A/N: I do not own the Harry Potter universe or any of the characters in it. This is a sequel to All of the Stars and I'd suggest that you read that first as otherwise some things won't make a whole lot of sense

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

Heroes of Hogwarts

By Natalia Donnelly

The Wizarding World is once again free to live in peace and prosperity all due to the heroics of Harry Potter and his supporters. Everyone knows the tale of the boy-who-lived but he is now the man-who-conquered. Contrary to many reports he was neither captured nor fled during the horrors of the past year. Instead he spent the past year learning about You-Know-Who and how to defeat him. His actions paid off as many of the witches and wizards who fought alongside him can attest to. "We thought he was dead when he was brought out of the forest but then this shield turned up in the middle of the hall and he appeared." Miss Vance, 40, states. Mr McMillan, 18, agrees saying "We all knew Harry was something special when he taught us in 5th year but that seems to have only skimmed the surface of what he's capable of. He's survived multiple brushes with death after all". I believe we all have to agree that Mr Potter is a most remarkable wizard.

He is not the only one however, with his absence at Hogwarts this year Mr Neville Longbottom became the leader and beacon of hope that so many needed inside the castle's walls. A close personal friend of Mr Potter's they share many similarities as they both grew up without their parents due to the darkest of magic. As many will remember Mr Longbottom's parents, Frank and Alice, were respected aurors until tortured into insanity by Bellatrix Lestrange amongst others. They have been patients of St Mungo's ever since. Their fighting spirit lives on their son as he refused to join You-Know-Who's new order and used a sword, rumoured to be Godric Gryffindor's own, to kill his familiar. Previous to this he had been hiding in a secret part of the castle after death eaters were unable to capture his grandmother and guardian Mrs Augusta Longbottom.

For all their efforts the castle still might have been lost except for one Charles Michael Weasley , older brother to Mr Potter's best friend Ronald, as he had spent the war gaining allies for the light from the European mainland where he works as a dragon tamer. Miss Smith, 16, explains that this was not all he did "It was chaos before he arrived we were all coming out of the secret passageway and we only had Professor Slughorn with us as well as the prefects such as myself that were too young to fight to maintain order. At first I thought he was just another of the villagers getting ready to help but then he started to organise everyone. He split us into those that were old enough to fight and those that had to stay behind. Then he got all of us with wizarding relatives to use the floos and ask for their help. Before he led all the adults off to the battle. He even gave me a special coin to look after that acted as a beacon for people to apparate to if they hadn't been to Hogsmeade before." Coverage continues on pg 3-11

xXx

Harry couldn't read anymore. Right there on the front page was an article about the 'Heroes of Hogwarts' without any mention of those like the Lupins or Colin Creevey who had given their life so that the rest of them could be free. He was sincerely regretting asking to see what exactly the press had been writing about whilst he recovered. If only Ginny hadn't mentioned it during their conversation in the Gryffindor common room while he had explained exactly what the three of them had been doing for the past year. If only he'd been a little less curious about it. They were the true heroes. Every last one of them.

It had been a little more than 24 hours since he had woken up from his magical coma and he had no idea about what to do with himself. After they had officially become a couple last night Charlie had shown him the final casualty list, 50 people had lost their lives that night, never to see the dawn of a world without Voldemort. He had also spent time with Teddy and knew that he would be raising him not just because there wasn't anyone else obvious, Andromeda had held double duty as godmother and grandmother, but because he couldn't cope with the idea that Teddy could have as miserable a childhood as he had. It wouldn't have been a fear of magic for him as there was no way that he could be put with a muggle family with his special abilities. However there was still significant anti-werewolf feeling and they had absolutely no idea how far along the spectrum Teddy would end up. Besides he couldn't bear the idea of ten, fifteen even twenty years down the line having to have a conversation with his godson of why he hadn't wanted him. There had always been a gap between he and Sirius for it , that he had given him to Hagrid rather than let someone else go after Pettigrew. He Had grown too independent way too young. That wasn't to say that he hadn't loved his godfather or that he hadn't mourned him because he had, he just hadn't let him all the way in. Now all he had to worry was Charlie's reaction to finding out that his new boyfriend now came with added baby.

"Hey, Harry!" He heard a familiar voice call from behind him

"How did you find me?" It wasn't such a stupid question as he was currently invisible and had sneaked out before any of his dorm mates had woken up.

