Author's Note: Hnnng tired

To say that Dumbledore had a lot to catch up on, would be an understatement. When he was called back because Ginny Weasley had been taken into the Chamber itself, he'd been extremely worried. Somehow the whole thing had mostly wrapped itself up by the time he'd gotten there, although he was distraught to say the least when he found out Minerva had been petrified. Then Lockhart, having nothing but his pride left, destroyed Lucius Malfoy's memory by accident and tossed himself out a window. He was still alive when they got to him, but it was hard to say if he'd ever wake up.

The students threw a rather large feast to celebrate the death of the basilisk and the return of Hagrid, but everyone could tell that they were looking at all of the empty seats still around them. The Mandrakes were nearly done, but not quite.

While the students were heading back to their dormitories without a fear in the world, he made his way up to the Hospital Wing, pushing past the dividing curtain to get to the Petrified. Minerva had finally been transported up, and was just now being transferred to the bed.

Narcissa stayed with her son while her husband and Lockhart were taken to St. Mungos, and Hoenheim 'sat' on a chair between both of his sons, Edwards arm clicking around like it was excited about the new development.

While the underclassman exams were canceled, O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s still had to be completed. There was no O.W.L's for Alchemy since it was a new class, although it was expected for this year's first years to be able to take them their fifth year. Lucian Bole was permitted to take his owls at the beginning of next year because of his petrification, giving him the summer to catch up on everything, and his parents already gave their permission if he wanted to stay at the school during the summer as most teachers stayed anyway, with the obvious exception of the Defense position.

"Ah Dumbledore," Poppy greeted. "It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," he agreed, "Any official word on the Mandrakes?"

"Still a little bit to go… Pomona's thinking end of May, beginning of June…" She frowned, "Mandrakes just aren't all that popular to grow, they take a lot of time and effort, she's done her best to find someone that has some fully grown but…"

"Five weeks…" he muttered to himself. "Well… now that the danger's passed, we don't have to worry about the petrified being attacked."

"I'm sure they have some people who want to see them," Poppy agreed.

While some of the students still celebrated and others resumed studying for their exams, he had to deal with the Ministry of Magics investigation. Everyone who went down into the Chamber of Secrets had to be interviewed, Harry and Dobby were interviewed about what happened to Lucius Malfoy, and any teacher involved in the pursuit of Gilderoy Lockhart was also questioned.

All in all, it was a tidy but week long investigation, but with a few added testimonies from the paintings in the castle, everything wrapped up nicely. Hagrid was officially pardoned from the attacks fifty years prior, and Tom Riddle's plaque was finally taken out of the trophy room. Since Hagrid was finally allowed to do magic once more, Alphonse Elric got in touch with Ollivander, and soon enough his wand was in perfect condition once more.

Transfigurations classes, much like alchemy, and Defense were technically canceled, but after all, he'd been the transfigurations professor once. He had to brush himself off a bit, but students admitted it wasn't a waste of their time, which was all he could ask for. The other 'class' seemed to be going just as well.

The Defense class however, was completely empty, whatever of Lockhart's belongings hadn't been taken by the ministry or st. Mungos had been vandalized with various forms of magic. Several Lockharts from his paintings had escaped the classroom into the rest of the castle, but most of them had somehow been fitted with attractive mustaches and beards, and one of them had been turned completely purple. Most of them were hiding behind curtains in the older paintings, clearly too vain about their appearances to ever come out into the light.

The Alchemy room looked much like a common room at this point, the windows were open now that it was warm outside, and the few kids who had been learning fabric alchemy had fused all of the pillows together into bean bags while no one was looking. Robes were hung up on hooks that quite literally came out from the wall.

Alphonse Elric had been collecting alchemy gloves all week, most students didn't need them now that the danger had passed, and they weren't all that comfortable to wear now that the weather was heating up. The Weasley twins notably, had kept theirs. Of course Filch demanded they'd be banned, since technically the students could create secret passages with them, but he decided not to implement that until next year. The children deserved to have their fun.

Severus, as always applied for the Defense Position, and he, as always, opened up the potions position for interviews. He already had an idea for who to seek out this year however.

"The staff table is… quiet," Severus added quietly at dinner. All of the teachers slid in to fill the empty seats, but that didn't hide the fact that three of them were gone.

"Why Severus, is that your way of admitting you miss them?" Dumbledore asked slyly. Severus responded by stabbing his steak with a fork.

"I certainly don't miss Lockhart," he added a moment later.

"I think you'll miss hating him," Dumbledore joked, Severus gave a signature dark grin.

"How much longer?" He asked quietly.

"Four weeks."

The Mandrakes were calming down from their partying days, but they hadn't begun to move into each other's pots. Pomona suspected they would need at least twelve to be matured to have enough for the brew. Narcissa Malfoy admitted that she couldn't find any through her husbands 'connections' either.

