DISCLAIMER: Not mine, all JKR's, blah, blah, blah.

Chapter 19: Aftermath

The Order of the Phoenix was filled with warriors. Later on, when the battle was recounted, no one was really sure how it was that half of the Death Eaters were captured after the tornadoes. The other half was either dead or running away from the scene. And still the duel between Harry Potter and the Dark Lord raged on.

While the rest of the Order and Ministry officials gathered the dead and helped the injured, Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Jenny Peralt, Hermione Granger and the Weasley family stood anxiously by the circular dust storm. No one dared move a muscle, and those people working in the background understood what was happening. They too were silent, as silent as thy could be at any rate, given the task at hand. However, every so often they would look to see if the duel had ended, and who had come out victorious.

At one point in the long wait, Madam Pomfrey and a Healer from St. Mungo's, who arrived at the scene to help the injured, walked up to the silent group, checking to see if they were all okay and injury free. Jenny had said that it was nothing short of a miracle for Harry's family to have fought in such a bloody and destructive battle without any serious injury. The two women healed the cuts and bruises each of them had, and had unsuccessfully tried to convice Dumbledore to check in at St. Mungo's. "I'm not leaving this place until I have seen Harry again," he said, reflecting everyone's feeling at the moment.

Molly Weasley was pacing nervously and working herself into a frenzy, aided by Hermione, who kept going through every possible scenario of what might be happening. Arthur Weasley was trying to calm his wife. Lupin and Sirius stood together, talking in hushed whispers. Ron sat completely still, not moving, not talking, just staring straight ahead. Ginny sat next to him, gripping his hand tightly.

"What if he's de- I mean, what if he was killed" Hermione was struggling to ask the question running through everyone's head.

"He's not going to die," Ginny answered her firmly, making even Ron turn to stare at her. "He made a promise to his parents, and he's not going to break. He's not going to die." As everyone looked at her in confusion, she silently thought, 'Please, God don't let him. Not now that we could have all we wanted.'

Spells were flying all around the dust storm cloud. Jets of light hit the walls, causing them to shudder. Neither of the two duelers were ready to give up. Voldemort was determined not to lose, while Harry was more concerned about making it out alive.

"You are going to lose tonight," panted Harry. "It's almost midnight, the Veil will seal itself, and you won't be able to become immortal. There's no way you can get out of here without killing me."

"And I will," hissed Voldemort.

"Really? Why don't I believe you?" he snapped back.

"Because you're a fool, Potter." Tom smiled suddenly, a wicked smile. "The girl doesn't love you. She's in love with who you are, the fame and the fortune. She was very close to becoming one of my Death Eaters, you know. That would have the second time. And if you hadn't come to the rescue, I'm sure she would be fighting for me, rather than for Dumbledore."

"You're lying! I don't believe a word out of your mouth!" Harry yelled angrily.

Voldemort laughed. "You actually thought that a magnificent creature such as her would fall in love with you? You're a bigger idiot than I thought you were. She's using you, Potter."

"Shut up! Don't you dare talk about her!" he screamed. He felt his fury rising. He could still hear the Dark Lord laughing at him. Blood was pounding in his ear. His mind was on overdrive, and he couldn't take it anymore. "Pax populi navert ligqa tura!" Harry yelled, raising his hands. A bright gold light surrounded them suddenly. It shot out, hitting Voldemort right in the heart, setting fire to it. Tom screamed in pain and angony, burning slowly. Harry was in pain as well. His scar felt like it was splitting in half, and he held his head in his hands, not knowing what to do to stop the pain. Abruptly, a huge explosion blinded Harry, and he was thrown back just when the barrier of air collapsed into the earth.

"â€No clue how he survived that. I mean he must have flew almost seventy-five feet through the air and hit that huge stone."

"I know. I thought for sure he had die."

"And Ginny. Jenny said that it was lucky she hadn't cracked her skull." Harry tried to sit up at those words, but he couldn't make anything out. There seemed to be a lot of movement wherever he was, and he was in so much pain he couldn't bring himself to open his eyes. The voices sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite placed them.

"Oh, Bill, I'm so glad to see you up and about. How are you feeling?"

"Good as new. How's Harry?" 'What happened to Bill?' Harry thought. He tried to form the words, but they wouldn't come out.

"Still hasn't woken up. Jenny said he was going to be fine, but that with all the potions Madam Pomfrey gave him he won't wake up for a while. How's everyone else doing?" 'What potions?' thought Harry. 'I don't remember taking any potions.'

"Mom's fine. She's running around all over the place, complaining that they placed Ginny and Charlie too far apart. Fred just took George home, and Ron's in with Hermione."

"Where are they?" Harry was able to ask. Slowly and very painfully, he was able to open his eyes to find the faces of Bill, Sirius and Professor Lupin staring down at him, concern etched on their faces.

"Thank God you're awake!" squeaked a new voice from the doorway. Mrs. Weasley rushed into the room, giving Harry a hug, then helping him sit up. Harry smiled weakly at her before turning to Bill. "Where are they? And what happened to Ginny?"

"You- You don't remember what happened?" Bill asked.

Harry shook his head. "The last thing I remember was a huge explosion, and being knocked back. I can't remember anything else."

Mrs. Weasley looked worriedly at him. "Dear, that happened three days ago."

Sirius cleared his throat. "Can I speak to Harry alone please? I'll catch him up on everything." The others nodded. Mrs. Weasley looked reluctant to leave, but finally turned, muttering about having to check up on Charlie.

