Sin

IslandPrincess1

Rating: PG13
Genres: Angst, Romance
Relationships: Harry & Hermione
Book: Harry & Hermione, Books 1 - 7
Published: 01/08/2007
Last Updated: 01/08/2007
Status: completed

"If he sat down and thought about, he had to admit that no one would really like him unless they'd known him for years and developed a bit of a blind spot to certain aspects of his personality." Falling in love for Harry and Hermione, is not easy, and especially when one is determined to commit each of seven deadly sins.

Chapters

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1. --

A/N: In the immortal words of Ron Weasley, “All's fair in love and war.” :D Alas, I do not think I got a few of the “sins” right, but I tried, and it was devilishly good fun. It does waver dangerously between DH canon and Jo's two post-DH interviews, and of course, my own delusions, so it should be good fun. Only warning, may have some Weasley-abuse, but couldn't be avoided after that epilogue, could it? Hope the quote fits, it felt right, but I don't know if it is.

Disclaimer: Believe me when I tell you I don't want this, I'm just borrowing for now, and when I'm done I'll gladly return it. I'll be the first one tripping all over myself to get it back to her.

*****

Sin

“An apology for the Devil: it must be remembered that we have heard only one side of the case; God has written all the books.”—Samuel Butler

.*.*.*.

(Pride)

If he sat down and thought about, he had to admit that no one would really like him unless they'd known him for years and developed a bit of a blind spot to certain aspects of his personality.

There were the titles: The Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the Man-Who-Triumphed (lately), Scarhead (Malfoy), Potter the Rotter (Peeves), wee Baby Potter ( the belated Bellatrix Lestrange), Godfather (in relation to Teddy, the baby just called him “Hammy”) and, of course, Show-Off, to anyone who didn't really like him and he'd managed to rub the wrong way.

There were the rumours circulated in the press, most of which, unfortunately, had a grain of truth to them: “Man-Who-Triumphed announces decision to join Auror Department!” (Hermione had greeted that with an exasperated, “Was that really necessary, Harry?” Ginny had told her it was.) “The Chosen One's Chosen One, Harry Potter throws support behind Kingsley Shacklebolt Administration!” (Hermione may not have said anything, but he knew she was thinking it.) “Harry Potter Appeals for Change in Wizard-Magical Creature Relations at Order of Merlin Ceremony!” (Almost no one remembered that anyone else was getting one, including Remus and Nymphadora Lupin, on whose child's behalf he'd made his announcement. Hermione just glared at him over the table at dinner that night.) “`Rita Skeeter's a Fraud and a Secret Animagus!' Says Harry Potter in Response to Upcoming Tell-All!” (She'd deserved it, he was still convinced; she'd been warned to leave him alone and she didn't. When Hermione reluctantly conceded his point there, he was content.)

And then there was the fact that he did what he did because he pretty much knew he'd get away with it. Okay so that was bad. No one was going to oppose him, he was the Man-Who-Defeated-The-Dark-Lord and that gave him limitless power really. Of course he used it only to the benefit of those who'd helped him in the war, and who couldn't help themselves. And that time he'd used it to get them away from the Burrow for the first few days after the war was the only time he used it for himself, and no one could fault him. He wasn't being arrogant at all.

Hermione didn't think so.

She got angry every time she read a new headline on something he'd done and often came flying over to the Burrow just to argue about it. Thankfully, Ginny usually got rid of her, but best was Ron. He honestly couldn't remember a time he was glad to have an argument between them distract her. She was just being silly and she knew it.

He was doing a good thing to the benefit of them all. How was he supposed to help if he didn't exercise some influence every now and then? How long did she expect him to wait for those in charge to get around to that change they promised was coming? Wizards had wallowed in their prejudices and problems for far too long and there wasn't going to be a Vold War III if he could help it.

(Sloth)

More than two years had passed since the war had ended and Harry was just getting into his stride really. Despite his big announcement he was yet to get down to the Ministry to sign up for the Auror programme. But then he had so many other things to do. There were many funerals and memorials to attend. There was the matter of clearing and restoring Sirius Black's name to attend to. There was the rebuilding of the school, the trials of various captured Death Eaters to give evidence in, and of course, baby Teddy to take care of. He was simply too busy.

