War Is Over: Chapter 17/17 - A New Beginning?
The first thing Harry did was go down back to the Atrium, to check on his friends. Luna was already up and running - apparently, it really was just a Stunning Spell, Harry shook his head in surprise. She was crouching in a corner of the room, next to the security desk - next to Andromeda Tonks.
"Andromeda!" he called, and joined the two. To his relief, Andromeda was already awake, despite twisting her face in pain. She was sat by the security barrier, holding her head in her hands, and moaning slightly. "Are you alright?" he asked them both, and she nodded, while Luna smiled and said, "Of course!"
"I'm sorry," he said. "If you'd have - I mean, you could have died. I should never have asked you to do this. I'm sorry."
"Nonsense," she said, the pain obvious in her voice. She opened her mouth to say something more, but never did. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked again, and got for his trouble an expression that seemed just as pained from his repetitive questions as it was from the physical pain Andromeda was still feeling.
"Alright, alright," he muttered with a smile, and then jumped, because someone behind him called his name.
It was Kingsley.
The Aurors were now pouring into the room. Some through the lifts, from the floors above. These came with other members of the Ministry - Fudge, Will Jones, Robards, all came down, looking at the Atrium in confusion and alarm. A second group came through the gates - including Savage and the Auror trainees. "Secure that tunnel!" Savage barked at Seamus and Katie, who immediately started casting spells at the entrance, to prevent more goblins from entering through it. The others walked in through the open gates and joined in with the rest.
In the confusion, Ron and Neville spotted Harry and walked towards him. When they got there, Ron looked around the Atrium and whistled. "What's going on? This looks like a war zone!"
Harry turned around to look. The centaurs were grouped in one area, contained by magic. Some of the looked hurt; others mostly angry. The goblins were all centred in another area of the Atrium, behind the fallen statue, and were now contained by Kingsley's magic. Finally, Harry thought, someone heard the noise upstairs and came looking. Only slightly too late. In the meantime, Mediwizards and Healers moved around the people on the ground, helping them up, treating their wounds. It really did look like a war-zone.
"Well, in a way, it sort of is," he admitted to Ron. "I'll tell you all about it later."
"No doubt about that..." Ron smirked.
They weren't left alone for too long. As soon as Kingsley was sure the goblins were contained, he joined them, together with Will Jones.
"I suppose we have you to thank for this mess," Kingsley said, not unpleasantly, while Will Jones stretched his hand and grabbed Harry's.
"You never stop to save us, Mr Potter, do you? It looks like once again, we owe you our thanks!"
Harry didn't want to look at him. Instead, his gaze fell on the wall Behind Kingsley, where he could see Malfoy, already being questioned by two of the Aurors. "Actually, Minister, I think you will find it is Draco Malfoy you should be thanking."
Ron turned almost purple at that proclamation. Kingsley seemed put off, too. "I beg your pardon?" he asked. Meanwhile, Will Jones's handshake stopped abruptly, and he clutched Harry's palm in shock.
"None of us would have been here if it wasn't for Malfoy. Especially you and me, Mr Jones. Malfoy's the one who stopped Selwyn, you see."
Jones swallowed, but said nothing. He let go of Harry's hand.
"Actually, as long as we're here..." Harry said and rushed to the entrance, where Rita Skeeter was already standing and dictating things to her Quick-Quotes-Quill.
"Harry!" she beamed at him. "Imagine seeing you here! Well, I should have known, of course, the wizarding world's constant hero, you just can't get away from danger, can't you? If you'd like, I - "
"You can print this. Are you listening, everyone?" he called, especially towards the Aurors who were still talking to Malfoy. "You're all automatically assuming this was me, but the truth is, it wasn't me who saved the Ministry today. I'm not the hero you're looking for. They are. You want to know who saved you? Percy Weasley, who got sacked from the Ministry for staying with his job last year. Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin. Andromeda Tonks, Bellatrix Lestrange's sister. And mostly Draco Malfoy, the ex-Death Eater." Everyone turned to stare at Draco, who, while flushed, still managed to look so arrogant and smug.
Rita stopped her scribbling to go through the entrance barrier and start throwing rapid questions at Malfoy. The Aurors seemed annoyed, but more with her than with him. In fact, when they next turned to Malfoy, their expressions seemed almost friendly.
"Minister, I'm getting quite a tale here," Rita called to Kingsley. "Any comment?"
Kingsley looked from her to Malfoy, and then to Harry. "Only what Harry had been trying to tell us all this time, Rita. We've lived in fear for far too long. We were afraid before the war, and during the war, and in this past year, too, we've been constantly afraid. As Harry has been telling us for a while, the war is over. It's time we let go of our fears. Perhaps, what has transpired here this day will help us find that path. Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have some duties to attend to."
