Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, if I did you would never have seen Ron Weasley after the fourth book.
Phoenix
Harry knew as he walked into the hospital ward that one way or another this would be the last visit of Harry James Potter to St Mungo's magical hospital. In his youth he had been admitted several times for various injuries, he marvelled at the fact that nothing seemed to have changed in the 140 years since he was nineteen and had last been a patient in this same ward.
Thankfully over those last 140 years he had had no need of the healing hands of the staff of this ancient hospital. As he arrived at the doors to the side ward where his life long best friend and the only woman he had ever truly loved lay close to the end of this life, he had to pause to wipe away the few tears over those that had betrayed him so long ago, some tears managed to escape from under his eye lids and run down his cheeks to moisten his pure white beard.
A quick check in his inside pocket verified for him he still had the two precious vials he had so carefully placed there on leaving his home. To Harry they were two of the three most precious items in the entire world, they were the key to his and Hermione's remaining future be it life or death.
The vials contained the only two doses of a potion he and Hermione had spent almost every waking minute of the past twenty years developing. He was not absolutely certain they would get the desired results when they drank the potion but comparing his notes with Hermione's older notes all his calculations seemed to point to the potion being ready. Now ready or not they were out of time, Hermione's body was finally succumbing to the treatment she had received from her husband, the husband that had passed away twenty five years earlier.
Harry had for several months now wished they could have found enough of the extremely rare ingredients to make an extra dose or two of the so very precious potion so that he could run some tests of some sort, but the potion called for a blood sample from a specific period in their lives, the only blood samples he could find from the correct time were the two drops of dried blood they had used on their banking contracts with Gringotts. Harry had tried to be meticulously careful when he removed their two tiny blood samples from the old parchments.
Harry James Potter the most famous and most powerful wizard alive had not informed the medical staff that he was there to collect Hermione Jane Weasley and that she would be leaving with him, they both knew she had just a few hours left to live and they did not wish to waste any of that time with any person who might have objection to Harry removing her from the hospital.
Entering her private room unseen Harry cast several security charms that were devised by Hermione and would ensure they had complete privacy. Hermione struggled as she tried to sit up to see what he was doing, but she was in no condition to manage on her own.
Harry sat down beside her on the bed and pulled out the two vials, holding them up he smiled at her his gentle green eyes filled with a deep love. "I finished the potion love. I didn't have enough to test it so I think I should lie beside you when we take it then if it fails we will at least go on to the next great adventure together."
Hermione smiled and with a small nod of her head she agreed with him. "Which ever way it goes Harry I want to be with you, I have loved you so long without being able to show you, that I will be happy what ever happens as long as we are together."
As he smiled down at the woman he loved he thought back to why they were about to do what they had planned. Over the years it seemed that no matter how hard they worked to change the British Wizarding world things remained more or less the same as they had been for centuries. The British Wizarding population were simply too stuck in their ways, too reliant on others to think for themselves, to steeped in the pureblood philosophy. Harry thought that it was highly possible that the entire population was stupid, they drove out Muggle born's by making any progress in their world impossible for them. Most Muggle born left the British Wizarding world within two or three years of leaving school and either worked in the Muggle world or travelled over seas where they were welcomed. Harry and Hermione had decided it was at last time for them to try some thing rather extreme.
Old as he was Harry still had the strength to lift Hermione into his arms, cradling her gently he kissed her fleetingly on the forehead before he tapped the small portkey he wore and they both vanished from the hospital room, reappearing in the bedroom of the house he had recently bought. Harry being gentle kissed her once again then laid Hermione on the large bed that was waiting for them. Having removed all his and her clothes he lay down next to her and pulled a sterilised white sheet over them.
Together the two old friends opened the small vials and after a quick tender kiss drank the contents in one gulp. Holding hands they both then lay back and fell into a deep, deep sleep. An hour later Harry James Potter and Hermione Jane Weasley vanished from the magical world without trace. Thanks to Hermione's timing charms that activated when they drank the potion not a single living person who knew them could remember if the two best friends were still alive or whether they had died.
Two full days and eleven hours had passed since they had taken the potion and Harry was beginning to wake up. The first thing he noticed was the weight pressing gently on his chest. Praying he was not dreaming or even worse 'dead', he slowly opened his eyes, what he saw was a head of beautiful wavy brown hair. As his feelings returned slowly to his body he felt the soft warm skin of the woman lying next to him and he knew that the potion had worked.
Harry James Potter and Hermione Jane Weasley no longer existed. In their place lay Harry James Granger and Hermione Jane Granger. Harry was amazed at how strong and fit he felt and he was pleasantly surprised that he once again had the body of a sixteen or seventeen year old. Looking at Hermione he was overjoyed to see the bright sparkling eyes of the woman he loved looking up at him with not a wrinkle to be seen on her beautiful face.
