As the first people spotted, the dead form of Voldemort lying still in the centre of the courtyard, a murmur spread and got louder as more voices joined the choir of happy or unbelieving voices. The plan hat worked, albeit with a slightly different ending, but it had worked. And wow was it hard to say that about a Plan™ made by Harry "oops" Potter.

It drowned his words, so they were still questioning who the stranger with the white hair was and whether those skeletons were friend or foe.

People stood, mouth agape, as two missiles, one blond, one black haired, stormed over and nearly bowled the figure over, embracing him in a wild hug. Their eyes tried to leave their heads, when they both slapped him.

-with Harry-

"Ouch… but I guess I deserved that" he mumbled, only to be pulled in for a kiss first by the small blond girl, than by the dark haired boy.

"Hey Theo, hi Tori. Did you miss me?", that earned him a heel to the foot from Astoria Greengrass and a punch on his shoulder by Theodore Nott.

Theo started his rant. "Don't you 'hey' us mister. First you leave, with only that stupid patronus message…."

"'Going to meet Tom, love you both…. so much information luv, I would say 'would it kill you to tell us a bit more' but obviously it did" Tori interrupted.

"… and than you come back with your Legion of Doom looking like Malfoy…" he continued, this time broken off by two simultaneous cries of "OI!" filled with indignation, that came from Harry and from within the small group of Praetorian-members in the process of coming over.

"… do you have any idea how gods damned worried we were?" he finished, a tear in his normally unshakeable eyes.

He hugged them both to him "I'm sorry I had to. Dumbledore played his last card revealing I was the last 'crux." They gasped. "So, I had not that big of a choice if I wanted to finish this, and I knew you wouldn't let me go."

"Damn right we wouldn't you self-sacrificing idiot." They hugged him closer. "Is he really dead than?" Astoria asked. He let go of them "Yes, but you know, better safe than sorry." Snapping his fingers, he spoke the incantation 'Infernus nero' and black flames engulfed the body of the Dark Lord, turning him to ash in seconds. "Can't have some idiot trying to bring him back or trying to become him, or eating him or…."

"Thanks mate, that's enough of your verbal diarrhea" Ron shouted. Without them really noticing the group had arrived next to the trio. "At least we now know without a doubt it's you."

Hermione couldn't hold it in any longer "Harry James Potter" she came over and kicked him in the shin "you know five years ago I'd have bombarded you with 500 questions without taking a breath in between. Now I have just two… are you okay, and what's with the hair?"

He let out a soft laugh rubbing his shin "What is it with people today kicking or punching me and your fixation with my hair?... As for how I am… well I died… but I got better" he poked out his tongue. "You know… I have magic powers and rose from the dead so basically, I'm…"

At least four people, one of them Hermione shouted "don't you say it."

But the Potter-mouth can't be stopped that easily "… wizarding Jesus."

The collective facepalm was nothing unusual, as were the groans from his boy/girlfriend. Astoria poked Theo in the side and whispered to him "What do you think… how often is he going to use that to get out of trouble?" The prompt answer of "too often" came from her sensible/sane boyfriend – the universe probably chose him to balance out Harry's crazy.

"Harryyyy… how did you do it?" Hermione continued to ask insisting on an answer.

"Would you believe me if I said I divided by zero?"

"Harry…"

"Okay okay… but not here, and I still have to say Hi to a few other people, answer questions about my hair and get punched a few more times. Ruin all my fun, why don't you." Harry grumbled.

"You know, you can't stop yourself, so someone has to do it. I bet Tori and Theo only snog you to shut you up." She retorted with a grin.

And so, he went to greet the people most important to him, not followers but friends. Draco had truly earned the bonecrushing hug he received for killing the snake and bringing the plan to fruition. No they were not secretly brothers!
The Praetorians reported on the casualties, the damage to the castle and the status of key members of the war. Kingsley Shacklebolt came over to congratulate him and the others that pulled the trap of and informed them he and the still fight-capable order members wanted to go to the ministry, to secure the building. Harry gave him five portkeys and command over 50 of the Knights as reinforcement. Not everyone at the ministry was forced or imperiused. For example, the toad-woman… he wanted her alive and secured for judgement.

As they entered the castle a heavily crying Hagrid stormed over grabbing his shoulders. Since not anyone can understand what a sobbing half-giant says with a pained voice here the translation. "I thought you were gone, and I could do nothing, I'm so happy you are alive. Nearly thought my time had come as well when Herbert grilled those bastards. You have to introduce me to him you know. But listen to me rambling on, go on Harry you should see the others." All the while a still small in comparison Harry mumbled "There there" into Hagrid's beard and tried to calm him down.

Had he not known what he was about to do Harry himself might have fallen to his knees and sobbed for the next week. The amount of dead and injured people gathered in the great hall was heart-breaking. Seeing the thouroghly exhausted Madam Pomfrey he waved her over to him.

