AN: Today is November 7th (at least in India it is, two hours to go in Sweden). That means that today is Penny's (padfootastic) birthday. This one is not only an amazing and supportive friend whom I love very much; she is also an amazing writer with a gift for writing amazing fics, her stories are always full of vivid descriptions and I am struck with how her mind works in wondrous ways. I am very happy to call this beautiful little creature my friend. With that being said. Penny, I could not decide what to write. So, I decided to write a lot of things that I hope you will like. I hope this makes you happy and that you have an amazing birthday. You know me well enough to understand that I either give things / projects 100% or 0% so hopefully you won't think I'm a creep for this!
I feel like I should add that these one-shots gave me some serious ideas and all of them can be developed either into multi-chapter fics or more one-shots. Right now, I haven't got the faintest idea of which to go with.
Title: Dad, Are You Still There?
Characters: Harry Potter, James Sirius Potter & Hermione Granger.
Pairing: Mentions Draco x Hermione, Ginny x Lee and mentions of possible Harry x Daphne.
Warning: AU! SingleDadHarry! HarryHermioneFriendship. Ginny and Harry divorced after James was born. There is no Albus or Lily. Dealing with a sensitive topic and some of you may think that what goes on in the fic is odd.
AN: I had James live with Harry for most parts of the time and Ginny has him on weekends. This might be viewed as controversial but I decided to write it like this because Ginny would have been able to keep playing quidditch and Harry would have been able to not work which I felt was appropriate. Logically this means that in this version Harry did not become an auror.
Word Count: 2, 478
Harry loved being a dad. He loved it much more than he thought he would. As soon as he saw his son's brown eyes that fear that had taunted him for nine months completely went away. He was in awe of this beautiful boy, this mix of him and Ginny, and although he had never heard of anyone speaking of fatherly emotions Harry was quite sure that's what he was experiencing. So, as soon as Ginny was allowed to go back to work she did and Harry stayed home with James. It was the best decision for both of them. Ginny would have gone completely mad if she was forced to stay home and do nothing. Harry on the other hand had experienced more excitement in his life than he wanted to and was more than fine with staying at home with James. They were fine. They really were. Then one day something changed.
It was hard to say if Ginny noticed it first or Harry. At the end of the day it didn't really matter. Both realised, by the time that James had turned a year old that something was different about their relationship. Harry still loved hearing his wife laugh and he felt an immense pride when he watched her train to become the best seeker she could possibly be or fly around the field with an intense competitive glare in her eyes. Ginny still adored Harry. She liked talking to him and he was an ever source of inspiration to her. Because even if life had taken so much from him, he still found a way to smile every day. But none of that mattered. Because something had changed. They still loved each other but they loved each other in a different way.
So, when James was two years old - Harry and Ginny had tried to rekindle their flame for a year – Harry took James and moved to Godric's Hollow. After many long discussions they had decided that would work for them. Harry enjoyed being a stay-at-home dad and Ginny loved playing quidditch. So, every weekend James would go to his mum and during the rest of the week he would be with Harry. The system had worked when they first put it to practice three years ago and it still worked. The only discussions that had ever appeared was about holidays but they had managed to solve that peacefully.
"Dad, are you still there?"
A small voice, a light voice, echoed through the house and reached the ears of Harry Potter who sat in the couch with two steaming cups of coffee on the table next to him. He held out his finger as if he had been counting down and looked at Hermione with a triumphant smile.
"I'm here, Jamie." The man answered within seconds and both adults heard a content sigh and good.
Harry loved it when James asked if he was still there. Not so much because of the question but because of the fact that he got to answer.
"He still asks you that." Hermione stated with the hint of a smile on her face.
"Yeah," Harry nodded and glanced towards the stair that led up to the second floor. "I spoke to Ginny about it the last time I went to pick him up after one of their weekends and she told me that he still asks her too."
"Do you know why?"
Harry shook his head. "We asked him once but he said that he just wanted to check."
