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A/N: Well, Here's the Broken Miracle, version 2. Hopefully it'll work out better than my last attempt. This is basically the second half of what the original would've been, but instead follows on from the canon, rather than the garbled mess I tried to make. It could technically fit into the events prior to the epilogue, If I keep myself more or less right.

It's Never Over

Chapter One – The Greatest Love Story Never Told

"Running away will never make you free."

~ Kenny Loggins

Harry sighed as Ron, Hermione and himself exited the Headmaster's office. The gargoyle still lay drunkenly to the side, and the adjacent hallways were covered in dust and rubble from collapsing ceilings and half a dozen duels. A calm silence permeated the air, as if the castle was sleeping in well-earned exhaustion.

Voldemort was dead, along with the majority of his forces; so many people he had once known were also dead, having died in the climactic final battle. Fred, Remus, Tonks. How many others? He didn't know. Didn't want to know, but knew he would have to learn the fates of a dozen plus dead friends by the day's end. Although he felt understandably saddened by their deaths, and he mourned them, but he didn't feel that a part of him was missing, as he had with Sirius' death. Something in him had changed. An acceptance that death was inevitable; and that those who died went to a better place. Death is but the next great adventure.

Harry was bruised, and battered, and covered in dirt and blood. He wanted nothing more than to sleep, or to eat, but he knew that there was one last matter to attend to before he could slip into sleep's warm embrace, one last loose matter to attend to. Ginny.

Eventually, after a dozen detours due to the destruction rendering old paths ineffective, they managed to reach the Great Hall, its doors blasted off in the battle. Inside was what was left of the survivors. Weary joy and grim satisfaction at the events of earlier permeated the Hall, a sense of victory and freedom from a Dark Lord's oppression. When they entered, it turned to a feeling of awe and expectation rippling across the hall with almost-alive intent.

Harry didn't care. There was only one thought on his mind now; a girl with vibrant red hair and exhausted, red-rimmed brown eyes. And there she was, sat with her family, dirty and battered like the rest of them. His heart leapt instantly and he realised he didn't have a clue what he was going to say.

They approached the red-head group tentatively. Ron went to hug his parents, and Hermione soon follow. Ginny stared downwards, unmoving, seemingly unaware that anyone had approached.

Carefully, gently, Harry leaned towards her and placed a tired hand on her shoulder. "Ginny?" He murmured. "Can I talk to you?"

She didn't reply, but nevertheless allowed herself to be steered away from her family. A few of them nodded in acceptance and encouragement. I lead her out of the Great Hall, under the stares of the others; some interested, some sympathetic, others uncaring.

We stopped in the Entrance Hall. There was ruin here too; most of the staircase had collapsed, the ceiling had buckled in places leaving chunks of stone across the floor.

"Ginny?" I asked quietly, waiting for some sort of response. Nothing. "Are you alright?"

Ginny breathed out a shaky sigh, before sadly speaking. "I just lost a brother and so many friends? What do you think?"

He winced at the angry tone she had used. It was a stupid question. "I'm sorry." He said honestly. He started to have second thoughts, and was about to make excuses when Ginny spoke again.

"What do you want, Harry?"

Harry mulled over that for a second, trying to find the best words to fit. "A life with you." He said, after an age. Then Ginny didn't something he hadn't been expecting. She laughed.

"What; you just break up with me then think we can go back together? Just like that?" She snapped her fingers at "that" for added emphasis.

Harry gaped at her. "I…"

"Do you have any idea what you put me through?" Ginny demanded. "Every day; every day I was wracked with fear and nightmares. Every bloody day I had to wait to see if someone had killed you! Do you know what that's like?"

Harry hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry."

"Oh you're sorry!" Ginny sneered in contempt. "Harry Potter is sorry!"

"Ginny…" He whispered. You're breaking my heart…

"Just get out of here, Harry." She said wearily.

And he did.

Where did the happy ending go?

Surprisingly, given the state he had found the covered wooden bridge in, the old viaduct was in surprisingly good shape; save for the dozens of broken suits of armour, mild damage to the side-guards and the odd dead troll, it was intact.

Harry sat there for a while, examining the Elder Wand until the sun reached the apex of its arc across the cloudless sky. This wand was better than any in existence, and had an appropriately bloody history to match. He had originally intended to return it to Dumbledore's tomb, but now he wasn't so sure. He wasn't dumb enough to keep it though, and knew that eventually someone would trace it to him or whoever he entrusted it to.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ron and Hermione walking towards him, looks of worry plastered across their faces. He smiled. At least he could still believe in his best friends.

"Hey." He greeted, not quite cheerfully, but certainly content. "How's you guy?"

"We saw Ginny…" Ron trailed off. "Everything alright between you two?"

"No." Harry admitted simply. "It's…it's my fault."

"How?" Hermione asked.

"I shouldn't have broken up with her." He muttered guiltily. "Now she hates me."

"That's not your fault mate." Ron consoled. "You tried to keep her safe; the only way it would've worked otherwise was if she actually came with us."

"And that would've been impossible." Hermione finished. Harry smiled. They had no idea just how much their support meant to him.

"Thanks." He said sincerely. Then his expression turned to a frown and he held up the Elder Wand. "What should I do about this?"

"Keep it." Ron said instantly.

"I thought you were going to put it back in Dumbledore's tomb?" Hermione asked quizzically.

Harry shrugged. "I dunno anymore."

A sudden thought popped into his head. There was one last thing the wand could do before he condemned it to its fate.

"Reckon it could fix Hogwarts?" Harry suggested, nodding at the still-smoking and broken castle. They stared at him aghast.

"You can't do that mate!"

"The strain will kill you!"

Harry ignored them and turned his attention to the castle, raising the Elder Wand with determined intent.

"Reparo."

A beam of icy blue light erupted from the wand's tip and struck the castle, causing it to light up in a brilliant display of magic. Broken away bricks and chips began to slide across the ground before shooting up into the air to take their place in the massive structure. The ruins of Gryffindor tower – demolished in the battle and fell into the lake – rose from the depths, casting off water in the gallons, before reattaching itself to the castle proper. Over the course of a minute the castle was rebuilt, restored…renewed.

And then it was over. An exhausted laugh escaped Harry's lips. "I'll be damned. It worked."

Ron and Hermione were awestruck. "There's no way you can just let that go." Ron muttered.

Harry regarded him. "Better that it stays lost."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "What're you going to do with it, Harry?"

Harry didn't answer, and instead took each end of the wand in hand, and began to apply pressure.

"Harry…" Ron moaned, distraught that he was doing such a thing. Eventually, the stick of wood groaned, cracked, and eventually snapped completely. Harry smiled, and tossed a half over each side of the bridge.

I doubt it's gone for good. A small voice in Harry's head murmured. He ignored it before looking at his two friends, who were both looking at him as though he were insane.

"My last gift to the wizarding world." Harry said dryly. Hermione had a look of knowing on her face now.

"You're leaving, aren't you?" Hermione asked sadly. Harry simply nodded with a set jaw.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked hopefully. He considered.

"Away."

A long time ago, there was a legend. A legend of another time; old and as terrible as the darkest night.

This legend said that there was a world lost to ours; a world of monsters and nightmares and things that should never be known, or heard, or seen. Things that should stay lost for all eternity.

But even eternity does not last forever.

A/N: As always, read, review and whatever else. As a side note: Whatever happened to "Harry Potter & The Veil of Shadows"? That was a good fic.

Next Time: Four Years Later, and everyone has moved on. That doesn't mean the past can't come back to haunt you.