Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I am not making any money off of writing this story.

Chapter One

A New Beginning

Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Headmasters' office, trying to comprehend all that had happened that night. They were sitting in silence, but all of them were surely thinking of the same thing. The war had been won, and they were the ones who were finally able to finish it. But, this had come at a price. So many people gave their life for this cause, and yet again Harry couldn't help but feel responsible. If only he had acted quicker he was sure a few of their lives would have been spared. But he couldn't dwell on that thought now, because there was still a lot left to do and he was extremely tired.

"Well, I think its time that I go put this back in its rightful place," said Harry as he gestured to the elder wand, finally breaking the silence.

"But mate, are you sure you don't want to keep it? I mean think of what you could do with that!" said Ron looking like he was about to get sick.

"Yes Ron, like I said I'm more than happy with my old wand. But I'll need you both to understand that this is something I'll have to do alone. Please tell everyone I wont be long, I'll meet you back in the Great Hall in say, twenty minutes?" Harry said as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Are you sure you don't want us to come Harry?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"Yes, I'm sure. Your family needs you right now Ron. I'll be back in no time." Harry said as he put on his invisibility cloak and pushed past the stone Gargoyle. He had decided he wouldn't take any chances on being interrupted.

As Harry expertly wove through a series of secret passageways he couldn't stop himself but to think about the hundreds of people who put their lives danger in for him tonight, and felt a mixture of gratitude and grief. He quickly found himself at the entrance to the grounds and set out towards the White Tomb. Although knowing that the Weasley's would never blame him for Fred's death there was a huge knot in his stomach, and he knew it wasn't from hunger.

When he reached the Tomb he took a quick moment outside of it to brace himself for what he was about to do. Although he had just talked to Albus Dumbledore a few minutes previously he still found breaking into his burial place very hard. He took a deep breath, thankfully noticed that Voldemort didn't bother to re-seal the door, and pushed it open. He drew his wand swiftly from his pocket, not wanting to waste any time.

"Lumos," Harry murmured.

He held his wand high so the light spread throughout the Tomb. Dumbledore was lying peacefully with his hands placed on his chest. His half moon glasses placed on the bridge of his nose, as usual. Harry took the Elder Wand out of his jacket pocket and slipped it between his Headmaster's hands. Harry took one last fleeting look before he turned to leave, but stopped and turned around again when he reached the door. Tears had welled in his eyes and when he spoke his voice was soft, and cracked from emotion.

"Sir, thank you for everything that you have done for me. I know I had my doubts about you all through the year, but like always you knew what you were doing and your plan worked perfectly. You saved my life, and I will always be grateful of the knowledge that you have passed on to me." Harry finished as he the brushed the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Nox," Harry said as he pushed the tomb door tightly shut. He started to make his way back to the castle, but it was when he was half way back he finally took his first look at the outside of the school. Almost all the windows were smashed, some walls were knocked in, and by the looks of it some of the towers almost got fully blasted away. This made his remember the four-poster bed that was awaiting him up in Gryffindor tower, but he knew he should check in with everyone before he got to sleep for the first time since being at Shell Cottage.

He reached the front doors and pulled them open, making his way a short distance towards the great hall hoping that he hadn't been longer then twenty minutes so that no one had any reason to worry about him. He took of the invisibility cloak and stowed it away in his jacket. He walked around a corner and into the great hall and found Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Bill, Charlie, Percy and George sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"Harry!" Ginny exclaimed as she was rising out of her seat. She ran up the stairs and jumped into a huge hug. Harry caught her and pulled her tight, smelling the flowery scent he loved so much. He wanted nothing more then to kiss her, but when he pulled back and looked into her deep brown eyes he caught a glimpse of her family behind her. He pulled out of the hug quickly trying to cover up what he was about to do; it seemed to work because none of the family was looking there way anymore.

"Harry I though I'd lost you, I don't know what I would have done with myself!" said Ginny with tears swimming in her beautiful eyes.

"Well I'm here Ginny, and I wont be leaving you anytime soon. That's a promise, okay?" Harry said as he brushed away the tears. "We'll talk more about us tomorrow alright? Right now I really need to go get some sleep. I just wanted to tell everyone that I was okay."

"Okay, but you better not forget because there are a lot of things I want explained Harry Potter," said Ginny with a menacing smile

Harry smiled and led her back to the table where everyone was sitting. Bill and Charlie clapped him on the back to say hello; Percy looked up momentarily and gave a small smile. Hermione, who was resting her head on Ron's shoulder, spoke first.

"Did you get what you needed to do done Harry?"

