Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

A New Era	By : Don_Silk Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Harry/Ginny Views: 15227 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Any HP character or part of world belongs to JK Rowling. This story is only a tribute to her fantastic work, and I don't intend to make any financial earning from it.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
- 3
It was a distant *crack* that brought Harry back to awakening. Ginny was stirring between his arms, and the sensation of her love flowing toward him was still present. He knew at that moment that the aura of their love would never leave them, and that he would be able to find that elating feeling any time their arms would enclosed.
He opened his eyes, and saw Kreacher standing a few feet away, looking purposefully away from them. He called to let him know he was awake.
"Kreacher has come to return your clothes, Master, from Miss Hermione's bag, as Master Harry had required. Kreacher apologizes for the time it took, but Miss Hermione had been sleeping a long time, and Master Harry had required Kreacher not to wake her up."
"You did well, Kreacher, not to wake her up". He was glad Hermione had slept long, for he would have despised Kreacher's interruption during his intimate moment with Ginny.
"Kreacher also took the liberty of cleaning and ironing Master Harry's clothes, for Kreacher thought they needed it, Master."
"Oh, thanks a lot for that attention, Kreacher." He knew the clothes he had carried along were not really clean, having done it himself, with far from perfect skills on the subject.
He was trying to reach for his glasses but failed to retrieve them, before realising that he had never removed them. Ginny was looking from Harry to Kreacher, slack-jawed. Harry smiled, and explained her the radical change in his relationship with his house-elf.
"The first place we stayed after running from the Death-Eaters at Bill and Fleur's wedding was Grimmauld Place. We stayed quite a long time there, and we learned to know Kreacher, and he us. Now he's perfectly fine about me being his master, as much as I'm perfectly fine with him belonging to me. He's even nice and polite to Hermione!"
Ginny looked for a moment at Kreacher, her nose still frowning. She looked at Harry who smiled encouragingly. She shrugged before letting her head resting on his shoulder again, her face showing that if Harry was fine with him, there wouldn't be a problem from her. Harry turned back to Kreacher.
"Kreacher also have a request from Miss Hermione, Master."
"Sure, go ahead..."
"Actually, Master, the request is for Miss Ginny..." he seemed to be wondering about something, and he looked to Ginny for a second. "Please forgive Kreacher, Master, for Kreacher has a question. Does Kreacher has to call Miss Ginny his Mistress?"
Harry looked at Ginny who smiled back. "Your choice, love!" she answered his questioning gaze.
"Well, why not! Better start early, if you want to, Kreacher. One day she might want to be..." a hard pinch on his ribs made him stop.
"So, what's the request, Kreacher?"
"Miss Hermione had expected Mistress Ginny to be with his Master, and asked him to bring clothes for Mistress Ginny too. But Kreacher has found no clothes of his Mistress in the Castle. So Kreacher has come to ask if he should go to Mistress Ginny's house and fetch it."
He bowed low while Ginny answered.
"Well, it would be great! However, all my stuff are at Aunt's Muriel's place... She will be a pain, if you go there... Could you summon my trunk here instead?"
She had barely finished her sentence that Kreacher, with a smile, had snapped his fingers. With a faint *pop*, her trunk had appeared in a corner of the bathroom.
"That's efficiency!", laughed Harry. "Well, thanks a bunch, Kreacher, you've done great!"
Kreacher bowed low and smiled. "Kreacher is only happy when his masters are happy of his service, Master."
"One last thing, could you make sure that no one sees us leaving the bathroom in about ten minutes, and then send Ginny's trunk to her dormitory?"
"With pleasure, Master." He bowed once more, and walked away. Harry was about to go and lock the door behind him when he heard it lock itself again.
Once alone, the two lovers turned to each other.
"Hello gorgeous", Ginny said, reaching for kissing him.
"Hello, sunshine", he answered when their lips separated.
"Do you know what time it is?" Ginny asked.
"Nope, but I'm starving! And since Hermione just woke, it mustn't be that late... or maybe it is, but I frankly don't care!"
He pulled himself up, hand raised to help Ginny to her feet. For a second, he was again amazed by her beauty, and he had to master himself to not try and start again with her here and now. By the look of longing in her eyes, she seemed to struggle just as much.
