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Tea and Sympathy

"Enough stalling," Hermione said after they'd added milk or sugar or both or neither and taken the first sips of the tea, "Tell us everything, Harry!"

"You're still direct," Harry grinned at her, a little twinkle coming into his eyes that made Ron's breath catch in happiness, "I can't tell you how much I've missed you."

"Well it was your own fault," Hermione replied smartly, "You knew where we were, and old Dumbledore had put a charm on you to divert any owl post. We had no way to contact you at all."

Ron grinned and snuck a look at Harry, who seemed confused by the scornful tone Hermione had taken when describing the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Neither one of them had any great love for the man who had used their friend up and then threw him away. No matter what their feelings on this subject - and they'd discussed it to death - now was not a time for a rant. The Auror shook his head lightly and reached over to pat Hermione's wrist.

"Leave off, Hermione," Ron ordered softly, "Harry knows what he did and didn't do. Lectures won't change the past."

They shared a long look and then turned to their long lost friend, folding their arms and waiting. Harry laughed and shook his head.

"You pull that look on your kids?" he asked lightly, "Because if I was one of yours I'd be confessing right now!"

"We don't have kids, Harry," Hermione corrected gently, "Ron and I work together, and we share a flat, but we're not married or even dating."

"The look is connected to our work though," Ron offered to alleviate the confusion in Harry's eyes, "And I'll tell you all about it once you've told us all about you, so cough it up already!"

Harry grinned at them and shifted to get comfortable in his chair. The soft glow that came from the recessed lights above the table gave a warm edge to everything, making the room seem even more homelike than before. Ron suddenly understood why he'd felt so at home just walking up the path. Any house that contained Harry Potter was Ron's home, a bittersweet realisation. The proof of Harry's preferred bed partner slept upstairs and smiled from several pictures. Ron would have to content himself with friendship and if he was lucky, brotherhood.

"Madam Pomfrey was never one to beat around the bush. The moment you left Ron, she told me the news. I thought that was why you'd left the way you had," Harry snuck a look at Ron who shook his head vehemently and reached out a hand, which Harry took. Ron sensed that if he interrupted now, Harry would never continue, and stayed silent. The way Harry's thumb rubbed idly over his knuckles communicated more than words could, and Ron was content with that small thing for now. Ron would explain about the kiss and everything else later, when it was just the two of them. Not even Hermione knew that he'd kissed Harry and run away.

"The Headmaster and the Goblins had already arranged everything for me. My money from the trust was converted to Muggle funds, I had all the identity papers I'd ever need, the Ministry was even going to pay me a pension, and Dumbledore had a list of schools that would take me in. The idea was that I'd use the last term to sort of ease into the Muggle world and start my studies in the new school year," Harry said it softly, yet his voice hung clearly in the still air, "I chose to come here almost blindly, and when Hedwig indicated that she'd rather stay with me and never deliver another letter than go to you Hermione…well, it was a sort of relief. She's been a wonderful companion, and we've been here long enough for my friends to think it funny that she can carry a note to them from here to their house and back."

"Carrier pigeons," the non-sequitor seemed to surprise Hermione, who'd said it, and she took Harry's other hand, "Muggles taught carrier pigeons to take letters. They'd class Hedwig as something along those lines."

Harry nodded and Ron wondered what they'd look like to an outsider right now, the three of them sitting there with cups of tea cooling in front of them, himself and Hermione holding Harry's hands. After a second of thought he realised he didn't care and turned his attention back to the even tone and soft words.

"I worked really hard, and by the time the term was up I was ready to join with the rest of the freshmen. The Headmaster had me in a dorm, but that was closed over summer, so I found a job in the university library and rented a room in a student house. Well, actually it was half an attic, divided by a couple of blankets that had been hung up to act as walls. They didn't mind that Hedwig lived in there with me as long as she didn't smell the place out, and it was there I met Sarah Gardener. She had the space on the other side of the blanket, and I soon learned to put my earphones on with some decent music when she brought a friend up," Harry blushed a little and Hermione cleared her throat. Ron could guess all too well what his friend meant, it had happened to both himself and Hermione when they forgot the privacy spell in the heat of the moment.

"I decided to do a double Bachelors course, because I needed to work hard, and to not think about things. I chose 20th Century Literature and Information Technology as my courses. They store the syllabus for all their courses in the library, which I checked out and worked against, so by the end of the first term I'd done the whole years worth of assignments. They let me take the end of year exams, and I passed. By the end of the first year of the Bachelors course I'd completed the work for all three and they awarded me my degree. The Faculties persuaded me to take on a masters in each discipline, and by then I was working in a bookstore for better money. Sarah and I went on a few extremely casual dates in between seeing other people, and by the time I was eighteen I'd gained my Mastery in both English Lit and IT. I decided to go for a PhD in them both, which would take me a while, and the university had me teaching freshman level course to my peers."

