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A New Normal | ||||||
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Category: Post-DH/AB Characters:Harry/Ginny Genres: General, Romance Warnings: Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations Story is Complete Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 129 Summary: Harry has spent much of his life being hunted by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Now the Dark Lord is dead, it is time for Harry to live the life he has always wanted. It it time for Harry to create for himself a new normal. Hitcount: Story Total: 70900; Chapter Total: 4214 Author's Notes: Another chapter for you and quite quickly! So after something a bit more upbeat, I am bringing you all down again with this one, sorry! I am going to be honest, this chapter was completely unexpected, but I am actually quite like where it has gone. So hopefully you will too. Maybe a little wait for the next chapter, which I am currently trying to finish! |
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Chapter 7: Unexpected Letters A couple of days later, Harry could be found in his and Ginny’s room. He was sat on the edge of their bed, hunched over and staring at the stack of unopened letters that he held in his hands. Having spent a good part of the day in meetings at the Ministry and then at Gringotts, it had come as a surprise to Harry to discover a bunch of letters in his vault. He had arrived back at The Burrow in a bit of a daze, barely paying attention to anything or anyone around him as he made his way to his bedroom. He was now trying to find the courage to open and read the letters left to him. This was how Ginny found him. Ginny stood in the doorway watching Harry for a few minutes. She hated that something so simple and yet so significant for him could knock him back into a state of broodiness. She sighed. If she was honest with herself, she knew that it was probably going to be like this for a while, but she knew that eventually the good days would outweigh the bad ones. Ginny moved towards Harry, climbing onto the bed on her knees behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her chin on his shoulder. She felt him jump slightly at her presence before visibly relaxing. “Hey you,” she whispered. “Hey beautiful,” he whispered back as he leaned his head towards hers. “Are you ok?” she asked, looking pointedly at the letters. “Honestly? I’m not quite sure.” “The usual mass of confusion?” “Yeah, something like that,” he answered, before turning to press a kiss to her forehead. “Did your mum send you up?” “Yes she did. Dinner is ready,” she said with a nod of her head. “How about after dinner, we come back up here, have an early night and snuggle up in bed together? Perhaps if you feel up to it, we can read those letters together if you want to.” Harry kissed her softly and smiled. “Sounds perfect,” he responded as they both rose from the bed. * Dinner that night at The Burrow was louder than it had been since their return, but still quieter than previous dinners before the war. As Harry tucked into the delicious meal that Molly had provided, he allowed the conversations to wash over him, helping him to push all thoughts of the letters to the back of his mind. “So, did you accept Kingsley’s offer?” Ron asked Harry. “Or should I expect to be by myself next year?” “Of course I accepted his offer. Why wouldn’t I?” Harry replied with a sly smile, causing Ginny to giggle. Hermione and Ron looked at each and then at Harry and Ginny in confusion. “What did you do Harry?” Hermione asked, suspicious of their reaction. Harry shrugged and continued eating, making sure he was unable to answer. Ginny burst out laughing at his reluctance to answer the question. “He just had some conditions added to his contract,” Ginny answered for him once she had calmed herself. “Only fair considering the hell the Ministry has put him through.” “Harry! You should not have taken advantage of your friendship with Kingsley like that!” Hermione scolded him. “You know full well he will treat you fairly and on the same level as everyone else he invited to join the Aurors.” “I do know that,” Harry replied, pointing his fork towards her to emphasise his point. “But I felt like the Ministry owed me for what they did. Ginny agreed with me as did Kingsley. He was not surprised by me asking for some conditions in coming to work there. Actually he expected it and was willing to accommodate them.” “Oh” was all Hermione could say in response. “Anyway,” Harry continued. “The conditions I made affect all the new recruits, not just me. I asked him to guarantee that for those who need or want it, that we are able to go to Kings Cross on the days that the train departs or arrives. And even though we should not be needed to come in on weekends to begin with, if we are needed then he will try to avoid Hogsmeade weekends and Quidditch matches.” “That’s awesome, Harry,” Ron exclaimed. “And there you were worrying ‘Mione that I wouldn’t have time to come and visit you!” “Ok, ok, you’ve made your point! Did you speak to Kingsley about our little break in at Gringotts?” Hermione asked, quickly changing the subject. This caught the attention of the entire table, causing everyone to burst out in laughter. “You call that a little break in?” George managed to get out despite his laughter. “The amount of damage you three caused did not exactly go unnoticed. Nor did the dragon that you escaped on!” Hermione ducked her head in embarrassment. “Don’t worry Hermione,” Bill said, having successfully contained his own laughter. “The damage was repaired within a few days. It looks just like it did before you three decided to escape on a dragon.” “But what about the cost of repairs? Who paid for it all? Are they replacing the dragon? What about…..” “Woah, woah, woah, Hermione! Calm down with the questions,” Harry interrupted. “I paid.” All laughter ceased immediately as everyone turned to look at Harry in shock. “You didn’t need to do that, son,” Arthur said amazed at Harry’s actions. “Yeah Harry, ‘Mione and I were there too,” Ron protested. “We helped cause that damage as well. We would have found a way to pay our share.” “But it was MY idea to break in AND it was MY idea