To be Normal

The light breeze felt slightly colder on Harry's skin now, a small shiver pulled him out of his own thoughts. Even though he was sure it was close to midnight, the sky above him did not mirror the dark thoughts that had been swirling around inside him only moments before. The sun was no longer visible, but behind him the sky was still light blue because the sun was so near the horizon. Over the fjord it was darker.

Harry smiled, moving to Norway during summer had been a lovely idea, he could never have imagined that nature could be so spectacular or beautiful. He didn't live far enough north to be able to see the sun even at midnight, but the nights were still quite bright. Of course, the winter would be equally dark, the sun would only be up for a few hours each day. He somehow liked the thought of that too. One of many lessons he'd learned in life was that few things was as easy as black or white. But some things still was.

Anyway, it was now he needed to fill his heart with light. Before he came here he had been walking around aimlessly drowning in grief and darkness. After spending all evening on the balcony his legs were starting to feel stiff, but his head had cleared like the sky after heavy rain. Healing would take a long time, but he was young. He would have the opportunity to start a family of his own, in the meantime, the Weasleys were a good substitute for his own parents, Remus felt like an uncle, and Hermione... Well, sister wasn't good enough, she was the person who meant the most to him in the world. They had been through everything together, entering the unknown world of magic, going to school, working through many tasks, and in the end, loosing Ron. They were better than a lot of biological families.

No friendship could equal the one he had with Ron, but he would make new friends to take away some of the loneliness. Neville had come over to his house a few times during the last year, Seamus and Dean showed up one time too. Harry had felt awkward. Everything was so different without Ron around, and when he met old friends of them both it only reminded him strongly about the loss of his best friend. The best times where some of the ones spent with Hermione, when he found himself feeling close to normal, and even cheerful.

When Harry finally felt like he had landed after the long and devastating war sent him emotionally and mentally flying into airless space, he started searching for a job. The content of his vault had shrunk considerably, but it had been necessary. In the end he got a job in the Nordic Ministry of Magic. It was located in Norway, but dealt with wizards from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland too. Sometimes even Greenland, but not many wizards were born there, and no adult wizards lived there full-time. He was going to start out in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, apparently the old Head of Office had been a pain in the ass, growing old, and becoming more stubborn with every year. In the end only one other man could stand to work with him. When they both decided to retire the Office were in need of at least three new employees. The Nordic Ministry covered quite a large area, and the law-breaking involving Muggle Artefacts had been growing out of hand with the lack of man-power to control it.

Harry had been told about the job by Arthur when he came around for Fred and George's 21st birthday party. It had been a rather quiet gathering as everyone were painfully aware of Ron's absence. It had almost been a year. The evening ended quite early when Mrs. Weasley broke down. Her husband and eldest son took her hands and lead her to her bed. It wasn't the first time, but according to Fred it happened less frequently. The last time was three weeks earlier. That day the family had been gathered by Bill and Fleur in their flat, and they shared with them the happiness of expecting their first child. Molly had been ecstatic at the time, fussing over Fleur and attacking Bill with fierce hugs every chance she got. Ten minutes after they got home however, they found her sobbing over the laundry, clutching Ron's old Canon's T-shirt in her hands.

Harry didn't mind moving to Norway at all. It was nice to get some privacy, a new environment, and a change in surroundings. He was clueless about the language, but was assured that Nordic wizards were very used to difficulties in communication. After all the Ministry covered people with at least five different languages. More and more were quite good at English. The general rule was to speak slowly, and use sign-language, pointing and drawing to overcome the largest barriers.

Harry had no trouble finding the Ministry when he went there for his first day. It was an ordinary building that blended in perfectly with the rest of the street in Oslo. He entered through the large front-doors, the hall was quite large, but rather empty. He walked over to a friendly blonde woman sitting behind a large desk. When he presented himself she smiled even wider, then handed him a few sheets of paper. He looked at the first one for a moment, confused, he could only understand a few words.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to translate them for you," the blonde witch said, then tapped the papers with her wand. The letters seemed to rearrange themselves instantly.

"Thank you, much better." Harry smiled back at her.

"Your office is on the forth floor," she said, and pointed to the elevator. "Have a nice day!" Harry thanked her and started walking. He looked at the large sign next to the elevator while he waited, it had numbers on it referring to the different floors, and a name in large writing next to each number. Every five seconds the name changed, after looking at in for a moment he spotted Department of Magical Law Enforcement next to the number 4. Apparently the sign showed the names of the different departments in several languages.

Harry was the only one going up, actually, he'd only seen three people the whole time he'd been there. It was far less crowded than the British Ministry of Magic. Therefore he was surprised when he stepped out of the elevator on the forth floor. The level of noise was a lot higher than in the entrance hall, and the corridor connecting the offices was quite crowded. He looked around, uncertain where to go, after a minute another man walked in behind him.

"Excuse me, do you know where I can find the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office?" Harry asked him.

"Yeah, you go to the left and it's the third office you see," the man answered with a smile. His English was fairly good. Harry thanked him and set off in the right direction.

The room he entered was smaller than the other two he had walked past. It held a table with comfortable chairs around, and two desks. One wall was covered in shelves crammed with papers, books and folders. Two chairs were occupied.

"Is this the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office?" Harry asked. The man on the left responded in a deep voice.

"Sure is." He got out of his chair and held out his hand. "I'm Daniel Strand." Harry shook his hand.

"Harry Potter." Harry turned to the other man who had gotten up too.