"You'd be used to that, then," Ron grinned and Harry squeezed his hand, clearly remembering the DA. Hermione took a sip of her tea and then fixed Harry with a very patient look that had him ducking his head and grinning. The longer they sat together the more comfortable they were with each other, something that Ron was quietly gloating over. They may have been apart for ten years, but the feelings that had tied them together were still there, and eventually they'd be able to form new bonds, just as strong as the old.

"I'd been in the house for two years by then, and Sarah and I had taken the blankets down," Harry blushed a little, "I wasn't any more used to girls than I had been with Cho, but at least she didn't burst into tears when I kissed her."

Ron sniggered and Hermione had to clear her throat, working to keep her face straight. Harry was entitled to that little slap, more entitled than he knew. Cho Chang had been using Harry when she dated him, as surely as she was using him now. He was lucky not to know about it.

"We were both tired of the student digs by then. The people in it seemed to change every month, and it was a constant struggle to keep it halfway clean. There was always a lot of fighting over the bills and in the end we wanted out. We looked for places to rent, but in this town flats are like hens teeth, and while we were going to the estate agents, I spotted an ad for this place. Its last owner had died and their heir was selling it because it was so run down. I persuaded Sarah to come have a look and we loved it. My galleons were getting a one to four conversion rate at the time, and I had barely put a dent in the twenty million pounds they converted to, mainly because of the pension and my job, so I bought the place outright, and Sarah agreed to pay me rent which we'd put into fixing the place up. It was a great hobby for when we needed a study break and a year after we bought it the house was complete. Sarah and I shared the master bedroom upstairs, and I took the smaller front room as my study while Sarah took the larger back room for her studio. She was an art major, and started her masters when the house was finished."

"She painted the pictures above the lounge and on the wall here!" Hermione guessed and Harry nodded, smiling gently, his eyes going soft in memory, "They're very good!"

"It took me a while to complete the double PhD - I'd work on them turn about, and in between I was working at the bookstore still, or at the university. I was ready to defend them just before I turned twenty-three, and because I would effectively be gone all hours of the day and night working on a double doctorate, Sarah and I went out for a pre-work frenzy spree. We went clubbing in London, and ended up in a hotel room. Two months later I'd won the doctorates, and Sarah went to the doctor for a stomach upset," Harry sighed and squeezed Ron's hand, his thumb faltering for the first time in its soothing strokes, "She was pregnant. She didn't want to be at first, and it wasn't until I asked her to marry me that she got her head around the whole thing. We didn't get married in the end, and we converted her studio to a nursery. Six and a half months later she went into labour early. Something went wrong, and when our daughter was born Sarah tore… the doctors couldn't save her…"

Ron jumped up and pulled Harry into a hug impulsively. He'd suspected as much from the position of the photo in the alcove. There was nothing to be said, Harry could feel what they meant through the hug that Ron had wrapped him up in and Hermione had joined. When he could let go the redhead resumed his seat and reached automatically for the hand he'd been holding. Harry gave it back to him with a small smile and took a cleansing breath.

"What did you call her?" Hermione asked and Harry chuckled softly, a richly amused sound.

"Obviously I couldn't tell Sarah too much about my past, and that always made Mr and Mrs Gardener suspicious of me," Harry told them, and Ron sensed that whatever his friend was about to say was going to be big, "I told Sarah that in my mothers family the girls were named after flowers, and that Lily and Petunia had been taken. My foster family had a different tradition, but Sarah wasn't too fond of Molly or Ginerva or Hermione; she'd let me use Molly for a middle name if it came to a pinch, and chose Rose for the first name. If it had been a boy I wanted Ron, and Sarah liked that."

"Oh Harry," the very idea that his friend had named them foster family made Ron want to hug him again. His heart felt like it would burst with a combination of pride and even love. Ron contented himself with squeezing Harry's hand tightly, and Harry gave him a crooked smile.

"Rose Sarah Molly Potter," Harry spelled it out for them, "Because I wanted her to have something of her mother as well."

"I suppose her grandparents spoil her," Hermione offered to give Ron some breathing room. His mum was going to cry when she found out about this, and probably hug Harry to death as well, followed by her new granddaughter. Ron was jolted from his pleasant thoughts by the anger that crawled over Harry's face.

"I called them when Sarah went into labour, and they came straight down. It was taking such a long time, and she was exhausted towards the end. After… well she never woke to hold her baby, but her parents had time to come in and say goodbye. So there I am, standing in the corridor with my new baby and my partner dead and they come up to me and demand I hand her over. They didn't think she was mine, you see. They even took us to court to gain sole custody. I had to take a paternity test to prove that Rose was my daughter. They called her Sarah throughout the court hearing, and when they lost they walked away and never looked back. I send them pictures of course, but there's never any reply, and Rose never gets any birthday or Christmas cards. She'll be four in a few weeks time."

"Mum will be ecstatic. She'll have the party planned before your head stops spinning," Ron grinned, and got a shy smile in return. The red head didn't think for a moment that now Harry was 'found' that he'd shun the rest of the family. The green-eyed man didn't seem to think so either.

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