Twilight

Twilight

L.S. Song

Chapter Twenty-Nine - Back to Normalcy

It was a warm July morning, and Harry was sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating a piece of toast with a large goblet of pumpkin juice next to him.

McGonagall had informed the students they could either finish their disrupted studies over the summer holidays, or they could wait until next year and retake the whole year of study again.

About a quarter of the students chose to finish their studies over the holidays, most of them being seventh, sixth, and fifth year students, including Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

Recently there had been a memorial service in which hundreds of witches and wizards had turned up for - in honor of those who had fallen in the second War. In truth, however, although the war was over, the threat of the Death Eaters surely wasn't. Half the Death Eaters were unaccounted for and were being searched for by the Ministry aurors.

Harry was glad that he didn't need to join the fight - he felt he had deserved a rest at last, selfish as it may sound.

On this particular morning, however, Harry was fed up, despite it being the day of an Awards Ceremony, and a special celebration Quidditch match at Hogwarts - between the other schools of Europe, mainly featuring students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. This Quidditch match featured the best students from all of the school, and it was with a purpose of celebrating the victory of the Second War and to honor the bonds of friendship between the countries. Many witches and wizards were to come, Harry had seen Professor Flitwick enlarging the stands and adding more seats to them. Harry would've been nervous a couple of years back, but conquering the most evil wizard in the universe kind of had a strange effect on you.

Ginny had been, very noticeably, purposely avoiding him in the halls, taking long cuts to avoid seeing him, and when they did collide paths, she determinedly looked the other direction.

At breakfast, Harry cornered Ginny.

"Gin. I need to talk to you."

This time, there was no comment like 'don't call me Gin', but rather a nervous glance towards Ron, who shrugged apologetically as if to say 'sorry, Harry's got a point, he should be able to talk to you', and Ginny, looking slightly deflated, got up and followed Harry.

"Look Gin... please. Ron and Hermione won't tell me what's wrong, and I just can't stand us being like this. Please, what did I do this time?"

Ginny said shortly, "Nothing."

As Ginny turned away, Harry grasped her shoulder roughly, and her jumper slid to the side, holding Ginny back.

Ginny made an angry face, and Harry quickly said, "Sorry Gin... but if it's nothing... why are you... why are we like this?"

At last, defeated, Ginny looked into Harry's eyes.

She looked rather like a lost little child then, and it was all Harry could do to stop himself from hugging her tightly then.

"You want to know?"

"I wouldn't ask otherwise."

"Fine. Meet me down in the common room at midnight. Bring your invisibility cloak... or get the one you gave Hermione."

And leaving Harry wondering, Ginny scampered away.

"Potter! Potter!" hollered McGonagall from the staff table.

Wondering what he could've possibly down now, he walked up to the table.

"Yes, Professor?"

"I've been trying to give you some time... some time off... from your letters... but I think it's time you start either burning them or reading them, the Room of Requirement is full of them..."

"Er... okay, Professor, I'll get started on it now."

"And Potter... if you aren't too busy tonight come to my office... we have a serious matter we need to discuss."

Harry nodded and walked out of the Great Hall.

Speculating what people would write to him about, and what McGonagall wanted at night, he walked alone to the Room of Requirement, waving to a few people along the way, including a very embarrassed looking Parvati Patil. Harry didn't think that girl had ever known flat out rejection before - she did seem to get used to having things her way.

As he walked absentmindedly into the Room of Requirement, he gasped.

On a large table in the center of the table were three crates.

Not small shoebox-like crates either.

Crates the size of a bathtub.

"Damn," said Harry softly. "I'm going to need reinforcements for this."

***

"Hey look, Harry... another marriage proposal!" cried Dean, who was helping Harry open his fan mail along with almost all of the Gryffindor seventh years.

"Nope... this one doesn't believe you vanquished him... he says its all propaganda and a conspiracy by the Ministry to cover up that they made a deal with You-Know... Voldemort," said Ron firmly. "What a load of rubbish!"

"You reckon that person knows Luna?" said Seamus with a wink, receiving a scowl from Neville.

Hermione gasped.

"What?" asked Ron, looking up from his pile of ripped envelopes.

"Dear Mr. Potter, how goes your love triangle with Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley? I could offer some help with that... I hear Ron is pretty damn..."

