Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards, Muggles and Squibs, I present to you... the very last chapter of the second installment of my beloved Salinger Year series, Fourth Year!

Dear Aly,

I start my first psychotherapy session today. I can't believe Hogwarts actually paid for hundreds of therapy sessions. It's probably the nicest the school has ever been to us, eh? But hey, they were the ones who appointed Damien Headmaster in the first place and started all this trauma.

I have the same psychotherapist as Leja, and Leja hates her. This should be fun. Did you hear that Leja's parents said that if one more dangerous thing happened at Hogwarts, they'd take her out of school? I don't think that's fair at all!

Conor wrote me to apologize for randomly kissing me when Damien died. I did tell you about that, right? He kissed me on the cheek when you outsmarted Damien. I think it was sort of nice of him to apologize, don't you? The Aly from years ago would have been so jealous! Remember that?

Libby says hello and claims she cried when Peltie died. I believe her. She also wants to know when you're getting a new pet and if it'll be an owl, cat, or toad. Knowing you, it won't be a toad. I might get one if, Merlin forbid, Maycott ever passes on. (I'm so glad owls can't read right now, else I'd have an owl uprising on my hands.) They're not as gross as you think.

Did you hear? We're hosting Christmas this year! I know that we got to have Christmas at the Black manor our first year, and I know you went to your other grandparents' house in our second or maybe third year, but you haven't been to our house for the holidays since we were barely a year old! I don't even remember way back then.

How do you think you did on exams? It was pretty sweet that they let us Side-Along Apparate home once we were done, but that means I didn't get to talk to you after exams. I'm positive I failed the Care of Magical Creatures exam. That's never been my forte, and honestly, who has time to memorize the life cycle of a unicorn when Hogwarts is being inhabited by an evil tyrant and his student army? No one, that's who.

Write back soon. It's only been a week and I already miss you.

Love,

Brooklyn

Dear Brooklyn:

I'm so sorry I didn't reply for so long! I haven't had a spare moment since the day I got your letter, what with the therapy sessions and all the medal ceremonies and stuff. But don't worry, Maycott's been well taken care of. I still had a bunch of Owl Treats left over, and between Maycott, Addison, and Geoffrey, they've exhausted my supply.

I don't like my therapist. She tries to pick my brain on the daily. But Mum seems to like her, and she swears to me that I've become much less moody and jumpy since my sessions started. Did you end up liking your therapist or not?

I hope Leja gets to stay at Hogwarts. Class wouldn't be the same without her incredible sarcasm, and the halls of Hogwarts would dearly miss her dancing from class to class. Where would she go if not Hogwarts? Charm School? I don't think they let people in who are Hogwarts-age. The Salem Witches' Institute, in America? Uagadou, in Africa? Mahoutokoro, the Japanese school for wizardry and witchcraft? I think they'd worship her at Mahoutokoro, since she has a cherrywood wand. Her wand is cherrywood, right?

You're right, the Side-Along Apparition was fun, but I don't ever want to do that again! I got sick when we did it and threw up in the neighbor's bushes once we had landed. I felt bad for the bushes, and for the Auror who had to deal with me. But as for exams, I don't think I did too badly on them, except for Astronomy. I'll never be able to learn that subject properly ever again. All I'll be able to think of is Damien and Katy and… you understand. I got so distracted during the written portion that I think I mixed up Venus and Mars, and I couldn't even complete the star chart during the practical! Mum was furious when I told her, of course, but I think she's going to be quite forgiving this summer after all we went through this past year. Of course, when everything returns to normal so will she, I just know it. That's all right, though. I missed her concerned weekly letters this year. Speaking of Mum, did you read that famous Daily Prophet front-page article she wrote on the homecoming of the Hogwarts students? I hear sales jumped once they promoted her to the front page! No one writes quite like my mother!

I saw Conor kiss you- I guess telling you slipped my mind. I really don't like him anymore, but I must admit that the apology was pretty proper of him to do. People have gotten arrested for kissing others who didn't want to be kissed, you know.

Tell Libby that I might get a cat this year. I know Dad doesn't like them, but I might be able to persuade him or Mum into letting me buy one. I heard that the fluffy white cat- you know, the one from the Magical Menagerie who's been there for ages and always sits on top of the counter to be petted?- had kittens while we were trapped at Hogwarts. They ought to be pretty big now, and if they're anything like their mother, quite social- I'm so excited!

