So this whole story is pretty flash-fiction/vignette-y. It wont be more than, oh, ten chapters max, and skips around a lot. But, please, please enjoy!
OH, and vote in my poll please!
Harry knew he was important. He was "the boy who lived", the "man who conquered". He had saved the world.
But Harry also knew there were a lot more people in the world who were more important—at least, in his mind. That is why he was sitting in the kitchen of the Burrow, a week after the death of Voldemort, his few possessions packed in a rucksack.
As if on queue, Mrs. Weasley bustled in, a strained look on her face. Harry stood, smiling kindly at her.
"Mrs. Weasley?"
She whipped around, smiling frantically as she saw him. "Oh, Harry! Yes, yes, what can I do for you?" The pile of laundry in her arms wobbled dangerously.
"Er, Mrs. Weasley, I've decided to move into Grimmauld place. You just seem really…tense, and you really need to slow down and mourn for Fred properly, with your family. Andromeda already agreed to come as well. We just want you to have some time alone." He placed his hand on her arm, biting the inside of his cheek.
"Oh, deary, are you sure? I don't mind having you here at all-"
"Really, Mrs. Weasley, you need it. I'll even take Hermione!"
"Take me where?" Hermione stood in the doorway, a puzzled expression on her face as she noticed Harry's rucksack.
"Er, to Grimmauld place. I'm moving in."
Hermione looked surprised, but understood very quickly by the begging glint in Harry's eyes. "Oh, right. Of course I'll go with you."
Harry beamed at her, and Mrs. Weasley looked worried. "If you're sure, Harry, dear…"
"Absolutely positive." Harry shifted uncomfortably where he stood; he would much rather stay with his adopted family, eating hot, home cooked meals with his surrogate brothers and sisters.
But the Weasley family was more important than he ever would be.
Harry walked down the main hallway of Grimmauld place, suddenly overcome with the feeling of regret. Though Kreacher had done a magnificent job cleaning the house, it was still dark and depressing. This was no house to raise a child in.
And that was exactly what he planned to do. Andromeda and Teddy were right behind him, bags floating by their shoulders as they followed him to their new room.
"Oh, I forgot how creepy this place was. Mum always made us visit dear Auntie Walburga…" Andromeda trailed off, a bitter tone in her voice as she talked about her aunt.
Harry had grown to really like Andromeda in the week since the battle. Though stricken with grief, she was a strong woman and reminded Harry greatly of her late daughter.
"Well, nothing a few good color-changing spells can't fix. Maybe transfigure some of these snakes into lions. Or badgers." She smiled, then turned her attention to Teddy, who was entertaining himself by flashing through hair colors. "Aww, Teddy…."
They reached the drawing room, where Harry set down his bags. Andromeda continued on down the hall to the bedroom where she and Teddy would sleep, making baby noises at the giggling infant in her arms.
Hermione followed Harry into the room, setting her bags down as well. She had been absolutely silent the entire time, her face emotionless. Harry clapped his hand on her shoulder, hoping she wasn't regretting this move as well.
"You didn't have to come with us. You could have stayed with the Weasley's," he said. She shook her head, frowning.
"I'm not you, Harry. I'm not their adopted daughter. I'm just Ron's friend, your friend. I'm not perpetually welcome there like you are." She picked up her bag again, and Harry followed suite, leading the way up the stairs.
"Hermione, Mrs. Weasley loves you. The whole family does."
She shook her head, bushy hair bouncing around. "Not really. They're all angry with me at the moment."
They reached the second landing, and kept going straight up to the third. "Why?" Harry asked.
"Because I kissed Ron, then 'broke it off' with him. Honestly, it was just an end-of-the-world reaction. At least he understood that. It's just that no one else in that family did." They reached the third landing, pausing for a moment.
"So you and Ron aren't dating?" Disappointment and relief filled his mind. He was sad for his friends' lack of love lives, but he was glad it wouldn't interfere with his friendship with either of them. The last thing he needed was another battle.
"Nope." They walked up the last landing, standing outside of the two bedrooms that made up the fourth floor.
