Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else for that matter. Obviously
I'm not afraid to say it
Chapter One: Not so bland after all
It was eight pm on a wonderful Thursday afternoon. Hermione's spirits were high and her smile was wide as she closed her own little book store in Diagon alley. She grabbed her white and black plaid hand bag, her tan rain coat and set of keys and locked up the store. Wallend Granger was her very own book store, a nice muggle and magical blend of textbooks, magazines, pleasure reads and other various reading materials. Hermione was happy to supply them all to anyone who came by looking for them. It put a great smile on her face every day when magic folk bought books from the muggle world, especially after all the "Pure-blood" business.
Hermione liked the street of which her shop was located. It was only about fifty yards from her flat across the street so she was never late for work; of course she set her own hours but had to fit to the demand of the people. The other store owners around her were very kind and they acted as sort of a street family. Mr. Marrow always gave her a discount on groceries from his shop, Angie and Maya Hugh always managed to squeeze her in for a mani-pedi whenever she wanted at their beauty salon, Ricky Mason never turned her down for a deal on her bath soaps, beads, and perfumes, and the shoe shop owner [who refused to reveal his real name] was nice enough to get her a free pair of flip flops in summer and winter boots for chilly weather. In return Hermione gave their Hogwarts students a fifty percent off deal on books and other school supply items. After a long day of working the owners closed shop and had a sit down dinner at the café on the next block twice a week, each week they took turns paying. She enjoyed having friends like that after everything that had happened to her.
Her parents were gone and she had no way of knowing where they were or how to retrieve their memories if she did find them; her love life, or rather her marriage, was a complete disaster and she saw no point in fixing it any time soon, so the only thing going good for her now was her store and the friends she acquired for being a good neighbor.
On the nights she didn't go out on she would come home precisely at eight fifteen, take her shoes off at the door and slip into the bath for at least a half hour. Harry would be home before she got out of the tub and already have dinner started so by the time she would be dressed in a loose nighty and dinner would be on the table. Since Harry didn't have to waste his life worrying about a power crazed evil wizard killing masses of people any more he had time to actually live, which including turning out to be a great cook to Hermione's pleasure, and he was an excelled fencer, another hobby he took up with all his free time. After dinner Harry and Hermione rested together cuddling in bed and that was it for the night. At seven the next morning the two would wake up and go their separate ways for work.
Naturally this hum and drum lifestyle bored Hermione to tears but she saw no solution to it. It was comfortable and pleasant with no other downside besides the fact that it wasn't the adventure and excitement that she had come to know and love. And she could never imagine leaving Harry. He was still her best friend and helped her out around the house and such. Harry was the ideal husband in every way; he brought home enough "bacon" to give them a semi comfortable life with Hermione fitting the rest, he cooked and had no issues cleaning, he was always willing to listen to her side of their very rare arguments and on top of all that he wasn't too bad a lover. Of course he was the only one she had ever had so she couldn't say much on the subject but she was sure someone as Harry Potter, who was physically fit on every aspect of his body, was as great in bed as any other man.
Even with nothing to openly complain about there was a part of Hermione that just couldn't settle for such a bland taste of cherry pie. She was used to exotic, homemade blueberry and now she only had store bought artificially flavoured cherry. Now she was smart enough never to go to Harry with her concerns. She was unhappy, not stupid. If she ever told him anything then she could kiss comfort goodbye and be on a constant speed dating cycle for the rest of her life while she struggled to get the bills paid. She might even have to move in with Ginny and Dean Thomas, which would have been awkward seeing as how Ginny still obviously wanted Harry, even Dean could see it. Instead of confronting her husband she saw to it that he never knew about her fight to keep a smile on her face concerning their home life, as well as anyone else. Hermione could only imagine the media and the social embarrassment that a divorce from the most famous wizard of all time would get her.
So day by day she did the same things and did it all with a smile. After a while it was second nature and she figured herself a damn good actor. It wasn't as if she didn't love Harry, because she did, but she craved for an ounce of danger or mystery, something like what they used to have back at Hogwarts. And while hoping that one day that delight would return she continued her easily hidden façade, going on like an android or some kind of rag doll going to the same tea party every day. It wasn't hard for her; she was Hermione Jean Potter after all. What could go wrong with pretending to be happy?
