The Great Hall was as Harry had never seen it before. Hundreds upon hundreds of small tables were lined up and down the Hall, almost in picnic bench fashion. No large, long house tables as there would normally be, for every student to be involved and together, but instead, it seemed the tables were meant for families to have their own space and privacy if they so desired, albeit, some had joined their tables together to easier engage in conversation. The Hall itself still showed signs of the battle, but had obviously been partially restored as one of the walls Harry had seen destroyed with his own eyes during the battle, was now fully upright again and a few of the teachers seemed to be admiring each others work.

By the time Harry had taken all of this in, he and Ron were now past the second row of tables and Harry had just laid eyes on the table Ron, his family and friends were at. A jolt of excitement shot through him at the sight of a few of his favourite people in the world, there was Mrs Weasley at the top right of the table, who seemed to be trying to talk to everyone at the table at the same time, whilst on her immediate left was Ginny, followed by Hermione, then Fluer. Opposite Fluer sat Bill, Charlie and then George Weasley. Everyone, with the exception of Mrs Weasley looked to be extremely quiet and Harry surmised, with a pang of real emotion, that this was just her way of dealing with the loss of her Son - keep busy and dote on all of her other children.

They were now nearly past the third row of tables and only had seconds to go until they reached their table. Harry couldn't quite believe their luck that they'd made it this far unnoticed and was about to make a quick dash to the vacant space at George's left hand side, when all of a sudden...

'It's Harry, Harry Potter!'

The voice was high, loud and excited and as Harry located the source of the outburst, a small Hufflepuff first year girl, who had literally stood on her seat to point, about four tables to his right, he was rooted to the spot.

He expected the whispering and pointing to start straight away, but still hadn't regained the use of his legs to walk those last few precious steps towards his table when something else happened. Something worse than any amount of whispering or pointing in his opinion - the family of the young girl who had called out had risen to their feet and began applauding Harry's arrival. To make matters worse, for Harry at least, pretty much every table in the Great Hall had almost immediately joined in, the Great Hall was soon full of cheers and applause, for him, and all he had in response was an expression of sheer disbelief, still frozen in the same spot he had been moments before.

'C'mon, move mate, you look like you've been petrified.' He barely registered Ron's words mumbled in his ear, but didn't resist when his friend began to steer him the last few paces toward their table, infact, he barely noticed they were moving at all, and continued to nod blankly at the Witches and Wizards who were grabbing his hands as they passed the last couple of tables. And before he knew what was happening ...

'Oh, Harry!' Mrs Weasley had pulled him into a rib cracking hug as soon as he'd got close enough for her to reach him, 'I'm so glad your here dear, we've all been worried sick with you being out so long.' She pulled away from him and held him at arms length to examine him - 'You're thin dear, when did you last have a good meal? Lets get you some breakfast organised, get comfortable and I'll be right back, just a quick word with Minerva and she'll have something right up for us.'

Harry didn't have a response fitting enough for the rush of gratitude he felt toward Ron's mother at this point, so simply nodded and smiled as she hurried off toward the staff table, shrugging off questions from other tables as she went.

Hermoine was already throwing herself towards him as he turned back round to face their table and he had to adjust quickly to get his arms out of her way. Her expression was an odd mix of sheer delight and utter devastation, but she was obviously thrilled to see him, 'Harry, it's great to have you back with us. I'm sorry -' she brushed a tear quickly from her eye, 'I've never experienced such conflicting emotions ... I'm so happy about Ron and I, and of course I'm delighted that Voldemort has finally gone, but what it's cost us all, it's terrible...'

'I know, but just try and focus on the good to come out of this, I'm sure you and Ron will be very happy together,' he said this with a smile and a wink at Ron over Hermoine's shoulder and all of a sudden Ron looked very pleased with himself. Harry didn't think that now was a good time to mention that, what with everything else that had happened, he had completely forgotten about Ron and Hermoine's little moment right in the middle of the Battle of Hogwarts - suddenly though, he understood Ron's little joke about timing from earlier a lot more and made a mental note to tell Ron that this had been one of his better attempts at humour.

Hermoine gave him one last watery smile, then went to sit down again with Ron on the other side of the table.

Harry then exchanged welcomes with the rest of the Weasley's and last of all, Fluer, who had her usual two kiss routine for him. She looked distraught, but still radiantly beautiful as she looked him in the eye and said 'Ah, 'Arry - eet is so bittersweet that we are 'ere, what Bill, eez brothers and Ginny must be feeling is 'orrible ... I do not know what I would do if eet were Gabrielle ... to lose a sibling, eet is terrible.' Harry nodded in solemn agreement and watched as Fluer went to sit back down and grasp Bill's hand in support from across the table.

