I Do Not Own Harry Potter.

All Characters Appearing In This Work Are Fictitious. Any Resemblance To Real Persons, Living Or Dead Is Purely Coincidental.

Before the Epilogue.

Sunday at the Burrow

Sunday at the Burrow

It was a quiet Sunday morning at the Burrow and as was her custom Molly was busy in the kitchen with her loyal house-elf Blinky preparing a late brunch for everyone. With it being a Sunday everybody was taking the time to catch a few more hours of sleep. Molly couldn't blame them after what they had all been through, sleep sounded like the right solution. She was pulled out of her thoughts by a hooting Owl at her window with a letter tied on its leg. She pointed her wand to the window and after a silent incantation the window opened and the Owl fluttered inside.

After untying the letter from the Owl's leg and giving it some water and Owl treats she opened the letter and began to read it, it was a letter from Minerva. It seemed the Headmistress had sent an Owl ahead of her to inform Molly that Professors' Sprout, Flitwick and Hagrid and the headmistress would be dropping by later that afternoon and was wondering if they drop by for lunch.

Molly smiled and scribbled her reply on the letter before tying it to the Owl's leg, humming a simple tune she went back to her cooking, and started making plans for a Sunday brunch. While she made her plans with Blinky.

A few Hours later

Molly had finally finished her cooking and was surveying the scene in front of her. Harry and Ron were sitting across two armchairs with a chessboard in between them. Ginny was discussing Quidditch with Angelina and Alicia George and Lee Jordan were discussing new ideas they were thinking of for the Joke shop with Arthur. Neville was in a discussion about Botany: the Muggle study of Plants with Hermione. Fleur was having a discussion with Audrey about Weasley men and their Olympian ability to put their feet in their mouth. While Bill was patiently listening to one of Luna's conspiracy theories regarding Gringotts, all the while trying his hardest not to laugh. Percy was having a discussion with Andromeda about the many security measures that they had put in place for Hogwarts.

The only person missing from this equation was Charlie, oh how she missed him, she was overjoyed when he had finally taken that job offer from the Private Dragon reserve. Now that he was living closer to home she was able to see him more frequently, although compared to the rest of the Family who mostly worked in London proper, due to the amount of real estate and privacy that Charlie's Dragon firm neededto house the Dragons it was only possible in an isolated area. Thus although the main headquarters was in London. Their training facility which was where Charlie worked as a trainer was somewhere in the Midwest.

Charlie had told her that because of recent incidents, he had signed a magical contract preventing him from revealing the specific location of their Training facility. From what Molly understood about it, the magical contract was some sort of modified Fidelius charm. Molly was a bit sad that he couldn't make it for the weekly Sunday gathering on account of work.

Molly was suddenly interrupted from her thoughts when a pair of hands covered her eyes and hugged her from behind before a deep voice said "guess who?"

Molly was confused for a moment, before she calmed down and let her other senses take control for a moment, the hands were strong yet calloused, the voice was deep yet soft. The smell emanating from her captor was that of fresh cut grass, yet his hands smelled of meat. His clothes smelt of fire and took all of two seconds for Molly to take in all this information and with a smile on her face, and her voice portraying her happiness she said "Charlie how come your home, I thought you had to work late today because you had to prepare for a new training class."

Charlie laughed heartily before removing his hands and hugging his mother tightly and even using his strength to pick her up from the floor and twirl her around. "Oh that, I swapped my shift at the last minute with one of the other trainers, who was willing to work on a Sunday. But needed an off on Monday, thus I swapped my Monday leave with him to get his Sunday leave, all so that I could come home to my family. So mum, I am yours to spoil for the day and I promise to do all your bidding and be your slave for today. You may cut my hair as short as you like, pester me all you want about finding a good witch and settling down, and whatever else that comes to your mind."

Molly was elated to have her family reunited and while she had a sneaking suspicion that Arthur had put Charlie up to it, she was still glad to have one more mouth to feed and pamper. It had been a long time since she had been able to pamper Charlie. Despite what she told everyone, Charlie was her favourite son, if for nothing else than for the fact that he was hardly ever home.

She was about to reply when there was a knock at the door and suddenly everyone went on alert and wands were withdrawn from sleeves and pockets.

A few minutes later

Once the identities of the guests were identified the door was opened to reveal the Headmistress of Hogwarts accompanied by Rubeus Hagrid. After pleasantries were exchanged. Molly asked the obvious question. "Where are the others Minerva? I thought Horace, Filius and Pomona would also be accompanying you?"

