The sandwich was mocking him and that was just the start of a bad day.
"Master, Kreacher is sorry. It will take one more week to prepare ham sandwiches," Kreacher said.
Harry stared at his cucumber sandwich. He liked the fresh smell of cucumber, but he didn't think he would be able to survive a day without eating meat. Hogwarts needed rebuilding. Manpower was essential, but a food shortage was serious. Lack of protein also didn't do any good for the big scar on his chest. Madam Pomfrey often told him to take eat meat, the iron aiding his recovery of the skin. He fleetingly wondered that if the Dursleys had given him enough food growing up, that if his scar on the forehead might have disappeared. He thought back to whether what Ginny told him the other day was true; if he should have asked Fawkes to cure his big scar on the chest as well. As he thought of his scar, it seemed to hurt more. His attention was interrupted when Ron walked up to him, a shadow on his face.
"Harry, McGonagall told us that Hogwarts will hold a joint service for the dead. For us, that means we will also say goodbye to…" Ron hesitated for a while and finally said, "And my mum and dad agreed with her. McGonagall hinted you will make a funeral address after Minister Kingsley."
Harry grew mournful remembering Fred's death. He still didn't want to admit the person he thought of as a real brother was dead. In spite of the heavy news and his hurting scar, his stomach started rumbling. "This is a bit too much for me. How about Hermione? I'm not a person who makes a great speech in front of people." He took a goblet of pumpkin juice and gulped it down in an effort to not have to speak.
Refilling his goblet, Ron shook his head. "Hermione has already prepared your speech. She didn't beat Voldemort at the last minute. It was you that finished him." He pulled out a sheet of parchment and handed it to Harry.
Harry unfolded it and started reading. Hermione's neat letters were aligned on it.
Seventeen years ago, a mad man tried killing a happy family in Godric's Hollow. But his curse bounced back due to the mother's love and the baby survived. The mad man seemed to vanish. Unfortunately, evil resuscitated to this world again and he possessed the power to destruct our Wizarding Community. We fought for freedom. We fought for our cherished people. Our grandparents, our parents and friends have experienced the two wars. Between the two wars, we lost so many precious lives. Thanks to them, we reclaimed peace. Let's pray for the dead. And let's reconstruct our community for them and for ourselves.
Harry looked up. "It's perfect. Where is Hermione?"
Ron frowned. "She's helping McGonagall. I don't know what she is doing exactly. I reckon she'll be Head Girl."
"Then will she go back to Hogwarts to get N.E.W.T.s?"
"She will after she finds her parents in Australia."
Harry shifted uncomfortably, his mood darkening over the thought. "Her parents!" He stood up and winced. The wound on his chest smarted.
Ron looked calm. "You don't have to worry. Kingsley and the rest of the Aurors have already set up investigation headquarters. They will start searching in Australia as well." He frowned, looking seriously at Harry's chest. "Oi, your shirt is slightly bloodstained, mate. Go to the Hospital Wing right now."
Ginny must have heard Ron's yell, as she hurried over to them. She urged him to go to the Hospital Wing. At her insistence, Harry reluctantly faced Madam Pomfrey and took off his shirt. The merciful school healer examined the big scar on his chest with her wand, and muttered.
"Killing Curse. How could you survive this?"
Ginny gasped, her hands jumping to her mouth. Harry hesitated to confess everything, but Madam's severe look relented him to tell the story.
"Madam, the story I'll tell you now is confidential. Ginny, you don't tell this to anybody. Promise, please." He pulled out his holly wand and did the Muffliato charm around them.
"I had no choice. I am the one of his…Voldemort's secret weapon which I can't tell you in detail. What I can tell you is Dumbledore knew everything. I had to be killed by him before finishing him. As a result, I came back and could finish Voldemort."
Overwhelmed by his words, Madam couldn't say a word for a while. Harry was very surprised when her hands touched him on the cheek gently. Tears in her eyes, she spoke, "I thank Merlin that he let you come back to us and you finished the war in the end. I'll do my best for you to cure the wound." She urged him to lie on the bed and applied Essence of Dittany to his chest. After casting some healing charms and applying a large piece of gauze, she said, "I hope the scar will be soothed by this, but I can't promise. Because it's apparent you suffered from the other Unforgivable Curses. I'm afraid they tortured before or after…casting the Killing Curse. Didn't they?"
