Disclaimer: If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that JK Rowling has but slumbered here while Hermione Granger did appear.

A/N: Fun fact: this chapter was originally Chapter 5, but I kept thinking of more things to do. I think it's going to speed up a bit from here.

And…I didn't remember until days after the fact that Neville isn't at Hogwarts this year. That makes the scene with Luna in the last chapter a bit complicated. I've changed the chapter to address this.

Chapter 7

10 June 1999

Defence Against the Dark Arts. The third of Hermione's six N.E.W.T.s, and the only one for which she hadn't sat the class this year. (She'd considered sitting Muggle Studies as well, but honestly, what was the point?) Charms and Transfiguration had gone well. She actually felt a bit rusty when it came to the written part of the Defence exam, but she was confident she could make it up in the practical.

However, the practical exam quickly turned out to be different from what she was expecting. Whereas the O.W.L. exam had involved old witches and wizards asking students to demonstrate particular spells, the N.E.W.T. practical was administered by a group of Aurors. The Auror she faced when she was called in was a young-ish man she didn't recognise. "Hello, Miss Granger," he said. "I'm Auror Crowdy."

"Pleased to meet you," she said.

"This should be very interesting," Crowdy said cheerfully.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm eager to she you in action in the duel, Miss Granger."

Hermione tensed. "Duel? What duel?"

"Weren't you informed?" he said. "You're meant to duel against an Auror as part of the exam."

Hermione quickly turned to Sirius, who was watching from the side of the room. "This wasn't how the O.W.L. exam went," she said.

"Yes, but this is a more advanced exam," Sirius replied. "And that was a different time, especially that year—Umbridge," he coughed. "Come on, I'm sure it'll be easy for you."

"Well, I suppose," she said. She hadn't been in a proper fight (or duel) for a year, but she'd been practising the spells. "Auror Crowdy, if you're ready?" she said, pulling out her ivy wand.

He nodded to her. They took their places at opposite ends of their section of the Great Hall and faced each other. Hermione became acutely award that she hadn't ever done any formal duelling at all. It had never really come up. But Crowdy bowed to her, and she bowed back, and then he raised his wand.

"One…" Sirius counted off. "Two…Three!"

Crowdy whipped off a pair of red spells nonverbally, so fast that Hermione barely caught the wand movements. She was pretty sure they were a Disarming Charm and a Stunning Hex. She threw up a Shield Charm to block one and sidestepped the other while snapping off a silent Relashio, which could be as good as an Expelliarmus, but was faster to cast.

Crowdy deflected the hex and threw another pair of spells at her while she tried an Impedimenta. Going back and forth, he managed to hit her with a Tripping Jinx. That stung, mainly that she'd slipped up like that, but she turned it into a roll, not trying to shield or push off the ground like a less experienced fighter, not wasting a spell to stop her fall, but instead casting her Dazzling Laser Hex as she dropped. The strobing green light distracted Crowdy long enough for her to roll to her feet and try a stronger spell.

"Everte Statum!" she cast aloud.

He shielded the hex. A coil of rope flew at her head as Crowdy cast Incarcerous, and Hermione deflected it with an Incendio.

"Getting a bit rougher?" he called.

Hermione didn't answer. Multiple targets, she thought. Within the confines of the test, it was a good move. She cast a Shield Charm and ran, diving behind a desk, to the surprise of the other examiners.

"You're not supposed to—" one of them started.

Hermione ignored him. Avis, Avis, Avis, Avis, she cast, conjuring four birds around her. She leapt back to her feet and pointed her wand at Crowdy. Oppugno! she cast, closely followed by Protego to block his counterattack.

"Ah! Ah! Evanesco!" Crowdy said, erasing the birds as they attacked at high speed and pecked at his face. "Bloody hell. Flagello!"

A Whipping Hex flew at Hermione, and she blocked it. That jolted her a little, and she responded with a silent Terebradent. He dodged, and the hex made a worrying grinding sound when it hit the wall behind him.

"Um, Hermione, Auror Crowdy, that's a little much—" Sirius started.

"I've got it, Sirius," she muttered absently.

"Furnunculus," Crowdy said out loud.

"Chiroptera Mucosa," Hermione cast as quickly as she could.

The other examiners stopped to watch. They were getting a little outside the rules of the exam. The O.W.L. Defence exam had been almost entirely actual defence. Few offensive spells were tested, and they were incapacitating spells like Expelliarmus and Incarcerous. They couldn't test any spells that could do significant injury in case the students failed to deflect them. N.E.W.T. students, however, were meant to be a little more reliable. A pair of experienced fighters like Hermione and Crowdy could afford to play even faster and looser, and their hexes gradually escalated. Soon, there were weak Cutting Curses and Piercing Hexes mixed in, each of them trusting the other to block them, like a professional duel.

