Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Hermione Granger was waiting in line at a coffee shop in Boston when she saw Harry Potter. She was sure she was mistaken. But on taking a closer look she realized that it really was him. She walked up to him in a daze.

"Oh Harry, is it really you?" she asked when she was close enough. He looked up from his book startled.

"Hermione?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

She hugged him first, then answered the question. "I had to leave. It's terrible." She was crying.

Harry had helped her into a chair at his table and put a pumpkin spice latte in front of her. "You need to calm down Hermione. Everything will be fine," he said trying to reassure her.

"No Harry everything isn't going to be fine. Do you know what's going on back home?" she asked.

"I don't really know much. And, this is my home now."

"After you left, You Know Who broke into the Ministry to hear a Prophecy. It said that you were the only one who could beat him," Hermione started explaining.

But Harry interrupted her. "No it didn't. It only said I would have the power to beat Voldermort. Besides, you have to agree that it doesn't really make sense. "Neither can live while the other survives" is clearly wrong, since both Voldermort and I are currently alive. Unless it is not about me in the first place?"

"You know about it?" she asked.

"It was in the wizarding newspaper," Harry said casually.

"But you, but you're still here!" she said.

"Are you implying that I should be fighting an insane Dark Lord? Before I turn eighteen? Or at any time really," Harry asked pointedly.

She looked chastised. "No of course not," she said. "It's just not like you to leave."

"I didn't know I could leave," Harry said softly. "So what are you doing so far away from home?" he asked, changing the subject.

"It was too dangerous for me to stay. They knew I was muggleborn. And a lot of students from our class joined the Death Eaters. They could have identified me. There is a Muggleborn Registration Commission. They send muggleborns to Azkaban for stealing magic," Hermione said.

"Stealing magic? That's absurd," Harry said. He was finding it hard to believe.

"It really exists. When they started sending summons for hearings, almost all the muggleborns and their families left the country. Even Pureblood families who don't support You Know Who left. A lot of the old families were targeted during the last war. They didn't want to take chances this time."

"So you got one of the notices and left with your family?" Harry asked. That would have been scary.

"No I sent my parents to Australia. I thought I would be safe at Hogwarts. Students who were in danger could stay for the summer. But then I finished my seventh year and nothing had changed. In fact things got worse. So I decided to find my parents and move here," Hermione said.

Harry had no idea things were that bad. The American wizarding newspapers called it a civil war. Ordinary witches and wizards were unhappy about the influx of refugees from Britain. But he had no idea the situation was that bad. "What about Ron?" Harry asked.

"He is still at Hogwarts with his parents and Ginny. It's more of a fortress than a school now. The new muggleborns and their parents don't want to risk the civil war, some of them go abroad and some pretend that they don't have magic. The halfbloods have a muggle or muggleborn parent, by definition, so most of them have already gone abroad with their families. Even a lot of the purebloods have left the country. So there are very few students left at Hogwarts," Hermione explained sadly.

But if that was the case, Harry did some back of the envelope calculations, "That would mean at least fifty percent of the magical population has left the country."

"It's closer to seventy percent," Hermione said.

Harry had a sudden urge to laugh. "What did you find funny?" Hermione asked.

"It's just that, that is higher than the death rate during plague epidemics. Now Voldermort knows what it's like to live through an outbreak of the Black Death," Harry explained.

Hermione did not think it was funny. "Don't say the name. There's a taboo on it," she said.

"So he really has control over the Ministry?" Harry asked.

Hermione nodded. "You seem different. You're more confident and more knowledgeable too," Hermione said.

"I have to be if I'm going to get into a good University next year," Harry explained. "And all the credit goes to Sirius. He pretends to be a prankster but he can be a hard taskmaster."

"You want to go to a muggle University?" Hermione asked surprised.

"Yeah. I haven't really decided what I want to do yet. But I didn't really want to do any of the jobs in the magical world. I might have become an Auror if I had stayed in Britain, but Sirius explained the job to me and it's pretty tedious," Harry explained with a shrug. "And Sirius doesn't want me doing something so dangerous."

"Sirius taught you then?" Harry could hear her skepticism.

"No he knows even less than me about the muggle world, and I knew very little when we moved. But he hired tutors, and they got me up to speed. But not before they remarked on how I led a very sheltered life across the pond," Harry laughed. "But Sirius is teaching me magic. There is no underage restriction on magic at home."

Hermione nodded. "Are you going to a muggle school then?" she asked.

"Yes. It's a nice school. The students don't stare at me," Harry joked. "And the girls like my British accent." He finally got Hermione to laugh.

"What do you think of the Pumpkin Spice Latte?" Harry asked indicating her almost empty cup.

"It's different," Hermione replied.

"Admit it, you like it," Harry teased.

"Yes I did actually," she admitted.

As they walked out of the coffee shop, Harry asked Hermione if any of their other friends were in the U.S.

"I thought you didn't want to meet anyone we used to know?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"I didn't, when all of you would have dragged me back to Britain kicking and screaming, to die for the cause. But now that you aren't part of the war, or at least aren't trying to make me fight, I would like to meet my old friends," Harry replied.

"The twins are in New York. They thought it would be a good place to start their joke shop. How they will be able to afford rent there is anyone's guess." Harry gave an enigmatic smile, but didn't enlighten her.

"Luna is looking for the Crumple Horned Snorcack, with her dad, in the Grand Canyon. Kingsley and Lee Jordan are working for the American Ministry. And Neville is in South America, studying exotic plants," Hermione listed.

"So what about the rest of the Weasleys?" Harry asked.

"Bill married Fleur and went to Egypt, Charlie is still in Romania. Percy married a muggleborn. So he had to leave too. He lives in Australia."

Harry was surprised to hear how much the Weasley children had dispersed. But he supposed that made sense considering their chosen careers.

"Is Remus still at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"No he married Tonks. They're travelling the world. It seems that Sirius left her some money?" Hermione asked. "And reinstated her into the Black family," Harry nodded. He knew Sirius would be happy to hear that.

"Speak of the devil," Harry said, spotting a large black dog in their front yard.

Harry walked in behind Hermione and said to the dog, "Sirius, look who I found."

A/N: Kayqueue suggested I write an epilogue for this story, where Hermione runs into Harry in the U.S. and I loved the idea. So this is the long delayed epilogue.

A reviewer said that Harry isn't really familiar with muggle culture, and I admit I hadn't thought of that. In the fourth and fifth books, whenever Mr. Weasley had to deal with muggles, Harry was considered the "muggle expert". But I agree that is not enough to think that he identifies with being a muggle. Still, I can probably argue that when Harry calls himself a muggle, he only means a person without magic. So "muggle without magic" is supposed to be a paradox. After all, people who don't know about magic don't call themselves muggles, they are just people.

I got the idea of a mass exodus of witches and wizards from Britain if Voldermort takes over, from the story Screw Them by White Angel of Auralon. If you haven't read it yet, do check it out.

And last but not least, a huge thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, followed and favourited my first completed story!