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In the last 8 years since the Battle of Hogwarts, at least one thing had become abundantly clear; Harry Potter no longer wanted to be in the public eye. Of course, that had been true before the Battle as well, but there was nothing like another decade of the same horrific treatment from the Wizarding media to really drive the point home.As it stood, Harry did everything in his power to avoid attention and stay inconspicuous, which was why it was such a terrible shock to wake up on a crisp November morning and see his name and photo splashed on the front page of the Daily Prophet.Harry paused and took a deep breath, resumed the business of making his tea, started a pot of oatmeal, glanced out of the kitchen window as his neighbor walked by, and then (and only then) he allowed himself to pick up the paper.POTTER INVOLVED IN SEX SCANDAL? Source tells all! Was printed above an image of Harry taken at the Battle’s anniversary from a few months prior. As the picture moved Harry smiled at the camera (although he recognized it as one of his more well-disguised grimaces) and then looked away and stopped smiling. Under any other context no one would blink twice at such a display of human behavior, but under the inflammatory accusations involving sex… Well that was a different story altogether.Harry huffed his annoyance and decided to ignore the whole thing. Usually those stories were all the rage for a few days and then faded by the next week when someone else’s scandal ended up on the front page. However, his ignorance didn’t last long. Within a few hours he received his first firecall of the day from Lavender Brown. She was breathless and smiling like the Cheshire cat when he answered.“Is it true?” she asked excitedly, “Are you really… like that?”“Been reading the Prophet, have you?” Harry replied as neutrally as he could manage.She had the decency to look slightly put out, “Well, you know I don’t usually believe anything they publish, I’m not an idiot. It’s just… this one’s quite shocking and I thought I’d ask.”“Please fuck off, Lav,” said Harry with a sigh, “I’ll see you at the next pub night.”“Right, fine, don’t tell me,” she huffed, then ended the call.Hermione called him next, on the flip phone she had bought him for christmas the previous year.“Good morning,” he answered cheerfully.“Harry,” she sounded relieved, “Are you alright? Do you want to come over for a bit or anything? I’ll be at work later, but Ron and Rose are at home all day, I’m sure they’d be happy to see you.”Harry rolled his eyes, “I’m fine, Hermione.”“Are you sure?” she asked, “I know the Prophet can really get under your skin and, well… it’s quite bad this time, isn’t it?”“I haven’t read it, to tell you the truth,” Harry confessed, “Clara said I need to have days where I just focus on the good. It’s supposed to help with anger and all that.”“Right,” He heard Hermione take a deep breath, “Okay, well just let me know if you need anything. I’m always here for you.”Then came Ron’s muffled voice, “Me too, mate! Don’t listen to those tossers!”Harry chuckled, “Thanks, Ron.”“We’ll see you on Thursday?” Hermione asked.“Yeah, definitely.” Harry replied, “Love you both.”“Love you, too!”Harry hung up, shaking his head as he put the phone back in his pocket. Hermione tended to overreact in these moments, treating Harry like a bomb that could explode at the slightest disturbance. The truth was, before he’d started seeing his mind healer Clara almost a year ago, he saw himself in a very similar way. But he was making progress and these days it took a lot more than some ridiculous article to set him off into a bout of depression or rage.An hour later found Harry in the garden on his knees, hand weeding a very tedious patch of carrots. He felt the wards around his house shift and knew it was someone trying to floo in. Wondering who his visitor was, Harry walked back inside, wiping his muddy hands off on his jeans.Ginny was dusting off her shirt in the living room as Harry entered, and she looked up in concern when she saw him. “Harry! I came as soon as I saw.”Harry struggled not to roll his eyes, “I’m alright, we’re alright, it’s all alright, Gin,” he responded, trying to sound reassuring.Ginny gave him a disbelieving half smile and touched his arm, “Have you read it, though?”“No, not planning on it,” Harry said, with a silent accio toward his glasses.