Disclaimer: I'm not J.R.R. Tolkien, I'm not J.K. Rowling, But I write from the heart, from the heart.
Summery: All well, ends well. (I'm an optimistic at heart, I can't do dark forboding end.)
Bata: Beankin'– I thank you so very much for that.
Mad About You – Chapter 10 and short Epilogue
Artist – Sting. Title – Mad about you. Album – The soul cages.
On Monday morning Harry sat at the breakfast table, it was a week since the Prophet published its article and although he didn't read the paper himself Hermione kept him well informed. Two days after the first article the Prophet published a review about gays. The bottom line of the three pages article was that the author believed that homosexuals belonged in St. Mungo's hospital, preferably in ward 49- the incurable cases. The author of the article (surprisingly enough, was not Rita Skeeter, but he or she still refused to expose themselves, much to Harry and Hermione's annoyance) used Harry as an example to emphases his point. When Hermione saw that she was so mad she was about to sent the Prophet a howler with some well chosen comments to show what she thought of them but Harry managed to persuade her that the Prophet is not worth her time or anger and that it's not going to do any good and most likely do more harm. After the trash article the Prophet seemed to calm from their rampage crusade against Harry and gays and the subject left the front page. Harry found the Prophet's attitude almost insulting.
That morning when the owls brought the post he was showered with the usual amount letters falling into his plate and juice. All around him people were fishing letters out of porridge and cereal bowls, pumpkin juice goblets and butter dishes.
"What the hell?" called Ron as a sharp corner of a letter hit him on the top of the head "I thought we were done with those!" Hermione picked up a letter in random and opened it, she scan its contents and started to laugh. She passed the letter to Harry,
"You've got to be joking." he called out. Ron grabbed the letter and read it,
"Harry, this is a letter from a woman who wants to set you up with her son…" everyone around the table grabbed a letter and opened them.
"Looks like they are all like that," said Ginny "You're very popular Harry." she winked at him.
"This is ridiculous" said Harry hotly "The stupid paper clearly stated I have a boyfriend!" everyone started to laugh, including Seamus. "I never got these many letters when people thought I was straight." the laughter around him grew. At that moment Luna Lovegood passed by their table. When she saw the stack of fan mail she smiled and turned to Harry,
"I see it worked," she said with a big smile and they all turned to look at her in surprise,
"What are you talking about, Luna? What worked?" said Ron, still a little cross and rubbing his head. Luna smiled her dreamy smile and produced an issue of the 'Quibbler' from her bag and handed it to Harry,
"Look in the middle page," she pointed and Harry opened the magazine. After a brief scan of the context he passed it to Seamus with a smile. While Seamus was busy reading Harry turned back to Luna.
"Well, it looks like I've been saved by the 'Quibbler' yet again. Thank you."
"It wasn't really my doing, I just mentioned to father that being gay never stopped you from saving us all." she nodded and waived to the table and left humming to herself. Every head in the table turned to watch her leave and then turned to watch Seamus who was still reading the "Quibbler" and sniggering to himself.
"What's going on here?" asked Ron impatiently as neither Harry nor Seamus explained what was written in the magazine,
"The "Quibbler" is once again recruited to the mission of saving my good name," said Harry. Seamus passed the magazine to Ron and he and Hermione leaned to read it. Once it passed the entire Gryffindor table, everyone returned to open and read the letters.
"Hey, this one's looks good," called Ginny "this woman says her son is six foot three, blonde hair and green eyes. She says here that he loves Quidditch and surfing. You should go for him."
"Ginny, that's not funny," Harry began when Seamus cut in,
"I'll take him," Harry looked at him gaping "What, do you want to share?" Seamus voice was innocent but he couldn't keep a straight face as the table broke in fresh peels of laughter around them. Harry punched his shoulder playfully. This was the first time in the last week he'd seen Seamus laugh. It was a good sign. Hermione and Ginny collected all the letters 'for future interest' as Ginny said with a wink.
Everyone got up to make their way to class, except Harry who had a free period. He was wondering what to do with his time. The proper thing to do would be to go to the library to study of course, but somehow he didn't feel like it. Instead he made his way down the corridor, not entirely sure where he was heading when he heard a voice calling his name. Harry turned and saw Bill Weasley's head popping from the door of his office,
"Fancy a cup of tea?" asked Bill brightly and Harry nodded.
They sat drinking their tea quietly for a while and then Bill looked up with a smile,
"That was one brilliant story the "Quibbler" wrote about you," Harry looked up in surprise,
"I didn't know you read the "Quibbler"."
"I don't," he said casually while his smile broadened, "I confiscated it from a couple of first years. They were over exited about some article and talking about you. I had to see for myself," he explained and Harry laughed. "Well, in any rate that should please mother."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry curiously, wondering what Mrs. Weasley was up to this time.
"Well, when the articles came out in the Prophet she got so mad, she actually sent the editor a howler. I'm actually surprised you didn't get one too. She was fuming that neither you nor Ron didn't bother tell her anything. I told her howlers was a bad idea but you know how she gets when it comes to you." Harry could feel his cheeks going red,
"Come on, she would have done the same for any of you." he mumbled and Bill shrugged,
"Welcome to the Weasley clan, brother." he smiled and winked and they both laughed.
"So, how are Fleur and Claire doing?" Harry asked mainly to start a conversation that was not about his sexuality in what felt like ages.
"They are doing great," said Bill happily and pulled a stack of photographs to show Harry. All the pictures showed a lovely baby, with golden hair and blue eyes, and Harry smiled.
"She's lovely," he said fondly and Bill beamed with the pride of a new father.
