Note: These next two chapters are a quick summary of Harry's life before Middle-earth. No elves until chapter 5, but I beg you to bear with me because the events in these chapters are actually important later on in the story.
Chapter 2: After the War (or the Beginning of the End)
Harry's new scar scared him. Most of the time, it throbbed like something living, but then there were other times it burned. He simply couldn't figure out a pattern to why it was doing what it did. He tested the theory that it hurt when Death was near, much like his previous curse scar had hurt when Voldemort was in proximity. After lurking around hospital hallways for two days he concluded that no, the scar did not pain him when someone nearby died. Then he was able to rule out that the reaction was triggered by any sort of proximity to another when one of the most violent attacks found him alone in the shower. There was simply nothing to go on.
After that fateful meeting with Death, Harry did his utmost best to limit the number of people who knew about his new condition. Madam Pomfrey and the St Mungo's healers knew about the mark but they didn't know where it came from or what it meant. He had asked them to let the matter lie and the two healers had eagerly agreed to grant the Man-Who-Conquered a favour. Madam Pomfey had given him an indecipherable look and didn't bring it up again.
Ginny had to be told when the mark started burning during a leisurely snogging section. Before Harry even knew it, Hermione had been told and was dragging Ron along to the library for research. At least he had managed to contain it before everyone in the semi-destroyed castle had been made aware of his new condition. With things as they were, his new scar would have made front page news within the hour.
Other than The Scar, Harry's life finally seemed to be falling into place. He and Ron were accepted into Auror training without even needing to sit their NEWTS, Hermione insisted on going back to school to complete her education and the Weasley family was focusing on planning George's wedding to Angelina rather than mourning Fred's death. Even the Malfoys had been pardoned of their crimes and released back into society on probation.
January of 1999 saw Harry renovating Grimmauld Place, spending time at Andromeda's with his godson, training his body to exhaustion with the other trainee Aurors and RSVP'ing to two wedding invitations and five Ministry functions. He was there to receive his Order of Merlin First Class with Ron and Hermione, to see Kingsley be sworn into office as the new Minister of Magic, to congratulate George and Angelina on their marriage (and then to do the same with much less sincerity for Draco and Astoria), to attend the Ministry Spring Ball and the War Orphans Relief Benefit, and to shake hands with the Veela nation's liaison at a Magical Creature Co-operation Conference.
Luna, Ginny and Hermione graduated from Hogwarts in July. Luna departed for an extended research trip with her father, Ginny earned herself a reserve position with the Holyhead Harpies and Hermione found employment within the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. This allowed for Harry to spend more time exploring the chemistry between himself and his sweetheart and having his ear talked off by a genius but much stressed witch in the midst of planning her wedding to one Ronald Weasley.
The Weasley family did its best to make Harry feel like part of the family and Mrs Weasley seemed to delight in putting him on the spot about his relationship with her darling daughter. When even Percy saw fit to get himself engaged, Mrs Weasley's subtle hints about Harry and Ginny's upcoming nuptials suddenly turned to busy planning and a tangible reality.
In the meantime, Harry's scar ceased to be as big of a physical nuisance, only to now consume Harry's every thought. Some knowledge about it was niggling at the back of his head and he just could not let it go. He spent every spare moment in the Ministry and Black libraries, trying to find what it was that was escaping him. He became withdrawn from those around him, focussing wholly on his career and the leftover mysteries of the War.
Harry completed his Auror training in November 1999 and was a week into the job when he was made the offer. The Department of Mysteries had taken notice of his efforts in researching the Veil, the Death Eater marks and some of the more obscure battle spells the victims of which still resided in St Mungo's. They offered him a position as an Unspeakable which he accepted after a bad argument with Ginny that transpired a month later.
He knew it was a mistake to accept and that doing so would ruin the carefully planned normalcy he was striving forwards but he simply could not resist the pull of investigating the unknown. Unspeakables did not have the luxury of going up to their families and saying "I'm working at the Department of Mysteries". On paper, Harry was transferred to the Investigation Department which allowed him to excuse long absences as undercover assignments or research trips. He was also assigned a Shield.
A Shield was a Ministry of Magic employee who helped in maintaining the secret of an Unspeakable's identity. Other than the Head of the Department of Mysteries – a severe woman who reminded Harry of McGonagall and demanded that she be addressed as sir – his Shield would be the only one who knew what he truly did for a living. So imagine Harry's surprise when he was told that the one responsible for covering his tracks and redirecting his family's and the press' attention was none other than Draco Malfoy.
