Written for Dumbledore's Army List of Prompts

Prompt for Monday May 5th: "This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something." ~Elizabeth Gilbert

Character: Harry Potter

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER NOR EAT PRAY LOVE. NOT NOW, NOT EVER.

"Coming To Terms"

Harry didn't know how it happened or when it even started. The Final war had ended and everyone was trying to rebuild their lives and their world. As Harry helped with Hogwarts, everyone just wanted to move on.

Especially Harry.

Now that everything was over and done, he had hoped that he'd pick up where he had left off with Ginny. But the moment he saw her, the moment he had held her close for a hug, he knew that whatever feelings he used to have for her was now long gone. He didn't know if they'd come back eve. But one thing he knew for sure, Ginny had surely felt it too.

When they all had returned to number twelve Grimmauld Place after the funeral for the fallen ones, Ginny had pulled Harry to the library. Harry wondered if she was going to comment on the change in their relationship. And he was right but it wasn't what he had thought he'd hear from her.

"Harry... I know that we've talked about us before... and that we broke up for my own sake and all... But now that everything is... over... I have also thought about what we really are to each other." She began and Harry stared at her.

"I care for you Harry... I really do. I still love you even... but its more of like a sibling love now. I... when you were gone... Dean had been there for me. He had comforted me and had been the support that I had needed when you were off with Ron and Hermione. I know that this might not be the best time since everything is still fresh but I want you to know that I... Dean proposed to me and I said yes." She explained.

Harry's mind was not usually slow on the uptake but what he just heard from Ginny was not what he thought he would be hearing. He simply nodded and left the room.

He went up to Sirius' bedroom and just locked himself in for the whole day.

The next day, few of their friends came over and Harry heard Parvati talk about a guru in Bali who was in an expert in the human psyche. Parvati explained to everyone that the guru was known for wise counsel and many who had gone to see him had returned with a lighter heart and shinier souls.

It didn't really take long for Harry to decide what he wanted to do. He discretely when back to his room, packed a bag, wrote a note saying that he was going away for a while to think about his life and for everyone not to worry.

He then managed to sneak out of the house, apparated to Diagon Alley and went to Gringotts to withdraw gold for his journey. Harry was given a money bag that was connected to his seven vaults accessible by him alone and he could take gold from there as long as he had the money bag. He had paid for a portkey to Bali Indonesia and took a deep breath, as he knew he was going to start his journey by looking for the guru: Ketut Liyer.

The first thing he did was do a language spell on himself to understand the people he would be talking to while he was there.

Many had given him directions to the village not far from the beach where the said guru resided. Harry thanked them and went on his way.

The guru, as it turned out, was a small, merry-eyed, russet-colored old guy with a mostly toothless mouth, whose resemblance in every way to the Star Wars character Yoda cannot be exaggerated.

His name was Ketut Liyer.

He spoke a scattered and thoroughly entertaining kind of English, but there was a translator available for when he got stuck on a word.

Harry had been told by many in advance that he could bring one question or problem to the guru, and he would try to help with his troubles. Harry had been thinking what to ask him. His first idea was so lame. "Will you make my ex-girlfriend come back to me? Will you make Ginny be attracted to me again?" He had then been rightly ashamed of himself for the thoughts: who travels all the way around the world to meet an ancient medicine man in Indonesia, only to ask him to intercede in girl trouble?

When Harry was finally in front of the guru and was asked what he wanted, it took Harry a few moments to gather his thoughts and answer.

"Sometimes I feel like I understand why I'm still living. I always had it in mind that there was a purpose for me being alive. I even want to be with God at one time. But I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures. I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights, but also devote myself to that divine purpose." Harry finally answered.

Ketut said he could answer the question with a picture. He showed Harry a sketch he'd drawn once during meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standing up, hands clasped in prayer. But this figure had four legs, and no head. Where the head should have been, there was only a wild foliage of ferns and flowers. There was a small, smiling face drawn over the heart.

"To find the balance you want," Ketut spoke through his translator, "this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know why you exist."

