Disclaimer: JKR owns the wonderful world of Harry Potter.
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"Close your eyes," Harry told his wife, "I have a surprise for you."
"Come on Harry! Is this really necessary? I really am not in the mood. The baby kicked all night, preventing me from sleeping, my back is killing me, and I think I have been to the bathroom every ten minutes." Ginny whined. She had been cleaning the kitchen when Harry had Flooed home. She was exhausted and just wanted to finish her cleaning so she could sit down. When she saw his excited face she reluctantly obliged to Harry's request. He grabbed her hand and Side-Along Apparated her to the front of a large house.
"Alright, you can open them now." Harry could hardly hold his excitement and nervousness in. He had been planning this for months and finally it was time to reveal his surprise. She opened her eyes and looked at the house in front of her. It was a large two story stone house with a beautiful garden in front. She could tell it was an older home, but well kept up.
"What is this?" She turned and looked at her husband.
"Well, this is our new house," he said sheepishly. She continued to stare at him. It took a few seconds for it to sink in.
"Our what!" She exclaimed. She was not sure if she had heard him right. Harry started to nervously run his hand through his hair.
"I figured, the flat we are in is kind of small and we might want a bigger place. This was one of the Potter houses that I inherited. It was the smallest of them. Believe me when I say the Potters loved their large homes. So when I found this one I decided to fixed it up and thought I would surprise you with it. The only thing left to be do is the nursery, which I figured you would want a say in that." He nervously watched his wife look from the house, to him, back to the house. Finally a small smile formed on her face.
"Well are you going to show me the inside, or will we just stand here until I go into labor?"
"Dad, are you sure you'll be ok by yourself?" Albus asked hesitantly. He looked at his father sitting at the kitchen table with an untouched cup of tea in front of him.
"Al, we went over this. You have already taken to much time off of work. You have to go back to Norway." Harry looked at his grown son. It was hard to believe that all of his children were grown and out of the house. Albus ran his hand through his black hair, very much like his father often did.
"Alright dad, but if you need anything, let me know. I have a few months left in Norway. I should be home for your birthday and I will have a couple weeks home before they send me off to my next location." Albus put his arm around his dad. It was hard to see his father broken like this. He had always been so strong. "I love you dad."
Harry hardly noticed when Albus left. He was not sure how long he sat there staring at his tea. Eventually he got up and went upstairs. He stared at all of the doors in front of him. When he had fixed up this house he had seen the large number of rooms as potential, enough room for Teddy, the new baby and any other children that might come along. Now all the empty rooms seemed haunted to him. All of his children had now left the house. The house was full of empty rooms.
He stared at the door that led to the master bedroom, the room he and Ginny had shared for 25 years. He had not slept in there since Ginny had left him. He had only entered the room to get some clothes from the closet. He sighed, and walked back down the stairs. He ambled from room to room, finally settling down on the couch in his study.
That was where Hermione found him several hours later, fast asleep. She decided not to wake him, but instead went into the kitchen and started to cook something for dinner. She was sure that he had not eaten a decent meal since the funeral meal three days ago. Even though Albus had been staying here, she knew he was very much like Harry, who really did not do much cooking.
The smell of food woke Harry up from his nap. He was a bit confused by the smell. He thought he was the only one at the house. He went into the kitchen and found Hermione setting the table.
"Oh good, your up. Sit down. The food is almost ready." Hermione pushed Harry into the chair and brought the food to the table.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.
"Can't a friend come over and check on her grieving best friend?" Hermione pretended to be hurt by his words. Harry chuckled softly, something he had not done for a while.
"I didn't mean you shouldn't be here, I was just a bit confused by your presence." Harry started to eat the food in front of him, which made Hermione smile.
"Ron and I decided that you needed someone to check up on you periodically for a while. I knew that Albus was leaving today, and I figured you might be lonely."
"You and Ron were in the same room together?" Harry asked raising his eyebrow.
"Hey, we have been very civil with each other since the divorce. Anyways, there should be someone checking on you every day for the next couple of weeks, or until it seems you are alright."
"I don't need to be watched like a child. I can take care of myself." He was bit upset that his friends thought of him in such a way. He had after all survived many encounters with Voldemort, even faced his own death at 17.
"We know you can take care of yourself physically, it's your emotional state we are worried about. We love you and don't want you to waste away into depression." He looked into her eyes, and saw sincere concern.
"Thank you," he whispered. He was not sure how he would make it through the next few days, weeks, months, and years. He was glad he had such a good friend by his side.
Hermione stayed long enough to wash up the dishes, but then she said goodbye, leaving Harry alone once again. He sat at the kitchen table for a while, unsure what to do. Suddenly he was overwhelmed by a wave of grief. How could he continue on without Ginny?
He sobbed for an hour before he finally calmed down a bit. He wanted to go with Ginny, leave this world, but he knew that was not what she wanted him to do. So instead he decided the next best thing would be to try and forget about the world and be numb to it. He went to the cabinet to see what alcohol he had on hand.