1 year after the war

Seamus had never put much stock in "thinking".

"Me gran says that's why me mouth runs so much, to make up for all the running me brain never does," Seamus guffawed, thumping a very startled Harry across his back and almost sending his glasses flying.

A too startled Harry, to be honest.

Seamus narrowed his eyes," Are you even listening to me mate?"

Harry winced and jerkily avoided Seamus gaze. "Uh- ah, yeah, I am"

There was a beat of silence as Seamus stared at Harry with his brows drawn low.

"Aayy! Im just messing with ya!",he said, throwing out his arm, now across Harrys neck as he pulled him into a very drunk half hug, half murder attempt.

"Oh for Heaven's-Seamus!"Hermione huffed, appearing out of thin air, extricating Harry from Seamus's death grip,"Why are you trying to kill your friends on your birthday?"

"Thanks Hermione," Harry muttered, rubbing the side of his neck and carefully moving a foot away from the drunk Irishman.

Hermione didn't hear him, too focused on staring down Seamus who appeared sufficiently chastised, or.. as chastised as Seamus could ever appear at least.

"Aww Hermione, we were just joking around. Lighten up will ya, Harry doesnt need a mum!"

Harry flinched and Hermione, even facing away from as she was, noticed, her eyes quickly flitting to him before they drew back to Seamus, shooting him a incensed look that had him cowering into his seat.

"Oh boy, he's done it now."

Harry turned to see George leaning back against the bar on his left, sipping his beer as he watched the scene unfold.

By now Hermione's hair was crackling with rage, as Seamus was seemingly repeatedly putting his foot in his mouth, as only Seamus was wont to do.

Harry smiled half heartedly, eyes on his own barely touched glass of firewhiskey, running his thumb against the side, chasing a bead of condensation.

George sighed, standing up straight, looking down at Harry with a look he was unfortunately, unwantingly intimately familiar with by now. The same look everyone always had when they looked at him.

Pity.

Harrys hand clenched against his glass, before slowly relaxing again, bracing for what would inevitably follow.

"You know it wasn't your fault, Harry."

There it was.

The words Harry desperately wanted to believe.

And absolutely hated hearing.

He took a deep breath in, closing his eyes, forcing the deluge of utter despair threatening to burst, back inside.

His answer, like clockwork, "I know George."

He felt, rather than saw, George exhale and drop his head, all the energy seeming to leave his body with his breath.

George gave a small, rueful shake of his head. He placed his left hand briefly on Harrys shoulder, patting it once before he walked off to join Angelina at a table.

"Take care, Harry"

Harry dropped his forehead on the back of his hands, now steepled over his glass.

For a brief moment, as he felt the rim of the glass press into his palms, he wondered if the glass was charmed to protect it from breaking. What it break if he slammed his hand into it? Would his hand get bruise from the blunt force or a cut from the sharp edge?

"Well, I guess now we know for sure your moods weren't all Voldemort, were they?"

Harry felt his lips pull up at the edges despite his best efforts to maintain his hard earned melancholy.

He raised his head to his right, resting his left temple on his hands, looking to the person he knew would be standing there.

Who was always somehow standing right there.

"I thought you were still skinning Seamus."

Hermione threw her hair back in irritation.

"That boy. Honestly, every single time I think he can't possibly be a bigger git he makes it a mission to prove me wrong",said Hermione glaring over her right shoulder to where Seamus was now playing beer pong. He froze, seeming to sense her glare, turning around slowly, and visibly gulping when found Hermione's narrowed eyes.

Harry rolled his eyes at the comical display and saw a flash of a self satisfied smile across hermione's face before she turned back to Harry.

"Why on Merlins green earth were you letting him strangle you?" she said incredulously.

Harry shrugged, saying nonchalantly.

"I knew you'd come save me."

Hermione face tensed and then softened.

"You don't need anyone to save you Harry," she whispered in a low voice.

"If only you knew," thought Harry, recall his very recent,very morbid thoughts concerning glasses and bruises.

As if he spoke out loud Hermione's face shifted, brows furrowing, her eyes acquiring that familiar intensity she always exhibited when she needed to tell him something of the highest importance.

He had seen that look all year on the run, when she was explaining some complicated horcrux detail or teaching him a charm to protect the tent. It was much rarer now, what with there being no life threatening information to share after the war.

But she still got that look on her face sometimes when talking to him, as if he was personally offending her by his blase attitude towards himself.

She opened her mouth and he braced himself for the firm rebuke.

But then..

"Harry James Potter, we might be at a party but so help me Merlin, if you don't fix your attitude right this minute, If you believe I will hesitate to deliver you the worst lecture you have ever heard in your life in this rowdy, dingy pub with Seamus screaming murder in the background, you are SADLY mistaken."

Harry took one look at her, her hands on her hips, looking uncannily similar to a very indignant Crookshanks, and burst out laughing.

"Hmph," said Hermione primly,"I really don't know what's quite so funny," settling back into her seat but not before quickly turning and sticking her tongue out at him, sending him on another bout of laughter.

She watched him, bent over clutching his stomach and let out a soft giggle, her mission, for today, accomplished.

She and Harry both knew she had done everything on purpose, the exaggerated stance, the childish tongue, that she had done precisely what she thought would give him what he needed most right now, an escape from his thoughts.

But Harry, knowing that someone knew him so absolutely, felt filled with a buoyant lightness.

Not unlike a patronus, but inside his heart.