Je Suis En Vie

Je Suis En Vie

By Harry and Ginny 4eva

Prologue

In his book Anna Karenina, Tolstoy once said, "All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Each family, happy or otherwise, has a story.

For some, the story is buried deep within long forgotten or otherwise ignored memories. For others, the story is nothing but an entertaining tale for dinner parties, birthdays, and anniversaries.

However, there are a very few families who stand quite in-between these two categories. On one hand, their story is well known - not only for them, but also for their entire community and country, not to mention the authorities. Books and articles are written and they were the topic of conversation for old women in their midnight gossiping, never tired of the subject. Yet, so many details are kept secret, deep within the memories.

The downfall of Lord Voldemort brought the Wizarding World to frenzy. One would have thought that such a happy event would bring stability and serenity, but for the first two years after its demise, Lord Voldemort's terror regime still had its marks on the wizarding society and ministry.

Just like after the first war, it was extremely hard to differentiate between those who were coerced to join Voldemort's ranks and those who did so willingly.

The Ministry was in shambles - the terrible black statue at the entrance proved to be arduous to remove; the mess and clutter that resulted took weeks to clean out and the disorganization and confusion in every single department took nearly two years to sort out.

St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was overwhelmed. There simply were not enough healers to take care of all the injured and not enough potions to meet the demand.

Azkaban prison existed in name only. With the dementors gone and a shortage of Aurors, prisoners were held in an undisclosed location within the Ministry.

People were torn between the happiness at Voldemort's demise and fear that the war is not really over. Fear of the peace being taken away again quickly after its fragile return overtook the whole wizarding population.

It didn't take long for the news of Voldemort's downfall to spread. Indeed, by morning, the whole world knew.

The skies swarmed with owls, delivering messages of relief and disbelief from places as far as India, the United States and China. It seemed too good to be true.

Muggles were baffled about the uncharacteristic behaviour of the owl population and the thousands of them flooding the sky in any given moment. The temporarily appointed Minister, Kingsley Shacklebolt, notified the muggle Prime Minister of recent events, after reviving him from a fainting spell that occurred when Kingsley suddenly apparated into his office.

As for Harry Potter, his circumstances were the same as the wizarding world. He was calm, yet anxious. He was sad, yet elated. He didn't know how treat his friends or his surroundings.

But most of all, he didn't know how to begin living life again.

This, above all, is his story.

A story of rebuilding.

Je Suis En Vie.

Author Notes: OMG OMG OMG! I'm backkkkk! Yes! Brand new story. I know this is just annoying: yet-another-post-DH-story BUT I'll try to make it as interesting and descriptive as possible.

This chapter was actually a different story of mine, but I decided to put it in this story because I felt like I should give an incentive to read the story...So I hope you'll stick with me and see how it gets even better!

And last but not least: HUGH thanks to Dennis (wvchemtech) who helped me with a little beta-ing since I was itching to get this story out and I just couldn't wait for any of the betas I emailed! Dennis, you are a true angel!

And if any of you wondered what's the meaning of the title, it means "I am alive" in French. Almost every chapter in the story will be titled in French, because I looove this language and I'm currently learning it :)

That's it! :) Hope you'll stick with me!

Love, Lily.