DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything . It all belongs to JKR.

"I've had enough trouble for a lifetime."


Grinning weakly at the gobsmacked expression on Ron's face and understanding on Hermione's , he stuffed the Elder Wand back into his back pocket , put the newly repaired Holly & Phoenix feather wand in his inner pocket & stuffed the cloak inside his jacket as well , and then with one last look around at the circular office , at the portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses , some of who had somehow managed to procure a large stock of firewhiskey , and were gulping down large pints in celebration of the new victory ; Phineas Nigellus Black was heatedly in a discussion with Dilly's Dervent and a long black haired wizard who had his back to them over the contributions of slytherin house in the war; still some others were excitedly taking bets on who would be the next headmaster or headmistress to grace their company with ;still some were empty; Harry guessed they must be downstairs celebrating with other portraits, or observing proceedings in the Great Hall; and last of all those who had fallen asleep , snoozing quietly in their frames ; pausing to take a longer glance at his mentor , the one person who had done everything in his power to make this new dawn possible, not caring about his own life , not about all the taunts , jeers , remarks & doubts that may be raised if he left unanswered questions behind . No, now Harry realized that what the silver haired wizard had done, it couldn't be ever levelled, just like the evil that had left this world couldn't ever be levelled.

He turned towards the door, which now stood open, & beckoned to the other two to follow him. At the sounds of their retreating footsteps, all the portraits stopped whatever they were doing and abruptly stood up to cheer the trio once again . Ron bowed several times in all directions, and only stopped when Hermione gave him a hard pinch on the ear. But that didn't stop him from walking with a haughty stride alongside Harry, smiling broadly.

Just then, a stout little witch with short beady eyes, graying shoulder length hair and a rather plump nose burst into her frame, startling them all.

"He's there Dumbledore, just saw him return, says he'll have them ready in ten minutes."

"Thank you, Martha. Tell him I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Right. And while you're on your way, you might as well make a detour to find Cadogan. He's completely lost it today , running from portrait to portrait with that ridiculous sword of his , challenging whomever he meets on his way to a fight, and refusing to move until either those he's blocked have been stupid enough to fight him , or smart enough to hex him. Has had a truckload of firewhiskey, by the looks of it, and being near him at the moment is as safe as being surrounded by a group of marching trolls. I thought that he'd pulled the last straw when finding no one ready to duel with him, he turned around and challenged his poor pony to a fight. The thing was so startled to have it's master bellowing after him with his sword, it ran trough all the portraits from the 2nd floor until it reached the portrait of Sheira the mermaid on the 5th and plunged right into the lake, sending out screeching merpeople who were celebrating out underneath the water, and only because of their horrible screeching did Cadogan turn back to go looking for other ' Fearless Fighters' as he is calling them. Anyway, while he was away at the lake, I told Simmons you would be coming, and he went off to hold Cadogan off till you arrived." She finished, panting huffily.

"Dear , Dear . Looks like ol' Caddy has got it too bad. Don't worry , I will go soon. Go and have some rest, Martha."

"Right ." and she stalked off, muttering about stupid knights and foolish monks stupid enough to distribute amounts of firewhiskey way much more than what was good for them .

Dumbledore turned to Harry "Well Harry, I'll see you later. Good night, you three." And with that, he waved merrily, surveyed them over the top of his half moon glasses, and walked off.

Now, just thinking about his warm bed up in Gryffindor tower, he slowly trudged his way with the other two out of the circular chamber, and down the revolving staircases, taking care to avoid the few steps that had broken. He vaguely wondered if they could repair the small damage to the staircases. He suddenly stopped , causing the other two to bump into him.

"Oi.What are you thinking about now? Haven't we fried our brains raw throughout the year enough already?" Grumbled Ron ?

Harry , however paid him no attention. Taking out his phoenix feather core wand, he pointed it at a broken step and said firmly:

"Reparo."

"What are you doing?" Enquired a slightly irritated & puzzled Ron.

The steps vibrated, but did not repair themselves. His heart sank. He turned to Hermione "Do you mind?"

"What?" She looked just as puzzled as Ron.

"Try to repair the steps. They don't look heavily damaged."

