Harry flopped on the couch in the impromptu meeting room.

"Hurry up Wood." He said, mostly to himself, "It's Christmas Eve."

Harry noticed Kris shooting him sideways glances and he sat up and looked at him.

"You kissed her didn't you?"

"Who?" Kris asked stupidly.

"You bloody well know who I'm talking about, now listen, she's eleven and you're fifteen, that's a four year difference."

"I can count Harry." Kris said quietly.

"Good, you'll be able to count how many teeth you have left when I get through with you."

"Harry look-"

"I looked, Svenson, and you know what I saw? You know what I saw?"

"You didn't see anything Harry! That's the thing! You jump at everyone who shoots a sideways glance at your daughter! Bloody hell, do you want her to hate you?"

"DON'T TELL ME HOW TO RAISE MY CHILD!"

"DON'T TELL ME ABOUT THINGS YOU'VE SEEN THAT DON'T EXIST!"

Harry prepared to jump at Kris when Josephine stood up. In her calm, even voice she set Harry straight. "Harry, you're looking at him as an adult, you have to remember he's just a kid himself."

And then to Kris. "You need to work with him Kristoffer, so you need to set this aside. Your social life stays out of your work."

"Tell him that!"

"I did. Now shake." Harry and Kris both glared at her but they shook. "Now I want both of you to listen. Harry, your family life stays home, Kris, your personal life stays at school."

"And it doesn't involve Elisabeth."

"Shut up Harry, you're being a prick. Now, I want you two back on the old footing."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Fine."

Harry was saved from having to make polite conversation with Kris when Wood came bursting in the door. He nattered for about half an hour and finally let them go home.

When Harry got into the suite the only one there was Hannah.

"Where's everyone else?" He asked, pouring himself a glass of wine.

"Seamus and Charlie took the girls to the cinema, Remus and Sirius are out somewhere, presumably discovering Paris' over fifty night-life. I believe Draco went out with his girlfriend."

Harry's head turned so quickly he almost got whiplash.

Hannah smiled. "Yeah, she's a forty-something business woman, she's very sweet, very nice."

"That's so not fair."

"Why?"

"Well really. Seamus refuses to go out with anybody, Remus and Sirius both have very elusive girlfriends, Charlie is dating the Romanian girl- Chloe- With the exception of Wood, you and I are the only ones here dateless without a choice."

"And if it hadn't been for some unfortunate events we both would have been the only ones married."

"Maybe we wouldn't have been. I mean people get divorces all the time."

"Come off it Harry, do you really think you and Susan would have got a divorce?"

"Well of course I don't think so! That's why we were going to get married."

"Harry, look, I know as well as you all four of us would still be married."

"I know. I know. God Hannah, it wasn't so hard before I came back, I never ever had to think of her, there was just a big, huge hole where remorse and grief were supposed to be. I never greived Han, I never grieved and now I have to, now I have to grieve."

Hannah looked at him with more understanding than he had ever received from Hannah Abott, more than he had received from anybody, actually. "You can only ignore it for so long, and then you have to drown it and then it gets so fricking big that you can't kill it unless you kill yourself along with it."

Harry looked at her and she slowly pushed her sleeves back, she looked at her wrists silently for a moment then turned them towards Harry. "They've healed well." Hannah said quietly.

"I'm sorry Hannah, I ran away. I ran away when everybody needed me."

In a sudden burst of congeniality Hannah replied, "You did what you thought was best for Elisabeth. You didn't run away from her."

And Harry, in a sudden need to tell somebody about his early anger replied, "No, no Hannah, I abandoned her too. I abandoned her with my old buddy Rosco as often as I could and I went and did some really, really stupid things."

Harry waited for Hannah to mock him, but she didn't. "Oh Harry, she doesn't hate you though, but a lot of people hate me. For, for somethings."

"The only person who hates you Hannah, is yourself and you can't, you just can't keep it up."

Hannah looked at him. "You can't know what it's like, I lost everything in that war Harry, everything. My parents, my fiancée, my house, my best friend, my son." Her eyes filled. "And then I lost Lizzy."

Harry saw for the first time how the loss of Elisabeth had hurt Hannah. "I feel so old." Hannah said wearlily. She looked old too, it wasn't her face, it was her eyes. And his eyes, and Seamus'. It wasn't Susan's eyes. Susan was forever nineteen. Harry wondered why he felt one hundred but he had the wisdom of an eighteen year old.

He hugged Hannah briefly. "Guess who Elisabeth was kissing."

"A certain Swedish boy-wonder?"

"Why did everyone get it but me?"

"Because your "dad-radar" was too busy trying to figure out if Daniel Longbottom likes her."

"How did you know I thought that?"

"Because I thought it myself. But what do we know? According to Miss Myra Chan I am very "in touch" but that doesn't mean anything now does it?"

Harry shook his head. "Come on now, everyone else has gone out, why don't we go see a play. Do you know what's on?"

"The only thing in English is Romeo and Juliet and I'm not sure if I'd like to see that with you."

Harry punched her playfully in the arm. "What do they have in French, I'm not going to understand it anyway."