A/N: Thank you to Life-is-rolling-keep-on-going for their review on Chapter 12! I have to say that Luna is one of my favourite characters in the series as well, her eccentricities make her quite endearing. :) Thank you also to sageowl123 for their review on Chapter 10 and for the constructive criticism you offered. I have gone over what you mentioned and made some corrections. I didn't know that one doesn't drink milk with earl grey tea so I am thankful to you for pointing that out. :)

Without further ado, here is Chapter 13.

RxExR!

Pictures on a Wall

Chapter 13 - Clearing the Air

"Finally." Kingsley breathed out a sigh of relief as he finished reading the report that his head auror, Mr. Duke, had delivered to him an hour ago. In it were all the details that he needed. He now knew who had cast the spell that had imprisoned so many people against their own will for a decade.

The only thing that was missing was the motivation. Why had the person done what they had? What had caused them to attempt such a spell on the whole of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade?

He had to know so that they could close the case, so that everyone affected could find some closure.

Kingsley got up and strode out of his office, the report in his hands.

He knew who he would be taking with him in order to find out.

~.~.~.~.~

"Azkaban? We're going to Azkaban?" Harry looked up at Kingsley incredulously. A shudder went through his body as the cold wind whipped up the waves around the miserable rock that they were on. It was eerie at best and downright terrifying at worst.

"That's where Mr. Crabbe was imprisoned after the war. The trial ended with him being sentenced to Azkaban for life for all of his crimes which included using all three unforgivables, persecuting Muggles and Muggleborns and for rape in three different incidents." Kingsley replied as they stood in front of the gates that led to the prison itself.

Next to him, Goyle clutched his wand tighter. His father also sat behind bars in this place and he had hoped to never have to go here again after bidding him and his mother farewell as they were imprisoned here for life too.

"And you couldn't have told us this, say, before you got us to take a portkey here?" Harry's teeth were chattering and he rubbed his arms furiously as the cold wind bit at his arms, which, despite the heavy cloak that he was wearing, were literally frozen.

"I am sure that I would have had to listen to quite a long talk from both you and Mr. Goyle on the impracticality of finding out a known murderers motives, as well as the multiple security risks that this presents to my person." Kingsley smiled as Harry spluttered and Goyle shot him a slightly disgruntled look.

He knew his aurors too well.

"So, we're here because he's the one who put the spell on Hogwarts?" Harry asked, glaring furiously at the dementors as they floated by them. Why those horrible creatures were still even allowed to guard the prison was beyond him. Hadn't they shown their fickleness by defecting during the war?

"Yes." Kingsley nodded. "The records show that he cast the spell during the Battle of Hogwarts."

"But the spell didn't start working until weeks later." Goyle pointed out.

"Exactly. Which begs us to ask, why cast a spell that will only activate weeks later? What was he attempting to achieve by doing so? At the moment, it doesn't really add up." Kingsley explained to them and Harry and Goyle both nodded.

The walk to the 'interrogation room' as it was called, was a long one. The corridors were damp and dreary and Harry felt that he now understood why practically everyone felt such horror about the mere idea of being convicted and brought to Azkaban. The place was absolutely terrifying.

The sight that met them in the room wasn't much better. Harry and Goyle immediately stood protectively on each of his sides once they were inside. The door fell shut with a loud 'clang' behind them.

The man in front of them made for a miserable picture. His hair was long, as were his nails and he was completely and utterly filthy. His clothes, which showed signs of once being of excellent quality, now only hung as rags on his gaunt body. He was a ghost of a person.

Most haunting however, were his eyes. They were dead and even the sight of them didn't raise a spark.

"Mr. Crabbe, I am sure that you know why we are here." Kingsley began. The Daily Prophet was still being delivered to the prison guards here, the ones that weren't dementors. He was sure that the prisoners here all knew that Hogwarts had been 'freed' by now.

A low cackle left the man's throat.

"Sure, I do." His voice was hoarse from disuse.

"Then I am sure that you know what I am going to ask." Kingsley stepped forward, Harry and Goyle flanking him.

"Why I did it?" The man coughed. "They always ask that." His voice now held an almost childish tone and Harry felt a shudder run through him, this time not from the cold, but from the clear insanity written on the man's face.

Goyle felt a mixture of disgust, pity and sorrow run through him. Disgust, at how much the man had let himself deteriorate. He only cherished a few of the pureblood teachings of his father now and one of them was that a man should always present himself as well as possible to the public. The way that Mr. Crabbe was acting was a disgrace to his family, to his long dead wife and son. Pity, at the circumstances that had led to the man's decline. No one deserved to end up this way, everyone had some dignity as a human being. And sorrow, because he had known the man his whole childhood, he had been one of his role models in his younger years. And he remembered the way his perished friend had valued the man in front of them, idolised him even.