She huffed in exasperation. "How many times do I have to tell you two to read Hogwarts: A history? The entire Castle is magical, and needs some pretty advanced magic to repair any damages. It is beyond the scope of normal magic today to recreate what was created a thousand years ago by the most powerful magicians of all time. "

None of the other two looked convinced , so she pulled out her own wand. The other two looked on, genuinely interested. Pointing her wand at the step, she firmly repeated :

"Reparo."

Again the steps vibrated, but other from that showed no further signs of repair.

"See?" Hermione stated as if chiding them for some wrongdoing, but she turned around to see Harry lost completely in his own thoughts.

"Harry?"

But Harry didn't pay any attention. Slowly he reached for the Elder wand in his back pocket, pointed it at the broken step and repeated:

"Reparo."

The steps flew together, good as new. Hermione looked highly impressed and embarrassed at the same time, but said nothing, as to not have to admit that first time a book had let her down. Ron however clapped Harry on the back, obviously overjoyed.

"Ha! See mate. You're gonna have to keep that wand for at least a little longer." Slowly Harry took out the other wand, and held them both up together in his hands. Then he turned to the other two, his mind already made up.

"After I help repair the castle, I'll put return the elder wand to its rightful resting place, but we must keep this between us, otherwise news may spread soon among the school like wildfire that the most powerful wand ever is residing within the school. The Hogwarts rumour mill works too quick for my liking. I'll have to do it by night, though that wouldn't be much of a problem; we've had far too much experience of prowling around the castle at night. Although no one would likely object to me providing a hand, awkward questions may come up. C'mon". With that , he turned down the stairs, the other two following in his wake. They reached the opening in the wall, and went past the gargoyle lying lopsidedly onto a side, who stirred feebly.

"Oh. No need to stay good night. I'll just stay here till someone helps me get back into my place." it groaned.

Harry turned, walked straight around to the gargoyle lying lopsided at the entrance to the revolving staircases, and pointing the elder wand at the gargoyle, said "Reparo".

The lopsided gargoyle sailed smoothly into place.

"Thanks. It's been long since a student cared about us disdainful guardians of passages, you know. Just shout the password and get going, as if we're nothing but stone statues, that's how we gargoyles have been treated forever, you know. Only Dumbledore took time to acknowledge us and our families."

"You've got families?"

"Just the voice of sarcasm, aren't we? Always the-"

But Harry just pointed the wand threateningly back at the gargoyle, and it shut up immediately.

Harry then made his way back to the other two, took out the invisibility cloak from his jacket and threw it up over their heads.

"There's no need to talk to anyone just now, not until we reach the tower at least." He whispered in answer to the enquiring looks in the other two's faces. Slowly, they trudged their way back to the tower slowly, noticing that the damage to this part of the castle wasn't as extensive as that to the front. A few windows hung off their hinges, a couple of tapestries had been burnt down, a couple more torn, and the floor was strewn with dust. Repairing most of the damage as he went along, purely to give himself something to just do than to think about all of the losses of the battle which weighed heavily upon his heart, Harry soon found himself walking with the other two in the passage leading to the portrait of the fat lady. They reached the portrait, where the lady was snoring loudly with her head lolling down in front of her left shoulder, one hand upon her lap and the other just holding on to a wine bottle. He took the cloak off the three of them, and stuffed it back inside his jacket hastily.

"Holy candles" said Harry, turning back to the portrait.

She shifted in her sleep, but didn't wake.

Harry said the password a little more loudly this time, swaying on his feet as he did so. He really was exhausted and was ready to sleep for a week, his brain felt oddly empty besides all that had transpired since just a few hours ago, and he thought it must be the exhaustion getting to him at last. The lady grumbled inaudibly, but still didn't move. He once more gave the password, raising his tone by two pitches as he did so. The lady still didn't budge, and that got the better of all of them this time.

"HOLY CANDLES!"

All of them shouted this time, thereby startling the lady out of her sleep, who scrambled to her feet, and dropped her wine bottle, just barely managing to keep herself upright by clinging on to the side of her frame with her hands. She looked highly affronted at them.

"Just because you've saved the entire wizarding world doesn't mean that you've earned the right to go prowling around and startle people out of their sleeps. That wine was three hundred twenty five years old, you know."

