Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot.

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

"Stage by stage, I tear apart

If brokenness is a form of art

I must be a poster child prodigy"

Sleeping At Last - Neptune

The day after found Harry laying on his back on his bed. He hadn't even taken the time to remove the sheets or his shoes for that matter. He was just here, his green eyes fixed on the ceiling, waiting for something to come. Inwardly, he still had the little hope to see Ginny pushing the bedroom's door, jumping on the bed like she used to do at the beginning of their relationship, and kissing him until he begged for mercy. She would then lie on the bed with him, and they would talk about their future over and over.

The future... Harry Potter had always thought that he would grow old with Ginny Weasley by his side. He had thought that she would stay with him until the end, that they would have so many children that it would be even hard to count them. Their lives had taken this road, with James' birth one year ago. But it was now a memory, a silly desire that a little boy who hadn't had the opportunity to live with his parents had cherished with all his heart.

Now, three years after their wedding, Ginny was gone. Oh, Harry was well-aware that this was supposed to be only a matter of a year; his wife had been pretty insistent about this point. Despite this, he couldn't help but feel betrayed by this sudden decision, a decision that Ginny had taken without even asking his opinion about it. She was right, though: it was highly possible that he wouldn't have take it nicely. But he would have tried to live with it, one way or another. But now, it was different; Ginny had showed him that his opinion wasn't important to her eyes. Hell, Harry was almost sure that all the Weasley family had been aware of her decision long before him.

He cursed through gritted teeth, not wanting to wake James up. James had slowly calmed down after Ginny's departure, and Harry had spent many hours in his room, looking at him while the moon was shinning over the little boy. He had thought about every possibility: quitting his job in order to look after his son, hiring a baby-sitter, and even leaving him with Molly during the day. He was sure that Ginny's mum would be more than happy to help.

Harry loved the Weasleys; he had loved them since the beginning of his Hogwarts' years. They had been a second family to him, replacing both the parents that he hadn't had the opportunity to grow up with. Molly had adopted him right away, while his knowledge of the Muggle World had made Arthur Weasley growing fond of him. Ron had always been like a brother to him, despite their rows from time to time. And even now, while they didn't have so many time to spend together, Harry knew that their friendship was far from being over. All that the green-eyed man wanted at this exact moment was to meet his old friend in a bar, and to talk about all that had just happened to his couple the previous day. Would Ron take side with his own sister or would he stand with his old friend who had done anything wrong to lead to this situation?

Then, a cry. Harry groaned, but eventually got up, rubbing his eyes to erase any sign of tiredness. He had even forgotten that James was an early riser, a behaviour that his son surely didn't hold from him.

"I think that someone needs a diaper change," Harry mumbled when he took James into his arms, smelling his little body.

What did he need to change a baby? Obviously he had done it before, but two months had passed since his last day at home, and he noticed that Ginny had changed some little–but oh so important– things in the baby's room.

"Don't you want to help me, James? Where would your mother hide the diapers and the baby's wipes in your opinion?," Harry asked, mostly to himself, but also to catch his son's attention. The latter was looking at him with his big green eyes, slightly amused by his father's voice.

"And here they are," he went on while opening the first drawer of the changing station. Five minutes later, James was ready to leave the baby's room, his little hands clenched around his father's hair.

"I don't even know what you eat in the morning...," Harry sighed, heading to the kitchen to see if Ginny had left any note about James' food. Obviously, since he had eaten some mashed potatoes the day prior, James wouldn't be pleased with just a feeding-bottle.

"Do you want some bread and apricot jam? With a bottle of milk right after?"

James nodded enthusiastically, and Harry smiled for the first time of the day. How had he done to spend two other months far from him? All in all, he had spent four months abroad; four long months. He could have witnessed James' first word–which was, awkwardly enough, daddy–, or just spent some time with his son: instead, he had pursued some criminals. Slowly, he put James into his highchair, and served him. He stayed close to him, observing his son while he was taking the slice of bread and jam into his thin hand. From time to time, James was staring at him with a surprise look, not used to see his father in the morning. Usually, the first person that he saw was his mother, Ginny.

"Mum is just... She will be home soon, Jamie, don't worry about it," Harry whispered to his son's attention, and the little boy gave him a smile before doing his best to eat his breakfast.

Harry was lost in his thoughts when an owl entered through the window, eliciting a cry of pure joy and entertainment from James. Frowning–and above all, fearing that it was a letter from the Ministry urging him to come to work–, Harry freed the owl from the heavy parchment attached to its leg, and took some crumbs from James' plate as a treat for the owl. It left as swiftly as it came in, and Harry unfolded the piece of parchment.