"Well, I think I still need a shower, though... that's for a wash I was in there for in the first place!"
There were no showers per se in the bathroom, but some of the taps on the side of the pool were arranged so that they could be used as shower heads.
While they had been sleeping, the room had tidied itself, and the pool was now empty. If it was their doing, Harry could only marvel at the discretion of the elves and be very glad of it. They may have probably seen so many things over their time in the castle and yet they had conscienciously kept every students' secrets.
He lowered himself in the pool, and, in a reverse movement of the one he had used earlier to lift her up onto the towel, brought her in his arms to the bottom of the pool.
"Well", she said kissing his neck, "we must be efficient, now... damn... why didn't you tell him ten minutes and not one hour?"
Harry laughed, but felt a small tension growing in his crotch.
He released her, and they positioned under taps. They each washed themselves alone, however not missing any movement of each other's hand over their bodies. He found it very hard to keep control and not touch himself as Ginny's soapy hand slowly slided between her legs. It turned him on a lot, his cock was definitely up. A few seconds later, it was her turn to look at him as his hand slide along it, covering it with soap, and her mouth was slightly opened, her tongue licking her lips.
But there was no time, and they quickly finished their wash. They dried themselves with new towels, this time helping each other. It was again wonderful to feel her hands on him, even through the fluffy fabric.
Then he turned to his stack of clothes, and dressed himself quickly. When he turned to her, she had just finished rummaging in her trunk and was pulling up a magnificent red laced pant over her legs. Harry felt a hint disappointment of seeing her body slowly disappear under layers of clothes, though he found all of them to be the prettiest thing. Ginny might have read it on his face, for a smirk crossed her face.
"Don't worry, Harry, the gift-wrap has never prevented any kid from reaching the toys!"
"That could only make me wish Christmas morning was several times a day!"
Having thrown all the used towels down the laundry chute, and closed Ginny's trunk properly, they made their way to the door. Opening it only an inch, Harry peered through, and was relieved to see that it was empty, whether or not it was Kreacher's doing. He didn't feel like he wanted to hide Ginny, but there were some things that needed to be done before anyone else knew about it.
In the corridor, a window with a few missing panes allowed them to see outside. The sun was getting low over the Scottish hills, and Harry assumed it was around seven.
"Where to now?" she asked him. He grinned at the irony of that sentence. "What? what's funny?"
"Well, it's just... it's probably the sentence I heard most during the whole... er... journey. From a less good-looking Weasley, though!"
"You'll have to explain, then..." she stopped speaking at once, blushing a bit. "When you're ready, of course", she ended in a whisper.
"Well, you know, I think I am ready. Tomorrow, if everyone I need there can come, truth will finally be available to everybody. Hope you like really long stories..."
"After years of Binns, and even more of Percy, I can't say I truly enjoy it. But, with a good story and a really good narrator for a change, I think I would be able to manage!" Her laugh, once again, was like a sweet music to his ears.
"Well, all that's nice", she kept on with a smile, 'but that doesn't answer my question. Great Hall?"
"Well, can you go and wait for me there? I won't be long, but there's someone I need to see and speak to first, and I can only do it alone." He was looking straight into her eyes. The look of concern in Harry's face was enough to make her understand what discussion he was heading to.
"Tell him that if he gives you a hard time about it, I'll hex him until he begs for mercy. I don't think you should mention the bathroom, though!", she added with a mischievous smile. "See you downstairs, my love!"
She kissed him, and walked carefully down the marble staircase, while he made his way up to the Gryffindor common room.
As he reached the portrait of the fat Lady, she started to ask for the password as usual, but when she recognised him with a shriek, she burst open without even waiting for his answer. He was glad, he still had no time to ask anyone about it.
Inside, much more people were gathered than when he had left. From a chair near the fire, Seamus called for him.
"Hey Harry! All right there, mate? We wondered where you been. Ron was looking for you."
"Oh, I'm fine, thanks! I just been for a very long bath, I definitely needed it. D'you know where Ron is?"
"I think he's upstairs".
Waving, Harry climbed to the dormitory, and entered.
Ron's four posters was closed. He called.
"Ron? You there?" A small shriek, definitely not Ron's voice, irrupted from the bed. Apparently, he and Hermione were having some good time too. Picturing how he would have felt if Hermione had walked on him and Ginny a bit earlier, he turned around as fast as he could.