"So, my leaving gave you no other choice then?" Harry was started to feel guilty; he had no idea his impulsive act would affect her so much.
She smiled knowingly. "Pretty much. But that's alright. I would have left soon anyways, gone and lived with my parents in Australia. I was starting to feel a bit unwelcome"
Harry frowned, sensing his friend's hurt. But Hermione wasn't one to dump her emotions on everyone else.
"Er, I'm going to go unpack now." She turned to enter Regulus's room, lingering by the doorway for a second.
"Hermione?" She turned, a curious look on her face.
"Yes?"
Harry paused, seeming rather embarrassed. "You're always welcome here."
She looked surprised, then smiled, a faint blush on her cheeks. "Thanks, Harry."
Harry fell back onto Sirius' old bed, staring at the Gryffindor posters and bikini-clad girls that lined the walls. The world seemed to have stopped from the moment Voldemort had fallen to the ground, and Harry wasn't sure what he would do once it started moving again.
The sky slowly darkened outside his window, but he was content to lie on his godfather's bed, eyes drooping as he examined the picture of the Marauders that Sirius had stuck to his wall. The boys laughed and joked around, the sight slowly soothing Harry to sleep.
Sobs came from the room across from his, startling Harry from his reverie. But as soon as they woke him, they subsided into thin air, and Harry was left alone in the silence of his thoughts, wondering if he had just imagined the noise.
They hadn't been living in the house for more than twenty-four hours when Pigwidgeon arrived. Expecting Ron's messy scrawl, Harry was surprised to find Ginny's wild cursive spread across the page like wildfire.
Harry-
I know I shouldn't be asking you this, and you really don't owe anyone anything because you just freaking beat Voldemort, but I have a favor to ask of you. I was at St. Mungo's an hour ago, with Luna visiting her father, when I saw Dean and his family in the refugee section. I know you and Dean were never that close, but he's still a good friend of mine, and he needs a place to live. Please, please, please- for me- consider taking him and his family in, just for a little while. Please.
-Ginny
P.S. Luna says hello
Harry stared at the sheet, then walked across the hall to Hermione's room. He poked his head around the door to find the girl sitting on Regulus' old bed, brushing out her hair. It was sticking up everywhere, still messy from sleep.
Without saying a word, he handed her the letter, sitting on the edge of her dresser. She read it quickly, then handed it back to him, biting her lip.
He raised his eyebrows at her, and she nodded, and they left silently, shouting to Andromeda as they apparated away.
St. Mungo's was the most crowded Harry had ever seen it. The walls were lined with people, some sleeping, some pacing, some crying, some laughing. Harry and Hermione searched the crowd, looking for the tall frame of their former classmate.
Hermione grabbed Harry's arm, pointing to a cot in the corner of one of the waiting rooms. There sat Dean Thomas, looking just as worn out as when they had last seen him at the Battle of Hogwarts. He was slumped against the wall, his arms wrapped around two small girls. Two other girls were on the bed beside him, one leaning against each arm.
"They must be his sisters," Hermione whispered to Harry, then tugged on his arm, leading him forward. He followed, unsure of what he was going to say.
"Dean?" Hermione asked, crouching by his cot. He stirred, looking surprised as he registered the witch's face.
"Hermione? Harry? What are you two doing here?" He asked, straightening up. The girls on either side of him moaned, slapping him on the arms for waking them up. The two younger girls continued to sleep, snuggled against their brother's chest.
"We came to offer you and your family a place to stay." Hermione answered for Harry, nodding towards his sisters.
He frowned. "The Burrow? I really don't think there's enough room for all of us, and they just lost Fred-"
It was Harry who cut him off, holding up his hand. "No, we don't mean the Burrow. My godfather left me a house when he died, and we moved in. There's plenty of room for you and your family." Dean looked at him in wonder, cocking his head to the side.
"Are you sure? There are so many of us…" He looked down at his two youngest sisters, kissing the smallest one's head. Hermione smiled softly.