I also now can't wait for Christmas! Is the time capsule we hid when we were little still behind the wall in your room? I know we said we'd take it out when we turned of age, but maybe we'd best open it this winter! Rowena knows we've been through enough to have quite enough memories.

One last thing, Brooklyn- I was at the ceremony to receive my Order of Merlin, First Class (it's green, by the way, you'd like it- Mum has it hidden away in the attic but I'll take it out when next you come to visit) and Minister Shacklebolt let slip a little bit of information. Everyone who went to Hogwarts this year is going to be awarded a new medal called the Prize for Prime Perseverance in Peril. I know, it's a mouthful- I spit all over Addison the first time I said it out loud, and I don't think I've ever gotten such a dirty look from an owl. Anyway, you and Libby should receive your invitations to the award ceremony any day now. I can't wait to see you there, but I might have to leave early for therapy sessions. I miss you!

Love,

Aly

Dear Aly:

That award ceremony was a blast! Thank you for letting me know about the award ceremony ahead of time- I warned Mother, and she had a camera to capture the look on Libby's face when the invitations arrived via owl. It was priceless. You know that's going to be her Christmas ornament photo this year. Try opening your mouth as wide as it can go, curling your lips inwards, and opening your eyes really wide- that's basically how it looked.

I know you had to leave early for therapy, but you missed the best part! Everyone got one minute to share what the most important thing they did this year was. Of course, yours was killing Damien, so you probably wouldn't have been invited to speak anyway, but you still missed all the rest of the stories. Mine were helping to get the letter to the Ministry (I had to do some serious distraction in order to get a stray third-year Damien-follower to stop guarding the exit doors during fourth session and not get caught, so that was impressive) and, of course, revealing to the other fourth-years that you weren't a spy. We all know that that's what started the revolution, really- when it turned out you were on our side all along. Nick claimed that writing Eat Dung, Damien on the wall outside of the Room of Requirement was his greatest feat- that story got a lot of laughs. Lynne got a standing ovation for evacuating the littler kids to France- there were even a few Beauxbatons witches attending as personal guests of some third years they'd befriended during the evacuations, and they clapped loudest of all. Whoever came up with the stereotype that Beauxbatons witches are dainty and fragile needs to shove it up their arse, because those were some hardy girls. My hands were stinging when we sat down and theirs weren't even so much as red.

I got to hear stories I'd never heard before during that- did you know that Kira managed to get rid of both Lachlan and Peggy before Katy killed her? I can't believe Kira managed to kill a sixth-year! Talk about some excellent spellwork! And Rossalene apparently took down those two burly Slytherin seventh-years- I think the taller one's name was Max and I forget the shorter one's name, but do you remember the ones that blocked your way out of the Great Hall on the day of the Final Battle? That was them- with some plants from the greenhouses, including the old Venomous Tentacula! She was so excited to share the story, and everyone was so proud of her.

(Libby's still in shock after getting to meet Harry Potter himself. I still think he's a bit more idolized by the media than he ought to be, but that might just be because we're from rival Houses even though he's graduated. I do have to admit that coming to our rescue even though he's retired from being an Auror was a pretty sweet move on his part.)

Moving on, I'm sorry you don't like your therapist, but mine is amazingly useful. She snuck me three Pumpkin Pasties during my last visit, since I told her Mother despises them and I hadn't had any since the train ride to Hogwarts last summer. I can't understand why Leja doesn't like her- I bumped into Alexandra Zobrist during the ceremony (I always seem to end up with her, Lyndsay, Tommy, and Melissa- Sami when she was alive, too- since all of our last names are alphabetically sorted quite late) and it turns out that we have the same therapist. Alexandra even said she liked Ms. Sorge so much that she wants to study to become a wizarding psychotherapist. It's the perfect profession for her, really. I just wonder what exactly you have to get O.W.L.s in to become one.

And really, Aly, stop feeding Maycott so many Owl Treats! He's coming back fatter than ever and spoiled to a tee. Father says too many treats are bad for him, so please, stop.

Also, you must be mad if you think Leja's going to Mahoutokoro if she leaves Hogwarts. Leja's mum went to Beauxbatons, her father Durmstrang. It's a miracle they ever managed to decide on Hogwarts for Leja and Marcus. She definitely wouldn't be going to any other foreign place like America or Africa. Anyway, doesn't Lea have a cherrywood wand too?

