Redivivus
Epilogue
Notes: The real notes are at the bottom to not spoil the mood.
The first thing he saw was white. It was pretty standard, he supposed. At least it was a refreshing change from the pitch black that had been before his eyes. But the brightness of it all almost hurt and instinctively he buried his face in the pillow.
A soft, warm pillow.
...did they really have pillows in the afterlife?
"I'm glad to see that you are awake."
Startled upon hearing a voice, Harry sat up straight. All thoughts of the afterlife, being dead and warm pillows disappeared as he took in his surroundings quickly. White sheets, at least a dozen beds similar to the one that Harry was lying on. The blinding white he had seen when he first woke up had been the light of the sun shining through the window. Wherever he was, he was pretty sure that he was still in Hogwarts, judging by the size of the room.
"You are in the Hospital Wing, Mr Potter. Granted, it has not been used for years but I must say that your servants have done a fine job in restoring it."
Looking slightly to his left, Harry turned to see a stern looking, old witch with dark grey hair pulled into a strict bun. She seemed quite tall from where Harry sat, but that had a lot to do with her posture and the way she carried herself with dignity enough to fill the entire room. Despite her immense presence in the room, Harry could not recall ever meeting her before.
"Who are you?" Harry asked.
"My name is Minerva McGonagall," the witch introduced herself, not moving from her position. "I used be a professor here at Hogwarts before... well, you know what happened. I assume you know why I am here."
Harry had no clue, but found it in his best interest to remain silent.
"I believe a certain Miss Lovegood informed you of our arrival," Professor McGonagall went on. "I have to admit that while it was not the best way to have gone about, in the end things seems to have worked out on in its own way... whether we understand it or not."
Harry just stared at her, confused. Judging from what she had said, he assumed that she belonged to the Resistance. But everything else she had said made very little sense to him. What did she mean by saying that things had worked out? What things was she talking about? How come she was still there when Voldemort was around? Why weren't there dozens of Death Eaters around ready to seize her?
"Professor McGonagall, I do not understand," Harry spoke, managing to gather his thoughts enough to speak. "You are in the Resistance, are you not? Then why are you still here? Lord Voldemort would have..."
"Voldemort, it seems..." Professor McGonagall cut off. "...is dead. We found his remains right next to you."
It took a few moments for Harry to full comprehend what she was saying. Then it all came back to him, the seconds just before he had blacked out. He was lying at the bottom of the stairs, unable to move because of the curse. Voldemort had spoken and then cast the killing curse. There had been green light but not towards Harry and he remembered seeing Voldemort's body fall to the floor and that smoky being lingering above him briefly. It could not be possible, the killing curse could not be blocked and he had no way of dodging it. He remembered the wand being pointed at him and how he had been unable to move despite of his attempts. So why was it that he was the one sitting at a bed in the hospital wing and Voldemort was the one who was dead?
"Why am I still alive?" Harry whispered, voicing his thoughts aloud.
"That is what we cannot understand either, Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall answered. She opened her mouth to speak again but suddenly turned around and looked towards the doorway. "Oh, I see she has come to see you."
In his current state of confusion, Harry did not even look up to see who it was. It was only when he felt another hand upon hers and looked up to meet a pair of silvery eyes that he noticed that Luna was standing beside his bed. She looked no different from before, still wearing that blue robe although she looked a little windswept as if she had just stepped off a broom. Professor McGonagall took one last look at Harry, then started to back away.
"I will leave you two alone... Miss Lovegood, please do not take too long. We cannot afford to stay here at Hogwarts much longer."
Luna confirmed with a nod and shortly afterwards Professor McGonagall turned around and headed for the door. Once the latter was gone, Luna smiled affectionately at Harry, her hand still on his. Without showing the slightest hint of awkwardness she sat down on the bed next to him as if it was the most natural thing to do. Harry moved slightly to make room for her but his mind could not help thinking about what had happened.
"Luna... he's dead and I'm not..." he started, not knowing where to begin. "I was just there and... he's gone, I didn't do anything..."
