Henry didn't mind being grounded, he actually enjoyed spending time with everyone. Draco was spending the summer in Grimmauld place as well.

"What's that?" Henry asked Draco when an owl delivered a box.

"A couple of boys have been giving Susan a hard time, so I thought I'd get some surprises ready for them. I'm looking forward to going back to Hogwarts."

"Why are you spying on the boys?"

"Shhhh!" Sirius pushed Remus away from the door. "Love is in the air. Now tell me Professor Lupin, who's this Susan girl?"

The doorbell rang. Sirius rolled his eyes and stalked down the steps.

"Um, hello Mr. Black. Is Henry ready?"

He grinned "You must be Padma. He said you were really smart and really pretty…"

"WE'RE GOING." Henry yelled, jumping down the last four steps, pulling a blushing Padma out with him.

"This is why the boys refuse to share their secrets with you." Remus said from the first floor landing.

"I'm just trying to speed things along." Sirius grumbled back.

"Where are we going?" Henry asked Padma.

"Just follow me, it's a surprise."

They walked into an ice cream shop where she ordered the king platter.

The server brought out a serving dish filled with an assortment of bite sized desserts and ice cream.

"You mentioned that you weren't allowed to have dessert when growing up with your aunt and uncle so I thought that we'd have dessert for lunch. That way you can tell me which is your favorite. Look this here is a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, this is a frozen cheesecake. I think that's cranberry on top. And this is my favorite, pumpkin pie. I think we should start with desserts that are warm so the ice cream doesn't melt."

It took them two hours to finish the platter.

"I'm never eating dessert again." Padma muttered.

Henry couldn't help but agree with her.

"Would you like to go flying tomorrow?"

"I thought you didn't like flying."

Padma laughed. "I enjoy flying, I just don't like brooms. But I have a carpet that we can use."

When he got back to Grimmauld place Pig was waiting for him with a letter. He frowned, he hadn't been in touch with the Weasley's ever since the night at the ministry.

He untied the letter and offered the owl a cracker. It was from Hermione.

Dear Henry,

I hope you are doing okay, I've spent the past three weeks at the Burrow. The healers don't think that Mrs Weasley will recover and Mr Weasley has to work so I've been helping around the house.

Henry, I know that during the last year we all sort of drifted apart, but it would be nice if you came to visit. Percy has moved back into the Burrow as well but Ron and Ginny are devastated. We all miss you.

Hermione.

Henry sighed, it had been a month since their summer break had officially started. He had gone to visit Mrs Weasley and Neville's parents a couple of times but he wasn't sure if he could face the Weasley family.

The next morning he paid extra attention to his wardrobe as he got ready to meet Padma's family. From the way Daphne told the story, Harry, the boy who killed Voldemort, was a nervous wreck in her father's presence.

Of course, Cygnus Greengrass had immediately approved of Harry without even meeting him but Harry was desperate to make a good first impression. What had made matters worse, was that he'd walked in on the couple sharing their first kiss.

Harry had immediately apologized and had run out of their home. The next day Cygnus came to check on him, apparently Daphne was mortified by what had happened as well. Sirius had had a good laugh, they'd ended up spending the day joking and teasing the two.

Henry just hoped that moms were easier to impress. Not that he and Padma were dating but he liked spending time with her.

He arrived at the Patil residence and rang the doorbell, they lived in a bungalow in the suburbs.

Parvati answered the door. "Ma, he's here." She called out pulling him in.

Mrs. Patil was a beautiful woman with a singsong voice. "You must be Henry, I've heard so much about you. It's good to finally meet you."

She offered him some lemonade. Padma came five minutes later, her hair was done up in a messy bun and she was wearing a pair of denim shorts with a loose top.

"Finally, she's spent the morning trying out outfits." Parvati teased.

"Let's go to the garden." Padma snapped. They could hear her sister and mother giggling in the background. "I'm sorry about that."

"You look really pretty." Henry mumbled, making her smile.

"You are blushing." She teased.

They sat on the carpet that was hovering in the garden and Padma took it towards the woods. It wasn't as fast as his firebolt but Henry could see why she enjoyed this, it was therapeutic really.

She showed him how to maneuver the carpet letting him take control as she lay back and enjoyed the ride. They stopped over a lake, they were sitting with their toes dipped in the water when Henry asked for her advice regarding Hermione's letter.

"Don't feel guilty or hold yourself accountable. I know what happened was awful, but would things have changed if you hadn't gone or if you'd told Harry? At the end of the day, thousands of lives have been saved. You went there and foiled their plan, Tommy boy was forced to show up and Harry managed to get rid of him. From all the arrests they've made since then, if Tommy boy was still around we'd be preparing for a full on war."

Henry chuckled. "You really like saying Tommy boy, don't you."

