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SIYE Time:18:55 on 28th March 2024
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Don't Let Me Down
By Bekah Jo

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Category: Post-Hogwarts
Characters:All
Genres: General
Warnings: Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations
Rating: R
Reviews: 146
Summary: After the Dark Lord has been defeated during the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry is finally able to rekindle his relationship with Ginny and work on building a normal life. When He, Ron, and Hermione are given the chance to return to their beloved school, everyone is ecstatic, except Harry. An amazing opportunity has Harry thinking his future lies elsewhere.
Hitcount: Story Total: 53430; Chapter Total: 2951





Author's Notes:
I just wanted to add another thank you to everyone that is leaving such positive reviews. It really helps me persevere through my writing block moments :)




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Harry,

I can’t believe Sophie hasn’t gotten the hint to back off. It’s been over month now! In the words of my darling brother, how thick can you get? I know you’re too much of a gentlemen to, but if she can’t keep her hands to herself I’ll come over there and jinx her myself! George taught me a few new good ones when we were in Hogsmeade last weekend.

Thank you so much for The Cure CD. I’m already in love with it and anxiously awaiting Cliff’s next recommendation. I’ve found that the CD player is a great way to tune out Hermione. You know I love the girl to pieces, but she’s non-stop agonizing over N.E.W.T.S. already! I know that shouldn’t surprise me, but some nights, especially after quidditch practice, all I want to do is sit by the fire and turn my brain off. NOT rehash every word of Slughorn’s latest class. Speaking of which, he has reinstated the Slug Club and Ron has been invited to fill in your spot. Now the git has this annoying, big headed strut that he does. Luckily Hermione is around to knock him down a peg, or two, when he needs it.

Quidditch has been going well. I think the new team is coming together nicely. When Dennis Creevey is paying attention, he’s a great Seeker. The problem is, he tends to get wrapped up in watching the other action on the pitch, instead of watching out for the snitch. Demelza has become my soul sister though. I swear the girl can read my mind! With a few more decent practices, we might stand a chance in our first match. McGonagall finally set the match dates a few days ago. Our first one will be November 21st, against Slytherin. It’ll be here so quick!

I’m supposed to add in here that Hermione enjoyed your last letter and that she will write to you as soon as she has a spare moment. Not sure when I became her secretary…. anyway, expect a letter sometime around June. You’ve piqued Ron’s interest in Broomstick Volleyball, but he’s given up trying to understand baseball. He says you're better off sticking with Quidditch. I’m sure he’s told you all about it, though. He thinks he’s being sneaky, but I catch him writing you letters when Hermione thinks he’s doing school work. He’s getting along okay with Seamus and Neville, but I can tell he’s really missing you. He’s not the only one of course. It’s awfully lonely in front of the fire, at night. Each day brings us closer to Christmas break!

I’m going to go humor Hermione and crack open my Transfiguration book for an hour. Or at least until she gets that smug, satisfied smile. Enjoy the Halloween party and remember to send lots of photos! I’m excited to see what costume you’ve settled on. I personally think you would look exceptionally good as a pirate. An added bonus, you’d have a sword to chop off Sophie’s fingers, should she decide to get extra touchy feely. Not that I condone violence of any kind…

Miss you loads, but love you more!

Love Always,

Ginny
xxx


Since his first letter, Ginny had taken Sophie’s unwanted attention in stride. Harry was continuously honest with her, filling her in on Sophie’s latest crazy scheme to catch him off guard or get him alone. It was calming to know he had her trust, and made Sophie’s advances easier to handle.

In the last month, Harry had come to suspect that Sophie wasn’t really infactuated with him. He had the feeling that she saw Harry now more as a challenge that she needed to conquer. It wasn’t as if she didn’t garner any other male attention. Even the upper classmen sat up and took notice when she went by. Grant practically groveled at her feet any chance he got. No, it seemed as though Harry showing no interest in her, beyond the classroom, only spurred Sophie on more.

His new friends rallied to his side without hesitation. Whenever possible, they would save Harry seats that kept him away from groping hands and were always ready with an excuse for why he couldn’t attend whatever activity Sophie suggested, as it appeared that having a steady girlfriend was not reason enough. Emma had taken to calling Sophie “The Cougar”, always on the prowl and ready to pounce when she sensed weakness.

Aside from his stalker problem, Harry quickly came to love Los Angeles. He didn’t quite take to all the American trends and traditions, but he was having fun experiencing it all. Cliff kept his word, and introduced Harry to Dodger’s baseball. They got to attend several games together before the season ended. It wasn’t the most exciting game on earth; he put it a step or two above Cricket. But Harry enjoyed going to the stadium and being in the thick of a pumped up crowd, cheering on their home team.

