The morning came and Severus woke to an empty bed. He heard Hermione running the water and didn't think anything more. But when it stopped, and he heard sounds of her retching he ran to the door and knocked. "Hermione? Are you sick?"

She retched again and said sarcastically "No." Severus tried to open the door but it was locked. "Don't come in here! I don't want you to see me like this."

He was done with her stupidity. "Hermione let me in. I've spent too many years with students to be repulsed by this. Do you really think I have never seen anyone throw up before? Cormac Mclaggen actually threw up on my best dragonhide boots once. Please let me come in. I want to help you."

There was no sound for a moment and then he heard. "Okay, You can come in."

One alohomora later he was beside her holding her hair out of the way. When it finally stopped, she was pale and weak. He picked her up and laid her in the bed. She was chilled from laying on the floor of the loo. He got in and pulled her tight to himself to warm her. "Is this any better?"

She moaned a bit but replied. "Yes, my angel that is much better."

"I'll brew up an anti nausea potion for you tonight. Hermione perhaps you should stay in bed today. It's cold out by the lake. You'll catch a chill."

"Am I a witch or not? I know how to conjure a warming charm. I'll be fine. Besides, I have to be there to make sure you do it right."

Severus rolled his eyes at her. He knew stubborn when he saw it. "At least dress very warmly and I want you to supervise only. You need to let the men do the heavy lifting today. It shouldn't take more than a few hours and then, you go back to bed and rest." The flash of passion he saw in her eyes made his nether regions twitch. "Perhaps I can join you then, you know, to be sure you're doing it right."

oopOqoo

They managed to dress and go to the hall. The aurors were trickling in. All the hard work yesterday had taken its toll on them, and Hermione didn't want to rush them. She, Severus and Kingsley were at a table alone discussing plans for longer than necessary to give them more time to wake up.

"Once we leave here, we must start on the ministry building. Our civilian volunteers should trickle in today. Mostly it's a lot of sweeping, organizing. A little rebuilding of walls and most of the windows and the fountain. My team and I will cover the really heavy stuff. I hope to meet with the department heads and see just what they need and give me a status report. We'll also need a head count to find out who's missing, and if they are still alive, get them back to work. The D.O.M. I'm sure will be evasive as always, but we need to know what the bastards took from them. The few that managed to escape us that is. I think I can handle anything as long as it's not time turners."

Hermione was grinning at him. "Listen to you. You sound like a Minister of Magic. Wouldn't surprise me you know. You'd make a really good one."

Kingsley only grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

Hermione stood to get the attention of the men and asked them to come to her one at a time. She had described what she wanted to Severus over breakfast. An oval plaque with scrollwork around the edge. He asked a house elf for some brass cups which he transfigured into the plaque that she had described.

At the top, a quote: "Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into tranquil joy. This stone is dedicated to the men whose tireless labor and support will never be forgotten."

As the men filed past her, they said their names and he transcribed them onto the plaque. Next to the memorial, a pillar of polished red granite would hold it for all to see. Enshrining the appreciation of the wizarding world. Hermione would plant flowers around that pillar.

Once again, they followed Hermione to the ravine. The bags were stacked up neatly by color. Bags for professors and other adults had gold trim on them and despite the house they were in, would be buried together along with the few house elves. When Severus saw the pile of bags, he was glad he overestimated the space needed. There would be room enough for all.

Each man was primarily given six bags to carry gently to the tomb. They would come back for more when they were ready. Severus held Hermione close as he apparated there. Once they stopped spinning and she regained control of her stomach she looked up at the monument and caught her breath. An exact replica of Hogwarts in glittering grey granite had been carved in bas relief from the living mountain. The scene as she first saw the school as a child coming in on a boat.

Twenty-five feet high and thirty-five wide with doors and windows, turrets and bridges. Below it was a depiction of the black lake that melted into five rectangular tombs. One raised slightly more than the others at the base of the lake, horizontal to it, with words in gold, Faculty and Staff. Four at ninety degrees to the scene, with the house names in gold on the massive blocks that would seal the tombs. They were all tilted at an angle so you could read the titles easily from a sitting position. There was a large, paved area dotted with shade trees around it and ten stone benches in front of it all. On the left of the monument, a parchment scroll in stone with the date of the battle and the known names of the dead. Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were at the top. There was room for more names when they were determined.

On the right, a poem, surrounded by stone roses.

There are some who bring

A light so great into the world

That even after they have gone

The light remains

Hermione stood before the poem, her face in her hands, and wept. Severus came to her and put his arm around her shoulder. The men were filling the tombs with the bags of bones. They were laid neatly in random order. Once they were all filled, Severus took his wand and moved the stone blocks that sealed the tombs.

Once done there, they went on to the Death Eaters tomb. Here there was no sculpture, no poetry, no names. Just a large rectangular block of polished black granite on a paved patio. A single bench in front of it. On the side it simply read: Rest in Peace.

The last grave was for the magical creatures. The bags were lined up along the bottom of the square hole, then Severus took his wand and covered it all. It looked like a whirlwind and when completed the mound of dirt was nearly twenty feet high and almost as wide. The bare earth would be clothed eventually by nature herself and they left it to her care.

Kingsley looked out over his men, they were ready. "Gentlemen, time to go." The men bowed to Hermione and then one by one, were gone.