Chapter Text
The war was over. The battle of Hogwarts had been a month ago, and after today's funeral, all those who had died had been put to rest. For the first time, it truly felt like the war was really over. Everyone could finally move on with their lives. Most people were happy and immediately set off to begin their lives or restart them from where they left off. Most people were able to just pick up where they left off like the war had never happened. Unfortunately for Harry, he was unable to just move on.
He was at Grimmauld place, having moved in there a week after the battle. It had taken two weeks to make the place livable, though that was mostly because of Kreacher's help. the house-elf had been dead set against Harry being his master at first, but after seeing Harry work so hard to restore his beloved manor, the elf had quickly come to respect Harry and had pitched in with the cleanup. Their work had paid off, because the place no longer looked like a gothic funeral parlor, but instead was now bright and open, the old furniture replaced and the walls repainted in neutral tones.
At the moment, Harry was in front of the fireplace, staring into the flames, lost in thought with a letter from Kingsley loosely clutched in his hand. He had offered for Harry and Ron to start auror training without having to finish their schooling or taking the N.E.W.T.s. Ron had immediately jumped at the chance, and would be starting in a few weeks. He and Hermione had moved into a flat in Diagon alley, and were set to be married at some point in the next few years. Ron had proposed practically right after the battle, though they had decided to wait a while to actually get married.
Everyone had moved on, and they were being impatient waiting for Harry to do so as well. After Mrs. Weasley heard the news about Ron and Hermione, she had immediately started on Harry about popping the question to Ginny. He had told her and Ginny that he had broken up with Ginny and he had no intention of getting back together. Ginny really wasn’t his type, and he wasn’t ready to just settle down in married life being so young. He had done the impossible and actually survived the war, and now with a hopefully long life ahead of him, he wasn’t willing to just let himself be tied forever to a girl who was just obsessed with being married to the chosen one. Ginny had thrown a fit and stormed out of the room, but Mrs. Weasley had been more accepting and told him to visit whenever he wanted, though Harry suspected she just said that so she could have more chances to convince him to rethink his decision later on.
Mrs. Weasley wasn’t the only one trying to control his life. Kingsley and Ron had been badgering him to sign up for the auror program, but Harry had had enough of fighting for his life and killing people. The only reason Harry didn’t turn the offer down right on the spot was that he just had no idea what else to do. Defense had always been his best subject, and he had been fighting against dark wizards since he was eleven. He hadn’t taken the time to think about doing anything else, it had always seemed like that was what he would end up doing.
“Because of course the chosen one should continue to give up his life for us and go on to become an auror and keep fighting dark wizards” Harry thought bitterly.
Everyone had been telling him what he needed to do with his life, and Harry was tired of it. Throwing the latest letter from Kingsley into the fire, he decided to take some time to clear his head and go help out with the rebuilding at Hogwarts. The effort had been nonstop, and it looked like everything would be ready for start of term in September. He apparated to the gates and sent a patronus to the castle. After waiting a few minutes, Poppy Pomfrey was the one to come to open the gates. Harry gave his first real smile in weeks, and hugged the nurse happily. They started the walk to the castle and Poppy started off the conversation.
“Oh Harry, what brings you here?”
“I just needed some time to clear my head”
“What’s wrong? Anything I could help with?”
Harry smiled at the old nurse. She had always been his favorite staff member at Hogwarts. With all the time he had spent in the infirmary, they had had plenty of conversations, and Harry had quickly grown fond of the old nurse, and she couldn’t help but be a bit more affectionate with her most frequent visitor. So Harry felt she could actually help him, and had no reservations with telling her his troubles.
“The problem,” he started, “is that I don’t know what to do with my life. Everyone else is telling me what I should do, but I don’t want to listen to them. My life has been controlled by someone else since my parents died, and I want to do what I want for once. I’m not sure what though. All I really know for sure is that I don’t want to be an auror. But unfortunately, that looks like the only job I'm really qualified to do.”
Poppy got a pensive look on her face, and pursed her lips in thought like she tended to do. “That is a bit of a conundrum. Let me think on it till we get to my office. This really seems like the type of conversation to have over a good cup of tea.”
They had arrived at the entrance by then, and proceeded to walk through the halls in comfortable silence. Harry was happy that he had finally gotten to reveal his true feelings about the whole mess to someone else who was willing to actually listen to his side of it and help him out. Poppy was always willing to chat with him and had been a great asset to have during his stressful years I school.
The medi-witch's office hadn’t changed much, and Harry sighed in relief when he sat down in his usual chair and felt much better being in the room’s relaxing atmosphere. Poppy summoned a house elf and had a full tea service brought to them. Nothing was said between them for a few moments as both prepared and drank their first sips of tea, until poppy put down her cup and broke the silence.
