Chapter Eight - The Last Days at Hogwarts
Easter hadn't exactly been a great time of year for Harry during most of the past seven years. There had always been bad things going on every spring, so it was a nice change to just have a normal, uneventful Easter like every other Witch and Wizard.
Of course, thanks to an abundance of wheezes around school, normal included kids clucking like Easter chickens, or coughing up Easter eggs, among several other cute tricks that George and Lee had cooked up for their customers. The weather had warmed up quite a bit during the week leading up to Easter, and while the school grounds were a bit soupy in places, it was nice to get outside and enjoy the nice early spring days.
Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione had spent the Saturday before Easter getting all of their weekend revision done, and then took the whole day off on Sunday to have fun with their friends. The boys had given Ginny and Hermione boxes of Easter chocolates and stuffed Easter bunnies as gifts before breakfast, and they'd spent most of the afternoon outside. There had been a big Easter feast in the Great Hall for dinner, and then they'd spent a quiet evening snuggled on sofas in the Common Room.
After Easter, it was back to concentrating on their schoolwork for all of the students. The warm weather held, and Harry, Ginny, and their friends took their afternoon and weekend study sessions outside as often as they could. At least a couple of times a week, Harry and Ginny would take Teddy outside for walks by the lake, or to play with him out on the school grounds, which was pretty much the only breaks they took from their studies.
Harry had another fashion show set up for the girls on their Hogsmeade weekend in April, this time for Hermione and Ginny to pick out wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses. Their Mums, and Fleur, met them at Gladrags first thing in the morning, and they spent most of the day playing dress up while the boys did all of the running around to pick up the school supplies and sweets to get them all through until their next Hogsmeade weekend.
Ron continued to crack the whip on the Quidditch team, and he had them practice nearly every day, and he put in extra practices on some of the weekends. Harry was his best mate, and Ginny was his sister, but even they occasionally thought fondly of leading a mutiny against their often over-zealous Quidditch Captain. Hermione had them starting revision for their NEWT exams already, even though they were still nearly two months away, between them, Ron and Hermione had their friends busy day and night.
There were no real opportunities to wine and dine the girls at the school, but Harry made sure that he and Ron took the time and effort to have little surprises for their fiancées. One day it might be a rose at bedtime, and another time, there would be a small gift arriving by Owl Post. One evening Harry sat Teddy down to play with Ginny and then he sat back and watched until she finally noticed the bracelet wrapped three times around his little wrist with a tag that read - 'To Ginny, Love Teddy'.
When Teddy's first birthday arrived, Harry picked him up after classes in the afternoon and took him to the Gryffindor Common Room for a birthday party. He had a cake made that was big enough to feed all of the ravenous teens, and there were drinks, ice cream, and other treats for everyone.
Over the school year, Teddy had become somewhat of an unofficial Gryffindor mascot. At the party, he was given a little Gryffindor Quidditch uniform from the members of the team, a ridiculous number of little toys, and from Harry and Ginny, his first toy broom, which he immediately started blasting around the room on, giggling as the teens alternately chased after him, or dodged out of the way as he zoomed toward them.
When Harry carried a sleeping Teddy back to Professor Tonk's quarters after the party, he put him straight to bed. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had to come with him to carry all of Teddy's gifts. When Andromeda saw the toy broom, she told Harry that she would not be allowing Teddy to fly it in her quarters, and if he was flying when with Harry, that he, Harry, better make sure Teddy was kept safe - or else.
The next Quidditch match of the season was on the first Saturday in May – the first of May. Slytherin was playing against Hufflepuff, and it was the last game of the season for both teams. This game wasn't going to make a difference in the race for the Quidditch Cup, since both teams hadn't won a game yet this season, but they were playing for pride, since one of the teams were going to end up losing all three of their games this year.
Hufflepuff jumped out to an early lead, and were steadily adding points as the game went on. It wasn't looking good for Draco and his Slytherin squad. They hadn't managed to score a single goal, Hufflepuff was up by one hundred and thirty to naught, and it was getting close to the point when the game would be out of reach for them again. Draco caught sight of the snitch, though, and while the Hufflepuff Seeker tried to either outrace him, or at the least, block him, the Slytherin Captain made a fairly spectacular catch to end the game, and give his team the surprising win.
The two teams met on the pitch and shook hands, with many of the spectators stopping by to congratulate them too as they left the stadium. Harry made a point of congratulating Draco on what he personally thought had been the best game Draco had ever played at Hogwarts.
There was certainly a victory party in the Slytherin Common Room after the game, but for Harry, once the game was over, he couldn't help but get caught up in thinking a lot about what had been going on here at the school last year. He and Ginny joined their friends to study all afternoon, and again after dinner, but his thoughts would keep drifting off, and he could tell that Ginny and the others were having the same thing happening to them too.
