The Missing Pieces

Title: The Missing Pieces

Summary: Set between the end of the final chapter of DH and the Nineteen Years Later. I wasn’t happy and I figured there was a bit of time to fill in, so I decided to fill it. My version of what happens in those nineteen years, and makes it seem a lot better to read!!!

Rating: PG-13 for now

Authors Notes: When I finished reading DH, I realised that the oldest kid from H/G, R/Hr was about 12/13. Which leaves a gap of five years from the last chapter to the epilogue. A lot can happen in five years. So I’m writing that five years for Harmony shippers. I already know how it will end, and it will make that epilogue so much easier to read. Hope you enjoy!!!

One

How he made it through the days and weeks after the battle at Hogwarts, Harry never knew. The war was over and the magical world was in chaos still. Every other day there was a funeral- so many that Harry found them all blending into each other and he found himself several times not knowing whose funeral he was actually at.

Too many had died.

The worst had been the funerals for Fred, and Remus and Tonks. Fred’s had come first, and Mrs Weasley had been hysterical, clutching the coffin. Harry and Hermione had stayed in the background, letting the Weasley’s grieve as a family.

Mrs Tonks had asked Harry to speak for Remus at their funeral, but when the day came, Harry couldn’t find the words and hadn’t said anything. He had sat in the front row and nursed baby Teddy. He had never held a baby before, and he was surprised at how naturally it came to him. He almost didn’t want to give him back to Mrs Tonks, but she was Teddy’s guardian now. He, Harry, was only godfather.

It was a shock to Harry when he realised that it was July. Time had been going by in the weird fashion that it had during the Triwizard Tournament. It was even more of a shock when, after the funerals, he found himself thinking of what he knew he had to do.

It was the nicest day of the summer so far when he Apparated into the back corner of the park that he had lurked in so often over the summers he had been forced to spend with the Dursley’s. He had no idea why he had felt the need to come here, but he knew that it would be answered when he went there.

He walked slowly, relishing the fact that even though he was there, he didn’t have to be. He could leave, if he wanted too. He’d never had that freedom before.

Number 4, Privet Drive was the same as well Harry had left it just under a year ago. The brass number 4 shone brightly in the sun and Harry actually found himself smiling as he walked up the front path. He guessed it was because no matter what happened, it couldn’t be worse than anything he’d gone through since he left.

He knocked sharply on the door twice and stood back. He could see a dark form appearing behind the glass and he held his breath for the explosion from Uncle Vernon. He was shocked when he saw that it was Dudley, not his uncle.

‘Er, hello,’ Dudley said awkwardly, staring at Harry. Harry knew he hadn’t expected to ever see him again, and was embarrassed about their goodbye scene.

‘Hey, Big D,’ Harry said, stepping forward and clapping him on the shoulder.

‘You’re not allowed to stay here,’ Dudley said quickly, looking over his shoulder. ‘Th… they said! You’re not to come back here again.’

‘I don’t want to live here,’ Harry said, trying not to laugh. ‘I can think of 100 places I’d rather live.’

‘Then why are you here?’

Harry looked at his cousin for a few moments, wondering how to best phrase his thoughts.

‘I wanted to check.’

‘Check what?’ Dudley asked, looking like Uncle Vernon.

‘That you made it ok,’ Harry said shrugging. ‘That the order did their job?’

‘We’re all fine, they were great. Is that all?’

Harry didn’t know why he was so surprised by Dudley’s attitude. He knew he should’ve known what to expect. But he couldn’t just never find out what happened to him. Their existence kept him safe for many years, no matter how badly they treated him.

And then he heard the girls voice and he knew it wasn’t Aunt Petunia. Uncle Vernon’s car wasn’t in the driveway. His Aunt and Uncle weren’t home, and Dudley had snuck his girlfriend in. Wanting to laugh, he gave a small smile and wink, and after checking over his shoulder, Disapparated.

~*~

Harry had made his home at 12 Grimmauld Place. It was his house and it was safe from the gawking witches and wizards that seemed to follow him everywhere. The house seemed to realise that it had a new owner, and with Kreacher’s help, Harry was slowly turning it into something he might even be proud to call home. Slowly all traces of the Black family were being removed, including Mrs Black’s awful portrait. It was a relief to be able to make noise in the hallway.

It was Harry’s 18^th birthday before he knew it, but he didn’t really feel like celebrating. Ron was still shut up at the Burrow, grieving over the loss of his brother, so only Hermione had come to spend the day with him. It wasn’t until he was hugging her goodbye at midnight that he realised it was the first time they had been alone together since the night they went to Hogwarts.

He didn’t realise until that moment how much he had missed her and that time they had been on their own when Ron left them. He was kept awake the rest of the night, his mind filled with images of his best friend.

His voice kept reminding him of what he had said to Ron- she’s like a sister to me. But the other voice in his head kept popping in, reminding him that he had thought his feelings for Ginny had been sisterly at first, thought they were older brother protective feelings. Was that the same was as he felt about Hermione?

~*~

The wizarding world was changing. Kingsley Shacklebolt had been voted in as Minister and had set about changing the Ministry in a way that had never happened before. A week after the result was announced, Harry had received an owl over breakfast summoning him to a meeting.

Moments after this owl, there was a rapping on the front door. Kreacher answered and returned minutes later with Hermione, who was holding an identical letter.

They needed no words. Harry shrugged to convey that he didn’t know anything further, and retreated upstairs to change quickly.

They apparated holding hands- Harry had become so used to apparating that way with her that it seemed second nature. When the closed off feeling left, he saw they were standing in the wide hall of the atrium. This was the 4^th time Harry had come to the Ministry, and again, it had changed. Gone was the ‘Magic is Might’ statute. Instead, a tall obelisk made of black stone stood where it had stood. As they walked closer, Harry saw it was inscribed with hundreds, thousands of names. He could make out a larger inscription on the bottom.

Nunquam Iterum

‘It means never again,’ Hermione whispered. Harry felt a rush of gratitude to her knowledge of Latin. Underneath the Latin, Harry could make out a tiny passage in English.

Over a period of 70 years, the magical community has stood together and fought the darkest of wizards and the foulest of magic. This stands as a monument to those who lost their lives in that fight, regardless of what side they belonged to.

We are all one and let us all declare, Nunquam Iterum.

Harry thought it a nice sentiment, but knew it was just words. He had known from the outset that Voldemort would not be the last dark lord. He might be the worst, but not the last. It was only a matter of time.

An older, matronly like woman was waiting for them outside of Kingsley’s office when they arrived on Level 1 and she ushered them in as soon as she saw them. Harry didn’t really know what to expect of Kingsley’s office, but he was pleasantly surprised when he realised that it was almost the same as his Auror cubicle had been 3 years before when Harry had visited it, though no photos of Sirius.

‘Harry, Hermione,’ he said in his deep booming voice, waving to the seats in front of him. ‘I’m glad you could come, I have very urgent business.’

Harry sensed Hermione’s eagerness as they both lent forward, waiting for Kingsley to reveal why he had needed them.

Authors Notes: Thank you soooo much to everyone who reviewed!!! I’m glad you like it so far, and I hope you’ll keep liking it!!!

Just to clarify, I’m not actually rewritting the epilogue. However bad it was, it’s canon now. All I can do is work around it. Hopefully what I’m writing will make it more bearable, particularly the last chapter, which I have already written which will make the epilogue seem 100 times better.

Two

Harry couldn’t help but think that Kingsley was enjoying leaving them hanging on the edge of their seats. A good few minutes passed before he spoke again.

‘Azkaban is full,’ he said slowly.

‘You want me to store Death Eaters in my basement?’ Harry said and Kingsley laughed.

‘No, I want you to figure out who’s guilty. Both of you.’

Harry and Hermione exchanged puzzled glances.

‘Harry, you have had more experience with Dark Magic than anyone I have at my disposal,’ he said slowly. ‘And, Hermione, you have the knowledge of someone twice your age.’

Hermione blushed.

‘But why us? We’re just kids.’

‘You’re not a kid, Harry,’ Kingsley said sternly. ‘And I can’t believe you think that I think that.’

‘Then why us?’ Harry repeated.

‘I need people I can trust are for the good of all people,’ Kingsley said. ‘There is still too much confusion in this world. People are still terrified- we all remember Frank and Alice Longbottom. They were attacked when we thought we were safe. I need to get the courts up and running again. And the only people I trust to do this is you two.’

Harry sat back in his seat and digested this. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione was obviously doing the same. There was silence for a moment, then Hermione broke it.

‘We’ll need to discuss this,’ she said and Kingsley nodded.

‘Of course, but you realise how time sensitive this is?’

Hermione nodded.

‘We will let you know today.’

Harry knew at those words their meeting was over. He shook Kingsley’s hand and followed Hermione out of the office, his mind swimming.

~*~

‘What about Ron?’

Hermione had led the way out of the Ministry to a muggle coffee shop around the corner. On the way, they had passed the old entrance, where they had staged the first part of their plan to break in. How long ago it seemed.

‘What about Ron?’ Hermione repeated.

‘I thought he was planning to help George with the shop,’ Harry said. His conversations with Ron had been brief and very few- he had been hit by the death of his brother a lot harder than they had thought originally and seemed to be staying away, as if it was Harry’s fault.

‘He is, but…’ Hermione didn’t need to finish her sentence. Harry knew what she was thinking. Ron would feel left out if they were working together on this without him. After all, he had been there for all of it. He had done as much as them. Ron had always been sensitive about being left out.

‘Can I ask a very blunt question?’

‘Of course,’ Hermione said, but she looked worried and stern.

‘Are you two, you know, together?’

Hermione sighed.

‘Not really. He asked for space. So I’m giving it to him.’

The brotherly feelings that had stirred in Harry on his birthday stirred again.

‘I think we should do this,’ he said, hesitating slightly. ‘If we don’t, who knows who will.’

Hermione nodded in agreement. Harry paid their bill and they headed back to inform Kingsley of their decision.

~*~

The Daily Prophet was waiting on the table when Harry went for breakfast the following morning. A large picture of himself and Hermione filled the front page, above the heading ‘Granger and Potter to head the Office of Magical Law’.

He opened the paper to page 3 and started to read.

In a very surprising move last night, newly elected Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt announced that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had accepted the role of joint head of the Office of Magical Law, a reformed version of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

‘We are trying to rebuild our world,’ the ministers statement read last night. ‘Part of the rebuilding involves punishing those who sought for it’s destruction.’

Trials for accused Death Eaters could start within the month. Many may question whether Potter and Granger have the experience and the qualifications to uphold this prestigious role, but the Minister stands behind them.

‘At the age of 18, Mr Potter and Miss Granger have achieved more than wizards twice their age. Miss Granger has an expansive knowledge of Magical Law, whilst Mr Potter is incredibly adapt at spotting signs of Dark Magic.’

Of course, the wizarding community lives in fear of reprisal attacks like the last time that You-Know-Who fell. The most famous of these is the attack on the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom. The Minister assures that security is still a prime concern and task forces of the most trusted in the Ministry have been working around the clock to ensure that any person suspected of involvement, willingly or not, with the Death Eaters has been escorted to Azkaban to await trial.

Harry put the paper aside and ate his breakfast. Kreacher bowed him out of the house, with promises of his favourite treacle tart, and a full lunchbox. Harry still found it hard to believe that Kreacher was the same elf that he had met prior to his fifth year at Hogwarts. So often he thought of Dobby, and often wondered if Dobby would’ve stayed at Hogwarts, or gone to Harry, who he considered Master, though he was a free elf.

He apparated from the front step, directly onto Level 2 of the Ministry. He couldn’t help himself and he smiled as he looked at the door in front of him.

