Author's Note: Friends. You're all so wonderful. All the support on the last chapter made me a little watery. Thanks so much for all your beautiful words.

There are 1-2 more chapters coming, depending on how the writing goes, with the remaining content either one longer chapter or split into two. I hope you enjoy this one xoxo

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter franchise.

Hermione stared, her gaze flickering between Draco, who stood with a bland and welcoming smile on his face, to Rowena Ravenclaw, who beamed at the two of them as she shimmered with a pulsing silver light.

"Professor Ravenclaw," Hermione said, forcing a calmness she didn't feel in her soul, in her racing heart. "You have indeed arrived; welcome to the year 1999."

"Thank you," the woman said with a nod. "I do appreciate it.

Draco took a step toward Ravenclaw, his eyes focused and intent. "Professor, we are curious how you've managed to make your way here."

"Of course you are," Ravenclaw said with a demure smile. "Mr Malfoy, I always believed you would have made an excellent and thoughtful Ravenclaw. But Salazar never was one to turn down a long, pure blood line."

Ravenclaw stepped towards them, away from the stone altar centred in the room, and the air around her feet shimmered with the same incandescent light which surrounded her.

"I imagine you have learned the tragic circumstances my dear Helena faced with Waldo Baron," Ravenclaw said with a tilt of her head. Hermione and Draco nodded. "Of course you have. And I presume you know, that following the death of Helena, I grew terminally ill."

Hermone glanced to Draco, still scarcely believing this was happening. Perhaps they should get Helena before Rowena shared too much. But the woman carried on.

"When Waldo brought me Helena's body," Rowena swallowed, pressing her eyes tightly shut for a brief moment. "I could not think, nor could I reason. My heart was broken. Waldo told me of the newborn, young Audrey Burke, and how Helena had lingered in death, burdened with such heavy despair. All I could think was that I needed to do something – anything – to help my Helena find the peace she needed."

Rowena paused, shaking her head.

"I digress, so easily. You asked how I am here." Rowena glanced behind her to the stone altar. "I have tethered what remains of my magical core to this altar; I will be unable to stray far from the portal, and once the room is deactivated, my magical core will cease to exist along with it."

Hermione felt her breath hitch as Draco's eyes widened, flickering to the altar, his mouth slightly agape.

"That's... " Hermione breathed, unable to find the words. "How long will the portal stay active?"

"For as long as we need," Rowena said, a peaceful smile upon her features. Her eyes drifted to the necklace at Hermione's throat. "My dear. I did not realize the significance when you visited me at first. But when I learned of the portal, when we grew to know one another, I began to suspect." Rowena shook her head. "Helena showed me an image you gave her – after I learned she was pregnant, before she and Waldo left Hogwarts – an image of the two of you at the Solstice Ball, and I remembered upon seeing it, the necklace you wore that night. And I knew why I had used the portal to summon you to the past."

"Helena is still here," Hermione breathed, her voice feeble. "Helena, and Waldo."

"So my suspicions are correct," Ravenclaw said quietly. "They both linger on after so many years. And you have learned the truth as well?"

"That I am long descended from you, and Helena," Hermione said softly. Draco's hand slipped into hers. "Yes, Helena shared the memories with us. We have discussed it at great length."

"Waldo was lost in his agony and despair for almost a thousand years," Draco cut in. Rowena's eyes flew to him with consternation. "But upon learning the truth about Hermione, of their lines once again carrying on, Waldo and Helena have grown close once more. They've begun to move on."

"I am relieved to hear of this," Rowena said, a hand clutched to her chest. "It was my intention, in calling you to the past, that you might learn what you needed to help them."

"They are pleased," Hermione said, shaking her head. "But still they linger on."

Rowena gazed, deep in thought, at Hermione and Draco for a long moment.

"I don't suppose, Draco, whether you might find Helena and Waldo for me? I'm afraid I will not be able to travel so far from the altar," Ravenclaw requested softly.

