Chapter 2: Explaining Oneself

Harry stalled in talking with his girlfriend by rising before her from the bed they had shared. Stealing out of the Gryffindor Common Room, he met Ron and Hermione for breakfast; he noticed, but did not comment on, how his best mates were holding hands under the table.

Afterwards, the Golden Trio went for a stroll in the sunshine, crossing the half-blown apart stone viaduct across which, a little more than twenty-four hours prior, Hagrid had carried Harry's supposedly dead body.

Harry was twirling the Elder Wand in his fingers. Haltingly, he explained the impossible – how and why he had miraculously managed to come back to life. The flaw in Voldemort's plan that had allowed him to best the evil wizard again and for good this time.

The tracking of who had possessed immense power, in the form of the most ancient and invincible wand in existence, would have been a birdwalk for any teenage wizard. As usual, Hermione followed the wand's mastery as it had changed hands from Dumbledore, then to Draco, then to….

"So…. that means….?" Her chestnut brown eyes were wide in the morning light.

Harry smiled grimly, twiddling the wand in the air. "It's mine!"

He was slightly disconcerted by how Ron's deep blue orbs gleamed. "What are we going to do with it?"

"We?!" Hermione turned back to her lover with dismay, perhaps having second thoughts on making out with him in a broom cupboard the day before.

Ron immediately flushed as red as his hair. "I'm just saying…. That's the Elder Wand. The most powerful wand in existence…."

Harry just grinned tiredly as he proceeded to snap said most powerful wand in existence in half, as though it were nothing more than a twig. Turning, he then hurled both pieces end over end into the ravine below.

Hermione looked shocked yet also immensely proud; Ron, though perhaps a little disappointed, still nodded in understanding. Harry quietly slipped his old, now repaired wand out of his jeans pocket and waggled it. The twin to Voldemort's old wand felt right in his hand.

For a moment, the threesome held hands and gazed out over the ruined grounds of Hogwarts beyond.

Ron tssked. "What a mess!"

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "We'd best be heading back. Hagrid is assigning cleanup brigades to patrol the castle. Filch can't do it all by himself!"

"Maybe he should," Ron groused. "Nasty git. Squib was probably in bed with the Death Eater occupiers out of sheer spite, I expect!"

Hermione just smiled wanly. "It's over, love. Reconciliation has to start some time." Harry raised an eyebrow at the term of endearment tumbling so easily from Hermione's lips. The beautiful brunette witch now tugged on her boyfriend's hand. "Come on. You promised to help me."

"Where are you lot going?" Harry frowned, bemused. "Hagrid will need all our help cleaning!"

"We will be cleaning," Hermione countered primly. "The library. Ernie and Terry said the Restricted Section saw some action."

"It better not be you two that's seeing any 'action'," Harry waggled his eyebrows. "Cause if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were going there to do more snogging then cleaning!"

Hermione gasped in mock dramatic horror, though a smile was trying to lilt over her open lips and her cheeks turned noticeably pink. Harry glanced to Ron for a confession, but his best mate surprisingly didn't budge beyond a shrug of his shoulders.

"'Mione asked me to help her do a little research. Between that and cleaning, we won't have time for any snogging!" Though he sounded a little disappointed.

"Research? What for? The Hunt's over!"

"We'll explain later!" Hermione trilled, yanking on Ron's arm insistently and the couple began to hike, arm in arm, up towards the castle. Ron managed a half-hearted wave over his shoulder.

Harry shook his head. Bother those two! He resolved to go to the library and check on them the first break he got. In the meantime, he hoofed it up to the Entrance Hall.

Hagrid was holding court amidst a crowd of students, delegating assignments.

"Every House will have a zone in which to clean and search," the gamekeeper boomed.

"Search for what?" a Hufflepuff fourth year called out. Harry suddenly felt an electrical shock zoom up his forearm as someone took his hand and squeezed it. Glancing up, he found Ginny lacing her fingers through his.