Then Ketut asked if he could read Harry's palm. Harry nodded and gave him his left hand and he proceeded to put Harry together like a three-piece puzzle.

"You have been through more than most people living or not," Ketut began.

"You have more good luck than anyone I've ever met. You will live a long time, have many friends, many experiences. You will see the whole world. You only have one problem in your life. You worry too much. Always you get too emotional, too nervous. If I promise you that you will never have any reason in your life to ever worry about anything, will you believe me?"

Nervously, Harry nodded, not believing him.

"For work, you must do something creative, maybe like an artist, and you get paid good money for it. Always you will get paid good money for this thing you do. "

Harry began to think of what kind of work he would like to do. He wasn't much of an artist. Maybe a writer? He could write a book. How hard can it be to write a book about his life right?

"After you think that you have lose everything, you will get it all right back again. Right away you'll be fine. You will have marry but not with the one who you want. And you will have two children . . ." Harry frowned a bit.

If he wasn't going to marry Ginny then who?

The guru did not say anymore about it but smiled this time as he let go of Harry's hand.

"Someday soon you will come back here to Bali. You must. You will stay here in Bali for three, maybe four months. You will be my friend. Maybe you will live here with my family. I can practice English with you. I never had anybody to practice English with. I think you are good with words. I think this creative work you will do from now on is something about words, yes?"

Harry smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I just thought about being a writer. Maybe write a book or two." Harry said.

Then Ketut stood up and brushed off his hands, like: That's settled then.

A few weeks later, Harry was now in Italy.

His year of journey to self discovery had commenced. And he could actually afford to do this because of aall the money he had in his vaults. He could live the rest of his life not even working and he'd still be alright and his family when they came.

So now Harry became a resident of Rome. The apartment he found is a quiet studio in a historic building, located just a few narrow blocks from the Spanish Steps, draped beneath the graceful shadows of the elegant Borghese Gardens, right up the street from the Piazza del Popolo, where the ancient Romans used to race their chariots. Of course, the district didn't quite have the sprawling grandeur of his old Magical home in England but still...

With a little magic here and there, everything was good.

The first meal he ate in Rome was nothing much. Just some homemade pasta (spaghetti carbonara) with a side order of sauteed spinach and garlic. Also, he had one artichoke, just to try it; the Romans are awfully proud of their artichokes. Then there was a pop-surprise bonus side order brought over by the waitress for free — a serving of fried zucchini blossoms with a soft dab of cheese in the middle (prepared so delicately that the blossoms probably didn't even notice they weren't on the vine anymore). After the spaghetti, Harry tried the veal. Oh, and also he drank a bottle of house red, just for himself. And ate some warm bread, with olive oil and salt. Tiramisu for dessert.

Walking home after that meal, around 11:00 PM, Harry could hear noise coming from one of the buildings on his street, something that sounded like a convention of seven-year-olds — a birthday party, maybe? Laughter and screaming and running around. Harry climbed the stairs to his apartment, lay down in his new bed and turned off the light. He waited to start crying or worrying, but he actually felt OK. Harry felt fine. He felt the early symptoms of contentment.

His weary body asked his weary mind: "Was this all you needed, then?"

There was no response.

Harry was already fast asleep.

The next few weeks came and Harry knew that needed to make some new friends. So he got busy with it, and now it is October and he had a nice assortment of them. He knew two Harry's in Rome now, besides himself. Both are American, both are writers. The first Harry was a novelist and the second Harry is a food writer. With an apartment in Rome, a house in Umbria, an Italian husband and a job that required him to travel around Italy eating food and writing about it for Gourmet, it appears that the second Harry must have saved a lot of orphans from drowning during a previous life-time. Unsurprisingly, he knows all the best places to eat in Rome, including a gelateria that serves a frozen rice pudding (and if they don't serve this kind of thing in the Great Beyond, then Harry really don't want to go there). They took him out to lunch the other day, and what they ate included not only lamb and truffles and carpaccio rolled around hazelnut mousse but an exotic little serving of pickled lampascione, which is — as everyone knew — the bulb of the wild hyacinth.

