An Epilogue Revisited: 19 2/3 Years Later
Harry Potter took his afternoon tea in the bright tidy kitchen of his home. He leaned back against the counter by the sink rather than sitting at the table while he drank, because Ginny wasn't here to nag him for eating while standing. She and Lily were out doing a little shopping 'just for the girls' to get something special (probably with glitter) before the three of them went to meet the Hogwarts Express in four days. Ginny might not admit it aloud, but Harry knew she was going to miss the quite days with her little girl once Hogwarts let out in a few days and the boys returned.
He'd just brushed a few crumbs from his chocolate biscuit off his mouth and watched them fall to the floor when he heard a pop of some one apparating on his doorstep followed by the crash of his door slamming open. Harry looked up startled as Hermione burst through the front door, her eyes blazing with a fury Harry hadn't seen for years. Harry stayed frozen as she marched right up to him and grabbed his half eaten biscuit from his fingers without so much as a 'hi, Harry, how are things.' She waved the chocolate biscuit threatening in his face.
"Name me one homosexual, Harry," Hermione demanded.
"What?" Harry squeaked, feeling that he was seconds away from being on the wrong end of a biscuit accident.
"Name me one homosexual, Harry," she repeated slowly. Harry had known Hermione long enough to realize when it was in his best interests just to answer her question.
"Um...that Muggle singer," Harry muttered, "that George Michael bloke." Hermione just glared.
"I meant name me one homosexual that you know of in the whole Wizarding World."
"Oh," Harry said in a small voice, "should have just said so in the first place." Harry thought for a long moment, growing nervous as Hermione continued to stare him down. It shouldn't be that hard, he told himself, he knew literally hundreds of witches and wizards, many of them personally, but specific names eluded him.
"Sorry," he said after a while, "no one comes to mind right away."
Tears welled up in Hermione's eyes and she turned away quickly, pacing the kitchen muttering to herself. Harry even heard a few curses in there that were so out a character for her Harry felt himself blushing.
"This is horrible," she cried as she turned back to Harry. "I should have noticed before now. Damn, my heteronormative indoctrination!" She was trembling and Harry grabbed her shoulders to steady and comfort her.
"What are you talking about, 'Mione?" Harry asked. His voice falling into the same soft tones he used when Lily woke up from a nightmare.
Hermione took a deep breath, like she used to take before launching into some long-winded explanation back in school, and proceeded to burst into tears in the middle of Harry's kitchen. Harry sat her down at their kitchen table with a box of tissues and summoned tea and biscuits as he tried to calm her down.
"Ron and I had a fight," she said finally and blew her nose loudly. Harry nodded in sympathy and felt a little bit of worry creep up on him. After all Hermione had just been asking about 'homosexuals', which had segued immediately into a conversation about his best pal and her husband. Once she'd finished crying Hermione dabbed her eyes and fixed her eye makeup with a quick charm.
"No," she said, "that's not where I should start." She took a long sip of her tea while she visibly collected herself.
"Rosie owled me the other day," she continued. "She's been feeling so bad about leaving Hogwarts which is understandable, this being her first year and all. So I've been trying to help her through it, you know, telling her that I'll help her with her studies over the summer letting her know what books she'll need to read."
Harry nodded and tried not to crack a smile. Only Hermione would think that her eleven year-old daughter would be upset about leaving school because that meant whole summer holiday without classes. He offered the plate of chocolate biscuits, but she waved them away and continued her story.
"She finally admitted to me that she didn't want to be away from her dorm mates for the summer particularly her best friend, Violet. She even said that she wanted to marry Violet when she got older so they'd never have to be away from each other. I didn't think much of it, but I decided to show it to Ron anyway." She started tearing up and had to blow her nose again.
"I told him that it might be a phase, but that I'd start researching the parenting gay and lesbian children just to be on the safe side and he...he suddenly..."
She burst into tears again and it took Harry several minutes and a full cup of tea to calm her down. She was still sniffling a little but seemed in much better control of herself after this last crying jag and Harry saw a look of determination and anger replace her sadness very quickly.
"He burned Rosie's letter right in front of me and told me that it hadn't happened. He said that Rosie had never written me that letter and never said those things and that I wasn't to talk about it ever again with anyone. Not even Rosie."
Confusion settled over Harry's face. He really couldn't picture Ron ever doing or saying anything like that at all. Ron loved his children, doted on them even, especially Rosie who took after her mother so much. Hermione blew her nose again and Harry discretely levitated her used tissues to the garbage.
"He was just surprised," Harry said, "I'm sure he really didn't mean..." Hermione cut him off, her voice brisk and angry.
"Oh he meant every word of it, alright. We got into a terribly screaming row and he said that 'those people' were unnatural, not 'true' Wizards, and destroyed 'proper' families. He wouldn't listen to reason and just kept raving every time I tried to say anything, so I told him he sounded like a Death Eater."
Harry sucked in a breath. Those were heavy words to be throwing around and he could almost guess what happened next. Ron would have gone absolutely off the handle. Harry covered Hermione's hand with his own and squeezed it in assurance.