Harry Potter

Joint Head

Office of Magical Law

Beside his door, was an identical one, only Hermione’s name was listed instead of Harry’s. Hermione apparated beside him as he started to open his door. They smiled nervously at each other, before heading in to get to work.

~*~

Despite his initial misgivings at the job that they had been given, Harry actually found himself enjoying the work. By day, whilst Hermione researched and organised, Harry interviewed what felt like everyone in the magical world. Being Harry Potter helped people talk- they would tell him everything.

By night, they would hole themselves up in their offices, or the drawing room of Grimmauld Place, and go over more files. They wanted the trials to begin as soon as they could have them- they knew that there were a lot of innocent or bewitched people in Azkaban, and it was up to them to get them out.

The other thing that surprised Harry was Ron’s reaction. He and George had reopened Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, in memory of Fred. They worked well together, though it was obvious that Fred bought a lot of spark to the store. Harry had expected Ron to be upset, or even angry, about he and Hermione working together and being asked to do such an important job. But it turned out that he really couldn’t care less.

‘Better you than me,’ he told Harry over lunch in the Leaky Cauldron. Harry felt this was some kind of blessing, and was secretly glad that Ron felt that way. It made him feel a lot less guilty about going to work every day.

~*~

August rushed by as fast as the other months had gone by. It was the 30^th when he and Hermione declared themselves ready to commence trials, and on the 31^st they had gone back to Grimmauld Place to prepare, as their floor at the Ministry had been taken over by worldwide wizarding press, eager to be the first to get any news.

Hermione yawned, throwing a file back down onto the stack and rubbed her eyes. Harry followed suit and they sat on the lounge, staring at the files that seemed to grow every day.

‘At least we’re doing some of the easy ones first,’ Harry said, pointing to the pile of files right beside him. ‘Let the ones we know are guilty rot.’

Hermione scoffed.

‘If we go by the law, they’re all innocent,’ she said rolling her eyes. ‘We haven’t proved them guilty yet.’

‘It’s only a matter of time, for some’ he said and she nodded, closing her eyes and letting her head fall back.

‘Can I sleep here tonight?’ she asked, turning her head from side to side to stretch the muscles in her neck. ‘I don’t feel like going home.’

‘You don’t even need to ask anymore,’ he said. Since they had started working together, Harry had turned one of the bedrooms into Hermione’s bedroom, so that if they were working late, she wouldn’t have to apparate tired.

The conversation died out again as they buried themselves in more files. At 1am, Kreacher appeared and extinguished all the lamps and shooed them out of the room. Harry had to hand it to the elf, he wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for Kreacher’s care.

They walked slowly up the stairs, yawning on every alternate step. Hermione was holding his hand, leaning her head on his shoulder. The brotherly feelings crept up through Harry and he held onto her hand even tighter. He managed to keep these feelings in check when they were working, but when they worked late, sometimes they just over took him.

‘Night,’ Hermione said when they reached her bedroom door. Harry made to say goodnight, but something got caught up in his brain and he found himself bending slightly to kiss her tenderly on the lips.

He didn’t know what to expect as he did it. He was very surprised when she kissed him back.

Authors Notes: Hi there! Only a short update tonight- the next chapter will make up for it I promise!!! Look for it in about 12 hours time, just wanted to make up for not updating yesterday!!! I’m hoping to update at least every 2 days or so, just to keep the flow of the story. That also depends on how much time I get for writing!!!

Hope you like and please review J And massive thanks to all the people who have reviewed- reviews make me want to keep writing *wink*

Three

Harry had expected the trials to be long, tedious and tiring, but he hadn’t realised how much. By day five, they had successfully proved that three suspects had not acted of their own accord, but four had been sent back to Azkaban. The worst had been the trial of Stan Shunpike. Harry had thought he’d known Stan, even though they had only met briefly on the Knight Bus. The night that Stan was involved in the ambush as Harry left Privet Drive, he, Harry, had thought he had been bewitched. But half an hour in to the trial, Harry had to admit that he was a fool for believing that Stan could be innocent. He was the first person that they sent back to Azkaban, amidst the cries of his mother.

He was relieved when they reached the end of the five days- they were now having a five day break to prepare for round two, and Harry was starting to doubt that Kingsley had done the right thing, giving them this job. But he never expressed this to Hermione. In fact, a lot of things went unexpressed.

Not once since it happened had they discussed their kiss. They had been spending almost every hour together, including the sleeping ones once or twice when they fell asleep where they worked. Every day as they finished a trial, they would return to their office to compose a joint statement to the media on the events of the day, before heading back to Grimmauld Place for more preparation and research (it was far too hard to work in their actual offices with the media camped outside).

Their final trial, for the moment, was of Targu Thomas, the father of Dean Thomas, a former classmate. Harry remembered hearing Dean talk about not knowing if his father was magical, back when Dean was on the run with Ted Tonks and Dirk Creswell. After the trial, Harry felt that Dean’s mother was best to keep his fathers identity from him. Dean’s father had married his mother so that he could one day kill her and any offspring they produced, all to prove how he felt about muggles. The only reason he hadn’t managed to kill them was due to Mrs Thomas seeking help from Dumbledore when Dean was born, who had arranged protection for them. It also helped that Targu had been thrown into Azkaban for attempting to kill the muggle Prime Minister. Dean had known nothing of this, until he watched the trial of his father. He looked disgusted as he left, and Harry felt sorry for him for having to sit through it.

After the courtroom emptied, he began packing his briefcase and turned to look at Hermione.

‘Are we going to work tonight?’ he asked. She rubbed her eyes (a now frequent habit) and looked at him. Harry realised how tired she really was- the bags under her eyes were even worse than in the third year when she had the time turner.

‘I just want to sleep,’ she said, though she looked disgusted at herself for admitting this weakness.

‘Your place or mine?’ he said and she laughed.

‘My office,’ she said and he looked at her strangely, wondering why she wanted to sleep in her office, before realising that she meant the daily statement needed to be done.

‘You go home,’ Harry said firmly. ‘I can do the statement. I’ll pick up some dinner and I will come to your place.’

It was a mark of how tired she was, she didn’t even argue. She disapparated directly from the courtroom (they were some of the only people who could apparate in and out of any Ministry premises) and Harry headed upstairs on his own. He fought through the daily throng of media into his office, where he dashed off a quick account of Targu Thomas’s trial. Using his wand, he duplicated it forty times and picked up his briefcase. As he headed out the door, he slipped the statements onto a small shelf outside his door and then picked his way through the media again, avoiding their questions.

~*~

Hermione had moved back into her parents house, the house that she grew up in. After she had modified her parents memory, she had arranged for them to leave the house in her name. It was this attention to detail that had always made Harry admire her.

He apparated to the front step and let himself in. The house was dark and he found her straight away, asleep on the lounge. He smiled at her as he tiptoed over to her. He banished the take out he was carrying to the kitchen and bending slightly, he picked her up with ease. He was very surprised at how light she was, and made a mental note to get her to eat more.

He carried her gently up the stairs and used his wand to open her bedroom door. Laying her down, he covered her with a blanket and then looked around. He had never been into her bedroom before. It was painted a very light pink, but you couldn’t really see much of the paint. Shelves had been built covered three quarters of the walls, and they were stacked with books. Certificates from her muggle school were hung proudly around the bed. He hadn’t really built up expectations for her bedroom, but if he had, it would have been perfect.

A spare blanket lay over the end of the bed and he picked it up and settled himself in the chair in the corner opposite the bed. He lay awake for a long time that night, watching over as she slept.

Authors Notes: Told you I’d be back with more, though a little later than I thought! Thank you again for all your wonderful reviews, I will eventually answer some of them personally, but at the moment all my energy is being focused on writing whilst I have the chance. Cause my fiance doesn’t know the full extent of my HP obsession lol and I have to write when he’s not around. Thankfully, he works early shifts which means he goes to bed early and I can sit up late and write (cause I do all my best writing at night).

I hope you enjoy this chapter J

Four

He was standing in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. It was breakfast time, the smell was so familiar to him. He started to make his way up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, when he realised that everyone was laughing at him.

He couldn’t understand at first, why everyone was laughing. And then he realised. He was completely naked. Blushing furiously and trying to cover himself up, he ran the rest of the way to his seat in between Ron and Hermione, both of whom started to immediately push and poke him.

‘Get off me,’ he said, trying to fight back. But his arms were heavy and he couldn’t move them…

‘Wake up, Harry!’

He jumped up, startled, looking wildly around. Sunlight was pouring in through the window, and after a few confusing moments, he remembered falling asleep, watching Hermione sleep.

‘We slept late,’ she was saying crossly. ‘It’s almost 10am. We should’ve been working!’

‘No we shouldn’t,’ Harry groaned, stretching. He decided that sleeping in a chair was not a good thing- muscles he didn’t even know he had felt like they’d been compressed and then stretched out.

‘Harry, we’ve got so much to do!’

He was looking at her as if he had never seen her before. Somehow, in his sleep, his mind had been made up on what they had to do that day.

‘And if we try to do it, we’re going to crack,’ he said sensibly. ‘You look like you haven’t eaten or slept and I know I look no better. So, we’re taking today off.’

‘We can’t!’ she cried.

‘We can,’ he said firmly. ‘We’re the head of the department, we can take whatever days we want off.’

‘I…’ she faltered. ‘I never thought of it like that.’

‘So we’ll take today off and get back to work tomorrow. Nothing is going to be harmed by us doing this. We need a break.’

For a moment, she looked like she was going to keep fighting him. But then she shrugged her shoulders and sat back down on her bed.

‘What will we do?’

‘I have an idea,’ he said, winking. ‘You stay here and relax. I’m going to go to the Burrow and get Ron. And I’ll explain when I get back.’

She looked at him, mystified, but he disapparated.

~*~

The Burrow looked the same as Harry had always remembered of it. It was hard to believe it was almost a year since he had last been here. As he headed towards the door, he heard a gasp and a thud and before he knew what was happening, Molly Weasley had thrown herself around him, sobbing.

Harry, who had never been any good in this type of situation, patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. The minutes seemed endless, but then he heard footsteps and a voice whispering. Molly released him, wiping her eyes, looking almost ashamed.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, as tears still flowed. ‘I just… I just still can’t believe that you… you did it and you… you survived…’

She looked like she was about to fall onto him again. He braced himself, ready for it, but instead she bent down and picked up the basket of washing she had dropped and headed back to the house, not realising she hadn’t even hung the washing out.

‘Don’t mind mum,’ the man standing next to him said and Harry started- he had forgotten someone had come to help him. He almost didn’t know what to say when he realised it was Percy. ‘She’s still very shaken up, what with Fred…’

Percy trailed off.

‘Come in, Ron will be pleased to see you.’

Harry couldn’t think of anything to say to Percy. It had been so long since he found himself in his company.

‘I think I owe you an apology,’ Percy said abruptly as they reached the back door. He stopped, with his hand on the handle and turned to look at Harry. ‘I- I wrote a letter to Ron, back when Umbridge was at Hogwarts.’

Harry felt his insides burn. He remembered that letter, very clearly. Percy had told Ron to sever ties with Harry, before he became violent and unstable.

‘I know,’ Harry said and Percy looked away, shame evident on his face.

‘I was a fool,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I believed that power was everything. I was ashamed of my family. I wanted to be the best, stand above them all.’

Harry’s mind floated back to his first year, watching Ron stand in front of the Mirror of Erised, seeing himself as the better of all his brothers… and then a more recent memory floated in, the memory of the Riddle Harry and Hermione kissing, after telling Ron that he was worthless and they didn’t care…

For the first time, Harry saw just how alike Percy and Ron were, though he made the decision on the spot to never, ever mention this to Ron.