Harry was also getting to experience some amazing new foods. Growing up with the Dursley’s, Harry got used to being satisfied with bland scraps and leftovers. They never took him out to restaurants, and sweets were certainly a rarity. While the food at Hogwarts was a hundred times better, it still wasn’t the most diverse cuisine. It was a good thing Cliff had introduced Harry to running, because he had also introduced him to pizza, Chinese takeaway, burritos and tacos, spicy Indian curries, and an amazing Thai restaurant. If he wasn’t running up and down the beach every night, Harry was pretty sure he’d be about four stone heavier within that first month.

They were heading into the end of October. The first semester was halfway gone and the academy’s traditional Halloween Bash was a few days away. When Harry had first heard about the party, he wasn’t too keen on going. Besides not wanting to give Sophie another seduction opportunity, he never really saw the appeal of Halloween. It had been nice at Hogwarts, when they had the Halloween feast. But being the anniversary of his parents’ death, Harry always felt detached from the day and it didn’t feel right to celebrate it.

In America, though, Halloween was a bit of a big deal. It had come to be seen as a children’s holiday, with brightly colored costumes and trick or treating around the neighborhoods. For the adults, it seemed to be an excuse to don a costume and let their inner child out for the evening. After a bit of peer pressure from Cliff and Emma, Harry had agreed to find himself a costume and attend the bash.

And that is how he found himself in a Venice thrift shop, with Cliff, looking through racks of clothes that had gone out of style several decades ago. Harry decided to go with Ginny’s suggestion of a pirate costume, figuring it should be a pretty simple outfit to put together. He had already found a red shirt, with puffy sleeves, and a few chunky gold chains in a bucket of costume jewelry.

“Ahhh, here you are Harry!” Cliff cried, wrenching a garment from the rack. He victoriously held up a pair of black, leather trousers. “The perfect pair of pirate pants!”

Harry stared at him for a beat, waiting for a punchline.

“Oh God, you’re serious,” Harry muttered. He eyed up the pants with a bit of fear. They looked as though they could bind him up tighter than a dose of U-No-Poo.

“They’re classic! Go try them on!” Cliff urged, throwing the pants at Harry.

Harry caught them with a groan of defeat. He trudged to the dressing room and gave them a try. They weren’t the most uncomfortable pants, and they did pull off the look of a pirate. He could handle them for one night.

“Good find, Cliff,” Harry called, exiting the dressing stall. Cliff gave him a thumbs up and continued browsing the racks for the perfect “Rock God” ensemble, as he had put it.

Breaking away from the clothes, Harry wandered over to the music section. He started browsing through the covers, not really knowing what he was looking for. He had started relying on Cliff to be his musical guide. Cliff had a pretty eclectic taste in music, and they had started a weekend tradition of spending Saturday afternoons, tracking down second hand record stores for hidden gems.

“Anything decent in here, Potts?” Cliff asked, peering over Harry’s shoulder. Harry stepped to the side and Cliff started thumbing through the albums. “Oh, here we go! These two are musts for any collection,” Cliff declared, handing Harry a pair of records. One was David Bowie’s, Aladdin Sane, and the other was The Talking Heads, Little Creatures. “Excellent tunes right there.”

Cliff moved onto the CD collection and started quickly rifling through. Every now and then Harry would hear him muttering names of a band and barking out a sarcastic laugh.

“Nobody wants a Milli Vanilli album anymore,” Cliff scoffed, flicking the offensive album to a discard pile. “I do think Ginny would like this, though” Cliff said, handing Harry an album titled Journey’s Greatest Hits. “If Don’t Stop Believin’ doesn’t put a smile on her face, I don’t know what will.”

“I should hope I would,” Harry joked, feigning offense.

“You’re awesome, but you’re no Steve Perry.”

Harry wasn’t sure how to reply to that, and Cliff went back to his search.

“Oh, and this one!” Cliff shoved another CD into Harry’s hands, Blondie’s Parallel Lines. “Amazing woman lead singer. Not too bad on the eyes either.”

“Thanks, mate,” Harry said, stacking the CDs together, as he attempted to juggle the rest of his stuff. “She was just telling me that she couldn’t wait for your next musical installment. Pretty sure you’ve won her over, without even having met her.”

“She coming to visit sometime? She sounds like a lot of fun.”

“I’m hoping I can get her over for part of Christmas break. I know she wants to meet everyone.” Harry laughed and added, “Well, almost everybody. No surprise, but she wants to hex Sophie.”

“Tell her to get in line,” Cliff muttered.

