Princess Sunburst

As much as he wanted to take up the mantle of the Marauders, Harry was incapable of beginning the training. The captured Death Eaters were to be given trials. Being the man-who-conquered meant that Harry would have to watch the trials, to see what fate awaited them. Harry spent four straight days attending trials, until all the Death Eaters were conducted. With only about ten of all known Death Eaters tossed in Azkaban – and Draco Malfoy claiming to have reformed for the sake of Apollonia – Harry and the other Aurors still needed to make sure that the Wizarding World was cleansed of the evil that took hold of them for the last forty-three years, since the first Death Eaters came into the world.

It would take a long time to rid the world of the Death Eaters. In ’81, after his parents’ deaths and Harry’s pronouncement as the savior, the boy-who-lived, it took a good year for things to settle back to normal. Though it was only a two-year war, a lot of damage was done. It would take a lot of time for the magical community to recover; and sadly, Harry was to be involved in that recovery. As the man-who-conquered, Harry’s involvement in the recovery would hold a lot of weight. It would cause everyone to pitch in to save their world.

Harry wanted to be able to lead his own life. He spent the last seven years of his life dealing with the aftermath of a Trelawney-made prophecy. It guided his life since first coming to Hogwarts, though he never knew it at the time. Now that Voldemort was no more, Harry deserved to have a life of his own; he deserved to have some peace and quiet. Helping with the recovery effort was all well and good, but he was losing the opportunity to live his own life because the Death Eaters were still around. “I’m not sure how long I can do this,” Harry confessed to Kingsley after the final trial of the day was over.

“What do you mean?” the Minister asked.

“I spent my life trying to destroy evil, making sure that the world was safe from Voldemort. Catching the Death Eaters could take a long time, and I’ve already lost out on having a normal life. If I continue chasing after them for the rest of my life, never taking a break, then my life will never be normal. I need to have some semblance of normalcy in my life.”

“There has been little normalcy since Voldemort was destroyed,” the Minister realized. “Perhaps we should look into that. The world has lived in constant fear for the last two years. It might be time for reassurances to be given to the Wizarding World that life will return to normal, even with all the Death Eaters roaming about at the moment. And, I don’t recall having properly compensated you and your friends for helping with his destruction.”

“Sir, there’s no need to do that,” Harry argued.

“But, there is,” Kingsley assured the young hero. “You and your friends are the reason that his tyranny has ended. If not for you, darkness would reign supreme over the lands.”

As true as Kingsley's statement was, the recognition that came with being the one to end Voldemort’s tyranny was really grating on Harry’s nerves. Fame was not his friend. It never was. And now that Voldemort was gone for good, it would only continue. He, Ron, and Hermione were hailed as heroes for doing what no else in the world was capable of. To most people – Ron included – they would be thrilled by the prospect of getting recognition from being the ones to destroy Voldemort. But, Harry really didn’t want that. All he wanted was a normal life. It was never going to happen. Even when he was conceived, he was never normal. Trelawney’s prophecy made it so that normalcy was out of his reach. “Sir, all I’ve ever wanted was a normal life,” Harry said. “Growing up with the Dursleys taught me one thing; I have no love for fame. I do not wish to be compensated for something that anyone could have – and should have – done.”

“You should at least accept it, though,” Kingsley told him.

Harry looked at the Minister. “Seven years of my life – the entirety of the time that I’ve been in the magical community, at least knowingly, mind you – was spent combating a monster that I had no place fighting. After all, why should an underage wizard, whether they’re the Chosen One or not, be the one who should destroy Voldemort?” Harry asked. He didn’t care that there was a prophecy. The Order could have done something to keep the monster at bay. Hell, even Dumbledore could have done something more to help, like searching for the other horcruxes immediately following the discovery of the diary. If he did, it might have taken less time to kill Riddle.

“The prophecy made it so that only you could kill him. No one else was even remotely capable of destroying him,” the Minister said. “Anyone else who tried would have been immediately cut down. Only you could have struck the final blow. There wasn’t much that we could have done to help you, as much as we tried. Keeping the hope alive through the use of Potterwatch and using your sister to protect the Dursleys and use as a spy within the school; that was all we were able to do to help you in your mission.”

It was really annoying Harry. If only he knew the prophecy, the time it took to destroy Voldemort could have been cut in half. And for that, he blamed Dumbledore. Because Dumbledore was so secretive about the prophecy and the horcruxes, not wanting to burden him, Harry did not have the normal Hogwarts experience. Though his early years were the closest to normal he was ever going to get, it still wasn’t the experience that it should have been.