“You do have an interesting problem Harry, I must agree. It’s obvious to me that you don’t want to be an auror. Frankly, I can’t blame you. If I had been fighting in a war I hadn’t chosen to participate in since I was eleven, I would probably be sick of fighting too.”
“Thank you for understanding. You seem to be the only person who does.”
“It’s no problem Harry. You’ve been forced onto a path that you no longer wish to follow. Now all we have to do is figure out what new path you should take. Any ideas at all? Any careers you think might interest you or particular subjects or hobbies or teachers you liked?”
Harry started running his fingers through his hair like he did whenever he was stressed and sighed in resignation before answering, “I really can’t think of any careers. I spent too much time thinking I was going to be an auror, I never stopped to think about other options. I always just thought I’d do it because my best subject was defense and I do have that saving people thing of mine. As for hobbies, the only thing I’m good at is quidditch, but I don’t want to join a professional team because I’m tired of being in the spotlight and being famous. And you were always my favorite teacher at the school, even if you weren’t actually a teacher.”
Poppy hummed and sat quiet for a bit before smiling and looking back at Harry.
“I think I know just what you should do. You should become a medi-wizard. You said it yourself, you have a desire to help people, and you can do that by becoming a healer.”
“But I haven’t taken my N.E.W.T.s and I was bollocks at potions which I know is a big part of healing, so I don’t think the healers program at St. Mungos will take me.”
“Ah, but I have a solution to all of that. You’re going to sign up for the program and study all the basics while apprenticing under me. I’ll teach you all the healing spells and potions I can while you are studying to take your N.E.W.T.s. You’ll ace all of them, including potions which I think you could actually be great at if you just put some effort in. Then you can officially enter the program and finish a few years early since you’ve already gotten the basics out of the way and have also completed an internship with a registered medi-witch or wizard. You are incredibly powerful, probably the most powerful wizard of your generation, and you have always wanted to help people. Being a medi wizard would be perfect for you.”
Harry thought about it in silence for quite some time, but the longer he sat there, the more he realized she was right. He would get to help people by saving lives instead of taking them like he would have to as an auror. That left only one thing to address.
“That plan sounds absolutely perfect Poppy. The only other thing is that I don’t really want to just stay in the wizarding world. I’m tired of constantly being hero worshipped wherever I go. I was hoping to find a career I could also do in the muggle world so I can escape the wizarding world even if only for a small amount of time.”
Poppy just kept smiling and said “Then all you have to do is also get your muggle doctor requirements. St. Mungos offers a sort of sister program that works with the King’s College medical school that allows magical healers to study muggle medicine so they can get their medical license for the muggle world as well.”
It actually sounded like this could all work out, and Harry was happier than he’d been in months. "Maybe my life won't turn out that bad after all," Harry commented to himself.
“Poppy, I think I’d like to become a medi-wizard.”
“Then let’s get started.”
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Harry’s training to become a medi-wizard actually went pretty quickly after that. St. Mungos was more than willing to provide Harry with the materials for him to study and McGonagall easily agreed to allow Harry to stay in the castle and intern under Poppy. She gave him a guest suite near the infirmary that had its own office for him to study in and introduced him to the other faculty. Most of the original teachers were still at the school, but some positions like potion master and defense teacher had been taken over by new teachers. He had been surprised to learn he wasn't the only apprentice at the school. Neville was actually studying under Professor Sprout to get his mastery in herbology and take over for her when she retired. Harry helped with all the final rebuilding and setting up the school while getting lessons from Poppy on all the most common and important healing spells to know if working in a school infirmary. He studied potions and even got remedial lessons from the new potions professor.
The castle was finished completely with only two weeks to spare and Harry had come far along enough in his studying to help make the necessary healing potions for the school. September came and the students arrived. Those that had been in school with Harry were surprised but happy to see him and even happier to learn about his position in the school. Others though weren't as ecstatic to hear about his career choice.
Ron showed up the three days after school started and they got into a shouting match, with Ron accusing Harry of being a coward for not going into the auror program and for abandoning his friends. Harry had calmed a lot while learning under Poppy and no longer had his legendary temper, but he couldn't handle Ron's accusations. He told him that this was what he had chosen to do and that was final, and promptly kicked Ron out of his office. The next day the letters came. Hermione's berated him for yelling at Ron and for not telling them about his plans even though they're his best friends. Ginny's and Molly's were pretty much the same talking about how he should have thought this decision through more and how he should also reconsider dating Ginny. Surprisingly, the most accepting of all of them was Kingsley, he only told Harry the he could respect his decision, though he hoped that he would still consider becoming an auror later on.
