Authors Note: Well here it is. My first fan fiction, much less Harry Potter in quite a few years. A note to people there are Deathly Hallows spoilers, MAJOR spoilers, so if you don't want to know or haven't read the book yet, then don't read this story! This story is going to take place within the missing 19 years of DH's. From the end of the main part of the book, and ending right before the epilogue. Feel free to leave reviews and constructive criticisms, I welcome and appreciate them all, and if at all possible I'll try and reply to them if need be. :) Enjoy the story (though there's not much action in this part of it)!

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I'm not as of yet rich enough to purchase the rights of the Harry Potter franchise. And I can rightly say I never will be. All I can hope is that I one day make a name for myself, though it probably won't be through my writing. All characters and places belong to the amazing J.K. Rowling. Only the events (that haven't been hinted at in the epilogue, such as births and whatnot) in the years in between belong to myself.

The day had been so long, so devastating, so rewarding. The best and the worst day Harry could ever have ever imagined.

He thought of Fred, of Remus and of Tonks. Lives cut short, that could have been so long and so filled with joy and happiness. It was so hard to believe just how many people had died in the war.

His thoughts drifted to Teddy, a few months old and no parents to speak of. It was something Harry could relate to quite well. His heart broke for that little baby, even though Harry knew Teddy would grow up with a totally different childhood than he himself had. A life filled with love and people who cared deeply for him, and no horrors in the world to deal with at such a young age.. He thought of the possibility of becoming the godfather for Teddy, that Sirius could not be for he himself. But to grow up without parents, his rightful parents, was something he knew Teddy would have to deal with as he grew older and understood the world a bit better. Harry was sure he could be someone Teddy could talk to when that time came.

As his thought drifted he sighed as he looked at a dark spot at the top of his four-poster bed, reflecting. Ron was down in the Great Hall with his parents and Hermione, they had passed by the Great Hall in returning to the Gryffindor tower after speaking with Dumbledore's portrait. Ron and Hermione decided to stay with the Weasley's who were mourning Fred.

He knew he should have stayed as well, but he couldn't bear the thought of being surrounded by so many people at the moment as much as he wished he could. People would ask questions, they always did. Especially of him, this all happened because of him. And he couldn't bear to be around so many dead bodies. He shut his eyes. They were so lifeless.

He knew the Weasley family, especially George would never be quite the same without Fred. When you thought of the Weasley's the twins were right there at the top. Their humor so brightening even at the darkest of days. And it was quite hard to believe, that there would be only one twin now roaming the aisles of the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes stores in the near future. The war had claimed so many wonderful lives in the short hours the battle had been fought.

And then it hit him, it was over. Finally. Seventeen years culminated to this day, the day the Dark Lord was finally defeated. And Harry was exhausted mentally and physically, from the past 7 years. At this moment all he wanted to do was to sleep.

And so he did, the darkness engulfed him as he amazingly had a sleep without dreams and nightmares and instead had a sleep of darkness and peace for the first time in 17 years.

…

He awoke to the muffled chatter of voices, all of which he recognized. Harry groaned, the events of the day hitting him like a brick wall. It was night now he realized as he opened his eyes. The sun did not shine through the windows of the room. The battle having been won in the early hours of the morning, he realized he had lingered in peaceful sleep for far too long, but it was quite welcome. The voices stopped when they realized a shift in the recently sleeping form, and the curtain to the bed pulled wider to a sea of redheads, and one bushy-haired brunette, Harry fumbled to get his black, round glasses, placed squarely on his head.

"You're awake, finally!" Ron's voice drifted from behind Ginny's flaming red hair, as she gave him a swift, but lighthearted slap. She smiled, though it faltered.

"How are you feeling, dear?" Mrs. Weasley's voice drifted from behind both Ron and Ginny, Harry could hear the hurt in her voice as he found her eyes, bloodshot red, from weeping.

He couldn't imagine why she would be worried about him, there was so much other stuff to be dealing with. She had lost a son. But then he thought of the numerous times Mrs. Weasley had been open at considering him as good as a son, welcoming him as a mother would, as best as she could. And he realized he had a family with them, he was just one more son that she had all but adopted.