What kind of life was it that Harry had? In first year, Harry fought a troll; encountered a Cerberus; smuggled a dragon out of the castle; played his way across a giant chess board; and faced off with Voldemort for the Philosopher’s stone, eventually killing a teacher with his touch. Second year was no better; drove a flying car to school; discovered his Parseltongue abilities; was accused of being the Heir of Slytherin, which he admittedly was, but never knew anything about it at the time; used Polyjuice to sneak into the Slytherin common room and find out if Malfoy knew anything about the fabled Chamber of Secrets opening fifty years ago; talked to an enchanted diary and viewed Hagrid’s expulsion; proved that the Defense teacher was a joke; killed a basilisk; fought a spirit; destroyed a horcrux; and saved Ginny Weasley from dying in the Chamber.

Third year had to be the most normal. Harry was able to live his life. Admittedly, it was suspected that an Azkaban escapee was coming after him to kill him; however, it did not affect him as much. Yes, there were a few incidents, such as the fateful Halloween break-in when Sirius tried slashing his way into the Gryffindor common room and the Dementors affecting him in such a way that he had to learn the Patronus Charm from Remus, but Harry had the most normal year that he’d ever get. Fred and George gave him the Marauder’s Map and he was able to have a bit of fun in sneaking out of the castle like any normal student would. The only thing that happened, at least early on in the year, was that Buckbeak attacked Malfoy. That didn’t come into play until the end of the year, the same night that Sirius appeared at the Shrieking Shack, only to reveal that he was not the monster everyone thought he was. It was revealed that Peter Pettigrew – Wormtail – was the true betrayer, the reason his parents died. In order to save him from the Dementor’s Kiss, Harry and Hermione turned back time to save Sirius, as well as Buckbeak.

Fourth year was the year everything changed. It was the year that Harry started having dreams about Voldemort as he prepared to be resurrected. It started with the Quidditch World Cup, where Crouch Jr. cast the Dark Mark as a warning. The next incident was the fourth straight event to occur on Halloween, where Harry was called out as the fourth champion in the incorrectly named Tri-Wizard Tournament. Over the next eight months, Harry was forced to compete in three tasks; dragons on November 24th to retrieve a golden egg; rescuing Ron from the lake on February 24th; and making his way through a maze to the Tri-Wizard Cup on June 24th; all the while trying to figure out who set him up to be killed. It wasn’t until after Voldemort was resurrected and Cedric was killed that Harry was able to figure out that Moody was not who he claimed; that Crouch Jr. was able to infiltrate the school and make sure that Harry was portkeyed to the graveyard. After that was revealed, the Order of the Phoenix was called in to combat Voldemort and everything about the world changed within a matter of minutes.

Fifth year was the start of the disbelief. Fudge refused to believe that Voldemort returned, so the Daily Prophet began the campaign against him and Dumbledore, going so far as to having Umbridge send the Dementors out to Little Whinging to get rid of him. Defending him and Dudley caused Harry to get expelled, which turned into a disciplinary hearing which cleared Harry of all charges. Going to Hogwarts meant more of Umbridge. She became High Inquisitor and turned the school into a prison, giving detentions to everyone for even the smallest infractions; torturing them with a blood quill. At one point, he and the twins were kicked off the Quidditch team after the Gryffindor/Slytherin match ended in a fight with Malfoy. Shortly around Christmas, Harry was dropped into become the leader of Dumbledore’s Army, because Umbridge did not want to teach magic. This group continued for half the year, until Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad figured out what happened and handed out detentions to everyone thanks to Marietta Edgecombe. When O.W.L.s came about, they were soon interrupted by a vision of Sirius being tortured. A rescue mission was mounted and the group of six headed to the Department of Mysteries that Harry was dreaming of all year, only for Sirius to fall through the veil after coming to rescue Harry. After that, the prophecy was revealed.

Having spent the summer grieving for Sirius, whom he never even knew all that well, Harry was roped into helping Dumbledore recruit a former teacher. Recruiting Slughorn to teach again was the least of his troubles. Getting the true horcrux memory was an even bigger challenge, one that proved difficult as old Slughorn kept trying to change the subject. In the meantime, he was trying to figure out what Malfoy was up to; learning about Voldemort’s past; and trying to get to know Apollonia. It proved to be his most challenging year at school because he was trying to juggle all of this with normal schoolwork – his Potions grade flourished with the help of the Half-Blood Prince and Slughorn teaching – and trying to have a life. And, it didn’t help that Snape was the Defense teacher; the only good thing he was for was getting to know Apollonia and strengthening his Occulemency shields. At the end of the year, Snape, who he soon realized was the Half-Blood Prince he was learning from all year – and cursed Malfoy with the help of – killed Dumbledore and proved that he was willing to openly support Voldemort and the Death Eaters.

