After the Storm
by Bil!

G – General/Romance – HP/HG – Complete

Summary: When it's all over, Hermione has an ordinary life. HPHG. Oneshot.

Disclaimer: Do I look like JKR?

A/N: Just a little scene. This was the intended prologue for my version of year seven. Since I have far too many novels to write already, that never got off the ground. (See also Dumbledore's Men here on ff(dot)net for another piece of it.) Unbetaed.

Even in her sleep, Hermione heard the almost silent footsteps as someone entered the room – the War had weeded out those who weren't alert at all times. But she also recognised the footsteps, so she didn't stir as her husband slipped back into bed.

Abruptly she woke with a shriek. "Harry! Your feet are freezing!"

She could feel his grin in the darkness. "Sorry."

"I'll give you sorry," she threatened, but snuggled up against him anyway. "Is everything all right?"

"Eventually. A few homesick first years and a prank gone wrong. You see, this is why I prefer Gryffindors – they don't repress anything, so it doesn't build up inside them until it explodes messily."

"So how did you get into Gryffindor?" she teased.

"My amazing good looks." She scoffed, making him laugh. "People have no idea what I have to put up with every day. My own wife doesn't think I'm handsome."

"Handsome? no," she agreed amiably. "Perfect? absolutely."

He dropped a kiss onto her hair. "You always have an answer for everything, don't you? Mind, it doesn't get you off the hook."

"Oh, come on, Harry, you know you wouldn't be happy with the Gryffindors. You fit in much better where you are."

"True." He shuddered theatrically against her side. "Can you imagine having to deal with all that energy every single day? I don't know how Minerva coped. But my lot could learn from them, you know, and be a bit more boisterous."

"I'm sure you'll teach them that just fine."

"Hey!"

"What?"

"I'll have you know I'm very—"

"Calm? Restrained? Repressed? Mentally—" She broke off with a shriek when he jabbed his fingers into her side, right on her ticklish spot.

"Just a little respect," he whined. "That's all I ask for."

She leant her head on his shoulder. "Maybe you should have married Colin."

"Oh no, don't even joke about it! Ever! That is not respect, that is..."

"Deification?"

This time his shudder wasn't entirely intentional.

"But Harry," she said thoughtfully, returning to the original topic, "don't they have all the energy of Gryffindors, just direct it into different channels? Plotting, scheming, manipulating..."

Harry easily followed her change of subject, used to her thought processes, and groaned. "Why did I get landed with the Slytherins?"

"Because Severus would trust no one else as their Head of House. You know you love them."

"Of course I do. Who wouldn't want their own pack of snakelets? But you know he just wanted the famous Harry Potter associated with his house so that people would stop insulting Slytherins."

"Well, that too. He's Severus, Harry. He always has more than one reason for doing anything. And I seem to remember that a certain famous hero let slip to a reporter that he could have been sorted into the snakes' house."

"He kept insulting Slytherin! With no good reason! I wasn't just going to take it. And you have to admit, it was fun to watch him backpedal."

She smiled at the memory. Harry had taken a risk that day for the sake of his friends, for at the time anti-Slytherin feeling had been running high in the wake of Voldemort's demise, but it had paid off. Adulation of Harry had been stronger than hatred of Voldemort. And yet, if it had failed she knew he wouldn't have regretted standing up for his friends. "I love you, Harry."

He pulled her close to him, tangling his hands in her hair. "You have no idea how much that still amazes me." But she did, and she hated the Dursleys for making him believe himself unworthy of being loved. That was forgotten, though, when he caught her lips in a heart-melting kiss. "I love you too," he whispered. He didn't say the words very often, another legacy of the Dursleys, but that was what made them wonderful. He meant them wholeheartedly and never said them just to placate her.

She yawned. "Okay, Harry, it's three in the morning—"

"How do you always know that?" he interrupted.

"—and I have work tomorrow and you have classes. He may have fought to get you here, but Severus will not be happy if you slack off, you know. He is the Headmaster; he could fire you and then where would we live? And since it's your fault I'm still awake, you can tell me a story."

He laughed. "I do love you, Hermione."

"I know. Now tell me my story." She leant her head on his shoulder again.

"All right, just let me think a minute." He pulled her closer, leaning his cheek against her hair. "Once upon a time there was a not-so-handsome prince. But when he was very little an evil man killed his parents and sent him very far away. He had to live as a servant, even though he was very small, and for a long time he had no hope, because he didn't even know that he was really a prince. But then one day a Big Friendly Giant came for the prince and told him who he really was and took him away. The prince made friends with another prince, and then with a princess who took his breath away the very first time he saw her because her hair was even less controllable than his!"

"Harry!" she protested, laughing.

"What? Don't you like my story?"

"No, I do. Keep going."

"All right, where was I? Oh, yes. At first the princes didn't like the princess, but that was because they were young and stupid, and they soon learnt that she was an amazing princess, the most amazing princess ever, and so the two princes and the princess were best friends and had lots of adventures together and the princess stood by her friends all the time, even when they didn't deserve it. The prince who had been a slave had never had friends before and he was so happy to have the other prince and the princess as his friends that he didn't care if he was a slave as long as they were by his side. Together the three of them fought lots of evil monsters until finally they killed all the evil monsters in the whole land and then they were able to stop fighting and live normal lives. Which was brilliant, because they'd never been able to live normal lives since they met each other. And so they—"

"Lived happily ever after," she chorused with him.

"Exactly." He smoothed the hair off her face and kissed her forehead. "Am I forgiven for waking you up at three a.m.?"

She rolled onto her side so that she could wrap her arm around his chest. "Yes."

"Am I forgiven for my cold feet?"

Chuckling into his shoulder, she said, "Ask me again tomorrow."

"Okay. Did you like your story?"

She opened her eyes to see him looking at her, his eyes sparkling dimly in the night. She smiled. "Yes, Harry, I loved my story. Especially the bit where they lived normally ever after."

"Yeah. I like that bit too." He kissed her nose. "Definitely that bit."

She yawned sleepily and closed her eyes again, snuggling closer. "Love you, Harry." They were just ordinary people living happily ordinary lives. And she loved it.

"You too," he mumbled.

Normal was highly underrated.

Fin.

Copyright 2007