Kingsley was the only one he responded to, since he was the only one to show any type of encouragement in his letter. He couldn't deal with Hermione's nagging, and as for the Weasley women, he just didn't want to enable their delusion that he would end up marrying Ginny, which was never going to happen. There had never been time during the war to just relax and think about things like relationships and sex. But these last couple of months had been revealing for Harry.
Oliver Wood had come to help with the rebuilding not long after Harry moved into the castle and the two had decided to go and get some drinks together for old times' sake. The night had gone well and they had decided to meet up again. Their relationship had evolved into a romantic one and after comparing his feelings for Oliver with those from his past relationships with Ginny and Cho, he decided that he really wasn't that attracted to women and preferred men much more. The revelation about being gay was scary for him at first since he had grown up with the Dursley's and their homophobic ideas, but Oliver told him that the wizarding world was much more accepting of same sex relationships and that it was even possible for male wizards to get pregnant either through the power of their magic alone or with the help of specific potions. Harry's time with Oliver had helped him grow and learn to accept himself, though their relationship was actually pretty short. They had had an easy, mutual break up after they decided that while they both cared for each other, they were just meant to be friends and not a couple.
Harry felt torn over the fact that his friends were so angry at him for doing what made him happy, but luckily he had Poppy there to help him, along with Neville and Luna, who had started dating not long after the end of the war. Deciding that if they couldn't be supportive, then they weren't worth worrying over, so Harry ignored them and went back to working and studying.
And all that work definitely paid off. After only a year of healing every bloody nose and sprained ankle from the moving staircases, and studying both the N.E.W.T. material and the equivalent of the first two years worth of lessons from the healer's program, Harry was able ace all his N.E.W.T.s and advance to the second half of training at St. Mungos. He was sad to have to leave Hogwarts and his true friends again, but he had to complete his work study at St. Mungos and King's College to get certified in both the magical and muggle worlds. It ended up being both awful and wonderful.
Working at St. Mungos was one of the most stressful, chaotic filled years of his life. People coming in all the time with every sort of magical malady, and then having them start raving about how they were being treated by the chosen one, the vanquisher of Voldemort, frankly it lead to plenty of headaches and many pain relief potions. In comparison, the two years he spent at King's College, and the anonymity that being in the muggle world brought, were absolutely wonderful. No one knew who he was and he wasn't treated special or thought of any differently from anyone else. It was paradise, even if the classes were immensely harder. He had to study constantly, and all the work was more difficult to understand since he had only learnt magical subjects while in school, but he loved every single minute of it.
After spending two years in the muggle world, Harry loathed to go back to the magical world, where he was constantly swarmed and stalked and where there was also a distinct lack of modern appliances. Really, the decision was probably the easiest he had ever made. So with brand new medical licenses for both worlds, Doctor Harry Potter started working at St. Bart's hospital in muggle London.
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Almost two years he spent working in the emergency room, long days and longer nights. The work was wonderful and fulfilling, getting to save so many lives. He still saw his friends from the wizarding world often. Though really, it would be more accurate to call Poppy, Neville and Luna his family at this point. He still talked to Kingsley every now and then, but everyone else he avoided and refused to see. When the Daily Prophet had broken the news that Harry was working in the muggle world, though thankfully they hadn't mentioned where, he had gotten howlers from everyone, saying that he had abandoned the wizarding world, and how could he do that after everything they had done for him. Mrs. Weasley's had been particularly brutal, going on for twenty minutes and screaming at him for stringing Ginny along all these years and telling him that he should just give up this stupid dream and get a proper job for a wizard and come back and marry Ginny.
Harry was happy about choosing to live in the muggle world, it had been the best decision, but all of it was starting to get to him. Having most of wizarding Britain calling him a deserter and traitor after he saved all their lives was chipping away at him. At the moment, he was lost in thought, just staring down at his current patients information, when he was interrupted.
"Hey, there's my favorite boy genius doctor. How have you been Harry?" asked a very bouncy young woman in her late twenties. And he meant bouncy literally. She was actually bouncing on her feet as she talked, making her medical coat and blond curls bounce up and down behind her.
Harry put the chart he had been looking at down as he turned to his colleague and friend, Doctor Julia Stewart. They had both started at the hospital around the same time, and had become fast friends, even though she was six years older. When she had found out he had gotten his medical degree and was starting at a hospital as a full doctor at only twenty-two, she had decided that he must be a genius, and loved to joke about it. He had spent most of the last two years at the hospital with her, and he could say that she was one of his best friends.
Smiling he replied, "Everything's been fine really."
Julia stopped bouncing and stared at him. "Whenever someone says that everything is fine, it really means that everything is not fine. So what's really bugging you."
"I don't know. I guess I've just been feeling cooped up and just want to get out of the U.K. I've lived here my whole life, and have never been anywhere else. When I was younger I wanted to travel the world, and I still do, it's just that now I have a job, and it's important, and I don't want to stop and take off from work to just go on vacation if it means that people's lives could be in danger."