"It worked love; the magic infused potion worked and has made us both young again. We should get up and eat, turning back the aging process in our bodies so much will have used a lot of our core magic, it will require time and energy for it to rebuild." he told her quietly.
Hermione lay feeling the amazing comfort of finally being held in the naked embrace of the man she had loved for a little more than 140 years. "Eat later sweetheart," she replied not wanting to end the wonderful feelings that were rippling through her renewed body, for a while yet.
It was two hours later when they finally began to get up from their comfortable bed. "Harry! Harry your scar is gone, all your scars are gone," she almost shouted. "My scar is gone too, and the one on my arm. I never expected that."
Harry looked at the smooth flesh between her breasts and was amazed to see that the scar she had had since she was sixteen years old was completely gone. It had not been healed or hidden it was gone as though it had never been there. It was while Harry examined her chest that Hermione realised that he was at least eight inches taller than he had been, he had also lost that half starved look he had always had since the day she met him as an eleven year old.
They climbed out of bed after two hours of kissing and holding each other, both were feeling really hungry. They took their time eating their dinner and talking about the potion and trying to work out where their theory differed from their results. Though they had expected, or at least hoped that the potion would reverse the age of their bodies some so that they could live an extra five or ten years as husband and wife, neither had expected their bodies to become so young. They were both puzzled as to why their age had reduced so significantly and they were completely baffled about how all their scars, even tiny ones done as toddlers were completely gone.
After Harry had taken a shower Hermione had taken her shower, she left the bathroom with a truly puzzled look on her face. As soon as Harry noticed the look he asked what was wrong.
"Well Harry, either that potion created a miracle or somewhere we made a huge yet brilliant mistake in the making of it, my period just started, and that has to be impossible. I can't possibly be having a period not after all I suffered and then that last time that monster Ronald dead beat Weasley beat, me I was so bad I had to have a hysterectomy. I just simply can not be having a period no matter what it looks like. Either this is some sort of miracle or… well I don't know what to think." Hermione answered.
Two days later Hermione was still suffering the symptoms of a period so they decided to visit the healers in the local magical hospital in Kilkenny. It did not take them long to travel from Tomakeany the place they now lived to the hospital of St Patrick's and within minutes of arriving Hermione was being seen to by a healer.
The healers report was that for a sixteen year old Hermione was 100 percent fit and healthy, and extremely fertile. According to the healer she had never seen anyone who was so completely healthy with absolutely no sign of any past trauma or illness of any kind at all, except maybe new born babies. Astonished by what they were told Hermione had Harry undergo the same tests. Gone were all the signs of internal and external damage to his body, things like previous broken bones, basilisk venom and long term malnutrition from his preteen years that were normally found when he was examined. According to the healer sixteen year old Harry Granger was like Hermione 100 percent fit and healthy.
Arriving home the only theory that they could come up with was that with the magic enhanced potion being several hours old and not freshly made when they drank it, it had strengthened and somehow totally dismantled their bodies into their original basic DNA components and rebuilt them from scratch as if they had just left their mothers womb. Harry wondered if it could have been something to do with the blood samples he had used and the fact that he had used a phoenix feather quill to scrape the blood from the parchment. Hermione agreed with him and said that the blood might have been contaminated by the phoenix feather causing the phoenix tears in the potion to have the same effect as death had on a phoenix; it seemed that they had died and been reborn aged sixteen, the same age as when they had placed the blood sample to their bank account parchments.
The two of them, Hermione 160 years old and Harry 159 years old now knew for sure that they were blessed with completely new bodies of sixteen year olds, and if they were really lucky maybe after they had bonded like they should have done all those years ago they could then have the family they should have had so long ago had they not been so naïve and so easily manipulated by Albus Dumbledore and Molly Weasley's potions.
Neither of them had any family left, on coming of age Harry's three former children had all been unable to enter the Potter bank vaults or withdraw money from the accounts that were set up for them in their Potter names. On being tested with the heritage ritual none of them proved to be Potters. Harry's wife Ginny had been found to have been unfaithful on numerous occasions when she was questioned under the truth serum to find out who was the father/fathers of her children because all three had no Potter blood. Their annulment came through on their twenty fifth wedding anniversary and Harry had never seen her or the children again after that day.
Hermione's only two children had died from wizard flue during their first summer holiday together while at Hogwarts, because Ron being to lazy to work meant they did not have the money for the potions and treatment required to cure them. Ron had refused to divorce Hermione when she asked and he blamed her for their troubles. He had become a fat drunk and was abusive to her; she had left him after the third beating she had gotten from him but she was dragged back to the family home by his family and because of the archaic marriage laws she was magically forced to live there. It seemed in some strange Ron Weasley way he blamed her and Harry for his children's deaths and he regularly beat and raped Hermione if she refused his advances. It was because of the beatings she never had anymore children.
