A New Normal by CharmHazel



Summary: Harry has spent much of his life being hunted by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Now the Dark Lord is dead, it is time for Harry to live the life he has always wanted. It it time for Harry to create for himself a new normal.
Rating: PG-13 starstarstarstarhalf-star
Categories: Post-DH/AB
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2015.07.03
Updated: 2017.02.14


A New Normal by CharmHazel
Chapter 1: Reuniting
Author's Notes:

Chapter 1: Reuniting

Harry was staring at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. He was exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. He knew he needed to eat and sleep, but his mind was thinking about something else, someone else, one specific person in fact. He was thinking of the one person who had given him the strength he needed this past year, despite them being miles apart. They had been the last person he had thought about when he had stood in front of Lord Voldemort, willing to sacrifice himself if it meant that the war was one step closer to being ended for good. He was thinking about Ginny. Still standing there, knowing he should force himself to go to bed and sleep, all he could think about was how much he needed to see her now, and with a desperate need to know how she was.

Having made up his mind, Harry turned around and quickly headed back down to the Great Hall. He could only hope she was still there as he remembered when he saw her last, sat with her mother, before he had left. On entering the Hall, he found it was still abuzz from the excitement of having seen Harry duel and finally defeat Tom Riddle mere hours ago, but it was also tinged with the grief from those who had lost loved ones during the battle. He stood in the entrance as he scanned the Hall looking for a head of beautiful red hair and spotted it among a family of red heads. She was still there, in the same place he had seen her last, with her head leaning on her mother’s shoulder, struggling to stay awake, a grief-stricken expression on her face.

*

Ginny was desperately trying to keep her eyes open. It was becoming increasingly harder to do so while she continued to lay her head against her mother’s shoulder. She needed to stay awake; she needed to watch out for when Harry returned to the Great Hall when he came to find her. However, she could feel a pang of guilt in her heart as she knew that she should instead be thinking about the events of the past 24 hours, about the loss of her brother, grieving for him. Right now, all she could think about was seeing the person she loved most, the person she had longed for the past year. She needed to see Harry for everything to sink in and for recent events to feel real, to truly believe he was still alive.

Just hours ago, she had thought, even if it was just for a few minutes, that Harry was dead, that he had been ripped away from her forever, that the future she had hoped, dreamed and fought for had been destroyed. But he had suddenly reappeared in the midst of the battle, alive and breathing, right in front of her and had gone on to finally defeat Voldemort. In that moment, her hopes, her dreams and her future had come rushing back to her, they were still possible. However, not long after his victory, he had disappeared from the Great Hall, along with his two best friends, and now all she could do was to wait patiently for him to return.

*

Harry remained at the entrance of the Great Hall having paused for the moment to wonder whether if this was the best time for him to go and see Ginny. She had just lost one of her brothers in the battle; he had been there when it happened. He could not help but think that surely it was now that she needed to be with her family more than him. And even then, would she even want to see him after everything that had happened between them, after she had seen and believed him to be dead? He had heard her screams, he knew he had hurt her, but it had hurt him too. As he continued to look at her, her sadness and her grief was just too much for him to ignore. He knew then in that moment that she needed him as much as he needed her. He wanted and needed to be there for her in the same way she had been when he had lost his godfather, even more so when he had witnessed the death of their headmaster. He knew she had been through so much this past year, perhaps in some ways more than he had.

Harry began to move across the Hall towards where Ginny was sat and as he walked, he kept his eyes on her at all times, ignoring all those who wanted to talk and celebrate with him. As he finally reached where she was sat, stopping directly in front of her, he felt anxious. He took a deep breath and then simply held out his hand to her. His heart skipped a beat as she instantly placed her hand in his. He gently pulled her up out of her seat and pulled her into his arms, embracing her tightly, burying his head into her hair. He moved his lips next to her ear and whispered;

“I have missed you so much. Let’s go back to the common room.”

He took her hand again and led her out of the Hall, back towards where he had started. No one stopped them as they left, not even her family. He could only think that they knew that they needed each other, or perhaps they were too tired, too consumed by their grief that they did not protest. He could not be sure, but he did know that he was grateful.

*

Ginny noticed a sudden increase in noise as she fought her exhaustion, but she refused to look up to find out why. She then sensed someone approaching her and she knew it was him. A hand appeared in front of her and without looking up to see whose hand it was, she placed her hand in his without hesitation. She allowed him to pull her gently out of her seat and into his arms, allowing him to embrace her tightly as she leaned her head on his chest. Her heart started racing as she felt his lips against her ear as he whispered into it that he had missed her and ask her to go back to the common room with him. As he took her hand and led her out of the Great Hall, she breathed a sigh of relief that her mother, her family or anyone else had not tried to stop them from leaving, because right now, all she needed was him and she knew he needed her too.

Ginny held on tightly to Harry’s hand as they walked through the castle, carefully weaving through the damage. She was scared to let go for the fear of losing him again, for the fear of it all being a dream that he was here with her again. The pain she had felt when she believed him to be dead was completely unbearable. For her, it had been like the world, her world with him, had ended. It was something that she knew she could not bear to feel again. She was not angry with him, despite all the pain he had caused her this past year, as she knew he had his reasons, even if she did not completely understand his actions right now. She also knew it had hurt him too, not that it mattered anymore, because he was here now, back where he belonged, here with her.

*

Harry led them through the ruins of the castle back to where he had started the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. Neither of them spoke, but that did not bother him, he knew there would be time to talk in the coming days. Holding her hand and just being in her presence was enough for him right now. As they reached the Fat Lady’s portrait, he realised he did not know the password, but before he could say anything, the Fat Lady smiled, bowed her head and opened up the entrance for them. He quietly breathed a sigh of relief as they entered to find the common room was empty, thankful for the privacy this would allow them. He led them over to the sofa close to the fireplace and sat down, pulling her down alongside him. They curled up together, wrapping their arms around each other, holding each other as close as they possibly could. Both revelled in the closeness, both having wanted and waited so long for that moment, neither wanting to let go of each other and knowing the other felt the same.

*

Harry could feel the exhaustion quickly washing over him now. But before he would allow himself to succumb to sleep, he needed to say the three little words he had longed to say, words he wished he had said a year ago. He could feel his eye lids getting heavier, so he whispered;

“I love you Ginny. I always have and I always will.”

Hearing him say those words made Ginny’s heart leap. She immediately replied with the words she had desperately wanted to say to him on his birthday the year before.

“I love you too Harry. I always have and I always will.”

They both stopped fighting their exhaustion and gave in to the sleep, with smiles on their faces, safe within each other’s arms, finally content. They both slept soundly, undisturbed by dreams or nightmares, for the first time in a very long time.


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