He turned now to Harry. "There are some things I need to do with all of this mess, but I want to talk to you. Don't worry about Malfoy - " he interpreted correctly the suspicious look Harry had given the Aurors - "he won't be arrested. And neither will you. But we still need to talk. Will you wait for me in my office?"
Harry nodded. "You want to look for a goblin named Gleyok," he said, and then added, "and a centaur named Bane."
When Kingsley left, Harry turned to Ron and Neville. "Any chance you'll stay here to wait for me?" Harry asked them, and Ron said 'sure' without even thinking, before Neville pointed out that they will stay, as long as Savage allowed them to.
"Hopefully you'll finish whatever it is Kingsley wants of you by then," Ron said, and Harry went into the lifts again, this time to the first floor, to Kingsley's office.
He hadn't been there for a minute before the door opened. He expected to see Kingsley - and was completely unprepared to see Professor McGonagall walking into the room.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded.
"Nice to see you too, Potter," she said dryly.
"Sorry - Professor - I didn't mean - "
"Don't worry about it," she said shortly. "As it happens, I'm here because a very persistent wizard, who does not know how to stop interfering in other people's business even after his death, has insisted that I come," she said sharply, and Harry now noticed the portrait of Albus Dumbledore, sitting and drinking tea with Rufus Scrimgeour. "And also, seeing as you've dragged one of my students along, I came to fetch her."
"It wasn't Luna's fault," Harry said automatically. "I've asked her to come with me, to help me."
"Funny. She says just the opposite, she says you suggested she came back and that she insisted on staying."
"Please don't punish her or anything, Professor? After all, she just helped to save the Ministry."
"In that case, I must say that you've rather failed to mention her in that little speech you gave down there," McGonagall noted.
"Yeah. I - uh - I thought the impact would be stronger if I only mentioned people like Malfoy and Andromeda."
"So I gathered. But Ms Lovegood has left the school, she will have to face the consequences. I wouldn't worry too much about her though," her face softened at Harry's expression. "It has always been my firm belief that saving lives and the world as we know it is worth a couple of house points. But I'm not here to discuss Ms Lovegood."
"Why are you here, then, Professor?" Harry asked curiously.
"I'm here because Dumbledore was not the only one who insisted I come." She shoved a piece of cloth into his hand. He looked at it - the Sorting Hat. He looked at her, confused. "The hat insisted that you should wear it again," she said, and looked quite affronted at having to do a hat's bidding.
"What does it want with me?" Harry looked at the hat suspiciously. He had already worn it twice - once more than any other wizard or witch he had known about. He did not look forward to putting it on a third time.
But McGonagall just shrugged. "I have no idea," she said. "It wouldn't tell me. Insisted on talking to you. Looks like you'll have to put it on and find out, Potter."
Reluctantly, he opened the hat. It was scorched and slightly burnt, a reminder of Voldemort's curse. Harry was surprised that it hadn't completely burnt off - after all, the magic that had protected his friends should not have extended to the hat. It must have had strong magic of its own, to withstand that curse. He took a deep breath, and put the hat on.
There was nothing there. No noise, no voice, nothing. Just silence and darkness.
And then he heard it - a voice. The Sorting Hat's voice.
"Well, well, well. Finally, we speak again, Harry Potter. I thought it will be sooner then this."
"Why?"
"Well, I thought you would like to know whether you could still have been sorted into Slytherin. Now that you don't have a piece of the Dark Lord within you."
Harry looked into the darkness inside the hat. He hadn't even considered the possibility that it was Voldemort's soul that the Sorting Hat saw that day, that made him suggest sorting Harry into Slytherin.
"Funny, I would have thought you would take any opportunity to dissociate yourself from Slytherin, even after all this time. But what do I know? I'm a Hat."
"Do you still think so, then? That I could have been a Slytherin?" he asked the hat, but got no response. "What, so that's what you wanted to talk to me about? This was so important? Just taunting me about having Voldemort's soul within me?"
"My, you do have a temper, don't you, Potter. No, this was what I wanted to tell you, but I was under the impression you would want to ask me some things of your own accord."
What could Harry possible want to ask the hat about? He thought. He could ask him about - next year's sorting, as long as they were on the topic of Slytherin.
"Oh, yes, the Hogwarts houses. Well, as I said, I am just a hat."
"So you're only doing what you're told," Harry thought bitterly.
"No, I'm only doing what I was bewitched to do by the Founders."
"But you were bewitched to sort the students of Hogwarts into four houses," Harry thought.
