A/N: content warning for non-explicit mentions of death and injury. Title for the Grey Havens songs "Band of Gold"


It's been years since the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry's scar has stopped burning. Ginny has stopped hearing voices in the pipes. They wake up every morning without having to fear for their lives.

It still doesn't go back to normal.

Harry wakes up to nightmares more nights than not. Green jets of light shoot towards him, sometimes hitting him and sometimes not. There will be nights when it's Ginny in his arms, eyes open and unseeing, or Ron, or Hermione, or Neville. Sometimes Hogwarts is burning behind him and sometimes he's facing the Dark Lord against a backdrop of rubble and bodies.

Over it all is the cold, maniacal laugh of Voldemort as he shouts, "Avada Kedavra!"

"Ginny," he gasps one night, jolting awake just before the Killing Curse smashed into his chest. "Ginny, where – "

"I'm here," she says, voice rough with sleep. "What is it, Harry?"

Harry shakes his head, running his hand up her arm to touch her face. He doesn't know what to say, doesn't have to the words to tell Ginny again what happened to him, her, all of them, in his dream.

Casting a small Lumos, Ginny sits up. "Harry," she says, "I'm here. You're here." She runs her hand through his hair comfortingly. "Do you remember?"

Harry takes a deep breath. "I'm Harry Potter and you're my wife, Ginny." He doesn't miss how her eyes light up at the word, even after four years of marriage. "I'm an Auror, and you play quidditch."

Ginny smiles. "Okay," she says. "Okay."

"I'm sorry," Harry apologizes reflexively. "You'd think I'd get over these – these nightmares by now."

Ginny shakes her head. "Don't you dare apologize. You had Voldemort's soul inside of you for seventeen years." She rubs her thumb over Harry's scar. "I can't imagine what that's like; I only had him in my head for a year."

Harry takes another breath. He's sitting in bed with his wife, safe and sound. No Death Eaters are coming after them and everything is safe. "It'll be okay," he says to himself.

Leaning in, Ginny kisses his forehead. "We'll figure it out," she assures him. "Together."