Hermione nodded as she reached for the cup that stood on the table. Her brown hair was pushed back in a ponytail and she wore a knitted sweater which was a little too big for her. Harry could tell by the way the sleeves kept sliding down and cover part and bits of her hands. Her legs were folded underneath her body and she leaned one arm against the side of the couch while looking at Harry with that knowing look on her face. It was a look that he had seen so many times before. A question always proceeded it.
"How is Ginny?"
An image of the redheaded woman with the brown eyes, that James had inherited, flashed before him. She had cut her long red hair of since becoming a professional quidditch-player and although she was still shorter than Harry and her brothers, the years of working out had affected her body and made her more muscular than before. He didn't doubt that Ginny was in better shape than he was even if Harry wasn't the most untrained person ever.
"She is good," he responded and copied Hermione's movement by reaching for the cup. "Training is going well and she has officially introduced James and Lee. So, she's feeling confident about them."
"How are you feeling about them?" Hermione asked. When she saw the look on his face – with one eyebrow raised – she almost spat the coffee back into the mug again.
"Obviously, I'm happy for them," he answered. "Ginny wanted to be in a relationship and she deserves to be with someone who loves her and cares about her; and Lee is great. He's been there for her even before they became involved. He gets along great with James."
They became quiet. Harry because he had nothing more to add. He ran his fingers through his raven-coloured hair and smiled at nothing while thinking about his ex-wife and her new boyfriend. If someone would have told him that this is what his relationship with Ginny would turn into then he wouldn't have believed them. If someone told him on their wedding day that their relationship was not meant to last for the rest of their lives then he would have called bullshit. But now, he was fine with it. It might not have turned into what he thought it would but somehow it turned out great.
"So, how are you and Draco?"
This time Hermione did spit out her coffee. Her cheeks turned into a violent red colour and while drying away drops of brown liquid from her chin she looked accusingly at Harry.
"We're good."
Harry hummed. "That's good. Is he still nagging you about the project you guys worked on together?"
Hermione rolled her eyes but nodded. "Oh yeah. If there's anything that I've learned about him these past few months then it's that he does not like to be out of the loop. That man wants to know exactly what is going on in every project that he has ever been involved in. It's amazing unless you are the one working on the project in question and are aware of how many rules you would break by telling him."
"So," Harry wanted to laugh but somehow managed to stop himself. When Hermione first told him that she was dating Draco he thought that she was lying but the more he thought about it the more he could see why the blond man and his best friend worked well together. "How many rules have you broken?"
"Fifteen," Hermione responded without hesitation. "I counted them before coming here."
Harry laughed as a sentence entered his mind, a sentence that he never thought he would use when discussing Hermione and Draco Malfoy. "You guys are just too cute."
She leaned closer to him and pushed his shoulder which only made him laugh louder. "We are not cute."
"I beg the differ Hermione," Harry was still laughing when he put the cup back on the table. "You two, you and Draco, are so cute that I genuinely don't know what to do sometimes. Even James thinks that you're cute and he's only five years old. Merlin, I even talked to Ron once who said that he thought you two were completely adorable."
"Adorable?" Hermione raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "You just crossed the line mister. I believe that James might have said something about us but I doubt that Ron did. Maybe Luna. Have you seen those two together yet?"
Harry shook his head and Hermione laughed. "It's the cutest thing, I swear. I would never have guessed that those two would work so well together but now that I've seen them together. They're like a match made in some kind of weird heaven-like place."
"Some heaven-like place," Harry laughed. "That sounds about right."
"Speaking of heaven-like places," Hermione said and once more gave Harry that look which he knew would result in question that he probably wouldn't like. "Did you ever ask Daphne out on that date?"
The raven-haired boy groaned loudly and pushed his glasses upwards so that he could rub his eyes. "I knew you were going to bring that up."
"Well, duh obviously, you brought this on yourself Potter. You talk about my love life and I talk about yours, that's deal," Hermione moved to sit more comfortably. "So, spill."
Harry rolled his eyes. "We went on a date and it was nice. A few days later we ran into each other and she invited me for dinner at her flat. I'm going there this Saturday."