Until Hermione zigged when she should have zagged, and Crowdy used the opening to toss a verbal Bombarda at her. Cast at low power, it wouldn't do serious injury, but it would be a duel-ender if it connected. But Hermione slipped, only half-got up a shield, and it shattered. She was knocked off her feet, and in that dazed moment, she suddenly saw not an Auror, but a black robe and a white mask before her eyes.

Her eyes flew wide open like a madwoman's. She sprang to her feet and shouted, "Confringo!" at the Death Eater.

"Hermione!" someone called, but she ignored it. The Death Eater seemed taken by surprise. He just barely dodged the curse, which exploded a chunk of the wall behind him.

"The hell?" he yelled.

"Reducto!" she cast.

This time, he shielded and cast three binding spells in quick succession. Hermione weaved and blocked and cast Lumos Ardens and Fulmina back at him.

The Lightning Hex made the Death Eater spring into action. Despite taking a glancing blow, he ran to dodge and threw a Bone-Breaking Curse at her legs followed by a Defodio.

"Crowdy!" the voice shouted again.

He was too fast for her. She needed to trip him up. She drew her second wand, pointed it at his feet and cast "Resonantia!"

Her Resonance Curse vibrated the floor, rapidly amplifying the natural frequencies. The ground began to crumble under his feet and sharp chips of stone kicked up into the air like sand on a loudspeaker. A wave of her wand, and the pebbles began to pelt him.

Sirius ran out, shouting for her to stop, but she slipped his grasp. Why wasn't he fighting? She dodged both him and the Death Eater as she kept it up.

"Gah! Confingo! Depulso!" The Death Eater cast at her. Many of the shards of rock flew at her, and she wasn't fast enough to block them all. Scrapes appeared on her face and hands. Then, she wasn't fast enough to dodge a follow-up Cutting Curse that tore through her robes and opened a long, but shallow gash on her side.

"Hermione!"

"Constringofila!" she cast back and caught him this time. His clothes began to constrict around him, the threads sliding past each other to restrict the movement of his arms, squeezing his chest so he couldn't breathe. She dodged around Sirius again while the Death Eater. He gasped, winded, and stumbled as he tried to figure out what was happening to him. He recovered quickly and cast a spell to strategically slice up his robes without them falling off, but not fast enough to stop Hermione's followup attack.

He went down hard. Hermione dashed toward him as he scrambled away from her. She threw out curse after curse, only some of which appeared in the curriculum. He was only shielding now, but she wouldn't let her guard down until she'd knocked him out. But then, the Death Eater's words finally got through to her.

"AHHH! Stop! I yield! I yield!"

Hermione froze, nearly dropping her wands, and a sense of horror gripped her. That wasn't a Death Eater.

Then Sirius grabbed her in a bear hug and knocked her wands from her hands, nearly tackling her to the ground.

"Oh, God! Oh, God! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" she said in a panic.

Auror Crowdy had fallen to the floor and backed against the wall, holding his wand up to desperately try to maintain his Shield Charm against her onslaught. His robes were in tatters, and his face was scraped up, and he probably had a couple of broken bones. A patch of the floor of the Great Hall was cracked and littered with shards of stone. God, she could have killed him.

Hermione wasn't in much better shape herself, especially with that gash on her side. Her robes were ruined, too, and she should probably get professional help for her injuries. She nearly collapsed in Sirius's arms.

"Auror Crowdy?" Sirius asked softly.

Crowdy grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. "I'll live," he said, "but I think the exam is over."

"I'm sorry," Hermione repeated, staring down at the floor. "I don't know what came over me. I can usually handle this, but…all of a sudden, I felt like I was back in the battle. I didn't mean to hurt you. Really."

Sirius helped her to her feet and put an arm around her shoulders. "It's not your fault, Hermione," he said. "It happens to the best of us. You should have told me you were having flashbacks."

"I'm not!" she protested. "I mean I wasn't. I still have nightmares, and I'm a bit jumpier than I used to be, but I haven't had a…a real flashback before…I haven't been in a real fight since since the battle. I guess didn't know how I'd react. Auror, I—"

"It's alright, Miss Granger," Crowdy said shakily, and she looked up at him. "I've seen this kind of thing before in the Auror Office. I'd also say you should have told us, but if this is the first time it happened…"

"It is."

"Then you should probably see a Healer."

"I am. I'll talk to my therapist after graduation."

"But right now, you should both see a Healer," Sirius cut in. "Let's go. We'll have to test the rest of the class later." He led both of them including a very red-faced Hermione to the Hospital Wing.

