Prologue
A/N - Only my second attempt at publishing fanfiction. While not particularly fond of the original epilogue, I'll use it as a baseline for most of my stories. I have a number of ideas in the works and will see how this goes. Most deal with Post Hogwarts situations.
Timeline is approximately 8 years after JKR's epilogue.
Standard disclaimer of ownership of characters applies. This is Rowling's World, Omnes Salve Regina.
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It had been a very long week.
His friends could tell he was in pain. Most people saw an emotionless mask of a face. A face he too often had to show the public. As head auror, he had to school his features to be emotionless. This was his fallback expression. His friends, few though they were, saw through the façade.
Harry had never been excited about Ginny's decision to enter the workforce once all the children were out of the house. They didn't need the income and Harry had always been concerned with the nature of Ginny's chosen career. His profession was one of calculated risks, but death was always a possibility. He didn't see why Ginny had to choose a dangerous line of work as well. Once Lily was in school, Ginny followed Bill to Gingotts, becoming a curse breaker. She had always been an excellent charms practitioner. Few but Harry and Bill knew what an adrenaline junkie she was. In her first assignment as lead curse breaker on what was considered to be a routine job in Central America, things had fallen apart. In a Mayan ruin, a trap none had ever encountered before was triggered. It eviscerated every member of the team, including senior curse breaker and supervisor of the team, one William Weasley. Magic inhibitors snapped in place guaranteeing a slow painful death. It took another team four days to recover the bodies.
A joint service was held for the two siblings. At Molly's insistence, they were buried in the family plot next to Fred. Harry wasn't sure if Fleur noticed, but there was no space provided for either of them. Molly had always wanted the fabled One Big Happy Weasley Family. She finally accepted Fleur and she had always loved Harry. He wasn't sure why, but Molly seemed to distance herself from all of her sons spouses once the grandchildren came along. Harry eventually came to realize that he was also ignored after the children were born. It was almost as if he and his sister in laws were superfluous after their breeding prime.
Harry didn't like thinking along those lines, but he couldn't ignore the way he was treated once he and Ginny announced that Lily would be their last. Ingrid, Charlie's wife, had been treated similarly after it was learned that complications with their son would prevent her from having more children. Penelope, Angelina, Hermione and especially Fleur received the same cool shoulder. Molly was civil, but never did the spouses receive the fawning she had bestowed during their child bearing years.
Harry mentally shrugged off these thoughts. A Ministry official was grinding out a testimonial, listing Bill and Ginny's efforts in the last war, praising the family for their dedication and sacrifice, lamenting a life cut too short, blah blah blah. Harry had heard the same speech a number of times. Funerals came with the territory when you were a high ranking official and if you served in a division where death was always a grim reminder of the dangers of the job. He tried to listen intently, honestly he did, but this guy kept droning on, saying very little with an abundance of officious sounding phrases.
His primary focus was on his children. While James and Albus were already out of Hogwarts, Lily was in her seventh year. He worried how this would affect her, not just in her studies, but emotionally as well. She was sitting between her brothers who both had their arms draped over her shoulders. He would speak with Minerva later about keeping Lily home for a few days. He also was very concerned with Victoire. She was in her third trimester with her and Teddy's second child. Teddy was holding their daughter in his lap and consoling his wife as best he could. He would also dismiss Teddy from duty for a while. Hermione was sitting between him and Ron, tears silently running down her face. Ron just looked dazed. Arthur looked like he had aged decades in the last few days and Molly was literally wailing with grief. George, Charlie and Percy were being consoled by their respective spouses.
He was taking in all this agony when he noticed Fleur. Her demeanor didn't speak of grief or mourning.
She looked mad.