Rating: M (for content in later chapters)
Pairings: Ron/Hermione, Harry/Ginny, and unrequited Ginny/Draco
Disclaimer: All subject matter is the property of J.K. Rowling. No infringement intended.
Harry Potter and the Knights of Walpurgis
Chapter 1: 3 May, 1998
Harry's eyes flickered open. He lay still for a long moment, studying the nap of the heavy velvet curtains surrounding his bed. He blinked several times. Though it had been nearly a year since he'd last slept in it, he easily recognized his old four-poster dormitory bed.
Feeling as if in a dream, Harry sat up and pulled the curtains aside. White morning light filtered in through the open window, softly illuminating the room. Bleary eyed, he looked around at the other beds expectantly, but found he was alone. He blinked again as swirling memories of the battle flooded his consciousness. McGonagall, shouting orders to a corridor full of enchanted suits of armor; Luna, Seamus and Ernie, their bright patronuses blazing a path through a hundred advancing dementors.
He felt himself standing in the Great Hall, in the Room of Requirement, re-living the Battle of Hogwarts. He could almost hear Mrs. Weasley's triumphant victory cry as she cursed Bellatrix Lestrange; he swore he could smell the smoke from the blistering Fiendfyre Crabbe had conjured. A grin broke out over his face as he thought of Neville heroically pulling Gryffindor's sword from the Sorting Hat and slaying Nagini.
Harry's limbs went weak with relief. He fell back against the pillows as he remembered the rejoicing throng of his friends rushing to embrace him as he stood over the corpse of Lord Voldemort.
The Dark Lord was truly gone.
He could see Voldemort's white face again, his slit eyes closed forever. Harry's mirth died away as another pale face sprang to mind. Snape. Those black eyes had locked onto his green ones as their life drained away. He thought of the memories he had seen in the Pensieve: Snape had loved his mother. Snape had cared for him! "Always,"
He blinked back stinging tears. "Oh," he whispered mournfully into the heavy silence, "Oh Fred. Tonks," his breath caught, "Lupin".
A sharp crack! sounded as Kreacher Apparated into the center of the dormitory. "You're finally awake, Master Harry," the house elf said approvingly. " Kreacher has brought you some tea. Are you ready for breakfast now?"
"Breakfast? How long have I been asleep?" Harry asked hoarsely as he gratefully accepted the teacup.
"One full day and one full night," Kreacher answered as Harry gulped down his Earl Grey. "Everyone has been under strict instructions from Headmistress McGonagall not to disturb you."
Headmistress McGonagall. Harry had to smile at that.
"Thank you Kreacher," he said, returning the empty cup. "Don't trouble yourself with my breakfast, I'm afraid I haven't much of an appetite this morning." The house elf frowned. "All right, then," Harry said quickly, not wanting to offend, "I'll be down in a little while."
"Very good. Kreacher will let the others know you are awake." Kreacher bowed deeply and Disapparated.
Shivering slightly, he went to the window to close the shutters.
The hazy dawn revealed a sobering scene. Dark patches of scorched earth stretched from the courtyard all the way up to the still-smoking Quidditch Pitch. The tree line of the Forbidden Forest was charred as well; the path leading up to Hagrid's hut was completely obscured by debris. The formidable stone walls of the castle were crumbling in places, and glass from shattered windows glinted in the sunlight from between blood-soaked blades of grass. In the distance, the jagged outline of a partially destroyed tomb stood out against the shimmering lake.
Harry could no longer hold back his tears. He gripped the window frame tightly, his body shaking. He wept for the casualties of yesterday's battle, as well as the other innocent lives that had been stolen by the Dark Lord.
He thought of Dobby and Hedwig. He pictured poor little Colin Creevey and brave Cedric Diggory. He thought of Mad Eye, of Sirius, of Frank and Alice Longbottom. He thought of Dumbledore, and of his own parents whom he had never known. He mourned them all, his heart pounding, bursting with an anguished, silent keen.
The door opened behind him and a familiar voice said, "Harry? Are you awake? Kreacher said- Oh, Harry! Are you all right?"
But Harry could not answer. He dropped to his knees, his eyes closed. A moment later he felt a warm hand tentatively touch his shoulder.
"It's over," Ginny murmured. "You did it."