“So, is your ‘Rock God’ outfit complete?”

“Oh, yeah! Check it!” Cliff’s face lit up and he started holding out his clothes. “I’m going to rip some holes into these sweet red, acid washed jeans. And then tear the sleeves off this plain white tee. If I can find some aviators, like Serg’s, and a red bandana, I think I’ll have an amazing Axl Rose look going for myself!”

“Who?” Harry asked, raising a questioning eyebrow.

“You don’t know….I know what we’re looking for on our next record excursion.” Cliff shook his head and went to the register.

On their way back to campus, they stopped by and got Chinese takeout from what had become Harry’s favorite restaurant. It wasn’t much to look at, just a little hole in the wall type of place. Harry was leary of it the first time Cliff had brought him to it, but the food that came out of it was delicious. It wasn’t long before they were loaded up with cartons of fried rice, beef and broccoli, shrimp lo mein, and egg rolls.

Back at the dormitory, Cliff ducked into his room to stash his bags from the thrift store. Harry unlocked his door and found a sheet of paper had been slipped under it. He put the food on the kitchen table and bent down for the paper. It was a notice to students that the campus would be shutting down for a week, starting at the end of classes, on November twentieth, for a holiday called Thanksgiving.

“Hey, what’s Thanksgiving?” Harry asked, as Cliff walked in and started pulling food cartons from the bag.

“You guys don’t celebrate Thanksgiving?” Cliff replied, opening up a container of duck sauce. Harry shook his head. “Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn’t. It essentially celebrates the Pilgrims leaving your homeland and making a life for themselves in the New World. It’s celebrated on the last Thursday of November, every year. Technically it’s a day to give thanks for all the wonderful things in your life. Most people use it as an excuse to stuff themselves full of turkey, and then fall asleep while they watch American football.”

“And for that we get an entire week of no classes?” Harry said, in disbelief, holding up his notice.

“Yep. Pretty sweet deal.” Cliff drowned a egg roll in duck sauce and shoved the entire thing in his mouth. “You need a place to go?” he asked through puffed cheeks. He swallowed and continued, “My mom and Aunt Mary always put together an amazing feast! Turkey, stuffing, potatoes cooked five different ways, homemade cranberry sauce. Aunt Mary makes these tasty garlic rolls that melt in your mouth! I know they would be happy to have one more at the table.”

“That does sound incredible,” Harry confessed. But his head was whirling with a different idea. “Can I put that down as my plan B? I have an idea of what I could do, but I need to send an owl or two first.”

“The door is always open, Potts.”

Classes were starting to get intense as final exams drew closer. The first month, Harry had gotten along well with the course work. Much of it was review of things he already knew. Now, though, at the close of the second month, the material was getting more advanced.

Charms was proving to be Harry’s most challenging class. He wasn’t sure if he wasn’t grasping the concepts, or if he was so nervous around Sophie that his magic was suffering from it. Currently, they were working on the Bewitched Sleep charm and Harry was hating his forced partnership. The last thing he wanted was for her to put him under a deep sleep.

“Ready, Harry?” Sophie asked, raising her wand.

Harry said nothing. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The last thing he remembered was the coo of Sophie’s voice, reciting, “Somnum Profundus!”

When Harry came to, it was obvious that several minutes had passed, and Sophie had a satisfied smirk on her face.

“Hey Harry,” Cliff called. “Can you come help me with something quick?”

Harry cast a wary look at Sophie before moving over to his friend’s side.

“Tell me if I have this right.” Cliff turned his back to Sophie, facing Naomi. Dropping his voice to a whisper, Cliff hissed, “Dude, don’t let her cast that spell on you anymore!”

“Oh god, what did she do?” Harry groaned.

“Nothing, yet” Cliff breathed.

“She definitely took her time reviving you though. Docket was helping Grant and Sarah, so Sophie took the chance to get an up close and personal inspection,” Naomi informed.

“Right. This is going too far now. If I don’t so something, I am going to fail this class. Thanks,” Harry said, patting Cliff’s shoulder.

Without looking back at his partner, Harry made his way to the front of the room. Delilah was shuffling through papers at her desk.

“Excuse me, Miss Docket. Could I have a moment?” Harry inquired.

“Of course Harry. What can I do for you?” the teacher replied, looking up at Harry and smiling.

“I need to request a change in partners,” Harry started. “I hate to sound childish, but I can’t work with Sophie anymore. She’s having trouble respecting personal boundaries and I’m not comfortable working with her anymore.”

“Harry, do you know why I assign partners in my class, instead of allowing students to choose who they are ‘comfortable’ with?”

Harry chewed the side of his cheek, anticipating the answer he knew was coming.

