Author's Note: This story has been a work in progress for months now. Before even being published, I've changed the story multiple times and I'll likely change it again. Still, this is a tale that I felt needed telling so here it is. I would not expect any sort of regular publishing schedule for the time being.

Also, this story does not connect with any of my other stories (although you should feel free to go back and read them as well)

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
The Golden Trio ten years later
By Parvati Patil-Macmillan

We all remember where we were the night the Second Wizarding War ended. We know the story: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley arrived at Hogwarts late on May 1, 1998 on the hunt for Tom Marvolo Riddle's remaining Horcruxes, each of which held a fragment of Riddle's soul. When Riddle learned that Potter and his cohorts had discovered the Horcruxes, he lead his army to Hogwarts, which rallied behind current Headmistress Minerva McGonagall to drive the Death Eaters from the school.

By the end of the night, Harry Potter had heroically sacrificed himself for us all, destroying the fragment of Riddle's soul that had been buried deep within him since that fateful Halloween nearly two decades earlier. In doing this, he protected the defenders of Hogwarts from the Death Eaters and put the final nail in Riddle's coffin, defeating Riddle in a final duel in the Great Hall, claiming the Elder Wand for his own, and ending a nearly four decade reign of terror by the former Dark Lord.

Each of us has a story to be told since that day. But what has happened to the so-called Golden Trio? While none of them have fallen out of the spotlight, Hermione Granger remains the most public of the three. Having been granted a spot on the Wizengamot, alongside her position within the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Hermione Granger has become one of the faces of the pro-Muggleborn movement that has come about in the aftermath of that final battle.

Granger, 27, is notoriously tight-lipped about her personal life and refused to answer anything regarding the rumors that she has been dating renowned Quidditch star Viktor Krum, despite being spotted together several times over the last few months.

On the other hand, Ron Weasley is an open book. Weasley, 27, began his career at the Ministry of Magic where he joined Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom in joining the ranks of the Aurors almost immediately after the Second Wizarding War. Less than three years later, Weasley had decided that he had had enough dark wizard hunting for one lifetime. He subsequently quit the Aurors and opened his own branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, the company owned by his older brother, George, in Hogsmeade, which immediately became a smashing success.

During this time, the burgeoning relationship between Weasley and Granger began to falter. Public joint appearances became infrequent, unless Potter was between them, and there were reports that the two were struggling to get along at home. By the turn of the century, everyone that knew the couple confirmed that their short romance was finished. While the two of them are good friends now, there was a brief period where it looked as if Weasley and Granger would never speak to each other again.

Currently, Weasley is dating the younger sister of his sister-in-law, Fleur Delacour-Weasley, Gabrielle. Gabrielle, 22, has lived in England for the last four years and works for the Department of International Magical Cooperation, liaising with most of the European Ministries of Magic on behalf of the British.

As for The Man Who Won, he-

Suddenly, a stack of papers dropped down on the Daily Prophet in his hand. Harry looked up to see his boss, Gawain Robards, standing over him.

He did not look happy.

"I see that you have time to read the paper. Mind reviewing these files for me?" Gawain asked. Harry had worked under Robards to know enough that this was not a request. Despite the fact that Harry was seated at his desk, Robards still only stood about a head taller than him, although Robards must have outweighed Harry two-to-one. His round stomach was a weapon of its own, used as a battering ram to force people to back away from him whenever Robards was angry, which was often. Whether Robards knew just how uncomfortable he made people, Harry never deigned to figure out.

But knowing just how volatile Robards was, Harry supposed that he knew the answer.

Harry stood, taking the stack of papers and placing them back in Robards's hands, now standing a good head taller than the Head Auror.

"Sir, I will remind you again that as an Auror working on active assignment, I am unable to review case files for other investigations."

The other problem with Gawain Robards was that when he was having a bad day, which was often, he often targeted the Aurors that he liked the least, giving them extra work at the end of the day. Considering that Harry was by far the most public Auror in the Office, and had made Robards look foolish on more than one occasion, his desk was usually the first place Robards went.

It was just unfortunate that Robards was a bit of an idiot, which usually gave Harry further opportunity to humiliate him, something that he took great joy in.

"I know the regulations. But we both know that we're not bound by law to follow those regulations. Therefore, I'm telling you to review these cases."

Harry sighed. He knew that he wouldn't end up doing anything with these files. But he also knew that he was going to have to fight his way out of it.

"Sir, if I review these files, I will be forced to sign them. If I do that, then the Compliance Department will notice my signature, which they have seen dozens of times, because, need I remind you, I send more cases their way than any other Senior Auror, and, having seen my signature, they will reject the file and it will come back to your desk and you will be required to personally review it. By giving me this file, you are going to end up doing twice as much work on your own. So, you can give it to me and make me late for the Anniversary celebration, of which I am the guest of honor, personally invited by the Minister of Magic himself, or you can give it to literally any Auror who is not on an active assignment and have it done by the end of the day, no strings attached."

