Prologue:
Harry decides that before going to bed in the Gyrffindor tower, he should go check on the people in the great hall…
Chapter 1
Harry pushed open the doors of the great hall, taking in the sight of death and life closely intertwined. Family members seated beside dead loved ones, as if they could still hear and breathe, occasionally a cry would break form their lips or tears slip for red eyes. Some sat in the corner mourning, others seemed to be drinking vast amounts of fire whiskey as if to wash away the grim scene around them.
Even as he felt the swamp emotion around him he was blind to the very obvious non-magical people standing right in front of him.
"Oi!" Harry's head snapped forwards "Boy, what the bloody hell is going on here!" Harry blinked it seemed he could not comprehend his muggle uncle standing in the hall of Hogwarts. Harry's mouth opened and closed gaping like fish out of water "U-nn—ccle Vernon" Harry stuttered, Vernon turned beat red "I cloth and feed you all of your life and you don't recognize me! You ungrateful little…"
Fortunately Vernon did not have the opportunity to finish his sentence, mainly because Harry was tackled by a tearful bundle of red hair.
Ginny looked up at Harry "you bloody idiot" she sobbed into his chest "you died, you god dam died…"
Harry pulled her close "I'm right here" "That's not the point Harry!" Ginny burst out "its that you weren't here" she looked up at him " its that you went alone, when you know the is a line of people who would have helped you" "with anything"
"Ginny, this was something I had to do…" Ginny pulled back " don't pull that 'I had to do this alone' crap on me Harry Potter, we both know that's not true"
"Ginny that was the only way…" Ginny shook her head.
Harry could see that reasoning would do no good, he knew Ginny well enough to know that only and apology would calm her down.
He was also tired enough to give in.
Harry pulled her close and rested his lips against her forehead "I'm sorry" he breathed in to her hair "I would never try to hurt you on purpose" Harry lifted her chin "I…" Harry swallowed "I love you" Harry leaned down to kiss Ginny.
"Ehhem"
Vernon coughed into his hand "Excuse me, we are waiting"
Ginny whirled toward him " and I think you'll be waiting a spot longer, I can't believe you would talk to Harry like that." Ginny took a step closer to Vernon "Look at him he's dead on his feet" Ginny began to poke him in the chest " I believe, Harry, being the hero of both the muggle and magical world deserves quite a bit more respect!"
Vernon's jaw dropped "I will not be spoken to like that by someone of you age or circumstance" Ginny looked as though she could have hit him " And I will not tolerate pompous muggles!"
Harry decided he should probably step in before the Ginny pulled out he wand or Vernon raised his pudgy fists. He stepped in between them, which was probably a very silly place to be, but seeing as Harry had defeated Voldemort early that evening he was feeling rather lucky.
"Ginny" Harry practically pleaded, "Can you back down for a sec?" " You can punch my uncle out later okay?" Ginny pouted back at him "Harry…" Harry looked her directly in the eyes, Ginny sighed "fine" she kissed him quickly on the lips, Harry smiled back at her "thank you"
Harry turned toward Vernon " What are you doing here?" Vernon glared down at him " Those two of you lot brought us here" Vernon took a quick breath "and I demand to know what's going on"
Harry sighed "1, those two of my lot are highly respected wizards 2, they're names are Dudlus and Hestia"
Vernon turned a light shade of red " I don't care what there names are, I what to know what's going on!"
Harry knew he was truly tired when he didn't have the will to fight with Vernon. "Voldemort and the death eaters stormed that castle, a number of highly respected wizards died, I went into the forbidden forest Voldemort killed me, then I came back form the dead and killed Voldemort…enough information?"
Vernon began to stutter, suddenly then Dudley stepped forward and pumped Harry's hand up and down. Looked him straight in the face and said " Harry, I'm proud to call you my cousin" " I wish I could take back the harm I caused you and" Dudley took a deep breath " and hopefully one day I will be able to call you my friend"
Harry was astonished; some thing had truly changed about Dudley and not just his attitude toward Harry.
Harry smiled back at Dudley " thank you" Dudley smiled back
" so is it all true?" "What's true" asked a very confused Harry.
Dudley beamed " the three headed dog the giant snake those Dementors, fighting a dragon and merepeople and…and well everything that Dudlus and Hestia told us?" Harry shrugged " yes" "inless they told you something crazy like…"
"The one where you broking into the most protected bank and rode a dragon" Dudley burst in. Harry shook his head " that ones true" "heck of a ride to"
"HARRY!!" Mrs. Weasley came running toward Harry " dear are you all right?" " Oh I was so worried, you just defeated Volemort and then ran away on us"
She began to spin Harry around " no cuts of dire injuries?" She pulled him into her arms "I'm so proud of you" " It couldn't have been easy walking knowingly into your death" "many wizards would have stayed to fight, but never willingly walked into death's open arms."
