A/N: This story is a redo of a story I deleted called Harry Potter and the Flight of the Dragon. When I originally wrote that story i meant it to be a fluff/romance piece but decided to try and change it to a story with a little more adventure because I thought more people would be interested in reading that. Well it turns out I suck at writing adventure so I'll leave that to Ms Rowling. This is more the story I originally intended to write so if you read the other one the first several chapters will look very familiar though I have adjusted them somewhat to fit with the new story line. So whether you read my first story or not please check out this one and let me know what you think and I promise I'll keep this one going until the end. I enjoy writing this style of story a lot more so it is much easier to write. Thanks for reading!

Oh Yeah I clearly own none of the characters or really anything in this world. If i did I wouldn't be writing on a free site :-). All the characters and magical world belong to JK Rowling, thanks for sharing.

Chapter 1: The Morning After

The boy, who had become a man, with the strange lightning shaped scare on his forehead awoke to a strange tickling on his nose. He opened his eyes to see a black blob hovering above his head. Grasping around, he found his glasses on the shelf next to his bed and pulled them on. Hanging above his head was a small black spider swinging in the light breeze blowing through the room. Harry Potter reached up and swatted it away, some things never change, he thought as his mind wandered back to all those years spent with the Dursley's spending most of his nights with only the spiders for friends. But when he leaned on his elbows and looked around the room he though, And some things will never be the same. On his right, jerking around in reaction to some sort of wild dream, was Ron Weasley, his best mate since he had learned he was a wizard who was now so glad to finally be back home in his bed and more importantly, to his mother's cooking. On his left, on a plush cot they had pulled in, was Hermione Granger, his most loyal companion who had never once left Harry's side after all these years, sleeping peacefully for the first time in months, her face still red from all the tears she had cried the day before but who had insisted she stay with them, not ready to leave their side just yet. Ginny had offered her room to Hermione but there was still some closure that only the three of them could really understand. They had made their journey with only the three of them and it couldn't really end without a full night's sleep for it was in the nightmares that the real battles were fought.

It hadn't been more than 24 hours since their journey had ended and as he lie there with his friends Harry could help but think about how everything had changed and yet somehow, so much stayed the same. Tom Riddle was dead, killed by his own rebounding spell. Yet here he was, still surrounded by the two that had literally followed him to the end of the earth. Riddle's body had been incinerated by all of the surviving members of the DA in their final act of rebellion against those that said had said they were too young to understand this war. So many had called for Riddle's body to be paraded around so as to shout of the victory to the world. The DA had decided otherwise. No, it would end there, on their terms, and led by Neville, Ginny, Luna, Hermione, Ron, Harry and the rest of the DA had ensured that nothing of the man would survive.

Survival, now that was something that was difficult for Harry to comprehend. How had he managed to escape again while so many more fell all around him? Fred and Collin had been murdered doing what he had taught them, fighting on instinct, surviving to the end. As he laid there all the events of the past year washed over him. He shouldn't have survived and even now he wasn't quite sure how he had done it. Then he looked to his left and he remembered why.

He knew he needed to get up and begin the arduous task of starting over but he was struggling with it and not just because his body felt like it had been hit by a truck. Getting up meant another step to an end he didn't really understand even if he had been striving for it for as long as he could remember. Funeral arrangements would begin today and by the end of the week they would be laying their friends to rest. Fred, Collin, Lupin and Tonks, they would all be given their time; all would be remembered as heroes. Then there was another that would be for the unlikeliest hero of all. Had he been asked less than 36 hours ago Harry would have and did tell any who asked that he was looking for the man's blood, hoping he would be the one to finish him. But now… well he still wasn't sure what to think. Severus Snape had been a hero of this he was sure and he had told the necessary people as much, but he still wasn't quite sure that he could shed a tear for the man.

Finally, giving up this internal fight, Harry quietly slipped out of the covers and slid into his slippers before heading out the door. He made his way down the stairs of the Burrow. Ginny's door was open and he poked his head in to find her still fast asleep, a familiar mixture of peace and pain etched on her slumbering face. He lingered there for a moment, affirming to himself that she was real, that this wasn't just another dream or a stop along the way. This was all part of coming to grips with this new reality. How many times had he watched her as a simple dot on the page of the map and dreamed of seeing her face again? Now that he was back he was having a hard time distinguishing the dream from reality. He continued down the stairs to find Mrs. Weasley bustling away in the kitchen. The bags under her eyes made it clear that she hadn't slept well, if at all; I suppose the thought of burying a son will make sleeping a bit difficult, Harry thought. When she noticed Harry she did a valiant job of putting a smile on her face and asking, "Oh Harry would you like some breakfast dear?"

