Archive of Our Own

After killing Voldemort (which Harry is still extremely reluctant to take credit for, he used a fucking Disarming Charm, it was not exactly lethal force) Harry Potter does several things. 

1. He asks Kreacher to bring him a sandwich (it is possibly the best sandwich he has ever had).
2. He sleeps for 16 consecutive hours, exhaustion from months on the run along with the relief of his suddenly unburdened shoulders finally catching up to him.
3. He attends funerals. Not as many as he was invited to, not as many as the rebuilding Ministry would like him to, but those of the people he knew (Fred, Remus, Tonks, Colin).
4. He organizes a funeral for one Severus Snape (yes, he was an absolute bastard, and his last act was to tell Harry to kill himself, but there’s no one else that can speak to the totality of the man).
5. He buries Tom Riddle. This one is not entirely his choice, but no one else wants to come close to the body, and Harry doesn’t want to know what people will do once they stop being afraid that Voldemort will sit up and start casting curses again. Harry buries him with a small marker within the Chamber of Secrets (turns out the Parseltongue might be natural, it hasn’t gone away yet).

 If Harry had not just saved all their lives, he knows he would have faced quite a bit more of a fight regarding Voldemort’s body. He doesn’t tell anyone what he had done until after the fact, and he might never have if there hadn’t been an immediate panic upon discovering the body missing. The bastard had come back from the dead once already, but a body feels final. They didn’t have that last time. As it is, Harry still has to argue, fiercely, in defense of his actions, and face a general air of disgruntlement.

The Chamber of Secrets was a mostly spur of the moment choice, but it also felt right. He had briefly considered the graveyard in Little Hangleton, just to be petty, but in the end he couldn't bring himself to separate Tom Riddle from the only place he had ever called home. That’s a feeling Harry understands all too well. The Chamber at least is private. It can’t really be accessed by anyone besides him, and is safe from grave robbers and Death Eater wannabees alike. 

These were the things Harry Potter did. Contrary to many expectations, there are several things Harry Potter does not do.

1. He does not resume his relationship with Ginny Weasley. Things are… strained. She has just lost her brother. Ginny is honestly a little bitter she was left behind in a Hogwarts under siege from within while Harry was gallivanting around the country. Harry doesn’t know how to talk about his part in the war (how do you explain to someone you literally died?). There is a gulf between them that wasn’t there before.
2. He does not sign up for the Aurors. Harry has spent his life fighting, living under the weight of a prophecy he had no choice but to fulfill. He is tired. He has fought his fair share of dark wizards, he is happy to leave the rest to the professionals. 
3. He does not return for another year at Hogwarts. Despite what Hermione may sometimes believe, he does care about his education, but Hogwarts is tainted. He will always love Hogwarts, it will always be home,but he cannot look at it the same. He sees his dead lying in the Great Hall, sees the giants and werewolves and acromantula swarming the battlements, hears the screaming, and smells the blood and smoke. He cannot forget what happened there.
4. He does not enter politics. Harry knows the influence he now wields, the influence he has always, to some extent, wielded due to his status as the Boy-Who-Lived, and as he turned down Scrimgeour, now he turns downs Kingsley, and Hermione, and even Percy when he shows up, refusing to have anything to do with what he knows has always been a cesspool of corruption and backroom deals.
5. He does not make public appearances. Correction: he visits Diagon Alley once, long enough to remove all his money from Gringotts (the goblins do, indeed, hate him now, and he only escapes with his head still attached courtesy of the status he now holds among wizards and a hefty fine he gladly pays). The attention, the adulation, the worship he receives from the people on the street disturbs him so much he locks himself in Grimmauld Place for the next week. He realizes he will never be able to walk the streets of Wizarding Britain unnoticed again.

Harry Potter does one more thing after killing Voldemort. He packs up his belongings, his money, his wand, his Cloak. He writes letters explaining himself to Ron, to Hermione, to Andromeda Tonks (I can’t stay here, I can’t do this, he writes). He promises to come back, to visit when he can (especially Teddy, he knows what it is like to grow up without your family and he will not abandon his godson). And Harry Potter leaves Britain.