CHAPTER 01 – DAWN OF A NEW ERA
The three friends left Dumbledore's room and started walking their way to the great hall. A few steps latter, Harry stopped. Tears started to fall from his green eyes. Ron and Hermione noticed that Harry wasn't keeping up with them and turned around.
"Harry?" asked Hermione. Harry stood still, trying to say something, but the words wouldn't leave his mouth. After some very silent seconds, he said.
"Ron… Hermione… thank you. For everything."
Hermione ran to his friend and have him a big hug, tears falling from her eyes too. Ron came right after her. No words had to be said.
"Harry…" Hermione said, breaking the hug "what do you plan to do right now? I'm pretty sure everyone at Hogwarts wants an explanation about the events that just happened. I mean, you can't just kill Voldemort and expect everybody to leave you alone…"
Hermione had a point. Harry wasn't really prepared to talk about everything. Not just yet.
"Now, I just want to sleep. I don't want to run away from this, but I don't want to talk about it now. It seems easy to just say a bunch of words, then shout a spell, watch it backfire Voldemort's own spell and kill him and, although I was confident, I was also as afraid as you were."
"We understand it mate." said Ron. "If I were in your place, I would just want to get some rest after all this."
Then, somebody appeared on the other side of the corridor where Dumbledore's room was.
"Mr. Potter. Mr. Weasley. Mrs. Granger. Would you three please follow me to the Great Hall?" McGonagall asked.
"What's wrong professor?" asked Hermione, a little afraid that Harry wouldn't get his desired rest.
"Don't worry, you three are not going to talk at all. I promise. We are all tired, but Kingsley and I have to say some final words before we all sleep."
With that in mind, the trio followed her to the Great Hall, where McGonagall asked them to sit in the Gryffindor table. Harry didn't like that idea, as every eye in the room seemed to follow him. But Kingsley quickly caught everybody's attention when he stood up from the teacher's table.
"My friends," started Kingsley "as some of you know, I've been elected temporary Minister of Magic just during these hard times. But it turns out these hard times have ended, thanks to all of you. You have the sincerest gratitude from the Minister of Magic for everything you have done to our world today. Some of us died in the process but I'm sure they did it so that we could explode in happiness when we saw the Dark Lord fall dead. Now, I'm sure McGonagall has some words to say too."
"Thank you minister. Students of Hogwarts, I can't thank you enough. The school is in a really bad shape, but, if it wasn't for you, I believe it would be totally destroyed by now. Today you showed to have more courage than most brilliant wizards out there and this school is never going to forget that."
"Now, I believe we are all tired. Everyone is welcome to sleep here tonight. Students can go to their common rooms and non-students will sleep here in the Great Halls in conjured beds. I'll be giving more news tomorrow. Good night."
With that, everybody stood up and started moving. Harry, once again, put on the Invisibility Cloak to avoid conversation and got to the Gryffindor common room before everyone else (with the help of some of the Marauder's Map shortcuts) and got into his bedroom and into his bed. He didn't sleep though.
He still couldn't believe Voldemort was gone. He was free, at last. The whole world was free. He won the battle. He, Ron and Hermione destroyed all the Horcruxes (with a little help from Neville, of course). He could finally have a normal life. He could finally have peace. He could finally be with his loved girl once again.
A knock in the bedroom's door brought Harry back to life.
"Harry?"
"I'm here Ron. Come in."
Ron entered the room, followed by Neville, Dean and Seamus.
"Don't worry," Neville said, noticing Harry flinching by the sight of his other roommates "we are too tired to ask you anything. Besides, we don't feel like forcing you to talk about it if you don't want."
"T-thanks…", Harry said. "But let me tell you, that was a great job, killing Nagini."
"Nagini? Who's Nagini?"
"The snake. I'll explain later, ok?"
"Fine."
And, with that, the five friends fall asleep.
**********
As soon as Harry's eyes closed, he felt somebody knocking him with a pillow.
"Wake up!"
"What the.." and another pillow hit him.
"Come on Harry, I'm starving! We better get moving or we'll miss breakfast."
Then, Harry realized. It was another day already. It seemed to him that everything was a dream coming true, he wasn't completely over the facts that happened the night before. Ron noticed that in Harry's expression and smiled.
"You still don't believe it, do you?"
"I do. But it's just too good to be true, you know. You have no idea how it feels to finally end it."
"Well, it's not over yet. I bet there will me a lot of reporters dying to ask you tons of questions."
Harry started laughing. It was indeed too good to be true.
"Hey, yesterday you almost hide yourself under the bed when Neville and the other appeared in the room, worrying that they were going to ask you questions. Now, not only there may be far more than three people, but they are going to tell the whole world everything you tell them!"
"Think about it Ron: exactly 24 hours ago, what was our main problem?"
"Find and destroy all the Horcruxes."
"Right. Now my biggest problem is to deal with a bunch of reporters!" Harry was jumping with a big smile. "I mean, not that I'm telling them everything if they are really there, but it's much easier to deal with it."
