Thirteen Months Later: How To Survive When No One Wants You Dead

[kanedax]

Title: Thirteen Months Later: How To Survive When No One Wants You Dead
Author: kanedax
Rating: PG-13 for minor language and sexual discussion
Spoilers: Deathly Hallows
Summary: Where do we go from here?

Characters/Pairings: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Dean, Luna
Notes: After writing After The Flaw and Our Little Wilkins, I decided it would be easier to just pull together all of my post-DH work into one big story sequence. That way any new characters or plot ideas introduced into my personal canon (ie, Hermione Caroline Granger) can be used in future stories without confusing new readers. JK Rowling owns everyone everywhere ever.

Eleven Months Later: Scrubbing Bubbles / Previous Chapters / Sixteen Months Later: Titan Arum

As she watched the train station at Hogsmeade pull away from the window for the last time, Ginny Weasley pulled her feet off the floor of the compartment and stretched herself along the length of the bench.

It was finally over. No more classes. No more tests. No more N.E.W.T.s, the results of which she would be waiting for with more than a little apprehension within the next few weeks. She remembered the summer before her fifth year at the Burrow, watching Hermione Granger bounce up and down, flailing her arms and turning herself purple with nerves when her O.W.L.s arrived. At that time, Ginny promptly promised herself not to act the same way.

After all, it’s not like Ginny acted that way when her O.W.L.s showed up the following summer. She had been too busy worrying about more important things. Nights without sleep, nights worrying and praying, were so common those few months that simple performance anxiety felt like a day at the spa by comparison.

Ginny closed her eyes, listening to the clickety clack of the train as it sped toward King’s Cross, as well as the noise of students walking up and down the hallway outside the cabin. As it was on her previous trips this school year, the noise wasn’t nearly as audible as it had been in the past. When last school year ended, she had fully expected a declaration from the Ministry or someone requiring every student to re-take their previous year’s classes in light of the school’s treatment by Snape and the Carrows.

That declaration had never come. Students were given the option to repeat, and most who came back did not take up the option. It was amazing just how much Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and the others had been able to teach, even under such oppression. Neville passed his N.E.W.T.s with flying colors. So did Seamus, the Patil twins, Ernie Macmillan, and others a year above her.

That wasn’t the only reason that the hallway was empty, though. Many chose to not return to Hogwarts. Even after the fall of Voldemort, there were parents who decided that it was still too unsafe for their children to return to school. Dennis Creevey, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, and Lavender Brown were some of the many that had not returned. And with good reason, Ginny thought, recognizing that they had been through some of the worst of what the Death Eaters had to offer last year.

Then there were people like Zacharias Smith who… well, good riddance to bad rubbish.

Things had returned to some state of normalcy at the school in Ginny’s final year. Yet the halls of Hogwarts still felt quiet because of the lack of students. Ginny could have felt lonely, since so many she had grown to love during their years of resistance had left…

“Bloody hell, I’m opening the window,” Ron said. “It’s roasting in here.”

…But there were still some around.

“I wouldn’t suggest it,” Hermione said from next to him, her eyes never leaving her book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. “Pig might think it’s time to exercise, and you’ll never see him again.”

“I don’t think the Hogwarts Express is equipped to run in the middle of July,” Dean Thomas said from Ron’s other side. “Guess that’s what happens when classes start a month and a half later than usual. Do they even have any AC?”

“What’s that?” asked Ron.

This year was different than most years, Ginny thought as she watched her friends talk. Because of last year’s blood purity standard, many students who hadn’t even stepped foot into the classroom had been able to return to the school and take the year that they missed. It had been odd seeing so many eighteen and nineteen year olds in her classes, but she had gotten over it quickly. Especially once she found out who her Potions partner was…

“You okay?” Ginny asked, looking down the length of her body at her boyfriend, Harry Potter, on whose knees her feet were currently propped at the other end of the bench. “You’re kinda quiet…”

Harry turned back from the window, where he had been staring since they found the compartment. He looked down at her, his green eyes shining through his glasses, and smiled nervously.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m… I’m fine…”

“Your leg’s telling me otherwise,” she said, feeling it bounce up and down beneath her.

