A Whole Soul

The sound of splashing woke him up to find a darker sky and an otter diving in and out of the lake. With closer inspection he saw that it had the brightness of a patronus, which meant. Hermione. Funnily enough the girl in question was standing at the waters edge with her wand out. How long has she been here? He struggled to his feet and walked down the bank to her side. "How did you conjure a solid patronus?" She squeaked and her otter fizzled into nothingness as it dove into the water for the last time. She turned and hugged him tightly, not saying a word. He repeated the question, this time muffled by the bushiness of her hair. "So uuuh, how did you conjure a solid patronus?"

She broke the hug and looked at where the otter had disappeared. "I was just wondering if I could add another charm to a patronus, just experimenting."

"Well that's the brightest witch of the age for you. You'll have to teach me that one sometime." She smiled slightly at the compliment.

"Maybe, are you ok?"

"I guess so, just need to process it." He smirked at her. "And apparently I needed some sleep as well."

She elbowed him. "Only you could nap after sleeping for two days."

"Pfft." And he turned towards the castle for the first time since striding out the front doors. And his eyes widened as he took in the devastation and a thought occurred to him. "What do you think will happen if I use the Elder Wand to repair the Castle?"

Her face took a faraway look as she pondered his question. "Well, you have the Wand... It would just depend on you I suppose..."

"Maybe its like... Tonks." He swallowed and continued on at her questioning look. "When the order came to get me from the Dursley's she just told the stuff to pack into my truck. There wasn't a spell how is that possible?"

She recited as if from a textbook. "Because magic is guided by the imagination. Incantations were created to reliably control our own magic when casting magic with the same intended outcomes. Certain magical beings do not need to use incantations but merely project their desired result and their magic applies it to the real world."

"Errr, so I just have to imagine a repaired Hogwarts and my magic will make it happen?"

"The book didn't mention us Magicals using it, and the castle is not a small object like a wand Harry. That's why the ministry would have to assemble a team to repair the Castle."

He remained silent as two memories flashed into his mind. First his incursion into Tom's mind when he using the wand to break the shield over Hogwarts in the Final Battle, the Elder Wand had cracked. How? The it occurred to him, because the wand was not his it became a normal wand, and his power was too much for a normal wand. But it was his now, and it should not crack again because it would not resist him. Then the memory of Tonks loudly telling his belongings to 'pack!' flashed again. He returned to his surroundings to see Hermione looking curiously at him. He grinned at her perturbed expression. "I can at least try."

Ignoring her spluttering he turned back to look at the ruined castle. He was feeling clearer than he had ever felt in his life, the result of the removal of the soul fragment inside him. There was no one to see him fail. There was Hermione, beside him, as always, a comforting presence. And their was Hogwarts, the first home he had ever known. He gritted his teeth. He was going to fix his home, no matter what anyone else said. He took out the knobbly wand and pointed it at the castle. Did it just tremble? He worked to picture a fully intact Castle and worked to fill himself with the... feeling? And the want to repair it. After a minute he gripped the wand and tried to sound as powerful as he could as he nearly shouted. "Reparo!"

And nothing happened.

He let out a sigh and turned to her, but her eyes would not leave the castle. Wondering what had caught he attention so soundly he glanced back at it and his mouth dropped open. He could only just see from the lake but there was what looked like dust coming together and creating. Battlements, Windows and Towers. They simply stared in shock as they watched the Castle rebuild itself. Then he felt a wave of exhaustion hit him and he buckled, standing on jelly legs he turned to her. "Well you didn't say I couldn't do it."

She stared at him like he was crazy but grinned like a Cheshire chat. "Well come on the, lets see your handiwork!" And she grabbed his arm and dragged him towards a now gleaming Hogwarts.

As they entered (or stumbled as Harry was) through the Main Doors Harry could here raised voices, one of them with a Scottish inflection. As they neared the stairs the his suspicions about the identity of one of the voices was proved correct. But what he didn't expect to see as they peeked around the corner was the Headmistress to be trying to calm down an irate caretaker.

