Harry Potter & The Heart Of Harmony

Chapter 18- A Thousand Years

The sweet, listless days passed by with minimal strife, dragged on by the slow ticking of the clock, that old nemesis of nature and life, and any good or happy constant; time, just a looming anxiety of foreboding overhead, knowing that the acolytes that broke free of Azkaban prison could be coming for Harry and Hermione Potter-Granger, and their family, at any time. Would it be for revenge, for Abernathy? Or would it be for their Duplicator, a prized and well-earned treasure that could swiftly turn from the succor to the bane of their existence. Or perhaps both. Anything is possible in the chaos of life and time.
Time; that abstract concept that was partially benign, but mostly vile. The only thing it was good for was to pass the work day by. It was said that it could heal any wound - of course that wasn't true, if the degree of the wound was fatal. A very flawed metaphor, but a sentimental one. However, nothing was sacred or safe in the clutches of time, no matter how sacrosanct. They could only preserve memories in photographs.
It was a good thing that Harry and Hermione had received a cornucopia of sweetly nostalgic wedding photos to look back on with fondness, and an evocation of bliss on that day. Something that could also become a source of lamenting, sorrow, had they been torn asunder, but the former currently made each picture very special and sweet.
There were pictures of; radiantly beautiful Hermione walking down the aisle with her father, their many sweet, loving kisses, most of the guests, including Tim Curry, "Nyahaaa!!" Then, there were pictures of the three-tier strawberry wedding cake, DJ Chocobo, the dances (mainly with her husband, some with her father, and a few photos of guests dancing), and the glowing night sky illuminated by the sweet swarm of sky lanterns.
Of course, they had also taken a plethora of pictures, themselves, of Hawaii, on their honeymoon; the ridiculously blue water complimented by the flawlessly green brilliance of the exotic, tropical vegetation and the palm trees there, too gorgeous and serene to fully describe, or recount with words, so the captures were a captivating fountain of nostalgia. There were also pictures of the parrots, a couple of the Maui Wowie - a pleasant surprise they'd purchased from native Akoni, and several images of the alluringly dark yet vibrant ending of that sunset at the luau, and obviously the luau itself, with many a photo dedicated to the entrancing fire dancers.
Brilliant pictures! Harry thought every time they took a gander at them, which at first was a few times a week, as they had put them in a photo album to nicely preserve their sweet, romantic memories, rearranging them a few times until it was perfect.
Harry and Hermione had also filled the album with pictures of their children; Rose, Hugo, Vincent, Vivian, and Claire. As well, there were many photos of the surreal beauty of Hermione's garden, the extremely happy couple kissing in her garden, and Harry and Hermione holding up their favorite books from her library, which Harry had perused through extensively since he had started his sabbatical from his Head Auror duties. He'd began to enjoy reading almost as much as Hermione, and her vast collection of books was quite immense.
They'd gotten some souvenirs from the islands, too. They'd purchased tiki torches for balmy summer nights in her garden, mini tikiman figurines that were long lighters, some t-shirts, plates, posters, Harry had gotten that shark tooth necklace from Akoni as well. And to Harry's pleasant surprise, Hermione had bought a skimpy hula skirt and a coconut bra for some fun dances.

