Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry sat on a mountain side overlooking a vast dark lake. Its towers reached the lowest clouds and its dungeons sat miles underground. Students in black robes milled around, enjoying the September air and celebrating the defeat of the Greatest Dark Wizard that had ever occupied Great Britain.
Hogwarts was still recovering from the Last Battle that took the life of many, including Voldemort. The ancient magic was slowly and carefully being infused back into the newly repaired walls by the professors, and some of the seventh years. One of those seventh years was Hermione Granger, a muggle-born and the highest ranking student since Merlin himself. On this morning she was studying in the newly-refurnished library, her face buried deep into a book on potions.
Horace Slughorn took Severus Snape's position over as Potions Professor. Hermione certainly liked him, he was a great teacher and a whole lot nicer than Snape, but it was quite difficult to sit there and learn from someone jolly and not sit there and cower from a greasy-haired git while in the damp dungeon like she had for the past five years. She laughed to herself, jotting down something on the Hex-Repellent potion they had to make the next day.
Twenty minutes later, a small alarm went off coming from a muggle watch Ron Weasley's father got her as a celebration gift. She closed the book with a satisfied grin, glad she decided to work on her homework early. She put her stuff away and trudged up to Gryffindor Tower.
As she approached the Fat Lady, she heard her name being called from the stairs by a familiar voice. She turned around only to be engulfed in her boyfriend's arms, his stature over towering hers.
Ron Weasley was 6ft tall and still growing. His red Weasley hair was grown out and pulled back like his brother Bills. His freckles faded some because of the tan he had acquired over the summer fighting in the war. He embraced his girlfriend, burying his head in her bushy brown hair, thanking still that she was alive.
As they broke apart they looked into each others eyes, searching for their everlasting love. Seeing it, they smiled and turned to the Fat Lady, laughing at her dreamful expression.
"Ah, young love. It's so touching." She sniffed and wiped at her eyes with a handkerchief, before asking the password.
"Dinosaur." Hermione said through her giggles, glad that she thought of the idea of letting Neville choose the passwords. She didn't know how Neville knew what the muggle words were but seeing Ron's confused look every time always made her laugh.
As they made their way into the common room, they were surprised at the amount of people milling around. Usually, the common room would be empty at this time of day, the students taking advantage of the frequent breaks outside. They shrugged it off before heading upstairs to the only private room near the boys dormitories.