Harry awoke with a start and quickly sat up. He groggily looked around but feeling extremely disoriented, he couldn’t register where he was or even what he was doing.

He just sat there for a several minutes while his mind cleared up, he finally remembered how he had been taking a shower and passed out. How he had then met Dumbledore, talked to him and finally how he had destroyed Voldemort’s soul shard only to experience all of his memories.

As he recalled all of that, Harry noticed that he was fully clothed in his pyjamas and was tucked into his bed.

“Did someone find me passed out in the shower and bring me here?” thought Harry out loud.

A few moments after he had gotten his bearings and was just about to think about the memories he had watched, he suddenly felt a sharp, splitting headache.

“Argh” Harry groaned and immediately collapsed on the bed, holding onto his head in pain.

Harry felt the memories and skills, everything Voldemort had experienced and learnt, entering his head and integrating with his mind.

Even as he writhed in pain, Harry quickly realised that the memories seemed to be trying to replace his own. He remembered his training with Snape and decided to quickly put up walls in his mind and keep the invading memories into a corner of their own.

He struggled between the pain he was feeling and the effort he was putting into isolating the new memories and finally, after what felt like several hours, he was able to keep the invading memories in a corner of his mind, away from all his actual memories.

When he had finally managed all that, he noticed an odd energy coursing through his body. It felt like it was racing through his veins, circulating through his entire body until finally he couldn’t feel it moving around at all, almost like his own blood.

Groaning a little, Harry slowly sat up. Feeling the headache subside considerably, he massaged his temple as he thought about what had just happened.

‘That was…horrible’ thought Harry.

‘At least, I didn’t let those damn memories take over my head or I really would have been screwed’ he thought with a shudder.

Harry laboriously pushed himself off his bed and stood up. Swaying a little, he finally got his balance and slowly made his way out of his bedroom and down to the kitchen.

Reaching the kitchen, he filled a glass of water and took a seat. Heaving a heavy sigh, Harry started thinking about the memories and the energy he had felt towards the end.

Harry closed his eyes and tried access the memories and surprisingly, found that he could extract any and all memories he desired and they no longer seemed intent on invading his mind.

He tentatively lowered one of the walls in his mind and felt the foreign memories slowly inch towards his own memories and the moment they touched, they started to merge together.

In a short while, the memories had all gotten merged and he could recall all his own and Voldemort’s memories as if he had experienced it all first hand.

‘Was my memory always this good?’ wondered Harry. He could even recall details from his memories that he had never been able to recall earlier.

Harry spent some time recalling different memories and spent some time to segregate his memories from those of Voldemort’s and during this process, he couldn’t help but feel a little sick.

‘Just how many people has Voldemort tortured and murdered? That sick bastard!’ cursed Harry.

Recalling the finer memories that he hadn’t witnessed in that dark space, living through the memories of Voldemort and his death eater’s atrocities, Harry felt his resolve harden.

‘I’ll definitely kill every last one of them. None of them deserve to live!’ he exclaimed.

‘The ones on the top of my list are Snape, the bastard who killed Hedwig, Bellatrix and of course, their ringleader, Voldemort. These four deserve the most gruesome deaths’ thought Harry as he remembered everything those four had done, not just to him but to countless other people.

As Harry was lost in these dark thoughts, he felt a ray of light on his face. Turning his head, he looked out the window and noticed that the sun had started to rise.

Harry kept staring out the window, a few minutes passed and he heard footsteps approach the kitchen.

He turned around to find a plump, red-headed, middle-aged woman standing in the doorway, looking at him with a gentle gaze.

“Good morning, Harry dear” she said.

“Ah, Mrs. Weasley…” said Harry, trying not to show the myriad of emotions he was feeling.

Mrs. Weasley walked up to Harry and wrapped her arms around his head comfortingly. She soothingly patted his head.

“I know a lot has happened Harry, we’re all still reeling after everything that has happened so far. You really don’t need to hide what you’re feeling, at least not with me. I’ve long since treated you the same way as Ron, you’re as much my son as he is, so you don’t need to act tough around me. Just let your emotions out” she said.

The affection and comfort she provided soothed Harry’s turbulent heart. He stayed in her embrace for a few minutes longer, then finally parted.

