Just like the last time a catastrophe of this size struck the school, the staff of Hogwarts met in the staff room to discuss the future of the school. But unlike last time, where there had been a general mood of morbid curiosity, Harry could sense only one mood in the room: fear. Everyone was afraid. They knew they were going to be faced with an impossible choice.

If they closed the school, Hogwarts as they knew it would be finished and without a ready-made alternative in place, they ran the risk of students being forced to forgo their education for several years until a replacement was created. While it was possible to homeschool your children, it was almost unheard of. In the modern era, parents worked, meaning that they didn't have time to be at home, teaching their children. It was just easier to send them to Hogwarts, not to mention the fact that it was a tradition for most of them.

In addition to that, the threat of the Death Eaters was definitely a factor in leaving the school open. Already, parents of two students had been attacked and killed over the last several months. If the child had been there, they would have been killed alongside their parents. While they were now forced to go through the same trauma that Harry had endured, at least they were alive.

But Harry knew there were dangers in trying to keep the school open. The castle's condition was rapidly deteriorating. There were no guarantees that it would hold up through the rest of the week, let alone the two and a half months it would take to get to the end of the school year.

Minerva spent the first few minutes of the meeting detailing the condition of the Great Hall and the Astronomy Tower, revealing that over a dozen students in total had been injured. By some miracle, none of them had been killed. At the same time, there was evidence that the Death Eaters had people watching the castle, observing them for weeks if not months.

"We face a choice." Minerva finally said. "Understand that if we close the school, Hogwarts as we know it will be finished."

"Yes but we won't have students buried under piles of rubble." Bill argued. "I don't understand how we can even consider keeping the school open."

"Because some of these students have nowhere else to go." Harry countered. "For all the Pureblood and half blood students, they'll be able to go home and they'll have someone there that can teach them something. But the Muggleborn students will have nothing. They'll go home, returned to a world that they don't want to be a part of anymore."

"But they'll be alive." Hermione argued.

"Would you have cared about that?" Harry asked. "Would you have been willing to return home and return to your Muggle education, knowing that you could be learning about magic?"

"The Ministry will come up with ways to teach everyone." Calhoun said. "They would not simply let students go without an education."

"Plus, they would be with their families and not here where the castle might collapse on them at any minute." Bill added. "We can't risk leaving them here when the castle might collapse."

At that moment, several people, Harry included, all started speaking at once. Within just a few seconds, a relatively civil meeting had devolved into several overlapping shouting matches, the sound of which covered up the others that so that no one could hear anything other than their own voice.

"That's enough!" Minerva shouted, silencing the room. "Whatever decide, I will not have this meeting or any like it turn into chaos. We are better than that."

Quietly, almost to themselves, everyone that had been shouting murmured their apology, waiting for Minerva to continue.

"Bill, William: I understand your concern. However, I do believe that we owe it to our students to do our best to try and finish out this year. Once we have completed this term, then we can discuss the future of the castle."

"But-"

"This is my decision, Professor Weasley." Minerva said pointedly. "Exams will be moved up to the beginning of June with students sent home the moment they are finished with their final exam."

"You are going to run the Hogwarts Express several times over the same week?" Calhoun asked. "Who is going to staff the train?"

Harry knew the answer before Minerva looked at him.

"By that point, we'll have our new Defense professor. Harry will have finished his exams by then and will be a fully fledged staff member. He'll be assigned to the train each day it runs to ensure that the students get back to London safely and without incident."

"That's great," Bill said, "and I'm glad we'll have Harry to help us. But that doesn't consider the other possibility."

"Which is what exactly?" Minerva asked.

"What happens if the Death Eaters decide to attack the school?"

Looking around the room, Harry could see that everyone was just as nervous about the possibility as he was. Harry had predicted this months ago. Of course, at the time, Harry had assumed that they would only have one thing to worry about. With the added concern of the castle's impending collapse, it made the possibility of a Death Eater attack all the more daunting.

"The Death Eaters worship the castle." Minerva said. "They would never destroy it."

"Voldemort worshiped the castle." Bill argued. "That's what Albus always told us. We don't know anything about how Dolohov feels about the castle. From what you keep telling us, he's not concerned with anything other than what brings him power. If he feels like bringing down the castle would give him that power, what's to stop him from doing so?"

