The Thirty-Seventh Chapter

Harry slowly opened his eyes as the sun streamed through a gap in the maroon hangings surrounding his bed. He had woken in this same spot hundreds of times before, but now it felt different. And not only because this was the first time he had been here in almost a year. It was something else. The only thing else. Voldemort had finally been defeated. "Neither can live while the other survives" echoed through his head. He had finally achieved what he had been meant to do for his entire life. He had won.

And yet, Harry couldn't for the life of him come up with a word to describe how he was feeling at the moment. It certainly wasn't 'happy'. More like a mix of relieved and disbelieving, with random pangs of sadness thrown in. Harry knew that his actions the night before had basically saved the entire wizarding race from an almost certain doom, and yet he had spent the whole night dreaming about those he was too late to save. His parents, Cedric, Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, Dobby; even Hedwig had made an appearance. And of course there were the freshest wounds of all: Fred, Lupin and Tonks had drifted through, congratulating him on his great achievement. And all he could do was yell back at them and all the others cheering him, tell them that he didn't deserve any of their praise. It was his fault, all his fault, that they were dead. Every single one of them had been sacrificed for him. Harry had laid there for hours, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get rid of the horrible feeling of guilt that had settled in his stomach. Voldemort was gone, but so much pain still remained.

As Harry tried to force himself to think of something happier, a familiar head popped through the curtains. Harry jumped.

"Jesus, Ron. You're lucky I don't sleep naked."

Ron forced a laugh, but still looked much paler than normal.

"Sorry. I've just been awake for awhile . . . couldn't really sleep."

"Yeah, me too," Harry replied. He started to get out of bed.

"Common room?" Ron shrugged his shoulders in response.

"Sure."

After quickly pulling on a t-shirt and some socks, Harry followed Ron out of the dormitory, past the sleeping forms of Dean, Seamus and Neville. They entered the mostly empty common room, looking around for familiar faces. Harry soon spotted a bushy brunette and two redheads sitting around the fire and headed in that direction, Ron following closely behind. Harry couldn't deny the slight increase in happiness he felt as his eyes met Ginny's. She gave him a small smile and he took the empty space beside her on the couch. Meanwhile, Ron plopped down on the floor in front of Hermione, who quickly linked hands with him from the chair above. George sat directly across from them in his own armchair, looking more grief stricken than seemed possible, and stared into the flames.. Ron watched him for a good ten seconds and swallowed hard as he prepared to speak.

"So where's everyone else?" he asked. Harry expected Ginny to answer, but George was apparently paying more attention than he appeared to be.

"Professor McGonagall gave Mum and Dad someplace to sleep. Bill, Charlie and Percy were all in the First Year Dormitory with me," he explained, his voice cracking.

"So they're still sleeping?" asked Ron.

"Or at least trying to," replied George.

Everyone else nodded with understanding. Harry leaned his head back against the couch in frustration. He couldn't take the fact that he had to deal with losing yet another person he had loved, the fact that he could feel the tears Ginny was crying next to him and yet could do nothing to stop them. Last night he had placed all his focus on defeating Voldemort and had ignored everything else. But now he had nothing else to focus on, nothing except the horrible grief that he could not escape.

After spending awhile longer just sitting there, the five of them decided to head down to the Great Hall for, if nothing else, at least a change of scenery. Apparently, a few other people had the same thought. Professor McGonagall sat at the head of the Hall, conversing with Professor Flitwick. Hagrid was enjoying his own lunch awhile down the staff table, with Grawp at his side. Harry was surprised to see that the house elves had still managed to prepare a full meal for everyone, mere hours after the battle had ended. Only a few other teachers populated the table, and Harry hoped sincerely that the rest were simply sleeping and nothing worse. He turned his attention to the rest of the Hall. The Slytherin table remained empty, but as Harry entered with Hermione and the three Weasleys, he saw many of his fellow students seated at the other three, turning to face him. A few seconds later, a thunderous applause broke out. Ginny squeezed his hand and Harry smiled at his peers and teachers, but he couldn't help feeling like he didn't really deserve all this praise. Having Ginny at his side, however, did make it a lot easier to accept.

As the applause died out, Harry headed over to sit at the Gryffindor table, where Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had already started eating. Ginny silently slipped her hand out of Harry's and went over to comfort her mother, who had started to sob over her pudding. Harry understood; he instead headed over to Ron and Hermione, who had taken seats next to Mr. Weasley. Hermione was watching someone with a look of deep concern on her face; Harry followed her gaze and saw George standing between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables, looking completely lost. He was about to go over to him when he saw Lee Jordan get up. Lee put his arm around George and whispered a few words in his ear. George nodded and the two walked away together. Harry had no idea where they were going, but he was sure that if anyone could help George right now, it was Lee. Satisfied, he turned his attention back to the other Weasleys. Ginny had succeeded in calming down her mother, at least for now, and now appeared to be watching him. Without even thinking about what he was doing, he walked over to her and pulled her into a long kiss. Then without a word, he grabbed her hand and led her out of the room.

"Harry, what was that?!" Ginny exclaimed as soon as they reached the Entrance Hall. But she was smiling.

"I just . . I couldn't wait anymore," Harry replied. Ginny opened her mouth to say something but Harry interrupted her.

"I love you, Ginny." She looked momentarily shocked, but quickly composed herself and smiled.

"I love you too, Harry Potter."

Then she grabbed his hand and begin leading him upstairs. Harry caught on quickly and within minutes they were passionately making out on his bed. He was very grateful that Dean, Seamus and Neville had vacated the room since he had woken up. All the waiting, the sacrifice, - it had all been worth it. This was happiness. His lips slowly withdrew from hers, after minutes and minutes of bliss, and Harry ran his fingers through her soft red hair. Ginny gazed into his eyes with a smile on her face and he began to gently undo her top. She placed her arms around his neck and he leaned forward ...

"Oi! You two are revolting!"

"Ron!" Ginny screeched, covering herself. Harry jumped up off the bed. "Hey mate," he said awkwardly. But Ron just kept mumbling.

"Ridiculous . . . can't even come into my own room without . . just revolting . . ."

"Oh, like you and Hermione don't do the same thing," Ginny snarled.

"Well . . . I . . ." Ron opened his mouth but seemed at a loss for words. "Not in broad daylight!" He finally exclaimed.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"Well,anyway," Ron continued, having recovered from his recent shock, "McGonagall wants everyone in the Great Hall. Has a speech to make or something . . . kept going on about how amazing you were last night, Harry. . . made it sound like the rest of us just sat around and watched -

"Well, I think he was pretty amazing . . ." said Ginny, raising her eyebrows and glancing at Harry mischievously.

"Oh, seriously. Seriously. Don't, don't start that again . . ." Ron stammered. "You two are ridiculous. I'll meet you down there."

As he left the room, Harry turned to Ginny. "So, do you think we really need to go?"

Ginny laughed. "Well, you did kind of save the whole wizarding world last night," she replied. "They're probably expecting an appearance."

"Yeah, I guess." Harry said as he started to leave the room.

But she continued. "Thanks, by the way."

"For what?"

Ginny grinned. "For making me happy."

Harry felt his heart skip a beat. He turned to face her, planting a small kiss on her lips and then whispered softly in her ear, "You have no idea."