This is my first published fanfiction ever and my first Harry Potter fanfiction that I have written. If I can get three reviews then I'll post the next chapter. They cannot all be from the same person though, so get other people to read and review! Thank you all for reading.

~Robin

Dsclaimer: I do not, and never will, own Harry Potter.

Chapter 1

May 2nd 1998

Ginny was standing beside her mother in the great hall when she saw Ron and Hermione returning from the entrance hall. Just the two of them. She quietly walked over and looked at them, pleading with her eyes. Hermione, sensing what she needed to know quietly said, "He went up to the dormitories to sleep. Go up, but he needs his rest."

Ginny just nodded and left the great hall, wandering slowly up the grand staircase until she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. The grand woman, who was usually in her frame, was gone, so Ginny opened the portrait-hole and climbed through. She still remembered how she used to have to scramble through as a scrawny little first year, and looked slowly around the comfy common room. It's usual crowds were absent, leaving it as only a big, empty space, absent of life, except for the coals of a dieing fire.

She headed toward the stairs to boys dormitory and climbed quietly to the top, but she hesitated in front of the door. Should she really go in, with the risk of waking him from his much-needed sleep? She convinced herself, This doesn't mean that we're getting back together, I just need to know that he's really okay, after seeing him dead and all of that. She knew that wasn't truly her reason. She still loved him, even if he didn't love her anymore.

She steeled herself to open the door and walk towards his bed. He was sprawled across it, his mouth gaping open, his clothes a mess. They were ripped and burnt and his face wasn't much better. It was coated in dirt and dried blood (hopefully not his own), and all other manners of grime. Ginny slowly walked over and gently brushed a lock of his hair off his forehead, allowing the scar underneath to peak through. Even only one hour after Voldemort had finally been defeated, the scar was already starting to fade. It was turning from a red, irritated line, into what a normal sixteen-year-old scar should look like.

She let one solitary tear make its way down her cheek before she gently kissed his cheek, pulled herself together, and made her way back down the stairs to the empty common room.

Ginny walked quickly away from the kitchens and back to the great hall. She had just asked Kreacher to send up some fresh clothes and sandwiches for Harry when he finally woke up. She had noticed polite how Kreacher had been. Normally he would have been muttering something like filthy mud-bloods and blood-traitors, dirtying the house of my fathers, but today he had actually been quite pleasant. She decided to ask Harry about it later, if she ever got the chance to anyway. He might never want anything to do with her ever again.

Once Ginny reentered the great hall she was swept immediately up into her mother's arms.

"Ginny, Ginny, oh thank goodness, you're okay," her mother said hurriedly, "Ginny, oh, it's Fred. He was crushed by a falling wall, and, and, they aren't sure that he's going to make it!"

"No, not Fred," Ginny brushed past her mother toward where Fred was lying by the staff table. His chest was moving faintly up and down. Sitting by his side was George, silent, staring at his injured twin. Ginny went to sit down and curled into his side, not only to comfort him, but for the small amount of human contact that her brother could give her.

Just when her eyes had almost closed with lethargy, she saw one of his eyelids flutter. His eyes opened and he moaned, "Eurggh," before his eyes closed again.

George suddenly chuckled, "That's the best you can do regaining consciousness; at least I made a joke."

Fred makes a muffled snort that Ginny realizes must have been a laugh, that then turned into coughs. Dust came out of his mouth. It seemed to clear his lungs and they could hear him breathing quietly. His chest moved up and down more visibly.

"Looks like laughter really is the best medicine, doesn't it George," Ginny whispered with a small smile.

George gave her a little grin back "I guess it is, little sis'. I guess it is."

May 3rd 1998

Harry gently rolled over in his bed. His eyes flickered open and he saw the red and gold canopy above him and felt the fluffy blankets and pillows piled up around him. He sat bolt upright before his spinning head brought him back down into the clutches of the bed. His hand roamed slowly to his left until he finds his glasses on the bed-side table. He pushed them carefully onto his nose. He was right, he's in the boys dormitories at Hogwarts. He looks over to the small window on the right side of his bed. Dusk, he had only slept for a few short hours, no wonder he still felt like a thirty-ton giant had stepped on him.

This time, he sat up slowly so that the blood wouldn't rush right out of his head. His head ached and his stomach was gurgling with hunger. He had eaten before he fell asleep, how could he already be so hungry? Then it hit him. Harry mentally kicked himself. He had been asleep for more than a day!

Harry stood up to find some sandwiches and fresh clothes at the foot of his bed. He went to put on the clothes, but before he was fully undressed he saw how terrible he looked. He was covered in a coat of grime and blood, and stunk the back-side of a Hippogriff. He was badly in need of a shower.