"Of course," Draco murmured with a nod. With a squeeze to her hand, he left Hermione alone with her distant ancestor.

Hermione let out a breath. "It is truly an honour to see you once more, Professor," she said. "Though I wish it would have been under different circumstances. The whole time Draco and I were in your time – after we learned the truth about Helena and Waldo – we tried to think of ways we could help them. Ultimately, we were forced to resolve that we could help them only in death, upon returning home."

"You were a lovely, considerate friend to Helena, Hermione. She missed you greatly, and spoke of you fondly, after you left." Rowena forced a smile. "Until the end."

Hermione nodded, swiping at a sudden tear in the corner of her eye. "I believe Helena was the friend I had never had before, and had always wanted."

"Perhaps the two of you recognized the blood bond, though you didn't know of it at the time."

"Perhaps," Hermione murmured, her brow furrowed. "Professor, have you been… waiting? All these years?"

Ravenclaw shook her head, smiling. "I quite imagine waiting in a small, dark room for a thousand years would be more than my overactive mind could handle. No, the last I remember was tethering myself to the magic of the portal."

"That's good," Hermione said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Are you aware, then, that your line – our line, I suppose – transitioned into the Muggle world when Helena's granddaughter, Edith, gave birth to a Squib?"

"No," Ravenclaw shook her head mournfully. "My only knowledge was that you existed a thousand years later – and given you had admitted to being of Muggle birth. I considered the thought that the line had fallen Muggle over the years."

"Of course," Hermione smiled. "I still get the timeline confused, sometimes."

"Then you can imagine my surprise and confusion, when I learned that I had transported the two of you into the past, before I knew anything about the situation," Ravenclaw mused.

But the woman glanced up before Hermione could respond, and she felt Draco's presence return alongside her, his arm twining around her waist.

At the sharp intake of breath behind her, Hermione was alerted to the fact that Helena had joined them, and the flash of pain that passed through Ravenclaw's eyes made Hermione's stomach twist into knots.

"Helena," Rowena breathed, taking a step forward as the ghostly form of Helena drifted towards the altar with caution, Waldo keeping a respectful distance behind them. Rowena's gaze flickered to him. "And Waldo."

Waldo nodded, stoic, but Helena was shaking her head, looking torn between bewilderment and incredulity.

"How is this possible?" Helena asked softly. "This – this is the portal?"

"Indeed, it is," Rowena said, and Hermione thought her silver eyes were shimmery with tears. "I needed to see you again, my dearest Helena. When Waldo told me you had been killed… and that you lingered on…" Rowena shook her head. While the woman was neither human nor spirit, it seemed her constitution was close enough to Helena's that Rowena was able to rest a hand on the ghost's cheek.

Cheers streamed down Helena's cheeks as she threw her arms around her mother and Rowena's eyes fell shut as she returned the embrace. Beside Draco, Waldo exhaled a heavy breath.

Helena drew back after a long moment, still shaking her head in disbelief as she held the spectral form of her mother at arm's length.

"How are you here?" Helena breathed. Waldo floated up alongside his companion for support.

"I've just explained to Hermione and Draco," Rowena prefaced, her gaze flickering to the two students, "after you passed on, I grew sick."

"I remember," Helena said, her words tinged with longing, "when I returned to Hogwarts to observe Audrey going to school, you were gone. Helga told me you chose to leave Hogwarts."

"I told Helga I was leaving," Rowena said, a thoughtful tilt to her head. "I didn't want to concern the others, so I didn't tell them of my true intentions. But I connected my magical core to the magic of the portal, only to awaken if – when – Hermione and Draco discovered the truth and sought me out."

"A lot of faith in our deductive skills, if you ask me," Draco muttered under his breath but Helena turned and beamed at him, breaking the tension of the moment.

"But you've done brilliantly!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, I did have faith," Rowena said with a prideful smile. "Because I had seen the two of you solve puzzles more complex."

