Author's Note: This is a notice to Calen, who keeps complaining that this is an H/G fic. This story was classified as an H/G fic. If you don't like the H/G pairing, then why are you reading this fic? I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but I needed to get that off my chest.

Chapter Twelve: After the Storm

Once more Harry found himself in the Department of Mysteries, looking at the veil. Somehow, he knew that this time it wasn't a dream. This time, he was really going to find out what lay beyond the veil…

The incoherent whispering grew louder as he stepped up to the dais and pushed aside the veil, revealing a large hole. A bright, shimmering light streamed out of the hole, beckoning him to step inside.

Feeling calmer than he had ever been in his life, he entered the hole. He could see nothing except empty space all around him… yet he could still hear voices whispering all around him.

Everything is going to be all right, a voice inside his head said. And he believed it.

A strange feeling was overwhelming him. It was nothing like he had ever felt before. This was beyond anger, beyond fear, beyond even happiness…

He felt complete. As though a void inside of him had been filled. Everything around him seemed like a dream, only it wasn't. He knew where he was, and yet he didn't care. Nothing mattered to him now. The people that he had cared about were safe now. He was home now.

Or so he thought.

Suddenly shadows began to emerge out of the white nothingness. They were the ones who kept whispering all around the veil. Were they ghosts? No, Harry could see that they were opaque, solid people.

The closest one to him was a tall, gaunt man with shaggy black hair. It was Sirius.

"Sirius!" Harry tried to cry out, but for some strange reason, no voice came out of his mouth.

Sirius drew nearer to him, smiling rather sadly. He pointed towards the hole from which Harry had entered. "Go back," he whispered, his voice echoing through the room.

Harry was confused. No… he didn't want to go back; he had just got here. He was done, finished. There was no going back.

Two more figures approached him --- a man with untidy hair and glasses and a woman with green eyes and long red hair.

"Go back," the woman urged.

"No!" Harry tried to shout. "I don't want to go back!"

"You must go back," the man said quietly.

Other shadows emerged from the light and gathered around Harry. "Go back," they kept repeating. "Go back… go back…go back…"

This doesn't make any sense, Harry thought. I'm dead now, aren't I?

"It isn't your time, mate," Sirius said softly.

Harry felt hundreds of cold, wispy hands grab him. He tried to struggle. He didn't want to leave. If he left, the inner peace that he felt would be gone, perhaps forever. Everything would be difficult…

Then he realized that he didn't have a choice.

Everything moved like a dream. The figures gave him a gentle push, and he felt himself float back towards the veil. Sirius and the other figures were waving at him…

"Good-bye…"

***

Bright light blazed through his closed eyelids. He tried to move, but his entire body felt numb. His fogged-up brain couldn't remember what had happened to him, nor could it figure out where he was.

Then he remembered. He had forced Voldemort out of his body. It was over… and yet he was alive. How had he managed to survive?

He felt something soft and warm that had a tight grip on his hand. Blearily, he opened his eyes to find himself lying in a bed. His surroundings were slightly blurred --- someone must have removed his glasses.

Still, he was able to make out a familiar red-haired figure seated in a chair close to him. She appeared to be asleep; her head was resting on the bed, an inch or two away from his right arm. She was holding his hand.

How long has she been here? Harry wondered bewilderedly. How long have I been here? And what about the others --- are they here? Too many questions filled Harry's mind. There was only one way to find the answers.

He winced as he sat up; every part of his body was extremely sore. Slowly, he reached out and gently shook her shoulder to wake her.

Ginny blinked as she sat up. She glanced at Harry for a moment, then looked at the door. She did a double take. Her jaw dropped.

"Harry!" she squealed, throwing her arms around them. "Oh Harry, you're alive!"

"Erm --- yes," Harry grimaced. "But I'm still in a lot of pain..."

"Oh --- sorry," Ginny pulled away from him, beaming. "We didn't think you were going to make it! Dumbledore was surprised that you were still alive after Voldemort left your body!"

"Dumbledore doesn't know everything," Harry couldn't help saying. "Wait a minute… you just said his name."

Ginny shrugged. "If you can say it, anyone can. It's only a name."

He looked around. "How long have I been here?"

"Almost a week," Ginny replied, squeezing his hand softly. "The others are in the tearoom. They were starting to give up hope that you'd ever wake up…"

"What happened after Voldemort left?"

"That wandless Full-Body Bind you put on the Death Eaters restrained them while Dumbledore contacted the Ministry. They were thrown into Azkaban --- only I don't the Ministry will be able to keep them there without the Dementors to guard them. Wormtail's body was turned over to the Ministry… you should have seen the look on Fudge's face when he saw it…"

"Body?" Harry blurted out.

Ginny's eyes widened. "Oh that's right," she murmured. "You don't remember. Voldemort was the one who did it…"

"Did what?" Harry demanded.

Ginny sighed. "Wormtail's dead. Voldemort killed him after he summoned all the Death Eaters to The Burrow."

"Oh my God…" Harry said hoarsely.

"You didn't do it," Ginny said fiercely. "It was Voldemort, not you!

"But I wanted it to happen," Harry said miserably. "I wanted him to get his, just like Kreacher…"

"If you ask me, the bastard had it coming," Ginny said indifferently. "I don't even feel sorry for him. Besides, with the body as evidence, Fudge had no choice but to believe us about Sirius. Look!" She bent down and retrieved a recent issue of the Daily Prophet from the floor with the front-page headline of "SIRIUS BLACK POSTHUMOUSLY PROVEN INNOCENT".

