A/N: Thank you so much to cleotheo, meadow-music, Team Dramione, princesspay10, gjasmine59 and strezman for your reviews on chapter five! :)

I know that this chapter might be a bit melancholy in tone at times but I just wanted to capture the characters reactions to the fact that ten years of their lives have vanished, nobody can just calmly accept that ten years of their lives are gone and just move on, I hope that I managed to express that here.

And don't worry, Hermione and Draco will be making an appearance very soon, as will the other characters that were not trapped in Hogwarts.

RxExR! :)

Pictures on a Wall

Chapter 6 - Returning to Hogwarts

The mood in the carriage was sombre and downcast as the Hogwarts Express sped back to the castle after the New Year. All of the inhabitants were lost deep in their thoughts, which were occupied by the things that they had learnt of over the holidays.

Ron was flat out refusing to talk to anyone, let alone even look at them. He was angry, but in a way that he had never been before. Not only was he angry at Hermione, which was understandable since she had basically fallen in love with and married his greatest enemy, but he was also angry at himself for letting Hermione go, because in a sense, that was what he had done. He had agreed to break off their relationship before she left to find her parents while thinking of all the experiences he would be able to get before getting back together with her and settling down in the way that he had always dreamed of. But by letting her go, he had also given her permission in a way to do exactly what he had done himself, which was to broaden their horizons and look at other people besides each other.

He now wondered what would have happened if he had disagreed, if he had refused to break it off and had told her that he would wait for her no matter how long she took. Would she have waited for him, just as he had waited for her without realising it until it was too late? Would she still be in love with him then, knowing that he was waiting for her no matter what?

It was this sense of doubt in himself and the whole situation that made him so angry. He had thought he was past the whole self-depreciation and doubting stage but it seemed that he hadn't moved on at all. He was still stuck exactly where he had been his whole life and it annoyed the living daylights out of him.

And after thinking about it (and many long walks in the cold snow) he realised that he might have acted the same way as Hermione, had he found someone that he loved more than her. He still vaguely remembered something that Hermione had told him once upon a time and now that he thought about it, she might have been subtly hinting at the fact that she didn't love him that way anymore. It went something like this: If you have to choose between two people that you are in love with, choose the second because, how could you have fallen in love with them if you still loved the first equally?

But he was absolutely and most certifiably mad at Malfoy. It was probably a good decision on Hermione's part to give them some time to get accustomed to the current state of affairs because if his mood two weeks after finding out was still as bad as it currently was, then he would most definitely have said many things that he would have regretted later on.

And so he stared out of the window, watching the countryside streak by, lost in the memories of years past when the 'golden-trio' had still been together in one carriage on the journey back to Hogwarts.

Harry on the other hand was sitting there in a slightly more awkward silence. He didn't really know what to think, even after two weeks. Up until now he had been concentrating on trying to keep Ron calm, but now that Ron seemed to be doing exactly that he himself was being left to his own devices, to his own thoughts.

And those thoughts weren't necessarily ones that he wanted to have.

Ginny and Harry sighed simultaneously as they took in the scene of their dejected brother and best friend. He was moping, and he was taking it to a new extreme and over the top of his head their eyes caught and a look of understanding passed between them before they both turned away quickly feeling quite awkward.

The issues between them had remained unresolved, even after the Christmas holidays where they had spent so much time together, although Ginny was nearly always with her new nephews and nieces so that she could get to know them while Harry spent more time trying to get Ron back onto his feet.

And Lavender... well Lavender had been acting somewhat peculiar ever since she had found out about Hermione's marriage to Draco Malfoy. Harry couldn't be quite sure whether she was happy that his other best friend was basically 'out of the picture' in terms of her and Ron's relationship but then again she had also acted in an almost jealous manner towards the former bookworm of Gryffindor.

She was also no longer in the compartment any more after she had stormed out of it in what he and Ginny thought to be quite a scene. Especially considering that her screams were probably heard at both ends of the train, if not even all the way back in London.

"Ron, come on sweetheart..." Lavender whined as she stared at the man next to her that was ignoring her with all that he had. Or maybe he simply wasn't able to work up the energy to pay attention to her because he actually didn't care.

