Chapter 2: The Aftermath
"I never really knew Lavender that well." Ginny looked over to the side of the room she knew Hermione was on. The only light coming into the room was moonlight from a thin line where the curtains didn't quite close all the way. It had been three days now. Three days of working quietly, and trying not to think too much about anything that would cause an emotional breakdown.
"She was a lot more serious this past year. Determined to be ready to fight." Ginny had to pause as a sob broke through, her voice trembling with emotion. "I think she knew about the battle ahead of time. In March she had a breakdown after a Divination class. We all thought she had just seen the castle being destroyed, but what if, what if she had seen her own death?" Her chest ached as she realized how silly she had thought Lavender was being at the time. How dismissive she had been. Why hadn't they taken her seriously? Why hadn't they realized that Divination wasn't just all codswallop?
Hermione spoke slowly. "If so, then she was certainly one of the bravest Gryffindors in the history of the house." Ginny nodded, and clutched her pillow. All of them had been so brave. So much more deserving of life than her. Why hadn't that spell hit her instead of Tonks? Didn't the universe know that Teddy needed his mum more than her family needed her?
She didn't know what to expect tomorrow. Every witch or wizard who had died fighting Voldermort was to be honored in a massive ceremony. The Daily Prophet had explained how after the official event, families and friends would take the bodies for more personal burial ceremonies. The official count was fifty-six dead. Four bodies had never been recovered, but after three days of searching, they were presumed deceased.
As sad as it all was though, none of that is what worried Ginny the most. What everyone was most tense about, was if there would be protests or riots. As soon as the official count of fifty-six came out, there was an outcry from friends and family that had lost someone not on the list to be honored. Her dad had gone into work yesterday, only to floo back home to report the Ministry was being flooded with complaints. Owls were bombarding Kingsley, arguing their loved one had been imperiused, had only been following orders from the Ministry, had switched sides last minute, or even been innocent bystanders.
"Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"You're going soon aren't you?" There was a stretch of silence. Honestly, Ginny didn't want her to leave. The more people she was surrounded by, the more manageable things seemed. Not having to sleep in her room alone was a major help. But she wasn't blind either. She had seen the signs of Hermione, Harry, and Ron itching to leave again.
"Not until after Fred's funeral. Don't tell your mum yet." Of course not. Her mum would have an absolute breakdown, hearing that the three of them were leaving again. Yet a small part of Ginny was jealous. Jealous that she wasn't fleeing as well, striking out on an adventure independent of her family. How freeing it would be to leave behind all the grief. Leave behind all of her responsibilities.
"Kingsley isn't going to like it. I'm pretty sure he wants your support to get the new Ministry up and running." She could imagine Hermione's wince, even if she couldn't see it. None of them wanted to be used for political purposes, particularly Harry. Ginny wouldn't be surprised if avoiding the Ministry wasn't one of the main reasons they wanted to go so quickly.
"Actually, the Ministry is sort of where we're headed. At least at first. We're planning to ask Kingsley for unlimited access to St. Mungo's research about Obliviation. We don't know what we'll find. It might take days or weeks to figure out before we're ready to head to Australia."
Ginny's brow furrowed in confusion. "But if you're just researching…why not stay here?"
The silence this time was quite long. So long that Ginny thought the other girl might have drifted off. "Hermione?"
"It's not that the Burrow isn't lovely. But after being on our own for so long…"
Ginny finished the sentence for her. "You're staying at Grimmuld Place instead." Of course they were. They wanted their own place where they didn't have to answer to anyone but themselves.
Ginny heard Hermione shifting in her bed, an uncomfortable tension hanging in the air. "So, who's the new beau?" Ginny's body stiffened. Given the lack of loud shouting from Ron about it, she knew Harry hadn't told his friends yet. Ginny hadn't said a word about it either. She knew Hermione was trying to turn the conversation to something light. Something they could giggle and bond over.
"Oh no, you're not putting the focus on me. Not when you and Ron are running circles around each other still. Wasn't the kiss supposed to have fixed that?" Alright, so maybe she was being a little bit of a coward. She would tell Hermione eventually, of course she would. After all, she had every intention of remaining with Draco.
"We are not! I mean, we just don't want to make things uncomfortable. Besides, it's good to take things slow."
"Slow or glacial?" Ginny relaxed as Hermione took the bait, and went into a defense of the importance of not jumping into anything too fast. Good naturedly, Ginny conceded that Hermione was likely right, and the night ended with her having avoided the inevitable confrontation that would happen when she confessed to being in love with Draco.
