War Never Changes

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter however much I wish I did.

A/N: Here we go guys, chapter 2! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2: Lunch

Harry woke with a start, covered in sweat and face streaked with tears.

He'd dreamt about that night again. The night the world was rid of the evil that had marked it for decades. The night the worlds wizarding population rejoiced. The night Harry's world had crashed down around him.

Eleven months had passed since Harry had watched Ron be torn apart by dark magic. Since then the only person he'd not become distant with was Hermione, and he had a feeling that was only because she could empathise with him. She'd been the only reason Harry hadn't walked into the Department of Mysteries and thrown himself through the veil.

He was disgusted with how quickly the witches and wizards that, not even a year ago had been fearing for their lives, had seemed to move on, seemingly forgetting about the sacrifices that had been made to bring about this time of peace. Why was he being heralded as a hero? Why, when so many had paid the ultimate sacrifice, was he the one to get all the praise, all the glory.

As he collected himself from his dangerous musings, Harry glanced over the room that used to belong to Sirius. When he'd moved into Grimmauld Place, he'd slept in his and Ron's old room for the first few nights but found it to be a stark reminder of the loss of his friend, so he'd closed the door and cast a Colloportus spell on it so no one could enter.

Roaming his eyes over the dusty room, his eyes fell on his old school trunk. Within it lay the three hallows, having picked up the Elder Wand from where it had fallen near Voldemort's body. He'd thrown them into his trunk and locked it to reduce the temptation of using any of them. What good could they do now? The only ones he would have used them to protect were dead he thought darkly. Apart from Hermione of course, he corrected himself, she was very much still alive. He glanced at the grandmaster clock in the corner of the room and his eyes widened. She was alive and would probably kill him very soon! He'd overslept and was going to be late for lunch with her!

"Shit, shit, shit" Harry muttered to himself as he jumped out of bed and nearly tripped over trying to pull his leg into the pair of jeans, he had thrown haphazardly the previous evening. He grabbed his wand from under his pillow and sprinted down the stairs, taking two at a time whilst pulling on a hoodie.

Harry threw open the front door and, before it had even clicked shut, turned on the spot and apparated to the apparition point in Hyde Park.

Harry ran through the doors of The Harcourt restaurant at ten past twelve to be greeted by the bemused expression of Hermione Granger.

"There you are! I thought I was going to be eating alone again!" Hermione teased.

"Sorry, I overslept. Bad night" Harry explained sheepishly.

Hermione's expression softened to a look of understanding. "It's okay, they're quite quiet anyway" She said with a small smile, taking in Harry's tired eyes and messier than usual hair. "Look's like you need that mop of yours cutting again soon" She joked.

Harry feigned a look of hurt. "I'll have you know girls happen to love my 'mop'"

Hermione laughed. "Of course! Nothing to do with you being The Man Who Conquered and Witch Weekly's most eligible bachelor for the fifth month in a row"

"Touché" Harry laughed "Shall we go and sit down?"

They walked over to the table nearest the window and took a seat.

"So, how've you been?" Harry ventured, taking in her dishevelled hair and dark rings around her eyes, indicating she'd been sleeping about as well as he had.

"Not bad" She replied, "The castles defence wards are making it harder than we thought, but we're making progress" As she spoke a waiter came over and took their order.

Since the end of the war, Hermione had thrown herself into studying and repairing Hogwarts, adamant that she would minimise the number of young witches and wizards that would miss out on magical education at the prestigious school. When people had heard what she was doing, they'd been only to happy to join he in the restorations and over the last few weeks they had really made progress, Hermione herself having figured out and restored the charms on the ceiling of the Great Hall. It was a project that Hermione had tried to convince him to assist with but had yet to win him over, Harry not yet ready to return to Hogwarts, still pained by the thought of all the suffering that had taken place there.

"That's good. How long do you think it'll be till the school can open again?" Harry asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Well, at the rate we're currently going and with new volunteers arriving each day, I have a feeling we could start reintroducing students this September. Of course, there would still be work to be done, such as Dumbledore's… I mean, the Headmasters office and I still can't work out how the Founders got the Room of Requirement to work, but most of it can be done whilst the students are there." Hermione explained, frustration etched on her face as she admitted she was struggling with the Room.

Harry smiled, seeing her eyes light up as she talked about reopening the school. He knew this meant a lot to her; it was all she'd focused on for months now. That and making sure he met her for lunch three days a week to get him out of the house. Hermione was the only reason he had left the house at all since he'd moved in. She'd found him a week after he'd entered the house, curled up in the corner of the kitchen of Grimmauld, an empty bottle of firewhisky clutched to his chest. She'd picked him up, put him in bed and sat by his side till he woke up, giving him a lecture when he finally did, forcing him to promise to meet with her three times a week for lunch.

Whilst Harry had been remembering what she had done for him, Hermione had finished explaining the work that remained to be done on the castle and their lunch had arrived.

"Sounds like you've been busy then!" He commented, taking a bite of his burger. "Are you taking any time for yourself?"

