I own nothing Harry Potter. I just love the characters and world JKR build for us.
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Chapter 1 – Waking Up
Someone had left a window open. A strong breeze ruffled Harry's hair tickling his nose. He brushed the offender back out of his face trying to go back to sleep. It fell back. Harry sighed, resigned. Opening his eyes the memories of yesterday came flooding back. The war was over. Things could go back to normal. A pit grew in Harry's stomach. What was normal anymore?
On his left Ron and Hermione still slept. Not wanting to wake them, Harry quietly made his way to the showers. They were empty but not clean. Blood soiled the floor by the sinks. In the corner what looked like a bed sheet was torn into pieces for a make shift bandage.
Harry studied himself in the cracked mirror. A large bruise lined his chin, blood stained the right side of his face from a large cut above his eyebrow. He gingerly took off the torn, bloodstained shirt and threw it with the bed sheet. His muscles were sore as if he had just done a long training session with Oliver Wood. More bruises and scraps marred his body. A scar on his chest stood out above the rest, bright red but healed in the shape of lighting. One last token to remind Harry of Tom Riddle.
Harry threw the rest of his tarnished clothes in the growing pile of garments. He stepped into the hot shower rinsing the dirt and blood away. If only the memories of the past year could be cleaned so easily.
Feeling better after his wounds and strained muscles had a chance to relax, Harry went back to the dormitory he called home for the past seven years. He didn't have a chance to take in the dormitory last night, already half asleep when they arrived. It was bathed in the soft light of early morning. The window Harry thought was left open was actually broken letting the fresh spring air fill the room. Even though Ron and Hermione occupied two of the beds the dormitory felt empty.
There were no books left open on the bedside tables from studying the night before. No clothes lying next to the bed or even a tie hanging on the bedpost. Only Neville and Seamus had returned this year. Both trunks lay at the end of their respective beds with a thin layer of dust covering them. Harry remembered the hammocks he saw in the Room of Requirement. How long had they really been staying there?
After finding some clean clothes in Hermione's bottomless bag, Harry went down to the common room. There was a half played game of chess in the corner, the pieces looking around for their commander. Homework lying in front of the fireplace, half finished. Some books had been knocked over in the haste to exit the tower when the battle started. Harry picked them up and placed them neatly back on the table. Taking a deep breath he walked out of the common room.
The Fat Lady was gone. All of the occupants in the pictures were gone. Rubble littered the hallways, the dust almost choking. The hallway, once so familiar to Harry, was almost unrecognizable. Harry heard footsteps around the corner. He gripped his wand at the ready.
"Harry!" Ginny and Neville both had their wands on Harry but quickly dropped them. Harry was a little slower to do the same. Neville looked far better than the last time Harry saw him. His bruises had turned a sickly yellow and the cuts had been healed. He looked to have changed into some clean clothes as well. Ginny however was still wearing the jumper from last night. There was a bloody snag on the side but the revealed skin underneath looked to have been healed. Her hair was pulled back revealing a yellow bruise much like Neville's on her neck. Dark circles were under her eyes. Harry couldn't help but think she still looked beautiful.
"Where are Ron and Hermione?" She asked.
"I thought I would let them sleep in." Harry said awkwardly. Now that he thought about it there could still be Deatheaters on the grounds and going anywhere alone was not the best idea. Ginny's stern look told Harry she was thinking the same thing. Not exactly the reunion he was hoping for with her.
"What are you two doing up here?" Harry asked cutting off Ginny's rampage.
"McGonagall sent us up here to find some Ravenclaws." Neville said quickly sensing the danger and reminding Ginny they had a more important issue. "She's doing a head count of all the students. A bunch of first, second, and third year Ravenclaws are still missing. Kara Jenson was in charge of getting the younger Ravenclaws out of the castle." Neville bowed his head. "Her body was found somewhere on the sixth floor. We've been searching to see if we could find any signs of the missing students."
Harry felt the pit in his stomach grow. Another young soul ended at the beginning of her life. And this was just the beginning...
"I'll help you look." Harry said determined to help find the missing students, hopefully alive. The trio walked the hallway in silence for a while. Harry and Ginny kept glancing at each other, looking quickly away when they caught each others eye.
"Is it possible the students got out without her?" Harry asked not being able to stand the awkward silence any longer. After all the nights Harry spent staring at Ginny's name on the map, now that they were together again he had no idea what to say. Given what Harry wanted to say, now wasn't the time to say it anyway.
"I would say yes." Neville said quietly while Ginny opened a door leading to an empty classroom cautiously, wand at the ready. "But they weren't at the rendezvous with all the other younger students and Kara's brother, Jack, is one of the missing students."
"Jack and Kara were stuck together like glue this year." Neville continued following Ginny into the classroom after she waived them forward. "She would take him to all of his classes and he would come to all the DA meetings with Kara."
"He has a fire, that one." Ginny smiled in remembrance. "He wanted to come with us whenever we went out to graffiti the hallways but Kara wouldn't let him. Not that we would have let him anyway..." Ginny's smile faded. "I hope that fire won't go out now that Kara is gone." Silence hung among the group once more as they exited the empty classroom having found nothing of the missing students.
The trio turned the corner to find complete destruction. One wall was completely gone, glass scattered across the ground. The ceiling above collapsed, exposing the passage above and leaving little room to continue down the hallway. Parts of statues had been disintegrated into dust. A pool of blood was in the corner.