On Sunday morning, he was up well before dawn, after a restless night that was filled with dreams where he relived everything that happened to him during the Battle of Hogwarts. He went to have a shower, and when he got back to his dorm room, he saw that Ron and Neville were awake and getting dressed too.
"Going somewhere?" Ron asked quietly so as not to wake the other guys. Harry smiled at his best mate and nodded.
"I'm guessing we're all having the same idea," he answered. When they were all ready, they went to the Common Room together, and were met there by Hermione and Ginny. The five Gryffindors left the Common Room, met up with Luna in the entrance hall, and then went outside to walk down to the Memorial Stone.
Harry didn't know who had come up with the idea, but he'd thought it was brilliant. The Memorial Stone had been placed in a nice spot near the lake, and there was a large plaque on the front of it with the names of everyone who had died in the Battle of Hogwarts. It had been there by the time they'd started back to school, and while he didn't go there often, Harry did stop by now and then when he'd been missing his friends, and it had somehow helped a bit.
None of them were surprised to find out that they weren't alone, or the first to arrive, but they were surprised that Molly, Arthur, Bill, and Fleur were there along with Professor McGonagall, Professor Slughorn, and a dozen other Witches and Wizards.
"We didn't know you were coming," Ginny said as she hugged her parents.
"Professor McGonagall is opening the school grounds to anyone who wants to come by and visit the Memorial today," her Mother answered. "We didn't think you'd be up this early, and I didn't want you to feel like you had to lose sleep just to come visit with us."
"Well, I'm really glad we did," Ginny told her. She looked sadly at the Memorial Stone, her gaze going automatically to Fred's name. She'd visited the Memorial too – sometimes with Harry, and a few times on her own. "It doesn't seem like he's been gone a year already," she added, and tears welled up in her eyes. Harry put his arms around Ginny and held her close as the tears began to fall down her cheeks.
"I'm sure he's really happy for all of us," Molly told her daughter, and there were tears in her eyes too. "Remus and Dora would be too."
They stood around, talking quietly about Fred, and the friends they'd lost in the war. Dennis Creevey and his parents joined them, as did Percy, George, and quite a few others. There hadn't been any plans for a Memorial service, so everything was very informal. Harry and Ginny stayed until Molly, Arthur, and the rest of their family left, and then went back to their Common Room until it was time to go to the Great Hall for Breakfast.
It hadn't really needed to be said, but Professor McGonagall reminded all of the students that it was the first anniversary of the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, and advised them that the school grounds would be open for visitors until dinnertime. It was still cooler outside in the morning, so after breakfast, Hermione took her study group to the library to do their homework. They went outside to study in the afternoon, and Harry was surprised at the steady flow of visitors who came to spend a few minutes at the Memorial Stone.
There were three weeks left until the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch match. With exams coming up too, it was strictly back to work for Hermione and her not-always-so-merry study group. Ron kept his Quidditch team working hard too, and by game day, even he couldn't really complain about how ready they were to play.
The Quidditch stadium was filled to overflowing, with three Houses cheering for Ravenclaw, and hoping for an upset. Though both teams were undefeated going into the last game, Gryffindor was the favourite to win, even if the crowd was mostly on their opponent's side. The Gryffindor fans might be outnumbered, but they were a very excited and vocal minority.
There was a bright, clear sky, and it was a warm, perfect day for the game. The match got under way, and the crowd was cheering with every play. Ravenclaw was throwing everything they had at the Gryffindor goals, but Ron was in the zone, and he stopped every shot. The game had been going on for nearly three hours, and the score was one hundred and forty to naught for Gryffindor, when both Harry and the Ravenclaw Seeker spotted the snitch near the ground, and immediately chased after it.
The crowd was screaming their encouragement as the two Seekers closed in on their target. For a moment, it looked like the Ravenclaw Seeker would get there first, since he was underneath Harry, and was blocking Harry from getting low enough to reach the snitch. The Professors, students, and visitors were all momentarily stunned into silence when Harry, rolling upside down on his broom, reached out and grabbed the snitch at the very last second. The stadium erupted in cheers. Despite the lopsided score, it had been an amazing game, where an excellent Ravenclaw team was defeated by an unstoppable Gryffindor effort.
The Gryffindor players had all landed on the pitch, and starting to shake hands with all of the Ravenclaw players when a Wizard approached them. He smiled at Ron and held out his hand to him.
"That was an amazing Keeper performance," he said. "Did you realize that you made ninety-seven saves during that game, son?" Ron shook the offered hand, and shook his head too, looking amazed. "I'm a scout for the Chudley Cannons," the man continued, handing Ron a business card. "I was told I should attend this game because there was a really great Quidditch player I needed to see." Ron's mouth was now hanging open, and the Cannons' scout smiled.
