Kingsley Shacklebolt, the Minister for Magic, had declared an official holiday on the one day anniversary of the defeat of Lord Voldemort. The Ministry of Magic employees would be given a holiday and Gringotts, the wizarding bank would be closed. The announcement of the holiday was printed everywhere, The Daily Prophet, the Quibbler, and posted in most wizarding establishments. A more exclusive invitation was Owled to the Hogwarts parents and alumni: on the holiday, during a ceremony on the lawn at Hogwarts celebrating the defeat of Lord Voldemort, the goblin community would present the sword of Godric Gryffindor officially and in perpetuity to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The day dawned clear, which, Professor Flitwick, the charms instructor, said afterwards was a relief because it meant less work for him. People and goblins filed into Hogwarts and the voice of Hagrid, keeper of the keys and grounds, could be heard above the din as he directed people to their seats.

From the Forest surrounding Hogwarts, the centaurs watched from the edge of the forest. The centaurs felt themselves superior to wizards and not bound by the wizard laws, which considered them beasts rather than sentient beings, but even they were curious to see if the goblins could find acceptance within the ministry. Goblins never relinquished a claim on a goblin-made item, so this was, even amoung the stars, unprecedented. The centaurs had never accepted overtures from the ministry to declare them sentient beings, as it should be obvious without saying. Centaurs were amoung the longest-lived creatures and they measured time in spans and eons rather than days, months, and years and relied on the portents in the stars as a muggle might rely on the weather report to determine whether to carry an umbrella. The stars had shown the possibility of a new age of tolerance, but whether or not it would come to be was an answer for time and was not guaranteed by the heavens.

In the Hogwarts' lake, a small crowd of merpeople were gathered. Like the centaurs, they too had refused to be summoned to the ministry of magic to prove their being status, but unlike the centaurs, they did not object to interactions with people. They often enjoyed human company and the chance to witness such an event was quite a temptation to them, even though they generally preferred deeper waters than the shallows they watched from.

When everyone was settled, Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts, welcomed everyone to Hogwarts. "It's gratifying to see so many alumnus gathered here today to witness this historic event and to celebrate the one year anniversary of a battle waged in secret and won in daylight. The cost of the battle were high, Hogwarts lost many treasured sons and daughters, but the prize; to assure that future generations were free, must be considered worth the price. And we gather here as equals, witches, and wizards, regardless of lineage, goblins, merpeople, " she nodded towards the lake, "elves," looking towards the castle where the Hogwarts house elves stood watching, "and all who are interested." She did not call out the centaurs, knowing they would have preferred that people not know they were there. Firenze, one of Divination teachers, also a centaur, smiled at the dissimilation, wondering how his brothers would have felt had the headmistress embarrassed them by pointing out their presence. "And if we have learned nothing else from our past, let us at least have learned this, 'We are only as strong as we are united.' In that spirit of unity, I would like to introduce Bodrig, Head of the Brotherhood of Goblins."