"Yes, they did." Harry admitted it. It was a horrible memory, they cast the Cruciatus Curse to toy with what they had assumed was his dead body.
"Promise you will visit the Hospital Wing once a day until I can make sure it's getting better."
"Yes, I will. Thank you, Madam."
Ginny was sitting beside him quietly. She didn't say a word, but he could tell from her determined look that she had made a decision. What that decision was, he couldn't guess, but at least she wasn't angry. That was something.
When they came out of the Hospital Wing, she pulled him to the corner behind the Suits of Armor and stared at him intensely. He raised his eyebrows, asking a silent question, and then, . without a word, she stood on her tip toes and kissed him. He considered asking her what she wanted. But her next words were more incomprehensible.
"Do you think the Sorting Hat is still in the Headmistress's office?" Her gaze was blazing.
"I think so…ah, no, the last time I saw was when Neville pulled out the sword of Gryffindor from it to kill the Great Snake. I don't know…" He stared back at her eyes and his heart sank into her beautiful brown eyes. This time, it was him that kissed her.
She reached up and her hand fumbled for his glasses. Finally she took them off. "This is better. I can look your brilliant eyes more."
Feeling the spark from her words, he swept her red hair aside and kissed her on her collarbone. Closed his eyes, he tasted the smoothness of her skin. Then he opened his eyes to hear her whisper,
"Harry, I love you." Suddenly she stepped back. "I'll do anything for you. You won't suffer any more." And with those mysterious words, she turned and ran away.
"Ginny!" He began jogging to follow her. But his scar on the chest protested and he walked. Then Ron and Hermione came around the corner of the corridor.
"I saw Ginny running away," Hermione said. "Did you two have a quarrel or something?"
"No. She remembered something I don't know…" "Maybe, Fred's funeral." Ron answered in a dark mood.
"Yeah, right…" Harry also got gloomy. "Did you get information about time and the place?"
"Yeah. That's why we were looking for you. A joint service will be held tomorrow afternoon. I heard Ron gave you my speech sentences. Are you ready for that?" Hermione asked him.
"Not yet, but I'll learn them by heart tonight."
"Good. You'd better go to bed earlier. Are you okay with the wound?" Ron cast a worried look at him.
"It still hurts, but yeah, it'll be okay." Then he remembered the conversation before going to the Hospital Wing, "I heard Kingsley had set up the team for your parents in Australia, Hermione."
Hermione smiled and said, "Yes, he has. He was so determined, he insisted it would be his first task to search missing people as Minister. He already had some trustworthy information. I have no worries about it. After the joint service, I'll leave for Australia with his team."
Ron gave a light cough and said, "And I'll be there as well."
Harry was dumbfounded. "What did you say?"
Ron's face got red as well as his hair. "I won't repeat. You heard that."
"Oh…well, support her for me." He barely said it. He felt lonely, like he was being excluded. It was not the first time he felt like that though. He had felt the same feeling while hunting Horcruxes, one night at the hiding, sensing their intimacies at the Grimmauld Place. Even though they had just been together, barely minutes before, he found himself missing Ginny.
Gideon Crumb of the Weird Sisters played sorrowful songs in sequence with his bagpipes. Arthur and George held an enormous wreath of flowers and stood up. Bill, Ginny, Ron and Charlie followed them. They prayed for Fred and offered them on the altar set in the center of the platform. Percy stayed with Molly, who had been absentmindedly staring into space. There had been already lots of flowers on it, for everyone else who had lost their lives in the Battle of Hogwarts. When they came back to their seats, Harry saw Arthur pat George on the shoulder. When the last floral tribute was done, Harry stood up from his seat and climbed the platform. All words flooded in his mind and he breathed in to calm himself.