Hermione didn't agree, and it was that last point of his that was the sticking point.

She was already well embedded in the Wizengamot Administration Services, and had rallied Ron to at least get to work helping George at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Harry had never expected her to sit still for long, it was just not in her nature to let an opportunity to get in and get people under her ideals and directions pass her by. (He'd even had a good laugh with Ginny when he heard the news, same old Hermione.) But when he announced that he was going to become an Auror he hadn't set a deadline for himself. Teddy was a very important part of his life now and therefore came first. His godfather had never gotten the chance to take care of him and he was determined that the same thing wouldn't happen to his godson.

Still she argued that Andromeda was doing a fine job of raising Teddy on her own and had more experience with children than him. Still she insisted that he could do more for Teddy as an Auror than he did now at home, for he would be making sure that there weren't going to be more children like Teddy, and him, in future. Still she complained that he was just sitting around doing nothing otherwise and that one day when the glow wore off he would have nothing to show for it but a spoiled godson, an ego the size of Hogwarts Castle and a lifetime of regret.

He didn't need Ron or Ginny to get her out of the house this time, he grabbed her arm and Side-Along Disapparated her back to her parents'. When he let her through the door and said with a smirk, “Goodnight...” she slammed the door in his face.

(Greed)

Though she was the one who talked him into it, or rather, not-talked him into it—for she'd stopped speaking to him altogether for about a month after he put her out of the Burrow—Hermione became his most vehement opponent on the issue of his activities as an Auror.

He knew what the problem was of course; now she thought that he sought to do too much. He had to admit that he gave her reason though.

After spending nearly all night in the field, he'd still put forward that if they'd waited one minute more, checked just one other site, followed that one last lead, they'd capture the person they were looking for. He'd already taken, twice, every commendation an Auror could receive on duty and he'd only been a fully-fledged Auror for a year. He was known as a menace to Dark Wizards-in-training everywhere and just the mention of his name in Knockturn Alley sent people racing into hiding. And he was seriously considering Ginny's suggestion that he start leaning on his superiors for a promotion.

Prior evidence to the contrary notwithstanding, Hermione had to have known that if he had been desperate to get a head start on changing the Wizarding world before, he'd be outright unbearable about it now.

Ginny agreed with him wholeheartedly. She'd only been on the Holyhead Harpies team for two months before she'd earned herself a reputation for hogging the Quaffle, and therefore, the spotlight she richly deserved. Of her brothers, also strong supporters of his, Ron and George were in talks to open up a branch of the WWW in France. And Hermione herself was drawing attention in the Ministry for her dedication to the cause of oppressed magical beings. So who was she to tell him about his dedication to his Auror duties?

He was personally responsible for the apprehension of at least fifty known Death Eaters, assisted in the capture of twenty others, and led the team that finally got Rabastan Lestrange who'd fled the Battle of Hogwarts once Voldemort had been killed. There was never a post-war memorial or celebration he hadn't been to, no matter how small or how large, lest someone forget what they'd fought for. He made it his duty to be present at any and all events that discussed the war, just so that people would get the truth and not the distorted nonsense removed “historians” spewed. And, of course, it wasn't long before the Daily Prophet reserved a section of its editorials for him to refute the more biased and disdaining letters of those who the war seemed not to affect, most of whom he knew to be purebloods who firmly believed in blood purity.

Hermione declared it another form of his “saving-people-thing”, and arrogant and greedy. The last earned her an arched brow, how could she describe his efforts as “greedy”?

She did not hesitate to reply, “You're acting like Gilderoy Lockhart! You're greedy for attention! Yes, you can help people by speaking your piece and being there and putting your life and limbs on the line to help them, but all of this you're doing... it's too much!”

He snapped angrily, “What do you want me to do? Just sit by and let them slip back into the lies they lived in before? Do you want to see another Muggle-born Registration Act or Dolores Umbridge, Hermione?”