"Thank you, but I'll just wait for everyone else to wake up," Harry said softly.

He continued into the parlor where he found Mr. Weasley with a huge stack of paper in front of him, "Morning son," he said affectionately.

"Good morning, what's all that?" Harry asked motioning to the paper.

"Looks like 'The Dailey Prophet' was hard at work last night getting all the details they could about the battle," he said. "There's three whole pages just on your final dual alone," he finished smiling softly.

"Oh," Harry said a bit dejectedly. The last thing he wanted to have was a physical reminder of the events of the days beyond the countless cuts and bruises that now speckled his body.

"Oh good morning dear," Harry heard Mrs. Weasley call from the kitchen.

He looked to the stairs and saw Hermione walking down. She was wearing the pair of lavender plaid pajama pants topped off by the form fitting cotton lavender tank top that always accompanied it. They were one of the few comforts she had allowed herself during their journey, "If I'm going to be sleeping in this tent I at least want to be wearing comfortable pajamas," she had always defended when Ron had pointed it out. Her hair, as always seemed to be the case for her in the morning, was perfectly bushy and he smiled up at her softly, "Morning," she replied to Molly. She continued down the stairs and made her way over to Harry. "How did you sleep?" she asked.

"Better than I thought I might," he replied. "And you?"

"Not horrible," she murmured. "Although Ron's snoring kept me up for a while," she said smiling.

"Yeah apparently when he has a real bed he sleeps a bit sounder," he replied sitting down on the sofa as Hermione did the same.

"So, what do you two have planned for the day?" Mr. Weasley asked, glancing up from his paper.

"Well I don't know," Harry said. "I mean now that we don't have an evil wizard to defeat it has kind of cleared up my schedule."

"Yeah, no Hallows to find, no horrible horcruxes to destroy; it certainly does clear the plate a little doesn't it," Hermione quipped, a soft giggle escaping her lips.

"Well Molly and I have to meet with Kingsley today to work on some paper work for the ministry," Arthur stated.

"Does he need anything from me," Harry asked a bit dolefully.

"Oh no my boy, you three have done more than enough. There will come a time when I'm sure he will have some questions but for today, please, put your feet up," he replied.

"Thanks," Harry said somberly.

"Well great then you can come with me to Australia if you'd like Harry," Hermione offered. "I need to go track down my parents and somehow convince them to return here. McGonagall told me that the healers at St. Mungos would be able to revive their memory. Though she did say that I had probably done such a good job that it will likely take several weeks so I need to get to them quickly. I was hoping to have them back before my mom's birthday in the begging of August so that doesn't leave me much room to spare."

"Yeah I can do that," Harry stated. "Do you think we should go wake up Ron first?"

"Oh if I know my boy I think he'll probably just want to spend the day in bed. Plus I think George and Percy are gonna need someone to pal around with today," Molly said confidently walking in to join them.

"I can stay," Harry said softly.

"Oh no need for that dear, you two go, heaven knows you've earned a bit of a vacation," Molly said.

"Okay I'll go pack us up a day bag," Hermione said. "We should be back by tonight as long as they haven't pack up and move the city I left them in," she finished.

As Harry turned to follow Hermione as she bounded up the stairs he saw Ginny coming down them. Why does she always have to look so beautiful? he thought as she walked past him and he turned to watch her collapse onto one of the chairs around the table. Just over a year ago she was his and he was hers. They had spent a glorious two months together as a couple but when it came time to get down to business he couldn't take her with him. There was still a part of him that asked himself why he had never asked her to come along on their journey or why, perhaps, she had not insisted on going. There would have been danger sure, but there was danger everywhere. He had planned on going out alone but a small part of him always knew that Ron and Hermione would never allow that. But Ginny was different. Maybe it was the difference in age or maybe it was just that out of all of them she was probably the strongest willed of all but for some reason she never seemed to need the others like they needed one another. She could stand on her own and be okay where the trio only seemed complete as a whole, well at least two of the three, he thought to himself remembering Ron's random departures. But now, back together, Harry wasn't sure what was real. He knew his feelings for Ginny had been real but what about that night in the tent when it was just Harry and Hermione and he had pulled her to dance? What had that been? She's with Ron, you saw them kiss last night you idiot, he reminded himself. This was going to be an interesting afternoon.