Nineteen Years Later - H/R - PG
Title: Nineteen Years Later
Author: shocfix
Pairing: Harry/Ron
Words: 1246
Rating: PG



Well, I absolutely wasn’t going to write any Harry/Ron, not for the longest time, because I am so happy with canon, but there is a Deathly Hallows Slashy Epilogue Challenge over at harry_and_ron, and I cannot be the only one not to write something!

Nineteen Years Later
****
“James Sirius Potter, don’t make me go up there,” a voice echoed through the house as Harry closed the front door behind him.

There was a muttered insincere apology from the first floor and Ginny raised an eyebrow at him as she stalked back into the kitchen.

“We’re going to be late,” she threw over her shoulder. “And Al is only half packed and Jamie won’t stop tormenting him and…”

“I’ll go up,” he said, dropping his packages on the table and a kiss her on the cheek. “I dropped in at the Burrow - that’s dinner from your mum, it’ll need Charming later.”

He heard Ginny opening the casserole as he took the stairs, two at a time.

“Daddy,” Lily squealed, throwing herself at him. “Jamie Hexed my doll.”

“Not now, sweetheart,” Harry said, disentangling her thin arms. “We have to get your brothers packed, and out of Mummy’s hair, but then I’m all yours this afternoon.”

Lily smirked as she trailed him into James’s room, where they found him lounging on his bed, reading.

“I’m ready,” he said, defensively, not even looking up from his book. “It’s Al who…”

“…has been teased to the brink of tears all morning,” Harry interrupted. “Take your stuff downstairs and leave your brother alone.”

James sighed heavily and hauled his trunk towards the stairs, with Lily following him, as Harry knocked and entered his younger son’s room.

Albus was standing over his open trunk, holding a Quidditch banner in his hands.

“Hey,” Harry said.

“Hey, Dad,” Albus replied.

“C’mon, Mum says you’re only half-packed,” Harry said, reaching for the pile of folded robes on the end of the narrow bed and turning to offer them to his son.

Albus threw his banner on the bed and carelessly dropped the robes into his trunk.

“Don’t you want this?” Harry asked, sitting down to bring himself to eye level with his son, and holding out the Cannons banner.

Albus shrugged one shoulder.

“I don’t wanna take any personal stuff,” he said.

“Why not?” Harry asked carefully.

“Not ‘till I know what House I’m in,” Albus said, in a small voice. “I don’t wanna be teased about my team.”

“Who’d tease you about your team?” Harry asked, catching hold of the small hands and tugging him to stand between his knees.

“Slytherins,” Albus muttered. “James says…”

“Hey,” Harry interrupted. “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t listen to James’s school stories?”

“He’s been calling me ‘Snakeface’ all summer,” Albus complained. “Said, with my initials, I’d be a Slytherin for sure.”

Harry sighed heavily, feeling bad for having missed this one.

“You know your brother says things purely to wind you up,” he said. “And you do the same to him. Ron says it’s normal sibling stuff.”

Albus raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really,” Harry said firmly, thinking of what he’d seen of Ron and his brothers, when they were younger. “He had five older brothers making his life hell – you can ask him about it at the station. C’mon.”

Harry helped his younger son pack, promising himself he’d spend more time with him over the Christmas hols, and that he wouldn’t miss anything else along the lines of ‘Snakeface’.

Hadn’t he promised himself – promised Ginny – that he would be there for all the important stuff.

He locked and Locomotored the trunk downstairs, to find a thoroughly agitated Ginny herding the other children towards the car.

“Owls!” she said.

“I know,” Harry replied, shoving Albus after his trunk, and turning into the front room to pick up both cages.

The normal chaos of a three child household was overlain with that special chaos only present in a Wizarding house on the morning of September first. Harry looked round the room sadly, running his hand over the back of what had been his armchair.

He was lost in thought, remembering sitting in that chair holding James for the first time; holding James as the two of them watched Ginny feeding Albus; leaning on the back of a chair filled with squirming small boys, as Ginny fed Lily.

Sitting in the chair, telling Ginny he was leaving.

He was roused from his thoughts by a very unsubtle honk on the car horn, as Ginny’s patience thinned still further. Shaking himself and patting his armchair, he picked up the owls and went out to the car.

All the way to King’s Cross he half listened to the boys arguing, half listened to Ginny’s automatic chastisements. This could have been his life, would have been his life, had been his life, for ten years.

All he’d ever wanted was his own family, and he loved his children more than anything in the world, but it hadn’t been enough, and it had been making all of them unhappy.

They parked at the station and commandeered trolleys and the five of them approached the barrier, the boys still arguing, Lily still clinging to his arm and asking what they were gonna do later.

He’d been unhappy and he’d allowed himself to drift, knowing that the thing that was enough for him was always out of reach.

James flitted back and forth in the mist, already so confident in the Wizarding World, and then, finally, Al saw the people he was searching for.

And so did Harry.

Ron grinned at them.

And, through hearing him joking with Hermione about his driving, through manhandling the trunks on board, through listening to him teasing his children and smirking about Malfoy, Harry was ridiculously aware that Ron was right there, beside him.

It had taken him far too long to admit it, firstly to himself, and then to Ginny, but it had been worth it.

Just a couple of years earlier, he had finally sat in that saggy armchair and told Ginny why he was leaving. That he would always be there for her and the children, that he would never, ever miss anything important to the family.

But it was Ron. It had always been Ron, hadn’t it?

And it had been Ron that he had left in their bed that morning, kissing him on the corner of his mouth, reminding him that Hermione expected him at her place by nine, running his hand through that beautiful red hair, before dressing and Apparating over to his old house – his own ex-wife’s house.

No wonder everyone on the platform was looking at them.

The Battle of Hogwarts was nineteen years ago, but the scandal of the two divorces was far more recent. Last year, he and Ginny had been the subject of a fair few raised eyebrows, when they put James on the train, but this year all four of them were there, together, and it was almost more than the gossips could stand.

They waved until the train was out of sight, then walked back through the barrier, together. Hermione and Ginny had only taken the morning off of work, and there were swift kisses on cheeks as they left, but what was the use of being head of the Auror Department if you couldn’t give you and your old partner the day off, to spend with your children?

They took Lily and Hugo by the hand and walked out, toward the cars.

“Ice cream?” Ron suggested.

“And the Zoo!” Lily said firmly.

“C’n we have sausages for lunch?” Hugo asked.

It had taken rather longer than he had expected, but Harry had all he could possibly want, and all was well.