"Harry?"

Harry looked up from the book he was reading. "Hey Ron," he said, marking his place in the book and putting it down. Ron stepped the rest of the way into the room. He stood a few feet away from Harry and shuffled his feet nervously. "You want to go flying?" Harry offered. "You can fly the Firebolt," Harry said enticingly. He wanted to talk to Ron. The last thing he wanted was to lose his best friend.

"Sounds great," Ron agreed, smiling. Harry stood up and they walked out of the room together, an awkward silence filling the air around them. "Umm...Harry?" Ron began, slowing down a little bit.

"Yeah?" Harry said, looking at Ron expectantly, slowing to match Ron's new pace.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the other day," Ron said, hanging his head. "I shouldn't have said that about you and Ginny. You just have to understand that it was killing me all summer to watch her be miserable about you. I was so mad at you for making everyone in my family so upset." Ron stopped walking and looked at Harry.

"I do understand, and you have to understand that I love your sister, and I will never hurt her again," Harry said earnestly, stopping and turning to look Ron in the face. A smile broke out across his face. "Besides, it was funny listening to you. You sounded like a girl. 'Oh Harry, be a better person. Oh Harry, you're better than that icky Erik guy. Harry, I'm going to strangle you with my bare hands!'" Harry said in a high-pitched voice, mimicking Ron from their last conversation.

"Hey!" Ron said, his ears beginning to turn red. Ron punched Harry lightly on the shoulder and they starting walking again.

The two friends walked in amiable silence for a few minutes before Ron tentatively opened his mouth. He closed it, though, afraid to break the bond he and Harry seemed to have finally recreated.

"What is it Ron?" Harry asked, noticing his friend's hesitation.

"I was just wondering, what was The Battle like for you? I never got to talk about it with you."

"Oh," Harry said. That wasn't a question he had been looking forward to answering.

"You don't have to tell me," Ron said hastily.

"But I want to," Harry lied. "I had thought I was ready for The Battle. I had studied defensive and offensive spells; I had practiced dueling. I thought I'd be unstoppable. I knew Voldemort would be hard to defeat, I mean, how on earth do I use love in a war? But as for all those other Death Eaters, I could handle them. It wasn't until I saw my friends in the fray that I faltered. I saw you guys fighting for your lives. It was the most terrifying sight I had ever seen. You guys were still young, and you might die because of me. Then I saw Seamus actually die, quickly followed by Fleur. Fleur was a true part-veela until the end. It was ironic. I thought it was Voldemort all the Death Eaters were crowding around. But of course not, it was Fleur being a veela and attracting all the guys. Then some woman came over and killed her. Then I saw Charlie fall. I was so angry that so many people were dying. I couldn't handle it. Then I saw Voldemort, and I knew that he was causing all of this. If I got rid of him, my friends would stop dying. So I guess you could say love helped me win the war. I saw everyone I loved dying and getting hurt, and that angered me more than anything else could have. That rage gave me the drive and the determination to kill Voldemort no matter the cost. But after I killed him, the magnitude of the war fell on me. I couldn't stick around and see you guys suffer after I had done everything I could to end your suffering. I ran away, I didn't think I could look any of you in the eye and not remember everything I had put you through. I didn't mean to make everything worse by disappearing, I was trying to make it easier to forget." Harry stopped talking and looked at the floor.

Ron looked at his friend, speechless. How do you respond to something like that? He decided to ignore most of Harry's confession. "Well, you're back now, and that's all that matters," Ron assured Harry.

Harry smiled, breaking from his reverie, "And you're sounding like a sappy girl again."

"You're impossible," Ron said, laughing slightly.

The friends continued walking. "So you've apologized to Ginny?" Ron asked, offhandedly.

"More or less," Harry said vaguely.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked suspiciously.

"Well, I tried to apologize to her, but we wound up yelling at each other," Harry admitted. Ron sighed.

"I suppose you'll get around to it," Ron allowed. "Just don't take too long, Ginny will move on, even without my prompting," he warned.

"So how's everyone in your family doing these days?" Harry asked, changing subjects. He didn't like to think of Ginny moving on.

"Dad's enjoying a life of luxury as Mum does everything for him. The twins will be moving out in a week, a couple days after Dad goes back to work. Oh, and they sent a letter to Ginny about Erik. Apparently Angelina was the one to convince the twins that Erik had denounced the dark side. She feels really bad that she was wrong about her neighbor. They had been friends since they were born, and Angelina didn't think Erik capable of hurting anyone. And she told them to tell Ginny that Erik left the country a couple days ago."

"It's okay, he didn't hurt anyone after Charlie, and we're rid of him. Erik doesn't matter anymore. Tell me about Bill. How's he been the past couple of days? Has he found a girl yet?"

"No, he's still single. You should tell him about Fleur's last moments, I think he'd like to hear it," Ron suggested.

"I'll do that," Harry said. The friends walked into the entrance hall in silence.

"So how did you find out about Ginny and Erik?" Ron asked.

"Oh...I was under the invisibility cloak. I was going to say hi to her, but then I saw her with Erik. At first, I thought she could see me, and then Erik ran up to her. I didn't like him at all, and then I saw the scar on his neck, the scar that I had put there after he had killed Charlie. I couldn't believe that Ginny would dare hang out with a Death Eater, so I left."

"Yeah, her friends told me that Ginny was seeing him in the common room...I was...am very disappointed in her. Where did you get your invisibility cloak? You left it at school when you went to The Battle," Ron asked, trying to remember if Harry had taken it with him.

