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SIYE Time:12:24 on 28th March 2024
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Realizations
By potterfan2008

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Category: Post-Hogwarts
Characters:Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley
Genres: Drama, Romance
Warnings: Disturbing Imagery, Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations
Rating: R
Reviews: 230
Summary: The year after the war was a confusing time for the teen warriors. They had fought against the greatest evil - what was next? Follow them as they try to find out. Canon pairings.
Hitcount: Story Total: 133192; Chapter Total: 6597
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
Thank you so much for all of the reviews and the Silver Trinket nominations. I so appreciate it :) Thank you to my beta StephanieO for all of her hard work !




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Harry woke on the morning of his birthday to the warm caresses of his fiancée. He kept his eyes closed for a few moments enjoying the feel of her soft hands against his chest. By the time he opened his eyes, Ginny was leaning over him, her hair creating a crimson curtain. He smiled up at her, thinking that this was his idea of a perfect morning. Pulling her down gently, he kissed her deeply.

The morning was spent making love and generally enjoying each other’s company. Harry was cuddling with his girl when he heard the sound of feet pounding down the stairs. Looking over, he realized that it was 9:30 in the morning.

“I guess we should get up,” he said without much conviction in his voice.

“I don’t want to,” she replied. “I wish we were already married with our own house. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Soon, baby,” Harry replied. He sat up and stretched before getting out of bed. Moving around the room he pulled on some clothes.

Ginny reluctantly got up and pulled on her dressing gown. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be downstairs soon.”

He kissed her before headed down. He found Ron, George, and Charlie watching Fleur working at the stove.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Happy Birthday!” the brothers all called out.

Fleur turned around and smiled at him, “Happy birthday, Harry. I hope you don’t mind I am making you breakfast.”

He smiled easily and returned her hug. “Thank you, Fleur. What are you making?”

“I am making some fruit crepes with some of the syrup Ginny made,” Fleur replied. She looked over at her brothers-in-law. “Don’t worry I am also making eggs and bacon.”

Harry bit back a laugh at the look of relief on Ron’s face. He knew that Ron liked his food, but he was surprisingly hesitant to try new foods. “Thanks, Fleur. That sounds great.”

By the time Ginny joined them, Fleur had just set a platter of crepes on the table.

“Oh, these look lovely,” Ginny said as she helped herself to one of them.

After seeing his siblings enjoy them, Ron decided to try them as well. Harry bit back a laugh as Ron’s face lit up.

Harry took a bite of his own crepes. “These are brilliant, Fleur.”

“Merci,” Fleur smiled. “I enjoy cooking. I thought you might enjoy a bit of my country.”

“These are great and a great use of the berries,” Ginny said.

Once everyone had eaten their fill, Ron pushed a pile of presents over to his best friend. “Presents, Harry!”

“Thank you,” Harry said with a shy smile as he opened the first present. He found some clothes from Mr and Mrs Weasley; George, Charlie, Bill, and Fleur had bought him a motorcycle jacket; Percy gave him a nice quill; Ron gave him a selection of chocolate; and Hermione sent him a book on the history of magic.

“I’ll give you your present later,” Ginny whispered and she kissed him quickly.

Ignoring the by-play, George turned to Harry. “So what is the plan for the day?”

“I don’t know,” Harry shrugged.

Ginny rolled her eyes. “None of that, we are doing something fun. I know your dreadful relatives never did anything fun for your birthday. What was something your horrid cousin got to do for his birthday that you wanted to do?”

Harry looked down at the table for a minute thinking about all of Dudley’s extravagant birthday outings. While Harry hadn’t gone with them, Dudley would always brag about how much fun they’d had. His eyes lit up. “I know, let’s go miniature golfing.”

“What’s that?” Charlie asked. “I’ve heard of golf, but can’t remember exactly what it is.”

“Well, real golf is hitting a little ball into a hole, but mini golf is supposed to be really fun. They have all kinds of fun things you have to hit the ball around. Dudley went to one that was dinosaur themed.”

“That sounds like fun,” Ginny said after she finished up her crepe. She turned to her brother. “Is Hermione joining us?”