"Harry,

I am sorry about last night. I shouldn't have talked to you like that, and I realise it now. You were right: I accepted your career years ago, I have any right to hold it against you. But you have to understand my point of view too. During years, I lived like Harry Potter's wife, and, I am not going to deny it: I like it. I like the fact of being your wife, I love above all the fact of having you by my side, in every situation. During parties, during family dinners... during our time together, just the two of us.

You are the best thing I've ever had, and you gave me something priceless: our son. He is my pride and joy, and I love him with all my heart. But I thought that his birth would have changed this side of you that I am not fond of: your love for adventure, your incessant travels, your behaviour toward danger... Well, I know that you always pay attention to whatever could happen during your mission, but you have to understand me: what would I do if something happened to you? I have no career, just a miserable job at the corner shop. I thought that it would have been enough, with you providing for our family, but now that James is into the equation, I can't think like that any longer.

This opportunity, I won't have another one like that in a few years, and you know it, Harry. You know that it is my last chance to make myself a name into the Wizarding World, to have the opportunity to be someone else than Ginny Potter, the wife of the Boy-Who-Lived. I am sure that it is something that you can understand.

I am terribly sorry if I hurt you: I've never wanted to do such a thing. I know that it seems to be very selfish of me, and I am not going to deny it; it is incredibly selfish no matter how hard I'm trying to justify myself, and I hope that you'll be able to forgive me one day.

I am currently at the Burrow, I am going to leave later in the afternoon. If you want to come and to talk to me, be free to do so. I'll be more than happy to see you one last time before my departure.

I love you, Harry; I wouldn't have married you if I didn't. But sometimes, we have to take some hard decisions, and it is exactly what I am doing right now.

I hope to see you today. I love you more than you think.

Ginny"

The parchment into his right hand, Harry stayed still during what seemed to be minutes. He read the letter once more, and noticed the places where the ink was blurry. Obviously, Ginny hadn't lived their little argument very well. Harry sighed and sat on a chair, putting the parchment back onto the dining room. James was staring at him, completely silent, as if he had understood that something was wrong with his father.

And it was exactly what it seemed to be: something was wrong with Harry Potter. Frowning, he took back the parchment and began to read it again. During his first lecture, he had felt something strange; he had felt like Ginny had been right all alone, and that it was him who had forbidden her to live the life that she had expected to live during her younger years. He had the impression that if she was unhappy with the life that she was living with him by her side, it was his own fault, it was because he didn't see that she needed to do something with her life, something useful for their couple, for their family.

But now, as he looked back at her words, things weren't that clear to Harry. Ginny had avoided the true problem there, the only thing that he hadn't been pleased to notice: the fact that she had done everything in his back, without even talking about her dreams with him in the first place. For years, he had thought that they were sharing a healthy relationship, mostly based on trust. Harry wasn't a jealous man, or someone who wanted to dictate to his wife what to do. It was almost the contrary: they were both free to do whatever they wanted, the only limit being not to hurt the other person.

And Ginny had just hurt him badly.

A part of him wanted to go to the Burrow, to take her into his arms and to have the promise that everything would be alright, that they would find a way to be strengthened by this year or separation. But at the same time, Harry was to proud to give up so easily. Ginny had been the only one who had decided to leave, after all.

His eyes left the piece of parchment and he looked up at James. His son's head was slightly tilted on the side, and Harry smiled at him: he'd just realised what he needed to do.

XxX

Hermione Granger woke up into her own bed for the first time for too long. She didn't even try to hide her smile of satisfaction: nobody was going to look at her anyway.

Being in June had its advantages: it was the end of the school year, and she had left Hogwarts the previous day, ending her employment contract as a Transfiguration teacher. Minerva McGonagall, the woman that had helped her tremendously during these last years, had done her best to keep her into the professors team, but Hermione had politely refused to teach one more year.

"I've done it for quite a long time, Professor McGonagall, and now I think that it's better for me to leave," she had explained with a smile, while her former professor had sighed.

"We have been colleagues for six years, Hermione, you can call me by my first name. And I have to insist: I did not find you a good successor for the upcoming year."

"You will, I have no doubt about it. I really want to go back to London, to live the things that I didn't have the opportunity to do while working at Hogwarts... It was an amazing experience, Minerva. But at almost twenty-seven, I want to do something else with my life."

"Oh, my dear girl, I totally understand. Please forgive me, I did not want to pressure you to do something that you do not want to do any longer. I hope you the best, Hermione, you deserve it."

And then she had left Hogwarts, promising that she'd come back often. Hermione wanted to take advantage of these holidays to find another job, at the Ministry maybe, or at a totally different place. During years, she had thought about opening her own bookshop, and it was a good moment to realise this dream. While teaching at Hogwarts, she had been able to save a lot of money, and it was the good moment to use her savings.