The thought cut her deeply.

"Ron..." Her voice was beginnning to gain an edge. He couldn't just ignore her like he had up until now, it was wrong! Harry and Ginny looked at each other knowingly, they had both seen this argument a long time coming.

Seconds ticked by and Ron still didn't respond. The look in Lavender's eyes grew harder and anger coloured her cheeks.

"Ronald Weasley!" She yelled and Ginny and Harry (plus probably everyone in the compartments near them) flinched at the sound of her shrill voice. Ron merely turned his head to face her, his eyes still dull.

"You know, for someone who's apparently supposed to be my boyfriend, you're awfully still in love with a woman that left you ages ago!" She shouted at him and something churned in the depths of his eyes but he still didn't respond.

"You bastard!" Lavender's voice appeared to grow even louder, something that Harry and Ginny had thought to be impossible. "You have been behaving like shit ever since these holidays started you bloody idiot!" Anger pooled in her eyes and Ginny and Harry looked at the door, out of the window, anywhere but Lavender and Ron really wondering whether they could still make a quick tactical get away.

"And quite frankly I've had enough of it!" Her voice screamed even louder. "We're through!" And with that she stormed out of the compartment, banging the door shut behind her with a clash that echoed down the coridor for minutes after she was gone.

They had all ignored that rather dramatic break up after that and decided to instead continue focusing on the countryside that streaked past them as they sped onwards to Hogwarts.

The door creaked open and Harry and Ginny turned to face whoever was entering. If it was Lavender coming to apologise, well then they would be making their exit rather quickly, neither of them had any desire to witness another scene like the one that had taken place barely an hour ago.

To their intense surprise, the head of Blaise Zabini poked its way into the compartment, looked around for a couple of seconds, and then promptly pushed the door open to let him, Luna and Pansy into the compartment before shutting the door again.

"Hey." He said as he plopped himself down on the bench next to Ron, throwing the latter a curious look.

"Hello Harry, Ginny, Ron." Luna nodded at each of them with a dreamy expression on her face before settling down next to Blaise who proceeded to sling an arm around her shoulder and smile at her, flashing his teeth.

Pansy merely trudged over to the seat between Harry and the window and didn't acknowledge any of them, instead choosing to focus, much like Ron, on the passing scenes.

"Blaise." Harry nodded at the Slytherin. When the year had started Blaise Zabini had been one of the total of five Slytherins from their year to return to school, some of the others having fled or having been forced into exile with their families due to their actions during the war. The Italian best friend of Malfoy however had remained surprisingly neutral during the war and continued to remain amicable with the other houses after he returned, retaining the laid back attitude that he had sported even before the war.

What had come as an even bigger surprise however was him asking out Luna and possibly even more surprising was her agreeing to go out on a date with him. That one date had then turned into several dates and an exclusive relationship with the other.

And due to his relationship with Luna, he had also come into contact a lot with Ginny. After Hermione had left, Luna was the closest female friend that Ginny had and whenever they shared classes or outside of them the two of them were seen together. It was due to this that Harry and Ron had formed a rather tentative relationship with the Slytherin, finding out over time that he was actually quite a lot of fun to be around.

They hadn't spoken as much with Pansy though. Harry would be the first to admit that he had been quite surprised when Pansy had come up to him in the second week back at Hogwarts and apologised for how she had acted during the final battle and for her suggestion to simply hand him over to Voldemort. Harry had seen that she had been truly contrite and had thus forgiven her. Ginny and Ron on the other hand were of a completely different opinion. Ginny didn't like Pansy much, feeling quite possessive over him and therefore not liking it when any other single girls were near him, Luna being the exception because she was simply Luna and now she was no longer single, therefore eliminating that problem. Ron simply thought that Harry was forgiving her too easily but had grudgingly come to bear her since she had Blaise were practically best friends and always together now that Malfoy and the rest of their clique was gone.

"I'm guessing you also watched some tapes?" Blaise asked rather conversationally after a couple of minutes of silence, causing Ginny's and Harry's heads to snap up with an impressive speed.

"Tapes?" Harry asked, feeling slightly confused. He couldn't possibly mean the exact same tapes that they had watched, could he?