"I'll wait for you downstairs, Ron, I heard you were looking for me..."
He didn't wait for an answer and rushed to the common room. Apparently surprised to see him back so soon, Seamus raised his head, and Harry joined him.
"Weren't he there? Why are you so red?" Harry tried to act as if nothing had happened, but his face had already revealed far too much. Seamus roared with laughter.
"Ron? And who with? Oi, Dean, come over here! Ron's shaking the mattress upstairs!" Immediately, quite everyone in the common room was gazing at the stairs to the boys dormitory. A few girls were starting to giggle loudly.
Harry felt bad. "Real gentleman, Seamus." He said shaking his head in disbelief. "Leave it alone, I mean it." The two were rushing toward the boy's dormitory. Harry pulled his wand, and taking a leaf from Hermione's book, pointed it at the stairs just as they had taken the first eight or ten steps.
"Glisseo"
The two boys seemed to run in mid-air, and fell back down, to the roars of laughter of the whole room.
"Oh come on, Harry," Seamus was pleading while trying to lift himself backup, "it's just for fun!And it's our dorm too, if he wanted privacy he'd gone to another place. It's not like this castle doesn't hold any spare rooms."
Harry's face, still red but very serious looking now, stopped their laughter, and they looked concerned "All, right," Dean added a bit shamefully, "it's okay, it was just for the good fun. Ron's the fun guy, you know he won't take it bad."
"How could anyone find it all right to have monkeys invade private time, you idiots? Would you really find it funny yourself?"
"No... you're right. Sorry. Who is she, anyway?"
"I won't tell you anything, don't ask."
"We'll see her anyway, she's bound to come down..." Dean added with a blink to Seamus, obviously spoting the failure in Harry's secret keeping plan.
Harry flicked his wand, and his patronus ran to the dormitory. His message, that no one in the common room could hear, was simple: "Hermione, my invisibility cape is under my pillow".
He smiled to the two boys, who had been totally taken aback by his move. "Wait and see, then!".
After a few minutes, the staircase suddenly turned back to its original form, and Ron stepped down. He was wearing a look of 'nothing to see here', but his red ears were a definite tell of his embarrassment.
Many people were trying to see which girl would be following him.
"So, Ron," Dean asked him, unable to keep it any longer, "who was she?"
"Who?", feigned Ron, turning even redder.
"You were with someone upstairs, a girl, and we want to know who that was".
"There weren't anyone upstairs. I was sleeping, Harry woke me up and I came downstairs, that's all."
Seamus turned to Harry.
"You told us he was with someone, Harry! So, who was it?"
Ron looked at Harry, at the same time startled and murderous. Before Harry could deny, Neville came to his rescue, from the chair behind him.
"No guys, Harry didn't say he was! Seamus just assumed from his red face!"
It was Seamus turn to redden. Harry's mind raced, and he started to laugh at Seamus face, hoping that Ron would take his hint and follow him.
"One point to us, guys!" he laughed, and extended his hand to Ron, clearly waiting for a high five. It took Ron a second to understand, and he slammed Harry's hand, laughing, though a bit forced.
"Well, anyway," Harry told Ron after about thirty seconds. "Shall we go down and eat something?"
"Yes, bright idea" Ron answered, looking relieved for a good reason to be anywhere else.
"We should wait for Hermione though. Still in her dorm, you reckon?"
"Not anymore, here she comes," said Ron pointing behind Harry, who turned to see her walking down her own staircase. She too was a bit pink on the cheek.
"Good, let's go, then," Ron concluded, "I'm starving!"
Together, they walked through the portrait hole. A few steps down the corridor, Harry pulled them in an empty room, and shut the door behind them.
"Gosh, Harry," Hermione began, breathing in relief, "we owe you one here."
"Yeah, mate, you were great. If they had been the one discovering us..."
"I'd died of shame", finished Hermione.
"Don't mention it guys. If I hadn't walked on you in the first place... Anyway, we have to talk."
The serious on his face made them look worry.
"What, is there anything wrong? Did we forget something? I thought we were over with.." Hermione's face was definitely showing her worries.