Harry pulled Ginny to his chest and hugged her fiercely. He buried his face in her sweet smelling hair as she stroked his back. "I'm so sorry about Fred." He whispered.
"Me too."
They remained like that for a time, kneeling on the cold floorboards, holding each other silently as the pale morning light deepened to gold.
*******
Just before noon, Harry and Ginny walked down the spiral staircase that leads from the boys' dormitories down to the Gryffindor Common Room. Ron and Hermione were sitting on a sofa near the fireplace. They were sitting silently. Hermione was nervously playing with the hem of her sweater while Ron's fingers were rapidly drumming on his knees. They sat as near one another as possible without actually touching. Hermione's dark eyes were fixed on her lap; Ron was staring at the logs on the stone hearth. The kinetic tension coming from their fidgeting hands filled the room with a restless, expectant energy.
On hearing footsteps on the stairs, Hermione jumped up. "Harry!"
He stepped forward to hug her. "All right then?" He asked, grinning.
Hermione beamed, eyes full of tears. "I'm so proud of you, Harry."
"Of us." He corrected. "You three were brilliant! Everyone was. I can hardly believe it's really happened."
"Me either," Ron said, coming up to grip Harry's hand warmly. "I keep having to pinch myself. I keep expecting to wake up back in the tent with that locket round my neck!"
Ginny came up then, slipping one arm through Hermione's and the other around Harry's waist.
"And did you see Neville with the sword?" Ron continued, "Bloody hell!"
"I don't know about the rest of you," Ginny broke in good-naturedly, "but I'm starving."
"Right," Ron said, "I'm a bit peckish as well. There's a huge spread downstairs in the Great Hall; the house elves set it out to feed everyone who stayed at Hogwarts to help clean up after the fight."
"Loads of people stayed on to help," Ginny said. "I think it's giving them some closure. Replanting the gardens, cleaning up the rubble," her voice dropped, "burying the dead."
A shadow passed over Ron's face. Hermione looked at him and unconsciously bit her lip.
**
After Harry has gone to bed after the morning following the battle, Ron and Hermione had gone back down to the Great Hall to rejoin the rest of his family. Ron went over to stand with his parents and brothers near Fred's body. Ginny whisked Hermione off to a deserted corridor where Hermione filled her in on main points of their conversation with Harry in the Headmaster's Office.
After expressing her condolences to the Weasleys, Hermione had left to give them time to grieve privately. Feeling overwhelmed, she had stood in the ruins of the castle courtyard, unsure where to go.
She contemplated Apparating straight to Australia to fetch her parents, but decided it was unwise to Apparate such a distance when she was so physically drained. She thought about heading up to her old bed in the girls' dormitory, but she wasn't ready to sleep just yet.
She started walking. She walked through the archway and into the west wing of the castle. She walked past groups of celebrating students and teachers on her way to the Entrance Hall. She ducked to avoid the jubilant Peeves, who swooped through the hall, singing at the top of his lungs and throwing toilet paper as if it were party streamers. She climbed the staircase up several flights. She paused briefly by Professor Flitwick's empty classroom, and remembered learning to make feathers float in her first Charms class. She passed by portraits that shouted joyfully and waved to her from their crooked and damaged frames. She walked by the painting of the Fat Lady, who blew her an uncharacteristically sweet kiss. She passed the narrow staircase that lead up to the North Tower, and thought of the time she had stormed out of Divinations in her third year.
Hermione finally stopped in the Astronomy Tower. She opened the classroom's wrought-iron door and stepped out onto the narrow ramparts.
The slight nip of the early morning breeze bolstered her, and it was only when she felt her tears stand out hot on her chilled cheeks that she realized she had been crying.
She stood still for a long time, watching the sun rising over the Hogwarts' grounds. From her vantage point, she could see all the way down to Hogsmeade Village, down to the train station where she had excitedly disembarked from the Hogwarts Express for the first time at a bushy-haired eleven year old.
"Beautiful." Breathed a voice behind her.
Hermione squeaked in surprise and spun around, wiping her eyes in embarrassment.
Ron flushed, "The sunrise," he clarified. "It's beautiful."
She nodded. They paused, looking at one another. "Well," Hermione said hoarsely. "I'm absolutely exhausted."