Harry and Hermione had to wait for 80 years after admitting their love for each other for Ron to die before they could finally be together. Patiently they waited to be free though they always knew they were still in love the way they were when they were teenagers. There was never anything sexual between them beyond holding hands in all that time. Other than ending the entire Weasley family line there was nothing Harry could do to free Hermione from Ron.
Then just a week after Ron's death Harry and Hermione moved into and lived in the same house together, being old, war heroes and moral icons of their world they spent their days together but at night they slept in different rooms. Almost every waking minute they worked on reverse aging potions, both of them placing their faith on finding the potion that would eventually allow them to fully enjoy their lives together for a few years.
Before he simply vanished without trace from the Wizarding world Harry James Potter had made a will and arranged with Gringotts that on receipt of a specific letter they were to hand the entire Potter and Black fortunes, properties, and belongings over to Harry James Granger. Who he declared was a distant cousin and lived in a small village near Kilkenny in Ireland. Every item from the Potter vaults was moved from the London branch of Gringotts bank to Gringotts Dublin branch. The Potter accounts were handed over to a temporary vault keeper at the Dublin branch until the day when Harry Granger called in to claim his inheritance.
Harry and Hermione had kept their forenames because they were now extremely popular names all around the Wizarding world, and had been since the fall of Voldemort. There was no need for them to change them, no need to remember new names. Together they entered the Dublin branch of Gringotts and after a heritage test proved that Harry James Granger had Potter blood, he claimed the Potter estates. Then having the Goblin vault keeper perform the goblin bonding ritual for them they were magically married with no fuss or bother. Harry Promised Hermione a proper Muggle wedding with all the trimmings when they went to visit the Potter Italian estate later in the next month or two.
Hermione's period had lasted five days. Five days during which she was physically reminded of all the cramps, pain and discomfort that accompanied those few days of the month. Though she had been a little testy and once or twice down right nasty, Harry had been great. He had taken care of her, holding her lovingly each night while holding a comforting hot water bottle on her stomach, sometimes during the days he gently rubbed her back and stroked her hair while they cuddled on the couch, again he would hold a hot water bottle for her. By the time her 'new first' period had run its course she had fallen in love with him all over again and if anything her love was even deeper and greater than before. Now that the discomfort of the period was gone Hermione was able to put her talent for potions to use and spent several days brewing necessary female potions along with a supply of healing potions.
The week following her period the now married young couple discovered that Hermione once again had the body of a virgin, the pain of their very first time making love together was caused by the breaking of her hymen. In a way that pain had somehow enabled them both to put all the horrors of their past lives completely behind them, knowing they were now two completely new entities with a new future before them, and they looked forward to their new life as man and wife together.
For the next two months Harry and Hermione threw themselves into physically building up their bodies. Each morning they went for a run before breakfast and after breakfast they went jogging, taking several trips around their local area. As the two months drew to a close they took a holiday in the Potter villa where Hermione began to plan her Muggle wedding. They would hold their wedding a week after returning home to Ireland, their guests would be the villagers they had befriended since arriving in their new lives. The wedding itself was a huge success; the local grocer performed the part of the father and walked Hermione down the isle. One of Harry's new friends was the best man and a few guys and girls from the local pub filled all the other places for them and the celebration by the entire village went on well into the early hours of the morning.
After their wedding they left their Irish home for a month's honeymoon in their Italian villa having enjoyed their previous week spent there and after a single visit to the local town they were not seen again until the end of the month. Harry smiled as he opened the curtains on the last day of their honeymoon, they had spent the entire month either having sex or eating. Hermione said it was because they were trying to catch up with all they had missed for so many years; Harry disagreed and believed it was simply because as a sixteen year old he was a right randy hormone filled sex machine, which had Hermione laughing every time she looked into his eyes for the next couple of hours. Harry's pouting and his puppy dog looks finally won the day and Hermione admitted she felt like a randy hormone driven teen her self.
Returning to their Irish home they hired a Muggle martial arts expert and got down to some serious training. They once again planned to change the magical world only this time they would not even attempt to try to do it politically the way they had tried previously and yet they had failed. This time they were not going to spend years trying to get laws repealed or changed, this time they were going to use the force required against anyone who tried to cling to the old and outdated ways, they did not intend to fail again. Neither cared if they were thought of as dark, if that was what it would take to make the magical world of Britain a place where all sentient beings were equal then they would be the new dark lord and his dark lady.
A year spent training in all sorts of muggle warfare and fighting saw the two become fierce and capable warriors. They spent another year training until they were both proficient in most all muggle weapons and explosives, as well as muggle concealment methods. It had been a very hard yet exciting year for them learning all the methods they would use to reach their goal, and they were now ready to begin their campaign to change the Wizarding world that had allowed Hermione to become the property of Ronald Bilius Weasley and the punch bag for all his insecurities and frustrations.