"The Aurors." Viktor replied. "They are still here protecting the school, are they not?"

"And they were run over by the Death Eaters last time." Calhoun said. "If we hadn't been there to support them, they would have all been killed."

"You'll be there again, won't you?" Harry said, unable to keep a slightly accusatory tone from bubbling to the surface.

"Of course!" Calhoun barked, clearly offended by the insinuation that he would not.

"So then what's the problem?" Harry asked. "We have the Aurors as Professor Krum mentioned. We have the Professors. We have more than enough people to defend the castle long enough to get our students out."

"We do?" Bill asked. "You are sure of this?"

"Harry and Daphne Greengrass have been working on an evacuation plan for months." Minerva explained. "The Prefects have already been made aware of their duties. We will make sure that copies of the plan are made available for staff in the coming days."

"So ve are keeping the school open?" Viktor asked.

Minerva settled back into her seat, suddenly looking quite elderly, her cheeks lined with worry.

"We are." Minerva said, although Harry could tell that it required great effort to do so. "However, we will be calling in additional support."

"From where?" Calhoun asked as Harry noticed that Minerva was looking directly at him.

"Yes, Headmistress?"

"You have already begun to organize the Order of the Phoenix. I would like to use them one last time."

"How so?"

"I believe that you and Miss Granger created fake galleons that would allow you to contact Dumbledore's Army in case of an emergency."

"We did." Hermione said, proud of herself despite the circumstances.

"Do the same for the Order of the Phoenix. I will ensure that they are distributed to all members. If and when the castle is attacked, we will have the Aurors and the Professors but we will also be able to call on the Order to come and assist."

"Should we check with the Minister first?" Bill asked. "I know that he was a member of the Order but he may not like the optics of the Order operating without his express permission. Especially if they are acting as a fighting force once more."

"That is a good point." Minerva conceded. "I will talk with the Minister. For everyone else, remain vigilant. If you see something out of place, inform me immediately. In the meantime, do your best to keep the morale of your students up. They are going to be afraid and they are going to be worried about what the future will hold. Keep their minds on the things they can control and ensure that you are being as understanding as possible."

With that, the meeting adjourned and Harry and Hermione walked back to their Common Area in silence. While Harry was pleased that Minerva had eventually decided to keep the school open, he couldn't believe that there were so many people who were simply willing to give the school up.

His best friend being among that list certainly didn't make him feel better.

As they walked into the room, Hermione stopped in the doorway.

"Spit it out." she said firmly.

"Spit what out?" Harry asked innocently.

"You know what. You haven't said a word to me since we left that meeting." Hermione said. "You're upset about something and since you won't tell me, I'm guessing that you're angry at me for something."

"As always, you are quite the observer."

"Then spit. It. Out." Hermione said, a sharp tone in her voice that made her sound more like Minerva McGonagall than Harry had ever heard from her. For a moment, Harry considered ignoring her request. But he knew that he would fold eventually so there was no sense in delaying her request.

"I can't believe that you of all people would want to close the school."

Hermione's initial reaction made it look as if Harry had punched her in the stomach, all the air leaving her at once.

"How could you...I don't…"

Hermione released all the air in her lungs in a single huff, clearly trying to calm the rage that was threatening to overwhelm her.

"That's not fair." Hermione said quietly, her eyes not meeting Harry. "You know that I don't want to close the school."

"It sounded like you did. It sounded like you and Bill and Calhoun are ready to close the doors."

"Yes, Harry, because the doors are falling off their hinges!" Hermione shrieked. "How can you not see how dangerous that is? This whole place could come down on top of us at any moment!"

"I know that." Harry said evenly. "But we had a giant snake loose in the castle and we didn't close the school. We had a mass murderer on the loose and we didn't close the school. Dumbledore was killed by Death Eaters inside the castle and we didn't close the school!"

"And they were wrong not to do so." Hermione barked. "Merlin, I love this place just as much as you do, Harry, but you cannot be so blind as to see that Dumbledore likely only left the castle open to give you a safe place to train."

Now it was Harry's turn to feel as if he had been punched in the stomach and unlike Hermione, Harry was not as good at controlling his emotions.

"How dare you." Harry growled. "Dumbledore left the school open because he valued education. He left the school open because he knew that it was a place of refuge for people like you and me. Would you rather he closed the school every time something attacked me?"

