Salt and Pepper Fest: Someone to Fall Back On

[hpgoldenage_mod]

Title: Someone to Fall Back On
Author: dragons_and_angels
Characters/Pairings: Harry/Ron, Hermione Granger, James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter, Lily Luna Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Rose Weasley, Hugo Weasley
Rating: T
Word Count: 13.8k
Content/Warning(s): None
Summary/Prompt: Harry and Ron are tired of their friends and family constantly trying to set them up out of concern for them being alone at their age. They decide to pretend to date each other to get everybody off their back and it turns into something a little more real than they expected.
A/N: Thank you so much to the mods for being so patient and for my beta, N, who did such a good job with this monster of a fic.

Read at AO3 or below:




Harry heard the door swing open and close in his flat, followed by familiar footsteps.

"Do you want tea?" he shouted through to the hall. "I'm putting the kettle on."

"'Course I do." Ron came in already yawning. He was dressed in his work robes, still very similar to how they had been thirty years ago when he first helped George out at the joke shop. Roxanne had taken over the shop but Ron had wanted to carry on working the shop floor, though he had reduced his hours in order to do more of the at home bookkeeping he had discovered a talent for.

"You can borrow my pyjamas, if you want," Harry said, assembling two cups of tea on autopilot. He passed by the sugar bowl Ginny had picked up two years before she died, that Harry had kept despite never having sugar in his tea. The worst of the grief had passed, after nearly eight years, and Harry was able to smile when he thought about Ginny, rather than shut down.

"Ta," Ron said as he walked through the kitchen onto the bedroom on the other side. He kept the door cracked open and Harry heard clothes rustling in his room. "Saw Hermione for lunch. She sends her love."

Ron and Hermione had divorced five years ago after fighting for two years straight. And it was real fighting, not playful arguments. As soon as they were separated and living apart, their relationship had instantly become better and now they had reached the point where they were friends again. Harry was glad to hear this. He never liked playing mediator between Ron and Hermione, though he had enjoyed seeing far more of both of his friends than he had in the years previously.

"I'm seeing her next week. She said Hugo and Lily were joining up for some art project they're doing together, and I think she's worrying about it." Harry had just finished brewing the two teas when Ron came out of Harry’s bedroom. He was dressed in Harry's long-sleeved black T-shirt, with grey tracksuit bottoms which hung low on his hips. Besides the thinning hair and the softening around his middle, Ron still looked remarkably similar to the man who had dropped Rose off for her first ride to Hogwarts nearly twenty years ago.

"Hermione, worry about something? Never." Ron took a swig of his tea, and then coughed, spilling drops on the floor.

"The tea is still hot," Harry said, watching him with amusement. "I've got some leftover lasagna in the fridge which James dropped off. I think he worries about me on my own."

"Excellent, food that doesn't require any effort." Ron grinned at Harry, his blue eyes dancing. "Still being an excellent house husband to Mr. Malfoy, is he?"

Harry made a face. "Don't say that! It sounds like he's married to Malfoy, not Scorpius." Ron gave an exaggerated shudder. "And yes. I think he's not busy enough with the kids and so spends all his free time worrying about me."

"Scorpius is just as bad. Malfoy was in the shop a couple of days ago, saying that Scorpius was worried about him being all alone in that huge manor. I told him that he should have told Scorpius not to worry, because he really spends half his time annoying shopkeepers in Diagon Alley."

Harry rolled his eyes. He and Malfoy had come to a grudging respect, simply because their sons had gotten married, but Ron and Malfoy seemed to delight in a strange, acrimonious relationship that reminded Harry far too much of Hermione and Ron's early relationship for comfort. "James was doing the same thing when he dropped off the food. Saying he worried about me being alone after Ginny."

He and Ron went quiet for a moment as they both glanced at the picture of Harry and Ginny with their three kids, taken just before Ginny had gotten sick. Ron turned away and gave Harry a smile, breaking the moment nicely. "Yeah, well, you're an antisocial git. No wonder your son is worried about you."

"I thought your children were supposed to discourage you from dating anyone else," Harry said. He liked to complain to Ron, who understood there was never any acrimony or malice between the complaints. It felt like what they used to do when McGonagall would take off points for something they had done wrong. "Even Albus is getting into it now, and he was the one who reacted the worst to Ginny's death." His youngest son wasn't married, but Lily had blabbed that he was seeing a foreign witch. It sounded like one of Fleur's cousins.

Ron snorted. "Not my children either. Rose is casually suggesting witches my age that she saw recently. Hugo’s far less subtle about it. He’s just shoving me out the door to go on dates as fast as he can organise them."

Harry, who had been taking a sip of tea, almost choked on a mouthful as he did so. "Children are the worst. Why did we have them?" Realising that it sounded like he and Ron had had the children together, he hastily moved on. "Have they been doing the same to Hermione?"

"They wouldn't dare," Ron replied. "Between the two of us, who are you more scared of?"

"That's true," Harry admitted and laughed at Ron's protest at his easy agreement. He took another sip of tea and then waved his wand to get the lasagna out of the fridge and into the oven. He could heat it up with magic, but last time he did that, it had heated unevenly with some parts still chilled and some parts boiling hot.

They settled into a comfortable silence as the lasagna cooked and they finished their tea. It was only when they were settling down to eat that Ron asked,

"Have you given McGonagall's offer any more thought?" Ron was the only one to know that McGonagall had offered Harry the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching post. The only other person Harry might have considered telling was Hermione, but knew she would have gotten far too excited over it. There were rumours that McGonagall was retiring soon but since the rumours had been going around since James started school. Harry tried not to think of the correlation.

"I have," Harry replied carefully. He had been thinking about it for three weeks now, and he was still unsure about the answer.

"You're riding a desk anyway," Ron pointed out, with his characteristic bluntness.

"I'm also teaching already, so why would I need to start a new job for that?" As much as Harry told himself he liked change, he knew it was mostly a lie. Harry liked the stability of knowing how to do his job, of knowing the people, and of knowing every corner of his workplace. He hadn't been back to Hogwarts for more than the occasional visit, but returning as a teacher rather than a student, would be a lot of new things at once.

"You could get hold of the kids before they're arrogant little shits," Ron retorted. "I mean, there would be the odd little Malfoy in the first years, but not as bad as when they're of age."

"That's true." Harry liked teaching, but he had disliked teaching people who didn't seem to want to be taught. He knew he would get that in Hogwarts as well. Not many people wanted to be in lessons, after all, but it was much more acceptable in students than it was in adults who had chosen careers in the Auror department and were getting paid to be there.

"You're thinking about it, aren't you?" Ron asked shrewdly. He knew Harry far too well.

"Yeah," he admitted. "But I'm scared. What if I'm crap at it? What happened when James and Lily's kids start school? How will I teach them?"

"Like you teach everyone else," Ron answered, steady and sure as he always was. "And hey, maybe it'll get the kids off your back about dating again."

"Merlin, no. I'm pretty sure that they'll take it as a sign that I want to take things slow and settle down with someone." Harry shook his head. He loved his kids more than anything else in the world, but they drove him mad at the same time. James had three kids of his own and was looking at adopting a fourth child. Albus seemed to be trying to travel the entire world. Lily had one very adored child and a journalism empire that had been helped along by Luna and now whatever project she had started with Hugo. As for Teddy... Merlin. He didn’t want to start with Teddy. "At least Isabelle and Marguerite have left Hogwarts now." The twins had charmed their way out of more trouble than their grandparents had ever managed to get into. Andromeda had probably rolled in her grave at whatever her great-grandchildren had gotten up to in school, while their grandparents had probably keeled over from laughing.

"Don't worry, Harry. If you had considered teaching at Hogwarts when they were students, I would have warned you off," Ron assured him, and strangely, Harry felt better.