‘It’s alright,’ he said to Percy finally. Percy gave him a feeble smile and turned the handle and opened the door to the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty. For a moment, Harry was thinking that he was about to see Ginny, but as soon as she came into his mind, a feeling of guilt crept in. Several confusing seconds later, he remembered she was at Hogwarts, which had been fully restored over the summer.

He actually felt relived when he realised he wouldn’t be seeing her. It was a feeling he couldn’t explain. But, he thought, he’d been having a lot of feelings he couldn’t explain.

At that moment, Ron entered the kitchen, still in his maroon pyjamas, yawning and stretching.

‘Morning,’ he said to Harry, waving his wand so that a cup of coffee came soaring over to him. ‘I didn’t believe Percy when he said you were here.’

‘Well that’s nice,’ Harry said, trying not to laugh. Ron shrugged, and sat down at the table.

‘So…’ he said, looking at Harry. ‘Just passing by?’

‘Nope,’ Harry sat down too. ‘Hermione’s cracking up, too much work. And so am I. And you look like hell.’

‘Thanks for the compliment.’

‘Go get dressed and then apparate to Hermione’s house,’ Harry said, standing up again. ‘I’ll explain everything there.’

And with that, he left Ron looking very confused, headed out of the kitchen and disapparated from outside the boundaries.

~*~

Harry let himself back into the Granger house and found Hermione in the kitchen, curled up on a stool at the breakfast bar, sipping a cup of coffee. The way she was sitting reminded him a lot of Luna Lovegood, who always looked like she was about to fly away.

She was reading the paper and was concentrating so hard that she jumped when Harry tapped her on the shoulder.

‘Geez,’ she said, holding her heart. ‘Next time say something.’

‘Sorry,’ he said, smiling. She rolled her eyes and looked at him as if she was about to say something, but as she went to, the front door opened and closed again.

‘Ron!’ she exclaimed as he walked in and Harry realised that she had not seen him since they started working together. Hermione slipped off her stool and ran across the room and threw herself into his arms and hugged him tightly.

Harry felt the beast rise in his chest, but it setteled as soon as Hermione let go of Ron. He wondered what was going on with himself, but he couldn’t think about it, they both turned to him.

‘So what is all this about?’ Ron asked, sitting down on the lounge. Hermione sat herself down on the armchair and they both looked up at Harry with wide, expectant eyes. Harry thought for a moment before speaking.

‘We need to have some fun,’ he said slowly. Ron and Hermione looked at each other and then back to Harry. Harry walked forwards and sat himself down on the coffee table. ‘We’ve aged 20 years in 3 months. Hermione, we’re working our butts off. We live and breathe work. And Ron, the last time we had lunch, all you could talk about was sales projections and cash flow.’

‘We’re adults now, Harry,’ Hermione said slowly as if trying to make him seem reasonable. ‘We have to behave like adults.’

‘But we never got to behave as anything but adults,’ Harry retorted. ‘We got saddled with tasks and missions and spent 7 years of our life fighting Voldemort, instead of having fun!’

‘Well, that is true,’ Ron said quietly and earned himself a stare from Hermione.

‘Look,’ Harry said quickly. ‘I’m not talking about quitting our jobs and running away to Mexico. I’m talking about all of us taking the day off today and picking one fun thing each to do.’

It appeared as if neither Ron or Hermione had any objections. The look on Ron’s face suggested that his mind was running over all the fun things that he could think of and trying to narrow it down to just one. Hermione’s face, on the other hand, had split into a wide grin.

‘I know what I want to do.’

Authors Notes: Hey all, thanks again for all your reviews!! Hope you like this update. Updates might be a bit slower for a few weeks- I just got a new puppy today (he’s a Golden Lab named Charlie).

Enjoy J

Five

The roller rink was old and the decorating hadn’t been updated since the 1960’s. Ron and Harry exchanged glances as they entered, but didn’t dare say anything. Hermione had been more excited that they had ever seen her when she had been talking about the roller rink where her parents had taken her skating as a child.

As she came jogging back towards them, carrying three pairs of skates, Harry couldn’t help but be struck with a vision of Hermione as a child, wearing her hair in pigtails and wearing one of those frilly dresses that the girls from his primary school always wore on class party day.

They strapped their skates on at the edge of the rink and for a moment, all three stood perfectly still. And then Hermione glided onto the rink with obvious experience and started to make her way to the furthest side.

‘Come and get me!’ she called out.

Harry and Ron shared one last look, before stepping onto the rink themselves. Harry felt himself wobble slightly, but was managing to stand upright. Ron’s feet slid out from underneath him as soon as he stepped forward and he wound up on the floor, looking as if he had no idea how he’d got there.

An hour later, Harry had to give Hermione credit- skating was a lot of fun. After ten minutes of wobbling, he was doing ok. He was nowhere in Hermione’s league talent wise, but at least he was doing better than Ron. It was nearly lunchtime when they called it quits, and Ron looked slightly disappointed (he had only just managed to skate several metres without falling over).

They walked half a block when they left and had lunch in a very crowded McDonalds. Ron had never been to McDonalds before and found the whole experience fascinating.

‘It’s almost magic, how they do that,’ he said, pointing to the deep fryers, where frozen chips had just gone in and cooked ones had come out. Harry decided to not point out how forcibly he was reminded of Mr Weasley and just collected his tray and followed Hermione to a table.

After they ate (Ron had 5 different burgers and pronounced each the most delicious thing he had ever eaten), it was Harry’s turn. He couldn’t explain his desire to do what he was doing, but he knew it was linked to fun in his mind, from back before he knew that he was a wizard.

It had been eight years since the Dursley’s, unable to find anything to do with him on Dudley’s birthday, had taken him to the zoo with them. It was one of the first occasions when they had taken him somewhere and despite the company, he had rather enjoyed himself. Especially seeing as though he had set a Python on Dudley.

They spent the afternoon wandering from exhibit to exhibit, laughing and joking. When they reached the reptile house, Harry gave an animated re-enactment of the Python’s escape, which left Ron doubled up on the floor in laughter.

From the zoo, they made their way through London and ended up in a pub, where they ate dinner. Ron and Harry tasted the various beers on offer, whilst Hermione stuck to water. As the night wore on, they heard the other people in the pub talking about a night club just up the road.

‘What do you reckon?’ Ron said, cocking his head sideways to refer to the group beside them who were talking about the club. ‘Sounds like fun. And I haven’t picked my thing yet.’

Harry agreed immediately- Hermione was slightly reluctant, but agreed. It was almost midnight before they found themselves following the group of muggles. Ron had made friends with them and Harry was keeping a close eye on him- Ron had had plenty of beers already and Harry was paranoid he’d mention something about the wizarding world.

There was only a little line up to enter the club and it moved quickly. Once inside Harry suddenly realised how unused to electricity his eyes were- the fluorescent lights were making his head spin and the beating of the music wasn’t really helping. Ron had vanished with the muggles, so Harry and Hermione made their way to an empty table on the edge of the dance floor. Every time the song changed the crowd gave a loud cheer, obviously liking each song better than the others.

After a while, Harry went to the bar and grabbed another beer- he spotted Ron, who was engrossed in a conversation with one of the muggle girls, who was very interested in what he had to say. Harry returned to the table with Hermione and they watched the dancers, before Hermione grabbed his hand.

‘Come on!’ she yelled (the music was far to loud for normal tones). ‘Let’s dance!’

She pulled Harry’s beer from his hands, drank the rest herself, and then dragged him out into the middle of the crowd. Harry felt frozen and was having flash backs to the Yule Ball in fourth year, dancing with Padma Patil, who had steered him the entire time. This dancing, however, was completely different. Looking around, he saw that it pretty much just involved moving around and waving your arms.

Feeling very stupid, he started to move. After two songs, he felt less stupid. Hermione was in front of him, looking like she was having a fit. Except that her eyes were bright and dancing too, and she was smiling and laughing. She grabbed hold of his hands several times and started to dance close to him, but each time he found a way to pull away. Somehow, dancing the way others around them were dancing with Hermione, knowing Ron could find them at any minute was frightening.

After over an hour on the dance floor, Harry’d had enough. He took hold of Hermione’s hand and led her away.

‘Let’s find Ron!’ he shouted and she nodded.

Ron wasn’t too hard to find. They’d made their way forwards and they found him, pressed up against the wall, with the muggle girl. Another flash back hit Harry- Ron and Lavender in their sixth year. He burst out laughing, and to his surprise, so did Hermione.

‘Let’s go- he won’t miss us!’

He led Hermione up the back and, after looking around inside to check it was empty, into the mens toilets. He held tight onto her hand and as soon as the door shut, they disapparated back to her house. Harry’s head was still pounding from the music, and his eyes couldn’t focus on anything clearly.

‘Well that was an interesting night,’ Hermione said, sitting down on the lounge and looking up at him. ‘Ron enjoyed himself.’

‘Clearly,’ Harry said with a chuckle, sitting down next to her. ‘Did you enjoy yourself?’

‘Yes,’ she said with a smile. ‘You were right- we needed to have some fun.’

‘Well, I like being right,’ he said, feeling his face grow hot and his stomach filled with butterflies. Hermione was sitting very close to him, looking very nervous.

‘There’s… there’s something that… that I’ve been wanting to do,’ she whispered, moving even closer.

For a moment they stared into each others eyes. Harry had never appreciated how brown and beautiful her eyes were. His head was inclining more to hers, her eyes were slowly closing…

This time he wasn’t surprised when she kissed him back, just as hard as he was kissing her.

Authors Notes: Quick update today- not getting much time to myself at the moment!!! I hope you enjoy and I’ll see you next time (hopefully before the weeks is out!)

Six

They slept on the lounge, Hermione laying across Harry’s chest. They hadn’t got much sleep- they had spent most of the time (after they finished kissing) talking. For the first time, she had spoken to him about her decision to not go find her parents in Australia (‘it would just be too hard to explain to them,’ she said), and also her feelings from the battle of Hogwarts (‘I felt as if I’d never be whole again when I saw Hagrid carrying your body’).

Harry, in turn, had spoken more on his feelings as he went to the forest to Voldemort, about the walk with the figures of his parents, Sirius and Remus. It was something that still haunted him in his dreams, though it was the only thing haunting his dreams since Voldemort’s downfall.

It was obviously late in the morning when they woke up. Hermione went out to get breakfast from the local bakery, whilst Harry headed upstairs to take a shower. It wasn’t until he got out that he realised that he didn’t have any clothes, other than the ones he’d been wearing. Feeling as if the shower was for nothing, he picked up his dirty clothes and went to put them back on.

‘I’ve left some of my fathers clothes outside,’ Hermione called through the bathroom door. ‘Yours are filthy. Ron’s downstairs too.’

He waited until her footsteps faded and then opened the door. She’d left a pair of jeans and a jumper, along with a pair of underpants. Trying not to think that they were her fathers underwear, he pulled them on.

When he got the rest of his clothes on, he headed downstairs. Ron was sitting at the breakfast bar, looking very tired, but very happy.

‘I owe you thanks mate,’ he said to Harry, patting him on the shoulder. ‘If it wasn’t for you, I would never have met Monica.’

‘Monica?

‘The muggle girl,’ Ron said, picking up a donut and stuffing it into his mouth whole. Hermione rolled her eyes and passed Harry a coffee.

‘Are you going to see her again?’ Harry asked. Ron nodded, chewing vigorously.

‘Tonight as a matter of fact,’ he said, swallowing. ‘And before you ask, I didn’t mention anything about magic. Almost did, when she asked me where I went to school.’

‘And what did you say?’

‘Home educated,’ Ron said, shrugging his shoulders. ‘Well, it’s kinda true- mum did all our basic teaching before Hogwarts- you know, reading, maths, all the normal stuff.’

He took a large sip of coffee and grabbed another donut, standing up at the same time.

‘I have to go- George will kill me if I don’t help him out today.’