"Bodies, son," Hagrid told the Hufflepuff fourth year sadly. "And the missing. Madame Pomfrey is fairly certain all the casualties on our side are accounted for, but we have to make sure."

"What if we come across the body of a Death Eater numptie?" Ginny called out, to a lusty and throaty cheer from the others assembled, many of them Dumbledore's Army veterans.

"Send up sparks with your wand so that staff will know where to find it and you. Also flag it manually; that would be helpful." Hagrid began dealing out little orange flags to student groups by the armful, from sacks spilled open at his feet. "Under no circumstances are you to attempt to move the body on your own, no matter if it's one of ours or the enemy – not even with magic. Let the Healers and trained professionals take care of that!"

"Be sure to move in pairs," Neville Longbottom, who was standing next to his girlfriend, ordered. "Dumbledore's Army, you know our buddy system – you can either find your old partner, should they still live, or pair up with someone new." He lifted his and Luna's linked hands for emphasis. Someone in the crowd wolf-whistled, causing the Gryffindor to glower, though it was weak. "Ruddy shut up, Seamus." Chuckles percolated through the crowd.

Harry felt Ginny tighten her grip on his palm. When his green eyes met her sparkling blue ones, she grinned, albeit tepidly. "Partners?" Her gaze searched his, as if afraid he would say no.

"Partners," Harry grinned back.

He and his girlfriend waited patiently in line for Hagrid to give them their quadrant. They ended getting assigned the loping, grassy knolls between the Whomping Willow and the giant's cabin.

The meadow grasses of the grounds were nearly up to knee height, what with spring in full bloom. Harry counted his paces carefully, glasses trained to the earth. "Try to step parallel to me," he cautioned Ginny. "We don't want to step on any poor soul by mistake."

"I doubt we'll find any more bodies out this far afield," Ginny murmured. "Most of the fiercest fighting took place up at the castle."

"You doubt or you hope?" Harry countered.

She cringed. "A little bit of both, I suppose." She seemed distracted, not paying as close attention to where she should be placing her feet. She was gazing out towards the Forbidden Forest in the near distance, something between wistfulness and bitterness in her expression. Harry studied her intently, almost to the point that he lost his footing himself. The urge to ask his girl what was wrong got stuck in his throat – aside from wondering if he still had the right to call her his girl, he could only hope that Ginny would come to him with her troubles, no matter what had passed between them.

"Nev, Lu and I were sentenced to detention in there," she whispered quietly, nodding towards the treeline.

Harry didn't take much stock in this, at first. "Hermione, your brother and I went in there for detention our first year, with Draco. Hagrid was with us."

Ginny snorted bitterly. "If only me and my mates had been so lucky, to have Hagrid."

That made the Chosen One pause. "You lot were sent in there alone?!"

Ginny smiled at him sadly. "The Carrows couldn't see past the ends of their wands, yet they were surprisingly inventive in doling out punishment."

Storm clouds gathered on Harry's face. "Excuse me while I go track down Alecto's corpse and Cruciatus it again…."

He was surprised by how Ginny hugged him, though he surmised that the embrace was to distract him from carrying out the threat more than anything else. They broke apart awkwardly before turning back to counting out their steps.

Not once did their feet touch the fleshy remains of a body, though they did spot plenty of debris and rubble amidst the tall grasses, even this far afield. Harry stooped to pick up a castle stone and examine it. There were no unnatural cuts in the masonry of this one that would suggest it had been blasted apart.

"Hagrid said that if we found any stone still intact, we should bring it back up to the castle. They could be reused."

Ginny nodded absently, even getting down on her hands and knees to feel around for any more stone work. Harry bit back a cautionary warning about ticks.

There was so much he wanted to say to her, and yet bollocks if he wasn't fumbling for words. It didn't help that, although she had made it clear last night that there were some things they needed to discuss, Ginny now seemed just as intent on postponing the conversation.

"Ginny?"