"Yes!" Hermione said, her voice climbing in pitch drastically. "Yes, he should have closed to the school every single time something like that happened. The only reason they didn't was because they were usually in June and only a couple of days away from the end of term anyway!"

"That may be true." Harry conceded. "But he also didn't close the school because he knew it was important for Hogwarts to remain strong. He knew that the school was a beacon, a sign of hope and strength for those who might not be able to find it in themselves."

"Harry, Hogwarts is going to fall."

"Not if you can find the Keystone."

"Even if I find it, I'm not sure that I'll be able to do anything with it." Hermione said. "It's magic beyond even me. Hell, it might have been beyond Dumbledore."

Harry felt a weight in his chest plummet. Hermione had always respected magic but she had never, in their entire history together, ever encountered something that she didn't believe she could beat. All she ever needed was practice and some time in the Library. To hear her so openly express doubt about her ability to restore the Keystone shook Harry to his core.

"I have faith in you." Harry said.

"I know you do." Hermione smiled. "But we can't bank on that."

"I can." Harry said. "If we close Hogwarts now, it's over. Hogwarts as we know it will be finished."

"I know."

"We can't give up." Harry said, knowing that he was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to convince Hermione.

Hermione paused for a moment, clearly uncertain what to say. Finally, she nodded her head.

"We'll do what we can."

Unfortunately, less than a week later, what they could do dwindled drastically. Harry was sitting in the Library, studying for his NEWTs which came closer with every passing day when Hermione walked into the Library and sat next to him. Typically, she would open her book and begin diving into her work.

This time, however, she did not. She sat and stared at the wall, a look of shock and disbelief on her face. Immediately, Harry was worried. Even though he had been ordered to remain in the castle and study, he had still done everything in his power to support Hermione while she was working on looking for more information on the Keystone.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked. "Did you discover something?"

"No." Hermione said, a tear streaming down her face. "No, I did not. I failed."

"What do you mean you failed?" Harry scoffed. "The castle is still standing."

"But Bathilda Bagshot's home is not."

Harry froze when he heard this. Immediately, he knew what it meant. He knew what it meant for himself and for the castle. Still, even though he knew, he couldn't comprehend it.

"What? How?"

"Death Eaters." Hermione said, crying in earnest now. "Apparently a Ministry official lives in Godric's Hollow. They attacked his house. Set in on fire. Before anyone could get there, the fire had spread to almost the entire town. The only places to survive were the church and the graveyard."

When Harry had said that he wanted the place where Voldemort had killed his parents to burn to the ground, this hadn't been exactly what Harry had meant. Still, he was pleased to know that, somehow, someway, the graveyard had remained intact. But as he had this thought, the sheer volume of the fire grew in Harry's mind.

He now understood why Hermione was crying.

"How many?"

"Over two hundred people." Hermione said. "Fifteen of them were children under the age of five."

"Merlin." Harry muttered in such a way that it would have sounded like a prayer to others. "How much of it is salvageable?"

"A few houses, a couple of the shops on the main road."

"That's it?"

"That's it." Hermione said with such a sense of finality that Harry felt as if he could see Godric's Hollow in his mind, the town now almost completely empty with the exception of a couple standing buildings and the hollowed out husks of the rest of the homes that had been burned down.

"Her research is gone." Hermione said, collapsing onto Harry's shoulder. "All of it. The journal, all of the documents that she had discovered about the castle, everything burned to a crisp."

Harry let these words wash over him. From the beginning, he had known that it was an uphill battle to try and repair the castle. Even the idea of finding information on the Keystone had seemed impossible. But when they had discovered Helga Hufflepuff's journal, Harry had suddenly been filled with hope, hope that they would be able to find the Keystone and restore Hogwarts.

Now, he knew better. Now, he understood why Hermione wept. Sometime, likely sooner rather than later, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would fall and become nothing more than a pile of rubble.

"Maybe it's better this way." Hermione whispered, causing Harry to push Hermione away so that he could look her in the eye.

"You don't mean that."

"I do." Hermione replied. "Now we don't have to fight more than one battle. The castle will fall and there's nothing we can do about it."

"How is that better?" Harry asked. "Hogwarts is the one thing that connects all of us. It's the one thing that everyone has in common."