Harry watched as Robards attempted to process all of this information. In his heyday, Robards had been a great Auror. Unfortunately, playing by the rules had not been a strength of his. In fact, Robards likely owed his position to his former partner, who was now the Minister of Magic. Thankfully, Arthur Weasley was now the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and had empowered a number of Robards's subordinates, allowing them to push back against Robards whenever he decided to go off the rails.

Despite the strange nature of this working relationship, the Auror Office was as efficient as it had ever been. Robards was the rabid dog, willing to do anything to chase after Dark wizards and dangerous artifacts and Senior Aurors like Harry and Paul Dawlish were responsible for reining him in and ensuring that he followed procedures. If anyone had told Harry ten years earlier that he would have been responsible for reining someone else in, he would have laughed.

But, that was simply proof that a lot had changed over the last decade.

Finally, Robards stopped staring at Harry and answered him.

"Fine point, Potter," Robards growled before looking at the clock on the wall behind Harry. "You ought to get going. Don't want to be late for your photo op with the Minister."

"My photo op with Kingsley isn't until after my speech, sir," Harry said as Robards's skin went pale. It was well known that Robards believed himself to be a viable candidate for Minister of Magic moving forward, despite the fact that almost no one else believed that. Harry took any opportunity he could get to remind his boss that he was far better acquainted with the Minister of Magic than Robards was these days.

"I'm certain I'll make it with plenty of time. Still, I had finished my last report so I do think I will be on my way."

"Right," Robards grumbled as Harry grabbed the newspaper from his desk. He marched passed Robards and out of his office. He was at the door that lead to the rest of the Department when he heard someone shouting his name.

"Auror Potter!"

Immediately, Harry knew who it was. Despite the fact that he had asked her not to refer to him as "Auror Potter" at least a dozen times, Susan Finch-Fletchley had persisted. Of course, her aunt had been quite a stickler for the rules as well.

Harry turned back to see Susan nearly running his direction from the records room, certainly with some last case note that she wanted his opinion on before he left.

"Auror Potter!" she shouted again despite the fact that she now only a few feet away. Every head in the room turned as she shouted, which was the last thing that Harry needed at the moment. Despite the fact that he had just finished taunting Robards over the fact that he was leaving early to get ready for the Anniversary Celebration, his popularity was something that he had never grown particularly comfortable with.

"Susan," Harry said through gritted teeth as he forced a smile to his face, "how many times have I asked you not to call me that?"

"But it's regulation. I am your Junior Auror and according to Rule Number-"

"Thirteen-thirty. I know the rule, Susan. I wrote it," Harry said promptly. "But I don't think that we need to be quite so formal. We were in the same goddamn class in school for Merlin's sake."

"It's still regulation and I intend to follow the regulations."

"Fine," Harry sighed, "what did you need?"

"Well, I have a question about the Lestrange case?"

"Which one?"

"Pardon me, Rabastan. You see, it says in the report that you captured him in Spain, trying to join up with a group of Riddle sympathizers."

"That's correct," Harry said, his eyes glancing at the clock on the wall. While it wouldn't take him long to get ready, he did still have a speech to write. Of course, considering the number of speeches he had given over the years, making them up on the spot had become one of his favorite games.

"But in Auror Dawlish's report, it says that he had been captured by that same group of sympathizers."

"That is also correct. Rabastan had spent most of his time post-war in Germany but when their Ministry started to get too close, he fled to Spain. His brother had hid their for a time and he expected that they would take him in. Instead, they captured him and tried to use him as a bartering chip to get some of their allies out of prison."

"That's when you and Auror Dawlish assaulted their base of operations?"

"Along with about thirty other Aurors and support from the Spanish Ministry. Susan, this case is four years old. Why are you asking me about this case?"

"Well, I've been reviewing it because his solicitor has appealed his sentence. They're saying that he was technically a prisoner at the time of his arrest and therefore should have had time taken off his sentence."

"He's saying that because another group of extremists had him in a cage for a week, he should have that time taken off his seventy-year sentence?"

Susan paused for a moment, clearly apprehensive of what she was about to tell Harry. Over the years, Harry had developed a reputation among the Aurors. He expected the best from everyone in his unit from the rookie up to the veteran. Harry was also fair in his criticism and did his best to consider every idea presented to him, even if he ultimately decided to go another route.

However, he also had a reputation for "shooting the messenger," as it were, something that Arthur had been forced to speak to him about on more than one occasion over the last decade. In this moment, Harry was certain that's what was going through Susan's mind as she struggled to get the words out of her mouth.

Unfortunately, considering Harry's rapidly closing window to get ready for what would amount to an evening spent in front of Prophet reporters who would bite on anything that Harry did wrong, he was not in a particularly patient mood.

