What Happens After Dark - Drarry

𝔼𝕡𝕚𝕝𝕠𝕘𝕦𝕖

New word count: 4.8k
Date (re)published: November 30th, 2020
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About Four Years Later...

It was Harry's birthday again, his third one since he had been freed from his destiny. He had lived three years without a pain in his scar, and three years without any sort of real stress on his shoulders. Of course, he had spent a lot of time dealing with the after-effects of the war, but that hardly mattered when he was suddenly without the world on his shoulders.

He had testified for Draco Malfoy and his mother, but that was the only time where Harry actually saw the Slytherin before he disappeared to who-knows-where. Harry supposed that not everyone could be so fortunate to be praised for their actions. He guessed that there needed to be villains to be heroes.

After that, things seemed to turn back to the way that they had been before, with only a few adjustments to his life. Now, his friends were in relationships, which was weird. Hermione was dating Pansy Parkinson, which Harry had seen coming. After the first summer subsequent to the war, they had reconnected as soulmates. Ron hadn't cared, since he and Hermione hadn't even been together since their initial breakup.

Speaking of Ron, he was dating Theodore Nott, of all people. That one was something that Harry hadn't expected, but he was alright with it. He and Theodore got along on occasion, and they even made fun of Ron's god-awful impersonations of various Ministry employees since Ron had gotten into the Auror program—Harry had steered clear, and was still considering career paths at the moment.

Blaise Zabini and Neville had gotten over their differences, and were now together again. They were engaged, actually, so Harry guessed that they had patched their relationship up well. After numerous rounds of couples therapy, Blaise had finally come out and expressed the concerns that he had had with Neville's safety in the war.

Harry was surrounded by these people now; Pansy, Hermione, Ron, Theo, Blaise, and Neville, with the addition of Luna and Ginny. They were all sitting with him in the Burrow, which the Weasleys had been so kind to lend Harry for his party, since his house was under renovation at the moment. He was sitting with Ron, who was talking on and on about how he wanted a new broom but couldn't see himself using it enough to justify the purchase. Harry was nodding along, because that's what one does when faced with this situation.

While Ron droned on, Harry's eyes landed on Hermione, who was making her way towards him, a gift wrapped with golden paper in her hand. She smiled at him, and set it in his lap gently.

"Why don't you open that?" she asked, cutting Ron's dilemma short. "It's from all of us."

"Thank you," Harry beamed up at her from his place on the sofa. He was thanking her for not only the gift, but also for saving him from having to continue listening to Ron.

Harry examined the present before him. It was a particularly square gift, wrapped presumably through the use of magic judging by the quality. He could see his distorted reflection in the paper, and he made a funny face before searching the package for a seam. Once he found it, he used his finger to lift it enough so that he could rip it. He tore the packaging off to reveal a brown box.

Harry looked up to see Mister Weasley with a camera in his hands, and he smiled for the picture. The camera shuddered, and the flash illuminated half of the room. Harry examined the box further, and began to open it. He pulled at the cardboard, and when it finally popped open, he peered into the box. There was a smaller item inside, a book of sorts. It was roughly the size of a framed portrait that sat on Harry's mantel. Next to it was a purple satin bag with a golden tassel tying it closed. He felt the small strands of gold between his fingers, before pulling the contents out of the box.