Chapter 1: The Day After

Harry woke up to sun shining in his eyes. Before he even opened his eyes, He thought, "Where am I?" He heard Ron snoring and opened his eyes to see his red canopy bed in Gryffindor Tower. The events of the previous day came flooding back to him. He sat straight up and looked around, half asleep. Ron had his arms around Hermione, her eyes open; she smiled at him and put her finger to her lips and then pointed to something next to Harry's bed. Only then did Harry notice there was a person with flaming red hair curled up in a chair next to his bed. Ginny. Her legs were tucked up under her, while her head was on her shoulder. Harry smiled and got out of bed, went over to the chair and picked Ginny up, laying her on the bed. Getting into bed with her, he saw her smile as she curled up into him. Harry smiled as he fell back asleep.

Harry wakes up to find himself alone, wondering if he just dreamt that Ginny was there. Just as he opens eyes the door to the dormitory opens, Hermione is coming through the door with a plate of food. She notices Harry's awake, "Oh good you're awake, Here I figured you wouldn't want to go into the Great Hall just yet," She says as she walks across the room to his bed.

"Hermione," Harry says, "We did it, we won" He stares at her in disbelief with a smile on his face, and then realization hits him. "He's gone, but so are too many others," Harry says putting his head in his hands "Why couldn't I have figured it out sooner, I could have saved them. They shouldn't have died for me."

Hermione grabs his shoulders and says, "You did everything possible, and you are not responsible for their deaths. They chose to fight, not just for you, but so Voldemort would never hurt the world again, Harry look at me!" She grabs his chin and makes him look at her. "You are not to blame for those deaths, Voldemort is!" Hermione sits on his bed next to him and pulls him into her shoulder as he cries.

Harry still crying into Hermione says, "What if they hate me? They are the only family I have left!" Hermione sits there silent confused for a moment.

"Who is going to hate you Harry? You saved us, and plus you have the Weasley's they have always thought of you as family," She says still confused.

Harry sits up and looks at her saying "That's who I'm talking about! Because of me Fred is dead they must hate me. Oh god Ron, where is he? Is he okay? Why aren't you with him? Where's Ginny? Does she hate me? I need to talk to her!" He gets up heading towards the door when Hermione stops him.

"Harry, Harry, wait! They don't hate you, the opposite actually. They are all worried about you, you've been asleep for two days." She sees a look of confusion on his face and quickly says, "No you didn't dream that, you woke up for a couple of minutes yesterday and yes Ginny was watching over you." Harry smiles slightly then looks at her confused again before she continues, "I told them that it might be best for me to come bring you food since we weren't sure how you would react, and I know how to calm you down or comfort you and plus I have been with you everyday for the past 6 months so your used to me."

Harry sits back down starting to eat; they sit there for a few minutes in silence as Harry slowly eats his way through his plate. When he finishes he looks up at Hermione and says, "So they don't hate me?" Hermione shakes her head, "Well, then I think its time," he says getting up. He walks over to the door and looks back to see Hermione still sitting on the bed. "Are you coming?" He asks. Hermione smiles and gets up to join him.

They slowly walk down the staircase; Hermione nervously looking at Harry while Harry stares straight ahead. When they finally reach the common room they see a group of people with flaming red hair sitting by the fire. Harry steps into the common room, Hermione stepping beside him, when someone from the group notices them. "Harry!" they all start talking to him at once. But Harry doesn't notice anything but Ginny, She smiles when she sees him and immediately gets up. Harry sees her running to him, and feels her colliding with him then it all goes black.