Mount Sinai Hospital – Magical Section's Dining Room – Summer 2007

Three nurses were sitting around a table eating their lunch before needing to return to their duties. They were discussing their favourite topic; actually, it was the favourite topic amongst all the female staff at the hospital. Actually, most staff talked about it as the subject was so popular and many felt sympathy for the person involved.

"We all know the story behind Harry's no-dating policy, but it has been ten years. You'd think that maybe he would have been able to get over it by now."

"I think it's romantic, imagine being so in love with someone that you refuse to date for ten years after she says no to you."

"That's why he's in charge of the paediatrics department; he feels that this is his family. I mean you've seen the hours he keeps and the attention he gives each and every child that comes through here. He loves them, he spends Easter and Christmas here with them; he helps their families out of his own money if they are a little short."

"I know what you mean, last night I saw him read a story to the little Eliza. She fell asleep whilst he was reading to her but he didn't stop. When I asked him why, he said he wanted to because that is what he hopes his parents would have done to him."

"He cried so hard this morning when he saw that she died in her sleep and he's paying for her funeral, because he feels it's his fault. Her parents insisted that it wasn't a problem, but he waved them off saying he wanted to and they had another child on the way, so they should save the money."

"I wish you two could have seen their reaction; they didn't know but he told them that Eliza had sensed it and he agreed with her. They broke down in tears, but at least they were tears of happiness somewhat."

The conversation continued that way until the end of their break. They discussed the mystery that was Harry Potter – the Head Physician-Healer of the Paediatrics – as he was totally committed to his work and had not dated since his girlfriend had turned down his marriage proposal. Being as well known as he was, the story was equally well-known: he had been going out with his girlfriend since their third year at Hogwarts and all the way until graduation. He had proposed to her, thankfully not in front of everyone, but she had turned him down. He couldn't understand it, he just couldn't and the reason she gave was even more confusing. She wanted them to be sure that they really loved each other, that they weren't just settling for what was comfortable. They had never kissed, let alone dated, anyone else so how could they be so sure this was the right thing to do; maybe they were rushing things and that would only result in heartache and disaster.

A few days later, Harry Potter had written an open letter in the Quibbler, which was run by one of his friends, Luna Lovegood, explaining that he was leaving Britain, there was nothing there to hold him to the country since his proposal had been turned down. By the time his friends, apart from Luna, had finished the letter and made their way to where Harry lived with his godfather and his godson, the three of them had already left leaving no trace of where they had gone. The house had been turned over to some homeless charity so that they could house people in need of shelter. Over the next few years, magical Britain, apart from Luna and the Goblins, searched high and low for Harry, Sirius and Teddy but never found them. One day, Griphook, the official representative of Houses Potter and Black, told them that Lord Black had died and as such the name of the family was now Potter-Black. Harry's friends wanted to send their condolences, but no-one knew how to contact him.

Even Dumbledore had no idea where Harry was; he tried to use his contact at the ICW to get some help but they all assured him that there was British national in their country that answered to the description of Harry Potter. The girl that had caused this had been vilified to start with until another open letter, a very short one, told the wizarding population of Britain to stop blaming other people – she did what she felt was right whereas the remainder of the population had always done what was easy like listening to newspapers without having their won opinion on anything and believing anything and everything that politicians and newspaper said. They were sheep is what the letter had said. People backed off after that, but there were still some that regarded with contempt as she had forced their hero to leave the country, but no-one was overt about it anymore.

She, however, still searched for Harry Potter – she quickly realised what a monumental mistake she had made. She had dated other men and found them all lacking; it was when she overheard a conversation that she realised what she had done. Her current boyfriend was telling others that she had finally slept with him, that it was her first time. What he was saying was that he had won the race to take Harry Potter's ex-girlfriend's virginity. It was then that she knew what a mistake she had made, Harry would never have done anything like that, he loved her, and he treated her with respect and love. Even her parents had been somewhat frosty towards her since she turned down the marriage proposal. Her parents had berated her for being stupid, for letting go of the best man there was. This is why she was still searching for him with no success though. What she didn't know was that Harry knew all this through Luna who kept him up to date with everything.

Mount Sinai Hospital – Winter 2007

Harry Potter was having a bad day. Actually, he was having a day form hell. In fact, he felt as though the fates, God, the Greek and Roman gods and all the other deities that exist around the world were shitting on him. Not a normal shit, but one from a great height – a bloody great height. Two children had died this morning, including little Ted who died in his arms – his parents hadn't been able to make it to the hospital in time. Today was also the day that Sirius and Teddy had died. Things couldn't get much worse, could they?

Flashback

It had been a year since Harry had started working with the paediatrics department and he loved it. He finally felt as though he was making a difference, he was helping children survive, but also he was helping them die with dignity and love. Today, he was needed in the emergency services as they were short staffed due to a bad cold that was stopping people from coming into work. He was relaxing with a coffee on a break, when his supervisor came in.

"Harry, we need you in room 3. A child with adult involved in a shooting has just been brought in. Come with me and I'll brief you on the way."

Harry stood up and followed his boss.

"The adult is probably not going to make it, but the child has better chances. It's touch and go though. He has been hit in the liver, spleen and lung. Robson is starting on the extraction procedure and I need you to help him."

