Greater Good

It was a rainy morning at the Potter’s Cottage. Harry Potter arose from his peaceful slumber - no small thanks to the potion for dreamless sleep - while his wife, Luna, was already downstairs, making breakfast no doubt. Harry could not fathom how someone could still be a morning person on a day as dreary as it was. Or on any day for that matter.

Smiling lightly, Harry walked over to the bathroom when something caught his eye. The magic calendar next to his bedpost was adjusted to a date, red and glowing. He put on his round-framed spectacles, and it was suddenly too clear.

2 May 2008. The tenth anniversary of the Second Wizarding war.

Harry could hardly believe how ten years had whizzed past. What had he accomplished, really? Well, he had undergone Auror training, become an Auror, married Luna, decided he didn’t like his job and quit, undergone a modified Unspeakable training (It was three years instead of five- he was the Saviour), become an Unspeakable, and had a kid. It didn’t seem too bad, but there was nothing remarkable.

His friends, for the most part, had illustrious careers with excitement, reward, and accomplishment on top of their lovely families. Harry wasn’t complaining; he absolutely loved Luna and their son, Sirius, who had recently turned two. He loved their quaint home; it belonged to his parents. A considerable part of it had burned down, but with a vault full of the Potter wealth, it was rebuilt with ease. Harry had first restored the nursery where Voldemort had tried to kill him and succeeded in killing his poor mother. Together, Luna and Harry stripped down the old, singed wallpaper and put up bright yellow paint (at her insistence). The crib had been replaced as did all the other reminders of the horrible events of 31 October 1981.

When the baby arrived, Harry knew that he couldn’t take any high-profile missions anymore. He had a family to take care of. Instead, he settled for the easy cases and detestably, desk work. Admittedly, Harry missed being out on the field, but it wasn’t like he could if he wanted to; the Resistance had been rounded up in the initial five years, which was accredited to the large amount of Death Eaters that had pleaded they had been Imperiused. How quick they were to change their loyalty. Voldemort was dead. There was no point in pretending anymore.

After the war, Harry took a gap year to aid in the Reconstruction. He helped Professor McGonagall, now Headmistress, with the restoration of Hogwarts and the Ministry as well. Harry also put in a good and highly credible word for Kingsley Shacklebolt to be the next Minister of Magic. It didn’t take long with a fourth of the English Wizarding population helping; within a year, Hogwarts was open for the new term and Minister Shacklebolt’s face was the cover of every Daily Prophet edition.

Since the war, the Daily Prophet immediately sent out a lengthy apology to the world for its ‘misconduct and misrepresentation’, which had absolutely nothing to do with Harry’s death threat. No, not at all. Additionally, Rita Skeeter had been arrested for being an unregistered Animagus, and with her departure, it seemed the newspaper was going back to its roots. Meanwhile, its longtime rival, The Quibbler, was enjoying great success with Luna as its head.

Her father died of illness three years previously, and since then she’s managed to round up a loyal staff and continue his work. Though, it was unfortunate he never got to see his grandson. She stops by the first day of every March and puts pictures at his grave. Sirius was always smiling, his cheeks rosier than normal. He got that from her mother.

The thought of his infant son brought him out of his reverie. Harry went and took a shower, scrubbing away the remnants of his guilt. It was always this day that did it for him. That made the world on his shoulders weight more. After his morning ritual, Harry grabbed his cypress wand, before pocketing it and descending the stairs. He noticed at once something was off.

Luna was silently sitting at the breakfast table, sipping her tea slowly. She was not cheerful, but calm and somber. Not a tear graced her face, but her grey, protuberant eyes were glistening, threatening to spill over. It was truly a dreadful sight.

Harry, after five years of marriage, was still awkward as ever, unknowing of how best to comfort a woman. He was grateful to have women in his life that were rarely weepy - for instance, Hermione and Ginny - however it left him unprepared to deal with the waterworks. But despite all his inexperience, he gave his wife a deep hug. Life was rough, and no one knew better than Harry Potter.

Luna suddenly drew back from the embrace. “Someone’s at the door, dear.” The doorbell hadn’t rung, but she knew someone was standing outside. Two years ago, her “curious, intuitive” abilities, as the professors called it, had mysteriously increased. Everyone assumed she grew into her Seer powers, but Luna did not even have any relatives with such a skill. It remained to be something odd, which thankfully fit her personality.

It was also odd that they had a visitor at all. After the wedding, the couple released a statement asking for privacy - an reasonable request from two war heroes - so people rarely dropped by the house. They simply sent an owl or met him at the Ministry.