She smirked at him like he was missing the obvious and stated in the most obnoxious tone she could manage, "Well if you want to help people so bad why not join the World Health Organization or Doctors Without Borders?"
The medi-wizard stopped and stared at her. "That is absolutely brilliant. But wouldn't you miss having me around?"
"I admit, I will miss having you around. It is so hard to find a good gay friend these days," she joked in her best pouty voice.
They both started cracking up and Harry ended up leaning on Julia to keep from collapsing. After a few minutes they managed to pull themselves together. Harry couldn't believed he hadn't thought of it before. It was really a great solution. He could leave Britain and its prejudices behind and see the world while still helping people.
"Julia, I absolutely love you," he proclaimed while hugging the life out of her.
She rolled her eyes at him, but still returned the hug just as enthusiastically. "Yeah, I'm perfect, I know. Just make sure you write, like all the time. And send souvenirs. And if you meet anyone cute you better send me pictures."
Harry laughed again, and rested his head on her shoulder. He really was going to miss her, but if he was really going through with this, there was three other people he had to tell.
It was late when he got home that night, Julia had dragged him to pub as a going away send off even though he hadn't even resigned from the hospital yet. He was tired, and wanted to go to bed, but he had to tell his family his plans. It was best to get it done as soon as possible, so he walked into the living room and made a floo call to Neville's and Luna's rooms at Hogwarts. It took a few moments before someone showed up, though it was Luna instead of Neville as he expected.
"Luna, listen could you--" he started asking but she interrupted him.
"Get Madame Pomfrey and Neville and come over because you have something important to tell us. We'll be over soon." And with one last dreamy, not quite there smile on her face she stepped away from the fireplace.
Harry ended the call and shook his head. It's best to just never question Luna.
"Kreacher," he called and waited till the elf popped in, "Could you please prepare some tea, we will be having guests over in a few minutes."
The house-elf did a shallow bow and popped out with a quick "Right away Master Harry."
Harry moved away from the fireplace and sat down in his favorite chair to await his adopted family's arrival. Kreacher had just finished setting up tea settings for everyone when the flames flared green and the others made their way through.
Poppy immediately pulled him into a hug and then passed him off to Neville and then finally Luna. They arranged themselves in their usual seats and grabbed their respective cups before Neville cleared his throat and asked, obviously curious, "What it is you wanted to see us about Harry?"
Not beating around the bush and getting straight to the matter at hand, Harry replied, "I'm leaving England. I've decided that I want to see the world so I'm signing up for Doctors without Borders. I'm not sure where I'll end up, but I'm getting out of this country. I don't want you to think that I'm abandoning you guys, I'll send letters all the time and come back when I can, but I can't stay in a country where most of the magical populace either worships or hates me. I just need to go somewhere and take time to clear my head."
He was staring into his teacup, too worried about the other's reactions to look at them. One of the chairs creaked, and then Poppy was standing in front of him and pulling him into a hug.
"Oh Harry dear, it doesn't matter what you do or where you go, we'll still love you. I care about you so much, you know that. You're practically my son after all, and no amount of distance will change that." She had started crying half way through her speech, and by the end Harry was crying too. Neville and Luna got up too and joined the group hug.
"You're family mate," Neville said.
Luna smiled wistfully and added on, "And you will always have your family looking out for you, even if you end up infested with nargles."
Harry smiled, unable to contain his joy at having such a caring adopted family.
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It took a month to get all his affairs ready, resigning from the hospital, making sure Kreacher understood how to take care of the house while he was away and was prepared for everything, and discussing with the goblins to make sure his bank accounts would be handled while he was gone and getting the appropriate papers worked up for him so he would be able to leave the country without too much fuss. He was lucky the goblins were so discreet, because the wizarding papers and public would have had a field day if word got out about him leaving Britain.
Julia pulled her car up to the drop off zone at the airport, and Harry step out on the curb with his messenger bag and suitcase.
"Are you sure you brought everything?" Julia asked, "You have like no luggage."
Harry didn't need a suitcase at all since everything important was actually in his bag which he had charmed with expansion and feather weight charms and every protection spell he could think of. But he had to at least put some of his clothes in a suit-case since it would be suspicious if he only had a bag.
"Don't worry Julia, I'll be fine."
She stared at him as if she was trying to figure out what he was lying about, before just smiling and saying goodbye one last time before driving away.
Turning to face the entrance, Harry thought, "Well, I guess this is it."
The plane that day brought him Central Africa, where he stayed for two years, traveling between the different countries in need. He spent some time after that helping with the earthquake relief in Haiti before moving on to provide aid in the Middle East. He had been working with DWB for five years and was now twenty-nine years old when Harry was sent to help with disease outbreaks in India.