After the events of last year, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger had all been told that they wouldn’t have to come back to take their seventh year. That exceptions could be made for the three saviors of the wizarding world, and that there would be positions at the Ministry available to them whenever they wished to accept them.

But Hermione, being Hermione, couldn’t turn down the opportunity for more education, even with everything that had happened to her family the previous summer. She had received assurances from her parents that they could handle the newest member of the Granger family without her for a few months, just so long as she came home for holidays this year. So she came to Hogwarts, and Ron, needing both some time away from the Burrow and some extra schooling, followed her. Harry’s reasons, Ginny had learned during their time spent alone with each other the past few months, were more diverse…

“Good God,” Ron said, leaning his head against the back wall and wiping his forehead. “I’m taking my shirt off. No one can stop me.”

“Please don’t,” said Dean quickly. “I’ll give you a cookie if you don’t.”

“I would like a cookie,” came a soft voice from the floor. “I did not know the cart had gone past.”

“Nah, I’m just making it up, Luna,” Dean said. “Anything to keep the pale freckly one from showing off his hippogriff tattoo.”

Ginny snorted laughter, but Luna sat up from the floor, where she had been laying and reading The Quibbler. “Ooh, I would like to see that…”

“He doesn’t have a hippogriff tattoo on his chest,” Hermione said patiently.

“Thank you,” Ron said, his ears turning red.

“It’s a puppy frolicking in a field, and it’s in a place only his girlfriend’s allowed to see.”

Dean roared with laughter. Ron gave Hermione a dark look; she responded with a naughty smirk, which he couldn’t help but duplicate.

“Evil,” said Ron.

“At least I didn’t tell them about the Pygmy Puff one,” she prodded.

“Oh, God,” Dean said, wiping tears from his eyes. “I know I should probably be terrified, but…” He snorted, trying to calm himself down.

“Why are we dating again?” Ron asked.

“I just like to see your ears match your hair,” Hermione said, pulling her wand from her bag. “Glacio!”

With a flourish of her wand, a blue flame appeared in the air in the middle of the cabin. Ginny was expecting to feel some heat, but was surprised to instead feel waves of cold emanating from the flickering globe.

Ron felt it as well and sighed contentedly as he leaned back. “Ah, I knew there was a reason I asked you out,” he said, taking Hermione’s hand after she put the wand away.

“Did you ask me out?” Hermione replied. “The way I remember it, I kissed you, and then we were just… you know… together.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ron said, his brow furrowing. “I suppose we skipped a few steps.”

“Just a few,” Hermione said, looking at Ginny and blushing slightly before turning back to her storybook. She and Hermione had had many conversations over the past school year regarding their new relationships. One of the subjects that Hermione had brought up one particularly deep night dealt with what had gone on between her and Ron in her parents’ living room in Australia.

“But don’t tell anyone,” she had pleaded with Ginny at the time. “I know Ron’s never been good with pressure, and the last thing I need is you, Harry, Dean, or Luna bugging him about it.”

Ginny knew full well that Ron had talked in length with all four of them, along with his father; his brothers; his sister-in-law; each member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team; and every teacher at Hogwarts, whether they had ever had him in class or not (When should I do it? How should I do it? Should it be at a family get-together so everyone can see, or should it be just the two of us? Should I be creative, should I be romantic, should I have Buckbeak give her the ring, or should I just ask her since she already knows it’s coming?).

The boy’s been going to Hermione for answers all of these years, Ginny thought as she watched the two of them. Now there’s a piece of advice he can’t ask her about, and he’s trying desperately hard to get it right.

Ginny promised Hermione her silence.

“So,” Ron said, breaking into Ginny’s line of thought, “Do you want to go out with me, then?”