“As an Auror, you will be faced with many uncomfortable situations, and you aren’t always going to agree with every team member. But when you’re out on a case, you won’t be able to to just stop and request a change. You make the best of what you have and soldier on.” Delilah patted Harry’s arm and continued, “You’re a bright young man, Harry. And I’m sure Miss Miller is a reasonable young woman. It’s a matter of finding a balance in communication. If you can’t find that, I’m afraid you’re in for quite a shock once you’re in the real world.”

Harry bit his lip and nodded, before returning to his desk. Before Sophie could say anything, Delilah assigned their homework and dismissed the class. Harry snatched his bag and stalked out of the room. He understood Delilah’s reasoning, but it didn’t mean he was happy about having to sit around and get taken advantage of.

“Harry, wait!” Sophie called. He could hear her running to catch up. “Wait, Harry!”

Harry abruptly stopped and wheeled around to glare at her. Sophie came to a stop, several feet in front of him.

“Look, Sophie. I don’t know what you want from me and, frankly, I don’t care.” Harry worked to keep his voice even and suppress the rage that was building. “Whatever game of cat and mouse you’ve decided to play with me stops now. I want no part in it. I don’t want to go anywhere with you. I don’t want to do anything with you. Honestly, I don’t want to talk to you unless it’s about classwork, in the classroom.” Harry took a deep breath and continued, “I already have a girlfriend and nothing you say, or do, would make me jeopardize our relationship. Have I made myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Sophie replied, her face passive and impossible to read.

Harry narrowed his eyes for a moment, trying to figure out if she had truly heard what he had just said. Sophie continued to stare at him, unblinking, waiting for his next move. Without another word, Harry turned around and walked out of the building.

After that, classes went much more smoothly. It seemed as though Harry had gotten his point across. Sophie kept her distance and didn’t say a word to him unless she had to during classes. Harry was finally fully at ease, not having to be on high alert at every moment during the day.

He even managed to have fun at the Halloween bash. Naomi turned out to be quite the crafty witch and helped fashion a belt, headband, and eyepatch to complete Harry’s costume.

Cliff was able to procure the sunglasses and bandana he wanted, along with a fake guitar. After draining Emma’s entire can of hairspray, Cliff’s blonde hair added about half a foot to his height, and Harry finally got a glimpse at what a “Rock God” looked like.

The cafe had been cleared of most of the tables and chairs, and every corner was now decorated. Black and orange gauzy fabric was draped to give the lights an eerie glow. Fake bats had been enchanted to fly around the room, swooping and diving around the students. Great metal tubs were filled with ice water for apple bobbing, and charmed trays floated along, offering small cauldrons of smoking cider. Sneering jack-o-lanterns adorned the tables that lined the walls.

A grand buffet table creaked under the weight of numerous sweets, chicken wings, fruit and veggie platters, two punch bowls, chips, and pretzels. In the center, a four tiered cake towered over it all, elaborately decorated with a haunting graveyard scene, complete with small ghosts popping out from behind chocolate gravestones.

“She’s not very subtle, is she?” Emma scoffed. Harry and Cliff turned from the punch bowl and followed her gaze to Sophie walking through the door, with a simpering Grant by her side.

“Slutty nurse? Really?” Cliff exclaimed. “That costume is so worn out. If you’re going to go slutty, get creative.”

“And what exactly would you slut up?” Emma asked, shooting Cliff a disgusted look.

“I don’t know, maybe a Gremlin?”

“Gizmo deserves better,” Emma scolded.

Harry laughed, even though he didn’t understand what gizmo Emma was talking about. It had become obvious that Emma had a crush on Cliff, but didn’t want to admit it. She had taken to sitting next to him in every class, even if it meant not being in the front row, and gave him longing looks when he wasn’t looking. That evening, she was complimenting Cliff’s costume with a her own rock star look. She had colored her hair midnight black and was dressed in a tight black outfit, complete with leather jacket and studded leather bracelets. She said she was channeling her inner Joan Jett.

Sophie kept her distance for the entire party and Harry enjoyed the evening with his friends. Alana, in her cat costume, tried to teach him how to do dances called the Macarena and Electric Slide. She insisted that he caught on fine, but Harry was pretty sure he looked like a drunk giraffe.

There was a table set up to carve pumpkins and Naomi tried to convince him that it was a fun tradition, but Harry wasn’t buying it. He watched at she thew off her Pink Ladies jacket and started scooping the orange guts and seeds out with her hands.

“Why would you do that when you can just summon it all out?” Harry asked. He waved his wand and all of his pumpkin innards flew up and dropped gently onto the newspaper, next to it.

