Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

This is my second fic, so please feel free to leave constructive criticism. This is an H/Hr fic, therefore, if you want to bash this couple, do it somewhere else.

This is about what happens after DH. Here, the epilogue never happened.

Harry closed the door to his hotel room and put his trunk at the foot of his bed. He sighed as he sat down on the side of his bed and turned the television on. He flipped through the channels and stopped when he saw Rocky. Relaxing a bit, he took off his shoes and lay back in his bed. To his disappointment, he was disturbed by a tapping on the window. Harry looked over and saw a gray and black owl holding The Daily Prophet. Harry got up, opened the window, put money in the owl's pouch, and took the paper. Closing the window, Harry opened the newspaper up and found he was staring into himself.

Champion or Chump?

Five years ago today, our hopes and dreams were revived. Five years ago today, a promising hero emerged. Five years ago today, marked the end of a war, and the end of the most villainous being to walk this Earth. Five years ago today, The Boy Who Lived defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Four years ago today, we celebrated the Year of Hope, but also mourning those we had lost. Three years ago today, we celebrated by rebuilding and finishing off the followers of You-Know-Who. Two years ago today, we celebrated with the fact that the government was back on its feet and the economy was on its way up. A year ago, we rejoiced when we learned that The Boy Who Lived passed his Auror training and became a full-fledged Auror. But where is Harry Potter?

For the past five years we have celebrated the death of the wizard whom we still fear, but in all of the past four celebrations, Mr. Potter has been MIA. Where does he go? The first year we threw a parade for him but he never showed up. Why does he run away from the celebration and his success? Will he finally show up this year?

Harry crumpled up the paper and threw it in the waste can. He couldn't stand to be praised as not only the Boy Who Lived, but the Chosen One. For four years, Harry stepped out of the wizard world on May 2nd and would spend time in the Muggle world. He fell onto the bed and turned his attention back to the movie. "I can't believe this is the fifth year," he thought. He looked back at the years and at all the pain that was still charred onto the world. The damage that Voldemort had brought on the magical world was too great. The Weasley family was so incomplete without Fred, and his five-year-old godson was never going to remember his parents, just like Harry. Ginny had also broken up with him. She didn't understand why Harry was still brooding, why he still felt pain, when she had lost a brother. She didn't understand that he felt responsible for all the deaths during the war. It was because they were trying to protect him that they perished. Not only Fred, Lupin, and Tonks, but Sirius, Dobby, even Snape!

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a soft knock on his door. "Come in," Harry said getting up. The door slowly opened and Hermione entered the room. "Found you," she said.

"You always do," he said looking at her. She sighed and plopped herself next to Harry. "Still can't watch the 'Harry Potter vs. You-Know-Who' reenactment?" Harry groaned.

"Why do they find it necessary to do that!?" Harry sighed as Hermione chuckled.

"Harry, you are their hero. Its natural –"

"I know, I know. But Hermione, you know I can't handle that kind of attention!"

Hermione simply nodded and patted his hand.

"So where's Ron?" Harry asked.