Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were on their train ride back home . . . or, at least, what was supposed to be home. They couldn't really rely on Hogwarts to be home anymore. They didn't even know if it was to reopen next year.
It was hard on Harry, for Hogwarts was the only true home he had ever known. Hard on Harry because he knew that even if the school did reopen, he wouldn't be going back, going back home. It wasn't nearly as hard on the others, though still hard. They had families who actually loved them. The Dursleys' had never loved Harry. They had mistreated him, if you could call it that. No, I think the right word here would be abused. Truly abused. Physically and mentally.
Harry looked down upon the sleeping Ginny on his shoulder. She looked so peaceful. He gently moved the hair out of her eyes. True, they weren't dating anymore, but who knows how long they had left to be in each other's company. They might as well savor the last moments they had with each other.
Harry let his thoughs drift. They drifted to his first year. How innocent he had been. Not knowing what was in store for him. That was the year he found out he was a wizard. The year that had changed his life forever. He remembered Hagrid, he had scared Harry at the time, barging in, giving Dudley a pig tail. He remembered facing the weakened Voldemort he had met in the forest, chalenged him for the sorcerer's stone. How terrified he would have been had he known that in just a few short years, he would be facing Voldemort on countless occasions.
His second year. The year Dobby had tried to kill him. The year the flying car, driven by Ron, had landed – no, crashed – into the whomping willow. Big mistake. They found out the hard way that it wasn't very hospitible. Riddle's diary. Just the thought of it made Harry freeze. A horcrux. Had Harry know that (and what a horcrux was), he never would've written to him. Never let him know that he was even still alive. He would've destroyed it, right then and there. He wouldn't have had to kill the basilisk. To see Ginny so pale and helpless. "As poor Ginny grows weaker, I grow stronger." Harry still remembered the ice cold voice of Tom Riddle clear as crystal. He had set Dobby free and Harry had made him promise never to try to save his life again. So far so good.
His third year. He had met Lupin and Sirius. Sirius, Harry remembered, had just broken out of Azkaban. He was believed to be a murderer. "Big supporter of . . . You-Know-Who," Stan Shunpike of the knight bus had said. Harry remembered he'd been angry with Sirius because he believed he killed his parents, for he still believed him a murderer. The one who gave away their secret. He remembered Lupin, the DADA teacher. He had taught Harry the spell to withstand the dementors. Expecto Patronus. He thought about the time turner. How he, himself, had conjured the patronus but had formerly believed it to be his father.
His fourth year. The year of the triwizard tournament. Even though, with Harry as a competetor, it couldn't really be considered as a triwizard tournament. He remembered his first task. Battling the Hungarian Horntail. That wasn't really Harry's idea of easy although the Slytherin's may consider the possibility. His "unexpected" task, the Yule Ball. Pavarti, not half as good as Ginny. He looked down at her and smiled. He retured to his thoughts. He recalled the second task. Had he not taken the riddle seriously and told the judges he surrendered, Voldemort might not be in full power right now, Cedric still alive. He shook this thought from his head. The third and final task. Proven its difficulty not only inside the maze, but afterwards, too. When he had come face-to-face with Voldemort. He remembered how Voldemort had touched him, unharmed. He remembered the duel. As clear as if it were yesterday. That had been a truly difficult year.
The fifth year. Two word . . . moody much. At this, he chuckled softly to himself. He recalled the dementor attack on Privet Drive. The Hearing. Thankfully, they had decided he was innocent, with a little help from Dumbledore, of course. Ron and Hermione had become prefects. Grimmauld Place and Kreature. He sent chills up Harry's spine at the mere thought of him. How he despised Kreature. After all, he was the one who had killed Sirius. Him and Bellatrix Lestrange. In the department of mysteries, the prophecy had been broken, and the veil . . . Sirius had falled through. "Death is but the next great adventure," Dumbledore had said. Little did he know he would get to be experiencing the "next great adventure" in merely a year. Which brought him to his sixth year.
The best thing that had happened to him that year could be summed up in one word. Ginny. Apart from that, he had had to experience Draco the death eater cry. That was so unexpected Harry couldn't see why he didn't just burst out laughing right then and there. He had seen Snape, the man Dumbledore knew and trusted, kill the man, maybe the only man, who had ever believed there was any good in him whatsoever. That had to be the worst day he had experienced in all his life.
He slowly turned to Ron and Hermione, Ron sleeping on Hermione's shoulder her arm around him, much like how he and Ginny were sitting. Hermione was in deep thought. "Hermione," Harry said slowly and quietly.
"Harry," Hermione said coming out of her trance.
"Do you remember our first years at Hogwarts?" he asked her.
"How could I forget them?"
"Remember how we were so innocent, so carefree?"
Hermione nodded. "Never knowing what what was to happen to us, what we were destined to do. Clueless, you could call it, about our future." She sighed.
It was Harry's turn to nod now. He looked at Ginny again. Still sleeping.
"I expect we'll be arriving soon," she said. Harry clutched Ginny tighter as if to say 'I don't want this to end, for all that has happened to finally be over. I want to stay with Ginny'
Herimone looked from Harry to Ginny then back to Harry. She smiled. A comforting smile. "You know she'll try to follow us . . ."
"Yeah," Harry laughed softly and Hermione joined in.
"She'll miss you, Harry . . . we all will. You'd best wake her up and say your good-bye. Who knows how long it could take."
Again, Harry nodded. He gently prodded Ginny, willing her to wake up. She stirred and looked up at Harry. Those big innocent brown eyes, he thought. She didn't deserve this.
"Ginny," he said. "We're almost home. I wish we could stay like this forever, but . . . but I have a prophecy to fullfill."
"Like I said before," Ginny replied quietly, "some stupid noble reason." She smiled. " I guess that's what you can expect when you date a hero."
Harry blushed as the train came to a halt. "We're here, Ron," Hermione said to Ron.
"Huh? Oh, right. Off we go, then!" Ron replied standing up suddenly and stumbling a bit because of his drowsiness. Hermione steadied him.
"I'll meet you guys there," Harry told Ron and Hermione. As they shut the compartment door, Harry turned to look at Ginny. She now had tears brimming at the rims of her eyes.
"Thanks," Harry said, still blushing. "But . . . I'm no hero,"
Ginny nodded slowly then said in a whisper through her watery eyes. "You're my hero . . ."