It was a world where the people in power simply did not want to change and they did all they could to cling to their old ways. They knew for a fact that the world of magic that was a cross between the Victorian era and the dark ages would fight against any changes, especially if the laws that made it a totally male dominated world were threatened. But Harry and Hermione were ready for that fight, and there would be no mercy for those who resisted the modernisation of the British magical world...
Two days before they left Ireland once again heading for Italy, Hermione discovered she was pregnant; she was actually going to have a baby, well over a hundred years after her last one. She had listened when the healer had told her that she was very fertile but she had not been able to bring herself to hope that it could possibly be true. She was far happier when she told Harry they were having a baby than she had ever been all those years ago when she had told Ron the same thing but with a sinking feeling in her heart. In fact she was so much happier telling Harry that it was like finding a whole new universe made of books she had never read compared with finding a small portion of a torn page from a book she knew from front to back.
On November, 21, 2140 while taking another short holiday in their Italian mansion Hermione went into labour and Harry took his heavily pregnant wife into the Italian Ministry hospital in Rome. Six hours later Helen Jane Granger was born and given the name of her grandmother. Harry fell in love with his daughter the moment the healer placed her in his arms. Even as a new born she had two very identifiable things that she had from her parents. Her hair was jet black like Harry's and bushy like Hermione's had been. It was four months later when her blue eyes gradually changed colour and became as green as Harry's.
Over in England there was a deep fear in the hearts of the government and the pureblood elite. Over the past twelve months there had been at least two unexplained pureblood deaths each month. What ever was spreading through the pureblood society and killing some of their most prominent members had their healers baffled. They could never find any magical cause for the death, nor could they find any other method known to them. Purebloods members of the Wizengamot were simply dropping dead, even some of their young and healthy government members were affected.
Harry celebrated their return home by sending a letter to the British ministry demanding that the Wizengamot disband and a new body of elected persons, to include Muggle born and all other sentient magical races be placed as the magical government. If the demands were not met then more and more of the pureblood families would be meeting their end. The letter was of course ignored until Harry carried out a raid on the actual building where the Wizengamot met, totally destroying it and seven purebloods in a huge explosion.
Instead of conceding to the demands made by this unknown person or persons the minister set his entire Auror force, who no longer took muggle born's, to the task of finding out who was killing their people and trying to end their way of life. It was a rather stupid thing to do thought the young woman with wavy brown hair as she left the ministry building pushing the stroller with her daughter in it. Outside the building she pressed a small red button on a radio control box, and then made her way home.
Inside the Auror department a small package containing a small electric motor and a stainless steel canister began to hiss as the gas in the canister was released. Four hours later and the magical government of Britain began to realise that their strangle hold on their world was indeed coming to an end. Sixteen of the Aurors had died of unknown causes while working at their desks that very morning. The pureblood elite were beginning to panic, who ever or what ever was demanding a fair and equal society had proved that no one was safe or out of their reach.
Harry and Hermione Granger were enjoying their lives in the small Irish village and even though when they had made their plans they had intended to move to England within a year of starting their campaign they decided they were far happier where they were and would be staying in Ireland. There was nothing they would ever want for, the Potter and Black fortunes were enough to keep even their future great grandchildren in comfort. None of the villagers would have ever guessed what the happy friendly young couple did on their days away. True they had bought a nice house with a rather large plot of land around it but there were no airs and graces about the young Granger couple and the villagers had soon accepted them into the community.
Hermione was even a member of the local entertainments committee and spent at least one evening a week with the young mothers club. On the surface the Granger family were the perfect young family. Harry often had a small chuckle to himself when he wondered what his local drinking companions down at the pub would think if they discovered that he and his wife were systematically destroying an archaic and evil form of government that controlled a complete magical society hidden through out the British Isles.
It took fifteen months for the ministry and the Wizengamot to finally come to its knees and they announced that they would all be resigning at the end of the month of August. Elections for a new government were to be held on the tenth and any member of the Wizarding world was eligible to become a candidate. It was as usual for the inept ministry rather ill thought out and rushed, but on the tenth there was over a hundred Muggle born and half blood candidates. At the end of the election there had not been a single pureblood who had been elected. For the first time in hundreds of years the government of the British Wizarding world was made up of fairly intelligent people. It took just six months for the ministry to begin to work as a ministry should work.
Harry and Hermione happy with what was happening decided to sit back and enjoy their new life in their new country bringing up their family. It surprised them that it had been far easier to achieve their goals than they had dared to hope. Britain now had a decent ministry and all the stupid biased laws and bigotry should soon be sorted, while Grangers could live peacefully and raise their family.