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oakstone730) wrote2012-12-16 05:56 pm
The Day After (or the Missing Chapters From the End of Deathly Hallows) Part 5/5
Part One
"Harry, wake up. It is time to get going," Ron shook him. "It is nearly eight, I promised my mum that we would meet them before the Ceremony." Ron was already dressed. Harry stared at Ron in his formal robes.
"Robes! I don't have my good ones! Where did you get those?"
"Hermione, of course, she had them in her bag. Kreacher got all the wrinkles out of them and everything. Yours are over there." Ron pointed as he was leaving.
Harry slowly got dressed and headed downstairs. Ginny was there waiting for him. "I sent the others on ahead," as Harry kissed her good morning.
"I guess there is nothing more to do than just get it over with," said Harry.
"You do realize that in the great perspective of things, considering that you have killed a basilisk, robbed a bank, survived the killing curse, and battled Voldemort; that giving a speech shouldn't seem so bad."
"Yeah, but I'm better with actions than words."
They headed to breakfast that was again being held in the Room of Requirement. The number of people gathered seemed to have grown even more. "How are we ever going to find my parents," asked Ginny bewildered.
"Just do what I always do, just walk until you see red hair and then hope there is a chair. But don't sit next to Dudley this time."
Ginny laughed, "He sat next to me last night."
By the time they found everyone Harry knew he couldn't sit down and try to eat. And he certainly wasn't up to talking to his aunt who was sitting next to the only empty chair. "I'm just going to head out and make sure everything is ready," he gave a quick wave of his hand and left before anyone could stop him.
The ceremony was being held in the Quidditch stadium. It was the only place large enough to hold everyone who had come for the ceremony. Where the house colors would normally fly during a Quidditch match fifty-three banners were hung, each with the image and dates for a fallen warrior from the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry slowly turned until he'd found Fred, Colin, Lupin and Tonks banners.
The playing field had been filled with chairs reserved for the families who lost loved ones, and a dais rose on one side of the field. Chairs for the speakers were set up and a podium was standing ready off to the side. Already people were filling in to the stadium seats. Beyond the playing field, outside the stadium he could see where the Field of Honor that had been dug. Nine rows across, six graves deep. Fifty-four. Harry realized that the last one was for Snape, he looked back at the banners, even though he knew already he wouldn't see Snape's face with all of the others.
He saw McGonagall, Shacklebolt, and the other wizards gathering off to the side. Taking a deep breath and wiping his sweating palms on his robe he slowly made his way over to them.
"Good morning Harry, ready to face your dragon?" queried Professor McGonagall as he drew up to them.
"Yes, ma'am" Harry responded with a confidence that he didn’t feel.
"Do you want to leave your speech up on the podium?" she offered.
"Um, no, that's okay."
"Potter, let me show you where you will be sitting," offered McGonagall as she led him away from the others. "Are you truly ready for this? It occurred to me this morning that you have stepped up to every challenge this school and the wizarding world has ever thrown at you. If this is just too much-"
"No," blurted Harry quickly, before he changed his mind. "I can do it." he said a little more firmly at her doubtful expression. "I owe it to Dumbledore and all of the others."
"Very good, Harry," and she walked away, her emerald dress robes flapping behind her as she walked to greet other dignitaries.
The stadium was quickly filling up now, Harry went behind the dais and leaned against one of the pillars. He stared up at the Quidditch rings that shone brilliantly in the sunshine. Some of his favorite memories had been made on this Quidditch field. It was sad to think that he would never have another opportunity to play a match within its walls.
Harry sensed her perfume and presence mere seconds before she touched his elbow. "Harry, I just wanted to wish you good luck and let you know..." reaching up she kissed him hard on the lips, and said in a rush "I love you" and darted off again, brushing past Shacklebolt as she was leaving.
"We are ready, Harry," Shacklebolt announced, Harry dragged his eyes away from Ginny's retreating form.
"Right," with a feeling of dread he followed other man up the stairs and on to the platform. It was only then he could see that everyone that come for the ceremony.