"Oh, no, no!" he corrected them quickly, "Nothing like that, nothing' wrong, far from it!"
He cast a meaningful look at Hermione, who startled with a small "oh, yes." and smiled as she understood.
Ron, who had sat down on top of a desk, looked from one to the other.
"Am I missing something here? Anything you two care to share?"
Harry took a deep breath before answering.
"As a matter of fact, yes"
Hermione had moved to stand behind Ron's back, placing her arms around him, her chin on his shoulder.
"Well, Ron... it's about Ginny... and me..." Ron looked puzzled. He was so damn slow on the uptake, sometimes. "We are back together."
Ron's face suddenly flashed anger, but Hermione's hand prevented him from doing anything, and she softly whispered to his ear "Shhh, sweety, listen before getting mad, please. Can you try and do that, please, for me?"
He breathed deeply but listened to her request, and Harry spoke again.
"The truth is, Ron, that I love her, and she loves me. I know what you might think about me leaving her behind last year. I never ditched her because I didn't love her. She's the greatest witch I ever known – no disregard for your abilities, Hermione."
She smiled at him, her hands still on Ron, sometime pushing on him as though to remind him of her request. "I won't expect fairness from you on this matter, Harry!"
"Anyway," Harry resumed, "I want to tell you it won't happen again. She knows why we had to... err... go different ways for a while. She didn't know anything about the quest I needed to do, unlike you guys, and making her come with us would have only put her into arm's way for no other reason but my satisfaction of having her near me. And I didn't want anyone to know how deeply I love her. For the whole world, she just was a girl I ditched, so they wouldn't use her to get to me. I couldn't take a chance and have another Sirius' situation."
Ron was still looking annoyed, but no longer fuming.
"Ron, I swear to you on anything I care about that I can never hurt her on purpose. I know your brotherly love is deep, but you can't imagine the love I have for her. I care for her the way no one can, there's no one in this world that would love her more than I do. I would die without a second thought if it meant that she would be safe."
He paused a second, smirked and look to Ron's eyes. "I kind of did, as a matter of fact. Don't take it bad guys, I really like you too, but she was the first and only one on my mind when I took my walk to the forest. Knowing my death could help her survive was the only reason I was able to do it."
Ron was nodding a sort of agreement, though still frowning. He opened his mouth once, closed it, and after a few seconds finally spoke.
"All right. I will try and trust you. But I swear to all that I care about" -he had strongly emphasized the I -"that if you ever make her cry, I'll be here to kick your sorry ass to apologies, all Boy Who Lived hero that you might be."
Harry rose his hand to his cheek where Ginny had slapped him. While he had dressed he had seen in the mirror the large bruise there. Pressing his fingers on it was pretty painful. Luckily for him, with so many people sporting various marks of the battle, and him at least as much as anyone, no none had taken any attention to it.
"Don't you think she's not big enough to make her point herself? "
Ron smiled when he saw the bruise and took the hint. "That's hers? Well, glad to see you two finally getting along fine, then!" Harry felt relieved to hear the hint of sarcasm in his voice.
Standing up, he turned to Hermione, grabbed her hand, and turned to the door.
"So, what about this dinner? It's getting late, and I already told you I'm starving."
Hermione smiled broadly at Harry, and together they walked down to the Great Hall. Just before entering, Hermione grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him back for a kiss. Whether on purpose to give Harry a bit of time alone first or not, he could only be really grateful of it. He pushed the large oak doors and stepped in.
To his surprise, it was still pretty crowded. Many people had stayed there and were in no rush to leave, wanting to be with others, some seeking comfort from friends, some just not wanting to leave weary friends alone.
He spotted Ginny seated at the Ravenclaw's table next to Luna, Cho and a few others from that house, and he joined her. Thanks to Hermione's move, Harry was able to speak a few seconds to her out of her brother's earshot.
"So, how did it go? " she asked as he sat on the bench opposite to hers, "do I have to go and hex him to reason?"
Harry smiled, and caressed her leg with his foot.
"It went better than expected. Hermione was of great help to sooth him, though. And the fact I just saved him the embarrassment of anyone storming on him while he was in bed with her may have played its part too."
"You mean they were..." She turned and saw them closer than they had ever been, his arm over her shoulder and hers around his hips.
