Coetaneous: of the same age or duration.

September 16, 2056

"Here, look at this one," Ron smirked waving another photograph yellowed with age in Harry's face.

He had to squint through thick glasses now, raising a wrinkled hand to hold it steady. A raspy chuckle slipped through his lips.

"Our third year?" he guessed as he watched his and Ron's photographic selves dragging a very unwilling Hermione toward the lake.

"The first weekend back," Hermione confirmed, leaning over to see, too. "I was about ready to curse you two."

Ron sniggered at the memory. "You wouldn't've. Not then. You wanted me to like you too bad. And it's not right to pick on someone smaller than you, so you wouldn't have cursed Harry, either."

"I wasn't smaller than her," Harry protested indignantly.

"Yes you were, look."

"I'm crouching, see? My knees were bent."

He looked to Hermione for help, but she was obviously trying not to giggle. "You were an inch shorter than me until our fifth year."

He gave her a betrayed look.

Ron was shuffling through the heap of photos spread over the table between them. He pulled out another one and slapped it in front of Harry, who bent forward to look. It was the two of them together at the world cup, arms slung over each other's shoulders. They both had on shamrock top hats, and the four-leafed clover in Harry's barely came up to Ron's ear.

"You remember the time Kenneth Towler took you for a first year at the welcome feast? Chased you halfway down the Gryffindor table shouting 'first years, this way!' till he saw your face." Ron was guffawing now. "His expression…"

"You only wish you looked younger than you were," Harry said slyly, sliding a different photo at Ron. This one was slightly less dated, showing them at James's wedding. Ron's hair was streaked liberally with gray and receding, lines crinkling the corners of his eyes and mouth, but Harry might have been James's brother.

Ron snorted, running a finger over the stoop that had already been starting in his shoulders then. "Touché, my friend."

Harry, now busy smiling fondly at one of Lily's baby pictures, missed the look that passed between Ron and Hermione.

"What about this one?" Hermione asked, reaching randomly for another photo.

Harry shifted carefully in his chair, leaning on a polished wooden cane to stay upright. He had to bring it close to his face to see through the cataracts that clouded his once-bright eyes. The picture wavered in his slightly trembling grip. Hermione reached out to steady it for him.

"That's John's new baby," he said with the note of pride he always got when he talked about his grandchildren. "Teddy says they're coming to Sunday dinner. Izzy and the girls, too. Good lad, Teddy is. He and Vic've been by nearly every day this week, did you know? I haven't seen so much of him since he first got his own flat. I bet that picture's in here, too…."

As he bent over the table, Ron and Hermione exchanged another look. Harry, as was his long-standing policy, pretended not to notice. He didn't need to talk about it; he could feel it in his bones, in the ache of his joints and the slowing of his movements. And when he stood, he would be shorter than Hermione again, and Ron would probably take his elbow to steady him, even though he was younger than both of them. In the last year, he seemed to have aged ten.

"Look at this," he said, chuckling again as he held up a photo from their first year.

"The first and last snowball fight Hermione ever had with us," Ron grinned,

"It's a wonder I ever stayed friends with you two," she said, shaking her head as she looked at her twelve-year-old self being pinned between the two boys as Ron smashed a snowball in her face.

"Oh, come off it, you loved us," said Harry.

Her voice was almost a whisper as she looked up at him. "Yes, I did."

A/N: Do I need to leave anybody chocolates with this? I've never laid down words this far in the future. Mostly because it makes me kind of sad. I always thought surviving two killing curses must have left more of a mark on Harry than just a few cuts and bruises, but he didn't feel the effects until much later. Anyway, another chip into September. Hope to hear from you!