Chapter Sixty Six
"HARRY!" Danica shrieked again.
Harry grinned and opened his arms as his little sister ran at him, crashed into him and hugged him so tightly he could hardly breath.
"Can't… breathe…" Harry joked, kissing his sister's head, "You're blonde!"
Danica laughed, "Auntie Tonks said she can fix it for me."
Harry felt tears dripping down his face, there's been a good while he'd never thought he'd see her again, "So…" he said, trying not to worry her, "did you like America?"
"Not really." Danica shrugged, "I wasn't going to be able to go to school or anything! I'm very happy to be back."
Harry could see Tonks and Remus wondering around. Narcissa burst into tears when she got to meet her great nephew, stroking her long, delicate fingers down his chubby, contented cheeks.
"I have to go do something." Harry said, shifting Danica off his knee.
"I'll come with you!" Danica pleaded.
Harry shook his head, "Not this time sweetie."
Danica huffed and crossed her arms, looking very cute as she did so.
"Cho, do you mind taking her to Mum? She's in the Hospital wing, and then join me at the steps to the Headmasters' study?" Harry asked.
Cho nodded and took Danica's hand, half having to drag her from the Hall. It didn't look half as scary in there now all the bodies were covered in white sheets.
Harry puffed out his cheeks before standing up and wondering around the castle, gathering up Hermione, Neville, Pansy, Daphne, Draco and William and taking them to the Headmasters' study, meeting Cho along the way.
They climbed the broken steps in silence, following Harry as he pushed open the door.
It hadn't changed much in the months Severus had been headmaster. Taped to the bottom of the main desk was a picture of Lily, Harry and Danica, hidden away so no one but Severus would ever know it was there.
Harry wasn't here for his father though. He was there for the pictures of the Headmasters and mistresses of all the years gone by. They still sat on the wall, somehow not one of them had been misplaced during the battle.
"Well done, Harry." Dumbledore beamed as the pictures clapped deafeningly.
Harry held a hand up to stop them, "Just… just shut up."
They looked surprised at him, looking side eyed to one another in their frames.
"People have died, many more have been horribly injured." Daphne pointed out, "This is no time for clapping!"
Some of the pictures looked slightly ashamed but most just looked insulted they had been told off by someone so much younger than them.
Harry knew he was doing the right thing though, so many of the ways of the past were going to have to change if they were to have any chance of stopping the next war, this was just one of them.
"You all helped Dumbledore, correct?" Harry asked, "While he was headmaster."
The pictures nodded.
"It is our duty to serve the head of Hogwarts." a rather pretty looking witch informed him sternly.
"However much we may… disagree with them." Phineas sneered.
Harry nodded, "Well, that's the problem isn't it? Dumbledore was wrong, that's becoming more and more clear to everyone, meaning you all were also wrong."
Dumbledore's picture let out a loud cough, glaring through his half moon spectacles at them, "Do pardon me Harry, but I think you will find I acted for the best… things were difficult and-"
"Oh shut up!" William said, rolling his eyes and insulting the portraits again, "We have a Great Hall filled with dead that suggest you didn't 'act for the best'."
Dumbledore opened his mouth to say something but Harry cut across him.
"This is just it." Harry said, "You are so sure you did the right thing, we're sure that you didn't. So, I'm going to get rid of you, all of you."
There was a loud wave of argument that Harry let play out before continuing.
"If you want to stay in the castle… you will have to act with some sort of a conscience. You can't just blindly follow people, it's insane!" Harry said, throwing his arms in the air with exasperation.
"We have always served." Dumbledore snapped, "Your own step father will be joining us, isn't that what you want?"
"Severus, my father," Harry said pointedly, "Isn't dead. I don't know if he wants to be headmaster still but that's not the point. Yes, he survived!" Harry snapped, seeing the shock on Dumbledore's face, "And this is just what I'm talking about! You thought the right thing to do, after all this, was to clap!"
Cho laid a calming hand on Harry's shoulder, "I think it would be best if we started a fresh. A new way for our new world."
Harry nodded, taking several calming breaths and fighting the urge to set every picture on the wall on fire, "You'll be returned to your families, and you can discuss with them where you'd like to go but it wont be here, it wont be anywhere you are able to pull strings and mess with peoples' lives any more."
"I suggest you pick somewhere in the real world." Draco said, calmly but with the air of someone to be obeyed, "Somewhere you can see what you have missed, or ignored, and adjust once more to people living."
"And what makes you think you'll get away with this?" Dumbledore demanded.
Harry smiled, "I predict I'm going to get about four more months of getting just about anything I want before people even start to think about saying no. After all, I'm the boy who lived!"
He turned and left the office without another look, ignoring the cries of anger and pleading behind him. For too long those old, long dead witches and wizards had had far more power than was good for them or anyone else, rarely seeing anyone but the headmaster and the odd student.
Definitely time for a change.
Lily didn't want Danica to be in the Hospital wing. She allowed her a moment to hug Severus, soaking his bandages with her tears, before taking her out again.
The whole castle stunk of death, blood and the bitter smoke of far too many curses flung about in quick succession. She had no idea where to take her young daughter, although the first thing she did was quickly change her hair back to black, Danica had looked very strange as a blonde.