The next day was full of repressed emotion. She spent nearly an hour in her bedroom getting ready. Putting on the black dress robes took very little time. She wasted most of the time putting her hair into one style, only to comb it all out and start over again. Really, she was just avoiding everyone else. They were all wandering the house, too agitated to do anything other than wait for the clock to say quarter past ten.
When it was finally time, she went downstairs to see her mum's eyes were already red and her cheeks were already wet. She caught Ron and Hermione holding hands, and felt a thrill. The entire wizarding world of Britain was going to be there. This might be her chance to see Draco. To have him hold her hand. Even just the chance to talk to him sent anticipation swirling through her.
Arriving, Ginny and her dad were almost knocked over by a group of middle aged wizards who had apparated right behind them. One with a muggle top hat on and silver robes gave a deep bow, his elbow nearly smacking his companion in the face. "Apologies! Apologies! Here! Allow me to offer you some liquid compensation!" Ginny stared wide-eyed at the bottle of bubbling, golden liquid. Her father was quick to yank her away though, frowning as he led them to where the rest of their family could be seen in the crowd.
"Honestly! Drunk at ten in the morning! Gin, make sure to stay close, do you hear me?" Ginny nodded distractedly as she looked around in shock. The crowd was incredible. Never had she seen so many people all in one place. For every witch that was wailing in grief, there was one chatting excitedly to their nearest neighbor. For every solemn looking wizard, there was one singing or yelling in an inebriated state. For every child clinging to their parents' hands, there was one running or laughing through the crowd, absolutely delighted at what could be seen. Ginny had to make sure she wasn't hallucinating when she saw a shabby man producing a death eater mask from his robes and trying to auction it off.
Why were all these people here? It was obvious that some of them hadn't had a loved one die. In fact, for the first time, Ginny realized that a huge number of people had spent the last three days not grieving, but celebrating. Voldermort had been defeated. The death eaters had disbanded. Muggleborns were free. You didn't have to live in fear of being cursed. Of course people had been celebrating. Being at the Burrow had kept her in an insulated bubble of sorrow, and now that she saw it, she felt a bit foolish to not have realized that most of the world had been partying.
"This is absolutely mad! What the hell was Kingsley thinking, not making this a closed event?" Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron, as per usual, having been able to look beyond the immediate to see the underlying reasons. "People have been at war, Ronald. This was his best chance at getting everyone in one place at one time in a show of unity. Just look around you. There's Daphne Greengrass over there with her family. Even Mrs. Malfoy is here."
At that, Ginny's head shot up and around, honing in on where Hermione was looking. Ron grunted. "Fine. But we should at least have special seats or something." Harry said something after that, but Ginny didn't hear. She was much too preoccupied scanning the crowd, searching desperately for Draco's shockingly blonde hair. It was nowhere. Why wouldn't he be with his mother?
At some point, her mum had come over and was now close enough to whisper to her. "Go ahead and find him. I'm still not sure that I support this, but if he's who you need right now…" Ginny gave her mum a smile, and then hugged her tightly. "Thanks mum." And then she was off.
Weaving through the crowd was an exercise in concentration. She was briefly waylaid by Seamus who was there with his mum, searching for Dean who had come with Luna and her father. Yet her searches for Luna, Dean, and Draco were all fruitless. There were simply too many people.
As luck would have it, Mrs. Malfoy had yet to move, engrossed in some conversation with an obviously aristocratic woman who looked to be approaching her 100th birthday. Bracing herself, she approached the women with as much confidence as she could. "Excuse me, Mrs. Malfoy?" The conversation stopped, and both women turned around to stare at her with eyebrows raised. She couldn't help but be thankful that she had spent so much time making her hair look nice and that the black of her dress robes disguised the fact they were hand me downs.
"Would you happen to know where Draco is?" Mrs. Malfoy's expression tightened; her lips pursed together, and her eyes narrowed. Ginny waited her out, until Narcissia finally bit out an answer as it became obvious Ginny wasn't going to disappear. "He is with his father at the moment." Ginny continued to stare in confusion, until the very elderly friend ran out of patience.
"Oh for Merlin's sake! How thick are you? They're in Azkaban. Awaiting trial. Though with how many of them there are in there, wouldn't surprise me if their trial wasn't for a year yet."
For a moment, Ginny couldn't comprehend what had been said. And then the words sunk in. Ginny's heart twisted, and she fought to maintain control. She was not going to collapse to the ground. She was not going to lose it. He had told her this might happen. She should have expected it. At the witch's words, Mrs. Malfoy winced, and now that she was looking, Ginny could see that under her makeup, Mrs. Malfoy looked rather terrible. She looked tired and so very sad.
"I…" What could she say? That she was sorry? That she felt horrible? What were her feelings compared to those of Draco's mother? What right did she have to need comfort over this? "Oh." And then, not knowing what else to do, she fled. Plunging back into the crowd, she walked quickly, blinking rapidly and forcing herself to take deep breaths.