“She should be here soon,” Ron said.

“So where do you find these golf places?” George asked.

Harry seemed momentarily stymied. “I know where they are in Surrey, but I don’t know where they are around here.”

“Do you want to go to Surrey?” Ginny asked.

Harry thought it over. He knew where the mini golf place was in Surrey and it had always sounded so cool. “Sure, why not?” He looked over at Fleur who had joined them at the table. “Are you coming with us?”

“Me?” she looked a bit surprised. She looked around the table. “Is it okay if I come with you?”

“Of course,” Ginny said promptly. “You’re a Weasley now.”

Fleur smiled, “Well, thank you. I would like to come with you. Let me go home and change, I will be back soon.”

As Fleur left, Harry said, “I’m going to shower and change. I’ll be back.”



It was just after eleven when everyone was ready to go. They’d decided to Apparate to Mrs Figg’s back garden and walk to the train station. Harry Apparated Ginny while the others Apparated on their own. Harry felt badly that he was actually relieved Mrs Figg wasn’t home. He liked her, but he did get tired of looking at cat pictures.

He led the way down the alley to Magnolia Crescent and out towards Magnolia Road. The train station was down at the end of Magnolia Rd, past the park towards the edge of town.

“Where is your relatives’ house?” Ginny asked softly as they walked.

“Back that way,” Harry shrugged. He gestured to the park. “This is where I would come to get away from my cousin.”

Accepting the change in topic, Ginny let Harry give them an abbreviated tour of Little Whinging. They didn’t have to wait long for the train and within thirty minutes they were standing outside the Jurassic Encounter Miniature Golf. Harry smiled as he looked up at the signs. It looked even more fun than he remembered. If the expressions on the faces of the Weasleys were anything to go by, they all thought it looked fun as well.

Harry paid for everyone and helped them all pick out the appropriate clubs. He handed Hermione the ticket and a pencil to keep track of their scores.

“I trust you the most,” he said with a smile. He gestured towards the Weasleys with a smile. “They are a little bit competitive and I don’t trust them not to cheat a little.”

“I heard that, Potter!” Charlie called. “I’m going to remember that.”

Hermione just laughed and took the proffered items. She gestured to the practice area. “Does anyone want to practice?”

“How hard can it be to hit a little ball?” Ron scoffed.

The other Weasleys shrugged and headed off to the first hole. Ron soon found out how hard it could be to hit the little ball as everyone took at least four swings to get the ball in the first hole. Ron’s ears reddened at first, but when everyone else did as badly as he did, he relaxed a bit.

The golf course had waterfalls, fun traps, caves, and of course dinosaurs. Charlie was a bit disparaging of the dinosaurs, insisting that any of his dragons could take even the T-Rex, but they were all enthralled by the large animatronic dinosaurs spread throughout the course.

“These are so cool!” Ginny enthused as they walked past a trio of Velociraptors.

“They are,” Harry agreed. “I don’t think they were here when Dudley came here. He wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to tell me how they’d eat me or something.”

Ginny tamped down her anger at his cousin’s casual cruelty and kissed him. “I think he would make for a more substantial meal.”

Harry laughed and draped his arm around her shoulder as he watched Ron take his shot. It took him three tries to get the ball into the hole and his brothers were heckling the entire time. To Harry’s relief, Ron took the teasing in stride and gave as good as he got.

“George, you cheated!” Hermione said in astonishment. “You can’t just pick up the ball and drop it in the hole.”

“Why not?” George asked as his siblings dissolved into laughter. “I obviously wasn’t going to get very far. I’d already hit the ball like seven or eight times.”

“Seven or eight? Didn’t you read the rules posted at the beginning of the course?” Hermione scolded. “You only have six attempts per hole.” She turned to glare at Charlie who’d started laughing even harder. “Do not make any crude comments!”

George finally broke and started laughing. “Why would I read the rules when you’re here?”

Hermione shook her head, but she had a smile on her face. “Honestly, if you lot would bother to read the rules it would make life so much easier.”

