A.N - thanks for keeping with me! As I said, I was away for most of the summer in Spain and Italy. Whole family got Covid on way home, so have been bedridden and now have a month of work to catch up on.

Chapter 9

It was after midnight when an exhausted Harry Potter floo'd into Grimmauld, having just spent the better part of the night dealing with the cleanup of the mess from tonight's attack on him and Bella in the middle of a London street.

As this was the 2nd magical battle in Muggle London in a week, he fully expected there to be serious fallout from the muggle PM.

In the immediate aftermath of the arrival of his backup team and the tense nerves on both sides, it had been all he could do to keep the SHIELD agents and his Auror's from firing at each other; as it was it took both him and Coulson commanding everyone to stand down to really calm the situation.

After a few tense words, Harry quickly realized that Coulson was fully briefed on magic and the magical world, and knew exactly who he was. On the other hand, out of all his agents, he was the only one 'in the know.' A minute of tense negotiations followed, but finally Coulson allowed Harry's Aurors to obliviate the entire SHIELD team except for one Agent - the Bowman. Harry then learned the man was named Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, and was one of the highest ranked Agent in Shield and Hawkeye was due to be brought into the secret anyway.

When the deed was done, the muggle police had arrived in force, and Harry told Coulson he was taking a now shaky Bella home while Coulson could use his fancy Shield credentials and deal with the metro police. Happily, Coulson took this in stride and did not argue the point. He smiled politely at Bella, and then requested a high level meeting - with both himself, Harry, and Bella - once Bella returned to Washington. Harry promised that - so long as his Minister and the Director of Magical Law Enforcement agreed - that Harry would come to Washington at the end of the month to meet with the Director of Shield - Colonel Nick Fury and join Bella in the meeting.

Bella was shocked at the turn the conversation took. "Me?" she stuttered, her face betraying her shock. "Why...why does he want to meet with me?"

Coulson's lips twitched. "Isabella, SHIELD has been interested in you since you left Forks two years ago. As I'm sure you are aware, the enormous number of deaths in Seattle caught our attention, and we had reason to believe that the...activities there might have been somehow connected to you.

Harry watched as Bella's face drained of all color: it seemed like Coulson had hit the mark there, and Harry would do his own digging to see what he could find out, though he knew it was almost certainly related to her previous association with vampires.

Plus, Harry rationalized, if there were people out there looking to hurt Bella, he wanted to be able to protect her.

Bella, however, was clearly playing dumb for Coulson. "I...I don't know what you mean," she said in a small voice, her hands clasping and twisting in front of her. "I don't know anything about that."

Harry wanted to roll his eyes at perhaps the worst attempt at lying he'd ever seen. He'd have to teach her a few tricks, as he had never seen a worse poker face than Bella was sporting right now.

Coulson - even if he hadn't known for sure that she was involved somehow - would now certainly believe so. His lips twitched at her poor performance and Harry chuckled at the Agent's easygoing manner with the clearly distressed girl who must have known she wasn't fooling anybody. "Isabella, we just are trying to tie up some loose ends. Please believe me when I tell you that we are not going to ask you to betray any secrets, you are not in any trouble, and we just want to make sure that we know enough to protect people if something like that happen again."

Bella still seemed very uneasy. Perhaps the reference to 'secrets'? Could this involve the vampire family she seemed to be protecting?

When she shivered, Harry put his arm around her shoulders and gently squeezed. "I'll be there with you Bella, it will be okay."

She turned to him then, took a deep breath, and gave him a look of such gratitude that Harry had to smile back, despite the grim end to what had been a pleasant evening.

After making arrangements to meet on August 25th - three weeks from now - Harry guided a dazed Bella through the crowd of Aurors and Shield agents to the end of the block, where he summoned the Night Bus.

Harry could see that Bella, despite putting on a brave face, was beginning to crash, the adrenaline leaving her system leaving her shaky and weak, and he wanted to get her home. When the Bus suddenly arrived with a loud pop and a hiss of released steam, Bella shrieked, flailing her hands and almost falling into Harry. He sushed her, letting her hold his hand in a death grip, and got a leery Bella onto the bus, nodding to the driver who replaced Stan Shunpike.

"Bella?" Harry said quietly. "Strap in, please."

She looked at him, trying to gauge his sincerity, and decided to be cautious. A moment later, she was very glad she did as the bus launched itself forward like the fastest race car on earth.

A few intense minutes later, with his eardrums suffering a little from all the screaming, Harry helped a slightly green Bella off the Night bus, trying not to laugh at her queasy expression; after all, he'd felt the same the first time he'd taken it as well, though he hadn't screamed quite so loudly.

"I'm never going on that thing again!" Bella huffed as it vanished with a pop. "That was awful! Is all magical transportation so bad?"

Harry chuckled. "Honestly? Yes, yes it is." He gave her a small smile at her indignant expression. "But I promise you'll get used to it, and you eventually won't even notice the discomfort."

"Doubtful," grumbled Bella. At least Harry was happy to see she wasn't traumatized by the events of the night. The girl was clearly tough, and the way she'd saved him from a killing curse in the back...she was a Gryffindor through and through.

As they stood at the entry gate in front of Sophie's home - the bus had dropped them at the corner between a pair of street lamps - Harry suddenly felt awkward, like a teenager again. He'd spent a lot of time with this girl over the past few days, and was going to miss her, and he wouldn't see her for almost four weeks.

He found that he really didn't want to say goodbye.

Harry was happy to see she seemed just as hesitant at leaving. She twisted her fingers for a moment, biting her bottom lip, a habit he'd noticed she did when she was unsure or nervous about something.

"Well, err, this is me," she said shyly, her cheeks flushed, and that bottom lip trapped between her teeth. It looked quite plump and Harry wondered if it was as soft as it looked...