Seventh year wasn’t even that. With Dumbledore’s death, it left Harry as the only person who could go after the remaining horcruxes. He recruited Ron and Hermione to help as well; they had no intention of letting him do this on his own. There were four horcruxes that Harry needed to locate; the locket; the cup; the diadem, which it took awhile figure out; and Nagini, so they traveled the countryside in search of what they needed and how to destroy each of the horcruxes. The locket was the easiest to find. After talking with Kreacher and realizing that ‘Dung pilfered the locket and sold it away, the trio was able to track it down to Umbridge and sneak it away from her. It wasn’t destroyed until Boxing Day, however; as they had no means to do it. It took until May 1st to acquire the cup and destroy it; and they snuck into Hogwarts for the diadem later that evening. Nagini was destroyed by Neville, allowing Harry to get rid of the horcrux inside him and kill Voldemort. It took far too long to destroy four horcruxes; and Harry realized that he could have used Apollonia, had they gotten along that year, to track down the diadem.

All in all, there was nothing normal about the last seven years of Harry’s life. It was time to rectify that. The next few weeks needed to be normal. Was it normal for Harry to only learn about his sister less than three months before his eighteenth birthday? No. Was it normal to grow up with family who treated him like dirt? No. Was it normal to know nothing of his family for half his life and that his fame was concealed from him? No. But, it happened and Harry wanted to do whatever he could to give himself a half-way normal life. Harry looked at the Minister. “Normalcy, sir. We need to bring back the normalcy.”

“Of course, Harry,” the Minister said.

***

Two days after Harry’s talk with Kingsley, it was discovered that Minister Shacklebolt announced that the week of June 22nd was to be one of celebration. The recovery effort was going considerably well during the last month and a half and it was about time for the Wizarding World to acknowledge those who made it that way. So, they had a week’s worth of events planned as a way of helping ease the Wizarding World back into normalcy. Monday was to be a day of remembrance for all those lost in the last three years; Tuesday, a charity Quidditch match to help fund Hogwarts’ recovery would be held; Wednesday, they were going to have several different events occurring during the day, none of which the Ministry planned on revealing until the 24th; Thursday, a parade was to be held; and on Friday, the Ministry was to hold a banquet in honor of those who valiantly fought in the war. As the Minister called it, this was a week of celebration and reflection.

Harry did not hear of it firsthand. He came down one morning – he had not yet moved out of the Burrow – to hear Ron and Ginny discussing the Quidditch match and the banquet. “…me, Ginny. There’s no way that the banquet would be the best part, even with all the food there. It has to be the Quidditch match,” Ron affirmed. “The banquet will be boring.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Harry asked, coming down.

Ginny popped up. “The Ministry decided to hold a week of events as a celebration of our victory in the war. There’s a remembrance on Monday; a Charity Quidditch Match on Tuesday; multiple unknown events on Wednesday; a parade on Thursday; and banquet on Friday. With the Death Eaters still out on the loose, it was mentioned that unity is needed right now. So, they thought that a week like this would help with that.”

Upon hearing that, Harry grinned. However, he did not make it known that it was his idea that this week be held, especially if Friday was what he thought it was. Kingsley mentioned something about giving recognition to those who helped with the war effort. Apollonia would get that thanks to what her father did to help in the horcrux hunt. Mt. Ron would burst if he knew that Apollonia had something coming her way, because her father was secretly working against his master. Besides, she helped the war effort in her own right, by protecting the Dursleys and helping the Resistance; she was the Order’s spy, their informant as to what was going on at Hogwarts. They couldn’t do anything about the Carrows, but at least they knew that it was happening. And now, they were in Azkaban for their ardent torture of all non-Slytherin students, with the exception of Apollonia.

“Really?” Harry asked. “That sounds interesting.”

“We might be able to make some changes in the way things are run,” Hermione said, coming into the room. “It’s the opportunity to make sure that the Purebloods won’t be the only ones who have a say in some of things that go on at the Ministry. Like the laws.”

“Really, ‘Mione?” Ron asked. “You want to spend the entire week cozying up to different Ministry officials in the hopes of getting your ideas passed? Why would you want to do that?”

Hermione glared at him. “Because Ron, we need to start thinking about our futures. Whether we want to go back to school or go out into the world; we need to determine what we want to do.”

“You would probably go back for your N.E.W.T.s though,” Ron complained. “It’s not as if you really needed to prepare for your futures. It’s because Hogwarts is in your future.”

