Ahh! Just one more chapter after this. There WILL be another chapter, though, so don't stop checking back just yet. I'll be posting an epilogue and a final author's note tomorrow, if all goes well. And the sequel will be starting by the end of the month. It would be sooner, but I want to write a few oneshots. This is another short and sweet chapter.

"Bye," Luna said absently, waving at Harry and I as we left.

"Er- bye," said Harry with a sort of half-smile. "She hasn't changed much, I see?" he muttered to me.

"No, not really," I answered. "Luna's just … Luna."

"True."

"So- how are you?"

"I'm … okay. I'll be better later," he answered uncertainly, glancing down the Hall at Tonks and Lupin's bodies as we walked.

"Don't feel guilty," I pleaded. "It's not your fault."

"But …" he sighed. "Just think how much I took away from them both. They just got married! And they have a kid- he's- how old now?"

"Er … a couple weeks," I said sadly.

"Yeah, see! Only a couple weeks, infants can't have their parents taken away- who knows what'll happen to him-"

"I'm sure he'll be okay, he's going to live with his grandmother from now on, you know, she seems okay," I assured him. "Once you get past the fact that she could be the twin of Bellatrix Lestrange."

"Yeah … hard to leave him with someone who looks like her, isn't it?" he said.

"I suppose so," I said. "Don't beat yourself up, Harry, she'll let you help take care of him, he won't have horrible relatives like you did that he has to go to … he'll grow up in a magical household …"

"Well, okay, suppose he's fine … your mum is never going to recover. No one in your family is. Especially not George."

I knew he was talking about Fred. I blinked.

"Harry," I said slowly. "I will not let you blame yourself for that. Yeah, we're always going to be terribly sad about it, but we are never once going to think it's because of you. You didn't cause the war. If you hadn't come along, all these people would just have died faster, and now no more are going to, see? It's all right now."

"But there didn't have to be a battle tonight!" he replied.

"Of course there didn't. But there had to be one sometime," I reminded him gently. "Even if you didn't get involved at all- which, I might add, would be impossible, and Voldemort would still be alive, so don't get started- there would still have been a final battle where Voldemort either died or- or took over the world." I swallowed. Even though he was dead, it was still hard to talk about what could have happened tonight, especially with saying his name.

Harry sighed.

I turned and took him by the shoulders.

"Harry," I said, looking into his eyes. "I know you. This guilt is going to eat you up and you're going to stress yourself up about it- don't, what's done is done. You're the only one who blames you! Everyone but you views you as the biggest hero in history!"

"I don't know about that, but I know everyone else thinks it," sighed Harry. "They don't know the whole story, though."

"I doubt it would change their minds, unless, of course, it was really you killing all these people all along and framing Voldemort. Which it wasn't. So it doesn't matter, does it?" I said matter-of-factly.

"I suppose not," he said.

I smiled. He gave a slight smile back.

"How have you been?" he asked.

"Mmn. It's been okay. Not nearly as bad as what you've been dealing with," I responded.

"You don't know that. Let's hear it, then," he said with finality, sitting down on the grass near the lake.

"Well … where do I start?" I asked.

"How about … the second I left the wedding," he replied with a smile, lying down with his hands behind his head, ready for a story.

"Well …" I began with a deep breath.

It must have been hours before I finished. He didn't care, though. He was a very appreciative audience, listening very well and never letting his attention stray so much as to play with a blade of grass. He never took his eyes off me once.

I laid down and watched the clouds while I talked, and when I was finally done, he propped himself up on one elbow.

"Want to hear everything- everything- that has been going on for the past two years?" he asked.

"I thought you'd never ask," I replied with a smile.

"Now that Voldemort's gone, I can tell you anything …" he said. "So I'll start with when Dumbledore came and picked me up before sixth year and took me into a broom closet and told me I'd have special lessons from him during the year, all right?"

"Sure," I said.

By the time he finished his story, the stars were coming out and everything was bathed in a beautiful moonlight.

We went for a walk around the lake after that. I saw Ron and Hermione headed back to the castle from over where we were.

"Didn't you say they were together now?" I clarified.

"Yeah. Erm … going on twenty hours now, I'd say?" he replied matter-of-factly with a grin.

We both laughed, swinging hands as we went.

"So," he said, "now that Voldemort's gone, we can see each other again, if that's still what you want."

I rolled my eyes at him, though I doubt he could see it in the dark.

"Of course I do," I said.

"Good. I mean, so do I," he answered.

"Good," I said with a smile.

I kissed him, and this time there were no doors for Ron to barge into, or any Ron to care, as he was presumably still off with Hermione somewhere.

We started walking again, and we crossed the grounds, waving at people leaving the Hogwarts grounds or taking strolls of their own.

We reached the doors and kissed again, then looked in through the open doors of the school, through the entrance hall and into the Great Hall at all of the people standing around, celebrating in their various ways- there was butterbeer, dancing, and an incredible amount of noise coming from the partygoers.

"So," he said after a while. "Who's going to tell Ron?"