The room slowly came into focus. For awhile Harry thought he was back at Hogwarts, waking once again in the hospital wing. But as he opened his eyes a very different scene came into view. He was in a hospital all right, but it wasn’t anywhere near Hogwarts. He was in the same hospital he had awoken in five years before.
“What happened?” His voice came out rather groggily.
“You’re awake!” a woman’s voice screamed. It was Elizabeth. She was sitting beside his bed, her face and clothes smeared with dirt.
“Did we win?”
“Yes, we did and with very few casualties. Most of the Muggles are just fine. The Aurors are still working on modifying their memories.”
“So I haven’t been out long?” Harry asked.
“No, just a day. But what happened, you just froze out in the open with an almost glazed look on your face.”
“I remembered,” he said simply. A huge smile spread over Elizabeth’s face.
“That’s wonderful.” She smiled again as a tall scruffy looking wizard came to Harry’s beside.
“My name is Ryan Hackman and I’m the head of the Auror department.” He held out his hand to Harry.
“Nice to meet you.” Harry took his hand.
“He remembers, Hackman,” Elizabeth said excitedly.
“Really? That’s wonderful! Well, then I suppose you’ll be glad to know that you should be out of here by tomorrow. They just want to make sure you are all right before we release you.”
“Sounds fair enough,” Harry said.
“We haven’t told anyone that we have found you, Harry. Obviously the papers would run wild with a story like that, but we figure we owe it to your family and close friends to let them find out first. Plus there’s a bit of an overload of news, what with this battle and that damned Society and all.”
Harry laughed. “I appreciate it very much.”
“We have decided that once you are released we will give you three days before we give the story to the press. Sound all right to you?”
“Sounds just fine.”
“Great, well, I would love to stay and chat with the famous Harry Potter, but I have a rather large mess to clean up. Perhaps another time?”
Harry spent the rest of the day resting, talking about the battle with Elizabeth and longing to seeing his wife and friends again.
“I’m sure they will be ecstatic to see you,” Elizabeth said after Harry had told her was slightly worried.
“Yes, but five years is a long time especially considering I was presumed dead. Perhaps they have moved on, forgotten about me,” Harry said.
Elizabeth laughed. “I highly doubt they could ever forget about you, John, or rather, Harry.” She smiled at him once again.
The next day Harry was released from the hospital. He was eager to return his wizarding friends and family, but felt that he owed the McGrath’s and Mike a visit first.
There were very few signs throughout the town that a battle had raged a mere day ago. The Aurors and the Ministry had done a fine job returning the town to normal. When he reached the McGrath’s, Mike and the McGraths were sitting on the front steps.
“Well, he finally decides to return,” Mike said. “Where the hell you been, John?”
Harry sighed. He was going to miss these people. They had been so kind to him. Finally he said, “It is actually Harry, Harry Potter.” Mrs. McGrath’s eyes immediately swelled with tears while Mike just sat there dumbstruck.
“We are so happy for you,” Mr. McGrath said.
“You will be sure to visit us?” Mrs. McGrath asked.
“Of course,” Harry replied.
Harry spent the next half hour giving them a very brief explanation of who he was and where he came from. He found it difficult to explain without telling him that he was a wizard and so he was forced to leave many holes and use few details, but they were so happy for him that they didn’t press him for more. Harry promised them that he would bring his beautiful wife to meet them very soon. At last, they said their final goodbyes and Harry made his way out of town towards a safe place to Apparate.
He had decided to find Ron and Hermione first. It had been five years since he disappeared and despite Elizabeth’s reassurances, he knew it was very possible that Ginny may have moved on. He felt that he could face her much more easily if he knew in advance.
And so he Apparated to Grimmauld Place, rather than the Burrow. He and Ginny had been planning on making this their home with Ron and Hermione until they could rebuild at Godric’s Hollow, but he knew that with him gone Ginny would have either moved back to the Burrow or moved out on her own.
When he arrived at number 12 Grimmauld Place, he found the house empty. He first checked the bedrooms figuring that if anyone were still living there, that would be the best way to find out.
As he had predicted both Ron and Hermione’s rooms looked as though they were currently inhabited. He then went up to the master room, the room that for too short of a time had been his and Ginny’s. It was empty with a thick layer of dust on the floor. Obviously, Ginny did not live here anymore.
Harry then went down to the drawing room and decided to wait there for Ron and Hermione. From that spot he could hear them enter without startling them by being right at the door.
He sat there for what seemed like hours his mood shifting from hopeful that Ginny had not moved on, to positive that she had. Finally he heard the front door open.