"Yeah, it wasn't easy but I did it. Now all I need is some food and a good nights sleep. Where are your mum and dad Ron?" he replied.

"They're talking to McGonagall, planning out Fred's funeral I think." Said Ron as a tear rolled down his face.

At these words, Percy unexpectedly let out a loud sob. Bill, who was trying to calm him down, quickly comforted him.

"Why did Fred have to die? Why couldn't it have been me?" Percy wailed "I'm the one who did wrong, not Fred. If I just didn't make that joke he would still be with us, this is all my fault." He finished with a loud sob.

Bill was the quickest to reply.

"Percy it's not your fault, we all knew what we were risking when we were started to fight. Fred wouldn't want us to be like this, he wouldn't want us crying over him, he'd want us to remember all the good times and laughs we had together. He wanted us to have a safer world, one without You-Know-Who and we have it now, because of his and many others sacrifice. Now I think we should all go up to bed, it's been a long day for everyone. Let's all meet here for lunch tomorrow, so we can decide where we want to go from there. Sound good?" Bill finally finished.

There was a murmur or general agreement and after Bill wrote a note for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley they all made there way up to Gryffindor tower. Harry couldn't have been happier as he finally bade everyone good night and made his way up into the boy's dormitories, where he found his four-poster bed eagerly awaiting him. He was asleep before he hit the mattress.

Harry awoke the next day and felt more rested then he had been in a long time. By the amount of sun that was shining through the window Harry would have guessed it was at least mid afternoon. He rolled out of bed rubbing his eyes, and looked at the watch the Weasley's had given him for his seventeenth birthday, which read 4:23. Although this did not surprise Harry, given the fact that when he had gone to bed it was around six in the morning. He decided it would probably be a good idea to have a shower and get a change of clothes.

"Kreacher!" Harry called.

There was a loud crack, and his faithful house elf stood before him. He was greeted by a deep bow that lasted a few seconds before Harry spoke.

"Kreacher could you please go to Grimmauld Place and grab me a set of clean clothes, nothing to fancy though. Come back and leave it on my bed for me?" Harry inquired. "Oh, and can you take my invisibility cloak and wash it?" Harry asked as he remembered being hit by something that was thrown by peeves during the battle.

"Yes, of course Master Harry. Kreacher will do anything for his Master, the one who conquered the Dark Lord!" croaked Kreacher as he was bowing. With another crack he was gone.

Harry then walked off into the Gryffindor bathroom and had a quick shower. He returned to find just the outfit he was thinking of on his bed, along with his favorite sandwich. He ate the sandwich in about thirty seconds, and then changed into his clean clothes. Living without Kreacher for almost a year really makes you appreciate having him back Harry realized. Harry walked downstairs into the Gryffindor common room and saw just what he wanted to see most, Ginny alone. She was sleeping on one of the most comfortable armchairs by the fire. Harry assumed she was waiting for him to come down for lunch before she dozed off. He walked up to her and placed his hand lightly on her cheek, and stroked a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

"Wake up Gin," Harry softly said.

She slowly started to stir, and awoke with a large yawn. The yawn quickly turned into a smile when she saw that Harry was standing above her.

"Good after noon sleepy head," Ginny cheekily remarked. "I thought you were never going to wake up."

"Yeah well I've had a pretty eventful couple of days you could say," said Harry as he eased into the armchair opposite Ginny. "What's everyone decided on doing?"

"Well everyone but Ron, Hermione and I went back to our house this morning around 12:00. I wanted to talk to you about everything that's happened but my mom was going to make me come home until McGonagall said she wanted to talk to the four of us. Even me for some reason, but she wont say what it's about until you are there with us." Ginny said as she began to stretch.

"Well she wants to know everything about last year I'm assuming," Harry said. "But I don't know why you have to be there for that."

"You still are planning on telling me, aren't you?" Ginny said as she cast a harsh look towards Harry.

"Well I'm going to end up telling McGonagall about everything while you're there anyway. But if you really want to know right away I can tell you now." Harry replied.

"I guess I could wait a couple of minutes," Ginny said with a sigh. "But there is one thing that I do want to know right now. Now that Voldemort is gone for good, what are we?" Ginny was biting her lip; she always does that when she's nervous thought Harry.

"Well, the only reason I broke up with you last year was because I thought Voldemort was going to find you and use you against me. All last year your all I could think about, every second of the day I was worried that something was going to happen to you. I've missed you so much over this part year Gin." Harry sincerely said.

