Title: The Life I Now Lead

Rating: R – Due to the adult themes involved and mentions of sex and violence.

Genre: Action/Adventure, Romance, Angst.

Summary: Harry has moved away from his old life and is trying to get on away from the world he once knew.

Disclaimer: I do not own it. I own myself some dvds and the odd pot of gold, but not Harry Potter... unfortunatley.

Pairings: LM/HP. DM/AU. HG/RW

Thanks To: Dracavia – Beta to the end

A/N: Thanks everyone who has me on story alert. It made me all happy and got my backside into gear with the writing of this chapter (I have buffer whee!) fortnightly updates are a go. Deathly Hallows was great, this story will remain spoiler free and contain the AU ending that i've chosen. (I read Deathly Hallows in 10 hours, can anyone beat that? Sat up from Midnight till 10:00am and then slept for an hour. So glad i wasnt working!) Hope you all keep reading, just because Rowling is finished doesnt mean the rest of us have to be. Now, onto the story. (Psst, please review?)

If you close your eyes your life

Is naked to reveal

Dreams you never lived

And scars never healed

In the darkness light will take you

To the other side

You'll find me waiting there

You'll see if you just close your eyes

September 10th

The rain fell in sheets across the United Kingdom, the mood of the weather matching the mood of the wizarding world. Tonks had been sent on numerous wild goose chases in attempts to find Severus, but instead all she had found were small cults of black magic users who were violating small wizarding laws.

Frankly she thought it a waste of her time.

Remus was inclined to agree with her, however the ministry would always do what it pleased and would be damned if it ever listened to the likes of him. Remus suspected sometimes that Tonks got the bad assignments because she was with him.

He often voiced that opinion to her but she always told him to forget that idea and that even if it was, the jobs were worth it to be with him.

There was a faint pop and Remus looked over from his place on the couch, Tonks smiled at him, a letter in hand.

"Hello…. What's that you've got?" He asked curiously, looking at the letter.

Tonks smiled "It's a letter from the Minister… he said he's approved us to adopt if we want to."

Remus grinned from ear to ear and silently thanked Hermione and her tireless work to make him an equal in the eyes of the magical community.

Across the world, the weather was much different but the mood of the magical community was much the same.

Harry was increasingly worried as the days passed. He had hoped the law enforcement of the world magical community would round up and catch Severus and his followers.

No such luck apparently. The British wizarding community seemed as incompetent as always and Harry was wondering if they would catch him at all before he did something.

Draco had been over after work each day to make sure that Harry was alright, Lucius wouldn't leave him alone, Anne was visiting. Truthfully, Harry felt like he was being babysat.

He knew what they were thinking, and they were right.

If he thought he could get away with it, he would go himself, hunt down Severus and kill him. He wanted dearly to be the one to end that man's life but he knew that he was being watched too closely and his magic was too unstable to really do anything.

He hadn't used his magic really since fighting Voldemort. It had become very unstable and all he could do was basic charms and jinxes.

He leant forward, holding his head in his hands. His mind briefly thought what would have happened had he not run off with Lucius. If he had stayed in Britain and let the wizarding world treat him as its 'hero'.

He snorted a little, he knew fine well he'd hate every second of it. And here he was happy with Lucius, Draco, Anne, their kids and his own friends. He had friends here who didn't know who he was. His dark hair was the same, but he had used magic to change his eye colour to blue and his scar had mercifully disappeared when Voldemort met his end.

As Harry sat and contemplated his life and the end of Voldemort, he was unaware that Lucius was standing in the doorway watching him. Lucius instinctively knew what Harry was thinking about and that was why he had been watching him round the clock and had even gone so far as to place a discrete tracking charm on him.

He was worried that Harry would blow their cover by doing something stupid, but so far he had stuck to his routine, going to work three times a week, going to the local quidditch matches and shopping.

Lucius walked in and sat beside Harry, he looked at him and smiled sadly, "The weather is nice… want to go for a walk?"

Harry shook his head, "No, you should stay inside, you're getting sick again."

Lucius sighed softly, it was true he had begun to feel ill once more, his bones ached, his head hurt and he made unsettling noises when he moved. Harry looked at him, "The healer said you should rest and take your medication."

Lucius nodded a little, "Fine… should we invite Draco, Anne and the kids over, seeing them always seems to cheer you up."

Harry shook his head, "Luce… I'm fine… I just… I wish they would find that bastard and kill him."

Lucius sighed and stroked Harry's back, wincing slightly at the aching pain in his own shoulder. Harry frowned and his hand rubbed at Lucius' shoulder gently, "Your shoulder is clicking… that's not healthy. That's it come on, I'm gonna stop moping now. I'm taking you upstairs so you can shower and I can massage in that healing oil stuff that the healer gave us. Alright?"

Lucius smiled a little, well, at least now Harry had something else to concentrate on. And it just so happened that he himself was going to enjoy it.

