The funerals passed by with indecent haste. At the last funeral, Lupin's and
Tonks', Harry met Teddy. He was small, of course, and his hair turned colors
every few seconds. His eyes were wide, and curious alternating between brown,
grey, purple, and bright green.

"I know that you are much to young to
take care of a baby," Andromeda Tonks murmured, looking lovingly at Teddy, "But
I know that N- my daughter and Lupin would want him to know you. I will take
care of him, but you have to promise that you will be in his life as much as
possible," Harry nodded, and tickled the baby's chin. He made a promise to
himself that he would be a better godfather than Sirius was-and that he would be
there for Teddy when he needed him.

After the funeral, a large
celebration was held at the Burrow.

"Hey, Harry," Hermione greeted,
sitting down on the bench near him, "Are you going to Hogwarts next year?" Harry
hesitated, considering her words. He was almost sure he wanted to become an
Auror, but that was before the Horcruxes and being in hiding for nearly a year.
What else could he be? Especially because he now had Teddy in his future, and
Voldemort was gone, all his plans had changed.

"I'm not sure, Hermione,"
he answered honestly, taking a swig of Butterbeer, "I wanted to be an Auror, but
now... I'm not so sure." Hermione nodded in understanding.

"Ron is going
back." Hermione offered helpfully, "George offered him a part-time
job helping at the new Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes store in Hogsmeade. Also, I
talked him into it." she smiled.

"Well, that's good. Not to mention you
already have a date to any dance this year," Harry frowned, thinking about
Ginny. Hermione sighed, and set down her mug of Butterbeer.

"Harry, are you sure that this
'just friends' thing is going to work
out with Ginny? I know that you feel more than that for her. Why don't you just
tell her?"

"I tried, Hermione," Harry said, looking a bit frustrated,
"But she made it pretty clear that she would like us to be friends- just
friends." There was a loud boom, followed by cheering.

"Come on,
Harry," Hermione chided, pulling on his arm, "Come and watch the
forget I said anything." Harry nodded and allowed Hermione to half pull him into
the yard.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ginny sat at a table, not really
listening to Aunt Muriel ramble on about making improvements to her tiara. The
bright green fireworks stood out vibrantly against the black sky. Ginny blinked
the light out of her eyes, remembering Harry and Voldemort's last
duel.

"Now, I'm sure that if I find the proper twine-"

"Aunt
Muriel, I'm going to go talk to Harry, alright?" Not waiting for her great-aunts
answer, she walked over to Harry and took a seat by him.

"Hey. You okay?"
Ginny asked.

"Er, yeah. You?"

"Fine. Harry, I know that you
probably don't want to talk about this, but I'm curious about... about what
happened in the forest." Ginny admitted.

"I thought Hermione told
everyone?" he inquired.

"Well, she said that you were hit with the
Killing-curse. And I want to know why you didn't say anything to me." Ginny
admitted, rubbing her arm. Harry looked pained for a moment, then cleared his
throat.

"I was hit with the Killing-Curse. I didn't say good-bye to
anyone, Gin, not just you." her nick-name on his lips made her heart flutter.
The warm feeling that had spread through her chest, was soon replaced by
confusion.

"Good-bye? Why would you say good-bye? Did you know what was
going to happen?" Ginny asked, suddenly feeling infuriated.

"I didn't say
good-bye because-" he was cut off by the sound of loud, slow
music.

"George," Ginny sighed under her breath. People started to pair
up, and slow dance in time to the music. Harry took Ginny's hand and led her
around the borders of the crowd.

"Harry, I-"

"Just friends, Gin."
Ginny highly doubted that this song was meant to be for 'just friends', but she
let Harry hold her awkwardly. He really was a horrid
dancer.

"You're supposed to put your right hand on my waist," She
placed his hand on her waist, then held the other up. Once she placed the hand
that wasn't holding his on his arm, they started revolving in slow
circles.

"I didn't say good-bye because I knew-I thought I knew- that I
was supposed to die. If I talked to anyone, you especially, I don't think I
could've kept going." he continued, holding her close. Ginny took a shaky
breath- it was hard to think when she was this close to him.

"So you let
yourself die," she gulped, "To save everyone else?" he was silent for a moment,
then nodded.

"But I came back," he said. "And I'm sorry that you had to
believe that I was dead."

"Why did you come back? You must've known what
was waiting for you," Ginny looked into his eyes, waiting for a
reply.

"If you had the choice... would you come back?" Harry asked,
staring at her intently. The truth was, yes she would. For her family. But Harry
had none left- except for the Dursley's, perhaps.

"I would, but for my
family. But you don't..." Harry smiled softly, but his framed tensed
uneasily.

"-Have any family. It's okay, I understand. Maybe one day
you'll realize why I came back." The friends swayed until the music stopped,
then sat down at a table.

"I never thought of us as friends," Ginny
admitted, looking at the glowing lights that illuminated the yard."I had a crush
on you for the longest time... and then you kissed me. Well, I kissed you." she
turned red at this, and ducked her head.

"I never thought of us as
friends either. I liked you for a long time before you kissed me... I just told
myself I couldn't, because you're Ron's little sister."

"I see. I still
don't understand why you broke up with me. I mean, you told me a few times, but
I still don't understand why." Ginny rambled.

"Everyone who is close to
me ends up either hurt or dead. I can't let that happen to you." Ginny was
silent for a moment, thinking about how Harry would blame himself for anything
that happened to her family, or anyone getting harmed that he knew. And the sad
thing was that his words were true. His entire family was dead. Sirius,
Dumbledore, and Lupin- the people who tried to protect him- were dead. And now
he had died trying to protect everyone else, which was not fair. Ginny
had almost forgotten that Harry was only seventeen. He seemed much older and
hardly had any fun.

"No one blames you for anything, Harry." Ginny said
softly. Harry still wouldn't meet her gaze. His hair covered his eyes, making it
impossible to figure out what he was thinking. "This summer we're going to act
like normal teenagers. Who are wizards and witches," she said as an
after-thought. Harry smiled.

"I'd like that." Ginny looked at him for a
moment like something was bugging her then stood up, with her hands on her
hips.

"Okay, let's begin with 'Mission Number One'... a
haircut."

A/N: So there's another chapter! Again, I am sorry that this is
short... I've had a bad case of writer's block, and with the holidays behind us
I should be writing and posting more. Please review, and thank you so much for
reading!