Hello, this is my first story so please comment and tell me what you think. I am a huge fan of Harry Potter! This is a story of the life of Harry and Ginny mostly after the final battle but there is also about everyone else to. Enjoy!

Chapter 1- the last goodbyes.

Harry woke up to find the sun light streaming through his red bed curtains. For a split second he forgot how he got here and why he was covered in cuts and bruises and why there was dried blood over his pillows and sheets when he remembered that only a couple of hours ago he and the whole of Hogwarts fought against the darkest wizard of all and all his followers the death eaters and won. They actually did it. Voldemort is never coming back, never killing anyone again, and that put a smile on Harry's face.

He opened his bed curtains fully and the sun lit up the whole room. He got up carefully trying not to cause his wounds any pain. He walked up to the window very quietly trying not to wake his dorm mates who were sleeping soundly. He looked outside of the window. He could feel the heat oozing through. The sky was bright and clear for the first time in months. The sky was like a scene from a film, perfect and crisp but as he looked down he could see the battle ground that use to be the courtyard of Hogwarts. There was half knocked down statues and buildings and Miniature Mountains of rubble, old fires dying down or turned into piles of ash. The place was surreal. Thinking of what had happened the day before he felt proud and happy but he also felt saddened knowing that many people, friends and pupils died fighting against Voldemort. It distressed him thinking of how they died because he knew that Voldemort or any of the death eaters would not have killed them nicely but made them suffer. Harry knew it was his fault. If he had faced him sooner and met him somewhere other than Hogwarts maybe all the lost loved ones might still be alive and no loss would be drowning the heart of so many good people. While he was watching the sun a thought popped into his head, what if Voldemort had milled him all those years ago, would things be different know, would life be better or worse? I guess no one will ever know. Harry didn't want to think about this anymore. He didn't realise what deep thought he was in until he felt a slim soft hands slip around his waist. They were followed by a head of ginger hair on his shoulders. At that moment he tensed up.

Harry crept quietly out of the room and out of the common room. No one was up, everywhere was peaceful and bright, it was like everything from the sun to the breeze knew it was ok and safe. He looked around closely, it was obvious someone had been out cleaning the debris and making a paths to go in all directions. The castle, Harry's first real home was strange, it was like looking at another building completely. The charms that had held the beautiful walls were either broken or gone; everything had a hurt effect on it. He didn't linger long he had a task to do and he didn't want to be seen, not yet. He walked out in the open fresh air letting the breeze surround him giving a sense of safety. He kept on walking until he had reached his destination. The great white marble tomb that was once rested was no cracked open. Small pieces of rubble were surrounding our steps. The plaque next the the tomb was untouched, it read:

HERE LAY THE BODY OF THE GREATEST WIZARD AND HEAD MASTER HOGWARTS HAS EVER SEEN, MAY THIS BE A PLACE OF THANKS AND IN TIME OF NEED, MAY DUMBLEDOR BE HERE TO WATCH OVER US. REST IN PEACE OUR BELOVED FRIEND.

At the bottom of the plaque said one of the many great words of Dumbledore:

Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

Harry walked over to the tomb, careful not to look at the face of the man he loved so much and gently returned the wand. H e put his hands though bitter cold back in there original position and but the lid back in perfect position and sat watching the sky brighten. He didn't talk to Dumbledore he just sat and registered what had happened in the past year. He was deep in thought when a shadow came and shaded him from sunlight, he slowly took out his wand trying to fool the person but was topped by a week, cried out voice.

"I thought you were dead, I thought I lost you, Do you know how that feels?" was all the voice said. Harry turned around to see Ginny. It wasn't the same Ginny he left just over a year ago, this Ginny had grown up, and her hair was longer and falling loosely around her back. She had grown curves and she stood a little taller. Her eyes were beautiful deep chocolate but looked full of years of wisdom. The only thing wrong with this Ginny was she wasn't the fiery red head; she was covered in cuts and bruises, dried blood formed he face and her face was worn out, she looked warned out. All Harry could do was extended his arms out. Ginny didn't sit with Harry, she curled up in his arms holding him so tightly as if she would let go he would disappear.

"Please. Never do that to me again" she begged, tears rolling down her eyes.

"Ginny, I'm so sorry, the only reason I left you was to make you safe so Voldemort couldn't hurt you and to make you and your family safe, I never meant to hurt you by leaving, I am so sorry."