Stuffing the second donut into his mouth, he headed off with a wave. Harry watched him go, trying not to laugh, and then turned to face Hermione. She was looking very pretty in tight black leggings and a long purple jumper, with her hair tied in a long plait.

‘So,’ Harry said, smiling at her. ‘What shall we do now?’

‘We really have a lot of work to do,’ she said, walking slowly towards him.

‘I’m not really in the mood for working,’ Harry said, wondering if she could hear how loudly his heart was beating.

‘Me neither.’

‘How will it work exactly?’ Harry said cautiously, stepping in closer.

‘How will what work?’

‘You know…’ he trailed off and she smiled at him.

‘I think we first need to stand slightly closer,’ she said as she took one big step forward.

‘And then?’

‘And then…’

The rest of her words were drowned out as they kissed. His hands found the way to the back of her head, where they went into her hair, which felt silky and smooth. Her hands where on his shoulder blades, gripping hard. It was a kiss unlike any other kiss that Harry had ever had (not that there had been many).

Only one thought occurred to him as they broke apart, smiling.

‘Does it disturb you to know you just kissed a guy wearing your dad’s knickers?’

~*~

And so it began. The next month was the happiest of Harry’s life, even with the trials of the accused Death Eaters and Voldemort supporters. He found his mind wandering in several of the easier, smaller trials- wandering to the stolen moments that he and Hermione were grabbing whenever they could, which included several very intense sessions in his office during lunch.

After Ron had almost walked in on them one day, they had decided that, for now, they would be best to keep their relationship a secret. Harry still vividly remembered the figures rising from the necklace and taunting Ron, and he would never quite forget how Ron looked at them.

Ron was still seeing Monica the muggle, something that Hermione was pretending to be jealous about. When Harry had asked her why, she had tried to explain, but failed miserably.

‘If I don’t get jealous, Ron will know something is up,’ she said, kissing him on the cheek as she prepared to leave Grimmauld Place after a long nights work. Harry had felt it to be improper for her to be sleeping over now that their friendship had evolved into something more, something that Hermione laughed at.

With a last lingering kiss, she waved and disapparted from the front step, and Harry stayed in the doorway watching the spot where she had vanished. He only moved when the cold started to bite at him and he went inside and closed the door.

‘Master!’ he heard Kreacher call, as he came bounding up the stairs from the kitchen. ‘You have a call! In the fire!’

Harry looked at his watch and wondered who on earth would be calling him at midnight. He followed Kreacher downstairs, and found Ron’s head in the fire place.

‘Ron?’

‘I’m glad you’re still up,’ Ron said, looking relieved. ‘Is Hermione there?’

‘WhywouldHermionebehere?’ Harry said, very quickly, feeling panicked.

‘I know you guys work late and she’s not at home, so I figured she was with you,’ Harry couldn’t see too well, but he knew that Ron had just shrugged his shoulders.

‘She just left,’ Harry said, relieved.

‘Ok, I’ll try her at home.’

‘Ron, what is this about?’

But it was too late. Ron’s head vanished with a pop.

Authors Notes: Hi all, thanks for your reviews!!! Sorry if this chapter is a bit dull, it’s kinda a bridging chapter to get to some good stuff. I’ve finalised the gritty details of how this will all pan out (some things were a bit undecided), so I can really start getting into the good stuff!!!

I don’t know when I’ll next be able to update- my puppy is very demanding on my time and he can’t stand to be separated from me!!! But he’s getting better, so hopefully I’ll be able to get in some writing time.

Enjoy!!!

Seven

Harry felt like he was going to have no chance to talk to Hermione at all the next day. She had arrived only just in time for their first trial. Harry started to ask where she had been, but she had shushed him as the accused entered the courtroom.

They took a morning tea break, but she vanished whilst Harry was sorting his papers out. He extended the break twice when she hadn’t reappeared and was starting to get worried when she suddenly burst back into the courtroom, looking flustered.

‘Sorry,’ she muttered to him, taking her seat again and immediately calling the court back into session.

She vanished again at lunchtime, once again appearing only just in time. Harry felt like he was going to burst- this was very un-Hermione. But again, she shushed him as he went to ask what was going on. After Ron’s late night call, he was feeling slightly paranoid.

At 3 o’clock, she called the afternoon break, but this time Harry grabbed her arm before she could run off.

‘What is going on?’ he hissed. She looked around, and beckoned him over to a side door that led into a small chamber that they often ate lunch in. ‘Ron was looking for you late last night. And you’ve been late all day, not to mention running off at morning break and lunch.’

Hermione smiled at this, which made Harry even more infuriated.

‘Are you jealous?’ she asked and Harry felt like he was about to explode.

‘Do I have reason to be?’

‘Not if you don’t trust me,’ she said, her smile faltered and she looked slightly hurt. Harry turned away from her, rubbing his temple and taking a deep breath.

‘Just tell me what’s going on, please?’

‘I’m helping Ron look for an flat,’ she said as she sat down on the small desk.

‘What?’

‘He really likes that muggle girl, Monica. Except he’s getting a bit tired of having to organise to meet her somewhere and having to make some excuse not to show her where he lives- he‘s been telling her he‘s just crashing on someone’s lounge and they don‘t like having visitors. So, he asked for my help in looking at flats.’

Harry couldn’t believe he’d let his mind jump to awful conclusions- he‘d put two and two together and come up with ten. He turned back to face her and arranged his face into the most sheepish expression he could manage.

‘He found a nice one- he moves in on Saturday,’ Hermione continued. ‘I said you’d help him move, but he didn’t seem to want to tell you yet.’

‘Why?’

‘He think’s you’ll laugh at him,’ she said with a shrug. ‘Thinks you won’t understand what’s he’s doing for a girl.’

‘But he can confide in you?’ Harry asked, feeling hurt.

‘Only because he doesn’t fancy me anymore,’ she said, looking almost smug.

‘What!’ Harry exclaimed.

‘We had a good talk last night- a late one,’ she explained. ‘He said that he’d fancied me for years, but that he’s realised that if we haven’t been able to make it work yet, that we probably wouldn’t get it to work. And then he met Monica.’

Harry couldn’t really explain the feeling of relief he got from hearing this.

‘I couldn’t believe how honest he was with me,’ she said, shrugging. ‘He’s never been that honest with me before.’

‘Well, when you think about it, Ron’s probably the person who has changed the most over the last year.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘It’s just he seems to have, well this sounds horrible, but he seems to have grown up a lot.’

‘I think it was losing Fred that did that,’ Hermione said very soberly. ‘If you ask me, Fred was always a little bit harder on Ron than George.’

It was at that moment that they heard people re-entering the courtroom. With a soft sigh, Hermione went back in first, Harry on her heels.

~*~

Ron called in to visit Harry that night and explained for himself about Monica and his new flat. Harry had pretended that Hermione hadn’t told him anything and assured him that he would be there on Saturday to help him move in.

The alarm went off at dawn on Saturday and Harry found himself wishing he hadn’t agreed to help Ron. He had been having the best sleep he had had for a long time and he grumbled about this as he pulled on some clothes. He disapparated from the front step and when he arrived at the Burrow, it was a hive of activity.

Hermione was already there, helping Mrs Weasley carry several boxes. Ron, Mr Weasley, George and Percy were carrying Ron’s furniture down to the front lawn. Harry swung into action, taking heavier boxes from Hermione and helping George carry out one of the spare lounges from the den.

At 9am, Ron disapparated to go get the keys and then they started the hard work. Apparating with objects wasn’t terribly difficult, but it got awkward with the large furniture. Mrs Weasley and Hermione remained at the new flat, shifting the things from the designated apparation spot. It was lunchtime when they had finished and Mrs Weasley had prepared sandwiches and pumpkin juice for them.

And then it came time for the Weasley’s to leave Ron on his own. Mr Weasley, George and Percy said a hearty goodbye before apparating. Mrs Weasley lost it as she hugged him goodbye. Ron was holding on to her pretty tightly, which Harry pretended not to notice by bending into a box full of pots and pans and busying himself looking for the teapot.

After a good ten minutes, they both let go and, very quickly (Harry thought so that she didn’t lose her nerve) Mrs Weasley disapparated. Ron, looking exhausted fell to the floor exactly where he was.

‘Can you believe this is all mine?’ he said, with a grin staring up at the ceiling. ‘I’ve got a guy coming to connect the felly tone on Monday so that I can call Monica, like a real muggle.’

‘Yes, well, if you want to look like a real muggle, you’d better be careful what you unpack,’ Hermione said wisely.

They stayed with Ron until dinner time, when Harry excused himself in tiredness and Hermione said that she needed to feed Crookshanks. They disapparted at the same time and as Harry reappeared on the step of Grimmauld place, he felt something beside him.

‘Crookshanks will be right,’ Hermione said, smiling at him and taking his hand. ’Thought you might like some company.’

Authors Notes: Hey all (again)! Thanks so much for your reviews and for sticking with me! I think this is actually going to be my most successful fic ever, which is an acheivment when I’ve been writing fan fics for six years! It’s the one that I’ve got the best feeling about and I’m still enjoying writing it (normally halfway through a fan fic I get bored and stop writing). I’ve got very clear ideas about where this is going (and I’m just itching to write a few chapters that will just blow your mind!).

I hope you enjoy this chapter and please review!!!

Eight

Time was passing too quickly for Harry. It shocked him to wake up one morning and discover that the square in Grimmauld place was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and that the muggles around him were putting up Christmas decorations.

He and Hermione were in the process of wrapping up the trials. He couldn’t believe they had gotten through so many. The response from the wizarding community had been outstanding- they all believed that they had done a fair job. The most satisfying trial so far had been Dolores Umbridge. Harry took great satisfaction in sending her to Azkaban for a minimum of 10 years.

His relationship with Hermione was going from strength to strength. They had been together for almost four months and had managed to keep it a secret still. Hermione was uneasy on keeping it secret still, but every time Harry thought of telling Ron, his insides shrivelled at the words he imagined Ron saying and the fact that if he lost Ron’s friendship, he would lose the whole Weasley family.

Mrs Weasley had invited both him and Hermione for Christmas. Ginny would be home from Hogwarts, Charlie was coming from Romania and Bill and Fleur would also be coming home for it. It would be a great celebration. Harry had also arranged for Andromeda and Teddy to join them. He had been feeling guilty about not getting to see his godson much, though Andromeda sent him photos weekly to show how much he was growing.

He arrived at the office three days before Christmas, to find that for the first time, there were no waiting reporters. He found this incredibly strange. Hermione was already in her office, with the door open and she was working away steadily. He knocked as he entered and she looked up, smiling.

‘We’re done,’ she said simply. Harry stared at her in shock.

‘What? I thought we-’

‘Our last trial was supposed to be for that Dawlish bloke, the Auror. But Kingsley gave him a ministers pardon.’

‘Kingsley gave him a pardon?’ Harry asked incredulously.

‘I’ve got the report here,’ she said, pointing to a folder with the tip of her quill. ‘There’s some pretty solid proof that he wasn’t acting under his own will, and hadn’t been for some time.’

Harry picked up the folder and let out a low whistle as he read. Kingsley had been right to step in and spare the details getting out in a full trial.

‘So what now?’ Harry asked, but as he said it, a memo zoomed in and fluttered in front of him. It was bright purple- it had come from Kingsley himself.

To: Mr H Potter

From: Mr K Shacklebolt

Subject: Meeting

Harry:

I would like to see you as soon as you receive this memo.

Kingsley Shacklebolt

Minister of Magic

‘Kingsley wants to see me,’ Harry told Hermione, mystified. Hermione looked puzzled as well.

‘You’d better go then!’ she exclaimed. Harry folded the memo up and slid it into his robes and walked back down the corridor to the golden lift. He rose up to level one and walked with confidence along to Kingsley’s office. Witches and wizards waved and smiled at him as he passed them.