"That's not true."

"Really? What else do we have?"

"Magic." Hermione said gently. "We all have magic."

"That's what brought us here." Harry said. "That's why we're here."

"That's exactly my point." Hermione said. "Besides, tell me one thing that you love about the castle."

Harry didn't know what kind of point Hermione was trying to make but still, he played along.

"It's where I met you and Ron and Ginny and all of my friends." Harry said. "It's where I learned about magic and where I felt safe for the first time in my life. I loved the feeling of belonging that being here gave me, something that I didn't even think was possible."

"And the castle gave you all those feelings, did it?"

"Well, no. But it's what it represents." Harry argued. "It represents all these generations of love and fraternity that have come before us and will come after us."

"But what is the castle without its people?" Hermione asked. "If you had a choice between saving Ginny or saving the castle, which would you pick?"

"Ginny, of course."

"What about me?"

"Again, you."

"Ron?"

"Yes, I would pick Ron."

"What about Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked.

"What?"

"If given the choice between saving the castle or saving Draco Malfoy's life," Hermione said matter-of-factly, "which would you pick?"

Harry thought that he finally understood the point that she was trying to make. Because try as he might, Harry knew which option he would pick from the moment she had posed the question.

"Malfoy." Harry said begrudgingly.

"Exactly." Hermione said. "Because you know that human life is more valuable than a building."

"So I do. What's your point?"

"My point is that maybe it's the people who make the castle?" Hermione said. "You aren't Tom Riddle. Magic alone wouldn't have made you attached to this place. You are attached to it because it's where you met the people that you love."

"Isn't that worth saving?" Harry asked. "This place gave me a family that I never expected to have. What about the next person in my situation?"

"Your situation is remarkably specific." Hermione said with a smirk.

"You know what I mean."

"I do." Hermione agreed. "Would it have to be here? Would they have to find that family here or could they find it anywhere there was a place where they could discover magic and find themselves and their friends?"

Harry finally understood the foundation of Hermione's point. It was the people, not the place. To a certain extent, Harry knew that she was right. But he also felt like the castle and its history gave him the sensation of belonging to something bigger than himself and the present day. There was over a thousand years of history at this site, connecting them back to the great witches and wizards of a previous millennium.

It was a thought that would stick with Harry over the next several weeks as he finished his coursework. Through the end of March and through April, no further events happened within the castle that necessitated any sort of drastic action from the staff. According to Bill and Fleur, it appeared as if the Death Eaters had remained in the Forest.

While they were clearly aware that Hogwarts was aware of their presence, they did not seem deterred. They simply changed their location once every few days to ensure that they were not caught by Bill and Fleur.

At the same time, however, the attacks outside of the castle seemed to have escalated. Now, it was an almost daily occurrence to open the Daily Prophet and see another death of another high ranking Ministry official. Occasionally, they would open the paper and see that it was a family member instead of the Ministry official them self. On those occasions, it was almost certainly followed by a resignation from the official in question.

As a result, the Ministry was in chaos with nearly twenty vacancies that no one would dare fill for fear that they would be the next attacked by the Death Eaters. According to Kingsley, everyone was working almost seventy hours a week to try and keep up with the work but with each passing day, they were rapidly falling behind. Aurors had been assigned twelve hours shifts, seven days a week until they caught the Death Eaters.

The Ministry had received a break of sorts in the beginning of April, a sighting of Antonin Dolohov in the town just outside where the Ministry believed Malfoy Manor to be. Operating under that information, the Aurors began work on breaking through the wards of the Manor. For nearly a week, they worked night and day until they finally broke through after almost two weeks' effort. Within an hour, they had sent every Auror in the Ministry into Malfoy Manor, hoping to find evidence of the Death Eaters or even some Death Eaters themselves.

What they found was some evidence. Unfortunately, it was evidence of a trick. While the Death Eaters had clearly been at Malfoy Manor at some point, it was also clear that they had abandoned the home months earlier. It was widely suspected that Dolohov had allowed himself to be spotted so that the Aurors would focus all of their time and effort on getting into Malfoy Manor while the Death Eaters could run rampant across the countryside, which is exactly what had happened.