Harry looked at Sirius. "What happened to Ginny? Where's Ron and Hermione? Where did Voldemort go? Did he escape? Did he make through the Veil? Did-"

"Harry, calm down. Don't get overexcited, otherwise the Healers will kick me out of here," said Sirius. He looked down at him with a mixture of pride, concern, and anxiousness. "You beat him. He's dead, gone, never to return again."

A million things came through Harry's mind. Voldemort is dead, he thought. Dead. He's dead. He didn't know whether to laugh, or feel relief, or be happy. Sirius gave him a sympathetic smile. "He'll never bother any of us again," he said. "It's huge relief."

"I killed someone," Harry said tonelessly.

"Voldemort was hardly human," he answered.

He nodded. "Where's Ginny?"

"She's, um, she's upstairs in a different ward. The explosion kind of took everyone by surprise. We were thrown off our feet. You yourself must have flown almost eighty feet and that huge rock landed on you afterwards. We all thought you had died." Sirius shuddered at the thought.

"What happened to Ginny?" Harry asked again.

"She hit her head on one of the stones. She's okay now; Jenny and one of the fairies healed her right away," he answered.

"And Hermione?"

"She ruptured one of the disks on her spine. She's doing great, though. Madam Pomfrey says that in a week, she'll be back to her normal self again."

Harry sighed. Ginny and Hermione shouldn't have been there in the first place. He should have told them to stay at Hogwarts. They could have died. Well, not Ginny, but still†That didn't make things any better. He could have gotten all his friends killed. They shouldn't have followed him into that battle.

"They would have followed you," Sirius said, interrupting his thought. His gray eyes looked directly at Harry. "No one would have allowed you to go into Stonehenge by yourself. Don't feel guilty, it's not your fault any of this happened."

"Isn't it? If I hadn't been born, my parents would still be alive. The Weasleys would be safe and sound, and you wouldn't have spent thirteen years in Azkaban!" Harry yelled at him.

"If you hadn't been born, then Voldemort wouldn't be dead, Hermione would have never been able to go to Hogwarts, Ginny would've been killed in her first year, and the Weasleys, your parents, and I would be running for our lives!" Sirius exclaimed angrily.

"And if you ever think that again, Harry James Potter, I'm going to make you regret it!" an enraged voice said from the doorway. Harry and Sirius turned to see a very livid Ginny Weasley entering the room, her hands fisted at her sides. Sirius looked from Ginny to Harry, then whispered, "I'll just leave you two alone," and rushed out of the room. He knew that Ginny had her mother's temper, and he didn't want to be caught in the middle of that fight.

Harry and Ginny stared at each other, neither saying a word. Ginny broke the silence first. "How can you say something like that? And you were upset at me when you thought I was suicidal?!?"

"I never thought you were suicidal!" Harry retorted. "You misunderstood me!"

"Whatever, Harry," she yelled. Ginny turned and opened the door. Harry groaned, "I'm sorry, Ginny, ok? Please, don't go." Ginny sighed and sat on the chair by his bed. "Is everyone else okay, did they get hurt?"

"Harry, we all got hurt in that explosion. Dad, Fred and George are already at home. Charlie's in the ward next to yours. He'll be fine in a few days, according to the Healers. Mum refuses to leave until we all get to go home, and Ron spends the whole time sitting next to Hermione. She's really upset because Madam Pomfrey forbid her from getting books to study while she's here. She says that she'll miss a lot of work for her N.E.W.T.S."

"I'm really sorry, Ginny, I promise I won't say that again ever," Harry whispered, grabbing her hand.

"Damn right you won't," she answered.

The celebrations over Voldemort's downfall were still underway when Harry was released from St. Mungo's two weeks later. The Gryffindor common room held a party every night in honor of Harry. It had gotten to a point where McGonagall had given up on trying to make the rowdy Gryffindors go to bed. No one knew exactly who it was, but someone had somehow sneaked a case of fire whisky into the common room to serve at the parties. Hermione, who was in excellent shape according to the Healers, had gone around harassing every upper classman about it. During the first party after Harry's return to Hogwarts, Ginny had caught Ron drinking his very first shot of fire whisky. She had been furious, and she took one of the bottles and dragged Ron upstairs to the boys' dormitories, followed by an amused Hermione and a confused Harry. Ginny told Ron to drink the entire bottle of Firewhisky.

"I can't drink an entire bottle, Ginny! Are you insane?" Ron exclaimed, outraged at her order.

"If you can drink a shot of it, you can drink a bottle," she replied. "And if you don't, I'll tell Mom you were drinking." Ron mumbled something inaudible and started to drink. He made it halfway through the bottle before he got sick and started vomiting and complaining, swearing to 'never touch that horrible stuff again!'

Two days after that, the four of them were allowed to leave Hogwarts and go to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place for an Order 'reunion.' That party had lasted until almost five in the morning, with the highlight of the night being Dumbledore reading out an official Ministry of Magic document, apologizing to Sirius Black and declaring him a free man.

Everything was perfect. During Christmas break, Harry would go to Privet Drive to pick anything he might have left behind, then he would move in with Sirius. He would never have to worry about some psycho evil lord trying to kill him, and he could do as he pleased without having a secret guard following him around. But at night, Voldemort's last words taunted him. "The girl doesn't love you. She's in love with who you are, the fame and the fortune. She was very close to becoming one of my Death Eaters, you know. That would have the second time. And if you hadn't come to the rescue, I'm sure she would be fighting for me, rather than for Dumbledore" "You actually thought that a magnificent creature such as her would fall in love with you? You're a bigger idiot than I thought you were. She's using you, Potter."

AN: The next chapter is the last one, my friends. I hope I can have that up soon, hopefully by Monday. I only need to revise it and run a spell check.

Love,

Amalia