Of course, by then, Harry had ran into Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy and made friends them, which he secretly calls his Tandem Language Exchange fantasy couple. Blaise's sweetness, in Harry's opinion, made him a national treasure of Italy. He endeared himself to Harry forever the first night they met, when Harry was getting frustrated with his inability to find the words he wanted in Italian (which he was now learning and not by magic), and he put his hand on Harry's arm.

"Har, you must be very polite with yourself when you are learning something new."

Harry knew Blaise was older than him, what with his solemn brow and his philosophy and his serious opinions. Blaise liked to try to make Harry laugh, but Blaise doesn't always get Harry's jokes. Humor is hard to catch in a second language. Especially when one was as serious a young man as Blaise. He said to Harry the other night:

"When you are ironic, I am always behind you. I am slower. It is like you are the lightning and I am the thunder."

Harry didn't often see Draco though but he spent more time with Blaise. He was just someone Harry (or anyone else in general) wanted to spent time with.

Every day Blaise and Harry went to sit by the Tiber, eating their gelato and just talking with each other. At the beginning, Harry liked to think that Blaise and him looked like close friends. Then one day when they were taking a taxi through Rome the guy driving the cab asked if Blaise was my boyfriend.

Both had laughed and told the driver that they were just friends and that Blaise was actually single and that Harry wasn't looking for a relationship. It amused the two whenever people would think they were together. Even Draco had mentioned it a few times that they actually look good together.

However, both knew that Harry was still struggling with trying to build his life and that Harry didn't even know if he was into guys. Yes, Blaise was handsome, a Greek god in an olive skinned body. Every inch of him was amazing to look at and Harry had been caught by Draco more than once, staring at Blaise when the half Italian wasn't looking.

Over the next six weeks, Harry travelled to Bologna, to Florence, to Venice, to Sicily, to Sardinia, to Naples, then over to Calabria. These are short trips, mostly — a week here, a weekend there — just the right amount of time to get the feel for a place, to look around, to ask people on the street where the good food is and then to go eat it. Harry dropped out of his Italian language school, having come to feel that it was interfering with his efforts to learn Italian, since it was keeping him stuck in the classroom instead of wandering around Italy, where he could practice with people in person.

These weeks of spontaneous travel are such a glorious twirl of time, some of the loosest days of Harry's life, running to the train station and buying tickets left and right, finally beginning to flex his freedom for real because it has finally sunk in that he could go wherever he want. Harry didn't see his friends in Rome for a while and had stopped sending letters to the ones in England even. Blaise told him over the phone:

"Sei una trottola" (You're a spinning top).

One night in a town somewhere on the Mediterranean, in a hotel room by the ocean, the sound of his own laughter actually wakes Harry up the middle of his deep sleep. Harry was startled. Who is that laughing in his bed? The realization that it was only him just made him laugh again. Harry couldn't remember now what he was dreaming. He thought that maybe it had something to do with boats.

A whole year had gone by and the first celebration to the end of the Final Battle against Voldemort came. Harry wanted to stay away but Kingsley and Arthur had begged him to come back. Even just for a few hours. Harry had talked to Draco and Blaise for hours, trying to decided whether to attend or not.

Harry had so many reasons why he didn't want to go back. He wasn't ready yet. He was still trying to cope with the lose of everyone he cared for. He wasn't ready to go back to being the Magical world's Saviour again. And most importantly, he wasn't ready to see Ginny again. He had read on one of Hermione's letters that Ginny and Dean had gotten married and were already expecting their first child. It still stung a little bit and Harry had told himself that he had to get over it. He was... almost over it.

Draco sighed and stood up, leaving Blaise to speak with Harry alone. The blond had demanded the other to tell Harry the truth or Draco would tell Harry himself.

"Harry... there is something I need to tell you." Blaise began and Harry sat straighter.

"What is it? Does it have something to do with Draco's murmurs lately?" he asked and Blaise sighed deeply before nodding.

Blaise took a while before he found the courage to speak.

