I just want to say thank you again to everyone who read/followed/favorited/ reviewed. It really means a lot to me and helps motivate me to keep writing. Kind of sad this story is over but I hope you guys enjoyed it. Anyways I'll stop rambling. Thanks again! Here's the last chapter!
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Hpov
Before I knew it, exams had finished and it was the last day of our final year at Hogwarts. I had no idea how this year had gone by so quickly, and for the first time, I realized I was sorry term had ended. This was it, after today we were never coming back, it was good bye.
I hadn't wanted to think about it over the past few weeks, which had been some of the happiest of my life, but now that the day was here it was unavoidable. I didn't know what was going to happen with everyone, I was sure Lily, Alice, and I would always be friends, same with the Marauders, and while we'd see each other through meetings with the Order and Frank and Alice's wedding, but who knew how the real world would change our relationships.
I was trying to ignore this thought as I walked with Sirius down the Hogwarts Express for the last time, as we tried to find an empty compartment for us and the others to sit in.
"This one's empty." I said spotting a compartment on my left that had no one in it.
I slid open the door and we walked in and started loading our trunks onto the luggage rack.
"The others better hurry up." I said glancing at my watch. "If they don't get here soon they're going to miss then train. Where are they?"
"To be honest I asked them to hold off for a bit." He admitted and I looked at him confused.
"Why?"
"This came for you this morning while you were still packing." He said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a letter. "I figured you wouldn't want to be around a lot of people when you read it."
I glanced at the envelope and felt my stomach clench when I saw that on it was the crossed bone and wand insignia of St. Mungo's Hospital.
"Blimey Hal don't look so worried." He said as I took the envelope with wide eyes. "I'm sure you got in."
"I don't think I can open it." I said frowning, my fingers weren't working properly.
"Well you'd better open it now, otherwise you'll have to do it in front of Alice."
"Good point." I muttered and I unsealed the envelope.
Inside were several sheets of parchment, but the first was a letter. I took a deep breath and started to read.
To Ms. Katie Benson,
After careful consideration of your impressive academic credentials and your high recommendations from both Hogwarts Healer Poppy Pomfrey and the distinguished Healer James Roana, we are delighted to inform you that you have been admitted into the Trainee internship at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries with a guaranteed acceptance for the program starting this fall.
I nearly dropped the letter in shock.
It went on describing the sort of training I would receive and when I was supposed to show up to the hospital for orientation, but I was reading so fast I could barely take in any of it.
"Hallie are you ok?" Sirius asked obviously alarmed at my expression.
"I got in." I said quietly.
"Hallie that's amazing." Sirius said grinning and pulling me into a hug.
"I don't believe this." I said incredulously my brain seeming to be frozen. It had really happened. Everything I'd been working for, for seven years had finally come together all in one letter. While I felt so many things, relief, being most prominent among them, I still couldn't quiet believe it had actually happened. I'd been working for this for so long, now that it was over it didn't seem real. "I can't believe I actually got in."
"Why wouldn't you?" Sirius asked in shock. "You've earned it."
I reread the letter and this time something stuck out at me.
"They said I got a recommendation from James Roana." I looked up at him to see his eyes glinting mischievously. "Did you do that?"
"I didn't do anything." He said innocently. "After he sent me the book, Jimmy I stayed in touch. He was curious about you, so I told him about all the people you helped fix in the hospital wing and the time you treated the slashes on my chest, and he was so impressed he offered to write a recommendation for you, I didn't even have to ask. All I had to do was tell him your name and when the application was due. He actually wants to meet you over the summer, if you'd be ok with that."
"James Roana wants to meet me?" I asked in disbelief.
He didn't get to answer, for just then the compartment door flew open and Lily burst through.
"Oh my god Hallie I found you!" she said tackling me into a hug that threw us back on the seat.
"Blimey Lily." I said coughing as the wind was knocked out of me. "What's this about?"
"James!" she said excitedly and scrambling off of me while showing me her left hand where like Alice, a beautiful diamond ring now glittered. "He proposed!"
"What?" I asked in shock and Sirius muttered.
"Fiiiinaally."
"You knew about this?" I asked him.
"Of course I knew, he's been going on about it for weeks."
I looked back to Lily who's green eyes were bright with excitement and her face alight with pure joy.
"Lily that's amazing I'm really happy for you." I said grinning and she squealed.
"We need to find Alice." She said grabbing my hand and starting to drag me towards the door.
"Hold on a minute Lil." I said. "I'll catch up with you two later, I want to talk to Sirius for a bit."
"Alright." She said looking a little disappointed. "But Hallie hurry!"
"I will." I promised grinning and she practically bounced out of the compartment to go find Alice.
"Merlin." I said shaking my head as the door slid shut behind her and I looked back at Sirius. "Did you see the size of that diamond? I guess James really is rich."
Sirius laughed.
"He wanted to get one that was bigger but Remus and I shot it down. We thought Lily might be a little uncomfortable wearing the ring he wanted. And by uncomfortable, I mean she might have trouble lifting her hand."
"So that's two weddings we've got to go to now, and I start at St. Mungo's in the fall."
