"My eyes are painted red

The canvas of my soul

We're slowly breaking down again

Today, I heard the news

This story's getting old

When will we see the end?

Of the days we bleed

For what we need

To forgive, forget…

Move on"

-Only One

Chapter 9: Letting Go and Moving On

Disclaimer: I own the plotline, nothing else.

After Ginny was taken upstairs, Harry, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and the twins decided to finish their conversation and headed out into the backyard once more. The adults, in turn, went back into the kitchen to finish preparing supper along with their earlier discussions regarding the Order.

"So…" said Neville rather awkwardly. The embarrassingly loud scene that had previously taken place was still fresh in his brain, making him at a loss for words.

"That was incredibly kind of you, Harry," Luna jumped in, preventing Neville from making a fool out of himself.

"Thanks," he replied with a sheepish smile. He had actually felt guilty for shouting at Ginny like that. Even though it helped his friend in the long run, Harry hated making others angry…let alone causing them to cry, for that matter.

"Seriously, Harry?" Hermione asked with a look of disbelief upon her face. "You aren't honestly feeling guilty over what you did, are you?" she gave him a searching look, even though she seemed to already know the answer.

Harry was slightly shocked that Hermione knew what he thinking. Then again, the girl had always been able to read him like an open book. It made Harry both happy and concerned that another person knew him so well.

"I just don't like having to yell at others, 'Mione," he told her. Harry remembered raising his voice to both her and Ron when he first saw them last summer. He had been so angry for being left in the dark about the Order and everything that he lost his temper….and Harry still felt bad for that.

"You're kidding me, right?" asked Fred, who was soon followed by his twin, "We would've shouted at our sister long ago if we thought it'd get through to her," George admitted. "You did well, Harry," Fred said, "Ginny isn't angry with you," George reassured him, "And Mum and Dad couldn't be happier," the other twin stated, "You finally brought Ginny back to the land of the living," George slightly kidded. "I know, right?" asked Fred. "We thought she'd forever be a mute," they said simultaneously.

Harry, along with the other three teens, felt somewhat dizzy after having to look back and forth between the two boys so many times. The way they went about holding a conversation was most annoying.

After Harry gathered his thoughts he finally acknowledged them, "I guess," he shrugged, "I'm just glad it helped."

Hermione placed her hand on his shoulder, "You did help," she smiled at him, "And that's all that matters."

Harry smiled back at his best friend before continuing on with their discussion. "So, I suppose we're expected to talk about what happened…" he told them with sadness laced through his voice. This caused Hermione to keep her hand exactly where it was.

"That's what my Gran said I was coming here for," Neville agreed, looking away in the process. He wanted the same thing as everybody else in their circle did. And that was to never bring that night's events up again.

"My father said the same to me," Luna told them. She then decided to take Neville's hand into hers as if to let him know he wasn't the only one who agreed with Harry on this depressing matter.

Neville merely smiled up at her, rather than become flustered like he did the last time the blonde had tried to comfort him. He also squeezed her hand to prove he was perfectly fine with this small act of affection. The Gryffindor actually found it surprisingly soothing as she drew circles on the back of it.

Giving the two a warm smile, Hermione decided to begin speaking about the touchy topic. "Firstly," she began, "I want it understood that nobody here is at fault for what happened," the brunette looked at the others and kept doing so until she got nods of agreement. "Now," she went on, "To state the obvious, we can't change what happened and there is nothing we can do to fix it," Hermione said knowingly although she had a disappointed look on her face. "We can, however," she said firmly, "Work together to get past this and eventually let go of…it," the Gryffindor finished, deciding at the last moment not to mention her deceased friend's name quite yet.

"I agree with Hermione," Neville decided to take his turn at this point. He felt a bit more confident with Luna now holding his hand, "Living in the past is one of the worst things you can do," he said, remembering what his Gran had been telling him for the previous two weeks. "No matter how much I hate Bellatrix Lestrange," he spat the Death Eater's name, "I know holding onto all of that anger will only give them greater satisfaction," Neville noted, referring to Voldemort and his followers, "When I learned how my mum and dad wound up in St. Mungo's," he blinked several times to avoid getting emotional, "I became furious and wanted nothing more than revenge on her. It wasn't until after my Gran explained that was exactly how they wanted me to feel that I was somewhat able to move on. I didn't want to give Lestrange the upper hand by allowing her to impact my outlook on life based on what she and the others did," he looked down. It wasn't until Luna squeezed his hand once more that Neville continued, "So, being hateful isn't the right thing to do. As long as we stick together and keep level headed, we'll end up on top. When it all comes down to it," Neville said with much sincerity, "We will win." He then added, "But that's only as long as we don't let them get to us. We can't allow them to get into our heads."

Harry immediately agreed at this. Having known what it was literally like to have someone messing with your head, he completely understood what the other boy was saying. "Neville's right," he nodded at the other Gryffindor, "Allowing another person to influence your thoughts will only lead to your own destruction," he said firmly, "If I hadn't allowed Voldemort to control my mind last year, none of us would have been at the Ministry that night." Hermione was about to scold her friend once again for blaming himself, but Harry prevented her from doing so. "I'm not blaming myself," he told her, truthfully for once, "I'm just stating a fact. I know that it wasn't my fault for believing Sirius was in danger," he sighed, "But it was my fault for allowing Voldemort to control my feelings. He used my weaknesses against me and almost turned me into a bitter person," Harry felt a chill go down his spine as he remembered just how angry he had been all last year. Luckily, Hermione kept a firm hand upon his shoulder which snapped him out of his thoughts. Giving her a look of appreciation, he kept on, "So, as I said earlier, Neville's right. If we let what happened affect our personalities by allowing it to cloud our minds, then we'll be useless when the real battle comes our way. All of that hatred will keep us from seeing the bigger picture, which is to defeat Voldemort," he looked around the small circle to see his friends looking at him with much admiration, "Sure," Harry said, "Avenging Ron will be an added bonus. But we have to keep in mind that going after Bellatrix isn't the main point," he said with a tight voice. Saying his late mate's name was still not an easy thing to do. "Because if we focus solely on her, we will lose," Harry finished with a sad expression.