“Sure, why not?” Hermione said absently, flipping to the next page in her book. “Might be a laugh…”

“Good, good,” Ron said, relaxing. “Got that first question out of the way easy enough. I was afraid I’d have to tell them about the Devil’s Snare tattoo you have around your…”

Before he could finish that sentence, Hermione swung her book around and smacked him in the stomach. He doubled over, clutching his stomach as Dean, Ginny, and Luna all gasped and laughed in the same breath.

“He’s joking,” Hermione said through gritted teeth.

“Yeah, I am,” Ron wheezed. “I just like to see your eyes match my hair.”

Hermione, whose eyes probably should have been glowing red, started laughing despite herself, and Ron took that as a sign that he could kiss her without getting his tongue bitten off.

Ginny smiled as she watched the couple, as she smiled whenever she saw the two of them together throughout the school year. This was, like Harry told her earlier, “six years of sexual tension hitting the fan.” But Ginny, having to live with both of them for all these years, seeing how they had been around each other in both good times and bad, was glad to see things finally working out between them.

She turned away and looked back toward the window, hoping that maybe she could get a little bit of kissing in herself, and saw that Harry’s attention had returned to outside the train. It struck her that, after his brief dialogue with her earlier, Harry had not taken part in any of the ensuing conversation, and must have gone back into his own little world. His finger was idly tracing up and down her bare leg (they had all changed into t-shirts and shorts before leaving Hogwarts), but he was otherwise somewhere else.

“Harry?” Ginny asked. “Are you alright?”

Harry nodded, never leaving the window. Ginny pulled her legs away and sat up, sliding across the bench toward him. She reached up and touched the back of his neck, and it was enough to get him to turn to her.

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his lightning-shaped scar.

“Is it hurting you again?” Hermione said, pushing herself toward the edge of her seat.

“No, it’s not,” Harry said, seeing the look of worry in everyone’s eye. “Honestly, it doesn’t hurt. It hasn’t hurt at all since last summer.” He took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh. “I almost wish it would…”

“What do you mean?” asked Ginny.

“I’m just… nervous.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?” asked Dean.

“I don’t know,” Harry shrugged. “The other shoe, I guess?”

“Not following…” Ron said, leaning forward, blank confusion clearly marked on his face.

“I guess I’m just waiting for something to happen, but…” Harry shook his head. “It’s stupid… Really…”

“Remember who you’re talking to, mate.”

“What’s wrong?” Ginny repeated, more quietly this time. She reached up and slid her fingers gently through Harry’s tussled black hair.

Harry sighed. “The first ten years of my life were spent living in a cupboard under the stairs. Barely given anything to eat, constantly in fear of being beaten up by my cousin or his friends.

“Since then, I’ve faced dragons, basilisks, trolls, Death Eaters, and dark magicians. I’ve almost died a dozen times over. And then this year happened, and…”

“You’re waiting for someone else to kill you?”

“Luna!” Hermione said, but Harry nodded, and Ginny once again noted Luna’s skill for stating the obvious.

“That’s it exactly,” Harry said. “I mean, there were tests, sure. There was the usual classroom mayhem. Eyebrows disappearing, potions backfiring, whatever. But… There weren’t any mysteries to uncover. No grossly incompetent teachers, or double agents trying to take me down. Hell, I only used my Invisibility Cloak a few times, and even then it was to just…”

He broke off, and looked around as if realizing who was listening to the conversation, and turned beet red.

“To just what?” Ron said suspiciously.

“Never mind,” said Ginny, her face feeling the same as Harry’s looked. She took a quick glance over at Hermione, whose hand was covering her mouth. Ginny could see a smile breaking through nonetheless, and just knew that she was thinking of some of the juicy details they had shared about some of Harry and Ginny’s liaisons under the Cloak.

Ron opened his mouth to protest more, but Dean, Ginny’s ex-boyfriend, interrupted. “Ron,” he said. “You don’t want to know what your sister’s been up to, and I don’t want to know what your sister’s been up to. So let’s just leave it at that, huh?”