With Malfoy Manor clearly empty, the question remained: where were they hiding? For months, Malfoy Manor had been the only suspected hideout with knowledge of the Dolohov Estate being limited to the fact that the home itself wasn't particularly large. However, they did know that the land that it sat on as massive, significantly larger than the land of Malfoy Manor. In retrospect, Kingsley admitted that he should have foreseen that they would prefer to use the Dolohov Estate rather than Malfoy Manor if they were in the process of recruiting more people to join their cause.

Unfortunately, no one had foreseen that. Kingsley knew that they had burned their chance to catch the Death Eaters. If they started working on breaking through the wards at the Dolohov Estate, they would surely be discovered and once again, the Death Eaters would slip through their fingers. Knowing that was not a viable option, Kingsley admitted that they weren't certain how to capture the Death Eaters.

The only thing Kingsley hoped for was that they could be dragged into an open conflict in a location where they could be prevented from leaving. Immediately, Harry wondered if Kingsley meant that the way it sounded because it sounded like he meant Hogwarts. While he knew that Kingsley would never hope that the Death Eaters attacked a school, Harry did have to admit that it would make things easier if they attacked the school proper since they wouldn't be able to Apparate away from the grounds, eliminating their ability to escape.

Still, as the month of April slipped by, Harry pressed forward with his studies, spending almost day and night with his nose in a book, frequently helped by Hermione or Ginny or both of them. Harry knew that he hadn't been particularly available for Ginny over the past few months but Ginny assured him that she understood why. Both of them knew how important it was for Harry to pass these tests. While he would be given an opportunity to take another version of the examinations in June with the rest of his class, the fact remained that if he passed his NEWTs now, he would be able to take a breath for the first time since September.

Bill had already agreed to remain in his classroom through the end of the school year which meant that if Harry passed, he would become Bill's teaching assistant. He would no longer have to attend classes and he would no longer have to study for hours on end each night. It would allow him to focus more directly on the school's defense and evacuation plans, things that he had been trying to fit into his schedule as often as he could.

Harry took his exams on the third weekend of April. The weather had suddenly taken a dramatic upturn from the typical rain and almost winter conditions of March. That particular day, the sun was shining and it was warm enough that you could spend most of your time outside with shorts on, something that almost the entire student body would be enjoying.

But Harry realized that he wouldn't be part of the student body any longer if he did well on these tests. His NEWTs would take place over two days. On Saturday, he would take the practical exams. First, he would take Transfiguration, then Charms followed by Defense Against the Dark Arts. On Sunday, he would take the written exams in the opposite order. Each written exam would be timed with a two hour maximum to complete each exam. Then, he would get a two hour break before he would take the next test. This meant that his day started at nine in the morning and would end sometime around seven in the evening when he was finally finished.

At that point, he would wait for roughly an hour while his scores were tabulated. He would then be informed whether he had passed his exams. While Harry had expected to be nervous, when he woke up on that Saturday, he found that he simply felt prepared. He knew that he had studied more for these three examinations than any single test in his entire life. If he wasn't going to pass them now, he wasn't going to pass them at all.

Transfiguration was by far the hardest of his three practical examinations. When Harry entered the Transfiguration classroom, the examiner, whose name Harry never got, immediately asked Harry to transfigure two desks into two separate animals, one a pig and the other a dog. Animal Transfiguration was among the hardest skills in all of magic and doing them one after the other without screwing either of them up was quite the task.

Thankfully, Harry performed the task adequately. While both his animals were relatively basic representations of their species, the fact that neither of them had any noticeable defects was certainly a point for him.

Over the next hour, Harry cast over a dozen different Transfigurations and while a few of them had their share of errors, Harry felt that he had done an acceptable job. Transfiguration was the subject in which Harry struggled the most and so if he managed to scrape a passing grade in that subject, he would be sincerely pleased.

After a short break, Harry, remaining in the Transfiguration classroom, began his Charms practical, also administered by the same examiner. Unlike his Transfiguration examination, there was no doubt in Harry's mind that he excelled in his Charms practical. Also unlike the Transfiguration exam, this was more a test of someone's practical application skills. Whereas in Transfiguration, Harry had simply been required to demonstrate the required skills, Harry was simply given a task that needed to be accomplished in Charms. No instruction was given on how to achieve the task, only that he could only use his wand.

