Disclaimer: "Harry Potter" etc, etc ... you know the drill here.

Summary: After every dusk comes a dawn. How do they live a normal life after all they've endured? Hermione, Sirius, and all the others try. A sequel to "Road to Redemption".

Note: I strongly suggest that anybody who hasn't already read "Road to Redemption" should read that before they attempt to read this fic, because I'm afraid they won't understand very much, because I will be making frequent references to events that have already happened.

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Dusk to Dawn

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Chapter One: Graduation

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"Damn it, Hermione," said Ginny Weasley with a mixture of exasperation and amusement, simultaneously throwing her hands in the air, "If you don't sit still, I'll have to resort to my old Bat-Bogey Hex to make you!"

Hermione Granger bit her lip, trying not to smile. She was extremely nervous.

"Sorry, Ginny."

"Just stay where you are ... there!" Ginny said triumphantly and with a sigh that was worthy of a warrior having just fought a great battle, she stepped back to admire the figure Hermione cut in her graduation robes (which had needed to be pinned at the back, thus resulting in the scene that had gone on previously), "Now you're ready. Oh, Hermione, you look absolutely enchanting!" she squealed.

Hermione eyed Ginny suspiciously for any signs of sarcasm. Then she moved across to look in the mirror. A smile tugged at her lips. She couldn't see any reason for Ginny's transports, but she did think she looked fairly good. However, the excitement in the air was contagious. Across the Gryffindor girls dorm room, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown were giggling and fussing over their own clothes. It was the last day of their seventh years and graduating from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry did not happen every day. In fact, today was the first day in their lives that Hermione's parents were going to be at the school, down in the Great Hall where the ceremony was going to take place.

"Ready?" said Ginny, grinning.

Hermione shifted from one leg to another, and then said, "I think so."

"Hermione Granger, nervous about anything? Exams are over, remember, and you're going to get all your NEWTs without any doubt!"

"I think I'll just stay here," said Hermione, nibbling on her nails, "There's no reason for me to go downstairs after all. I've got some Polyjuice Potion that you can take and pretend to be me for today – "

"Really," scoffed Ginny, shaking her head, "And what if Sirius manages to get me alone?"

Hermione burst out laughing, but blushed all the same. "Good point."

"Thank you!"

Ginny grabbed her arm and forced her out of the room door. They went down to the common-room. On the way, Hermione noticed that Ginny, who was still in her sixth year, was looking at her with some envy. She smiled a little wryly to herself. There really wasn't much to envy about her life. Although she was as excited about this day as anyone else – and particularly so because everyone she loved and cared about was going to be there – Hermione couldn't help dreading the end of the day. After this day, she would no longer be a student of Hogwarts. She would be a girl getting close to her eighteenth birthday, who had to find a way to live in the world.

And that scared her. Because she didn't know how.

Seven years spent in the dangers of Voldemort's threat, and the shadows of war, had scarred her. She had forgotten how to live beyond the distractions of Hogwarts.

Hermione closed her eyes, opened them again, and stepped down the stairs into the Gryffindor common room. It was time to stop thinking about such pessimistic and gloomy thoughts. Today was a day to enjoy. Besides, there was going to be a special party held by the Order of the Phoenix (or at least, the Order of the Phoenix members, as there technically was no Order any longer, Voldemort and his Death Eaters being mostly gone) in honour of the three Gryffindor graduates (Hermione, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley). A few other students in their year – old friends and allies – would also be invited, such as Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, to name two.

The first thing Hermione saw when she entered the common room was the red head of Ron Weasley as he sat in an armchair and looked particularly green. Harry Potter, looking good with his robes neat but his hair in disarray, was lingering beside his best friend and looking utterly incapable of dealing with Ron's nervous nausea. He looked up, and his eyes lit up with utter relief at the sight of Hermione, who was the only person who could deal with such an event.

"Ron," said Hermione bracingly, marching up to him and forgetting about her own nervousness in the light of her best friends', "What on earth is the matter?"

"I can't do this," declared Ron firmly, "I won't."

"This is the fifth time he's said so," Harry put in with a helpless shrug.

Hermione put her hands on her hips while Ginny giggled at her brother's plight in the background. "Ronald," Hermione said in her most schoolmistressy voice, "Why are you frightened of your own graduation? Surely you know by now that you are going to graduate. Shame on you! A Gryffindor – a coward? Those words don't fit together, you know."

"I should have been a Hufflepuff," gasped Ron.

"Hufflepuffs have more nerve than you do," said Hermione severely.

This Ron took instant exception to. "I've got nerve!"

"Prove it."

