Chapter one
For the first few weeks after the fighting, after the death of Voldemort, the people at the Burrow were still quiet, hardly talking, only when necessary. The Weasley family were taking the loss of Fred hard. Hermione wanted to help Ron, but didn't know how and he seemed to want to spend time alone. Harry knew Ron needed some space, he felt like that after Sirius died, so he never tried to push Ron to talk like Hermione did and he did explain this to his friend, but she seemed to think talking would help, but Harry knew it wouldn't. Hermione had never lost anyone close to her, Harry had so he could understand how Ron felt, but he couldn't get Hermione to understand.
One thing Harry thought a lot about, was the wand. Even though he really didn't need it, he loved his phoenix feather wand. He had decided to keep the elder wand but not tell anyone he had it, not even Hermione and Ron. Something deep inside Harry told him to keep it, so even though he knew it was dangerous if any dark witch or wizard knew he had it, he wanted it.
The funerals were hard on everyone, Harry attended the funerals of every person that died fighting for good, but he wasn't the only one. The new minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt also attended, Minerva McGonagall was another that arrived for every funeral. Friends of Harry's like Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood said they felt like they needed to attend them, that's how Harry felt, he needed to. But Harry always spoke to the family of whose funeral he had been to, offered his condolences, not that it helped much. But he felt he had to say something because to him, these people turned up when they found out he was at Hogwarts, so Harry felt responsible even though he knew that most just wanted it finished, just like he did.
After all the funerals were over, that's when everyone finally started to relax and realise that their world had changed and for the better. It was safe from Voldemort for the first time since he first found out he was magical. Of course most of the wizarding world never realised Voldemort had started his reign of terror so long ago, only a select few knew exactly when he started.
Even though Harry stayed with the Weasley's at the Burrow, he left every morning to head to Hogwarts to help repair the castle. Everyone kept telling him to rest and heal, but he couldn't, not with Hogwarts the way it was. To Harry, this was his home, his first home and he hated seeing it with so much damage. Neville was another person that turned up every day to help. Sometimes he would clean up, other times he would stand beside Harry repairing sections of walls or stairs. There were a few others that would turn up, not every day but just occasionally. But Harry and everyone else could understand, they were getting on with their lives now they could without the constant danger.
Kingsley had recruited everyone he knew was trustworthy, order of the phoenix members, friends, colleagues and even the DA to help him clean out the ministry of Voldemort supporters. Even though he had lost a son, Arthur Weasley also helped Kingsley at the ministry because he knew like Kingsley knew that they needed good people to run the magical world, but also people that wanted what was best for the people and not themselves.
Because of reporters always coming onto the grounds of Hogwarts. Nothing could be done to stop them since there were no enchantments around the ancient school and until they could repair enough of the gates and fences, Minerva had Hagrid and Grawp keep them out of certain areas. One was these areas was a room she had set up for a hospital since that part of the castle had been damaged. So Poppy Pomfrey along with other healers went about helping the injured, some of the rooms were secure from anyone apart from a healer, some that wanted privacy.
One room held a person that no one knew was alive, as far as some knew, he'd died. But Severus Snape had survived and found in time to get help. When he had been conscious and could talk, he only said a few words, pensieve, Potter and truth. Minerva and Kingsley had no idea what he meant, but since he had a lot of damage to his throat, it would be a while before he could talk properly. So the headmistress and the minister discussed what to do and decided to speak with Harry Potter as soon as they felt he was ready to talk. They had seen him stare into space, sometimes they had seen someone talking to him and he didn't seem to hear them, other times they saw him pale before either running for a bathroom or into a secluded area to be sick. They had no idea why or what was wrong, but they knew they would sooner or later and both of them weren't sure what they were going to hear.
When Harry had been talking to Voldemort, Minerva and Kingsley heard what Harry said about horcruxes, along with his mother, Snape and the wand. But they still had no idea what all of that meant. They both knew what a horcrux was and realised what Voldemort had done which allowed him to come back and never die that fateful night seventeen years before.
The reporters always tried to get Harry to answer questions, but he completely ignored them even if he was surrounded in people. He just kept aiming his wand at the castle to continue his work. After a while they did leave, but they always returned. Every day the Daily Prophet had more pictures of Harry and Hogwarts, someone had even snuck into the room where Voldemort was and took his picture.
Harry did work out to pay for the damage done to Gringotts, Kingsley had offered and said the ministry should pay, but Harry refused to let him, saying it was his responsibility and he was going to take care of it. After a lot of arguing with the goblins, they sorted everything out and Harry was finally allowed to go to his vaults which included a third vault that he never knew about but was supposed to be given to him on his seventeenth birthday. So after helping the Weasley's out with some money until they all started working again, Harry went into muggle towns to shop for clothes and finally get rid of Dudley's old clothes. He also bought himself some contact lenses and not just one pair, but three different pairs. He thought now he's life was going to be so different than the last eighteen years, he wanted a completely different look. The moment he finally saw himself in new and decent clothes, no glasses and his hair cut and styled, Harry actually smiled for the first time in weeks.
Since right after Fred's funeral, Ginny had been at Harry to get back together. Harry did but asked to take things slow; which is the exact opposite to what Ginny wanted. So no matter what Harry did or said, they were finally a proper couple. Even though Harry wanted to take things easy, he did enjoy being with Ginny and had missed her when he had been away. So when he had finished at Hogwarts, they would spend all their time together, usually sitting together on the sofa or lying together down near the old pond, but always snogging. All the Weasley boys had to get used to see their little sister snogging Harry, because she didn't care who was around, if she wanted to snog him, she did and kept saying they were catching up. So even though they didn't like it, the Weasley boys got used to it. Charlie was one that couldn't stand to see Ginny snogging Harry, so if they started he always left the room, usually heading outside or up to his old room. But everyone was used to Charlie's behaviour even if they didn't understand why he acted worse than the others.