The first task was to remove all the desks from the room without Banishing them. For several minutes, Harry looked at the desk before he simply performed a series of Disillusionment Charms on them, blocking them from view. The examiner smiled and nodded happily as she marked down his scores. The second task had then been to take those desks and put all of them in a small box that she had marked on the floor. Only seconds later, Harry had shrunk the desks down to the size of a matchbox before hovering them into the box.

Again, another smile and another mark. His final task for the examination was to hide from the examiner without leaving their sight. Immediately, Harry knew that this would require non-verbal magic so to keep whatever Charm he had cast a secret. Behind his back, Harry waved his wand, turning out the lights in the room. At the same time, Harry created an Atmospheric Charm that turned the room into a whipping rainstorm, completely blocking Harry from view. For added measure, Harry then cast four different illusion charms, each of them creating a perfect copy of Harry.

Then, Harry moved himself and his four illusions to the far end of the room, ensuring to remain in sight of the examiner the whole time. Once he was certain that he was in place, he cancelled the Atmospheric Charm, revealing five perfect copies of Harry Potter staring back at her. For a moment, Harry waited to see what she would do as she turned to examine Harry and his copies.

Finally, she stepped up to one of his illusions.

"What is your name?"

Internally, Harry laughed. He knew what she was trying to do. Most people would create an illusion like this and then be unable to do anything with it. Thankfully, Harry had studied hard in recent months. With another quick wave of his wand, Harry forced the copy in front of her to speak, transferring Harry's voice so that it appeared to come out of the illusion.

Four more times he did that so that when she came to him and he responded the same way, she finally concluded that he had adequately hid himself. When Harry cancelled the charm, the examiner appeared to be shocked.

"I thought you were the one in the middle." she said, looking to Harry's left where the first one to whom she had spoken stood.

"I was not." Harry said.

"I must say that I am quite impressed. It takes a great deal of effort and control to make that kind of magic work across a room."

"My thanks, ma'am."

Harry was given another hour break. When he entered the Transfiguration classroom, he was surprised to see the same woman was still the examiner for this subject as well. As he walked in, he also noticed that the room had been emptied of its content. Now, it was simply a large open room.

"Your task is simple." the examiner said. "You must last five minutes."

"Five minutes?" Harry scoffed. "That's it?"

"Yes." the examiner said. Then, in a move so quick that Harry hardly noticed it at all, she drew her wand and fired a Stunner at Harry. If he hadn't been a Seeker for years, his reactions honed to their peak, he would have surely been Stunned seconds after the exam started. As it was, he shifted his head just inches to his right, causing the Stunner to pass by his head, although he could still feel the energy radiating off of it as it passed by.

In response, Harry drew his wand and returned a Stunner of his own. She blocked the spell and from there, the duel was on. Unfortunately for the examiner, while she was a good duelist in her own right, she was certainly not as gifted as Bill or Fleur and considering he had lasted nearly ten minutes on his own against the two of them, this test was by far one of the easiest Harry would ever take.

In fact, after only four minutes and a particularly dizzying sequence of spells threw the examiner off balance, Harry hit her with a Disarming Charm, her wand flying into the air and into Harry's hand on the far end of the room.

"Wow." was all she could say as Harry returned her wand. "I have been administering this test for going on fifteen years and that has never happened to me."

"Not many eighteen year old students have spent most of their childhood surviving duels against adults." Harry said cheekily. "Don't feel too bad about it."

"I certainly won't. You are one of the most gifted duelist I've ever seen. There is no shame in losing to someone like that."

Having finished his practicals, Harry, now quite exhausted, returned to his dorm where he almost immediately fell asleep. The next morning, Harry awoke, still tired but ready for the day, and made his way back to the Transfiguration classroom. Again, the same examiner stood waiting for him.

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"Maria Breckinridge." she said as something clicked in Harry's mind.

"Breckinridge? You are Meredith's mother?"

"I am." Maria replied. "She has told me quite a bit about you from her interactions with you. I've worked in the Department of Magical Education for years and I couldn't resist the opportunity to see if you were as good as she had heard."

"Well, I'm hope I live up to those expectations."

