"CRACK." "CRACK." "CRACK." Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny stood watching as the final visitors disapparated one by one. McGonagall had lowered the defenses once again after breakfast, and, with lots of hugging and tearful "goodbyes," the visitors had gathered on the lawn and vanished one after the other.

The last one to leave was George. For him, leaving was the hardest. During the last few days at Hogwarts, he had been hanging out with his friends and family, playing Quidditch, borrowing Ron's Wizarding Brickbreaker, and playing Elf Lawn Bowling when the elves were on their breaks from work.

Hermione had been responsible for the breaks. She had told McGonagall that, in addition to paying the elves and giving them vacation time, she should give them all free time every day just to relax or have fun. McGonagall agreed that this was a good idea, but she dreaded the negotiation. The negotiation had gone something like this:

"You are all going to have a certain amount of free time every day just to relax or have fun."

"Okay," said one elf. "I have an idea. I think we should each get zero minutes. That seems fair."

McGonagall sighed. "I think you should each get one free hour at breakfast time, one free hour at lunchtime, one free hour at dinner time, and an extra hour in the afternoon to do whatever you want. And after 7 pm, you will all be free to do whatever you want until 6 am the next day."

"I have a better idea," said another elf. "How about if we each get one minute free each day and have to work hard the rest of the time?"

McGonagall groaned. "This negotiation is over," she said. "The schedule is going to be what I said. You're going to have free time. You're going to have time to relax. You're going to have fun. Get used to it." And she turned on her heels and left.

When the elves found themselves all of a sudden with lots of free time, and realized they weren't all that great at having fun, they had turned to George Weasley for help. The elves had the sense from having watched him for many years that George was actually very good at having fun. George suggested to them that they try lawn bowling. The elves liked the idea, but they had an innovation. Instead of using bowling pins, they used elves. And instead of using bowling balls, they used elves. Ten elves would stand in formation like bowling pins. The bowlers would roll elves up into balls, and use the rolled-up elf balls to try to knock over as many elf pins as they could. The elves didn't mind being rolled or being knocked over. In fact, they thought that was the most fun part. They agreed that whoever won a game got to be a ball or a pin in the next game. George just shook his head, and laughed, saying over and over again: "You crazy elves."

During the few days of Camp Hogwarts, he tried to spend as much time with Ron and Ginny as he could. Often he would find Ron and Hermione, or Ginny and Harry, alone together. George would come up to them and say things like, "So Ginny, do you think you can stop snogging Harry long enough to spend a little time with your big brother?" Or "Hermione, I think your lips are getting irritated. Maybe you should go find some chapstick while Ron and I hang out together." Ron laughed. Hermione snarled, waved her wand, muttered something, and the largest tube of chapstick Ron had ever seen appeared out of the blue right over George's head and hovered there with the bright red gooey chapstick sticking out of the open end. When George looked up to see what Ron was staring at, Hermione muttered something else, and the chapstick dropped right on George's face, leaving a large gob of red chapstick on his nose and forehead. Ron and Hermione laughed. George wiped it off his face, rubbed a little on his lips, licked his lips, and said, "Strawberry! Yum. Well-played, Hermione. They haven't invented a spell our little Hermione can't do." Hermione glared at George pretending to be miffed, but she was flattered that George had appreciated her quick-witted mischievous use of magic.

So George had spent a few days full of distractions. But he knew that once he disapparated away from Hogwarts, the painful reality was going to hit him hard. Since the first time he had set foot at Hogwarts almost nine years earlier, he had arrived at Hogwarts each time and left each time with his brother Fred. He and Fred had just arrived together several days earlier in time for the great battle. But now, for the first time in his life, he was going to leave Hogwarts without his twin brother. He was about to apparate to Diagon Alley by himself to run Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes – the store that he had dreamed about with Fred for so many years. They had dreamed it together and built it together. And once the store opened, the reality of it had been just as good as the dream. They loved working there together. They couldn't imagine a more fun way to make a living. And now that he was about to return to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes by himself, he knew the fact that his twin brother was gone forever was going to feel more real and more painful. So he was delaying his departure as long as possible. He was dreading it. The others understood.