"Yeah, you know the ones that show my best friend being the first to get hitched out of all of us." Blaise said and Luna nodded.

"I knew that they would get together at some point." Luna said, her voice still bearing that ethereal quality. "They had so many Nargles floating around them."

Blaise nodded in agreement. "Yup, there always were a lot of them flying around, especially when they were arguing." Harry took a moment to look at Blaise incredulously. Here was one of the main reasons why not one of them had a problem with Blaise and Luna being together. The Slytherin Italian was just as nuts as Luna. It was how they had first started talking after all, when he had started a debate with her on the most likely nesting places of Crumplehorned Snorkacks.

Ginny shook their head at them. "Well you two were the only two. No one else saw it coming."

"Is that why...?" Harry gestured at Pansy who was staring listlessly out of the window.

"Yeah." Blaise nodded and then sighed. Blaise shifted a bit to get more comfortable. "It was strange really. I got the tapes through the owl post from Greg, you won't believe how surprised I was to hear from him." Blaise sighed. "Luna was staying at mine and Pansy was there visiting us and being the curious fellow that I was, I looked at them immediately of course."

Harry rolled his eyes and Ginny snorted, Blaise could be really dramatic at times. His narrations were often hilarious to listen to and Harry had wondered more than once how he and someone like Malfoy could be anything even akin to friends.

"So imagine our surprise when it contained a nice message in the form of videos of how my best mate was doing. And he got bloody married before any of us!" He threw his hands up into the air, echoing a gesture of despair. "We always thought that if we had the choice of whom to marry, then he would be the eternal bachelor, maybe get a son so that his line is continued, but never actually marry or wait until he was past his prime time!" Blaise was getting worked up again and to be perfectly honest it was amusing to watch.

"And not only that, he got married to one of your best friends, who might I say, has turned out rather well." He grinned mischieviously and Harry shot him a pointed look. "What? Don't look at me like that."

"Might I remind you that you are already in a relationship." Ginny decided to point out.

"Yes, and she is the most wonderful woman anyone could ever be in a relationship with." He looked down at Luna and the two shared a smile. "That doesn't mean however that I cannot appreciate a beauty when I see one." Blaise winked and the others rolled their eyes. Luna merely chuckled.

"Well, at least now I don't have to worry about how he'll take the whole thing with me and Luna." Blaise looked happy at that thought.

"Why do you think he'll take it well? For all we know he could still be the exact same ass that he was in school." Ginny stated.

"Well..." Blaise made himself more comfortable and smirked at them, "First off, he was never really that much of an ass, he just did it most of the time to uphold the reputation that he and his family had."

"My left butt cheek he wasn't." Ginny said sarcastically.

"Okay, maybe he did find some kind of pleasure in annoying the crap out of you but come on, you have to admit that annoying you guys is pretty fun." Blaise shot them a cheeky grin.

Ginny merely sent him back a look that was self-explanatory.

Blaise pointedly ignored that very look. "Secondly, he's married not only a Gryffindor, which believe me would have sent him into a state of shock at the mere suggestion while we were at school, but someone who's also a Muggle-born witch. Those two facts by themselves already show that he has managed to finally distance himself from those stupid pureblood ideals that were ingrained into him. Which leads me onto number three, he married the one woman who wouldn't take his shit. Which I guess I should kind of have seen coming as she was the only one who didn't fall at his feet and actually stood up to him. And they supposedly hated one another at school."

He nodded to himself, seemingly satisfied with his answer up until now.

"And then last but not least, he has four children." Blaise rounded off his argument with that statement.

"And why is the fact that he has four children so important?" Ginny asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Because it means that a) he is not having children merely to ensure his line of succession because then he would have stopped after the first and that b) he has overcome his fear of being a terrible father which means that he isn't holding onto the former beliefs of how children in the Malfoy family should be educated. All of these show that he wouldn't mind me dating Luna here although he might still be a bit surprised." Blaise replied.

"So you've just accepted that the two of them are together now without any problems?" Harry asked, the question having bugged him since the beginning. He found it difficult to believe that Blaise, as an honorary Slytherin and Malfoy's best friend, would just accept the union without the blink of an eye.