"Think you're so clever, don't you?" grumbled Ron, hauling himself to his feet and shaking off the imaginary dust from his new robes (Fred and George had chipped in with their profits from their joke shop to assist their poor parents in buying Ron new, first-hand graduation robes), "Well ..." he suddenly grinned, "You are that clever."

"Thank you, Ron," said Hermione with a smile, "Can we go now?"

Ron and Harry grinned. "Let's show the rest of them who the real graduates are!"

"Such conviction in their own superiority," sighed Hermione, as she followed them towards the portrait hole, "Harry, if I may ask, why are you carrying a rose?"

Harry hastily concealed this article, and looked embarrassed. "What?" he said innocently.

Hermione smiled to herself, but said nothing.

"Sirius was looking for you earlier," continued Harry with a grin that told her very plainly that some serious teasing was approaching and that he wanted very much to change the subject, "He came to the common room when Ron and I were there."

"I'll find him after the ceremony," said Hermione evenly, biting back a smile.

It was still very difficult not to blush when they talked about Sirius and her. Although it had been over a year since they had gotten together, they hadn't seen each other very much due to Sirius's occupation with Dumbledore, Remus Lupin and Severus Snape (to Sirius's disgust) in trying to track down the remaining few Death Eaters that had escaped during the last battle; and Hermione's preoccupation with NEWTs and schoolwork. It therefore still felt as if their relationship was new. Indeed, the last time she had seen him had been about seven weeks previously, and she missed him terribly.

She smiled slightly to herself as they descended the staircase of Gryffindor tower. Other students and graduates were to be spied as well, everybody looking particularly spruced and nice because of the particular day that it was. The sounds of loud conversation and laughter echoed from the Entrance and Great Halls on the bottom floor. However, Hermione's thoughts dwelled elsewhere. She was thinking about the events that had led to Sirius and her being together at all. After Sirius had returned from the dead, Dumbledore had worked very selectively on their memories to erase all memories that offered knowledge into the future they had seen when they had accidentally gone forward in time. Hermione knew she had gone forward, but had no idea at all what she had seen. Dumbledore had explained to her that either way, after the altered events of the present, the future would be different so it didn't matter.

It was an unpredictable future once more.

And Hermione looked to it with anticipation as well as apprehension.

"Hermione," Ron spoke up suddenly, and she looked at him to see that he was eyeing her up and down, "You're no longer a skinny bean."

"I beg your pardon?" she asked, startled.

He looked sheepish. "I don't mean you're fat – of course you're not! I just meant that you're not painfully skinny anymore, as you always were because you worked too hard and rarely had time to eat. You've still been working, but I guess you must be eating more because you're not – well – as skinny, as I said. It's nicer this way."

"Yeah, I noticed that too," Ginny commented.

Harry caught Hermione's eye and they both looked amused.

Hermione shifted a little awkwardly and said, "Well – I suppose I should take that as a compliment then, Ron. Thanks. I have been eating."

"Well done," said the redhead cheerfully.

He was fortunately diverted from the subject by their arrival at the doorway of the Great Hall. The House Tables were not inside, but instead, amidst fine decorations, were hundreds of chairs and tables – like a Muggle Golden Globe ceremony, thought Hermione – and at the far end was an elevated platform on which the seventh-years would have to go, one by one. Professor McGonagall was already there, and Professor Dumbledore had begun his speech.

Ginny whispered "good luck" to them all, and darted off to find her seat with the other Weasleys. They were all there – even Charlie had returned specifically from Romania. Ron was looking rather green again, and with a laugh, both Harry and Hermione gripped one of his arms each and forced him forward into the alphabetical line of seventh-years, before going off to find their own spots.

As they arrived at a gap between Sally-Ann Perkins and Michael Powell, Hermione turned to Harry and said, "Well, I suppose this is where I leave you, Harry."

He grinned. "Don't lose your way finding the G's."

"I'll be careful," she said solemnly, and then laughed. She reached up and kissed him on the cheek. "Good luck. This is your day."

"Yours too," he smiled and watched her go.

Hermione located the G's without too much difficulty, her only hitch in progress being the stop she made beside the M's, because Draco Malfoy hissed her name. She frowned at him. Since his father's death, Malfoy had not been so arrogant or malicious, but he was still essentially the same old Malfoy.

He shrugged, pretending he hadn't said anything, and she passed on. She rolled her eyes at his immaturity, and slotted herself into the gap provided for her. She could hear Dumbledore speaking, and caught some of his words.