"He might've looked as well but… he hadn't seemed too concerned about the matter," she said quietly, sitting on the bed with her son. "Angry of course but… never concerned."

"How is his condition?" He asked.

"He's… still about the same… he's aware I suppose, but he introduces himself again every time," she admitted, "He's happy though… I never said that often before, but he seems happy as he is. The nurses seem to think he'll recover slowly over time but…"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Never look to the past, never look to the future, you have to stay in the moment," she warned, "In the moment I have to wait for my son, and take care of our affairs," she rubbed her son's knee affectionately.

"Of course Narcissa…" He agreed, "If you need anything, just let us know."

"I will Albus. I will," she said softly as he got up.

The Hospital Wing was quiet that night, the other parents had returned to their rooms, either in the castle or in Hogsmeade, and Edward's metal limbs had been quiet since the Basilisk was killed. Whether it was connected or the limbs had finally succumbed to the petrification, no one knew.

He heard her turn to her son as he left and whisper, "Besides, Lockhart got the worse end of the deal didn't he."

The first two Mandrakes matured on St. Patrick's day ironically enough, Pomona only noticing when she reached into a pot and found it empty. She found the pot with the two mandrakes entwined together soon enough, and set the large pot off to the side.

"Early bloomers of course, a batch always has a few… I'll have to start checking the pots daily now," Pomona explained over lunch. The second years, of course, first to hear the news, were happily telling the rest of their classmates.

"Nice try snake-ass, can't keep the fist of justice down for long!" The Weasley twins cheered.

"LANGUAGE!" One of the Ravenclaws cried in response.

"MAKE US!"

"It appears those children however, will never mature," Pomona joked.

Albus sat in on the Alchemy 'class' one of his free blocks. Alphonse had adjusted to teaching, not quite like his brother had, but the children still seemed to like him.

Most of his students had already begun getting the end of the year laziness, and he'd accommodated to that, apparently doing a different kind of bizarre, but simple alchemy every class instead. Today's lesson, appeared to be some type of the Weasley's 'Firework' alchemy, producing an effect that made the room look like it was filled with lightning bugs.

Ginny Weasley seemed absolutely delighted by the effect, after a year in darkness.

"Oh yeah Dumbledore," Alphonse waved to get his attention, "Did you ever figure out whether alchemy set off their under-age restrictions for magic?"

"I believe your little demonstration showed up more as a use of accidental-magic, but," he paused, "I would treat it like you would magic as an adult. Don't use it in front of muggles, don't use it if you don't have to," he explained warmly. Naturally the children seemed to accept that as 'don't do it outside of the house,' by the excited looks on their faces.

"Alright, and only stone and wood alchemy, anything else you've been learning out of class you'll have to talk to me about later," he added, and a few children pouted. "I know but those are the only two official types you learned," he reasoned.

"How long until Professor Ed's back?" One of the hufflepuff girls asked. Ginny Weasley looked down at transmutation circle guiltily.

"One or two weeks," Dumbledore answered. "The Mandrakes are maturing quickly now."

One of the other Hufflepuff boys apparently had a lot more of the base material he was supposed to, and suddenly the room was full of yellow light.

Hoenheim the ghost was sitting by his son again. Narcissa for once, wasn't at her sons side, and was instead at a meeting with one of her family's lawyers. Heather May's parents were snoozing on each other's shoulders quietly.

"Dumbledore," he greeted.

"Only a few days left I think, we're just waiting on two more," he said.

"That's good," the man agreed as he took a seat.

"I'm afraid I didn't talk to Edward that often, I don't know all that much about him. He did tell me the… bare essentials," Dumbledore questioned.

"I don't know him all that well either… I left when Edward was five and Alphonse was four. There was something bad happening, and I had to leave as soon as possible. When I had nearly finished my work I came back home… And I found my wife dead, my house burnt to the ground, my eldest son mutilated, and my youngest was nearly half human. But I wasn't done with my work yet…"

"So you left again," Dumbledore realized.

"I had to. They got separated a year later, and I came across Alphonse and later Edward when he returned."

"Edward left his brother?" He questioned. Based on the older brothers reluctance to ever leave Alphonse alone before the school year started, it seemed unlikely.

"Edward got badly injured, and sent Alphonse ahead with several of their friends. The civil dispute got worse and worse and by the time it ended, I lost them again. I died shortly after that I believe."

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't be, I made my decisions and they made theirs. I was the same way as Ed when I was younger, I wouldn't've forgiven me either," He admitted. The man, just as Narcissa, did not seem to want his pity.

"Of course," He apologized.

"There's a lot I have to tell him," Hoenheim mumbled to himself before suddenly dropping straight through the floor.

He filed away the conversation with the eccentric ghost as he got up, taking one long last look at Minerva before leaving.