Harry sat in the chair and looked out over the hundreds of people that filled the stands. Every wizard and witch in Britain seemed to be in the stands. There was no way of finding Ginny in the crowd but he scanned looking for the tell-tale Weasley hair. He still hadn't spotted them when the first speaker stood up and approached the podium.
He heard the man he didn’t recognize start talking about the men and women who had died and the valor in which they sacrificed their lives. Then he heard McGonagall say his name and he forced himself to stand up and walk towards the podium. The roar of the crowd shook the platform.
Licking his lips nervously, he brushed the hair out of his eyes as he waited for the applause to die down. Looking out at the crowd he finally spotted the Weasleys. Ginny was clutching Hermione's hand and staring hard at him. A calm feeling came over him and he started.
"I was asked to talk to you about what happened, to tell you about Voldemort and how these brave men and women came to fight here. In order to tell you how and why everything happened, though, I have to talk about myself, even though this isn't my day, it isn't my story, but one can't be told without the other," Harry felt himself start to ramble and took a deep breath and started again.
"My name is Harry Potter," another roar filled the stadium. This time he did not let it die down on its own, he held up his hands and the crowd fell silent, "You, the wizarding community, have known who I am, far longer than I have known you. I was raised by my Muggle aunt and uncle who did not know what to do with me. It was only when Hagrid brought me my Hogwarts letter that I discovered that there was a magical world, one very different than the world that I knew growing up on Privet Drive.
"I had no idea what this new life would be like, I just knew that for the first time there might be an explanation for why I was so different from all the other people I knew. An explanation other than being what my aunt and uncle called a freak. Hagrid took me that first day to Diagon Alley, and as we walked through the Leaky Cauldron I heard people whisper my name, people came up to me and shook my hand, and I had no idea why.
"And then I came to Hogwarts. At last I had a place where I truly belonged. This was my home, my first home, for six years. That very first day at Hogwarts I had the luck to discover the two people who would become the best and most loyal friends anyone could have: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. I don't think they realized what they were in for, but through the last seven years they have been the one constant in my life. And they saved my life more times they I can possibly count.
"And I learned, finally, the truth about my parents. My parents who died protecting me from an evil man. A wizard so feared that few dared to speak his name. The wizard who had killed my parents and dozens more.
"It soon became clear to me and those around me that this wizard, Voldemort, really wanted me dead. It wasn't until my fifth year at Hogwarts that Dumbledore told me why. Voldemort had been told about a prophecy. A prophecy that he chose to believe, true or not, a prophecy that he believed meant that I was his enemy.
"Dumbledore knew that the day would come when there would be an ultimate battle to defeat Voldemort. Dumbledore had figured out Voldemort's darkest secrets. He had come up with a plan to destroy that which gave Voldemort much of his power. But it came at a huge price: he was fatally cursed during his quest to find a way to find Voldemort's weakness.
"Last year, when he knew that his life was ending, Dumbledore asked Severus Snape to be the one to kill him." A rumbling from the audience started to grow louder and louder. "He knew that this would put Professor Snape in a position to get even closer to Voldemort, it would put Professor Snape in a position to help our side."
Taking a deep breath, Harry went on, "Many of you are wondering where I have been for the last year. Why I wasn't organizing a revolt. Why I wasn't doing anything to stop Voldemort. That lives could have been saved if I had fought Voldemort sooner." The stadium had gone silent, he could almost hear all of the audience's collective breath paused, waiting for an explanation.
"Just before he died, Dumbledore told me what needed to be done to defeat Voldemort. Ron, Hermione and I spent the last year carrying out Dumbledore's plan. We could not reveal what we were doing to anyone. If Voldemort had found out, he would have unleashed every ounce of fury he had at defending his secrets and would have made them impossible to destroy. If we had skipped a step, Dumbledore's plan would fail.
"Severus Snape played a critical part in the defeat of Voldemort. He continued to help us, even though he knew that it would mean his death if Voldemort were to discover that he was on our side.