After Harry said this there was an awkward pause, and he thought she was about to say that she didn't have those feelings for him anymore. But right as this thought crossed his mind she jumped out of her armchair and onto Harry, and kissed him just like she did on his birthday last year. A year's worth of emotion between the two of them came out in this single kiss, and when they finally broke apart they were gasping for breath. Harry looked into her deep brown eyes, and then they shared a tight hug.

"I've missed you to Harry," Ginny finally said. "I want to have everything we had before you left, because I can honestly say those were the best couple weeks of my life."

"I want that to Gin, and we will have it. But what do you want to do right now, are you ready to tell your family? What about Ron and Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Well I don't see any reason we should hide it, so when we see them, we'll tell them. But by the sound of it McGonagall really wanted to talk to us so we should probably go and see her first. Where do think Ron and Hermione are?" Ginny wondered.

"Well there's one way I know how we can find out," Harry said with a mischievous smile. He pulled out the Marauders Map, tapped it with his wand and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"I forgot you had that! I haven't seen it since you first showed it to me when we were dating last year!" Ginny said excitedly.

Harry checked the map for his two best friends, and quickly found them. They were sitting alone in the Great Hall. Harry and Ginny left the common room in a hurry, despite a bit of snogging first. They were down the staircases and walking through the hallway when they had to double back because of a collapsed roof on the first floor. Luckily Harry knew a passageway that came out just in front of the cave in, and they had joined their friends who were in the middle of a game of wizards chess.

"How nice of you to finally join us Harry," said Ron with a laugh.

"Oh very funny," Harry replied. "What have you two been up to today?"

"Well we got up around 11:30. Talked to Ron's family for a while before they left for The Burrow. They all seem to be doing a little better, after what Bill said last night. Then we helped McGonagall and Flitwick repair a wall up on the fourth floor, and then we had to repair all of the windows on the top floor. It was pretty tiring so we came down for a break." Hermione said as Ron's queen smashed her knight to bits.

"It's to bad we had to miss out on all the fun isn't it Harry?" said Ginny with a mocking frown.

"Yeah that sounds really exciting. But now that we're all here we should go talk to McGonagall, she seems to want to talk to us pretty bad. What's going on for tonight though?" Harry wondered. "Are we staying here or are we apparating back to The Burrow?"

"Well my mom wanted us to come home for dinner, but since talking with McGonagall might take a few hours to explain everything we mine as well stay here another night. I'll apparate back to our house quickly just so she doesn't worry. I'll be back in about 10 minutes." Ron finished with a glance at his watch.

Harry thought after listening to Hermione constantly tell Ron you couldn't apparate in or out of Hogwarts he would've learned by now. So when Ron gave Hermione a kiss on the cheek and turned on spot and vanished, Harry was really surprised. But then he thought that all of the protective enchantments are probably still down from the night before.

"Hermione, I wanted to ask your advice on something." Ginny said.

"Okay, go ahead," said Hermione who was slightly surprised.

"Well Harry and I were talking in the common room for a while before we came down, and we've decided that we're going to start things back up again. But I just don't know how Ron will take it. Don't get me wrong I don't care he if says no. I just want him to be the least mad possible." Ginny said as she took Harry's hand.

"Well I talked to him about that this morning. I told him that now that Voldemort is gone you two would probably get back together. He didn't seem very mad, he just doesn't want you to get hurt again Ginny." Hermione explained.

"Well that's good," said Harry "Because she won't be. We'll tell him when he gets back then Gin?"

Ginny nodded as a large crack sounded right behind Hermione, who jumped a foot off of her chair. Both Harry and Ginny laughed very hard as Hermione shouted at Ron for scaring her. Ron looked over at Harry and Ginny and noticed they were holding hands.

"Hermione, do you always have to be right?" Ron said as he rolled his eyes. "I'm assuming you two are back together then?"

"Yeah, we are." Harry said as Ginny nodded.

"We'll since the last time you two were dating was the happiest I've ever seen either of you I'll let this go. But I just don't want either of you to get hurt. Mostly Ginny though, because if she gets hurt I'll be the one hurting you Harry." Ron finished seriously.

"Well I'm not worried mate," said Harry "Because I know she's not going to get hurt."

"Alright, well now that that's settled. We can finally go see McGonagall and I can hear about what you three have been actually doing this past year. Neville told me that you guys broke into Gringotts and escaped on a dragon but I told him that there was no way that you did that and to stop lying like a little prat." Ginny said angrily as the four of them got up and walked into the hall.

"Actually Gin, that one's actually true," Harry said with a laugh at Ginny's jaw dropping.

"Ok, now I really can't wait to hear about this" Ginny eagerly said as they reached the stone gargoyle that guard's the headmasters office.