Disclaimer: No money is being made or received for this work in her playground of characters.
A/N -- I have spent the weekend in Houston Texas, playing at NASA. However, thankfully, my awesome Beta has spent her weekend cleaning up my mistakes on this story... Eliza, Once again, you have made this chapter worth reading!
Chapter 32 -- The Return
Mason, Madison, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny all stood together, waiting for Rowan's arrival. Remus had gone directly to Grimmauld Place, and Hagrid had met them at the gates. When she arrived, she told them that they did well and she was proud of them. She also suggested that they get some rest. They would all be meeting with Dumbledore tomorrow morning. They entered the Head's quarters some ten minutes later and all seven teenagers fell into an exhausted dreamless sleep.
Early the next morning, the house elves woke the teens. Each showered and waited for Rowan at the Gargoyle leading to Dumbledore's office. The door opened and Rowan beckoned them forward.
They noted that Rowan was still in the clothes from the previous evening as she and the Headmaster had spent the night talking about the travels. Rowan noted, with dread, telling Molly where she had taken them.
The first thing Dumbledore did was to remove the memory charm from the group. As promised, all their memories were restored in completion. Hermione and Ginny removed the gifts and weapons from their bags. Albus seemed shocked at the amount of items given between the books from Giles, the parchment copies from the Charmed ones, weapons from the Vampires, and, although no one realized it, promises from the Lycans. Not quite tangible, but important none the less.
They talked for hours with the Headmaster. The things learned were brought out, the promises made by the strong magical groups they had visited, were discussed. They talked through breakfast and lunch. When finally all the details were revealed, they stopped talking. Dumbledore addressed the group. "I am proud of you. I know that you were sent into the Hellmouth and forced to face fears. I also know that for the second time, you were forced to act as a single unit. The life debt, of which you speak Harry, is not something to be taken lightly. I am proud of you for acknowledging it. It is now the first of December. You must be ready to play for a few days since you have been working so assiduously toward securing liaisons and preventing Voldemort from using those liaisons against you."
"Professor, do we have homework? I mean we were gone for a week." Hermione asked.
"No, your missed work will not be expected. You have been given my permission to miss those classes. You will find you know the material without study. The classes were reviews of September's classes."
"Thank you Headmaster."
"Now if there are no other questions, I suggest you schedule time for Quiddich as the game tomorrow is between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. The pitch is yours for the evening for practice." Ron grinned and rose to leave. The others followed with small words of goodbye. Dumbledore turned to Rowan. "And, my dear, how are you?"
"Exhausted, honestly. I just want sleep."
"Might I suggest a dreamless sleep potion?"
"No thank you, I will consult Severus regarding a few options." She raised her eyebrows at him and smiled an innocent smile.
With a twinkle behind his glasses, he agreed. She left his office. An hour later found her in the private quarters of the Potion Master, quite asleep and quite naked.
