Just to let you know, the title of my story is part of line from Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah.
and of course, all characters mentioned in this chapter are J.'s :-)

Hey, I hope you all enjoy. I don't know it this will ever become a full length story, or whether this is any good, but anyway, thanks for reading.
Becca

Chapter One

Harry James Potter strode through the crumbling hallway, his back straight and his eyes pointed directly ahead, his knees were weak and his head felt like it was going to explode. But he was the saviour, the big 'hero', he couldn't show an ounce of weakness to these broken people who had lost pretty much everything – for him, he must seem brave, he must not break. His only real relief at that moment was that Tom Riddle was dead, it had almost killed him, but he'd completed his destiny. He'd done what he was born to do, and it felt surreal, what was he supposed to do now? In the past seven years of his short life not for one minute had he let himself think of a future, how could he have a future when there was a price over his head, how could he become close to someone or become a true part of a family, when one day he would either be snatched away from them or be the cause of their untimely deaths? He could feel a thousand pairs of hungry eyes resting on him and as he opened the double doors to the Great Hall and as he climbed the damaged stairs to the main table the steady buzz of voices faded and every single person, elf and animal in the room held their breaths, awaiting the words of the boy who lived, multiple times.

Harry opened his mouth then took a deep breath, 'I don't know what to say,' he stuttered, words feeling unreal in his mouth, 'but I know that I'd like to apologise, to each and every man, woman and child in this room that had to witness the horrors of not only tonight, or yesterday, but of the past seven years. I cannot begin to explain how much pain it brings me to think that because of me, hundreds, no, thousands of people have been made to suffer, the world over. But I thank you, all of you for seeing the need for love over these barren, hate-filled years and for standing true and letting the right win out over the wrong in this world.' He paused for breath and wiped a few stray tears from his face, tears that he hadn't allowed to fall for so very long, the tears of a scared young boy whose parents had died and was lost in a scary new world. 'I can never begin to express how much I will miss the people I have lost, my parents, my god-father, the young parents, Remus and Tonks, Fred Weasley, one of the most amazing people I know, Colin Creevey, a young man of incredible bravery, Cedric Diggory, true until his last moment, Dobby the house elf,' his voice broke, 'the best free house elf, Albus Dumbledore, the only man Tom Riddle ever feared and every single other life that was lost in reaching our final goal. I ask you to remember your loved ones, not with grief and despair, but with love and respect. Thank you for your time.' He ended, feeling rather ridiculous that he couldn't come up with a better way to sum up his speech of sorts. He rested his eyes firmly on the floor and descended into the crowd, which was buzzing with whispers and cheers of approval to what he had said.

He looked up as he reached the bottom of the stairs and saw a red-headed, well there was no words to describe her, she was angel, flying towards him. 'Harry!' she yelled 'Oh Harry, we were so worried, I was so worried, we didn't know, we thought you'd died, but, you've done it, oh Harry, I couldn't have lived with myself if you'd died, I'm so glad you're ok!' she babbled, wrapping her thin ivory arms around his shoulders.

'Ginny, I've missed you so much.' He breathed in her ear; even now a year since their last kiss it sent shivers down her spine. 'I can't even begin to say how sorry I am, Fred-'

'Fred died.' She completed, 'I know, I saw it, my own brother.' She clutched to him. 'Harry, even though he's gone, I can't blame you, it was Fred's choice to fight, not one of us had the power to control him, if we'd told the twins to leave, maybe you would have died, and I know that not one of my family would have wanted that, you had to kill him, V-Voldemort.' She stuttered, her voice shaking with the obvious pain to her words. 'We do NOT blame you Harry.'

She stopped talking as they were joined by Ron and Hermione, both of them looking exhausted. 'Harry,' breathed Hermione, 'what you said up there, it was perfect. I don't know how you did it but every single person in this room was captivated. You're a born leader.' She embraced his tightly and whispered in his ear 'What I said in first year, I meant it. You're a great wizard Harry.'

Harry laughed, his first true laugh in what felt like forever, 'I couldn't have done it without you 'Mione, or you Ron.' He said, clasping his best friend's shoulder tightly.

Ron's ears grew red and the four of them laughed, almost like they had before Dumbledore had died. 'Harry mate, look at me,' Ron said, 'I know you're going to say it's your fault, but I also know my mum's gunna kick our arses for scaring her silly like we have for the past year and I know you and Ginny are gunna get back together and I know we'll miss Fred like hell, so before you decide to get all soppy on us, remember, we won.' This was amazingly insightful for Ron and the others stared open mouthed.

'Jesus Christ Ronald,' Hermione managed, 'when did you become so insightful?' she laughed.

'The day I walked away from you two and realised that I'd quite possibly lost the most special thing to ever walk into my life.' He shot back to her, before gently kissing her.

Ginny looked on awkwardly, then took Harry's hand, 'shall we go see mum?' she whispered, her beautiful brown eyes glinting at him, she was just as amused by Ron's little outburst as Harry and together they snuck away, leaving the newly formed couple to get, acquainted.

When Mrs Weasley saw Harry she broke out of her husband's arms and ran towards him, enveloping him in one of her motherly cuddles, babbling like Ginny had been, 'oh Harry, you silly, silly boy, you have no need to be sorry about this war, our Freddie-' her voice cracked with emotion but she continued 'our Freddie died tonight in the aim of one thing, putting an end to what that vile, vile man was doing to our world, it. Was. Not. Your. Fault.'

'Mrs Weasley,' Harry moaned, before breaking into sobs in this woman's shoulder, the only woman he'd ever know to be a mother.

Mr Weasley stood and wrapped his arms around his wife and his seventh son, Harry Potter had been a part of their family since the day his wife had seen the lost little boy standing on platform nine and three quarters alone all those years ago. Arthur Weasley thought hard as he hugged these members of his family, He had just lost a son and the pain of it was so close to the surface that every second he felt as though it might explode and he would lose it, but when he looked at Harry, he realised that this boy, so young and tender had experienced more loss, more pain and more torture than any other person he knew. This young man, his son, needed him to be there, Harry needed a family to love him, to treasure him, and more than anything else to help him heal and become the amazing man he would surely be. 'Harry, you are our son and we love you, we need you to know that.' Said Mr Weasley, gaining himself a massive kiss from his only daughter and a shocked, open mouthed look from Harry.

Harry shook slightly then looked straight into the eyes of the Weasleys, 'I love you.' He said.

lots of love!

Eek, if anyone's come this far and is reading this it means you've read my first chapter! Thank you, please leave any feedback – good or bad and hopefully you'll get another update soon, I'm in the mood to write stories :3