"Forgot about the map, mate." Ron replied.

"Oh" he replied not being able to help his blush.

"Do you think you could take the cloak off. I hate talking to you with it on."

"Sure no problem." Harry lifted the cloak off and Ron continued.

"I've got you some food. Mione thought you wouldn't want to come to the great hall what with all the staring and touching. Merlin it was bad enough for the two of us. I can't believe I was ever a prat enough to think fame would be a good thing."

"Where is she by the way?"

"Where do you think? She's reacquainting herself with the library." Harry burst out laughing it was so like her. She's actually researching reversing all the charms she put on her parents didn't want to jinx herself by looking it up before in case she didn't get a chance. I don't know whether she ever told you but it was quite a bit more than just the memory stuff. She also found something that made people unplottable like a building so they couldn't be found with magic and some basic magic repelling ones as well."

"How's she going to find them, then?"

"Something called a yellow pages, I think. Apparently it tells muggles where other muggles are. Have to wait until we get a chance to get into the muggle world though to start to look. We're planning on going out to Australia when we get a chance you know after the funerals and Fred's more settled. You should come to it wouldn't be proper for us to head off on an adventure without you. Plus it'd do you good to get away from all the fawning."

"Thanks for the offer. It means a lot that you'd want me to tag along but I've got Teddy and Charlie to think of although I'm not sure when he's heading back to Romania." This made something occur to Harry and he blurted out the thought "So you're not going to come back then?"

"Nah I was never the studious type and it'll probably be the end of summer before we can go anyway. Can't see mum being particularly happy with me swanning off to the other side of the world after not having any contact for a year. Besides Hermione already asked McGonagall and Flitwick what the process is for taking your NEWTs independently when they came to tell us all about the 8th year offer. We haven't discussed it what with everything else going on but I think we both said goodbye to school after Dumbledore. I mean I don't feel like a child anymore, you know? Plus we missed out on a year of experiences for the rest of them. I mean I know our year was hardly fun and games but at least we were relatively free whereas all of them lived with cruel tyranny no matter what Snape did to protect them. Still can't believe the git was on our side though."

"Yeah all those times we suspected him and it never was. I know what you mean about Hogwarts too. I mean it was my first home, the first place I can remember I was unconditionally accepted by anyone, but it doesn't feel like home anymore. I can't imagine walking down that corridor and not seeing Fred almost be killed or go into the hall and see Lupin's body there, it's got tainted for me."

"At least we'll be able to see those that do return often. The rules are going to be much more lax for the returners. As they'll be their own house they'll be allowed out every weekend not just Hogsmeade trips and no curfew. McGonagall said that it would be a sort of stepping stone between school and work. I feel a little sorry for Nev though I mean he would be shoo in for head boy but they're keeping the prefects to the usual years."

"Yeah I see your point but he stood up to Voldemort in front of everyone, destroyed a horcrux and got his grandmother's approval so I don't think he'll feel too hard done by even if he was the type to."

"Yeah you should have seen the girls around him particularly when Charlie shooed them away and you were missing."

"There were girls all over Charlie?!"

"Oops sorry didn't mean to mention that, but nothing happened he was even curter to them than you are and he had Fleur's pregnancy belly as a shield. Still basically sprinted away with Hagrid though. He and Fleur are helping to heal the injured animals. Apparently Veela are particularly good with nature. Can't say I was paying all that much attention to the explanation."

"Yeah Charlie said that's what he would be doing last night. Apparently there's not many around who could be useful and most of them have skills that are better used in the reconstruction so the forest's been a bit neglected what with Hagrid's absence and then for the past few days he refused to leave my side rather than help.

"Yeah the three of us didn't leave the tent, most time we've spent together for ages. I mean apart from our worry about you it was actually really nice to spend so much time with him."

"I should check on Teddy. Do you wanna come? I left him with the house elves when I snuck out."

"Yeah sure thing." They got up off the stands and headed back into the castle.

A/N: The Yellow Pages is what brits, such as myself, call a phone book. Plus this is set in book timeline so it's May '98 and the internet was still quite rare at least in my memory. My family got our computer hooked up to AOL that year and I was the first of my friends to have access so I felt it wouldn't be out of character for even Hermione not to know about it or for it not to be that useful.