"The last part of Dumbledore's mission that he had given us involved a talisman that was concealed here at Hogwarts. It had to be destroyed. Ron, Hermione and I came here three nights ago in search of it. We knew that Voldemort would be coming here as soon as he heard about the Gringotts break-in, coming to secure his talisman. We needed to locate it before he did. The wizards and witches that heeded the call to arms, those who stood on the ramparts of Hogwarts are the true heroes of the day." He pointed around at the banners flying in the morning sun.
"If it was not for the bravery and strength of the hundreds of wizards, witches and magical creatures that came together that night and defended the very walls of Hogwarts from the Death Eaters, we would not be here today. It was in those last hours of the battle that we finally were able to destroy the last talisman. We would not have been able to do so if it were not for all the people protecting Hogwarts.
"Many of you heard Voldemort's command that he would kill not only every person who was at Hogwarts but their families as well, if they did not give me up to him." Harry's voice began to crack. "I will never be able to express how grateful I am to all of those who stood up in the fight and did not back down.
Harry looked down at the podium in front of him, his hands gripping the sides tightly. He could still hear the sounds of the wounded crying out for help, the sound of his footprints walking on the debris in the hallways during that final walk out of Hogwarts, the silence of the woods as he entered them. He forced himself to look up and sought out Ginny. Tears were streaming down her face as she met his gaze.
"I went into the woods to fulfill the last part of Dumbledore's mission, to meet Voldemort and put an end, finally, to his hold on this world.
"Dumbledore had told me that the most powerful charm I had to protect myself from Voldemort was love," Harry shook his head, "I never truly believed him. Dumbledore insisted that I return to Privet Drive every summer. And, when he finally explained the charm that he believed protected me, the charm that my mother created as she flung herself in front of Voldemort's killing curse. This charm he believed renewed itself every time I stayed in my aunt's home. I didn't think that such a love charm could exist, that love was strong enough to defend against evil as powerful as Voldemort.
"But I have learned that it is true. It was love, that in the end that defeated Voldemort.
"It was an undying and unspoken love that Severus Snape felt for my mother that made him defy Voldemort and provide Dumbledore and the Order with the essential information needed to help defeat Voldemort.
"It was love, that all of these fallen warriors had for their families, that they would sacrifice themselves so that their children could grow up in a safe world." Harry looked out at the families in front of him. He could see Andromeda Tonks holding a sleeping Teddy.
"It was love, that gave me the strength to walk into the Forbidden Forest to meet Voldemort and allow him to strike me down," Harry's eyes sought out Ginny's again. The stadium was completely silent.
"It was love, that destroyed Voldemort's powers and made his curse fail, that allowed me to survive once again.
"It was love, that gave Narcissa Malfoy the courage to lie to Voldemort and tell him that I was dead when he asked her to check on my body after delivering the killing curse.
Harry looked around at the thousands that were sitting before him, "And it is love, that will help us all get through the tremendous loss of these brave men and women in our lives. It is love that will heal the wizarding world and help us come together once again.
"Voldemort is dead. He will never return. It is because of the sacrifice of all of those who stood up and fought that night. The wizarding and Muggle worlds are again safe. But we must have, as Mad Eye Moody would have said, 'Constant Vigilance' to assure that our future generations will be safe from those who wish to do us harm.
Harry looked around the stadium, he didn't know what else to say. "Thank you," and walked quickly away from the podium and was off the platform before the audience realized what had happened. The stunned silence followed him until he had nearly reached the stadium gates, and then there was a thunderous applause and stomping of feet that didn't die down, even as he tore off his formal robes and started to run to get away from it.
He found himself at Dumbledore's tomb. He threw himself on his knees beside the cool marble on the far side of the tomb. His chest was heaving from the exertion, his heartbeat pounded loud in his ears as held his head in his hands. From a distance he could still hear the noise from the stadium.
