Two O'Clock after the War

Harry woke up and the sky outside his window of his old four-poster in Gryffindor tower was dark. Looking down at his watch, he saw that it was two o'clock. Realizing that it must be two o'clock in the morning and that he had slept for almost an entire day after inhaling the turkey sandwich that Kreacher had given him, his stomach rumbled and his bladder was ready to burst.

He swung his legs out from under his crimson blankets, not knowing where the blankets had actually come from (probably Ron or Kreacher?), and dashed as quickly as possible to the boy's dormitory lavatory.

Once he had urinated for approximately one hour, he felt a guilty pang in realizing that he had not spoken to Ginny since before the battle had been won. He felt a sinking feeling in recalling that, as she was probably in the girls' dormitory right now, there was no way he could see her, and in any case, he did not feel that it would be very kind to wake her up at two in the morning the day after her brother had just died. If she was sleeping, Harry thought, it was probably light and fitful.

Harry made his way down to the common room hastily in hopes to find Ginny there, but without luck. His stomach would not be ignored any longer, and he did not have the heart to wake Kreacher, so he made the old, somewhat-familiar route down to the tapestry which covered the secret doorway to the kitchen.

As he made his way to tickle the fruit on the tapestry, flashes of the previous day and before flashed through his head. Neville killing Nagini. Ginny alone with an injured little girl on the grounds of Hogwarts. The voice of McGonagall when she thought he was dead. And now it's all over.

It was only when he stepped into the pitch-black kitchen that Harry realized that he had forgotten his wand. He never did manage to master wandless magic, but his heart felt light and invincible in his newfound freedom. He cupped his hands and held them out in front of himself, as though he wanted to catch water from a faucet. He imagined a glowing orb of light, hovering above his hands like a snitch.

"Lumos," he whispered. The orb that he had pictured appeared before him. He thought it was a bit small, and as he thought this, the orb expanded to the size of a soccer ball and floated above his head.

"We could have used a little bit of that wandless magic out in the woods," Ron said from behind Harry. Startled, Harry spun around.

"Merlin, Ron."

"Sorry, I heard you get up, so I followed you down... could use a bit of a nightcap myself." Ron made his way over to the row of wizard refrigerators and opened it. He slid a large sliver tray with a large rump roast out of the refrigerator and set it heavily down on the kitchen isle.

"Hmm... I know there's a spell that will heat this up. Where is Hermione when you need her?" Ron made a few wild jabs at the roast with his wand, but only managed to fling bits of roast in a few different directions and to shoot red sparks at it. The roast then caught fire after one of Ron's proddings.

"Finite Incantatem!" Ron said quickly and waved his hand over the meat to break up the smoke a little. Harry heard the tapestry move behind him.

"Ronald, I believe the spell you're looking for is Furnus, but whatever you just did also works," Hermione said from next to Harry. Before either of the boys could ask, she held the map up and then handed it to Harry. "I believe that this belongs to you. I had forgotten that I had it folded in my pocket at some point." Ron had made Harry a plate of Roast and set it on the kitchen isle before Harry.

"Thanks," Harry said twice, once to each of them. They responded that he was welcome.

"I couldn't sleep for very long- I was actually up talking to Ginny. She said she hasn't slept more than six hours in over a year anyway, so she's actually probably been up since midnight. Anyway, when I realized that the Marauder's Map was still in my pocket I got it out and mused to Ginny how you'd watch her all the time..."

"How'd you know..." Harry started but stopped himself at Hermione's raised eyebrow.

"So we watched you walk down to the kitchen, Harry, and then watched Ron follow you like a stalker."

"Was not..." Ron said between bites.

"So, she's coming down, too?" Harry asked and ate some of the roast.

"Yes, she just stopped into the dorm that Molly and Arthur are sleeping in so that Molly wouldn't wake up and see that she was gone."

Through his mouthful of roast, Ron said, "Ha, there's nothing Mum should worry about now though, it's not like Voldemort is going to come back to life and snatch her away."

"Well, he did come back to life before, and he did snatch Ginny away before, so it's a valid concern I suppose..." Hermione said and caught Harry's eye. Suddenly, surprised in himself, Harry started to laugh. Then, Ron started to laugh at Harry's laughing. And soon, Hermione joined in and Ron swallowed and laughed harder. All three were soon doubled over in laugher, with no clear idea (except for, perhaps, Hermione) of what exactly was so funny. But, it felt good to laugh.

Then Ginny walked in and no one noticed. She strolled soundlessly, almost catlike, to the pitcher of pumpkin juice sitting on the kitchen counter, glanced at the three, wordlessly conjured a glass out of thin air, and then, while semi-entranced by watching how handsome Harry looked when laughing so carelessly, she levitated the pitcher without looking and poured a glass of pumpkin juice for herself. Taking a few sips from her pumpkin juice, she watched the three friends laughing at whatever they were laughing at, and even though the war was over, she still felt completely alone. After about a minute of this, she spoke.

"What's so funny?" she asked. Ron jumped beside her and gave a small whimper. Harry and Hermione slowly stopped laughing as they realized Ginny was there.

"We couldn't tell you, Ginny," Ron said.