"Hmm?" Ginny's auburn curls tumbled back from her lovely face like a curtain as she glanced up, still kneeling in the meadow weeds. With the sunshine backlighting her, Harry was left breathless by her beauty. She seemed to be kneeling almost as if in prayer, just from her posture alone.

Slowly, he took his girlfriend's hand and helped her to her feet. He could feel Ginny peering at him curiously, almost waiting on baited breath.

"When… when I…." He faltered. Started again. "I know you understood why I broke it off end of last term…." Ginny began to open her mouth and he darted across her, desperate to finish his thought. "….. but that doesn't mean I'm not aware how much I hurt you in doing so."

She tilted her head judiciously, listening. Now with her complete attention, Harry smiled weakly and pressed on.

"I'm sorry if I've ever made you feel like…. you were being treated like a child." He chuckled. "I'm sure you've gotten enough of that from your mum, never mind your brothers. Please know that I've never consciously thought of you in that way for a long time – though even if I had recently, you certainly have proven everybody wrong." He glanced back towards Hogwarts; he could feel Ginny following his gaze. "Leading an entire insurrection while the seat of magical learning itself was under occupation…" The thought of the risks she must have taken made Harry shudder, even as they also left him deeply impressed.

Ginny chuckled nervously, and he spotted her blush. "Well, it wasn't just me alone. Neville and Luna helped out…."

"So I've heard," Harry muttered drily. The pair shared sly smiles before Ginny's turned into a wince.

"We really shouldn't be leaving those two alone, now should we?"

"No more than we should be leaving Hermione and your brother alone. Those two were quite eager to assign themselves cleaning up the library…"

Ginny half failed to wrestle down a squeal. She seemed anxious to start barraging him with questions on that score, particularly if her brother and her best girl friend had kissed any earlier than, well, in the middle of a bloody battle for their world. Harry reverted back to his original train of thought before they could get distracted.

"I know when we said goodbye in your room at the Burrow that day that you didn't want me to leave you. Please believe me when I say I didn't either." He flushed. "If it makes you feel any better, I would look at your dot on the Marauder's Map every night."

Ginny gaped at him, appearing touched. "Every night?"

His green eyes trapped and held her in place. "Every night." Harry sighed. "I was so scared that you were in danger. I left you behind in the first place because I didn't want to be the one to place you in any danger! I was trying to protect you…. even if I should have seen that you didn't ever need protecting." He smiled at her wanly. "Whatever else you want from me, want me to say, I'll say and do it. You deserve that much."

For a long moment, Ginny studied him, bemused. Finally, she breathed out through a long sigh. "How about the truth?"

Harry barked out a mirthless chuckle. "It's hard to know where to start, really."

"Just….. go from the beginning."

And so he did. Harry told her everything: about the Horcruxes. About the Deathly Hallows. About how Snape had been a double agent loyal to Dumbledore all along, and how these two men had held their own designs for Harry so that his destiny seemed almost pre-ordained. Never at any point did Harry recount his tale as if he was speaking to a child – he had stopped viewing Ginny as Ron's kid sister some time ago. If the past year had turned her into an adult, a woman, then he needed to treat her like one.

When the Boy Who Lived finally lurched to the end of his explanation, somewhat awkwardly, the words hung in the air for a long time. Ginny was quiet, unnervingly enough that Harry ducked his head to meet her gaze.

"So: are we…. OK….?"

In answer, Ginny wordlessly looped her arms around her lover's neck and kissed him deeply on the mouth. Parting his lips for hers, Harry quickly stole his arms around her waist and prolonged the kiss, deepened it.

When at last the pair broke apart, it felt almost as if they were experiencing their first kiss from spring of last term anew. Cerulean eyes solemn, Ginny took her boyfriend's hand.

"I think we've searched our section well enough. Besides, Mum wants all of us to meet her at the Hospital Wing."

Even as his heart leapt, Harry felt his legs turn to lead as he followed Ginny up the grassy knoll.