"You're entirely correct, Harry," Hermione told him as she gave him a small pat on the back before drawing her hand away. The fact that he missed her touch surprised Harry, but he knew now was not the time to dwell on it. "Don't feel bad for stating the truth," she reassured him.

"Yes," Luna spoke up, "It's important to stay sane in times like these," she said with all seriousness. Although what she said was right, the entire group couldn't help but to laugh hysterically. Loony Lovegood telling them to keep their heads out of the clouds was extremely ironic. Harry, Hermione, and the twins just couldn't keep from throwing themselves into a fit of giggles. Neville, at least, had the decency to respect Luna's words, despite how amusing it was. How he was able to do that, his friend's didn't know, but Hermione had her suspicions.

"Okay, okay," Fred breathed out. "Back to what Luna said," George wiped the tears from his eyes. He had laughed so hard that he began to cry. "Although she's-" Hermione gave Fred a stern look, which kept him from insulting the Ravenclaw. "She's right," George took over for his brother. "Now that we've all acknowledged that," he told them, "let's get back to the main point of this conversation."

George then looked around the circle they had formed to see all of the desperate looks, begging for him to just drop it…but he couldn't, "We need to talk about Ron," the twin finally said.

"I miss him…" Luna admitted almost inaudibly. Neville returned her previous comforting gesture and squeezed her hand tightly. The blonde gave him a small smile before Hermione broke the silence.

"He was a good friend," she nearly whispered. "He always knew exactly how to make me laugh…and cry for that matter," Hermione added before letting out a small laugh. The rest of the group did as well.

"You two did fight a lot," Fred added. "Why was that?" George asked.

"We had hardly anything in common," Hermione said in all honestly, "I think half the reason we remained friends for so long was because of Harry," she looked over at him, "He always helped us to get past our silly arguments," Hermione then gave him an upmost sincere look, "We each cared for him so much that we were willing to put up with one another," she let out another small laugh, "It was because of Harry that I gained a second best friend. Without him there to make everything right again, I probably never would have been able to see the goodness in Ron."

Harry had to gather all of his strength to stop himself from turning into a teary-eyed pansy at her words. He knew that without him standing in the middle of his two best friends, they would have ended up clawing each other's eyes out. The only difference between Ron and Hermione's relationship compared to his and Malfoy's was that deep down, they truly cared for one another.

"You know," Hermione broke her friend's train of thought for what seemed to be the hundredth time. Harry didn't mind her doing that when he was thinking negatively, but it was otherwise quite annoying. "I never thought I'd say this," she admitted, "But I actually feel sorry for Lavender."

"Lavender Brown?" Neville inquired.

Hermione nodded her head, "Yes," she gave him a sad smile, "She was quite fond of Ron and I even believe that he liked her as well," the brunette's eyes suddenly filled with tears, "It's horrible that they never got a chance to be with each other…"

Harry immediately felt bad at Hermione's look of distress and felt compelled to comfort her. So, without giving it a second thought, he gently pulled Hermione closer to where he sat and drew her into a warm hug.

Hermione's shock dissipated rather quickly, for just a few short moments after Harry did that, she buried her face into his shirt and wept.

After watching the two Gryffindors with much concern, the twins decided to voice just how they felt about the death of their youngest brother.

"He was the only Weasley who actually agreed to test our products," Fred recalled with a surge of pride, "Not once did he turn us down." George spoke next; as he always did once his twin began speaking. "He really trusted us," he concluded with a small smile. "I just wish we could've been there when it…" Fred choked on his words. "We wish we just could've been there that night," George saved his twin the trouble of having to continue.

"Why?" Neville faced the two, still holding tightly to Luna's hand, "There's nothing you could've done to stop what happened. If you were there in the Department of Mysteries with us, you'd be wishing you weren't right about now," the younger boy then looked down in shame, "I'd give anything to be able to say I wasn't there that night. Having to watch…" Neville shuddered at the memory. Instead of squeezing his hand again, Luna wrapped her arm around his waist. Slightly surprised, the Gryffindor only decided to place his arm around her shoulders, which caused the petite girl to lean into him.

"We're sorry," the twins said together, "We didn't think about that."

"Don't worry about it guys," Harry said, still comforting Hermione, "It's understandable that you'd want to be there. To think you could've prevented it…well that's normal."

Each sibling gave a sheepish smile, glad that their friend understood what they were really trying to say. As they then looked around at their friends, each twin's smile grew considerably larger. Seeing the relieved expressions and comforting actions that surrounded them, they started becoming genuinely happy for the first time in the past two weeks. Finally, everything had been let out and Ron's friends had started the process of moving on.

A/N:Fill me in on your opinions so far, alright?

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Next: Harry receives an unexpected gift for his birthday

Until Then…