That night, Harry packed Ron off to the guest room and lay awake in his own, far too big bed. He thought more about teaching at Hogwarts and felt a nervous pinch of excitement in his stomach, much like the one he might have before an important Quidditch match at school. He had been considering retiring from the Auror department, especially after Ginny's death had made everything so much harder, but he had stuck it out, knowing he needed the distraction from his grief. Now he was at as much peace with Ginny's death as he was ever going to be, and there was nothing driving him forward. Things had nearly returned to their normal routine. Maybe his kids were right. Maybe he needed to get out more often. Trouble was that he just wanted more nights like tonight, staying in and enjoying spending time with people he cared about.

He turned over and settled his pillow into something a little more comfortable. No need to rush things. He would talk to McGonagall more about her offer, and let that be his next adventure.

The next morning, Harry was woken by the sounds of Ron in the kitchen. His friend was humming tunelessly as he clattered crockery and pans. It was familiar and comfortable and as Harry got out of bed, he was smiling to himself. The flat, bought after the kids had grown up, and the family home had been handed over to James as a wedding present, had been far too quiet with just him about.

In the kitchen, Ron was frying bacon and reading a letter with a quizzical furrow in between his brows. Harry gave an owl treat to Mercedes, Hugo's owl, and glanced over at him. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know how Rose knows I'm staying with you," Ron answered. "But she's over at Hugo's place and bugging him about me again. Why is she up so early worrying? I'm fine. I'm obviously not alone. I'm with you."

Harry chuckled as he took the bread out of the freezer and pulled out two slices to toast with his wand. This, he could do with magic. "Pity you can't say that you're dating me. Then maybe she'll stop worrying so much."

There was dead silence after Harry's words and he glanced back at his friend, worry starting to spiral in his chest. Ron was staring at him, a dawning light in his eyes.

"Harry, you're brilliant," Ron breathed and Harry flushed without really knowing why.

"I know," he replied automatically. "Wait. What?"

"I'll tell Rose and Hugo I'm dating you," Ron said. A gleeful grin was spreading across his face. "I spend enough time with you for it to be believable, and they'll finally stop trying to set me up all the time. Last week it was Padma Patil, despite everyone knowing she only likes witches. Plus after our Yule Ball, I don't think she'll come anywhere near me." Ron laughed but Harry just kept on staring at him.

"But dating?" he repeated weakly. "No one is going to believe we're dating, right?"

"Nah, I think they will. Besides, this gives me a great excuse to come and see you at Hogwarts all the time and make sure you're alright." Ron sent Harry a conspiratorial smile. "You are taking the offer, right?"

Suddenly, this didn't sound like such a bad idea. Returning to Hogwarts as a Professor would be weird, but returning there with Ron by his side would make things so much easier.

"Alright then." Harry was amazed at how easy that was. "But we have to tell Hermione the truth. She'll never believe it, otherwise."

"Yeah, sure." Ron glanced up from where he was now scribbling on the parchment in reply to his children. "Shall I see if Hermione is free for lunch today? Then you can tell her about the Professor job as well."

Harry ducked his head to smile, unable to believe how everything had seemed so flat and uninteresting last month. Now he had a plan for both his career and his personal life, and Ron would be with him. Yeah, it would be a little weird for people to think he was dating Ron, but there were far worse people he could be paired with, and it wasn’t going to cramp his actual social life.

Ron sent off his reply with Mercedes and then strode over to plant a smacking kiss on Harry's cheek before he could object or protest. Harry laughed because it was Ron, and then blushed because it was Ron.

"See you, lover!" Ron shot over his shoulder as he Flooed straight into the shop. Harry watched him go, the smile almost splitting his face in two. At least this would be easy enough. It’d be easy to fake a few kisses, the extra touching, and whatever else came their way.

The first thing that should have told Harry that this wouldn't be so easy was Hermione's complete lack of shock over the news they announced, but then her surprise when they told her it was fake.

"Wait, so you're not dating?" she asked. She tucked a greying, curly lock of her hair behind her ear and blinked at Harry and Ron through her glasses. Unlike Ron, Hermione looked like a respectable, middle-aged woman rather than the teenager she had been. Until she started to talk about the bigots she was fighting against, and then Harry saw the rebellious fifth year who had cursed fellow students and defied the Ministry right under their noses.

"'Course not,'' Ron muttered. He was almost drooling as their food was floated over to them by a harassed looking waiter.

"But you're going to tell the kids you are," Hermione checked. She looked between Ron and Harry and her raised eyebrows said that they should be realising something, but Harry was clueless as to what it was.

"Yes," Ron answered for both of them. "If they didn't want us to say we were together, they should have left our dating life alone."

Hermione looked dubious, so Harry decided to change the subject quickly. "And it means Ron can come visit me, without anyone getting annoyed."

Ron snorted. "Like that would have stopped me anyway." Harry laughed and nudged his friend.

"Visit you? Doesn’t he visit you all the time already?" Hermione narrowed her eyes at both of them and Harry had to restrain his smile as he looked at his friend.

"The Headmistress offered me the Defence Against the Dark Arts post, now that Hestia is retiring. I accepted this morning."

A beat, and then Hermione squealed and threw herself around the table to grab Harry around the neck in an enthusiastic hug. Harry, expecting a similar reaction, had braced himself, so all he did was hug Hermione back. Ron grinned over her shoulder at the two of them and Harry found himself smiling back. Hermione finally pulled back but left a waft of her perfume behind, something with roses. With a pang, Harry remembered Ginny's flowery shampoo.

"I knew you would be a good teacher, especially after the DA and teaching all those trainees," Hermione said excitedly, though thankfully at a normal volume. The three of them had a relatively private table, tucked away in the upstairs bit, but Harry didn't want his decision splashed across the papers before he had told the rest of his family. The media found him very boring, but they insisted on reporting on every step and change in his life all the same. "But I thought you would stay with Law Enforcement until you retired."

Harry shrugged. "It was time for a change." He didn't say anything about his children being grown, or Ginny being dead, because Hermione knew him too well not to have guessed.

Hermione blinked and then darted a glance at Ron. "So, you're going to 'date' him so you can go and see him at Hogwarts all the time," Hermione said, her voice a study in scepticism.

"Well, not during classes or anything and Harry might not even live at Hogwarts, but yeah. I want to go see him. And if we're dating, no one will make a stink about it." Ron took a sip of his tea and then tapped his cup with his wand, getting a refill.

"I don't think anyone would make a fuss anyway." Hermione paused and then rethought that sentence. Harry hated how events of his life were still front page news, but Hermione couldn't say no one would care about what he was doing, right after he started this new job. "Have you thought about the media? Rita Skeeter has stopped writing but there's that new writer, Lauren Vane? She's a cousin of that girl from two years below."

"The one who gave me the love potion chocolates which Ron ate?" Harry asked. Despite the years, his school years were far more clear than they had been for anyone else. Ron said it was all the near-death experiences had sharpened his brain.

"I don't like her," Ron said immediately.

"Which one?" Harry asked.

"Both of them," Ron replied darkly.

"Anyway," Hermione said, "Lauren Vane is the new gossip writer and she is looking to make a name for herself, in the Skeeter kind of way." Harry wrinkled his nose. Oh, he didn't like her either. "Yes, exactly. If you start dating right around the same time you quit your job and start teaching at Hogwarts, you are going to get a lot of press."

Hermione didn't have to say but Harry knew that it would be a toss-up as to whether the press would be positive or negative. The amount of people who were delighted at the Harry Potter teaching their kids would be balanced by the amount of the people who were horrified at how selfish he was being in leaving his job protecting the Wizarding World. And then there was the whole thing about him dating Ron. Harry heard a lot about how the Wizarding World was better than the Muggle world, but there was an awful lot of talk about bloodlines, and Harry barely knew any gay couples, though he had his suspicions about Dean and Seamus.

"I know, Hermione." Harry gave her a smile, because he knew she was just looking out for him. "But I have never lived my life based on how the public will react to it."