"Yes, you really have a point there. Now, can we get some food or what?"
"Yes. I'm starving too, I barely ate yesterday at the feast. I just want to ask you a question before we go."
"Go ahead then."
"I've been thinking for some minutes before sleeping last night… about…" Harry hesitated…
"Ginny?" Ron asked.
"Y-yes…"
"Well, there's nothing I can do right? You should have seen her when she thought you were dead."
"How was she?" Harry asked.
"You'll have to ask her that. I could just tell that I never saw her that sad." Ron's stomach cried "Now, shall we go?"
As soon as the boys left the room, Hermione jumped to them.
"Hi you two!" she kissed Ron in the mouth and then hugged Harry like an older sister. "Are you alright Harry?"
"I'm fine but… what did I just saw here?"
"Ah, that…" Hermione started… "let's get going, we'll tell you on the way to the Great Hall."
**********
"I'm going ahead. See you two tomorrow, good night." Said Harry, with the Invisibility Cloak already on.
"I guess he's taking that 'No Questions' policy really serious." Ron said.
"Come on Ron, live him alone for now!" Hermione said, already walking with Ron to the common room slowly. She didn't notice, but he was holding her hand.
"Hey Hermione, mind taking another path to the common room?"
"No, but why?"
"N-nothing… just come with me, ok?"
"Fine."
Just as they left the crowd, Hermione noticed her hand in Ron's and blushed. She didn't remove her hand though.
A couple minutes later, they were in the Prefects bathroom corridor, where Ron stopped. Hermione stopped in front on him and was about to ask what they where doing there when Ron kissed her passionately. Hermione was caught off-guard by that, but simply replied to the kiss. When they finally stopped, Ron started:
"Good think you answered the kiss. I was afraid that kiss in the Room of Requirement was a dream. A very good dream by the way."
Hermione laughed.
"You're so dumb, you know that?" she said that hugging him.
"Now", Ron said with some tears falling in Hermione's ear "it's time for a man to start correcting some mistakes a certain boy made in the last years."
Tears of joy and happiness fell from Hermione's eyes. She couldn't believe it. The man she loved was finally with her. She noticed all over the ear that Ron was been specially gentle with her but she couldn't really understand why. Then, he left her and Harry when they needed him the most and, although he came back, she was still confused with Ron's strange behavior. Then, at Malfoy's Manor, when she was being tortured by Bellatrix, she could hear a distant voice calling her name, but she couldn't tell whose voice it was. And when she finally woke up, he was there, crying, begging for her to stay with him.
After that, she started to like him even more. She now had a proof that Ron really cared for her. But, in a normal situation, he wouldn't show it. She was scared to do something that would scare him even more. But, when Ron mentioned the house elves in the Room of Requirement, she couldn't take it: she just loved that man. Too bad there was a war going on outside that room.
"I'm sorry for not inviting you to come to the Yule Ball with me." Ron started, after another kiss. "I was an idiot that time, I wasn't sure how I felt about you, I had that crush on Fleur that didn't allow me to 'notice you were a girl' and, finally, Krum made me focus on getting him away from you instead of making me get close to you faster. Can you forgive that boy with 'the emotional range of a teaspoon'?"
Hermione kissed him again.
"I love you."
"I love you too Hermione." She smiled. "I finally realized that in Malfoy Manor, when…" she stopped him.
"You don't need to say anything now. I know it's hard for a teaspoon to express feelings" Ron laughed at that "so you don't need to say it now if you want. I've heard what I wanted to hear, thank you very much!"
Ron smiled. She was just wonderful. She understood him more than anyone in the world. He never talked with anybody about how he felt in Malfoy Manor when Hermione was being tortured, not even with Harry and, yet, she knew it would destroy him, even though she was there, right in his arms.
They kissed once again, cleaned the tears from their faces and headed back to Gryffindor's common room, holding hands and with the most wonderful feeling a human being can feel: love.
**********
"Oh my!" Harry gasped "That is some news!"
"Yeah, yeah, right" said a very blushed Ron – Hermione told Harry everything alone. "Now Harry, what are you planning to do with my little sister?"
"I certainly don't have a plan like you had Ron. But don't worry, I'll figure it out soon."
When they arrived at the Great Hall, only a few Hufflepuff students were finishing breakfeast. And, to Harry's great relief, there was not a single reporter, not a single camera. As they sat down on the Griffyndor table to eat, Neville appeared.
"Hello you three. Are you guys okay?"
"Yes, thank you Neville!" said Hermione. As she answered that, she found Ron's hand under the table, held it and thought she couldn't be any better.
"Neville, did McGonagall say something before breakfast?" Harry asked "She said she was going to give us some news…"
"No. She only said that everyone should stay for tonight's feast. First because it's going to be like the feasts of the first and last day of school. Second because those news are going to be told after the feast. She said the feast would start at eight o'clock precisely."
"I see. Well, we have a free day then." Harry said.