"Yeah, well forgive us, but unlike you, we haven't had any sleep in hours" Muttered Ron sarcastically under his breath. This however didn't go unnoticed by the lady, and neither by Hermione, who gave him a sharp nudge in the ribs.

"MANNERS! RONALD."

"See, she's still got more humanity left in her thumb than you've got in your oversized brain, Pea Brain. But before I let you in, just where have the three of you been this year?" , The lady asked sarcastically, quirking an eyebrow upwards.

Ron, who was by now highly irritated, screamed out at the top of his voice

"COULD YOU HOLD YOUR HORSES JUST UNTIL TO- .", but he was cut off mid-rant . Hermione had cried out , her own wand directed at Ron's face

"Silencio."

Ron had a dangerous expression on his face. Hermione ignored it completely, and turned back to Harry, "Let's just go in. He's too exhausted for his own good, let alone anyone else's."

"Right." Muttered Harry .With a sigh, he turned back to the fat lady. "Sorry about him. Please, can we go in now? I promise, we'll tell you everything later."

Still muttering about selfish school students, she swung forwards to admit them into the tower.

A few people were sitting inside. Harry recognized Neville, Dean, Seamus, Parvati & Lavender sitting on the couch by the fire. Charlie& Percy were sitting on the other side of the common room with George. He felt his guilt take another upward swing as he noticed that all of them had red, puffy eyes. Oliver Wood, Katie Bell & Angelina Johnson sat on the floor in the middle. Katie had a bandage around her arm, and Wood sat clutching his ankle, which had earlier been mended by Madam Pomfrey.

Hermione turned back to Ron, who by now had the grace to be looking sheepish at his own impatience for rest, and quickly reversed her spell.

Nodding to her and Harry, Ron made his way over to his brothers, all of whom quickly engulfed him in a tight hug. Hermione joined Angelina on the floor.

Harry made his way over to the couch, where his ex-roommates were sitting .

"Why aren't you all resting? It's been a long night already."

Seamus chose to reply for all of them: "Harry mate! If anyone deserves some rest, it's you. We've all been waiting here, just so we could meet you before going back home; our parents are waiting in the Great Hall. It's nearly six, and our portkeys leave at seven. Go on, get some sleep. I doubt whether any of us wouldn't fall asleep on our doorstep as soon as we enter our homes."

Satisfied with his answer, he asked "Have you guys eaten?"

They all nodded wearily.

"Ok then. Take Care of yourselves. And Thanks for everything. I couldn't have done it without you guys."

"No Problem mate" Replied Dean. "Now go get some sleep."

"Right. See you all later."

They all stood up , and hugged him one by one, then silently made their way towards the portrait hole.

"Neville." Harry called out to the plump round boy, who turned back.

"Yeah Harry?"

"Thanks again mate. Say hello to you gran for me, won't you?"

"Sure , brother. Take care of yourself." He smiled cheerfully at Harry, and then turned back to hug Ron and Hermione, both of who by this time had hugged all the other four. Then the five made their way slowly out of the common room. His two best friends turned back to go where they were earlier. Harry slowly looked around himself, noticing the damage to the room at large. It hadn't suffered a lot of damage, given that it was at the back of the castle and pretty high up; most of the fight had been near the front, and hadn't reached the higher levels of the castle. A curtain had been burnt down, and the window behind it was completely smashed. Otherwise the room was unscathed.

Harry made his way towards Oliver Wood, and sat down between him and the girls.

"Hey!"

"Hi Harry!" His three ex teammates replied back at him.

He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off abruptly.

"Before you ask, our portkeys leave at quarter past seven, and we've all eaten. What we don't understand is why you aren't in bed yet!" Katie chimed in.

"I had a few things to discuss with someone."

"Alright." Replied Angelina, "Well, now that we've seen you, I think it best that we'd better be going down as well. Our relatives are waiting downstairs too."

Harry thought that everyone was leaving early to give him some rest, but didn't mention it. He was thankful that they had stayed up for him, though it was only increasing his guilt that they hadn't had some rest. He nodded wearily to them.

"Right then. See you all later. Take care. Say thanks to your relatives for me."

