Hey you :) I'm back with a new chapter, this one takes place after Chapter 2 ;)

I hope you like it :) please, let me know what you think about it in the review box

V. August 2011

Harry Potter arrived home well past midnight that night. His auror robes were still stained with blood and his hair was messier than it normally was after the battle but he was still in one piece, happy to be back home with his family. The healers at St. Mungo's had told them that it'd be better for him to spend the night at the hospital to check that the Blood Replenishing Potion worked like it should but he had declined. After all, the healers hadn't had been able to come up with a good counterargument when he said that he'd go back home to one of the best young healers of their generation. As soon as he'd felt better enough to apparate back home, he'd left the hospital with a soft pop.

His house was strangely silent, especially considering that the kids were staying for a few weeks of the summer. His heart started beating a bit faster while he walked up the stairs, he couldn't stop himself from being a little bit paranoid after everything he had been though. When he reached the white door of Rosalie's room he turned the knob carefully and entered the room as silently as he could, Victoire Weasley was sleeping on one of the two twin beds in the room and Rosalie was resting on the other one. He made his way to Rose's bed and crouched next to her.

Where had all those years gone? All of a sudden, his little Rosalie was starting to become a stunningly beautiful young girl. Her face was no longer that of the excited little girl who waited for him to jump into his arms as soon as he opened the door every day after work, she was no longer the five year old who seemed to have a supernatural way to perceive when he'd had a nightmare and choose that particular nights to sneak into the kitchen looking for a midnight sweet snack, she was no longer the eight year old who was beaming with happiness on her birthday when Hermione finally allowed him to give her her first broomstick and teach her how to ride it. But even though she wasn't his baby girl anymore, Rose still managed to surprise him every day with how brilliant, clever and simply amazing she was.

She stirred in her sleep when she felt Harry's presence. She'd been like that since she'd been born. Whenever someone looked at her with too much intensity, she'd wake up and her sparkling emerald eyes would blind you with their beauty for a second.

"Daddy?" she mumbled half asleep.

"Right here, princess" he smiled at her and her eyes fluttered open to meet his.

"You're back" she said smiling.

"Just as promised" he smiled back at her.

"Thanks for letting me know" she whispered and readjusted her position on the bed to let her father give her a warm hug.

Since she was old enough to know that Harry had a very dangerous job being an auror, Rosalie had asked him to always wake her up and give her a goodnight kiss to let her know he was back and alright, no matter the time. He'd promised that he'd always go back to her and he was yet to fail in keeping his word. There was almost nothing in the world that could be compared to the happiness he saw on his little girl's face every time he got back home safely. Even after all those years, having somebody who loved him so deeply and without reservations still amazed him.

"You'll tell me about the mission?" she asked, always the incurably curious one.

"Tomorrow" Harry promised "Now go back to sleep, Rosie."

"I love you" she whispered while he pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

"I love you too. Sleep tight, I'll see you tomorrow."

She nodded while she closed her eyes and, by the time Harry closed the door behind him, she was back to sleep. The wizard took the time to make sure that his godson was also sleeping safely in his room and then he entered his own room. He had reached a point on which he didn't even ask himself how could it be possible for Hermione's beauty to still surprise him like that even after all those years. He just accepted the fact. Her peaceful and intense beauty would never cease to stun him every time he saw her.

After taking a short moment to take in her sleeping form, he stepped out of his boots and took off his dirty auror robes. There was nothing he wanted more than to lay in their bed with her and forget about the whole world for a moment while he wrapped his arms around the breathtakingly soft curves of her body. But he knew he needed a shower first. His hair was messier than ever and sticky with dried blood and he could still perceive the faint smell of death and burning flesh all over his body. He'd spent the last six days on an auror mission trying to track a group of radical supporters of the diseased Lord Voldemort who'd been terrorizing a small wizarding village on the north-eastern corner of Scotland. Finding their hiding place had been almost as unpleasant as having to sort through the piles of dozens of dead bodies, muggle and magical, that they had killed during the previous three months. They'd found a total of five wizards and managed to arrest all of them without having to kill any of them. Harry's team had not suffered any losses, but in the end, it had been a close shave. They'd been vicious and grew out of control when they realized that the auror leading the mission was no other than Harry Potter himself.

Wanting nothing more that to put the memories of yet another battle behind, Harry stepped into the shower and spent a good ten minutes washing his hair and skin. He still felt slightly weak after all the blood he had lost and he'd swear that his reflexes were not as sharp as usual, but he was back home in one piece. At the end of the day, that was all that counted. His back was still sore where one of the curses had struck and he knew that he'd probably acquired a few more scars to add to his ever-growing collection. Hermione wouldn't be happy about that. Just as she was usually not happy with his whole putting himself in danger constantly in his job as an auror. But as much as she didn't like it, she understood him, she accepted what he wanted and who he was without questioning it, just as he always had.

After he finished his shower, Harry dried himself up with a quick spell and walked back to his bed to find his beloved wife. Hermione was waiting for him sitting on the bed with her legs crossed indian style. Her wild mane of brown curls around her face and a worried look on her eyes as she inspected the robes he had discarded before his shower.

"You're back" she whispered as soon as he got onto the bed next to her.

"Finally" he sighed and gladly kissed her back when her lips practically attacked him.

"I hate it" she whispered a little bit out of breath "I hate it when I don't know if you'll come back to me."

"I'll always come back to you, Hermione. I thought that by now you would've got used to the fact that I always keep that particular promise" he smiled at her wrapping his arms around her. "You don't need to worry."

"But I do… Maybe it's time to try something different" she suggested carefully.

"You know how much I love the aurors, Mione."

"And I also know that you got to the hospital today practically at death's door. I was terrified" she said with a slight shaking in her tone.

"Who told you?"

