Chapter three

'Harry, you really should be resting that foot, remember what Poppy said.'

'It's not that bad Professor, her potions work great even if they taste terrible.'

'So what happened to your foot?' Neville asked.

'Voldemort, he decided to have some fun with me. Hey Hagrid, how high did he fling me up?'

'Bout thirty feet, then let ya fall.'

'No wonder you have a very breaks Harry, you should be resting.' Minerva said.

'After we get this lot, I'm still too tense to rest, I need to put this energy into something, what better than death eaters.'

The two aurors re-joined the group, 'Look, Harry has a map that shows up everyone, there's still a few here. So if we split into three groups, Albert, you take Neville and Cho, Lionel, you take Ernie and Minerva, I'll go with Harry.'

'Sir, we are supposed to be protecting you and even though Mr. Potter has proven he can take care of himself, it is our job,' Lionel said.

'Yes, but there are death eaters here and we need three groups. So Lionel with Ernie and Minerva take Travers and the five with him. Albert, you, Neville and Cho take Jugson with his four, that leaves Harry and I with Avery and the two with him.'

'Alright, but one sign of trouble, let us know straight away Minister,' Albert said.

'I will and I was an auror, I think I can handle three with Harry's help. So let's go,' Kingsley saw Harry put the map into his pouch then they walked off down towards the wrecked quidditch stands. They both had their wands and were walking quietly until they heard very quiet voice. Harry and Kingsley looked at each other, then stepped out and started aiming stunning spells, they got Avery and one other bloke but the third ran, with Harry running after him, 'Harry, wait,' Kingsley yelled but Harry just kept going, so he quickly bound the two they stunned, put their wands in his robes, then ran after Harry. A few minutes later, he found Harry standing over a man with his wand pointed down at him, 'You should have waited for me Harry.'

'He could have gotten away Kingsley and Ron was right, snatchers are like stupid death eaters. I got him first go, too easy.'

'Alright, let's bind him and take him up to the other two. You're capture, you bind him.'

'Oh thanks, I do all the work here,' Harry laughed, then cast a binding spell at the snatcher, then levitated him till he was floating then the three of them headed back to where Avery and the other man was bound.

'I hope the others are okay.'

'There's three on each team and the DA are good Kingsley, so are your aurors.'

'Don't I get a mention Harry, you don't think I'm as good as the DA,' Minerva smirked.

'Sorry Professor, that's not what I meant. Now I think you're the one being cheeky.'

'You rubbed off on me, so Kingsley, both groups are bound, just like yours.'

'That went pretty easy actually, so I hope you and some of the DA want to be aurors.'

'Yep, I do, not for a while though, I really want to rest. But one problem, I'm not coming back to do my N.E.W.T.s, so it won't be possible. Let's get this lot taken care of so I can rest my foot, it's started to ache and if I know Madame Pomfrey, she will lock me in the hospital and that's the last thing I want.'

'Good idea and she would too Harry,' Minerva, Kingsley and Harry each levitated one of the bound men back to the group, then Ernie and Cho volunteered to help the aurors take the group back to the ministry. Kingsley, Minerva, Harry and Neville headed back into the castle with Hagrid following. Minerva took Harry and showed him the room he could use and Hagrid was determined to stay with Harry for a while.

Harry was sitting on the small couch with Hagrid standing staring down at him. 'Why do you keep watching me Hagrid, I'm just resting?'

'Ya could have been killed 'arry, trying ta fix me 'ouse.'

'I wanted to help you Hagrid, you're my friend. But from now I'm just resting, I'll finish your back steps tomorrow. So you don't have to stay watching over me you know, I'm fine and not going anywhere or doing anything.'

'Ya gonna stay 'ere?'

'Yes, I'm going to stay right here, I'm just resting.'

'Alright, see ya tomorrow,' Hagrid patted Harry on the shoulder, then left.

Harry yawned so he decided to see if he could sleep, so he stepped into the other room and found a bed similar to the one in the Gryffindor dorm rooms, just bigger. So he took his glasses off, put his wand and pouch beside them then took his shoes, jumper, shirt and jeans off, then climbed into bed and that was the last thing he remembered.