"Alright Harry" Replied Wood, nodding. With that all of them got up. The four Weasley brothers walked over to the five of them, and after a quick round of hugs, Oliver, Angelina, & Katie walked out of the portrait hole.

Harry turned around to the elder three Weasley brothers .All of them were apparently unhurt, except for a minor cut on Percy's arm and Charlie sporting a slightly swollen lower lip.

"Charlie?" he called to the eldest of the Weasley brothers.

"Yeah, Harry?" Charlie responded normally, although Harry detected the slightest bit of covered grief behind his tones.

His guilt now almost too much to consume him, Harry recovered himself with a deep breath.

"Where are the rest of the family?" Harry enquired, his voice wavering slightly despite his best efforts.

"They're all right upstairs. Mum and Dad retired with Ginny, Bill and Fleur left earlier."

"Ok. Have they all eaten?"

"Everybody except mum. She's still in a very bad state, but all the others have had some."

He nearly choked while trying to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. The one person who had been like a mother to him as long as he had known her, had always had given him food before eating herself whenever he'd been living at Ron's place, had treated him equally to any of her other sons, held him when he'd cried , was now sitting upstairs hungry, because he had brought immeasurable grief upon her. He didn't trust himself to speak, so he looked to Hermione for help, who understood and nodded kindly before turning back to Charlie.

"And you three, have you had any food yet?" she asked Charlie.

"We did, but dad told us to wait for you lot. Ginny wanted to stay too, and stubbornly refused to go up until she'd met you lot, especially you Harry,", Harry looked up, surprised, but didn't still trust his voice so he chose to remain quiet. "I promised her that I'd send Harry up when he arrived. She agreed after arguing heavily, and dad took them all upstairs."

"Where are they?" Ron asked. Harry noticed that he'd been oddly quiet all of this time, as had been Percy and George.

"Mum, dad & Ginny are all in the fourth year dorms, Bill and Fleur are in the second years."

Harry, who'd found his voice at last, called out sharply "Kreacher."

The house elf apparated with a loud crack & everyone looked up at Harry ,surprised. The elf bowed deeply to Harry before turning to bow to the others as well. Then it turned back to Harry and looked up expectantly. Harry noticed that he too was wearing the same clothes as the Hogwarts house elves used to wear, Regulus Black's old locket still on his neck.

"Yes Master Harry?"

"Are you alright?" Hermione asked the elf.

"Yes kind miss." Kreacher replied, before turning back to Harry.

"Master called Kreacher. What does master wish for Kreacher to do?"

"I'd like you to bring me some toast, a few sausages, some steaks and a flagon of pumpkin juice, with three glasses, with two trays."

"Yes master." He disappeared with a pop.

"It's no use Harry. We've all tried, but she's too shaken to speak, let alone eat."

"That doesn't mean I'm no going to try" replied Harry, as the house elf reappeared with the food, and set it on the table in front of Harry.

"Thanks Kreacher. I'll see you soon." Said Harry .Then he continued "By the way Kreacher, have you eaten?"

"Yes master Harry. Kreacher had eaten as soon as the fight was finished and was helping with the other house elves in restoring the entrance hall, when Master Harry called Kreacher." croaked the tiny elf.

Harry and Ron turned to Hermione, with identical quizzical expressions on their faces. She replied "House Elves' magic is very powerful, Harry, much more so than any ordinary Wizard's magic. I've already explained this to you before, when you asked me how they were able to apparate and disapparate from directly inside Hogwarts' grounds."

Satisfied, Harry turned back to Kreacher.

"Ok Kreacher. You can go now. I'll call you when we need something."

"Ok master." bowing to all of them once again, the elf disapparated with a pop.

Harry turned back to the food on the table, piled three toasts, a couple each of sausages and steaks on the spare tray, and then filled a glass with pumpkin juice, keeping it on the same tray he had just filled, and then lifted the tray. Turning back to Ron and Hermione, he nodded towards the other tray and said "you both didn't eat much earlier, so eat now, and then go straight to bed. I'll be along later after I've seen your mum, Ron."

"Whatever do you mean Harry?"Asked Hermione.

"Yeah! We're coming with you. At least we've eaten something, you haven't touched a morsel. You need to eat too." Said Ron.