They wondered almost aimlessly through the corridors, Lily pulling her to the other side of the hallway whenever they passed a room where the fallen Death Eaters lay.
In the end they ended up back at the Great Hall. Lily didn't want to go in but Danica rolled her eyes, looking very grown up for her nine years and pointed out she'd already been in the Hall so it couldn't be that bad for her to go back in again.
It was emptying quickly anyway as families and friends took their loved ones away.
Narcissa and Lucius were sitting on the edge of the teachers' platform, Luna and Draco sitting a little way away from them while Corvus was clamped between them.
Corvus's eyes were bloodshot red with tears, he looked very small and completely lost.
"How are you all?" Lily asked, letting Danica scramble onto Narcissa's lap.
"Draco is helping Miss Lovegood, her father was one of the fallen." Lucius said, trying not to smile at the sight of his son and Luna, now was not the time to be thinking about how perfect they looked together.
"We're going to take Corvus in." Narcissa informed Lily, "I don't know if you'll approve but it's between us or Andromeda for his family now, and… well she'll be busy helping Tonks and Remus and the baby."
"Besides, he already has a bedroom at the manor." Lucius said, pulling Corvus a little closer into his side, "We'll be happy to look after him."
Corvus burst into a fresh wave of tears. He'd never been wanted before, not really. He'd been nothing but a disappointment to his mother and father, his uncle and siblings, all of which now lay dead in one of the charms classrooms.
He'd been in to identify the bodies, as was required, but he hadn't seen them since and there wasn't a single part of him that wanted to. The knowledge that he was going to have to organise their funerals and set their affairs in order had crippled him, he'd assumed he'd be having to do it all alone.
Narcissa and Lucius had assured him that wasn't going to be the case.
The Ministry had already sent along an official, one of several who arrived at the school hours after the battle was well and truly over, to tell Corvus in great detail how insecure his position was.
He was going to be arrested and placed in a Ministry holding as his parents and family were dead and they couldn't be sure which side he'd been working on. Until it was decided all of his assets and inheritance would also be under Ministry control.
Understandably Narcissa and Lucius had quite literally shouted them down. They informed the rather jumpy official that they would be taking over custody of Corvus until he was seventeen and of age, he would be living with them and would have full access to his own 'assets'.
They also pointed out, as did a very loud group of Weasleys and many others, that there could be no question of which side Corvus had fought for. He'd saved Fred's life at the expense of his sister's. Corvus was a war hero and was going to be treated as such.
Narcissa and Lucius agreed he was currently too young to inherit such a large estate and would arrange a meeting with the Ministry and various lawyers first thing Monday morning to discuss the issue. But they were to make no mistake, the estate was, and would remain, Corvus's.
Corvus had protested himself that he didn't want it, Narcissa and Lucius said that should that still be the case when he came of age he could sell it and give the money away as he wanted, until then they would protect it, and him, from anyone wishing to take advantage as well as teaching him how to care for a large estate.
The Ministry official had been too afraid to argue really. They had been sent there on the understanding the previous Minister had 'fallen ill' and was no longer fit for duty and there had been a small issue at Hogwarts, with a few casualties which needed some smoothing over. As a result they were in no mood to argue with those who had actually fought what appeared to be a brutal and deciding battle.
That had all lead to Corvus crying a lot as he tried to deal with everything that had happened and everything he was feeling, snuggled tightly between his new 'parents', a feeling in itself he was not at all used to.
All of a sudden though, all that melted away.
Corvus leapt down from the stage and rushed across the room, throwing himself at Thomas, being perfectly happy to never let go again.
Thomas had left the school, as had been carefully planned and been highly confused when he couldn't find Corvus on the other side. He'd dragged Matthew through the crowds, getting more and more worried as he couldn't find him. That worry had turned to full on panic when the last of those leaving the school were through and the exit was sealed shut.
Thomas had paced back and forth, very, very glad he was not one of the ones who had to go home with their families but was allowed to stay at the Hogshead, mostly as all his family his parents trusted were fighting at the school. Apart from his Grandmother, who couldn't leave the twins to collect them.
He had returned the second they'd be told it was safe, not waiting to hear anything more but dragging Matthew back through the tunnel and rushing all over the castle looking for Corvus.
Thomas had been avoiding the Great Hall, he couldn't bare the idea of walking in there and seeing Corvus laying among the dead but eventually it was one of the last places he had to look.
He gripped Corvus to him and allowed a sob of relief to escape his chest, "I was so worried."
"Tell me about it!" Corvus said, silent tears running down his cheeks as he finally allowed himself to begin to relax.
Thomas broke the hug, holding Corvus at arms length, "Why the hell didn't you leave?!"
"I saw you leave the line…" Corvus tried to explain.
"I was just saying goodbye to my family." Thomas said, half way between a snap and a sigh.
"I couldn't leave until I knew you were safe." Corvus whispered, all the fear he'd felt flaring back up again.
Thomas felt his eyes brim with a fresh wave of tears, not the first to be spilled and certainly wouldn't be the last, but they were happy tears really.
He pulled Corvus back into another hug and let everything else fall away.