Jen was handing the SRU fake passports. They were in the great hall three days after the incident and Sam did not want to get back to Canada through the Soul Society. Neither did the rest of the SRU for that matter. After they had found out Jen completely disobeyed her captain and met Byakuya Kuchiki himself they were keen to avoid anything that might cause trouble. Jen had agreed to take care of getting the team the proper travel papers in exchange that they stay in England to watch her team walk at graduation.
Later that day Risa was outside lounging by the lake trying to add some color to her pale complexion before she had to don the black graduation robe that would pale her out more. Jake was skipping rocks along the lake's glassy surface and further along Jen was sparring Renji and winning by the sound of it. Life at Hogwarts seemed almost normal despite the fact the paper had come out blatantly saying "Voldemort is back, the Ministry of Magic is a pathetic excuse for government" in big black letters.
To cap off the happy feeling before the entire fiasco at the Ministry, Harry and Hermione had managed to run Umbridge into the forest and she ended up being attacked by a heard of Centaurs. Dumbledore had waltzed into the forest and saved her sorry backside and now she was refusing to tell. Jake was upset because he didn't have a hand in the whole operation but was able to get his revenge when Umbridge tried to flee the school during dinner one evening. He got into the DJ booth and blasted Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" through the school as his final parting gift. The rest of the school had gone up to pelt her with toilet paper, and pink sharpies and Jack had managed to get his hands on a fire hose which the SRU and Toshiro confiscated before the energetic san seki could pull anything off with it.
It was too soon that Risa was named Valedictorian of the Hogwarts Class of 2010 and Jake the Salutatorian and they both were given the task of coming up with speeches and picking a keynote speaker.
Before the end of the term it was time for the senior class to don their caps and gowns and walk up the Great Hall and sit where the staff usually sat in order to accept the fact that they survived seven years at one of the most insane schools in all of England.
The students lined up in the foyer each of them helping someone adjust their tassel or blend some eye shadow or in Jen's case keeping Risa from hyperventilating or throwing up. Jake seemed to be at ease with the entire thing. He sat at the base of the Grand staircase staring up at the high arched ceiling.
Dumbledore stood up at the podium where his big chair usually stood and held up his hand silencing the crowd.
"This year has been a difficult one," he began. "We started in turmoil and disarray and now we are about to enter a war within the wizarding world. That should not deter the fact that the eighty students who are to appear in a moment are to become members of society. They have studied for seven years, progressing and fighting their own battles. A graduation ceremony is often called a commencement ceremony because it is now when these students close a chapter in their lives to begin a new one. Ladies and Gentlemen I present you the Hogwarts class of 2010."
The traditional graduation march began leaving Risa and Jake to lead their class through the Great Hall to begin the ceremony. Every student was wearing a black gown with a black graduation cap. Risa and Jake sat in the front where everyone could see them. The SRU was sitting in the first few rows of the audience with half of the G-13 behind them.
When the entire class was situated Dumbledore called Jake up to the podium to give his speech.
"Hello there," Jake said into the microphone, his tassel swinging all over the place. "I'm Jacob Ryan Emmerson, HW class of 2010's Salutatorian… I kinda found out I needed to make a speech last night so…here goes: Friends, Englishmen, my fellow Canadians lend me your ears, four score and seven years ago we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union must make the world a safe place for Democracy because we have nothing to fear but fear itself so yes we can!"
His words met with silence and nobody not even Izuru could tell where Jake was going with this.
"Now, you may think that I'm throwing things together here but if you listen closely every phrase serves its purpose. 'Friends, countrymen my fellow Romans lend me your ears' William Shakespeare, obviously I deviated because we don't have countrymen and Romans we have Englishmen and Canadians but moving on…The Ministry of Magic has been hiding the fact that You-know-who is back for over a year now and last week finally decided to tell us. 'Fourscore and seven years ago' Abraham Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address…granted I threw that in for dramatic effect but still… 'We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union,' the US constitution ok so we're not the US but still we need to band together. 'Must make the world a safe place for Democracy' Woodrow Wilson. The era we as wizards are about to enter is a dark one. With him back we will be thrown into a dictatorship so harsh the likes of which have not been seen since the Second World War. Democracy…not dictatorship is what will help us carry on. 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself' Franklin Roosevelt. If we band together to form the perfect union with democracy then we can work out the issues and not have to be afraid. You may think I speak of Utopia but this simple dream is not impossible. Can we do it? 'Yes we can' Barak Obama."
Jake sat down next to Risa. His speech was impressive but then again Jake always liked to surprise people. He seemed to be in a good mood and Risa didn't feel like bursting his bubble by pointing out that they were in England and that every person he had just quoted was American…except Shakespeare.
Dumbledore got up to the podium and called up Kenpachi Zaraki. After much debate and argue Risa and Jake decided to finish their year with a bang and chose Jake's former captain, Kenpachi Zaraki of D-11 to be the Keynote speaker.
"I'm not good at this speechmaking shit so here goes," Kenpachi started. He was wearing (gasp) a tuxedo and Yachiru was sitting behind the SRU keeping herself busy by poking Sam in the back of the head.
"My former subordinate called me in to make a speech at his graduation. And I said 'what the hell' so basically I'm gonna tell you all about war. War is a time of gruesome bloodshed and all of you are gonna be involved in it…"
Ok, so maybe they had one last prank up their sleeve…as Kenpachi rambled on about war Risa made eye contact with Jushiro, the real keynote speaker and he came up and saved the audience from being completely grossed out.
"Hello everyone," Jushiro said jovially waving to the crowd. "Arisa Jake asked me to speak so I had to come up with a speech. When I came to Hogwarts this year to teach I didn't know what I'd be getting myself into. I realized that many of you have no work ethic but other than that I saw two groups of students, the ones who wanted to learn to defend and the ones that wanted an easy hundred. That's when I realized the difference between them. The ones wanting to learn proper defense were those who did not believe the propaganda circulating the school. They followed their own paths and now I see many of them sitting behind me. Follow your own path and believe what you feel is right. This has been a hard year for all of you but keep your heads up you have done well. So to the class of 2010 to make dreams a reality: Gambatte!"
Jushiro gave a small bow and walked back to his seat taking everyone by surprise. Jake's speech was longer but still. Dumbledore stood up again.
"Now I would like to present the awards to the students."