“It’s bloody well time they did, I say,” a male voice said from the hallway.
“Ha! Why just last week you were saying they would never get on with it,” a female voice responded.
“Exactly why I’m glad they did.”
“Ergh, you are impossible.” Harry had not a doubt is his mind that this was Ron and Hermione.
“Five years, and not much has changed,” Harry said from the drawing room his voice a bit hoarse from sitting so long in silence.
“Who’s there?” he heard Ron say.
“Only an old friend,” Harry said as he finally showed himself to his two best friends. It didn’t seem as if Hermione had changed much. Her hair was still as bushy as ever. But, Ron on the other hand looked much more mature. It was easy to see that he had finally grown out of the awkwardness of his teenage years. Upon seeing Harry, Hermione screamed and Ron’s jaw dropped, but both stood rooted to the spot.
“How can it be?” Hermione finally managed to say.
“Well, I would have been back sooner, but up until a few days ago, I couldn’t remember who I was.” Harry stood there unsure of what to do next. He was so relieved to finally be seeing his two best friends again that tears fell from his eyes. Still neither of them moved.
“So it’s really you, mate?” Ron asked.
“We all became friends in our first year after you and I saved Hermione from a troll in the girls’ bathroom, and she was in that bathroom because you made her cry.” And as if a spell had just been broken, Hermione rushed over to him with Ron right behind. They all hugged and tears started to fall from everyone’s eyes.
After a few moments and a thousand “I can’t believe it’s true,” they made their way back into the drawing room.
“You know we really should have picked a different story to use as our proof. That one doesn’t really put me in the best light,” Ron said. Hermione just laughed and punched him lightly on the arm before asking, “So what happened, Harry?”
Harry gave them a brief explanation of his life in Burwell, of what had happened between him and Voldemort and how his memory had come back when he helped fight another group of dark wizards.
“But there will be plenty of time for me to tell you it all in fuller detail. Please, tell me, how’s Ginny?”
Ron and Hermione both exchanged a look before Hermione said, “She’s doing fine. Living at the Burrow. Actually, that’s where we just came from.”
“Has she, has she found someone else? Please tell me, I’ll understand if she has.” His friends exchanged another knowing look and then it was Hermione who once again broke the silence.
“Harry she hasn’t found anyone else. She hasn’t really gotten over you. I don’t expect she ever could. But let us tell you what happened after you disappeared.” There was a brief pause in which Harry nodded. “Ginny was determined to find you. As soon as the battle was over she wanted to set out. We convinced her to wait a few days. We were all badly injured and we needed to heal and rest before we set out on another journey.
“We searched everywhere we could think of. No one was really sure what had happened because you two just disappeared, but we checked the spots we thought Voldemort might take you. His old home, and that graveyard, the cave you told us about, Godric’s Hollow and many other places that all turned up nothing.”
“Mate, we didn’t know what to do after that,” Ron chimed in. “But Ginny was determined to keep looking, only problem was she kept getting sick.”
“We thought it might just be a reaction from her missing you so much and the stress and whatnot,” Hermione continued. “But finally at Molly’s urging she went into the hospital. It turns out Harry, that Ginny, well, she was”“
“She was pregnant, mate.” The words hit Harry like a brick. Pregnant, but that would mean that he was a”
“I’m a father?” Harry asked. Hermione nodded. “Girl or boy?”
“Girl, Lily Ginvera Potter.” Harry couldn’t help but smile. A dad. Could it really be?
“We gave up our search shortly after that. Mum thought it would be better for Ginny to realize that you might not come back. It was hard but she got through by mostly thinking about the baby.”
“Really it’s what we all did. It was easiest to think about a new life than focusing on a lost one.” Harry nodded though he didn’t really know the feeling.
“I have to see her. The name, it’s perfect. What does she look like?”
“Lupin says she the spitting image of your mother. She has the Weasley hair and freckles but she has your eyes, your mother’s eyes,” Hermione said a smile spreading across her face..
“So they are at the Burrow?”
“Yes, even after five more years of cleaning, this house really isn’t suitable for a child. I don’t know if Ginny could have emotionally stood living here either,” Hermione said.
“Mum and dad are visiting Charlie right now and Lily was already asleep when we left, but I suspect you should see Ginny first,” Ron added.
“Yes, I very much want to see her.” Harry watched as Hermione put on a face that he had grown to know as the face of Hermione developing a plan.
