Breakfast had been another somber affair with the Weasleys, and Harry desperately needed some fresh air. After he and Ron had bid Hermione goodbye and wished her luck on her reunion with her parents (Ron and Hermione's passionate goodbye had left Harry feeling somewhat uncomfortable), Harry muttered to Ron that he was going for a walk.
Pulling on his invisibility cloak, he stepped outside, and immediately disapparated. He reappeared a moment later in a forest thick with trees, the sunlight dappling the ground wherever it managed to peep through the canopy of leaves. Unsure of why he exactly he had chosen to come here, he began aimlessly walking through the trees.
Finally, after nearly a quarter of an hour, he stopped and sat down cross-legged on the ground. Fingering the smooth dirt beneath his fingers, he began taking deep breathes, trying to calm his constantly racing mind.
Why couldn't he just forget? It had only been two weeks, but he was tired of remembering. Even here, amongst the cool green leaves and dirt, with only sunshine and trees for company, the memories of the battle were still relentlessly dogging him.
He felt trapped inside his mind. Where could he go? Where should he go for that matter? Back at the Weasleys, everything felt even worse. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had been nothing but kind to him, trying to talk to him about everything that had happened, but still, they were all mourning Fred.
Fred probably would have been the one to lighten all the tension, he thought grimly, he probably would have somehow found a way to make a joke out of his own death.
"Hey mum, want me to wash the supper dishes? Oh sorry, I can't, I'm dead! Hahaha." or "mum, it was actually George that died. Honestly woman, will you ever be able to tell us apart?"
It was a relief to actually be able to think the stupid thoughts dancing around in the back of his mind without having to suddenly stop his train of thought, worried that someone around him might somehow have learned legilimency and started reading his mind.
And George, well, he had hardly been seen the past two weeks. After Fred's funeral, he had gone up to his room, and had barely come out since then. Whenever Harry did see him, it was almost painful. George, once just as vibrant and funny as his twin, was a shadow of his former self.
As stupid as he knew it was, Harry still couldn't help blaming himself partially for all the deaths that had occurred in the battle. What if they could have found the horocurxes a bit sooner? Or what if he had just marched over to meet Voldemort and let him kill him before the battle had even started? Maybe everything would have turned out differently, and they would all be laughing about it together right now.
Why was everything so depressing? They had won, he had killed Voldemort, shouldn't he be feeling happier? If they had been victorious, why did it feel like such a loss? And why especially, couldn't he turn off the annoying stream of dark thoughts and unanswered questions that kept flooding his mind.
He needed a distraction. Thinking regretfully back to the still half finished comic laying crumpled on Ron's floor, he got slowly to his feet and brushed himself off. Taking one last glance around at the calm and quiet of the forest, he spun on his heel, and disapparated.
A moment later, the burrow again loomed in front of him. He pulled off his cloak, and marched resolutely around to the back of the house. As expected, Ron was sitting in the old drooping tire swing, staring off into the trees, and absently twirling his wand as he slowly dragged his trainers through the muddy ground.
Starting at the sound of Harry's approach, he glanced up. "Hey Harry, how was your walk?" Ron greeted him, "Able to clear your head a bit?" while he said this, he managed to force the ends of his mouth upwards into something that resembled a smile, but didn't quite reach his eyes.
"Yeah, not bad I guess. But listen mate", Harry hesitated for a moment, "I was wondering if you fancy going on a bit of a day trip with me. Ginny and George too if they want. I feel like I could use a bit of a distraction from..well...everything."
Ron was silent for a moment, pondering what Harry had said.
"yeah, I reckon your right. I'll probably go off my rocker if I keep sitting in this pathetic excuse for a swing. Either that or the rope holding it up will finally snap like its been threatening to do for years, and I'll break my neck when the whole bloody thing comes crashing down." He smiled grimly at Harry. "So where do you think we should go?"
"I didn't really think that far into the plan yet", replied Harry, and shrugged, "frankly, I was just impressed with myself for coming up with the first brilliant part."
"You're a bloody genius, do you know that?" Ron retorted, "I'd love to see you and Hermione go head to head sometime, so we can finally see which one of you is smarter. Let's see, the brightest witch of our age, versus coming up with the idea of going on a day trip. Hmmm, I don't know, this is really a tough call..." Ron trailed off beginning to laugh, and Harry joined in. "and the best part is," he wheezed to Ron in between peals of laughter, "is that I wasn't joking about being impressed with myself. It really did take me a solid half hour to come up with that idea!"
He and Ron, it appeared, were unable to stop their laughter once they had started. It seemed to come from somewhere deep inside him, the part of him that had been dying to laugh and smile for the past two weeks, and now didn't want to stop. He sank to the ground, clutching his ribs, which ached from the laughter still welling up inside of him.
"Stop!...Stop!" Ron gasped, also clutching his stomach which was heaving from laughing so much, nearly falling out of the swing as he tried to catch his breath.
"What's so funny?" a voice from behind him startled Harry, and he quickly turned. A resounding thunk in back of him told him that Ron too hadn't noticed anyone approaching, and had finally fallen out of the swing in surprise.
"Oh...hey Ginny!", Harry valiantly tried to stop laughing, but a rather unbecoming snort of laughter in the middle of his sentence had somewhat ruined the effect. A fresh burst of laughter from behind him informed him that Ron too had been unimpressed with his attempt at being suave. "We were just discussing who's smarter, Harry or Hermione", Ron helpfully piped up from behind. "hmm, well sorry Harry", Ginny smiled apologetically at him, "but I don't really think it's much of a contest. I still don't see what's so funny though".
Harry smiled up at her, and grabbed her hand, pulling her down so she was also sitting with them on the ground.
"it wasn't really a joke to be honest, it was more of a pathetic attempt at humor, which managed to break the past two weeks of tension", he explained.
"Thank God too", muttered Ron, "I really do think I was about to go barmy".
"Well Ronald, with you, it's never much of a stretch", Ginny grinned at him.
"Hey, I'll have you know that that's seriously offensive Ginevra!", Ron aimed a swot at her, but she danced out of the way, laughing. Harry glanced over at the tree the tire swing was hanging from. It honestly didn't look too different from the tree he had been leaning against in the forest just a few minutes ago, but suddenly, his heart felt lighter than it had in months; he was laughing in the sunshine with two of the people he loved most, and everything was most definitely different.