"No. I need to do this on my own." He replied, swallowing heavily, unable to meet either of their gazes and pretending to focus on balancing the tray, so the glass wouldn't topple over. However, no sooner had he looked down than he found a hand under his chin, and his gaze was forced upwards, and he found himself looking into the brilliantly blue eyes of George Weasely, who had the same hard blazing expression on his face which he'd only seen earlier on Ginny's face. He tried to turn away, but George forced him to look straight into his eyes.

"Don't you dare blame yourself Harry Potter, don't you dare. None of us blames you for what happened. It's not your fault, none of it is, and YOU KNOW IT. You are no less a brother to us than either of us are to you and to each other among ourselves. We fought for you, because you ARE family, and you did the same for us, hell you weren't even afraid to die for us. Fred may be dead, and we'll miss him equally, but I can guarantee you that wherever he is, he'll be happy because all of us are safe, and that is because of YOU & YOU ALONE. "

"But It was MY fight. I should've ne-"

But whatever he wanted to say, he never got to finish. The tray was taken from his hands, and he found himself being crushed in a tight hug, surrounded on all sides by all of the Weasley brothers present. Hermione was holding the tray, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Charlie called her over, and soon Harry found her besides himself as well. He had let go of his emotions, and was crying openly into Charlie's shirt, who patted him gently on the back.

After a few minutes, or what could have been half an hour, the group broke apart. Wiping his cheeks, Harry nodded to the elder three Weasley's.

"Thanks. That helped a lot."

George smiled & picked up the tray he'd prepared for Mrs. Weasley and handed it to him.

"Go On. Ginny's waiting for you", said Charlie, gently pushing Harry towards the staircase.

"Right. You all go get some sleep. When I come back here, I don't want to see any of you three still awake."

"What do you mean when you come back here?"

"Oh .Nothing much. I'm just not sleepy anymore. Tired as hell, yeah," he said hurriedly, noting the frown forming on Charlie's face, "but not sleepy. So I'll just lay down here on the couch, where I've spent many restless nights earlier", he answered in reply to the questioning gaze on their faces.

"Ok. But do try to get some sleep. We're all returning to the burrow after lunch."

"Ok. You coming Ron, Hermione?"

"Yeah, C'mon, let's go." replied Ron.

They all made their way up the stairs. Percy, George & Charlie all turned to the door on the first landing, which was the entrance to the first years' dorms. They each bade the other trio goodbye, and then proceeded to turn in.

The trio proceeded upwards, and Harry stopped at the entrance to the second years' dorms. He could hear snoring from the inside, which meant that Bill was asleep & probably so, was Fleur. Looking around to see that the other two were following , he trudged his way upto the fourth years' dorms , and as he reached the landing at the entrance to the dormitory, his guilt returned full force .

How was he to face either Mr. or Mrs. Weasely, when they had done everything they could've done for him since knowing him, and he in turn had only brought immeasurable grief upon them? How was he even to ask Mrs. Weasely to eat, when it was because of him that she had not eaten? How would he face Mr. Weasely, who'd been there for him before he'd known either Sirius or Remus? The thought of Remus brought another pang of guilt to his stomach. And how, how was he to face Ginny, when she'd helped him through a lot of his suffering because of Sirius, and he'd been the cause that one out of her two favorite brothers had been taken away from her. If the looks on the faces of the other three Weasley brothers when he'd first seen them were anything to go by, he couldn't even imagine the looks on the rest of the Weasleys who were waiting inside for him.

He felt a hand upon his shoulder, and turned to see Ron standing there, with a look of understanding on his face. Ron nodded towards the door, telling him without words to go on. Harry gulped, and nodded back. Slowly, he turned towards the door, and freeing one of his hands from the tray, knocked once twice on it.

There was a sharp click on the door as it was magically unlocked from the inside, and Mr. Weasely's voice called out

"Come In."

Harry felt numb & cold. This family, that had looked after him, cared for him, supported him even, had paid a terrible price. They had lost a son and it was all his fault.

With a heavy feeling of dread in his heart & a heavy dead weight pressing down on his stomach, Harry slowly reached for the handle and pushed open the door.