Before the Headmistress of Hogwarts could reply Hagrid said "ah sorry for that bit of misinformation Molly, you see it's about that time that the Headmistress has to visit the Muggle born Wizards and witches to tell them about the reality of their abilities.

Unfortunately because of the sheer number of muggle borns that have been registered because of the gap of one year. It's impossible for the Headmistress to do it alone so she has split the list into four and divided the number of names amongst Horace, Pomona, Flitwick and herself. And for additional security the Minister has assigned two experienced Aurors to each of the three professors. However the Headmistress decided to take me along for security instead of a squad of Aurors."

Minerva looked exasperated for a moment "yes, thank you Hagrid for the long winded explanation, however I believe Molly was speaking to me." Turning to the Matriarch of the Weasley clan she said "actually I had another reason for visiting. The visit specifically included speaking to Ms. Weasley, Ms. Granger and Ms. Lovegood and something tells me I will find them here, and thus save myself a precious two hours of travelling time."

A few minutes later

The three girls were gathered in the adjoin room alone and without their boyfriends. Minerva spoke with authority and said "allow me to get straight to the point ladies; there is a reason I have asked you three to accompany me without your significant others, while the official reason I am her for is to deliver your Hogwarts letters I have come here for another reason as well.

As I am sure you have figured out, this particular year we will be facing some additional challenges as everyone is recovering from the war and as such many of our returning students as well as our new students will be facing challenges adjusting. However the main reason I am worried is that in the war many of the younger students were faced with impossible choices.

As such the Dean of Medicine at St. Mungo's has loaned us two more Matrons and one apprentice healer who will assist Madame Pomfrey not only in carrying out the various duties of the Matron of Hogwarts but the two Healers that we will have on loan from St. Mungo's one Male and one Female are skilled not only in medicine but also in Psychology. That is to say that they will also act as guidance Councillors for the students who will have trouble adjusting, be it a new muggle born student or a returning student who has trouble fitting in. However there is only so much we can do which is why I am counting not only on you three but on everyone of Dumbledore's Army returning soldiers now has a new mission.

No longer will you protect the castle from enemies without, but you will now protect the castle from enemies within. You three are not only returning seniors but also battle veterans, so now use that to your benefit. Help us teachers in keeping our students safe from their worst enemies; themselves."

Hermione nodded her head and said "while I understand your concern Professor with all due respect, we have our own demons to deal with and have only just managed to defeat our own nightmares. How do you expect us to help others, haven't we sacrificed enough, is it too much to ask to have a normal year of school without having to worry about Dark wizards hiding in every corner?"

Minerva seemed to have aged ten years and said "you three are entitled to every happiness the world gives you my dear girls unfortunately life is a battle and it is one we must fight. As for dealing with the situation. There is no need for you to deal with them directly. I will give you three a small textbook of less than 150 pages, which I will expect you to distribute amongst the members of the D.A.

It will help you all to understand the different types of Psychological trauma and how to spot the symptoms and some common ways to deal with them. However what I would like you all to do is when you find someone possibly suffering from Trauma, DO NOT deal with it on your own, simply inform one of the Professors.

The teachers of Hogwarts have been taking great pains to learn how to deal with Psychological trauma victims, all we want from the D.A. is to be our eyes and ears that is all you have to do, let us do the heavy lifting, besides all students will at one time or another have at least three mandatory session with the healers to help them understand who is in most need of their help

When the three girls nodded their heads McGonagall smiled and said "Now as you know starting from fifth year onwards, the Headmaster of Hogwarts appoints certain students to the position of Prefect and these students are given extra responsibilities by the Head of House, Headmaster or Headmistress.

One male and one female student are chosen from each house in their Fifth year to act as Prefects, and would continue to be Prefects in their sixth and seventh years until they leave school. Thus, there are approximately six prefects per house, and twenty-four prefects in the whole school at one time. The Head Boy and Head Girl may be chosen from among this number and may not be replaced.

However because we are expecting a higher population of students this year we will be adding one more prefect to each house, bringing the number of Prefects per house to seven and twenty-eight Prefects in the school at one time. However the four extra prefects will be chosen from Seventh year instead of fifth year.

