Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I am not making any money off of writing this story.

Chapter Two

Good News and Bad Memories

"The Headmistress is expecting you, you may go up," the stone gargoyle replied to Harry when he asked if they could get into her office. It slid aside and the four of them walked into the stairway, they walked a short distance and came to a door. Harry gave four short knocks, and waited.

"You may enter," said Professor McGonagall from inside.

Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione came inside and saw McGonagall flick her wand towards the window and send a small bright tabby cat flying out of the grounds. They sat down in the four chairs that were placed in front of the Headmistresses desk. Harry noticed that she cleaned up and organized it since the night before. The pensieve was off of the desk, and all of Snape's possessions were gone. Harry also saw that Dumbledore was awake, and gave him a quick smile as Professor McGonagall began to speak.

"I was starting to think you weren't ever going to wake up Potter. But now that you're here we can finally talk. There is just one thing I need to speak to Ms. Weasley and Ms. Granger about before you begin telling me what you have been up to this past year. But before I do that we must wait a minute, because Kingsley has some things he needs to talk about with you." Professor McGonagall said which put a look of surprise and eagerness on all four of their faces.

"Do you know what he want's Professor?" said Harry hoping for a hint.

"No Potter, I don't. While we are waiting could one of you tell me if you are staying here tonight?" McGonagall inquired.

Harry, Ginny and Hermione quickly realized they had no idea. Ron didn't tell them what Mrs. Weasley had said because he saw Harry and Ginny holding hands. They all looked at Ron, waiting for him to speak.

"We're going to stay here for the night Professor. But we have to leave tomorrow because my mother wants the whole family there to decide when Fred's funeral is going to take place." Ron answered.

"Yes, thank you Weasley. I do remember Molly telling me about that." McGonagall said.

Then there were two sudden knocks on the door. The sound was so loud Harry already had his wand drawn and was on his feet by the time he realized what had happened. He sat back down quickly, his ears turning a deep shade of red.

"Still a bit on edge I see Potter. You can come in, Kingsley." McGonagall said towards the door.

Sure enough, the door opened and Kingsley Shacklebolt walked in. He was wearing long gray robes, as Harry thought back he could only remember seeing Kingsley wearing muggle clothing. Kingsley walked to the side of the desk and began to speak.

"Thank you for giving me the chance to see them so soon Minerva. But I must be quick talking to you all tonight, for I have a busy night ahead of me. The decision has been passed down to make me permanent Minister for Magic." Kingsley said in his slow, deep voice.

"That's great Kingsley!" Harry said excitedly.

"Congratulations!" said Ginny and Hermione together.

"It's about time someone who knows what they're doing got it!" said Ron.

"Thank you for your support," said Kingsley with a smile "But we must move on. First I would like to say that the three of you will be receiving Order's of Merlin. Ron and Hermione second class, and Harry first class."

They all looked at each other, mouths gaping. Not able to say anything they were so in shock.

"Congratulations you three!" said Ginny finally. Her voice sounding purely astonished.

"That is a great honor, but you deserve nothing less." McGonagall said with a huge smile.

"Minerva has also informed me you will also be receiving an award for Services to the School. There will be a night where you have to accept these in public. There will be a formal acceptance event hosted by the ministry, where you all will be introduced to very important people within the ministry. Ron, do you have an account at gringotts?" Kingsley suddenly asked.

"No, I don't have a personal one. I've never had enough money to start one," Ron said as his ears went a slight shade of red.

"Well you're going to need to get one, because you wont have that problem for long," laughed Kingsley "With a second class Order of Merlin you're awarded Fifty Thousand Galleons. Harry, you're going to be awarded One Hundred Thousand Galleons."

They all stared at Kingsley in disbelief. Ron actually slipped off of his chair and fell on the ground, but no one was paying enough attention to care.

"I think I'm going to faint…" Ron said uncertainly to general laughter.

"Now, on a more serious note. All three of you have been offered jobs within Magical Law Enforcement as Aurors. You will still have to go through training, but it will only be a year instead of three. On top of that, because most of the school will need re-building the ministry is prepared to put in the money to make a tower just for Auror training. You three will be the only ones in this, if it goes well we will keep it here for following years. What do you say?" Kingsley finished.

Harry and Ron looked at each other with pure disbelief. This is what they both wanted so badly since their fourth year and now they could have it. They both agreed at once. Hermione on the other hand took a minute to think about it, but eventually refused.

"I want to return next year and get all my N.E.W.T's, then maybe I'll consider it. Although honestly, I've never had a very strong ambition to be an Auror."

