Guess who just got back today

Them wild-eyed boys that had been away

Haven't changed that much to say

Harry didn’t know how it was that they had gotten here. He knew that they had been fighting, and he knew that she was frustrated, and he understood that. But he didn’t know what walking out was going to do. He didn’t know what sleeping at the Project was going to do. It was just going to cause more tension than necessary, and it was going to cause friction, and resentment, and a whole mess of other issues that he didn’t want to deal with. They didn’t have time for that. There were bigger things to worry about. There were always bigger things to worry about.

That was just how their life worked. There were always bigger things to deal with, and Harry knew that that wasn’t fair. He understood that she was frustrated, and that this didn’t seem like it was going to go in her favor at all. But what he didn’t understand was why she had been so quick to dismiss the idea of being a liaison. Sure, it wasn’t the perfect solution, but it would have given her a voice. It would have given her something that she didn’t have before. And instead they had ended their argument with her walking out, and not coming home again last night.

If anything was frustrating it was that. It was the fact that she had walked out, and that she thought that sleeping in the office, by herself. Unprotected. That was what really got him. She had made this decision, another brash decision, to do something extreme, only this time it wasn’t just her. This time there was a baby to think about too, and he knew that she wouldn’t do anything that was going to put their baby in danger on purpose, but he also knew that that stubborn, Gryffindor pride that everyone talked about was right there under the surface when it came to his wife.

Trying to shake that off, and really shake off everything from last night, Harry made his way into the Atrium. There were familiar faces all around, and he thought that he saw plenty of people milling about that he knew. Though the sight of a familiar blonde getting onto the lift was enough to draw is attention. Oralee? No, that wasn’t right… He didn’t think that there was any reason that she would have been here, and so that too, was put out of Harry’s mind. Instead, he headed back towards the coffee cart, bought himself a cup, and started to doctor it in his usual way when he felt a familiar presence beside him.

Looking up he nodded in greeting to the older man. “Morning.” He knew that just as he had taken a position in the Auror’s office again, Kingsley was Andromeda’s newest Adviser. They were slowly gaining some fingerhold in the Ministry again. And it wasn’t going to be easy, it was going to be a long and tedious process. But they were getting there. They would get there, and then that argument with Mia from last night wouldn’t matter. She could have her pick of jobs in this place. Hell, she could run for Minister if she wanted to one of these days. But not yet. “Did I just see your wife?” He looked over his shoulder towards the lifts where the blonde had disappeared, still not convinced that it had been her at all.

Kingsley Shacklebolt • 569 • harry's outfit

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Guess who just got back today

Them wild-eyed boys that had been away

Haven't changed that much to say

Kingsley had come home to two pregnant women instead of only one at his house the night before. It was a bizarre and surprising thing, but he'd blamed it on hormones and made himself scarce. The wizard had plenty of experience with dealing with Oralee during pregnancy. There were times when it was important to be close and others when it was really important to be scarce. Last night had solidly been the latter. 

It was good to have the night, too, considering he was a bit anxious about what today was bringing. Oralee was having her first day. Andromeda had appointed her the new Head of Education. Kingsley was proud. Immeasurably so. He knew his wife would excel in the role. But he was also worried. Of course, he was worried. She was his wife. She was pregnant with his son. She had no magic. The person who had cursed her could very well be within this very building. But he could not deny her the opportunity. He had supported her when she brought it up and he supported her now. They had to be the agents of change. It was and had always been the responsibility of the good and noble people to take the necessary risks for the greater good. 

He believed that. He lived that. He was going to keep living that...and he could not begrudge his wife doing the same. People like him and her and Ad and Harry being back in the Ministry could only mean good things for the future. And it was all thanks to the other crazy pregnant woman who had crashed in his guest room. Hermione took the first step, blazing in here all Gryffindor reckless and fearless. She had been vital to making all this happen...and now they needed to keep encouraging and promoting change until the Ministry stopped all the nonsensical muggleborn persecution and really started working for all the people. 

Before he could really embark on all that changing the world stuff, though, he was going to need some coffee. He spotted Harry in line at the vendor. Good, he had wanted to speak to his mate anyway. “Morning,” he echoed in greeting. The Potter posed a question to him and Kingsley nodded. “You did. Today is her first day as the Head for the Department of Education.” Kingsley spoke about his wife with pride. It was so obvious he was head over heels in love with her. He had been an idiot to ever think that anyone would buy them being divorced. Though maybe the suffering that them being apart had caused had been enough to keep the purists from going after her again. He would never know for sure. 

“And I had the pleasure of seeing your wife this morning, as well. She stayed in our guest room last night.” The Shacklebolt was not prodding for insight into whatever was going on with the Potters. He just thought that Harry might like to know that his wife had been safe and sound last night...and was still at the Shacklebolt home. 

