We are finally moving away from Hogwarts, enjoy.

Many thanks to all readers and reviewers.

Chapter Thirty Four

It was my last day at Hogwarts. My bags were packed and my trunk had already had been spirited away and placed onto the train. The train I had travelled on since I was eleven years old was finally ready to take me away. I couldn't help but think back to the Riza who had first got her letter to Hogwarts, the Riza who had too excited and run into the wrong barrier at King's Cross and had to spend the first week at Hogwarts with a black eye, the Riza who had managed to give herself indigestion after the first feast, the Riza who had fallen 10 feet in her first flying lesson and broken her arm. I had, looking back, been a right idiot seven years ago. Although, I wasn't sure how much that had changed.

A lot of people were crying as I went down to the entrance hall. There was hugging, and promises to write, promises to come back and visit. The air was cloying with nostalgia, it was intoxicating. Rather than soak it up I chose to spend my final hours wander through the familiar places that had made up my life for the past few years. The Quidditch pitch, where I had probably spend far too much time, the library where I hadn't spent nearly enough, charms classroom, astronomy tower. I even made a point to visit the places with more painful memories. The place where Wood had kissed me, the hospital wing, the potions classroom where Snape had once forced me to drink my own, far too strong, hysteria potion, because, hard as those memories were, they were as much a part of my time as Hogwarts as everything else was. For a moment I really considered Flitwick's, almost serious, offer to take me on a teaching assistant. Leaving was hard. Harder than leaving Quidditch had been, harder than anything had been.

There was one thing left to do. A promise Henry and I had made years ago, but had never completed. As soon as I saw him in the grounds I knew he was thinking the same thing. Without saying a word he headed up the main staircase.

We stood, grinning, next to each other on the top window of the tower that overlooked the great lake.

"It's now or never" he said

"Not thinking of chickening out are you?"

"No! Together?"

"Together?"

"1,2,3!" We shouted in unison, and with a mighty roar we leaped out the window, falling at least three stories before smacking into the water. I felt the bruises form almost as soon as I hit the water. The cold and the impact knocked the breath out of me but I managed to push myself back towards the surface, which I broke through with a gleeful laugh. Henry surfaced a couple of seconds later, there was a bruise forming on his cheek but he too was chuckling.

"That" I said between giggles, "was the stupidest thing we have ever done. I hurt so much!"

"Wimp!"

"You are both mental" Flora called from the window we had just exited.

"The water's lovely" I called up with a grin. I was joking, but to my surprise, and Henry's Flora simply shrugged.

"Ok" she said. And the next thing I knew she was diving from the window. Not even flailing madly like Henry and I had been, a proper swimmer's, elegant dive, she cut through the water cleanly. She popped up between me and Henry. We both just stared at her, speechless, until all three of us dissolved into laughter.

"Come on" Henry finally said, "we'll miss the train."

"Would that be so bad?" Flora said wistfully, looking back at the castle which perched on the hill beyond us, the stone bathed in the warm sunlight.

"Hey" Henry said, swimming over to put his arm around her "we've got great lives ahead of us. We can't stay here forever." He placed his other arm over my shoulder, "none of can. And that's alright."

"Yeah" Flora agreed. "It's alright."

"It's better than alright" I said, looking over the lake and feeling my heart swell in my chest, "it's an adventure."

"Ooh, an adventure" Henry laughed "always wanted one of them."

We swam back towards the bank, part of us never really wanting the lake to end, for us to be trapped in that moment forever, the other part unable to wait for whatever the next few years would bring.

I rode back in the same carriage as Henry and Flora for the first time since second year. We swapped chocolate frogs cards and watched the younger students pass the carriage door, wondering what the next year would bring them. I didn't see Wood. He was probably holed up somewhere with his Gryffindor friends. He wouldn't come to see me. He wouldn't want to speak to me. I wouldn't have wanted to speak to me. I had gone full-level bitch mode on him.

Flora got a little tearful at King's Cross, but Henry reassured her they would see each other soon, and the two of us headed towards the tube. Henry was staying with me for a couple of days until his parents returned from holiday. It was good, it felt like it was postponing the inevitable goodbye.

That evening we sat on my bed listening to Cole Porter and sipping butterbeer.

"I've got something to tell you" he said, "well two things. I think you'll like one thing better than the other."

"Ok. Start with the one I'll like."

"St Mungo's have given me a flat. Here, in London."

I sat up. "Oh wow!" I exclaimed "That's awesome! When do you move in?"

"Well that's the thing, I get it as soon as I get the job. Of course, I have to check I've got the grades. So, yeah…"

"You'll get the grades. That's amazing."

"Yeah, but I wanted to tell you is, I'm going to ask Flora to move in with me. It's not much, it's not big or fancy, but it'll be our own place y'know. You were right on one thing, we can't live with our parents when we're married."

"God, so the post tomorrow is pretty significant for you then eh?" Tomorrow was the day our results were meant to arrive.

"You have no idea."

"So what was the thing I wasn't going to like?"

"Ah, yes. Please don't be mad. You know how Flora won the toss about you being her maid of honour…"

"Yes."

"Well, I had to find someone to be best man. And I kind of asked…"

I suddenly knew what he was going to say. "You didn't."

"I kind of did."

"Wasn't there anyone else?"

"Look at me. When was the last time you saw me hanging out with a bunch of guys? My choices were limited."

"But you didn't have to ask him!"

"I really don't think it's going to be as bad as you think it is. It's not like you'll have to interact that much."

"That much! He's the best man. I should hex you right here."

"It might be good for you. You guys need to sort stuff out anyway. All this edging around the issue is fruitless and annoying."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'll let Flora explain it. She gets it much better than I do. She'll be able to make it clearer than me. By the way, you're going dress shopping with her on Tuesday."

"Do I have to?"

"Look at this way, if you go you get to have a say in your bridesmaid dress." I thought about this, there was no telling what Flora might pick out unsupervised.

"Fine. I'll go."

Henry checked his watch. "God, it's nearly two. I'm going to bed. Night Riza."

"Night."

Henry closed the door behind me. Leaving me to sip on my drink and wonder just how I was going to survive a wedding with Oliver Wood as the best man.