"Susan, what is it?" Harry growled.

"They're trying to get the sentence thrown out entirely because it wasn't considered when he was sentenced. They're trying to get his conviction overturned."

Immediately, Harry felt his jaw lock up. Harry's record was impeccable. While his name would have gotten him the fast track to any job he wanted, the fact remained that Harry Potter had become one of the best Aurors in the history of the Office after just a few years on the job. Of the nearly two hundred arrests related to the Death Eaters, Harry claimed one hundred and twenty-three on his own, seventy more than the next closest Auror. In addition to his volume, his accuracy was impeccable with every single one of them being convicted for their crimes.

Now, he was being told that because of a bogus claim, one of his biggest busts was on the verge of being tossed. Needless to say, this did not fill Harry with joy as he felt his ears start to warm as he fought to keep his anger in check.

"How?" Harry finally stammered.

"How what?"

"On what grounds could Lestrange get his conviction overturned?"

"No legitimate ones but Nott has been spending a lot of time in the Wizengamot offices."

"Likely a lot of money too," Harry whispered. "He's going to try and get the case in front of Fudge, I assume."

"He's been their go-to when it comes to bribes."

"One of these days, we're going to get something on him and I'm going to nail him to the fucking wall!" Harry said as he slammed his hand on the doorframe, once again causing everyone in the office to look his way. Things had changed over the years but the one thing that remained the same was that Purebloods could still count on Cornelius Fudge to look out for their interests and his bottom line. Fudge had been chosen to fill one of the seats in the Wizengamot after the war, a plant chosen specifically by some of the older Pureblood families. It was widely known that he was taking money from Purebloods to push their agenda but in the ten years that Harry had been an Auror, no one had ever been able to get enough on him to take him down.

Two years earlier, he had been suspended for a few months during an investigation that had ultimately lead to three Aurors getting fired and Fudge back on the bench. That was the closest anyone had ever gotten to proving that Cornelius Fudge was in the pockets of families that had long supported Riddle, one of the only cardinal sins in the post-Riddle wizarding world.

Harry ignored the looks he got from the rest of the Aurors and stepped closer to Susan so that his words would only be heard by her.

"Get here early tomorrow morning. We're going to go through this piece by piece and ensure that there is nothing that they can use. Once we've done that, we'll bring Arthur and Robards in to ensure that this gets upheld."

"Could we try to direct the case to another member of the Court?"

"Unfortunately, the Wizengamot appointed Fudge to serve as the judge in charge of appeals. Technically, he's just the one in charge of deciding whether or not something gets a second chance."

"But he also gets to decide who hears the case if he grants the appeal."

"Exactly," Harry replied. "Listen, we'll get into this in the morning. I really have to go."

"I know. I'll see you in the morning, Aur-"

"Susan, in the name of Albus Dumbledore, if you don't knock that off, I will-"

"Good night, Harry. Tell Hermione and Ron I said hello."

"You're not coming?"

Susan shook her head. "Robards assigned me to work the night shift."

"That's not fair. You were there for The Battle."

"Someone has to do it," Susan said with a shrug. "So, tell everyone hello?"

"Will do. You'll do the same for Justin?"

Susan smiled before turning and marching just four desks away.

"Harry says hello," Susan said as she leaned over her husband's shoulder. Justin never looked up from his work. Instead, he simply raised his hand and waved in Harry's general direction, his eyes fixed on the report in front of him.

"Thanks," Harry said with a roll of his eyes as he was finally able to turn and leave. Harry made his way down the hall to the front desk where he signed out for the day before taking the lift up to the Atrium. As per usual, the moment Harry reached the Atrium, there was a gaggle of reporters between him and designated Apparition area. Also per usual, Harry marched through them, his eyes locked on a point in the distance as he pushed through the crowd as they shouted their questions and took over two dozen photographs in the few seconds it took him to cross the room.

Thankfully, Harry made it to the Apparition point without incident and immediately turned on the spot, leaving the reporters staring at nothing as Harry was transported from The Ministry of Magic to a quaint, little town in Devon where the festivities for the evening would take place. Just a few days after The Battle of Hogwarts, the Ministry had declared Godric's Hollow a historical monument for all wizardkind in Great Britain. The few Muggles that lived in the town were given massive stipends to move and within just a few years, Godric's Hollow was the first "haven" town established for magical folk after the Second Wizarding War.

While most of the town had remained as it was, one large change had been made. Every home within five hundred feet of the house where Harry had lived had been torn down and the entire area had been set up as an official monument to commemorate the end of the Second Wizarding War. A single obelisk with the names of every person who was killed during the First and Second Wizarding Wars etched on it stood in the center of the memorial, just in front of the front door of Harry's former home.