Wand gripped tightly from habit, Harry opened the door, expecting to see an old friend. Instead, there stood a thin man with perpetually sallow skin, a large, hooked nose, and greasy black hair that framed his face in curtains. Severus Snape stared at him, onyx eyes glittering in that familiar way. He was clearly trying to penetrate Harry’s mind, and as always, it was futile, for the younger man had mastered Occlumency. Severus sneered, but it wasn’t malicious. The Legilimency had become a somewhat of a game between the two, a bit of a mockery of their lessons all those years ago.

"Good evening, Potter." Severus said in his usual baritones.

"And to you, Severus." It was strange at first to address his old professor as such, but he got used to it. Harry observed that the rain was falling harder and invited the Potions Master inside. Severus paused slightly before stepping over the threshold. Though refurbished, this was still where he discovered Lily's dead body - sight he could never truly recover from. But it was okay. Time did heal even the deepest of wounds. 

Sirius seemed to have woken up. He wiggled out of his mother’s grasp and latched himself onto Harry’s right leg. It was a daily occurrence, and one that Harry found quite endearing (though it did make it hard for him to walk to the living room). The two men sat down, and neither said a word. Luna came in several minutes later with cups of tea, and cleared her throat. She didn’t normally find much to be uncomfortable, an environment that she thrived in, but today was just that day. Nothing was usual. Severus, a man who had isolated himself in Wizarding America, had just returned and decided to visit them of all people.

Sensing her discomfort, Harry started, “So…”

Severus snorted. “Inarticulate as usual, Potter. Just like-”

“My father?” Harry finished smugly.

“It would seem so," He replied, unperturbed, and clasped his hands before continuing, "Let’s not waste any more time, Potter. I’m not here to merely visit you, however rewarding I'm sure that would be; I am obviously on business. For reasons, at the moment, unclear, the Ministry has contacted me and asked that I collect you. And before you ask such a stupid question, no, Potter, they could not have sent an owl. They said it was highly dangerous to release any information except in person. This is apparently a matter of extreme urgency, so come.”

Harry was befuddled. What could be so important that they couldn't have waited until he went back to work? They normally always left him alone on weekends. The only exception was field work, but that didn't apply to him anymore. And above all, why would they have asked Severus, a man in hiding, to come back to England?

The weary potions professor pinched the bridge of his nose at his stupefaction. "Merlin, Potter, we don't have time to ponder life's questions. I know as much as you do, well perhaps a bit more. You don't seem to be the brightest...nevertheless, we are expected to be there now. I assume you can capably Apparate? As I recall, you lack in the ability to Floo, correct?"

"Um." Harry said, rather stupidly.

Luna interjected, "Prof- I mean Severus, I just want to know...if Harry goes, he won't be getting himself into any danger, right? The Unspeakables promised he was permanently confined to desk work. And, I don't understand. How exactly are you involved? Harry told me you continued teaching Potions at the Salem Institution. Did you get Unspeakable or Auror training as well?"

He responded swiftly, eager to leave soon, "Miss Lovegood, I'm afraid I do not have those answers. But it does seem to me that your husband will indeed be called to the field, perhaps for one last mission. But I assure you, I will do my best to keep him from killing himself, which is undoubtedly his greatest affinity. And no, I do not possess those qualifications. But my guess is that whatever this is, it must require my skills for...espionage."

Luna nodded quietly. She was worried about Harry, especially one that day. Something about the anniversary of the war was ominous, and how it coincided with this task seemed off. Nonetheless, Luna summoned the will to give Harry a kiss, and bid him goodbye and a safe return. She had done it before, when he was an Auror. Back then, things were worse with the Resistance still out on the streets, targeting the last survivors of the Light.

Sirius was, of course, much too young to be aware of the situation, but he knew enough to recognize his dad was leaving. And he hated it. Who, then, would play with him? When mum was busy with the newspaper, all he had were the portraits of Charlus and Dorea Potter. Granddad and Grandma. He got up on both feet and resumed clinging tenaciously to his dad.

The older man muttered, "Like father, like son."

"It would seem so," Harry said, mimicking Severus' earlier words, a few tears leaking from his eyes. He was going to miss Sirius and Luna, and he wished he knew how long he'd be out. Gently pulling Sirius from his leg, he hugged his family.

He looked at his wife, expectantly. He wanted her permission. She nodded and smiled faintly, and then led her son to the kitchen for breakfast. Before Harry could do anything, Severus impatiently grabbed his arm and together, they vanished. When they landed in the Ministry, Harry groaned a bit. Side-Along Apparition was more disorienting than normal Apparition.