Live Like You Were Dying | Ron

Harry knew that the world around them was still changing. It would always be changing. If there was no change, there was no progress. And he could admit that they weren’t in the best shape to handle that right now, but they needed all of the help that they could get. With the ICW coming to England there had been higher tensions, but there had been progress. The muggleborns were free. Hermione was eager to come back to the Ministry, but Harry was going to keep trying to get her to wait until Delaney arrived. He knew that she wanted to help, and he understood that. But he would feel better about her helping when she wasn’t seven months pregnant.

Having another baby had been his idea this time around. He had known that she had wanted one. But he also knew that she hadn’t been sure about the timing. He had been the one that had said that there would never be a good time. And so, they had gone through with it. Their daughter was due at the end of August. The Shacklebolts were expecting a few weeks before that. The Weasleys had had a baby this spring. Their side was having children again. And it wasn’t lost on Harry that for a while in there, they had stopped.

That the Death Eaters, and the purebloods, and everyone that had felt secure with Wentzell in Kingsley’s office had had children, and then Andromeda had taken over, and Harry still wasn’t sure how he felt about that. The woman was not the witch that he had thought that he had known. He had no idea how to react to her being Andromeda Lestrange. Because even as rumors of the divorce had filtered through the Ministry, he knew that she hadn’t changed her name back. She had kept Lestrange. And that was… Odd. Uncomfortable, really.

But he had long ago stopped trying to make sense of it. Adaline worked with her every day, and his daughter seemed to be fine there. She was more than capable of taking care of herself. But he was still sure that she knew he kept an eye on her as much as he could. It wasn’t all that easy, not when he was one of only a handful of aurors in the department that actually still had their magic. Something that he was more and more grateful for every time that he remembered people like the Minister’s ex-husband did not.

Having any advantage over Rodolphus Lestrange was a step in the right direction in Harry’s book. But he thought that there was someone else that he would have liked to have back in that department beside him. Working for the younger Yaxley wasn’t all that bad. The man was a Death Eater, yes, and Harry didn’t agree with some of his policies, and the way that things were handled. But they could have been worse. At least the department was still functioning. He had adapted. They had muggle training courses that they had to complete now as well. And Harry thought that those weren’t bad things to keep, even if they did get magic back.

When. He had to keep thinking, for Liam’s sake, that it would be when. When they got magic back.

Tonight though, he was going to try and convince Ron that it was time to come back to the Ministry. That they needed all of the friendly faces that they could get. It was going to be a more even playing field. Yes, Malfoy had been the one that had proposed that they start paying the muggleborns. Yes, it was Yaxley that was keeping the aurors educated, and ready to go. Yes, there was a Death Eater that had restarted the quidditch league. But there were others as well. Kingsley was in Andromeda’s ear. Oralee was in charge of Education. They were going to get their footing back. One Order member at a time.

Nodding when his best mate sat down next to him, Harry flagged down the bartender and order two pints. He hadn’t seen him since the last Order meeting, and that had been a few weeks ago now. “How’ve you been? Business picks up in the summer, right?” He figured it had to, with all of the kids home for the holidays. If memory served, last time he had been in the alley the shop had seemed plenty busy enough.