Hermione snorted. "Are you asking about my love life Harry Potter?" She laughed at the deer in headlights expression she got in answer. "Don't worry, if I felt that way about anyone, you'd be the first to know"

He smiled. He should have known she'd see through his disguised question. He just wished he could read her as easily. He'd come to terms with his feelings for Hermione over the past year, her looking after him during his worst depressive states had ensured that. Now it was the issue of how to tell her as he didn't want to scare her away, she had only just began to heal from the loss of Ron after all and who was he to do that to the memory of his best friend.

"You okay Harry?" Hermione queried, seeing he had gone quiet.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine" Harry quickly responded, looking up at her and smiling.

Hermione looked as though she wanted to push for more but seemed to decide against it at the last minute.

They talked some more about life since the war and the goings on at the Ministry until they had both finished their food. Harry then stood and paid for their food and the two of them left the restaurant, heading towards Hyde Park.

"So, did you reply to that letter from the Ministry?" Hermione asked

Harry shrugged. "I don't see why I have to, I don't owe them anything"

Hermione huffed. "Harry, there are people that would kill for a chance to join the Unspeakables, you can't just ignore them"

"But 'Mione, why can't I just live in peace? Why do I have to get a job? Merlin knows I've got enough money to last me my lifetime and possibly more"

It was true, Harry did have a fair share of wealth as he'd found out just two months ago, when he'd gone to Gringotts to make reparations for the damage done to the building when they'd flown out atop a dragon. The goblins had forgiven him and Hermione after they'd explained the reason behind breaking in. The Goblin Nation hated the magic involved with Horcruxes just as much as humans and had congratulated Harry of ridding the world of a piece of such 'filthy human magic'. During the trip to Gringotts, he'd taken a lineage test and confirmed his link to Ignotus Peverell as well as his claiming his rightful place as Head of Potter House. He'd also claimed the headship of the House of Black and, much to his surprise, his Lordship of Gryffindor. The goblins had been only too happy to total up the value of his combined heritage and he and Hermione had nearly fallen over when they'd come back with ʛ 2,434,077.08.

"I know you don't like using your fame Harry, but the maybe that's exactly the reason you should join the Unspeakables? Think about it, have you ever met one? No? That's because they take an Oath of Secrecy. No-one but other Unspeakables know for sure who is working for them."

Harry conceded that she was probably right. It was the most incognito job he would find, and he was intrigued at the prospect.

"Okay fine, I'll go down the Ministry today" He said, secretly looking forward to the idea of a new challenge.

Hermione beamed. "Thank you. I'll come with you as I need to drop by the Department of Magical Education to update them on the progress at Hogwarts."

He nodded his approval and they changed their course towards the entrance of the Ministry of Magic.

When they arrived, Harry shivered at the memory of what had taken place last time they'd been here. Beside him, Hermione had also fallen silent, taking in the sight of the place where they'd ran from Yaxley all that time ago.

A gruff voice broke their musings as a tall black wizard walked over to them.

"Harry, Hermione, what a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you today?"

Harry smiled. "Hello Kingsley, how's being Minister treating you? We were actually here in response to a letter I received from you lot"

Kingsley laughed. "It has its ups and downs I must admit, but on the whole, things are looking up. Yes, I thought that may be the case. Would you two like to follow me?"

They both nodded and fell into step with the older man, following him to the elevator.

"You decided to take the job then?" Kingsley said as they walked.

"You could say that Hermione convinced me that it was in my interest to do so" Harry grinned.

Kingsley nodded. "I thought as much. Hermione, how's the castle going? I assume we are still on schedule for the Autumn Term?"

As Hermione was about to reply, four figures in dark robes stepped into view. Harry's senses started screaming at him, his hair standing on end. Just as he was reaching for his wand, one of them raised their arm and sent a familiar green curse flying in their direction, catching Kingsley square in the chest.

Harry and Hermione sprung into action, diving to the side and throwing their own curses back at the assassin. Harry's stunner caught one off guard and sent him sprawling backwards into the fountain, whilst Hermione's cutting curse caught another in the leg, taking him out the fight. As they stood, ready to fight, they both noticed a blue hue surround them, like some form of shield.

"What the hell?" Harry exclaimed.

Distracted by the strange light, neither of them noticed two turquoise spells flying towards them until it was too late. The spells washed over them and Hermione laughed.

"It didn't do anything!" She said, quickly throwing a stunner at the assailants and taking them both out.

Harry quickly ran over to her and checked her over before pulling her into a hug.

"Thank Merlin they messed up that spell" He muttered "I should've been paying more attention; I couldn't bear it if anything had happened to you."

As he spoke, Hermione collapsed into his arms, her breathing becoming laboured.

"Shit! Hermione! Someone help!" He screamed, lowering her gently to the floor. He heard footsteps running over to them and, as they began to reach them, they seemed to become more distant, his eyesight becoming blurry and his arms becoming weak.

"Help her…" He managed, before collapsing to the ground, his vision fading to black.

A/N

There we are! Second chapter done! I enjoyed writing this one, getting to work on my dialogue writing. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review to give me some feedback on how I'm doing, it would be much appreciated! Till next time!

PicklethRickleth

A/N: Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I am really loving the creative process of writing again. If you guys would be kind enough to leave a review, just so I know how I am doing!