…
Harry Potter led a near perfect life. He had gotten his dream job with great pay, he had a nice home, and he married his best friend for whom he had known for fifteen years this September. Being an Auror was something that most kids dream of but he never thought it would come true for him. When it did he rushed home to Hermione and made love to her right then and there on the couch, bought them a town car, and had the extra room in their house furnished for their future family. He might have overreacted but his excitement was unmet by any other even in his life so far. The only thing that could have put a brighter beam on his pearly whites then was if he had found out that Hermione was pregnant. She wasn't so with this he was fine with. Harry's life since then war's end had only gone up on the greatness scale. After getting that job he was pleased to find out that Hermione's bookstore was a full on success and they even got free perks from the nice neighbors and also store owners nearby. In his eyes he was only three little baby steps from getting the family that he always wanted. First he had to build up enough funds to raise the kiddies, [and with his high pay it would only take a few months of savings to do so] secondly he had to convince Hermione that they were ready, and finally he just had to get her to take a maternity leave from the store. The last two would prove to be most difficult seeing as Hermione hated not working and having kids would get her way of running the store, but Harry wasn't about to give up. He simply had to catch up with all of his friends in their silent baby race. Luna and Ron had gotten twins on the first try and she was pregnant with their third currently and Draco Malfoy, although they weren't exactly friends had one and one on the way. It might have been selfish of Harry to want to hurry Hermione up but he was so giving in every other department that he figured it wasn't a crime to want kids so badly.
Other than the lack of spawn Harry was fine. His and Hermione's life was one that others were envious of. Everything stayed the status quo which was a relief for Harry, who spent seven years battling a lunatic with a wand and a high capacity for killing innocent people, and the downtime he had now was amazing. Monday through Friday he had work then the weekends he used to practice fencing or perfect a new dish. This was a life that he had wanted so desperately when he was a teenager, but it was too late to complain now; he had it too good to think back on the hard times. Each morning at seven he got up and kissed Hermione awake, ran to get ready for work, apparated promptly at eight, got to the Ministry of Magic, protected the wizard and parts of the muggle community from other lunatics that thought they had what it took to be Voldemort for twelve hours, had a drink with Ron, Dean and Seamus at the Leaky Cauldron, went home and cooked dinner then slept with Hermione only to repeat the same steps again the next morning.
The simplicity was no problem for him. In fact he cherished every minute of it. There were no more safe houses, no more dead comrades, no more loony Death Eaters, although there were some that tried to start all that mess up again, no more scar pain, and no more bloody nightmares. This was what Harry called bliss. Holidays and birthdays were spent at the Weasleys', who had gotten a nice sum of money from winning the small jackpot lottery at a Gringotts event a few years back and completely remodeled their home, so if he couldn't have children right away he at least had them and Hermione.
The one downside to his perfect life was a little redhead he knew a Ginny Thomas. Yes she was married and eight months pregnant with Dean's baby, yes she kept telling everyone that she was fine with their breakup even though no one ever mentioned it, and yes Harry had made it clear to her personally that he was not interested. But for some unknown reason she was to it that she call him all the time while he was at work and to send him little messages in his work locker, candies and chocolates. In her mind, Harry guessed, she was trying to say that it didn't bother her if they had to have an affair. Of course Harry ignored all of her silly little signals but it was clearly not enough for her. Harry never said a word to anyone about all her attempts to get in his pants but they figured it out since at family functions and get-togethers she was always near him. It bugged him to no end but he just chalked it up to her pregnancy even though it had started before her baby bump existed. Harry felt like he was being stalked and perhaps he was with all the gifts and notes she sent to him. All that mattered to him was that Hermione knew he would never stray from her, and because she did know then Harry had nothing to worry about.
He went on about his business, continued throwing all the Ginny gifts away, and waited for the day when Hermione broke the new to him that they were finally pregnant.