Old Comrades Gather – Su Li Part 2…

"You came, I see" the old woman rose from the bench by the gates as the even more older looking and haggard man came – dressed in an old style cloak that looked out of place and wearing a suit that was over a tie of faded red and gold.

"You're not so tall as I remember" he grunted and then looked down at her chest. "Nor as big as I recall"

"It's good to see you" the woman replied with a hug.

"And you" the man said back, allowing a small smile to grace his face.

"Please" the woman gestured as she let go of him. "This way"

"I'm glad you found me. But today was, in fact, not very convenient" he added as they walked through the grounds towards the large castle.

"No, no, it had to be today" the woman replied. The man looked at her with a puzzled expression as he saw a mass of figures around the same age as himself and the woman gathered around multiple graves and a slab of solid marble. "Your 'army', Harry… It was 107 years ago today"

"Has it been that long, Susan?" and Susan Bones watched as the group of people turned one by one to see Harry Potter for the first time in a long while. After the fighting was over, Harry had retired quietly to his newly repaired family home and then stayed out of the public eye except for a few times a month when he would be seen in Diagon Alley – ignoring everyone that talked to him. Some thought he was dead, some thought he was forever silenced and some thought that his heart was broken long ago by a potential love taken from him. The huddled mass came close to him as if not believing that he was really amongst them but they parted eventually to allow him and Susan Bones to stand before the enchanted granite headstones of multiple graves.

"After the fighting was over and peace came back, you should know that for their courage I nominated every one that died here for the Order of Merlin 1st Class. But the committee ruled that because it was not wartime, because it was merely an incident without foreign based enemies, they were not worthy of the title and award. Some months later, I discovered that Kingsley Shaklebolt awarded 1st Class medals to those that had not only hid but were all Purebloods – going against everything that we bled and died for. What good are honours from such people? These people sacrificed themselves not for a medal, but because, when the time came, it was their duty. Not to the Ministry. Or to the School. But to us – their families, their friends and classmates" Harry shook his head and allowed the old feelings of anger and hate to fill him again. "I have been told that the Ministry wants to turn Hogwarts into a museum and so will remove the graves to some place they think best"

"So we do we do?" asked a slightly frail Dean Thomas.

"Stop them – as simple as that. Our friends, those that were not claimed by their families for Family Plots, deserve to rest here in the grounds of Hogwarts… Where they fell in battle"

"The Ministry is not going to like that" Susan said.

"The Ministry never likes what I do, Susan" Harry shook his head at the thought of everything he had sacrificed for being taken away. He looked at the others stood around and regarded them all with thought. Dean had lost Seamus after a homophobic attack, Cho had been lost the majority of her family in a racist attack that the Ministry deemed not important enough to deeply investigate, Flora Carrow had lost her sister, Luna had been put in St Mungos for many years as a psychotic patient and had only been rescued when Harry had stormed through the doors and took her away, Lavender had lost almost her entire life because of the mere suspicion of her being a werewolf, the Patil twins had been taken from their homes and forcefully sold off as concubines until a wrathful Harry and Lavender had torn up much of northern India in a rescue operation that still sent shivers down spines when talked about and, perhaps most sadly, Harry himself who had not only lost his family as well as friends and classmates, but lost the one girl that he thought he could have had a life with because she took her own life rather than live with being dishonoured by Draco Malfoy. He ended up vanishing soon after all the fighting was over, but the pair had met for a final time that only one other had witnessed. He'd toured the world a bit with Hermione but, after that, he'd taken care of business until the infighting got too much for him and all he did was show up and silently judge all that happened with disgust.

"Cosmic thoughts?" joked Hannah.

"Hmm?" Harry shook his mind away from his thoughts and realised that he had been looking at the list of everyone that had died during Voldemort's reign of terror and as a result of it – the total ran into the thousands. "In a way… I was thinking how life could have been with Su – there was something that connected us in a way that is hard to explain"

"There's no need" Dean shook his head with a sad smile, "I think we all know. Harry, it might take the last of my strength but I have a wand and it is yours to command… Whatever is decided here shall be my destiny"

"And mine" said Susan.

"Where my wife goes, I must come too" Hannah added.

"I thought you did that even with this" Harry raised a bemused eyebrow. "There might be a way to stop this from ever happening, but it means breaking almost every law in the book"

"What do you mean?" Padma Patil had, until then, been exceptionally quiet.

"Dommo waitus westol notibilium"

"Master of the uncertain past" Padma translated after a moment of thought. "Wait, you want to go into the past?"

"I have spent the majority of this time researching everything I can think of and there is just one chance at doing this. Through a number of rituals we create a portal through which to send ourselves to the past and put right what should never have happened. The twins would never have been raped, Lavender would be able to do her modelling, Seamus would still be with us, Su…" Harry took a deep and steadying breath, "Su would still be with us. Magic has taken so much from us that now it is time for it to pay us back…"

"You got room for one more? I once promised that I would never desert you, but I did… Allow me to make it up to you"

"Late as always, Ron?"