September 12th

Midday in Tourisle Harry was walking through the streets just window shopping. He had given Lucius another massage that morning and told him to stay inside. Lucius' condition was rare and the healer had said it was always born of people who had Cruccio cast on them too many times.

The healer had mercifully not asked questions about why Lucius had that cast on him so much, but had given him a course of treatment to help him with the pain and discomfort. She had also told them that people with this condition had shorter life expectancies, but of course Lucius had already suspected that. He considered himself lucky that he'd made it past fifty.

Harry looked in the window of the book store at the tail end of the main street. The streets were quiet today, it being a Wednesday most people were at work. He was waiting on the new book coming out from Alexis Stewart, it was a book about a muggle born wizard who hunted dragons in the middle ages. They were considered historical fiction as they were based on real life events. Of course she had embellished a lot in them to make them entertaining, but they were good none the less.

He turned and moved down the street towards the beach. The beach was his favourite place to think, no one around usually on slightly windy days like this.

He sat on a wall on the edge of the beach, watching the water lap up against the shore when he felt a presence directly behind him. He turned quickly, there was a wand pointed directly in his face and a tall masked figure held it.

"You know Potter, you're not as quick as I expected you to be… I-"

Before he could say anything more Harry kicked the person hard in the stomach, he grabbed him by the front of his robes and dragged him backwards over the wall.

He sat atop the man and looked down at him "You know, all you dark arts bastards are the same, they're all about the monologue. Now… let's see who the fuck you are."

Harry pulled the mask of the man up and scowled, "Blaise Zabini… didn't I kill you one time?"

Blaise spat in Harry's face, "You should also be dead."

Harry punched Blaise in the face and he cried out. Harry shook his head at him, "Spitting at me wasn't smart either. Now Blaise, you're gonna tell me exactly where Severus Snape is."

Blaise laughed, "Like I'd do that."

Harry looked contemplative, and placed his hand over Blaise' heart, "You know, my magic is really unstable now… wonder what'd happen if I tried crucio right now…"

Blaise looked mildly surprised that Harry would use that spell. "Oh what? You think I'm all good and light? No Blaise, Voldemort didn't just die you know, I blew him apart… almost killed me in the process."

Blaise looked at him and laughed, "What are you going to do with me then?"

Harry looked thoughtful and then he smiled cruelly, "Lucius knows some nifty dark arts spells to extract information… I think we'll rip the memories out of your brain and I'll send your body back in pieces to the ministry."

Harry let a bolt of erratic magic flow through Blaise, knocking him out and lifted him. He pulled his hood up and went down the back streets towards home.

September 13th

"Blaise Zabini found dead and mangled outside of the Ministry Headquarters with a seeing stone attached to him. It appears that an unknown vigilante has killed him after extracting information pertaining to Severus Snape. The stone has provided many new leads in this situation and the Aurors have been sent throughout the country to the locations provided by Blaise's memories."

Hermione read the report, looking quite sickened, the spell used to rip memories from people was very dark and always was fatal. It's why it was never used and was a forbidden spell, you didn't get life in Azkaban but you certainly got a hefty sentence for its use.

She knew of only three wizards that could perform that spell, two of them were dead and one was in Azkaban serving a life sentence for helping Voldemort. She wondered who would have used the curse.

Ron on the other hand, while surprised that the curse had been used, was happy at the results it had produced, as was the ministry. Several of Severus' helpers had been rounded up, most of them were death eater sympathisers, however most of them didn't know where Severus Snape was.

Hermione put the paper down and picked up the letter from their son, it had taken him all this time to write to them but she was happy as it meant he was obviously having a great time at school. He had been sorted into Ravenclaw and was quite pleased with his friends and his classes.

Hermione missed him but she was glad he was at Hogwarts.

She sighed closing her eyes, her thoughts turning back to her first year at Hogwarts and how happy she had been there with Ron and Harry. How she longed for those days…

"I still say it was dangerous dad… It's such a difficult curse to perform, they knew you could do it, what were you thinking?"

Lucius looked at his son, his one eye staring at him angrily, the blue eye blazing. He smiled softly, "What? And believe Severus' insane ramblings?"

Draco scowled, "How does he know you're alive anyway? And Harry…"

Lucius sighed softly and sat down, "Severus saw me… before he was imprisoned."

Draco's eye widened, "What? How!?"

Lucius sighed, "When I saved Harry… he saw me do it… he saw me disappear with him. I had to leave quickly, the ministry officials were coming. The ministry just think he's unhinged… We were lucky."

Draco shook his head, "Does Harry know about that?"

Lucius shook his head as well, "No… he doesn't… and I want it to stay that way Draco. He can't know about this. He'd end up going off and doing something stupid…"

Draco sighed and nodded, neither of them realising that on the other side of the door, Harry was listening to their every word, eyes closed, silently making a plan.