"Alright, well after you're done your N.E.W.T's next year contact me. It won't be hard for you to get a job at the ministry with a recommendation from the Minister for Magic. Alas, Harry and Ron I will set up a meeting with you, Professor McGonagall and Gawain Robards, who is now the Head of the Auror Office. Say on the sixth?" asked Kingsley

"Honestly Kingsley, we haven't known what the day it was since Christmas, what's the date today?" Harry said realizing how foolish he sounded.

"It's the third of May, Potter. Today is Tuesday by the way." McGonagall said.

"Well then I think a meeting on Friday would be fine, just send us an owl with the time and place. Thank you for everything Kingsley, we really appreciate it." Harry said.

"It is nothing compared to what you three have done for the wizarding world, and for that, I thank you." Kingsley replied. "But I must get going, thank you for meeting with me and I'll be in touch."

"Well, congratulations you three. I'll give you a minute to take in what just happened, for it will be something you will always remember. Now Ginny I asked you to come with them because I was unsure weather Ms. Granger would accept Kingsley's offer. Now that she didn't I would like to inform her she will be Head Girl next year, and you will take her place as Prefect. Also, you will be taking Mr. Potter's place as Quidditch Captain. Harry you can't play because Auror training isn't technically part of the school, it's just on Hogwarts grounds. You would've been Head Boy if you refused this offer Potter. Ms. Weasley, you will be the first Prefect and Quidditch captain for a long time." McGonagall concluded.

"Well done, both of you!" Harry said happily still trying to comprehend that he was going to be an Auror.

"Yeah, that's great. Mum's going to be so happy Ginny!" said Ron with a smile.

Hermione and Ginny looked at each other and shared an excited giggle. Then Ginny looked back at Professor McGonagall and spoke for one of the first times since being in her office.

"Thank you very much Professor. But I would really like to hear about this lot's past year, I've been waiting for almost a day now."

"Yes, I to would like to finally hear this story if you don't mind." McGonagall agreed.

"Well firstly you should know that what we were doing was looking for Horcruxes." Harry started to say.

A look of mingled shock and horror came across McGonagall's face. Ginny just looked around at all of them confused. Then when she noticed Professor McGonagall's expression she finally asked.

"What's a Horcrux?"

"A Horcrux is a piece of a soul that has been ripped from you body and put into an object," said Hermione immediately. "It traps the soul in that object so the soul is dependent on it. If the object is broken beyond magical repair then it kills the part of the soul that was in it. But if you kill the person before the Horcrux, they will still be somewhat alive, they just wont have a soul in their body. That's how Voldemort lived when his killing curse rebounded at Harry when he was a baby."

Ginny looked horrified. Harry took that to mean he could go on.

"Well Voldemort had 6 of them, the seventh part of his soul was inside himself. We had to find them all and destroy them so we could kill him. During my sixth year Dumbledore told me what he thought they were and taught me a lot about Voldemort so I would understand him. I had already destroyed one Horcrux without even knowing it, and Dumbledore destroyed another so we had four to find." Harry said.

Harry, Ron and Hermione then began to re-tell their story from the time they left the wedding. They started with telling them about how the two Death Eaters followed them to Tottenham Court Road, then told them about going to Grimmauld Place and breaking into the Ministry. Then when they came to the part where Ron left them, Ginny began to yell.

"RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU LEAVE THEM WHEN THEY NEEDED YOU LIKE THAT!"

"Ginny, please let us finish the story." Ron said as he pushed his chair a little further back.

Ron explained how he stayed with Bill and Fleur over Christmas and how the Deluminator lead him back to them. Harry then recounted about their trip to Godric's Hollow and about the Silver Doe and Ron saving his life to get Gryffindor's sword. Ginny seemed to ease up towards him after this. Hermione took over when they began to tell the story of going to Luna's house and the Deathly Hallows. It took a while for her to explain where Beetle the Bard's story was different from the Hallows story, but they continued on.

"So Harry you thought You-Know-Who wanted the Elder Wand?" Ginny asked.

"Yes Gin, just listen to the rest of the story and it will make sense." Harry replied.

Then Ron told them of when Harry broke the Taboo and they were send to Malfoy Manor. How Dobby gave his life when he came and rescued them, taking them back to Bill and Fleur's. Also explaining why Harry thought they needed to go to the Lestrange's vault because of how Bellatrix reacted to the sword. Harry then took over telling about how they broke into Gringotts, got the Horcrux and escaped on a dragon.

"Wow," said Ginny who looked thoroughly impressed "I guess I owe Neville an apology."

Hermione then told about how they Disapparated into Hogsmeade High Street and Aberforth saved them, and that he was the one who sent Dobby. Then they went through his secret passageway into Hogwarts. About how her and Ron went into the chamber of secrets to get a basilisk fang to destroy the Horcrux they got from the Lestrange's vault.

"Ron you spoke parslemouth?" asked Ginny with a surprised look on her face.