Into the pumpkin patch they sauntered. It was early October, but they wanted some pumpkins to decorate their house. Later in the month, they'd carve them out and carve faces in them to make silly Jack o'lanterns. Some would be cute and some would be at least attempting to be frightening.
A chill breeze whipped up to tossle their hair, both slightly shivering in their hoodies, but they soon joined arms for warmth.
"It's already chilly out, Harry."
"Yeah. It's a bit early, but... At least we're not sweating our faces off."
"That's true," Hermione conceded, "And there are a lot more ways to, um... Get warm, quickly, than there are to cool off, I must say."
Harry smirked, "And a lot more enjoyable ways! Right?"
She grinned warmly at him, "And a lot of sweeter ways, Harry."
"Of course, love muffin."
He kissed her cheek sweetly and they both smiled and blushed, as if they'd just fallen in love, their deep connection and sense of romance for each other unwavering with time. They looked at each other with longing as the wind persisted. Was it a playful delight or an ominous commination; the winds of change.
The stark reality had set in motion the minute Harry had mentioned the Azkaban prison break a week ago. They hadn't gone out much since then, and Hermione soon after hearing said revelation passed Claire onto Harry to hold and coddle, as she went out fervently to spread her Disillusionment Charms and protective enchantments around her estate, from gate to back orchard. That way, the enemies couldn't see or harm them at home. Now they had finally ventured outside of their home, to visit this quaint pumpkin patch and later get groceries, with their house elf, Chumbly, watching their kids at home.
"What about that one?" Hermione pointed at a plump pumpkin.
"Yeah, it's not bad."
"What's wrong?"
Harry shrugged, "Dunno... Why couldn't we just grab one of Hagrid's giant pumpkins?"
"Because, Harry," Hermione giggled, tugging his arm toward the pumpkin, "His are too massive! You know? This one's a perfect size."
He smiled, "You're right, love. Like usual, of course."
Harry put his other arm around her, holding Hermione in a tender embrace, gazing into her beautiful brown eyes and smiling face, the wind dancing her pretty brown hair as he told her, "I still can't believe it..."
"Can't believe what, Harry?" Hermione whispered, leaning a bit closer, as she tugged her arms around him.
Harry still smiling said, "I still can't believe I married you, Hermione... How did I ever get so lucky?"
"We took a chance....." With that, they came in to smooch each other, so sweetly and amorously kissing in the wind, not relenting for several minutes, caught up in the moment and each other. It was pure bliss and amazing, and was only ceased when Hermione kindly mentioned, "We can go and visit Hagrid some time soon, if you want to, my love."
He grinned and replied, "Yeah, that'd be nice. Except, we should probably wait until after we know for sure that the prison break acolytes aren't a threat to us any longer. I don't wanna bring that upon Hagrid."
She worried, "That could be a long time, Harry Berry."
"I know..... But---"
Just then, someone cackled in a very dir'y cockney accent, "Oh ho ho! Nao! Not intruding, am I, Mr. Potter? Ms. Granger? Eh?"
They turned around to see a scraggly, dark attired man with wiry long hair. Harry corrected him, "That's Potter-Granger. Who are you?"
"Name's Wolfrey Turnpike. It look loike the happy couple would loike a pumpkin! Is that it, eh?"
"Yeah..." Harry drolled, cautious of the gangly stranger and shrugged, "So?"
As a large group of 14 cloaked, masked strangers tromped up beside him and surrounded Harry and Hermione, Wolfrey grinned with some nasty dark teeth, "Well, I just been finking about what I want! And let say we let you live and have vat pumpkin! Whatoo I get in reurn fa me good deed?"
"Excuse me?" Harry demanded as Hermione wrapped her arm around his tighter.
"What Oi mean is... We have reason to believe that you've got a Duplicato'! Somefing you don't need to hold onto, now do you?"
"Why would we have whatever that is?" Hermione scowled.
"Bcause, love--"
"--Don't call her that!" Harry reprimanded him.
Mr. Turnpike guffawed, "Well, excuse me, sausage! Forgive my blivering ignance. I don't mean no offense." He turned back to Hermione and licked his lips, "You are a beauty, vough... Wow..... I moight have to keep you!.... And to answer you question; We've been heard that you two obliterated our Dark Lord! Who had just previously acquired the artifact in question."
"How did you hear that?" Harry asked.
Wolfrey bowed, "Because I, Sir, went to go check up on Mr. Abernaffy, bein' his second-in-command... I noticed it was gone and the hole in the wall of the castle... Later finding the Dragon Lord all bloodied up that fateful day! Lucky you weren't there. In any case, who do you fink let out all them acoloytes from Azkaban?"
"No way..."
"Enough talk! Do you have the Duplicato' or not?"
My bag is still under my bed at home with it inside, under Harry's side, Hermione thought. Even if we had it on us, we can't give it up! Even if it wasn't so useful for us, in the hands of evil it could be a weapon of war.
She spoke up, "No!"
Wolfrey tisked, "Ohhh, that's too bad.... All vis way, comin' out he'e in da cold! Moikes me nipples hard, and not in a good way! Looks loike we'll have to seize you after all..."
Right as Harry pulled his wand out of his pocket, it flew out of his hand! One of the cloaked men behind him had used a silent Expelliarmus on him in that second! Hermione shrieked. Then another acolyte shot a hazy blue light at both of them and they were both writhing on the ground in agony until gradually everything went dark.....