With a much lighter heart, he faced her.

“Thank you Mrs. Weasley, you have no idea how much that helped me” Harry said with a smile.

Mrs. Weasley smiled back at him seeing his mood having improved much more than how she had found him.

“By the way, why were you collapsed in the bathroom anyway Harry, are you feeling okay?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

‘I can’t exactly say that I collapsed and then met with Dumbledore after which I witnessed all of Voldemort’s memories can I? At least not after how everyone treated me like a crazy person in my fifth year’ thought Harry.

“I’m not so sure either, I remember taking a shower to clear my mind but the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the bed” answered Harry.

“I see, make sure to take care of your health dear, god knows we all need to” she said with a slightly depressed sigh.

“Now, just sit there and wait a little bit, I’ll whip up breakfast” she said before shuffling to the fridge.

Harry sat at the table and worked his way through the skills he could remember from Voldemort’s memories and couldn’t help but be surprised at how well-versed he was with quite a few topics.

Voldemort had mastered both, chantless magic and wandless magic however apparently the power would fall considerably unless there was some other catalyst to help the magic along.

That explains why Voldemort used a wand, even to the extent of grabbing random wands just for a fight.

Voldemort also seemed to be rather adept at flight magic, though it seemed to be a derivation of his basic control over magic itself.

The more Harry looked into Voldemort’s skills, the more he felt there was to find out.

‘Man, say what you will about the maniac but he sure did put in a lot of effort into improving his skills. For all the wrong reasons though’ thought Harry.

Harry was brought out of his reverie when he heard more footsteps from behind him. He turned his head to see Ron and Lupin walk into the room.

“Morning Harry” said Ron with a yawn.

“Good morning Harry, how do you feel?” asked Lupin

“Morning. I’m not feeling too bad I suppose. Not sure how to process everything that has happened so far though” answered Harry with a sigh.

“Understandable Harry. I’d like to say something helpful but it honestly doesn’t get any easier” said Lupin.

As a heavy mood set in on their little group, Mrs. Weasley set down various dishes on the table.

The delicious scent wafting off the food immediately stirred all of their appetites, dispelling the heavy mood.

Around the time the three were finishing breakfast, Hermione and Ginny entered the kitchen, looking rather sleepy.

After a quick, albeit drowsy morning greeting, they sat at the table and immediately dug into the food.

Harry turned to Lupin and asked.

“So what’s the plan now? Now that Voldemort is at large and has almost taken down the Ministry. What’s the next step?”

Lupin sighed, “I’m not sure myself Harry. Things are just moving so fast, it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Though what I do know is that, in a few days we’ll be having Bill and Fleur’s wedding, so that’s something to look forward to” said Lupin with a slight smile.

Harry couldn’t help but frown at that. “After everything that’s happened, considering how urgent the situation is, do you really think having a wedding would be the best idea?” asked Harry.

“We all need some light in these dark times Harry, it’s not that we’re having the wedding despite the dreary situation but instead, we’re having it because of the situation” replied Lupin.

“Are you kidding me!?” Harry suddenly yelled. “Forget the fact that we have death eaters, a crazy number of dark creatures and one of the most powerful dark wizards of all time after us but just the fact that so many people died or were injured just a few days ago should alone put an end to any bloody happy occasions!”

“Hedwig just died damnit, do you want me to go to a bloody wedding!?” Harry yelled. Getting more and more agitated as he spoke.

Everyone in the kitchen had already stopped what they were doing, looking at Harry with various different expressions. Guilt, pity, sadness, irritation.

Lupin alone seemed to be calm in the face of Harry’s outburst.

“Life is much too short Harry. Especially now with how dangerous it is, to not enjoy the few pleasures and happiness that life has to offer would be a life not worth living” said Lupin with a comforting hand on Harry’s shoulder.

Harry couldn’t help but calm down a little at that. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for…” Harry apologised, to no one in particular as he hung his head.

“I think I need some fresh air. I’m just going to go out for a walk” he said, turning around and walking towards the kitchen’s entryway.

“Don’t go too far now, Harry” said Mrs. Weasely.

“Want me to go with you?” Ron called from behind him.

“Thanks but I’d like to be alone for a while” Harry replied quietly and walked out of the kitchen.