Harry didn't know what he'd expected. Did he think Hogwarts would just mail him his N.E.W.T.S. and he would miraculously pass them even though he hadn't studied for an entire year? Not that he wasted that year of course you can hardly call bringing about the murder of the Darkest Wizard in the world a wasted anything. But Harry had not expected to have to attend an eighth year class at Hogwarts! Though in hindsight he probably should have. The classes for this year were all messed up. Those who hadn't attended as a seventh year last year or just hadn't been able to achieve passing grades due to relentless torture would be put into a separate dormitory to "encourage bonding among the houses". All of the other years would be moved up or held back according to their test as well and all extremely bad scores would be scrubbed from the record so that most parents could go on trying desperately to believe that the last year had never happened. Well that Voldemort had died but all of the horrors leading up to it and war that had broken out, that had enlisted their children, had never happened. Headmaster McGonagall was apparently have a hell of a time trying to get their numbers up for this next year at Hogwarts. She had sent owls separate from the ones explaining the new arrangement she had put forth asking if they (him, Ron, and Hermione) could make a statement saying that they would be going to Hogwarts for the upcoming year. She had already scheduled him a slot for an interview with the daily prophet with none other than the great Rita Skeeter. Harry had scowled at that point in the letter. He had no problem making a statement and going back to the school he thought of as home but seeing that lying woman again hadn't been on his list of things to do with his free time. But if it was for McGonagall and Hogwarts then he'd do to.

Harry took a sip of his coffee as Ron came down the stairs. He had meant to go to Grimmauld Place after the battle and gut the place before trying as best he could to make the tainted place livable again. If, he mused, it had ever been livable to begin with. But Mrs. Weasley wouldn't hear of it. She seemed to be taking everyone that she could in since the war was over trying to fill in the hole it had created in her family and the many that it had blasted in her heart. Harry wasn't exactly broken up about spending a month or so at the Weasley's rather than slinking back to Grimmauld Place all alone. He was happy staying hear and grieving with his family.

"Have you had any breakfast yet Harry?" Ron asked walking off to the kitchen. His hair was a wreak it made Harry's constantly messy mop look prim and proper and though Harry hadn't looked in a mirror yet this morning he had to be looking better than Ron was now. His eyes were dull nearly lifeless, his frame was shrinking and the bags under his eyes were giving away that he hadn't slept at all last night, even if Harry hadn't been staying on the floor in his room listening to him cry and toss and turn throughout the night. His face was like a candle that had been lit for a while sinking in almost a melted sort of way that made the Ron Harry had known throughout Hogwarts into an almost different person all together. Harry wasn't much better though one of the main reasons he knew that Ron was having a rough time sleeping was that most nights he lay awake staring at the ceiling. If he was lucky he would catch a couple hours but then the nightmares would come and it would take all that he had not to wake up screaming as flashes of green took his family away from him.

"No, I just made some coffee. Why, are you offering?" Harry asked getting off the couch with his coffee mug in hand to follow Ron into the kitchen. He stopped across counter from Ron setting his coffee mug down.

"Not really." Ron laughed taking a couple chocolate chip cookies from the cookie jar on the kitchen counter and offering one to Harry. Harry took it and smiled at Ron just as a sleek orange eyed irritated looking eagle owl swooped in though the open kitchen window dropping a letter in front of Harry on the counter top and before Harry could react it swooped around Harry and snatched the cookie out of his hand before streaking back out through the kitchen window.

"Did Hermione get an Owl? It certainly looked like an owl version of Crookshanks." Ron said handing Harry another cookie as he was paying more attention to his now empty hand than the letter that the owl had left. Ron and Harry hadn't heard from Hermione in a few days since she had left for Australia to right the situation with her parents and Ron had be on the edge of his seat since the moment she left for any contact from her though Harry had told him time and time again that Hermione would need space to be with her parents. This wasn't the kind of thing that she could deal with in a couple days let alone a couple hours as Ron had first expected. Harry might not have a family of his own to go back to after the war but he knew if he did he'd want to stay with them for a while before he could even imagine going back out into the world.

Harry took the cookie gratefully. "I don't know, though she could do with training her animals better though."

"Yeah she's probably fighting for the rights of owls now and it's given hers an attitude problem." Ron suggested his face lighting up at the thought of Hermione.

Harry took a bite of his cookie and picked up the letter. When he saw the seal he nearly spit out his cookie. He choked and swallowed his bite down hard. "It's not Hermione." Harry said flipping the letter around and holding out so that Ron could see the seal.

"What the hell does Malfoy want? He's already been released on some Ministry over sight what more can he want from us?" Ron growled out.

