AN: Hey I'm back! I haven't really been on here for a while, due to writers block and my life basically being a complete mess. There's just been too much drama for me to deal with at the moment... Anyway I am back now with another of my incredibly depressing fanfics! Waits for applause... Que the awkward silence… (Crickets chirp). Anyway, this is basically a fic about Minnie looking back on the war during the aftermath and her observations after it. So enjoy...
Disclaimer: Despite my best attempts, I am sorry to say that I still own nothing because if I had then I would have a life time's supply of chocolate frogs...
Professor Minerva McGonagall surveyed the ruins of Hogwarts with a harsh feeling of loss. So many had died during the wars, and most were far too young, had too much left to experience. They should not have had to fight at all, they shouldn't have had to do anything but learn at school, but it was too late. Their school had become a battlefield; teenagers and young adults had become soldiers and were left in the aftermath to wander the halls with haunted eyes.
Nobody knew what to do now it was all over, they didn't know how to act without the threat of death being a constant presence hovering above them, and it broke her heart. They didn't know how to cope with the death of loved ones and classmates, they didn't know how to move on. Gone was their youthfully feelings of immortality, leaving behind only shells of the people they used to be.
An example of this was Dennis Creevy, a once happy and easily excitable boy. As soon as he had received news of his brother's passing he had returned to the castle and immediately demanded to see his brother. The moment little Dennis had seen his brother he had broken down, collapsing onto the floor and begging Colin to wake up. His parents had yet to arrive to take Colin back to be buried, so Dennis was left to wander the halls, looking hurt, lost and confused.
One of the very worst cases was George Weasley, who seemed to be completely lost without his twin, and nobody could blame him in the least. The Weasley twins had been entirely co-dependent, and had never spent any time apart. Needless to say it broke him. Gone was the mischievous troublemaker he had managed to remain throughout despite the war's travesties. All that was left was his hollow shell; he didn't speak, didn't laugh, and barely ate at all. Nobody in his family, and none of his friends knew how to help, and if she was being honest with herself, neither did Minerva.
However, the sight that upset her most was Harry Potter holding his now orphaned godson safely in his arms. Both of the wars had taken too much from the two boys, Harry in particular. His parents had been stolen from him in the first war, and then the second war had taken away his childhood as well. Watching the two of them together it was hard not to think that they had managed to come full circle, and they could only hope to do better this time around.
If it wasn't for their mistakes and negligence towards not just Harry, but the young Slytherins and even Voldemort as a child (although she wasn't alive back then and could not be to blame for that). Minerva realized now how the hatred and disregard for the Slytherin house that had pushed many of them to the wrong side of the war, and one of the worst victims of that was Mr Malfoy.
The signs that something was wrong should have been picked up and help should have been offered to him, but instead he was left to deal with the pressure of protecting his family on his own. She knew from Harry's telling of the night Albus died that Mr. Malfoy, Draco, had been unable to kill the headmaster, even though he knew that if he did not both his and his parents' lives were forfeit. Minerva also suspected that had Albus' discussion with Draco had not been interrupted, that Draco would have believed it safe to leave the dark side.
Unfortunately for Draco and others like him, they hadn't been persuaded that it was safe to switch sides and had been forced into the darker and harsher side of the war. She did not like to think about the horrors that those children had suffered through and it disgusted her that some of them were being forced to go to trial for "war crimes". Although she couldn't deny the sense of pride she felt towards the number of lions who were going to testify for them.
However, this did not change the fact that, in Minerva's eyes she had failed her students; in fact all of them had failed the students. They had been dragged into an adult's war and had been expected to make the same sacrifices. The people that had been hurt worst by the wars stood in front of her, and she swore on her magic that she would make sure that nobody hurt her kids this time around, especially Teddy. She would not allow them to come full circle again, no matter the cost.
AN: This did not go the way I thought it would, but hey, you try arguing with a determined McGonagall and see what happens to you. Actually it's probably for the best that she intervened or I would have either spent the thick lamenting the loss of Fred or cooing over the cuteness of Harry and baby Teddy... That's all I have left to say so...
Peace, Love and Chocolate Frogs
Pottergeek100.