He knocked twice on Kingsley’s door and it opened of it’s own accord. Kingsley was sitting behind his magnificent desk, reading the Daily Prophet.

‘Congratulations on a job well done,’ he said, standing up and shaking Harry’s hand. ‘Rave reviews from all around. I knew you could both do it.’

‘Thank you,’ Harry said. He was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable for some reason.

‘I guess you’re wondering why I summoned you here?’

‘A little.’

‘I need your help again,’ Kingsley looked very serious. ‘As you know, the Auror department took a beating in the war. We lost many of our best. We need new recruits. And fast. And we also need a new Auror department head.’

Harry didn’t know what this had to do with him, but he was on the edge of his seat.

‘I have here an order that will remove you from your current position and place you at the head of the Auror department, effective immediately.’

‘What!’ Harry exclaimed, not really sure what he was feeling, or if he had misheard.

‘Now that the trials are done, there’s no need for both you and Hermione. Hermione is very capable of running that department on her own. And I know that I can trust you with this job.’

‘Wow,’ was all Harry could say.

‘I understand if you don’t want to start at the top,’ Kingsley said, standing up and starting to pace. ‘But if you accepted this offer, you would immediately be assigned to me prior to starting in the department.’

‘Why?’ Harry felt stupid, as all he had managed to say since Kinsgley’s announcement was various words starting with W.

‘So that I can show you what it’s like to be an Auror, so that I can explain the ins and outs of the job- it’s not like what you’ve done with Voldemort and the Death Eaters. There’s a lot more to the job than people think.’

Harry’s mind felt like it was going at one hundred miles a minute. Thoughts were racing so quickly that they became blurred.

‘Can it wait until after Christmas?’ he finally managed to say. Kingsley smiled at him.

‘We’ll wait until the new year,’ he said, sitting back down. ‘January 2^nd, I expect you here at 9am sharp.’

~*~

Harry hadn’t been able to tell Hermione what had transpired in Kingsley’s office. Instead, he sent her a memo asking her to come to Grimmauld place that night for dinner. Kingsley had given him some books to read over and he locked himself in his office and read all day, leaving slightly earlier than usual to make sure Kreacher was prepared to cook for two.

He set the table himself with a crisp white table cloth and dug out two of the old silver candle sticks. Kreacher was busy with dinner and Harry stole upstairs and went into his cupboard and found the little present he had hidden in there a week before, wrapped in red and green paper with a gold bow.

It was six o’clock on the dot when Hermione let herself in, but Harry was waiting for her. He led her down to the kitchen, where Kreacher had just placed the meal on the table, before bowing himself out.

‘So are you going to tell me what happened with Kingsley today?’ she asked with a sweet smile. Harry smiled back.

‘Well, I don’t think you’ll believe it.’

And he launched into an full recount of his time in Kinsgely’s office. To his surprise, Hermione didn’t look happy- she looked rather downcast.

‘So we won’t be working together?’

Harry realised then that he hadn’t even thought of that. The opportunity being given to him was just too great, he had completely forgotten about the fact that he enjoyed working so closely with Hermione.

‘I’ll still be on the same floor,’ he said weakly. ‘Just not right next to you.’

‘I guess,’ she said, still looking downcast.

‘Here,’ Harry said, picking up the small present. ‘I thought I’d give this to you tonight instead of on Christmas day- thought it would be a bit hard to explain.’

Looking very curious, she opened it cautiously and, once the paper fell away, looked at the velvet box.

‘Harry…’ she started but he just smiled.

‘Open it.’

She gasped as she opened the box. Inside was a delicate silver bracelet and on it, Harry had gotten a small engraving.

nostrum diligo est forever

‘Our love is forever,’ she read, tears welling in her eyes. ‘Oh Harry.’

She lent across the table and kissed him gently on the lips, before putting the bracelet on.

‘I take it you like it?’

‘I love it!’

They finished their dinner and Harry got up first, crossing to her side of the table and holding out his hand.

‘Hermione Granger, would you like to spend the night here with me?’

She took a deep breath, and Harry saw that she looked incredibly nervous. But she took his hand and smiled up at him.

‘Yes, yes I would.’

Authors Notes: Quick update before I eat my dinner! Hope you enjoy, please review!

Nine

Harry tried to avoid Hermione as much as possible at the Burrow over Christmas. With so many people around, this wasn’t hard, though he had to try and stop himself from looking at her every few minutes. Christmas day was one of the best he had ever had and Mrs Weasley had outdone herself with lunch. After lunch, Andromeda put Teddy into bed and they all sat in the lounge room in front of the fire. Percy and Hermione were enjoying a lively debate (Harry hadn’t heard the subject). Ron and Charlie where playing chess (for the first time in Harry’s memory, Ron was losing). Bill and Fleur were talking quietly in one corner (their conversation looking very serious to Harry). Ginny and George were playing with some new products George had invented (Ginny was making a few improvements and George looked very impressed).

Mrs Weasley was knitting and rocking back and forth in her chair. She had hardly spoken all day and Harry knew she was thinking about Fred. He had seen her the night before, holding a brand new sweater with the letter F on it and it made him sad to think that she had still knitted him one. She had vanished for a period after breakfast and Harry had a feeling that if he went to Fred’s grave, he would find the sweater.

‘So tell me about this offer Kingsley has made of you,’ Mr Weasley said lightly to Harry, swilling his Firewhiskey in his glass.

‘How’d you know about that?’ Harry asked- Kingsley had assured him that it would remain top secret over the holiday’s.

‘Harry, he’s told all the department heads,’ Mr Weasley said with a laugh. ‘We have to keep it secret of course.’

Mr Weasley had been made head of the Department of Muggles, which dealt with anything muggle related.

‘Did you accept?’ Andromeda enquired from next to Mr Weasley. Harry looked at her curiously. ‘I don’t know what the offer is, but it sounds important.’

She winked as she said this and Harry had a feeling she had a source within the ministry.

‘Yeah, I accepted,’ Harry said with a smile, finishing of his own Firewhiskey. ‘I start straight after the holiday’s.’

‘Excellent, Harry,’ Mr Weasley said with a smile. ‘Dumbledore would be proud of you.’

As night fell, Bill and Fleur excused themselves and returned to Shell Cottage. Percy left as well- he was going to go visit with his girlfriend, Penelope. George went upstairs to his room, looking slightly sad. Mrs Weasley went to serve some dinner for those who would like it, and Mr Weasley and Andromeda were asleep in their chairs.

‘Would you like to help me feed the chickens?’ Ginny said to Harry, standing up. Harry’s eyes drifted over to Hermione, who instantly became engrossed in conversation with Ron.

‘Er, alright.’

They went through the kitchen and drew on their cloaks and snow boots. It had been snowing for most of the day and they made deep trenches as they made their way over to the chickens.

‘I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages,’ Ginny said softly as she opened the chicken pen. ‘I didn’t see you all summer, and then I went back to school.’

‘How is school?’

‘It’s ok, I guess. McGonagall is trying to find someone who would make a good headmaster- she doesn’t want the job. She likes teaching too much, and she’s still teaching though the other teachers tell her not to.’

‘And who’s’ teaching defence against the dark arts?’

‘Hermione didn’t tell you?’ Ginny said, surprised. ‘Viktor Krum came over to do it. He’d never been happy at Durmstrang or in his own country, so when McGonagall advertised, he applied.’

‘What about his Quidditch?’

‘I dunno- it‘s not like we‘re best friends or anything,’ Ginny said with a shrug. ‘From what I’ve heard from others he’s only staying a year- he doesn’t really like teaching. I don’t think there’s much he likes actually. Aside from girls.’

She looked thoughtful for a moment and then sighed.

‘It’s a strange place now, Hogwarts.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It feels… wrong,’ she looked sad. ‘It doesn’t feel so safe anymore.’

‘It is safe,’ Harry said and she nodded.

‘I know, I know.’

The scattered the feed around in silence and Ginny picked up several eggs.

‘So do you know what you want to do? When you finish, I mean’ he asked as they left the chicken house and made their way back up to the house.

‘George wants me to join him at the joke shop,’ Ginny said. ‘If I knew mum would go nuts, I’d leave now and go- NEWT’s are useless.’

‘Why would she go nuts?’ he asked and Ginny laughed.

‘Because since Percy, not one of her children has gotten their NEWT’s. She’s proud, of course, of what they’ve achieved since, but she’s still miffed that they never finished their education.’

‘Sometimes an education isn’t the most important thing,’ Harry said as they climbed up the stairs.

‘You try explaining that,’ Ginny said in a whisper as they re-entered the kitchen. Ron and Hermione were at the table with Mrs Weasley, eating in silence. Harry and Ginny joined them and when they’d finished, Hermione stretched and yawned.

‘I think I might go to bed,’ she said, standing up and throwing a significant look at Harry. Harry waited until he had heard her go all the way up the stairs.

‘I think I might go to bed too,’ he said as he stood up. ‘I’m beat.’

He tried to not walk fast as he headed out and he was delayed in the lounge, as Andromeda was leaving and he had to say goodbye. He climbed the stairs slowly until he was out of earshot and then raced as fast as he dared. Hermione was sleeping in Bill’s old room, and he didn’t even bother to knock before he entered, but closed the door quickly.

‘Merry Christmas,’ he said, sneaking up behind her and placing his head on her shoulder.

‘To you too,’ she said, though she sounded slightly stiff.

‘You ok?’ he asked, feeling worried.

‘It’s just…,’ she turned to face him and buried her head in his chest. ‘I now know how you felt when I was helping Ron look for the flat.’

Harry knew she was talking about his walk with Ginny.

‘Hermione…’ he started, but she cut him off.

‘I know that I’m being silly, I know nothing is going on there. I know that you…’ she paused and looked at him. ‘I know that you love me. I just can’t help it… especially when they don’t know.’

‘Hermione, do you really want to tell them?’ Harry asked cautiously. She went to shake her head, but then nodded.

‘I hate keeping secrets and lying.’

‘Look around you,’ he said, taking a deep breath. ‘Look at the day we’ve just had. Do you really think that we’d be able to do all this if they all knew? Ron and Ginny would never talk to us again. Mrs Weasley wouldn’t either- look at how she reacted way back when Rita Skeeter was writing all that horrible stuff.’

‘I guess,’ she said, looking up and looking miserable. ‘I just hate lying.’

‘I’d rather lie than lose the only family I’ve ever had,’ Harry said flatly, pulling her close and kissing her gently.

Authors Notes: I’m being evil with this chapter and leaving a cliff hanger… I want to see if anyone guesses correctly… :p

Ten

Harry found his new work with Kingsley exhausting. And not the good kind of exhausting. Ever since he had started his crash course in being an Auror, he had found himself having nightmares for the first time since his fight with Voldemort. But these nightmares were not like the old ones, where he would see into Voldemort’s mind, they were filled with images of burning houses, burning people and the front lawn of Hogwarts covered in dead bodies.

Hermione said that it was simply a case of post-traumatic stress. They hadn’t really had time to process what happened to them, they’d just kept functioning. And these dreams meant that Harry was starting to process the full horror of the last year of their lives.

Harry had a feeling she was just saying this to make herself feel better- she had never complained, but Harry knew his nightmares were keeping her up at night. He tried to stay awake as late as he could, to let her sleep before him, but it was as if she knew what he was doing and she would lay next to him, silent and awake.

After three weeks of hard work with Kingsley, Harry found himself with a weekend off and no idea what to do. He and Hermione went out to a muggle café they’d discovered for breakfast and then had holed themselves up in the drawing room with a crackling fire, as it was still very cold out, even though the snow had long melted. Hermione lay on the floor working her way through stacks of files from her office, and Harry was sprawled on the lounge reading the Daily Prophet. They both jumped when the doorbell rang.

