Harry hurriedly wiped his face as he walked down the hallway to the common room, making sure there was no evidence of his recent sob session. Now that he thought of it, it sounded a but pathetic, actually.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed after he walked into the now-slightly-filled common room. "Where have you been? Ron said you weren't there when he woke up."
Scanning the room, Harry saw all of the Weasleys and Hermione were up. George, he noticed with a wrench in his chest, looked extremely lonely without his twin by his side. Finding himself unable to meet George's eyes, Harry looked away.
The next pair of eyes his met were a warm, fierce brown - Ginny, he thought, recognizing them at once. Harry was glad he saw no anger there. She just might forgive him for being such a wanker... Then again, maybe not.
"I fancied a walk," Harry told her.
After a few seconds of slightly awkward silence, Ron said, "I wonder if they're serving breakfast. We should go check - "
"No," Harry cut in sharply, shuddering at the memory of all of the bodies there. Everyone in the room looked at him oddly. "They haven't cleared up the...bodies yet," he explained quietly. "Trust me, you don't want to go down there."
"Oh, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said, sympathy in her voice. "You didn't go down there?"
He looked over to her; obviously, the look on his face answered 'yes,' for she quickly walked over and gave him a hug. He smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile when she pulled away and said, "Don't worry about me, Mrs. Weasley. I've seen worse things."
Though whether that was true, he didn't know. Even if forced, Harry woudn't've been able to pick the worst thing he had ever seen - there were quite a few of them at the top of his long list.
Apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say. Mrs. Weasley nearly burst into tears as she looked at Harry, horror struck at his calm reply. After all, how could such a young boy have seen things worse than a room full of dead bodies? She just couldn't grasp the thought.
"Mum, leave him alone," Ron said, stopping Mrs. Weasley from hugging Harry with enough force to squish him again. Harry shot him a grateful look.
Another awkward silence... There were no topics of conversation that didn't bring some unwanted emotion into the group. Harry sat down in his favorite armchair by the fire and mulled over the events of yesterday.
Yesterday... How could that be right? He'd defeated the Dark Lord just yesterday. Defeated... Murdered... It depended on your viewpoint. Harry himself couldn't shake the feeling of murder from him, however hard he tried. Voldemort was evil, he thought. He deserved to die, after all of the people he killed...
And then there was the matter of the Deathly Hallows. Ron had disagreed with his decision to get rid of the Elder Wand, and he wasn't going to tell them about the Resurrection Stone. In fact, he wasn't telling them what happened in the forest at all. He would keep that to himself - for now, at least. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to tell anybody that he was the master of the Deathly Hallows.
He had also decided then when he told the story of going to the forest, he would only say that Voldemort's attempt didn't work. Harry knew, of course, that he had been the final Horcrux, the last thing that needed to be destroyed besides Nagini, and wasn't quite sure if he wanted people to know that - wouldn't they just see him as even more of a freak? Surely it would creep at least some of them out, to know that they'd spent a good part of their lives around someone who'd had a piece of Voldemort in them all along.
So when Hermione asked, "Harry, what happened last night?" softly a few minutes into his thought, Harry'd decided that he wouldn't tell them most things.
"I knew that in order for you all to live, I had to die - by Voldemort's hand," he said. "Only it didn't work properly; I had sacrificed myself. It's very complicated, and I don't feel like explaining it all right now, I'm sorry."
"Why would you risk your life like that, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked in a soft tone.
"I had my reasons. When we saw Snape die, he gave me some of his memories."
"Why in the hell would you trust Snape?" George exclaimed.
"I saw why Dumbledore trusted him," Harry said simply.
"But that could've been fake!" Ron said angrily. "He could've made that up so you would die!"
"He didn't."
"But why - "
"I have my reasons!" Harry said again, effectively ceasing all rebuttal.
Another minute or so later, he added, looking at Ron and Hermione, "I was the last one."
After a second a look of comprehension drew across Hermione's face. "Oh, Harry!" she said.
"Seriously?" Ron asked, his voice hoarse. Harry nodded.
"The last what?" George demanded.
"The last person Voldemort ever killed - well, technically," Harry lied smoothly. If he were to explain Horcruxes to them, he wouldn't include the fact that he had been one himself.
No one replied though it was obvious by the looks on their faces that none of them believed him. "Well, let's not sit around hungry," Mrs. Weasley said. "Will one of you go to the kitchen?"
"There's no need," Harry said. "Kreacher!"
With a CRACK, the ugly, old house elf was standing in front of him. Bowing low, he said, "Master Harry! How can Kreacher help you, sir?"
They all looked astonished at this magnificent change in behavior. "Hello, Kreacher," Hermione said carefully.
Kreacher turned. Upon seeing her, he said, "Mistress Granger!" and bowed - though, admittedly, not as low as he had for Harry. He then turned to the Weasleys and bowed to them, too. "What can Kreacher get for you?" he asked.