11 June 1999

Madam Pomfrey had healed Hermione in a trice, and the other examiners had picked up the slack after Auror Crowdy left, but the incident yesterday had certainly caused a mess. More than half the seventh-year class had seen Hermione and Crowdy walking up to the Hospital Wing looking like they'd tried to kill each other, and small as that class was, the story had spread from there. People looked afraid of her again, and she was a little afraid of herself—not because of her temper, like before, but because of chance that she could have another flashback—even if it seemed unlikely after it took an actual duel to trigger the first one. She was a little more vigilant and even a bit jumpy, but she made an effort to calm her thoughts with Occlumency, which did help.

Today, she had her Ancient Runes exam, which went not quite as well as she'd hoped, but that was no great surprise. Her recent practical knowledge of Runes was a bit more specialised than they wanted for the exam, and her classes hadn't exactly been the top priority they once were this year.

Mainly, however, she took the opportunity after her exam to have one last talk with Professor Rakepick.

"I must admit, Miss Granger," she said, "I would have liked to hear more about your general studies in soul magic. I've gleaned a fair amount from our little lessons and your two friends—that use of True Love's Kiss was inspired, by the way—but the underlying theory is still quite murky."

"Frankly, Professor, I'm okay with that," Hermione told her. "Truth be told, I haven't really developed the field beyond those few spells and rituals anyway, and I'm not keen on anyone else doing the same."

"You can't keep the knowledge secret forever, Miss Granger," she said with an ominous edge.

"I know that, but I can control how and to whom the knowledge is released, for a little while, at least, so I can ensure that the people who would use this knowledge for ill will be behind those who will use it for good and anticipate the threats and counter them."

"And you don't believe I could be one of the people who anticipates those threats?" Rakepick said haughtily. "With my extensive experience, I daresay I have a better or at least a broader understanding of what dark wizards are capable of than you do."

"I'm not ruling out meeting again in a year or two," Hermione said evenly. "I'd just rather see you in action first. It's not that I don't trust you. I just don't trust anyone. I haven't even told my fiance some of the things I've discovered, and having seen what they can do, he agrees with me…Incidentally, what do you plan on doing now that you're leaving Hogwarts? Do you have any plans for what you'll do next?"

"I'll try my hand at killing dementors I think. There's sure to be good money in it."

Hermione gave her a sharp look.

"Don't look at me like that, Miss Granger," she said. "Not all of us can live entirely off jewelry like you can."

And…she couldn't refute that. Besides, Rakepick wasn't going to be the only person around who could kill dementors. If her prices were too steep, someone else could undercut her. "I don't think I'd charge if there's a living victim to be saved," she offered.

"Hm. Fair. Though I wouldn't advertise the fact either. Too easy to exploit. Actually, I was hoping I could join you to see a couple of the rituals done this summer. This is something where I wouldn't want to go off on my own without practical experience."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. The infamously headstrong and independent Patricia Rakepick wasn't confident enough to start killing dementors solo? But it would help solve her problem; it would be a good to see how she acted in the field. "That's fine," she said. "I'll send you an owl."

"Excellent." Rakepick relaxed—rather like a cat, Hermione thought, lounging back comfortably while keeping that vague air of superiority. "So what will you do after you graduate, Miss Granger?" she asked.

Hermione leaned back and considered the question. "I don't really know. I'm getting married in three weeks. We're going to Italy for our honeymoon. It's fitting, really—back where it all began," she mused. "And I have a couple other projects to finish, but after that, I don't really know."

"Only a couple?" Rakepick said knowingly.

"Short-term," she said. "And arithmancy-themed. A lot of the longer-term things that interest me are probably more in your line of work. Figuring out how Ravenclaw's diadem works, for example."

"Ah, then perhaps you can become a world traveller like I am."

Hermione didn't answer, but she grew thoughtful. At least a few of the things she wanted to do would involve travel. She still wanted to get DNA samples from the remaining giants. She hadn't forgotten her work on the night after the battle toward that goal. And she might be killing dementors in other countries too, or training dementor-killers. But she hadn't thought about much more than those specific issues.

"You know, in the old days, it was traditional for young witches and wizards of means to spend a year travelling the world after they graduated," Rakepick encouraged her.

"Like a Grand Tour?" she said.

"Come again?"

"In the 1700s or so, children of muggle nobles and landed gentry would go on a tour of Europe when they came of age. It fell out of favour after the railroad became widespread, but we—they—whatever—still have something a little like it. It's called a gap year."

"Yes, that sounds about right. I didn't know muggles did it too. You might find it an interesting lifestyle, Miss Granger."

"I think I've had enough of your kind of interesting for a lifetime, Professor," she shot back. "But I suppose there might be few arithmancy puzzles around the world that need solving just like there are runic ones, even accounting for arithmancy being a much younger field."

The woman smiled: "Something to think about, then. And, what did you mean, 'back where it all began' for your honeymoon?"