"As many of you already know, this particular batch has created some undoubtedly exceptional young people," he was saying with that twinkle in his eye (Hermione smiled; she had no doubt as to who he referred to, namely Harry), "And I can say with certainty that Hogwarts will miss them greatly when they leave us and go out into the world. But ties will never be broken. Great friendships have been formed amongst us, and I don't think we will be saying goodbye to many of the students who are graduating with honours today. But enough stalling. It's time to introduce the graduates and present them with their certificates."

The 'certificates' turned out to be medals that squealed out the graduate's name and their particular list of subjects in which they had received NEWTs. Hermione watched Hannah Abbot turn beet red as a shrill voice bellowed her name and NEWTs out for the entire Hall to hear, and hastily fled from the spotlight.

The ceremony was not precisely exciting. Hermione's heart nearly stopped when her name was called, but she went up with her usual composure and had no trouble smiling brightly around the Hall because as Professor McGonagall handed her the medal, the Transfiguration professor actually had proud tears in her eyes, and Dumbledore winked from the sidelines. Hermione had a brief flash of a sea of faces when she went up to the stage – her mother and Molly Weasley's tears, her father beaming at her. She could distinctly hear Fred and George yelling something along the lines of "Granger is the queen", Ron and Harry were screaming themselves hoarse, Hagrid's voice boomed above all else –

Hermione's eyes as she stood for that moment on the platform were fixed on Sirius, who was sitting between Lupin and George. He was grinning up at her, and that grin was all she needed. Feeling quite on top of the world, Hermione smiled and managed to exit the platform with enough gracefulness to make Nymphadora Tonks (who was also in the crowd) envious.

As Harry and Ron went up in turn, Hermione knew her vocal glands were permanently destroyed after all the screeching and cheering she did. Indeed, when Harry's turn came, the cheers and roars were so tremendous that she had to scream just to add to the excited cacophony.

And then it was over, and Dumbledore was inviting everybody to go out into the grounds for refreshments and a "Weird Sisters" rendition of the school song.

Hermione drifted through the milling people, unable to locate a single one of the people she was looking for. Three times she bumped into Neville Longbottom, which told her that either she or he was moving in circles. Then, through the crowd, she spotted Harry. However, she checked her movement in his direction as she realized he was talking to a happily smiling Parvati Patil. Hermione's sharp eyes also saw the rose in Parvati's hand, and she turned away, smiling to herself, and decided to stay put for a while before going across to him.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, Sirius, when will you grow up!"

Hermione turned around at the sound of the familiar, amused, and exasperated voice and was nearly knocked right off her feet by a man who zipped across the grass and wrapped his arms around Hermione's waist, making her squeal. He effectively stifled the squeal by kissing her.

"Sirius!" she squeaked, wriggling.

He grinned down at her, pulling back. "Yeah?"

"Are you out of your mind? What if my parents see you?"

"Haven't you told them?" He demanded.

"Can you imagine my telling them that at sixteen, I started dating a man who was no less than thirty-four? Besides, even if I did tell them, they're dentists! They don't approve of PDA."

"That's what I tried telling him," said Remus Lupin, smiling as he came up behind Sirius, "But wild horses couldn't have stopped him. Congratulations, Hermione."

"Thanks, Professor Lupin," smiled Hermione.

"I think you can call me Remus now," he chuckled.

Hermione faltered over the name.

"I don't see your parents anywhere around," Sirius remarked, after having subjected their immediate surroundings to close scrutiny. "I don't see why – "

"You see why I had to tell him to grow up?" Remus asked Hermione.

She nodded. "Clear as day."

"I haven't seen you in seven weeks," Sirius said, by way of explanation.

Hermione smiled, her heart thumping harder already, and she kissed his cheek quickly. She nearly regretted it, because she felt utterly dissatisfied and he seemed to feel the same way, judging by the look on his face. "I've missed you too, Sirius, terribly ... but you've got to restrain yourself for another few hours. My parents will – my parents!" she gasped, startled, as they presented themselves at her side at that very moment. Blushing furiously, she stammered out a 'hello' and a 'did you enjoy yourselves?'.

"Remus Lupin," said Remus, nobly coming to her rescue and holding out his hand to Hermione's parents, "I taught Hermione Defense Against the Dark Arts when she was in her third year. We've become very good friends since then."

"Oh yes, she's told us a great deal about you," Hermione's father said cheerfully, shaking his head, "It's a pleasure to meet you at last!" He turned towards the other stranger.

"Sirius Black," said Sirius with his rakish grin, "Escaped convict from Azkaban Prison, recently cleared of all charges."

Hermione closed her eyes.

"R-Really?" said Mrs. Granger weakly, but she was smiling slightly. Hermione recognized the smile.