He walked carefully over to the bathroom and turned the hot water in the shower up to full pressure. He grabbed a bar of soap and rubbed himself thoroughly all over. He noticed the burns up and down his arms and legs and the bruises covering his backside, but most of all he noticed the fist-sized purple bruise right over his heart. It was were Voldemort had hit him with the killing curse in the forest the morning before.

He groaned quietly as the aches and pains from the last two days melted away with the pressure of the hot water. He suddenly realized there was another warm spot that felt like a healing bruise, but he couldn't remember being hit there. He stepped out of the shower and looked in the mirror. His eyes were again drawn to the bruise on his chest and to his ribs. He could count every one of them. He brought his eyes up to his face, where he could see his already healing scar. He then moved them to his cheek, where he felt the heat, but there was no mark on the skin at all. Not a single bruise or cut or anything that could be causing that heat, unless. He instantly pushed the thought out of his head. Ginny didn't love him anymore. He had broken up with her. She probably hated his guts, especially after he made her stay behind when they all went out to fight. His heart jolted, knowing that he would never again be able to kiss her, or hold her hand, or even share a warm hug with her ever again. He just wished he had gotten one last chance to make everything right again.

He slowly dressed in the clean clothes and went over to eat about four sandwiches from the plate Kreacher must have brought to him. They were a little stale, so they must have been brought up the day before.

After eating he went down to the great hall to find Ron and Hermione. On his way down he saw all the wreckage of walls and paintings and statues that had been destroyed the day before. There were broken pieces of rock everywhere. Burn marks and holes were scattered through paintings and over the walls. He remembered the wall that had fallen on Fred and could only hope that help had gotten to him in time. Harry shivered just to think about any more of the people he cared about dieing.

He finally found his way to the wide open doors in the entry hall and walked discreetly in through the hustle and bustle of people moving around. They were helping the wounded, and eating, and helping with preparations leave. Harry made his way to the area up by the staff table where Madame Pomfrey was working with some students healing everyone up. Harry saw Ginny up there working with her and quickly turned away from the student helpers and to the busy nurse.

She tutted to him about how many times she had healed him in the past, and that he really had to learn to take better care of himself. Harry just sighed and searched the hall. He quickly found a knot of red-headed people surrounding one spot in the hall. He knew that was where he was wanted and where he would soon be going.

They were all gathered around one other person with red hair. Harry walked over and saw that they were talking to a beat-up looking Fred. Harry let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding in. Fred was alive. He had made it through the fight. That meant that all of the Weasleys were still alive. Then he remembered. Remus and Tonks had both died. That left Harry as Teddy's only caretaker, unless Andromeda wanted to keep him with her of course. The elation that had soared through him after seeing Fred slowly left him, as he remembered the other dead.

He felt a sudden pressure on each side. Ron and Hermione were both grinning at him. "Hey mate, what's with the long face?" Ron asks.

"Isn't it obvious, Ronald, that Harry still feels bad about how Remus and Tonks are both gone," Hermione scolds. She always had had the aptitude of guessing exactly how Harry was feeling.

"Remember Harry, they went out the way they would have wanted to, fighting to make a better world for their son."

"I know Hermione, it's just, I grew up without my parents. I don't want Teddy to have to go through that same situation-"

"Harry, he has you, and Andromeda, and all of us to help. You only had the Dursleys, and they were never a help at all to you." Hermione interrupted. "He'll at least grow up with a loving family surrounding him."

Harry felt immediately cheered by that thought, until he thought about telling Andromeda about their deaths. "How are we going to tell her?" He whispered.

"Tell who what?" Ron said in his usual clueless manner."

"Andromeda, about Remus and Tonks," Hermione clarified for him.

"We'll just have to come strait out and say it, mate," Ron said quietly. "There isn't any other way to do it. We're leaving tomorrow to go back to the Burrow. We can stop on the way to tell her."

"If that's the only way," Harry set his mind on it, strengthening himself for the coming task.

"It is," Hermione confirmed. "Would you have it any other way?"

She sat down and Ron put his arm around her, leaving Harry to his own thoughts of the bad news Andromeda had coming to her the next day.

May 4th 1998

"Harry, dear, there you are we were just getting ready to go," Mrs. Weasley said, right when Harry walked into the hall the next morning. "You are coming back to the Burrow with us right?" she continued, daring him with her eyes to say that he wasn't.

"Oh, of course, but Hermione, Ron, and I have one little stop to make first. We have to tell Mrs. Tonks about Remus and Tonks. It's important." Harry pleaded.

"Well, of course dear. You could invite her to come join us for some lunch if she likes," she suggested.