"That's great Harry," his best friend said in a soft tone of voice while nodding. "This is good for you. You've been single for three years. I'm not saying that you're not allowed to be single; for all I care you never have to be in another relationship ever if you don't want to. But it's good that you're trying; it's good that you're giving her a chance. Maybe this time it'll be different."
Different. Harry nodded. There wasn't a doubt in his mind about that. If him dating Daphne would turn into a relationship then he knew that it would be different in comparison to the relationship with Ginny. The two women couldn't be compared to each other. Daphne had grown up with a silver spoon in her hand, they never struggled with money, they were always respected and elves took care of everything from cooking to cleaning and so much more than that. She had blond hair, recently turned into a pixie cut, because her parents didn't like it with silvery grey eyes which sometimes bordered on white. Ginny had now short, red hair which made it look as if her head was on fire. She had brown eyes and freckles across her face. She had to work for everything she had and knew that nothing grew on trees. You had to fight for what you wanted because nothing ever came for free. The only thing they had common were the fact that they had both struggled. Ginny had struggled to get to where she wanted to be profession wise; she had struggled with money and coming to terms with her less privileged past. Daphne had been forced to fight to get away from the reputation that followed her family; she had fought to become known for herself and not for being a member of one of the family which were one of the sacred twenty-eight.
"We'll see what comes out of it," Harry responded after a few seconds of thinking. He had been surprised when he realised that he was intrigued by Daphne Greengrass. "If you've taught me anything it's that people can surprise you if you only let them."
She was nothing like the girls, and later women, that he had fallen for earlier. She had nothing in common with neither Cho Chang nor Ginny. Harry had known exactly what made him fall for them; but with Daphne he just knew that there was something about her even if he couldn't say what that was.
"You also taught me something about blondes being your weakness," on cue Hermione groaned loudly and used her hands to hide her face. "Something about fingers, or am I mistaking you for someone else?"
Hermione groaned again. "Oh, shut up Harry. I was drunk and it was in the beginning before we were even properly we yet. How can you laugh at me? Do you enjoy watching me agonise over this?"
Harry nodded. "In all honesty, yes. I can't help it Hermione. You got drunk and you almost got into a fight. I had to pick you up at the police station and then back here you start talking about Draco Malfoy's magical fingers. That is a scenario that I never, ever in my wildest fantasies ever thought that I would live to see."
Hermione groaned again. The sound appeared to come from her stomach; it was as if her entire body suffered when reminded of the embarrassment that she had gone through. Harry would have felt bad if it weren't for the fact that she was also laughing.
"I hate you." She said after creating enough space between her fingers for her to look at him.
Harry shook his head. "No, you don't. You love me. We're best friends you and I. Practically siblings."
"Then you're my least favourite brother." She commented and reached for the coffee cup. Her cheeks were still violently red.
"I'd be your only brother Hermione, unless you're counting Ron and that would be disturbing..."
Hermione frowned and muttered that he was right under her breath. She then tilted her head to the side. "Have I told you lately that I hate you?"
Harry laughed. "Yeah, you did actually."
Things may not have ended up the way he wanted them to or the way Harry had necessarily expected them to. Merlin knows he didn't think that he was going to be a stay-at-home dad when he was younger. He didn't think that his first marriage would end in a divorce and he definitely didn't think that he would be dating someone like Daphne Greengrass. But he was and life was pretty great.
He glanced at the clock which hung on the wall to their left. A few minutes had gone by. Just long enough for…
"Dad, are you still there?" Harry couldn't help but smile at the sound of his voice.
He had never thought about having children when he was younger. He couldn't imagine what it was like, no matter how hard he tried. Then James was born and he couldn't imagine what it would be like not having children. No sound could ever measure up with the sound of his son laughing or just talking. No one, other than a second child, would ever evoke that intense love that he felt for his son. Harry was sure that him being a father was a big reason to why he was happy with life. His son and his friends made him happier than he ever thought was possible. It didn't matter that thinks didn't go as planned.
"Yeah Jamie," he replied for the second time that evening with a heart that was practically bursting from happiness. "I'm still here."
The end