On the other side of the obelisk stood the newly constructed Dumbledore Memorial Hall. The building was a museum of sorts, dedicated mostly to the lives of Albus Dumbledore, Harry, and their respective families. It was used each year to host the Annual Anniversary Celebration on the date of the end of the Second Wizarding War. Each year, thousands of people flocked to this spot for the memorial service, which was held on a stage just outside Memorial Hall. After that, the members of The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army would have a private reception inside Memorial Hall where they could mourn their lost friends away from prying eyes.

As the unofficial leader of both The Order and Dumbledore's Army, Harry was one of the few people who had the ability to Apparate directly into the War Memorial space, landing just a few feet away from the obelisk. It was nearly forty feet high and each name was etched so that it could be seen from a few feet away. Instinctively, Harry's gaze floated to the top of the obelisk where he saw the names that he held most dear.

Remus Lupin. Nymphadora Tonks.

Sirius Black.

Dobby.

Albus Dumbledore.

Lily and James Potter.

Then, his eyes dropped to the bottom where one more name hid among the masses.

Severus Snape.

Even a decade later, Harry had trouble quantifying exactly how he felt about Snape. Without Snape, they surely would have lost years before Harry even was given the choice to take Riddle down himself.

But does that make up for years of abuse?

Harry considered the obelisk for a moment before marching through the crowd, which was already starting to gather over an hour before the ceremony was to start. Harry quickly slipped into the restroom to change from his work attire into a plain black suit. Over the last few years, as the stigma of being Muggleborn had faded away, some of the more open members of the wizarding world had begun to eschew the "traditional" wizarding attire for a more modern look. As a result, Harry hadn't worn robes outside of work in nearly a year. To be honest, Harry was grateful for the change. He wasn't a particularly tall person and no one as short as he looked good in a robe.

Once he had changed, Harry stepped through the double doors that lead to the main banquet hall. The room itself was designed to look a bit like The Great Hall at Hogwarts. While the ceiling wasn't quite as well enchanted, it did show a rough estimate of the daylight and weather outside. When someone looked up tonight, they would see nothing but a full moon and clear skies. On the other side of the far wall was the memorial dedicated to the First and Second Wizarding War, complete with photos of Harry and his schoolmates as well as a copy of the photo of the First Order of the Phoenix.

As Harry looked around the Hall, Harry was not surprised that most of the featured players in tonight's service were already present. Each year, the same group of people sat on the stage set up in front of Memorial Hall, each of them speaking about the experience of the war and what perspective they had taken away from the last year. Obviously, Kingsley Shacklebolt as Minister of Magic was one of those people. Unlike his predecessors, Kingsley was widely respected as Minister. Under his leadership, the Ministry had slowly begun to move away from the Pureblood ideals that had kept it from evolving. Despite the fact that there was a large contingency that was disagreed with these changes, Kingsley had somehow kept the country from devolving into a third civil war. He had largely done this by tempering people like Hermione, who wanted to make every change at once. Kingsley kept a backlog of legislation that he had determined were related to blood purity. Every few months, he would release another act and almost immediately sign it into law. For a few weeks, the more conservative Pureblood bloc would scream for Kingsley's head but eventually, their screaming would die down and life would move on, just in time for Kingsley to push forward another piece of legislation.

The second person to speak at this year's Anniversary event was the current Headmistress of Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall. Much like Kingsley, McGonagall had spent the last decade slowly changing Hogwarts, changing how the House system worked and encouraging further cooperation between the Houses. While Harry doubted that they would ever completely eliminate the stigma that had been placed on Slytherin House, the work that Minerva had done over the last ten years was certainly a wonderful step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem like Minerva was going to have too much time left at Hogwarts. In just the last few months, it had become obvious to anyone with a working set of eyes that Minerva had slowed down significantly. According to the Healers at St. Mungo's, the attack that she had taken in Harry's fifth year had done a sizeable amount of damage to her magical core. While there wasn't much known about where magic came from or how it worked, there was enough research to suggest that it was magic that gave witches and wizards such long life and any significant amount of magical damage could affect a person's lifespan. The kind of hit that Minerva had taken had done just that. She now walked with a cane almost permanently and according to some of his former classmates who now worked at the castle, she rarely left her office for anything other than meals.

It appeared to be the end of an era. While no one knew for certain who Minerva intended to name as her successor, there had long been whispers that she would attempt to hire Hermione Granger away from the Ministry of Magic. While Harry wasn't certain that Hermione would leave with a job "half-finished," as she would say, he was also certain that Hogwarts may have been the only place that could have pulled her away.

Ron Weasley stood with his new belle, Gabrielle, at the far end of the room, standing next to Hermione and Viktor. While Ron had been unashamed to announce that he and Gabrielle had started dating, no one, Harry included, knew what the deal with Hermione and Viktor was. They had denied any accusations of any kind of a relationship between the two of them for years, despite the fact that Harry was likely the only person who saw Hermione more often.

