AN: A spur of the moment Harmony fic after reading so many. Hope you all enjoy.
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Chapter 1: The Road Not Taken
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Harry awoke with a terrified gasp.
His breathing was shallow and ragged as he blinked furiously, trying to regain a sense of his surroundings. All he could hear were her screams echoing through his ears, clawing at his sanity.
Still clutching his sheets he stared dismally at the time teller only a few feet away from him, with no such luck.
A blurry red haze stared back at him as his hand groped about his nightstand haphazardly in an attempt to find his glasses.
6:39 A.M.
The green-eyed wizard sighed exhaustedly, swinging his feet out of bed. As he slowly stood up, flashes of a duel ripped through his mind. The rage that had filled his veins that day pulsed through his body once again.
Recurring nightmares are a terrible disease.
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Ron stared up at the great castle in reverence.
Hogwarts had been his home for seven years. In those seven years he had grown up in numerous ways, faced incalculable challenges and met the best people he ever knew.
From behind him, he heard footsteps approach.
"It's good to be back," the witch beside him stated softly. He nodded taking a few steps towards the grand entrance of the castle.
So many things had changed over the years. During several instances in his lifetime, he had wondered, when everything had decided to suddenly fall apart.
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Hermione Granger had just landed at the London Heathrow Airport. Her hair had been twisted into an elegant bun, and her inquisitive brown eyes scoured the crowds as she quickly maneuvered her way through the hubbub of the airport and towards the baggage terminal ahead.
Quickly picking out her suitcase from the multitudes of colorful checked-in luggage, she picked her way past the dense crowds and towards the looming airport exit.
It was finally there, in the dull interior of a London taxi-cab, did she finally release a sigh of relief. Though after only a few moments, she sensed a feeling of dread encompass her. Her heart ached as she stared out the foggy window; London's numerous landmarks flashing before her eyes. The city had held so many memories for her, so many memories she hadn't revisited in over a decade.
It had been ten years since she had left Hogwarts. Ten years since she last set sights on Harry and Ron.
And tonight she was finally coming home.
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Harry quietly knocked on the aged door. The muffled voices on the other side suddenly became subdued as the door quickly swung open.
Ron gazed at Harry with wide eyes, quickly bringing him in for a hug.
"It's been too long, mate!" he announced happily, pulling back, and taking a good look at his best friend.
Harry grinned back, a smile that didn't quite reach his emerald-green eyes.
"Mum won't be happy if she sees you like this," Ron scolded affably. "You've definitely lost a kilo or two since last Christmas."
Harry let out a low chuckle. "Things have kept me busy in Scotland," he remarked, placing his bag on a nearby bed.
The raven-haired wizard looked around the room languidly, "It sure is good to back."
Ron nodded, settling down on a nearby armchair, "Luna just stepped into the loo with Jonathan. He hasn't been feeling too well."
Harry peered at his worried friend, "Have you taken him to see a Healer yet?" he asked.
"No not yet, Luna was hoping to have him looked at in Hogsmeade sometime tomorrow, after all the festivities," he replied.
Harry nodded, looking grim at the thought of festivities. It was kind of McGonagall to arrange a reunion of sorts after all these years. But so many things had changed, he wasn't sure if he was willing to face reality just yet.
"Harry?" Ron asked quietly from beside him, "Have you seen… her yet?"
Harry shook his head in response. It was that very moment he dreaded the most.
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They had imagined this day together, sitting by the fireside, playing Exploding Snap and sipping on warm butterbeer all those years ago. Things had been so simple then, their minds so young.
The war had changed everyone. People died, people grieved, people fled the country. The wizarding world was facing a very dark time. An era in which good had finally come to terms with…evil.
Soon after the war, Hermione had taken her N.E.W.T.s from abroad, travelling to Italy where she joined the Italian ministry and became an unspeakable.
It wasn't long before she quickly climbed through the rankings, becoming Head Unspeakable by the time she was 25. Both brilliant and compelling, Hermione Granger had reached a grand position in life.
No one in Italy had bothered asking her why she left England. They were thrilled to have such a bright mind in their own lands, and would do no such deed to shy her away.
It had provided much needed relief for the bushy-haired witch who was left both mentally and physically exhausted after the war. But there was more to it than that, yet another reason remained as to why she had decided to so promptly leave the country that rainy night so many years ago.
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Ron entered the Great Hall besides Harry Potter and Lovegood. They were quickly approached by a sandy-haired man, the one and only Seamus Finnigan.
"Almost didn't recognize you there!" Ron exclaimed, shaking the other Gryffindor's hand. Seamus grinned, running his other hand through his newfound beard.
Harry smiled at his old friend, looking past him and towards the crowd ahead. In the large room of people his heart dropped at the sight before him.
There stood, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy.
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Hermione felt something rise up in her throat as she met the gaze of London's most famous wizard, Harry Potter.
It had been ten years since she had last seen him and he still held the same gaze he did the night before she left him…for good.
Despite removing herself from the country's boundary lines, Hermione Granger had dutifully kept up with the lives of Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley from afar.
Ron had been playing for the Chudley Cannons for quite some years now. First starting as a reserve keeper, he soon finding himself a member of the core team and bringing the Cannons to a string of hearty championships. She had heard that Ron had eventually wed, none other than, Luna Lovegood, 6 years after the war had ended.
Harry worked for England's Ministry of Magic, but spent most of his time abroad, training Aurors and solving cases for foreign ministries. Articles of his raids and involvement in a variety of cases were nothing new to wizarding tabloids worldwide. Neither was the fact that he still retained the title of England's' "Most Eligible Bachelor."
Hermione felt a dull thud of her heart as she looked away from his penetrating gaze.
Time had definitely taken its toll.
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Draco was almost remotely interested in the battle of the eyes which he was currently witnessing between Potter and Granger.
He and the former Gryffindor were not exactly friends, but they had definitely attained a sense of civility between each other, meeting many a time over the past few years for ministry affairs. Draco Malfoy was none other than England's Head of the Department of Mysteries, a position no one foresaw him taking.
The department had practically been in shambles after the war, but then again so had he. After many years of paying reparations and preparing himself as an apprentice of sorts, Draco had finally joined the Ministry as an unspeakable.
That was when he had first run into Hermione Granger, two fresh years after the war. She had been shocked to see him, stopping abruptly in the middle of a conversation with an Italian ministry official as she caught sight of him.
Rather than smirking, or sneering, as usually would have, he nodded curtly at the witch.
The wizarding world which had once so highly spoken of blood purity and family ties was no more.
Hermione Granger was no longer an inferior of his, in any way.
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Ron followed Harry's line of sight, his blue eyes narrowing.
"What is she doing here?" he demanded, asking the obvious.
Harry sighed, "She was as much a student here as we were," he mumbled half-heartedly.
Ron scoffed, "Leaving us like that…leaving you like that…we all needed a break, but ten years and no word? That's something else."
Harry stared at his best friend, feeling rather numb as people moved around him. Everyone was so busy, reminiscing over old times and catching up on new.
Luna reappeared beside them, patting Jonathan on the back, as he slept against her shoulder.
"There's a healer we can see in town tonight," she said softly, breaking Ron out of his angry gaze. "He'll be free to see Jonathan after 8 in the Hogsmeade Clinic, the appointment has already been arranged," she finished, her blue eyes searching out her husband's.
Ron nodded vaguely, "Don't worry, we'll go. But how did you manage to get an appointment in just the last 10 minutes?" he asked curiously.
"Hermione Granger," she said looking down, "The Healer is one of her friends."
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AN: Any hope for this one? Review!