All alone in the World

Epilogue: No Longer Alone

(Spoiler Note: for those who have not read DEADLY HALLOWS to the end, this story does make reference to who won and who died during the crisis)

"And that's how it happened," finished Harry, looking around at the solemn faces of Ginny, Ron, and Hermione.

It was the day after the defeat and death of Voldemort. The grownups of the Order of the Phoenix, led by Kingsley, had dashed southward to London to recapture the Ministry for Magic. Some people thought Harry should have gone with them, but he made it clear that he was through being a symbolic leader and that Kingsley had his full support.

Hogwarts was chaotic, but it was a good chaos. Although the normal selection process was in shambles, the teachers had chosen Professor McGonagall as the Acting Headmistress and it would probably stick. People were rebuilding the damage, though leaving some of it as a memorial to those who had died defending the school. It would be several days before classes could resume, which was fine with a lot of the students.

The big heroes were Neville and Harry, the two who had had the courage to confront Voldemort directly. When Harry observed that he had nowhere to stay, the current inhabitants of his old room promptly vacated it to him. No doubt they planned to boast later that "Harry Potter slept here." People were gossipy, but not at all shocked, when the heroes' favourite girls, actually heroines in their own right, joined him in his room.

But what was going on here was no lovefest.

"Did it happen more than once?" asked Ron darkly.

"No," said Hermione. "I was so humiliated when I realized that I had thrown away my virginity just to satisfy my sexual curiosity – I was determined never to do that again, and Harry respected that."

"Did it affect your relationship afterwards?"

"We didn't try to blame each other, but we were more careful of each other from then on," said Hermione. "And it was clear we couldn't keep going on that way forever, so we started taking more risks in our search. Going to Harry's birthplace, which turned out a bad idea, and following the doe to the sword, which was a good one. Weirdly enough, I had to pretend to be Harry's wife at one point, but we didn't let that tempt us into anything."

Ginny looked morosely thoughtful. During the last two days she had lost a brother and seen her loving mother kill an adversary. Now she burst out:

"Harry, if it had been anybody else but Hermione, I'd strangle you and put an awful curse on the bitch. But I understand the bizarre circumstances that you two were under. Did you notice how often you said "all alone" or "our private universe" or "isolated from the world". You went for months not speaking to another human being, except Mundungus—

"And he shouldn't really count as human," muttered Ron.

"—and so close to each other that Hermione had trouble keeping her periods private. Plus, you felt you were wasting months of your lives accomplishing nothing. I'd go crackers, too, in that situation. I guess it's understandable, and although I'm not happy it happened, I'm willing to forgive you." She got up slowly and gave Harry a sombre kiss, and a sisterly embrace with Hermione. "But I don't speak for my brother."

Everybody looked at Ron, who seemed uncomfortable. "Hermione and I didn't have an understanding at that point, so I suppose I don't have a right to complain. I certainly don't expect my love to be a virgin, in this age. But what gets me is that you LIED to me, Harry, about what went on between you too."

Harry sighed. "I know. There's no getting around that. But remember the circumstances. The Locket knew Hermione and I had been intimate, and it was trying to turn you against us by playing on your resentment. But all the spin it put on the situation was wrong. We didn't want to be rid of you. Hermione didn't rate me above you. I told you that our love was platonic, and I was right, because sexual love simply hadn't worked between us."

"Yeah, I remember being tempted. Hearing the absolute truth would have ruined everything," admitted Ron.

"Under You-Know – Under VOLDEMORT," Hermione declared, "lying was almost inevitable. The worse of the war is that we had to adopt the enemies' tactics in order to survive and fight back. Look at Professor Snape; he not only told lies, he LIVED a lie, and helped bring down Voldemort as a result. Even Draco told a noble lie at one point, when he pretended not to recognize us when we were captured."

"She's right," said Ginny. "Voldemort is GONE, and we ought to be able to rejoice. If we do have to be droopy, let's mourn for those who didn't live to see it – Sirius, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, Fred and the others. But the nightmare is over, and we're awake and can put it behind us. And I know one thing," she hugged Harry again, "I'm never going to let you alone for the rest of my life!"

THE END