"This is where they found Kara." Neville said staring at the pool of blood. Harry was gazing outside the blown wall. Trees on the edge of the Black Forest were uprooted. Divot holes the size of cars scattered the grounds. Harry watched as people floated thing that looked disturbingly like bodies toward the castle. The war was over... was this supposed to be how it felt?
"Guys..."Ginny called Harry and Neville out of their morbid thoughts. "Isn't there supposed to be a door here?" Harry and Neville inspected the wall, or rather floor that Ginny was standing in front of. She was correct, the ceiling that had fallen was blocking a door leading to another classroom.
"Do you think it's safe to move it?" Neville asked. Harry was already looking over the large piece of concrete. It was leaning against the door which was barely visible behind the piece of rubble.
"It doesn't look like its supporting anything." Harry concluded. "If we move it slowly down the hall and don't bump anything we should be fine. It's going to take all three of us to move this thing though. Wingardium Leviosa on three?" Neville and Ginny readied themselves.
"One... Two... Three." The rock lifted and the three of them moved the rock further down the hallway careful not to bump anything. When they placed it down dust and small rubble fell from the piece of rubble and ceiling above. Neville, Harry, and Ginny started coughing from the dust.
"So much for the shower and clean clothes." Harry said shaking some rubble out of his hair.
The door to the classroom was damaged but intact. Neville tried the handle. It was locked which Neville fixed with a quick Alohamora. Harry stopped Neville from opening the door.
"There could just as easily be Deatheaters in there then frightened students..." Harry warned. Neville already had his wand at the ready.
"The frightened students are just as likely to attack if they think we're Deatheaters." Ginny said pushing Harry and Neville aside. She opened the door just a crack and called in. "Jack! Are you in there?" A few seconds of silence followed.
"Ginny? Is that you?" A young voice called from within. "Wait! How do I know it's really you?" Neville replied to the young voice instead.
"You put grasshoppers in my bedroll last week." Harry and Ginny chuckled. "I turned them into worms and put them in your oatmeal the next morning." Harry looked at Neville impressed. Transfiguration was never his strong suit. "It's a useful spell in the greenhouses." Neville shrugged.
The door to the classroom swung open revealing a lanky blond haired boy, tall for his age. He gave Ginny a hug which she welcomed.
"We were so worried when you didn't show up after Easter break. I am just glad your brothers let us know that you were alright." The boy was so enthusiastic. "I just hope Luna is alright. We still have no idea what happened to her."
"Luna is fine." Harry said looking around the classroom. There were about a dozen young students all of which had their wands trained on the door when they entered. They had turned over the desks and were using them as shields in a half circle. Harry was impressed. "At least she was fine last time I saw her yesterday but that was before the whole..."
"Your Harry Potter!" Interrupted a girl in the corner who could only be a first year given her size. "If your here we must have won."
"The war is over." Neville confirmed. "We all get to go home now." There was a cheer around the room. Ginny was doing a quick head count, checking each student, stopping at one who had a small cut on his head.
"Where's Kara?" Jack looked worried. "She should be here." The trio froze glancing at one another, wondering what they should tell the young boy. Ginny was the first to react kneeling down in front of him.
"Kara did what she had to in order save you." Ginny said. "All of you." She looked around the room. Everyone looked somber, Jack most of all. "I hope all of you will remember her for the sacrifice she made. I will."
"So will I." Neville said.
"Let's get you guys to the Great Hall." Ginny said squeezing Jack to her side as he wiped away his tears. "I know there are some very worried parents waiting for you."
It took three detours to get back to the ground floor. Passages were blocked and staircases had collapsed. The group was very quiet most of the way only speaking to help the younger ones over obstacles. They met very few people in the halls, none Harry recognized. They were looking through the rubble, for what, Harry didn't want to think about.
The castle was in tatters. It was going to take a lot of magic to fix the damage and even then Harry wasn't so sure it would be the same Hogwarts he remembered. When they started descending the last stairs to the entrance hall the young students started running toward their relieved parents.
The entrance hall was packed. Medi-witches were fussing over patience with large scraps and broken bones. Parents were fawning over their children or searching frantically among the crowd for them, not daring to go into the Great Hall to face their doom.
The Great Hall doors were open. Crying and pains of anguish echoed through the doors. Harry stopped on the stairs. He couldn't go in there. He didn't want to see the faces that he couldn't save. The faces of the people he knew and loved. Remus, Tonks, Fred... and countless others.
"You don't have to go in there Harry..." Ginny noticed his hesitation. She looked Harry in the eye for the first time. These were not the same brown eyes that Harry remembered. They were harder, determined and sad. "Neville, why don't you take him to the kitchens? I am sure you both could use a good meal."
"What about you?" Neville asked concerned. "You haven't even slept yet, have you?"
"I've been gone for a month Neville. Once all my duckling are accounted for I will come join you." Ginny smiled, the joy didn't fill her eyes though. "Come on, Jack. I'm sure your parents are with Kara."
Harry watched as Ginny lead the young boy though the crowd into the Great Hall. She was stopped many times by younger students for what Harry could only guess.
"Ginny's changed, hasn't she?" Harry turned to Neville. He had a look of concern also watching Ginny through the crowd.
"We all have Harry." Neville put an arm around Harry's shoulder and led him back up the stairs toward the kitchens. Harry took one last look toward Ginny before she disappeared in the Great Hall.