That said, Harry's relationship with Hermione was complicated enough without any potential relationship between his best friend and the renowned Seeker.

Ron, just like Harry, had taken Kingsley's offer to join the Aurors immediately after the Battle of Hogwarts. For nearly three years, he worked alongside Harry, helping to bring down the remnants of the Death Eaters that had scattered after Riddle's defeat. However, once that was done, Ron had abruptly quit his job as an Auror. According to Ron, he had had enough danger in his life. After a few months of laying around, George approached him and offered him the opportunity to run his new store in Hogsmeade, which Ron jumped at. Now almost seven years later, Ron had purchased a sizeable ownership stake in Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, meaning that, assuming he didn't start gambling his money away, he would never have to worry about providing for his children.

Harry still wasn't sure where the relationship with Gabrielle had come from. To be honest, he didn't particularly care. Ron had just shown up at Christmas with Gabrielle and told his family that they were dating. Fleur had considered registering her opposition to the idea for about two seconds before Bill had reminded her how much she hated how the Weasleys had originally treated her when she and Bill had first started dating. In response, Fleur had simply expressed her hope that they were happy together before marching out of the room.

On the other side, Harry had heard "we're just friends" come out of Hermione's mouth more times than he could count over the last two years. Three years earlier, Viktor Krum had signed with the Tutshill Tornados, becoming one of the League's most popular players. Almost immediately, he and Hermione had rekindled their relationship. They had apparently gone on a couple of dates before deciding that any sort of permanent relationship was out of the question. Still, Hermione and Viktor did spend a lot of time together, although not quite as much time as Harry spent with her, which had lead to its own series of questions, most of which couldn't be answered in a manner that the public would accept.

Harry wondered if part of Hermione's apprehension to classify her relationship with Viktor as such was because of the fallout after her relationship with Ron had fallen apart. Thankfully, there had been no world class blowup between the two of them. Things had simply stopped working. Between each of their work and then their completely different living styles, they eventually came to the mutual decision that things were just not going to work between the two of them. Harry, having been both of their best friend since they were all eleven, was one of the few people who knew all the facts regarding Hermione and Ron's falling-out. Thankfully, there had never been any sort of public animosity between the two of them and other than a few catty comments from one to the other, you would never know that they had dated at all, which Harry was only too glad for. In the eighteen months after The Battle of Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione had gone from star-crossed lovers to best friends once more without any noticeable difference in their interaction.

Of course, that could have been caused by the fact that Hermione was simply too busy for any kind of relationship. While Harry and Ron had joined the Aurors, Hermione had returned to Hogwarts to finish her education before going to work for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Immediately, Hermione had set her sights on rewriting dozens of laws, especially those regarding the treatment of house elves. While Hermione had learned over the years that the wholesale release of house elves was not a great plan of action, she remained determined to eliminate their mistreatment, specifically the kind that the Malfoys had demonstrated towards Dobby.

For months, she had fought and fought, getting nowhere. Finally, she had managed to pass a law preventing house elf owners from abusing their elves. The only people who had expressed outrage had been those who had openly or privately supported Riddle. Once the rest of the Ministry realized that, they began openly supporting Hermione Granger's initiatives, mostly because they knew that it would get them in the good graces of the new Minister of Magic. Whatever their reason, that support opened the floodgates for Hermione's work. In the last year alone, she had modified or passed forty-eight new laws that corrected or improved the living and working conditions for non-human Beings. At the same time, she had begun working with Arthur in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to change laws regarding blood status.

In fact, over the last few years, Hermione Granger had become the most powerful non-Department Head in the entire Ministry of Magic. Despite her relative young age, it was widely expected that she would be appointed as the Head of the next Department whose current Head resigned, regardless of the Department. Despite all of this stress and excitement, Harry and Hermione still saw each other frequently. They often ate lunch together and several times a month, they had dinner and spent the evening together, simply enjoying each other's company. It was often a nice, relaxing way to enjoy the end of a stressful week.

The last person to speak at these events was always Harry himself. When Harry had tried to ask someone else to be the keynote speaker, it was Hermione who impressed upon him just how important his words were to their audience.

"You are the sign that we won, Harry. You literally died and came back to save them all. They like hearing from me and Ron and the others. But if you didn't speak, they wouldn't come. They want to hear from you."

As much as that bothered Harry, who believed that Hermione and Ron's words had just as much value as his own, he knew that she was right, just as always.

When it was finally time for the ceremony to begin, Kingsley lead Minerva, Harry, Ron and Hermione out of the front doors of Memorial Hall and up onto the stage. Almost immediately, the flashing lights of a dozen cameras flooded the area. It was rare for Harry, Ron and Hermione to appear in public together any longer simply because they could never enjoy themselves due to the frenzy that their presence created. That frenzy only magnified when they were joined by the Minister of Magic and the Headmistress of Hogwarts.