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "I'm knackered. Would you like some company down to the Common Room?"
She smiled and placed her hand on the crook of his offered elbow. They descended the staircase without speaking. Hermione stole a glance at her friend's face. His eyes were stormy and his jaw was clenched. She squeezed his elbow sympathetically, not knowing the words to comfort him. He turned and gave her a small smile. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it. He didn't have words at the moment either.
When they entered the Common Room, they found it was full of their classmates. Neville, Oliver, Seamus, and Dean sat nearest the door, and they burst into applause when Ron and Hermione stepped through the entrance. They surrounded Ron, clapping him on the back and shaking his hands. Then Angelina, Katie and Parvati spirited Hermione away to the girls' dormitory, chattering excitedly. They gave her peppermint tea and brushed her hair. Parvati even loaned her a spare sleeping robe so she could settle down to bed wearing warm, clean cotton nightclothes.
As she drifted off to the sounds of their cheerful voices, Hermione's last sleepy thought was of Ron's stricken face.
Late the next morning, she had come down to the Common Room to find Ron snoring away on the sofa nearest the fireplace. He had woken when he heard the floorboards creak beneath her feet and gestured for her to come sit with him. They sat there in silence for nearly an hour, waiting for word from Kreacher that Harry was finally up. Hermione didn't know how to broach the subject of Fred, but she didn't feel she could speak about anything else; so she sat quietly, afraid to touch him though her skin was tingling and flushed at Ron's proximity.
Finally, her turned to her, "Thanks for staying with me."
Hermione blinked. "Of course."
There was a pause.
"I'm just having a hard time talking about… I'm sorry I'm being so…"
"No, no! You've just lost your- I mean what you've just been through-"
"What we've both been through-"
"Yes."
"Yes."
There was another, longer pause.
"This is helping," he said. "This is good. I'm sure I'll be back to my old self in no time." He smiled at her hesitantly, "We can go back to normal. We can start fighting again. Here, I'll start," he broke into an imitation of Hermione's most imperious, scholarly tone, "Hermione, if you are in fact correct about the five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, then how do you explain the effectiveness of the slug-vomiting charm on-",
"Ron," she interrupted shakily, unable to contain herself any longer, "Ron, I-"
But then he swore under his breath and grabbed her hands. Hermione's cheeks blazed. She thought of they way she had kissed him so boldly only two nights previous- the way his arms had tightened around her, lifting her off her feet. She looked up at him. Ron's eyes were dark with an emotion she had never seen there before. There was something about the way he looked at her… she was certain he was thinking about that kiss, too. He leaned closer and her heart started to pound in her throat.
"Hermione,"
Her eyes fluttered closed in anticipation just as the portrait hole door swung open noisily. Ron dropped her hands and leaned back in his seat, eyes on the fireplace, his face as red as his hair.
Hermione thought she might cry.
Ginny, the intruder, coughed nervously when she saw them. "Sorry to interrupt," she said lamely. "Kreacher says Harry's awake. I'll go see if I can fetch him down." She glanced apologetically at Hermione and rushed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.
The mood was broken. They had both lost their courage. They sat in awkward silence, fidgeting like children. Then Hermione had heard Harry's footsteps on the staircase and rose to hastily greet him.
**
Ginny's voice jolted her back to the present. "Hermione? Are you coming down to breakfast with us?"
Ron and Harry had already stepped through the portrait hole and out of the Common Room. Ginny was looking at Hermione questioningly, her hands on her hips. "Everything all right?"
"Yes," Hermione replied. "Just… you know, still processing everything."
Ginny nodded empathetically. "It's all so surreal," she said. "It's wonderful and devastating at the same time."
"How are you holding up?" Hermione asked.
"About as well as one could expect," Ginny said. "It's helpful that Percy's back. Helpful that, you know, that we were all together again in the end."
Hermione nodded sadly, thinking of Lupin and Tonks. It was so unfair that little Teddy would never know his parents. Family was important.
"Family is important," Ginny was saying, as if reading Hermione's thoughts. "You and Harry have become a part of our family. It's good we're all together." She sighed and shook her head. "Come on," she said, taking her friend's hand and heading out the door. "If we wait too long Harry and Ron will have eaten all the clotted cream."