A/N: Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Finals Round Two.

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns all.

Title: The Speech

Word: Years

Prompts: #1 "Don't lie!", #10 Lionhearted, and #14 Actions Speak Louder than Words

Words: 1,272

Years had gone by, and still Harry couldn't quite get the faces of those that had died out of his head. Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Colin, and so many others, all dead because of him. That was why, on the sixth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry could be found sitting in his house behind a desk, staring at the wall morosely. He was supposed to be constructing a speech to share at the memorial later that day, but he simply couldn't find the right words to describe the loss that he felt whenever he so much as thought about the people that had died.

A sudden knock on the door jerked Harry out of his thoughts. He turned around to tell whomever it was to go away, but it was no use. His wife, Ginny, was already standing in the doorway, having not even waited for a response. "What's wrong, Harry? Aren't you supposed to be rehearsing your speech?"

Harry gave a small grimace in response. "I can't rehearse it if I haven't even written it yet, can I?"

Ginny sighed, and Harry could tell that she was growing exasperated with him. "What's wrong, Harry?" she asked.

Harry frowned. He didn't quite know how to put what he was feeling into words, which was part of the reason that he was having so much trouble with the speech. He was sad, of course, that all of those people had died for him, but since it had been six years he thought it was supposed to be easier. George had plopped right back on his own two feet four years ago and was now running his joke shop again. The whole Weasley family, in fact, seemed to be doing much better than he was. It didn't make any sense.

And then there was poor Teddy Lupin. Teddy was six years old now, and he was as clumsy as his mother yet as brave as his father. Harry saw Teddy every weekend, and he was sad to find out from Andromeda Tonks that Teddy was starting to ask questions about his parents. Teddy was too young to have to deal with the horrors of war, and yet he was going to have to deal with them if they were going to tell him the whole story of how his parents had died.

Next, Harry thought about Colin Creevey's little brother Dennis. Dennis had joined the Aurors as soon as he graduated Hogwarts and had such a fire about him that made Harry wonder if he could ever be as keen on justice as Dennis was. Dennis was quickly proving himself to be an excellent Auror, and Harry guessed that he had Colin's sacrifice to thank for that, though he wasn't about to tell Dennis that.

Harry supposed that he'd see Dennis, Andromeda, Teddy, and the whole Weasley family at the memorial today. Even Harry was bringing, for the first time, his infant son James, who was only about four months old. He hoped that he'd be able to shed a light on the sacrifices that everyone had made, but he couldn't hope to do just that with words. Actions speak louder than words, Harry thought, which didn't make any sense, as he could hardly show people how he felt just as he could barely tell them how he felt. It just was too hard.

Harry looked up then and saw that Ginny was still waiting for an answer, with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. As he opened his mouth to speak she shook her head, frowning at him. "Don't lie to me, Harry James Potter. I know something is up with you. We've been married for three years and together for even longer!"

Harry sighed. "I just don't know how to put what these people did—dying for me—into words. It's too great of a sacrifice. I can't bring comfort to these people's family members by talking about it! That's why I haven't written anything down."

Ginny smiled. "Then don't write anything down."

"What?" Harry asked, wondering if he'd heard her right.

"You speak better if you don't have a plan. Just speak from your heart, Harry, and everything will work out. Okay?" she said, smiling at him. "I've got to go get James ready." She kissed him on the cheek and then left the room to go get their son ready to leave.

An hour later, the entire family was ready to leave. Harry held onto James tightly as he spun on the spot and Apparated to just outside of the Hogwarts grounds. Ginny landed next to him with a loud crack! and then they were ready to proceed. As a guest of honor, Harry's whole family—including the Weasleys and Teddy Lupin—got to sit in the very front row during the whole memorial service. Many people greeted Harry when he entered the pavilion in which the ceremony was to be held, and many of those people wanted to hold James.

Ginny grinned as James was passed around like he was some celebrity that people couldn't wait to get their hands on. The baby seemed to love the attention, as he was giggling and smiling at the people that held him. Finally, the family of three could take their seats amongst the rest of the redheaded gang in the front row. Even Teddy, a Metamorphmagus, had changed his hair color to resemble the Weasley family. He was grinning with George as he changed his nose to George's howling laughter.

The ceremony started promptly at two o'clock with Kingsley Shacklebolt's speech. Minerva McGonagall spoke next, and then it was Harry's turn. He stepped up to the podium with a look of consternation on his face for the sixth time, though after all of this time it still wasn't easy. "Hello, everyone," Harry said shakily into the mike as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"I haven't prepared anything for today, but that wasn't because I didn't have anything worth saying. I have plenty of things that I want to say today, but none of them sounded quite right on paper. All of us lost something that day, a friend, a brother, a mother, a father, a sister, a child, or a lover. I lost my brother-in-law, Fred Weasley, and some family friends, Remus and Nymphadora Lupin. What all of these people did was sacrifice themselves for me, and I couldn't be more grateful.

"Of the fifty-four names carved onto this memorial, not a single one died in vain. They didn't die in cowardice. They didn't die for no reason. Every single person on this memorial died to serve a cause—a cause that for so many was so daunting that they wanted no part in it. It is for this reason that I have a name for the courage that all of these people possessed—they weren't just courageous, they were lionhearted!

"They probably saved my life—in fact, I know that they saved my life! And by saving me, they stopped Voldemort as well. These lionhearted people died so that all of us could have a better future, a future that I intend to give all of us with the help of the Auror Department! They died selflessly, and for that we could not be more grateful.

"So I promise you, with every fiber of my being, that we will make sure that they didn't die in vain!" With that, Harry stepped down from the podium and returned to his seat to unruly applause. Maybe it was getting easier, after all of these years.