"Fine," he mumbled as he sat up, his hair standing on end awkwardly. Sections of his jet-black hair, going off in all directions. He couldn't see it, but he knew his hair and he knew it had a mind of it's own.

The sound was small and muffled at first, the attempt of a person trying to contain it at the sight of Harry's hair (and because the idea of laughter at the moment was probably something that would not be accepted). But the giggles could not be contained and the beautiful sound of Ginny's laughter filled the dormitory.

At first the others, Ron, Mr. & Mrs. Weasley, and Hermione, looked at Ginny with a little curiosity and with more than enough hesitation, before they to allowed themselves a right old giggle at the sight of Harry's hair. It was as if the darkness of the day and what they all had gone through was lifted just slightly at that moment, for the moment. Harry looked at them curiously before shaking his head, a smile playing on his lips, and feeling a bit better than before, as they stopped.

He would have expected to have seen Ron and Hermione here (and maybe even Ginny), but not Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. He knew they all might have been worried about him, but they had much more to deal with at the moment, he was sure. There was something they wanted, and it hung in the darkness of the room.

It was Hermione's voice that broke the silence. As it always was, Harry thought in retrospect, Hermione was always the first to say something, anything.

"Oh, Harry, I know that you've gone through so much, we all have. Well the students who stayed behind, the one's that survived have been sending out owls all day. There are so many parents that have been crowding Hogsmeade and the school grounds trying to find their children, trying to understand what happened today." She started, breathlessly continuing, "And the newspapers and the ministry, they're all here. You don't have to... you don't have to say anything really. But it all happened so fast and people who weren't here, they're trying to grasp what happened. Lord┘" the word hadn't been said in so long, and for a minute fear stopped Hermione from saying it, before she continued. "Lord Voldemort's body was moved, so it wouldn't cause any more problems, you know how people are. People just want to know what happened. They're so disbelieving about everything, because of everything that's happened in the past year." Hermione finished quickly, shaking just a little.

Ron put his arm around her, giving her an encouraging smile, which she returned meekly, before he turned to Harry once again.

"She's right. They're all so thick-headed at the moment. I mean we all saw what happened. But you know how people are." Ron said, finishing with a shrug and a slight nod of his head (hinting toward Percy, Harry was sure). "But you know once they see you, and hear you say it, they'll believe you."

"In the end, people always do. You know, believe you. Even if it doesn't seem like it, Harry. You're the only one that hasn't been telling lies since it all started." Ginny finished, giving him a smile. Which he returned in earnest. It was so good to see her alive and well, he thought for a moment. He remembered the moment where she had been so close to dying, when she had been so close to the Killing Curse hitting her

Harry took in what they were saying and closed his eyes. It was never ending. People should just get on with it. He shouldn't have to shout it out to the world. But the wizarding world was a very shaken place now. Over the past couple of years so many things they had been told eventually became untrue. And with Voldemort having taken over basically the hierarchy of the ministry and the media, people were quite unsure of what to believe now.

All the stuff about Sirius, and they only gave his reprieve until after he had died. Then they printed untruths about him and then they denied the truth of Voldemort being back.

He sighed in resignation. Maybe this would be it, this would be his last work, as the 'Boy-Who-Lived', but maybe that would be a little too much to hope for.

He slowly swung himself out of bed, and they all followed him downstairs (with Mrs. Weasley desperately trying to flatten out his unruly hair) and out into the Great Hall where most of the people were located. It was time to get the truths of the past year out into the open (to a point, some things would stay secrets between he and his companions), to calm people's fears, and to finally be able to say that there was truly nothing to worry about anymore.

The first time people could say that in over seventeen years.

A/N: I've got to get through all the depressing and uneventful stuff before we can get to the meat of the story. Next chapter, you can expect a bit of baby!Teddy, some funerals, and a bit more of wrapping up the events that happened in the end of the main story of the book. Not necessarily in that order. I promise things will get more exciting as time goes on! And I haven't gotten the character's voices spot on yet, I will keep working on that :)

I have big plans for this (possibly splitting the 19 years up into three sections of their lives). I'm not sure if they'll all work out how I think, but we shall see :) Again, reviews are loved (and ye shall recieve a virtual cookie for them haha)!