The impulse surprised him. He was by no means a monk, but he had not been in any sort of relationship since Ginny, several years ago now. She had her reasonably successful Quidditch career and enjoyed the travel and the spotlight, and Harry had his career as an Auror, which he generally liked. He thought he'd be sick of fighting bad guys after the war, but he found that he needed some sort of excitement in his life, and he enjoyed flying for fun more than he enjoyed Quidditch, ruling that out as a career.

Thus, he and Ginny realized, after almost two years together, that without the stress of the war pulling them together that their lives and careers were going in different directions. They enjoyed different things, and simply didn't have that much in common. They'd parted quickly and amicably - much more so than Ron and Hermione did, as Ron never let anything go easily - and Harry simply hadn't had a real relationship since. He'd gone on a few dates but most of his female company were a series of less than thrilling one-night stands or very occasionally a one or two week fling when on an assignment overseas.

Harry had come to the conclusion a few days ago that he really liked Bella. He liked her quite a lot. She challenged him; she was smart, and funny with a dry sense of humor that reminded him of Hermione. And he certainly found her very attractive, and it didn't even seem like she was even trying to be.

Also, he realized, he had never dated anyone who didn't know the 'legend' of The Boy Who Lived, and it was very refreshing to meet someone who had absolutely no pre-conceived expectations of him. Hermione had once told him this, that he should try dating outside of the Wizarding community several years ago; but at the time he'd made the reasonable argument that all his friends were wizards and he worked in the wizarding world: finding a muggle girl to date would not be easy, and he never followed up on the suggestion.

But now...Bella had almost fallen into his lap, and he found himself eager to see where this could go.

Just as Harry opened his mouth to express this to her, Bella beat him to the punch, a small smile on her face. "Harry, I just want to thank you. For everything." Her voice dropped a bit, and the next words came out softer. "I think this week has been the best I've had in a really, really long time. And that's all thanks to you." With a shy smile he'd not seen before, she leaned up on her toes and kissed him softly right at the corner of his mouth while her hands went around his back, pulling him into a warm hug.

Harry took a shaky breath when her lips skimmed his. She smelled good, like flowers, and her lips were soft and pillowy. Their eyes stayed open, and he stared into the brown depth of eyes that were deep and compelling.

He blinked as she settled back on her feet his own face morphing into a wide smile. He stared at her, his eyes locking with hers. He raised his hands up to her shoulders before her arms had fallen from around his waist.

"Bella, I wanted to thank you, as well. I too had an amazing week, despite how it started." He gave her a half-grin, and she chuckled, remembering her near death experience at the hands of another vampire. "I'm going to miss you when you go, but let's keep in touch. I will be in America for the Fury meeting, but let's talk before then, if that's okay with you?"

"I'd like that," she said, blushing.

This time, it was Harry who moved first. He leaned down and gave her the same small kiss, right at corner of her mouth. But he held his for a moment, lingering there with his lips softly brushing hers, and he felt her breath catch and her eyes fluttered.

As their hands tightened on each other, there was a definite tension in the air, and they drifted closer to one another, lips hovering close, their breath mingling.

But then, suddenly, one of the lights in the courtyard entryway turned on, and they blinked in surprise, the moment broken. As they separated, Sophie's voice was ringing out. "Bella? Is that you?"

The pair each let out small chuckles as they let their hands drop, and Harry thought he heard Bella mumbling about lousy timing. As his hand slipped down her arm he gave it a small squeeze. "Goodbye, Bella. We'll talk soon."

And then Sophie was there, looking smug as she saw them standing so close. "Oh my, I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" she said coyly, not sounding sorry at all, a wide toothy smile on her face. She'd been trying to get Bella to date for a year already! And it looks like she found a nice British boy!

Bella shook her head, part in frustration and part in amusement. Turning to Harry, she leaned up and gave him another brief hug. "Bye, Harry. Thanks again." She walked over to Sophie, turned, and waved one last time at him, memorizing his features and feeling warm inside despite the horrid night. "Bye, Harry."

He smiled at her, nodding. "Bye Bella. Goodbye Sophie. Have a safe trip, and we'll talk soon."

And then she and her friend were walking inside, and Harry turned, making his way to a darker part of the street where he apparated away.

Shaking himself from his memories, he grumbled about the mountain of reports he'd be filling out tomorrow, and the discussions he'd need to have with Hermione about what Bella had done with her shield that night. Thinking back on it now, without the stress of battle letting his instincts override his observational skills, he realized her shield had, somehow, stopped a pair of killing curses. That was supposed to be impossible for a purely magical shield to accomplish - only a physical object could block the killing curse - so somehow Bella's shield was much more than it appeared. For her sake it would be good for her to learn how to control it lest she inadvertently cause damage to something she didn't mean to do. He could tell already - even knowing her for just a few days - that she was soft-hearted and would probably feel guilty tomorrow about the fact she had seriously injured if not outright killed a pair of wizards.

Harry was waiting on the reports on the pair, as he didn't even know who they were at this point. Were they working with the vampire? Were they looking for Harry? After the war, the location of 13 Grimmauld was certainly known to the Deatheaters, as they had gotten the secret from Snape and chased the Order out. Even if they could not see the building itself under the Fidelius charm, they could certainly stake it out and keep it under observation.

Either way, Harry was going to be busy tomorrow, and as he drifted off to sleep, he found himself thinking about a certain brown eyed American girl.

A/N

Hope to have another chapter out in a couple of weeks. I've got about six weeks of work to catch up on, and it's tax extension season so will be very very busy. For anyone still sticking around, thank you! I appreciate every review, keeps me motivated to keep writing.