A voice spoke quietly behind him, Harry jumped to his feet and raised his wand, lowering it as he saw Aberforth approaching him. "You did him proud, Harry." Harry couldn't respond, he put away his wand and put his arms up against the tomb, leaning on them for support. Slowly his breathing slowed down, Aberforth spoke again. "Dumbledore never doubted you."
"None of us ever doubted you, Harry." another voice came from behind them, Ginny walked around the corner of the tomb, Ron and Hermione were right behind her, panting from the race to keep up with his flight from the stadium.
"You did good, Harry," said Ron, "There wasn't a dry eye in the place by the time you were done."
"I don't know how, I really don't," he replied slowly, "I walked out to that podium without a clue about what I was going to say and suddenly words just came to me."
Ginny and Hermione shared a quick look, Harry zoned in on it with certainty. "What did you two do?"
"Nothing!" they both protested identically.
"What did you do?" He looked from Hermione to Ginny. He shifted his eyes back to Hermione and pressed her.
"Hermione. Tell me." he that felt his nerves were stretched so taut that they would shatter.
She gave in first, with a glance to Ginny she said, "We'll have to tell him."
Ginny winced, "Don't be mad Harry," and from her robe pocket she pulled out a small gold decorative bottle. Harry stared at it in disbelief, "Is that...?"
"Yes, the bottle of Felix Felicis you gave us last year." said Hermione, "We, Ginny and I, found it last night up in the girl's dormitory where we had hidden it last year. There were only a few drops left, I didn't really think it would be enough, and was sure that the good luck charm would have worn off by now."
"But how did you give it to me? There was no way you could have slipped it to me." Harry said positively.
With a sly grin, Ginny said. "I rubbed it on my lips right before kissing you."
Aberforth burst out laughing "You'll want to keep your eye on this one, Harry Potter," and walked away from them, chuckling to himself. "Come on down to the Hog's Head anytime, butterbeers are on the house for you four."
They watched as he walked towards the Whomping Willow and disappeared through the hidden tunnel underneath it.
Harry turned back to Ginny, from the corner of his eye he could see Ron and Hermione walking away, hand in hand.
"Come here."
"You aren't really mad are you, Harry?" she asked hesitantly.
He looked down at her "Tell me, was that the Felix Felicis talking when you said you loved me?"
She blushed, "No..."
He bowed his head and kissed her, "I love you, Ginny."
It was much later when they walked back into Hogwarts. Harry could tell that most of the people had left the castle. The halls rang empty as their footsteps traveled down the corridor. McGonagall called out to them as they passed her office.
"In here, if you will please, Harry, Ginny." They entered the office and saw that Shacklebolt was there.
"A very fine job, Potter." McGonagall's eyes were red-rimmed. "A fitting end to a terrible period in this school's history."
Harry shifted restlessly in his chair, he wanted nothing more than to crawl back through the Gryffindor portal and into his bed and sleep for a week.
"What comes next, Harry? asked Shacklebolt.
"I don't know." Harry straightened up, forced himself to think, "I feel like that all the last seven years have been working towards this day. I never could think of what would happen after Voldemort was dead. I had hoped," he said with a glance at McGonagall, "to become an Auror. But you have to graduate with N.E.W.T.s. and I dropped out of school. And, I feel bad that Hermione won't get to graduate, too. She was the best in our year and deserved to graduate."
"As former Head of the Auror department, you have my vote in confidence that you would be an excellent Auror," said Shacklebolt. "But it is a requirement of the position for all Aurors to have graduated with honors from Hogwarts." Harry nodded. He'd known that it would be too much to hope.
A smile came across McGonagall's face, "I believe that if you look at the Hogwarts student registry, Harry, you will find that you are indeed an enrolled student of Hogwarts. You, Ron, and Ginny opted to take a year of Independent Wizarding Studies with a special emphasis in the Defense Against the Dark Arts." Harry stared back at her in disbelief.
She pointed at three scrolls of parchment on her desk, "Your aunt, along with the Grangers and Weasleys, all signed the necessary paperwork before the school year began." said McGonagall. "I am fully prepared to go to the Hogwarts Board and request that you, with the satisfactory completion of a special summer session at Hogwarts, be allowed to graduate. The other two have already agreed to this plan."