"I know Argus, I'll look into it. As your services are no longer required for a while, you can retire to your quarters."

Harry stepped out from their hiding place and walked towards McGonagall with Hermione falling into step beside him. They walked past Filch who eyed them suspiciously muttering something he couldn't hear and made their way over. Minerva turned at the sounds of the pairs of footsteps. "Ah there you two are. Would you two know anything about a suddenly repaired school?"

Harry blinked, trying his best to act innocent. "No, we we're just coming to ask you about it."

The older lady eyed them both. "If there's anything that I take for granted Mr. Potter it's that you two always know something about strange occurrences around that Castle. Let me guess, Miss Granger found some obscure text about a ritual to repair the castle after battle damage? And invoked magic not seen since the founders built this school?"

Hermione blushed and looked down. "No Profes-Headmistress.-"

"You two have earned the right to address me by my first name Miss. Granger."

She took a breath. "No, Minerva, it was Harry."

"Oh, was it really? And just how did you accomplish this Mr. Potter?"

He held up the knobbly wand. "The same way you repair a broken chair prof-Minerva."

She gasped and her hand went to her mouth. "Merlin, even Dumbledore could not have...-You will have to show me Harry."

"Umm sure Minerva, the Pensieve?"

McGonagall nodded at them and strode off to her office with the teens in tow.

...

The three of them were now standing around the floating bowl, two looking expectantly at Harry who blinked. "Uh, so how do I do this?"

"Like a Patronus Harry, concentrate on the memory then put your wand to your temple. You should feel it leaving you head. Then just cast it into the bowl."

He did as he was told. Though It felt strange to him, like forgetting something on purpose but feeling the cold tendril pass through his skin. With his wand tip shining, (he used the Phoenix Feather and Holly Wand this time) he cast it into the bowl and an image of the lake rose to the surface.

Minerva gestured to the bowl. "After you Harry."

He was falling, but didn't yell this time, as he was used to it by now. His feet found flat earth as he watched himself jerk awake from his sleep. He looked away to see Hermione and Minerva watching the younger witch's spell. "That's certainty and interesting application Miss. Granger, you'll have to show me your spellwork when we are done here." The witch in question beamed at her mentor.

Harry grimaced, his memory went back a bit further than he would have liked. He glanced at McGonagall and found her smiling as she watched the pair in the memory talk. Why is she smiling like that? He was disrupted from his ponderings when she looked at Hermione and spoke. "You have done your research, I suggest you try for a mastery next year." As he watched her reply he had never seen her so happy, he liked seeing her happy. Thinking again of how much she had sacrificed for him he made a vow to repay her for everything she had done. McGonagall nodded at her explanation of the fundamental art of magic and watched wide-eyed as Harry pointed his wand at the castle.

The memory faded as he watched Hermione dragging him away. As soon as they reappeared back in the office the older woman staggered to a nearby table and sat on it. After she had composed herself she looked at Harry. "What you did Harry is supposed to be impossible, even attempting that, you should have died with such a depleted magical core. I have never, heard of such a feat in my life." Her face hardened. "You both must keep this act a secret, if anyone finds out about this you will be hounded even more than you already are, at the least. I hope you realise what I mean." The teens nodded. "Now, as the Castle has miraculously put itself back together, there is little for me to do here. And the school owes you a debt. As such, is there anything I can help you with?"

He pondered this for a while, how would we get to Australia?

"You wish to go to Australia? Why?" she looked expectantly at Harry.

Hermione answered her solemnly. "It's to find my parents. I erm, sent them away before we left to search for Horcruxes."