"I don't know." For a second Harry though he should just burn the letter and forget about it then he flipped it over and read in scrawled hasty hand writing:

Potter, Don't Burn this.

Harry sighed and started to open it.

Ron's hand came down in front of the letter on his hands stopping him. "We should just burn it." Ron stated.

Harry pulled the letter out from under his hands showing him the back. "It says not to."

Ron looked like Harry had just slapped him in the face. "And when have we ever cared what that bloody git said before?"

"I don't know Ron. I just have this feeling that I should know whatever is in this letter." Harry said and began to open it again.

"Whatever Harry, you just can't turn anything down when it comes to Draco Malfoy." Ron huffed just loud enough for Harry to hear and then in a quieter voice too low for Harry to hear. "Stalked him all of sixth year."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Ron" Harry brushed him off lightly as he began to read the letter.

Potter,

I'm sure this letter will beautifully stork you Gryffindor ego because I need you. Yes, you have a chance to be a bloody hero yet again. My mother's trail is coming up. She won't last in Azkaban, Potter. She didn't even do anything during the war that wasn't to protect me or my father. She wasn't like Bellatrix or my father she didn't want to follow him. No matter what I say no one will believe me and the lawyer that we have doesn't think there's any hope. So if you wouldn't mind showing up with your Savior of the Wizarding world self and saying something slightly redeeming for my mother, if you wouldn't mind saving another life to stroke your already enormous ego, please speak at my mother's trail.

The trail is this Friday at 12 a.m. at the ministry of magic.

Draco Malfoy

Harry laughed. Only Draco Malfoy would ask him to help his mother stay out of Azkaban in this way. But Harry could see the slight variances in the ink where tears had been spelled away. He knew this wasn't a joke. Draco just couldn't say he was wrong. He just couldn't say that he was sorry.

"So what does the Ferret have to say?" Ron asked through a mouth full of cookie.

"Oh he just asked me in the rudest way to help keep his mom out of Azkaban." Harry said folding the letter and setting it on the counter next to his coffee.

"Of course he would." Ron said snatching the letter of the counter before he could say anything and reading it quickly as he got a mug down from one of the cupboards above the sink. "Oh and he gives you about two days' notice on the trail!" He laughed putting the letter back on the counter as he went to pour himself some coffee. "Are you going to go?"

"Yeah" Harry said staring down into his coffee mug.

"Why?" Ron seemed to breathe the word out exasperated.

"It's not for him. I just feel like I owe her. She lied for me. She saved my life." Harry said taking a sip of his coffee.

"I guess you have a point." Ron conceded. Harry had already told Ron and Hermione everything that had when down in the forbidden forest and in his head before Hermione had left so Ron new all about how Narcissa Malfoy had saved his life by lying to Voldemort.

"What do you think I should say when I speak for her? I don't really know her all that well. I mean there's the stuff from the forest but do you think it will be enough?" Harry asked Ron staring hard into his coffee.

Ron laughed "I wouldn't be surprised if you just showing up to speak for her got her off. I think you'd be surprised by how much pull you have. Do you think that Narcissa Malfoy told Draco about what happened in the forest and that's why he owled you?" Ron took a drink of his coffee as he watched Harry.

"I don't know it seems like he'd through in a snide comment about me owing her if he did." Harry said looking up from his coffee.

"Yeah that would be something that he'd do." Ron's eyes moved from Harry to the open kitchen widow. "How much longer do you think it will take for Hermione to send a letter back?"

"It hasn't even been a week. You probably won't hear from her till at least the week is up." Harry drank the last of his coffee.

Ron sighed.

"Put yourself in her shoes Ron if you had just gotten to see you family again after you had made them completely forget you, and now you had to explain how you had nearly died in the war, and why you had made them move to another continent, and erased all their treasured memories of their only child in a way that could have been permanent if you hadn't lived through the war would you be thinking about writing right away?" Harry asked Ron before he got up to get his second cup of coffee.

"I think you're forgetting something their mate." Ron said smirking.

Harry laughed, "What?"

"We're in love!" Ron nearly shouted as he plastered a stupid grin on his face. "I would have owled her before I'd even lifted the spell on my parents."

"You're ridiculous Ron." Harry laughed taking his coffee back to the other side of the counter and leaning against it.

The back door opened and Mrs. Weasley came in from the garden with her wand in her hand. She looked put together. Her hair was nice, her clothes were clean but the bags under eyes gave away that she was fairing about as well as everyone else. "You better not have ruined Harry's and your breakfast Ronald." Mrs. Weasley scowled shaking her head at her youngest son. She moved through the kitchen to start making food as Ron ducked out of the kitchen. Harry heard her muttering just before they left. "Cookies for breakfast my word… I can't leave those two alone… get into everything they do…" Even though her words didn't sound very loving Harry could feel the love in them.