Her eyes filled with tears at that memory, but her voice was cold as she replied, “No, I want you to give them the chance to let it sink in. Even I had to accept that continuously forcing something down someone's throat wasn't going to get me anywhere! Don't think I didn't know that—”

“Oh please,” cut in Ginny. “This isn't you and the house elves again.”

Hermione ignored her to continue to Harry, “Your message is being drowned out in a chorus of `Boy-Who-Lived Appearing at So-and-So Next!' Half of those who show up just want to see you; the others wish you would leave so they could get on with their lives! You're making yourself a nuisance and helping no one!”

Angrier now, Harry demanded, “How can you say such a thing about me? How, after we've known each other for nearly eleven years now, can you look at me and say that? Don't you know me?”

To his surprise Hermione replied quietly, “No... I don't think I do anymore.”

Then before he could respond she turned away and left. Ron gave him a token glare before hurrying in her wake.

Harry immediately set after her as well, there was no way she could say that and get away with it. He was doing the right thing and she knew it... and didn't she know how dissension was going to ruin everything if the press got wind of it?

It was this thought more than Ginny's touch that stayed his movement.

(Envy)

He'd just gotten Luna and Dean's photographs (and sketches) of their daughter, Solitaire, bringing to seven, lucky seven, the number of their past schoolmates who'd had children. He'd thought he had his hands full with Teddy, but Mrs Weasley was dropping anvil-sized hints all over now about it being time that he and Ginny got married and actually had children of their own. After all they were both in their early twenties now with successful careers, secure finances and were clearly not interested in anyone else. Why not take the final step and make their commitment official?

But that was the thing, Harry wasn't exactly sure that he could do that.

It was not that he didn't want a family of his own, the Mirror of Erised hadn't been wrong when he looked into it as a child all those years ago. Nor was it that he was interested in someone else... at least he didn't think so. But rather he didn't think that he was in the place he needed to be when he got started on that family. And in particular when it came to his relationship, he found that he wasn't sure that he wanted to be in it anymore.

Too bad no one else seemed to notice this, and it did not help that Ron and Hermione seemed to be getting on so well together. One would think that when he was having relationship doubts, they would have broken up months before. But whenever they were together at the same parties, or had double dates or were simply at lunch at the Burrow, his best friends were the picture of a perfect couple, always laughing and smiling and happy. Ron was the centre of Hermione's world now, and Hermione was the best thing that had ever happened to Ron and he made sure that everyone knew it.

But Harry knew the truth; it was that damned book Fred and George had given Ron. He hadn't really changed, and he knew for certain that Hermione hadn't either, if their currently rocky friendship was anything to go by. The entire thing was built up on manipulation.

Hermione was not blameless in this either, but obviously this was because there was no Voldemort behind him anymore or she wouldn't be giving Ron the time of day. She had chosen him over Ron to his face in the tent while they were on the Horcrux hunt during the war, if he needed her she'd hurry to side again without hesitation. He always came first, always, and this with Ron was because she... was because Ron needed a lot of help in a lot of things and he didn't. Where Ron manipulated her to get his way in the relationship, she lied to be with him, and the only reason they hadn't broken up before was because they didn't want to hurt Mrs Weasley.

Ginny knew it too, and said so, often. Ron and Hermione had nothing on them. They were together and so very few people cared, he and Ginny were together and the world was going to take example. They did not wish for their relationship to be publicised in this manner of course, they preferred the quiet of Ron and Hermione, but this way they spent less time explaining to strangers who the other was.

But when he explained this to Hermione after she asked why he allowed the press so much access to his private life she replied in a tone of utmost disappointment and sadness, “What happened to you, Harry? I always knew that you'd outgrow your shyness and everything that ever held you back when you were younger, but now you're just like Gilderoy Lockhart meets Draco Malfoy.”

He stared at her in astonishment at this, and then shot off something Ginny had said that he knew would hurt her, “What happened to you? I never thought I'd see the day you acted jealous like Ron.”

Immediately incensed, Hermione snapped, “I'm not jealous! Why would I ever be jealous of a pair of annoying, arrogant berks?”