"Fred Weasley…" The name came out of his mouth unplanned. He felt Hermione fidget behind. "He was like a brother for me. His wit, jokes made me laugh during hard times. He was the one of bravest of men. Many people died for freedom. And I survived. I ask to myself why I survived that battle…" He remembered the conversation with Dumbledore after he was hit Killing Curse. "I'm not sure I'm deserved to live. My obligation to everyone who has fought for freedom is make our world better. When I meet Fred again, I want him to feel proud of me. I want my parents to feel proud of me. I want Sirius feel proud of me. I want Cedric feel proud of me. I'd like to complete my mentors' will instead of them. Watch us and guide us, Professor Dumbledore, Professor Lupin, Professor Burbage and…Professor Snape. Watch me and guide me, Mad Eye and Tonks. I have responsibility for all people who died for our freedom and peace of the Wizarding World." And he concluded his speech as Hermione had suggested. "Let's pray for the dead. And let's reconstruct our community for them and for ourselves." When he glanced back, Molly was standing and started clapping her hands. Her eyes were filled with tears. Everyone followed her example. Harry left the platform to thunderous applause, and gave Molly the biggest hug he knew how to.
Hermione and Ron left with Kingsley's team for Australia. Harry stayed at Hogwarts, helping professors to reconstruct classrooms and the Quidditch pitch with the other students. The process to repair the buildings was sped up after parents of Muggle-borns and some Pure-bloods who hated Voldemort's inner circle came back to Britain from a life in exile. Eventually even the food problem was solved and Kreacher and the other house-elves restarted preparing meals cheerfully. Harry's scar on his chest was getting better, but he still needed a check-up once a day.
Every time he visited the Hospital Wing, Ginny was always with him. On their back to the renewed Gryffindor common room, a kiss behind the Suits of Armor became habitual. And they stopped exploring each other when Harry winced feeling a slight pain on the chest. He explained her the condition was getting better, and she seemed to believe him. But that impression turned to be completely false.
When most of the parents, who had helped reconstruction for almost two weeks, went back home, Ginny also disappeared. Harry asked McGonagall where she had gone. She said,
"I heard she had things to do around setting up her brother's tombstone. Didn't she tell you about it?"
"Thank you, Professor. I'll ask ." He still couldn't understand her sudden disappearance.
His fear proved right. When he happened to catch Bill, who stopped by Hogwarts to help professors with protecting charms, he told Harry she hadn't come back to the Burrow. Perturbed, Harry and the Weasleys requested the Aurors to search for her, afraid that she might have been be abducted by the remaining Death Eaters. A few days passed by, and still no news came. Then, early in the morning on the fifth day since she had disappeared, a silvery mare jumped into Harry's four-poster bed. It spoke in Ginny's voice,
"Don't worry about me. I'm safe. Soon I can come back to you, Harry."
Harry glanced back yawning when McGonagall called him. Since he heard Ginny was back safely to the girls' dorm, he had been able to sleep, the first night in a long time. Still, he felt like he would like to be in bed for a few more hours before breakfast. McGonagall got closer like a tabby cat stealthily once she fixed her aim on him. Vaguely he wished he could transform into a cat. His father's animagus form, a stag, wouldn't move in that way. If Harry was an animagi, his would be supposed to be the same one as his father's. He wondered if McGonagall had tried to be an Auror once in her younger days.
Her piercing eyes were set on his face, which told apparently he was the target.
"Potter, are you hiding something important?"
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he answered. "Me? Nothing, Professor." Harry couldn't guess what was going on.
"The Sorting Hat is missing. I reckon you or Longbottom are up to something. Tell all to me." Her face got serious. She really looked worried.
"Was the sword stolen from your office again?" At McGonagall's stern look, he regretted what he said.
"How did you know it might have been stolen before?" Her face got more perplexed. "Potter, did you direct Ginny Weasley to get the sword of Gryffindor at that time, last year?"
"No, Professor. How could I do that while hiding? I've just overheard some Gryffindor students tried from Professor Snape's office last year."
McGonagall kept staring hard at him and finally softened her face, "You are right. I believe in you. Anyway, we can't sort new students without the Sorting Hat. If you get some information, let me know." She patted him on the shoulder, "I'm glad to hear Ginevra Weasley is safe. I got a message from her as well. Though we have worried about her whereabouts, it is understandable that she wanted to do some research about a future Quidditch League. After the war, the sports section also need to be put safely back on its feet. Your girlfriend is an excellent Chaser. I don't worry about her future career at all." Smiling, she left.