"It's alright," Luna assured calmly. "It's okay."
"No, it's not," Harry protested, gripping the duvet tightly. "I didn't... I didn't really want to harm him, I just wanted... I thought that if I got the stone away from him... the stone! Where is it?"
"Calm down," Luna urged. "Professor McGonagall has the stone. She said that she will give it back to its rightful owner. You don't have to worry about that anymore, Harry."
His grip on the duvet loosened slightly. The ticking of a small clock hanging on the wall echoed through the hospital wing and when Harry looked up he saw that it was already six o'clock in the evening. The last thing he remembered about time was when he had been up in the astronomy tower with Luna. That had been over eighteen hours ago. Only twenty-nine hours ago he had stood at the Floo station in Diagon Alley and seen the wanted posters with Luna's name on it for the first time.
How odd that one's life could change so much during such a short time.
He felt Luna's head rest upon his shoulder.
"What have I done?" he whispered. "Did I kill him? Something happened to him when he tried to curse me... I couldn't move, I couldn't even see what was going on. I don't know, I just don't know."
"It's alright," Luna repeated. "Everything will come to you in time."
Harry shut his eyes tightly, as if trying to block all the images and thoughts out of his mind. Everything seemed too surreal, too confusing to make any sense of it. It was best not to think, not feel. He listened to Luna's steady breathing and within that managed to soothe himself enough to stop himself from feeling as if his head would explode of confusion and his heart from pounding so quickly.
"Redivivus," Luna suddenly said.
Harry opened his eyes and looked at her curiously.
"What?"
"Redivivus..." she repeated. "It means come back to life."
Feeling that the explanation was inadequate, Harry just continued to stare at Luna with a puzzled expression on his face. But Luna just smiled at him and started to explain:
"My mother died when I was little. In time I grew to accept death for what it was, but the first week when everything was dark and gloomy and when I missed my mother the most I made up this spell, Redivivus. I thought that if only I could make it work, I could bring my mother back to life."
Luna lifted her head off Harry's shoulder.
"The question is... if you had the choice of using the spell on Voldemort, would you?"
No answer rushed to his mind, he felt as if it was completely blank. When Luna got off the bed and up on her feet, he still could not say anything.
"The others are waiting for me, I have to go," she said. Even in a moment like this, she managed to smile at Harry. "I'm not going to say goodbye to you. I don't know when or how, but I believe that someday I'll see you again."
Her hand gave Harry's a final squeeze, then she let go of him and left the hospital wing.
There he was, all alone in an empty room and listening to the fading echoes of her footsteps.
Even in silence and solitude he still could not find an answer.
Perhaps there was none.
Perhaps there was one somewhere out there, waiting for him.
Either way, it had to wait.
He had not eaten for a long time and for some reason his stomach craved Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes.
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Author's Notes: No real need to read this if you don't want to, just the typical "Yay, I finished a multichaptered fanfic! Time to rant!" author's note. :)
Well, Redivivus (aka the fanfic where you have to read around 45 000 words before you find out what the title refers to) is finished. I really shouldn't say finished because while the actual story ends here I have loads of things planned for stuff that would happened after Redivivus. Sequel, maybe? I would definitely write it, but I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in reading it. It would still have Harry and Luna as the main characters and in a way Redivivus almost feels like a prologue compared to what I had planned. Anyway, I feel very happy and relieved to have finished Redivivus. I've been working on it for over a year and it feels great to have a story finished rather than just one of those WIPs that makes me feel guilty for not finishing it.
First off I would like to thank all the reviewers and everyone else who has read the story. I'd be lying if I didn't say that every review and hit registered on the stats page made me squee. A big thank you to everyone, I wouldn't have been as motivated to finish the story if it weren't for you! I would also like to thank the creators and writers of Gundam SEED for creating such a wonderful anime that inspired me to write this fanfic to begin with. Thank you to JKR too, who created all these wonderful characters!
Also, for those of you who didn't get the last line (I know, it comes off as a little weird), it's just another example of how Luna has influenced Harry.