Ron's first assistant, thus being in the Auror Department.
"Oh, yes, I kind of remember hearing about you a couple times from my ex-followers" Harry said. He eagerly listened to them, and wished once again he could have a normal life like theirs.
However, like all good things, this ended too. They wished good night to each other, Neville and Ginny left together, as well as Ron and Luna. Harry wondered how Lily would like Ron having a new woman with him, if she thought so bad of loving someone.
He was about to Apparate to his flat when he felt someone grabbing his arm.
"Harry, wait" Hermione said.
"What's up, Mione?" he said, resuming the nickname he now and then had used for her in their last year at Hogwarts.
She blushed a bit, then spoke.
"I thought that maybe I could come to live with you for a while, I mean, that would help you reenter a normal life, I could help you catch up…if you want that, that is" she ended shyly.
He grinned at her, and hugged the girl, no, the young woman he loved so much. "Yes, I would like that" he breathed in her hair, and she felt butterflies flying in her stomach, something she had not felt in a long time now.
So they Apparated to her flat to gather her things for the night, and then to his place, and he prepared the couch with a pillow and a blanket.
Then, after changing into his pajamas and wishing Hermione goodnight, he lay on it, covering himself.
"Oh, no, Harry, this is your flat, I can't kick you from your bed. I'll sleep there" she said.
"No way. You take the bed, it's comfortable, and you have to go searching for a new job, while I already know I'll do nothing in my life as no one hires an ex Dark Lord. So I can sleep all day tomorrow. Please, take the bed" he motioned to her.
She shook her head, smiling. "No way. We will both sleep there, if you insist to not let me take the couch"
He was bewildered at her suggestion, but in the end he admitted defeat. There was no point in arguing with Hermione, and that was a thing he very well knew from his Hogwarts days. So they both climbed in his bed, after enlarging it to have room for the two of them.
Soon, sleep overcome him. Next morning, he woke up feeling an hard thing next to him. Very close to him, indeed.
Opening his eyes and grabbing his glasses to check what was that, he found that Hermione had snuggled near him, lacing her arms around his body.
"Probably an habit from her days with Ron" he said, smiling and looking at her angelic face.
"My, she's still as beautiful as I remembered" he thought in wonder, trying to disentangle himself without waking her.
He failed, as soon she opened her sleepy cinnamon eyes to look at him.
"Good morning" he said then with a smile.
"Good morning" she replied smiling back. Then she realised the compromising position they were into and blushing furiously let him go.
He chuckled while she hid in the bathroom to cover her embarrassment, and went to prepare breakfast.
Later, Hermione left to go searching for a job, and he relaxed in his flat. She had an interview with the guy owning "Flourish and Blotts". It did not go well, and at lunch she reported it to Harry as they met in the flat.
"…and so in the end he said he could not hire someone who made a former Dark Lord be released. He said I was not to trust" she said dejectedly.
Hearing that, Harry's eyes flashed dangerously, darkening. "I'm gonna kill him" he said, standing up and taking his wand. That was one of the moments his anger still got the best of him.
Hermione immediately grabbed him.
"No, you're not" she said fiercely, but he pushed her on the floor.
"He can't treat you this way, and I'll make him pay for that" Harry growled, and moved toward the door as he could not Apparate from within the flat.
Hermione grabbed him again, with all the strength she had, and pushed him into the nearer wall.
"You.will.not.do.such.a.thing" she said, enraged herself. "If you do that, you will only confirm their ideas on you and on me too. Both of us will never get a job. Instead, you will wait for me here, while I go and sustain another interview at the Ministry this afternoon. This is what you will do"
After a minute or two glaring at each other, Harry let his wand fall on the floor. "You're right" he said then. "It's just that it pains me see that you may have ruined your own life just to help me"
"It was worth the sacrifice" she said, smiling and leading him to the table again. "Now, let's finish our lunch, and then, if you really want to do something for me, you can go to my place and retrieve my things" she said, winking at him. He grinned.
That afternoon Hermione got a new position in the Ministry, one of not so much importance, but that surely would make her happy. She was assigned a place in the newly opened Department of Relationships with Other Magical Beings, one that she had opened herself in her days as Minister.
She could improve the way House Elves, Goblins and so on were seen from the Wizarding population, something she had wanted to do since Hogwarts, when she had founded S.P.E.W.
Harry decided a celebration was in order, so he took her out for dinner that night, and then they went for a Muggle movie. He would have liked to think about it as a date, but his pessimistic side reminded him it was just a celebration between friends.
A couple months later, Harry found himself pacing nervously his, no, their flat. He had decided it was time to try and make his move. Just to close all the chapters related with his past, and be really ready to go on. He loved her still, but he wasn't delusional enough to hope she would love him back. However, he wanted to try.
The only problem was how.
That night, while watching the telly, Hermione could say he was tense about something. And so she tackled it.
"Come on, spit it. What's troubling you, Harry?"
"N-Nothing" he stammered, for once resembling that lost eleven years old that she had met many years ago.