You're ridiculous, by the way. If you think for one ludicrous second that you failed any course, let alone Astronomy, your brain's been addled by this past year and you know it! I understand what you mean, though. It'll never be the same in Astronomy again, especially with that witch Professor Turner teaching the class. I hear she was a Slytherin during her time as a Hogwarts student- as if she could ever be sophisticated enough to be a snake! Only the best make it into my house.

I have a list of names you can name your kitten once you get it. For instance, I've always thought Willow was a lovely name, if it's a girl. Or maybe a flower name like Lily or Rose or Bougainvillea, "Bug" for short. Then again, I know how much you like weird names- Peltie enough was proof of that! So maybe something like Hollyberry or Dauncey or Fernunculus would appear more to you. I can't be sure. (Just remember that Fernunculus is also a curse if you pronounce it wrong- although it would be pretty funny to watch you accidentally hex someone every time you call your cat's name.)

Don't write me back until you've gotten that cat or else Libby might seriously injure me. Not that I couldn't take her in a duel or even a Muggle fight, but I'd get in heaps of trouble if I so much as harmed one scarlet hair on her pompous little head!

Love,

Brooklyn

Dear Brooklyn:

Enclosed is a picture of the newest addition to the Salinger family. His name is Dauncey, like you suggested, and he's already tried to eat Geoffrey twice. He tried that on Addison, too, but Addison nipped his nose so hard he fell off of Mum's desk. Landed on his feet, of course. I think they'll all end up getting along just fine when I'm home for the summers!

I have a question. Do you have any photos of any of the dead? Or any stories about any of them- the Ryalls, the Hensons, even Katy or Maile? My therapist suggested an idea for an end-of-summer project that I think you'll like to see once I'm finished.

Sorry this letter is short and I haven't been able to write you lately. I've had to go to Helen's every day this week since Mum is overprotective and she's been getting called into work a lot more recently, and you know how Helen is. I went shopping last week and I wanted to read over The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five, but no, all she wanted to do was read Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches and guess which boys from school have been using the "12 fail-safe ways to charm witches" on her this past year. I love Helen dearly, but she really needs to go find some new hobbies.

Love,

Aly

P.S. Don't worry, I didn't feed Maycott too many owl treats this time.

"That's a lie, of course," I whispered to Maycott, tossing him another Owl Treat. Who was I to resist his wishes?

Maycott caught the treat and hooted at me grumpily, like it hadn't tasted quite good enough. I shrugged at him apologetically- that had been my last one- and sealed the letter to Brooklyn with Mum's wax Ministry seal, which I'd filched from her desk before replying to my oldest cousin's latest letter. Luckily, Mum had been cooking dinner for the last twenty minutes, so she hadn't even noticed it was gone.

I affixed the letter to Maycott's black leg with some twine and glanced at my new black-and-white kitten Dauncey, who was curled up and sleeping soundly on my biggest blue pillow. He was growing abnormally fast- only a year and he was already almost a full-sized tomcat. In just the last week I swore his tail had grown an inch. I adored the stupidly friendly cat. He'd taken a shine to my father and left cat hair all over his clothes, provoking fits of sneezing from my parents' room early every morning- who knew my dad was allergic to cat hair?

"Aly!" my mum called for the second time. She had always preferred to call me by my given name, but after explaining that Damien had called me Alyssa, she had been referring to me as Aly more and more. "It's time for supper. Do I have to come up there and get you myself?"

"Coming, Mum," I shouted out my door, opening the window for Maycott. I hadn't written to Brooklyn since mid-July, the week after the awards ceremony for the Prize for Prime Perseverance in Peril, and it was now almost August. I hoped she wasn't too angry at me.

As I turned from the still-open window to my door, expecting to go down the stairs into the kitchen, my eye caught on a stack of papers on my small desk by my blue-sheeted bed. Without reading them, I knew what they each said. The top one was a letter I'd gotten from Professor Fourier- now deemed Headmaster Fourier after the Wizengamot declared his "support of the Wizarding traitor Damien Kayash" and "unlawful actions against children and wizardkind" the results of an Imperius Curse, therefore proving him- and every other teacher at Hogwarts- innocent of any crimes.

Alyssa:

Thank you for your congratulations on my newly established position. I look forward to the coming year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and promise that I will do my very best to make this school year as safe and normal as possible.

As for your request, please let it be known that the Wizengamot, as well as the esteemed faculty of Hogwarts, would deny this request to all but those who had a part in this past year at school. Therefore, we at Hogwarts ask of you to please never share this list of deceased with anyone else. We would like to keep an allusion of privacy towards the media.