Ron grumbled assent, and pushed himself back as Hermione again leaned forward. “Harry,” she said in her famous matter-of-fact voice. “I’m not going to say that what you’re feeling is normal. Quite frankly, none of us have had normal lives, you especially. But that’s changed now. It’s over. We won.”

“I know,” Harry said. “Like I said, it’s stupid. I’ve been alive for almost nineteen years, and only one of them felt completely safe. And it’s not even a year I remember, except for the end.”

“It’s not stupid,” Ginny said, snuggling herself up next to him and wrapping her arms around his chest. “You’ll feel safe again, I’ll make sure of it.”

“Thanks,” replied Harry as he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her on the forehead.

“Besides,” she said, walking her fingers along his leg. “It’s not like last year was completely uneventful…”

As she looked up at him, her mind traveled to a certain night after the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match: just her, Harry, the prefect bubble bath, and enough protective enchantments to keep anyone, living or moaningly dead, from poking their head in. By the glint in his eye, she could tell that he was thinking the same thing.

“Oi!” Ron yelled, noticing their looks as well. “No more staring at each other like that, yeah? I can see the wheels clicking...”

“Hear, hear,” said Dean.

“It’s not like it’s anything we haven’t done,” said Hermione to Ron.

“You don’t know that…”

“Actually, she does,” said Ginny. “I tell her everything, so sod off.”

“You do?” said Harry, tensing up. “Everything?”

“Pretty much, yeah…”

“Calm down, Harry,” Hermione said. “It’s just girl talk.”

“Hermione and Luna are my best friends,” said Ginny. “I tell them everything.”

“Luna, too?” Harry yelped, looking down at the floor.

“Of course,” said Luna, smiling serenely from behind her magazine.

“It’s not a big deal, Harry,” said Ginny. “I mean, you guys talk about it, too, right?”

“No interest in my ex-girlfriend’s sex life, thanks,” said Dean.

“We haven’t had sex, Dean, don’t worry.”

“Still more than I wanted to know,” said Ron. “I didn’t know all this exchange of information has been going on…”

“Not so much of an exchange,” said Hermione. “Ginny only knows the rough edges about you and I. You’re her brother, she wants to know just as little about us as you do about them.”

“Good,” Ron said, wiping sweat from his brow despite the ice flame still floating in the middle of the room. “At least we’re still mostly private…”

“Oh, I’ve been told everything,” said Luna.

“You have?” Ginny could hear Ron’s neck crack as he whipped around to face Hermione, who shrugged.

“She’s a good listener,” explained Hermione weakly. “She can be quite insightful, too.”

“It’s all very interesting,” said Luna. “It’s quite fun to listen, although I am surprised that they think I give good advice. I’ve only been one date, with Harry, and the only sexual experience I’ve had are orgasms from my nightly masturbation sessions.”

She paused, as the cabin filled with nothing but the sound of the wheels outside.

“Sometimes more than once a night, depending on what happened earlier in the day. I had four after my date with Harry. Six if you count the two I had when I woke up the next morning. What’s a five-letter word for ‘three-masted vessel’? I have two blanks, a ‘B,’ and two blanks.”

“’Xebec,’” said Hermione automatically.

“Thank you,” Luna smiled, pulling the quill from behind her ear and bending down to the crossword in the Quibbler. The other five continued to stare at her in awed silence as the tip of the quill scratched across the paper. After she had written in the word, she looked back up to see them all looking at her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you wanted to hear more,” she said.

“So!” Dean yelled loud enough to make everyone jump. “What’s everyone doing when they get home?”

“I dunno,” said Ron. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Me, neither,” said Ginny. “Just too soon, you know? Give my brain some time to digest everything.”

“I’ll probably go home, say hello to my father, have dinner, and masturbate before I go to sleep.”

“I meant after today, Luna,” said Dean quickly.

“Oh. No, I don’t know what I’m doing, either.”

