Sorry for the long wait, I've started A Levels (think NEWT levels but worse), decided NaNoWriMo was a good idea (I failed) and on top of that, I'm suffering from frequent migraines and I can't do anything, no concentrating, no school work, no writing when I have one so I'm super behind on everything!

Hopefully the next update won't be as long a wait but I can't promise anything at the moment, I hope you understand and enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 7- Explanation

The fairytale couldn't last for ever. They may have got their happy-ever-after but there was still a long way to go before that dream truly became a reality. It wasn't just the repairs. They were easy enough and there was no shortage of volunteers. It was the coming to terms, it was the moving on, it was the picking up the pieces of their lives and attempting to build something.

Which is why, a week after the final battle, the trio told their story to those who deserved to hear it, all gathered in the remains of what would always be Dumbledore's study, though the man himself was long gone.

Mr and Mrs Weasley, gaunt and haggard with worry and grief.

They had been like surrogate parents both to Harry and to a lesser extent, Hermione and they had lost a son and for months had known only that Ron was on the run with the most wanted man in the country.

McGonagall and Kingsley, strong but weary.

Both leaders, Kingsley there because as temporary Minister of Magic, he ought to know and as a member of the Order, he had a right to know and Minerva McGonagall, left wondering what had happened to so many of her pupils, knowing that the three now sat in front of her had gone to fulfil the dangerous, inevitable course of fate she had seen coming years ago.

Neville, broad-shouldered and scarred.

The boy who was always left whenever the trio went off on an another infamous escapade. The boy who for years had been the punchline of every joke. Left to lead the DA after so many others had fled the school. The man who had slain the snake and was a war hero in his own right.

Luna, all at once wise and strange.

A ray of sunshine in the darkness of the Malfoy's cellar. Wise beyond her years, a fellow leader of the DA as they prepared for war.

And Ginny, dark circles and pale skin, fiery, tense, defiant.

The girl who had been abandoned by her brother, her boyfriend and the closest thing she had ever had to a big sister, all at once, only to gain them back and lose another brother instead.

"We thought we owed you an explanation." Harry started. " So ask away."

"What happened after the wedding?"

"What were you doing?"

"Where did you go?"

"The Ministry?!"

"Nevermind that, a dragon?!"

"Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow?"

"Horcruxes?!"

"So how did you end up in that cellar?"

And so it all came out, all of it, until their voices were tired and their throats hoarse with endless talking and their cheeks were wet with tears. They explained it all, the Horcruxes, Grindlewald, the Hallows, the Ministry, Godric's Hollow (which caused a few tears as Harry mentioned the memorial and the signs and the house and the grave) Hermione's torture (the cause of yet more tears and Ron discreetly slipping his hand into hers and squeezing tight)

Eventually, Ginny asked the one question Harry had been expecting.

"Why did you have to die?"

Silence fell as Harry looked straight into her hazel eyes and told the truth.

"It was the only way."