Drarry One Shots

A Long Wait

A/N A motorbike-karate-tattoo-Teddy combo especially for @lottie_marauder_Xx as a thank you for encouraging me to start writing Drarry stories many moons ago – I didn't believe things would take off as they have xx 😊

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In many ways, the initial years after the war didn't fare any better for Harry Potter than the seven years in the run up to it. Well, sixteen and a half years in total if you included the murder of his parents and those awful nine years and ten months with the Dursleys too. After the war, Harry still faced an awful lot of assumptions, whether from the public or in private, whether from the Ministry or the Press. He went into Auror training as expected. He did the interviews and the fundraisers. He went to the public functions and he made speeches. He evaded the haters and swerved the sycophants. His life wasn't his own, often from the moment he woke to late into the evening.

He hated it all, though at least there wasn't anyone trying to kill him on a yearly basis anymore. And no more Vernon and Petunia Dursley in his life - that was a bonus too.

And he did actually enjoy the Auror training but he didn't like the politics and expectations connected to it. He knew his career was already mapped out for him as a Ministry Man: from Team Leader to Assistant-Head Auror, to Head Auror, then on to heading up the DMLE. All within the next nineteen years. After that, who knew, probably Minister himself. He wasn't sure he wanted any of it but he was too busy dealing with existing to actually stop and question it all; to actually ask himself what he wanted.

But life after the war also brought some unexpected highlights amongst the mundane routines. The most important of these was Teddy Lupin. The young orphaned baby was automatically placed with his grandmother and Harry made it his life's purpose to be involved in his godson's upbringing. He sold Grimmauld Place having no desire to live with the ghosts of the past. He moved closer to Andromeda Tonks in the Richmond area of London. He would have moved out of London completely but Teddy came first and at least Richmond had a beautiful country park to take Teddy to and they could picnic and watch the deer and walk beneath the beautiful mature trees. Harry loved those times with Teddy strapped to his chest in the baby papoose.

The Press loved that too, once they got a sniff of story about of the famous Harry Potter as the devoted godfather and the tragedy of poor Teddy Lupin, orphaned just like the Boy Who Lived Twice. Harry ignored the cameramen hiding out in bushes, trying to capture the next picture. And he ignored the young mothers out walking with their prams, who cooed over the sight of a young handsome man so doting on the young baby and finding so much joy together out of such simple pleasures in life. And he ignored the random offers from strangers who saw themselves as the future Mrs/Mr/Mx Potter and as the person destined to be with him. He found them all a little ludicrous... well, a lot ludicrous, if he was honest.

Another joy for Harry was getting his motorbike license and eventually he invested in a Harley Davidson Street 750 with a pillion seat that had a back rest and a custom paint job of dragons over the tank. He also got some very similar body art but he rarely showed off the dragon that stretched around his ribs and across his back. Though the tattoos on his arms were often seen because Harry still tended to live in t-shirts.

However, Harry's real secret passion that no one beyond Andromeda knew about was Muggle Martial Arts. After the war, he'd decided to indulge the whim of trying it out, just to settle the old childhood craving. He loved it. He loved the physical aspect, the philosophy, the discipline, the art. An initial hour of training a week grew to two and then extended to three and then four hours after he joined the Leadership Programme. And he moved through his gradings fluidly. More than anything, he was surprised that the Aurors didn't train in close quarter combat. He decided, wryly, that the Magical community relied too much on magic. There was a distinct lack of ability to fight without Wands. Harry didn't like that. As he knew all too well, Wands were only fragile sticks of wood and could be easily broken.