𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘖𝘧 𝘚𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝄂︎ ☠︎︎ 𝄃︎ 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳

𝟸𝟼. 𝙰𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚌𝚔

The hope that life after war would be great was a silly notion.

Nothing would be the same ever again.

Esme was... broken. She'd lost her father, Remus, Dora, her baby, and her life. All in one day. In a matter of hours, in fact.

The feeling of joy that they'd won quickly fizzled out the day after the battle.

She was happy to see Harry right after she woke up, she truly was. But nothing could be as it was. She...she watched him die. Then lost their baby. Thats not something you simply get over with in a day.

No, Esme's recovery took weeks.

Harry and Esme moved into Grimmauld Place full time, having no where else to go. Sirius had apparently split the Black's vault in half. Half of it went to Harry, the other to Esme. Though, they didn't find that out until Harry went to move into Grimmauld officially and the goblins told him.

The two spent those first few weeks in silence. The most they gave each other was a good morning and good night. Every night, they'd sleep in separate bedrooms. And every night, one of them would wake up from nightmares that haunted them, walking into the opposites bedroom and falling back asleep in one anothers arms.

The first full moon after the final battle was the hardest. Esme was irritable and shut herself in. Usually, it was Harry who was the only one that was able to console her. But the week before the moon, she completely shut herself in Walburga and Orion's old bedroom, which was now torn to ruins from the time they'd spent there months before.

Her wolf was grieving for the loss of her Alpha. And she was too. Remus was like another father to her while she had to be away from Severus. And like everyone else in her life, he was gone.

Things only got worse when Esme went to go visit the Malfoys, only to walk in on them getting arrested by Aurors. If Harry hadn't been with her to stop her from flipping the fuck out on the Aurors, she too would have been arrested.

The Ministry was detaining any and all suspected Deatheaters. But, they were all put to trial. No one would be sentenced without a fair trial.

The only reason Esme wasn't arrested was because she defected so early and because she had the backup of The Chosen One.

Luckily, Draco and Narcissa's trial went by quick. They only had to spend two weeks in Azkaban before they were released. They had to be under house arrest in Malfoy Manor for six months, and Draco would have to attend an eighth year at Hogwarts when the school was reopened.

~~

Now, three months after the battle, Esme and Harry still hadn't talked about it. Any of it.

Esme spent most of her time pilfering through the Black Family's firewhiskey supply and arguing with Kreacher.

But today, she agreed she'd go see Teddy, who was staying with Andromeda until further notice. Andromeda told Harry to meet them at Malfoy Manor, as she was visiting her sister who she recently reconciled with.

She dressed nicer than she had been, usually she was only seen in sweatpants and Remus' old sweaters. But today she actually had on some jeans, Sirius' band t-shirt, and a leather jacket. Nothing to fancy, but nicer than the sweatpants.

When she came into the kitchen, she found Harry by the fireplace. His outfit was his usual. Jeans, some monotone colored shirt, and a flannel. When she entered the room, his eyes widened. "E-Ess.. you look..." Bloody amazing in that leather jacket.

"Ready to go?" Esme continued on.

Harry cleared his throat, fixing up his glasses. "Oh-Yeah. You wanna go first?"