Kingsley approached the podium as the other four sat behind him while he greeted the crowd. One by one, they each stood and gave short speeches, some parts of them rehashed from years previous. As always, Kingsley was regal, Minerva nostalgic, Ron humorous, and Hermione thoughtful. Still, Hermione was right. While they listened to the others, the moment Hermione introduced Harry, they screamed and shouted and clung to every word in silence.

Once he heard his name, Harry stood and waved at the crowd before finally begging them into silence so that he could begin. He stood at the podium for a few moments before he spoke, speech in hand, staring out over the crowd. Harry recognized many of the faces in the crowd, old friends, classmates, and colleagues, all of them looking to him. As he scanned the hundreds of faces staring up at him, he saw George and Angelina, with their young son Fred on his father's shoulders. He saw Roger and Cho Davies just behind them, Cho several months pregnant with their first child. Even further back was Ernie and Parvati and their three children, each of them more beautiful than the last.

It was then that Harry realized just how much things had changed. The first time he had stood on this stage, he had been a scrawny twenty-year-old, his face clean shaven and his voice uncertain. Now, he was twenty-seven, he had spent the last decade adding muscle to his figure and he hadn't been clean shaven in over a year, even as the grey seemed to spread further and further away from his chin. Harry knew that there was a Muggle saying that stress caused your hair to turn grey. If that was the case, Harry was amazed that his hair wasn't snow white at this point.

Harry's speech was barely different than his speech the year before, which was barely any different than the other seven he had given on this spot. To be honest, no one really cared what Harry said when he stepped up to the podium. For most, especially those that didn't know him personally, just seeing his face was enough. So just like he had for the last ten years, Harry spoke about conviction and sacrifice and honored those that they had lost. When Harry was done speaking, the crowd once again cheered for him for so long that Harry had to request that they be quiet so that Kingsley could close up the program, which he did swiftly, allowing the members of the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army to enter Memorial Hall and begin their annual reunion.

All but three of them, that is. While everyone else got to go inside and relax, Harry, Ron and Hermione instead wandered towards the bank of reporters and photographs that had been placed near the back of the crowd. For over an hour, the "Golden Trio," as they were now called, answered questions, each of them detailing their lives since the last time they had spoken to a reporter. Of course, for Harry, that hadn't even been a week yet and for Hermione, it had literally been the day before.

Only Ron, who had managed to largely slip away from the constant publicity that their place in society seemed to have anything new to tell the reporters, which he gladly did in order to keep the questions away from Harry and Hermione. With both of their jobs being so public, it was likely that if the reporters had their way, they would ignore Ron entirely to focus on Harry and Hermione's job record as well as their notoriously private personal life.

While Parvati's article had been correct that Hermione had been tight-lipped about her life outside of the Ministry, that paled in comparison to Harry's outright refusal to answer any questions that had to do with his home life. Even now, the reporters asked Harry about his rumored relationship with Hermione because they had been spotted having dinner in public just a few nights earlier. For almost anyone else, that wouldn't have been a big deal but considering the fact that the last time Harry had been spotted in public outside of his work had been nearly a year earlier, it was a monumental event. Little did they know that Harry had been quite intentional about being spotted. By giving them a little bit to grasp onto, the questions ended up focusing on his potential relationship with Hermione, rather than the other facets of Harry's personal life, which was exactly the way he wanted it.

Thankfully, the press had something else to latch onto: a photograph of Hermione and Viktor at a fundraising dinner hosted by Augusta Longbottom. Hermione had asked Harry to attend, which had caused a laughing fit that had lasted nearly ten minutes. When Harry had finally been able to respond, he had declined as gracefully and tactfully as you could after laughing at someone for that long. As a result, she took Viktor instead, which had lead to the photograph in question. Almost half of the hour the three spent answering questions were dedicated to Hermione's artful dodging of any question related to her relationship with Viktor as was standard for Hermione. Over the years, Hermione had become a master at the art of saying nothing, especially in regards to Harry and Viktor. During their hour in front of the press, she "answered" nearly forty questions and gave away not a single piece of valuable information.

Finally, Ron looked down at his watch and noticed that an hour had passed. In the middle of Harry's incredibly boring answer to a question regarding an arrest he had made the week before, Ron informed the reporters that their hour was up and that they had to go inside to join the rest of the memorial. Quickly, Ron took Harry and Hermione by the arm, leading them away from the incredibly disappointed reporters.

"Thank Merlin that's over," Hermione grumbled.

"You know, you could just tell them that you and Viktor are dating," Harry replied. "Maybe they would leave you alone."

"First, we aren't dating. Second, even if we were, do you honestly believe that they would leave us alone?"