"Finally!", she whispered with a smile,"I told her ages ago to make the first step, but she wouldn't listen to me."
"You seem to have some knowledge on that matter..."
"Like you don't know!" she pretended to roll her eyes and winked at him.
Hermione had reached them and sat next to him as Ron had walked around the table to sit next to Ginny. He cast her a look, but said nothing and turned his gaze to the empty plate in front of him.
It was late, and Harry hoped that they hadn't missed their cue. Ron's stomach rumbled loudly and he groaned.
"What wouldn't I give for some shepherd's pie!" He looked around to see unsuccessfully if there were any remains of food on the other tables, but as he turned back with a disgruntle look, he was surprised to find one waiting for him on his plate, fuming and delicious looking.
The whole table laughed at his stunned look. Soon, Harry and Ginny had asked for their favourite dish, and enjoyed receiving it a few moments later, like it had happened during the Yule ball. Even Hermione did it, after sighing loudly.
Food was great as usual, and they enjoyed several helpings of each dishes, until they felt full.
For a long time, the discussion turned mostly about losses and winning the war, and the wonders of what would happen next.
Harry felt no longer so down about the one they had lost. He was sad, of course, but he was able to face it without the guilt he had felt since he had seen them lying where he seated now. Any time he felt his heart ache when thinking of Fred, or Remus, or Tonks, or any of them, he could feel like a wave hitting him from across the table, positive energy pulsing from his favourite red-haired, and he remembered he wasn't responsible for their demise.
The heat from Ginny was a very strange feeling he didn't understand, and there was only one person he could ask about it. As every one was chatting with someone else, he turned to Hermione, and asked her in a half tone:
"Hermione, you don't know anything about magical connections created by love, or things like that, do you?"
"You mean like the protection your mum's love left in you?"
"Well, maybe." he blushed and braced himself to express his real question. "Not really, actually. I was thinking more between two lovers, actually."
"Well, when people get married in the wizarding word, it creates a magical contract that binds them together. From what I read, it helps remembering what they love in each others in the first place when times are bad."
"Oh.. right, but... is there other links? Between unmarried people?"
"Not that I know of. Oh, well there's this one thing, but it's so undocumented, it's probably not even real."
"Do tell, whatever it is."
"Well, I read about something like that in a book a few years back. Something that was called the 'lovers aura'." She frowned the way she did when Luna was speaking of Crumple-horned Snorkack.
"There is a belief, that when two magic people are really soul mates, like truly made for one another, and share their love, that some kind of connection is created between them. Their magic will flow from one to the other. It is said that it can be some kind of shield to sadness or bad thought. They are said to be able to share things without words, even very far from each other, like a kind of telepathy."
She blushed a bit.
"It is also said that the lovers will see each other in a way no one else can, and, well..." She redden even more and looked at her plate, leaving her sentence hanging. She wore the embarrassed smile she might have wore if he had asked her to tell a really kinky secret.
Harry knew it was about sexuality, for he knew it was the only thing she was very shy about.
"Come on Hermione, tell me, please. I need to know."
She looked at him, and spoke in barely more than a whisper. "You know I don't like talking about this. It makes me feel awkward."
"It's fine," he added, "we've seen each other naked, this can't be more awkward..."
She breathed, gave him a weak smile, and seemed to give up.
"All right, some say that when people sharing this love aura are alone together, in real intimacy... well... magic will take over and make their love flow out of them, like an explosion of feelings, when they reach climax."
Harry knew how much telling it felt wrong to her, and he changed the course of the discussion.
"Don't you believe it?" he asked her? "Why do you keep saying 'is believed' or 'is said'?
"Well, a few people have claimed it, and studies were made, but no one could ever prove it. Among the studies, there was one where they interviewed thousands of couples, but not any seemed to share that 'love aura'. The one talking about it were probably only trying to tell how much they loved each other. As far as knowledge goes, there aren't any proof that magic will play any part more than eventual uncontrolled wandless magic, as it may always happen when a witch or a wizard is overwhelmed and loses control of its emotions.
Anyway, why do you ask? Did you hear about it?"
The discussion they were having was a bit surreal to Harry, but he felt it was the proof of how strong their friendship was, for he wouldn't have muster the ability to ask anyone else about it. Hermione also wouldn't have probably been through so many details with a lot of people.