to escape using the dragon,” Harry exclaimed, annoyed that it was going to descend into an argument about money. “Look, I had the money and the reparation costs were really not that much. It’s done now, so can we please just drop the issue?” Silence reigned over the table for a few seconds before everyone slowly returned to their previous conversations. Ginny reached out and squeezed Harry’s hand in support, making him turn and give her a smile of appreciation before turning back to his dinner. “So what are everyone’s plans now?” Arthur asked the entire table. As the family began to discuss what they were planning to do now the war was over, Harry and Ginny listened with half an ear as they had a whispered conversation between themselves. “What do we tell you parents? Do we tell them our entire plan or just where we are planning to be come September?” “The latter. I don’t fancy another argument with any of them right now. I mean, you know Percy will start going on about propriety and all that if we tell them our plan for next June.” “I get that. I don’t fancy another interrogation myself. Anyway, we have not made any specific decisions in regards to our plans for June as it is.” Before Ginny could respond, they were interrupted by a question from Molly. “Sorry Molly. What did you ask?” Harry asked as he pulled his attention from Ginny and back to the table. “When are you starting at the Auror Department?” “Not officially until September, but I will be going in for a few hours a week from the beginning of June.” Molly frowned at his response. “I really think you of all people should get more time to relax and recuperate after everything you have been through. Do you really need to start so soon?” Molly asked, concerned for his well-being. “I am helping them prepare for trials. Kingsley promised me it would mean not being call to testify if I gave them my statement with as much detail as possible in advance. Otherwise, I am probably going to be stuck in court all day, every day once the trials start.” “Mum,” Ginny interjected, in the hopes of placating her mother, “if it helps, Harry was planning on staying here, living here for the foreseeable future.” Molly beamed, happy at the revelation. “Are you bloody mental?” Ron choked out, with a mouth full of food. “Language Ronald!” Hermione admonished as she clipped him around the head. “Not mental. Just want to spend time with my family,” Harry said simply, a wide smile across his face. * A couple of hours later, Harry and Ginny went back to their bedroom as planned. Once changed into their pyjamas, they had climbed into bed together and cuddled up. The letters they planned to read were laid out in front of them, waiting to be opened. “I told you Mum would be happy about you wanting to stay,” Ginny beamed as she ran her hand up and down Harry’s arm. “Yeah, you did. I’m just confused about Ron’s reaction though,” Harry replied as he held her close. “I mean, he told me he was planning on staying himself for the time being and that he was not in any rush to move out or move in with Hermione.” “Hermione pretty much said the same thing to me, though I suspect she may go back and live with her parents till school starts again if they return to England.” Ginny paused and looked up at Harry from where her head had been nestled on his shoulder. “How about we stop worrying about them and how about we read these letters? If you are ready to that is.” “Thank you for being here for me. I don’t think I could read these by myself,” he replied as he moved both his hands up her back and into her red silky hair. He leaned down and captured her lips with his, pouring his gratitude into the kiss. He eventually pulled back, resting his forehead on hers. “Ok, let’s read these letters before I change my mind,” he said as he reached for the pile of letters. “Which one do you want to start with?” Ginny asked as Harry looked at each of the three envelopes. He examined each one carefully as to determine who they were from. “I think I will start with this one,” he said showing her the one he meant as he placed the other two down. “It looks like this is from Remus.” Harry carefully opened the envelope and pulled out the letter. Before he began to read, he pulled Ginny closer to him so she was tucked into his side, allowing him to draw the strength and comfort from her that he knew he would need. 'Dear Harry, I am writing this letter barely hours after I asked you to be Godfather to my precious little boy, Teddy. It occurred to me after seeing you that you were left with so few memories of your parents and that you had so little time with your own Godfather, Sirius. It made me realise that I did not want this to happen to Teddy. But if you are reading this, then it means that both Tonks and I are no longer here, and yet you won and you survived. I just wanted you to know that both Tonks and I have complete faith in you as Teddy’s Godfather. We know that you will give him everything you were denied as a child and love him as if he were your own. All we ask of you is that you tell him as many stories of us as you can. I know you will tell him how much he was loved by us and when he is old enough to understand why it was we died. Please know that Tonks and I love you very much and we are so proud of you and the man you have become. Live your life and be happy because you are the one person who truly deserves it. Remus and Tonks' Harry stared at the letter, humbled by the faith they had in him to be a good godfather, especially after everything he had been through. He looked down at Ginny, who looked back up at him and smiled, knowing that no words were needed to be exchanged at that moment. He folded the letter back up, placed it down and picked up the letter he believed to be from Sirius. 