Hermione nodded. "I know, Harry."

"He's really excited," Ron burst in, making Harry nudge him with his elbow and Hermione smile brightly.

"You are? Oh, Harry, I'm so happy for you." Hermione's eyes were shining.

"Please don't cry," Harry said.

"Oh, don't cry, Hermione, you'll give Harry a rash," Ron said at the same time, and Harry let out a muffled sound of protest. Hermione blinked the tears away as she laughed and Harry felt his shoulders relax a little.

"I'm not that bad," he said to Ron and just got rolled eyes in return.

"Are you going to start for the autumn term?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, I think so." Harry had worked out the timing with Ron this morning, or rather he had talked out loud, and Ron had pretended to understand what Harry was rambling about. "I wanted to tell you. I’m going to hand my notice in to Robards this afternoon. They've got me for another two months before September. He can’t complain about two month’s notice."

"Tomorrow night, we're going to invite everyone around for dinner and tell them we're dating," Ron added. "You can come if you want."

Hermione now looked amused. "No, I think I'll let you handle it on your own. Just don't lose your temper."

Something flickered over Ron's face. "Don't nag me, Hermione." You're not my wife anymore. The words went unsaid but all three of them heard them nonetheless. A flash of hurt crossed Hermione's face and she leaned back in her chair, withdrawing from the conversation.

"Ron," Harry said quietly. He couldn't watch the two of them fight in front of him, not after what happened before. Ron turned to look at him and the emotion clouding his blue eyes disappeared, leaving them clear and light again.

"Sorry, Hermione." Ron smiled but it seemed like he was smiling more at Harry than her. When Harry looked at Hermione to see how she was taking the apology, she was looking at both of them with a smile on her face, as if she knew something that they didn't.

"Oh, this is going to be very interesting." Hermione leaned forward again and dug into her food. Before she took a bite, she looked up at Harry. "Keep me up to date?"

"Of course, Hermione." And Harry looked at Ron, who nodded at him like he was in complete agreement with whatever Harry was thinking.

**

When Harry stared at their collective families, he realised exactly why Hermione had bowed out of this dinner. Lily and Hugo had gravitated together and were talking about the project they were working on, Scorpius had arrived with James and had drawn Albus into conversation and Rose and James were winding each other like they were the brother and sister of the lot rather than cousins. Victoire had surprised Teddy with a trip to Paris for their wedding anniversary and Harry was loath to interrupt them.

"Look at our families together," Ron said lightly, over Harry's shoulder. "Are you ready to tell them?"

He looked back over his shoulder at Ron and gave him what he hoped was a skeptical look. "I don't think I'll ever be ready." When he turned back to their kids, he realised how the five of them - six, including Scorpius - looked like siblings rather than cousins. As much as he loved his other nieces and nephews, they had seen far more of Ron and Hermione during their childhood, and so his kids regarded Rose and Hugo like sister and brother. James might be close with Freddie and Louis, while Albus regarded Lucy, Percy's daughter, as practically his twin, and Lily got on with everyone, but when it came down to it, the five of them were siblings all the same.

"Are you going to be quiet for a minute?" Ron asked them after trying and failing to get their attention twice. James fell quiet first, always looking up to his Uncle Ron far more than he ever did Harry. Scorpius and Albus followed. Once half the group were quiet, the rest turned to look to see what was going on.

"We've brought you here to have dinner so we could tell you something important," Harry said as calmly as he could. Curious expressions greeted him.

"You've been trying to set us both up for ages and we thought it was finally time to tell you," Ron picked up the thread of the conversation. "Harry and I - we're dating."

A moment of silence.

"You're joking," James said as he looked between his father and Ron. Scorpius unobtrusively held James' hand and, once again, Harry saw how much his son and husband reminded him of him and Ginny. The same quiet, unquestioning support of each other.

"No, we're not. We didn't want to tell you until we had got our footing," Harry said, wondering why the words didn't feel like a lie.

"In other words, we didn't want our children poking our noses in when we had just started dating," Ron added. "But the set-ups with random people was getting to be a complete nightmare. So Harry thought we should tell you." That was just like Ron, throwing the blame for the 'secret' onto himself.

"We both thought we should tell you," Harry corrected and Ron rolled his eyes at him, like he had done so many times before. Harry thought of Scorpius and thought of Ginny and reached for Ron's hand. It was far bigger than Ginny's had ever been, with the calluses in different places, but it was warm and comforting and he squeezed Harry's hand in return.

"Are you actually kidding me?" Albus asked as he stood up from the couch. He looked like Harry far more than James and Lily, but he was also far too similar in temperament for comfort. It meant when Albus got angry, it was explosive.

"No, I'm not," Harry said calmly. Whether he reacted with calm or with anger, both would just end up stoking the flames. No one could make him as angry as Albus, partly because he loved him so much. He saw his parents, he saw himself, and he saw his entire family when he looked at Albus, in one tangled web. He held Ron's hand and was rewarded with a comforting squeeze, too firm to mistake as anything else.

"The first person you date after Mum dies and it's her brother?" Lily asked.

"Who else was I supposed to date?"

"A witch who would be good for you," Albus replied. "Different to Mum but similar enough that you liked her."

"So it was fine for me to date some random woman but not Ron?" Harry raised his eyebrow at his son and daughter, careful not to let his anger show too much. Judging by the way Ron nudged his shoulder, he failed miserably. He consciously relaxed his shoulders. James was looking between him and Ron like he was confused, Scorpius was watching the group warily, but Albus and Lily looked at him like he had disrespected Ginny's memory in front of them. Which, in their eyes, they had. "Tell me, who would be the ideal person for me to date, in your eyes? Witch or wizard? My age, older or younger? Is it required that I like spending time with them, or is your approval the only part that is needed?"

The trouble was that Albus was far too much like him and Lily was far too much like Ginny and both hurt in different ways. Harry knew himself and knew when he was hurt or confused, then he had a tendency to snap. Something which he was doing right now and something which Al was reflecting right back at him.

"Harry," Ron said quietly and Harry turned his head away from his children, taking a breath and counting to ten. Ginny's teasing voice swam through his mind, though the words didn't matter, and he opened his eyes.

Rose and Hugo hadn't said anything and they were watching the Potters as if taking their cues from them.

Lily rounded on Ron next. "He loves Mum more than anyone else. That isn't going to change."

Ron shrugged. "I'm pretty sure he loves his children more than anyone else. Which I agree isn't going to change."

"Why are you dating him if he loves Mum?" Albus asked, seemingly skipping over Ron's addition to the argument.

"Even if I somehow managed to miss how much your dad loves my sister in the last forty years," Ron replied in a careful way that said he was holding onto his temper by a thread. This time it was Harry who squeezed his hand. It seemed Ron had reached his breaking point as well. "I'm not going to say to him that he shouldn't love Ginny, just like he wouldn't say to me that I shouldn't love Hermione."

"Wait, you're dating Dad when you're still in love with Aunt Hermione?" Lily asked like this was the worst thing he could have possibly done.

"Oh Merlin," Harry muttered. His children seemed determined to think the worst of this situation when the only reason Harry had done this was to make them happy.

"Rose, Hugo, what do you think of this?" Ron sounded as exhausted as Harry felt.

"I'm fine with it," Rose said in a composed way that said she wasn't being completely truthful but she was ready to defend her opinion until the other person had no words. She had the self-confidence Hermione had always lacked when she was younger, though she was just as intelligent as her mother, and had summed up the situation without needing to speak.

"What do you mean you're fine with it?" Lily asked shrilly, rounding on her cousin.