"That sounds like a brilliant idea Mrs. Weasley." Harry said as he sat down to eat some breakfast. He didn't think Andromeda would accept the invitation, but it was at least worth a try, and he figured he owed it to the Weasleys to at least humor Mrs. Weasley with that one little thing.

After Harry finished eating he quickly found Ron and Hermione. They might as well get this over with. He grabbed each of their arms and turned on the spot (the protections spells around Hogwarts had been damaged and repairs hadn't yet been started). A few seconds later he was on the doorstep of the Tonks' home.

He stepped forward and knocked quietly. Andromeda came out carrying little Teddy in her arms. "Oh, Nymphadora, I was so worried..." she stopped talking when she noticed that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are standing there, not her daughter and her husband. "I'm sorry, come in, come in. I expect you're here to tell me when Nymphadora and Remus are coming home, they're always so busy trying to help out..."

She keeps talking as the trio follow her into the sitting room and she puts Teddy down on a rug scattered with baby toys.

"Mrs. Tonks," Harry interrupted her rambling, "I'm so sorry, but Remus and Tonks were both killed by death eaters the day of the final battle. They both died valiantly and I'm sure that-" Harry stopped abruptly as she fell to the floor and Teddy immediately started to bawl.

Hermione took control quickly. "Harry, pick Teddy up and try to get him to calm down. Ron, floo to St. Mungo's and get a healer over here this instant, I'll do the best I can to help her until a proper healer gets here." The boys just stared blankly at her. "Well, get moving, go!" she shouted. They all jumped into action as she knelt on the ground by Andromeda's head. She quickly checked her pulse. It was gone. She tried muggle CPR, and a simple spell, but she had never practiced very much healing. It was one of the few things that they didn't teach at Hogwarts. Nothing was working anyway.

By the time that the healer arrived Harry had quieted Teddy and he was nodding of to sleep. The healer, Healer Brown, went over to where Hermione knelt. He felt for a pulse and muttered a few quick spells, but he was too late to save her. "I'm sorry, but it's too late. She's gone. Was there anything to stimulate this?" he asked professionally.

"We had just told her that her daughter and son-in-law had died in the Battle of Hogwarts," Harry whispered, clearly horrified.

"I would say that it was stimulated by the shock and grief of the news. Her heart stopped. I am so sorry for your losses," he said, still professional, but sounding quite sincere. "My family was fighting there too, but luckily my younger sister only sustained a few injuries."

They all just stood there a moment before the Healer Brown recovered enough to ask "Does the baby have anywhere to go? If not we'll have to take him to the hospital until we can find a place for him."

Harry's arms tightened around Teddy. "No, he's my godson. I'll take him now and go to the ministry to deal with all the proper paperwork tomorrow." Harry's voice sounded strained. "He will be raised by a loving family, not an orphanage that the hospital sends him to."

"Good, I would rather not have to do that to such a special child," the healer said as Teddy's hair changed from light brown to turquoise in his sleep. "Take good care of him. I'll leave you to take care of the body?" he asks.

"Yes, we'll put her to rest with her family." Hermione quickly cut in. Healer Brown quickly bowed and left them in peace with the dead woman and the sleeping baby.

Hermione collapsed onto the couch, shocked, while Harry and Ron just stood there, staring blankly at Andromeda, lying dead on the floor.

"I-I thought the deaths would end after the battles were over," Harry managed to choke out.

"Harry, you should know, the real battles are only just beginning. The real battles are between the ones dead, and the ones living, living their lives without them," Hermione stated wisely.

May 5th 1998

The next morning the funerals started. At ten o'clock Remus and Tonks were buried. It was a simple ceremony. They were laid to rest in the Tonk's family plot along with Ted Tonks, who had also died in the last year. "They died the way they lived, making the world a better place for humanity, and especially for their son," Harry finished his speech.

Teddy had been strangely quiet throughout the ceremony, like he knew exactly what was going on. He was now being held by Hermione until Harry once again took his seat. It wasn't until the coffins were magically lowered into the graves and covered in dirt that he started to cry. It loud and messy and tears ran down every other person's faces along with him. Harry didn't know how long they sat there, but when Mrs. Weasley stood, signaling for everybody to leave, Harry stood, noticing how Teddy had finally quieted down and had cried himself to sleep.

That afternoon it was Andromeda's funeral. It was a couple dozen people. Less than forty. Less than forty people knew Andromeda well enough to be bothered to come to her funeral. The only person to make a speech was old Augusta Longbottom, who had apparently been friends with Andromeda for years. "She couldn't have lived without her family for long either way. She was a loving mother, faithful wife and, terrific friend, but she stood up for what she believed in and she depended on the people who loved her. Maybe it was for the best that she didn't have to try to live without them," she finished her long-winded speech. Everybody stayed for a few minutes after the coffins was placed beneath the ground.