@harry • 519 • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

GUESS WHO JUST GOT BACK TODAY

THEM WILD-EYED BOYS THAT HAD BEEN AWAY

HAVEN'T CHANGED THAT MUCH TO SAY

Harry didn’t think that fighting each other was going to get them anywhere, but he couldn’t help that it had happened either. He knew that she was frustrated, but there was nothing that they could do about it. If she wanted to make a difference, there were ways to do it. And she had chosen to ignore him pointing those out and go storming out of the house. He knew, that she knew, why she couldn’t do the things that she wanted. She wasn’t stupid. She was the brightest witch of their age, and yet, here they were, fighting about something that she knew. Something that they both knew.

If she would have listened to him, instead of just storming out, he thought that she would have seen that his idea at least had merit, but he didn’t know that she was in the listening mood. He had a feeling that he was going to have to be the one that apologized for something that he didn’t even think was wrong. She was the one that was acting like a bratty teenager. And he knew that some of the things that he had said were harsh, but he wasn’t going to apologize for them. Not when he was still upset.

And he was. Upset. He was upset with the fact that she had stormed out. And the fact that she had decided not to come home. Harry knew that she wasn’t incompetent. That she could take care of herself. But he thought that she had a better shot of taking care of herself if she did it at home, where she was supposed to be. And not wherever it was that she had been. Not wherever it was that she had decided was better for the night last night, when she was mad at him.

He was trying not to let himself get upset further by that, but it was nearly impossible not to. Yes, they were fighting, but it wasn’t like it was the first time that they had ever had a fight. They had been married for twenty years. You didn’t make it that long without some fights, and yet, he hadn’t thought that any of them were going to be like that one. He hadn’t thought that she was just going to walk out, and not come back like that. She had always come back. And Harry wasn’t stupid. He knew that this was different. But he didn’t know why she was so up in arms about it.

Trying to blame it on the baby was easiest. Knowing that she was carrying their baby, and that she had stormed out, and not came back, was hard though. He thought that she was going to have to see that he was not her enemy here. That she couldn’t work at the Ministry, but that she could be here. She could find a way, if she would stop throwing a pity party long enough to think it through. She was brilliant, she was just stubborn as hell.

“Well then…” Harry hadn’t known that Oralee had actually gone through with that plan, but it was good to have more friendly faces in the Ministry, “Please, tell her congratulations for me.” He meant it too. She would be good at it, and he thought that it would help. Faces that could be neutral. Faces that could make a fair case. Oralee was Order, but she could be fair, at least, Harry hoped that she could keep her temper in check. He thought that she could. “Oh…” Shaking his head he sighed a little bit, “Good. I’m glad she was safe.”

@ kingsley • 609 • harry's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

Guess who just got back today

Them wild-eyed boys that had been away

Haven't changed that much to say

The Shacklebolt felt good to be back in the Ministry. He was a touch more worried about Oralee taking over the Department of Education, but he knew his wife would excel. She was a sharp and capable witch. Many of those who would have been the most concerning for him had lost their magic. Safety could not be guaranteed, but safety could not be guaranteed anywhere. He was by her side again. He was leading the Order again. That was the way things were supposed to be. He was supposed to be at the Ministry. He and Harry both were. Hermione had charged in here and paved the way for them. Adaline, young as she was, had been the first to find a permanent role. The girl honestly reminded Kingsley so much of her parents it was baffling. Those Gryffindor hearts were forever brave. He had a soft spot for it, obviously. 

Kingsley was glad that the reckless bravery Hermione had shown waltzing in here all by herself had led them to this end. She could have easily lost her life, but she hadn't. Andromeda had not let anything so terrible befall the infamous muggleborn. Thank Merlin, Kings would much rather have his mate's wife alive than have a martyr for the cause. He did not want the Order to go to war. That was why he had stepped back up to take charge of it. George Weasley was good people, but he was too much temper and not enough sense. They did not need war. They did not need more violence. They needed peace and reconciliation and something to build a future on all together---outside of politics and blood status. That did not need to be what directed policy anymore. He had preached that before, and he was still selling that same message. They needed to show kindness to all, to lift up everyone. It was a fallacy that for one to rise another must be pushed down. That simply was not the case.

Kingsley believed that Harry would be a force for that sort of progress. He had been an ally when Kings had been Minister. They would stand together and progress would come for all. Isolde being at Hogwarts and Oralee heading up the Department of Education already put the right sort of influences on the next generation. It made him optimistic. Looking off towards the lift were Oralee had disappeared, he had to smile. He was proud of her. She had waltzed into the Minister's office and asked for the position; she'd put forward her qualifications--and she had walked out with the appointment. Harry instructed him to relay congratulations, and Kingsley gave a small nod. "I can do that," his lips shifted in a wry smile as he suggested: "or you could stop by and tell her yourself."

