CHAPTER ONE: FUNERALS

A lone figure stood before the lake.  On one side was a beautiful forest containing some wonderful animals, on another stood a castle that had been there for a thousand years, but this figure wasn’t there to look at these two magnificent sites, no he was there for a different reason. He had arrived on this spot to right a wrong, repair the damage someone had caused and to put an end to an age old legend.

Harry Potter had been to see Mr Olivander that morning and all ready had secured a wand similar to the one he was now holding.  Mr Olivander, although still a little shaky, had reopened his shop in Diagon Alley only a few days before. The wand he had collected from him had no magical core so basically it was a stick, but it looked so much like the wand he held in his hand so to the untrained eye this stick was the real deal. 

Harry had decided to bury the Elder wand beneath the marble tomb that stood before him, and place the fake wand in the hand of the occupant within. Dumbledore’s tomb was desecrated and his wand was stolen by the person formally called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named aka Voldermort aka Tom Riddle. He believed that the wand Dumbledore had in his grasp was the Elder wand. Although the wand itself was the Elder wand, the owner was no longer Dumbledore it was Harry. The ownership of the Elder wand itself was won by Draco Malfoy who disarmed Dumbledore that fateful night when he was killed but in turn Harry had disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor. So being the true owner of the Elder wand and the power it contained, when Voldermort tried to use it upon Harry, it back fired and the death curse that was fired from it killed Voldermort himself.

He had decided to fool anybody else seeking the Deathly Hallows for immortality. He had hopefully permanently lost the stone within Hogwarts forest and he decided to hide the Elder wand. Of course he was going to keep the invisibility cloak, but he wasn’t going to tell anybody the importance of it. Hermione and Ron knew but they weren’t going to tell anyone, even offering to have the memories modified so they couldn’t, but Harry said it wasn’t necessary and trusted them completely with this secret. “You might forget all of last year and our adventures together.” He had told them.

He needed to do few things to make this work. The first was to bury the real Elder wand then to place the fake in Dumbledore’s grasp. Then he would repair the tomb sealing it within and lastly he was going to move the tomb so it rested above the buried Elder wand. He knew the last part was going to be hard as he had never lifted anything as heavy, but he knew he had to move it and that he would need an awful lot of concentration and determination to do it.

Removing the veil that had been used to cover this open tomb he gave Dumbledore the fake wand. Temporary losing himself with memories between the two of them, he had stopped but then regaining himself he pointed the Elder wand at the tomb and hopefully muttering the last spell that it would perform…... ‘reparo’.    A very loud rumbling was heard; even a few birds perched in the forest took flight with the disturbance. The tomb began to shake and repair itself.  Dust of marble flew back towards the main tomb and after a few more minutes it was resealed and back to its former glory.

He then used his own wand to dig a small hole.  He placed the Elder wand vertically within it and then after taking one last look he began to fill it back in.

Harry now stood before the great tomb which contained his mentor, no, his friend. He remembered the time when Dumbledore had said to him ‘death is but the next great adventure’, and hopefully he was fulfilling that adventure now.  The next stage was the hardest.  All he needed to do was to levitate a two ton chunk of marble to the left by two feet. How hard could it be? He had thought about shrinking the tomb to a more reasonable size but then backtracked again thinking that it wasn’t nice on Dumbledore’s body to go through that.

Harry was now concentrating so hard that he could feel the pulse in his temple. Lifting his wand he shouted the words ‘Wingardium Leviosa’. At first nothing happened so he concentrated a little harder and it slowly began to move. First it lifted about one inch off the floor then his wand began to shake and the tomb began to fall. With a renewed effort it began to rise again. A few inches at first then it slowly began to move significantly. When the tomb was in the desired place he lowered it back to the ground. Mentally exhausted, he collapsed to the floor.

When he awoke the sun was setting behind the mountains and he could hear the owls hooting in the twilight air. Getting up and brushing himself down Harry walked back to the oak doors of the castle. Hogwarts castle had been his home for the last seven years. And he had been there for the last week helping to repair the it. 

The castle itself had been the front of the greatest battle the wizarding world has ever seen. Death eaters and their master Voldermort had come in search of him to kill him and anyone that stood in their way. Some of the castle walls had been destroyed, paintings were beyond repair whilst their occupants had to take refuge in other paintings, Gryffindor tower was gone completely only the foundations remained of it, the great hall had scorch marks and crevices in all its walls and even bigger ones in its floor but the worst damage the war had given was all the death it had brought.

Colin Creevey’s funeral had been a few days ago. All the DA had shown up at the church and Harry already felt bad and this was only the first of the funerals he had intended to attend.  The funerals of Tonks’, Lupin’s and Fred’s were to be held over the next few days. Tonks’ and Lupin’s funerals were to be held and Godric’s Hollow whilst Fred’s was to take place at The Burrow with his burial in the graveyard just beside the forest surrounding it, a few days after.

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Harry began walking back to The Burrow after Fred’s funeral. Fred’s funeral was different in every aspect of Tonks’ and Lupin’s funerals. They had been buried next to each other at Godric’s Hollow with the wake being back at Hogwarts where Fred’s burial was marred with Fireworks from the Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes which George had set off on purpose to lighten the mood “Well what did you expect?” he had said to his mum.

The wake turned out to be just as jovial. George had put some of his ‘Canary Creams’ and ‘Ton-Tongue Toffees’ in with the buffet and everyone was changing into canaries or having their tongues swell up to ten times their normal size. “It was just how Fred would have wanted.” People heard George saying.

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Harry returned to Hogwarts. He still didn’t know if Grimmauld Place was safe to go back to. The only thing he could do was ask someone to accompany him and find out. He had thought about Bill, but then quietly kicked himself as he didn’t want any further pain being brought on to the Weasleys. 

He decided to ask Kreacher. “Kreacher.” Harry yelled into the evening air. Kreacher appeared with a small pop.

“You called Master Potter sir.” Kreacher bowed so low that his forehead touched the floor.

“Kreacher, have you been back to Grimmauld Place?” Harry first asked.

“No master. Kreacher has been helping with the clean up of Hogwarts sir. Kreacher will punish himself for not returning home sir.”

“No Kreacher,” Harry said trying to calm him down “I just wondered what state the house is in after those evil men had left.”

Kreacher bowed low again and the asked “Shall I go look for you master?” 

“Yes please Kreacher, but please be careful as I don’t know what to expect. There could be curses and jinxes all over the place. If you can counter any of them then please do so, but I order you not to put yourself in any danger.”

“Yes master Potter sir.”  At that Kreacher disappeared with a small pop.