"How much did you know?" Helena asked, frowning. "When Hermione and Draco were at school with Waldo and I. Were you aware, at the time, of Hermione's lineage?"

"I wasn't," Rowena shook her head. "I hadn't a clue, or indeed, why I had brought them a thousand years into the past. It was only after I learned of Audrey, and the tragic fate which had befallen the two of you," she nodded to Helena and Waldo, "that I pieced together why I had called Hermione and Draco back so far. I simply asked myself, what am I able to do, to reach out to Helena once again?"

"And the answer was already there," Hermione breathed, "because you already knew of us, and the portal."

"Yes," Rowena said warmly. "And in that instant, it all came together."

"But to what end?" Helena asked, frowning. Her pale eyes flickered to Waldo, who had remained silent but thoughtful.

"So that we might learn the truth as well," Waldo finally said. "So that we might begin to let go of the pain we have experienced for so many years."

Rowena nodded, her eyes closing for a brief moment. "I only wish it had not been a thousand years. But given Hermione was born of Muggles, I had to believe the line was non-magic for some length of time. And having no other reference for our magical descendants, a thousand years simply had to do."

"If it had not been a thousand years," Helena murmured, "we would never have met Hermione and Draco. A long time it was, but meant to be so."

Waldo nodded his assent. Hermione reached a hand toward Helena, a smile playing at her lips, and she felt a ghostly hand pass through hers.

"Professor Ravenclaw, if I may," Draco said, frowning. "While I understand your intentions, Waldo and Helena have already learned the truth about Hermione, and have reconciled with one another. But yet –"

"But yet, we linger still," Helena broke in, smiling at Draco. Draco nodded, meeting Helena's gaze. "Waldo and I have discussed the subject at length."

Helena smiled at her ghostly counterpart, and the two entwined hands.

"Helena and I have experienced the pull," Waldo explained, clarifying, "to peace. We suspect it would be as easy as letting go. We cannot be certain whether we would be together, and we have only just found one another again. And life – rather, death – now, is not so bad."

"But even so," Helena continued with a barely audible sigh, "the after does call to us." She drifted closer to Waldo. "To wherever we will go. We can only hope we will go together, when we let go. But we have decided to remain for the duration of this school year."

She smiled at Hermione and Draco, then back to Waldo, before continuing.

"We choose to have faith that where we go, we will go together." Hermione glanced at Draco, offering him a brief smile at the familiarity of Helena's words. "But Hermione and Draco never gave up on us, even in death, and we will stay with them until they leave Hogwarts."

Hermione blinked, touched by Helena's words as the ghost drifted nearer. Rowena beamed at the four of them, clutching her chest as if her heart simply couldn't take it all.

"Hermione, Draco," Ravenclaw said, turning to the two of them. "I don't suppose I might have a few minutes with Helena and Waldo?"

"Of course," Hermione murmured in acquiescence, slipping her hand into Draco's. "Will you call us back, before you leave?"

"Of course," Rowena said with a bow of the head. Helena wiggled her fingers at them as they left the room and walked in silence down the length of the passageway.

Hermione shook her head; Draco seemed as deep in thought as she was.

"Can you believe it?" she asked as they arrived in the corridor, making their way back into the halls of Hogwarts.

"No," Draco said with a shake of his head, "truthfully, I had suspected we were trying to talk something into being real. That we were simply getting carried away, in light of all the remarkable things that had already happened. I didn't think we would actually find Ravenclaw there."

"But everything is starting to make sense, isn't it?" Hermione breathed, meeting his grey eyes in earnest. "The reason Ravenclaw used the portal to call us back? Why it was us specifically?"

"Of course," he said, shaking his head. "It all makes sense, now, in hindsight. But it's utterly bizarre all the same."

"Absolutely," Hermione breathed. "And Helena and Waldo! I almost can't believe it."

"It means we did it," Draco said, his expression serious. "You did it. In a few short months, Helena and Waldo will finally find the peace they've been seeking for a millenium."

