Harry Potter is owned by JK Rowling
Dies the Fire is owned by SM Stirling
Slytherin Rising was created by J.L. Matthews

Chapter 10: Summer and the new school year

When summer came, instead of going home, the students stayed at Hogwarts and worked in the fields. Utilizing magic, they were able to greatly increase productivity and feed the wizarding population. Their diets had become a bit blander, but nobody starved.

Neville and Ginny's "friendship with benefits" had blossomed into full-blown love. Ginny had become quite an exhibitionist and she a Neville no longer made any effort to hide the sounds of their lovemaking in Neville's bed. In fact, they often did it with the lights on and the curtains of the bed open. Seamus and Dean were allowed to watch and whack off, but not to touch Ginny.

Luna and Tonks had also fallen in love. Luna had let her hair grow out so that she had dirty blonde hair with pink tips and Tonks changed her hair to match. They, being a somewhat unusual couple, had a somewhat unusual relationship when it came to fidelity. They were monogamous as far as women were concerned and thought of the two of them as their primary relationship. But, every once in a while, they went together on a date with a man. This made them suddenly very popular for the first time in their lives.

Towards the end of summer, the Headmistress approached Hermione, who was hard at work in the fields.

"Mrs. Weasley, I would like to make you and offer," said McGonagall. "You are one of the most brilliant Witches I have ever taught. How would you like to come back to school, finish your last year and take your N.E.W.T.s?"

"Really!" exclaimed Hermione. "- oh - What about Ron?"

"He can come back too," replied professor McGonagall.

"It's not just school," explained Hermione. "Ron and I are married now and I am used to sleeping with my husband."

"Ah yes. Well, officially I can't give you two a bedroom together," said McGonagall. "But if you are discreet, there's no reason you can't "sneak" into your husband's bed every night. There's actually a lot of that going on since "The Change." I don't think we've ever had this many pregnant girls at the school. I've been turning a blind eye to it because I recognize that it's their way of coping with a world gone mad."

On September 1st, as the new students were being sorted. Hagrid sat down next to Professor Sprout and asked, "'ow come there's so few of them? This is 'alf the usual number of first years."

"When we were making plans to save the wizarding world, we completely forgot the Muggleborns" replied Sprout. "We are going to have smaller classes for a long time to come."

Now that Neville, Seamus and Dean had graduated, the only place with room for Ron to sleep was with the first years. He and Hermione made sure to use silencing charms and closed curtains to keep their sleeping habits from shocking the first years.

Halloween came without a major disaster and everyone went to bed relieved things had been normal on Halloween for once.

Lucius Malfoy was patrolling his part of the outer perimeter. The number of refugees had dropped significantly in the past few weeks. So, mostly he was wandering around feeling bored. He had let his mind wander and his guard down and thus didn't see Dudley Dursley sneaking up on him until he felt the spear sinking into his chest. His last sight was of thousands of spear wielding savages charging over him. They trampled him into the dust as his life ebbed away.