A New Life

“Five more minutes, Mione”

“Shut the blinds, Harry, dear”

“After seven, it's your responsibility”

“Seven…OH MY GOD! WE'RE LATE!” Hermione shot out of bed like she was catapulted and practically ran to the bathroom. Harry simply lay in bed trying to hide his face from the light streaming through the window.

“Harry, get up! The kids have school today! It's Haylie's first day of Pre-wizarding school!” Hermione quickly shouted at him from the bathroom. He waited until he heard the shower head running before he snuggled into his blankets and tried to catch a bit more sleep.

“Daddy! Daddy!” The sweet sound of his offspring floated to his ears.

Harry groaned. He lifted his head from his pillow and scratched at his eyes. He grabbed his glasses from the bedside table and neatly set them on his nose. One glance at the clock made him groan again. It was way too early to be up! His family was insane.

“Daddy! I need you!” The child called more demandingly from down the hall. She sounded very serious and very helpless (not to mention very cute). Harry quietly padded out of the master bedroom in his slippers and robe and headed down the hall

He passed his son's room, in which no sound was coming from. That could mean one of two things: either he was asleep or he was already at the kitchen table waiting for breakfast. Hopefully, it would be the latter because it was impossible to wake his son up before nine o' clock.

Harry continued down the hallway, passed one more door before he reached his little girl's room. Haylie Potter was standing in the middle of her room dressed in a cute little white dress. Her brown curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail, but a few strands of hair were in her face covering her glasses.

“What's the problem, baby?” Harry asked, smiling at how adorable his little girl was.

“I can't carry all my books!”

“Really? Shall I buy you a little red wagon that you can carry all of your books in?” Harry joked

Haylie seemed to ponder this thought for a moment before she nodded.

“Yes, that'll do!”

Harry smiled and walked over to her. She was surrounded by books on her floor in piles and stacks. He walked over to where she was standing and kneeled down in front of her. Once he was at eye level with his four-year-old he tried to explain.

“Haylie, you know that you don't need all of those books at school, don't you?”

“But daddy, I need to learn. How am I supposed to learn without my books?”

“Your teacher will give you other books to read. You remember your teacher from orientation, Mrs. Wilson, don't you?”

Haylie nodded. And looked at her feet.

“It's good that you want to learn so much, Haylie, and mommy and I are always proud of how smart you are, but if you bring your books than you'll be too distracted to learn new things. We definitely don't want that, do we sweetie?”

Haylie shook her head hastily.

“You're right, daddy. I'll just bring one or two.” The little girl conceded

“Thank you. Now, which books?” Harry asked

“Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan”

“Very good choices. Why Peter Pan, though? Haven't you memorized every word?” Harry inquired to the little girl who was looking for those two books in her big pile.

“I still like the pictures.” Haylie replied as if Harry should already know better.

“Forgive me. I hadn't realized” Harry laughed. He took Haylie's hand and led her downstairs to their kitchen and dining room.

In the Kitchen, Hermione Potter was hard at work with eggs on the stove. She was dressed for work with an apron on and her hair in a messy bun. James was sitting at the table drawing a picture with his new magic crayons.

Harry walked in with Haylie's hand in his and sat her down at the table. He gave her some paper and then kissed her cheek.

“Morning James” he greeted his son who nodded in response. Harry ruffled his hair and went to join Hermione.

“Harry, could you get the toast out please?” she asked of him.

“You got it” The couple went about preparing breakfast for the family. Hermione made the eggs and bacon, while Harry buttered the toast, prepared the table and poured the orange juice. Once breakfast was set in front of the children, Harry and Hermione joined them at the square kitchen table.

“Honey I might be a bit late coming home. With school starting, we're expecting a busy next few days. Can you get the kids from school?” Hermione said to Harry as she forked her eggs. Hermione owned her own Bookstore in a muggle store division. She'd made a fortune out of simply doing what she loved.

Harry nodded “Yeah no problem. I only have two groups and one private client. I should be done in time”

Harry was always expected to be a big bad Auror or a Professional Quidditch player. In all honesty, he would like to be either one of those thing, or perhaps both. However, after they left London he wanted to stay out of the ministry and the spotlight. So he became a Quidditch instructor, and a damn good one at that.

“Dad, can we go flying after school?” James asked

“Don't talk with your mouth full, Jamie” Hermione scolded. James swallowed and then asked his dad again.

“Please?”

“We'll see. If you don't have any homework and if nothing comes up then we'll definitely think about it, okay?” Harry replied. James smiled and went back to eating.

“Mommy someone's at the door” Haylie abruptly announced. Hermione looked to Harry who shrugged.

“No one knocked” he conceded. Hermione wiped her mouth with her napkin before getting up and walking to the door. Halfway there, someone knocked. Hermione stopped and glanced behind to her husband, both of them with eyes wide open in shock. How did Haylie know? Hermione cautiously walked to the door.

Harry got up and quickly rushed behind her. They stood before the door. Harry extended his hand to the doorknob and slowly turned it. The windy outside of Chicago blew the door open a little and a man's silhouette was seen.

“Professor Lupin!”

“Oh my God!”

Remus Lupin dressed in grey fading wizarding robes stood on their front porch with a smile on his face and bags under his eyes.

“Harry, Hermione. It's so good to see you. Perhaps I could come in?” he asked. They immediately opened the door wider and he stepped in.