"George says Claire is lucky to get her mother's looks rather than mine." said Bill and Harry smiled. Personally he didn't have any objections to way Bill looked. He still wore his fang earring but he cut his hair short (he could resist his mother but both Mrs. Weasley and Fleur were a bit too much for him). The scars on the left side of his face were still visible but they only served to make him look even more subtle and manly than he did before, at least in Harry's opinion.
"So, when are you guys planning to get married?" he asked. He knew very well that Mrs. Weasley was very much against the idea of Bill and Fleur "living in sin" as she put it. After Claire was born during the summer of the previous year, she insisted they marry at once. The fact they were in the middle of a war didn't matter to her in the least. In the end Bill and Fleur managed to persuade her to drop it until things calmed down. But now that the war was over she began to insist on marriage again. Fred and George graciously took it upon themselves to ask Bill the question whenever they saw him and that robbed off to Ron and Ginny, and since Bill was currently teaching Transfiguration in Hogwarts (now that McGonagall was bumped up to Headmistress position) he got to hear it quite a lot. Bill heaved a great sigh of mock regret and shook his head,
"You've become a true Weasley… Shame on you Harry." Harry smiled broadly and beamed at him with pride and Bill laughed,
"Actually we set the date to July 15th. I think we are going to do it in the Burrow. Fleur doesn't want to travel all the way to France with Claire, she claims Claire's too young."
"That's wonderful." called Harry and Bill sighed,
"No it isn't… it's only February and already Fleur and my mother are making plans. And they force me to go to get measured up for robes and all that," he sounded almost desperate and Harry couldn't help but laugh. Bill glanced at his watch.
"Bugger. I have class in ten minutes. And so do you." they finished their tea and Harry bade Bill goodbye before heading for the greenhouses for Herbolgy.
The conversation with Bill made him feel so much better. All the events of the day so far made him feel better, actually. It was good to know that not everyone were against him. It was comforting. And in a way, it felt like some sort of balance was restored to the universe.
That night Harry left his bed to snick into Seamus'. He figured there was no need to hide anymore as all his friends, hell, all the wizarding and probably half the muggle world already knew they were together. He was pretty sure that his dorm mates will not object the two of them sleeping in the same bed. After all it wasn't like they did anything indecent, that they saved for the Room of Requirement.
FIN
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Epilogue
Just like everything else in life, people eventually got tiered of probing in our life and we were left alone. In fact the whole 'Propheting', as Ginny began to refer to every article the Prophet was publishing, brought out some of the most unexpected people out of the closet, like Zacharias Smith (much to Ginny's disappointment as her theory came crushing down around her ears). I'd like to believe that at least some good came out of it all. It defiantly made my relationship with Seamus much stronger. I'm very glad to report that Nora didn't listen to her parents and is still talking to her brother; in fact, she is growing up to be quite a stubborn young lady, with a very hot temper. We'd like to believe we have finally found a worthy successor to Ginny.
Ginny once asked me what was it that made me fall in love with Seamus. I didn't give her an answer at the time (she probably still think it's the sex) but ever since then I've been trying to answer the question myself.
I believe it's the little things. The way he sometimes looks at me when he thinks I can't see him, his face all soft and so beautiful. The way he makes me laugh, or the way he can never hold grudge or even stay mad at things for too long. He forgets, it's amazing- he can have a huge fight with someone and two hours later forget it ever happened.
I love the way he loves me for me, not for some super hero notion as everyone else sees me. It could be the fact that Voldemort never terrorized Ireland the way he did England and so Seamus didn't grow up worshiping my name.
I love it that we have the same taste in music and movies (we discovered the magic of the cinema when we left school and moved to London).
And the sex… I can't deny it's a very big part of our lives. One of the best parts really. Even back in school we never used to show our love in public, you'd have to be really daft not to see it but we never walked about holding hands or snogging in front of everyone. As a matter of fact we still don't, it's not because we have something to hide, it's because we don't really feel the need to get over fluffy. Even when we are alone we don't go over romantic, there is only a little candle/chocolate fetish. But sex is something we are very fond of, and although I don't really have a very wide base for comparison, very good at as well.
Back in the Hogwarts days we used to sneak to the Room of Requirement almost every night. Not only as to not upset Ron, Dean and Neville but mainly because it was much more fun. We used to take turns 'decorating' the room. While I stayed with the solid bed-fireplace-bathroom trinity, Seamus took things almost to the edge of his imagination. Some ideas were rather horrible, like the one with the mirrors all over the walls and ceiling, but others were quite nice like that one with the giant fish tank that covered the entire wall. We stayed up half the night making up fish and watching them, not very sexually productive but a lot of fun.
The only time I tried for imaginative design, Seamus said the room looked like a cross between the tower of London and a French prostitute's boudoir. He also said it would make a great S&M dungeon if it wasn't for the purple armchairs (and I was aiming for forget-me-not blue…).
Anyway, got a little side tracked back there… where was I? Oh, yes. In the end of things I'm really glad I took professor Lupin's advise (not that there was much doubt I would but I'm still glad I did) and stayed true to myself, and my love.
Seamus and I moved to London once we graduated from Hogwarts. We have a lovely flat in a partly magical area, not far from Diagon alley. We are still very much together and still very much in love and still have a lot of fun with our friends or by ourselves. But that's all for a different story.
Author's note: Thus conclude the 'saga' of Harry and Seamus (I know it's not a real saga, but it still sounds better than 'story', more impressive). If you're still curious about them and what became of them once they left Hogwarts you can find glimpses of their life in my other fics. Good luck and thank you for reading.