"Welcome to the real world Hal." He said grinning and suddenly the happiness that had come from my acceptance letter, and Lily's engagement started to fade. I was back to thinking about what was going to happen now. We weren't in school anymore, this was it. We were starting our lives. What did that mean for Sirius and me? We'd never actually talked about what we were going to do after graduation, but suddenly I found myself only a few hours and a train ride away from being faced with that very decision. I had no idea where his head was at, in fact, the only plans I knew he had were like James, to devote all his time and efforts to the Order of the Phoenix. Both boys had enough money from their families that they didn't have look for jobs yet, James from his parents and Sirius from his Uncle, and though Lily and I had never asked, we both had the feeling that they might not ever have to.
"Speaking of the real world." He said reaching into his pocket. "There's another reason why I asked everyone to give us sometime alone, I didn't want to ask this in front of them, it's not something you ask in front of other and I didn't know what you'd say…"
I felt my eyes go wide and he laughed.
"No Hallie I'm not asking THAT question." He said amused and then winked. "At least not yet," he added and my heart skipped a beat. "I'm not an idiot I know what you'd say." He pulled his hand out of his pockets and between his fingers was what looked like a house key. "But I figure if you're going to be spending a lot of time in London in the near future. And if you wanted, well, you'd always have a place to stay with me."
"You mean like, move in with you?" I asked hesitantly.
"Not if you don't want to." He said quickly. "But I thought I'd give you the option considering your house is pretty far away from the hospital and if you wanted a place that was closer to stay every once in a while."
I smiled and took the key from him just as the compartment door slid open and Lily dragged an excited Alice through, followed by James, Peter, and Remus.
"I found her Hallie, oh my gosh we've got so much to do."
Lily and Alice started rattling on about wedding plans while the boys congratulated James on his engagement. Sirius grinned and took my hand and we sat next to each other.
The train started moving and I found myself lost in thought. I knew that dangerous times were a head, with Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters on the rise it would be a miracle if we all made it out unscathed. Especially seeing as all of us were planning to be at the heart of the resistance. But I couldn't force myself to be scared. Not when my friends were all laughing, Lily and Alice were both so excited about their futures, and Sirius was beside me. All I could feel was happiness.
Outside I saw people dashing into compartments and pressing their noses against windows.
"Hallie look outside." Sirius said.
I glanced out to look at the castle for what could quite possibly be the very last time and smiled.
Fire works were shooting up from the towers of Hogwarts in the distance, and I knew exactly who was behind it. Red and gold stars showered over the school as shapes in the sky erupted. There was a dog, followed by a stag, a wolf, and a rat. My smile grew when I saw two hearts, one that read 'JP+LE' in it and the second that read 'SB+HB'.
The fantastic display continued until the castle was almost out of sight. There was one final boom that was so loud it rattled the windows on the train and bright gold letters shot up into the sky.
'Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers give their regards to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and leave it with one final memorandum.
The gold letters then faded and were replaced by two scarlet worlds that burned brilliantly against the pale blue sky.
'Mischief Managed.'
I laughed as Sirius pulled me into his lap rested his chin on my shoulder and whispered.
"I love you Hal," quietly in my ear.
"I love you too." I said grinning.
Just then James let loose another batch of fireworks which banged around the compartment then out into the corridor and down the train. Laughing with the others I knew I'd be ok. No matter what was coming, I had my friends, my family waiting for me at the station, and I had Sirius. That was all I really needed and that was all I'd ever need. I was determined to enjoy every moment of this last train ride back from Hogwarts, knowing that for now my only job was to enjoy what time I had left before I was forced to take that first step into the real world and I hardly noticed as the hours slipped by.
Far too soon we were pulling into the station and I found that after we'd said our goodbyes, Sirius and I were left alone again in the compartment.
"I guess we should probably leave." I said as he handed me my trunk from the luggage rack.
"Probably." He said looking. "Unless you plan on going back to Hogwarts in September."
"No." I admitted. "I think it's time to move on."
"Yeah," he agreed and we stepped out into the corridor. "I think you're right."
We made it to the exit that would lead the platform and I hesitated.
"What?" he asked curiously.
"Nothing it's just, I realized once I get off, there's no going back you know?" I asked looking up at him. "We'll be in the real world, no longer at school, and it's just hard to take that first step."
He smiled and took my hand in his own.
"I know, but you're not alone." He pointed out. "I promise you everything will be ok."
"You can't promise that." I said frowning.
"Yeah, but it sounded nice didn't it?" he asked grinning in that irresistibly charismatic way that made my heart flutter.
"It did." I admitted. "But you can't control everything."
"I can try." He said shrugging and giving my hand a gentle squeeze. "Are you ready?"
I thought about Lily and Alice, and my internship coming up in the fall. Then about my family waiting on the other side of the platform, and the key that was now hanging next to my mother's ring on the chain around my neck.
"Yeah." I said smiling. "I'm ready."
He smiled back and together we stepped onto the platform. I looked back at the train one final time as we made our way towards the magical barrier that lead back to the muggle world and realized I was no longer sorry to see it go. I really was ready to move on, and Sirius was right, I wasn't alone.
