Teach Each Other
Summary: Harry has it all a loving girlfriend, a house, a job, and two best friends who will love him no matter what… Or so he thinks follow Harry as his life changes and becomes new. Sorry about the intentionally vague summary but I don't want to give too much away and ruin the surprise for you readers. Also any major differences up to canon are mentioned in the prologue. I also must give a quick shout out to Ramos' story "The FitzPotter Scandal" for inspiring me to write this story. Thoughts/Dreams in italics. Sorry about updating before the next chapter is out, but I was writing at night to finish it and I didn't notice all of the awful spelling errors that I made so I had to fix them and it appears my spell check on my Microsoft office is broken.
Prologue
Harry was back at the Battle of Hogwarts. Spells fly everywhere as death eaters, order of the Phoenix members, and students all fall in the desperate struggle for a final peace. He races down the pathway were he sees Remus and Tonks die, holding each other in their arms as they try to kill as many death eaters as they can before they go. He sprints more and sees Voldemort alone and waiting for him.
"Good evening Potter" Voldemort smirks as he says his name with as much contempt as he can muster before continuing, "You are truly pathetic, I don't see how I've even let you keep up with me up to this point."
"Keep up with you? Ha, I beat you Voldie I know this is just a dream," Harry said with as much courage and confidence as he could muster.
"AH but did you really little Harry?" Voldemort started out, "Because from where I sit it looks like that is irrelevant. My earthly death doesn't matter as my message lives in those that carry my banner. My ideas will live on far past my departure. But did you even kill me, I could be hiding in a Horcrux in some hidden land waiting for the right time to be to kill anyone and everyone who is close to you."
"NO!," Harry cried "YOU'RE DEAD! YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY BE ALIVE! I KILLED YOU!"
"But," Voldemort continued , not acknowledging what Harry had said as he approached Harry - who suddenly felt frozen in place and couldn't move - and began to circle him, "Even your supposed victory has come with a price has it not? I have killed nearly everyone you loved, Remus, Tonks, Sirius, and Your Parents," He continued as he leaned in to whisper, "And it was all your fault. Avada Kadavra!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," Harry screamed suddenly wide awake now. Sweat pouring down his body as he jolted awake. He turned over to look towards the clock and see the time, 3:30 A.M. He knew he should go back to bed and get some more rest before work in the morning, but after that nightmare he was wide awake. It was a recurring nightmare that he had, fighting Voldemort in various forms manifesting his hidden fears and beliefs. He blamed himself completely for those who died. He knew it was irrational and that those who died did so because they wanted to fight, but there was the part of him that would always blame himself for their suffering. They also really didn't know that he wasn't still out there. He had been with Hermione when she had cast the spell to check if there were any more Horcruxes but what if they were wrong, what if he was still out there somewhere. He kept all of these hidden emotions inside. He knew this wasn't healthy, bottling his emotions up like this, but he didn't want to further hurt his friends further by pushing his doubts and worries onto them.
With that thought in mind, Harry slowly rose and got out of his bed, placing on his tee-shirt and pajama pants to cover his frame as he rose. He was rising much earlier than he needed or wanted to. He didn't have to be at work until 9, but getting up early gave him the unique opportunity to think undisturbed.
He slowly dragged himself from his room out into his kitchen were he proceeded to look out the window to see his wonderful view of London. The flat was quite modest for his level of wealth, but that was how Harry liked it, plain and simple, to give him as quiet a life as possible. It had four rooms, the kitchen/ dining room where he had a wide array of kitchen utensils to make him and his visitors food –a skill the Dursley's most graciously taught him, the living room garnished simply with a couch and a couple chairs along with a television set in the corner of the room, the guest bedroom mostly used by Hermione, Ron, or Ginny whenever they came over, and, of course, his master bedroom which held a king sized bed and all of his personal items. To make the place homier he had adorned it with pictures of him and his friends in their various years in Hogwarts. The pictures were your typical moving magical kind, but had been charmed by Hermione to appear normal to muggles. The kitchen also had a magnificent view of London, and he often found himself staring out into the busy city with a sense of awe at how the muggles managed all the chaos of life. He bought the flat after living with the Weasleys the summer after graduation. It wasn't that they told him to leave, on the contrary they begged him to stay, but he needed space and the only way to get that at the burrow was to leave.