“What about you, Hermione? Harry?”

“I don’t know,” Hermione sighed. “I know I should probably start thinking about a career, but there’s Caroline to worry about…”

“What’s there to worry about?” said Ron. “She’s healthy. She’s in comfortable living arrangements. Your folks love her; they have since the moment they laid eyes on her. And now that they don’t have to pay for your schooling they can afford to take care of her.”

“I know,” said Hermione. “But… I mean, if it weren’t for my spell, they wouldn’t be burdened by her in the first place.”

“But they don’t see her as a burden, do they?” asked Luna. “They don’t remember her birth, but she still feels like their daughter. They love her just the same as if they had planned it all along.”

“I just feel like I should have some responsibility in bringing her up.”

“And you will,” said Ron reassuringly. “But you’re almost twenty. You have a life to live, a family of your own to start someday. Dan and Charlotte don’t want you to put your life on hold, to live in your little pink bedroom in Oxford until Caroline finishes school. They know you’ll be there for your sister. You just don’t have to, you know, be there be there.”

“Bill started going to Hogwarts the year I was born,” said Ginny. “And moved out right after he finished his N.E.W.T.s. I’ve only seen him during holidays and summers as long as I’ve been alive. But that still doesn’t mean he hasn’t had a hand in who I am.”

“Are they going to be at King’s Cross?” Luna asked Hermione. “I would like to meet them.”

“Me, too,” said Dean.

“Me, three,” said Ginny, and smiled as Harry poked her in the ribs. “Ron’s the only one who had a chance to see little Hermione before the school year, and Harry got to meet her during Easter break. I feel deprived.” Because of the rescheduled school year, both Christmas and Easter vacations had been one week instead of two. Neither she nor Ron had wanted to leave their family long enough to visit the Grangers, and Hermione hadn’t wanted to leave her own parents after so long apart. Harry, who was living in Grimmauld Place, had received invitations from each family, as well as Neville’s grandmother. In the end, Harry ended up spending most of Christmas with the Weasleys, most of Easter with the Grangers, and two days with the Longbottoms during both vacations.

“Yes, they’ll be there,” said Hermione. “I told them that I could easily Apparate home, but they insisted on picking me up.”

“That should be fun,” said Luna. “I like babies.”

“What about you, Harry?” Dean asked. “You’ve become the silent one again…”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “I have a lot of thinking to do, I guess. I have a job at the Ministry waiting for me, and they said I could go through Auror training while working there. But… I don’t know. There’s just something about working for the Ministry that gives me the creeps.”

“But it’s been cleaned up, Harry,” said Hermione. “Kingsley’s in charge, he’s running it right.”

“I know,” said Harry. “But even still, I’m not sure if I want to get back into the whole crime-fighting thing. Just because I feel like bad things should be happening doesn’t mean I want run out and find them.”

“There’s Quidditch,” said Ron. “You got invitations to try out for all those local teams, you and Ginny both?”

“Yeah, a few.” Ginny knew that Harry was being modest. He had, in fact, received letters from almost every team in the league over the course of the school year, requesting his services as Seeker. Of the thirteen teams in the British and Irish Quidditch League, the only one not represented in his pile was the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female team and one of the three teams, along with Chudley and Portree, which Ginny herself had received invitations from.

“Well, why not?” said Ron. “You’ve always said it’s what you’re best at. What you enjoyed doing the most when we were in school.”

“It’s an option,” Harry replied. “But I know those teams. So many of them already have Seekers who are better than I am. I’m sure most of them are just asking me to try out because they know it’ll mean more publicity, more ticket sales, to have The Chosen One on their squad. Kind of pathetic, if you think about it.”

“Well, you’re going to have to work eventually,” said Hermione. “Sirius left you your house, and your parents left you an inheritance, but it will only last so long. The cost alone of doing a full renovation on Grimmauld Place will be astronomical.”