He had to lean of his schoolyard enemy for support and what he found the hardest to stomach was how easy the task became after a scant two months. Either married life agreed with the Malfoy heir or surviving the War had caused him to mature. He was professional when required, efficient without asked, funny when relaxed, and supportive when the need arose for him to forgo sarcasm and don tack. Harry liked the ferret and that surprised him, maybe even more than the unexpected turn other aspects of his life were taking.
Harry didn't have time to work on social niceties. His research was captivating, exhausting and often time sensitive, with one or a thousand lives hanging in the balance. He had no time for press interviews or Ministry Balls or dinner benefits. He had no time for Hermione's rants on the failings of her Department or Ron's sulking for being assigned a partner nothing like Harry. He had no time for Ginny and her picket fence dreams.
The only one he made sure to make time for was Teddy and that was only because he found himself completely in love with the young metamorphmagus and his antics. When he confided in Draco about his inability to make time for social engagements, the Malfoy heir looked at him from above that perfectly sculptured nose and called him an introverted hermit and unsociable peasant.
By the time May 2000 came about and baby Weasleys started popping up all over the place, Harry had removed himself so far from civilisation he was surprised to have been notified of the births. Fleur gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on the anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts and Draco saw fit to pull him from the bowels of the Ministry so that he be present for the birth. Angelina gave birth two weeks later to a healthy baby boy they named Fred in honour of his uncle. In passing Harry wondered if this would become some sort of competition among the Weasley boys as to who would have the most kids.
Ginny broke up with him in early June and proceeded to date a member of the Appleby Arrows. Harry could not bring himself to be too broken up about it since he was dealing with a very obscure curse at the time. In the face of an entire muggle village cursed to revert to cannibalism, relationship trouble took a backseat. When the issue was resolved and the Obliviators had been sent out to deal with the survivors Harry was left with a pile of Howlers and a rift a mile wide between him and the Weasley family. Hermione still talked to him, but as her feminist views had prevented her from taking her husband's surname, she was technically only a half Weasley.
After two months spent researching and not even taking the time to travel back home to rest, Harry had to admit that he was falling into depression. He understood that he needed to make an effort if he was to retain ties to people, but couldn't they see that there were bigger things to worry about?
In the end it was Draco who pulled him out of his misery. He dragged him to Grimmauld place, threw him in the shower and after making him reasonably presentable, dragged him to the nearest bar and got him piss drunk. Harry wasn't sure how helpful he found the intervention but he was sure he was thankful for it sometime after he stopped making friends with the toilet bowl.
Draco about had an aneurism when he found Harry back in his office the following morning but the Man-Who-Conquered managed to convince him that he was not actually working. That or Draco got tired of screaming at him after the first three hours, he wasn't sure which. The truth was though that he was not actually working. He was rather piecing together some of his more harmless research as a peace offering to someone he knew might be open to accepting it as such.
It only took him till noon to get all the research in order and when he waltzed past Draco's office to announce he'd be taking his lunch at Diagon Alley he had the pleasure of seeing the visage of a bewildered Malfoy. With a skip in his step and a folder of papers in his hands he caught the floo to the Leaky Cauldron and didn't even allow his clumsy landing to impact his good mood. He made a beeline to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and presented a bewildered (HA! That is two in one hour!) George Weasley with his precious folder.
When a little less than a year later the Weasley family showed up at St Mungo's Delivery Ward for the birth of Angelina's second baby, they were more than a little surprised to find Harry already there, patiently listening to George's long-winded rant about stubborn wives. When George was finally allowed in the delivery room, that surprise turned to aggravation as Harry was dragged inside to be the first to see the newborn Septimus Weasley. Harry was too delighted about the new baby to notice.
After Septimus' birth, Mrs Weasley and Ginny maintained an air of cold avoidance whenever Harry was around, but the rest of the Weasley family made an effort to include him back in the fold. Mr Weasley invited him to lunch on his breaks, Ron and Hermione invited him to monthly dinners much like old times and didn't get offended when he never shared his own work anecdotes as long as he listened to theirs, and even Fleur arranged for him to bring Teddy over to Victoire's play dates.
When October 2000 rolled around it found an irate Draco slamming a pristine white envelope on Harry's desk and demanding that he take down his owl redirecting wards or he won't be responsible for his actions. Long familiar to the nature of his relationship with the younger Malfoy, Harry merely grinned and opened the invitation to Neville and Luna's wedding. Well, now that wasn't something he had seen coming.