"PLEASE don't finish that letter," said Harry, looking sick.

Harry picked up the next letter, one Hedwig had just dropped in.

"Dear Mr. Potter," he read. "Where are you and Mr. Weasley, the match starts now!"

Harry yelped.

"RON!"

"What, Harry?"

"THE MATCH!"

Ron in turn yelped, and they ran out of the room, leaving a stunned crowd of seventh year Gryffindors hanging inside the room.

"What are you waiting for?" yelled Seamus.

As if on cue, the rest of the Gryffindors piled out of the room, sprinting for the Quidditch field.

***

"Where were you, Potter!" gasped a frantic looking Professor McGonagall.

"Sorry... opening my fanmail..."

Ron coughed something that sounded most suspiciously like 'Lockhart'.

"Hurry up and get changed!" cried McGonagall again, throwing robes in Harry and Ron's faces.

"Er... Professor?" said Harry.

"What?"

"You're still here."

"You changed in front of Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Angelina Johnson for years and you never complained then!" snapped McGonagall. "I'm old enough to be your grandmother, Potter, don't think I haven't seen my fair share of..."

"Please, Professor... please don't finish that sentence," gulped Ron.

McGonagall swept out of the changing room nonetheless, and Harry and Ron quickly through on the robes.

"Accio Firebolts!" cried Harry, and the two brooms flew towards him.

Tossing Ron his broomstick, Harry ran to the rest of his team, where Ginny, Susan Bones, Ernie Macmillan, Michael Corner and Terry Boot were standing.

Harry smugly observed there were no Slytherins on the Hogwarts team.

"Alright men," he said, gasping.

Ginny cleared her throat.

"Yeah, as I was saying," continued Harry.

This time, Susan cleared her throat.

"Oh right... and women," he added, rolling his eyes.

"This is it?" asked Ron.

"The big one?" asked Ginny, giggling.

Harry paused for just a second, smiling at her.

"The one we've all been waiting for."

"Hey that's copyright Wood material!" cried Ron.

"Okay, okay... let's just go out there and show them why Hogwarts is the best!"

"FOR HOGWARTS!" shouted the team.

"And I present to you our very own HOGWARTS ALL-STAR TEAM!" yelled Dean's voice, magically amplified.

Harry smirked. Apparently they had managed to get down here in time after all.

They did not fly out together, but entered one by one, as was the 'special entry' McGonagall had planned.

"CHASER VIRGINIA WEASLEY!" cried Dean, and Ginny, with a nervous little smile on her face, zoomed out above the field to loud applause from the Hogwarts students, and a vast majority of the visitors.

"CHASER ERNIE MACMILLAN!"

Ernie zoomed out.

Ron began jumping up and down nervously.

"CHASER SUSAN BONES!"

Susan flew out, to more applause.

"BEATER MICHAEL CORNER!"

Michael followed suit, to slightly less applause from the Hogwarts crowd, to Harry's surprise.

"BEATER TERRY BOOT!"

The applause went up again, as Terry nervously flew up to join his teammates.

"KEEPER RON WEASLEY!"

Ron, his face white, flew out after Terry, leaving Harry feeling slightly nervous.

"AND THE SEEKER!" started Dean.

The applause, if possible, got even louder as the foreign schools also applauded and almost all of Hogwarts, besides the Slytherins, stood and stomped their feet.

"THE CAPTAIN OF THE HOGWARTS TEAM!" roared Dean.

"THE ONE... THE ONLY... HARRY POTTER!" bellowed Dean so loud that Harry's eardrums hurt, and the tumultuous applause that followed it only made it worse.

Harry, jumping on his broomstick, flew out to the crowd, trying his best to block out the cheers and screams.

But as soon as he joined his teammates, everything felt right again, all his nervousness gone.

He was in the skies again.

"Captains shake hands!" yelled Madam Hooch.

He flew forwards to where a very pretty girl with silvery blonde hair was hovering.

She smiled and giggled, fluttering her eyelashes as she shook his hand.

"Bitch," he heard a voice behind him mutter.

"Good luck 'arry," said the girl with a heavy French accent.

"And you too," said Harry, and withdrawing his hand, he flew back to his position.

Harry observed as Hooch let out the Snitch and the bludgers, managing to keep his eye on the snitch for just a few seconds before it disappeared from sight.

