Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters. Harry Potter, the characters and everything out of the books belongs to J.K Rowling.
Confronting the past
Chapter 1.: After the battle
It was finally over, all the Horkruxes were destroyed, Voldemort was dead.
Sadly Voldemort wasn't the only one dead. So were Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Colin and so many others.
Many of the survivors were injured, some only minor cuts and bruises which would be healed in a second, others severe leaving scars who would only fade over the time.
Hogwarts, the place of what they now called the "the final battle", now resembled more to a ruin than to a school.
Chunks of walls were missing, staircases were destroyed, furniture was ripped apart by curses which had not reached their destination. Some things were still burning, the flames only dying down slowly.
Hogwarts was now merely a shadow of what it had once been: A place for adventures, pranks and sometimes even interesting, live-changing lessons and a home for the students and the teachers, in some cases also the first real home.
One of those cases was Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, the chosen one and newly named "master of death". Harry himself had, with the help of his friends of course, had managed what no one else could have done. He had killed Tom Riddle, formerly known as Lord Voldemort, one of the most-feared dark wizards.
Finally there could be peace once again. It would take time of course. They all needed to heal, physically and mentally. They had to bury the dead, the bodies of their loved ones, rebuild the Ministry of Magic, release the innocent, revise laws and, of course, catch all the death eaters who had managed to escape after Voldemorts death.
There was a time for everything, but this was not it. This was the time of grief and celebration after a sleepless night of fighting. Most of the survivors were in the great hall, sharing their happiness and grief now it was all over, the golden trio however, wasn't.
They had just left the headmasters office after Harry's talk with Dumbledore, he had left the Elder Wand there, he would return it later to Dumbledore's tomb where Riddle had taken it a few hours ago.
The three of them didn't want anything else but sleep now, a warm bed was everything they desired, everything else would be a matter of time, they would talk about everything later since the night's event had not yet sunken in.
So much had happened that night, so much that it still felt rather like a dream than reality.
The trio was on their way to the Gryffindor common room, unknowing that they wouldn't reach their destination.
With a slight "pop" the trio vanished from the corridor, unnoticed, only to find themselves in a room which resembled to their common room but yet wasn't.
Alarmed they drew their wand at once, looking around for the someone who had summoned them.
Harry instantly noticed the resemblance to their common room.
The room was round and cozy, lit by only one fire from a huge fireplace on one side. On each side of the fireplace was a staircase leading upstairs. In a half-circle around the fire-place were several sofas and an armchair, cushions and blankets lying on each.
On the other side of the room was something which seemed to be a kitchen, Harry could see a several cabinets and an oven, on the counter lay many fruits and vegetables in at least five large bowls. He could also see a big table with fourteen chairs around it.
Just now he noticed that there were several other people, apart from Ron and Hermione in this room. Harry quickly raised his wand, his senses still alarmed from the war, ready to jinx any enemy until realized he knew all of them.
It were the remaining Weasleys, who, in no other words, looked terrible, Fleur, Luna, Neville and, to his astonishment; Professor McGonagall.
"What the - " began Harry but was interrupted by Ron's "Bloody hell" and Hermione's yelp of surprise.
"May someone tell me what is going on here?", demanded Professor McGonagall.
"No idea, Professor. We were on the way to Gryffindor Tower and we ended up here.", answered Harry, still alarmed but slightly calmed since there weren't any death eaters in the room.
The other's also didn't look like they had any idea how they ended up here.
"We were just in the great hall - ", started Neville, but Luna interrupted him.
"Somebody must have send us here ", said Luna in her dreamy voice, "whoever it was must have had a good reason to do so. Otherwise he would have waited after everything was less chaotic. You should lower your wand Harry, we won't attack you, you know."
But Harry didn't, he still half considered it being a trap until he heard Hermione's voice. "Harry, look! There on the table by the fire. A letter!"
He saw it, too. On a coffee table by the fire-place which he had failed to notice before lay something. That something turned out to be books. On top of the books lay a letter. He went to get it, but Ginny was there first. She opened it and began to read:
" To all of you,
do not worry, this is not a trap. Voldemort is dead, once and for all.
You are in the Room of Requirement. Despite this night's events it was not destroyed.
I brought you here because all of you have suffered, endured terrible losses and great amounts of pain and looked death in the eye tonight.
I know you want to rest and probably want to forget this night's events, but you need to confront what has happened. You need to understand how you have gotten to this point. And you deserve the truth about the things that have happened the last few years.
It all starts with Harry's entry to the wizarding world and therefore everything you will read about is from his point of view.
I am sure you will soon find a liking in Harry's perception of certain things.
Once you have finished reading you will be able to leave this room.
I assure you, you will not miss any events outside this room while you are here.
Time is frozen outside this room while you are here.
The world will not go on without you.
Have fun."
"There is no signature", said Ginny.
"Let me have a look, maybe I'll be able to recognize the handwriting" said Harry, reaching for the letter. Just in this moment, the letter vanished.
"Of course, it vanishes, why did we even expect something else.", muttered Ron.
"'Have fun.'", snorted George, "of course, there are no other things for us to do, are there?"
"George, stop that.", said Mr. Weasley quite firmly,"it looks like we don't have much of a choice."
"Well", said McGonagall, "we might as well start reading than if all of you are okay with that?"
Since nobody could think of anything else to say or were preoccupied with thinking about who might have written that letter, they sat down near the fire.
Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny sat on the biggest sofa opposite to the fire-place.
On their right, in two two-seaters, sat Luna and Charlie as well as Bill and Fleur.
On their left sat Neville, in the only armchair in the whole room, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley who had taken the now twin-less George into their middle, which left Percy and Professor McGonagall on their far left on another two-seater.
Meanwhile Hermione had started examining the books lying on the coffee table. It were seven, one for each year since Harry had entered the wizarding world.
"I think this one is the first" stated Hermione, Crookshanks, which seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, on her lap.
"How do you know that? And where did Crookshanks come from?", asked Ron who seemed to have thought the same.
"I don't know either, but it's the Room of Requirement after all. And well, the book is called 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone' it's pretty obvious I think.", said Hermione, scratching Crookshanks behind his ear.
"Okay, that's bloody obvious.", laughed Ron.
"I'll start reading than, but I think we should take turns reading. From left to the right if you're okay with it."
"Alright, just start then.", sighed Harry, wanting this to be over as fast as possible since he had a slight foreboding it would be embarrassing for him.