"Oh," Hermione chuckled. "Professor McGonagall delivered my original Hogwarts letter to our hotel room in Venice. It's a beautiful town, and I've never had the chance to go back there. Now, I can finally catch up."

16 June 1999

The second week of exams featured Potions and Alchemy, and then she was nominally done. But on Wednesday, she did go down to the Great Hall for one more meeting with the Arithmancy examiners.

"Good morning, Professor Tinworth, Professor Marchbanks," she greeted them.

"Good morning, Professor Granger," old Griselda Marchbanks replied. Professor, again. But in two more days, it would be appropriate, so she let it go. "Can we help you? The next committee meeting isn't until Tuesday."

"Yes, I know," Hermione said. "I just wanted to submit my Arithmancy Mastery project."

"Your Mastery project?" Marchbanks said in surprise. "But you already have a Doctor of Wizardry."

"Yes, but I never formally submitted a Mastery project. I wanted to do it by the book so I can't be accused of favouritism or cutting corners."

"I don't think anyone could accuse you of that after what you've done, Miss Granger," Tinworth said.

"Even so, I want to put it on record."

"Very well," Marchbanks said. "What have you produced? Your proof on Gamp's Law?"

Hermione shook her head. She motioned to the Entrance Hall, and Harry and Ginny walked in, carrying a large, framed tapestry between them. It was a sky-blue field with a golden, vaguely sunflower-spiral pattern repeated over and over again in ever-smaller islands as the colours shifted slowly.

"What on Earth…" Marchbanks said.

"This," Hermione said, "is a proof of concept for combining high-level fractal geometry with magic. I used it to create a tapestry that displays Julia sets, which also vary with the time of day and the weather."

The examiners looked at each other. "Come again, Professor Granger?" Tinworth said. "What are we seeing?"

"This image symbolises a sunny day like we have now," Hermione said, motioning up to the enchanted ceiling, and then she explained. A Julia set was created like the Mandelbrot set—repeated squaring and adding of points on the complex plane. Except instead of the Mandelbrot set, which added every point to zero, a Julia set started with a particular complex number as a seed and added that to every point. So there was a different fractal for every point on the plane.

The tapestry itself was three feet, six and two-thirds inches square, the smallest she could fit a thousand and twenty-four threads on each side. The warp and the weft served as the coordinate plane, addressing the threads like a computer would, and a thirty-two by thirty-two grid of blocks on tiny runes on the back did the calculations, computing the correct colour at each intersection based on inputs from a master cluster on the frame that set the seed coordinates and the colour palette. It was effectively a computer with one thousand and twenty-four processors—more than most supercomputers, except that the processors were a far cry from a microchip. They couldn't even do full arithmetic—just the same few hard-coded operations over and over again.

It was slow by muggle standards, taking a full minute to compute each frame. But each small processor ran at thirty-two thousand operations per second, a blazing-fast speed for anything magic. That was only possible because of a cheat that used the interplay between the threads and the runic clusters that essentially let each thread compute its own operations, and another cheat that made repeated operations very efficient. That technically made it a computer of sixty-four thousand processors, more than five times the number of any supercomputer in the world, and yet it was also a hundred thousand times slower.

Her conclusion was that magic made it so that the most efficient way to build a computer was an insane number of very slow processors rather than a small number of very fast ones like a muggle computer. She even had a paper half-written about it. It was scalable and much more energy efficient and could probably be made competitive with muggle computers if you had a good reason—although at this point, it was merely a curiosity.

But most of that was beyond the scope of her project. She was mainly showing that it was possible to do the heavy calculations involved in fractal geometry with magic through her art project. It took a lot of experimentation, a minute at a time, but she was able to make it show an abstract depiction of the current weather. With judicious choices of the seed coordinates, which themselves traced near the boundary of the Mandelbrot set, she could create elaborate wheel and spiral patters with an arbitrary number of arms. And with those, she could make the tapestry take on the appearance of a lightning bolt, a flurry of snowflakes, a fluffy cloud, a sunburst, a swirl of wind, a string of dewdrops, crystals of frost, and even the dark whirlpool of the Milky Way on a starry night.

"This seems to be more runic than arithmantic," Marchbanks pointed out.

"All heavy maths that takes more calculation than a human can manage is like that, ma'am," Hermione. "The arithmancy needed to make the tapestry do it all was very complex. I have my notes here."

The examiners looked over her notes. They weren't as impressed as she'd hoped with the tapestry itself. There just wasn't much of a market for abstract art in general in the wizarding world—not with their traditional culture and talking portraits all over. But they were impressed with the maths.

"Well, I'd say this is up to the standard, Professor Granger," Professor Tinworth concluded. "I see no reason not to accept it, since you already have your degree anyway."

"Thank you, Professor. I just wanted to tie up the loose ends."