"I know Harry. When Hagrid carried you in, my heart shattered, it felt like I had lost everything. The thought of you dead it gave me nightmares. The thought of never seeing you again frightened the living daylight out of me. "

"Ginny, I am so sorry about everything, I ..."

"Please Harry, stop saying sorry, you have just saved so many people and the Wizarding world owes you everything, I'm just angry because I never seen you, heard from you and so man rumours were going around some saying you were dead, some saying you were captured, some saying you had been sighted, you didn't know what it was like thinking you lost someone everyday and never knowing if it's true or not. Why didn't you contact in some way? Where were you all this time? What happened? "

"One day soon I will tell you everything but for now it hurts too much and hearing it will hurt you too. I just need some time to process everything but right now all I want to do is just to hold you and know that you aren't going anywhere without me ever."

"That sounds perfect to me Harry, but there is one more thing I need to do to know that it's real."

Harry gave her a suspicious look but didn't say anything. She sat up and put both hands on either side of his face and kissed him. The kiss was passionate and longing, Harry returned the kiss with all the love he could show. They held each other for what seemed like hours, all tangled up in each other. It wasn't until they could see the sun completely that they decided it was time to go back. They walked hand in hand all the way. All though it was quite late in the morning still no one walked the hall ways or the remainder of the hallways. The ghost didn't ask for the password, she just smiled and let them in. The elves had obviously been here, the fire was lit and the curtains had been opened. They went straight for the boys dormitory where Ron and Hermione still slept soundly in the opposite bed and quietly snuggled up together in Harry's bed. They slept soundly for a few hours when a loud crash came from the foot of Harry's bed. Harry shot out of bed, wand in the ready waiting for an attack.

"Kreacher is sorry Master, Kreacher thought Master would be hungry and would like to know that food is being served in 30 minutes in the Great Hall."

"Oh, Kreacher thank you for telling me, I'll make sure we are all there for it, Would you mind bringing us some clean clothes?"

"Kreacher would be delighted Master." And with that he was gone.

"What's wrong is everything ok?" grumbled Ron still full of sleep.

"Yeah it was just Kreacher telling us food id being served in half an hour. Why don't we all get cleaned up and meet later" Harry suggested. Ron gently shook Hermione awake while Harry did the same to Ginny. When Ginny opened her eyes a smile appeared on her face and gently kissed Harry.

"Urg not the first thing I want to see in the morning" moaned Ron as he got up. Harry and Ginny just giggled.

"That's how we feel when we see you and Hermione" explained Harry, and with that Ron turned the same colour as his hair.

"Ye well...me and..."he said not knowing how to carry on.

"Its fine Ronald, we won't complain about your love life if you don't complain about ours" Said Ginny.

"Deal. Can we got to breakfast I'm starving!" complained Ron.

As soon as they all washed and changed clothes they suddenly realized what the pain of the war had done to them. Their eyes were red with drying tears; grey bags were settling under their eyes, cuts and bruises showing themselves on the skin and hands covered in blisters from gripping their wand so tight out of fear in the final battle. Harry was the worst of, all his chest had scar on and his face was bruised but he did look better then what he did before.

They met in the common room of Gryffindor.

"Where's Hermione?"asked Ginny.

"She left about ten minutes ago, said something about finding someone..." As they walked out of the portrait of the fat lady and walked down the shifting stairs they noticed how quite the halls were. All though they were full of students, professors and family no one was speaking. They were all thinking the same thing. All seeing the destruction that Voldemort caused. All seeing the mark he left behind. Ginny Wondered why no one was eating in the great hall but her thought was answered as soon as they reached the main hall. All over the floor was family grieving over there lost ones. They weren't noticing the family of other people they were watching a family of red heads and one brunette surrounding a body on the floor. The family's faces were tearstained and puffy eyed. They knew the family was the rest of the Weasleys. They ran over to them not worrying about being quiet but worrying to see who was on the floor. Hermione looked up to see who was making the noise that filled the hall. She stood up running towards Ron who had his arms open waiting to her.

"Ron I'm so sorry we found him when you all went up to your dorms. He was under some of the rubble... " she told him half crying.

Ron looked over to see who it was. It was his big brother Fred.

Ron couldn't remember anything after that, just the darkness that look over him.