Thank You
After destroying the elder wand, Harry, Hermione and Ron returned into the half existent rubble of Hogwarts. Their eyes scanned the hall for the people they knew, alive and well... Well most of them.
As Ron’s eyes reached his family in a far corner, still huddled around a body, the horror returned to him, he unclasped his and Hermione's hands an ran to join them.
As Hermione's eyes came across Harry however, she followed his gaze and met Ginny. She was sat, not with her family, but alone in the opposite corner staring at nothing. Hermione, not knowing what to do; whether to sit with Ginny or the rest of the Weasleys or to accompany the healers, her mind soon made up and she squeezed Harry's hand and went to offer her assistance to the wounded.
Harry, with a guilty glance at the distraught Weasleys, he made his way towards Ginny. He silently, cautiously sat beside her but her unseeing eyes never left the patch of floor on which she was staring at until he put his arm round her and she rested her head against his shoulder. But as she did so, a single, silent tear slipped down her cheek, followed by another and then another. As Harry held the crying girl, he too switched his mind to the dead and the nightmare he had lived through the past 17 years.
He was bought to his senses roughly an hour later by Seamus and Michelle, closely followed by Neville and Luna, now hand in hand. A few seconds later they were also joined by Hermione, whose hands were now stained with blood and potions and Ron, whose eyes were puffy and swollen, they too came arm in arm.
As Harry quickly wiped his eyes, they all sat with Harry and Ginny and a circle formed, just like how they used to sit in the Common room.
At first silence was all that met their ears until Luna broke it and said the words that everyone was thinking:
'Well at least it's over now, no one else will die, but the people who have died for us haven't died in vain, have they? Things have just... changed.'
They all stared at her in disbelief. She was right though, it is over, people didn't die in vain and things have changed.
Harry too then broke the silence that had followed Luna's speech. All he could do was look around the circle, look everyone in the eye and, addressing them and anyone else who was listening he said 2 words:
'Thank you'