Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does.

Chapter 5 Reactions

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Ginny Weasley walked into the Burrow, her eyes beginning to water at the confrontation she just had between Harry Potter and herself. Mrs. Weasley was cooking, her way of relieving stress and anxiety. She looked up at the clock where each Weasley had a hand. Currently Ron was at home, all Auror's having been given a holiday, seeing as how they had worked non-stop, trying to stop Voldemort (Ginny, Ron, and Hermione had been forced by Harry to call him by his name). Ron had spent the entire time moping around, or looking for Harry. Bill and Charlie had felt bad too, though not as much. They had been out of the country at the time, and had been held up to come to Harry's trial. The arrest and trial happened extremely fast. The twins had felt really bad, they had not been they're usual mischievous selves for a long time. They too had not been present at the trial, having been away on Order business, but had encountered Harry before the trial.ྭ

--Flashback—

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry was stumbling out of the common room, injured after Ron and Hermione attacking him. He stumbled, trying to get to the Hospital Wing. But suddenly four large hands grabbed him from behind. The twins glared at him with such hate that Harry had to turn away. He couldn't bear that two people he had never seen angry, who he had personally helped finance their dreams, could hate him.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "You bastard." Fred said with a dangerous undertone.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I can't believe we ever trusted you. How the hell did you become a Gryffindor. Get out!" George added, and together they hurled him against the opposite wall. Harry groaned, the pain was intense. The twins looked at him just once more with the utmost loathing, and left without a backward glance.

--End Flashback—

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Fred and George were currently working at Diagon Alley, having rebuilt their shop as quickly as possible. They felt bad not being there at the battle, but like Professor McGonagall and others, they were needed at Hogwarts in case the attack was a bluff and Voldemort wanted to take Hogwarts while the Order was occupied at Diagon Alley. When news of Harry's innocence reached their ears, they were shocked. They almost cried with shock and disgust at their actions. But they decided to let Harry be.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Like Ron, Ginny wanted to look for Harry, but she knew, like the twins,ྭ he probably wanted his space. She wondered if he could ever forgive her, and let her back into his heart. He hadn't left hers, no matter how hard she tried to forget him. 'Why didn't I believe him? I loved him, shouldn't I have helped him?" She thought to herself.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ No matter how many times she looked at it, there was no excuse for what she had done. Harry had opened his heart up to her, and she ignored it. She supposed Dumbledore was the convincing argument for all of them. If Dumbledore believed, then everyone had to believe. Her parents had done that, as well as the whole wizarding world.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ 'And a fat lot of good it did us.' Ginny thought bitterly, walking towards the kitchen, intent on talking with her mother and crying.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Mrs. Weasley's thoughts were so jumbled up that she could barely concentrate on her housework. She turned when she heard her youngest child come in through the door. She was about to greet her when she saw Ginny's face. She was crying.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Ginny, honey, what's wrong?" She whispered.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I saw Harry." Was the only answer Ginny gave her mother, but it was enough.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Mrs. Weasley immediately realized what had transpired. Ginny had run into Harry Potter, her love, and he had been furious with her betrayal. Somehow, she knew it would be like this for her daughter. While she had not testified herself, she loved Percy, like all her brothers. Percy had stuck up for her when Bill and Charlie left and the twins and Ron picked on her.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The hurt she felt blinded her towards Harry's innocence. 'We were all blinded by grief.' Mrs. Weasley thought sadly. 'Why did it have to be this way? If none of this had happened Harry would be in the kitchen with us, laughing with us, and maybe Ginny would be engaged to him.'

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Mum, he hates me." Ginny whispered, shaking her mother out of her revere, and Mrs. Weasley looked at her daughter and knew how badly she was hurting. It was worse than when Harry had been imprisoned.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "He doesn't hate you Ginny. He's just angry right now." Mrs. Weasley cooed, but she couldn't help but know that Harry was justified to hate them all. She declared Harry as good as her son, and had been the first mother figure he had known. And she turned her back on him. She had proven herself wrong. If Harry was like a seventh son to her, then he should have been defended by her, like she would have done for all of her sons.

