Hogwarts: A Home
Completed for the forum Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)
Assignment #10 - Careers Advice: Holiday Careers; Task #3 - Photographers: Write about looking through a photo album
After the war is truly over - well, the war is over but the aftermath remains, so maybe it can't be said that the war is truly over. Still, after the battle at Hogwarts, after Voldemort's death, after Harry Potter dies only to return to life, after a lot of things actually, there is a lot of things to be done.
The months following the battle are a frenzy of activity. There are investigations, inquiries, and arrests, but there are also cleaning and repairs and a body count rising. There are funerals and funerals, but despite the tears of sorrow, laughter has a way of returning too. The list of actions to be done seems never ending, especially for one Minerva McGonagall who now has a school to run.
One lonely evening, with the portraits of past school leaders staring down at her, Professor McGonagall receives a package brought by a barn owl. It isn't that unusual, after all, as Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she receives mail fairly often. The thin scrawled handwriting reveals that the package is for the witch, but it also reveals that the package is from a Hogwarts' student. Professor McGonagall has read uncountable essays on Transfiguration from various students over the years, and she is well aware of what their handwriting looks like.
She wonders why Dennis Creevey is sending her a package. With a wave of her wand, the brown paper wrapping crumbles and places itself in the bin, leaving only a photo album on the desk that is now Minerva's, although she continuously thinks of it as Dumbledore's desk.
Minerva knows all too well of a boy who loved to take photos, a boy who had been in Gryffindor, a boy who had died. Colin Creevey had been too full of life to die, but – as Minerva is well aware – life has a way of doing the impossible whether or not it's wanted. She's not wholeheartedly surprised by the photo album, but there's a part of her that remains unsteady. She has paid the price of partaking in another war, and she will continue to do so.
Rather than opening the photo album, she picks up the small note that laid on top of the cover. It's from Dennis Creevey, as she had previously assumed, and asks mundane questions about her life, but skips over any response. The last few lines detail the reasons behind the photo album, and a short phrase about Colin and his ever-present camera leave Minverva's eyes feeling watery. There were many lost to the war, and all have been far too young with their lives ahead of them.
Minerva finds it simple to turn the cover of the album, finds it far too easy. It feels like there should be something that makes it difficult, something that creates hardship, but it is simple to open the album and take a look at the pictures Colin had taken over the course of his years at Hogwarts.
The first photo she sees makes her laugh. It's an unflattering photo of Harry Potter. There's a pale, blurred thumb in the left-hand corner of the photo, and the whole picture is out-of-focus, but it's clear that Harry is the centre of the picture, with dark hair and bright eyes complete with glasses and a hand half covering his face. It's a candid photo and left like the muggle ones – with Harry still and silent; it's strange but it fits rather well. It reminds Minerva of Colin before he learnt more of the wizarding world, with his grins and constant camera flashes and hero-worship of a boy not much older.
The second photo skips to the next year, the year written clearly below the picture. It's a wizarding picture of Dennis and a Hufflepuff. The pair are grinning and waving, looking happy and proud and young. It reminds Minerva of aches in her bones but simultaneously when it was easy to walk upstairs and she greeted every Gryffindor. Not much has changed. Minerva still walks upstairs, even if it's with an ache in her knees, and she still greets every Gryffindor. It's just tinged with sadness now, a sorrow that she is incapable of escaping.
The next few pages have photos across the years. They show quidditch games taking place, and students sitting around a small table with cups of hot cocoa. There are pictures of classrooms, of common rooms, of dormitories, of books in the library, of students laughing and smiling in many different places. The pictures don't focus on the lives of anyone in particular, but follow year after year of lessons learnt and taught at Hogwarts. Minerva laughs, but after a few pages, she finds herself rubbing tears off of her face. Taking a moment to compose herself, she turns the next page.
The next page focusses on one person. A boy on a broomstick reaching out for a golden snitch; black and yellow easy to discern. Above the picture in beautiful calligraphy – Minerva can recognise Cho Chang's writing – is the name Cedric Diggory. Beside the picture is a portrait sketch, at a guess Minerva would say Dean drew the portrait having seen his small sketches in the margins of essays for years. There are small handwritten messages all over the paper, but at the bottom – slightly larger than the other messages – is one written by Harry about Cedric.
As her tea sits cooling on the desk, Minerva turns her gaze to the next page, and the one after that, continuing to flick through the photo album. The next few pages all have one page for each member of Dumbledore's Army, and after that are pictures of students working together. There is one of Neville, falling back onto pillows clearly stunned, and another one of Luna Lovegood smiling at a patronus. There is one of Harry before a group of students teaching, and another of the Weasley twins with their arms slung over their shoulders and grinning madly. There are ones of students casting spells and losing duels, but also ones of students smiling.
Despite the dark times ahead – or maybe in spite of them, the photos show how happy the students were, even in the face of the danger and war to come. Minerva even manages to see herself in the corner of a photo, a small smile on her face as she watches over the students.
It's clear to Minerva that the whole of Dumbledore's Army has worked on putting the photo album together. What had, at first, been a collection of Colin's photos has become a collation of numerous photos – both muggle and wizarding ones – and messages and drawings. Everyone has helped in some way. Opening the last pages, Minerva reminds herself that not everyone has helped – those who have remained have helped.
The second-last page has a picture of the remaining members of Dumbledore's Army. Some people are smiling, while others are grim or sorrowful. There aren't gaps between any of the members, but Minerva can see gaps anyway, where students had once stood proud but are now buried six feet down. They're all leaning against one another, holding each other up, and for all that, Minerva wishes she could rage at the fact they were students, that they were children, she cannot. Rather, all she can do is remember those who fought and died, and hope that the next generation of students don't have to fight in a war, that they will be able to live in peace that the previous generations had died for.
Beneath the picture of the surviving Dumbledore's Army members is a picture of the remaining Order of the Phoenix members. Minerva can recall the picture being taken, a few weeks after that final battle, when they were repairing the Quidditch grounds. They're smiling in it, grief lurking in their eyes, but they're smiling anyway. It's a small picture and it had only been taken because; well, Minerva can't remember the reason now but she supposes it doesn't matter too much.
The last page has two pictures, and Minerva isn't surprised to feel tears gathering in her eyes as she stares at the pictures. Both are wizarding photos, with the occupants of the photos moving – waving and smiling. It's of Dumbledore's Army before any fighting; it's the Order of the Phoenix before the worst of the fighting during Voldemort's first rise. The similarities are there, a new generation echoing a previous one, but there are differences too. One photo contains much younger members, whilst the other has members with grimmer faces, too aware of the hardships of the war they are fighting in.
Closing the photo album doesn't feel as final as Minerva had expected, but she knows she can open the album whenever she feels the need to revisit all memories and remember old students. However, she finds herself staring at the back of the photo album that's a single photo.
It turns out that Colin's first photo had never been of Harry Potter. Rather, his first photo had been a muggle shot of Hogwarts from the lake on a boat amongst other first years. Hogwarts rises with lights coming from the castle, and it looks magical, beauty and splendour caught by a first-year with a camera. At the bottom of the picture is a single word that attempts to summarise Hogwarts in one word, and succeeds rather well in Minerva's opinion. Then again, she might be a little biased. After all, she's always seen Hogwarts as a home.