18 June 1999

On the last day of term, everyone was relaxing, all of the exams being finished. Most of the seventh-years were relieved that they'd made it through a quiet school year for once in their lives. For Hermione, however, they year hadn't been entirely quiet, and there was quite the stir today when, not long before the Leaving Feast, Minister Cresswell, Ambassador Brodrig, and King Ragnok himself appeared in the Entrance Hall to finally resolve the matter of the Sword of Gryffindor. Fleur had come too out of personal interest (and concern for Hermione's well-being), as had the new head of the Goblin Liaison Office at the Ministry. Some of the students gathered around the edge of the Entrance Hall to watch.

Fleur hurried to Hermione's side as they entered and whispered some advice to her.

"It's rare for zee Goblin King to show 'imself above ground," she said. "I'm not sure why he's so interested in you."

"Seeing my talent with jewels, probably," Hermione said softly.

"Maybe. Well, when you greet zee king, you should bow, address 'im formally, but be to zee point. Don't waste his time."

"You told me that last time I met him," she replied.

"It bears repeating," Fleur said. "Especially in a sensitive situation like this."

Brodrig banged the butt of a battle-axe loudly on the floor, cutting off all conversation, and announced to the Entrance Hall: "All hail His Majesty, Ragnok, Seventh of His Name, King of the Goblins of the British Isles, Grandmaster of Tailory, and Protector of the Underground Realm!"

A few students, most of them muggle-born, stepped out and bowed awkwardly, although there were also some whispers in the shadows. However, Professor McGonagall came out front and centre and bowed to him. "Your Majesty, Hogwarts is honoured by your presence," she said.

"Headmistress," the goblin greeted her dismissively. King Ragnok looked much the same as the last time Hermione had met him. Despite being a tailor—apparently—he looked the part of a tough goblin commander. His robes were elegant, but not ostentatious. He walked over to the display case and nodded to himself after verifying the sword was still there. Then he turned and addressed the Entrance Hall: "Six months ago, we laid claim to the Sword of Ragnuk the First, which has sat in Hogwarts since its rediscovery six years ago. At that time, we granted a reprieve from collecting the sword on the request of Hogwarts student Hermione Granger. Now, we have returned to settle this debt."

Hermione stepped forward. Her new sword was strapped to her waist. She stopped at a safe distance from Ragnok and bowed to him. "Your Majesty, my original offer still stands," she said. "I offer a trade under goblin law of the Sword of Ragnuk the First for a new sword of my own make."

"So you have you said, Granger," the king growled, "but do you believe you have created a sword of equal worth to Ragnuk's?"

She tread carefully here. "In terms of historical significance, no," she said, "but otherwise, I invite you to examine it for yourself, sir." She took the sheathed sword from her hip and held it out flat on her palms. Ragnok twitched a hand, and Brodrig came forward to retrieve it. He handed it to Ragnok, who examined it and unsheathed it.

"I call it Dragontooth," Hermione said.

He held up the sword—a black blade, slightly curved and covered in runes with a hilt that gleamed like fire. He waved it experimentally.

"It will handle a bit different than you're used to," she added. "It's more rigid, but it also has a thinner grind, and it's sharper."

People in the hall whispered upon seeing her sword. Even Fleur was surprised. Dragontook was more ostentatious than Gryffindor's sword because Hermione had taken inspiration from more modern pieces. Gryffindor's sword had only a couple dozen rubies on it. More recent ceremonial swords like the Sword of Offering in the Crown Jewels were completely covered with sometimes thousands of diamonds. For this creation, she'd leaned more toward the former while borrowing some of the look of the latter, which still meant a hundred and twenty-three gems.

The hilt, a long, hand-and-a half thing that was wider than it would be for a human hand, was made in the image of a Chinese Fireball dragon walking along it like a chameleon on a tree branch. She'd originally planned to make it in silver, but the colour didn't look right, so she'd used electrum instead. The "branch" part was engraved with a very appropriate fern-like pattern: the golden dragon curve. The dragon's eyes ought to have been gold, but again, for contrast, she used two deep blue diamonds to help catch the light.

The cross-guard was an S-shaped piece stylised to look like the dragon's breath, carved with swept lines with rows of sapphires studded in between them. Those had been tricky to make. It had taken seventy-two sapphires and rubies, most of them made with the red and yellow of chromium and iron organically swirled together to make the image of fire. Twenty-four blood rubies were embedded in each of the dragon's sides, flush with the metalwork so as not to interfere with the grip, completing the image of a red and gold dragon.

But the crown jewel—as it were—of the sword was the pommel, which was made from the tail of the dragon circled around a six-hundred-carat rainbow star sapphire that had taken as much work and planning as all the other gems put together. That gem was so significant she gave it a name of its own: the Star of Albany. (She even drew up documentation for Archimedes Jewellers, even though it would never be public.) The six sections of the sapphire were coloured ruby-red, padparadscha-orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. That was similar to her earlier efforts, but with white lines of titanium dioxide separating the sections and adding a slight blending around the edge, it looked much more natural.