As I stepped through the barrier I spotted James with his and Lily's parents as they introduced themselves, Alice with her parents as she tackled Frank in a hug, and Remus talking with his mother. A few of them caught my eye and waved. I grinned and waved back than heard an all too familiar voice shout.
"Oi! Kate!"
I turned to see my brothers, Alyssa, who starting to noticeably show, holding Katie Junior, and my father, all waving for me and Sirius to come over. Mason had his arm around a girl I'd never seen before, but could only assume was Amber.
"You go on ahead." Sirius said grinning. "I'm just going to say hello to the Potters real quick."
"Alright." I said and he let my hand go. I walked towards my family on my own.
"I don't think we've met before." I said looking at the girl next to Mason. She was tall with dark red hair, warm brown eyes, and a pretty smile.
"I'm Amber." She said in a blatantly obvious American accent and smiling at me.
"I figured." I said amused and shaking her hand. "Mason talks about you a lot."
"And you must be the famous Katie," she said laughing. "He talks about you a lot as well. Can you really do magic? Or is your family just trying to make fool of me?"
I smiled. This girl must really like Mason if she was willing to believe that he thought his sister was a witch and was totally ok with that.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure no one was looking, then pulled out my wand. I tossed it into the air like I'd seen Sirius do so many times and when I caught it, I was holding a rose.
"Welcome to the family." I said grinning at her amazed expression and handing her the rose.
"That's incredible." She said faintly.
"She is isn't she?" Sirius asked from behind me and I smiled guiltily. "Even if that's my trick she's stealing."
"Mommy, Mommy put me down!" Junior said excitedly and the second her feet touched the ground she ran to Sirius who laughed and picked her up.
"Sirius!" my brothers said excitedly and each of them clapped him on the back.
"Good to see you mate." Sampson said happily and I shot a glare at Kohl who was attempting to snatch Sirius's wand from his pocket.
"Um who is this?" I heard Amber ask Mason quietly.
"I'm Sirius Black." Sirius explained extending his free hand to shake Amber's. "Katie's boyfriend."
"Oh, are you, well can you uh, do the rose trick too?" she asked obviously having a hard time with the word wizard.
Sirius chuckled.
"Yes. I can do the rose trick too." He said amused while bouncing Junior lightly and she giggled gleefully.
"How many of you people are there?" she asked in shock looking around the platform clearly wondering how many were muggles and how many were not.
"More than you think." I said grinning.
"So Sirius are doing anything tonight?" My father asked.
"No, why?"
"We're having a bit of a party, you know to celebrate Katie's homecoming and to welcome Amber for the summer. We were wondering if you wanted to join us."
"I'd love to." He said smiling.
"Yay!" Junior said excitedly. "Now we can finish playing hide and seek."
"Kohl!" I shouted in irritation seeing that he'd gotten a hold of Sirius's wand.
"Just looking." He said innocently but when he waved it sparked and then erupted into a shower of brightly colored bubbles. "What the-?" he started and Sirius laughed.
"Fake wand Kohl." He said with a knowing smile and sliding his real wand out of his sleeve. I realized he'd been expecting one of my brothers to try and take it. "You and Sampson might be good at pranks, but me and my friends are the masters."
"Speaking of pranks." Sampson said grinning evilly as we made our way towards the parking lot. "One of Katie's ex-boyfriends is going to be at the party tonight, he's one of our neighbors and he's a total prat. Is that something you might be interested in?"
"It would be." Sirius said grinning and I rolled my eyes.
"Don't you dare." I muttered and he shot me an amused look.
"I'm sorry about this." I heard a mortified Mason mutter to Amber and I had to resist smirk when I realized we were embarrassing him.
"You're family's a so-" she started.
"Crazy?" he asked hesitantly.
"Awesome." She said grinning.
"That's what I thought too." Sirius said with a laugh. "Just wait until you see the toaster."
"What?" she asked confused. "What's so special about it?"
"I'll explain later." Mason said looking as if he were trying not to laugh.
I felt a shock go through me when I realized she included Sirius as part of our family. But then again… wasn't he?
Everyone liked him, and it was my father who had invited Sirius over tonight, not me. And he'd said everyone wanted him there.
I smiled as he took my hand and we stepped outside into the London air. Now that my future was upon me, I realized that even though things may turn dark, there was a whole lot of happiness in it too. I had Sirius, I had my family, my dream job was awaiting me after the summer, and my friends were getting married. For the first time in a long time I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be in life and the person I was supposed to be.
"Not so bad is it?" Sirius asked as if reading my thoughts.
"No." I said happily getting in the back of my father's car as he and I squished next to Amber and Mason. "It's not bad at all. In fact, I'd say life is pretty good."
I watched the train station disappear closing the final chapter of the last seven years of my life and again, I realized I wasn't sad. I was excited. It was time to start my life, go out and do new things, meet new people, and the best part was that Sirius would be with me, by my side as it all happened. I was in the real world now, and as terrifying of a reality that was I realized I'd never been happier.