That stopped him in his tracks, again, but for just a moment before he raged, “Arrogant you think I am? Annoying? At least I don't have to spend every day justifying my relationship to other people; at least people know why I'm with Ginny!”

With a false sweetness that disguised a venomous underlying nastiness, she asked, “And why is that, Harry? Because you shove it down everyone's throats like you did with your `save-the-world' mission?” He went back to staring at her in shock again, and she continued, “But you're right about one thing, people know exactly why you're with her.”

Through clenched teeth, and strangely fearing the answer, he asked, “What do you mean by that?”

In an exaggerated singsong voice that was clearly meant to grate on his nerves, Hermione replied, “Because what is the handsome, wealthy, current holder of Witch Weekly's Best Smile Award, the famous, courageous Man-Who-Triumphed... without his Trophy Hotshot Quidditch player girlfriend?”

Once again Harry was shocked into silence, he'd never known Hermione to act this way with him, and then he asked, in an equally exaggerated but angry voice, “Would you like to be that girlfriend, Hermione? Is that what this is about? Is the Plain-But-Ambitious Wizengamot employee... getting tired of her Joke Shop Manager boyfriend.”

Hermione's slap was hot but her departure left him cold and disgusted with himself.

(Anger)

He couldn't stand to be in the same room with her for longer than was necessary and when it was necessary he was a bundle of nervous energy itching to burst free and unleash its wrath. She would not back down on this no matter what excuses he presented, and no matter how valid. They were too young, they were just beginning their careers, they didn't know that they would not change their minds in a few years, and he had hands full with Teddy already. He didn't think he'd ever met a more stubborn woman in his life, and he'd spent seven years in close quarters with Hermione Granger so that was saying something.

Ginny didn't want to hear “no”, though, and he knew it was only a matter of time before she went to her mother for help.

Hermione was another matter altogether. She hadn't and wouldn't speak to him since their argument more than three months ago. Their exchanges in the Ministry were civil only because they were in public and he still had some measure of self-control to maintain his dignity. But his patience with her was wearing thin, and the constant spats with Ginny were not helping. His only comfort remained in the knowledge that as he was having trouble with Ginny, Ron and Hermione seemed to have finally realised that deep down they couldn't stand each other.

(It also may or may not have had something to do with Hermione's receipt of a copy of Twelve Ways to Charm Witches, which he may or may not have had a hand in. Ron could not prove it if he tried.)

They were always fighting now. Mrs Weasley mournfully relayed the details sometimes and usually with the moral that if he and Ginny got married they wouldn't fall into a similar pattern. It was Hermione's insistence on independence that was causing all the fights, and it was independence for what? She wasn't going to find anyone better than Ron, certainly not now that she was so high up in the Ministry. Wasn't it wonderful that his and Ginny's careers were so flexible? They were guaranteed a trouble-free marriage.

Harry doubted it. Where a few years ago when he thought he was going to die he couldn't imagine Ginny marrying anyone else, now he found himself unwilling to imagine Hermione married to Ron. (Alas, he'd also discovered why he didn't want that family with Ginny, though this he only admitted to himself alone in the night in that quiet moment before he fell asleep.) Hermione did deserve those few years of freedom yet, that independence on which Mrs Weasley disdained. They all did, in fact, and marriage wasn't going to fix the problems that they were having. It certainly would do nothing for his mental health.

Then one day after a particularly nasty spat with Ginny, initiated by one of Mrs Weasley's hints, he stormed into Hermione's office at the Ministry and roared, “Whatever's going on between you and Ron either work it out or break up because you're ruining my life!”

Hermione looked up from her desk with an arched eyebrow and then asked coolly, “How am I ruining your life? I haven't spoken to you in months. I thought we were both clear that we didn't have anything more to say to each other?”