“But you just interpret the rules so much better than we do,” Harry teased. Hermione rolled her eyes as the group moved on the next hole.

They were standing next to a large waterfall when Ron shoved Harry through the water. Harry of course retaliated and soon the two boys were tussling in the waterfall like a pair of children. Not to be left out, Charlie and George joined in.

Hermione shook her head as she watched them. “We’ve come with a bunch of toddlers.”

Ginny laughed, “Yes, but we are the ones that chose to come with them so what does that say about us? Besides, I haven’t heard George laugh like this in a long time.”

“Oui,” Fleur said. “Besides, how often do you see Harry playing like this?”

“That’s true,” Hermione admitted with a fond smile.

Once the boys were properly soaked, they re-joined the girls with huge smiles on their faces. Harry went to put his arm back around Ginny and she backed away.

“No, I would like to stay dry,” she said.

Charlie grabbed her from behind, getting as close to her as possible. “What was that, sis? You are feeling a little hot?”

“No, Charlie!” Ginny shrieked playfully.

Charlie laughed and pushed her towards Harry who wrapped his arms around her, effectively soaking her as well. She laughed as she tried to push him away. He simply laughed as refused to let go.

“I would probably let you go for a kiss,” he teased.

Leaning up Ginny kissed him deeply, earning groans from all of her brothers. Harry on the other hand was too busy returning her kiss to pay attention to the others. It wasn’t until Charlie lightly cuffed him on the back of the head that he broke the kiss.

“Enough already,” he groused. “We don’t really want to see that.”

“Don’t look,” the couple said laughingly, but they did stop.

By the time they’d reached the end of the eighteenth hole, they were all laughing and having a great time. Charlie had won with Harry coming in second. To everyone’s surprise, Fleur came in third, just a few points behind Harry.

They left the golf course, after Harry purchased Ginny a t-shirt with a raptor on it.

“Where to now?” she asked.

His eyes lit up, “How about some pizza?”

“That’s a great idea,” she said. They trouped back to the train station and decided to ride into London.


As Harry had predicted, all of the Weasleys loved pizza. Ron and Charlie easily demolished their sausage, pepperoni, and mushroom pizza and ordered a new one. Harry and Ginny shared a pepperoni pizza while Hermione and Fleur shared a ham and pineapple pizza. George sampled a slice of each kind of pizza.

“This stuff is really good,” he said. He looked over at Ron. “We should talk to Percy about opening a pizza place on Diagon Alley.”

“But we can’t cook,” Ron said through a slice of pizza.

“We don’t have to cook,” George explained. “If we find someone who has the interest in cooking, we can be their financial backer like Harry was to us.”

“That’s a great idea,” Harry said. “I’d go in on that with you. I actually own one of the buildings on Diagon Alley. The tenants left and aren’t planning on coming back, that’s how I found out about it. The goblins want to know what to do with it.”

“So how do we find people who want to build a restaurant?” Ron asked sceptically.

“I know,” Harry said. “We can put an ad in the Daily Prophet.”

Hermione watched in astonishment as they started putting an ad together with Harry jotting down ideas on his serviette. “So you’re just going to open a restaurant? Just like that?”

“Why not?” Harry asked. “It could be a lot of fun.”

“I would like to be involved,” Fleur said. “I could help with the design of the restaurant — the layout and décor.”

“Brilliant,” Harry said as he added another note. “It should be someplace fun and kid friendly.”

By the time they’d finished eating they had decided a dragon themed pizza parlour was just what Diagon Alley needed. Charlie helped them come up with names for the different pizzas based on different dragons.

“I have an idea,” Ginny said suddenly. “We should talk to Dean. I bet he could draw some dragon murals on the walls. Charlie can supply the pictures so they can be accurate and Dean could paint them. He was complaining about not having any pocket money.”

Fleur stood up gracefully. “I want to go see Bill. I will see you at home later?”

Everyone agreed and Fleur leaned over to kiss Harry on the cheek. “Happy birthday, mon frère.”

“Thanks, Fleur,” he replied with a smile.