He had had little contact with the two. Luna had been overseas, at times sending him cryptic letters that he could swear were written in code and contained information that helped advance his studies. That or he was going crazy and making stuff up out of Luna's gibberish. Either way, it was working so he always made an effort to reply to her letters with short but sincere messages. Neville had been completing his Herbology apprenticeship and was more often than not more entangled in his research than Harry. Then again, he did remember something in Luna's latest letter about finding a long-bottomed griffhawk a few months back. That girl had a weird sense of humour.
It turned out that Harry was right about the child bearing thing turning into a competition. Dominique Weasley was born to Bill and Fleur in January 2003, followed by Yavanna and Vána Longbottom who were born in April of that same year. (Vána and Yavanna sounded better in Harry's head, but apparently Yavanna had been born first so her name had to come first according to Luna.) Roxanne Weasley was born to George and Angelina in August 2004 leading to Angelina having a very long talk with her husband about contraceptive charms and the joys of sleeping on one's couch.
In the meantime, Harry finally found the balance between his job and social life, but found himself incapable of seeking a relationship. His role as Master of Death was coming back to haunt him as he was now twenty-four years of age and barely looked eighteen. Sir was made privy of his condition (yes, Harry called his Head of Department that even in his head) and the Department of Mysteries added the legend of the Deathly Hollows to their list of mysteries to be investigated. As only the cloak still remained in existence Harry doubted that whoever picked up that mystery would have much luck in solving it.
Hermione got fed up with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (Harry had gotten fed up of having to pronounce its full name in conversation) so she transferred over to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She was working for the Wizengamot Administration Services, but the Wizengamot elections were coming up soon and she had her eye on a seat on the Council.
Ron was quickly rising up the ranks in the Auror Department and seemed to understand that he may not have had the same opportunities he has now had Harry remained in the Department so he had grudgingly forgiven his friend for the perceived abandonment. He also recognised Harry's need to keep a low profile due to his unchanging appearance so he stopped pressing for Harry to join the Ministry's various Balls to which the three war heroes had standing invitations.
George and Angelina were made privy to Harry's secret during Angelina's third pregnancy when she broke down and cried her eyes out because she was fat, old and ugly while Harry was not. Harry and George had enlisted Fred and Septimus to aid them in a prank so as to cheer her up which resulted in Harry being banned from their house for the next three months. In his opinion it was totally worth it.
Draco was made aware of the Master of Death thing by the Department of Mysteries as part of his duties as a shield. He had sulked for a week when he realised that he would age while Harry would not. Then he had proceeded to fall into a deep-seated depression that required Harry to crawl to his office and beg for forgiveness only for his apology to be met by Draco's bewildered face which had become much more commonplace over the years.
It turns out he could care less about Harry's immortality, as his mother and Astoria had banded together in a demand for grandchildren and children respectively. When Harry asked why that was such a bad thing, Draco gifted him with a look reminiscent of the ones Death had regarded him with all those years past and proceeded to inform him, in graphic detail, why arranged marriages sucked before throwing him out of his office so that he could file (read: sulk) in peace.
Eventually Narcissa and Astoria wore down on Draco's misgivings about having a child because in January 2006 Harry was being named godfather to one Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy. It seems that Ron had managed to work wonders with Hermione as well because it was hardly seven months later that the Weasley family was welcoming its newest member, Rose Weasley.
Louis Weasley was born to Bill and Fleur in February 2007, leading Harry to wonder at what drove the Weasley males. Bill, George and Ron seemed to only be able to see family while Percy could care less about children and was wholly focussed on his career. On the other hand, Charlie had crashed all of Molly's dreams by announcing years past that he was as bent as they come and that no children would come from him. From what Harry knew the dragon handler had had two steady boyfriends in the past ten years and a string of jilted lovers.
As for Ginny, she seemed to have nothing but a string of failed relationships after Harry and only seemed to be settling down now with a nice columnist working for the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Harry was happy for her and hated that he had impacted her in such a big way. He loved her, but he could now see that nothing would have come from that love. She was a sister to him and the pressure he had put on himself to be normal was what drove him to fall for the nice, safe option found in his best friend's sister. Maybe if the whole immortal thing hadn't been an issue they would have worked out, who knew?
The end of June of 2007 found Harry sniggering in the Ministry corridors every time he passed by Draco. Astoria had recently announce to the papers that she was three months pregnant with her second child and Harry could not help but remember Draco's face when he had ran into Harry's office close to tears when he found out about the news (Harry had had a talk with Astoria about that, letting your husband find out about your pregnancy from the papers was just cold).
