Putting It Back
By: lbfan
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the characters and world created about the stories are property of JK Rowlings, AOL Time/Warner, and the Harry Potter book publishers. This story is not written to be sold or profited by.
Author Note: This story takes off at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Always wanting to tie up the loose ends, my mind is continuously racing with ideas that I want to share. After DH, a story started to form, but it lacked a plot. This story will revolve around Harry's effort to safely rid himself of the Elder Wand.
Summary: After the final battle at Hogwarts, there's a hope for normalcy, but the banter at the fight announced the existence and owner of the fabled wand of all wands. Until a solution is figured out, there is no rest. A chilling story of adventure and romance in the week after the fight.
Chapter 1 – A Bad Dream
"This is not over yet," the dark cloaked, grim reaper taunted him. "With the wand in hand, they will continue to seek you out and kill you." Images of assassins flooded past relentlessly assaulting him.
Harry cringed back in shock and fear, and yet the images continued on. Gritting his teeth, Harry crowed back at his tormentor, "If these images are true, then they will remain unsuccessful!"
With a sadistic smile, Death replied, "For a while, but with every attempt, I will be there."
Harry's face pulled a look of deep pain as new images of would be assassins dead because from his successful attempts at defending himself.
The images changed to now show the people whom he loved in death. Death left him with one more parting thought. "You will not be able to stop the ones you love from trying to protect you. They too will die."
A deep wail of despair broke from Harry's heart. Opening his eyes, he looked around in a panic and found himself in a four poster bed with the curtains pulled closed. It was then that he realized that Death must have visited him in his sleep. Sitting up, he reached for his glasses and re-oriented himself to his surroundings.
He was in his bed in the Gryffindor dormitory. Finding his wand, he undid the security and silencing spells, he placed on the bed in the morning before he laid down for the kip. Once he pulled open the curtains, he discovered that it must have been late afternoon from the position of the warm sunlight flooding into the room.
Thinking of Ron, Harry looked over, and found his bed curtains pulled back and the bed empty. On his nightstand, he noticed a set of clean, formal dress robes have been laid out for him. Hermione must have found these and set them out.
As he changed into the new clothes, he marveled at quality of the garment. It looks like something only Lucious Malfoy would wear.
He worked his way down to the common room where he was greeted with a great applause. Looking around, he didn't see any of his immediate friends, so he started for the portrait hole. Unfortunately, Romilda Vane was in the way.
"Harry, there is talk of a celebration ball at the Ministry, and I am here for you."
Weary about not being too brutally honest with her, Harry replied, "I'll manage without you. Perhaps Dennis could use your comfort right now." He didn't really know where he was at the moment, but he knew that with the lost of his older brother, Dennis could use all of the cheering up he could get. He tried to step around her but she countered with a step in front of him.
"But Harry, there's no denying the chemistry we have between us."
He gave her a look of disbelief successfully stepped around her by gently pushing her away. It was then the Harry noticed just how much effort she went through to pretty herself up. Hopefully it wasn't all for him.
Out in the hallway he decided it was best to make his way down to the Great Hall. He figured with dinner starting soon, that the Great Hall would be the best place to find Ron. Just as he was about to go down the secret passageway that short cut to the entrance hall, he stopped in his tracks. Not sure what it was, he studied the entry way a bit longer before creeping closer. He was about to go in when he heard a familiar voice callout his name.
"There you are, Harry. I've been looking for you." In confusion he turned around to see Cho Chang gracefully walking towards him in eloquent dress robes of her own. "It has been so long since I have seen you… Could we talk?"
Slightly irritated, Harry looked back at the passageway entrance and back to her. "I was just about to go down to the entrance hall to look for Ron."
Confused, Cho offered, "How about if I go with you. We can talk on the way. But, isn't the hall this way?" She was pointing back down the hallway towards the moving staircases.
Aware that she didn't know of the passageway, Harry relented. "Sure, we can go that way."
As they started walking, Cho started. "You have no idea how sad and scared I was when I saw laying there supposedly dead. That is when I realized…"
Harry's mind was drifting away from the conversation as he considered how much hurt Ginny must have felt seeing him like that. If he saw her dead like that, he could have imagined the air being stricken from his lungs. He noticed Cho was still talking.
"…that red haired tart had no…" She had tears in her eyes, but he didn't care. He just figured that Cho was just that way.
The thought of the elder wand in his possession reminded him of the dream he just had and the danger that Ginny, Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys were in. He needed to return the wand to its resting place and make it publicly known that he no longer had it.
They were passing through the crowded courtyard when Harry noticed a presence that made him smile in spite of his melancholy mood. Cho noticed it too.