Rose stood up, casual elegance that came from neither of her parents. The person who Harry remembered seeing move like that was Andromeda and Narcissa Malfoy whenever he saw her. It was one of the reasons he was surprised Scorpius had chosen James, thinking Rose would have been a much better fit for the Malfoy family. "Uncle Harry is right. We wanted Dad to date someone so he would be okay, and he chose Uncle Harry. We know Uncle Harry wouldn't hurt him, wouldn't take advantage of him, and wouldn't try to shut us or Mum out of Dad's life. I mean, I'm fine with it." She gave Lily an intimidating stare but Lily held her own, more than used to fighting her corner. Eventually she turned away, through the mutinous look on her face and her crossed arms said she wasn't happy about it.

"No matter who Dad and Uncle Harry dated, none of us would have been okay with it. Not really," Hugo said. He wore glasses and looked more like his Uncle Percy than anyone else, but he had the same quick laugh as Ron and quick tongue as Hermione. If there was ever a child who was the perfect mix of both his parents, it was Hugo. "So why not date each other? At least we know the other person."

"Er, thanks, Hugo." Harry had just been thinking Hugo was the mix of Ron and Hermione, but he had also spent a lot of time with Luna, and seemed to have picked up on her honest way of looking at the world.

"That's either extremely sweet or extremely logical and I can't decide which one," Ron said in a slightly confused tone. However, Rose and Hugo's acceptance seemed to have taken the wind out of Albus and Lily's sails. Neither of them looked happy but they didn't look quite as angry and hurt as before. Harry could handle the anger but he definitely couldn't handle the hurt.

He realised that now he had spent all this time convincing them he and Ron dating was a good thing, they wouldn't be able to fake a break-up anytime soon. Not that Harry wanted to, but what happened if Ron found someone he actually wanted to date?

Resolving to think about that later when he had privacy and time, Harry put it to one side and focused on what was going on in front of him.

"Fine," Albus said, but in a way that was more like the teenager he had been rather than the thirty-one year old man he was. As he looked at his son and was reminded of his children as teenagers, Harry remembered the other news he had for his family. He wished he’d be able to break the news some other evening, but he had already given in his notice, and these things always leaked. If his children found out from the Daily Prophet before him, they would be understandably upset. And if this Lauren Vane was as bad as Rita Skeeter, she would probably seek them out for a story and that would be an even worse way of finding out.

"Oh, I have some other news," Harry said, and decided to just tell them before they had time to worry about what he was going to say next. "I have decided to retire from the Auror Corps. I’ve accepted Headmistress McGonagall's offer to be the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Ron shot him a look that said eloquently what he thought about Harry's timing. There was uproar in the room.

"But why?" James asked.

"McGonagall made me the offer, and with how things are going at the Ministry, I decided to take it." He saw the looks at Ron. "No, I knew I wanted to do it before I told Ron. I had been finding myself exhausted more and more often from the Aurors, and I preferred the teaching part of my job. It makes sense for me, especially now." He leaned back in his chair and pressed his leg against Ron, needing that reassurance despite knowing it was the right answer for him.

He thought but didn't say about how he had found it harder and harder to get out of bed in the mornings to go to work. It wasn't because his job had changed or become any less worthy of his time or energy, but he had not realised how much coming home to Ginny had meant to him. Without her, it became harder to see the good his job did.

No, a new start would be good. He enjoyed teaching and though he was nervous about teaching teenagers again, especially now he was far removed from being a teenager himself. But he looked forward to the new challenge.

The children, though they were nearly all in their thirties, left some hours later, mostly discontented. Scorpius had been the only one to give both Harry and Ron genuine congratulations, both for their relationship and the job, but the others had been wrapped up in their own thoughts or their own opinions.

"That went well," Harry said as he and Ron were cleaning up the dinner things. Both Harry and Ron were fairly dreadful at household spells. Both of them had grown up doing things by hand, and hadn't bothered to learn anything but the basic household magic.

"Could have gone worse. They'll come around." Ron patted Harry's shoulder. "Despite this afternoon, I still think this is a good idea." He looked a little unsure of himself, like he didn't know what Harry would say to him.

"Me too," Harry said firmly. "I want you to be there when I go back to Hogwarts." Ron stopped clearing up the plates for a moment and looked at Harry carefully. "Yes, I am fine with going back to Hogwarts."

"Just checking." Ron shrugged as if he hadn't given the same concerned, questioning glance at Harry over and over again. He picked up the stack of plates again and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. He continued to pile his own plates as he turned over the evening in his mind.

Aside from his children's reactions, he had been surprised how easy it had felt to pretend to be dating Ron. Apart from reaching for his hand, nothing else had changed. Harry looked at Ron the same, he talked to Ron the same, and he treated Ron the same. Things had remained startlingly similar and his children had believed every word of it, even if they had been vicious with their opinions.

There was something in that but Ron called Harry's name from the kitchen and he did not wish to think things that would affect his friendship with Ron. So he pushed the half-finished thought to the back of his mind and went to see what Ron wanted.

**

When Hermione had said Harry leaving his job and starting up one at Hogwarts would be big news, she had not anticipated exactly how big it would be. It did not help that the story broke when it was an incredibly slow news day and the Daily Prophet had fallen back on stories about the training decisions of Quidditch coaches. Harry Potter quitting the Aurors and starting up at Hogwarts was leapt on with sheer delight by many reporters. Harry braced himself for the onslaught.

"Well, we knew they would react like this." Ron shrugged. The reporters hadn't found out about them dating, but it was only a matter of time. Their children were normally discreet, a habit they had learned far younger than Harry would have ever liked, but all it took was a word overheard, or told in unearned confidence.

"I know, but I don't see why it needs this much... drama," Harry had to search for the word. "When Robards took the promotion out of the Aurors, it was mentioned in a short article but it was nothing like this." There was so much fuss, you would have thought he’d died or killed someone. When he checked the author's name, he wished he could say he was surprised to see Lauren Vane's name.

"Dad? You home?" Lily's voice came from the kitchen where the Floo lit up.

"Yeah, through here." Harry put the kettle on again and held out his hand for Ron's cup. Lily appeared in the doorway, holding her daughter, all red hair and big green eyes. Lily froze at the sight of Ron but moved after a second, handing Evie to Harry.

"Hi, Evie," Harry said to his granddaughter. He had never thought he would be a grandfather so young but he adored everything about it. All the joy of spoiling a child without having to worry about whether you were ruining them for life. Evie's father wasn't in the picture and only Harry and Ginny knew who he was, but Lily had adjusted to motherhood better than Harry would have ever predicted.

"Her name is Evangeline, Dad," Lily said but she didn't sound too irritated. She eyed Ron. "What are you doing here?"

"Lily," Harry scolded her as if she was ten years old again. "You don't get to be rude to Ron in my kitchen." He jiggled Evie up and down as she looked around at the adults. She was a very quiet and solemn baby and looked around her as if she was absorbing everything that was going on.

"I'm here to help Harry pack," Ron replied calmly, not letting Lily react. "He's decided he wants to live in Hogwarts during the week, but come home at the weekends."

"McGonagall said I can have whoever I like in my quarters, but I think having this flat on the other end of the Floo would help." It also meant Harry had somewhere to go during the holidays. But even if he stayed at Hogwarts year-round, he couldn't give up the flat he and Ginny had spent their final years together.

"You have to call her Minerva now," Ron said, blinking at Harry in an innocent fashion which Harry knew was anything but.

"Don't remind me," Harry said. "I've been out of Hogwarts for over forty years and she still terrifies me. Though that could be because whenever I saw her after that, she was telling me some other trouble my kids had gotten into." He rocked Evie gently and she looked up at him before gifting him with a rare smile. "You'll be a good girl at Hogwarts, won't you?"

"So you're leaving here?" Lily had busied herself with making cups of tea, though Harry suspected it was more for the chance to hide her face than anything else.

