Aki- Okay, this chapter is a bunch of mini-fics that are not long enough to be there own chapters but covered some themes, ideas, and characters I wanted to cover. Each has an individual title because I had planned them as there own fics chapter orginally. Thanks to Tenshi for helping me develop "Worth It."


Snapshots

….

A Different Kind of Bravery

She stepped over the remains of the gargoyle that had once guarded the staff room, a lump forming in her throat. It was just a statue, sure one that had a smart-aleck comment every now and then, but still, just a statue. Refusing the tears that threatened to well up in her aging eyes, she continued down the hall, unsure of where she was heading.

It was silent, too silent, in the castle. Everyone was in the Great Hall celebrating and mourning. Even the portraits in the hall were empty, the figures portrayed in them were all crushed into the frames in and near the Great Hall as well, joining in on the festivities. As were the ghosts, and all of the students, and the ghosts, and even Peeves. Everyone and everything that gave the castle life was stuffed into the room, leaving everywhere else lone and desolate and much, much too quiet.

The deeper she proceeded into the castle, although the damage was lesser, the Death Eaters hadn't penetrated this far, the silence and the darkness of the not yet dawn weighed down on the aging women. She continued walking because to stay still would be to remember. To stay still would be to accept it, all the misery, pain, death, despair…

The castle was destroyed, its glory stolen. A simple 'repairo' would not do. No, these were damages done by curses and hate, not so easily healed. They would have to rebuild. Start from new. Except…that wasn't so easy when you couldn't first accept the past.

Minerva McGonagall was a brave woman. She had lived and fought in two wars against You-Know-Who. She was Gryffindor and even more, the head of the house, and dealing with years worth of courageous, but often brash, Gryffindor students was a much more demanding task then it sounded. But this, this would take a different kind of bravery.

Somehow, unconsciously, McGonagall's feet lead her straight to the head's office. She stared up at the large gargoyle that guarded the entrance, unable to think up the last password, her head was too full of everything else.

"Can I go up?" she asked in place of the password, hoping, as she meant no ill will and had been the deputy Headmistress for years more than she could count that the statue would allow her entrance. It did, jumping aside to reveal a revolving staircase.

She opened the door to the office. All the portraits were empty, as she expected, except for one, Dumbledore's. Her friend, mentor, and confidant….for so many years she couldn't even count them anymore. Here he was, sitting in the portrait behind the desk just as though he had been waiting for her. On second thought, maybe he was.

He caught her eye as she come further into the room. He spoke four words and suddenly all of her worries lifted, if just for the moment. It's hard to move on, but she would stick around and lead this school to a new tomorrow because…well, he said she could.

"You can do it."

….

Unexpected

When Hermione went to search out her parents in Australia, the reception she got from them when she removed the charm that had made them forget her was not what she expected. She expected to get scolded for her deceptive action, because she was a good kid and didn't do things like wipe her parents temporarily blank of her and convince them that their biggest goal in life was to move to Australia.

Instead she was hugged by both mother and father. "We missed you," her mum whispered in her ear. Hermione found it strange, because if she had charmed her parents correctly, they wouldn't have missed her during the almost year apart. Then she realized how far apart she and her parents have grown apart ever since she started Hogwarts. Hermione had always lived at home when she attended elementary school. But slowly and slowly the parents and daughter had drifted apart as Hermione had spent more and more of summer, Christmas, and Easter break at school or at the Burrow or at Grimmauld Place as she adopted a new magical family.

Only then, when the talked over tea and sugar-free cookies, her parents were dentists after all, did Hermione realize how much she had missed her parents as well…and it was about time she introduced them to Ron because if things kept going as they were going, it might not be long until both of her family combined.

….

Worth It

"Perce?…Earth to Percy…"

"Um," Percy mumbled in response.

"Ah, you've been staring at the pile of receipts for ten minutes without organizing them by time and date and I know how you hate it when things aren't unnecessarily organized," commented George, who was lounging around rather than doing work.

"Oh, right," replied Percy absently, not even catching the joke on George's voice, as he began absently sifting through the papers set before him.

"Percy?" said George again, approaching his elder brother. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," stated Percy, not even looking up from his work to see his brother now standing over him at his desk.