"AND THE QUAFFLE IS RELEASED!" yelled Dean's voice, as Hooch raised the ball to the air with a flick of her wand.

As he heard Hooch's whistle signaling the start of the game, he hurled away, up to the skies.

The blonde girl, captain of the 'International Team', tailed him.

Harry now flew up high, surveying the pitch for a glint of gold, the blonde girl about fifty feet below him.

Watching the game below him, he whooped aloud as he saw Ron pull off yet another brilliant save, sending the Quaffle flying back halfway across the pitch straight into Ginny's hands.

As Ginny sped towards the goalpost, the international team began to crowd her.

In alarm, Harry dived down for Ginny, causing the other team's seeker to zoom down after him.

But Ginny didn't need his help.

Spiraling upwards in a move he himself had taught her in his sixth year, she dodged them all, and with a clever feint threw the Quaffle like a fireball into the hoop for ten points.

Harry then realized that he shouldn't have been down at playing level at all.

Immediately correcting his mistake, he went back up to the skies just as the blonde girl dived down.

With a yelp, he zoomed after her, only to watch her swerve away from the ground at the last second.

"Damn," Harry muttered.

The blonde girl winked at him seductively - or at least as seductively as one could hovering in the air, and zoomed away across the pitch.

Harry decided that it was time to take matters into his own hands.

"OPERATION HUFFLEPUFF!" he roared.

It was the code name he had given to the strategy they had taken against Hufflepuff, using himself as a surrogate Chaser.

"And here Potter is calling a gamble..." started Dean, but as he zoomed forwards, he finally managed to block out all the commentary.

"GINNY!" he hollered.

Ginny, who had been speeding up the field merely dropped the Quaffle, and by pure momentum it landed where Harry was.

Ernie and Susan were flanking Harry and Ginny, who were going forwards like an arrow.

Tossing the ball into the air, he gave a perfect pass for Ernie, who spiked it through the left hoop.

But even as cheers erupted, Harry's heart dropped.

The blonde girl was streaking down, halfway across the pitch.

Full of determination, Harry pushed his broom to the limit as he streaked down the pitch faster than any in the crowd had ever seen before, save perhaps from Viktor Krum.

The blonde girl had her arm outstretched...

"FASTER!" he yelled at his broom.

He could see the Snitch now, but the girl was still closer.

"NOW!" he roared, and with the momentum of his broomstick favoring his movement, he leaped off, kicking off the handle, propelling himself forwards at a blindingly fast speed, and as he jumped for the fluttering Golden Snitch, small petite hands blocked his way.

Out of pure luck, he, with his feet, managed to kick the Snitch away from the girl's grasp, only to fall to the floor himself, with a loud crack in his shoulders.

"HARRY!" hollered his team, every one of them flying to him.

"GO!" he roared, grimacing in pain. "Win this one for Hogwarts!"

"ACCIO BROOMSTICK!"

As his faithful Firebolt came towards him again, he mounted, with a cracked ribcage and a mangled left arm, and rejoined the fray.

"And Captain Potter returns!" roared Dean.

"Timeout!" hollered Ron.

"NO!" yelled Harry, who had just seen it.

The fluttering, speck of gold amidst a fiery mane of red.

The Snitch was in Ginny's hair.

Flying towards Ginny discreetly, as to not attract attention from the rival seeker, he increased his pace.

As he extended his hand for the golden Snitch in Ginny's hair, she yelped and tried to fly away, the snitch with her, but Harry had soon caught up with her.

Sweeping his fingers gently through her silky hair, Harry nearly forgot for a moment just why he was there, and almost where 'there' was.

But as the seconds passed, Harry gently swept the Golden Snitch out of her fiery mane of hair, and with a broad grin on his face, he bellowed, "I'VE GOT THE SNITCH!"

The crowd exploded with its loudest roar yet, so loud that Harry could see birds flying out of the Forbidden Forest, and so loud that Harry felt his very broomstick was shaking.

And as he turned around, he caught a glimpse of Ginny's face, which held a grin almost as wide as his own, and as she flew up, wrapping her arms around him and planting a quick, chaste kiss on his lips, he realized that he got a lot more than the Golden Snitch.