Enclosed is your requested material, as well as your list of supplies for this coming year. I hear you did quite well on exams, so I expect to see you prepared and bright-eyed at the start-of-term feast this year on Thursday, September 1st, 2044!

Sincerely,

Colm Fourier

Colm Fourier

Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

The second paper was my 'requested material': a list of all who had died during the 2043-2044 school year, Damien-followers and rebels alike, from Alexei Alby and Hamish Blackwood to Vincent Winters, Arthur Wood, Samira Wright and George Yap. It was even alphabetized.

Thank you, Professor- er, Headmaster- Fourier!

The rest of the papers were my creations. From the smallest of first-year Damien-followers to the oldest of rebel seventh-years, I was in the process of collecting photos and stories of each and every person who had died. For instance, I had a photo of Lachlan Hargreve sticking his tongue out goofily at the camera that I'd gotten from his older sister Laessy, a story that Cher had told me about Maile's first flying lesson at Hogwarts, and even a photo of Eve-Charlotte messing about with the streamers on Damien Day that someone had found in a dead Damien-follower's camera. No one would be easily forgotten- I would see to that. In fact, all who had died would be remembered in the best light possible, if I had any say in it.

And, of course, they would be remembered by Hogwarts students for centuries to come. There was a photo, a still one for once, at the very bottom of that stack of papers. It showed a very special location in the school. Outside on the laws, near the wall where I had buried Zach, Carter, and everyone who'd perished before the Final Battle, now lay fifty-five graves, complete with gravestones of white marble. Each gravestone had its corpse's name, dates of birth and death, in what event they had been murdered, and a lovely little saying. Some families wanted their dead at their home plots, as I'd supposed they would- so Margaret, Katy, Eve-Charlotte, and both Ryall siblings went home to be buried. Everyone else, however, stayed at the school. Siblings and friends, Housemates and roommates, classmates and enemies were buried side by side in a spectacular mass funeral. As I was not family of any of the dead, I of course received no invite to the burials. But I heard through Lyndsay, who thanks to therapy with the therapist we shared was definitely regaining her cheerful and bright demeanor, that Nellie, Raj, Annie, and Sunny's four graves were lined up beautifully in one big row, with Ash, Zach, and Ivan all close by to their younger sisters.

Damien received no such resting place. Had he abided by the laws of wizardkind and gone quietly to Azkaban, he would have died there eventually; therefore, that ended up being his burial site. No one attended that funeral. No one wanted to, and he didn't deserve a nice ceremony anyway.

I banished all thoughts of Damien Kayash, ex-Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a tyrant who had killed child after child, a dictator who thought himself a king and died for it, from my head and headed for the door.

It's all over now.

I slid down the banister of the stairs of my perfectly normal and safe home, landing with a loud thump in the sea-blue foyer. I could smell dinner, fresh and warm and hinting at a smell of potatoes, in my nose. I could hear my father, recently arrived home from Ministry work, as he teased my mother in the kitchen and tried to steal a kiss. I could feel the warm London summer breeze, infiltrating my house through the window I'd left open upstairs.

I inhaled the scent of potatoes and of summer and of family.

In a month, I would be heading back to a completely usual and danger-free Hogwarts.

Anything school can throw at me, I can take, I thought as I ran to get myself some food.

After all, I've already been through the worst years of my life.

Now it's time for the best.

Yay! This story has been going on for a year and a half, and it's finally ending! What did you think? Was the ending up to par?

Hey, please don't forget to review- I've noticed a disturbing decrease in reviews lately, and now that the story's over, you can now not only leave me a chapter-specific review, but how you liked or disliked the story as a whole! Aly's character, the characters of her friends, the minute details, the plot- no part of Fourth Year is too big or too small to be talked about!

(Also- today, September 22, is our least favorite Hufflepuff girl's birthday. Give it up for Jamie Mathieson!)

Don't forget, the first chapter of First Year is going up October first (and EDIT: First Year is now completely finished, and the first chapter of Second Year will be posted June 11th)! It's a wonderful story.

I finished this story on 8.31.16, and finished typing it up yesterday, 9.21.16. Thank you all so much for being a part of the Salinger Year family during this tumultuous time in Aly's life. It's been a wonderful ride, and I can't wait to see all of you amazing readers back October first for the very first year of Aly's story!

~atrfla