Harry then took the seat next to George he had been planning on taking from the start, and was content to sit and listen to the others quietly chat away until Mrs Weasley reappeared a few moments later.

'All right, I hope everyone is hungry - Professor McGonagall is going to have the kitchens send up breakfast any minute now,' she said slightly out of breath, 'Ah, here we are then' she exclaimed as the table in front of them was suddenly laden with every breakfast item you could possibly imagine.

'It's about time!' Ron said, instantly loading up his plate with enough food to feed every person at the table.

Everyone laughed at Ron's typical reaction to food and began helping themselves. As Harry had just finished eating and got himself ready to sit back in silent content for a couple of minutes, he felt the ground suddenly shake beneath him - the next thing he knew he was literally lifted from his seat, about ten feet in the air and found himself face to face with Hagrid.

'Harry!, yeh did it Harry, Dumbledore always said yeh would an' all, but yeh didn' half scare me to death in the Forrest when yeh were down an' out for a while,' he placed Harry down from the bearhug he had been in previously, perhaps noticing that Harry had started to turn a bit blue from lack of oxygen, 'Should never 'ave doubted yeh Harry - always knew yeh had it in yeh, yeh were so brave, jus' like James an' Lily last night, they woulda been so proud yeh know!' He was beaming down at Harry, tears welling in his great, dark eyes and Harry beamed back - Hagrid was probably the only person in the world that he didn't have the heart to tell he didn't really want to talk about this right now.

'Thanks Hagrid, I really couldn't have done it without everyone else, including you and Grawp - you were both amazing.' He was then nearly crushed as Hagrid patted him on the shoulder with a giant hand, 'Ah, I was jus' glad to do my bit, yeh know, anyway, I better get back to the teachers - they'll be needing me to help clear up I s'pose.'

Saying farewell to everyone else at the table and making everyone promise to stay in touch, Hagrid left to go back to the teachers to resume his clean up duties.

Feeling his mood had lifted significantly since eating, seing Hagrid and spending time with his loved ones, Harry chanced a look over at Ginny, something that he had been trying to avoid since joining them in the Great Hall.

The connection was instant - and electric. She had somehow, despite the fact she was staring out the Great Hall window, in the opposite direction, felt his eyes on her and at that very moment had spun her head round to meet his gaze. Harry sat there, dumbstruck, for several, thundering heartbeats before forcing himself to look away. He stared hard at the table while he tried to return his pulse to normal - but he could still feel Ginny's eyes boring into him, therefore his attemps were futile.

'Harry?'

Harry turned his head to see the formidable figure of Professor McGonagall approaching, however, as she got closer, she didn't look like the stern Head of House he was used to - she had, as much was possible for Professor McGonagall, a warm smile on her face and looked genuinely delighted to see Harry.

'Professor, how are you?', Harry said, glad for the interruption from Ginny's glare for the time being, 'how's the restoration work going?'

'Well we're getting there, I haven't seen the castle in this much of a mess in over 50 years - the main problem is, a lot of the damage has been caused by Dark Magic, which as you will no doubt know, is insufferably difficult and in some cases impossible to correct.' She stopped smiling for a moment at this thought, but then continued, 'Nonetheless, we shall do all we can to restore Hogwarts to her former glory.'

'Anyway, as I'm sure you will no doubt have already been informed, I will shortly be giving a speech to the school to advise our plans for progression. After myself and Minister Shacklebolt have said a few words, I would appreciate it if you, Mr Weasley and Ms Granger would join me in my office, which is of course now the Head's office.' She gave another thin smile at the look of confusion on everyone's face and said, 'All will be made clear if you choose to attend - I would just rather not discuss these matters,' - she waved her arm around the room, 'in front of such a large audience.' And with that, she turned and made her way back to the teachers table to get ready to deliver her speech.

Another few minutes of idle chit chat passed, as Harry was once again forced to stop himself from looking at Ginny for the time being, he found himself unable to join in with conversation, incase he let his guard down again, so therefore once again sat back and contented himself with listening to what everyone else was saying.

He had picked up snippets from nearby tables whilst he was just sitting listening and from what he had gathered, Ron was correct with his summary that this was 'a pretty special day' for everyone. The general mood was jovial and despite the fact that he and his loved ones were laden with grief - it was hard not to be infected by the sheer volume of happy voices.

Almost at once though, as Harry was lost in his thoughts, the Great Hall became near silent. He felt a nudge in his ribs and tuned to see George pointing toward the staff table where Minerva McGonagall stood, apparently now ready to deliver her speech to the school. Harry noted that her ability to silence a classroom with here mere presence obviously stretched to much larger environments too, as her gaze swept the entire Hall, any table that hadn't noticed her at first, immediately fell silent when they did.