The rest of his team, Ron in the lead, flew towards him, their mouths open, shouting words that no one could hear, actual tears in some of their eyes, and as they did a victory lap around the Quidditch field together to deafening applause.

For the first time in a long while, Harry was in bliss, and even as he landed into a field swarmed with students and visitors alike, he noticed that in one hand was still the struggling Snitch, and the other hand held tightly onto Ginny's.

***

However, as they left the highly charged atmosphere of the Quidditch field Harry suddenly found, much to his dismay, that Ginny had again turned away from him to Ron, and were excitedly gabbling about the match, even as they walked to the Awards Ceremony held out on the grounds, where a massive tent was erected.

The four of them had dressed up in their very best robes after a long shower and a huge feast, ready to receive awards they knew were going to be presented to them.

Harry walked into the tent with Hermione, Ron and Ginny laughing uproariously about something behind them.

The insides of the tent, Harry noticed, were obviously magical. Instead of a plain empty space, there was a massive hall, filled with seats and in the very front of the tent was a stage, where Tonks could be seen tampering with a wizarding microphone. Catching Harry's eye, she winked at him.

"C'mon, lets go get seats," said Ron.

Finding seats near the back of the hall, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny sat down and waited for the ceremony to begin.

Ten minutes later, when everyone had piled into the tent, the new minister, a tall lanky man by the name of John MacDonald - Harry was told that it was a girl that went to Hogwarts' father - stood up at the stage.

"It is with both sorrow and with joy that we gather here today, in honor of those who fought against Lord Voldemort during the second war. Firstly, we take a moment of silence for those who fell..."

The minister closed his eyes, and almost everyone in the hall followed suit.

When the moment of silence passed, the minister let out a strained smile.

"But as for now, we gather to celebrate those who are still amongst us, those who proved themselves to be extraordinary heroes... and without further ado, I give you Professor Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and our fine hostess for today's programs of Quidditch, the excellent feast you have all just enjoyed, and now the Awards Ceremony."

The minister stepped aside and sat down on a seat in the front row.

"We honor Cedric Diggory, first to fall victim to Lord Voldemort..."

On and on went Professor McGonagall, going through a massive list of names and people, some of them earning small awards. Ron had just let out a loud yawn, causing several old witches to glare at him, when McGonagall announced that the Order of Merlin awards would be given by the minister himself.

"Ms. Nymphadora Tonks, Order of Merlin, third class, for combating Lord Voldemort's troops on the front line."

Tonks, her hair now strawberry blonde and long enough to touch the small of her back, beamed and walked to receive her award, shaking the Minister's hand to a series of clicks and flashes from cameras.

Smiling, Tonks walked off the stage, in her hand a badge and a certificate.

Then there was about forty more people, all who were from the Order of the Phoenix, or from the Hogwarts students of Dumbledore's Army that went up to get their awards, including Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Neville, Cho, and Luna. Harry observed that Percy did not receive a reward.

"Ms. Minerva McGonagall, second class, for heading the fortress Hogwarts against the Dark forces, and also for combating on the front lines."

McGonagall stood up, a smile on her face, and accepted the award gladly, and flushed red as the minister kissed her hand.

As McGonagall came down, the minister began again.

"Mr. Severus Snape, for heading the Army that brought about the defeat of the Death Eaters at the Himalayan Mountains. I present to you, the Order of Merlin, second class."

Snape stood, not even a ghost of a smile on his face, nodded politely, taking his award, he followed McGonagall.

"Mr. Rubeus Hagrid, for rallying the giants, and now providing both communities with another chance at peace, I award you the Order of Merlin, second class."

Hagrid walked up nervously, shook the minister's hand, and pinning the little badge on his shirt, he beamed for the audience, then followed suit.

"Mr. Ronald Weasley, for extraordinary valor and skill in the Battles of Hogwarts, and the Battle of the Summit. I award you the Order of Merlin... first class."

Ron walked up, beaming so widely Harry thought mentally that if he was any happier, his face would burst.

Ron then walked off the stage, trying to get back to Harry, Ginny, and Hermione, but was ambushed by his mother, who had grabbed him and hugged him furiously, causing Ron to blush, wiggle, and struggle, whilst a tearful Mrs. Weasley could be seen saying something in his ear (Harry couldn't hear as he was halfway across the hall).

