His scar hadn't bothered him in 19 years. All was well.
The sea of parents and siblings was thinning out as, one family at a time, the witches and wizards made their way through the barrier back into the Muggle side of Kings Cross. Harry scooped Lily up from the empty luggage cart where she was sitting, although she was getting much too big for this sort of activity. She laughed out loud, momentarily forgetting the distress at being left behind by her two older brothers.
"You're going to hurt her, you know," said Hermione, coming over with Ron and Hugo in tow.
"Don't be silly," said Ron, grabbing his niece from Harry and throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman's hold. She shrieked with laugher. "Little Lily is light as a feather!" Hermione looked on disapprovingly and Ginny shook her head.
"How're mum and dad? Ooph!" Ron asked Ginny as Lily began to kick him repeatedly in the chest. He put her down quickly and she scampered off with Hugo.
Hermione gave a surreptitious jerk of the head towards Harry, indicating she wanted to speak to him privately. The platform had almost entirely cleared out but Harry still felt this was probably a wise time for a private conversation – there were so many Weasleys these days that Ron and Ginny's family catch-up could last quite a while.
"Hey Hermione, thanks again for taking the kids on holiday this summer, Ginny and I really appreciated it," Harry said.
"It's no problem at all, we loved having them and I know how hard it is to get some alone time these days," said Hermione quickly, clearly eager to get to the point of the conversation. Harry could tell this wasn't going to be a just a casual chat. "Harry, I need to talk to you about some of the rumours I'm hearing about you work."
Hermione had put her skills towards building a very impressive career in the Ministry's intelligence arm, where she was now overseeing the division responsible for liaising with senior Muggle officials to uphold the security of the Wizarding world – and determining where any breaches had occurred.
Harry had been offered a rather spectacular range of jobs in the aftermath of Voldemort's defeat – including the post of Special Advisor to the Minister of Magic (a position that, reputation and history dictated, was held by someone who would end up Minister himself), the Headmastership of Hogwarts (a post both Hermione and Professor McGonagall said quite clearly he couldn't take even if he'd wanted to given the fact he hadn't actually graduated) and the captainship of the frankly hopeless Chudley Cannons (an offer which Ron, who had gone into business with George at the Weasley Wizard Wheezes, was greatly envious of).
Ignoring all of the offers, Harry had declined to take any job at all in a move that his friends called a well-deserved rest and The Prophet called "an example of lazy celebrities coasting on past glory." Harry had busied himself with home DIY in the cozy flat he had bought in the Devon town of Newton Poppleford just ten minutes from The Burrow and from Teddy Lupin and his grandparents, and visiting friends. After Harry's marriage to Ginny, he became a full-time husband and father while she started a successful boutique PR firm, aided by a surprisingly competent Luna Scamander. Harry, it seemed, relished and appreciated every moment of his absurdly quiet and normal life.
Then, less than a week after James had left for his first year at Hogwarts, Harry shocked everyone with the announcement that he had taken a strategic role with Special Magical Operations, the rather shadowy Ministry arm that dealt with serious threats to the wizarding world. The Prophet had had a field day, speculating as to what The Chosen One would be doing – as well as what new threat had called him back into action. Yet Harry insisted to his friends and family that it was nothing more than something to keep him occupied as it wouldn't be long before all three of his children would be off at Hogwarts. At the time Hermione had been suspicious but her position gave her a great deal of insight into government operations and, as she told a very distraught Ginny Potter, there seemed to be no significant threat or danger on the horizon that would affect Harry in his new role.
The only real change, it seemed, was a renewed focus on Harry in the news, with continued speculation as to the nature of his job and, when real news was scarce – as was often the case these days – unfounded rumours about his personal life which is what Harry thought Hermione might be referring to now.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Hermione, if you believed every rumour about me I'd be competing with Don Juan for bragging rights. And probably have about two dozen illegitimate children." Unconsciously he glanced at Ginny who was laughing at something Ron had said. Even after all these years his heart still raced at the sight of her smile.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about Harry, don't play dumb. You promised us, all of us, that you were going to stay away from field work. You'd stick to training, analysis, strategy..."
"Desk work," Harry interrupted her.
"Yes, desk work. And don't you dare say you're getting bored. The MagOps are lucky to have you, and I know what you do isn't just desk work. But now," she lowered her voice as Ginny glanced over at them. "Now I see all of these classified interdepartmental memos with your name on them floating through the Ministry and hear that you're coming and going at all hours of the day..."
"Who's saying that?" Harry demanded.
"It doesn't matter!"
"Come on, who says I'm coming and going from the department?"
"Well... Dennis Creevey," said Hermione sheepishly. "But," she added quickly, "he's not the only one who thinks there's something going on at MagOps we don't know about!"
Harry laughed. "Come on, Hermione, Dennis Creevey? That guy thinks that when I go to the loo I'm going on a secret mission. And of course the interdepartmental memos going to me are classified – everything going into MagOps is classified!"
"I think you're keeping something from me Harry, and it's not fair to any of us. I don't know what's going on but I intend to find out," Hermione scowled.
"And with your immense powers of deduction, if there is something going on, I'm sure you will find it," said Harry, kissing Hermione on the forehead. "Just, do me a favour, and don't mention any of your conspiracy theories to Ron or Ginny. I get enough grief from what The Prophet says about me."
With that he walked back over to where Ron and Ginny had started to argue about whose turn it was to host Christmas dinner this year leaving a frustrated Hermione behind.
"Mummy?" asked a voice next to her, breaking through her tremulous thoughts.
"What is it Hugo?"
"Is Uncle Harry ok?"