"Harry... we've been friends for months now. And I can say that I really enjoyed our time together. When we tried new restaurants or when we just eat ice cream in the park." Blaise said with a smile as he reached out and held Harry's hands.

Harry felt Blaise's hands and they were cold. Was he worried about something?

"After a while, I didn't even know when it started... but when I don't see you for a day, I feel like the whole day is wasted. I love seeing you smile, laugh with our muggle friends, talk, and even just sitting next to you makes me feel contented already." Blaise continued and swallowed hard.

Harry's mind began to process what Blaise was saying and then his eyes went wide. Was Blaise saying what Harry thought he was saying?

"Harry... what I want to tell you is that... I—" Blaise was cut off by Draco's entrance.

"He loves you and wants to spend the rest of his life with you Potty. Now can we have dinner please?" Draco interrupted with a smug expression on his face.

Blaize growled at Draco while Harry stared at Blaise in shock.

"But I—" Harry began but Blaise silenced him.

"I know your still hurting. I know that. But you will never be able to move on if you don't try again. And I am telling you now, I will wait until your ready." Blaise said as he placed a gentle kiss on Harry's head and stood up, dragging Draco with him, hissing about stupid blonds.

Harry just sat their for a long while, still trying to process what he just heard.

When they went back to England that week later, Harry was welcomed by everyone he knew and they all held the ceremony on the grounds at Hogwarts. Blaise and Draco came with him which shocked everyone when Harry appeared with Blaise holding his hand.

After the whole ceremony ended and the Weasleys plus Harry, Blaise, Draco, and the members of the Order who survived when to Grimmauld for a big dinner Molly prepared.

Dean and Ginny were there as well as Seamus, Neville, Luna, the Patil twins, and Dennis Creevey who was actually dating Charlie Weasley. Despite the age gap, they both actually made their relationship work and everyone else was just as supportive.

Just after dinner, Ginny asked if she could speak with Harry privately. She was on her eight month now and with an encouraging kiss from Blaise, Harry followed Ginny to the library.

The doors closed and a silencing spell made sure no one else would hear them.

Harry still felt a bit awkward with Ginny. The fact that the library was the place where she had told him a year ago that she moved on with Dean and was going to marry him didn't make Harry feel any better.

"Harry... I know I owe you an apology. I know now that what I said before... didn't come out right nor was it even at the right time. But I want you to know that I really am sorry. My heart broke in two when you just left without saying anything to me. It broke even more when you left the next day without saying where you went. I had to hear it from Ron that you decided to travel and I thought that-" Harry stopped her.

"Ginny. I will be honest and admit that I did leave because of what you had told me back then. However, it wasn't the only reason. I had a lot of things on my mind. The war finally ended then and the reality had sunk in that yes we won but I had lost more than most people. I had to leave and what happened between us just added to what I felt then... But now..." he slowly smiled as he moved to hug her.

"This is a good sign... us having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something. Yes, we didn't work like most expected but at least we tried. I will not lie and say that you didn't break me because you did. But I can forgive you now because you told me that you are sorry and that I broke your heart when I left. I can to realize as I travelled, that if we didn't work out, that only meant that we weren't meant to be together. I know you are happy with Dean. And to be frank, I am very happy with Blaise now. We haven't been together long... but I can honestly tell you that I can not see myself without him in my life from now on." Harry said as he pulled away and wiped the tears that were on Ginny's face.

Honesty had set him free and now Harry felt better.

They spoke for a few more minutes before going back to the living room where everyone else was gathering. Ginny went back to Dean and Harry slipped in next to Blaise who was sitting on the couch with Hermione, Bill, and Angelina.

"Everything alright?" Blaise asked with a trace of worry.

Harry smiled as he felt Blaise's arm wrap around his waist and the hand resting on his hip.

"Uh-huh... everything is alright now..." Harry told him.

Blaise raised a brow.

"What is it? I know that look..." he said which made Harry chuckle.

"What do you think of going to Bali and staying for a few months?" Harry asked with a smirk.

~FIN~

A/N: Read and Review my beloved people. ^_^