Prologue.
A man appeared on the corner of the Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. In the dim light his features weren't quite clear. If any of the inhabitants of the ordinary-looking houses would look outside they couldn't immediately notice that this was the boy-who-lived, the Chosen one, or, as the newest nickname said; the Shepard or the Wizarding world, not that they knew any of this, though.
It took a few seconds before the young-man had orientated himself but when he did he headed straight for Privet Drive number four, the most normal-looking house in the neighbourhood, but appearances are not always accurate This showed when the young man rang the doorbell. The door opened and a woman with an exceptionally long neck opened the door. She gasped at the damaged face of the boy that had lived in her house for more than ten years. The left half of his face was bruised very badly, three bloody gashes ran over his cheekbones and a lot of small injuries could be seen if you looked closer. His right arm was hung in a very odd angle from his body. The fabrics of his shirt had been torn and blood was gushing out of the deep wounds on his arm and little drops of blood were dropping lingeringly on the ground.
When his deep and slightly hoarse voice sounded: "I came to get my stuff" Petunia gingerly stepped aside. The boy slowly climbed the stairs; every step caused him to wince, and approached the door of Dudley's second bedroom. He took his wand from his pocket and made a brown trunk appear out of thin air. He slowly packed his school- and quidditch robes, his broom and all the other things he abandoned last year when the golden trio set out to destroy Voldemort. When he finished his packing he turned around to look at the Petunia, who had followed him and was silently waiting in the doorway. Brilliant emerald eyes met the dull blue ones. In the green eyes hurt was visible, hurt and loss. Those eyes had seen so many corpses in the last days and had witnessed so many funerals. Harry Potter had tried to be at every funeral of those that had died in the final battle. Petunia was shocked to see the wounded eyes and felt that after all those years she had finally started to care for the boy, but it was too late.
"Farewell, aunt Petunia." The man whispered, and he disappeared.
Chapter one.
Time was healing, Harry discovered. It was several months since he had left the Dursley's for the last time. He had lived with the Weasley's at the Burrow several months now and he felt pretty much that it was his home too now. It wasn't just Ron's house, but now it was also his house. Together with the Weasley's he had been grieving for the loss of Fred. He still missed those who he had lost in the war, but the deep wounds were now slowly turning into scars, however not superficial and easily uncovered.
As Harry was lying on his bed, silently thinking over the quidditch match they held yesterday in the backyard and softly humming along with the music Ron was playing (Beasts and beings by The Heliopath's), the door flung open and Hermione burst in: "Guys, listen up! The Hogwarts letters are soon to be sent out. We need to write Professor McGonagall if we'll be back this year."
Silence fell in the room, Harry sat up and by the looks Ron had just roughly been woken by Hermione's entry. Ron blinked a few times "Hogwarts… Hogwarts, yes, I suppose we could go back, you know, finish our seventh year."
Harry and Hermione nodded thoughtfully. All were lost in the happy memories of their youth. Quidditch, breakfast at the Great Hall, the Christmases together and the hours of just sitting at the lake, feet in the water and just enjoy life. How they all wished to go back to that time.
"But, Neville won't be there and Seamus, Dean, Parvati, none of them will be there." Hermione said, thinking things over.
Harry noticed that she didn't mention Lavender and smirked.
"Luna will be there, and Ginny will be there too." Ron replied.
Harry didn't notice that both Ron and Hermione were looking how he was reacting to the mentioning of Ginny. Harry and Ginny had been very tense in each others presence. The silence when they were in one room was actually really awkward but everyone tried to ignore it as much as possible, although everyone wanted to interfere they all knew that it possibly wasn't very wise. So they just waited until Harry and Ginny would sort things out.
Harry, however, wasn't thinking about Ginny at that time. He was thinking about the job the ministry had offered him; an Auror was what he always wanted to be, right? Than why would he go back to school? But Harry couldn't stop thinking how the other Aurors would think he was stupid because he missed a lot of spells in seventh year, he couldn't even think of their faces when they would find out that the great Harry Potter couldn't even bloody apparate! So Harry spoke: "Well, I wouldn't mind going back to Hogwarts…"
Ron cut in: "Why do you want to go back? You've been offered a job already. And a damn good one!"
Harry shrugged unhappily, "I just want to. There's a lot that I don't know…"
Hermione beamed at them before storming of and muttering under her breath a list of things she should pack. Harry and Ron shared a wicked, elated grin. They would go back!
*
The next they a tawny owl arrived, carrying four Hogwarts letters. Hermione was practically jumping with excitement as Harry untied the letters from the owl's leg. He handed Hermione her letter, next was Ron and hesitated slightly while handing Ginny her letter. They eyes locked for the briefest moment and their hands touched, sending shivers down his spine. Harry noticed that Ginny's cheeks got a faint pink tinge and smiled. Not all was lost.
Harry frowned slightly when he found his envelope heavier than usual. His jaw dropped when two shiny badges slid out of it. One was familiar, reminding him of his old life; his captain badge, the other one, however, had he only seen on Percy's chest before. A glimmering sliver badge wearing the Hogwarts crest and the words Head Boy engraved on it.
"Merlin," He breathed, "Guys…"
When no reaction came he said again, now a little more forcefully. "Guys!"
"Merlin's shit!" Ron exclaimed when he spotted the badge, "You are…"
"Ronald Weasley, watch your language!" Mrs. Weasley said crossly, for a brief moment glancing at Ron but she soon went back to fussing over Ginny's book list.
"But mom, Harry's made Head Boy!" Ron stated in indignation.
Mrs. Weasley's eyes immediately went from the book list to Harry's hand, in which he held the two badges. Not even two seconds after that he had found all the air knocked out of his longs by one of Mrs. Weasley's famous hugs. Hermione was practically bouncing in the background and Ginny beamed at him when Mrs. Weasley buried her head in his chest.
"Head boy," She murmured, "The first one since Percy, another one of my sons is Head Boy."
Harry felt that the front of his shirt was getting a little wet and he himself felt like crying. Mrs. Weasley counted him as one of her sons!
*
The next morning found Harry and Ron standing together in front of a full length mirror, silently observing how much they had changed over the years. Both had grown very tall, however Harry was still a head smaller than Ron was which was always a good object for teasing, they'd both let their hair grow and Harry's looked a little less messy. Harry had also got rid of his glasses in favour of several potions that fixed his eyesight. .
They both wore the signs of war on them, some clearly visible but some harder to distinguish. Ron's fore arms and neck were covered with long rope like scars from where the brains had attacked him in the department of Mysteries, the long scars that ran over Harry's left cheekbone down his chest, the scars that Umbrigde had left and of course the famous scar that Voldemort had caused. Their eyes held complete new emotions which they had never shown since first year. They were no longer filled with only pain and worry, but with hope, love and mischief. Harry and Ron had shown themselves quite capable pranksters and had played several pranks on the twins (which resulted in blue polka dots for both Harry and Ron. The twins said revenge was sweet.) and had helped the twins out in the store numerous times. They were ready to give Hogwarts a year that it hadn't seen since it said goodbye to the Marauders.
"We've changed a lot, haven't we?" Harry mused to Ron.
"Yeah, but it's all over now. Now, you're my brother and we will give Hogwarts hell!"
They both smirked at their reflections.
A/N: This is actually the first fan fiction that I have ever written, so it's very old. I kinda liked the storyline, though, so I decided to update it. This is the only part I'd written back then so the following chapters will be new. I hope you'll stick around to read the whole story and please review!