She smiled warmly at him. "You can't lie to me, you know that"
He nodded, and sighed. "The thing is, you'll surely think it silly and preposterous, but, would you like to go out with me?" he said, hope evident in his voice.
He braced himself for the coming rejection, closing his eyes, so he was utterly bewildered when he found a soft pair of lips covering his own, and felt her arms lacing around his neck.
Then, he felt her tongue probing his mouth, and all rational thinking was lost. He pulled her close and allowed her entrance, kissing her back in the process. Their tongues caressed each other, and for minutes, but it could have been hours, they stayed that way, passionately snogging their brains out of each other.
"Wow" he breathed when they finally parted.
"Yes, wow" she whispered, touching her swollen lips in shock. Never, in her years with Ron, she had felt such a sensation. It had been pure bliss.
And so it started. From that day, the two of them were an item, and Ron and their friends were happy for them. Many had known since Hogwarts that they were perfect for each other. The same Ron knew, although he had hoped he was wrong when she had agreed to marry him. But the arguments over helping Harry or not had confirmed his suspicions, and so he was happy for them now. Of course, having found Luna who made him fall in love all over again had helped.
They would now go out at dinner, or to see movies, all together, the six of them, triple dating, if you can call it that way, as they were three happy couples going out together. But of course, Harry and Hermione, as well as the others, would go out on their own too, getting to know each other all over again, and deepening an already incredibly deep bond.
Harry felt like this time he could really be happy and forget all the horrors of his past, and his months as a Dark Lord too. The hate bottled up in him was slowly vanishing, turning in undying love for the brunette witch he shared a flat with. His sudden outbursts of anger would become more and more rare, and he was happy for that.
It was clear Hermione had been right again, he could still be saved. And she was succeeding in doing so. But after all, she had almost always been right about him, he thought.
The only bad thing in his life was that he had nothing to do. No one would hire him, but Hermione brilliantly resolved that too.
"Harry, haven't you said once that Voldemort was just an orphan himself? What if you use part of the money your parents and Sirius left you to open and run an orphanage for Wizarding children? You could provide them the love they need, and avoid someone else turning into a Dark Lord, or at least try to do that"
He wasn't so sure about her idea, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised it was, as usual, genial. He would have something to do with his life, and he would help needing children.
So it was settled. He started working to set the project in motion, a new sense of purpose blossoming in him, and making his love for Hermione even stronger. He had by now grown used to wake up with her in his arms at morning, and wondered how could have he had gone on so long without that wonderful sensation.
Hermione was as happy as she could be, being with the man she had always known she loved, but never thought would love her back, and doing a job less stressful than being Minister, but still extremely pleasurable for her. Money wasn't a problem, she of course had a lower wage now, but it was still pretty good, and there was Harry's heritage that even if both of them did nothing at all would sustain both of them for their whole lives.
Half an year later, however, something came to trouble her happiness. She was working in her office when suddenly a crying Lily came out from her fireplace.
"Sweetheart, what are you doing here? And why are you crying?" she asked, rushing to her side.
"Daddy wants to marry that other woman, Luna. I don't want Daddy to marry again. He says he loves her, but I know it won't last, and I will be through that again…love can't last! So I ran away by Floo. I don't want to be with Daddy anymore" the little girl said.
Hermione hugged her. "Listen, honey. We now are going to owl Daddy that you are here, so he doesn't get scared by your disappearance. Then we go to Granny Molly and you'll stay with her, ok?"
"Ok" the little girl nodded. So Hermione sent an owl to Ron and brought her daughter to Molly. Then, tired, she Apparated to their flat, as she had to speak with Harry.
When she was finished, he slumped in his seat.
"So you'll have to move out of here and go to your flat?" he asked then.
"I fear so, Harry, at least for a while. I need to make her understand that love is not this bad"
"I see. Well, let me know if I can help somehow" he said, while helping her to pack her things.
"Of course. I think, in fact, that maybe you could be of help, telling her about how you never ceased to love me even in your dark days. She must have proof that love is a strong force"
So, the necessary paperwork was filled at the Ministry, and Lily went to live with Hermione. Ron was sad about that, but he knew if someone could make their daughter see what love really was, it was Hermione and Harry. He would build his own happy family with Luna, and teach their own children what love really is.
Of course, having Lily living with her cut Hermione's time for Harry, but he was understanding about that.
On Sundays they would go all together to parks, or to have lunch, or maybe to visit Hogsmeade or other magical villages. Hermione was trying to bring Lily to accept that Harry was part of her life, and that they loved each other.
One night, after they had dinner together, they put Lily to sleep. Then the two of them relaxed in the living room, Hermione's head resting on his shoulder, and she sighed contentedly.
"You're being of great help here, Harry" she said, turning to look at him.
"Anything for you, Hermione" he said, placing a sweet kiss on her lips. Unfortunately Lily couldn't sleep and entered the room exactly in that moment, seeing them.
She started crying and retreated to her room, and her anger at the two of them caused an uncontrolled bit of magic, setting the curtains on fire.
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