She stuck her tongue out. "For what it's worth, Ron isn't alone. He's sort of started seeing Lavender."

'Oh' Henry mouthed.

When he wrote to Padma a couple of days later to invite her to his birthday party, he was disappointed to find out that she and her family were spending all of August traveling.

Before they knew it, they were boarding the Hogwarts express once again.

Draco groaned audibly when he saw Harry and Daphne kiss on the platform, "honestly, don't people tire of doing that? Henry, hello! I'm talking to you."

Henry, who was busy looking for Padma on the platform, answered without bothering to listen to what he was really saying.

"Sirius was right! You do have a crush on Padma! Are you blushing? Unbelievable! What's up with everybody!"

"I'm not blushing, it's been a month since I last spoke to her. I miss her."

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder." Draco mimicked Sirius.

"I never thought I'd say this, but you were more bearable when you hated me."

Their compartment door slid open making both boys turn to see Ginny. "Oh sorry! I was looking for Dean!"

"Why are you looking for Dean?" Henry asked.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Because we're dating!"

"Oh, okay. Well he's not here." Henry replied and went back to staring at the platform. He missed the look of surprise that crossed her eyes.

Neville and Susan joined them as the train started pulling away. Draco who'd been admiring Ginny's sudden growth during the summer holidays was now conflicted. He was suddenly seeing Susan in a new light as well.

Henry excused himself as the train started moving and went to look for Padma. Neville suddenly feeling very aware of being a third wheel found an excuse to leave as well.

He bumped into Hannah on his way out, the two found Theo sitting alone in a compartment reading his beloved novels.

"I've planned three pranks that I think you'll enjoy." Draco said feeling uncharacteristically self conscious.

Susan rolled her eyes and pulled him by the collar, planting a kiss on his lips. "I've been dying to do that all summer long, you can stop harassing my prospective suitors now."

Draco was certain that he looked like a deer caught in the headlights but a stupid smile was plastered on his face. "Now I get it!"

"Get what?"

"I could do this all day long." He said with a dreamy look still dazed with what had just happened.

Susan rolled her eyes and giggled as they kissed again.

It was nearly Christmas, Henry had given up his seeker position preferring to spend time with his friends instead of training.

He had been hoping to watch Ginny play but Draco had ended up roping him into helping prepare a prank.

"Are we done yet? I really need to go…"

Draco looked up clearly irritated. "I'm doing you a favor. Why are you so desperate to go see the match? I thought you liked Padma…"

"Of course I like her." Henry said defensively.

"Then why haven't you asked her out yet? And why are you suddenly looking at Weasley so much? The girls have noticed you know…"

"It's not that, she just broke up with Dean and she's distraught about her mum. Ron's busy with Lavender and Hermione is constantly writing to Percy, she doesn't really have anyone else to talk to."

"I'm just saying that you need to be careful, you may approach her as a friend but since she's so unbalanced she may end up getting the wrong signal."

Henry frowned but started making his way towards the Quidditch pitch. He'd promised her that he'd watch the first match but if he was brutally honest, he had started noticing her a lot more ever since he'd seen her with Dean. They'd constantly hang out in the common room, kissing and laughing and holding hands.

Susan and Tracey were having a similar conversation with Padma.

"Haven't you seen him? He's constantly glancing at her in the great hall!" Tracey tried to reason with Padma.

"I know, but he's just worried about her. They hang out sometimes but as friends, I'm not going to stop him from talking to every girl…"

"Oh please! Draco and I are dating and he doesn't mind if I talk to other boys but he does care if other boys look at me in the wrong way. In fact he's busy preparing something for McLaggan at the moment."

"And she doesn't look at Henry with friendly eyes. She wants more!" Tracey added.

Padma sighed. "Well it's not like we are dating. I can't do anything about it, if he chooses her then that's that!"

"Of course you can!" The two girls chorused ushering her towards the Quidditch pitch.

"Did you spike her drink?" Tracey asked Susan as Padma made her way towards Henry. The match was over and he was standing at the edge of the pitch cheering.

"Of course I did. One of them needs the courage to do it, they've been playing cat and mouse for the past six months. It's getting annoying now!" Susan replied.

Padma felt butterflies in her stomach as she approached Harry. Ginny had just landed and was running towards him, a giggle escaped her lips making him turn around just as Ginny leaped into his arms only to fall face first on the ground.

Ignoring the confused redhead, Padma leaned in and kissed him.

"You like me?" He asked, completely dumbfounded.

Padma giggled again. "Of course I do silly. I wasn't sure if you did."

Henry grinned and rubbed noses with her. "I wasn't sure if you did either."

She giggled again and kissed him a second time.

"Did you see the match?" Ron's voice called out as he ran towards them "Oi what are you doing on the floor?" He asked his sister.

