The Events of, and Shortly Following, July 31, 2008

For Harry Potter's twenty-eighth birthday, he received three pairs of socks, two ties, and a summons to his bosses' office.
Shacklebolt looked at him over the desk. "Potter, you're burnt out. You've been working as an Auror for eight years after two years of training and seven years of fighting You-Know-Who. You work overtime and weekends and probably take work home when you do leave. You have three children under the age of four and you barely ever see them. You haven't had a vacation or more than half a day off since James was born. You also have six months of accumulated paid vacation, and I'm forcing you to use it. Get your things; I don't want to see you back here until January."
"But..." Harry looked at him in some sort of awe.
"No buts. Your cases are covered and the world will not end. Go. Now."
So, he went. He collected his things from his office, and quietly went home. Ginny had already heard the news, and, after putting the kids to bed early, made him some comfort food, with treacle for dessert. She didn't attempt to reason with him, and stifled all arguments with kisses.

It was like being retired. Harry slept in, puttered around the house, and visited Neville at Hogwarts to invite him for dinner the next day. All his other friends worked somewhere in the ministry, and Harry couldn't enter the building. He'd tried. Neville had chuckled at his story, shown him some rare plant he'd found, and suggested he get a hobby. Harry sort of goggled at him wondered if he'd ever had a hobby. Arthur had his hubcaps, and Hermoine had her books, and Ron had the Cannons. Harry didn't even play Quidditch anymore.

He stayed retired for a grand total of three days. He joined the Muggle gym down the street, because it never hurt to stay in top Auror condition, even if he wasn't allowed to train or work out with his team. On the third day, after swimming himself to exhaustion, he saw the sign on the window of the lifeguard office. In bold red letters, it proclaimed, "Constant Vigilance is Key." After showering, he walked into the office and asked for a job application. It was easy enough to fake identification and the challenge of creating a Muggle job and educational history was more fun than he'd had in years.

On the fourth day of his vacation, Harry Potter could be found perched in a lifeguard chair, whistling the latest song by the Vampirettes, watching the pool on his best Auror alert. He'd aced the test after very little studying from the book he'd borrowed to "refresh his memory". Lifeguard training was just like his own, but with no spells to aid the manual resuscitation. He'd gone home and told Ginny, in a rush of excitement, about his job. She'd smiled indulgently and gone back to feeding Lily. And getting spinach flung in her face. Some things never changed, and Harry Potter's 'saving people thing' was one of them.