Hey everyone. This story was brought to you by Pop Figure Collection, Eastern Funfair's Gnome Throwing, Southern Funfair's Guess the Name, and Northern Funfair's Splash a Mod on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Also for Summer Bingo on Monthly Challenges for All. Also for Summer Camp on International Wizarding School Championship.
Pop Figure Collection - Sansa Stark, Black feathers (word) freedom
Eastern Funfair's Gnome Throwing - Hannah Abbot
Southern Funfair's Guess the Name - Godric (trait) brave
Northern Funfair's Splash a Mod - Lizzy!, (Era) Post War
Summer Bingo - 4C fire, Word Count: 956
Summer Camp - Week two, Fort Building, Write about the Golden Trio trying to rebuild the Magical World after the Battle of Hogwarts.
I'd like to thank Hope for beta reading this story. I hope you all enjoy Going Back to the Start.
"If I ever say 'Do you want me to be honest,' say no," Dean Thomas's voice breaks Hannah out of her thoughts as she stares around at the small group of people that are gathered in the Great Hall. "It would be far easier on all involved."
"I'm sure that's not true, Dean," Hermione Granger says in the soothing voice she uses with everyone nowadays. "It's better to talk about these things than keep them all bottled up inside." She looks around the group that is gathered there. "This is a safe place for us to discuss how the war affected us or is still affecting us."
The group is small, but Hermione Granger assures them all that if they share their experiences with the group. Their small group consists of about seven or eight people including Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Dean Thomas, who had been forced to go on the run because of his blood status, was usually quiet and withdrawn during the meetings. Luna Lovegood had been the first to share her experiences during the war. George Weasley came to the first meeting and ending up coming back for more. Nobody made any fuss about it. He was suffering as much if not more so than any of the rest of them, having lost his twin brother. The last but most reluctant member of the small group was Hannah's friend Daphne Greengrass. She'd gone to the first meeting because Hannah asked her to. She'd gone to support Hannah and nothing more.
"Does anyone else want to share with the group today?" Harry asked looking around at the rest of them. "Remember this a safe place for all of us."
Hannah looks over at Daphne as she raises her hand tentatively and stands up when Harry looks towards her. Knowing Daphne as well she does, Hannah can clearly see the shame written on the blonde haired girls face.
"I guess it's just strange being able to speak about all the things that have happened in Hogwarts during the war so freely," Daphne told the group. "When the Carrows were in charge….." She shakes her head imperceptibly and only Hannah knew that meant that she was trying to clear her head of the memories clouding it. Clouding Daphne's vision of her own self. "We were forced to perform torture on the rule breakers for extra credit for the classes that the Carrows taught. That's where I met Hannah. I was supposed to be ..."
"It's alright, Daphne," Hermione says walking over and putting a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "You don't have to…"
"I do though," Daphne cuts her off bluntly. "Like you said it helps more to speak about it with others. The only other person who knows what happened here at Hogwarts in this group besides me is Hannah, and possibly Dean a little bit."
Hermione nodded and sat back down watching the fire return to the Slytherin girl's eyes as she told her story from the beginning of the school year to the Battle of Hogwarts. It was then that prejudices they'd all carried against Slytherins became obvious. It hadn't occurred to any of them that there some Slytherins who didn't condone torture.
"The final straw for me was when they had strung up Hannah and asked me to perform the Cruciatus Curse on as part of my grade," Daphne was saying as she slipped her hand into Hannah's. "I couldn't do that and I knew that I was in deep trouble if they found out that I hadn't. So I gave up my own freedom for Hannah's. I untied her bounds and the two of us joined the rest of what you guys named Dumbledore's Army. It was the right thing to do."
Hannah pulled Daphne into a hug kissing the top of the blonde girl's head. Neither girl had told their story before and she thought it was awfully brave of Daphne to go ahead and tell it in this setting.
"That was an awfully brave thing of you to do," Dean Thomas was the first one to speak out of all them. "You could have gotten hurt or killed if they found you helping one of us."
"You could have," Luna agreed. "I'm glad you didn't." The blonde haired Ravenclaw turned towards Daphne with a dreamy smile on her face. "Then we couldn't try and become friends."
Hannah relaxed as Daphne did. That was one both of their biggest fears after the Battle of Hogwarts. That Daphne wouldn't be accepted by Hannah's friends, who were as close to her as family.
After everyone had extended the hand of friendship to Daphne Hannah shared the story of how a couple of boys had jokingly fighting in the hall.
"It wasn't as bad as anything that happened during the battle but just sounds of any spell being fired kind of sets me on edge," Hannah admitted sadly.
"But we can't go around feeling afraid use spells," Harry told them all. "We can't be afraid to use spells ourselves. I want each of you try one thing you haven't been able to do since the Second Wizarding War has ended. It doesn't have to big. It can something as minor as talking to one of your old friends. Or walking around the school grounds. Whatever you chose. Whatever you think will help you out the most."
Everyone nodded in agreement at this.
"We'll meet back here next week for another progress check," Harry said with a smile. "And remember this is a safe place. This is our chance to begin to start anew."
And start anew they would. It would be slow but it would happen eventually. One day at a time.
I hope you all enjoyed Going Back to the Start.