"Well, actually I can think bout seven things wrong with you off hand."

Percy mumbled incoherently in response, missing the humor again, those lost in his own thoughts. George was strongly tempted to push Percy out of his chair.

Instead he found a large leather-bound book that he was surprised that he owned and dropped in straight on to Percy's desk with a 'bang.'

This shocked the older of the two red-headed boys into finally noticing his younger brother.

"What was that for?" Percy demanded curtly, perturbed that his papers were now sprayed across the room.

"Now that I got your attention," said George, completing ignoring Percy's previous exclamation. "What's wrong with you? And don't say nothing," George quickly added when Percy opened his mouth to protest.

"I was just thinking about—" Percy's words suddenly cut off and he glanced nervously at George.

"About what?" asked George, almost curtly as he recognized how Percy's eyes flickered to his face then just as urgently away as he cut off his sentence. It was an action George had grown to recognize over the last few months when someone was about to speak of his late twin. "About Fred?"

Percy nodded mutely.

George sighed inwardly. He sat down on the chair opposite Percy's desk. "What about Fred?" he asked

"Are you sure you want to….?" questioned Percy, concerned about bringing up the painful subject up to his younger brother.

"I'm pretty sure I ­don't want to talk about my dead brother….but you need to. You helped me not long ago, you deserve that same courtesy…Now on with it," said George changing his tone from serious to playful, but it was a fake playful that even Percy see through, or, hear through, in this case, "We don't have all day."

Resigned to the inevitable, Percy began, "I was thinking about the day he died…" Percy told his tale, him making a lame joke during the fight. Fred finding it amusing more out of the fact that Percy could joke at all. "…If I hadn't distracted him, maybe he wouldn't have…." He trailed off.

"Have died," George finished for him.

"Yes," replied Percy somberly.

"Well, that's ridiculous!" said George, surprising Percy with George's flippant disregard to Percy's concern. "If You-Know-Who hadn't decided to become a raging maniac none of those people would have died that night. It's not your fault for something you didn't do. You were fighting on our side…Plus, to hear you tell a joke was probably worth it to Fred…."

….

They Live In One Another Still

"Dora! What are you doing here?" questioned Remus over he ferocity of the ensuing battle.

"The same thing as you, you idiot!" Tonks yelled back, obviously displeased with her husband's choice to try and run off to this fight without her.

"What about Teddy?" he asked, after sending a curse towards his opponent, who crumbled as it hit him.

"He's with my mum," replied Tonks, also taking down her victim, giving the two a momentary pause from the fighting about them.

"You shouldn't have come," he reprimanded softly, before turning his attention to help a Ravenclaw seventh year he didn't recognize who looked a bit overwhelmed with trying to hold off two Death Eaters at once.

"I have as much reason to be here as you," she retorted, joining him.

It was a valid point. She was as much as an enemy to the Dark Lord and his followers as he was. He didn't underestimate her dueling abilities in the slightest, she was a fully trained Auror after all. She was a morally good person, perhaps with a little reckless and playful side to her…He should have known she would never had let him fight this all on his own.

"But Teddy should have at least one parent left if…" Remus trailed off, hating to accept the fact that it was unlikely that both of them would survive this.

"It doesn't matter if we don't win this battle, anyway," she aimed a strong stunner at a Death Eater across the room. "If I sat at home and played safe it would be only time until they tracked us down anyway..."

"You don't know—" Remus tried to protest.

"I do know that!" she cut him off, yelling over the chaos, and she jumped out of the way of some falling rumble caused by a wayward spell. "I am a known member of the Order of the Phoenix. My mum's a blood traitor. And I'm married to a werewolf. None of us are safe and I am not going to sit at home when I very well could being doing something about it!"

"I—I just want you to be safe," he returned, before turning his back on her to take on a new opponent.

"There is no such thing in this world right now. Plus, for better or worse, right?"

"Til death do us part," Remus replied.

Not even an hour later, both Remus and Nymphadora Lupin lay dead in the Great Hall. Whoever had moved the bodies there had, whether by choice or accident, laid them side up side, close, hands almost touching, looking as they were asleep. Not even death could part them.