"I hope so, kiddo, I really hope so."
The trip to Kings Cross had taken most of the morning and before heading back to their respective homes and jobs, the six remaining Potters and Weasleys had opted for a quick lunch at a Muggle restaurant called Nandos that Ron was quite partial to. Harry had taken everyone's order down on a napkin and had gone up to the counter with Ron to order the food.
"Hermione's been up all night," Ron said as they stood in the queue. "Crying about our little girl going off to Hogwarts and when did they get so old... me, I'm just looking forward to some more free time! Half the kids, half the work!"
Harry laughed. "It's not really going to work out that way," he said. "Besides, I could definitely see your misty eyes when Rose got on that train. Don't worry, I had to tell Al and Lily I had a cold for a week after James left last year."
Ron grinned but his grin froze as something outside the restaurant window caught his eye.
"Hey, is that Draco Malfoy? I wouldn't have expected him to hang around in this part of London any longer than he had to, too many muggles. And where's that hideous wife of his?"
"You know she's the charity and fundraising director for St. Mungos," laughed Harry. For all the time that had passed and wounds that had healed sometimes it hit him how much oldest childhood grudges and memories had stayed with them. He still couldn't eat a peppermint humbug without expecting a plate of Hogwarts roast beef and nothing would ever make Ron do more than grudgingly tolerate Draco Malfoy's continued existence.
"Yeah, whatever she is, I just want to know why Malfoy is hovering around Kings Cross in that ridiculous coat all alone. Maybe she's left him now that their kid is off to school!"
"Hold on just a sec, ok? I'll be right back," said Harry.
"You're not going to go talk to him, are you? Harry, what are you doing mate?" Ron called at his friend but Harry took no notice and left the shop, quickly crossing the street toward the tall, pale figure on the other side. Ron strained to get a better look at the pair of them but was distracted by a bored-looking, gum-popping woman behind the counter.
"I said, what's your table number and your order," she repeated. Ron glanced back across the street quickly just in time to see the tail of Malfoy's coat whip around the corner. With a feeling for foreboding, he turned back to the counter to give their table's order.
"We can't keep meeting like this, people will talk," said Harry dryly.
"You always thought you were so funny, Potter."
"What at school? Not really, usually I thought I was going to die. Besides I wasn't joking. We've kept this operation under wraps for almost a year now, Hermione already suspects something. What's so important that it couldn't wait until I got back to the office? People aren't supposed to know you work for MagOps, you know."
"Clearwater's back."
"Great, she can debrief us when we're all back in the office. Again, not sure why this couldn't wait..."
Malfoy cut him off. "She's dead." Harry looked at him in surprise.
"So when you say she's back... did we send someone in to get her? What happened?"
"No, we didn't send someone in to get her. She came back. In a body bag. Someone knew who she was, who she was working for and delivered her body back to us. It's a pretty strong message, don't you think?"
"But no one below a level 3 clearance is even supposed to know where MagOps offices are," said Harry. "Things don't get delivered to us, even interdepartmental memos have to be reverse apperated in by someone in the office.
"Exactly. Which is why this couldn't wait until you got back to the office. The office is gone, they moved locations this morning. Sloper found me at Kings Cross to let me know, said to tell you before you went back, we don't know if the old location is being watched."
Malfoy handed him a piece of paper with an address written on it.
23 Blythe Road
London W14
"We're putting MagOps under a Fidelius Charm?" asked Harry, shocked. "But that's only protocol in the case of..."
"Yeah, highest threat levels, blah blah blah. But Aesalon didn't make it to head of MagOps without being a bit paranoid, you know what the man's like. Have you memorised the address?"
"I've got it."
Malfoy gave a curt nod and turned to leave. Harry tried to process what he had just heard and wipe the shock from his face before returning to his family.
Hermione had gone to wash her hands and, although she wouldn't have admitted it, have a bit of a cry at Rose's departure. It was her first child leaving home after all. Eyes dried, she went to see what was taking the boys so long only to find Ron alone in at the counter, trying somewhat unsuccessfully t o pay with Muggle money so she went over to give him a hand, wondering where Harry had gone.
"Bloody Harry, leaving me to deal with paying when he knows I don't get Muggle money," Ron was grumbling as they walked back to the table. "All so he could run off and have a heart to heart with Draco Malfoy."
"What?" asked Hermione, pull Ron back before they reached Ginny and the kids. "He did what?"
"I saw Malfoy across the street and Harry ran off to go talk to him. You know what he was like for ages after, well, you know. Tracking down all the Death Eaters kids we knew and telling him there were no hard feelings... maybe he just never got around to Malfoy."
At that moment Harry walked back into the restaurant and over to the two of them. Hermione stared at him suspiciously but didn't know how to start interrogating him without worrying Ron. As if reading her mind, Harry gave her a warning look.
"I'm starving, where's lunch?" he asked, and headed back to the table with Ron and Hermione trailing behind.
"Daddy!" shouted Lily as he sat down. "Guess what? Mommy said she's going to take me to Diagon Alley and we're going to buy a pet cat now that I'm all alone at home!"
"Did she now?" Harry asked. Ginny looked sheepish. "Well, you're going to have to pick out a good one for me – I've got to run back to the office unfortunately. Lots of paperwork."
"Ick, paperwork," said Lily. Harry, Ron and Ginny laughed but Hermione was lost in unpleasant thoughts of evil wizards, self-sacrifice and having a friend who would stop at nothing to keep those he loved safe.
A/N: Just a bit of fun after getting caught back up in the Harry Potter fandom after watching the 8th movie. Have a pretty good idea of where this is going but would appreciate any reviews to know what readers think so far!