Harry could see the argument between his friends coming from a mile away. As much as Ron and Hermione loved each other, they argued far too much. Could any relationship ever work out between them? It was hard to say. But, the more they argued about things like this, the less likely it was that a relationship would work out. For one thing, if he really wanted to date Hermione, then he needed to stop belittling everything she loved. He took a step in the right direction with the house-elf comment during the Battle of Hogwarts, but he was slowly back-tracking with the negative comments about what Hermione loved. He’s getting himself in trouble. Hermione wouldn’t want a boyfriend who belittles all that she loves. You’re an idiot, Ron. Can’t you learn from your mistakes?

Just as the young hero expected that his friend would, Ron got the Hermione-glare coming his way. “Just because you don’t plan on returning to school doesn’t mean that everyone else in the world shares your view, Ron!” Hermione pointed out. “There are some of us who would like to go back to Hogwarts and finish our schooling. Some of us simply want to learn.”

“Apollonia wants to go back,” Harry said.

“Oh, who cares about her; the slimy snake!” Ron grumbled.

In that moment, Harry was glad that George had yet to come down. Otherwise, it would have turned into one of their infamous arguments; and, it was much too early to deal with that. Fortunately, Hermione was there to pick up the slack. “Ron, how many times do we have to tell you that she’s not what you think?” She scoffed and turned to Harry. “Good for her. If she wants to go back to Hogwarts, then maybe it won’t get all that lonely for me at school since the both of you seem happy in the decision to stay away from school. It should be interesting; finding out what a normal year in a magical school will be like.”

A normal year. Harry wondered about that as well. He wondered what might have happened if this prophecy was never hanging over his head like this. What would that be like? For a moment, Harry considered returning to Hogwarts; however, he quickly realized that it would be redundant. What was the point of going to school for a year that would be spent learning things that would not be needed for his future career? The year on the run with Ron and Hermione had proved for the best; it helped train Harry for when he would have to deal with extreme conditions while chasing after dark wizards. Such a thing was not afforded to him while in a school setting. No, it was probably for the best that Harry had no intention of going back to school. Hermione and Apollonia could if they wanted, but there was no way that Harry could bring himself to do the same.

“You’re coming back to school?” Ginny asked.

Hermione nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it, and it seems the right thing to do. As much as I’d like to start working on my ideas, completing my education and getting my N.E.W.T.s is just as important. There’s a lot more that I want to learn yet and going back to Hogwarts will help with that. I know it’s not usually done, but going back to Hogwarts to complete what should have been my seventh year is the best way to deal with that.” She turned to Harry. “Has Apollonia said anything to you about why she wants to go back?”

Harry shrugged. “Not really. Although, she did say something about changing what she wanted to do with her future, so it’s possible that had something to do with it.”

“Probably wants to go into the Dark Arts,” Ron scoffed.

The young hero glared at his friend. “No, Potions.”

“Like her father?” Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. “You’d have to ask her as to the reason though. I really couldn’t tell you why she wants to get her Potions Mastery. Apollonia hasn’t gotten around to explaining any of it to me, seeing as she was unable to come anywhere near the Burrow.” He glared at Ron, since he was the reason that Harry was unable to find out the reason; his prejudice against all those from the house of the snake, so that Harry was unable to learn anything about it.

“I have my reasons,” Ron defended.

“Stupid reasons,” Harry muttered.

“I’ll try asking her,” Hermione said. “Ever since Apollonia confided in me about who her mother was, she and I were close; I was the only one who was helping keep her close to you, Harry. Especially after what Snape and Dumbledore planned at the end of sixth year.”

Harry grunted at the acknowledgement of what transpired after Dumbledore died. Unfortunately, he was constantly reminded of all the things that he did wrong over the last year. In the last year, the stupidest thing that he had ever done was snub Apollonia for simply trying to make up for all that her father had done. And, it was the one thing he regretted the most about everything that happened over the years; he regretted judging Apollonia based solely on her father’s actions from that night. “I know what I did, ‘Mione.”

“Well, don’t beat yourself up about what you did,” Hermione said.

“Yes, but how can I not beat myself up about what I did though?” Harry questioned of his friend. The young hero still could not bring himself to accept the fact that he spent nine months of his life insulting his sister, only to have her revealed as being his twin sister. Ever since learning that the two were siblings, he regretted how he treated her during that year on the run. And, how come she accepted his apology so easily, especially when she could have milked this for all that it was worth? She could have done something to make me regret my decision, yet she didn’t. She accepted it for what it was.

“She knows that you were busy last year,” Hermione said.

“Even so,” Harry said. “She still could have held it against me.”

Hermione shook her head. “She’s your sister. Of course she was going to accept your apology. No matter what you did, Apollonia was always going to stick by your side.”

“I’m starting to see that,” Harry said.