"You can stay here with us until Ron calms down if you like," Harry said. "You can bring Hugo, too. I'm sure he'd love to spend some time with Lily." Hermione shook her head slowly.
"You don't get it, Harry," she sobbed. "It's not just Ron, it's everyone. The whole Wizarding World."
"I'm sure it's not really like that," Harry said, but his words wavered. He couldn't think of one moment in his entire life where someone said something about someone being gay that wasn't meant as a taunt or a joke. He remembered distinctly that George called Malfoy a poof once during Fifth year, but it had only been a joke. Yeah, Malfoy had been prissy enough during school, but no one had ever really thought he didn't like girls. Harry supposed that now he had a kid to prove it too.
"We've got to stop them, Harry," Hermione said, breaking him out of his reverie. It caught Harry off guard and he almost asked who they needed to stop before he remembered what it was they were talking about.
"Listen, Hermione," Harry replied, "I'm sure it's not as bad as you think it must be. There have to be gay witches and wizards our there. It's just not something that you'd just talk about in everyday conversation. I don't tell the fellows down at the office what Ginny and I get up to in our bedroom so why would anyone talk about that sort of thing so casually."
"Harry, it's not..." Hermione shouted and pounded her hands on the table.
"No, Hermione," Harry interrupted her, "I know you've got a lot on your mind. You always had a lot on your mind, but I don't think there's another enemy here to fight, another oppressed group for you to rally for. Your Treatise on Elvish Rights was bloody revolutionary 'Mione. The Magical Creatures Guild even made you an honorary member for it." Harry cradled her hand gently in his.
"You're already brilliant and famous, 'Mione," Harry said gently as he watched her eyes quiver with tears. "You don't need to try so hard any more. You can take some time and just be there for your family."
The silence hung between them for a long moment, filling up the kitchen with a strangely gentle tension. Harry felt Hermione slip away from him, away from everyone, like she did every time she got immersed in something that he and Ron couldn't even begin to understand and thought about nothing else.
"You don't get it at all, do you Harry?" she finally said, breaking the silence. "I can't say anything to change you mind right now." Her voice was sad and wistful and she dabbed her eyes one last time.
"Just do me one favor, Harry," Hermione asked as she readied her wand to disapparate, "Just...ask Ginny tonight?" She pulled him forward in a sudden hug and Harry was reminded that for as strong and capable as Hermione was, sometimes she still needed a little comforting.
"See you tomorrow, Harry," she said and disapparated with a pop.
Ginny and Lily came back (the bags and boxes from their shopping spree trailing behind them in a colorful train of paper and bows) almost before the funny feel in the air that apparition leaves behind had cleared. It made Harry nervous for some reason he couldn't explain to himself that Ginny might suspect he had company while she was out.
Harry gave her a quick peck on the lips. Lily let out an 'eww' in a very eight-year-old way when she saw them. Harry and Ginny laughed and Hermione's visit was put swiftly out of Harry's mind.
It wasn't until that night as Harry lay in bed watching Ginny finish brushing and plaiting her hair that he thought about what Hermione had asked him to do. He studied the freckles on her shoulder, left bare by her nightdress, as he steadied his courage.
"Can I ask you a question," Harry blurted out finally. She laughed a little.
"Of course you can, Harry," she replied as she turned and joined him in bed, pulling the covers over her pale legs.
"I was just wondering if you, uh, well..." Harry stuttered, "if you, that is, uh...knew anyone who was gay." She frowned and Harry watched her eyes go hard and skeptical as she raised her guard like is was twenty years ago and she thought he might be a spy.
"Why would I know any of those people?" she asked, her voice cold. "What have you heard?"
"No, nothing at all," Harry replied. "Someone just mentioned something that made me think, but it was probably nothing." He put a hand on her shoulder and rubbed his thumb across the thin pink satin strap of her nightdress. "Just go to bed and forget I mentioned anything."
She gave him a speculative look, but said nothing more then goodnight to him and extinguished the light was a tiny flick of her wand. Harry listened as her breathing slowed and deepened, but he couldn't find sleep nearly as easily.
He realized two things as he watched the patch of moonlight move slowly across the ceiling as the moon continued to rise. First, that Hermione had been right, which upon reflection didn't surprise him in the least. And second, that for the first time since they were married he was deliberate keeping something from Ginny.
Author's Note: This is not meant as a character bashing story in any way (except maybe for those characters from the books who deserve it). I do like Harry Potter and the Harry Potter books so on offence is intended. This story is just about the danger of silence and compliance with a system. I'm interested in how characters, who are good people by nature, respond when they refuse to question the dominant value system.
I'm not suggesting that all the characters from the Harry Potter books are hatemongering homophobes, but I'm also suggesting that the utter cannon silence on the issue opens the possibility for fanfic like this to exist. Silence is dangerous.
Please let me know what you think and if you feel I should continue. Also I am sorry if a similar story already exists, I'm not very current within the fandom.