"Not forever." Harry brushed a hand over Evie's head, the Weasley hair showing itself in her strawberry blonde curls. Hermione had once done a study on the Weasley family, muttering something about genetics and dominant genes. After five weeks of her pulling her hair out trying to find an answer why nearly every child born into the extended Weasley had red hair of some shade. Even Albus and Dominique had red highlights in their hair when the sun hit it just right. Arthur had cheerfully confessed about an old family legend that said his great-grandfather had been cursed so his future descendants would have the mark of red hair. Harry had found this hilarious, Hermione less so. It did explain why James' children, after being magically adopted, had started to look a little brighter around the hair area.

"Thanks," Ron said as Lily handed him a cup of tea. She handed the other one to Harry, who juggled Evie and his tea with well-practiced skill. After her offer to take Evie off Harry was turned down, she sat back with her cup of tea and watched the two of them. Her eyes were shuttered, unreadable, something which Ginny said she had gotten from Harry. In all other ways, she looked like her namesake and Harry couldn't help but wonder if his mother had the same expression.

"Sickle for your thoughts?" Harry asked as casually as he could but, judging by the glance Ron shot his way, he had failed.

Lily cracked a reluctant smile at the familiar question. "They're worth at least a galleon," she gave him the old reply before sighing. "It's going to be strange, not being to come here and see you."

Harry doubted that was what she had been thinking but he wasn't going to press the matter. "Like Ron said, I'll be coming here on weekends. And you never come to visit me that much, we always went out." James liked Harry to come to him, especially with his youngest not yet being two. Albus liked to visit Harry away from prying eyes and eavesdroppers. Lily liked to go out with her father to expensive but shabby restaurants which both of them felt comfortable in.

"It would be nice to have the option," Lily said. She sounded a little stubborn, in Harry's opinion, though he knew what Ron would say if he ever voiced that.

"Unfortunately, parents don't run their lives according to what their children want, especially when they're adults." He jiggled Evie on his lap and remembered when parenting had been so easy. He had always found the toddler and child years far easier than when they were teenagers, while Ginny had said the opposite. Between them they had made one, mostly functional parent and Harry was hit by a familiar pang of loss as he remembered all the things he would now miss out on.

"Harry," Ron said, tapping him gently on the hand. Harry snapped out of his melancholy thoughts to give Ron a questioning glance. "I think we should show Lily where your quarters are when you are moved in. They're connected by the Floo after all."

"When will that be?" Lily asked, taking the hint, just as Harry had thought she would. She might have yelled at him before but now she had had time to adjust. She certainly wasn't going to broadcast her feelings in front of Ron and Evie, especially if there was going to be any shouting.

"McGonagall - Minerva," Harry said, making a face as he did so, "said to move in whenever I wanted over the summer. She said the house elves have everything ready for me. It's more about the story breaking than not being ready."

"Now the story's broken, you can move in whenever." Ron shrugged and took a swig of his tea. "We'll probably do seven hundred trips over to Hogwarts since you're so crap at packing."

"I'm the crap one?" Harry raised his eyebrows at Ron, who threw his head back and laughed. Evie waved her chubby arms around as Ron did so and Harry looked down at her. "You agree with me, Evie?" She leaned back in his arms and smiled up at him. Her smiles were so rare, rather like Albus' had been as a baby, that they felt all the more special when you did get one.

"She's your granddaughter. Of course she's going to side with you." Ron rolled his eyes but when he leaned in and wiggled his finger in Evie's face, she grabbed it with a giggle. Ron was easy to smile at.

"You're going to have a room for us to come and stay in your new quarters?" Lily asked. She wasn't angry but her tone wasn't quite right to Harry. When he looked at her, he found her staring hard at her cup of tea.

"Of course I am. If you, Al and James want to come over at the same time, we might have a bit of a pile up but you'll have a room there." Lily turned her tea cup and stared at it like she was trying to divine the tea leaves through the liquid. Ginny had always said that despite everyone saying Lily was her exact copy, she had Harry's approach to problems. Work it out in your head and not tell anyone unless you make a decision or get really desperate. When Harry glanced at Ron, he saw the recognition on his friend's face.

"I suppose you'll be staying in Dad's room when you go and stay over," Lily said to the tea cup. Harry felt his cheeks warm and buried his head in Evie's hair. He could see Ron's ears turning red as well.

"Yeah, course," Ron said with forced casualness. Lily didn't look up but Harry hoped if she heard that note, she would put it down to really not wanting to talk about it with Harry's kid. Even if she was an adult.

Lily didn't say anything in response to this, but instead moved the topic on to her work, and Evie and Harry relaxed. James seemed like he was on the way to accepting when he had left the other evening, and Harry was sure Scorpius would be able to persuade him to be reasonable, so he had two of his children in support of his feigned relationship with Ron. Now the only one to worry about was Albus.

Why had Ron decided the two of them pretending to date would be easier?

**

Lily's about-face made Albus' stubborn refusal to even consider talking to Harry or Ron even worse. He tried to put it out of his mind as Lily and Evie came over to see his new quarters at Hogwarts. Lily immediately roped Hugo into helping Harry decorate, so that it wouldn’t look like a prison cell. Afterwards, James and Scorpius came over, sans kids for once, and immediately pronounced their approval.

"This is so cosy," James said. "It reminds me of your flat, actually." He looked delighted with everything. “I wonder what the other teachers’ quarters look like.”

"Thanks, James," Harry said happily, before he glanced at Scorpius. "Heard anything from Albus?" he asked, and immediately regretted it when Scorpius looked uncomfortable. James snorted from where he was examining the coffee table.

"He's still being a baby. Scor and I told him we were coming over to see you, and he immediately went all huffy and asked us if Uncle Ron was going to be here."

"I think he's just confused," Scorpius said, much more gently than his husband. "If you had started dating a strange woman, he might have been able to persuade himself that it was a short-term thing. But to be dating Mr. Weasley, it changes things. Now he has to come to terms with it because Mr. Weasley isn't going to just up and leave your life."

"Too right," Ron said from behind the two of them. He walked over and brushed a kiss over Harry's cheek, easy as anything. It was chaste, but his lips still felt like they left a burning line across his skin that anyone could see. He had to resist the urge to touch the spot and tried not to look like this was still new and exciting for him. "Hermione sends her love. She has a lot of ideas on how to get Albus to come around."

"She still got those psychology books, then?" Harry asked. Ron had looped an arm around his waist, nothing too daring, but it made it harder for Harry to concentrate on the conversation.

"Oh yes, it's going to be her new thing whenever she wants a break from law." Ron raised his eyebrows at Harry in familiar exasperation. "Maybe I'll bribe Hugo to wrestle them away from her."

"Not Rose? She's always been better at persuasion." Ron was so close Harry could smell him. Whatever restaurant he had met Hermione for lunch, it had been one with strong smells. Harry couldn't identify it, but he felt hungry after catching a whiff.

"If I send Rose to get them back, there’s a big chance we'll have two people in the family obsessed with psychology."

A soft rustle from behind him reminded Harry that they weren't alone in the room. He turned back to find James and Scorpius watching them with avid attention, both of them with the same expression on their face, though James’ was far brighter.

"Sorry." He could feel his cheeks growing red, though he didn't know why. Ron and him hadn't done anything embarrassing, they had barely even kissed.

"It's fine," Scorpius said immediately, ever polite, but James was more blunt.

"How do you stay such good friends with Aunt Hermione? If Scorpius and I ever broke up, I don't think I could handle seeing him all the time."

"James!" Harry said. He had thought the mortifying questions would stop when the three of his children were adults but apparently not. Thankfully Ron knew James all too well. He merely laughed a little and gave Harry a reassuring squeeze of his waist.

"Trial and error, really. We were always much better friends than we were a couple. If we can just avoid certain topics like why our marriage broke up, then we're golden." Ron sounded very relaxed but Harry could hear the undercurrent of tension underneath it. He had gotten better at hiding his feelings, and it helped that James wasn't looking for it, but it was time to shut this conversation down.

