A/N: After much frustration, much contemplation, and one final rush of inspiration, I present to you the final chapter of The Great Hogwarts Hunt. I hope that any and all of you who have been following from the beginning enjoy it, and that those who find it later do the same. As always, the Potterverse belongs to JK Rowling; I merely rejoice at getting to play with it every now and then.
About 10 minutes after the Room shut, Susan Bones and Megan Jones ran to where they knew the Come-And-Go Room should be. After pacing in front of the wall three times, a metal door with no visible handle appeared with a note attached to it.
"My great apologies to whomever may be reading this note, but it seems you did not make enough haste to this location. You have missed the final cutoff, and have been eliminated. Please return to the Great Hall at this time.
Signed, the Huntmaster"
A thoroughly disappointed Susan and Megan slumped against the wall for a moment. The metal door slowly faded back into the wall, though the attached note fell off the door before it disappeared entirely. Seeing nothing else for it, Megan picked up the parchment and shuffled back to the Great Hall along with Susan, where the rest of the school watched the Final Task already underway.
Meanwhile, inside the Come-And-Go Room, the seven remaining teams had already begun work on their final task, a presentation to be made in front of their peers, the Huntmaster (who would reveal his identity once a winner was chosen, as per Hunt tradition), and a few distinguished guests from the British Ministry of Magic, including Minister Amelia Bones, the Director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Kingsley Shacklebolt, Algernon Croaker from the Department of Mysteries, and Arthur Weasley from the recently created Department of Non-Magical Cooperation. The presentation each team would be making was on the topic of how best to reveal the existence of the magical world to their non-magical counterparts, a task the Department of Non-Magical Cooperation had already made its primary mission.
Harry and Lavender advocated for small integrations, slowly blending the magic and non-magic worlds until enough people were aware and accepting that the existence of magic could be accepted as a fait accompli. Their plan was well-thought out, but was unfortunately light on details. Nevertheless, it was applauded when completed.
Hannah and Theodore were next, and their idea was to simply step out into the open as soon as possible. Their logic was that non-magical folk already had a good idea of what magic was like based on popular literature and movies, and so they would have mostly excited reactions to learning that some of the things they believed to be impossible were in fact true. The approach was deemed "bold, but potentially intriguing" and was also applauded.
The third presentation, that of Ron and Hermione, went a long way towards extolling many different ways the cultural merge could work, but ultimately could not decide on which one would be best. The panel, while suitably impressed by the amount of work done and ideas presented, looked mildly disappointed that no clear best was identified. The now obligatory applause followed, but was noticeably muted.
Following them, the team of Dean and Millicent presented a throughly novel idea to most of the panel: begin by integrating students at young ages, so that by the time those groups reached adulthood, the idea of magical and non-magical learning more about the world together was simply the way things were done. It would likely mean the closing of some of the older, traditional schools like Hogwarts, but would be much easier than trying to force adults to work together from the start. A stunned silence greeted the end of their idea, before raucous cheers and applause were heard from the assembled.
The fifth team, that of Daphne and Tracy, simply could not conceive of the idea being undertaken at the present time, and were rather apologetic in saying that they had no solution. Minister Bones walked up to the girls, thanked them for doing their best anyway, and told them there was no shame in not being able to present an answer for the improbable task they had been given. After all, that was why the Department asking for their help had been created in the first place.
The penultimate presentation, that of Neville and Vincent Crabbe, made liberal use of large sheets of parchment, and was distinctly heard to mention the phrase "plant-based economy", but beyond that was utterly incomprehensible to everyone but the presenters. There was some scattered applause when they finished talking, but most simply blinked slowly until their higher brain functions had been restored.
Finally, Padma and Sally-Anne presented an idea quite similar to that of Dean and Millicent, but with a slightly different beginning point: that of post-Hogwarts students, where they would take courses at University and make in-roads there. It was noted that the idea was somewhat self-serving, as both girls had already considered taking such an option themselves, but not wanting to be left out of one of the magical world's greatest points in history was considered a fine excuse. They, like all the others, received applause for their efforts.
With all the ideas now presented, the panel of guests met with the Huntmaster to determine who would be crowned as the winners of the Hunt. It took the panel well over half an hour to eventually come to a decision, but they eventually retook their seats, save for Minister Bones, who stepped to the front of the presentation area.
"I speak for many when I express my congratulations to all of you for making it here, and my thanks for giving us some ideas as to how you see the world of the future. Director Weasley has already begun planning how to use some of the more creative ideas together, and you might have influenced a few more inner workings of the Ministry than you may realize with your brilliance. I know of at least one of you who has a personal visit coming from Mr. Croaker over there, but I'll not spoil that for you right now.
And while it has been a long journey from the start to this point, only one team can be given the trophy and have their names added to the long list of past winners. So, without further adieu, I present to you the winners of the one hundred and forty-first Hogwarts Hunt… Dean Thomas and Millicent Bulstrode!"
The Huntmaster handed the trophy over to the winning team before dropping his hood and shaking both of their hands. "Well done, Mr. Thomas! Well done, Miss Bulstrode!" said Professor Flitwick joyfully.
Their fellow competitors soon followed suit, shaking hands with the winners before giving way to a photographer from the Daily Prophet, who took a picture of Dean, Millicent, and Minister Bones for the next day's frontpage.
The celebrations continued on late into the night (and for more than just a few teams, those celebrations were close, personal affairs), and when dawn returned to Hogwarts, it found many new beginnings just waiting to move forward.
The End