Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, not me.

Author Note: This had been banging around in my head since reading Runic Animagi (eliminate the spaces to get the link)

http : // www . fanfiction . net / s / 5087671 / 1 /Runic_Animagi

I just think that sometimes people don't think things through when they give Harry certain power-ups. Here's the downside to one of them.

The Next Great Adventure

Harry Potter was waiting to die.

It was time. That didn't make it any easier. He had buried his wife over eighty years ago. He could have married again, but, honestly, he couldn't imagine really getting together with anyone his biological age. And imposing himself on a younger woman would have just been wrong. Besides, they had over a hundred years together. He didn't want another wife. He wanted Erin.

In some ways, he was glad his wife had died at that time. They had worked and planned so long for the Great Integration. The repeal of the Statue of Secrecy involved decades of planning and years of negotiation in both the wizarding world and the mundane one.

And then it finally happened.

He shook his head, lost in his reminiscence. His nurse came over at his movement.

"Are you alright, Great-grandpa? Do you need anything?"

"No, Hermione. Just remembering some of my greatest mistakes."

"Bosh! Everyone makes mistakes. I've read the history books. You seem to learn from them."

Harry sighed. His ancient, shaking hand reached out and grasped hers.

"That's very nice of you to say, but I know better."

It had taken decades to undo.

Luckily they had had safe zones set up. Whole valleys and towns just waiting under wards. A bit of "just in case" planning on his and Erin's part.

The conflict hadn't been war, but it was bloody. The nations that literally took the witches and wizards apart to see how they worked. The retaliation and rescue missions. The systematic obliviations while the hackers searched for every digital bit of information on the magical world and eliminated it; the paper pushers, who always reminded him of Percy even though the middle Weasley boy was long dead -- they hunted through archives and libraries, newspaper offices, and houses, businesses, and schools looking for any trace of information that they needed to expunge.

He smiled. One good thing that came out of it -- the Secrecy Act was once more in force, but the magical world had, by necessity, become very knowledgeable of the mundane one. It actually made it easier to keep the Secret as the wizards and witches (he couldn't get used to the "new" sexless term "mages" which wasn't even proper Latin!) not only blended right into the other world, but were part of it.

And the most ego bruising thing about it was that it would have been totally impossible if it weren't for the active help and assistance of most of the world's governments.

They saw the disruption, the hatred, the violence, and the sheer inability of any of their educational programs to stem the tide.

Fifty years. It had taken fifty years to undo the Great Integration.

But it was done. He was going to die in a peaceful world where less than one tenth of one percent of the mundane world knew about the magical one.

"Ouch!" his nurse, his descendant, exclaimed, involuntarily pulling her hand out of his.

"Sorry, my dear. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"That's fine, Great-grandpa," she replied, casting a spell to relieve the pain from the burns.

"I've asked you not to call me that. It isn't true, anyway. You'll have to stop soon."

"It's just. . . it's just habit. Everyone does it. Even those few people around here who aren't related to you."

"Well, you'll just have to stop it. I'm just Harry. I've always been just Harry."

"Yes, Great-grandpa." She reached out to brush his white hair off his forehead. His famous lightning bolt scar was almost invisible unless you looked, and Harry always wore his bangs long to help hide it. She pulled her hand back. The heat was intense. The whole room was warming up, she noticed.

Harry sighed again. "I miss Erin. She was so beautiful. So smart. Everything a man could ask for.

"It's not supposed to be like this, you know. I should be looking forward to seeing her again. But I'm Harry Bloody Potter and things just don't work out for me as they do for other people. I get to fight Dark Lords. I get to fix the global environment. I get to take down the Statute of Secrecy, and then I get to re-impose it! And now, I don't even get to be with my loved ones!"

"We love you. You know that."

Harry nodded. "I know. But it's not right, right? It shouldn't happen like this. There's a reason for the way things work, and I'm violating them!"

He shuddered, suddenly, gave a cough and a gasp. For a moment he seemed to be trying to take a breath. His bright green eyes looked at her. They seemed to plead with her. Then, they lost focus.

Hermione Potter jumped back from the bed as the body lying on it burst into flames. She shrieked involuntarily, even though she knew what to expect. The blast of heat lasted only seconds, leaving a pile of ashes on the magically protected bed. She carefully moved back to it and pulled the blankets down, exposing the pile of ashes and the new born baby.

She picked up the newborn carefully and cuddled him. The baby opened his eyes revealing the startling green that was the trademark of Harry Potter. The scar was there, too, so faint that if you didn't know what to look for, you'd miss it.

She shook her head. "You're right, little Harry. It would be totally inappropriate for me to call you Great-grandpa now." The baby gazed at her with the wide eyed look that all babies have.

"Harry-bloody-Potter. Only you would become a magical creature animagus. And only you would become a phoenix. And only you would gain the curse of immortality by doing so. And now you start your next great adventure, as you get to grow up again, all that wisdom, all that knowledge lost. You won't remember Erin, just as you didn't remember Sandy, or Clair, or Eileen, or Luna. Only your spirit is the same. What sort of battles will be waiting for you, my child? What sort of destiny will you have this time around?"

She cleaned him up, diapered him, wrapped him in a blanket, and headed down from the tower of Potter Manor. She entered the playroom where her other children were playing, and she smiled at them.

"Come, children. Meet your new brother, Harry!"