Harry raged, “Because you're fighting with Ron! Every bloody time you two have at it, I end up having a fight with Ginny! She's his sister, she doesn't like what you're doing to him and I can't keep defending y—”

Hermione cut him off, her voice shrill in her fury, “Defending me? How is your and Ginny's relationship connected to Ron and me? I didn't even know Ginny cared about Ron's personal life! I thought you two were an example for others, how is it that our insignificant and unimportant situation affects yours? Or is it something else that's bothering you? Like you two can't stand the sight of the other getting more attention? Or you're too lazy to get your relationship out of a slump so you're blaming others? Or you can't stand the idea of others having a life that doesn't involve you? Or maybe even that you're jealous that our problems go beyond whether that reporter from the Daily Prophet knows that you bought Ginny's dress in France or her jewellery once belonged to an ancestor of yours you just discovered?”

When Harry just stared at her stunned, she continued, “That's it, isn't it? You've finally realised that your life is a joke and for show and you hate that there's no one around to complain to so you blame Ron and me. But you can't do it because I don't want to hear it. My personal life isn't any of your business anymore, Harry Potter. And I don't care about yours either; I've got my own life to deal with.”

Harry was so angry now that he wanted to drag her out of her seat and shake her until she understood, until she saw his point, until she took back all that nonsense she was spewing about him being jealous and arrogant and Gilderoy Lockhart. And most of all, that she knew that the main problem was her, not Ron. But he couldn't do that, so instead he walked to the door, seized a free-standing shelf and threw it to the ground.

She sprang to her feet at once, backing away from her desk in shock and fright, but still having the presence of mind to yell, “Put that back, Harry! You're not blaming me for this; I don't care about you anymore. I've got my own life. You put that shelf right, you put that back the way it was!”

Harry went to the other side of her office and toppled, in succession, her coat stand, a water cooler, various portraits she'd carefully arranged along the wall, and then swept everything from the shelves there to the floor. He ignored her enraged shrieks and then plaintive pleas for him to stop. He ignored the fact that the commotion was drawing the attention of their colleagues, milling in the doorway to see what was going on. He ignored the voice screaming at the back of his head that this was stupid and that he was going to regret this later and that after this there was no salvaging their relationship. He just kept destroying her office until he got round to her desk and stopped at the sight of her standing defiantly behind it, her hands splayed on the top, legs apart and face set in a glare to peel paint.

He bent forward and gripped the desk as if to upend it. She just stared at him, willing, and then defying him to do it. He tightened his grip on the desk and just stared right back in her eyes, waiting. Sooner or later she'd give in, she could hold her own quite well in an argument with Ron but with him the outcome was long forgone. He just had to wait.

And then the first sign of her cracking, her eyes were filling with tears. She knew that he would upend this desk no matter what she said. She knew that there was no way she was going to win this argument, she'd always known it. Her vision was surely blurred by now, and any second the first tear would break the bank and release the flood. It was inevitable.

But then, in that moment, he felt a sobering sense of deflation and his fingers loosened their grip on the desk edge. What was the point of this little display really? Why was he here in her office, tearing it apart and yelling at her? She wasn't Dumbledore and concealing a secret from him, she was Hermione and telling him what she felt was the truth. But it wasn't the truth, not according to him anyway, not the reason he was acting like a berk....

He released the desk altogether and stepped away from it. She continued to stare at him for a moment, nervously, and then released the desk as well and straightened.

Then he said, “I'm sorry.” Hermione looked, if it were possible, even more astonished, but Harry continued, “You're right, this isn't your fault, and I'm sorry. I think I know why I'm having this problem.”

He did now, he knew perfectly.

She did not say anything. No one said anything, or moved, or, it appeared, even attempted to breathe. And Harry still spoke, “I am arrogant, and lazy, and attention-hogging and jealous... I should have seen it before but I didn't. I refused to, and just assumed you would go along with me like always. But you won't, and that's what I love about you, what I'll always love about you... you won't take it from me, or anyone else for that matter, but especially not from me. I'm sorry.”

Hermione was staring at him now, stunned. But Harry had spoken his piece, and with that he turned and left her office, quietly. The crowd parted to let him through, and just as he stepped into the grilles of the lift, he heard her calling after him, “Harry? Harry!”