"So, why did you do it?" Kingsley asked, seeing as Mr. Crabbe wasn't showing any signs at all of continuing by himself.

The grief and madness that raced across his face struck a chord in all of them. "My son. My Vincent, he was dying. I could feel it." For the first time since entering the room, a spark entered the man's dead eyes. "I could feel it in my bones!"

"Vince died for your cause." Goyle's words were harsh and biting.

"He shouldn't have." The man turned to him. "He should have lived. He was such a strong boy, always so strong and handsome. He does me proud." The man crooned towards the end.

"But why cast the spell?" Kingsley asked, ignoring any feelings of pity towards the obviously broken man.

"To save him. Only to save him." Mr. Crabbe turned to look at them with unseeing eyes. "Do you know what it's like to know that you will outlive your child? To know that they are dying and you can't do anything to save them? Do you? Do you?"

"I don't." Kingsley remarked gravely.

"But I couldn't let him die. I couldn't." Mr. Crabbe looked anxious now. "I couldn't let my boy die. So I cast the spell, to stop time and to allow me to find him, to heal him." The frantic look in his eyes was terrifying.

"You wanted to be able to save him." Harry looked horrified at the revelation.

"I had to! You don't understand, I had to! But...it didn't work...the spell didn't start, only stole all of my powers..." He trailed off, staring at a wall behind them.

"Does he-?" Harry pointed at him.

"He's essentially Muggle now. Whatever he did to cast that spell, it took his powers to cast and wield magic from him.

"Magia exhaustam." Goyle said quietly. "They're ancient spells taught to us at a young age. He must have attempted to apply the technique of them to the preservation spell."

"He must have been desperate." Harry said softly, turning to the crazed man with pity now present in his eyes.

"Nothing...not coming back...Vincent..." The man was murmuring to himself now and the three of them turned around to leave.

Once they were in front of the prison again, Kingsley turned to look back at the prison, sorrow in his eyes.

"All for his child." He whispered, shaking his head back and forth.

The world was a truly twisted place sometimes.

~.~.~.~.~

Harry sighed as he slung his jacket over the back of his armchair, rubbing his eyes tiredly underneath his glasses as he considered all that had happened today. He couldn't bring himself to hate Mr. Crabbe for what he had done because in the end, he had done it for his child, much like his own parents had sacrificed themselves for him. He must have known that the spell would take away his powers.

"Vita nam a vita." Goyle had called it. A life for a life. The former Slytherin had been pretty sure too that Mr. Crabbe had known of the consequences of his actions. "We learned extensively about the spells and their consequences at a young age. In fact, he taught them to me, Draco and Vince." He'd told him when they had gotten back to their offices afterwards.

It was a haunting thought, knowing that only because of the size of the area that the spell had had to cover, it had taken weeks to come into effect, at least, that was their hypothesis. Even more so considering the motivations of the one that had cast it.

He groaned as he made himself move to the kitchen. He needed a mug of hot tea, something to calm down his racing mind.

Silently, he padded down the newly decorated corridor and entered the kitchen, now much more welcoming because he had replaced it completely. Well, renewed the wood, cleaned the windows, repaired any cracks, that sort of thing. He had used all of his free time over the summer to rebuild the place and it had helped him think a lot of things through, much like cooking helped Mrs. Weasley.

He sighed as he began to boil some water for the tea.

It was going to be a long night.

~.~.~.~.~

Ginny frowned to herself as she stood in front of Grimmauld Place Number Twelve. Well, more like scowled at her reflection in one of the windows next to the door. She honestly didn't know what to do. Well, she did but she wasn't sure how to go about it.

Hermione would tell her to just get over herself and do it, if she were here. Sadly, her best friend was back in France though, busy with her own life.

Actually, everyone was busy with their own lives and she felt as if she were the only one still stuck in the past. Ron and Pansy had moved to Japan and were happy living there. They had actually gone back four days ago as their holiday had been up. Percy had started a completely different career at the Ministry, something pertaining to the Research section of the Ministry and was happily dating a girl called Audrey. Percy, her stiff older brother was being more productive with his life than she was being. For god's sake, he was on the verge of proposing to Audrey. It didn't really get anymore serious than that when it came to a relationship.