Engraved on the blade amid the smaller runes, on one side, it read, DRAGONTOOTH, and on the other, it read, RAGNOK VII REX.

Ragnok studied the sword carefully. "Hm…" he said. "Not bad, for a human."

"Rubbish!"

"It's fantastic!"

"It's brilliant!" some of the students shouted.

"Silence!" McGonagall cut them off. "We will show proper respect in this school!"

Hermione looked over at Fleur. Fleur gave her a smile and a nod, confirming what she'd been thinking. She knew enough about goblin culture to tell that was a compliment.

Ragnok ignored the commotion. He gave her a sharp look and said, "The gems are all magically created, Granger. Not carved from the living rock."

"I never pretended they weren't, sir," she replied. "They are permanent, if you're worried about that."

"Hmph. If they are, then that raises a new set of problems. Being able to create gems like these with magic is extremely subversive, especially since you have been selling them in the muggle world. Now, there are also concerns about secrecy. You could be very disruptive, Granger, possibly an economic threat."

The tension in the hall skyrocketed. Brodrig's hands tightened on his battle-axe, and McGonagall and Flitwick both stepped forward, twitching for their wands. Hermione didn't know what the students would do if things got violent. Had Ragnok planned this? He must have, right?

"Sir, have I violated the Statute of Secrecy with my business operations?" she demanded. "Have I violated any of Gringotts' policies regarding currency exchange or large transactions—or caused major market disruption in general, for that matter? If I have inadvertently neglected any fees, I will pay them."

Ragnok stared her down, but she didn't break her gaze. "No, Granger, you have been very scrupulous with your business," he confirmed. "But still, it seems that with your skills, this 'Dragontooth' should have been trivial to make—an idle fancy at swordcraft."

"I assure you it was anything but, sir. That sword took a lot of planning and designing, and each size and shape of gem needed its own runic array, calculated for the geometry of the faces. I have been working on it diligently over the past six months, and I put all of my skill into it. I…I think I understand your philosophy about property better now, sir," she said more quietly. "It's hard to let something like that go."

Ragnok raised an eyebrow at Hermione, and she noticed that Cresswell had raised two. Evidently, that wasn't what the Minister had expected. He looked nervous. Then, Ragnok began speaking to Brodrig in Gobbledegook. They seemed to argue for a minute before reaching a consensus. When the king spoke again, it seemed to be with a bit more respect. "You make a compelling offer, Granger," he said. "A sword that is undoubtedly of great monetary value and fighting capacity, bespoke for us from the most famous witch of your generation. And yet this is balanced against a long-sought artifact of our people. Can you say they are of equal worth?"

Hermione shook her head, but didn't answer directly. "I have done all I can on this matter, sir. The decision rests in your hands."

He nodded. "A wise thing, to know your limitations," he said. Then, he turned to the Hall: "Minister Cresswell, Ambassador Brodrig, Headmistress McGonagall, be it known that we grant Journeywoman Granger an indefinite loan of the Sword of Ragnuk for display in the exhibit at Hogwarts, in exchange for her loan of Dragontooth to the Goblin Nation—a trade under Goblin Law."

Brodrig banged the butt of his axe on the floor like a gavel, and the two goblins turned and strode out.

Minister Cresswell was staring at Hermione Granger, as was Professor Flitwick. "Journeywoman," Cresswell said, shaking his head.

Hermione winced slightly. "I didn't just crack some secret code to making the Goblin Nation my best friend, did I?" she asked. "As convenient as that would be, I don't think I could handle the absurdity."

Professor Flitwick chuckled. "Certainly not, Miss Granger. The Goblin Nation has more dignity than that. But for a witch or wizard to be called 'Journeyman' by a goblin is rare. It means that your craft is competitive with the lower grades of goblin-make."

"It's a sign of great respect," Cresswell said. He stepped closer and added, "and privately, I suspect it was what you said about goblin philosophy that earned it regardless of the quality of the sword, but no, you don't get anything else for it."

"Oh, good. I was getting worried after all the other crazy stuff that's happened."

A little while later, it was time for the Leaving Feast. That was a strange feeling in itself, since Hermione had never been to one of these when things were even close to normal—the illusion of normalcy, perhaps, but they always seemed to be associated with some horrible trauma in the days or weeks before. Now, when Professor McGonagall rose to make her speech, things were truly hopeful.

"Another year at Hogwarts has ended," McGonagall said, "and I think we can all be thankful that it was a very nearly uneventful one."

"Hear hear!" a few people shouted.

