Moving Forward ch.20

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, you of course as fans already know this. I don't make any money from writing this. Also water is wet.

Hermione Granger was a very busy woman. Between classes and her internship she was working seventy hours a week. She was still happily surprised to find Harry Potter sitting on the front step of her rental home. From the look of that bag he brought Indian food.

"Harry? Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" She said giving him a hug.

"We had a game here this afternoon. Since I don't have class tomorrow, I thought I would bring you dinner."

"Thanks, what did you get us?"

"Lamb vindaloo, veggy pikora, butter chicken and the usual sides. Where do you keep the plates?" He said putting the bag on the counter.

"Dishwasher should be full of clean dishes. Do you mind if I get changed?" She said walking into her bedroom.

Harry set the table and waited. A few minutes later Hermione returned wearing pajamas.

"Thanks again Harry, this smells wonderful." Hermione said sitting down. "So, how have you been?"

"Good, I was sorry you couldn't come home for Christmas. With my charms mastery out of the way I actually have time now. It helps that Andy and Teddy are with me now too. I don't have to constantly feel bad about not spending time with him. How about you?"

"Busy, very very busy. Law school is hard but all the solicitors I talk to say I'll have to work ungodly hours after I get licenced." She said with a huff.

"You can always come work for me. Dealing with arsehole purebloods is not for me. I want a brilliant muggleborn lawyer. Sadly Britain still doesn't have any that are in the know."

"Well Mitchell just got an offer from an English quidditch team. They are looking for a team healer. It's not really what he was looking for but they said they would pay for any classes or specialized training in the off season. So, it looks like I'll be going back."

"So, do you remember when I swore revenge after Shelby's vibrator "prank"? Harry said with a satisfied smirk.

"What did you do?" Hermione said blushing slightly.

"Her wedding was last weekend…" Harry started to chuckle.

"Harry James Potter! What did you do?"

"I stuck in under my invisibility cloak and hit her with an explosive bowel loosening hex, just as she said "I do."

Hermione looked at him slack Jawed. "You didn't."

"Make her shit herself infront of four hundred guests. Yep, I did. Wanna see the photos?" He said through his laughter.

000

Penny Clearwater loved her job. Her boss was very laid back and didn't push her to finish things quickly. He paid better than any other job she was qualified to do and he wasn't around very often.

What her boss had her doing from day to day changed. She collected his mail, read through it and passed along the important stuff. She went to board meetings for the various companies he had a stake in and took notes. She turned down any company that wanted his endorsement that had used his name as a child. She kept the books up to date and did a bit of shopping for him.

Her favorite part of the job was taking her father to any football or Rugby match he wanted to see. She had completed the report for Harry months ago but he told her to stay on top of it.

Looking over his plans for the Chudley Cannons made her wonder how he wasn't sorted into Slytherin. This was probably the most ambitious project since the building of Hogwarts.

000

Harry decided to forgo his summer vacation and accelerate his business degree. His plans in Britain were coming together and he felt like he was wasting time in school.

Lavender had started seeing someone else. So, his last real motivation to go back was gone. The beating his body took last season had him rejecting the offer to play for Wales again this year. He quit auror training because of the danger, getting killed playing quidditch wasn't any better.

He often thought that being an adult sucked, being a kid was worse but his back didn't hurt back then.

000

Lavender Brown sat across the table Malcolm Hobbs. He was a nice man. He was sweet, funny and a good listener. He was even kind of handsome in a lost puppyish sort of way. He treated her like a princess, yet she had no interest in ever seeing him naked. He was like a very nice, walking, talking Ken doll.

000

Andy was meeting her sister at the portkey arrival point. Her son would be getting out of prison in a few weeks and this would be Narcissa's last chance to get away for awhile. For all of the changes sweeping wizarding Britain, it was still culturally patriarchal.

A witch went from answering to her father, to her husband and if the husband died, to her eldest son. Narcissa was in a strange situation, technically she answered to her husband but he would die in prison. Making her son the defacto head of the family. If she displeased her son he could throw her from the family leaving her destitute. In most cases a witch could return to her birth family. As a Black she would have been killed or sold to a brothel to earn her keep. With Harry as head of the family though she would probably be alright. Narcissa had already said that if Draco forbid her from seeing her sister, she would appeal to Harry. He could call a breach in Narcissa's marriage contract at anytime. She was supposed to have a second son to carry the name Black, but her poofter husband thought vaginas were icky. Which of course they are, but that's neither here nor there.

Harry was a very strange man. With stranger ideas. Raised muggle he believed in equality but argued with the common definition of the word.

"Equality is when the law applies to everyone equally and is enforced equally. No special rules for anyone. A woman murders someone she doesn't get less time than a man because she has kids. He has kids too, why does she get 15 years and he gets life. Equal crime, equal time. If women can legally abandon their children when men should to be legally allowed to as well, equally shitty. All of our differences don't matter if all things are equal. So you don't like me? Boohoo."

000

A/N: So I've kind of jumped ahead of my timeline for this story. Next chapter Harry graduates. I need him back in Britain for the story to progress. Next one will be up in the morning.