The hat didn't reply, but Harry had the distinct feeling that the silence from the hat was a smug one. A smug hat, he thought, just what the wizarding world needed.
"Could be worse, Potter. If you think I'm smug, you should see that sword you're so fond of."
The sword! "The goblins want it, and we may need it! But nobody knows where it is."
The hat said nothing.
"You must know. At least, it's possible to draw it out of you - I've done it, and so did Neville."
"That is correct. In times of need - and after showing Godric Gryffindor's favoured trait bravery, might I add - a Gryffindor could pull the sword out of me, no matter where it was before."
So why can't we do it now?
"At times of need, Potter."
"But these are times of need! There might be a another war, if we don't find the sword."
"Not enough, Potter. The sword must stay where it is, until the day it is truly needed. That day, the champion of Gryffindor would pull it out of me again, I promise you that. Until that day arrives, it must remain in its place, undisturbed."
But where is it? Harry insisted, but got no response. The Sorting Hat had said what it had to say, Harry knew, and could not be convinced to continue. With a sigh, he took it off.
Professor McGonagall was eyeing him curiously. "It's a rare thing," she said, "that the Sorting Hat wishes to talk to one individual."
"Yeah, well, it was more hints and riddles than actual talk," Harry said in disappointment, and handed the hat over to her. She took it gingerly, and then stuffed it somewhere in her robes.
"Well, I must leave. And take Ms Lovegood back to the school. Please don't encourage any of my other students to miss classes, Potter," she said, her voice as stern as ever, but he thought he saw a hint of a smile on her lips.
"Don't worry, Professor," he said, and she left. Perhaps five seconds later, the door opened again.
"Have you forgotten something, Professor?" he asked, but it wasn't McGonagall this time - now, it was Kingsley who walked in.
"I'm sorry I kept you waiting, Harry. There was a thing or two I wanted to discuss with Will Jones."
"Good," Harry said. He had an inclination he knew what those things were. And indeed, Kingsley nodded in agreement.
"First, I wanted to ask you the same question I did the last time we met. Will you re-join the Ministry?"
"Will things change now?" Harry asked.
"Not everything," Kingsley said, and Harry appreciated his honesty. "But already after our chat yesterday I've decided that I should apply my Ministerial veto more often. After all, I have it for a reason, I may as well use it." Harry smiled at this remark.
"Slytherin House?" he asked. "The Sorting Hat says it will continue sorting into four houses."
"Yes, we're aware of that. There has been a team of Ministry wizards researching the spells that were used to create the Sorting Hat. Until this matter is solved, I believe we will have to continue with all four houses of Hogwarts school."
"And when do you expect the matter to be solved?" Harry asked carefully.
"Well, with all the recent problems with goblins and centaurs, I imagine we're going to need the manpower for other, more urgent tasks. The matter of Slytherin House is simply not a priority at this time."
Harry's face broke into a smile. "You're getting better at this whole politics thing, Kingsley," he commented.
"As are you, I think. That was quite a speech you gave down there." For a moment, it seemed as if Kingsley wanted to say something more, but then he thought better of it.
"Will there be a war?" Harry asked quietly.
"Right now it looks like it, yes. We've looked for the goblin you mentioned. He wasn't amongst the goblins who were in charge of the attack. He's still out there."
"And Bane?"
"Bane has never been the leader of his herd, Harry, although he is probably the loudest. If he's here, it's because someone else had told him to."
"So they're still out there."
"They're still out there," Kingsley agreed. "And we've just received an ultimatum to hand over the Sword of Gryffindor."
"Did you tell them we don't have it?"
Kingsley sighed. "The goblins don't seem to care much what we tell them, Harry. After centuries of lies, they no longer believe us."
"This isn't right," Harry blurted out, more of his tiredness and frustration than because he actually thought his saying so would do any good. "All of it. The war was supposed to be over, but it seems like it's just continuing in different ways."
"That's why we need you here, Harry. At the Ministry. I'm willing to let you skip training altogether - we're rushing everyone through as it is, and the final test is evading capture for three days. You've already done better than that, so as far as I'm concerned, you're now an Auror. Come back and join us."
"What about Savage?"
"He will not be returning to his work as an Auror. He will remain only as an instructor."
"And Robards?"
Kingsley shifted his gaze from Harry. "If I have proof," he said quietly, "I will deal with him. Until then, I can't do much."
"What about the Slytherins? Following people, keeping tabs, suspecting anyone who's even remotely connected to them?"
"Some of it will stop now," Kingsley said gravely.
"But not all."