(Lust)

Harry would never know what led him to the number twelve, Grimmauld Place. He just left the Ministry, Apparated to the Burrow, changed his mind and Apparated there instead. He hadn't been back there since the war, and it was sure to be in a state, but he needed peace and quiet and to be alone.

As he walked through the door, his tongue twitched slightly and the dust stirred on the carpet, the faded remnant of Mad-Eye Moody's curse. He supposed he should have removed that a while ago, but he'd never quite gotten around to it. He was too busy becoming Gilderoy Lockhart, Draco Malfoy, and his father. Everything Snape had said he was. In almost reverent silence he tramped past it down into the kitchen.

Everything in sight was covered in a fine layer of dust, after years of neglect all of Kreacher's work had once more been swallowed by the house's overwhelming desire to remain tastefully decadent. Large cobwebs swathed the ceiling and windows, spiders, doxies and other tiny creatures scurried just out of sight in dark corners and the dust coated his shoes and the hem of his robes with each step he took. Harry walked directly through the room to the fireplace and just stood there staring at it.

Somewhere above the door opened and then slammed shut, and Hermione's voice called through the house, “Harry! Harry, where are you!”

He did not answer, but knew that inevitably she'd come down to him anyway. He drew his wand, pointed it at the fireplace and called, “Incendio!”

The flames crackled to life instantly, and moments later he heard her footsteps on the creaky stairs, then as she stepped down into the kitchen and sneezed. He did not turn around, but she walked over to him at once and said, “Harry...?”

He closed his eyes. She put her hand on his shoulder, trying to force him to face her. That was a mistake though, for in one smooth movement Harry turned around, grasped her arms, and, after a moment of just staring at her, bent forward and kissed her.

Hermione was noticeably surprised, for she stiffened immediately. But then she relaxed into the kiss, and then worked her arms free to put her hands around his neck. He drew her into him at once, coaxed her lips apart when he grazed them with his teeth and deepened the kiss. Had he ever considered this woman his sister? When she moaned his name as he nipped at her neck, his mind left the building. It was only a matter of moments then before his hands were going to the clasp of her robes and he was backing her into the kitchen table. If she realised his intent she gave no protest, and went for the clasp of his robes in turn. Then she was half-lying, half-sitting on the grimy wooden surface while he bent over her, robes opened, lips locked, and hands travelling. And when frustration demanded release, they barely exchanged heated permission before completely surrendering to one another.

At the end the only words whispered, for coherent thought was barely possible, were, “I love you.”

“I know.”

No regrets.

They went back to work after as if nothing had happened. Went home afterwards as usual and greeted their significant others with a kiss on the cheek, dinner and a cosy evening by the fire. The next day Harry came to Hermione's office to apologise personally for the destruction he'd caused, making sure the room saw him. Hermione refused to accept his apology on the grounds that he was just doing it for show, and not sincerely to her. He stormed out raging that she was a stubborn little swot and it was only for Ron's sake that he put up with her.

As he collapsed, sated, in her arms during their extended lunch break later, he didn't feel an iota of guilt, not one.

He knew that he should, that she should, but they didn't. They never discussed what they were doing, not once, but he knew they both thought of it. He could not suppress a wince if he tore her knickers in his excitement, nor could she stop worrying over the marks her nails left on his back, or they both stop wondering after their colleagues and if they noticed something was amiss. But he guessed that was how they coped. As long as they focused their attentions on concealing their crime they would not have to think about what they were doing to the people they were supposed to be with.

And he could not deny that hiding it was fun. He liked the way he could make her flush with just a look that only she understood, or that she could set him on edge with a laugh directed at someone else, or that they could annoy and frustrate their colleagues by their apparent determination to ignore each other's existence no matter how much it hurt. He could laugh at the speculation in the Daily Prophet that he was days away from proposing to Ginny. (But only when he was alone for she certainly wouldn't find it funny and had taken to looking longingly at the engagement rings in the windows of the shops they passed when they were out together.) He could roll his eyes at Rita Skeeter's insistence that Ginny was already pregnant with their first child, a boy they were going to name James for his father. And he could tune out Mrs Weasley at dinner whenever she began a pointed conversation that more or less was a veiled demand that he do right by her daughter, for they been together so long now....