"That's enough," he said firmly. "Ron didn't come here to be asked about his divorce."

"Yeah, can we get back to the part where we were talking about me leaving you?" Ron asked and Harry turned to look at him, surprised. It sounded like Ron was actually worried about that.

"Wrong end of the stick, Uncle Ron," James said in his usual easy-going manner. He didn't seemed to be put off by Harry's firm end to his questioning, but then nothing much put James off. Scorpius was the first person Harry had seen him get properly worked up about. "Scor was saying that Albus can't deal with the fact that you're unlikely to just get up and leave, like if Dad was dating a random person."

Ron's hand tightened on Harry's waist, though Harry couldn't see why. "Is that why he's been having a problem with us?"

"I can still handle it," Harry said, remembering their conversation last week.

"Have you talked about this already?" James asked, his eyes bright. He always loved gossip. It was the thing he and Molly bonded over the most.

"That's enough, James," Harry said. His voice remained pleasant, but James knew it meant it was time to stop pushing. He sighed but started talking about the kids, drawing Scorpius into the conversation. Harry was always wanting to hear about his grandkids. Sometimes the thought that he had grandkids still surprised him sometimes. A long way from the seventeen-year-old boy who couldn't see past Voldemort.

James and Scorpius left, with plans for Harry and Ron to come over for Sunday lunch next week. Ron waited until Harry was writing down ideas for lesson plans before bringing up the subject.

"So, what do you actually feel about Albus not talking to you?"

Harry's thoughts stalled and he looked up at Ron and glancing back down at the parchment in front of him. He didn't want to talk about it. His feelings were whirling around inside of him, making him feel on edge. He didn't like being on bad terms with any of his children. There was a time when Albus was a teenager where he hadn't spoken to Harry for nearly two years.

"I don't - I don't think about it." He was scraping at the parchment with the quill, making a furrow. "Albus just needs time to think. That's all." He believed his words, but that didn't stop the twist in his chest as he turned them over in his mind. Not only was Albus not accepting who he was dating, he was also being distant from him because of something he and Ron had come up with to stop the children worrying. He couldn't help but feel that if they were really dating, Ron would be beside him with his hand on his shoulder or something, rather than all the way across the room. Harry wasn't one for liking physical contact, but right then, he craved it, and from Ron specifically.

"I want to focus on this job. I don't want to screw up my first impression."

Ron let it go.

**

Harry soon found himself panicking in his new classroom on the eve of the start of term. There wouldn't even be any teaching tomorrow. It would be all about the arrival of the children at Hogwarts and the feast. But he still couldn't come to terms with the fact that he was now a Professor. He wouldn't be teaching grown adults who had chosen to be taught by him, but by scores of impressionable children, most of whom would choose to be doing anything else but lessons.

He heard the Floo go in his office. McGonagall had given him a pick of quarters, and he had chosen ones near where Lupin had set up his office in Harry's third year. They also had the benefit of the classroom, office and quarters all being next door to each other, making the commute far easier, and enabling Harry to be able to use the Floo in his office, rather than having it directly come out on his living space.

"Harry?" Ron's voice was hardly a surprise, though they had no plans. They had both taken advantage of their apparent dating and seen more of each other in the last month since Harry moved in than they probably had since Hogwarts.

"In here." Harry sat and stared at the rows of desks in front of him and didn't glance around as he saw Ron's lanky figure out of the corner of his eye.

"Freaking out, huh?" Ron said, sounding like he was sympathising and laughing with him all in one. It was something Ginny had done too and had Harry looking away from his classroom and up at Ron.

The lanky figure gave him a sense of deja vu. Ron had been far skinnier in Hogwarts, but the laughter lines, the spattering of white hair in the red and the hairline slowly starting to recede brought him back to the present. Harry felt himself relax, not realising how tense he was until it was gone. Ron had always been a reassuring sight for him, ever since he had appeared at Harry's window in a flying car. But there was something more to him now. Harry looked forward to their evenings together more than he ever had before.

"How did you guess?" Harry smiled at Ron, who came around and leaned against the desk by Harry's chair. He had the urge to take Ron's hand, and reminded himself that they weren't with anyone, they didn't need to fake it.

"It's what Harry Potter does best, isn't it? Brood." Harry barked out a laugh and Ron grinned, looking far too pleased with himself for such a small joke. "Besides, you think I'm going to let my boyfriend do the evening before his first proper teaching job on his own?"

"We moved up to fake boyfriends now?" Harry asked, squashing the ridiculous hope that Ron would say something about trying it out for real.

"Well, we have been fake dating long enough." Ron's smile was easy, no sign of conflict there, and Harry made sure to keep his own feelings buried behind the returning smile. "So, come on, tell me what's worrying you."

Harry debated whether or not to tell him but knew he would end up doing so eventually and really didn't want it to be in his classroom. "Come on then."

Through his office and into his quarters on the other side, Ron helped the both of them to a cup of tea with a generous helping of Firewhiskey. He knew Harry well, and sat down on the sofa like it was his own,which it may as well have been since he picked it out.

"What if I'm bad at it?" Harry asked after a few minutes' silence. "What if I bore them rigid and they think I'm an awful teacher? It was different when it was the DA. I didn't have to teach anything I didn't want, to or any theory. And with the Aurors, they were all adults and it was different."

"For one, you can tell them to sod off," Ron added. "Harry, mate, you won't be bad at it. Yeah, the DA was different and the Aurors were different, but use what you learned from both of those experiences and apply it to here. Joining the Aurors was different from fighting Voldemort, but you adapted and you used the skills you already had and made a success of it. Yeah, some parts will be boring. Even McGonagall couldn't make everything interesting and you have to agree that she was a good teacher. You know what makes a good teacher and you know what makes a bad teacher. Don't make people cry, don't try to wipe their memories, don't try to kill them or maim them and let them use their wands once in a while."

Ron had Harry laughing so hard he spilled his tea over his robes. He leaned back into Ron's welcoming arms and let his worries leave him with his laughter. Ron smelled of parchment and smoke and, when Harry turned his head, the graze of stubble made a shiver go down Harry's back. "How the fuck do you always make me feel so much better?" Harry mumbled. He was feeling tired now, the worry and nerves combining to make his eyelids feel so much heavier.

"Probably shouldn't swear in front of the kids either," Ron said lightly. His arm tightened around Harry and his voice softened. "It's not hard. You're an easy person to deal with once you know how."

"That is the opposite of what I've been told." Harry's thoughts were growing hazy now. He didn't know whether he should be leaning against Ron like this, especially when there was no one around, but he was finding it hard to care at the moment. He wasn't even worrying about the next day, or at least not as much as he had been. Even if it went terribly, he knew Ron would be there to make everything ten times better.

**

Albus came to see Harry the second weekend of term. Harry had retreated back to his flat, careful to leave the marking at Hogwarts. He found it a breath of fresh air, being able to retreat from the school life. It felt like the days were galloping past, busier and more full than they had even been in the Auror office. His students were enthusiastic and interested, at least for now, and Harry found he loved teaching the seventh years as much as he liked teaching the first years. He even enjoyed his weekly chats with McGonagall as she prepared to retire, this time for good, though he still found it strange to call her Minerva.

He was humming to himself as he made a cup of tea and wondered whether Ron would come over this evening when he got a knock on the door. Old habits had him taking a wand and casting an All-Seeing Spell on the door. The fact that it was Albus sent a spike of worry darting through Harry's brain.

"Albus," he said, swinging the door open. "Is everything alright?"

Albus gave him a shaky smile. "Yeah, everything's fine. Can I come in?"

Harry nodded, his fear draining away to be replaced by apprehension. It didn't look like Albus was going to start shouting at him, but he was all too aware of how quickly a civil conversation could turn into an argument. Ron and Hermione had been the worst for it during the lead up to the divorce. "Of course. I'm just about to make a cup of tea. Do you want one?"