"Is that you Mr. Potter, what…."

"I know, I know, questions later Poppy, first we have people to help, get a few helpers, I need you to gather the injured in circles around the middle of the hall. The more dire the injuries, the farther outside the circle. I'll project in over the ceiling enchantment so you know the approximate position they should be." With a snap of his fingers the flowers covering every body turned to red dust and floated upwards.

"If you are sure of course"

"Thank you, Poppy." He turned to the others. "Draco, I need you to get to the boathouse, Severus' body is still there, bring him here and put him in the outer circle. Neville, I don't know if what I have planned will work, but can you bring your parents here?" The words were barely out of his mouth, they stormed of.

"The rest of you please help Poppy and get the injured in position. Tori, Theo, I need you with me in the centre. Mione, Ron, organise the survivors, those uninjured should secure the castle. The ritual is going to attract the Dementors and I'll need them close, but held at bay so they can't de-soul anyone."

Walking to the middle of the hall he cast a swift Muffliato around their trio. "This might sound weird or creepy or both… buuut I'm now the Master of death, lowercase D, so I'm going to bring everybody back who hasn't passed on… and I…um..." over their heads circle after circle of runes formed from the red dust, lines intersecting to form a complex geometric shape.

"You want to share this power with us, because you want us to be equal" Theo bluntly stated the, to him, obvious, while Astoria couldn't decide if she should be amused over Theo or annoyed, that Harry still had problems to believe they were in it for the long run.

"We will help, Harry, for better or worse, you're stuck with us." Astoria finished with a soft kiss, followed by Theo doing the same, taking away his nervousness. "How do we do it?"

"I'll have to literally bleed a bit of the power into you, and you into each other, it'll bind us together a bit like a blood oath." He hurried through his explanation.

"Okay", Astoria agreed, while Theo simply nodded. He looked between them, a bit unbelieving, before shaking his head and accepting their resolve.

He conjured a dagger and slit both his palms with it before handing it over. They both did the same, clasping their hands with his and each other. Once the circle was closed, he directed his magic into them. Losing a bit of the darkness in his eyes and his hair dulling to be a bit greyer instead of pure white, the power pulsed through their hands. Theo's features turned darker, his hair taking on a black sheen, his brown eyes looking more like obsidian now. Astoria's on the other hand turned brighter, her ocean blue eyes now more like ice, her blond hair growing similar to Fleur's platinum colour. As one the three took a deep breath, locking their eyes filled with love and awe.

A cough disturbed their blissful silence. Tori lifted his silencing-bubble and they turned to a slightly flustered looking Madam Pomfrey.

"Whilst I'd like to congratulate you on your bonding, we have finished the preparations Mr. Potter."

"Thanks Poppy, since you're beyond exhausted please stand with the slightly injured in the innermost circle." She left them with a fond huff

Mentally dissolving 10 of his knights he used their amorphous mass to pick up the last of the enemy's corpses, integrating their bones and lifeforce and directing it into the centre of the floating circle.
Raising his voice, he shouted "Okay everyone, please close your eyes and don't be afraid. I'll chant a healing spell in parseltounge. You'll probably feel like a disillusionment charm has been cast, that awkward 'some cracked an egg on me'-feeling. If you feel any pain or discomfort, just remember these wise words: Don't panic!"

Thankful that absolutely no one would understand his parselmagic he held his hands out for Theo and Tori to take. "Just concentrate on balancing my power output so it stays in the grey". With their nods of affirmation, he began.

"Oh Spirits, hear my voice.
I come to you, to pay a price,
to raise you from perdition.
All life must end,
life's goal is death,
but yours was not the time.
Listen now, it is my choice.
I call to them, to pay the price.
the bringers of attrition.
All souls must bend,
give one last breath.
Let Death now flip the dime."

The circles light up, one after another, the white ball of energy pulsing larger and larger, cracks streaming black sand over the hall.

*I used: Ode to joy from Evangelion 3.0 to get in the mood for this last piece*

The Dementors stormed to the castle, wave after wave of them pushing against the feeble patronus-shields of the defenders. As the shields threatened to break, a multitude of black and white modes of light streamed out of the windows of the great hall like a comical swarm of hornets. They streaked towards the first of the dementors going through it as if it was wet paper. Dementor after Dementor was hit by the strange lights and soon after detonated in a flash of rainbow light joining more voices to the ever-increasing hum of this ethereal sight.

Once every Dementor was disintegrated the know gigantic cloud pushed its way back through the windows. The castle vibrated with power. With a last thunderclap the power reached a crescendo.

The light turned red and slowly abated.

Heavily breathing the trio wiped sweat of their brow and plopped themselves on the floor. In the outer circle the fingers of Remus Lupin twitched.

Harry grinned at his lovers. "You know… raising the dead is kind of another point making me…."

"YOU ARE NOT WIZARDING JESUS" they burst out laughing.