"For those of you who are returning across the Black Lake tomorrow, you have had the misfortune to witness what are quite possibly the six worst years in Hogwarts' history—for three of you, the worst seven years. All of us have lost good friends and family these past few years, and it was only through great effort that Hogwarts was able to reopen at all.

"But tonight, after all this time, we can truly celebrate. We together have weathered the storm and come out on the other side. Whether you are returning next year or not, we are sending you out into a magical world that is freer and brighter than it has been in a generation. The pain is still sharp for many of us, but all I can say to you now is to remember those who were lost, live your lives to the fullest, and above all, to preserve this new, hard-won world in their memory, so that, God willing, the next generation will never have to feel the sting of war."

19 June 1999

Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Luna got a boat together the next morning as they cross the Lake a final time and watched Hogwarts Castle recede into the distance.

"I hope the Giant Squid isn't still angry with us," Ginny said.

"No, rousing the Leviathan only applied on the day of the ritual," Hermione said. "It might be a little less friendly than before, but it won't try to hurt anyone."

Harry mostly just gazed back at the castle. "Feels strange, leaving here," he said.

"Does it?" Hermione said.

He looked at her. "Doesn't it for you?"

She shrugged. "I spent four and a half years out of eight here. It wasn't a home to me like it was to most people."

"It was to me, though," Harry said. "For every time a teacher tried to kill me, for all that time fighting for our lives and the two times I got kicked out of here myself, Hogwarts is still the only real home I've ever had."

Ginny scooted closer to Harry and laid her head on his shoulder.

Luna looked up from where she was trailing her hand through the water. "Home is where your family is, Harry," she said. "I think you've been home for most of that time."

Harry smiled: "Yeah, I guess so, Luna."

"Yes—none of us got a full Hogwarts education," Hermione said. "Luna spent the longest here—six and a half years. But the whole time we still had each other."

Suddenly, Harry laughed incongruously. That tended to happen when one of them thought of something funny. The reason was only revealed when Ginny said, "Wow, that was corny."

Luna giggled. Hermione swatted Ginny on the arm and said, "Shut up! It's true." …And corny, she admitted to herself.

"Okay, okay, it's true," Ginny said. "Except now I'm not sure any of us know what we're doing next."

"What do you mean, Ginny?" Luna asked.

"Well, I know I always imagined I'd play professional Quidditch," Ginny said. "I know it's not a full time job, but I wanted to do it since I first got on the team. Harry and I can't do that now, though."

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

Ginny stared at her as if it were obvious. "Each of us getting an extra pair of eyes from the other? It's an unfair advantage."

"Oh…sorry."

"It's not your fault. We made it through the war alive. That's enough for us."

"Still…maybe there are other jobs that involve flying?" Hermione asked.

"There's a few."

"I know we'll fly a lot regardless," Harry said confidently. "We have money, so—"

"We don't have to find something anytime soon," Ginny finished for him.

"Actually," he added hesitantly, "I've been kinda thinking about charity work…"

Hermione tilted her head and regarded him. "You know, I can absolutely see you doing that, Harry."

Harry looked unsure, but he seemed to find that encouraging. A moment later, Ginny reached up and kissed him, which clearly encouraged him more.

"Well, I have an idea about what I'm doing," Luna said.

"Oh?" Ginny said with interest.

"Mm hmm. Neville and I have been talking about travelling. We could hunt for the Crumple-Horned Snorkack—and other magical plants and animals."

Ginny's eyes widened when she made the connection. "Are you getting married?" she said excitedly.

"We haven't talked about it directly, but I think we've both been moving in that direction," Luna replied.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she squealed.

"Because nothing is certain yet, Ginny," Luna said calmly. "What about you, Hermione? Have you thought any more about what you're going to do?"

"I've actually thought about travelling, too," Hermione said. "Back on the day after the battle, I thought of travelling to collect specimens of endangered magical species so that maybe they can be cloned someday. And talking to Professor Rakepick about her work—at first, I thought she was mad, but I think there might be a place for that in my field. I still need to talk it over with George, though."

"True, he still has the shop—and Fred," Ginny said. "Still, I think he might be interested." She and Harry both giggled. "Though I don't think I ever would have pegged George as the world traveller over Fred."

Hermione and Luna both laughed too. Soon they boarded the train and talked of more trivial things until they returned to London. Later than evening, Hermione stepped off the train and returned to her family, pulling her trunk behind her. She hugged her parents and kissed her fiance while Luna went to Neville, and the Weasleys also reunited.

As they held each other, Hermione said to George, "We should talk when we have time. I think I have an idea of what I want to do."

21 June 1999

"Well, Ms. Granger, I think we've reached a decision," Professor Tremaine said when Hermione's final final exam was completed. "I must confess I was surprised you wrote back again after that MI5 business you were mixed up in, but clearly, your maths skills haven't diminished. You are approved for a Master of Science degree in mathematics. Congratulations."