"So will you send me owls?"

"All the time," said Ron.

"Every day," said Ginny.

"Sure you will." said George laughing. "You'll forget about me and go back to your snogging the second I pop out of here. Just let me know occasionally what's going on here at Hogwarts, will ya? The last few months before graduation are supposed to be a real hoot. You guys can get away with anything. The professors don't enforce the rules too much for seventh years who are about to graduate."

"You didn't exactly wait until your seventh year to break the rules," said Ginny.

"Righto," said George. "I guess the three of you didn't either," he said, turning to Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Guys, make sure Ginny doesn't cause too much trouble. Remember, she's only a sixth year. She needs to last at Hogwarts for a whole year more, even if you guys are about to be set free."

"I'll make sure she doesn't get into any trouble," said Harry.

Ginny started to protest while George laughed. "You will? Your middle name is 'trouble'. Have you noticed that you tend to attract trouble? For example, powerful dark wizards tend to make killing you their life's goal. That is, when house elves aren't trying to kill you during Quidditch matches."

"Not kill. He just wanted to maim or seriously injure me," said Harry, smiling, and thinking about Dobby.

"Righto. Maim or seriously injure. That is when you're not fighting mountain trolls."

"Okay, I get your point," said Harry, laughing. "Things are going to be different now. The crazy times are over. We're just going to be regular Hogwarts students."

"Mmm."

George was ready to leave. He wanted to make a joke before he left. He said the first thing he could think of: "Well, guys, I guess I won't be able to fool mum anymore. She's going to know I'm George."

Everyone smiled, but nobody laughed. They all walked over to George, put their arms around him and gave him a big hug. Finally, he said, "Okay folks, stand back, here I go."

He closed his eyes tightly, furrowed his brow, and said, "Definition, Delineation, and Dreadfulness. No, its Decadence, Dastardliness and Delay. No, wait, its Drunkenness, Dapperness and Desire. I know, its Dizziness, Dimwittedness, and Daffodils. I can never remember."

Everyone laughed. And, with a "CRACK," George was gone.

Lunch had been quiet. The Great Hall was almost empty. The only students left at Hogwarts were the seventh years who had remained for the battle of Hogwarts, and a few others. They were scattered around the Great Hall, eating in small groups at different tables. It reminded Harry of the Christmas vacations he had spent at Hogwarts rather than go home to the Dursleys.

Home. Some home it had been, Harry thought. The memories of his childhood, the cabinet under the stairs, the lousy birthdays, being locked in his room, being hungry much of the time, being picked on and yelled at, flashed through Harry's mind. Then he thought about Aunt Petunia. For the first time since the night of the great battle, he was thinking about Snape's memories he had viewed in the pensieve that night. He finally understood why Aunt Petunia had been so hard on him for all those years. She had lost her younger sister Lily to the wizarding world. Until Petunia had turned 13 and Lily had turned 11, they had always been together. But when Lily had been accepted to Hogwarts, Petunia couldn't go with her. She had been shut out of her sister's world. Petunia had been so angry, and her anger had turned to hatred - hatred of wizarding, the thing that had been denied to her and taken her sister away from her.

But, Harry realized, in one very important sense it really had been his home. As Dumbledore had explained to him, he had been protected from Voldemort for all those years for as long as 4 Privet Drive had been his home. The place had made him so miserable. And yet it had kept him safe. By making 4 Privet Drive Harry's home, the Dursleys had saved his life. That didn't make the memory of his life with the Dursleys less miserable for Harry. It just made it confusing. Harry remembered that, near the end, Dudley had actually started to seem just a bit human. "Big-D," Harry thought, and chuckled. For a moment, he wondered where the Dursleys had gone and when he would ever see them again. Then, he decided that he didn't care all that much. He had spent enough time thinking about 4 Privet Drive and the Dursleys. The Dursleys were his past. His future was sitting at the table. He looked up at Ginny. Ginny seemed lost in thought herself.