The minister cleared his throat, and Mrs. Weasley immediately went quiet, pulling Ron down next to her.

"Miss Virginia Weasley, for immense contributions to the effort of the war, both in battle and out of battle..."

Fred and George could be heard snickering.

"- I present to you the Order of Merlin, first class."

Ginny then followed Ron's footsteps, a dazzling grin on her face, as she went up to retrieve her award.

Ginny, unlike Ron, went straight to her mother, receiving hugs from her entire family.

"Miss Hermione Granger," continued the minister. "For an extraordinary exhibit of both intelligence and bravery in the face of danger countless times in the Second War, I present to you, the Order of Merlin, First Class."

Hermione, with a huge hug for Harry, nearly skipped up to the stage, where she received the award, stood for pictures (a few younger wizards in the crowd had catcalled at her), then went to her parents, who were sitting in a specially charmed booth for muggles so they could see just what exactly was going on.

"And last, but certainly not least, Mr. Harry Potter, for personally bringing down the hammer on the world's most feared dark wizard in centuries, for a gargantuan contribution to the War, and for an excellently played Quidditch match," said the Minister, getting whoops of approval and laughter from the audience, "I present to you, the Order of Merlin, First Class."

As Harry walked up to the stage and the minister pinned the badge onto his robes, he smiled for the cameras, and he was nearly blinded as he walked off the stage, not knowing where to go.

Hermione was waving furiously to him, and so were the Weasleys.

But he suddenly remembered Hermione's words from Christmas time.

"I love you Harry, you're my brother, and it doesn't matter if you weren't born as my brother, or even if you consider yourself to be, you'll still be my brother, my family. You might not have your blood family with you but you have family all the same."

He grinned to himself, not noticing he was still in the spotlight as many people still stared at him, but he waved apologetically to the Weasleys, and went to sit with Hermione and her family.

"You know, for a second there, I thought you weren't going to come," said Hermione, grinning at Harry.

"You know, for a second there, I didn't think I was either. But this is a time for family, and as far as I know now, you're it."

"As far as it is now?" asked Hermione.

"Which is as far as it'll be for a long time," sighed Harry, sitting down next to Hermione and her parents.

"That's good enough for me," grinned Hermione.

***

"So you want me to be the Secret Keeper?" asked Harry again.

It was late that night, and most of the visitors to Hogwarts had either taken to the rooms provided for them, or had left. Harry was in McGonagall's office with the minister, Snape, McGonagall, various muggles that Harry assumed were important due to the slight snobbishness of their voices, and at the doors, Mad-eye Moody.

"Yes Potter," said McGonagall again.

They had been discussing many things about the wizarding world and how muggles were going to take it now that they knew of its existence. Harry had heard from McGonagall that they had developed an extremely powerful spell over the past weeks to hide the magical world from all those that had no magical blood, unfortunately including squibs also, into the soul of one person - much like the Fidelius charm. The muggles would still know, in the back of their minds, about the wizarding world, but the people present in the room hoped the muggles would just dismiss it as a strange fantasy or daydream.

"Do I get a choice or anything?"

"What do you think we're giving you now," snarled Snape.

There then came a silence, in which Harry used to think whether or not he would want to keep such a secret.

"No disrespect intended, and I'm honored you chose me for this... but I don't want it," said Harry.

McGonagall nodded.

"Very well, Potter, we shall find someone else. You may leave... and remember... not a word to anyone else - save perhaps Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger."

"Yes, Professor," said Harry, leaving the room, still trying to get his mind around the spell that would be the wizarding world's protection from possible future problems with the muggles.

He walked out, passing the Great Hall, and to his alarm, he saw it was almost midnight.

Sprinting off, he ran quickly to the Head Boy dorms, and saying out the password, he jumped inside.

"Ginny! I'm sorry I'm late, I was..."

"It's okay, Harry," said Ginny in a strange voice.

"I'll get the cloak, shall I?"

"Yeah... you go do that."

"Accio Invisibilty Cloak," said Harry, pointing his wand to his dorm.

As the silvery cloak zoomed into his arms, he stared at Ginny again.

"So where are we going?"

"Where else would we go for a private chat?"

"Er... here?"

"No, Ron or Hermione might come down at any second... we're going to the Marauder's Room."