McGonagall's explanation about Ginny's mission sounded plausible, but Harry couldn't get it. She had one more year to graduate, he suspected she had something to tell him. When he entered the Great Hall in the morning, Ginny was chatting with George and Bill . The Great Hall was crowded with the students and the adults who had been helping with the castle's reconstruction.
"So what rumor did you hear, Ginny?" George asked, shoving bacon into his mouth.
"I heard the Holyhead Harpies will recruit some girls to fill up vacancies in the team. I asked Professor Slughorn to write a letter of recommendation to Gwenog. He told me he wanted crystallized pineapples for the reward, so I went looking for them out of Hogwarts. I'm sorry to let you worry about me, but I have been safe ... without being attacked by the remaining Death Eaters." Her eyes twinkled mischievously, and she waved her hands as Harry got closer to her seat. "Morning, Harry!"
"How could you get out of the castle? I don't think professors ignored a student who left without permission. It's dangerous, Ginny." Bill looked skeptical.
Harry nodded, sitting next to Ginny. "Bill is right. It's reckless of you to leave here without telling that to teachers. At least you should have told me about it." He stared at Ginny's eyes, trying to figure out what she wasn't telling him. He sensed she had been hiding something he couldn't guess.
Ginny evaded his question and shrugged, "I have something to tell you. But not now. I promise I'll tell you."
"Mum has been angry since your missing was found. You might have received her Howler if you were here when the term started." George put one more bacon on the plate.
"Yeah. I had a long lecture from Mum last night." She got gloomy and bit into the toast she had been buttering without a word.
Harry started buttering his own toast. "So could you get crystallized pineapples?"
Ginny nodded. "Yes, I did. But I didn't have enough money, so I gave up."
"You gave up? I'll pay for it." Harry offered and cast a glance at her again. It was apparent that she was lying about something. She didn't leave for searching crystallized pineapples. She must have been out there for another reason.
She whispered to him, "Come with me." And she stood up suddenly and left.
"But I'm not done with my breakfast yet." Grumbling, he grabbed his unfinished toast and followed her hastily to the entrance hearing George's mumble to Bill from behind, "I reckon they had a quarrel, that was the reason why she left last week."
"Wait, Ginny. Where are we going?" Harry halted her.
Swaying her ginger hair, she stared at him with her blazing look. "I heard a rumor that Dumbledore's phoenix visits his tomb once a day. So I camped near it."
"What?" Harry got dumbfounded with her words.
"Come on. I recorded his pattern. I got a Sorting Hat." She turned to the entrance and walked down the hill to the Great Lake.
"What? McGonagall asked me if I stole it." Harry hurried and caught up with her.
"We need it to lure him on. Do you remember how you called Fawkes in the Chamber of Secret?"
"I understand what you mean, but it's impossible to lure him with the Sorting Hat!"
Ginny stopped and face him. "Why? Fawkes helped us. He brought the Sorting Hat to save you and me."
"Because Dumbledore let him do that. I needed the sword of Gryffindor to beat Basilisk. Fawkes will help you when real loyalty is shown to Dumbledore."
"That's what I mean, Harry. We got a Sorting Hat and we will show our loyalty to his tomb. When Fawkes returns to us, your wound will be healed!" She blurted out. "What if the wound was cursed by Dark Magic? What if no healers can find a way to cure it?"
"What…Ginny, is that the real reason why you've been away?" Overwhelmed by her boldness, her intention to heal his wounds, he felt lost for words. He was very thankful for her care, but at the same time, her attempt sounded quite illogical. "You'd better give the Sorting Hat back to McGonagall." He started thinking an excuse for it.
"No. I found Fawkes was fond of this." Ginny pulled out the pointy black hat and rubbed the ragged surface of it fondly like it was her pet. "The Hat told me so. Fawkes and the Hat are friends."