“Well, I think it would be best for Ron or me to give her a heads up. Otherwise she might die of shock and that would do no good. I mean I almost did. So why don’t we both go. We will let her know you are back, and then send her here. That way you two can be alone. Ron and I will stay at the Burrow with Lily and then in the morning you can come back and meet her.” They all agreed to this plan and a few short minutes later Harry was once again alone.
Again the time seemed to drag slowly by. Harry so much wanted to see his wife that it was difficult to wait. Finally he heard a small pop behind him.
“I always knew you’d come back.” Harry turned to see his wife as beautiful as the last day he saw her. More, if that was possible. Her eyes were watering and so were Harry’s, but in a second they where in each others arms, hugging, crying, kissing.
They didn’t say much for a while. Just held each other. Finally Ginny whispered, “I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” Harry kissed his wife again. His wife. Every time he thought it, it sent pleasant chills down his spine. “Even when I couldn’t remember anything else, I remembered you.”
“Really?” She looked up at him.
“Yes, for five years I have been dreaming about a beautiful redhead, and even though I didn’t know who she was, I knew she meant the world to me.”
“Oh, Harry!” They kissed again.
Harry stared into his wife’s beautiful brown eyes. “Ron and Hermione told me that I am a father.”
Ginny smiled and laughed a bit as more tears formed in her eyes. “It’s true. She is such a beautiful little girl. I know you will love her.”
“I already do,” Harry said. They kissed again. And then again. Harry pulled out his wand and conjured up a blanket and there on the drawing room floor they made love. Then they held each other for the rest of the night. Harry told Ginny his story and Ginny told Harry all about their little girl. It made Harry sad to think of all that he had missed, but it was hard for him to remain sad when he had Ginny in his arms.
The sun was almost up again before they finally fell asleep.
They decided that Ginny should go to the Burrow first. She would make sure Lily was in the living room and then Harry could Apparate into the kitchen. Ginny would tell Lily that her father had returned and make sure she understood before she would meet Harry.
When Harry arrived in the kitchen, he found Ron and Hermione sitting at their breakfast. They quietly motioned toward the living room and Harry moved to the door so that he could listen while still remain hidden.
“Lily, I’d like you to come over here and sit on Mummy’s lap for a minute.”
“Why Mummy?” a little voice said.
“Because Mummy has something very important to tell you.” Harry heard scuffling as Lily presumably made her way to her mother’s lap. “Lily, who’s that man in this picture right here?”
“That’s my daddy. He got lost,” the little girl said.
“Yes that’s right, do you remember why he got lost?”
“He was saving the world from the big bad Voldymort and he got lost when he beat Voldymort.” Harry couldn’t help but smile at this.
“Yes that’s right.”
“And I’m going to be the best Kidditch Seeker someday just like him,” Lily proudly pronounced. “But Mummy, what do you have to tell me?”
“Well, what would you say if I asked you if you would like to meet your daddy the seeker?”
“But I thought he was lost.”
“He was, but last night he found us.”
“Really?” There was a hint of amazement in her voice. “Where is he?”
“He’s in the kitchen with Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione.”
“Is he going to come in here?”
Ginny laughed. “Yeah. Harry, you can come in now.”
Harry stepped into the living room and saw his daughter for the first time. She was just like her mother, red hair and freckles. But it was true, she had his and his own mother’s green eyes.
“Are you my daddy?” she asked rather timidly.
“Yes, I am,” Harry responded drinking in the little girl’s presence.
“Are you going to get lost again?”
“Never.” A smile spread across Lily’s face. She crawled off her mother’s lap and grabbed Harry’s hand.
“I want to be a seeker just like you. Mummy got me a broom stick so I can practice.” She led him over to a pile of toys and picked out the toy broom stick from it and proudly showed it to him. Harry, who had been so afraid that she would not like him, was so overjoyed that he couldn’t help but cry.
“Oh no!” Lily said when she noticed Harry’s tears. “Don’t cry, be happy. Come here.” She motioned for Harry to bend his head towards her. She wiped away his tears and kissed him on the check. “That’s how Mummy makes me feel better,” she said with a smile.
Harry picked her up in his arms and held her close. He had never loved someone so much that he had just met.
Ginny came over and put her arms around Harry’s waist and rested her head on his shoulder. Harry looked at her and smiled. In his arms Lily imitated her mother and laid her head on Harry’s other shoulder and for the first time in his life, Harry held his family close.
John Doe and the Wizards' Society by hallie_p
Chapter Notes: This is it! The final chapter. I hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks for reading and as all ways, please review!