"Not a bloody chance," Ron said as they entered the Hall to find the celebration was already in full swing. While May 2nd was always a somber day, the decision had been made that while the rest of the world would see them mourn, they would take the opportunity to celebrate Riddle's defeat in the privacy of Memorial Hall, away from the wandering eyes of the public. Parvati had even signed a release that prevented her from reporting anything that occurred inside Memorial Hall.

The moment Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the room, the conversation stopped and everyone turned to face them before breaking out into spontaneous applause. As was his tradition, Harry stepped up onto the stage at the front of the room before magically amplifying his voice.

"Thank you!" Harry said, his voice still barely audible over the cheers. A second later, George appeared at his right, a firewhiskey in both hands, both of which Harry took before lifting one in the air. Almost immediately, everyone in the room mirrored Harry.

"To those we lost," Harry said softly, although his voice boomed across the room, before knocking back the first firewhiskey, the alcohol in it burning all the way down into his toes. Again, everyone in the room echoed him and drank as well.

"Thank you all for coming," Harry said as he cancelled the charm that magnified his voice. Now, you could hear a pin drop in the room, meaning that Harry had no reason to keep the charm. "For some of you, it's been a year since I have seen you. For others, it's only been a day. Still, I am glad to see everyone here so that we can celebrate Riddle's defeat and honor our dead. Each year, I have chosen to honor a specific person who died during the wars. However, this year is different. It has been ten years, three thousand six hundred and fifty days since the end of the War. To commemorate this special day, I am honoring not one but two people, two people that I never got the chance to meet. This year, we honor Lily and James Potter."

Harry looked across the room and at this moment, he wished that he could have seen Sirius or Remus or even Dumbledore, someone that had truly known his parents as more than a colleague or a student of theirs. Instead, most of the crowd was too young to have any real memory of his parents and the few that did know his parents didn't know them well.

"My parents were twenty-one years old when they were killed by Riddle. You all know the story: a prophecy declared that a child would be born with the power to defeat him. The details of the prophecy meant that either Neville or myself were the child in question. Riddle, a half-blood himself, chose me, another half-blood. Ultimately, he failed to kill me but he did murder my parents in the process, my mother's death acting as the sacrifice that protected me and ultimately lead to Riddle's downfall."

"Prior to the end of my fifth year and the death of my godfather at the Ministry of Magic, I didn't know about the prophecy. I just knew that my mother threw herself in front of me when Riddle attempted to kill me. I knew that my father tried to stop Riddle even though he did not have his wand. They were twenty-one years old, barely four years older than I was when I walked into the Forest. On the night of the Battle of Hogwarts, I didn't truly understand how young my parents were until they died. But on my twenty-first birthday, Hagrid commented that I was as old as my parents had been when they had died. In my own mind, I was still a child, even though I was serving as an Auror by day. Even then, I still couldn't wrap my head around their sacrifice at such a young age. It wasn't until I held my godson in my arms that I understood just what they had given up: the opportunity to see their child grow up in something more than just a child."

"Once I held Teddy in my arms, I knew and now that I know just what they gave up, it changed how I felt about what we did ten years ago. Over half of the people that stood in front of Riddle that night were technically children. At the time, it seemed insane that we would allow children to fight our battles. Even now it seems insane. But I think about my parents and now I realize that they were only a few years older than we were. They had been given the chance to stand up and fight and they did. My parents were only four years older than I was at the time. They had been through the same war and fought the same fight and when the time came, they stood in front of Riddle and they fought, just like all of us."

"Colin Creevey stood up against Riddle and fought. He was sixteen years old when he died. Lavender Brown stood up against Riddle and she fought. She was seventeen years old when she died. Fred Weasley stood up against Riddle. He was twenty, just a few months younger than my mother and father were when they were murdered. Nymphadora Tonks was twenty-four when she died, fighting. Severus Snape, after years of spying for both sides, was murdered by Riddle's snake, Nagini. He was thirty-eight when he died, the same age my parents would have been had they lived."

"In the end, they all died fighting for what they believed in. In the end, their age didn't matter. Their sacrifice was no more important than that of Colin or Fred or even Dumbledore himself. Of course, the death of my parents is more important to me just like there are others who are more important to each of you. In the end, all those that died and all of us who lived, we were given a chance to stand up and fight for what was right. We could have run. We could have hide. No one would have blamed us. But we didn't. We stood up and told Riddle that we would not back down, no matter what he brought against us, the same way my parents did on the night of their murder. Their age didn't matter. Whether you are sixteen or thirty-eight, we all must fight for what we believe in. Whether you are a child or as old as Dumbledore himself, when we are offered the choice to stand up for what is right, we must do so. If we don't, that's when people like Tom Riddle are given the chance to take hold of our society. And to that, do you know what I say?"

