Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Dancerrdw – thanks!

Brigade701 – Voldemort has found some way to repair Tom Riddle's diary and thereby revived himself at age sixteen, and so I referred to him at age sixteen as Tom Riddle and him at age seventy or whatever as Voldemort.

Greenpluff – Thanks!

JakMakai1519 – Thanks a lot!

Alright here we go guys…big chapter fifty…nearly eleven months from when I started…

Chapter 50 – Year's End

Three hours from where we left…

Ron, from the Hogwarts Hospital Wing, stared desolately down upon the unconscious Harry, wondering what he would have to say to Harry once he woke up. Dumbledore was dead, and even though this was an occurrence that was bound to happen someday – within a few days, even, without Voldemort's interference – that didn't make the shock any less jarring. Besides, Dumbledore didn't deserve such a filthy treatment, dying at the hands of a Dark Lord. Ron bowed his head in remembrance. If only he could have lived to see the days of peace he fought so hard for.

Not to mention the numerous other casualties. Seamus, Professor Flitwick, Tonks, Bill, and Percy – all dead, not to mention others that Ron had never even met. He would've been feeling suicidal if not for his mother, who was in a much worse off state than he was. The critically injured were far more numerous – every other member of the Weasley family except for his mother and himself were among them, not to mention almost every single student, including Hermione. In fact, the easiest way to count the casualties was to instead count the unscathed, which numbered very few. Moody had gotten out with only a few scratches and scrapes, as well as Woodbury, Lupin, McGonagall, Park – and Draco Malfoy. It was almost a complete dismantling of the Order, and while they had indeed kept the Order Headquarters of Godric's Hollow intact, they were now extremely vulnerable.

Many Death Eaters were dead as well, and even more captured. In fact, the battle had also been a victory in a way, as they had captured every prominent Death Eater except for Lestrange. Tom Riddle, unfortunately, when killed by Woodbury at the end, had simply floated away out of existence. Remus had said that he couldn't see any way that Riddle could be revived anymore, so at least the Order didn't have to worry about that anymore. Or Lucius Malfoy.

Malfoy. Defeated in battle by his own son who had defected to the Order. It was hard for Ron not to be confused about Draco Malfoy. Draco, whom he had always nourished an outspoken and unrivaled loathing for, seemed to have developed affections for his only sister, and not only that, but had been prophesied about by the centaurs. In fact, that was an even stranger tale about Draco, one which Firenze refused to speak much about, saying only that "the stars said that the white dragon would be our salvation" and that the centaurs themselves had been divided as to what to do about him. Many centaurs, apparently, had balked in their pride at the idea of a human being their salvation, and split off from the rest of the group, effectively halving the centaur's reinforcements to the Order. Firenze seemed to have no doubt that they would eventually die without "the white dragon", but Ron suspected that they would also cause some serious trouble before they did so. Still, though, although all centaurs undoubtedly seemed very proud, Remus seemed to be of the opinion that although they held no love for the Order they held no love for Voldemort either, and shouldn't cause overmuch a problem.

"So many lost, Ron," Remus said, who had sneaked up behind him. "Can the Order stand without Dumbledore?"

Ron didn't answer at first. "We will," he finally said. "Because we have to."

Three months later…

Ron stood before Hogwarts, casting a final look at the immense castle that he would have to say goodbye to until seventh year. The last three months had been filled with unparalleled franticness. The first month was taken up largely with proceedings of the aftermath of the battle. Harry had insisted on attending every single funeral of every person that had died in battle, feeling that this was the only way to send off the guilt that he had shouldered onto himself, and Ron and Hermione had staunchly accompanied him to these perennially sad affairs. Of course, there were many he would have attended anyway, but he couldn't help but admit that the whole affair had given him a new perspective on every person's life and how they could uniquely affect everyone around them. Too often, Ron thought in a rare philosophical mood, we don't realize about the world around us.

"Come on Ron!" Hermione yelled joyfully. "Let's get out of here!"

Ron laughed. The day that Hermione was pulling him away from school was a strange one indeed. Nonetheless, Ron couldn't pretend not to be excited about the upcoming summer, most of which he would be spending with Hermione – a little with the girl herself, seeing her at her house, and then the whole trio (as well as Parvati, and Draco Malfoy at Ginny's insistence – someone who nobody except Harry and Parvati had really warmed up to yet) would meet up back at the Burrow as soon as Harry could leave the Dursleys.

"All right," Ron said, chuckling. "Just a moment, Professor McGonagall said she wanted to see me."

"Okay then, but hurry it up!"

Ron nodded and then trekked up, meeting McGonagall in the Great Hall.

"Professor, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley. It seems that Remus and I have finally solved the mystery of your…revival, as well as your silver hand. It's ancient, powerful magic, known simply as the sacrificial spell. The user sacrifices him or herself to revive the person, but the person comes back having felt, seen and experienced death, and carries many unknown horrors back with him, and certain attributes generally belonging to…ghosts. You have remarkable stamina now, Mr. Weasley, and rarely will you need any kind of sustenance or sleep to keep yourself going from day to day, and may in fact find yourself avoiding sleep itself, as you will likely experience nightmares about death when you do so. The theory is that your black eyes are a cause of you having seen death, but it's really unknown. It's something very rarely attempted, as it has unknown and extremely dangerous side effects. Many people, Mr. Weasley, consider death to be a better option."

Ron was dumbstruck. "Somebody did this to me…but who?"

McGonagall looked even more uncomfortable. "Well, when this happens, the person has to give up themselves to revive the subject…and occasionally some attributes of the user will manifest themselves in the subject…"

"You mean I have a silver hand because of Peter Pettigrew? Peter Pettigrew revived me from death?"

McGonagall gave him a long, searching look. "Yes, Mr. Weasley. That is precisely what happened."

An hour later…

"Really?" Hermione whispered deathly quiet, traveling bumpily along on the Hogwarts Express along with Harry, as well as Parvati, whom had gradually been accepted as part of the group over the past few months.

"No, Hermione, I just made this all up as I was going," Ron said as a very half-hearted attempt at a joke. Hermione gave him a look but didn't say anything. The four sat in silence for a while, quietly munching away at the snacks the cart-lady had given them.

"What does McGonagall mean, I wonder?" Ron thought out loud. "Unknown and dangerous side effects…"

"You'll just have to find out," Hermione said in a brave voice, though Ron felt her hand suddenly grip his hand a lot harder. Ron grinned at her with his eyebrows up and she blushed a little, loosening her hand into his comfortably.

"Exploding Snap, anybody?" Parvati said, pulling out a deck from her pocket. Everybody joined in, laughing and grinning together, and all four of them knew a great summer was coming up.

All right guys, no better time to review than this. A sequel is likely (after all I left a bunch of loose ends, some on purpose…and some probably not that I didn't notice…) but DEFINITELY not imminent, I'm just too tired from writing such a huge story. I've already got ideas for new stories that I'm going to work really hard at keeping a lot more polished than this one as well as more planned out, which could have been a lot better if I had worked harder. Also, it's very likely that the subsequent affair will be a much shorter and much lighter affair than this one, which was full of action and angst more than romance and comedy. The next story won't be up for a long time (talking months here) due to the traveling of summer vacation AND I'm moving somewhere else after that, so don't expect anything anytime soon – just read it when it does come!