The sorrows Harry had known would have broken another man, Mrs. Weasley knew. Losing his parents before he knew them, living with people who hated him for what he was for 10 years was harsh enough. But facing He-who-is-dead several times, defying him, was a task most adult wizards could never hope to complete. He had seen a friend die before his very eyes, and then his godfather, the closest thing he every had to a father, die the next year. But being betrayed by all of his friends and supposed family, and still staying true to the light, that took real strength. She would have been proud to have Harry as her own son.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "You didn't see his eyes, mum. They were full of anger and pain. Pain I helped cause." Ginny whispered.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Ron chose this moment to come downstairs, seeing as lunch was close by, and noticing his little sister crying and his mother close to tears as well, he could guess what was wrong. They were talking about Harry.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "What's wrong Ginny?" Ron asked gently.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I saw Harry." Again, the simple answer was all that was needed.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Oh." Ron said, and sat down, and buried his head in his hands.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "How could we do that Ron? He always helped us out, did whatever he could for us. He was your best friend!" Ginny said, trying to vent her grief.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I know Gin. I know. I feel horrible, don't you get it. You didn't testify against him. You didn't burn his parent's photo album." Ron whispered, his head sinking lower and lower.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The door burst open and Hermione flew in. Ron looked at his wife and saw the look in her face. It was guilt, but a hint of excitement, like she knew something they didn't. "I saw Harry today at Hogwarts. He was talking with Dumbledore." Hermione said, needing to share her sighting with her family.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Ginny did too, dear." Mrs. Weasley said to her daughter-in-law.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "It was at Diagon Alley." Ginny supplied, and Hermione's eyes widened in shock. The room was silent for a moment.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Harry's power is incredible. I went up to the Headmaster's office to talk with him, because the castle was shaking a bit. When I got there, Dumbledore's office was damaged. There was no signs of a struggle, it was like Harry's rage destroyed the objects and shook the castle itself. And he apparated inside Hogwarts!" She said, obviously needing to reiterate a fact they all knew. Harry Potter was the most powerful wizard alive, perhaps ever.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Well, Mione. I guess you were wrong!" Ron said, unable to resist making fun of his wife, who had constantly reminded them apparating within Hogwarts is impossible.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Hermione glared at him, and sat down. "He didn't talk to me, but just left. I could see his eyes though. They were" Ginny cut her off, "Full of pain and sorrow and anger."

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Hermione nodded, and asked quietly, "Did he say anything to you?"

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Oh yeah, loads. He told me how much I hurt him, though seeing his eyes was enough punishment for me. They were racked with sorrow, Hermione. I know that I helped do that, and it kills me." Ginny whispered.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Mrs. Weasley shook her head sadly. The tragedy of Harry Potter's life seemed never ending.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry Potter was thinking along the same lines as Mrs. Weasley at that moment, though he did not know that. He was looking at his parent's old photos, of the Marauders, of Lily and James. Some even had pictures of himself, when he was really young. However, he knew that they were dead, and that these pictures were the closest he'd ever get for a long, long time. Except for Remus and Pettigrew. He really would rather not talk to them, however. Pettigrew was as good as dead anyway, having received the Dementor's Kiss after his trial. And Remus betrayed him. That made him dead to Harry.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ 'The never-ending tragedy that is my life. I think I must have been one hell of a git in my previous life or something to get all of this bull dumped onto me. Just when I can gain happiness, life kicks me in the crotch.' Harry mused sarcastically.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Marauders castle was a great place, not as large as Hogwarts but still a good sized castle. The photos of his parents caused him small stabs of pain, especially those with Wormtail, but still, he had come to terms with their deaths. He had avenged them.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Currently, he was busy exploring his new home. The potion ingredients, books, and robes had all been delivered to the castle a few hours ago, and Dobby had taken care of it. To make sure his privacy was secure, Harry put up a charm that would keep the knowledge of where he was secret, so that the delivery crews would not recall it. Only those he wished to find him would remember the location. 'Of course, to do that, you'd need people that you wanted to visit.' Harry thought bitterly.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Again, he attempted to ignore his problems. 'Life just seems to be full of things to throw my way.' Every year he had a new problem. His life had been hell since as far back as he could remember. Everywhere he went he had been despised, but he still saved everyone. 'I should be one hell of a messed up git. A deranged maniac or something. But here I am, savior of the Wizarding World.' Harry pondered.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He brooded over the final battle. He had refrained from killing most of the Death Eaters, but some had died. He felt guilt, he really didn't want to kill them, not in his heart, but he had no choice. Azkaban had hardened his heart towards such sentimentality. There was no room for that when you needed to keep your sanity. All you needed to do was survive, and that took everything you had.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ 'It may have been boring as hell, with no one but insane convicts, dementors and later vindictive Aurors to talk to or at least see, and the food was terrible, but life was simpler in Azkaban.' Harry mused.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Dobby's sudden appearance shook Harry away from these thoughts. "Harry, sir. There are owls for you sir!"

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry walked towards a room he had not yet explored. Dobby had cleaned much of the Castle while he had been away, and had thus explored more of it. He led Harry towards a room, and upon his entry, Harry was bombarded with owls. Quickly dodging away, he yelled, "STOP! ALL OF YOU! STOP!"

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The owls settled back into place, and he looked at them. He decided to deal with official business first. "Any Ministry owls?"