Harry was silent. This was what he'd wanted from the beginning, wasn't it? Wormtail was dead and Sirius was proven innocent. He should have been happy…

Yet he wasn't. Proving Sirius's innocence hadn't brought him back from the dead. He was not alive to enjoy his newfound freedom and mended reputation. Even if he were alive, the scars he'd received from Azkaban would never truly heal. Harry hated to admit it, but maybe it was better that Sirius had died. At least there was a possibility that he could finally find peace…

And as for Wormtail's fate… Harry had wanted him dead. After all the things Wormtail had done to him, it was more than justifiable. But revenge had a bitter flavor. Wormtail's death didn't undo the terrible things he had done. Harry's parents were still dead, Voldemort was still at large, and Sirius had still lived out the remainder of his life on the run. It hadn't changed anything.

"Is everyone all right then?" Harry asked after a while. "Nobody else got hurt, did they?"

Ginny bit her lip. Her eyes filled with tears.

Harry felt his stomach sink horribly. This wasn't a good sign. "Everyone is all right, aren't they?" he asked again.

"You need to rest," Ginny said weakly. "You've been through enough…"

"I'm fine!" Harry shouted. "Now tell me what the bloody hell is going on!"

Ginny sighed in defeat. "Percy is dead," she said sadly.

***

Telling Harry about Percy's death was just about the worst thing Ginny had to do. Although a week had passed since it had happened, it was still painful for her family to cope with.

The most painful thing about it was that not all of them had reconciled with Percy. In spite of his many faults, he was still Ginny's brother. He had been horrible to the family, but no matter how angry Ginny and her brothers had been at him, they admitted that deep down they never truly stopped caring about him. And now there was nothing anyone could do to redress the situation.

Harry reacted exactly as Ginny had expected: he blamed himself.

"It's all my fault," Harry whispered, his face in his hands. "I killed him."

"No, you didn't!" Ginny insisted desperately. "It was Voldemort, not you! Voldemort!"

"I'm a murderer…"

"You aren't a murderer!" Ginny exploded. "If any of us thought that you were a murderer, then why would we be here? Why would we be worried sick about someone who killed Percy? Because you didn't! We all care about you, Harry, even if you think we just feel sorry for you!"

Harry shook his head. "Even if that's true, it's still my fault," he said tonelessly. "I never should have taken Voldemort's offer."

"You were angry," Ginny said gently. "You were upset. Anybody would have done that."

"How do you know?" Harry asked miserably.

"Because that's exactly how I got myself into that whole mess with the diary," Ginny said quietly. "It was my first year at Hogwarts. I was scared that I wouldn't fit in and I was starting to get homesick. I didn't have any friends and my brothers kept teasing me. All I wanted was a friend… that's why I started trusting Tom, and look how that turned out!"

"It's not the same thing," Harry protested. "You never killed anyone…"

"But I almost did," Ginny said, her voice breaking as she remembered the horrible ordeal. "So on some basic level, I do know how you feel right now, Harry."

Harry glared at her. "No, you don't."

"Are you talking about that prophecy?" Ginny blurted out. "Because I know about that too."

Harry stared at her, horrified. He started sputtering. "How did you --- did Dumbledore ---?"

"Dumbledore didn't tell me, Voldemort did," Ginny informed him. "The night I tried to contact you. I won't tell the others…"

"But let me guess," Harry interrupted wearily. "You think that it would be better if I told them myself soon?"

Ginny shook her head. "No."

Harry stared at her in astonishment.

"What, you think I was going to act like Hermione and start nagging you about keeping secrets?" she asked incredulously. "I just don't think you should tell them now; enough is going on as it is. And it's your choice. You should tell them when you're ready to."

Ginny had thought all of this over while Harry was unconscious. Even though it would be difficult to keep something this important from the others, she could handle it. Besides, Harry couldn't keep this to himself. If he refused to share it with Ron and Hermione, then she would share this secret. At least she could help him cope with it.

Harry sighed. "That's the problem. I don't think I can ever tell them. I mean, it's not like I enjoy keeping it secret… but if I told them, they'd never look at me the same way again…"

"Well I know it," Ginny said simply. "And you look the same to me."

"They wouldn't understand --- you wouldn't understand. You don't know what it's like to have your possible future planned out before you…"

"You're right," Ginny said softly. "I don't. But you shouldn't think about that now, Harry. You should concentrate on getting better. We'll worry about the prophecy later."

Harry smiled sadly. "I don't want to think about it at all."

The two of them were silent for a long time. A sudden thought occurred to Ginny: did Harry remember what she had told him the night Voldemort had left his body?

That doesn't matter right now, she chided herself. Although Harry had survived Voldemort's possession, he wasn't out of the woods yet. Sirius was still dead, and so was Percy. He wasn't about to let go of his guilt any time soon. And then there was the prophecy to think about…

We'll just have to help him one day at a time, she thought. Well, me more than anyone else…

She stood up. "I'd better tell my family and Hermione that you're awake. Dumbledore's here too… they'll all want to see you."

"No," Harry said quickly. "I can't… "

Ginny was shocked. "Harry, they want to see you! They've been worried sick!"

"I can't face them. Not after what happened…"

"There's no use hiding," Ginny said firmly. "You're going to have to face them sometime. I already told you that we don't blame you."

"Oh all right," Harry said reluctantly. "I'll see them… but I don't want to see Dumbledore."

"I know you're mad at Dumbledore," Ginny said gently. "I don't blame you… but he's human. Even he makes mistakes."

Harry shook his head. "Not right now, Gin."

"You have to face him sometime, Harry. It might as well be now. What are you going to do when term starts again and Dumbledore wants to see you?"

"He didn't want to see me much last year," he snorted. "Why would he change his mind?"

"Well, too bad, he's going to come in anyway," Ginny snapped, starting to walk out of the room. "Honestly, Harry, you can be such a prat at times…" She couldn't help but smile at her own words. "It's good to see that you're acting more like yourself."

To be continued…