Remus caught hold of Sirius's sleeve firmly. "It was nice meeting you," he said in his perfectly polite and good-natured voice, "I suppose we'll meet again some time. Congratulations again, Hermione, and we'll see you at the party tonight." With that, he smiled and steered Sirius away from the little family. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, although she was very sorry to see Sirius go.

"So that's your favourite Defense professor," said Mr Granger, smiling at his daughter, "He's a nice fellow, I can see why you always liked him. Lovely ceremony today, my dear, we are extremely proud of you, of course! That medal, what makes it squeal like that? Oh ... magic, of course. Forgot about that. It's rather hard to remember sometimes that you're a witch, dear."

"Quite, Dad," Hermione murmured, smiling.

"And about that other man we just met, Hermione, is he really an escaped convict as he said? Fresh out of prison, he says, although he looked too clean and shaven to be fresh out of the gaol."

"He was joking, Dad. He does that a lot; he's a marauder – "

"I can't help but think his face his rather familiar – "

"He's very charming, isn't he, dear?" Mrs. Granger said suddenly, "And quite handsome, too – "

"Mum, don't even go there," Hermione, alarmed, "He's taken."

"They always are," sighed her mother.

Hermione was very happy to escape her parents. She found Sirius and Lupin not very far away, and Sirius was laughing while Remus reprimanded him for trying to frighten Hermione's parents. Hermione rolled her eyes as she approached them, and said, "They weren't very frightened. Mum thought you were rather good-looking."

"Did she?" Sirius said with a grin, "Like mother, like – "

"Don't," said Hermione with emphasis, prodding him in the chest, "Even – go – there! Really, Sirius, you're the most reckless and unpredictable person I've ever known. You're just lucky they didn't see you kiss me!"

"All right, all right," Sirius rolled his eyes and transformed into a large black dog. He barked.

Looking down into the melting black eyes, Hermione laughed and patted the dog's head. Then they all proceeded across to where Harry was now talking to Ron, Parvati having disappeared out of sight. Harry turned and stared in surprise at the sight of Sirius ambling along beside Lupin and Hermione, as a dog.

"You're not a marked man anymore, Sirius," he told his godfather quizzically.

Remus smiled. "He – ah – feels that his canine form presents the only opportunities available to show his affection for Hermione without risking the chaos that would undoubtedly result should her parents discover that she's dating an escaped convict, recently cleared of all charges!"

Harry and Ron laughed loudly, while Sirius transformed back into a man, grinning.

"Been waiting for this for seven years, haven't you, Granger?"

Hermione turned, startled, to see Malfoy standing not far behind her. She walked up to him and looked him straight in the eye. She kept her voice level when she spoke to him; she had enough heart to pity him in the situation he was in – and it couldn't be pleasant to lose a parent, no matter what kind of person that parent had been. "What do you mean? Have I been waiting for my graduation day for seven years? No, I can't say that I have."

"Oh, of course ..." said Malfoy with a hint of a bite in his voice, his eyes glittering for a brief moment, "You've been busy with – other things."

"Yes," said Hermione evenly.

"Ah well, school and your extracurricular business ... it's done now, isn't it?"

"Looks like it."

Malfoy leaned forward, and there was pure, malicious venom in his soft voice as he said with a lifting of his blond eyebrows: "You're so damned pleased with yourself, aren't you? Well, here's a damper that ought to make you sit up and think. It's one question the Insufferable Know-It-All may not know the answer to ... what now?"

And with a gleam of triumph at the look on her face, he walked away.

Hermione stood still for a moment, her euphoria over the day fading a little in the light of what Malfoy had just said. She turned around, and saw that Harry, Ron and Sirius had all heard what he had said and they all had expressions of their faces that matched her thoughts. She realized that she couldn't procrastinate from thinking about it any longer. School was over, her 'extracurricular business' was over ... for so long, they had been embedded in war. For seven years, all they had known was evil and pain and shadows. Their driving force for the most important years of their lives had been to defeat Voldemort, and to complete their years in school.

She, Harry and Ron had accomplished both of those tasks. Voldemort was gone forever, and they were Hogwarts graduates today. And Sirius, who had been sent to prison less than three years after he had graduated from Hogwarts and had been in the Order of the Phoenix for the in-between three years, had never known a normal life either. Dumbledore had said it was time for them to go out into the world, and that it was their turn to live.

Well, Malfoy was right ... what now?

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TBC.

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A/N: Writing is an addiction. Hehe. I'm not precisely sure about this story yet, but I thought I'd give it a try. This may turn out to be pretty short, but then again, it may also drag on for a great many chapters. It really depends on my imagination, how busy I am, and – most of all – on the response I get from my readers. So please review and let me know!