Harry turned to look at Ginny, he had wanted nothing more than to go back to the Burrow with her and spend the summer making up for their lost time together before she had to go to school in the fall.
McGonagall added, “I should mention that the summer session will be open to all of the students who were forced out of the school by the events of this last year to catch up and advance with their classes, Miss Weasley included.”
Agreeing to see come back for the summer term, Harry and Ginny left the office. Hand in hand they walked slowly down the corridor. There were crews of wizards working on repairs and they meandered carefully past them, heading for the front steps.
Sitting down they looked out towards the lake. Ginny rested her head on Harry’s shoulder. Harry kissed the top of her head, smiling to himself as he remembered all the times that they had done this the year before. He didn’t want to think about her having to leave to go back to the Burrow.
As if summoned by his thoughts, he saw Arthur and Molly Weasley walking towards them, coming from the direction of the burial grounds. Arthur had his arm tightly around his wife. Molly clutched a handkerchief but had her face set, as if determined not to cry.
“Here you both are, we knew if we found one of you we would find the other,” Arthur Weasley said. Harry flushed but didn’t drop this arm from around Ginny’s shoulders.
“Did Professor McGonagall talk to you, dear?” Molly asked, looking at Harry.
“Yes, I told her that I would come back for the summer session.”
“I’m so glad. I think it will be good for all of you. To be back at Hogwarts without…” Molly’s voice faded, and she looked helplessly at her husband.
“Without having to be afraid,” Arthur said firmly. Harry felt the shudder that ran through Ginny’s body. He hadn’t talked to her about what had happened at the school while he was gone. Remembering what Neville has said about the Carrows, Harry was suddenly scared about what Ginny had been through. He knew she was never one to back down from a fight. And he hadn’t been there for her, he realized with dread.
Ginny’s parents looked at each other as if double-checking before speaking again. “Harry, have you thought about what you are going to do before the summer term begins?”
“Oh, erm, no. Stay here, I suppose. Or maybe at the Hog’s Head if Aberforth will let me,” Harry shrugged, he couldn’t tell her parents that all he wanted was to be with Ginny. “I can help with the repairs, I guess.”
“Don’t you think you’ve done enough?” Ginny looked at him with exasperation. She turned to look at him, her eyes glinting with a flash of anger, “If you think that you need to stay here--”
“Ginny,” Molly said with a shake of her head, “I think that Harry just meant that he wasn’t sure where he should go. Of course, Harry isn’t going to stay here. He is going to come home to the Burrow with us.”
Harry felt a flood of relief come over him, and he squeezed Ginny’s hand. “Are you sure? I don’t want to im--”
“Our home is yours, Harry. Always. No matter what happens,” Molly looked pointedly at Ginny’s and Harry’s clasped hands. “We may never have said it out loud but it needs to be said, we love you,” her voice trembled, “life is too short to not to tell the ones you love that they are important to you.”
Harry stood up and came down the steps and hugged her, “Thank you, for everything. For being there for me. For always taking me in when I needed you,” They stood there for a long minute with Arthur patting Harry on the back. Stepping back, Harry nodded brusquely, afraid that after so much happening so quickly that he might break down, “I’d love to come to the Burrow.”
“Well, that is settled.” Arthur said, a hint of a tremble in his own voice, “We are going to go back now. You two follow when you are ready, just don’t be too long.”
Ginny hugged her parents good-bye and together they watched the couple walk down the path towards Hogsmeade. When they weren’t visible anymore Harry turned to Ginny, “I suppose we should find Ron and Hermione.”
“Why?” Harry looked at her in surprise, “They have had you for the nine months, I think they can make it a few hours without you,” She took his hand and they started walking towards the lake.
Wordlessly, they headed down the path that would lead them around to the far side of the lake. Harry didn’t think he’d ever been more conscious of a person walking next to him before. Her fingers were holding his so tightly that he could hardly tell where her hand ended and his began. Looking over at her, the profile of her face that he’d dreamed about at night was as perfect as he remembered it. The faint dusting of freckles across her nose, the way her hair brushed against her shoulders.