"Well, Dumbledore was probably one to believe in its existence, for he told many time about love being a very powerful form of magic, probably the most powerful of all."
"But it's not why you asked me, is it?"
It was his turn to express deep discomfort. Why in hell did he had to ask her about it? He looked at her, and then surreptitiously at Ginny.
"You got to swear never to tell anyone I told you. Especially her, or she'll skin me alive."
She looked at him with a friendly smile.
"Seems I wasn't lying when I told Ron earlier I loved her more than anyone could ever love her, then..." he added. "I feel things when we are close, like energy flowing to me, like heat and I feel better. And something weird happened earlier too when we were..."
"I don't want to know!" she cut him, although he wasn't going to go any further. "I could go and find that book in the library, if you want, though, so you'll know about it and I will not have to!" She smiled, patted his back in an affective move as he thanked her, and she turned back to chat with the few people that remained at the table..
Harry was thinking of asking Ginny if they should go back upstairs when Professor McGonagall came to him from across the Hall.
"Here you are, Mr Potter. I had been looking for you, but I thought you were still sleeping. I met Molly Weasley as she was leaving, she told me you might be here. So, I would like a world, in private. Of course, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger might want to be there as well. I know it is getting late, but some matters are quite urgent. Would you follow me to my office?"
"Of course Professor. I was thinking I would need to meet you tomorrow morning anyway."
He stood, imitated by Ron and Hermione and, to Professor McGonagall puzzlement, Ginny. She gave Harry a questioning look. He answered by a slight nod, and with a look to the few people that were still around, he tried to make her understand his answer was not for their privilege. She didn't question any further and turn toward the doors.
She led them to her office next to the transfiguration classroom. When she had closed the door behind them, she was tactful enough not to repeat her questioning look over Ginny's presence, but Harry answered her anyway.
"Ginny doesn't know most of it yet, but from now on there will never be any secret I will keep away from her. Anything we may discuss, she'll know anyway." He smiled at Ginny. "She might even find out more than everyone else, actually."
McGonagall smiled looking at them both.
"Congratulations, then!"
Harry expected her to get around her desk to seat, but she pulled her wand and drew five chairs in a circle He felt the student teacher boundary break, as she treated them as equals. At that moment, they were the one she could learn things from.
"Well, first, as you might imagine, many people have questions for you. More than you may think, actually." She pointed at stacks of letters on her desk. There might have been over a hundred.
"Kingsley, Molly Weasley and I have discussed earlier, while you were asleep, and thought that your mail should be checked before it reaches you. Your victory in a duel against the wizard quite everyone feared more than anything may prevent any direct attack, but desperate moves using cursed letters could be feared. We decided that you mail should be checked and sorted first. Of course, that decision could only be yours, so if you don't want to, just tell."
"Oh, no, it's perfect!" he answered in a rush. He was gazing at the number of letters that had arrived in only a few hours, and he thought he would never be able to do anything else than opening letters if he had to do it all by himself.
"Right, then. For today I was the one doing it, but Kingsley assured me that someone from the ministry would be assigned to it tomorrow. It was quite hard, it seemed that plenty of people were volunteering for the job, but we needed someone discreet and that we could trust. He told me he could make a list of a few people for you to chose from if you would prefer."
"No, it's okay, I trust Kingsley to choose right. I'll trust anyone he'll choose."
"Good, I'll tell him. So, now that this is dealt with, we can go back to the letters. As you can see, there are congratulations and appreciations, which are the most part of it." She separated the biggest part of the stack. She smiled at Ginny while pointing at a second rather large stack. "A few proposals and love letters too." Ginny rolled her eyes and sent Harry a menacing look that could only be understood as 'don't even try and read these'.
Pointing at a few others, the professor scowled in disgust. "Those are from ill-wishers. It will be send to the Auror Office to investigate, some of them might be from death-eaters or their supporters, who might need to be questioned."
"And then", she pointed at the last stack, all looking very official, "there are the requests. Most of these are from the press, but Kingsley had informed me that many people in the Ministry have expressed their need for answers, mostly the magical law enforcement heads of divisions."
The prospect of facing plenty of people, and explaining everything to unknown strangers was making him feel uncomfortable. He knew that many wouldn't just accept him answering that some details were to be taken to his grave.