3 July 1999

For most of her life, Hermione Granger imagined getting married in a church, but it was never something she paid much mind. She wasn't one of those little girls who planned out her dream wedding. She had more interesting things to think about, and marriage was always some vague, far-off time in the future.

When George Weasley asked her to marry him, she suddenly imagined not getting married in a church. As much as she had assumed it before, she now assumed without much thought that they would be getting married at the new Burrow. It was where Harry and Ginny were married. It was where Bill and Fleur would have been married if they could have. It only made sense.

And yet, now Hermione found herself back in a church.

It was her parents who made the decision, and she was still grateful that Mum and Molly handled the planning. Her parents said that even after all this time, she should invite friends and family from the muggle world to her wedding. It was only right, to say nothing of the fact that they and Septima and maybe a few school friends would be practically the only ones on the bride's side of the wedding. But including muggles meant they had to hold the ceremony in a proper church, so she went along, and they booked their old church in Crawley.

Right now, Hermione stood outside the sanctuary while the wedding party walked in. She worked to keep her breathing even, though she wasn't as bad as she'd feared she might be. Certainly, Mum was impressed with her composure. It seemed Occlumency was fairly effective at dealing with pre-wedding jitters, although the excitement was still getting to her.

Like at Harry's and Ginny's wedding, the wedding party was small, and all too soon, the bridal march began. She stepped into the sanctuary, and the guests rose as she walked down the aisle. Sunlight steamed through the stained glass windows, bathing the congregation in a multicoloured light. Hermione smiled, hoping she looking perfectly at ease.

She was certainly drawing stares. She wore the replica of Ravenclaw's Diadem on her head. She had initially wanted to wear the real one, but with the way it kept her constantly on the edge of sensory overload, she decided that even with her Occlumency skills, wearing it on one of the most emotional days of her life was a bad idea. You couldn't tell the difference from a distance, and the muggle side of the room—actually both sides, given its history—were dazzled by it.

Her dress was only ankle-length—a little unconventional, but she had insisted. While she didn't look over her shoulder so much anymore, she at least wanted the concession to safety of not having a dress that she wouldn't be able to run in or that she could trip over. She had actually entertained the thought of wearing Snickersnack on her hip too—for purely stylistic reasons—but that would have been too much. In the old days, a gentleman might have worn a sword to his wedding, but for a bride to wear one would just look silly.

And there was George, grinning like a loon. She could read him well enough by now to tell he was a little nervous, but it was mostly genuine. Fred stood beside him, looking calmer. The pair would have looked almost indistinguishable standing at the altar, except George's grin and the whisker-like scars on Fred's face distinguished them. If it weren't for those things, she would be scrutinising very closely to make sure they hadn't switched places even today.

Hermione stopped at the altar with Ginny by her side and smiled at the Minister from whom she'd taken first communion a decade ago. He nodded slightly and spoke, "In the presence of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we have come together to witness the marriage of George Fabian and Hermione Jean, to pray for God's blessing on them, to share their joy and celebrate their love…"

She couldn't see now, but she imagined the groom's side of the church looking a little lost. They hadn't used the traditional liturgy at Harry's and Ginny's wedding, and from what she gathered, it wasn't usual in the wizarding world, even among those who went to church. In the corner of her eye, she saw Ginny looking unfazed, at least.

Molly had managed one concession to wizarding tradition that might cause friction. After talking with George and Hermione, they had agreed to change the vows a little.

"…And do you, Hermione Jean, take George Fabian to be your husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; under curse and under blessing, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish as a faithful companion in the magic of life as long as you both shall live?"

"I do," Hermione said.

And that was that. Ginny and Fred gave her and George the rings, and they put them on each other's hands and kissed. From there to the reception was mostly a blur to Hermione, at least until she went back over it with the real Ravenclaw's diadem. The vows would probably raise a few eyebrows, she thought. They should have properly said "in life and in magic" for magical tradition, but that would have been too obvious. Hermione didn't care, though. Her wedding had gone off famously, and she and George could finally start a new chapter in their lives together.

4 July 1999

Hermione and George stepped off the gondola and onto the Piazzetta di San Marco and looked around at the historic streets.

Eight years, Hermione thought—less three weeks. And even for one as young as she, it had been a long eight years.

She drew a deep breath. "Well, I'm back," she said.

A/N: Flagello: Latin for "whip."

Resonantia: Latin for "resonance."

Constringofile: Stylised from the Latin for "I constrict threads." Credit to Belial666 for this idea.

For fractal nerds, the Julia set on the tapestry is similar to one with the seed -0.7 + 0.3i at 1,000 iterations.

Dragontooth is similar in size and general shape to Orcrist (Thorin's sword) in the Hobbit movies, but black and silver with a narrower blade and a very different hilt construction.