“Should we stop by the house and see Kreacher’s progress?” Ginny asked as they left the pizza parlour.

“Sure,” Harry said. “I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Hermione, George and Charlie, who hadn’t seen Grimmauld Place since Kreacher had started remodelling, were amazed at the difference.

“Harry, this is wonderful,” Hermione said as she stared at the picture of Harry and Sirius in the entryway.

“Isn’t it?” he smiled.

The front hall and staircase gleamed. Kreacher had replaced the dark and dated light fixture with a beautiful sparkling chandelier.

“Kreacher,” Ginny said as the old elf joined them. “It looks wonderful. I love the chandelier.”

“Thank you, Mistress,” Kreacher replied. “Kreacher found this in the attic. Would Master like to see the dining room?”

“Sure,” Harry said easily.

“Harry,” Hermione whispered, “you shouldn’t encourage him to call you Master.”

Harry shrugged. “He’s used to it and he gets upset if he forgets and wants to punish himself.”

Kreacher, ignoring the by play between Harry and Hermione, threw open the doors to the dining room. The dark wooden table gleamed and the glass doors to the china cabinet shone. The walls were painted a light yellow with a cream coloured chair rail. Against one wall, there was now a beautiful tapestry depicting a family of unicorns.

“Did you find this in the attic as well?” Ginny asked as she watched the baby unicorns play.

“Yes, Mistress.” Kreacher replied. “It has been packed away for centuries.”

“Excellent,” Ginny said. “You’ve done a really good job.”

“Thank you, Mistress.”

Harry grinned at the elf. “You’ve made an amazing difference, Kreacher. Did you get my note?”

“Yes, Master,” Kreacher replied. “Your bedroom is complete and the others will be ready by the end of August.”

“Thank you,” Harry said. “We’re going to just look around a bit.”

“As you wish,” Kreacher bowed before gliding out of the room.

George spoke up, “Mate, I didn’t really believe you about Kreacher, but that’s amazing. It’s like he’s a different elf.”

“It’s thanks to Hermione,” Harry said as Hermione blushed.

“It is,” Ron said proudly.

Harry showed the others the newly decorated drawing room before they headed up to his room. He paused outside the door before pushing it open.

Kreacher had removed all of the bikini clad posters from the ceiling, but he’d left the picture of the Marauders on the wall. The walls were painted a rich, deep green with a cream trim. A large gleaming sleigh bed sat against one of the walls with green and gold bed linens.

“Wow,” Harry said as he looked around the room. The cream and gold curtains framed large windows that overlooked Grimmauld Square. He walked around the room, stopping to open the rather bare wardrobe — he only kept a few changes of clothes and one of his Auror robes here.

Next to the bed, Harry noticed a framed picture of Ginny. He smiled as he picked up the frame. It had been taken during the Christmas they spent at Grimmauld Place and was a candid shot of her laughing at someone.

She looked over his arm at the picture. “Oh Merlin, where did he find that?”

“I think it’s cute,” Harry said defending the picture.

Ginny rolled her eyes, but kissed him on the cheek. “It looks wonderful in here.”

“Come on,” Harry said. “I want to check out the third floor. Those are the next rooms he’s cleaning up.”

“Are you sure it’s not too much for him?” Hermione asked as they headed downstairs.

“I don’t think so,” Harry said. “He’s not doing anything else right now and he seems to like restoring the Black house to its former glory.”

“I take it that’s a direct quote,” Ron remarked.

Harry nodded. He opened the door to the room he and Ron had shared. “I was thinking that you could have this room back.”

Ron nodded and Harry continued, “The room next door will be for Seamus.” He looked over at George, “That room there is yours if you want. Kreacher will be getting it ready and even if you decide you don’t want to live here full time, you can at least visit.”

George opened the door to the room Harry gestured towards. It was a decent sized room decorated in rather dark red at the moment. The other room of the floor was a bathroom. Ginny pushed the door open and made a face. “More snakes. Is Kreacher replacing those?”

“Yes,” Harry said. “I asked him to get rid of all of the snakes.”