"Of course. Andromeda Tonks and her grandson are living with us as well. It'll be fine." She waved her wand at their small bags of clothes, levitating them in the air.
Dean smiled widely, shaking the two older girls. "Thank you so much! Vera! Anneliese! Go find Mum and Dad! Tell them we have a new home!"
The Thomas family was a nice addition to the gloomy halls of Grimmauld place. Vera, a loud and head-strong sixteen-year-old, enjoyed following Harry around, making him spill the secrets of her brother's love-life or tell her what the other Gryffindors were like. Fourteen-year-old Anneliese, quiet and demure compared to her sister, kept to herself mostly, but enjoyed borrowing books from Hermione to read in the evenings. Felicity, a year younger than Anneliese, was a living firecracker, and could often be seen racing up and down the stairs, doing cartwheels and leaps through the halls, laughing loudly. She was often followed by Hazel, a small ten-year-old girl with wild braids filled with different-colored beads. Harry grew a liking for the youngest girl, as she reminded him greatly of Luna Lovegood.
Janet and Michael Thomas were kind people, and helped out around the house. Janet took a liking to Teddy, finding his ever-changing hair to be fascinating, and Michael and Andromeda could often be seen talking animatedly as Janet rocked the baby to sleep.
Harry and Hermione had spent the day of the family's arrival changing the ever-present green and black to shades of red and gold, transfiguring the carvings of snakes into lions and fairies and dragons. Hermione even figured out a spell to make a set of butterfly figurines to fly around the ceiling of Hazel's room, which the strange girl would watch intently from time to time.
The evening after the Thomas's arrival found Harry and Hermione de-Slytherining Regulus's room. Hermione was hanging a blue curtain over the articles about Deatheaters that were permanently stuck to the wall, and Harry was trying to transfigure the Slytherin posters into Gryffindor ones, with very little luck.
"Argh! Why wont it just change?!" Harry jabbed his wand at the poster, frustration welling up inside him. Hermione laughed softly, walking over to where he stood. With a flick of her wand, the green snake disappeared, replaced by a golden lion. Harry grinned sheepishly at the witch, the moved on to the next poster, wondering what he could replace the Deatheater Propaganda with.
Hermione turned to organize the bookshelf, tossing all of the dark arts books in a corner. Harry stared at the floor in concentration, then smiled, an idea forming in his head. He waved his wand, letting the magic flow across the poster.
"Harry, do you think it's safe to throw away this book, or should we try to burn it? I feel like it might curse us if we try to destroy it tho-" Hermione stopped in mid-turn, nearly dropping the book in her hand. There, where a dark, oppressive poster once hung there was now a large photo of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, smiling and laughing, throwing leaves at each other outside of the Burrow. Ron tackled Harry, who pulled Hermione down with him. The three rolled through the leaves, more carefree than Hermione had ever seen them.
"Oh, Harry…" She breathed, touching the poster tentatively. "This is amazing!
He smiled sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. She slammed into his open side, hugging him tightly around the chest, knocking the wind out of him.
"Er, you're welcome, Hermione." He patted her head, laughing at her reaction. "Seriously, Hermione, I can't breath." She let go, blushing furiously, but still beaming with gratitude. She walked back over to the book shelf, but seemed distracted, barely looking at the books as she slid them into place.
"Harry?" She finally asked, clutching a battered copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five in her hands. Harry turned from his attempt to change the color of the bed sheets to match the curtains Hermione had hung, eyebrows raised.
"Yes?"
She looked down, a flush creeping across her cheeks again. "Oh, never mind."
Harry frowned. It wasn't like Hermione to not speak what was on her mind; she was very vocal about those things.
But then again, what did Harry know? He never really understood girls.
But that night, as he drifted off to sleep, the sound of sobs drifted back into his room, and he knew something was wrong.
Okay, so this one was short. I assure you that the next chapters will be longer and will introduce more characters. This was just sort of a pilot. With a depressing ending. I promise happier moments in the future!
Up Next: Luna and Xeno! Yay!!! The crazy parade comes to town!