"Of course I do." Blaise declared emphatically. "He looked the happiest that I have ever seen him on those videos and if Granger's the one who makes him the happiest man on earth and he is the one to make her the happiest woman on earth, then who am I to question it?" Blaise shrugged his shoulders towards the end. "And to be perfectly honest, she is the only who would be able to deal with him. The two of them are so stubborn that they both will have to have made compromises at some points and learn to actually try and get along if they wanted to make their relationship work even before getting married. And on top of that she's intelligent, willful and compassionate. If I look at it now, I can see why they are perfect for one another."

Harry looked at the Slytherin in surprise. He hadn't really thought about it that way. It was true though, Malfoy was obviously making Hermione happy and as one of her best friends, who was he to question that happiness? He shot a look over at Ron who had his fists clenched tightly but was still staring out of the window rather obstinately. While it may only take him some time to come around to the idea of Malfoy and Hermione together and happy, it would probably to Ron a lot longer, seeing as the lingering feelings he had for Hermione were still very much present.

He also looked over at Pansy and saw that she was sitting in a similar position to Ron, her mouth drawn and her eyes peering out of the window, ignoring all that went on around her.

Blaise caught the direction that his eyes were travelling in and sighed. "She probably reacted in a similar way to Weasley over here." He said, Ron and Pansy completely ignoring him. "She's been in love with him for as long as I can remember and seeing him married to another woman, and that woman being the one that he supposedly hated for years kind of hit her more than just a bit hard."

"Then she probably did react in a similar manner." Harry noted, looking over at the two downcast figures. While on one hand he would love to console them, on the other hand he really wished that they would come to terms with it a bit quicker so that they could start attempting to get their lives back into their natural orders. All of this moping really wasn't healthy for the soul and it was starting to affect everyone around them as well.

The rest of the journey was spent in comfortable chatter as Harry and Ginny told Blaise and Luna about their holidays and vice versa. Luna had spent all of the holidays with Blaise as her father had died four years ago. She didn't talk about it much though and Harry noticed the way that Blaise's arm around her tightened slightly as a comforting gesture when she mentioned her father. It was obvious that she hadn't really come to terms with her father's death yet. He imagined that it would probably be pretty hard on her as having your father dying without you being there to even say goodbye would take quite a toll on the soul.

So they quickly skipped over that topic and went on to discuss the happier memories of this holiday which had been far more melancholy than most. Pansy had joined them on Christmas Eve, her parents having fled to Europe to escape exile after the war. She had no idea where they were and her younger sister had left to stay with some of her friends leaving her all alone in the big house that she had once called home.

Two days later they had watched the videos and since then Pansy had been nearly inconsolable, the only time when her spirits had apparently lifted was during New Year's where she had joined in the celebrities and watched Blaise and Luna set fireworks off into the sky.

Blaise's mother hadn't been home either so it had just been the three of them to spend the holidays together. Apparently his mother had married husband number fifteen a short while back which was why she was still away on her honeymoon. According to Blaise she had only been on husband number nine when he had gone back to Hogwarts ten years ago.

It was then that Harry really realised how much they had lost over the past ten years during which they had been gone. They had potentially lost a best friend who had moved on and gotten married with kids to a man they had once seen as an enemy, family members had grown up and settled down, changing in the process, others had passed away or vanished off of the map and the whole world around them had moved on.

Ten years really were a long time.

"Are you guys coming?" Ginny looked back at Pansy and Ron who were still sitting at the window despite the fact that they had already arrived at Hogwarts.

"Yeah." Ron sighed. Pansy merely nodded.

Ginny let out a weary sigh before following Harry, Blaise and Luna down the corridor to get off of the train.

"I'm sorry for your loss." Ron said as he stood up, cracking some joints as he was feeling pretty stiff and holding out his hand to help Pansy up.

"Same here." Pansy sent him a sad smile and a look of understanding passed between them as he helped her up. "Thanks."

"No problem."

And with that Ron and Pansy also followed their friends down the corridor to get off the train and complete their final year of school, reflecting on the excitement and happiness they had felt when getting on the train and on what had happened to change them so much over the last two weeks.