There was something new though, a faint scar that ran along her jaw, healed but still faintly pink.
Stopping, Harry reached up and ran his finger along the scar. “How did that happen?”
Ginny reached up and put her hand over his, “Just before Easter holidays, I was going to meet Neville in his hideaway. He had gotten supplies we needed from Aberforth,” she shrugged, “Carrow, Alecto Carrow, caught a glimpse of me and cast a blasting hex as I was running away, it shattered a statue and I got cut by the stone. It wasn’t anything.”
“Didn’t Pomfrey--”
“We couldn’t go to her for anything. If we went to her for healing the Carrows would know about it. They had a monitoring spell on the Hospital Wing,” Ginny smiled faintly, “She would slip me salve and potions in the corridor, though.”
“Merlin, Ginny. You should have gone back to the Burrow--”
“And leave everyone else to fight without me? To give up?” Ginny lifted her chin stubbornly, “Never.”
“No, I don’t suppose you could have, but I didn’t know it was so bad. What else happened? Neville told me a little but…”
Ginny shrugged as she looked over the lake, “It was pretty bad most of the time. Everyone was frightened. Then Luna was taken from the train at Christmas…and I didn’t know what was happening with you. That was the worst feeling of all, not knowing what was happening.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you,” Harry swallowed hard, “If there had been any other way--”
“I know, I don’t blame you. I blame Voldemort, and the Carrows and all the other Death Eaters.” Ginny’s voice sounded bitter. “But they are gone and I have you back and that is all that matters.”
Walking over to one of the benches that were along the path, they sat down. “Can you tell me everything that happened? I want to know.”
“Are you going to tell me what happened to you? What happened in the Forest?”
“I need time to think about it. I will tell you, I promise,” Harry turned so he could put his arms around her. “It just is too much right now.” He was afraid that Ginny would be mad that he didn’t want to tell her yet. But it was too raw. He could still smell the smoke and dust of the battle, hear the cries of the fallen as he walked across the grass to the forest, feel the brush of the tree branches against his body as he followed the Death Eaters to Voldemort.
Right now he just needed to know that Ginny was safe, find out what had happened to her while he was gone. Fill in all the missing pieces.
Ginny seemed to understand, she started telling him what it was like at Hogwarts when she had returned without him. How the Carrows had set student against student and how she had banded together with Luna and Neville to restart Dumbledore’s Army.
Her voice trembled sometimes as she shared the worst of what had happened, but she went on steadily until she looked at him and smiled. “Then three days ago I felt the DA coin in my pocket and I realized that it was finally here. The time to fight. Not that you were going to let me,” giving him a sour look.
Harry nodded and couldn’t get the nerve up to laugh at her expression, the sight of Ginny coming through the tunnel had filled him with equal amounts of joy and terror. “I didn’t want to risk you. I didn’t know what was going to happen and I wanted you safe.”
“After all this time, don’t you realize that it was going to take all of us. You had the hardest part, but-”
“I know, it never would have worked. I couldn’t have won alone, but I didn’t want to be responsible for more people dying because of me.”
Ginny reared back and stared at him, an angry flush staining her cheeks, “You are not responsible for people dying. What kind of nonsense is that? Fred didn’t die because of you he died because of Voldemort, a Death Eater killed him.”
“But if Voldemort hadn’t believed the prophecy he wouldn’t have-”
“Of all the silly things you’ve said over the years that has to be the silliest,” Ginny put her hands on his cheeks, “You did not make that madman do all those things. He became fixated on you when you were a baby, for Merlin’s sake. You really think that baby-Harry was responsible for this all happening.” She nodded towards the damaged castle.
Harry nodded and bit back his response, he knew that in theory she was right but it didn’t make the burden on his heart any easier. The sun had started to sink towards the west and Harry knew that as understanding her parents were, they should be heading to the Burrow. “Let’s go home.”