"Why not?" Ginny asked, not expecting a real answer. She was used to hearing this response from everyone, especially Harry, and it did not even cross her mind that there was no more reason for secrets anymore.

"Actually, we started laughing because, well, Ron just said that your mum shouldn't be worried about where you are anymore because Voldemort is dead so there's no one to be afraid of anymore, basically," Hermione said. Ginny shrugged and walked across the room to the corner opposite of Harry and sat on a barstool next to the wall.

"Anyway, I'm getting rather chilly," Hermione said, glancing at Ron.

"You've got flannel pajamas on and it's June..." Ron started, but Hermione looked at him more pointedly. "Oh! Right, well, maybe I could come back up to Gryffindor tower with you?"

"Yes, thank you Ron. That would be nice," Hermione said as Ron walked toward Hermione where she stood near the door. When he reached her, to Harry's muted surprise, he took her hand and led her out of the kitchen.

Harry and Ginny were alone now and all was silent.

"Wow, I'm really thirsty all of a sudden," Harry said and laughed nervously.

"Would you like a glass of pumpkin juice?" she asked.

"Ah, sure," Harry replied. He wished he could say the words that were pounding to get out of his chest, but he could not.

From her barstool, Ginny wordlessly conjured another glass in front of her face, identical to her own, and sent it flying across the room until it stopped quite suddenly next to the pitcher. Wordlessly, she levitated the pitcher once more and poured a glass of pumpkin juice and then floated it gently to Harry, who caught it out of the air. She looked at him defiantly.

"Nice bit of wordless magic there..." He could not yet unstick his tongue to say anything more.

"I've been practicing a bit. Not much else to do while you're waiting around all school year for everyone..." Ginny did not want to be angry, for she only felt disheartened that Harry did not seem to care very much that she was there, across the very same room from him. But Hermione had said that Harry watched her on the map...

"Ginny..." The few bites of rump roast that Harry had eaten now squirmed uncomfortably in his stomach.

"Yeah?"

"Erm... too bad we didn't just win a Quidditch match, huh?"

"I'd say that what you just did is actually more important that winning a Quidditch match."

"It wasn't just me." Harry set his pumpkin juice down next to his plate of roast and took a few steps toward Ginny.

"It was you in the end though." Ginny stood without realizing it. When she said the word 'end', Harry weirdly remembered kissing the snitch less than twenty-four hours previous to this very moment.

"But you were with me the whole time."

"Ha, yeah right."

"When he hit me with the Avada Kedavra curse in the forest-"

"So you did die?" She took a few steps closer to him.

"Well, sort of..."

"Yeah?"

"Why do I feel like a git saying this?"

"I think it's because you're afraid of what I'll say." She only a few feet away from him now, close enough to touch him.

"I thought of you when I thought I was going to die, Ginny. And when I heard that you had broken into Snape's... Professor Snape... the Headmaster's office..."

"What are you on about? Professor Snape?"

"Yes, Professor..." Harry felt suddenly very tired again.

"Okay..."

"Really, every night, when we were in the forest and we were practically starving, you were still constantly on my mind..." but Harry was unable to finish due to the fact that Ginny was, quite suddenly, kissing him.

She tasted sweeter than the pumpkin juice she had been drinking and he could smell flowers. Her hands were making his hair even messier than it already always was and he was glad that she was. His hands could not decide where their place was to rest so he grabbed her hair and her waist, then he was touching her face and the small of her back, inching her even closer than she was already.

Too soon for Harry, she broke away and smiled up at him. Feeling his eyes unexpectedly tear up, he buried his face in her long red hair and hugged her. She hugged earnestly back.

After a few minutes of hugging like this, while Ginny intermittently kissed Harry's ear, and then his neck, and then his cheek, and then his shoulder, Harry spoke.

"Why don't we sit down? I think it's time that I told you everything." At these words, Dumbledore suddenly flashed into Harry's mind, fully formed.

"Shall we go back up to Gryffindor tower?" Ginny suggested as they broke apart. Harry nodded and Ginny flicked her wand over her shoulder at the kitchen at large. The rump roast flew and the pumpkin juice flew back into the refrigerator while their glasses and Harry and Ron's plates clean themselves and flew back into their proper places. She then turned and pointed her wand at the orb that Harry had created and it flew into her wand.

Hand-in-hand, Harry and Ginny made their way back up to Gryffindor tower and sat on their favorite cushy chairs next to the fireplace. Ron and Hermione had fallen asleep on the couch, curled up in each other's arms but otherwise, the common room was empty.

Harry started from the day of the wedding and spoke about all that had happened until the final battle in the great hall. Hermione and Ron woke up about halfway through and interjected a few things as well. By the time they were finished, the sun had begun to rise and they could hear people stirring above them.

"I wonder how long it'll take to fix everything?" Harry wondered aloud.

"Well, we could walk around the castle just Reparo-ing everything," Ron said.

"I don't know about the Room of Requirement though. After that fiend-fyre..." Hermione said.

"That room has had enough use from everyone for a lifetime, anyway," Ron said.

"We should start today with fixing things. We might as well while everyone's still here. It'd go more quickly," said Harry.

"Yeah," Ginny said, "but first, I think we should take a stroll around the grounds."