"That'll be great." Albus followed him through and into the kitchen. Harry busied himself with sorting out the tea, idly wondering when he had picked up some of Molly Weasley's, and Ron's, habits, in order to distract himself from what Albus wanted to talk to him about. When they sat down in the sitting room, there was no hiding from this conversation.

Albus turned his cup around in his hands and stared at the tea for so long that it looked like he was studying tea leaves for his Divination exam. "I wanted to talk - I wanted to say I was sorry. About how I acted, about how I've been acting." Albus still didn't look up and Harry felt comfortable enough to look at him. He knew how hard this was Albus. For a moment he was so grateful that Albus had come, that he missed the importance of his words.

"Al, I know you just needed time to think things through." Harry took a sip of his own tea. In his nervousness, he had made it too weak but he drank it anyway. "That’s not a bad thing."

Albus grimaced. "But everyone else seemed to - they all treated it like no big deal. Even Lily was logical about it."

Harry couldn't help but laugh. "Your sister does have a tendency to be rational at the worst times." Lily could go from being extremely emotional to extremely logical at the blink of an eye. It might be logic than anyone else saw, until she explained it to them, but it was as if she used the time when she was being arguing and storming around to turn the problem over in the rational part of her mind. To Lily, it was a process. To everyone else, it was a jarring event. "Al, you, Lily and James aren't the same. You deal with things differently. James probably went home and blurted out all his feelings to Scorpius, Lily went home and considered all the pros and cons while being upset and you needed space."

Harry shrugged. He had been hurt when Albus had made himself scarce for nearly two months, he couldn't help but read it was disapproval, but he knew his words were true. If you pushed Albus to show up before he was ready, he would just shout and yell and say things he didn't mean. Him showing up of his own accord meant he was finally read to put things into words.

Albus looked off-balance after that and Harry wondered, with no little amusement, whether he had been expecting Harry to know so much about his children. Apart from being their father, he was an Auror. He was trained to read people and how they would react to things.

"It's just - he's your Scorpius!" Albus said, sounding more like his teenage self than ever. Harry sighed inwardly at the realisation. He and Ginny had never compared Albus and Scorpius to him and Ron, mostly because they were thinking Scorpius had a crush on Albus and didn't want Albus to firmly put him in the friend area of his brain unless he was so inclined. They had been wrong about which Potter Scorpius had a crush on but not wrong about the comparisons.

Harry's mind pushed that thought, and where it could possibly lead, to one side, determined to concentrate on his son.

"He's my best friend, yes, and for years I didn't look at him that way. I was in love with your mother. I didn't even consider I could be attracted to other men, let alone imagine Ron in place." Though now he looked back on it, he had had some strange thoughts about Cedric Diggory. Grief tinged those memories and he, gently this time, moved them to one side. "But then we just fell into it. We started to act more like a couple. I started to have thoughts that it was probably a good thing I wasn't dating anyone because they wouldn't have liked how close Ron and I were." Harry stopped. He had intended to lie, to soothe over Albus' feelings and make it okay for him and Ron to be dating for the time being, but all the words coming out of his mouth were the truth.

"And I'm glad," Albus said, apparently not noticing Harry's abrupt halt. "I just worried about what if you and Uncle Ron broke up and you couldn't be friends anymore. I mean, it's hard to be friends after being a couple. James said I should have stopped imagining the worst possibilities, but I can't help it."

He was right, Harry thought in a rapidly spiralling panic. He had gotten so used to Ron being with him all the time, to having him there nearly every evening in Hogwarts, to having someone he could pull close when he just needed the intimacy of someone hugging him. He had looked at Ron drinking his tea in the evenings as he worked through paperwork for the shop and had thought about how much he liked the sight.

And when they stopped pretending to date, all that would stop. They would see each other maybe once a week, or even once a fortnight, and it would be the usual drink at the pub or a meal with Hermione. Reaching for him would become weird, he wouldn't be able to Floo call him just because. There would be no more evenings of them working on their own paperwork, in silence, but comfortable in the knowledge that the other was there. No one had been around for most of the couple behaviour, never mind that they started fake dating for their children, but without the excuse - and when had it turned into an excuse?

He said something to Albus, something reassuring he was sure but he couldn't focus enough on the what. All he could think about was that, sooner rather than later, Ron and he would have to fake a break up. They hadn't thought about how long they were going to do this for, which showed how much thought they had put into the whole thing. He was sure he and Ron wouldn't stop being friends over this. If Voldemort's horcrux hadn't managed it, then no way would their own poor planning do it. But he was realising that he wanted something different to the friendship they had for decades. He wanted to date Ron for real.

"Albus, I have just remembered that I had a lunch event with your Aunt Hermione. You know how much she'll hate it if I'm late," he said, with an easy smile. Albus, comfortable in the knowledge that all was forgiven between them and none the wiser about his father's revelations, said goodbye happily and went on his way. Harry spent a good minute panicking about everything in the kitchen and then went to his fire and floo-called Hermione.


"Harry," Hermione said in greeting when she had allowed him to step through. Her house was tidy and organised, with various bookshelves packed to the brim. There was a wizard's chess set in one corner and a wall full of photos, mostly Rose and Hugo, with various pictures of Harry's three in between. Pride of place was the photo of him, Ron and Hermione, back in their second year when Ron had managed to persuade Colin Creevey for a picture. They were young and grinning, fresh off the high of finding the Chamber of Secrets and rescuing Ginny and Hermione being unpetrified. This house used to belong to Ron and Hermione, before the divorce, and though it had changed enough that Harry no longer saw traces of Ron everywhere, he still felt like home, much like his own house and the Burrow had. "This is a surprise."

She sounded amused, and Harry gave her a sheepish grin. He knew showing up out of the blue was rude. At least Hermione never fussed so much about manners when it was just the three of them. She had a steaming cup of tea in front of her. Then, without saying a word, she pointed her wand at the kettle, which started to boil.

"Sometimes I think I would like to move to a Muggle house, but then I remember how convenient magic is," Hermione said to him. It may have been years since he considered the Muggle world his home, but he and Hermione would always have their shared childhood in common. When she had gotten frustrated at using ink and quill back in Hogwarts, Harry had been sympathetic.

Harry shared her grin but his nerves soon wiped it off his face. When the tea was made, he started on what had to be his fourth cup of the day.

"It's about Ron," he said, partly to stall and partly to give Hermione some warning. Sometimes she didn't want to talk about Ron, like if she had run into Molly Weasley in Diagon Alley, and had become frustrated at the other woman's insistence on pretending Ron and her were still married. So Harry liked to give her some warning, so she could shut him down if needed.

"I thought it might be," Hermione said with a far too knowing smile. "What about Ron?"

Harry narrowed his eyes. "You know what it's about, don't you?" he guessed shrewdly, and Hermione smiled into her cup.

"Well, if it's about this wild fake dating plan, and about how maybe you don't want it to be so fake after all, then yes." Hermione grinned at him as he sighed. He should be used to Hermione knowing more than him, but he thought with emotions he might just have the edge. Then again, Hermione had gotten so much better after Rose's difficult teenage years.

"How did you even know?" Harry asked.

"Part of the reason is that I guessed," Hermione said. "I thought this might happen when this all started." Harry raised one eyebrow at her and Hermione put her tea cup down with a sigh. "Look, Harry, yours and Ron's relationship has always been different to mine and yours. It was always going to be, not because you were necessarily better friends, or even because you shared a dormitory. You trust him differently to me."

"I trust you," Harry said instantly, without a shadow of a doubt. Hermione, even above Ron, had always been there. She hadn't always listened, trusted or believed in him, but she had been there through everything. He had thought of her and Ron as his sister and brother for years, only now he was seeing it was different than what it first was.