"I heard Harry do it to the locket and I just tried to imitate that. I was just as surprised as you are now when it actually worked." Ron said.

"Anyway," said Harry who was getting increasingly tired. "We had four Horcruxes down, the diary, the ring, the locket and the cup and two to go. Then I went looking for Ravenclaw's diadem."

He told them about how he spoke to Rowena Ravenclaw and how she stole it from her mother. Then he realized how he saw it in the Room of Requirement and went to get it when they ran into Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Then recounted upon how Goyle's own Fiendfyre ended up killing him and they made it out on brooms with the Horcrux. Ron took over in saying how they went into the Shrieking Shack and found Snape and Voldemort, then watched Snape get murdered.

"Snape was bleeding really badly. But when I came out after Voldemort left he looked at me and memories came out of every hole. I put them in a flask Hermione conjured and came back to the pensieve to look at them. This is when Voldemort had called all the Death Eaters back and gave me and hour to go to him." Harry said as he looked at his watch, it was now 12:15 am.

"Well, what did you see?" asked Professor McGonagall who had been quiet the rest of the night.

"He's innocent Professor. He and Professor Dumbledore arranged for him to kill him, his time was limited anyway because of the curse on his hand. If you ask Professor Dumbledore how to call up memories from the Pensieve you can watch it yourself. But even after his death Dumbledore was giving Snape instructions." Harry said and McGonagall smiled.

"That's wonderful news. I'll try my best to clear Severus' name." McGonagall said directed towards Dumbledore's portrait that responded.

"Thank you Minerva. Severus was the bravest man I ever knew, and deserves to have a portrait right beside me."

"Alright Harry, what happened then?" said Ginny impatiently.

Harry then told them, to gasps of shock, that he was a Horcrux and he needed to die. So he walked out into the forest to give his life for Voldemort's defeat when he realized how to open the snitch. The Resurrection Stone was in it and he saw everyone who had died that was important to him, then he let Voldemort kill him but was brought back. His mothers sacrifice was in Voldemort because he took Harry's blood. So while Voldemort was alive Harry couldn't die.

"Then you both know the rest, I acted like I was dead and pulled the invisibility cloak over me when Neville killed Nagini, who was the last Horcrux. I made my way into the battle, and he died by his own rebounded killing curse."

"Thank you all for telling me all of that. It couldn't have been easy to relive all of those bad memories and I really appreciate it. Although it's May I can't see classes resuming before summer. The school will re-open next September as usual. We will take your previous term mark in all subjects to pass you through to O.W.L or N.E.W.T courses. So Ginny, you should be fine with anything you want to take next year. Alright, it is late and I'm sure you're all very tired. I'll see you on Friday, Potter and Weasley. Goodnight." McGonagall concluded as the four students got out of their chairs.

They made their way back to Gryffindor tower, when they got there Ron and Hermione went to bed immediately. Harry stayed up for a while with Ginny answering her questions. When she was fully satisfied with everything, they shared one last kiss and went into their separate dormitories.

"Wake up mate, we've got to be home by 12." Ron said to Harry as he woke him up the next morning.

Harry rolled out of bed and went and took a shower. By the time he came back out Ron had already gone down to meet the girls. Harry quickly got dressed, grabbed anything he had brought there and hurried down the stairs looking at his watch, which read 11:52.

"Morning everyone," said Harry as he walked across the room and gave Ginny a kiss. "All ready to go?"

"Yeah, we were just talking about how we were going to tell the family we've been given our Order of Merlin's. Not to mention fifty thousand galleons. Blimey, that's a lot of money." Ron said as though he just realized what you could do with that much money.

"Well I think we should let Ginny and Hermione tell them they got Prefect, Quidditch Captain and Head Girl first. Being given two hundred thousand galleons between the three of us is pretty big news. Let's let the girls tell them right when we get there then we'll tell everyone at dinner tonight." Harry said thinking that Ginny's very big accomplishment shouldn't be overshadowed to fast.

"That settles that then, we should get going though. Don't want mum to get all worried." Ginny said and everyone agreed.

Since Ginny's Apparition test was in a month, although having successfully Disaparated already, she had to go side-along with Harry. She gripped his arm tightly and they both turned on spot into darkness. The usual feeling of being shoved into a tight rubber tube engulfed them, and they re-materialized in the front yard of The Burrow. Ginny, who was not nearly as used to this feeling as Harry, and had never Disapparated more than 5 feet was heaving for breath.

"It takes a bit of getting used to, Apparition. Don't worry, you'll get use to it." Harry said reasonably.

"I definitely prefer flying," Ginny responded after she caught her breath.

A loud crack came right behind them, making the both jump a little although they were both expecting it.