“Getting your hands messy is half the fun!” Naomi exclaimed, a hint of exasperation in her voice. She flicked her hand at him and a glob of goop landed on his forehead.

“Hard pass on that one, Mimi.” Harry picked up a carving knife and started cutting out a crooked smile.

“You have a place to go for Thanksgiving?” Naomi asked, scooping out another fistful of guts.

“Yeah, I’ve been working on making arrangements,” Harry answered, tossing aside a pumpkin chunk.

“Well, if things fall through, you’re welcome to come back to Texas with me. My family pulls out all the stops for Thanksgiving dinner.”

“I’ve noticed that that seems to be the theme of the holiday,” Harry laughed. “If you guys go through all of this for Thanksgiving, what is Christmas like?”

“About the same. For us at least. Lots of food and family. The only difference really is that we make it last two or three days, instead of one.” Naomi held her pumpkin upside down and tapped out the last few stray seeds. “Now, we dig through the guts and pick out the seeds to roast.”

Harry eyed the pile orange goo and grimaced. “You have fun with that. I don’t need roasted pumpkin seeds that bad.”

“Spoil sport.”

At the end of the evening, Harry’s camera had been passed around and refilled with film several times. He was left sorting through the stacks of photos with the girls, happily letting them choose ones that they wanted to take. Harry was excited to get back and send some off to Ginny.

“Running tonight, Potts?” Cliff called, as Harry unlocked his door.

“Yeah, give me like a half hour? I want to send a quick owl to Ginny, with the pictures.”

“It’s a date,” Cliff replied, disappearing into his own room.

Harry changed out of his costume and into a pair of mesh shorts and a muscle shirt. When he made his way over to his desk, he found Athena perched on top of her cage and a roll of parchment on the desk. Breaking the ministry seal, Harry quickly read through and smiled. The last piece of his upcoming holiday was falling into place.

With the promise of the holiday on the horizon, and Sophie keeping her hands to herself, Harry’s November went amazingly smooth. He was able to relax in Charms class and it showed through in his spells. Cliff kept him running and sleeping soundly. Harry’s strength and stamina had started to build, and he was able to keep up with Cliff and not feel like his chest was going to explode.

And through it all, Harry’s past was never brought up. Sergeant Richmond tended to call on him more than others, in Defense class, but never let slip why. Sometimes Harry felt guilty for not being upfront with his new friends. He was pretty sure that, like his friends back home, they wouldn’t give him any special treatment, but part of him feared that they would look at him differently. So, for the moment, he kept his past in the past, and enjoyed getting to be ‘just Harry’.

The Friday before Thanksgiving arrived, and everyone was sharing their Thanksgiving traditions over lunch. Naomi was just in the middle of telling a story about her no-maj grandfather setting his garage on fire, trying to deep fry a turkey, when Sophie appeared at their table, tray in hand and an apprehensive look on her face.

“I was wondering if, maybe, I could sit with you guys?” Sophie ventured. She looked around the table, avoiding Harry’s wary gaze. “Grant left early for the holiday.”

Nobody was quick to answer and Sophie nodded, turning away. Harry heard a sigh beside him and Alana caved.

“You’re welcome to join us Sophie,” Alana said, motioning to a chair at the end of the table, next to Naomi. Naomi shot Alana a death glare as Sophie sat down. “We were just sharing Thanksgiving stories with Harry, since they don’t celebrate it in England.”

“What time do you leave tonight, Harry?” Emma asked.

“First portkey leaves at four. I need to stop at the chemist and pick up a few bottles of that motion sickness potion.” Harry felt queasy just thinking about twisting portkeys.

“Would you guys like to get together, after the break?” Sophie suddenly suggested. “There are a few new movies coming out at the beginning of the month. Maybe we could make a Friday night out of it?”

“Sounds like it could be fun,” Alana slowly replied.

“You’re too nice,” Harry whispered.

“I know, people tell me that all the time,” Alana murmured. “But, it looks like she’s attempting to be nice and civil, so maybe giving her a second chance isn’t the worst thing in the world.”

“I guess,” Harry conceded. “As long as I don’t have to be alone with her.”

Alana gave him a reassuring smile. “We’ve got your back.”

Once Sergeant Richmond unlocked the door at three o’clock, Harry raced back to his room to grab his duffle bag. After a few hurried goodbyes in the hallway, Harry apparated to the wizarding area of the Los Angeles International Airport, and received his portkey schedule.

An hour later, Harry was stepping out of a fireplace to Molly Weasley’s cries of “Harry! What on earth are you doing here at this time of night?!”

Before Harry could answer, he dashed out the back door and threw up in the garden.
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