This is for obvious reasons, however in order to assuage the pressure I have decided to add one more privilege to the Head Boy and Head Girl, if they so choose the Head Girl and Head Boy may choose a Deputy of the same sex from the team of prefects that they will be managing and the only two Caveats are that they may not choose a Prefect from their own House and the prefect Chosen to be Deputy Head Girl or Head Boy, must be a sixth year or higher and have previous experience as a Prefect.

The reasoning behind it is simple; prefects in their fifth years will be new to their responsibilities and as such it would be unfair to them. Since we are trying to get things back to normal as much as it can, that means we will also be reinstating the Quidditch Cup and the House Cup."

This brings me to the second and official reason of why I am here. Rummaging in her overcoat she withdrew three envelopes and distributed it to the three young women. She then motioned for them to open their envelopes.

As soon as the three girls opened their envelopes a badge fell out of each one. Luna's and Hermione's badge was similar with the only difference being the H signifying the Head Girl and a P signifying Prefect, whereas Ginny's badge was different. Ginny was the first to physically react as she showed off her new Quidditch captain's badge to Luna and Hermione.

Neither Luna nor Ginny were surprised to see Hermione receive the Head Girl badge, it seemed that Hermione had finally finished analyzing the situation as she finally spoke "since my first day of Hogwarts, I had my eyes set on this badge: the Head Girl Badge.

I worked hard to keep my grades up and making a good impression on my teachers, especially you Professor, not only because you were my Head of House, but because you were my inspiration, I envied the way you were able to hold your own in a world and community dominated by men.

I still remember when I faced my Boggart: at that time my greatest fear was failing school. I was such an ignoramus I had no idea that there were far more worse demons and fears out there than getting a failing grade, even while preparing to go on the run with Ron and Harry somewhere I still resented the fact that I would not be able to go to my seventh year and get my Head Girl's badge. But now that I finally have it…."

Minerva completed Hermione's statement "You don't know whether you deserve it and if you do, you wonder at what cost. I am very familiar with guilt Ms. Granger, indeed the night that Albus died I had many of the same thoughts that you have now. However my dear girl we must learn to rise above our guilt and look towards the future. I assure you Hermione if anybody deserves that Badge it's you. Incidentally your Counterpart is another member of the D.A. Mr. Justin Finch Fletchley from Hufflepuff House."

Luna seemed confused and decided to voice her confusion "I am afraid I don't understand Professor, I was never one to completely follow the rules, neither was I a popular student that others followed, in fact many of my peers found me either as an odd and semi crazy girl. Those that were not scared of me seemed to think of me as easy prey for their Sexual fantasies and were intent on only dating me if I was willing to go along with their plans. I am afraid I am not Prefect Material."

McGonagall turned to Luna and said "Ms. Lovegood, you are the embodiment of friendship and sacrifice, you were willing to put not only your physical safety and your family's safety on the line to help your friends, and although it is true you were never an obvious choice for a Prefect. I believe if nothing else you will bring a new outlook on this new responsibility. Besides if you intend to apply for a job as an intern working for Mr. Newt Scamander's Research team, then you're tenure as a Prefect and your Order of Merlin will stand you in good stead in the future."

She finally turned to Ginny and said "Ms. Weasley, you have been selected as the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, not because of your relation with Mr. Potter, or because I have some misplaced loyalty. I made you Quidditch captain because you have shown me in this past year, that you have the ability to make even a difficult situation easier by applying ingenuity and creativity.

You have the hardest job of us all Ms. Weasley, you will have to completely rebuild the Gryffindor Quidditch team from scratch. Let us see how you do, and practice hard. After all many Professional Quidditch team Coaches and Captains will be attending this year's Quidditch Matches looking for fresh new talent, so ensure you are in the best of form, after all Gryffindor has to defend its' title."

"On another note, while I am sure you will be sharing this information with your significant others at the earliest chance you get, I would recommend you to use caution when speaking about this to your parents. After all I am sure they already have too much to worry about." She then looked at Ginny and said "Happy birthday in advance Ms. Weasley, I shall see you on the Quidditch pitch. Something tells me this is going to be an interesting year."

With that said McGonagall stood up and once again congratulated the three young women before walking out the Burrow with Rubeus Hagrid following her, leaving the three young women in shock and surprise.

A/N: Alright there you go, another chapter finished. I hope you liked it. I wanted to show something different with this chapter. I really wanted to do something different. I have read many fic where Hermione becomes Head Girl and is overjoyed but I wanted to show a different aspect to Hermione. I wanted to show that Hermione has grown out of that bookworm phase and truly cares for her friends and family.