After two seconds inside the house, Hermione had drawn him into a bone crushing hug.

“Hermione, sweetie, he can't breathe!” Harry stopped her. She pulled away.

“Professor I can't believe how long it's been!” she gushed

“It's been, what, eight years? You can stop calling me Professor now”

“Old habits die hard, professor” she responded. Harry shook Lupin's hand and smiled. He put his arm around Hermione's shoulders. His look seemed to darken a bit.

“Is there any specific reason as to why you're here, sir? Has anything bad happened?” Harry asked

“No,” Lupin hastily replied “Actually I'm here for a good reason. But I must say that it was damn near impossible to track you down.”

“That was sort of the point” Both young adults sheepishly avoided looking at Lupin.

“Mommy! Daddy! Jamie took the red crayon! And I was using it first!” Haylie barreled out of the kitchen, the box of crayons in her hands as she ran. The crayons were spilling everywhere as she ran which was creating a huge mess all around the foyer.

“I did not! She's lying!” James yelled from behind as he too sprinted to where their parents were standing.

“Mommy, he really did! I was coloring a really pretty picture of Captain Hook and I needed the red crayon for his coat. I was coloring in his hat when Jamie took it from me without asking!” Haylie accused, close to tears. Jamie simply looked annoyed.

“That's not what happened! Haylie over egarcerated!” James countered

“I think you mean `over exaggerated'” Hermione automatically corrected, “And even so, you guys have to learn to share or you'll never stop being scolded by Dad and I. Why not just take turns using the crayon?”

“Or just break it in half and you can each use it at the same time” Harry suggested. The kids looked to each other before doing what he said and then racing back to the kitchen to finish coloring before they left for school.

“You have kids?” Lupin asked, with his eyebrows raised.

“Yes. That was James and Haylie” Hermione replied softly. She had forgotten that her old Defense against the Dark Arts professor was there for a moment.

“You do know why we left don't you?” Harry inquired. He grabbed Hermione's hand and led her to the sitting room with Lupin trailing behind.

“Not really. Ron and Ginny have told us it was something about a fight between the four of you about you two lying to them about a relationship. Then the rumor was that you'd run off to Australia to have a passionate love affair. I don't think anyone thought you'd get married and have kids” Lupin explained

“Well…that's about it. Hermione broke up with Ron before the graduation ceremony, which I had no idea about. I planned to break up with Ginny after, but right before it was time for our speeches I couldn't help it. I told Hermione how I felt. She felt the same, obviously, so we moved to Oregon for her schooling. After she graduated, Haylie was born and we moved here” Harry told Lupin. The two men sat on the couch as Hermione lit a fire with her wand in their brick fireplace.

“Haylie was born after you Graduated?” Lupin asked Hermione. She nodded. “Then you had James while in school? That must've been extremely difficult.”

“I won't say it wasn't unexpected, but we handled it. I stayed in a dorm for the first year, since it was cheaper while Harry and James rented a really shabby apartment. Then, Harry got his Instructor job and we were able to find a cottage on campus and hire some help until after graduation.”

“You two have come a long way” Lupin said, watching as the two sat on the couch, cuddled up together.

“So,” Harry began, taking Hermione's hand “What's the reason?”

Lupin regarded him cautiously. He sighed and ran a hand through his grey stringy hair. He thought of a hundred ways to avoid bringing it up, but once his eyes met Hermione's he knew he'd just have to tell them straight.

“Luna Lovegood…you remember here, don't you?” the couple nodded.

“She's marrying. Actually, She's marrying into a wealthy family; Charles M. Rowland III of the London Duke Rowland's. Molly Weasley is doing her wedding, by personal request of Luna. The invitations have been sent out, but no one knew where to send yours except for me.” Lupin reached a hand into his coat pocket and pulled out a wrinkled white envelope with an official seal holding it unopened. He handed it to Harry, who didn't take his eyes off of it, but did not open it.

“Luna's invited us? After how long it's been?” He asked

“Of course. She felt that you helped her during a hard time.” Lupin smiled as he watched them have a private conversation with their eyes.

After only a few minutes, both young adults turned to Lupin.

“Open the envelope” Lupin ordered before either could say a word. Harry slowly ripped the seal as cleanly as he could. He took out the parchment inside and unfolded it. The neat handwriting could not be mistaken for Luna Lovegood's.

Dear Harry and Hermione,

It's been a very long time. Of course, you know that. Everyone misses you, none more than Molly Weasley. I happen to miss you as well. I want to thank you both for helping me through the death of my father. I also want to thank you for letting me stay at Grimmauld for the end of my education at Hogwarts. Lots of people say lots of things about the whereabouts of you two passionate lovers, but I know what's true. You left because you thought it would be easier. It's not my decision to say whether it was right or wrong, but now is a chance to come back and possibly redo the whole thing. You'd be amazed at how much people have changed in the last eight years. I hope you will consider coming, it would mean the world to me.

Luna M. Lovegood

Once both Harry and Hermione were done with the letter they looked to one another with odd expressions on their faces. Behind the letter they had read, was the actual invitation telling the date and place.

Lupin watched as they had another “silent eye conversation”, as he affectionately came to call it. They “spoke” for what seemed like ten minutes, but what was really only thirty seconds, before they had their answer.

“Do we floo or apparate?”

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