"I can't be the one to answer to them." he said quietly. The image of him seating in front of a full room of strangers made the memory of his hearing after he'd been attacked by the dementors in Privet Drive resurface. The only idea of having to live a moment like that again was more than he could muster.
"I know that everyone will want me to explain everything, just like they have for the last seven years,and I have already thought about it. We will give all the answer to a selected few, and they could then give anyone who need it the truth about all this. Some parts of the story can not be said to just anybody, and some elements are really awful. As we have been living with it for so long, it really doesn't shock us anymore, but it will be best if some people relay the story, so they can keep quiet things that are probably too much for the rest of the world.
We need people we can trust will understand that, not push when we need to hide things and not take it as a whim from our part. It would be too hard to tell the story if we can't fully trust the one we tell."
"Of course", replied McGonagall, "I understand. Do you know how long you need to be ready, and decide who you would like to come?"
"I won't say for Ron and Hermione, but I can do it now. I am ready. About the people, I have thought about it, so if you have a quill and a parchment, I'll write it down. Maybe, if you think I'm wrong about someone, or if I'm forgetting someone, feel free." he was looking to all of them. "No one should be left behind."
McGonagall pulled a parchment and a quill from one of her desk's drawer, but didn't handed it to him. Pulling her wand, she drew a small table, put the parchment on it, and taped the quill. It stood there, waiting to take notes.
"Well, first, everyone in this room, of course." The quill listed his name, along with Hermione's, Ginny's, Ron's and Professor McGonagall's.
"Well, the obvious one, too. Kingsley. Hagrid. Molly, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, George and Percy."
Ron frowned at him when he mentioned the remaining twin.
"If anyone need to know why our loved ones died, he is." Harry told him quietly, and Ron nodded.
"Luna and Neville too. Do you think of anyone else?"
Ron shook his head and Ginny remained silent. McGonagall seemed to search for a few seconds, but nodded too. Harry turned to Hermione. She had her wondering look, and spoke after a few ms of thinking.
"What would you think about inviting Xenophilius Lovegood? True, there was the incident at his place, but we know why, and I think we should forgive him. He could be there representing the press. I know the Quibbler is pretty insane most of the time, but it's the only one who had always been impartial, and against quite everything had remained behind you, Harry. The whole story will be published sooner than later anyway, I trust Xenophilius to be the one to translate it fully and truthfully.".
Harry looked at Ron, who seemed balancing the idea. He did not seem ready to forgive as fast as Hermione, unless Harry did it too. McGonagall shook her head to express that this was only his choice.
He finally turned to Ginny, who was smiling.
"It'll make Luna happy, if nothing else. And Hermione's right, he never quivered in his support for you. When they took Luna, he didn't followed any of their 'wanted' crap, he simply stopped publishing."
Harry smiled knowingly to Ron and Hermione. There were only four people that knew about the unsold copy of the Quibbler, and with a look, they seemed to agree that it should stay that way.
"Right. Xenophilius too, then. We good?"
"That's fine for me, Mr. Potter," approved McGonagall. "Where would you like for the, er..." she counted the names on the list, "16 of us to gather? At the ministry? Or maybe at Grimauld place? As you only mentioned three people that aren't in the Order, we could easily give them access."
"Actually, I had another place in mind. Would you agree to do it here at Hogwarts, in the headmaster's office? I mean, it's mostly Professor Dumbledore's doing that led us here, so I would like his portrait, for lack of the real him, to be there."
"It will be crammed, but that's a fair request. I will make the arrangements. The only question left is when."
"I don't know," Harry answered. "There are a lot of things to do, funerals for the fallen, and rebuilding the castle. I also still have one task to finish that can't wait too long, too."
"How long will this task take you, you reckon?"
"Only a few minutes, don't worry, nothing complicated. It's here at Hogwarts it needs to be done, so it should not be too difficult for me to do it. I'll do it either tonight or in the morning."
"Fine. About the funerals, they will not be held before at least four or five days. Many issues still need to be settled, like places, times, and other procedural matters.
Before any of them is burried, however, the Ministry want to honour them with posthumous Order of Merlin. There will be an official ceremony during which all the caskets might be presented. It is being organised as we speak. If everything goes as expected, it will be Wednesday at two, at the Ministry."