Saying goodbye to everyone had been emotional, and now all of them, not just Harry, were lost in their own thoughts. Hermione was thinking about her parents. She had actually made them forget they had a daughter. For the entire past year, Hermione hadn't known if she would ever see her parents again. She had felt so alone. Maybe that's why it had been so hard for her when Ron had left. She had felt as if Harry and Ron were her only family. And now she had her parents back. And now they were gone again. But she'd see them again at graduation.

Ron and Ginny were both thinking about George. They knew that they would both miss Fred so much. He was a great brother. He liked to tease, but he always looked out for his family. And he could always find the humor in any situation. Nothing could stay serious for long with Fred around. But they weren't thinking about how much they would miss Fred. They were thinking about how much George would.

Fred was like George's other half. They had been closer than best friends since they were born. Ron and Ginny loved hearing stories about when Fred and George were babies. Their favorite story was about how their parents would put Fred and George in separate cribs in the same room. In the morning, they would find them in the same crib together. They weren't old enough to sit up or roll over, much less climb out of their cribs. One night, when Arthur and Molly went into the room to check on them in the middle of the night, the mystery was solved. They found Baby Fred, sound asleep, floating in the air into George's crib. "They even love each other in their sleep," said Molly with a smile and a little tear in her eye.

The meal had been very quiet, with everyone lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Harry broke the silence. Turning to Ron, who was shoveling a spoonful of pudding into a mouth that was already filled with cookies, he said: "Hey, mate. This is our last afternoon of Camp Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Express will be back with everyone else by dinner time. What do you want to do?"

"Want to go for a swim in the lake?" suggested Ron.

Hermione and Ginny both shook their heads. "It's still too cold out for swimming," said Hermione. "Why don't we go down to visit Hagrid. Once classes start we never have much time to visit him."

Everyone agreed, and they started getting up from the table when Ron waved his hand to get their attention since his mouth was too full of food for him to talk. Unfortunately, his hand was holding a fork with a piece of apple pie on it. The pie flew off Ron's fork, across the table, hit Hermione on her cheek and stuck to it. "Nice one, Ron," said Hermione, scraping pie off her face.

"Sorry."

Hermione put some of the pie from her cheek into her mouth. "This pie is pretty good," she said to Ron. "I think I'll have the rest of your piece." Hermione waved her wand, and Ron's pie plate flew across the table and settled in front of her.

"Hey!" said Ron. But he thought better of dueling with Hermione across the table, and got himself another piece of pie.

"By the way," asked Hermione. "Why were you waving your hand wildly like that anyway?"

"I was just trying to get you guys to sit back down and stay awhile. This dessert is good. I was planning to have a piece of chocolate cake after I finish the apple pie, the pudding and the cookies. I couldn't talk because my mouth was full."

Ginny laughed. "Yeah, Ron's always watching his table manners."

Everyone laughed. "Fine, laugh all you want," said Ron, "but this dessert is REALLY good."

"You know something," Harry said. "The food at Hogwarts has always been pretty good, but it's been even better these days. Not just the desserts. I've been noticing that I'm really enjoying everything just a bit more. Those eggs this morning. They were fried just perfectly. Not too soft, not too crispy, not too hot, not too cold, just salty enough. They were the best eggs I ever had. And the gravy we had last night, my mouth was tingling when I ate it. It was sort of like the regular gravy, but there was something special about it."

"You're right," said Ginny. "And did you notice the toast at breakfast? You know how when you grab toast, you're always hoping you'll get a good piece? Sometimes it can be a little too dark, or even burnt. Or sometimes it doesn't get toasted enough and its soft and its hard to butter without tearing it? And sometimes by the time it appears on the table it's kind of cold? Lately, all the toast has been perfect. Warm, a little soft, a little crispy, lightly browned without being burned. I've never had such good toast in my life!"