“Yeah, and I’m not planning on having you mooch off my modest paychecks your whole life, either,” teased Ginny.

“I will, I will,” said Harry impatiently. “Believe me, the last thing I want to do is sit on my ass the rest of my life. Actually, I’m thinking about going the route that Dumbledore and Doge were planning to go.”

“What’s that?” asked Dean.

“Travel the world,” said Harry. “Neville said he’s planning on hitting every continent, studying up on some foreign flora. He invited me to tag along, and I think I might take him up on it.”

“Not… not forever, though, right?” said Hermione. “I mean, this isn’t a career choice…”

“Of course not,” said Harry. “Just a for a few months, in both the Wizard and Muggle worlds. Get my head on straight, decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. If nothing else, it’ll be nice to be able to walk around without Polyjuice or the Invisibility Cloak.”

“Won’t that be expensive, though?” Hermione continued.

“The Marauders did it after they finished school,” explained Harry. “Sirius and Lupin told me about it. I’m sure my dad wouldn’t mind part of my inheritance going towards it, especially if it helps me later in life.”

“Wow,” said Ron. “That… that sounds like a blast.”

“It does,” said Ginny sadly, her fingers walking up and down the arm Harry had draped across her chest. “You promise you’ll write me this time, right? I don’t want you disappearing on me again.”

Harry looked down blankly at her face for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what she had said, before looking around the cabin. “Well… ummm… you’re all invited, of course. I mean, I didn’t mean it to sound like I wanted to go alone.”

“Really?” Ginny said, sitting up.

“Of course!” said Harry. “I’m already going with Neville, right? He said anyone who wants to come could come. The more the merrier. Seamus, too, Dean, if you want to let him know.”

“I’m in,” Dean shrugged. “And I’m sure Finnegan would love any excuse to get away from home for a while.”

“I would love to come,” said Luna. “I miss Neville.”

“I don’t know, Harry,” said Hermione. “I spent all of my savings last year when we were hunting Horcruxes. I don’t know if I could afford it. And there’s Caroline…”

“Money’s not an object,” argued Harry. “You blew your life savings for me last year, the least I can do is pay for you for this. Both of you,” he added, looking at Ron. “Besides, Neville wants to study plants, so we’re not planning on staying in luxury hotels, or anything. I’ll buy us a couple of tents. Big, new ones that don’t smell like locker rooms or cats.”

“I promised George I’d help out at the shop for a while,” said Ron. “The Weasley name’s bigger than ever, and he’s holding up under the crush as well as he can with just Lee and Verity. But, with Fred gone…”

“I understand,” said Harry. “Believe me, I do. But I want you two with me, even if you’re not with us for the whole trip. It won’t be the same without having you around.”

Ron sighed, and exchanged a look with Hermione.

“You’re not planning on leaving tomorrow, are you?” she asked.

“We’re thinking sometime near the end of August.”

“I might be able to swing some time,” Ron told Hermione. “Between the back-to-school and holiday shopping booms. George is hoping to have hired some extra help by then.”

“We’ll be back by Christmas,” said Harry hopefully.

Hermione cracked a small smile. “I’ll talk to my parents,” she said. “We’ll figure something out.”

A wide grin brushed across Harry’s face. He looked down at Ginny. “How about…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Ginny grabbed him behind the neck and pulled him down into a passionate kiss. Ron and Dean both pointedly looked at the ceiling, and Hermione looked down at Luna with a grin, only to see that she had gone back to her crossword.

“You told me you’re never leaving me again,” Ginny said after their kiss broke. “Did you honestly think I’d let you go without me?”

“So… just so we’re clear on everything,” said Dean, finding himself unable to look away from the ice flame as Harry and Ginny smiled at each other, “Two tents, right? So I, you know, won’t have to walk in on that? Ever?”

“I’m willing to pitch in for a third,” said Ron. “Just to be extra safe.”

Eleven Months Later: Scrubbing Bubbles / Previous Chapters / Sixteen Months Later: Titan Arum