After a long night of drinks, Harry had stopped laughing at Draco when the Malfoy had tearfully admitted that he had been drunk when he had sought out her bed. It was sad to envision anyone in the sad position his friend found himself in. At least Scorpius was a point of sunshine in his life.
Caelum Coeus Malfoy was born on a cold December morning. Harry truly felt for the little boy. Not only was he going to get hell for his name, the amount of reporters that Astoria had allowed to be present outside the delivery room before Draco had arrived had been simply staggering. Harry maintained that there was something wrong with purebloods (Draco was the exception) because no decent parent would hold up their newborn for photographs so as to claim two minutes of fame on the Daily Prophet's front page. It was cruel.
After Caelum's birth nothing of note happened. Life fell into routine, with the only difference being that Harry's once secret was now pretty much public knowledge. Everyone could see that the Saviour of the Wizarding World wasn't aging, but other than Harry's immediate circle of friends and family, no one knew the truth as to why. The Daily Prophet speculated that it was the effect of a spell he had been hit with during the War and Harry had to congratulate them on coming up with something plausible. He shuddered to think what Rita's theories on the matter were.
The only marked change came in September of 2009 when Teddy Lupin was escorted to Platform 9 ¾ for the first time by his godfather, grandmother and a swarm of redheads. Those Christmas holidays were challenging for Harry as his godson returned from school with a horde of questions. Why hadn't he been allowed to practice magic outside of school like some of his classmates? Why weren't first years allowed to join a Quidditch team? Uncle Harry had been allowed. Why had did Professor McGonagall prowl the castle as a cat at night? Shouldn't she be relieved from her post as Headmistress if she had gone senile? Why were two seventh years hiding in an alcove past curfew and making icky noises? Where did children come from? Would Uncle Harry have children? Would Uncle Harry having children mean that he wouldn't love Teddy anymore? Teddy could make himself look like Uncle Harry if that made him not want other children. How would Uncle Harry have children if he didn't make icky noises in dark places? Should Teddy make icky noises?
Harry was flustered, annoyed, ran haggard, but mostly mortified at the questions brought forth by the adorable eleven-year-old. Children these days! He was pretty sure he had been at least fourteen before he even looked at another human that way, much less contemplated sex! Okay, Teddy didn't technically know he was asking about sex and Harry was far from the best example about having a normal childhood, but still! Andromeda was welcome to stop laughing at him any moment now. He was definitely paying McGonagall a visit once term started. Obviously the teachers were getting slack in their duties.
Harry's talk with McGonagall led to her behaving remarkably alike to how Andromeda had spent the holidays doing. Even Dumbledore's portrait had that laughing light in his eyes that had made Harry wonder if his old Headmaster had been all there. Maybe Teddy was right and McGonagall was going senile.
Fred and Victoire followed their honorary cousin to Hogwarts in 2011, with Septimus doing the same in 2012. With more kids prowling the halls of Hogwarts Harry was faced with even more questions. The most prominent seemed to be why he wasn't dating. He couldn't help but wonder what stories all the children currently at Hogwarts had grown up with to be so concerned about the Saviour's dating life.
To appease them (Teddy and Victoire, not the random children), Harry tried his hand at dating once more. It was suffice to say that the experiment ended with disastrous consequences. Just who was a thirty-two year old who looked eighteen supposed to date? Not to mention that his work with the Unspeakables made discussing about his work a mine field and his partners boring in comparison with what he saw and did every day. Fleur had even set him up with a Veela cousin who went full Veela on him (and by that he means hissing, clawing and fire throwing were involved rather than sexy times) when she saw Death's scar.
September 2014 saw Vána and Yavanna entering Hogwarts. Professor Longbottom was proud of his twin beauties despite everyone else being slightly freaked by how much they looked and acted like their mother only energy times infinity. In the meantime, Luna had said something weirdly mysterious before abandoning the Quibbler and all her outstanding research to enter Healer training. Harry would swear up and down his curious friend was a seer, which is why he couldn't help but shiver in trepidation whenever she looked at him with that lost, sad look she had taken to sport as of late.
On October 31st Harry was visiting his parents' graves when the news shook the Wizarding World so it wasn't until later when he was told by an ecstatic Hermione and apprehensive Ron. When he heard, Luna's mournful eyes came to haunt him and his blood froze. The muggles had discovered them. No amount of Obliviating was going to correct this so it was official, the muggles knew about the Wizarding World.