When Mrs. Weasley finally released Harry she still had tears in her eyes. Harry hugged her " I'm so sorry, I've caused so much harm to you and your family"
Mrs. Weasley shook her head " Harry you've saved sp many people and Arthur wouldn't be alive today without you" Harry knew she was just trying to get him to feel better
" Mrs. Weasley, I've put Ron in tragic near death situations since the day I met him, got Mr. Weasley attacked my a snake, gave Fred and George then money to run a gift shop you didn't approve of and now I'm the cause of death for Fred."
Mrs. Weasleys eyes welled when he spoke Fred's name but she smiled down at him and shook her head " You gave Ron the adventure of a life time, saved Mr. Weasley form death, gave my sons the shop of they're dreams, gave my son a chance to be remembered as a great war hero and you've made my only daughter very, very happy" " you've also saved us form Voldemort, again"
She looked lovingly down at Harry " you died for us Harry and that means more then anything."
"Now dear go get some rest"
"Just because you the hero of the entire wizarding world doesn't mean you get excused for helping to clean this place up"
She turned to the Dursley's " don't worry about this lot either I'll find them a place to spend the night" She began herding the Dursleys of in the direction of the staff room, she turned he head back to him " oh and if you see any Ron tell him he's to go straight to bed, he won't be getting out of cleaning the castle either."
Ginny began to tug him towards to Gyrffindor common room " I'll grab some food from the house elves well you make sure the common room is intact, Ok?" She gave him a kiss in and a push in the right direction, see you soon k?
Ginny bounded in the direction of the kitchen room, well Harry headed toward the common. "Harry" Harry turn to look at Ginny " I love you to" she gave him a gigantic smile and continued on her way.
"He didn't even put p.j.'s on" that was the first thing that can to mind when Ginny found Harry passed out on his bed in Gyrffindor tower. ' Guess dinner will have to wait' thought Ginny as she crawled into bed with Harry.
Ron and Hermonie where in the great hall and Ron as usual was trying to fit the largest amount of food possible into his mouth, between yawning, that is.
After about 10 minutes of watching Hermonie gave up, "Ron eating like that and then inhaling the much air shortly after can't be healthy" she pried his plate away "can we just go to bed"
"Her-onie" Ron swallowed " I wasn't finished wasn't that!"
"Well you can finish it tomorrow" " come on" She pulled him off the bench and out of the Great Hall.
Ron began to complain "but nobodies going to bed" "Neville or anybody else who went thought the exact thing we did"
"The only person who's gone through the stuff we did is Harry, and I don't see him anywhere" hermonie pulled him into the common round " and Ginny's gone to so that's two people in bed" Rom smirked " in bed all right" Hermonie glared at him and pushed him into the Boys dormitories.
"Good Night!"
Hermonie marched into the Girls dormitories thankfully it was fully intact, the only thing that worried her was that Ginny was not in her bed…
Ron walked grumbling into the boys dorm. He knew he shouldn't be complaining he was dead on his feet, but probably would have fallen asleep in the Great hall if Hermonie hadn't pushed him in to going to bed.
The curtains around Harry's bed where open and it was not an entirely pleasant sight to see his best friend and his little sister fast asleep with there arms locked around each other. Ron pulled on his pajamas and the moment his head touched the pillow he was fast asleep.
Hermonie lasted 17 minutes before she got lonely. she grabbed her pillow and headed towards the boys dorm, 'just so I'll have someone near by' Hermonie told herself 'so I'm not all alone' convinced she was just going to sleep in a nearby bed hermonie walk into the droms and into the 6th year's room she thought that it was most likely that Rom and Harry had gone back to there old beds. The only thing different about the set up was the girl that Harry had his arms around ' at least they have clothes on' her thoughts echoing Ron's. She walked over to Dean's Bed which was right beside Ron's and put her pillow down just as she was about to jump in she realized what and idiot she was being.
Ron had his back to her but she really didn't mind, as she tucked into bed beside him.
Ron woke up about twenty minutes later to find something warm and rather fuzzy against his back. As he turned over a sleeping Hermonie fell into his arms. Her pulled her close, he may be following Harry's lead but at least he had the decency to close the curtains