"Tuomas Nieminen, I'm the new head of this office."

Daniel looked quite young, no more than five years older than Harry. He was a broad-shouldered man, but not very tall. His eyes looked very kind and smiling under his dark hair. Tuomas seemed to be a bit older, but still probably younger than Harry's father would have been. He was tall and slim, and his messy blonde hair almost reached his shoulders. They all sat down, and Tuomas started talking. He spoke in English, but with a very noticeable accent.

"As you might know, we're all new to this Ministry. Our group is young, but I'm sure we'll do a great job. Between us we have to talk English, as it's the only language we all speak. I'm from Finland, but I've worked in the British Ministry for several years, the last two in their Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. Here I have a couple copies of the standard rules and routines we're going to work with." He handed Harry and Daniel an official looking folder each. "You should read that as soon as possible, it will give you a better idea about what we'll be working with." He was then cut of by the telephone. Harry was surprised that they used phones in the Ministry, but on second thought he figured that it really was a fast way to communicate. Tuomas answered, and after a brief conversation he addressed them again.

"It seems we already have our first case. A vacuum cleaner is cleaning on it's own accord in Kajaani, only it's not as much cleaning as it is wreaking the poor lady's beloved plants. I think I'll go on my own this time, and you two can start reading. I should be back soon, then we'll go grab some lunch." He walked out with a wave. Daniel sat back more comfortably in his chair, and turned to Harry.

"So, how did you end up here?"

"Well, a friend told me that the position was available, and it's seemed like a good idea. Interesting country and all that." Harry didn't fully know how to explain the situation to a stranger, nor did he feel comfortable doing it.

"I bet it's nice to get a little peace and quiet after all the action too?" Daniel said, and Harry nodded in agreement. "You picked a nice country then! I'm from Norway, but after school I went to stay with family in America, and I ended up living in Boston for a few years. In the end I wanted to go back to Norway, guess I'm not a city boy." They talked some more, but both of them wanted to make a good impression on their first day at work, so they soon started looking through the folders Tuomas gave them.

After an hour of reading Tuomas returned, and they headed for the cafeteria. On the way Harry saw witches and wizards of all shapes and ages. Here and there he noticed a few English words, but mostly he didn't have a clue what languages he heard. It was very nice to be out in public again, after spending most of the last year alone or with friends. Here fewer people looked at him, and he could live some curious glances now and then. In England he had a strange feeling that everyone were looking at him all the time. Maybe it was his imagination playing tricks on him, but he still liked it better in his new environment, at least for now.

Harry peeked into the offices he walked by, some of them were very large with many people and desks. Once he got eye-contact with a young blonde girl with a wide smile on her face. She was listening to another girl with a flower in her long black hair. He only saw them for a moment, but he suddenly felt warm inside.

Their lunch was very tasty. When they got back they went through some of the routines they needed to follow. Then they had another call, a man in Sandnes was a bit freaked out because his hedge shears were trimming his hedge by itself, and forming it into a dragon. This time they all went, and by the end of the day Harry was still laughing at the look on Daniel's face when he was being chased by the out-of-control hedge shears.

The first week went by fast, Harry learned a lot, and in between he had a fun time with the two others. In the beginning he and Daniel would work together on cases, to get some more experience. After a month they would do most of the work alone. One day Harry walked over to the cafeteria alone because he just got back, and the two others were still out. He got himself some food and sat down at a vacant table. Half-way into his sandwich he looked up and saw a familiar face. Parvati Patil was walking towards him while balancing a glass of juice and a plate on her tray. She was looking around for a place to sit down. Harry caught her eye and waved her over to his table. She hadn't changed much he thought, although her own robes suited her a lot better than the black ones they used to wear for school. She was now dressed in red, and the fabric looked much softer. She was also wearing even more jewelry than she used to, and it was not like anything he'd seen in England.

"Hi! This is the last place I expected to see you," Parvati said, then sat down.

"I could say the same thing." Harry hadn't seen her since before Dumbledore's death.

"Well, I got a very interesting job-offer, so here I am," Parvati said. "They were gathering a group here at the Ministry to research the runes from the Viking-age. A lot of them are about Runekasting, I wrote an essay about it for Professor Trelawney in sixth year. I thought it was interesting, but I couldn't find much about it. Now I get to learn more first-hand!"

"That's great, my story isn't that interesting. I was more interested in moving to this country than the actual job. I like both now though," Harry responded.

"I like this country too. It's a nice change after spending a year with my family in India. It's lovely country, and very interesting, but I prefer Europe," she admitted. "It was nice to learn more about my family, but a year was enough for me."

"Does Padma live here too?" Harry asked.

"No, she went back to Hogwarts. I was planning to do the same, but changed my mind when I got this job." Harry nodded, then checked his watch.

"I should get back to work," Harry said, then hesitated. "Er... would you like to go out to dinner with me sometime? It's nice to hear proper English again, especially from a fellow Gryffindor." Parvati smiled.

"Sure, I'd like that," she said. Harry felt very relieved.

"Great, how about tomorrow? We could meet outside the Ministry, maybe 6 o'clock?"

"Okay, see you then," she answered. Harry walked back to the office, he hadn't felt this happy in a long time. Daniel was there when he returned.

"You look like you just won the lottery," he said. Harry started looking through some papers on his desk, trying to look busy.

"Really, that's odd," Harry responded vaguely. "I have to go, those pesky fountains downtown are acting up again."