Harry frowned slightly. McGonagall looked surprised. "Is there a problem about it?"
"Oh no, no problem at all ! It's just... I'm sorry... I kind of lost track of time. What day is today?"
McGonagall smiled. "Today's Sunday, Harry. I think it would be better if anyone knew the truth when it happens. Albus used to say 'understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery'. In present condition, as you so well said about George Weasley, grief will be easier to deal with, knowing the truth of why they died. This leaves us only with tomorrow, maybe Tuesday morning, but not much later if we want to have a paper tell the story."
"Definitely. I'll deal with my task as soon as possible so it's out of the schedule and we'll be totally free for this. Although, could you manage a moment where us four could be alone around professor Dumbledore's grave? As I said, it's only thanks to him that we have succeeded, so we may need to pay our respect. I know it sounds selfish or childish, I don't want anyone else around at that time. This is something I need to do before the meeting."
It wasn't the whole truth, but it was viable enough.
"Of course," she answered with a motherly smile, "it won't be a problem. you'll be let alone any time tomorrow morning or afternoon, just tell me when and I'll handle it. So if everyone is available, could we set the meeting for tomorrow evening?"
"That would be perfect, thank you. Is there anything else?" Although he had spent plenty of time sleeping during the day, he was longing his bed again, to finally have a full night of deep, restful sleep.
"Two more things actually, Mr. Potter. First, Kingsley required a private word with you, apart from what we already talked about. He wouldn't tell me what it would be about, just that it was very important."
"What about before or after meeting everyone? So that I won't be using too much of his time. I can't imagine the amount of work he has to go through right now..."
"It is a good suggestion. I'll owl him right away and let you know about his answer when I get it."
"Last thing now," she said looking at all of them, "I'll ask every students that are still here to come to a meeting tomorrow afternoon at five in the Great Hall, along with every parents. Mandatory. Even though you may have skipped a few classes this year, you're all still officially students here." A malicious glint appeared in the corner of her eyes.
She smiled and stood, thanking them and biding them good night.
Hermione leading them, they made their way back upstairs. Ron gave the portrait the password Seamus had gave him, "New Dawn" and they crashed in front of the Fire in the squashy armchairs.
Harry casted a look at the stairs leading to his dormitory, thinking with longing about his four poster bed. But, he frowned at the thought of Seamus, Dean and Neville. He definitely would have to let go of Ginny for the night to sleep up there and the idea did not appeal to him at all.
From the look on Ginny, and the unspoken exchange he witnessed between Ron and Hermione, they felt the same.
It was Ginny who came with a suitable solution.
"All the first years are gone. Maybe their dormitory is empty and we can go there, just the four of us." Ron went to check, and came back beaming.
"Well, first-years' is taken by some elders that had returned, but second-years' is totally empty."
Enjoying the idea, they stood and climbed the stairs, finding the unusual room. Beds seemed small for couples though.
"We could lift two next to have twin beds." Ron suggested, but Hermione had already reached for her wand.
A small jet of light hit a bed that enlarged to become King size.
"That’s wonderful, 'Mione!" laughed Ron.
She had turned to the other side, and pointed over a second bed. Ron grasped her wrist.
"What are you doing?" It was clear that he expected Ginny and Harry to sleep on separate beds. Hermione rolled her eyes, catching Ginny's eyes who winked back.
"Good, Ron, if you think you'd feel better in a single bed, that's fine. Although Hermione may hold it against you... Come Harry."
Under the raging eyes of Ron, she pulled him toward the double bed and quickly pulled the curtains around them. They could ear Ron mumbling outside, and Hermione casting the spell over the second bed. After a while, when they had retreated behind their own curtains, all went finally quiet.
"Gin',", whispered Harry, "would you be mad if I fell asleep right now?"
"Of course not, silly! I'm barely standing myself. Help me before, though."
Slowly, they unclothed each other, enjoying rediscovering each other's body. Fully naked, they slid under the blanket.
They kissed tenderly for a while. As both of them were starting to yawn more and more frequently, Ginny curled between Harry's arms, and tightly huddled together, they fell asleep.
- 1
- 2
- 3
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

A New Era