He lived for the moments that he could be with Hermione again. In almost no time at all they moved beyond just shagging to lying together talking, about everything and nothing. They swapped tales of their misadventures at work, at home or at parties they'd attended apart. Harry told her of Teddy's first test report, and how proud he was that the teacher described the weird little blue-haired boy as “gifted”. Hermione told him of her parents' gratefulness to her for giving them an Australian vacation, but she was duly warned never to do that again. And one idle afternoon they returned to Grimmauld Place where Harry told her of his plans for the future, and she smiled and said, “Anything you want, I just know you'll get. You deserve it.”

He arched a brow, “Now I deserve it?”

She nodded, “Yes now, now that you've grown up.”

“Even the bit about enough kids to field my own Quidditch team?” he asked, only half-jokingly.

She laughed, “Yes, even that... though I don't know who'd want to go through that seven times, we're not all Mrs Weasley....”

He scoffed, “I'm the Man-Who-Triumphed, I'm sure I can find someone.”

“That you can,” she said, laughing again. “But I have a two-limit policy, so it's not going to be me.”

With challenge in his eyes, he rolled over onto her and said, “Really? Can't change your mind?”

She looked up at him incredulous, “Have you forgotten that we're not even supposed to be seeing each other?”

“No,” he replied, his lips now a hair's breadth from hers. “But I'm arrogant, lazy, greedy, reckless and randy as hell, completely barmy about you, and I don't care....”

She eagerly responded in kind.

Then the door banged open, they looked up in alarm, there was a flash of red and the sound of someone stomping down steps, crying loudly.

The game was up.

(Gluttony)

The press had a field day with the news of Harry and Ginny's and Ron and Hermione's scandalous break-up. Then they had a week of it when they learned of Hermione's pregnancy some three weeks later. It was an unfortunate way to end a years-long relationship with the Weasleys, and this was when the regret came, but the anticipation of that first Quidditch player more than made up for it for the both of them.

They married in a private ceremony shortly after learning of the baby, despite both previously insisting that they didn't want to just yet. But after Hermione woke up one morning and told Harry, “You're mine” there was little else he could do. He then quickly purchased a house in Godric's Hollow, just walking distance from his parents' ruin, so that “his children would know where they came from”.

To which the new Mrs Potter said, “Remember, I said two.”

To which the new husband responded, “Ooh look, that baby carriage you were looking for.”

Beyond this the Wizarding world would know almost nothing of the Potters. Hermione still worked at the Ministry and Harry was still an Auror, but if asked about their relationship they would both respond, “It's fine.”

They did find out when Harry and Hermione publicly apologised to Ron and Ginny. Ron accepted their apology by punching Harry in the face, and then congratulated both him and Hermione after. Ginny had nothing to say to either of them, but Mrs Weasley assured them that they were welcome at the Burrow at any time. Begrudgingly the others agreed. By the time of Hermione's baby shower everything was relatively back to normal, and Ginny even suggested a few names.

They also learned of the birth of the first new Potter, as an excited Harry rushed over to the Burrow moments after he was born, shouting at the top of his lungs, “I have a son! I have a son! His name is Cedric Sirius Potter! He weighs five pounds, nine ounces; he has his mother's eyes and my hair! I have a son!” And then he promptly collapsed at Ron's feet as he opened the door to admit him.

Ron rolled his eyes and dragged him in from the glare of the cameras.

Harry couldn't care less if they saw though. Today, he was sure, was the beginning of great things. He had a family of his own, he had the Weasleys, and he was finally as close to his parents as he was going to get for a while. He had a good job where he was working towards a future that his son and godson would grow up free of the prejudices that had nearly destroyed his. He had at last gotten his heart's desire, and more, though through some less than stellar means, but he was not a saint.

And now that he had it, he was going to hold on to it as selfishly as he could. He wasn't done yet with the Wizarding world, either, not by a long shot; there were still years of work ahead. But for now, all was well.

Fin

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