Hey everyone! Zeratide here, and I have decided to write a new story for you all. Without further ado, I present Harry Potter and the Elder Wand. (I own nothing. Seriously, I'm flat broke. If I owned Harry Potter, I would be laughing my ass off as I sailed my private yacht in the Caribbean.)

Harry stood outside the castle, surveying the damage with silent mourning. The Death Eaters had destroyed much of the castle; every window was shattered, many of the stone structures were but piles of rubble, and the statues of the knights were missing their limbs and heads. Bodies, defenders and attackers alike, were still strewn throughout the courtyard, and he thought back to the Weasleys, gathered around Ron's body in mourning. Hermione stood beside him, her eyes red and puffy, and he gently squeezed her hand, silently trying to comfort her with his presence. Raising the Elder Wand, he spoke a single, simple incantation.

"Reparo!"

With the power of the Elder Wand, the simple, first-year spell caused the entire castle to repair itself. Students and faculty alike poured out into the courtyard to watch in awe as first the broken glass flowed, water-like, back into their respective panes. The dust and stone were next, rumbling as they shifted and merged to reform pillars, benches, walls, roofs, and other structures. Finally, each of the statues re-formed, standing and marching back to their respective pedestals. The courtyard remained silent as he then set about lining up the bodies of each Death Eater with a spell that was little more than a thought. Once the task was done, he turned to the assemblage.

"Can all of the students go back inside? You don't want to be here for this." There was a considerable amount of grumbling, but they acquiesced. Once they were gone, Harry called forth the Order. "Try and identify each of the bodies here. If they have families, return their bodies. If not, cremate them. If they cannot be identified, send them to St. Mungo's and have them deal it." Turning back to the remaining, non-Order adults, he spoke again. "Voldemort is gone, but his followers remain. How we conduct ourselves here will make a drastic difference in the war. Make no mistake: this war is not yet over. We still must deal with the surviving members of the Death Eaters. If we burn the bodies of those with families, it might inspire them to keep fighting. Despite their atrocities, we must act with honor, respect, and integrity."

After another four hours, the task was complete. Four bodies were sent to St. Mungo's, twenty were cremated, and the remaining were sent to their families. During the entire time, Hermione was never more than a few feet away from him. She helped him move bodies, and healed a few of the remaining wounds from the fight. For the most part, she remained silent throughout, her thoughts inscrutable.

When finally the work was done and they were alone, she spoke to him. "Harry," she began, sitting on a stone bench, "I want to talk about us… what will happen now that this is all over."

Sitting down next to her, he rolled his neck; the movements made a loud crack reverberate up his skull and into his ears. "Well, we probably will come back here to finish up school… then we'll go and do whatever we want." They both knew that he had understood the subtext of her words, but given the events of the past several days he was content to rest for a while before he gave her a serious answer. If she was hurt by the deflection, she didn't say anything.

Off to his left, there was a loud bang as the doors flew off their hinges and Dolohov came striding out, having somehow stolen back his wand. Latching eyes with harry, he snarled before raising his wand, even as the Order raised theirs.

"No! He's mine!" Harry shouted, drawing the Elder Wand as memories of Remus and Tonks lying dead in each other's arms floated to his mind. With a wave of the Wand, he created invisible barriers cutting the two off from everyone else. Striding to the center of the courtyard, he spoke to Dolohov. "Your Master followed at least one shred of a form of honor; he usually challenged is greatest opponents to a duel. Shall we?" Dolohov hesitated, before striding to the center as well. "Hermione, call the opening ceremonies," Harry order, and she snapped to attention, nervous but acquiescent.

"S-s-s-salute!" she squeaked, and the two did so. "T-t-take your p-p-positions!" For several seconds, there was silence as the two walked away from each other, though neither turned their backs.

"Duel!"

Dolohov made the first move; a familiar blast of emerald light flew from the tip of his wand, and simple Stunner shot from the Elder Wand to intercept it. As Dolohov then created a fire whip that Harry transformed into a serpent that he ordered to attack Dolohov, it occurred to Harry just exactly why the Elder Wand was so deadly; alongside its ferocious power, Harry could feel the magical knowledge and skill of all its past Masters flowing into him. Dolohov blasted the snake away, before both wizards sent a lightning-fast barrage of spells at each other. The no-man's-land began to glow from the heat, and sweat beaded on Harry's forehead before running down his face. Dolohov transfigured a set of throwing knives before him with a flick of his wand, while another flick sent them spinning at the younger wizard.

Tracing a circle in the air before him, Harry created a large wall of fire hot enough to melt the soaring steel. As each knife hit the flames, Harry wove his wand in a circle above his head, melding the liquid metal into a sword. When the sword was complete, he swung the wand, and the sword followed his movement, as if it were the sword he held, rather than a piece of wood. Harry lunged, and Dolohov, too surprised to react in time, screamed in pain as the steel sunk into his shoulder, causing him to drop his wand. Harry summoned it to him, and snapped it between his fingers.

"You killed Remus and Nymphadora Lupin. You killed two of my closest friends, Dolohov, and then you challenged me, after we spared your life and the lives of your fellows. Why?" Harry asked him, Vanishing the sword and healing the man's wound in a single flick of the Elder Wand.

"You killed the Dark Lord," Dolohov replied, staring into Harry's eyes. "There is nothing left for us Death Eaters now. You'd better sleep with one eye open for the rest of your life, Potter!" With that, the Order dragged him away as he laughed madly.

Later that night, Harry lay on the couch in front of the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room. He kept his eyes closed, pretending to be asleep so he would be left alone. For the most part it worked: everyone believed he was asleep, so they carried on their own discussions. He heard Ginny and Dean talking about resuming their relationship; Fred and George were sitting in one corner, grieving Ron; Neville was telling Seamus that he and Luna were now officially a couple; and dozens of other conversations pressed on his ears. Hermione alone seemed to know he was awake, and she sat down on the couch as well, lifting his head while she did so before placing in on her lap.

"Harry, I understand that you want to relax before answering me," she whispered, stroking his hair softly. "But Dolohov was right... Harry, you are in danger, and there's no guarantee that either of us will survive the aftermath of the war, so I must tell you while I still can… I've always admired you Harry, and in the past year I came to realize a very hard fact: I love you, Harry Potter."

He had expected the words, but they still came as a shock. Thinking back on the past year, he found himself amazed that in all the time he had come up with impossible theories that proved true and made the connections no one else could see, he had failed to even notice the most important thing of all; she loved him, plain and simple. "Truly I was blind," he said to her, his eyes still closed, "if in all that time I never saw it… I'm sorry Hermione. It must have been painful to have to hold that in."

She cry-laughed as she dabbed her eyes with the hem of her sleeve, shaking her head. "It was, though not as painful as if we had been apart all that time. And typical Harry response… you've managed to completely divert me and refrain from answering the question."

"For the record, that wasn't my intent. I think you know that I love you just as much, Hermione…" His eyelids opened slightly, enough for her to see how difficult it was becoming for him to stay awake. "We will talk more about this, Hermione, but for now… I must rest…"

Well, it's a little short but I think that it will work for an opening. Please review and let me know if I should continue it. Until next time.

-Zeratide, out.