"Have you seen my family Neville?" Ron asked.
Just as he asked this, Harry and Hermione remembered: Fred died. Harry couldn't help himself with thinking it was his fault that Fred died.
"Everyone but Ginny and George are at your home." Neville said, interrupting the silence "That's why I came here, they left you three a message with me." Neville got a piece of parchment out of a pocket and handed it to Ron, that recognized the handwriting as Percy's and read it to the four of them.
Dear Harry, Ron and Hermione
When you three wake up, we'll be at the Burrow, except for Ginny and George. Arthur, Bill and Charlie are helping Kingsley cover the news of yesterday: the Battle of Hogwarts, as the ministry called the events of yesterday, are in every single newspaper. Of course, the only true part of the news is that You-Know-Who is dead and that Harry Potter killed him. How it was done though is all speculation.
I myself am charged of visiting every single family of the people that died yesterday to tell them of the bad news and to invite them to the feast of today. It's a bad work, I know, but it has to be done.
And there's Mom. She's still very sad (we all are in fact, but she shows it more than us) about Fred's death and she's making sure Fred's body is okay for some time until we make him a proper funeral. She also had me write in here a special note to Harry: "Harry dear, we don't blame you. We are very proud of you and also very proud of Fred. He died fighting for a better world, fighting for a future where the next generations could live in peace."
We are all coming to the feast, so see you there.
Percy.
"Do you know where George and Ginny are Neville?" Ron asked, worried about his brother and his sister.
"I saw Ginny outside after breakfast Ron. As for George… McGonagall said he ate breakfast at the Burrow, came back through her fireplace and no one saw him since then."
"Thank you Neville. I'm going after them when we finish here."
"Ah, Harry…" Neville asked, a little embarrassed "I know you don't really want to talk about it, but can you tell me a little more about that snake? Nagini, right?"
"Yes. Let's just say that, if you haven't killed Nagini, Voldemort wouldn't be dead."
"Merlin's Pants! This is big then! Thank you Harry!"
"Thank you Neville. I'll explain the whole story for you sometime. This is a promise. For everything you did for the Dumbledore's Army and for me, you deserve to know the truth about everything."
"Now that is something I wasn't expecting! Thanks a lot!" Neville hugged Harry "Now I need to go. I'm helping Prof. Sprout with the plants, putting them back on the greenhouses. See you three at the feast!"
Fifteen minutes later, they finished breakfast and Ron went with Hermione in search of George. Harry went to find Ginny.
According to Neville, Ginny has outside. Where, he didn't know. He decided just to walk, hoping to find her on the way. He remembered their first kiss, when he came back from Snape's detention and learned that Gryffindor won the final match against Ravenclaw and, consequently, the House Cup. There, they spontaneously kissed. He remembered the exact feeling. She just made him forget every single problem of his life in those precious seconds. There was no detention. There was no exam. There was no Snape. There were no Death Eathers. There were no prophecies. There was no Voldemort. There was just him and Ginny, united together in their lips, that Harry wished to feel once again.
Just as Harry came back from his thoughts, he saw he was by the lake. It was calm, the wind was making small waves on the water's surface and the sky was in a perfect blue. But Harry didn't notice any of this. Instead, his eyes sighted a redhead girl on the other side of the lake, in school robes. She was on her feet, her face looking to the sky. Harry found small rock near him and threw it far, to the other side of the lake. The rock fell inside the lake, near Ginny and the sound told her she wasn't alone anymore.
And she saw him. The boy she loved. The boy she missed the hole year. The boy she wanted to be with her at that very moment. In school robes, his untamed hair following the wind's direction and his scar in his forehead. When she looked at him, he was already looking at her with a big smile at his face.
She started running beside the lake. Harry did the same, running towards her. It seemed they were miles away. Those ten seconds seemed like forever in Harry's mind. He couldn't wait anymore. He needed to hold her, hug her, kiss her, tell her how she was important to him. Tell how he felt when he saw her from the invisibility cloak, thinking that it would be the last time he would see her. Tell how he looked at the Marauder's Map every night to see if she was alright.
And they finally met at the middle of the run. An enormous hug followed by a long and waited kiss was all that happened in Harry's mind in the next couple of minutes. No explanation was really necessary, he just knew it. He was with her, all those feelings were back, stronger than before. He knews that he could spend the rest of his life with her. Then, he cut the kiss, crying a little bit:
"I'm never ever leaving you again. I'm killing Voldemort again if this is what it takes to be with you."
"I'll take that as a 'Yes, my quest is over' ". They laughed.
"Ginny, I love you. I just know I felt lonely every night, apparating from one place to another and having only the Marauder's Map to check that you were alright."
"I love you too Harry. Merlin knows what I felt when I thought you were dead." And she hit him in the shoulder "Why did you do that to me?"
"That's not the time to talk about this." And he kissed her once again.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This is my first fan fic ever. Hope I did well. Review, please! A beta-reader would be nice too... New chapters are coming soon, I hope.