"Oh, Snape gave it to me," Harry said. He laughed when he saw the shock on Ron's face. "I was looking into the Mirror of Erised, and he found me. He took me to his office where he tried to convince me to come back to the real world, to you guys. But then this student came in, he shoved me into a closet and when I came out, my cloak was folded inside an envelope with a note that said it was my choice to do whatever I wanted." Harry smiled as he remembered what he had first heard when he walked out of Snape's office. "And you hit Hermione?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ron's ears turned red. "I was trying to convince her that you were never coming back."

"Shame on you Ron, hitting a lady!" Harry mock-scolded.

"So what did you see in the Mirror of Erised?" Ron asked, changing subjects. He wasn't exactly proud of hitting Hermione.

"Nothing, oddly enough."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron asked.

"Well, when I looked into the mirror, I just saw all these blurry shapes. I never thought the mirror could be confused. But I guess since I had killed Voldemort, I didn't have a heart's desire. I figured I had accomplished my task. I mean, I wanted to come back to you guys, but that was also the last thing I wanted to do. It was almost looking into a Foe Glass when there's a distant enemy," Harry said, at a loss for words.

"That's weird..." Ron said, thinking. "What do you think it would show you now?"

"That's a question only the mirror can answer."

"How come it didn't show you with your family again?" Ron asked, remembering Harry's last encounter with the mirror.

"I guess because I have a family now," Harry said, smiling at his friend.

"Oh Harry! You're making me blush!" Ron said, laughing as Harry shoved Ron lightly to the side.

The friends smiled and walked the rest of the way to the Quidditch pitch in silence. There were so many more questions they had for each other, but they could wait. No one would have guessed how many questions a few weeks apart could raise, but they were strenuous and hard weeks. For now, all the important questions had been answered.

Harry opened the broom shed and pulled out his Firebolt and a school broom. He handed the former to Ron and grabbed a quaffle as well. Harry didn't wait to enter the pitch before mounting his broom. Before Ron had a chance to mount his broom, Harry was zooming to the stands. However, the Firebolt's superior speed won in the end and Ron was the first one to the pitch. Harry and Ron passed the quaffle back and forth for a few minutes, trying more daring catches each time. Ron was reveling in the Firebolt's sensitivity and speed and was making far better catches than Harry who was having problems stopping from high speeds.

Ron laughed as Harry gently tossed the quaffle to Ron as he struggled to convince the school broom to sit still. Ron did a quick loop-to-loop before catching the red ball. He tossed the quaffle underhand at Harry's chest, but it fell to the ground and Ron chased after it. When he came back to Harry's altitude he looked at his friend oddly. It wasn't like Harry to not catch something. If he could catch a snitch while zooming past other people and dodging bludgers, he should be able to catch a gentle toss of a clumsy quaffle.

Harry was staring at the ground behind Ron. "Harry?" Ron asked trying to get Harry's attention. "Harry!" Ron said, waving his hand in front of Harry. "Look! It's Malfoy!" Ron said, zooming in circles around Harry. Ron sighed and looked to the ground. He smiled knowingly when he saw the red hair blowing in the wind. He had forgotten; Gryffindor had practice today. "I'll be going then," he told Harry. Harry gave no indication that he had heard Ron, let alone noticed Ron landing the broom.

Ron began to walk over to the Quidditch team. He saw Ginny looking into the sky, at Harry. Ron walked up to the younger teammates. "Um...I need to ask you guys some questions...in the...place," Ron told them.

"About what?" a girl with spiky hair asked defiantly.

"About the thing at the place," Ron said, unable to come up with a good excuse.

"The what?" a boy asked, folding his arms around his broom.

"You know! The thing at the place with the people," Ron said suggestively. The team looked at Ron like he was nuts. Ron thought about what he said and had to agree with them, he sounded nuts.

"Rashida wants me to ask you guys about a certain event that happened because she's worried about security because of this thing and these people," Ron said, trying to sound authoritative. He dimly noticed Ginny begin to slowly mount her broom. "Look, just come with me. It's urgent," Ron said impatiently. He broke through the small crowd, hurriedly walking into the changing rooms. The confused Quidditch team followed him, looking at each other questioningly.

Once inside the changing rooms, Ron turned to them. "Have a seat, I have to go get another security person. Rashida wanted at least two to make sure that no one skews what the students say," Ron said as he walked out of the changing rooms. The students looked at one another and shrugged.

Out on the Quidditch pitch, Harry and Ginny were closing the distance between them. They were locked in each other's gazes. The tension in the air made the rickety school broom quiver imperceptibly. Harry wanted to open his mouth and say something, but he was afraid that by breaking the thick silence, he'd break the moment where he and Ginny could be by each other without arguing.

Ginny looked at Harry and couldn't find anything to say. She opened her mouth to say something, but Harry's broom lurched and he fell a few feet. He pulled it up, level with her once again, smiling embarrassedly.

She reached over to him and traced her finger delicately down the last scar on his cheek. "The picture was amazing. Don't be sorry, handsome," Ginny said quietly. Harry's smile disappeared and for a moment Ginny was afraid she had said the wrong thing.

She gasped as she found herself wrapped in Harry's arms. He hugged her tightly as if he was never going to let go. Ginny didn't hesitate and hugged him back, gripping him even tighter than he was holding onto her. They controlled their brooms with their knees, keeping them close together.

"I love you," Harry whispered into Ginny's ear, through her red hair.

"About time you figured it out," Ginny said. Harry felt her laugh in his arms.

From the stands over looking the field, a corner of the boy's lips turned upwards. "Well, Harry, you aren't there yet, but you are well on your way to winning The Final Battle: she loves you," the red haired boy whispered to himself.

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