"It doesn't matter, Harry. You know I work at the hospital, they contacted me the second you got there. I was the one who told them to let you come home because I missed you madly and I couldn't wait to see you and make sure that you're ok."

"I am. I'm alright, we're together, we're fine" he reassured her and hugged him against his chest.

It was like that all the time. Every time he came back home after experiencing yet another close to death experience she'd be terribly scared of losing him, even scared enough to suggest that he left the aurors to try something different, less risky.

"You have a family who loves you, you know?" she whispered against his chest.

"I do. That's why I try so hard to come back to you, that's the only reason why I've escaped alive of many missions. I love being an auror, but I wouldn't give up the happiness I have with you here for the world. I try to be as careful as I can. And I'm still around, I'm not doing it that bad."

"Just… Just promise me you'll consider Minerva's offer…"

He sighed and nodded. A few weeks before, Minerva McGonagall had offered him the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position at Hogwarts and Hermione had been delighted by it. She was extremely keen on him doing something which didn't involve being in danger every second he was on duty.

"How was it?" she finally asked.

"The mission?" Harry asked back while he readjusted his position on the bed to be more comfortable and Hermione automatically rested her head on his chest, right above his beating heart.

"Did you find her?" Hermione asked again.

"We saw her… which is more than we'd done in the past three years. She looks strangely more in control of herself, although I still think she's out of her mind. And she's the one heading all death eater groups now… The things they've done to the poor people that had gone missing…" Harry cut off his own speech when he felt Hermione shiver in his arms. "Sorry…"

Even after more than ten years had passed, Hermione still had troubles remembering the time they'd spent at Malfoy Manor, most of which, she'd spent being tortured under Bellatrix's wand.

"No, it's alright" she sighed. "And did you figure out what is it that she's been hiding all this time?"

"She and a small group of others disapparated the moment we saw them. It's strange, I'd never seen Bellatrix running away from a good fight…" he frowned "The first thing we did when we got inside was try to take the bodies back to the base. Some of them had been there for more than two months." he shook his head trying to erase some of the most revolting images from his mind.

"How many?"

"Thirty-seven."

"That's a lot…" she whispered surprised and held him even closer.

"Thirty-seven in three months. Around twenty of them were muggles…"

"Do you think it's ever going to end?" she asked looking directly at him, allowing her eyes to show a little bit of the fear that still haunted her at night.

"I don't know… I just wish I knew what she's hiding."

"You will" Hermione said, one hundred percent convinced "Please try to not die while trying."

"I promise" he smiled and framed her face with his soft hands, looking straight into her eyes "I love you" he said and it still felt like the first time he'd done it.

"I love you too, Harry Potter" she smiled at him and rested her forehead against his "It's good to have you back" she added right before their lips met in a soft lingering kiss.

"It's good to be home" he smiled before he kissed her again.

Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all she had. She'd never get tired of the intoxicating feeling of his lips on hers, his hands all over his body. In his arms, she felt the most alive she'd ever been.

"How are the children?" Harry asked after they had calmed down a little bit.

"They've missed you lots" she admitted "Especially when I didn't let Rose and Teddy sneak out to play quidditch in the middle of the night two nights ago."

"Why wouldn't you!"

"Because they could get hurt in the darkness!" she answered as if it were obvious and Harry rolled his eyes at her.

"You're impossible…" he shook his head and she laughed.

"Teddy finally changed his eye colour" she said with a smile "That was the last feature that resembled you."

"Why do you think he did it?" Harry asked curiously.

Over the past five years, Teddy had made it his life's goal to look like Harry, and being a metamorphmagus, he'd reached a point on which he looked more like him than even Rose did. The kids had been mistaken by twin siblings countless times on the streets, but almost a year before he had started to differentiate himself from the rest of the family, particularly when he was around Rosalie.

"You can't think of a reason, can you?" Hermione looked at him with a glint in her eyes and Harry shook his head "Really, Harry? You can be quite thick sometimes…"

"I don't know… Maybe there's something he didn't like about me and that's why…"

"Stop right there, Potter" she interrupted him "Teddy adores you. It doesn't have anything to do with you. I think it's something else entirely… On Monday Rose said redhaired guys were hot, your godson's been sporting perfectly red silky hair and freckles to match it since that day…"

"What? Wait… When did Rose become old enough to think boys are hot?" he asked practically horrified.

"Easy there…" she laughed "She was half joking, but apparently Ted took it quite seriously."

"Are you saying that Teddy… likes our Rosie?" Harry frowned in confusion.

"Honestly Harry, how come you've not seen it?"

"That's a little bit upsetting…" he admitted "Do you think she knows?"

"Apparently she's as oblivious as her father" Hermione teased him "Anyway, they're still children. They grew up being family. If something ever happens, it'll take them awhile…"

"You're scaring me…"

Hermione laughed and gave him a quick kiss.

"They asked me about the war today" Hermione told him.

"Really?"

"Yeah, they caught me a little bit off guard. I told them about our first kiss and some things about the rest of the war… Rose really wanted me to tell her stories about us during the war, about any good memories we have of that time."

"I imagine it's natural. After all, that's the time when you got pregnant." Harry reasoned.

"There were some good moments…" she smiled up at him. "It was terrifying, but we were happy sometimes."

"Yeah, we were" Harry smiled and a memory of her crying with emotion the first time they cast a spell to hear their baby's heartbeat to make sure that everything was ok after a battle sprang into his mind.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked with curiosity shining in her eyes.

"That I'm glad to be alive" he said honestly, not concentrating on that particular memory but on the feeling it had given him back then "I'm glad to have you and Rosie and Ted… My family" he smiled widely. Having her in his arms, knowing that his daughter was sleeping safely in the next room, having a home to go back to… those moments were priceless. Sometimes he simply felt the luckiest man on earth.