Augusta Longbottom came up to Harry and Teddy and said quietly "You had better care for that one like he was your own flesh and blood, Potter. You're all he has left, and he needs a father in his life. You are his father. I know you won't let him replace you for Remus and I agree with that, but let him be your son, don't keep him from having that just to keep him from losing sight of Remus," she quickly walked out of the graveyard and apparated away.

Harry just stood there shocked, but he knew she was right. He would never have let Teddy call him 'dad'. He wouldn't have wanted him to remember him as his father instead of Remus. She was right. Harry decided right then that he would be Teddy's father. He would treat him just like he would his own son, but he would not lie about who Teddy's parents really were. He would tell him as soon as he was old enough to understand.

May 9th 1998

The last funeral was Collin's. Collin Creevey, the first year who had worshiped Harry and followed him everywhere. He had grown up in the muggle world, and had not known his mother was a witch until he was brought to Hogwarts, followed eventually by his brother.

Harry didn't speak at this funeral. The only thing he could do was hold Teddy and blame himself for Collin's death. Ginny, however, did speak. Until she talked about him, Harry hadn't known that she had known Collin so well. The final speaker was Dennis, Collins younger brother. He was only a fifth year and had already experienced so much sadness at such a young age. His mother leaving and his brother's death were such traumatic experiences for a fifteen-year-old. Harry had, of course, had gone through much worse than that, but Harry had been no ordinary child. "Collin was a terrific older brother, and a loyal friend, and he died fighting for something that could never have been stupid or idiotic. He died fighting for peace and for friendship, and so that no mother would ever have to do what ours did."

Harry went up to Dennis and patted him on the shoulder. "You said it all Dennis," he said, and walked away from the grave of one of the most innocent people he had ever known. There was still the memorial to deal with and he had to be there to make a speech, even one that he didn't think needed to be given.

The memorial for those who had died took place on the Hogwarts grounds. It was a sunny day by the lake near where Dumbledore's marble tomb lay.

A monument had been magically constructed to be just a plain while marble wall with names carved into the stone of all the people who died for the cause of defeating Lord Voldemort. It was charmed so that whenever somebody was found who had died for the cause they were easily added to the wall by just saying the name when looking at the wall. Other people who fought in the battles were also listed on the wall, but only the people who died fighting had a wand carving next to their names.

There were golden chairs out in the grounds next to the lake under an awning to block out the sun. The front of the field of chairs was the monument, shining in the light from the setting sun. As people started to take their seats, the people who fought sat near the front. Harry, who was speaking sat in the front row along with Kingsley and Professor McGonagall, who were also speaking. Once most of the seats were filled, Kingsley stood up to begin the ceremony. He started by listing the people who had died from Harry's parents, to Cedric Diggory, to Dumbledore, to all the people who had died in the Battle of Hogwarts. He then gave his little speech.

Others followed him. McGonagall, Slughorn, Mr. Weasley, several people from the Ministry of Magic and finally, Harry. When Harry's name was called, the silence became absolute. The birds seemed to stop singing and the wind suddenly stood still, while Harry made his way to the podium at the front, his palms sweating.

When he got to the front his nerves suddenly disappeared. He started, "I wrote something long, and boring, for this, but then I realized that to all of those who lost somebody in the war, that wouldn't mean anything." The silence continued, but some people were starting to smile. "I lost many people through this war. My parents, my godfather, Professor Dumbledore, and some of my closest friends. They wouldn't want us to mourn them and think about how much better it would be if they were still here today because, face it, if they were here it would be worse." The audience let out some gasps at this, but Harry continued, "That may sound cruel, and cold-hearted, but think about it. They gave their lives so that we could live. We are only alive and free today because of the sacrifice that they made for us and for our lives to be better than they have been since Voldemort returned almost three years ago." He heard some more gasps at the name. "All I want, is a moment of silence for those who died fighting for us to live the lives we live today. Remember them for what they did, not how it could have been if they had lived." The audience was silent as Harry bowed his head for the sixty silent seconds he had requested.

He realized, that that was exactly what Mrs. Longbottom had been trying to tell him at Andromeda's funeral about what he had to do with Teddy. He would never want anyone to forget the people who had died, but they had to go on with their lives the way that they would have if those people had never died. Harry vowed, from that day forth, to live the life that he was meant to live. When Harry looked up again almost everybody was gone, except for the Weasley's, Hermione, and Teddy, waiting for him. He walked calmly over and Hermione came strait forward to give him a hug as her silent thank you for his speech. Nothing else was needed. He followed everyone to the apparation point so that they could all go to live the lives that they were meant to live and to make their own difference in the world.

Remember, three people, three reviews, and another chapter.