"What do you say?" came the response of the crowd, a tradition that had been started with Harry's speech at the first Anniversary Celebration.

"I say never again!" Harry shouted, his voice reverberating off the walls.

"Never again!" everyone echoed.

"We say never again!"

"Never again!"

"Never again!" Harry said as he lifted his drink in the air. "To those who lived!"

"To those who lived!"

All at once, everyone downed their second shot of firewhiskey. Harry closed his eyes and let the firewhiskey burn for a moment before we opened his eyes and held his empty glass up to his friends and family.

"We say never again to remind ourselves that it was fear that truly killed our friends. Fear of change, fear of the fight and fear of death. If we face our fear, we will ensure that Riddle and his kind never have a chance to bring us down again. Never again!"

"Never again!" the crowd shouted as Harry jumped down from the stage and joined his friends below him. Immediately, Harry found himself surrounded by his closest friends, those that had been dubbed "The Inner Circle" by The Daily Prophet on more than one occasion. Hermione stood to one side while Ron and Gabrielle stood on the other. Neville Longbottom stood with his girlfriend, Hannah Abbott, beside Luna Lovegood, who was arm-in-arm with George, laughing at some comment that George had just made to her and his wife, Angelina. Finally, Ginny and Dean walked over from the place where they had hidden in the corner. If there was anyone in the country that was as famous as Harry, it was five-time British Quidditch League Most Outstanding Player, Ginevra Weasley.

This was the group, those that really knew the real Harry Potter. The comments about it being an "inner circle" of sorts bothered some of the others, who didn't want anyone to feel left out. But Harry knew the truth: these were his closest friends, his brothers and sisters. They were the only people in the room that he routinely saw outside of his work at the Ministry and to be honest, they were the only ones that he really wanted to see.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry knew he had a decision to make. He could lie to everyone about the true nature of his year on the run and his disappearance into the woods or he could tell the truth. For nearly a month, Harry wrestled with that decision before he finally agreed to sit down with newly minted reporter Parvati Patil. He gave her every piece of information she wanted and even some she had never considered asking. In exchange, Harry was given final veto over the article.

After nearly a dozen drafts and six months time, the article had been released and suddenly, Harry went from Harry Potter, Man Who Lived to Harry Potter, Wizarding Savior. He was a messianic figure, someone who had cheated death not once but twice on his way to defeating the most nefarious Dark wizard in a thousand years. For all but those that were intimately close to Harry, it changed everything about how they viewed him. People found it difficult to talk to him without fawning all over him. And if they did, they were constantly asking him for help or asking for his endorsement. Harry's word went as far as anyone's, in any subject imaginable, even if he knew nothing about the subject matter.

The rest of the night went about the same as every other May 2nd had gone since the Battle of Hogwarts. Ron and Seamus got so drunk that their partners, Gabrielle and Terry, had to take them home early in the night. At the same time, Hermione and Andromeda Tonks spent most of the evening discussing the various changes happening in the Ministry at any given time while Viktor, Ginny, Angelina, Katie and Alicia stood in another corner and swapped their glorious Quidditch stories. In the end, life had moved on.

But others handled their past better than others. When the clock struck midnight and Harry found that almost everyone had gravitated somewhere else, he stood from the table they had eventually congregated around, briefly said goodbye to Hermione and Ron, and then Apparated home. Home was no longer Grimmauld Place, which Harry had sold only a year after The Battle of Hogwarts. Home was also no longer the flat he had rented in Diagon Alley for two years. That location had been impossible to keep secret and soon, he was hounded by reporters almost daily.

Now, home was a small cabin in the woods north of Hogwarts, just on the far side of the wards of the castle, making it remarkably tricky to Apparate into. The home was small, just a living area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, which was exactly how Harry liked it. More than anything, he liked how far away from the rest of the world it was. He liked that he could look out his bedroom window and see the Headmaster's Tower of Hogwarts in the distance.

Harry walked into the small cabin and with a flick of his wand, lit the candles that hung from the small chandelier in the middle of the kitchen. The house was effectively bare. Harry spent almost no time here other than to eat and sleep. He worked long days and often worked weeks in a row without time off. Again, that was largely of his design. The more time he had to himself, the more his mind was prone to wandering and in those moments, Harry was reminded of the old horrors in his life. So, he found new cases to work on, new mysteries to solve. He found other things to keep him from thinking about the names that he had mentioned earlier that night.

Because when Harry thought of those names, he didn't think of the good times. He thought of their corpses. He thought of their corpses and dozens like them who had perished during the Battle and the years before it.

Harry went to the one cabinet in the kitchen that he knew would be full and pulled out a bottle of Fred's Finest, the best firewhiskey George sold. Most nights, Harry would indulge in a nightcap or two.

On May 2nd, Harry, already a bit drunk from the party, knew that two would never be enough.