“I think I’d like to stay here,” George said as he came out of the room Harry had indicated to him. “It’s certainly better than Percy’s flat.”

“Great!” Harry smiled. “I’ll let Kreacher know. If you two want anything in particular in your rooms, let me know and I’ll ask him to find it. Seamus already asked for a green room.”

“I want orange,” Ron said as the others groaned.

“Sure,” Harry said with a smile. “I thought that’s what you’d pick.”

“I want red and gold,” George said, “might as well go with a Gryffindor theme.”

“Excellent,” Harry said.

“I’ll go and tell Kreacher,” Ginny said. Harry and the others headed to the drawing room while Ginny went downstairs.

“It really looks like a home now,” Hermione said. “Oh, he got the tapestry off the wall. It really does look great here.”

“Kreacher found the notes or whatever from the elf who lived here when the house was built and he’s trying to find some what he calls ‘period pieces.’” Harry explained. “I don’t know exactly what that means, but Ginny says it’s good.”

At that moment, Ginny returned from the kitchen. “Okay, I talked to Kreacher.” She smiled over at Harry. “Do you want to head back to the Burrow? I thought we could go swimming this afternoon.”

“Sure,” Harry replied with a smile.


Harry enjoyed the afternoon with Hermione and the Weasleys. They swam in the Otter River and goofed around. Harry thought there was going to be a moment when Ron first saw Ginny in her new bikini, but thankfully Hermione was around to distract him.

Harry more than enjoyed Ginny’s new green bikini. It wasn’t as skimpy as some of those they’d seen in France, but he thought it looked brilliant on her. He managed to steal a few kisses from her throughout the afternoon.

By early evening, they were back inside for the dinner Fleur had prepared for them. They were joined by Mr Weasley, Percy, and Bill.

“Thanks, Fleur,” Harry said as he helped himself to some shepherd’s pie. “This is great.”

“Merci,” Fleur replied. “I have been practicing from Mrs Weasley’s recipes.”

“And doing a wonderful job,” Bill added as he kissed his wife on the cheek.

Mr Weasley listened intently to his children talk about the miniature golfing.

“It was so much fun, Dad,” Ginny said. “You should come with us next time, you’d love it. They had replicas of dinosaurs and they moved and everything.”

“Well, that just sounds fascinating,” Mr Weasley said with a fond smile. He looked over at Harry. “It sounds like you had a great birthday.”

“I did,” Harry said with a smile. “It’s been so much fun.”

“They didn’t tell you the best part,” George said. He enthusiastically told his father about the pizza parlour idea. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

“That is actually a good idea,” Percy said sounding slightly surprised. “You would hire people to work and manage the restaurant?”

George nodded, “We would be the owners/investors. I’m sure there’s someone out there who would like to run that kind of restaurant.”

Percy nodded thoughtfully. “I will help you put together an ad for the paper.”

Once everyone was finished eating, Bill sent all of the dishes to the sink to be washed. Fleur pulled out a cake. “I didn’t know what kind you liked best, so I made a carrot cake. I hope that is okay. It is one of my father’s favourites so I have made it a lot.”

“No, this is great,” Harry said. “I’ve really only had a few birthday cakes ever made for me so I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.”

After cake, Harry and Ginny went for a walk in the garden. He smiled over at her as they headed for her favourite tree. “Thank you for today. This has been my best birthday, ever.”

She leaned over and kissed him. “Good. That’s what I was hoping for.”

He laughed, “You know anything with you is the best ever so you didn’t need to go to so much trouble.”

Ignoring that comment, Ginny reached into her pocket and handed Harry a beautifully wrapped present. “Happy birthday, my love.”

He smiled happily at her as he carefully opened the present. It was a double picture frame with the words ‘true love’ engraved on it. The pictures Ginny had chosen were both from their trip to Paris. One was of Ginny standing on the platform of the Eiffel Tower. It had been taken at night and the city was lit up behind her. The second picture was of the two of them. Fleur had taken it in the Tuilleries gardens.

“Oh, baby, this is beautiful,” Harry said. His hand shook a little as he traced the engraved words. “Thank you, so much.”

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