'Dear Harry, Well, what can I say, except that if you are reading this then the time we have had together has been cut short. I hope that if this is the case that I died in battle doing what your parents did for you, protecting you. If I did, then please do not feel guilty. Just know that I would have done anything for you because I did love you, even if I never said it. I am writing this letter at a time in your life when you are struggling with everything that is happening to you and around you. It frightens me to see you this way, because it is like any hope you may have had has just disappeared and it has left you lost, with no idea of what to do. All I can do is offer some words of advice, though I hope when you read this, it is at a time when you finally found that hope once again. Don’t let this war, this fight you have been pulled into stop you from living your life. And if you are reading this after it is finally over then don’t allow your guilt or grief to consume you or to stop you from living. You have been through so much for someone so young that you tend to miss the good things that are in your life. So live, be happy, find an amazing girl (a certain redhead we both know perhaps!) and fall in love. Just remember that I am so proud of you and that I am grateful for the time we had together, no matter how short it may have been. Your loving godfather, Sirius' Harry did not realise that a couple of tears had escaped until he felt a small hand thumb them away. He continued to stare at the words on the paper, happy to know Sirius loved him and did not blame him, but he wished that this letter had come to him during the summer after he had lost his godfather. If it had, then he knew the words would have helped him with his grief that he was so consumed by, rather than struggling through it instead. More tears began to leak from his eyes at this realisation, causing Harry to drop the letter, pull Ginny closer to him, allowing himself to bury his face in her neck and hair as he tried desperately to stem the flow of tears. Eventually he managed to compose himself and pull away from Ginny. “Sorry,” Harry sheepishly said. “His words kind of took me by surprise.” “It’s ok. I expected a few tears. It’s the reason I wanted to be with you when you read the letters,” Ginny explained. She reached up and dried the last of his tears away with her thumbs. “Thank you,” Harry said sincerely, before kissing her softly. “What would I do without you?” “Brood a whole lot more than is even normal for you!” Ginny said chuckling. Harry picked up the letter he had dropped and placed it back on the bed with the others. He paused as he went to pick up the last of the letters, realising that it could potentially be the one and only piece of correspondence he would ever receive from his parents, if it was from them. He took a deep breath to calm his emotions and then with a shaky hand picked up the final envelope. Ginny felt helpless as she watched Harry battle with his emotions over the final letter. Even she knew that this had to be from his parents and her heart broke at the thought of it being the only communication between them that he would remember. She reached out with a calming hand and placed it on his shaking one, causing Harry to look down at her. “Do you want me to open it and read it to you?” she asked quietly. Harry could only nod, afraid to speak, afraid that more tears would come before they even began to read. He let Ginny remove the letter from his hand and he watched as she opened it and began to read, “To our darling boy, Harry, We know you must be confused as to why you are only now receiving this letter, but it was our wish that you did not receive this until your 17th Birthday and only then, if you had completed your destiny of defeating Lord Voldemort for good. We did not wish to add more to the burden you would already be carrying and we wanted you to be old enough to understand. Even as we write this letter, we know there may be a possibility that you will never read it, but we carry the hope that it will be because we all survive, not because we died and you did not. So if you are reading this, it must mean that we put our trust in the wrong person and that Voldemort found us. It is our hope that if you are reading this, then somehow we found a way to protect you, to help you survive, even it means the loss of our own lives. If that is the case, then please know we would do anything for you as you are the most important person in our lives and we love you so much more than words can possibly describe. We hope that you have led a good life, been raised as we would have raised you, in a home full of love. We hope you that you have made great friends that you trust completely as we have been lucky to do so. Your father hopes that you made the Quidditch team while at Hogwarts and played many pranks on others. While I, myself, your mother hope that you have met an amazing girl, someone who you love so completely, who makes you feel whole and that perhaps can help fill the void our own deaths have left in your heart. Please know that we love you and will be proud of the man that you will become. Be happy. Mum and Dad.” Ginny looked up to see the tears cascading down Harry’s face once again. She knew the tears were not about the fact the letter was from his parents, but because he was not raised as they had wanted him to be, in home full of love. She placed the letter down and reached out for him, pulling him into arms and his head onto her shoulder. She held him, whispering words of comfort as he grieved yet again for the loss of his parents, for the childhood he was denied. As he cried on Ginny’s shoulder once again, Harry felt anger at the Dursleys for denying him the love that no child should ever go without. The anger then turned to determination as he realised that he would not deny Teddy anything if it meant he grew up with everything he had not. Eventually he pulled back from Ginny’s embrace and dried his eyes. “Don’t apologise for the tears,” Ginny said before he could speak. “It’s ok to cry when you need to.” “I’m ok now. I cannot change what has happened or how I was raised. But I can make sure Teddy never goes through what I did.” “He won’t. How could he when he has you, me, Andromeda and my entire family who will smother him with so much love!” Harry laughed knowing she was right. “Tomorrow, we will quickly deal with my Aunt and Uncle. I don’t want to be there longer than needs be. Then we can spend the rest of the day getting to know my little godson.” Ginny smiled that glorious smile that he loved so much and he knew then that despite his past, he would never denied love ever again. |
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