'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,' she began, still scanning the room, as if daring anyone to interrupt, 'I must begin by thanking you all profusely, for sticking with us through such a difficult time. Each and every one of your bravery is commendable and shall not ever be forgotten.' She took a deep breath and paused, not for effect, but to, quite astonishingly, wipe her eye with the sleeve of her robe. 'As you will all know and appreciate, we have been through quite a year, quite a year indeed, but we have prevailed!' Another pause, and she was louder this time, really fired up, 'You may have heard whispers that after such an ordeal, we would have no choice but to close the School for good. These whispers, are in part, correct. After what Hogwarts and it's students has been subjected to, I could see several good reasons for the powers that be to want to, shall we say, - lock the door and through away the key?'

Harry was astounded - were they going to close down Hogwarts? After everything that they'd all been through, would they really close down the first place he'd called home? He chanced a glance at Hermione, if anyone could read into a speech, she could - but she was just staring at Professor McGonagall, her eyes full of tears - were they of sadness or joy though? - he really couldn't tell...

'However,' Professor McGonagall continued, a slight smile visible again on her thin lips, 'I have yet to hear, from anyone, a better reason to close down this School, than the truly wonderful reason I have to keep it going.'

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, as did the rest of the Hall by the sound of it, because albeit he may no longer call Hogwarts home, he would always feel an affinity toward the school and would be devastated to find it no longer available to those who required it.

'The reason I will continue to be the Headmistress at this School and make sure that it still remains a prestigious establishment to develop magic,' Professor McGonagall was saying, scanning the room again, but this time with real pride etched upon her face, gesturing with her arm at all in the Hall, 'is because of all of you! As I have already pointed out, your bravery is commendable, but the loyalty which you have shown toward this school is above and beyond the call of duty of any student and I must say, I am touched at how much Hogwarts clearly means to each and every one of you. Because of you, we have ended one of the darkest periods in our world, overcome evil despite the odds being impossibly stacked against us ... and most importantly, shown a togetherness that the founders of this great school would be proud of!' She really did have to wipe her eyes now, they were filling more and more as she went on, 'We have, of course, lost some truly wonderful people over these last few years and in particular, the deaths of those from last nights battle are still incredibly raw for all of us, however, I know that they will all be incredibly honoured to know that they gave their lives for something so special - peace for their loved ones. Whilst I am on this extremely sensitive subject, I should note that there will be a memorial service held on the fifth of May, two days from now, for all that lost their lives at the Battle of Hogwarts.' She took one last deep breath and finally, 'The school will be, to further enhance the restoration, closing for the Summer break as of today and further instructions on exam procedures and the likes, will follow by Owl Post over the holidays. So, it is with great pride that I welcome everyone who wishes to be taught here, back to Hogwarts next year with open arms.'

And with that, she almost fell back into her chair as the whole hall burst into applause. The noise was deafening, but Harry was so glad to see that there was not a single table in the Great Hall left sitting - everyone was on their feet.

It took a few minutes for the cheering and applause to die down, but eventually, everyone was back in their seats and Kingsley Shacklebolt took this as his opportunity to say a few words.

'Ladies and Gentleman,' he began, in his deep, booming voice, 'I cannot and will not be giving such a heartfelt speech as Minerva just has, but before I go any further, I would like to say as a former student, the passion you still show to this day is quite incredible and extremely inspiring,' this earned Kingsley a round of applause and another rare smile from McGonagall. 'The purpose of my few words, is to warn everyone to keep alert. Despite the fact Lord Voldemort has fallen,' the mention of his name still made half of the Hall twitch uncomfortably, as if prodded by a hot poker, 'Many of his most dangerous supporters are still unaccounted for, therefore I would like to remind you to practise extreme caution, as they are, master or no master, still considered extremely dangerous. We are working night and day at the moment to bring the missing Death Eaters in, but until they are safely tucked away in Azkaban, I would like everyone to remain alert and look after each other. The Ministry will be giving regular progress updates through the Daily Prophet and various Radio Broadcasts and expect to have results sooner, rather than later.' With a final glance round the room, Kingsley rounded up by saying, 'I thank everyone for their time today and look forward to having good news for you all very soon.'

Another, slightly less enthusiastic, round of applause for Kingsley and the crowds were starting to thin after McGonagall announced carriages were waiting outside for those who were leaving first.

After most of the hall was empty, Professor McGonagall caught Harry's eye over the remaining students and parents and gave him a quick nod.

With that, Harry rose from the table, told Ron and Hermione McGonagall was ready for them, let everyone else know they wouldn't be long and would hurry back, then left the Great Hall to make his way back up to the seventh floor with Ron and Hermione, wondering what on earth they were required in the Headmistresses office for.