And Fred was doing fine too. He and Isabella had been dating for nearly a month now and Ginny could see how happy the flamboyant Italian was making his brother. She had an even greater flair for drama than him, which was something that one should fear in and of itself. It was also something that she hadn't believed to ever be possible.

Then there were George and Bill, happily married and always having a new tale of what their children were up to. Apparently Charlie also had a girlfriend back in Romania but that one was supposed to stay a secret until he was more sure of it, so that their mother wouldn't kill him should he break it off early on. And Luna had finally moved in with Blaise before she had gone back to South America three days ago, promising to write a bit more and that she would be back for Christmas.

Even Lavender had moved out of the Burrow with baby Hugo a week ago, two weeks after Hugo had been born, declaring that it was time that she found her own place and job. Her mother had been surprisingly supportive of the move, somehow understanding that Lavender wanted to finally be a bit more independent. The fact that the Burrow was a place to come to whenever she wanted was a given. And Ginny knew that Lavender was incredibly happy and grateful about the support her family was giving her.

And that showed that even her mother had adjusted to this new time, so really she was the only one stuck in the past, unable to move on. She was still hung up on Harry and while she loved her new job immensely and it gave her a lot of satisfaction, she knew that her personal life, the one that she had put on hold over a year ago, was holding her back from truly coming to grips with the new reality that was facing her.

It also didn't help that Doctor Reed looked at her so knowingly whenever they brought up Harry. If one's therapist was already resorting to looks to tell her that she was being childish then it sure as hell was time to do something about it.

"Ginny?" Harry's voice behind her startled her and she nearly toppled down the steps, her hand still raised in the 'knocking' position.

"Harry. Hi." She smiled awkwardly and he grinned lopsidedly in response.

"I'm assuming you're here to see me?" He asked, clearing his throat.

"Yeah. Unless you've suddenly gotten some new roommates that none of us know about?" Ginny raised her eyebrow and Harry grinned again, taking out his key to open the door as she stepped aside to allow him access to it.

"Unless you count the two potted plants from your Mum as sentient creatures then no, I don't have any roommates." He smiled and stepped aside, holding the door open for her.

"Thanks." She nodded at him. "And no, I don't count plants as sentient creatures, even if Professor Sprout and Neville insist upon it." She took off her coat and hung it on the pegs in the hallway. "Why were you walking anyway? I thought Grimmauld Place connects to the Ministry floo." She noticed that the old picture of Mrs. Black had been removed and she was immensely glad to see that.

The portrait had been a nightmare.

"It does, but I prefer to walk. It gives me some time to think. Also, because of it, I've managed to find the best Chinese place in London. Their noodles are to die for." Harry's eyes lit up at the thought of the food, he'd forgotten that he'd skipped out on lunch today. "But how's Neville doing? I haven't heard from him since the beginning of September."

"He's doing great, although I normally wouldn't say that living in the Leaky Cauldron is something great. Apparently Hannah Abbot, a classmate of yours, remember? Well, she's distantly related to the former barkeep, Tom, who passed away two summers ago. I think he was something like her uncle's great-grandfather. Anyway, because no one else in her family wanted it, Hannah took over after our graduation and Neville moved in early October. Apparently living in Hogsmeade was a bit too stressful for him, considering that all the students at school see him as something of a hero." Ginny grinned and Harry chuckled slightly. Of course Neville would find people hero-worshipping him uncomfortable.

"But he's happy. Apparently Professor Sprout wants to retire next year so Neville's training to become her replacement. According to him, Professor McGonagall's more than happy that he wants to take the place. Finding good teachers is, and these are his words not mine, 'a right pain in the arse'."

Harry laughed at that, feeling glad that his friend was doing so well for himself.

By that point, they had reached the kitchen and Ginny stared around herself in wonder. "Wow, you really did clean up this place well." She took in the new furniture, the bigger window and the gorgeous stove. Her mum would love to cook here.

"Thanks." Harry muttered, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I had to do it. It sort of felt like there were too many old memories here and now it's like I'm starting a new chapter of my life. It feels good."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Ginny said softly, taking some time to really appreciate Harry's attention to the finer details.

"Tea?" He asked and she noticed that he had put on a kettle of water to boil.

"Yes, please." She nodded and suddenly the awkward silence that had sort of become a constant companion to them entered the room. Ginny continued to stare at the furniture while Harry fiddled with his cloak, eventually deciding to just take the heavy thing off.

"This is getting ridiculous." Harry finally muttered and Ginny finally met his eyes.

"Look Gin, there's no right way to say this but," He swallowed heavily, "I'm sorry."

