I've decided I really am pissed off at the epilogue of DH (been letting that fester since I read the first book and I've gotten pissed all over again after seeing it on the movie especially since I feel like it wasn't done right) and my muse hasn't been cooperative on my Buffy fanfiction over at FF.Net, so I decided to write this little bit along with a little inspiration from the movie. I'm not sure where it's going, and I'm not sure how long it will be. I might sit down later and work on a full plot, but I can't guarantee anything… but I had to do SOMETHING to get musie to move her little butt. (I also have a Buffy/Harry Potter cross over twirling around in my brain with a Hermione/Harry and Buffy/Angel pairing [fo' sho']. I'm not sure what will happen with it and if I would post it on PK… I already have enough fanfiction started that I haven't finished LMAO.) Since I'm not sure what is happening with this, it's a prologue! I'm open to ideas. :)
Oh, I noticed a little error and fixed it. I am going by what the HP Lexicon says about canon-particularly the ages of the second generation and the careers Harry, Hermione, and Ron have chosen. If you guys pick up anything else like that, PLEASE point it out.
Prologue
Harry Potter sat across from his best friend and sister in law, Hermione Weasley, in his kitchen.
"It's been a while since we've spent time together alone, hasn't it?" Harry asked Hermione.
"Well, with the children, it's quite impossible to get away at times. I'm still trying to process Hugo being in Hogwarts now with Lily."
Harry smiled fondly as he thought of his daughter and nephew. "They really have gotten big, haven't they? I'm so proud of them for both getting sorted into Gryffindor, although Albus did say the sorting hat wanted to put him into Slytherin."
"Oh, goodness-but could you have imagined the kind of rough time James would have put him through?"
Harry and Hermione laughed as they thought about all of the children and other brood of kids in the Weasley family.
Suddenly Hermione sighed and brushed her hands through her hair. She suddenly didn't look happy anymore.
"What's the matter, Hermione?"
"Do you ever wonder what might have happened had we started a relationship? Not you with Ginny, or Ron with me?"
Harry, who had been taking a sip of his green tea, nearly spit it out. That couldn't be a serious question, could it?
"I-er…" he stammered, trying to think of how to answer the question. He stopped himself, not quite wanting to make himself look like an idiot, and took a sip of his tea as he pondered the question.
"It's-I, nevermind. Such a silly question! Forget I ever mentioned it." Hermione took a sip of her own tea and looked at the front door of Harry's home, which was a straight shot from his kitchen table. Harry and Ginny had anti-apparation wards in place.
"What is the real reason you're asking me this?"
Hermione looked down, fidgeting with the string of her teabag, and remained silent.
"I did ponder it in fifth year, but I later had that silly obsession with Cho Chang. And once I broke up with her, I immediately started a relationship with Ginny. And-and in the tent when, when we almost-But you know that. Why are you suddenly asking?"
"I-I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been different. I-maybe I would have been happier with you? Goodness, I'm acting so silly! I'm going to ruin our lunch with such thoughts."
"You had another row with Ron, didn't you?" Harry could tell what this was all about now. Ron and Hermione rarely fought as badly as they did when all of them were kids, but in their marriage, Ron and Hermione had some truly impressive and scary fights. The first one had been when Hermione found out he got her pregnant shortly after she turned twenty-four with Rose. Hermione had been in the middle of Muggle University at Oxford, working on her second bachelor's degree. She wanted to soon become involved at the Ministry fighting for the rights of non-wizard and witch creatures after she got her second degree in sociology. Ron had been pestering her to marry him and start a family and she just hadn't been ready for it. Harry didn't like to think about the bad rows his friends had, and so he stopped himself.
"Sometimes… sometimes it scares me how badly he can regress back into his explosive seventeen-year old, testosterone-ridden behaviors." Hermione sighed and raked her hand through her hair again. "I can't change him! God knows I care for him! But sometimes I just wonder if it's just that. I care for him. Do I love him? And I-well, I see how happy you are and it just… I wonder."
"Hermione, that's an awful lot to throw at me." Harry sighed.
"We almost kissed once, you know? And I just…I've been wondering about that a lot lately."
Harry did remember that moment. It was when it had just been the two of them in the tent together about a week after Ron stormed off on them in anger.
"I thought we were going to forget about that too."
"I was right. I shouldn't have mentioned it." Hermione stood quickly as she could and left, leaving a bewildered Harry to watch as she walked from his kitchen as quickly as possible.
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