Chapter One?
Everyone insisted that Harry had to go back to Hogwarts.
“Even for just a couple of hours. We always need more wands, Harry.” Hermione had assured him.
Harry had relented and agreed to go “At least once, Harry. I will leave you alone if you go once” after a two weeks of pestering and imploring glances from everyone at the Burrow. He helped for an hour before he felt an impending need to flee the place. It hadn’t even had anything to do with the castle itself (or its ruins); it had been the other volunteers that had driven Harry back to the Burrow.
They kept staring and gawking at Harry. A couple of them had actually tried to talk about the Battle. Harry had taken that as his cue to leave.
After that encounter, Harry had been almost ridiculously against getting out of the Burrow. He knew the kind of circus that his presence would create. He could see it in Hermione’s face whenever she came back from Hogwarts or Diagon Alley. He could see it in Ron’s and George’s and Ginny’s.
So, naturally, he had planned to ignore the letter that arrived on his birthday, inviting him to go back to Hogwarts for his seventh year. He was sure Hermione would be going back, and so would Ginny. But he hadn’t expected Ron to want to finish his Hogwarts education, especially without Molly Weasley’s prompting.
“I mean… If I want to do anything at all after the war, I need to finish school first”
“The twins dropped out of Hogwarts.” Harry had answered without thinking, and grimaced as soon as he realized what he said.
Ron grimaced, but didn’t back down. “Yeah, but they… they made a life before the war. Or, well, before it got as bad as it got. George has something to go back to… kind of. We didn’t even start, Harry.”
This didn’t make Harry hop on the Hogwarts train. Partially because didn’t know how to live a life out of the war. He’d had mediocre hopes when he was fifteen, but it seemed so long ago now, he barely recognized himself, he didn’t know what to do now. To start? To start a new life? Or just a life in general? How did he start if he didn’t know what kind of life he wanted to start?
Of course, Ginny (always Ginny) had put things into perspective the night before the scheduled Diagon Alley trip.
“Maybe you could stop seeing Hogwarts in your sleep if you saw how it’s changed.” Harry had kept quiet “It doesn’t look like a graveyard anymore.”
“But it still is.”
“Hogwart’s never been a graveyard, Harry.”
Harry wanted to be angry, but he couldn’t. He was too tired of being angry. So he kept quiet again.
“You have options now, you know? We all do. Hogwarts was the first place to give us options, choices. If I had to start somewhere, Hogwarts is where I’d want to start.”
Ginny had kissed him that night before going back to her room. And the next day, Harry tagged along to Diagon Alley.