By the time she found her family again, she had gotten her emotions back under control. She saw her mum give her a questioning look, but thankfully, was saved from answering. Kingsley's voice boomed through the area, and all the guests were asked to take seats on the endless rows of benches that had been brought out to the field.
With help from a few silencing spells and other crowd control techniques, everyone eventually got seated and quiet as the Minister came onto the makeshift stage and began speaking.
"For as long as we have lived, there have been tensions amongst us. We have made assumptions about each other. Whether you are muggleborn, pureblood, werewolf, squib, you have had someone think ill of you for something you can't control. What we must learn is to focus instead on what we all have in common. Our love for our world is what will sustain us. We must learn to value each other, and understand that we all have a part to play. I am not asking for you to make friends with everyone sitting here today. What I am asking is basic respect for each other. Today we honor those who lost their lives, sacrificing themselves so we may have the opportunity to live without fear. Persecution of the type our muggleborns have endured shall never happen again to any of us. I ask for silence as I read the names and a brief description of the life they gave for us."
Given the sheer amount of names to be read, Kingsley did a wonderful job of going at a steady pace. Each person had a brief description, and then their name was inscribed into the large stone monument that had been erected. Once the ceremony was over, the monument would stay, and this field would be a place to visit for generations to come.
After the last name had been read, Kingsley stared at the crowd in silence, and people began to shift uncomfortably. Was that all? What would happen next? "Many of you would like me to stop here. After much discussion, thought, and consideration, there will be a second list at the bottom of this monument." Kingsley shot words out of his wand that hung in the air, black and ominous for all to read. To err is to be human. To all who were misled or used, may you find peace here.
Slowly, a roar overcame the crowd as people figured out what this meant. Aurors on standby were quick to react. Ginny watched as at least twenty people were petrified, causing screams and sobs to break out. And then a shuddering boom blasted through the field, and everyone found themselves staring at Minerva McGonagall. The protestors stilled as she stood firmly on the stage. Not only had a huge portion of the crowd had her as a professor during their time at Hogwarts, but her role in defending the castle during the Final Battle was well known.
"To those of you who are angry, to those of you who have suffered; be sorry for those who couldn't see the light. This does not justify their actions. This does not condone what they did. This is to remind ourselves that divided, we will fall. That in the end, there is no winning side in a war. Both sides will suffer, and both sides will be rife with needless death."
Ginny could tell there was still unrest in the audience. That there were plenty of people very unhappy with the Ministry's decision. But the combined presence of McGonagall and Kingsley was enough to keep order while the monument flashed, and a list of names was added to the bottom under the description Kingsley had shown. The names weren't said. The people weren't honored with descriptions of their lives. But they were carved into the stone, giving their grieving families an acknowledgement of their loss.
The silence lasted very briefly. Harry was looking around with a frown as shouting broke out, a wizard near them screaming "Blast that scum off!" Ginny watched Hermione grab Harry's arm, but didn't know what it meant. What Hermione was trying to get Harry to do. If they were speaking, Ginny couldn't hear them over the din. And then she lost sight of them as she fell to the floor, avoiding a purple jinx that was shot over her head. Scrambling for her own wand, she cast a deflection charm to combat a blue hex headed for George's back.
"Oi! You lot! Look up here!" Ginny's head whipped around in shock as she heard Ron's voice blasting through the air. How in Merlin's name? Hermione. Of course. Hermione had her wand out, obviously having just cast a Sonorus Maxima charm on her brother that was incredibly powerful. The three of them had managed to get up on the stage and now had the whole wizarding world staring at them.
She saw Hermione cast another charm, this time on Harry, and his voice reverberated through the crowd. "There's been a lot said about me over the years. There's a lot of you out there eager to call me a hero. But the truth is I am only one of many heroes. Most of the heroes of this war toiled without praise or recognition for years. Decades even. Many of you think Severus Snape isn't deserving of his name being remembered, much less honored, but he had one of the hardest and most difficult roles in bringing down Voldermort. Most of you hear Sirius Black and think murderer and traitor, but in fact he was the closest thing to a father I ever had and a hero who suffered in Azkaban for over a decade needlessly. Regulus Black has long been known as a death eater from the first war, but the truth is he lost his life trying to kill Voldermort. You might think you know a person. Know if they were good or evil, but the truth is you don't. No one knows what went through the minds of those who are now dead. There might be horrible people on that list that deserve all your scorn. But there's also heroes on that list, whether you want to believe it or not. And anyone who is thinking about defiling this monument is spitting in the face of countless, unknown sacrifices these people made for you."