‘Kreacher?’ Harry called and he heard the elves feet race past the door.

‘Kreacher will get it!’ he called back as he raced down the stairs. Harry went back to his paper and Hermione clicked her tongue in annoyance (she wished Harry wouldn’t use Kreacher as much as he did, but she was happy that Harry was at least paying him, despite that fact that Kreacher found it slightly insulting).

The drawing room door opened and Kreacher appeared, followed by Ron.

‘Master and mistress, Mr Weasley is here,’ he said, bowing himself out.

‘Hey Ron,’ Harry said, folding the paper up and sitting up straighter. Hermione sat up too, blushing a little bit. Ever since Hermione had started staying almost every night, Kreacher had began calling her mistress.

‘I need a favour,’ Ron said, sitting down on the lounge with Harry and looking at them seriously, though he looked quite nervous. ‘Monica is throwing a dinner party tonight.’

‘That’s nice,’ said Hermione.

‘And she wants me to invite a couple.’

‘A couple of what?’ Harry asked.

‘A couple, like a couple-couple- it’s going to be me and her, plus a friend of hers and their partner… and she wants me to bring a couple. It’s like a get to know you night- I’m meeting friends I’ve never met and she wants to meet some of mine’

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances.

‘If I knew he wouldn’t be a prat, I’d ask Percy and Penelope. But I somehow don’t think I should bring my brother. And then I thought of you guys.’

Harry had a strange feeling in his stomach.

‘I mean, you guys are close and stuff, especially lately with working together, and I mean, Rita and Krum sure thought that you were a couple. So you’d be able to pass it off, right? I mean, no one but me will know you’re really not a couple.’

Harry’s stomach unclenched.

‘Ron, we’d love to help you,’ Hermione said warmly and Ron beamed.

‘Excellent!’ he exclaimed, reaching into the pocket of his jacket. ‘This is her address. She said about 8pm.’

‘We’ll be there mate,’ Harry said, clapping him on the shoulder.

‘Thank you so much you guys!’ he called as he left. Harry followed him downstairs and watched him disapparate from the front step and then headed back up to Hermione, who was grinning slyly.

‘I wonder how far we’ll be able to take this.’

~*~

At ten to eight that night, Harry stood in the entrance hall, nervously checking his watch and running his fingers through his hair. He was starting to worry they’d be late. He heard a cough from the stairs and looked up and was suddenly breathless.

After Ron had left, Hermione had raced out to do some shopping. She had bought something for herself, which she refused to show him, and a new suit for Harry. He felt kind of silly in this suit, especially since it had a pink tie. But then he saw Hermione.

Her dress was the same pink as his tie and fell in light layers to just below her knees. She had shawl around her shoulders in the same colour as her dress and it was sparkling slightly. Harry had to close his eyes before he could breathe again.

‘Wow,’ he said as she reached him and kissed him. ‘You… you look amazing.’

‘Thank you,’ she said with a smile.

They held hands on the front step and disapparated. Hermione had not only gone shopping, she’d spent a good deal of time studying maps to find a place where they could apparate to and then get a taxi to Monica’s flat. The plan went off without a hitch and it was eight o’clock exactly as the taxi stopped. Ron was waiting outside the building and he grinned as they got out after Hermione paid.

‘You guys are awesome,’ he said, rushing over to them. ‘Come on, Monica’s upstairs. And, you’d better like hold hands or something, you know, as you’re a couple.’

‘With pleasure,’ Harry whispered into Hermione’s ear, taking hold of her hand. Hermione blushed.

‘Monica thinks we met at work,’ Ron said to Harry as they climbed the stairs. ‘I’ve told her I work for a distributor of magic tricks. She thinks it’s hilarious as she thinks magic doesn’t exist. Muggles.’

They reached the third floor and Ron paused and took a deep breath.

‘The friend that she’s got coming over is named Maddy. She was there the night I met Monica. And she’s bringing her boyfriend, who I have ever met.’

He opened the door to the apartment in front of them and Monica came out of what was obviously the kitchen.

‘Is that you, Ron?’ she asked and then beamed when she saw them.

‘Mon, this is Hermione and Harry,’ Ron said, pointing to them. A round of ‘hi’ and ‘how’d you do’ followed and they all smiled nervously at each other.

‘You work with Ron, don’t you?’ Monica asked Harry and he nodded.

‘Yes, yes I do.’

‘And how do you find it? I know Ron’s not really enjoying himself,’ she said and Harry shot Ron a surprised look. Ron looked like he was pretending to be deaf.

‘Ah, I like it ok,’ Harry said. ‘It’s not permanent, but it’s a job.’

‘So true,’ said Monica. The flat door opened and an average looking girl walked in, and Monica shrieked. ‘Maddy!’

‘Hi Mon!’ Maddy shrieked back and they shared a quick hug. Hermione looked like she was about to gag. Monica introduced Harry and Hermione and then the door opened again.

Harry’s jaw dropped as he looked at the person who was obviously Maddy’s boyfriend.

‘I guess you can’t say none of us have met him,’ Harry hissed to Hermione in an undertone.

Authors Notes: Wow, only 2 correct guesses :p

Thanks for all the reviews!!! The end of this chapter was a little bit rushed to get it finished so I do apologise. Next update should be in a couple of days!!!

Eleven

Harry and Maddy’s boyfriend stared at each other for several quiet moments, before Monica spoke.

‘Do you guys know each other?’ she asked and Harry nodded, trying not to laugh.

‘Know each other? We grew up together.’

Dudley looked like he’d just seen a ghost and he hadn’t actually moved.

‘I guess you weren’t expecting this,’ Maddy said to Dudley, trying to get him to move.

‘I need a smoke,’ was all Dudley could say and he headed straight through the apartment, straight past them all and onto the balcony. Harry, though still stunned, figured he should probably do something and followed.

‘Hey Dud,’ he said as he closed the door. Dudley was lighting a cigarette. ’Does your mum know you smoke?’

‘No,’ Dudley said stiffly. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘My mate Ron, he’s been seeing Monica,’ Harry said and a look of comprehension came to Dudley’s face.

‘He was one of those red heads,’ Dudley said slowly. ‘They blew the lounge room apart.’

‘Yeah, Ron was there.’

‘And who’s the girl?’

‘My girlfriend,’ Harry said smugly.

‘Niice,’ Dudley said with a grin. Harry couldn’t help but to grin back at him.

‘So how’s…’ he started, but couldn’t bring himself to say his aunt and uncles names.

‘Well, um,’ Dudley looked nervous. ‘They’re getting divorced.’

‘What!’ Harry exclaimed.

‘Yeah…’ Dudley looked thoughtful. ‘I moved out, not long after I last saw you. Moved in with Maddy. Mum and dad didn’t like that, but what they also didn’t like was being in the house on their own. Mum moved back to the village she grew up in and Dad’s still at home. Haven’t seem them since Christmas. They won’t even be in the same room together anymore.’

Harry couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

‘Wow… that’s unexpected,’ he said after a few moments silence.

‘You’re telling me,’ Dudley said, stubbing out his cigarette. ‘We should go back in.’

They went back in and everyone had a good laugh over Harry and Dudley being cousins. Monica hurried them into the dining room and began serving them a delicious dinner. The conversation flowed easily over dinner- after the first course Harry could see what Ron saw in Monica. She was very funny and was making them all laugh all night. By dessert she was starting to ask them a lot of questions and after a few drinks, it was hard to think up things quickly. Dudley helped Harry out by saying that they went to Smeltings together. Hermione said that she went to school in Australia and had only moved back just before she met Harry and Ron. Monica seemed satisfied with these answers.

It was midnight when they began dicussing what to do now. Monica and Maddy were all for hitting the local pub and then the nearby nightclub. Dudley was eager to go with them, but Harry took one look at Hermione and decided that they’d call it a night- she was exhausted, and so was he.

Harry said goodbye to Ron and Dudley as Hermione chatted with the girls. Harry couldn’t believe it when Dudley shook his hand and said that they should do this more often. He and Hermione held hands as they walked back downstairs and out onto the street. Hermione shivered with cold and Harry took off his jacket and put it over her shoulders.

‘So that was an interesting night,’ she said as they walked slowly down the street towards their apparation point.

‘My aunt and uncle are divorcing,’ Harry said with a grin. ‘Dudley told me.’

‘I thought you said Dudley was mean and fat,’ Hermione said and Harry laughed.

‘He was,’ he assured her. ‘He saw himself for what he really was when we were attacked by the Dementors. I think he changed then. And moving out of his mothers house would’ve helped him to no end. He’s not so bad now, Dudley.’

They walked in silence for a bit.

‘Monica and Maddy want to have lunch with me on Monday,’ she said with amusement. ‘I agreed.’

‘Why?’ he asked and she smiled slyly at him.

‘The longer we hang around with them, the longer we can pretend to be a couple. Which means the longer we can act normal around Ron, and he might believe it if we say all the pretending made us fall in love.’

Harry gaped at her, amazed at how far she’d thought ahead.

‘You’re amazing,’ he said as they walked up the alley way and stood behind a large dumpster. ‘Your place or mine?’

‘Yours,’ she said smiling and holding his hand tight.

‘You don’t have too,’ he said softly. ‘I know I keep you up with my nightmares.’

‘You don’t keep me up,’ she said even softer than he spoke. ‘I’m already up, trying to avoid my own nightmares.’

~*~

Sunday went too quickly. They went and visited Ron, who was ecstatic at how well the night before had gone. He really wanted Harry and Hermione to get to know Monica, as he believed it was getting serious.

‘Just have to introduce her to mum… oh, and tell her I’m a wizard,’ he said, grimacing as Harry and Hermione laughed.

Monday morning he left before Hermione, which was a first. She just said that she had things to do. Harry was feeling very nervous, it was his first official day in the Auror department- he was finished his work with Kingsley, though he still didn’t feel very confident. He had discovered in his training that Auror’s weren’t all about Dark Wizards- they were the wizard equivilant of MI5 or the FBI. When Kingsley had explained this to Harry, he’d had a sudden flash of one of Dudley’s television shows and almost couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

He spent most of his morning setting up his office. The Auror’s were all dropping in to say hi and have a chat, and also give him their current case files. At morning tea time, he headed down the corridor to Hermione’s office, and was told by her new assistant that she wasn’t in yet and had owled to say she wouldn’t be in until after lunch. Harry found this very strange, but returned to his office and kept trawling through the case files. It was very boring work, even more boring that all the files he and Hermione had read for the trials. He suspected that if he’d been doing that on his own, it would’ve been just as boring.

He was contemplating sending an owl to Ron to see if he wanted to have lunch when there was a knock on the door. Harry called for the person to enter and felt his jaw drop again. He was starting to wonder how he had never looked at Hermione the way he now did. She was wearing muggle clothes, a simple black skirt and jacket. And looked simply stunning.

‘You can stop staring at me,’ she said with a smile, leaning across his table and kissing him. ‘I just wanted to come say hi before I went to lunch.’

‘Lunch with the muggles,’ Harry said, looking her up and down. ‘You look the part.’

‘I should,’ she said with a sigh. ‘I spent the morning shopping. And I hate shopping.’

‘Well, if it means we can be ourselves in front of Ron…’ Harry said and Hermione looked thoughtful.’

‘But imagine how they’re going to feel when Ron eventually tells Monica he’s a wizard. Or are we going to lie to them forever?’

‘You were all for it last night,’ Harry said, confused. ‘What-’

‘I just thought about it,’ she said, checking her watch. ‘I should go, I don’t want to be late.’

She kissed him again and headed back out. Harry sat for a moment, wondering (not for the first time) what actually went on in Hermione’s mind.