The little flat that her parents had bought for her two years ago was the perfect place to Hermione's eyes: with its central location, she would be able to visit London without using some barbaric means of transport such as Apparition.

Hermione stretched lazily before getting up, not knowing at all that this day would change her life forever.

XxX

Harry cleared his throat, his eyes on the phone. Arthur Weasley had insisted to install one of these in their house, and he had done the same at the Burrow. Ginny had been reluctant to do so in the first place, but Harry had accepted right away. It was a mean of communication that he knew well, after all; the Dursleys had more than one in their house.

For some reason, he was feeling nervous about making this phone-call. Not that he was scared to hear the feminine voice on the phone; he was simply scared to hear her thoughts about what he was about to say to her. Would she freak out? Would she explain how crazy his idea was? Harry took another deep breath, while James was seated on the carpet, playing with his bricks, and composed the telephone number of the person he needed to talk to.

Beep.

Maybe that she wasn't here any longer, despite what she had told to him before.

Beep.

He ran a nervous hand into his short hair, thinking that it was by far one of the worst ideas that he had ever had.

Beep.

It was a sign from heaven, it has to be: he just needed to hang up, and everything would be alright. He just needed t–

"Hello?," said a sleepy voice.

Harry held his breath, not knowing what to say. He wanted to talk to her, of course, but at the same time, everything was spinning into his head, overwhelming her with so many informations, so many things that he needed to say to her. He had to talk about what had happened last night, he craved to ask her how was she, he was longing to ask her to be there for him.

"Hi... Hermione," he eventually said, trying to look happy on the phone.

"Harry!," she exclaimed, suddenly totally awake. "How are you? I haven't talked to you since... Wow, I can't even remember the last time we– damn, I am so happy to hear your voice."

Harry smiled. Hermione had always been like this: talkative, with so many things to say, so many things to share. That was the reason why she was the person that he needed right now.

"I am really happy to hear your voice too. But to be honest, we saw each other at Christmas, it's not that long ago."

"Well, it's been six months, which is quite a long time. For that instance, I'm sure that little James isn't little anymore," she laughed.

"You're right," Harry shared her laugh full of happiness. "I was thinking about you actually... Do you want to come over, sometime? To look back on the good memories..."

He chewed his lower lip, anxious about her answer. He shouldn't have lied to her, he knew it. But how could he talk about something like Ginny's departure on the phone? He needed his best friend next to him, physically next to him during this hard time. Hermione was his crutch, the person that could listen to him, yell at him, give him advice at the same time; she had always been, even if Ginny had slowly taken her place as his confidante over the years.

"Of course. What about this week-end?"

Harry counted into his head. Saturday was three days from now, and he didn't know if he could wait until then.

"Mmh, well... Are you available today? I'll cook something for dinner if you want," he asked, doing his best to hide his hope.

Hermione seemed to think about it during a few seconds, but she eventually accepted.

"Alright, I'm yours for tonight. But it's just because I'm back from Hogwarts and that I am too lazy to do the shopping," she explained in an amused voice. "Eight o'clock, your place?"

"Perfect. We'll see you tonight then."

She hang up, and Harry realised that he had said "we" instead of "I". It was one habit that he needed to forget, at least for a year. With a sight, he looked down at James who was still playing with his bricks.

"Well, little boy, since you're here, you'll be my other half from now on," Harry mumbled before starting to play with his son.

I am more than pleased by your reaction to my first Harmony fic. Your reviews were one of the best that I've ever received, so thank you: Linda, snowymkc, starboy454, and an anonymous guest.

But I also want to give a special thank to the three persons who took the time to write a developped review about what they are expecting from this story, what they already think about it too:

- anotherboarduser: I'm glad to see that you liked Ginny's character here. I don't plan to bash her. She's got her reasons, and even if the form isn't very good, we can't really blame her for wanting to achieve her dreams.

- Jharry1960: Your thoughts about where this story could go are amazing, and your development about Harry's possible choices is the best. You are right all along, but to my opinion, I think that Harry is going to continue to work. For how long, I still don't know, but we'll see it later.

- The Dragon and the Rose: I'm pleased to see that you appreciate my efforts in doing something "new". If you've already read this chapter, you now know that your development about Ginny was almost 100% true. ;)

I hope that you all liked this chapter as well. I said that I planned to post a chapter a week, but since the first chapters are already written... Moreover, I am currently looking for a Beta for this story, so if you're ready to correct my mistakes (grammar mostly, since I'm French), if you've got a lot of time, if you want to give me your opinion about my work before everyone else, please leave me a review or write me a PM, and we'll see if we can work together to make this story a better one.