"Did it talk to you?" He stared at the Sorting Hat, remembering when he was sorted. The Sorting Hat had asked which house he preferred. "How could you notice it?"
"It was simple. I put it on my head. I asked it how to lure Fawkes. It told me they were friends. I put it by Dumbledore's tomb as it said. I waited hiding in the bushes. It worked, Harry. Fawkes landed on the ground after he noticed the Hat! Come on, Harry. He prefers visiting Dumbledore's tomb in the morning!" She turned and trotted down to the lake.
Harry jogged after her and soon got ahead of her. As he passed her, Ginny sped up to try to reach the goal first, a pier where some boats parked waiting. Harry won the impromtu race and got on a boat with peeling blue paint. He held out his right hand and pulled her on board. The boat moved slowly from side to side rippling the surface of water. Ginny grabbed the paddles faster than him saying, "No, you can't. It will hurt your chest." The determined look was just like her mother, Molly. His pride slightly hurt, he reluctantly let her row across the lake. Bending to the oars made her breasts bounce, and he couldn't stop gazing at them so close up.
With a grin plastered across her face, she teased him, "Where are you looking at, Potter?"
Blinking, he uttered, "You're not wearing a bra."
"I skipped underwear." She added the words to see his blushed face, "Oh, I meant my top. It is too tight around the chest given the situation I had to cover the Hat."
Harry grinned comparing vulnerable Ginny, the first year and pale nearly dead in the Chamber of Secret, with the girl whose eyes were full of energy to achieve something for him. Then he asked, "Why are you so confident that Fawkes will come back again, Ginny?"
With sparks in her eyes, she answered, "Because you saved the world costing your own life. Because you were brave at the very end. Because you are the most loyal to Dumbledore." And she started rowing again.
The foggy air was becoming clear as they got closer to the island where Dumbledore slept. When the boat got to the shore, Harry stood up and hopped out and helped Ginny to anchor the boat. At the stone that marked where Dumbledore lay, she set the Sorting Hat by Dumbledore's tomb. She beckoned him to hide in the bush near it. Being unsure about it, he followed her.
"Are you really sure of this?" When he opened his mouth, she hushed putting her index finger on her lips. He crouched down behind her back and breathed in flowery scent from her hair. Her soft ginger hair tickled his jaw.
"Look, Harry. The Hat will sing."
"What?" Harry shifted his gaze from her to the Hat. It started repeating shrinking and stretching itself and he heard it hum merrily. "It's the song when we were sorted." The familiar lyrics were sung and he smiled at his dear old memory in his first year.
"The last time, it sang the one when I was sorted. It's unbelievable it can memorize the songs and changes the verses each year," she answered, smiling.
"Yeah…" He was listening to the song for a while and then recognized a dot was approaching towards the island from the cloudy sky above. It appeared to be a glowing red phoenix among the iridescent clouds. Fawkes sang back to the Sorting Hat and landed gently on the ground. At the same time, Harry felt vibration inside the pocket of his robes. His holly wand, the Phoenix feather core became resonant with its song. Unconsciously, he came out of the bush pulling his wand before Ginny stopped him. The wand bent like it bowed to Fawkes and he saw it emit light orange sparkles.
The Sorting Hat spoke.
"Wet the tip of your wand with tears of the Phoenix."
Harry got closer to Fawkes and held his wand to its beak. The loyal magical bird shed tears and they wet the tip of his wand. Ginny came out of the bush and whispered to him from behind,
"Take off your clothes, Harry. It will heal the wound on the chest." She took his wand and held it in her hand while he was taking off his robes.
Harry took off T-shirt and removed the bandage. He traced the big scar with the tip of his wand. The ugly welt turned into a scab as he felt a dull pain and finally it ceased aching. When he tried to peel off the scab on the chest, Ginny stopped him.
"Not now, Harry. You'd better wait till Madam Pomfrey checks it up."
When the Sorting Hat finished the song, Fawkes soared into the sky and circled over their heads. Harry thanked him waving his hand, "Thank you, Fawkes!" Fawkes chirped singing and vanished in an instant.
A/N : Many thanks to Grace and melian for beta reading.
Though I've been busy and will be, I will try to continue this story.