Chapter 1: After the war

As wizards from all over the country, some foreign, arrived to help rebuild, there was a distinct sorrow in the air. It was the smell of death. It was the sight of all the destruction that had taken place. All the blood everywhere. The wands of those who died strone about. The only place where anyone had ever seen so many unused wands was in a wand shop. It was the sound of cries and mourning.

Harry's mind was full of emotion and thought. Full of sorrow and pain. Yet he felt hollow, empty, and like he would never feel joy again. They had just won the war. Yet he felt like a new war had just begun. A war against depression. All was well, but all was not well. The only thing good, was that Voldemort, Bellatrix, and many other death eaters, were dead. The man that killed his parents was dead. The woman that killed his godfather, was dead.

Right after the war, all he wanted to do was hug his friends, say sorry to those who had lost loved ones, and thank those who fought with and for him. However, when the time came, he found he couldn't face them. He terrified that the ones he loved would hate him, never talk to him again, that they would regret fight with and for him, and that they would blame him for the deaths. He was afraid that they would say that they wished he'd just turned himself in long ago. So he hid.

Harry found the room of requirement, which was empty because everyone had either left to fight or to mourn loved ones. When he went inside, it was the room he had been in earlier that had the passageway from Hogsmeade, and kids had hidden in the previous year. It was the last place that he'd seen many alive. He stayed there and no one found him for hours, maybe days, he didn't know, nor did he care.

He was reading Hogwarts: A History because Hermione had pestered him about reading it for years, so he figured it was least he could do. Then he smelled it. It was a smell he loved. The smell he'd smelled all of his sixth year. The smell he'd smelled all last summer. The smell he'd smelled in the cauldron of amortentia during professor Slughorn's potions class. He slowly looked up.

"Harry" a soft, beautiful voice said. He saw, standing before him, the person he had most wanted to see, Ginny.

"People have been looking for you for hours. I was looking too, all through through the castle, then it hit me 'Where did you go to hide when you were a student? The room of requirement.', so ran up here as fast as I could. As I walked by the room three times I thought 'I need the place where Harry is' and I walked and there you were." Ginny said.

"Can you ever forgive me?" he said.

"For what?"

"For dragging you and your family into this. For not turning myself in. For causing so many people to die. For putting so many people in danger. For hiding in here."

"Oh Harry!" she wailed, hugging him, "We all wanted to fight! And you didn't kill them!"

"But if I had just turned myself in" Ginny cut him off.

"Voldemort would have killed us all! You know that!"

"Oh Ginny!" he sobbed, collapsing into her arms, "I can't face everyone. What if they never forgive me?"

"Harry James Potter! You just came back from the dead, defying Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard of all time, for the billionth time, and then killed him! Now come on!" she started trying to drag him out of the room.

"Ginny wait...I need to tell you something," Harry had stopped crying and was holding his ground. She stopped and turned around to look at him. She stared into his eyes as he stared into hers. "I love you." he said. She walked over to him and kissed him.

"I love you too."

Harry and Ginny went down to the great hall where everyone instantly crowded around him, hugging him. He told the Weasleys that he was sorry about Fred and sorry that he'd dragged them into this. They all said that they wanted to fight, and that he'd done more that enough by defeating Voldemort.

After many sorrowful days, Harry got an idea. The idea consumed him, until he knew he had to. He told Ginny, Hermione, and Ron that he was leaving, but he didn't tell them where, and left.