"We. I'm so happy for them," Hermione said, even as she blinked back a stinging tear. "I guess there was a part of me that thought, even if they couldn't pass on, that at least they would stay to see future generations attend Hogwarts."

"I think that was just a part of the unresolved grief that held them tethered here," Draco mused. "Without knowing, for so long, what had happened to the line… and now, knowing once more. They can finally find peace. That our – your children will carry on the line once more."

He flushed, averting his gaze. Hermione would have giggled at his discomfort if not for the raging embarrassment that coursed through her as well.

"Hypothetically," Hermione posed, her gaze landing at the floor as they walked, "say that was a thing that happened. One day, of course, down the road." She felt her cheeks grow redder. "Helena said I would have a daughter one day, to carry on the maternal line. And I've always heard the Malfoy line carries on paternally. Is there any basis in fact for any of that?"

"Yes," Draco clipped, toeing the ground. "Magically, that does happen. Logistically, I don't know what it would mean for any future offspring."

Hermione snickered at his clinical assessment of the situation.

"I suppose it would be one of each, then," he continued, brow furrowed as he looked up again. "Or more – but at least one." Hermione chewed her lip to keep from smiling at his obvious unease.

"Perhaps that ought to be a conversation for another day," she mused. Draco exhaled a sharp breath, nodding.

"Another day," he agreed, carding his fingers through his hair. "Not that I don't – just… not now."

Hermione smiled, opening her mouth to concur when a flash of ghostly white caught in her periphery.

Hermione's eyes flickered up to Waldo as he drifted up alongside them and her heart jumped upon belatedly realizing his ghostly chains were gone. She bit her lip on the flood of emotion.

"Helena and her mother are speaking privately," Waldo explained by way of greeting.

Hermione nodded with a smile; Draco looked relieved for the distraction.

"I have been meaning to thank you, Draco, Hermione," Waldo said stiffly. "I am greatly appreciative of what you have done for Helena and myself. You have given us in death what we could never have had in life: a chance to be together in peace and happiness."

Hermione looked at Draco, feeling tears spring to her eyes.

"Absolutely," Draco said, turning to his old friend. "Hermione and I knew, even when we were still in your time, that we wanted to help you. It's an honour to share in your lives even now."

Waldo nodded, his face heavy with emotion. "The years I lost with Helena – I can never get them back. But she is more at rest than I have ever seen her. As am I. Knowing that our line carries on once again through Hermione has brought us both to a place of peace."

"I'm so glad to hear that, Waldo," Hermione whispered, a rampant welling of emotion building in her chest. "Helena became a very dear friend to me, as you were to Draco. It pained us, at the time, to know you both would linger on in distress."

Waldo merely offered her a winning grin and clapped a hand on her back, the ghostly appendage floating through her shoulder. Instinctively, Hermione shuddered at the sensation.

Nott strode past en route to the dungeons, offering a cursory nod to the three of them.

Then he halted mid-step and turned on the spot, his eyes narrowed and suspicious.

"Nott," Draco said with a smirk towards Waldo, shoving his hands into his pockets. Nott's eyes flickered rapidly between Hermione, Draco and Waldo. Hermione could see him attempting to make the pieces fit.

"Nott," Waldo echoed with a tilt of the head. "Draco, is this your friend who doesn't believe we met a thousand years ago?"

Nott's eyes flew wide open at hearing the Bloody Baron speak – and in full sentences, at that.

"Okay," Nott choked feebly, "I believe you."

"I knew a Nott once, I think," Waldo carried on, staring distantly, as if trying to remember.

"Cornelia Nott," Draco supplied, shoving his hands into his pockets. He smirked at the confusion on Nott's face. Hermione snickered at the situation, grateful for the moment of levity.

"Of course!" Waldo exclaimed. "Cornelia Nott. Now I remember. She and I were betrothed to be wed."

"Right," Draco nodded. "She was your escort to the Solstice Ball."