Authors Notes: Hi all, just a quick update today to tide you over. Not sure when the next update will be coming after this- unfortunately at little thing called ‘real life’ has been popping up over the last few days and will keep popping up for about a week, which is leaving me very little time to write. I do have the next bit written, but I’m very unhappy with it and want to do a total rewrite basically. I know where I want to take this, it’s just getting there lol…

Twelve

Harry had lunch with Ron and was very surprised at how downcast he was. They hardly spoke as they ate and it was only as they were leaving that Harry found out why.

‘I guess I should go back,’ Ron said, very darkly. ‘Wonder if I could just skip off home, if he’d notice…’

‘Is everything ok?’ Harry asked, drawing on his cloak and following Ron out to the back of the bar to go out into Diagon Alley.

‘I hate working for George,’ Ron said suddenly. ‘It’s obvious that I’m not as good at this as Fred or Ginny and he’s just hanging out for Ginny to finish Hogwarts.’

‘Ron, that can’t be-’

‘I can understand why, I mean, I’m basically Percy. Just with a sense of humour.’

‘Ron, that’s not-’

‘And I mean, what else can I do? I’m not as brilliant as Hermione, and I’m not as talented as you. Face it- I’m pathetic.’

‘Ron, don’t-’

‘I should be going,’ he said, still looking very downcast as they entered Diagon Alley. ‘Thanks for lunch.’

He was swallowed by the crowd of wizards doing their shopping. Harry, distracted by what Ron had been saying, turned around and ran straight into something solid. He shook his head and looked closely at the person and wondered how much worse his day could get.

‘Potter,’ Draco Malfoy said in his usual drawl . ‘You should watch where you’re going.’

Harry didn’t say a word, just stepped around him and kept walking. He hadn’t seen Malfoy since the day of his trial, one of the first ones they did. He and his mother had actually become a wealth of information for the ministry. His father, though terrified through the last days of Voldemort’s reign, had sided with the Death Eaters and would still be in Azkaban for a long time. Draco and Narcissa had received minimal sentences‘, though Harry wished they could’ve locked them up for life.

He was still thinking about Malfoy and Ron when he arrived back at the Ministry and rode the lift up to his office. He was so distracted that he had sat down and started working before he realised that Hermione was standing behind the door and he jumped so suddenly in shock that he put his back out.

‘Jesus,’ he said, massaging his heart. ‘Say something next time, alright?’

‘Sorry,’ she said looking sheepish and coming over to sit on the chair opposite his desk. ‘You looked thoughtful.’

‘I ran into Malfoy.’

‘Oh.’

‘And had lunch with a very downcast Ron,’ he added, picking up his quill and starting to play with it. ‘He doesn’t seem to be liking the joke shop anymore.’

‘I gathered that at dinner,’ Hermione said. ‘It might be good when Ginny finishes school and joins George.’

‘Ron thinks he’ll be pushed out of a job, and started talking about that he couldn’t do anything else,’ Harry told her. ‘I’m thinking of giving him a job.’

‘What!’

‘Well, Ron is good at this sort of stuff. He might not cotton on to things as quickly as you’d like, but he’s got his own way of thinking about things. And face it, I could use someone friendly.’

‘You know how Ron feels about getting things out of pity.’

‘I know, I know. That’s why I’ve got to think of a way to do this where it doesn’t seem like pity.’

~*~

Harry spent the next few days thinking hard about how he could offer Ron a job without it seeming like pity. By the time the weekend had come, he’d gone out into the field with different Auror’s and had some hands on work (the most satisfying was catching Mundungus Fletcher selling Manticore eggs and then discovering a whole next of nasty creature eggs in his house).

In the end, he just decided to do it. On Saturday morning, he dressed and ate a quick breakfast and headed over to Ron’s flat. He was knocking at the door for ten minutes before Ron opened, unshaven and smelling like he’d been bathing in Firewhiskey.

‘Are you ok, Ron?’ Harry asked concernedly. Ron went to nod and then shook his head.

‘Monica,’ he said, flopping down onto the lounge and picking up the Firewhiskey and drinking straight from the bottle. ‘She dumped me.’

‘What!’ Harry exclaimed in shock.

‘The day I had lunch with you,’ he slurred. ‘She said that it wasn’t working out.’

Harry made a mental not to ask Hermione what had happened at that lunch she’d gone to.

‘I’m sorry mate,’ Harry said, clapping him on the shoulder with one hand and taking the Firewhiskey with the other. ‘But you can’t just sit around here. Have you left the flat at all?’

‘Nope,’ Ron said, laying back and closing his eyes. ‘Haven’t gone to work or nothing. Don’t want to. I’m just proving how pathetic I am.’

‘No you’re not,’ Harry said, standing up. ‘Well you are, actually. By sitting around here, getting drunk and moping? Yes, that’s proving how pathetic you are. You need to go have a shower. You need to shave. You need to eat. And then you need to go tell George that you’re leaving, as you’ve got a better job.’

‘I don’t have a better job.’

‘Yes you do,’ Harry said firmly, grabbing Ron’s arm and pulling him upright. ‘Starting Monday morning, you’re an probationary Auror. I expect you in my office at 9am sharp.’

Ron started to look like he was going to protest, but Harry disapparted, hoping Ron would do what he said.

~*~

‘I feel horrible,’ Hermione said miserably as Harry told her about what happened at Ron’s house. ‘Monica mentioned at lunch that she didn’t think things were working, but I thought Maddy had talked her out of it. I just stayed quiet, I didn’t really want to get involved.’

‘Well, she dumped him that night,’ Harry said, stretching and laying back further on the lounge. Hermione repositioned herself so that she was laying back onto his chest.

‘Do you think he’ll come to work with you?’

‘I hope so. I hope George can manage the shop on his own until Ginny leaves Hogwarts.’

‘Speaking of Hogwarts,’ Hermione said, circling his knee with her finger. ‘I heard something today.’

‘What?’ Harry felt nervous.

‘McGonagall is organising a ball,’ she said lightly. ‘On the anniversary. The school year is finishing up early and it will be like a memorial service as well.’

‘Oh,’ was all Harry could say.

‘And I thought, well, that it might, you know, be nice if we went.’

‘Hermione-’

‘I know, I know. You don’t want everyone to know. But will it really be that bad if they knew? And I want to go to this ball with you. I want to dance with you and spend a fun night together.’

‘We spend lots of fun nights together.’

‘I know, but this is different.’

‘I don’t like balls,’ Harry said miserably.

‘You only didn’t like the Yule ball because you were 14 and went with a girl you didn’t like,’ Hermione snapped. ‘Look, I’m going regardless if you are or not, even if I have to take someone else.

Authors Notes: Hi there, just a short one today- the next one and this were originally one chapter, but it was far too long, so I split it into a short one and then a nice long one. Hope you enjoy!!!

Thirteen

The upcoming Commemoration Ball was all anyone in the wizarding world could talk about. Harry had believed it to be bad in the lead up to the Yule Ball all those years ago, but that was only Hogwarts students. It seemed like almost the entire adult population of the wizarding world was going to this ball and Harry was sick of the talk.

He had finally agreed to go with Hermione, after much debate. It was her threat that she would go see what Viktor Krum was doing that made him agree.

Ron had started work in the Auror department, and had earned himself the nickname ‘Probie’. He was enjoying the work a lot more than he had at the joke shop with George, though he was prone to ‘fits of the sullen’s’, particularly when something reminded him of Monica. He had tried to win her back, but she was refusing to see him or speak to him. Harry had never mentioned what Hermione had said about her lunch with the two muggle girls, and he knew that Hermione would never mention it either.

The only problem with Ron now working in the ministry was that it was very hard for Harry and Hermione to steal moments together. Hermione was still staying at Grimmauld place most nights, but Harry missed her through the day.

The day before the ball, whilst Hermione went shopping for dress robes for both of them (Harry refused to go), Harry went to the Burrow with Ron. George, Bill, Charlie and Percy were all going to be there and Ron said it would be a great chance for them to play a game of Quidditch- Harry couldn’t believe how long it had been since he had actually played. So he had apparated with Ron and it was only when he arrived that he remembered, with a sharp pang, that he had lost his Firebolt when the Order had escorted him from Privet Drive- he’d let it go to grab hold of Hedwig, though that hadn’t done much good.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Ron said to him when Harry mentioned this. ‘George said that you could borrow Fred’s broom.’

This made Harry feel worse. As he climbed onto Fred’s broom, he couldn’t help but see a flash of images of Fred’s dead body, and it took a lot of effort to force the thoughts from his mind.

They played three a side- Bill, Percy and Harry on one team; Charlie, Ron and George on the other. It was quite a fun game- they were playing without Bludgers which made it easier, not having to avoid them. Harry and Charlie were both playing Seeker and Chaser at the same time, which made it very interesting as they were trying to keep an eye on the Quaffle, as well as look for the Snitch.

Charlie beat Harry to the Snitch- he’d been too busy trying to get a goal past Ron, who had lost all the nerves he’d had at Hogwarts and was keeping very well. It was lunchtime by then and they all landed and dismounted and headed back to the house. Mrs Weasley had whipped up a big platter of sandwiches and was in the process of getting ready to leave- the Hogwarts Express was arriving that afternoon with all the students and she was going to pick Ginny up.

Hermione was also there, obviously having finished the shopping, and she was talking earnestly with Fleur. After a lot of persuasion, the boys had managed to convince both girls to come back to the paddock with them and play a quick game with them. Hermione was riding Ron’s old Shooting Star, which went hardly faster than walking pace and Fleur was on one of Charlie’s old brooms. This time they pulled the bludgers out- Percy and George were to be beaters.

It was an enjoyable game- Hermione would shriek and almost fall off her broom every time the Quaffle came near her, but she looked to be enjoying herself. Harry had seen the snitch several times, but had let it go as he didn’t want to end the game yet, and he had a feeling that Charlie was doing the same thing. He had just spotted it again, when from behind him he heard a massive ‘crack’ as a beaters bat collided with a bludger, and then he heard Hermione scream his name.

But it was too late. He felt the bludger collide with the back of his head and then nothing.

He lay in darkness for a while, before opening his eyes. For some reason, he was expecting to see the ceiling of the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts, and have Oliver Wood and the rest of the Gryffindor team crowded around his bed. Instead, he saw something that he had seen once before, a year ago.

He was back in the place he called Kings Cross, where he had talked to Dumbledore. Looking around, he saw where Voldemort had lain and he shuddered. The last time he was here, he’d believed he was dead after being hit by a killing curse. Had the hit from the bludger been that hard? Was he in limbo between life and death?

‘Harry?’ he heard a soft voice say and he jumped around and felt like he’d been hit in the head again.

Standing before him, her long hair rippling over her shoulders, her eyes the exact same as Harry’s filled with tears… Lily Potter.

Authors Notes: Ok so I’m back with an update, sorry it took so long- real life, yet again!!!

Before we move onto this update, I just want to warn you… in television, there is a thing called ‘jumping the shark’. It refers to something from ‘Happy Days’ and it’s used when a show does something so unbelievable (like jumping a shark on a surf board) that it can never recover.

I am very fond of this chapter and how it impacts the story. My intentions become very clear in this chapter (though there is still a lot to come!). This is the point where you will decide if you continue or if you say ‘stuff this’. Personally, I’m not bothered either way. I’m writing this fic to make myself feel better about the epilogue, because as much as I may hate it, it is still canon and canon cannot be ignored. All I’m trying to do is have something before it to make it more enjoyable.

So I’ve had my say, I hope I haven’t made you worry about this update and I hope you enjoy it…

Fourteen

Harry stood perfectly still, staring at his mother who was standing in front of him, crying but smiling. He remembered seeing her in the Mirror of Erised, standing the exact same way, crying but smiling. He took several small steps and then, for the first time since he was a baby, felt his mother embracing him. He clung to her tightly, burying his face into her shoulder and smelling a sweet scent of apples and vanilla that he’d always been able to smell, but never knew where it had come from.