"Of course you do," Hermione said. She looked at him like he should have known something so obvious. He gave her an apologetic look and Hermione moved on. "You trusted me to believe you, or to listen at any rate even if I didn't always believe you, but you trusted Ron to understand. Sometimes his jealousy or Voldemort got in the way, but the number of times I worried about how to act around you and Ron knew what you needed. Ginny reached that same kind of understanding, but only after you had been married for about five years and had nearly three kids. She had to learn her understanding. But Ron’s always had it. He may not have always listened to it, but he had it." She waved her wand again and the biscuit barrel floated over to Harry and he took one gratefully, more to have something to look at as he tried not to blush. He hated talking about his feelings, even though he had gotten better at it after having kids.

"I don't see what this - I mean, Fred and George had that same kind of understanding." The guilt was familiar but Harry pushed it one side. It showed up any time he thought about one of the dead in the last war against Voldemort, but Ginny had told him that they couldn't let them be forgotten. If it was too painful to speak of, their children would never know them as nothing more than names on a stone.

"I'm getting to that," Hermione said impatiently. "After Ginny died," and she gave the pause which Harry sometimes felt people thought was obligatory, "you turned to both of us. I know I always wanted you to be doing something or be with people, it was what helped me when my parents died." This time it was Hermione blinking rapidly to try to move past the grief. "But Ron knew you just needed us to be available for whatever you needed. After we divorced, I noticed you and Ron getting closer, as if both of you were supporting the other. I was too wrapped up in everything to pay much attention, but I did sometimes wonder if, when you dated anyone, they would mind Ron in your space like he was."

Harry snorted gently and Hermione glanced at him. "That’s what I realized," he explained quietly. "And then I thought that I didn't want Ron to pull back. I didn't want to go back to how we were before."

"But do you think of him like that?" Hermione asked. A flicker of discomfort went through Harry. But if she could talk about her ex-husband, then he could as well.

"Yes," he said, looking away from Hermione's brown eyes. She saw far too much, and he didn't want her seeing this. "I have." She had no need to see how often Harry's thoughts had drifted over to Ron's hands or his legs or how much taller he was than Harry, how often he had gone to sleep with those same thoughts in his head.

"Well, if you know you like him and you want to date him for real, why don't you ask him?" Hermione asked and Harry swallowed. It wasn't the first time this thought had come to him but his bravery failed him whenever he thought about actually carrying it out. Ron would never be cruel, he would be horribly gentle and would say all the right things, but things would change. They wouldn't even be the friends they were before this whole mess, they would be awkward acquaintances. Yes, there was a chance he could say yes, but Harry hadn't noticed anything different about how Ron was acting since they started this. There was only a slim chance Ron would return his feelings and there was just too much to risk. But if Harry waited, he could lose everything anyway.

"Hermione, the only people I've dated are Cho and Ginny. With Cho, I would have preferred to face another dragon rather than risk humiliation. With Ginny, I took almost a year and kissed her after a Quidditch match. If I lose Ron over this..."

Hermione smiled. "Harry, I can't - not without - but I can assure you that nothing bad will happen if you tell Ron the truth."

"How can you?" Harry recognised that look on Hermione's face. Half smug and half knowing, he had seen it all too often over the years and especially during their schooling when she had figured out something. She had the same look on her face when she saw him with Ginny in their sixth year, before Harry had kissed her.

"I can't tell you, but if you have ever trusted me, go and tell Ron how you feel. Right now."

"What?" Harry spluttered. He felt completely off-base and didn't object when Hermione threw Floo powder into the fire and shouted the address for Ron's flat. He was still staring at her when she shoved him into it, causing him to swallow a mouthful of ash.

When he arrived out of the fire at Ron's place, it was one of his most ungraceful Floo landings he had done. He managed to cough and land on his face. His glasses had been charmed to be unbreakable long ago, otherwise he was sure they would have shattered like his first Floo travel all those years ago.

"Harry, what..?" Ron was there and pulling him upwards. "Mate, I don't think that's a particularly graceful way of travelling."

When Harry had managed to get his bearings, he smiled at Ron. He felt like his stomach was trying to jump into his throat and despite what Hermione said, he couldn't help but worry about the worse that could happen. He had been telling his truth when he said that he had no experience with this kind of thing and the fact that it was Ron made it worse. He was important, far more than Cho had been back when he was fourteen and even more important than Ginny at age sixteen. He wished he and Ron hadn't started up this whole thing, showing Harry the same kind of intimacy and love was still possible even with Ginny gone.

However, he trusted Hermione. He could not go back to her, say he hadn't told Ron, and face her disappointed stare. She wouldn't let this go.

"Sorry, I just came from Hermione." Harry shook his head. "I sort of fell into the Floo." He didn't mention Hermione literally shoving him through. Ron glanced away as if he could hear Harry's thoughts but a second later he looked back at Harry and he must have imagined the discomfort on Ron's face.

"Were you telling her about your first two weeks at Hogwarts? All about how I was right and you were great?" Ron guided Harry to his kitchen table with a hand on his elbow. Harry noticed the hand far more than he would normally, and got distracted from the question.

“Hmm?”

Ron raised his eyebrows at him. “Did you talk about being a Professor?”

"If I had talked about teaching, I think I would have still been there." Plus Harry had written to Hermione after his first week and received a long roll of parchment back, loaded with celebration, tips and book recommendations to help him. "Actually, we were talking about you," he said before he could think over his words, or even doubt himself. Ron froze in the act of reaching for the mugs in the cupboard above his head. He continued on with the movement but it was jerky and uncoordinated.

"Oh?" Ron asked, his voice falsely casual.

Harry watched his friend in confusion before he put Hermione's words to the strange behaviour. A suspicion started to grow in his mind. "Yeah. We were talking about this whole fake dating thing."

"Is it about stopping it? We were doing it to make the kids stop worrying, and Albus has already proven that this wasn’t our best idea. Hermione should have told us when we started." Ron put a cup of tea down and Harry sipped it, finding it perfect. He had to work hard to keep his face straight, calling up all his years of working with suspects and coworkers who like to catch him off guard. If he was younger, if he hadn't had Hermione supporting him, he probably have followed Ron's lead. He hadn't realised, until he had set foot in Ron's living room, that not only did he trust Hermione to be right, but he trusted Ron not to let him ruin their friendship, even if dating didn’t work.

"No, it was about making it a real thing," Harry said and watched his words land. Ron froze in place, staring hard at his cup of tea as if something terrible would happen if he looked away. Not even Harry’s decades of knowing Ron helped him interpret what his expression was saying. In the face of this reaction, his uncertainty overwhelmed him and he wished he hadn’t listened to Hermione.He wished he could call his words back, that he could make Ron forget the last few seconds without a Memory Charm, but instead he took a gulp of his tea.

"Oh," Ron said, nothing in his voice. "Well, that's different." He smiled as he lifted his tea cup to his mouth and Harry felt the stirrings of hope in his chest, though uncertainty still pulled at him.

"Good different? Or bad different?" Harry asked, his voice coming out both teasing and hesitant. Ron looked up, surprise lighting up his face.

“Good different, of course. As if I was going to say no." Ron put down his cup and moved around to Harry's side of the table. “I talked to Hermione earlier and it made me realise - it’s easy with you. I want what we’ve had these past few months, but real.” Harry felt his heart lift like it was a helium balloon. All his worry, his regret, vanished as if they had never been.

They kissed and Harry felt it all the way down to his toes. It felt like Ron did, something familiar and much loved, but with an added note that was new and different to what he had always known.

When they parted, Harry realised he hadn't stopped smiling. "So, you went to Hermione for advice as well?"

Ron kissed the corner of Harry's mouth. "She's going to be insufferable." Harry turned his head and their lips met. Their arms were wrapped around each other and Harry could feel Ron pressed against him. This - this was good.

Comments

[lijahlover]

Thank you so much this was lovely just perfection. I loved how well you write everyone. Harry and Ron's feelings developed so beautifully.