"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, still a little alarmed at his change in attitude, "we'd like some breakfast, please, Kreacher."
"Of course, Mistress Weasley!" Kreacher said, and Apparated at once.
"Woah," Charlie said. "What was that all about?"
Harry shrugged. "I gave him his old master's locket - it belonged to Sirius's brother, Regulus."
Before they could respond, as Ginny had been about to, Kreacher appeared again, accompanied by another loud CRACK. Two more house elves followed, all three bearing large, silver trays with multiple types of breakfast food. Harry saw kippers, eggs, toast, marmalade, bacon, and orange juice on one.
"Food," Ron moaned, immediately grabbing a plate and piling food onto it. The rest of the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione followed suit. They were silent as they ate their breakfast - one of his, Ron's, and Hermione's first real meals in months, Harry realized.
"You three look like you haven't eaten in months," Mrs. Weasley said in an admonishing tone. Looking at each other, the trio grinned. "What's so funny?" she asked.
"Well," Hermione said, scooping up some scrambled eggs, "we haven't, really."
"Speaking of," Bill said, "where were you three before you showed up at my house?"
And so the trio began their story. It took quite a while, and by the time they had reached the part where the Snatchers came to their campsite, everyone had finished breakfast.
"And they took us to Malfoy Manor," Harry said. He stopped, glancing at Hermione. She had her eyes closed and was rubbing her arm, in the spot where Harry knew Bellatrix had carved the word Mudblood. She looked as if she were about to cry; Harry immediately regretted mentioning Malfoy Manor.
Ron, seeing this at the same time as Harry, wrapped his arm around her. She opened her eyes and smiled faintly, silently inviting him to continue.
"And they took us to Malfoy Manor," Harry said again, distracted, "where we met Luna and Ollivander when they put us in the cellar... Then we escaped with Dobby, who took Bellatrix's knife, meant for one of us..."
He trailed off, realizing that he had forgotten about Dobby earlier, and that there was yet another name to adds to the list of deaths that he had caused. He brought himself back to the present, deciding that he would skip the breaking into Gringotts part, because then he would be forced to explain why he did it. In fact, Harry found himself skipping a lot of parts, because most of his time at Hogwarts had been related to the Horcruxes. He knew the gaps were large and confusing, but decided that he would figure out what to do with them later.
There were a few minutes after their tale was finished in which the Weasleys processed all of this new information. As George opened his mouth, presumably to ask a question about the missing parts, Harry said, "No questions." George closed his mouth.
"Well," Mrs. Weasley said, "I think I'll go find Minerva and find out what's going on. Arthur?" Mr. Weasley nodded, standing up with his wife. Soon enough, everyone else had found something else to do, and Harry found himself alone again. Or at least, he'd thought he was alone, until he heard someone say, "Harry?"
Turning, Harry saw Ginny approaching him. She claimed the chair next to him, angling her body so that she was facing Harry's.
"Er, Ginny," Harry started. He didn't really know how to come about this. How did you apologize to a girl when you'd broken he heart, but still loved her? "I - I'm really sorry, Ginny. You know I didn't want to leave you, but if I hadn't, then you most likely would've died, and Ginny, I wouldn't be able to live if you died - especially if it was because of me."
Ginny opened her mouth to speak, but Harry kept going. "Ginny, I wouldn't have left you if it were up to me, believe me. But if the circumstances had been different - if you would've been safe - I never would've left you." He was pleading now, begging her to understand. "I still love you, Ginny, I do. But if you're too angry with me, if you can't forgive me, then... I guess I deserve it."
Ginny was silent for a moment, deliberating what she would say next. "You do deserve it, Harry," she said.
Harry's heart dropped. He hung his head, unwilling to look into her eyes.
"You deserve," Ginny continued, reaching her arm out to force his face up so his eyes met hers, "to be loved as much as anyone could ever be loved, because you haven't been your whole life."
"Do you mean - " Harry quickly said, afraid to get his hopes up.
"Yes, Harry," Ginny said sincerely, "I forgive you. Honestly. I knew you'd only left because you were being the stupid hero again; I saw how much it hurt you, as well. And Harry, I still love you."
"I love you, Ginny," Harry said without hesitation, for the first time in his life. "I never stopped. Did you know, I used to take out the Marauder's Map just to watch your dot?"
"Really?" Ginny asked, sounding surprised. "That's sweet - a bit stalkerish, yes, but still sweet nonetheless."
Harry smiled. "Ginny?"
"Yes, Harry?"
"I love you."
"I love you, too, Harry."
Controlling the Rebound by hallows_vs_horcruxes
Chapter Notes: Hello, everyone! So sorry for the long wait, but here's the next chapter for you! Enjoy!
Chapter Endnotes: Again, please remember that this is un-Beta'd, and excuse any errors on my part. Also, I'd greatly appreciate it if you would leave a review for me! Thanks for reading!
~Ang