“Bollocks,” said Ginny with a sigh, “I guess it’s on me to tell you then. Harry, they know. Somehow the Prophet found out and of course they made a giant mess of it, but the truth is in there, too.”Harry frowned, he hadn’t been expecting her to say that. “So…” he started, suddenly feeling quite unsure of just about everything, “Wait, are you sure?”Ginny huffed and pulled out the newspaper from her pocket, folding it to the right page and handing it to Harry. She pointed to a section halfway down, “The rest is hogwash, but read this.”With a feeling of horrible dread growing in his stomach Harry reluctantly started reading.As promised, we have more than the usual gossip about the Savior of the Wizarding World. Today it is this author's pleasure to reveal that Harry Potter has been in a secret relationship with not just one, but TWO major political players of British Magical Society for at least a year, if not significantly longer. An inside source had much to say about the love shared between this so-called triad, but we at the Daily Prophet believe something much more nefarious could be going on. Did you ever wonder why the Chosen One left the DMLE so suddenly? Or why he didn’t take one of the dozens of Ministry positions that were offered to him after the fact? Well, it seems this was a strategic move to protect his ‘sexual relationship’ with none other than Kingsley Shacklebolt, former Minister of Magic and current International Liaison. This relationship has allegedly turned romantic since then and now also involves Xenophilius Lovegood, Editor in Chief of The Quibbler. With those three it’s hard not to speculate about whether their ‘love’ is genuine and a few theories have arisen as to how this throuple came to be… see more on pg. 23Oh. Oh. Ohhhhh. Harry was frozen on the spot, his mind had stopped completely. There was a buzzing in his ears that was overwhelming any attempt at thought or movement. Then there was Ginny. Thank Merlin for Ginny. She gently extracted the paper from his grip and banished it then gently took Harry by the shoulder and led him to the nearest armchair.“Hey, hey, hey, it’s going to be okay,” Ginny said softly, “Just try to breathe.”Harry followed her example, taking a deep breath in and then blowing it out through his mouth. And then he laughed. It was almost a shout the way it flew out of him, like it had been building up for a while. He kept on laughing while Ginny’s face went from concern to disbelief back to concern again.“Oh, Merlin,” said Harry, still catching his breath, “It’s just such a relief, you know?”Ginny raised a skeptical eyebrow at him.“All the hiding and sneaking around and trying not to get caught, it was just exhausting. And now everyone knows and I just feel so… peaceful.”“I’m happy for you, I didn’t even realize how difficult all of it has been,” Ginny replied, “But the article is still pretty awful and I don’t exactly see how things will get easier from here on out, I mean–”Harry cut her off, “We’ve talked about what would happen when it came to light. We have a whole plan, it’s practically foolproof.”“Well, alright. I’m not one to try to convince you your happiness is unwarranted, I’ll leave that to ‘Mione,” she smirked.Kingsley got home a few hours later in his usual whirlwind of long colorful robes and grumbled remarks about the state of Harry’s clothes. Harry greeted him with an embrace and pointedly ignored the cleaning charm aimed at his jeans.“Was it a total shitshow?” Harry asked, trailing after Kingsley into the kitchen.“Yes,” he replied, “Or whatever it’s called when something is worse than a shit show.”“Damn. Well I don’t know how it got out, but we’re here now,” Harry started cutting an apple into slices, “And I have to say I’m relieved. Is that weird?”Kingsley came to stand behind Harry and wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist, a warm and solid comfort for Harry to lean against, “It is not weird, I feel it too,” he nuzzled the nape of Harry’s neck and the younger man shivered, “Now I can show you off as mine.”Harry chuckled and turned around in his partner's arms, putting an apple in the taller man's mouth, watching his full lips move as he chewed. Harry loved how possessive Kingsley could get, it made him feel so safe.“How’s Xeno?” Kingsley inquired, “the baby?”“He’s good, they’re both good,” Harry smiled, “Let’s go up and see for ourselves, huh?”Kingsley nodded and released Harry, but grabbed the apple slices as he followed Harry upstairs. In their bedroom Xenophilius was napping peacefully, pregnant belly prominent even from this angle. Due to his age Xeno was having a less than perfect pregnancy and especially this close to the birth he spent most days in bed, happy enough to be waited on hand and foot by Harry.“I’m home, my love,” Kingsley slid into bed beside Xeno, wrapping himself around the slender man. Xenophilius stirred and then settled into the embrace. This was Harry’s favorite part of the day, when he got to be surrounded by this incredible love, feeling it and witnessing it and letting it seep out of him, the tendrils of it weaving through the room. Harry climbed into bed, the golden warmth of love welcoming him in and he sighed, content and completely at peace.