"If you continue to today with your effort from yesterday, I can assure you that will be the case." Maria said warmly. "Speaking of today, the NEWT exams for these subjects are relatively simple. You will be given one seventh year skill to explain. We require one full parchment of explanation with detailed instructions on how to perform the skill, its uses, if there is any danger in using the skill. Effectively, tell us everything you know about the skill in a way that could be used to inform a fifth year student how to perform the skill in question."

"That sound relatively straightforward."

"It is. However, the judging criteria is quite challenging. It is expected that you detail almost everything in how to perform each skill in order to get an Outstanding."

"Well, I will do my best."

"Of that, I have no doubt." Maria said as she put the examination for Defense Against the Dark Arts in front of him. At the top of the page was his subject: The Patronus Charm. Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Who chooses what we have to write about?" Harry asked.

"The subjects are chosen at random." Maria replied.

"Lucky me." Harry said as he started writing. Roughly an hour later, when he had finished ahead of schedule with over two parchments of writing, Harry was certain that it was the best essay he had ever turned in, given his extensive knowledge of that particular subject.

A similar event occurred when Harry was handed his Charms essay, to be written on The Fidelius Charm. While Harry had never performed the spell, he certainly knew quite a bit about it. It took him two hours to get just one parchment of writing finished but again, he was certain that he had done an acceptable job.

The test that he had been the most nervous about was the Transfiguration written examination. It was his last exam over a two day period and Harry was already started to tire from the sheer amount of effort that the last two days had required from him. Unfortunately, Harry did not have the same luck with his Transfiguration essay. Harry received the parchment and looked at the words on the top.

Inanimatus Conjurus Spell

Harry immediately groaned. While this spell was only truly a fifth year spell, its explanation was one of the most complicated that Harry could have imagined. The magic of conjuring inanimate objects from thin air was not particularly challenging to perform. However, the methodology by which they operated, involving pocket dimensions and the manipulation of space, was horribly complex. Over the next two hours, Harry racked his brain for more information on the spell, knowing that this essay was all that kept him from passing his NEWTs and becoming a Hogwarts professor.

When the timer finally went off, Harry had managed an entire roll of parchment but it wasn't pretty. Harry was relatively certain that there were entire sections of his essay that were just downright wrong and he was absolutely certain that he had made some rather large leaps of logic while trying to explain the use of pocket dimensions.

Still, he was done and there was nothing more he could do. Harry went down to the kitchens to grab a dinner in relative silence before he reported to Minerva's office for his results. When he arrived, he saw that Maria was already there, speaking with Minerva in hushed tones.

"Harry, come on in." Minerva said. "Take a seat."

Even though Harry hadn't felt nervous when he started the examinations the previous morning, Harry was now quite nervous now that he was only moments away from discovering his results.

"How did I do?" Harry asked meekly.

"Well, as expected, your scores in Defense Against the Dark Arts were superb." Maria said. "Disarming me earned you a perfect score, one of the few I've ever handed out in all the years I've been doing this. Then, your essay on the Patronus Charm was perfect as well. In fact, I intend to submit it to a academic journal for publication, if that's alright with you?"

"Sure." Harry said, his face warming slightly.

"Charms was another exceptional performance. While some of your wand work was a little sloppy, the results were exactly what we're looking for." Maria said. "Your explanation of the Fidelius was occasionally lacking in detail but it was largely what we're looking for. I scored you at an Exceed Expectations for that."

"What about Transfiguration?"

Maria and Minerva shared a look that Harry definitely did not like.

"Your practical was Acceptable." Maria replied.

"And my essay?"

For a moment, neither Maria or Minerva would look at Harry as they suddenly found things around the room to be more interested in.

"And my essay?" Harry repeated.

"Also Acceptable." Maria said, a twisted smile suddenly crossing her face. "In fact, almost Exceeds Expectations. I could tell that you were nervous but your understanding of the magic is far better than I think you expected."

Harry couldn't believe it. For a moment, he was certain that he had failed. In fact, he had been relatively certain that he had failed since he walked out of the Transfiguration classroom the final time. But he hadn't. He hadn't failed.

"Congratulations." Minerva said, a proud smile on her face.

"Thanks." Harry said breathlessly, hardly believing that he had finally done it. Years of study had let him to the day where he could take his NEWTs an entire month early and not just pass them but pass them with perfect scores in one of his classes.

"Congrats, Harry." Maria said before looking down to Minerva. "I'll see you soon."

