…'That wand's more trouble than it's worth,' said Harry, 'And quite honestly,' he turned away from the painted portraits, thinking now only of the four-poster bed lying waiting for him in Gryffindor tower, and wondering whether Kreacher might bring him a sandwich there, 'I've had enough trouble for a lifetime.'

As soon as they left Dumbledore's office, the exertions of the past day caught up with him. It seemed impossible that only this morning he'd been at Shell Cottage…

He was so tired he hardly knew how he got to Gryffindor tower. The fat lady was elsewhere, but the portrait hole was swinging open in any case. He wondered what had happened, and then decided that he was too tired to care. He parted company from Ron and Hermione (who had, for some impenetrable reason had elected to stay downstairs a while) and staggered up the spiral stairs, collapsing onto his bed at the top without undressing. He knew he'd been gone all year, but it was still his bed. He was still a Gryffindor, after all. Harry took off his glasses without bothering to open his eyes and placed them on his bedside table. Indistinct noises came up the stairs until he shut the door with his wand. There were some things he didn't want to know. After a while, Ron came up and also collapsed.

'Well,' Ron said. 'We won.'

'Yeah,' said Harry, weariness washing over him. 'We won.' And as unconsciousness took him, the only emotion he felt was that of tired joy. The joy of success.

Harry woke slowly – with small bits of his dream merging into reality. When he fully awoke, he saw that he'd been asleep for a long time: the shadows were short and the dormitory was deserted. It must be nearly noon. He got up and dressed on automatic, then walked down the stairs to the common room, which, as he had suspected, was almost empty. Hermione and Ron weren't there. He felt drained: not physically, but emotionally. And when you think about it, it gets worse he berated himself silently. So don't think about it!

But he couldn't stop thinking about it. He saw, through the medium of memory, Voldemort trying to kill him for the third time, using the killing curse for the third time, saw him fail, for the third time… he saw Voldemort watch as the green light, yet again turned on him… saw him fall under the terrible weight of it…

And just as he was beginning to think he should throw himself out the window, and was staring at it, he suddenly found himself staring instead into a pair of beautiful, brown eyes.

'Wake up!' yelled a voice in his ear, and he turned from Ginny, the owner of the eyes, and saw Ron.

'You've been asleep for hours, now you're awake, and going comatose! Come on, you need food.'

Harry almost agreed. Now he came to notice it, his stomach was growling so loudly he thought they could hear it down in the great hall. But Ginny was right here.

'I'll come down and meet you in a bit, ok?'

Ron surveyed him, Hermione surveyed Ginny, and then both nodded. Harry and Ginny watched them leave.

Harry looked back at Ginny.

Ginny looked back at Harry.

Harry cast around for something to say and hit on the events of last night. But now he came to it, there was only one thing he thought Ginny would want to discuss about it.

'I was there when Fred… you know…'

He looked up at Ginny, and saw tears pouring down her cheeks.

'Yeah,' she whispered, 'I know.'

'Ah, Gin…' he really didn't like seeing her cry. He got up from his chair and held her until her tears subsided, then sat down again, pulling her down with him.

'Yeah,' she repeated. 'Percy went after the Rookwood, the guy who did it, you know.'

'Yeah, he did,' said Harry, remembering Percy's charge. 'Did he catch him?'

Ginny smiled a bit. 'Yes, he did. He got him. Stunned him, and he says he wished he'd done more, but he couldn't, because Macnair was after him. He got Macnair, too.'

Harry smiled at this. Percy, the fussy, boring head boy interested in cauldron bottoms had floored at least two death eaters.

'Did he get any other's?' Harry wondered aloud.

'Yeah, he got everyone in that group.'

'Wow.'

'Yeah, wow. I don't even know where he learnt half the curses he used.'

'Huh. What were the effects?'

'Well, you saw hat one he used on the minister, right?' Ginny got up off his knee and sat on the arm of his chair.

'Yep.'

'Lucky you, I didn't. But he used another one on Macnair that made him stick his leg right up until it touched his ear, and another one that hung a guy upside down by his ankle…'

'Yeah, I know that one, levicorpus,'

'Ha, yes, Ron told me you used it on him once.'

Harry was having fun, they were chatting easily, but…

His stomach rumbled again, loud enough for Ginny to hear it.

She looked at him in amusement. 'You're hungry'.

Harry winced from the hunger pains. 'Yeah. But the Ministry'll be waiting for me down there, and I don't want to face them. So will the Prophet. And a thousand other people. And I don't want to see any of them.' He looked at Ginny beseechingly. 'Reckon you could get enough for two and meet me back up here?'

Ginny smiled again. 'Sure.'

Ten minutes later, Ginny came back up with a basketful of food.

'Ron and Hermione are sitting very close together' she said, grinning, as she set it down.

'And you were right – Kingsley was down there, and so were a couple of people from the Prophet, Luna's dad was there, McGonagall, the Malfoys, all my family… about half the wizarding world was waiting for you to show up.'

After a superb lunch, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny adjourned to the grounds. Someone had cleared the bodies away, and even the grass was green again… in the patches where it could still grow, there were many where it never would again.

It was a beautiful sunny day, the sky was a clear blue and the heat was unrelenting, as if the day's weather were trying to make people forget what had happened last night.

They all sat down next to the lake. Harry noticed that Hermione and Ron were sitting very close together.

Ginny was looking at him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ron take Hermione's hand, but he just kept looking at Ginny, drinking her in with his eyes.

'Oi, Harry, me and Hermione are going inside, ok?' called Ron, breaking into his thoughts. Hermione must've whispered to him thought Harry. Ron could never have been accused of being tactful..

'Ok, bye!' he called to their retreating figures, and then it was just him and Ginny.

They sat together, looking out over the lake. Harry tried to think of something to say, but still, ho could only settle on last night.

So that's what they talked about. Harry recounted his story, and Ginny recounted hers. Tears were shed, when Harry reached Fred's death, when he remembered seeing Remus and Dora stretched out together, eternally at peace…

'And that means you're godfather now, doesn't it?' said Ginny. Harry started. He had forgotten.

'Yeah, I am! I'd forgotten he asked…'

They concluded their stories, and sat in silence.

Harry reached out for her hand, and found it. He held it tight.

'Ginny…'

'Yeah?'

'You missed me this year?'

Ginny leant into him. 'More than anything on God's good earth, Harry Potter.'

Harry sighed with happiness.

'I love you, Gin,' he said, and kissed her.