"What?" She felt slightly blindsided, she had not expected him to make the first move.

"I'm sorry for what I did last year, or...ten years ago rather. I was an idiot and a goddamn fool for telling you to break it off."

She stared at him, surprise settling on her features.

"It took you this bloody long to tell me something I already know?" She finally asked, sending him a long-suffering look.

"Yeah." He smiled slightly. "I'd like to think I've learned something since then, even if it took me this long to state the obvious." His smile was tentative at best.

"You really are a fool, Harry James Potter." She smiled softly. "You beat me to it." Now it was Harry's turn to look confused. It was endearing. "I came here today to say that I'm sorry."

"Whatever for?" His eyebrows furrowed and his glasses slipped down his nose ever so slightly.

"For being so demanding back then. For not understanding just how much stress you were under. I thought that you genuinely didn't care for me anymore and to my shame I have to admit that it took me a couple of sessions with a therapist to work out how wrong I was." She blushed slightly as his mouth fell open.

"You came here to apologise for essentially me being an idiot and not explaining properly why I wanted to break it off and your completely understandable reaction to it?" Harry asked and Ginny cocked her head at him.

"No. I'm apologising for my wrong behaviour and reaction to it."

"But you didn't do anything wrong." Harry pointed out.

"Yes, I did." She nodded, starting to feel slightly frustrated. "And I really need to get this out so just be quiet for a minute and listen." She swallowed hard and sighed, closing her eyes and then opening them again. This was not how she had imagined this to happen.

"I've been in love with you ever since I was ten. Although back then I'm pretty sure that it was mere infatuation." Her face was growing red and she was cursing her fair skin inside the confines of her mind. "Fact is though, that I was so in love with you that it clouded my judgement and I couldn't see just how hard some of the things that you had to do were. When you broke it off with me, you were thinking of what was best for me too, you didn't want to place me into anymore danger than I was already in. I understand that now. I also understand why you didn't get back together with me instantly afterwards. You were still recovering from the war, as was I." She sighed and turned her gaze from the window right into his bright green eyes.

"Gin, what are you trying to say?" Harry was looking straight at her too. Both were ignoring the whistling kettle.

"Are you going to get that?" She asked, pointing to the kettle. She knew she was stalling, he knew that she was stalling.

"No." Okay then.

"What I really want to say is that...I need to move on. We both need to move on. I can see it every time we get together at the Burrow or might outside that we're both still stuck on the thing between us that we left unresolved. It's keeping us from really moving on with our lives." Ginny swallowed again, this was becoming increasingly harder to say.

"So you want my permission or something to move on?" Harry's voice sounded broken.

"No!" Ginny shook her head vehemently. "What I'm trying to say is...we need to decide whether to give whatever we had before another shot or whether to finally accept that we won't get another shot at it. Because like this...we can't continue like this. Like this is like we're in a limbo, unable to move forwards or back and its killing me Harry, it really is." She finally looked up at him.

His eyes were shining with something akin to hope.

"You can talk in some downright confusing circles sometimes." Harry stated and then moved over to the stove to take off the boiling water. Half of it had probably already evaporated. As he continued to concentrate on the kettle with his back remaining to her, Ginny felt her heart sink.

She'd put it out in the open, now it was his turn to make a move.

"I want to give us another shot." Harry finally said, once she was already halfway across the kitchen to the door. She stopped dead in her tracks. "I don't know whether we'll work out and I can't promise that I won't be insufferable at times, but I want to try it again." She turned around and saw him fill two mugs with hot water, the tea leaves floating on the surface as the water levels rose.

"You do?" Her voice sounded choked, even to her own ears.

"Of course I do, Gin." He sat down at the table and sighed tiredly, one mug standing in front of him and the other situated in front of another chair. She knew what the gesture meant. Carefully, she moved over and sat down on the chair and Harry looked back up at her.

"I've wanted to get back together with you ever since we broke up. I've regretted doing so even minutes after I did it." He reached out with his hand and put it on hers. The warmth from it seeped through her skin.

"Then why didn't you just ask? Why wait?" She asked and her voice was a lot quieter.

"Because I was scared that I'd damaged any chances I'd ever have with you completely. I thought that you would never want to try again or even consider taking me back." The stark honesty in his eyes was astounding.

"You, Harry James Potter, are an idiot and a fool." Ginny stated again, this time with a small smile worming itself onto her face as tears gathered in her eyes.

"I know, Gin, I know." His hand clenched tighter around hers and the relief in his eyes made her smile even more.

Finally, she had gotten her answer.

She could move on.