"Hermione almost forgot her bag, and since that has about everything we own in it I thought we should go get it before turning up here." Ron said and Harry quietly laughed.

They walked up to the front door and Ron knocked. Ginny went to take Harry's hand and Harry realized her family didn't know about them yet. But Harry took it, because like she said, there was no point in hiding it from the Weasley's. The door opened and Harry barely had a second before Molly Weasley had thrown herself into a huge hug with him.

"Harry dear, I'm so glad to see that you're alright. Although you definitely do look like you haven't been eating very much, but I assume being on the run from You-Know-Who for almost a year will do that to you." She said as she finally let him go.

She had already seen all the others since their return, this is why his welcome was so much warmer then everyone else's Harry thought.

"Alright everyone, come in. All the boys are sitting around the table eating lunch. Have any of you ate yet?" Mrs. Weasley said looking concerned at Harry.

Ron's stomach conveniently rumbled very loudly, answering her question. They came into the house and Harry noticed that it had returned to its usual clutter in the year they had been away from it. He had missed being here, although he just realized it. This was his home away from home, his home being Hogwarts rather then the Dursley's obviously. They took off their shoes and walked into the kitchen, where Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy and George were all huddled around the table. Mr. Weasley got out of his chair and gave them all hugs, he hadn't properly talked with the three of them for almost a year now.

"It's so nice to be able to have you three back in the house." Mr. Weasley said. "Come and sit down. We've already figured out all the details of Fred's funeral. Now we're just picking a date. We were thinking the Saturday after next?"

"That should be fine Mr. Weasley," said Harry. "If anything comes up I'll be sure to re-schedule it."

"Yeah Dad, that's fine with me." Ron said.

"Well that settles that then. We'd like you all to stick around for a couple of days though, we haven't seen you in so long we want to spend some time with you." Mr. Weasley said as he ruffled Ron's hair.

"That sounds good Dad. But Hermione and I have some news." Ginny started to say as her whole family looked up at her. "Professor McGonagall told me last night that next year I will be both Quidditch Captain, and Prefect."

"And I'll be made Head Girl!" said Hermione excitedly.

"Congratulations you two! That makes five prefects in our family Arthur!" Molly said as she ran into a hug with Ginny. "And Head Girl Hermione, very well done!"

The whole family shouted their congratulations as the two girls beamed.

"Well Ginny, what do you want?" inquired Mrs. Weasley. "Ron got a broom, Percy got an owl, what do you want?"

"I'm not sure, I won't decide just yet. I'll wait a couple weeks and think about it." Ginny said, although Harry was sure she would also ask for a broom.

"Well we'll have to have a dinner for you two tonight. Just the family though, I'm sure everyone has things to deal with at the moment." Mrs. Weasley said with a little to much understanding in her voice.

They spent the day sitting around the house, just catching up with the various members of the Weasley's family. Harry and Ron played a few games of wizarding chess, while Ginny was explaining how to play Exploding Snap to Hermione. For the first time in his life Harry could sit around and just have fun with his friends. He didn't have to worry about anything to do with Voldemort or Horcruxes. It was the best, and most care free feeling in the world. By about 6:30, Mrs. Weasley had a huge dinner ready for them on the table. Harry and Ron ate plate after plate, until they felt like they were going to burst. They couldn't even eat the desert that was put in front of them. Ron said it was one of the hardest things he's ever done.

After everyone was finished eating, Harry took his fork and lightly tapped his glass three times. He stood up and everyone fell silent, listening intently.

"I just wanted to say congratulations again to Ginny and Hermione. They both deserve what they have given, and it just shows that hard work does pay off. I'd also like to thank Mrs. Weasley for this amazing dinner, but Ron and I have another announcement of our own." Harry said as Ron stood up and all the eyes in the room shifted to him.

"Last night, when the four of us were talking to McGonagall, Kingsley came and said he had been made temporary Minister for Magic. He also offered Harry and I job's as Aurors. We're starting our training next year at Hogwarts!" Ron said with a look of pure jubilation on his face.

"Ron, Harry that's amazing!" Mr. Weasley said enthusiastically.

"I'm so proud of you boys, and of you girls as well." Mrs. Weasley said through a watery smile.

"That's not all," Hermione said. "Kingsley also told us that Harry, Ron and I are all receiving awards for Special Services to Hogwarts."

"And to top it off, they're giving each of us an Order of Merlin." Harry said to a look of general astonishment among the Weasley's. "Mine is First Class and both of theirs is Second Class."

"Just in case you didn't know," Ron began with a note of smugness in his voice. "With an Order of Merlin Second Class, you get a reward of fifty thousand Galleons. With First Class it's one hundred thousand."

There was a long pause filled with complete silence, bulged eyes and dropped jaws. Then Mrs. Weasley fainted.