The wizard figured his mate knew already already, but he went ahead and put it out there blatantly: "I would appreciate you taking the time to pop in to see her every now again. I'm advising Andromeda, but I still spend most of the day at Lufkin. I still haven't found a replacement for Isolde. So, it is busy. I wish I could have floated the possibility to shift into administration to Penny, before she went to Bangor... Though I don't even know if she would want to do that. She shut me down pretty hard when I suggested alternative roles when I had to give her the news." He turned a face as he spoke of firing his wife's best friend. It had been absolutely horrible. He counted Penny as a friend--or he had. She might not think too fondly of him anymore. It hadn't been his call. The Board had insisted he enforce the guidelines that had long existed for non-magical students and professors.   

The Shacklebolt did not really know what to say about Hermione being at the house this morning. It was a dramatic thing to walk out on a husband or wife, but who was he to judge? He had done worse, but he liked to believe he had done it for better reason. He could not imagine that Hermione had spent the night under the Shacklebolt roof to promote Harry's safety. "She was. If I had known you were unawares, I would have owled." He should have thought to do that. It made sense in hindsight that Harry would not have necessarily known that she was there. Kingsley wasn't even really sure how she ended up at his house. He and Lee had not really had much chance to talk about it. He wasn't a gossip or someone overly eager to get mixed up in another's business, but he was a friend and a listening ear, if Harry needed it.  

@ harry • 809 • outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

GUESS WHO JUST GOT BACK TODAY

THEM WILD-EYED BOYS THAT HAD BEEN AWAY

HAVEN'T CHANGED THAT MUCH TO SAY

Nothing was the way that it had ever been before. And Harry knew that Hermione was frustrated about the whole thing. But he also thought that she was reacting in ways that were extreme. And storming out, leaving… It had made him angry. Not angry enough to go after her, but he hadn’t really thought that she wasn’t going to come back either. They had had fights before. Everyone fought. It was almost unnatural not to. And Harry knew that he had never really been all that good at understanding her emotions, anyone’s emotions. But he just thought that she was overreacting to this.

He thought that she was being unreasonable about the entire thing. Just because she wanted something, didn’t mean that she could have it. Yes, they had come back, and the first thing that she had done was put herself at risk of being turned into a martyr. Of course, Andromeda hadn’t had her killed on sight, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t have. That didn’t mean that she hadn’t taken that risk, all on her own. And Harry knew that going back to the Ministry, going back to be an auror, was risky. And he knew that it was a double-edged sword. But he was not a muggleborn.

He was not one of the most wanted people in the country. And she was. She knew that she was. If it would have been reversed, she would have said the same things to him. She would have told him that he couldn’t just go in there and try and be the hero. But sometimes he thought that Hermione was even more Gryffindor than he was. She was fearless, and he loved it. But he thought that it made her difficult sometimes. Last night was proof of that.

“Oh?” Harry chuckled lightly at Kingsley’s suggestion that he congratulate Lee himself. But he thought that he knew what was coming even before the other man asked. His face became a little more serious as Kingsley spoke and he nodded. “Of course. I’ll look out for her. She’s brave, coming in here like that. But then again, Gryffindor witches are clearly hard to persuade into rational thinking.” They both knew that well enough. Harry thought that coming in here, without magic, and given her disability, made Oralee one of the bravest witches he knew. But he thought that Kingsley probably already knew that too.

“That couldn’t have been easy. Firing friends…” He didn’t think that he would have wanted to be in that position for anything. And he knew how much Kingsley cared about people. How hard that the split with Lee had been for years. Hermione and Lee may have been close, but Harry had always gotten along better with Kingsley. Oralee was too much like his own wife sometimes. And while he loved Hermione dearly, he thought that being friends with her, and there being two of them to gang up on him, had always ended up working out poorly. He was grateful, this morning, for both of them though.

Waving off Kingsley’s comment about Mia he shook his head again. “I’m just glad she was safe. When she left last night, I thought that she was going for a walk. That she would have come back when it got dark… I was wrong.” He didn’t know exactly how she had ended up with the Shacklebolts, but he thought that Oralee might have had something to do with that. “If I would have thought that she had planned on staying out all night, I probably would have gone after her.” He didn’t like the fact that she had walked out on him when she didn’t like what he had to say. But he hadn’t wanted her out there by herself either.

@ kingsley • 634 • harry's outfit

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