When Harry woke the first thing he noticed was it dark, really dark and figured he must have slept the rest of the day and some of the night. He went in and had a shower, washing all the old blood and dirt off himself, dried, then found his clothes that Hermione had in her bag, but were now on the end of his bed, so he dressed before stepping out into the corridor and noticed how quiet it sounded. He walked down the stairs and came to the great hall which now stood empty. He slowly walked down to the other end until he came to the area where Voldemort had fallen dead. Harry sat down and just stared at the spot.

'Why aren't you asleep Harry?' Kingsley asked quietly.

'I was, but why aren't you?'

'Same, I was then woke up, couldn't go back to sleep, thought I'd walked around for a while. Why are you sitting here though?'

'Just remembering, it's real isn't it Kingsley, it's not a dream?'

Kingsley sighed, then sat next to Harry, 'It's not a dream Harry, he's dead.'

'It's so hard to believe it's over, it really is over after all this time. For you and people like you who had to put up with him a lot longer than me, I bet your all relieved.'

'We are, but I think you would be more so. He was after you more than anyone else. How many times did you escape him?'

'Five times, I don't count last night, or was it the night before, I just can't remember. Anyway, I never tried to escape last night.'

'As an auror, I do know what a horcrux is even if I don't know how to go about making them, not that I need to. Can you tell me how many he made?'

'Seven, but he knew of only six, he never knew about me.'

'Blimey, now it all makes sense. You told Minerva he was on his way, you saw it didn't you?'

'Yep, saw a lot of things, felt a lot as well, things that will live with me for a long time. You've seen your far share of shocking and painful things Kingsley, how do you live with those images?'

'Time and people around you that you care about, when I see something like someone die or tortured, I would go home and just hold my wife, it always helped, I miss her so much. I made her leave months ago, she's with her mother and brother.'

Harry glanced up at Kingsley, 'I never knew you were married.'

'Well I suppose we never had a chance to talk about our personal lives before. But Rosie is a wonderful woman; we've been married for eleven years now.'

'I'd like to meet her one day Kingsley, now it is pretty safe and we can talk about our personal lives, well not that I've really got one, but you get what I mean. Did you get him taken away though?'

'Yes, not long after you went to your room. He's being turned into a lab rat at the moment. The Unspeakables want to do a lot of tests on him and I agreed with them. See if there was something that made him more inhuman. I'm not talking about the horcruxes, just him in general.'

'He made his first one when he was still a student here Kingsley, so they have a lot of studying to do to work that out. But I saw a memory of him as a kid, he was bad even then. It was like he was just born that way, something just made him turn out evil.'

'Maybe it was growing up with no parents and in an orphanage.'

'I don't believe that. He had it pretty easy as a kid, I had it a lot harder than him and I'm okay.'

'Why do you say that, I know they never treated you very nice Harry, but they were your family.'

Harry sighed then looked up at Kingsley, 'First I'll tell you this, the reason I think I was able to escape him and survive all the shit he put me through for years was because of how I was treated in that house. I told Sirius not long before he died, but I made him promise to never tell anyone. I didn't need Mrs. Weasley trying to be my mother like she always did. Hermione and Ron were always trying to help me and I just didn't want them to worry about me.'

'I heard they never gave you a lot to eat, we all saw how thin you used to be, so what else is there?'

'A lot of abuse Kingsley, but I'm not going into details. I never have to see them again and I can finally have a life, well a normal life and I'm not going to waste one minute of it. I'm going to buy my own place, it'll be my first real home, then just live.'

'Minerva said you want to stay here for a while, to help repair the castle.'

'Yeah, I do, this place meant a lot of me so I want to leave here with good memories, not memories of what I went through over the years. I look at different areas around Hogwarts and it has a one bad memory after another. Right now is the worse, it's full of death and destruction, I don't want to leave here thinking that.' both Harry and Kingsley looked around at different parts of the great hall thinking of their own memories of the place that they had both spent a good part of their lives in. Harry was hoping to have good thoughts about the place when he leaves, Kingsley remembering all the good times he spent as a kid in the old castle, so both of them were lost in their memories of Hogwarts.