‘Am… am I dead?’ he asked, breaking away from her. Lily smiled and shook her head.

‘No.’

‘Are you?’

‘Yes,’ Lily was still smiling.

‘But-‘

‘This is being created by your sub-conscious,’ she said softly. ‘Your mind allowed you to visit a place that has given you not only answers, but people you have lost.’

For the first time, Harry noticed that there were other people moving around out of sight in the shadows, unable to make out their faces or anything specific about them.

‘Can I see them?’ he asked and Lily shook her head.

‘No, you can’t. They are here, but you cannot see them. But they send their love, especially your father.’

They started to walk then, Lily holding on Harry’s hand tightly. He noticed that he was slightly taller than she was, but not by much.

‘So why am I here?’

‘You need answers,’ Lily said simply as they walked. ‘You might not know that you need answers, but your mind does.’

‘And what do I need answers about?’

She didn’t speak, just kept leading him along. Eventually, they came to a door. She smiled at him mysteriously and opened the door.

‘Come with me.’

Harry was torn for a moment- he wasn’t quite sure what was going on and he had a feeling that following his mother would be bad. But he didn’t want to say goodbye to his mother just yet, and so he followed.

His jaw dropped as he looked around the room they had entered. It was a smaller version of the Gryffindor common room, decorated in the scarlet and gold. However, instead of many chairs for the students, there were just two of the softest, most comfortable and, in between them, an old battered table. As they approached the chairs he could see what was on top of the table and felt even more mystified- it appeared to be a jigsaw puzzle with hundreds, thousands of little pieces that had tiny pictures on them, and then lines coming from the pictures and criss-crossing to other pieces, other pictures.

'What is that?’ he asked his mother as they sat down in the chairs.

‘That, Harry, is your life.’

‘My life? So I am dead?’

‘You are not dead,’ she said firmly. ‘This is a fate puzzle.’

‘A what?’

‘A fate puzzle,’ she said, waving her hand over it. ‘Everything we do, even from just deciding what to eat, affects our life in some way. Everything happens for a reason, Harry. And the reason for it may not be clear for some time, but it will become clear. This puzzle shows those reasons, and it shows what may have happened.’

Harry bent forwards and took a closer look at the pieces right in front of him. He saw that it was not a tiny picture as he first thought it was, but more like a tiny TV screen. He could see himself in the screen, deciding to apparate to the Ministry instead of walk, as it was cold out. He remembered doing so just the other day. Two lines trailed away and he followed them with his finger. One led to the day he knew he’d had- the other had him running into his Aunt Petunia on the street.

‘Why am I seeing this?’ he asked, looking up at his mother. She looked troubled for a brief moment.

‘You are seeing this because you wanted to,’ she said, shifting slightly in her seat. ‘Your mind has forced you here.’

‘But why?’

‘You are needing answers,’ Lily said softly. At her words, several of the pieces of the puzzle reorganised themselves into a larger screen. Harry watched the night, almost a year ago now, when he had first kissed Hermione.

‘I’m needing answers about Hermione?’ he asked and she nodded. Harry’s confusion doubled. ‘But I don’t need answers- I… I love Hermione.’

‘I know,’ Lily said, smiling again. ‘And she loves you.’

‘So what do I need answers about?’ Harry said, and the puzzle, much like a pensieve answered for him. The scene of him kissing Hermione was replaced by Ron and Ginny, looking out curiously at him.

‘You love Hermione, yet you will not share your love with those others that you love,’ Lily said, as the puzzle fell back into what it was when Harry first saw it.

‘Because-‘

‘Because you are afraid,’ Lily finished for him. ‘You do not want to lose the Weasley’s, your only family. And you do not wish to lose Hermione. You are torn between them.’

‘And that is why I am here?’

‘That is why your sub-conscious brought you here,’ she said, with another smile. ‘This has been lingering in your mind, yes?’

‘Of course it has,’ Harry said. ‘Every time I look at Ron I feel guilty about keeping secrets from him.’

‘You have been trying to think of a way around this, yes?’

‘Of course I have,’ Harry said, feeling angry. ‘So often I wish that I knew it would all be alright, but I know it won’t! I know what will happen!’

‘Yet you do not choose family over love- you’re at a stalemate. You do not wish to lose either.’

‘I know all this,’ he said through gritted teeth. He was starting to feel pain in the back of his head where the bludger had hit him.

‘There is a way to have love and family,’ his mother said, her voice fading. ‘You know this.’

The puzzle changed yet again and he found himself looking at one of the stolen moments he had shared lifetimes ago at Hogwarts with Ginny. Then it changed, and he found himself watching Hermione fling herself into Ron’s arms, before they went searching for the diadem.

‘You may love Hermione and she may love you, but you are not real loves,’ Lily said slowly. ‘You are true loves.’

‘What is the difference? It’s all love!’

‘True love is a love that can never be,’ she explained as the puzzle once again returned to normal. ‘True love will endure through time and the ages, but more often than not, it is never fully realised. It does not make it any less, it is still love and is perhaps the strongest of all loves. But more often than not, you will never be able to be with your true love for very long, though they will always be in your heart.’

‘So what is a real love then?’ Harry couldn’t see how this was the answer to the secrecy that was enveloping him and Hermione for almost a year now.

‘A real love is one who you can love and be comfortable with. A real love will walk step with step with you, but in the background.’

‘Who was your true love then?’ Harry asked his mother before he knew what he was saying. Lily sighed.

‘I know you know that answer, Harry,’ she whispered. ‘I loved Severus. He is my true love. But your father is my real love- I died with him and I have spent the years since, in death, with him. I do not love Severus any more, nor do I love your father any less. I love them the same, and your father knows this.’

His surrounds then flickered; his mother vanished for a moment, but then came back. He could feel pain in his head again where the bludger had hit.

‘You must choose your real love,’ she said, sounding like she was a lot further away from him than she was. ‘You will never lose a true love, but you must choose your real love so you will not lose everything…’

Everything flickered again, his mother vanished again, but she didn’t come back. The pain in his head was the worse it had been yet. He could hear voices, not sure where they were coming from. He wished his mother hadn’t gone, he wanted to see her again…

‘Harry!’

He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he was not in that room, but rather in the living room of the Burrow. He looked around wildly and saw that Ron and Hermione were kneeling on the floor, right next to his face. Bill and Charlie were behind the lounge, looking down on him. George was sitting at the end of the lounge and Percy was pacing, looking frantic.

‘It’s all right Perce,’ said George, looking up. ‘You didn’t kill him.’

Percy stopped pacing and a little colour flooded back into his face. At that moment, Fleur came in from the kitchen, carrying a tray. She sat it down on the table and handed Harry a small goblet of potion.

‘’ave this, ‘Arry,’ she purred. ‘It will ‘elp.’

Harry gulped the potion. The pain in the back of his head subsided and the sick feeling in his stomach, which he hadn’t even noticed, had gone.

‘What happened?’ he asked, sitting up slightly. Hermione looked like she’d been crying.

‘It was Percy, mate,’ George said, rolling his eyes. ‘He used to whine that we never let him play- and this is why. He’s a bit dangerous. Knocking out people on his own team, honestly.’

There was a laugh around the room. Percy even joined in. When it died down, he opened his mouth as if to apologise, but Harry shook his head.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Harry said and Percy looked taken aback. ‘I’ll live- I’ve had worse.’

This caused another round of laughter. Harry shifted himself further into a full sitting position, and whilst he felt a little dizzy at the movement, he didn’t feel pain anymore. At that moment, Mrs Weasley appeared in the doorway, with Ginny and Mr Weasley was behind them, dragging Ginny’s Hogwart’s trunk behind him.

‘Good heavens!’ Mrs Weasley exclaimed, looking at Harry, who realised he must look pale or sickly. ‘What happened!’

Charlie explained to his mother about the bludger, whilst Ginny came and knelt on the floor with Ron and Hermione. Hermione got up suddenly and went into the kitchen. Harry found this slightly odd, but then a females voice spoke in his head.

‘You will never lose a true love, but you must choose your real love so you will not lose everything…’

~*~

Mrs Weasley refused to let Harry leave the Burrow that night. Ron had returned to his flat, Hermione to her parents house, but Harry remained and was forced by Mrs Weasley into Ron’s old bedroom, where she had set up a camp bed for him. She had fed him up and then marched him to bed herself. But Harry didn’t sleep. He lay and stared at the ceiling, thinking.

He was still not quite sure where his mind had taken him to when he had been knocked out. And if it was in his mind, why did it seem so real? Why did his mothers touch and scent seem so real? Or was it because he knew it on some level that his mind connected it all together. He wasn’t even sure how long he’d been knocked out for. All he knew was that a long standing question in his mind had been answered. Every time he closed his eyes, Hermione’s face swam into his thoughts, but it would then change slowly into Ginny’s.

And the 'fate puzzle'... was that real or was it his mind, creating a visual aid for him. He didn't know what to think about any of it.

Was his mother right about true love and real love? Was Hermione his true love, the woman he was destined to love and long for his entire life? And was Ginny the one he was supposed to be with, to keep family and friends together? If he was with Ginny and Hermione with Ron, they were all going to be family and no one would be angry or mad about it. But could he explain all this to Hermione and not have her feel hurt? Could he force himself to feel what he had once felt for Ginny?

It was a very restless sleep that he finally had that night and he didn’t even feel like he had slept when he made his way downstairs. He ate the bacon sandwiches that Mrs Weasley forced in front of him and then excused himself before anyone else woke up. He disapparted straight to Grimmauld place, and went upstairs and had another attempt at sleep, which was more successful than his overnight attempt.

When he woke up, feeling a lot more refreshed and a lot less dizzy, Hermione was sitting on the edge of the bed, smiling at him.

‘Have you been watching me sleep?’ he asked and she smiled at him lovingly.

‘I got here about 3 hours ago,’ she said, taking hold of his hand. ‘I was worried about you, so I wanted to be with you.’

Harry held her hand tighter, feeling glad she was there.

‘What time is it?’

‘It’s almost 3 o’clock,’ she told him, checking her watch.

‘Weren’t we leaving for the ball at 5?’ he asked.

‘I didn’t think you’d want to go, after being knocked out,’ she said cautiously. Harry smiled at her.

‘Yes, but you want to. So we’re going.’

And, not showing exactly how much he wanted to stay in bed, Harry climbed out and headed over to the wardrobe, and pulled out some clean underwear.

‘Aren’t you going to get ready?’

A Note From The Author:

Well, I have some bad news for those who are still reading this and not hunting down my blood. I’m putting this story on hold for a little while. Not because of people telling me what they think about the previous chapter, I’ve got a very thick skin and constructive criticism does not bother me in the slightest. As I said in my notes at the start of the chapter, I knew some people weren’t going to like it. (Though, I would like to say to the person who said I was just masquerading as a Harmony shipper, why don’t you go read some of my other fics before accusing me of that? Not once in the *counts* five years I’ve been writing fan fics have I ever deliberately written R/Hr, G/H… it gives me the willys just thinking about it- I think the entire Weasley family should’ve been killed off, but that’s just me).

But enough on that. Basically, my personal life has taken a complete battering in the space of two weeks. My mother and sister nearly got killed and then my grandfather died a couple of days ago. And my sister will be moving thousands of kilometres away very soon, so I’m spending as much time as I can with her and my niece. I just don’t have time at the moment to be writing, nor do I really feel like it.

I promise that I will come back and finish this one day soon. I just want to get through the next few weeks and let my life calm down before I try.

I hope you understand.

Dumbles