Minerva's eyes widened for a second but her voice kept its clipped tone. "I'm sure you know how to remove such enchantments?" The girl nodded. "Well you either travel via Muggle or Magical means. You're both accustomed to muggle travel which is good but it will take far longer. I would recommend taking an international Portkey from the Ministry, normally you would have to book days or weeks in advance but I'm sure they will be happy to help you both." She smiled at them. "At any rate you will both need Documents for which method of transportation you use."

Hermione turned to Harry. "So Gringotts then the Ministry?"

"Sure, But tomorrow." He said gesturing at the darkness out of the window.

She rolled her eyes and her stomach rumbled audibly. McGonagall smiled at them both. "You're both welcome to dine with me. We can discuss your plans as it seems you both are not quite on the same page yet."

Harry made a mock bow to the ladies and gestured to the stairs. "Shall we go?"

Some more eye rolling, a slight chuckle. "Harry, you know we can dine here you know."

...

5th May 1998

The solitary occupant of the year six boys dormitories was sleeping. Or rather between nightmares when he awoke to a bed that was moving underneath him. He reached out a hand to steady himself and was surprised to find that it had felt skin. Putting two and two together he deduced there must be someone else in his bed. That or there was a dismembered leg in his bed, he started down this train of thought. Or would have if he didn't hear a gasp as soon as his hand touched said skin. Turning over he found someone with bushy hair, in her pyjamas frozen halfway through hopping on his bed.

He could guess the identity of his sleep hitchhiker but he decide to find out for sure. "Hermione?" He croaked.

Looking every part caught in the act her eyes roamed his face and exposed arm. "Sorry Harry, I just couldn't sleep and there's no one else here."

Seeing the desperation in her eyes he shuffled over and without thinking replied. "I'll always be here, get in." And Lifted up the covers for her. He turned away as she slid in beside him, trying to control the fact that he was a seventeen year old. More to distract himself he asked. "Want to talk about it?"

A muffled "no" came from the other pillow. Part of him understood as he had his own nightmares, but the one thing he hadn't tried was to talk to someone about them. She had tried to get it out of him more than once so he felt like returning the favour. So he turned over to face her. "You tell me yours I'll tell you mine." The silence after was long enough that he seriously thought she had dozed off until she whispered.

"You first."

He had to supress a chuckle at that, it was so like her to reply like that. His voice dropped to a dispassionate whisper. "The recent one has to do with the fFinal Battle. In the dream I couldn't die, no matter how many times Tom tries to kill me it just doesn't happen. And because I don't die, he can't die and also the protection I gave everyone by doing what my mother did for me never happens. Neville dies first, then Ron, then you, and I... still can't die."

Hermione turned to face him. "You wanted to die?"

"Not that time, but I needed to die to save you all. It was different after Sirius-" he stopped as he realised what he said. He could see the question on her face but then she looked down in the direction of his chest, avoiding his eyes.

"Well, I see the moment when Hagrid brings you to the castle in his arms. When we all thought you were dead, and after seeing Fred, Remus and Tonks already dead. I wanted to give up, I didn't care anymore. It just plays over and over when I try to sleep. It's silly but I just had to make sure you were here."

His mouth moved of its own volition. "I could hear it, McGonagall, you and others screaming I... I've never- I didn't expect you all to... care that much, I just figured I was the guy that was meant to kill Tom." He looked over her at the sky outside the window. "I didn't realise I meant, what-you-described to you all. Watching Snape's memories shook me, he protected me for so long because he loved my mother. Even while he hated me, how am I supposed to repay them all?" Tears leaked from his eyes now. "Everyone that died for me, how?"

He looked at Hermione through blurry eyes and saw wide eyes locked onto his. Her voice shook as she replied. "You live Harry, you find love, get a job and just live life however you want to. Do what you want to do but just promise me one thing."

"What?"

"Don't die until you're an old man ok?"

He chuckled. "I'll try but you know how it is."

"I do."

"Night Hermione."

"Night Harry."

And they both drifted off the sleep with the full moon's light streaming in from the night's sky.