~O-O~

At Poppy's urging, Harry sent off a short note to Hannah Abbott to ask her if she was willing to discuss why she had chosen St. Mungos' Healer Program. He was confident in his narrowed the list of programs (just the two local ones) but he didn't want to commit without more information. He just needed to make a decision and complete an application before the upcoming deadline.

For the remainder of the day, Harry kept himself busy with Teddy and more renovations to the house. He had expanded the elves quarters despite their complaints and combed through a charms book in the library to enchant a fake window in each of their interior rooms. Teddy accompanied Harry into the small spaces, toddling through and cuddling with Gussy.

Nodding to himself as he crossed off another item on the list, Harry had many more renovations left including Sirius' bedroom. Despite having used it as his own bedroom in the past, Harry hadn't made any changes. When Harry had moved into the master bedroom, he left the old room exactly as it was: a shrine to a rebellious teenage Sirius.

Charging himself up and losing to his emotions, Harry decided to make tea before addressing what he wanted to do with the room let alone the rest of the house. Passing Teddy a cup of milky tea, he doctored his own cup as he considered his home and how far it had come after he stopped wallowing at the bottom of a firewhiskey bottle.

Cleaning the home of filth and magical creatures hadn't been hard since a majority of the work had been done years before under Mrs. Weasley's guidance. He had taken care of that pretty quickly after Teddy had come to live with him.

Now, he wanted to rid the home of dark charms and decorations. He asked around about how to remove the portraits fixed to the walls with sticking charms and Kingsley had replied with a recommendation, offering to send a witch who specializes in dark artifacts.

The next morning, a tall thin woman in dark robes moved about the house silently, removing the silenced portrait of Walburga Black and the other portraits, the mounted heads of deceased house elves, and the troll leg serving as an umbrella stand. The items seemed to vaporize but the black trunk by the front door seemed to groan and shimmy as each object disappeared.

Harry directed the woman to the sitting room where the Black Family Tapestry stuck to the wall, people's names burned off. "My house elf, Kreacher, would like to keep this in his room. Do you know anyone who can restore it and move it?"

He felt a bit unnerved when the woman flicked her wand lazily and strands of golden and black silk wove themselves into the tapestry until it was restored to its former glory. Another wiggle from her wand and the tapestry rolled itself up and off the wall.

The woman left, dismissing Harry attempt to pay her or send a bank draft. She disapparated on the front stoop as he tried to convince her to at least take a pouch of galleons.

"It was downright spooky," Harry told George later that night, "she never spoke a word the entire time."

They were sitting in a large booth, drinking lagers in a muggle pub. George shrugged and took a sip, "sounds like the creepy Unspeakables. Dad use to talk to them, well at them, in the lifts at the Ministry and they didn't so much as twitch."

As the pub grew crowded, a group of friends asked if they could join them.

"Budge over, Mate," Harry slid closer to George as they accommodated two women and one man.

"I'm Simon, these ladies are Maggie and Julie." The sandy-haired man shook hands with them, "Thanks for letting us join you, there isn't a seat left in here. I'll buy a round of beers and crisps."

For the next two hours, Harry forgot about the wizarding world, healer programs, and raising Teddy. He was enjoying getting to know Maggie but he couldn't help leaning into Simon as he spoke into Harry's ear, adjusting for the volume in the pub.

~O-O~

"Okay, I think I am bisexual."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Harry, "Didn't we already have this conversation?"

"Yeah, yeah, but I thought I was mostly gay then."

"Have you done any research?" She asked, exasperated.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. Would you like to know about interspecies breeding that resulted in centaurs?" Harry asked snarkily. When she seemed placated that he had done his homework, he continued, "I was worried that I was suppressing being gay and Cho was just a schoolboy crush."

"And the whole relationship with Ginny was more pretending?"

"No, the romantic feelings including sexual attraction for Ginny was real." Harry pushed his glasses up his nose, sinking into cushions of the couch, "I was freaking out when I thought I might be gay so I wasn't thinking clearly. I have been meeting people and I think I am bisexual."

"Huh," pleasantly surprised, Hermione kissed Harry on the cheek, "I am so proud of you. Now, tell me about the people you met."

"George and I went to that little pub over by King's Cross and we met these friends. Muggles. I really liked them but I don't think I want to date any of them but it was nice to meet new people. Not just dancing and kissing; real conversations, real people, and um, real feelings."

Hermione raised her eyebrow and Harry blushed.

"I was really attracted to Maggie and Simon," he confessed, "they are both sexy but in totally different ways."

"That's great. Will you see them again?"

"Yeah, I'd like it if you and Ron came along next time."

"That will be fun and give Ron more exposure to the Muggle World outside of my parents." Hermione's focus shifted, "Harry, now tell me about which healer programs you have decided on."

Groaning, Harry tipped sideways on the couch and covered his face with a cushion.

~O-O~

Harry hustled down the street towards the Leaky Cauldron. He had misjudged how much time passed at The Burrow, admiring Bill and Fleur's baby, Victoire. He stumbled in through the door as Hannah Abbott emerged from the floo at the back of the pub. Both of them were flushed and said, "Sorry, I'm late," at the same time.

Laughing, they sat down at a table and looked at the lunch menu. Harry didn't know Hannah well. All he could remember from school was that she had been nice and that her mother had been killed by Death Eaters. So he made small talk until Tom came to take their orders.

After sitting in uncomfortable silence after Tom left, Hannah fiddled with her napkin and got to the point, "you wanted to ask me about the healer programs?"

"Um, yes. I have narrowed down my choices to Cambridge and St. Mungo's. Madam Pomfrey said you had chosen St. Mungos and you might be able to give me some advice."

Hannah's smile flickered, "I wanted to stay close to home; my father isn't doing well. He is muggle-born so he knew about mental health. He began seeing a psychiatrist and a therapist after my mother was murdered." She shrugged, "He said he felt like the therapy wasn't working well enough because he couldn't disclose details about her murder or about the wizarding world."

Harry nodded along, "Yeah."

"So when I heard that St. Mungo's was building a program that incorporated muggle mental health treatments with healing, I knew I had found the right school."

Tom brought by their drinks, pumpkin juice for both of them. Hannah took a long sip and then stared at the battered tabletop, tracing the wood grain with her finger.

Deciding to lighten the mood, Harry asked her about the length of the program, "I know it's usually a two-year program but do you think they will allow me to stretch it out? I have adopted my godson and I don't think I can commit to a full course load."

"Well, my program is three years since they are still building up the mind healing courses so I think you may just have to ask," Hannah took another sip, "Your godson, is that Teddy?"

"Yes, he is Lupin and Tonks' son."

Smiling openly now, Hannah clapped her hands, "Neville told me about him. He said he was adorable."

Bragging, Harry couldn't stop himself from telling Hannah about Teddy's latest exploits, "he is the reason I want to learn about healing."

They were interrupted again as Tom brought by their lunches. They thanked him and the bald man bowed slightly before leaving them.

"Both schools have a strong pediatrics program."

Sighing dejectedly, Harry replied, "I know. Tuition is about the same. Since I can floo to Cambridge, the distance isn't an issue. Should I flip a coin?"

"Maybe take a tour of both schools, meet the professors and see if that helps."

"That's what Hermione said."

Hannah laughed at him, "you should by now that you should always listen to Hermione Granger."

~O-O~

A/N: The moral of this story - Hermione is always right!

I'm on Tumblr as GoodGodHenry if you want to stop by.