Thinking back to school, Harry started to reflect back on how he had done it, how he had beaten Voldemort. After he left school to find the horcruxes, he, Hermione, and Ron had done what needed to be done camping, running, and only getting caught once by bounty hunters. When Ron left he and Hermione did what needed to be done without him. They found the Horcruxes and destroyed the rest of them. The Horcrux hidden in Gringotts had been the hardest and involved persuading Gringotts to give them the artifact when pretending to steal it to fool Voldemort into leaving the bank alone. Ron had joined them the week before they went back to Hogwarts for the final battle. He claimed to have been "searching for them the whole time", but his gut and well kept personal hygiene suggest otherwise.
The final battle for Hogwarts was awful. Both sides had suffered many casualties and many of his friends had died fighting including Remus, Tonks, and a small chunk of the the DA. His fight with Voldemort had been long, but he had persevered and was eventually the victor. He was pretty beat up from the experience and had to spend a few weeks in Saint Mungo's for intensive treatment, but he was fine in the end.
Nothing, no one had prepared him for what came next. Thousands of fans and reporters flooded into his life with all sorts of questions and comments about what was next and how he had done it. Harry hated it. He hated that they wouldn't leave him alone, give him time to grieve, and he hated that magical society could be this fickle, this changing. He remembered when they were cursing his name, he remembered when they deemed him evil, and when they ran and waited for a mere teen to fight their war for them. He supposed that he should be more lenient, after all, these people had families to protect and think about, something he could never relate to.
After the funerals and the press and the fan girls came the part of the story when school would start up again. He had opted to attend his 7th year again with Hermione while Ron opted to take a job offered to him at the ministry as an auror. It was a low paying job but he got certain benefits for being on the right side of things at the end, including the ability to work at a job that he was under-qualified for. Professor McGonagall had declared that any student could redo their previous year due to the egregious quality of education the students had received and Harry and Hermione took full advantage of that. Their seventh year flew by with Harry doing lots of work to make up progress in runes and arithmancy in order to catch up to his current year and sit for N.E.W.T.S. Ginny had chosen to move up and be in the same year as them. Together, they had won the house cup, quiddich cup, and Harry had received N.E.W.T.S Outstanding or Exceeds Expectations in all the subjects he had taken, with Hermione's help of course.
His high scores and decorated career fighting Voldemort allowed him his choice of job in the ministry after graduation. Harry balanced several ideas in his head before deciding to go into the world of Magical Law Enforcement. He had things set out in his mind. He wanted to start as an auror for a few years before moving up the chains and becoming head auror. He had a lot of work to do but he thought he could make the most difference there. Hermione had also opted to go to the ministry but she chose the Department of Care for Underprivileged Creatures and Minorities. She hoped to build her way up to eventually become the minister of magic one day. Ginny had chosen to pursue a career in quiddich and has courted by a few teams before being put on the reserve squad of the Hollyhead Harpies. She loved her job almost as much as she loved him.
He and Ginny had gotten back together right after the Battle of Hogwarts. They were one of the most talked about couples in Hogwarts drawing comparisons to Lilly and James when they attended school there, especially with Ginny's striking resemblance to his mom. They continued their relationship to this day, and Harry felt himself getting more and more attached to her everyday. She was the one who kept dragging him to parties and get-togethers and all those things. At first he had thought it was cute that she wanted to show them as a couple off, but the more it happened the less Harry began to like it as he was forced to talk to people that he honestly wished never to associate with. But he did d it, he did it for Ginny who he thought was kind, considerate, and loving yet fiery in the hopes that, one day, when she had to endure something she didn't want to do for him, that she would do it without complaint. She was his muse and thought he loved her with all of his heart.
Yes, life was good thought Harry as he began to get ready for the day He had a beautiful girlfriend, a great job, and a set of friends that would do anything for him. He finished getting ready and was quickly out the door, just in time to apparate to work. He left thinking about all of the many blessings that he had in his life… or so he thought.
Author's note: Thanks for reading please ignore any usage/ spelling mistakes that I make, and if anyone wants to Beta the story they are more than welcome to. I want to say quickly that if I didn't mention a specific change in the prologue then it happened like it did in canon. This included things like who died in the final battle and the Horcruxes (including Harry). Thanks for reading all reviews, good or bad, about the story are much appreciated and will be answered.