"You and I are going to need to talk later - when I take my report back to the team, I'm sure that they are going to want you to be our Keeper come next season." He turned to Harry and nodded. "My contacts in the Ministry of Magic assure me that you wouldn't be interested in a Professional Quidditch career, Mr. Potter, but if you ever change your mind about that, give us a call."
Harry smiled and nodded. "Thanks," he said, "but I don't think Quidditch would be as much fun for me anymore if I did that." He paused a moment. "If you can wait a while, keep a close eye on Gryffindor's next Seeker. His name's Dennis Creevey, and I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being an even better Seeker than I am." The scout raised his eyebrows in surprise, since he'd seen some pretty great Seekers, and was pretty sure Harry Potter was good enough to play with any of them.
"I'll keep a watch out for him," he promised. "Thanks for the tip." With that, he shook Ron's hand again, and walked away, humming happily to himself. There hadn't been any other team scouts at the game, and he was pretty sure he'd just made the find of his career.
When they had finished changing, Ginny was walking back to the school with Harry. The others had gone on ahead to the party, so they were taking advantage of a rare moment on their own.
"I wonder where that Chudley Cannon's scout heard about a certain talented Quidditch player from?" she asked Harry pointedly.
"I wouldn't want to hazard a guess," he answered with a straight face. Ginny just smiled at him.
"I'm sure you wouldn't," she said, her tone speaking volumes. "Did you hear that the Cannons have a new minority owner?" Harry was having a hard time keeping the grin from his face.
"I'd heard something about it, yeah," he admitted. Ginny stopped and wrapped her arms around him.
"I love you, Harry" she said, hugging him tightly.
"I love you too," he answered, hugging her back.
When they got to the common room, the celebration was already in full swing. Once Ron saw that they had arrived, he called for everyone's attention. He held up the Quidditch Cup, and everyone cheered.
"A big part of the reason we won this season was because of the Gryffindor practice team," Ron told everyone. "If you would all come forward for a moment, please," he continued, inviting Dennis and his team to join him, "your House team has a presentation to make." Ron addressed all of his fellow Gryffindors while he waited for the practice team to make their way over to him.
"For anyone who didn't know, the practice team had an incentive to motivate them to compete hard in the practices against us," he told them, smiling at the members of the practice team as they gathered around him. "The player that performed the best against us would be awarded this Firebolt." There were whistles from some of the Gryffindors who hadn't known about this.
"The winner of the broom was picked unanimously by the house team. During nearly one hundred practice games, she managed to score two hundred and fourteen goals, and was never hit by a bludger. We're all sure that she will be Gryffindor's next great Chaser - Demelza Robins!" Everyone applauded, cheering her as she received her new broom from Ron. "Let's have a cheer for Dennis Creevey, our practice team Captain, and the entire practice team - we couldn't have done this without you!" Everyone cheered again, and the party went back into full swing and lasted late into the night.
June started the same as May ended - with seemingly endless hours of revision while the seventh year students prepared for their NEWT's. The good part of this was that Harry got to spend lots of time with Ginny. The bad news was that they were majoring in study, and very, very much minoring in snogging. When their exams began, though, they were all ready for them.
They had their DADA NEWT first, which they all were sure they aced, even Hermione. There was a NEWT test every other day, and Herbology was the second test. Neville was sure he did great, and everyone else thought they passed. Harry, Hermione, and Ginny were the only students that successfully completed the Potion they had to create for their NEWT practical. Ron was pretty sure he'd bombed that practical, and judging by the explosion he'd made with his potion, there was a chance that he wasn't wrong about that.
They all did well on their Charms and Transfiguration NEWT's, and then Harry and Ron were finished their exams. The girls quickly learned to keep them away as they tried to study for their remaining NEWT exams - it's very hard to concentrate with somebody nibbling on your neck or running their hands through your hair, or whispering suggestions on better ways to spend your time.
This left the boys nearly a whole week to kick back, and totally goof off. When testing finished up for all of the seventh year students, they spent their last few days at Hogwarts celebrating, relaxing, and finally, it was time for the inevitable good-byes.
Harry and Ginny spent quite a bit of time during those last few days walking the grounds at the school. She knew that this had been more of a home to Harry than Privet Drive had ever been, and quietly supported him while he dealt with the feelings he had about leaving that home for the last time. The day arrived for them to take their last train ride from school, and they all boarded the Hogwarts Express at Hogsmeade station with mixed emotions. There was excitement for the future, which was looking to be very bright for Harry and all of his friends, but that was muted a bit with the sense that a part of their lives was coming to an end. When they arrived at King's Cross station, they were met by their families, and the next chapter of their lives was ready to begin.