The room was chaos personified; nurses were running around, Robson was covered in blood and he could see that the adult had just died. He scrubbed down and made his way over to the child that was having blood replenishing potions poured down his throat. Robson cut his musings short.

"Harry, the damage seems to be extensive than we first thought: the spleen has exploded and its bile is spreading, the liver seems to have been previously damaged as well even before the bullet came in and his left lung has collapsed. That bullet missed his heart by millimetres. We need to mop up his bile from the spleen, but we can't use magic with all the potions we've given him, so…"

Over the next two hours, Robson and Harry did everything they could to save the poor child's life but it was not to be. It seemed he had a weak liver anyway and the collapsed lung was not allowing sufficient air to go through the system. Harry was the one to pronounce him dead.

"Time of death: 1923. Have we found any ID for this…"

Harry couldn't finish that sentence, he looked at the face for the first time and recognised the child – it was his godson. He stepped back from the operating table and was shaking his head. The others in the room were wondering what he was doing, but all they could hear was his murmuring 'No, no, no, no, this can't be…' Harry turned around to face the adult and sure enough, there was his godfather lying on the table dead. He went back to the boy and cradled his cheeks between his hands and bent down to kiss his forehead.

"I'm so sorry Teddy, I'm so sorry. You two were my last family, what am I going to do now?"

Robson and the others realised Harry knew these people, but when they heard the name Teddy, they then knew who these people were. Harry's godfather and his godson. They were his family, they were his reason for living, they were the reason he got up and came to work. Robson came round and put his around Harry, but did not want to say, so he settled for a squeeze of Harry's shoulders.

That was when Harry threw himself into his work with abandon, he wanted to save children, and he wanted families to remain together. He fought the demons of Sirius and teddy everyday in the hope that his nightmares could forgive him one day for not saving their lives.

End of Flashback

He still woke up with flashes of Sirius and Teddy in his mind, though sometimes Remus and Tonks were there as well. He shook his to banish his thoughts to another day; he was on his way to meet Robson to discuss some new exchange programme. He arrived at the door and knocked. He heard a voice say enter so he walked in.

"Harry, how are you today?" Robson asked as he came round the desk to shake his hand. "Please take a seat over here, do you want a drink?"

"Hello Robson, I 'm fine thanks and no thanks to the drink. I understand you want to talk to me about some exchange programme."

"Yes, yes." Robson gathered his thoughts as he swirled his drink around in glass. "The authorities above me have decided that this hospital should advertise your department to the world. I know you don't want people to know where you are, but they have decided that 9 years of hiding is enough. I argued till I was blue in the face with them, but they are bureaucrats, so they still decided anyway."

"The reason I asked to meet you is very simple, I would like for you to choose a team of three or four other people to go to London to introduce your research and your work. The ICW is demanding greater cooperation between countries and I'm afraid that politicians in this country want to cash in on your fame. They felt you owed them for granting US nationality and allowing you to hide here without anyone else knowing."

"You've got to be shitting me! They expect me to go over and give speeches about the work my department does so that they can show off a little!" harry groaned. "I haven't got any choice really, have I? No, didn't think so."

"Harry, they didn't say anything about you giving the speeches, just that you had to go with them. Choose people to go with you that can give speeches and explain your work the best. You don't even have to stand up and receive ovation, you just need to go there. There is some urgency though…" Seeing Harry's raised eyebrow, he continued. "The conference starts on Monday and goes on for three weeks."

Harry didn't even shout he knew it wouldn't do any good; he just sat back and groaned. The details were hashed out between them and finally harry made his way to the department. He knew he needed to take three others: a nurse to explain about the caring, a doctor for the actual healing and a research fellow for the… well research obviously. He quickly called all staff together and explained what the situation was, three weeks of talks, conferences and dining and wining (but no 69-ing! – if you had a partner). The plan was simple: he would take a nurse, doctor and researcher, but in order for everyone to get the most of out it, he was going to alternate with people. Nine people would get to go, three per week; it was starting on Monday, but he knew that some people had obligations over the next few weeks. Over the next few hours, he managed to draw up a time table for who would be coming and when. Some of the staff did not want to go because they didn't want to talk in public, they weren't comfortable with it. Harry was fine with that and just wanted everyone to be happy.

When he got home, he found a message on his answer phone from Luna asking him to call her as quickly as possible and whatever the time was. Fortunately, it wasn't that late so he dialled her mobile (he never did get used to US terminology) and didn't need to wait very long for her to answer.

"Harry, how are you? I've got some very bad news for you."

"Hi Luna, I'm good. What are these news? No-one's been hurt or anything."

"No no, nothing like that. I mean Ron broke his arm stopping a goal, but that's not what's important. I was walking through the ministry today and heard that the ICW has organised a conference on child care and healing to start next week."

"I know Luna, I found out today as well. I am coming over on Sunday with three others to talk. Well, they'll talk and I'll loiter in the background. It's not that bad really, the others do all the talking and get to promote their names about. I don't see… there's something else isn't there? Something that we don't know here."

"Harry, it's the person organising it. Well the ministry wanted the conference to go perfectly you see and…"

"No Luna, please God no, tell me you're joking. Not her, please not her…"

"I'm sorry Harry, Hermione is organising it."

AN: This idea had been in my head for a while and I wrote this chapter a long time ago, so I now put it online for your opinions please.