"Good morning, professor," said Harry. The other three looked up, and they saw McGonagall standing by the table watching them. She had an unusual smile on her face.

"Good morning," said McGonagall. "I've been listening to your conversation. I see you've noticed."

"What's going on, professor?" asked Ginny. "Why is all the food sooooo good?"

"That's a very good question, Ginny. Why do you think?"

"That's not fair," said Ron, with a smile. "Classes don't start until tomorrow. Ginny shouldn't have to think today."

Professor McGonagall laughed. "Five points for Gryffindor if one of you can answer the question."

They all looked at her. After what they had been through, winning five points, even winning the House Cup, didn't seem all that exciting. But they were intrigued. And they all started to think.

"Miss Granger?" said McGonagall.

"Yes?"

"I should think that you would know."

Hermione looked puzzled. She thought some more. Why should Hermione of all people know. Ron was the one who liked food the most. Then Hermione burst out into a gigantic smile.

"It looks like Ms. Granger has figured it out," said McGonagall. "Why don't you tell your friends?"

Everyone looked at her.

"It's the elves," said Hermione.

"What elves?" asked Ron.

"The kitchen elves."

"What about them?"

"They're free."

"So?"

"Don't you understand?" said Hermione. "Until now, they were slaves. They had to do all of the cooking. They had no choice. They did it because they were supposed to. They worked hard at it. And they did it pretty well. But… now…"

Hermione looked at McGonagall, as if to ask: "Am I getting it right?"

McGonagall smiled at her and nodded. "Go on, Ms. Granger."

"But now they have a choice. They do the cooking because they want to. They're free. They…" She hesitated again, and looked at McGonagall to make sure she was explaining it right. McGonagall just smiled and nodded.

Hermione went on. "Dumbledore once said, 'Freedom makes the heart soar.'"

"Sounds like him," said Ron. "He always said mental stuff like that."

Hermione ignored him. "Their hearts are soaring," said Hermione. "They're doing the cooking with soaring hearts. That's why the food tastes so good. The elves aren't just cooking with their hands and their minds anymore. They're putting their hearts into it."

"You said it perfectly, Ms. Granger."

"That's amazing," said Ginny. "I've heard the expression, 'The sweet taste of freedom.' But I always thought it was just an expression. I never imagined you could actually taste it. But we can actually taste freedom?"

McGonagall smiled and nodded.

"Wow!" said Ron, turning to Hermione. "If I knew the food would get this good, I would have taken your S.P.E.W. thing more seriously."

"If you had taken my S.P.E.W. thing more seriously," said Hermione with a smile, "you might not have had to wait so long to snog me."

Harry and Ginny laughed.

"There's a lesson in this for you children," said McGonagall. "Three of you will be graduating soon, and Ginny, your time will come in just another year. You're all going to have to decide what to do with your lives after graduation. So take a lesson from the kitchen elves. Whatever you each choose to do, make sure you choose something that makes your heart soar. If you do, you won't just be happier. You'll also do it better."

McGonagall looked at Hermione. "Miss Granger?"

"Yes."

"You understand, don't you, that the lives of elves will never be the same? Freedom, once it is unleashed, cannot be contained. It may have started here at Hogwarts, but over time it will spread. You didn't just change life for elves at Hogwarts. Over time, Ms. Granger, your work will change the world."

Hermione didn't say anything. She understood. She thought of all the S.P.E.W. badges she had made. All the little clothes she had hidden. Most people had thought she was being silly. Even she felt a little silly doing it some of the time. She had done it even though it felt silly because she thought it was the right thing to do. She had never really believed her work was going to change anything. But now she realized that she had changed everything. The enormity of what she had done overwhelmed her, and she didn't say anything. She just looked at McGonagall, and nodded.

"Hermione. I'm proud of you," said McGonagall. She turned on her heels to leave. Then she looked back at Hermione. "Take five points for Gryffindor," she said with a smile, and turned and walked away.

A/N: More chapters coming up.