Ginny stood up and scowled glaring at Padma, she spun on her heel and stalked off.

"What's up with her? We won!" Ron repeated but he was distracted by a certain blonde who wanted to celebrate his victory.

Padma couldn't stop giggling as they made their way back to the castle hand in hand.

"Are you alright?" Henry asked, genuinely concerned.

"I think Tracey and Susan may have spiked the butterbeer." She said with a dreamy smile.

Henry froze "so you are drugged?"

Padma giggled. "I genuinely like you but you kept on giving me mixed signals and I wasn't sure if you liked me back. I was afraid of rejection so I never said anything. You do like me don't you? I hope you didn't just go along with it cause there were other people around."

He visibly relaxed. "Padma, when I'm with you I really don't see anybody else. You are beautiful and smart and fun and I guess I was just scared of losing you. Your friendship means a lot to me and I can't think of a better person to be my partner."

Henry went up to Gryffindor tower after dinner where the team was throwing an impromptu party. He went to leave his outer cloak in his dorm and was surprised to see a tearful Ginny sitting on his bed.

"What's wrong?"

She sniffed and looked away with a scowl. "I thought you liked me." In fact, she was certain of it. She'd spent the last six months strategically placing herself in his line of sight, especially when she was with Dean. She'd hoped that if it wasn't jealousy he'd at least crave what Dean was getting. She'd even started seeing him looking at her more in the past month, that's why she'd dumped Dean.

Henry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Ginny, you are beautiful and you are funny and if I hadn't met Padma maybe I would have been interested in you…but I barely know you."

"You could get to know me." She said, drying off her tears and looking at him hopefully.

"I'm sorry Ginny, but I want you to know that we'll always be friends."

She stood up abruptly and made her way to the door stopping to look back at him. "I want you to know that I'll always say yes to you, whenever you are ready let me know. I'll be waiting."

The next year and a half went flying by and before they knew it, they were graduating.

Daphne walked into the tiny cottage on the beach that Harry had chosen.

"It isn't much but I promise that one day you'll have your own manor."

Daphne leaped on him, wrapping her arms and legs around him and kissing his nose. "This is perfect, it's everything I dreamed of and more!"

They had graduated six months ago and were now planning to move in together. Harry had become the new head of the Black Wands and had surprised everyone by taking the Peverell seat in the Wizengamot; adding a fifth member to the inner circle.

Daphne opened a bakery making her extremely popular at all the get-togethers. Harry had started training an extra hour to burn off the calories that she lovingly fed him.

Henry was still staying at Grimmauld place, he had decided to renovate the house in Godric's Hollow and he was still happily dating Padma who had rented an apartment in the city to be closer to her job.

She had become an Unspeakable and Henry had joined the Auror force.

Neither one of them had paid any heed to the fiery redhead who had been changing boyfriends every three months hoping to get Henry's attention.

Tracey had moved to Italy with Blaise. He had joined his family business and she was enjoying the life of being an A list socialite. With her bubbly personality, she often made it on the cover of Witch Weekly.

Draco who'd thoroughly enjoyed his pranks decided to write a manual on the art of pranking, which would become a bestseller. Susan on the other hand went into modeling. Needless to say, over the years Draco would spend a lot of time pranking the men that would drool over his wife.

Hannah left to go see the world and would spend several years traveling. She would eventually find a travel buddy and they'd spend their time exploring the unknown.

Theo would meet the author of his favorite novel at a book signing and would sweep her off her feet. Her being a decade older than him wouldn't matter. He would eventually become a stay at home dad.

Ron had become a reserve quidditch player for the Chudley Cannons. Lavender, much to his delight, opened a resto-bar with Parvati.

Ginny graduated Hogwarts but in a desperate last attempt to get Henry's attention, she hooked up with Victor Krum at Bill and Fleur's wedding.

Arthur finally showed her the door with her very public display with Krum. Surprisingly she carried on with Krum, they had an open relationship which allowed them both the freedom to do as they please. Thanks to Krum's contacts she even became a reserve player for a professional Quidditch team.

Hermione ended up marrying Percy whom she'd grown very close to over the years. He carried on working in the ministry and she started a non-profit for all magical beings that were being treated unjustly. Their relationship was odd at best, as they both approached everything thinking that they knew best, but they made it work.

Fleur's sister, Gabrielle, moved to Britain shortly after Bill and Fleur moved into Shell Cottage. She finished her seventh year at Hogwarts, where she fell in love with the assistant Herbology Professor. Shortly after graduating she asked Neville out and opened a plant nursery in Hogsmeade.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed the read. Please do Favourite, Follow and Review! It makes me really happy when I see people enjoying my work! I also love feedback, so if there's something you loved and want more of or less of, do let me know.