"Wait, truly?" Nott asked, as if abandoning his attempt to make sense of the situation and deciding to simply go along with it. "You knew Cornelia Nott? It was her grandparents that carried the House of Nott to England from Scandinavia in the tenth century."

"The same." Waldo gave a stoic nod.

Hermione rolled her eyes; it was as if purebloods were literally forced to memorize their family trees.

But Nott's eyes widened, fascinated beyond measure at the knowledge that one of his early English ancestors had gone to Hogwarts with Waldo, all skepticism having vanished.

Hermione met Draco's eyes as Nott started bombarding Waldo with questions; the ghost, surprisingly, seemed just as eager to dredge up ancient memories and the two were bonding like old friends. Draco merely smirked in return.

As Hermione had resigned herself to hovering awkwardly while the three males discussed old pureblood traditions, and how they had changed, Helena floated towards them, her eyes shining but her smile broad.

"Thank you, Hermione," Helena proclaimed, throwing her arms around and through Hermione's shoulders, "and Draco." She gave the blond a similar embrace. "I can still scarcely believe this has all happened."

Nott turned to Helena, looking bewildered once more.

"Is she ready to go?" Waldo asked, his pale brow furrowing.

"Yes," Helena said with a gentle nod and a sad smile. "She has requested we all return to say farewell."

"Who's she?" Nott breathed under his breath to Draco.

"Rowena Ravenclaw," Draco said with a nonchalant shrug. "Her magical core has been suspended within the time portal for a thousand years, in anticipation of one day speaking with Helena and Waldo again. It's all connected to why we went to the past in the first place. Now she is ready to release herself from existence."

"What the fuck!" Nott hissed, his brows high into his fringe. He turned his expectant gaze to Hermione who shrugged, nodding. "I'm coming."

Draco chuckled, slinging an arm around Hermione.

When they returned to the portal off the courtyard, Rowena was noticeably faded, so much so that Hermione could see the altar through her transparency.

Ravenclaw gazed at the group of them, a peaceful smile upon her features, until she noticed Nott, staring at her, eyes wide and mouth gape.

"Hello," Rowena murmured, looking on at Nott with consternation.

"Professor Ravenclaw, this is Theodore Nott," Draco said, waving a hand.

"Wonderful to meet you," Ravenclaw said with a bemused smile.

"Likewise," Nott choked, his throat bobbing with an audible swallow.

Ravenclaw turned back to the odd collection of beings. She looked from one to the next, and Hermione started as she realized Ravenclaw was quite literally fading before their eyes.

"It is time now," the woman said, her expression that of peaceful, fatigued resolve, "that I carry on. I see my final purpose has been achieved. The House of Ravenclaw will carry on, and it is time for us all to find our peace. I shall go, and my magic will return to the Earth, as the old magic wills it. I thank you all for the roles you have played in my life."

Helena sniffled, caving into Waldo, even as her eyes remained fixed on the form of her mother. Nott, while bewildered, stood respectfully to the side, eyes focused on Ravenclaw as well.

Draco drew Hermione closer to him, and she leaned into his chest, drawing comfort in his presence.

"My sweet Helena," Rowena said, "I shall miss you greatly."

"And you," Helena breathed through her tears, racing unchecked down her translucent cheeks. Hermione felt her own tears, stinging at the corners of her eyes, even as she too refused to look away.

"Please, won't you all look after one another?" Ravenclaw asked, and with a final exhale, she offered one last beguiling smile.

They all watched, as with that last breath, Rowena broke into a mist; a million silver droplets sparkled and swirled upon the air. Hermione's breath caught as the last remnants of Rowena's magic swelled in the air, drifting and creating their own light in the most stunning, erratic dance.

And as they stood, enraptured in the ethereal beauty of the moment, Hermione could have sworn she heard Ravenclaw's voice one last time, floating across the gentle breeze as the flecks of silver light twisted up and around, until at last they faded into the air and the earth and the stone.