"Not all," he agreed. "Will Jones - "
"Will Jones is - "
"Will Jones and I had a talk," Kingsley talked over Harry, unwilling to let him interrupt, "and I have explained to him the importance of trust in our society. He is unhappy, but he will cooperate, for the meantime. Whether his cooperation will last a week, a month, or my entire term as Minister - I don't know."
"And afterwards? When he stops cooperating, or when the goblins attack, or the centaurs? What then? And what if there are more Death Eaters, what will he do then?"
"Afterwards, anything can happen."
"So that's it. This is what it comes down to. Yesterday they had the power, and so they killed us. Today the places have turned and we have the power, so we kill them, and tomorrow they start killing us all over again?" Harry paced up and down the room in impotent anger. From his portrait, Rufus Scrimgeour looked at him disapprovingly, but Albus Dumbledore sipped his painted tea in complete calm, and Harry was sure he winked at him, for just a split second. It didn't make him feel better - it made him feel worse.
"That's the way it's always been."
"So what, I'm supposed to just sit back and accept it?"
"That's what most of us do."
"Well, I can't."
Now Kingsley was on his feet too, and faced Harry. "Then you have a choice to make. You had so much power at the end of the war, but you decided you didn't want it. And then you lost it, and things went out of your control. Now you saved the Ministry, and everyone knows it was you despite your little speech about Draco Malfoy, and you've probably managed to turn the tide in people's minds about Malfoy and the Slytherins, just for a bit. At this moment, you have that power again."
"They won't listen to me. They didn't listen to me last time," Harry said angrily, all of the frustrations of the past months rising in him again - Malfoy's trial, how quickly people believed the Prophet about him, how no one wanted to listen.
"No, they didn't. They were afraid, and you've done nothing to calm their fear. But now you can start over. And if you can stop rejecting everything they want to give you, perhaps now they will also listen."
It hadn't been the first time Kingsley had asked that of him. That time in summer, too, he had come and asked the impossible. He had asked Harry to allow himself to be used. And now, he was asking again, and Harry didn't know what to answer.
-X-
Harry thought about Kingsley's words all the way to the Atrium. He was surprised to still see Ron and Neville there - he had expected they would be gone by now.
"Savage said we get the rest of the day off," Neville shrugged.
"I think they're all so very excited that you caught Selwyn, they just want to go and celebrate somewhere," Ron added.
"Maybe now that he's caught things will be back to normal," Neville said hopefully.
"Maybe," Harry answered, unconvinced.
"Listen, we need to go to Hogwarts," Ron pointed out. "Hermione and Ginny will never forgive us if we don't go there and fill them in - hell, I'm not sure they'll forgive you when they hear you were there and got Luna to help you instead. - And Malfoy! What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking, 'why not?'," Harry said, and even though he didn't realise it before, he knew as soon as he said the words that they were absolutely, completely true.
They were out of the Atrium now, out of the Ministry. Even though it wasn't very late, it was already dark outside. People, unsuspecting Muggles, walked back and forth in the street, hurrying home after a day's work, another boring day in the office. The kind of day Harry now knew with certainty he was never going to have.
He could see Rita Skeeter, still standing near the Ministry, deep in conversation with Malfoy and Daphne Greengrass. Harry didn't mind - Malfoy deserved his fifteen minutes of glory, after all, that was what Harry had promised him. They didn't even notice him, and Harry, grateful, turned away, not wanting to be spotted.
The street was wet, and still smelt of rain, but now the sky was clear of clouds, and stars were starting to come out. Harry stared at them for a moment, still thinking. He was thinking so deeply that he didn't hear Ron's words at first.
"Sorry?" he asked.
"I said," Ron repeated quietly, "what are you going to do now?"
Harry thought of the end of his conversation with Kingsley. 'So what?' he had asked Kingsley, no longer angry, only tired. 'Become a politician? Like Fudge? Like Umbridge?'
'No,' Kingsley had replied. 'Not like Fudge. Not like Umbridge. Not even like me.
'Be something better.'
"I don't know," Harry said now to Ron, even though he thought he knew. Even though he already decided, back then in Kingsley's office. But that would be tomorrow's problem. That was something he would worry about later. Tonight, he was still his own man. Tonight, he was still eighteen, still a teenager. Tonight, he was still Just Harry. He took a deep breath. "Let's go to Hogwarts."
A/N - Thanks for reading, dear readers! I know this ending feels a little bit, shall we say, open. Let's admit it, any point after this would be too depressingly political even for me. However, as you can probably guess from the way this story ended, I am going to write a couple of extremely loose sequels, 'Inter Arma...' and 'War Without End'. Hopefully, you won't have to wait ages and ages for them.