It was a powerful speech. A heart felt speech. And it took all of thirty seconds after its end for the crowd to start booing. Fights broke out once again, screams and hexes flying through the air, chaos rampant. She saw Harry throw up a shield charm against an unknown attacker, his eyes wide with panic. She saw an Auror blast a wizard who was running for the monument into a tree. She heard Kingsley desperately trying to call for order. And then she was being grabbed by Percy, who wasted no time in apparating her back home. She had just managed to regain her balance when she saw Percy pop away again, leaving her all alone.
For the first time, it dawned on her how unstable things were. Voldermort dying had always been the end goal. The ultimate victory. But he was dead now, and the world was still not at peace. She felt angry indignation take over. Where did those people get off? Judging those who had actually had to contend with Voldermort. They didn't know what he was like. How manipulative and terrifying he was. If Voldermort had been threatening their family, they would have folded as easily as paper. Luna's father had been one of the bravest people in all of wizarding Great Britain for months, publishing support for Harry while the Ministry labelled Harry a criminal. And even he had eventually buckled under Voldermort, willing to turn Harry, Ron, and Hermione in for the safe return of Luna.
Almost none of the people in that crowd had been at the Battle of Hogwarts. Almost none of them had been forced to decide between what was easy and what was right. Voldermort had simply ignored them and they had continued living their lives, turning a blind eye to the increasingly horrible Ministry decrees. She wanted to scream. To apparate right back into that crowd and blast anyone who had dared to boo Harry's speech. Being underage was utter shite.
It was nearly an hour later when her family all returned. The left side of her father's face was swollen like a balloon and Ron had dried blood smeared all around his nose. Still upset at having been left out of the fight, Ginny honed in on her brother and snipped at him. "Forgot you're a wizard then?" Ron's face immediately reddened. "The bastard had it coming to him!" Harry looked over with a small smile tugging at his lips. "To be fair, you had just accused him of licking some toad's boots for his shiny Ministry badge."
Ron puffed out his chest. "It's true! Anyone wearing a badge declaring them Deputy of Transportation had to have been a bootlicker. No way the death eaters ignored a department as big as that." Hermione's lips pursed. "Or he had been subject to the imperius curse and was just now free of it. In which case, you completely deserved that broken nose." Ron stood there gaping at her, and Ginny turned her attention towards her parents. No doubt Ron and Hermione were on the verge of another heated "conversation". They refused to call them fights.
"So how did it finally end?" Her mum was the one who answered, her dad's face half obscured by a frozen package of beef. "It was unbelievable! Grown wizards and witches acting like children! In the end the Aurors arrested nearly two dozen. I can't imagine what they were thinking! There's been enough fighting for a lifetime already."
As it turned out, Kingsley was in full agreement with her mother. Just two days later, those detained at the memorial service were released, and an edict was sent out that any acts of personal revenge would hereby be treated as criminal assaults. Additionally, any acts of vandalism regarding the resting place of any witch or wizard would be subject to a heavy fine and a short stint in Azkaban. Even so, there was a pair of Aurors stationed at the Memorial Stone as a precaution, and the families of fallen death eaters were delaying their funerals out of fear of attacks.
Fred's burial service had been just as difficult as Ginny feared. Her mum had been an absolute mess, and George only made it through half of his speech, before choking up too badly to continue. In an effort to do his memory justice, Ginny convinced Ron to help her set off a whole box of Wild-Fire Whiz-Bangs at the end, reminding everyone of the spectacular fireworks display that had infuriated Umbridge two years ago. It had been a risky move, and Ginny half expected to get yelled at for it by her mum. But much to her surprise, the fireworks had made everyone smile, even George.
The real showdown of the night came after dinner, when her mum discovered the empty laundry basket. Hermione had quickly admitted to doing the laundry, claiming that she thought it would be a nice way to help out, but her mum hadn't bought it. Her mother immediately started an interrogation that ended with Ron yelling about how this is why they were leaving, that he couldn't be smothered like this anymore. It came out that the clothes had all been packed already, the three of them planning to head out tomorrow, and chaos had ensued.
Ginny wasted no time in darting out of the door and heading for the broom shed. It wasn't until she was high in the air, darting through tree branches, that she allowed herself to think. No matter what her mum said tonight, she knew that come tomorrow, the three of them would be gone. It had only been a week since the Battle of Hogwarts, but it already felt like a lifetime ago. Pretty soon the funerals would all be over with, and everyone would be expected to move on with their lives. Including her. She knew that she was capable of being independent. Of living her life on her own. But she also knew that she didn't want to. She wanted Draco. And as selfish as it was, she didn't care who he had hurt. What laws he had broken. She just wanted him free.