"Of course." Minerva said with a smile as Maria walked out of the room, leaving Harry with the Headmistress of Hogwarts.

His new boss.

"Harry, I cannot begin to express how proud I am of your effort and dedication this year." Minerva said. "You have worked harder than I think anyone would have reasonably expected of you and for that effort, you have now become the youngest professor in the history of the school."

Professor? That name still sounded strange to Harry when it meant that it pertained to him. For months, he had been working towards a singular goal of becoming a Professor but now that the day had come, he simply couldn't believe it was true.

"Now, we have some items to discuss." Minerva said. "First, you will be removed as Head Boy effective immediately."

"Really?"

"Well, considering the fact that you are no longer a student, it does not make much sense to have you in that position." Minerva replied. "I intend to promote Michael Corner to the position. Your thoughts?"

"He's been a reliable Prefect all year. He'll do well." Harry said, realizing that she was earnestly asking him for his opinion.

"Good." Minerva said. "As for your duties, I will inform your colleagues to not expect you in class any longer. Instead, you will now be Bill's assistant. You will attend every class of his, excluding the class for the seventh year, and do whatever he asks of you for the remainder of the school year."

"I understand."

"You will also be added to the patrol list for the professors, meaning that you will more often be required to patrol late in the evening." Minerva added. "Also, you will be installed as the Deputy Headmaster on Monday. This does not mean that you are in charge of anyone. It simply means that, come next year, you will be granted the ability to make decisions for the school in my stead and that I intend for you to replace me when I inevitably retire."

"Which I hope isn't too soon."

"You and me both." Minerva smirked. "Once the school year is over, the two of us will sit down and discuss what is expected of you next year."

"You're sure that we're going to have school here next year? Even with all of the research on the castle having been destroyed?"

"In this exact castle? No." Minerva replied, her voice filled with regret. "But, I do believe that we will still be providing education next year and if that is the case, we need to be prepared."

Trust someone as dedicated to education as Minerva McGonagall to not let the potential collapse of the school keep them from thinking of its future. Harry knew that she was worried about the future of the school. They all were. What would happen to them after the castle collapsed? What would happen to the future of magical education in Britain?

But for the moment, Harry let himself forget all of that. Instead, he returned to his Common Area, where he discovered a rather large group of people waiting for him. Hermione and Ginny sat next to each other on the couch while Parvati sat at Harry's desk and Luna at Hermione's. Opposite Hermione and Ginny sat Hagrid on what was certainly a reinforced couch.

"Well?" Ginny asked as she stood in the center of the room. Harry's response was a smile and a simple shrug of the shoulders, which was all the communication that Ginny needed before she launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck, almost lassoing him into a vice-like embrace. Still, Harry couldn't help but feel good as the air was slowly squeezed out of him. The others in the room shouted in celebration and while he appreciated all of their reactions, it was Hagrid's that arguably meant the most.

Waiting until everyone else had stepped away from Harry, Hagrid stood from his seat and took a step towards Harry, covering half the room with his stride. In his hand, he held a cap, the kind that Professor Dumbledore had worn for years. Harry knew that the hat was traditionally what professors wore on the big feasts. Only Dumbledore would have worn something like this all the time.

"Congratulations, professor." Hagrid said, tears falling down his rugged features. "Yeh made us proud."

In that moment, Harry couldn't help but think back to the first moment that he had seen Hagrid in that Hut on the Rock. The half-giant had been massive and terrifying. Even when he had uttered those magical words, telling him the truth about what he was, Harry had been wary of the giant man. But it had been Hagrid who had told him about his parents. Hagrid had told him about Voldemort and Harry's importance to the wizarding world. Hagrid had been there at the very beginning of his time as a student at Hogwarts and now, as Harry finally transitioned away from that, he was here again, welcoming Harry, not as a teacher and a student, but as colleagues, equals.

Hagrid reached down and hugged around gently around the shoulders. While Hagrid was still the only person that could still make Harry feel like a child when he hugged Harry, he could still tell the difference from the first time he had embraced Hagrid at the end of his first year at Hogwarts. He was taller now, an adult and a professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. While Hagrid's embrace may have made him feel like a child, there was no taking away the feeling that he was finally on his way to discovering a life beyond Lord Voldemort.

A life worth living to its fullest.