Harry and Ron sat down on the couch with their coffee mugs it seemed like they were the only ones up besides Molly and Arthur who had probably already left for his job at the ministry. George might be up but he probably wouldn't come down from his room he hadn't come down from his room yesterday or the day before that. He had come down from his room since the war had ended. Ginny had been avoiding Harry since the end of the war. Or had Harry been avoiding Ginny? Harry wasn't really sure it could be a mutual avoidance. It didn't really matter who was avoiding who just that they never seemed to be in the same room for any more than the amount of time it took them to leave the room and they hadn't been alone or talked or even met each other's eyes. Harry wasn't sure what to say anymore. She had lost her brother because of him. She had spent a year in hell at Hogwarts without him working for his cause, being punished for his cause, and continuing Dumbledore's Army. Dumbledore who as Snape had put it 'kept him like a pig to be slaughter' or something like that. All Harry could think was that maybe if Dumbledore had trusted him enough he could have gone down to the forest before the war had began, before anyone else had to die to meet Voldemort. Maybe then George would be stuck in his room, Teddy wouldn't be an orphan like him, and Severus Snape could even still be alive. Harry set his coffee on the coffee table and leaned back in the couch sighing.

"You ok, mate?" Ron asked.

"Yeah just think about the war." Harry said with his eyes closed and head back against the cozy couch.

"I know what you mean. It's hard not to." Ron said taking a sip of his coffee.

A thumping sounded on the stairs and Ginny appeared her hair blowing loosely at her sides, she had bags under her eyes just like everyone else and was still wearing her Quidditch pajamas. "Good morning Ron." She says swiftly and nods at Harry before going off to the kitchen. It was as if she couldn't get out of their fast enough.

Harry sighed again.

"What was that about?" Ron asked looking at Harry.

"I don't know." Harry said opening his eyes and snatching his coffee to take a quick sip.

"I think you do though. You do the same to her every time you walk in a room that she's in."

"I… I killed her brother."

"By that logic you shouldn't be talking to me either, mate."

"It's different with her." Harry said scowling at Ron.

"How?"

"It's just. She expects something from me and I don't know what. I don't really know who I am anymore now that I've done the one thing that I was supposed to do what's left?"

"I don't know seems like finish school, become an Auror with your best mate, marry your best mates sister, and have a bunch of baby Potters seems like a good choice."

"And that's what I'd always thought I'd do if I lived long enough. But now, what if that's not what I want?"

"Then find out. McGonagall's sentencing us to another year at Hogwarts. Take it, figure out what you want and run after it. But you and Ginny should probably say something to each other in the meantime. Try and get on the same page with each other or something."

"We are on the same page. The page of avoidance." Harry smirked as Ron brought his hand to his face shaking his head.

"I'm just warning you that if you keep this up much longer with her there won't be anything left to pull together in the end."

Ginny came stopping back into the room. Harry jumped hoping that she hadn't heard what they had been talking about. Her face was contorted in pure rage as she threw a piece of parchment down on the coffee table in front of them. Harry looked down at the parchment horror washing over him as he realized he had left Malfoy's letter in the kitchen.

"Don't tell me you're considering this, Harry!" She yelled. "After what his family has done how could you consider doing him a favor? I could hardly believe it when he escaped Azkaban, nearly drown myself when I heard he'd been sent a letter from Hogwarts, and now you're going to get his mother out of Azkaban too where she deserves to be! Will the Malfoy's never pay for their crimes? I can only assume that because this letter hasn't been burned to ash you're planning on going. Even after the foul way he asked and the terrible things you've done to each other. How could you even think about doing this?"

Harry swallowed down the fear that the red hair witch had struck into him with the way she entered the room. "Lucius Malfoy is in Azkaban. They are paying for their crimes." He said calmly looking her straight in the eye. He could have told her about Narcissa and how she'd saved him in the dark forest. He could feel Ron's eyes on him pleading for him to do just that but something in him held him back.

"How could you do this to me? How could you do this to Fred?" She practically shrieked at him. It seemed to ring through the whole house for a moment.

Harry's eyes looked pained as he asked. "How am I doing anything to you?"

Ginny's eyes began to water and she slapped Harry right across the face before she stormed off back up the stairs to her room.

Harry brought his hand to his face as he hissed out swears gritting his teeth in pain.

For a moment no one moved. Not Ron whose mouth was forming an "o" astounded that his sister had actually hit Harry. Not Mrs. Weasley who had moved from the kitchen to the corner of the living room at some point during the altercation and wasn't entirely sure who's side she was on. Not Harry who was stunned into silence by the slap and his knowledge of what he had to do next.