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-Perfalco

On that eighth day, Harry awoke to the sound of an owl hooting loudly. He first, irrational, thought was that it was Hedwig, returned from the grave. He groggily grasped his glasses, and pulled away the curtain surrounding his familiar bed. As he looked around his usual room in the Gryffindor tower, staring at the now vacant beds he felt a twinge of sadness come over for him for the ones who had died. He pushed the thoughts out of his head, and suddenly noticed that a large white owl has flying around the room, with what appeared to be a newspaper tied around its leg. Any other person would have thought that it was Hedwig, alive and well. But Harry could easily tell that it just some other owl.

Noticing that Harry was finally awake, the owl swooped down so Harry could remove the newspaper tied to its leg. After Harry removed it (and gave the owl a few affectionate pets) the owl flew off towards the stairs, apparently going to leave by whatever method he'd used to get in. Harry was struck not by the headline "HARRY POTTER TRIUMPHS OVER THE DARK LORD", but by the picture that accompanied it. It was of him facing off Voldermort in the Great Hall, and the moving picture had them endlessly circling, as the crowd of nervous faces watched on.

Why on earth would it occur to someone to stop and take a picture?, Harry thought to himself. After puzzling over it for a few seconds, he decided that it didn't really matter. What did matter was that with the castle's reconstruction complete, and the Ministry back to normal, Harry knew that the celebration that he knew was coming had arrived. Despite the sadness and grief of having lost so many he knew, Harry suddenly felt happy. Elated. Everything that he had ever worked for, everything he had ever wanted, he had achieved.

Well, except for one thing…

Harry looked at his golden watch, the one he had received from Mrs. Weasley at his 17th birthday celebration. He had slept in far later than he had intended to, and was grateful towards the owl for waking him up. He got dressed quickly, and headed towards the Great Hall. Everyone was meeting there, not for a meal, nor for a meeting, but simply to be there, to talk to one another, to console those who had lost friends or family, and most of all, to celebrate their victory.

Harry walked into the Great Hall, not really late (as there was really not much of a starting or stopping time), and was pleasantly surprised at what lay before him. Very few people had noticed his entrance, and even fewer turned to look at him. Above all, the Hall was joyous. The first thing Harry noticed was that there was laughter. The second thing he noticed was the way the Hall was arranged. It was similar to the way it was during school meals, except the long table for the teachers was gone, and there were only three tables. The tables were mostly empty, except that each had two large platters, containing a small selection of simple foods that the occupants seemed to be slowly nibbling at. At the far end of one of the tables, Harry spotted some of the Weasleys sitting down, and started moving toward them. When he got near them, they all burst into laughter, apparently over some funny joke one of them had made.

Soon, Harry was standing next to them, thoroughly confused. Mrs. Weasley was the first to notice him standing there, and seemed to understand the source of his troubles. She smiled and said, with a radiance that was surprisingly genuine, "Dear, now is a time to celebrate – There will be plenty time to mourn and bury the dead…later." And with her simple statement, and the smiles of the Weasleys trained on him, the joy he had felt earlier returned with full force, and he couldn't help grinning back at them. Suddenly, Harry smelled a familiar, flowery smell. He turned to face Ginny, who was standing right next to him, staring straight into his eyes.

"Harry…" she rasped, in one breathless second.

They stood standing there, and his thoughts from earlier drifted into his mind.

Everything he had ever wanted…

He was vaguely aware that a few feet away, McGonagall had gathered everyone's attention, and everyone was now staring towards their corner of the room as she began to speak to everyone. Slowly leaning in, and in full view of everyone who had not known of their love, Harry and Ginny kissed.