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Two Owls swooped down upon him, and dropped their letters down onto a table next to the door. Harry looked them over. The first was an official apology, as well as notification about the transfer of a million galleons to his account, and erasure from his record of the accusations pitted against him, signed personally by Fudge. Harry sighed, Fudge was trying to save face.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The second was his awardment of the Order of Merlin, First Class. He sighed again; he really didn't want the title. He didn't want any awards. He just wanted to be alone. 'Life seems better for me that way.' Harry thought.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Okay. Now then, any owls from Hogwarts?" Harry asked. Many more owls came down towards him.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Deciding that probably most of the teachers at Hogwarts had sent something to him, he decided to do this one by one. 'But which teacher.' Harry pondered. 'Which teacher did the least damage, and would therefore be able to talk to easier.'

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ 'Snape.' An amazing answer really. The only teacher to express hatred to him for 5 years was the one he didn't have the most resentment to. Must have been what happened the day he was arrested.

--Flashback—

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As Harry Potter was dragged roughly to the front door of Hogwarts, Severus Snape appeared in the hallway. He had been informed of the situation. "I'd advise using Veritaserum, Minister Fudge." Snape said.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry's head whipped around, and he looked at Snape in surprise. His worst enemy was helping him. "Why are you doing this?" Harry asked, too depressed for tact.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Because, you are a Potter. I sincerely doubt you slew Hagrid or the Weasley boy." Snape sneered.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Snape was truly amazed that everyone could actually believe that Potter, of all people, had turned Dark. Potter's just didn't go dark, in his mind. There were too many inconsistencies for his Slytherin mind. No matter how much he hated Potter's father, that didn't blind his Slytherin intellect. Harry Potter could not possibly do that.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I think you should keep your opinions to yourself, Snape. Dumbledore's vouching you work for the light only protects you for so long." Fudge said, his threat clear.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Snape fell silent, and with a surprisingly pitying glance, turned away.

--End Flashback—

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Any letters from Snape?" He asked, expecting none. But Snape surprised him again, having sent a single letter.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He opened it and read it. It was definitely Snape's style.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Potter,

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As much as I do not like it, I appreciate you removing the Dark Mark from my arm. You also removed it from Draco. He should have sent a letter as well. We may be Slytherin's, but we owe you. I am actually impressed Potter. I never thought I'd ever see a Potter using the Dark Arts, if some of those spells were Dark.

ྭYou'll be interested to know that the Weasleys, especially Miss Granger, now Mrs. Weasley, have been miserable. Dumbledore has been depressed as well. You surely have a way of making life interesting Potter.

Snape

"Short and to the point as always, eh Snape?" Harry chuckled.

Harry went through the other teachers, surprisingly, even those he didn't know sent him a thank you. But when Hermione Weasley's name came up in a McGonagall's letter, saying she was their colleague, he stopped dead in his tracks. 'She's a teacher?' Harry thought.

"Then again, that doesn't surprise me." Harry muttered.

He ignored Hermione's letters, but refrained from burning it. It might be good to hear her groveling later. He reached Dumbledore, and decided to see what the old nutter had to say for himself. He picked up the first one.ྭ It was short, but to the point.

Dear Harry,

I would first like to express my utmost gratitude for your aid at Diagon Alley yesterday. I am truly in your debt for saving us, and would have totally understood if you turned against us.

Secondly, I would like to state how impressed I am with you. You have taken everything thrown your way and stayed true to the Light.

Finally, I would like to give you my deepest apologies. I have helped put you through so much pain and suffering (here Harry gave a snort that clearly agreed), but I am again sorry. I hope one day you will forgive an old man for his mistakes. Please Harry, don't isolate yourself from the world because of mine and other's actions.

Sincerely,

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Albus Dumbledore.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry looked at the letter with a mixture of agreement and other feelings he had to sort out. He agreed on all three points, and was feeling a mixture of anger and gratitude to his former headmaster for understanding he did not want to be asked for forgiveness. With the Hogwarts letters (except for Professor Weasley) done with, he moved on.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Deciding to move on to Draco's supposed letter, he asked for it. An imperious looking owl swooped down and dropped a letter. Harry scanned it with his powers, and opened it.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Potter,

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Thanks, I suppose. Imagine that, me thanking you. But in all seriousness, thank you for removing the Dark Mark, which would have been a constant reminder of the Dark Lord. In case you're wondering, I turned spy shortly after I became a Death Eater. Didn't agree with the Dark Lord. That and getting tortured for nothing is not pleasant.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Draco

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ 'Slytherin's are definitely not ones for long, pointless letters.' Harry thought gratefully.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Any letters from people I don't know, drop them over there." Harry said, pointing to an empty corner. Half the owls dropped their letters right there.

ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ There were still plenty of owls left. "We're gonna need more help around here." Harry said, as he sat down to read the letters from those who betrayed him.