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Chapter 32

With the O.W.L.s over, Harry, Hermione, and the entire fifth year were finally able to relax. The professors were now too focused on the seventh years and their N.E.W.T.s to assign them much in class. Harry and Hermione took advantage of not only this but the warm weather, especially that first weekend. Harry had told Professor McGonagall his plan, called on Sassy and asked her to prepare a picnic, and he and Hermione spent almost the entire day taking a long walk around the lake.

Harry was only a little surprised to find that they weren't the only couple doing this. A few times he and Hermione had passed a couple who had stopped to take a break, or were passed themselves when they stopped to take one. For the most part they just nodded to each other and said hi as one of the groups passed. Some were friendly like Susan Bones and Ernie MacMillan, others less so like Crabbe and Balstrode, but it seemed that no one wanted to risk spoiling their walks by turning it into a double date or by getting into an argument.

When it was time for lunch, Harry and Hermione found a nice south-facing banking and laid out in the sun, slowly munching their way through a picnic of roast beef sandwiches, a ham and cheese quiche, and an assortment of little cakes and pastries while sipping on magically chilled bottles of pumpkin juice.

"So Harry, what exams do you think you did well in?" Hermione asked as they watched the clouds float by.

"I think I did pretty well in Defence, Runes and Charms. And I don't think I did bad in anything except maybe History of Magic. Too many of the goblin names are just too similar, I think I got a few mixed up.

Hermione sighed at him but didn't say anything. She had spent hours with him trying to get it all straight in his head, but even if Harry was fine at remembering the stories behind the events, memorising the names and dates had been a different story. The way he had explained it was that the story of what happened made sense, one side did something then the other side reacted to what the first did. That was easy to follow and remember. However, things like the year it happened were harder because there was nothing narratively to tie the events to the date. It was like assigning each book in a library a number and expecting him to remember which books had which number. While Hermione had thought that was completely doable, she understood what Harry ment.

"What about you?" Harry asked.

"Oh you know me, I'm second guessing everything and I'm both convinced that I did well and that I failed everything," she admitted.

Harry could tell from the tone of her voice that she was serious. "Love, the chances of you completely failing even one exam are so low as to be impossible. Think about it, even people like Crabbe and Goyle have never failed everything. And I will hex anyone who says my brilliant and smart Hermione is dumber than those two trolls, even you. In fact, I bet you 1000 galleons you don't have any grades lower than an Exceeds Expectations and that at least seventy-five percent of your results are outstanding." Harry was serious, if she had lower grades he would honour the bet. However, that wasn't the point of it, Hermione's reaction was.

"Only seventy-five percent? I think I'm insulted. As if I would ever mess up a quarter of my exams that bad," she huffed at him.

Harry just lent in and pressed a kiss on her cheek and said, "There's my girl genius."

Hermione realised what Harry had done, and the last of their picnic was quickly abandoned as their mouths were far too busy kissing to even think about food.

-ϟϟϟ-

Fleur was sitting the French equivalent to the N.E.W.T.s the same week that the British N.E.W.T.s were held, which led to her becoming increasingly stressed out. Luckily for her, Harry and Hermione were only a mirror call away. The trio spent every evening that week laying in bed with their mirrors attached to the underside of their canopies. Harry's verbal French had improved quite a bit this year, a combination of Fleur's brilliant teaching, Harry's genuine interest in learning, and the fact that Harry had the hots for his teacher had all helped him improve at an impressive rate. Unfortunately, though, Harry was nowhere near good enough at French to help Fleur study for the most important exams of her life, so the role of quizzing Fleur fell to Hermione for the most part.

That wasn't to say Harry didn't help, but his role was more that of cheerleader. At one point, it was even Hermione's suggestion that Harry would lose an item of clothing for any questions Fleur got right, but if she got one wrong then Harry would redress every piece of clothing he had removed so far. Fleur shut that plan down quickly, as apparently a naked Harry would just be far too distracting for Fleur to be able to concentrate on memorising the insane amount of stuff she needed for her exams. It did mean that Harry couldn't really do more than offer emotional support, but he gladly did what he could.

The final N.E.W.T. exam that year was History of Magic, which was only noteworthy because the Weasley twins weren't in that exam, as they didn't take it as a N.E.W.T. class. The very moment that the last N.E.W.T. paper was handed in to the examiner and everything was officially over, there was a massive explosion outside the castle. A bunch of people went to look at what it was, and their excitement soon drew the attention of everyone else. When Harry and Hermione went to look out of a window to see what the commotion was about, they were shocked at what they saw: two dragons made of fiery sparks flying around in a lazy circle with a banner hung between them reading:

Weasleys' Wondrous Wizpoppers

Proud sponsors of the

'96 end of exams blowout party

Below them was the making of a Weasley twins party dialled up to eleven. There were tables laden with all sorts of food and drink, Lee Jordan had a couple of magic gramophones (of which he had enlarged the horns of to being almost as tall as an average third year), and judging by the fact that a few people were already dancing and Harry couldn't hear any music suggested that there was a sound ward around the party. Hermione spotted something that surprised her and Harry when she pointed it out. Professor McGonagall was down at the party, holding a drink and watching what was going on. Not only was this apparently the biggest party the twins had ever thrown, they had somehow gotten the headmistress to agree to it. Harry and Hermione soon found themselves among the students drawn to the festivities like moths to a flame.

By the time Harry and Hermione got there, almost a third of the school was already there. Harry suspected the rest had gone back to their dorms to change into something more comfortable and colourful than Hogwarts robes, and he was soon proven right. He and Hermione decided getting dressed up was worth it as well, and after a quick bite from the buffet they made their way up to the Gryffindor dorms to change as well, before running back down to join the party.

Lee Jordan, it turned out, was a surprisingly good DJ. He played a mix of both mundane and magical artists, and the only reason Harry noticed was because he recognised some of the songs. The more sheltered purebloods didn't have a clue, and those that did notice were not the type to care, but it was surprisingly good to hear ABBA and Queen up against The Neck-Romancers and The Weird Sisters.

The party would have been the twins' biggest ever even if they hadn't gone all out, because it was the first party they had thrown that was open to all years and all houses. As Harry looked around, he doubted that there were even twenty students in the whole school who had chosen to not join in. The twins, however, had gone all out. They had glowing balloons that were floating just out of reach to provide light, and even had a few of the school house elves pop in at dinner time and start grilling burgers and hotdogs on a large charcoal grill.

At ten o'clock, the twins had Lee cut the music so that they could talk to everyone quickly. For a moment Harry half expected them to give a speech about how great the last seven years had been, and how they would always remember the friends they made here. However, they were not so sentimental. No, the twins were plugging their new business and their flagship product, their own range of fireworks. They then proceeded to put on a show that made the two firework dragons, completely amazing and innovative to all who saw them only hours ago, look like a hand held sparkler.

There were comets that would fly up and burst into a rainbow of stars, only for the raining stars to fly back together and reform a comet before shooting off to explode again. They had fireworks shaped like magical creatures, including two dragons that would act out scenes and pretend to fight each other before galloping around the crowd. All this while Lee played 'School's Out' on his gramophones. It was probably the best advertising the twins would ever get.

After the fireworks, Professor McGonagall sent the third years and lower to bed, to some grumbling from them about the rest of the students being allowed to stay up. The party went on until two in the morning, when almost everyone, Harry and Hermione included, went off to bed while the twins and a few others stayed behind to pack away their equipment and clean up.

Both Harry and Hermione were surprised when they walked into their dorms, because each of them found that their mirrors that connected them to Fleur were vibrating. Harry picked his up first and was surprised to see Fleur right on the edge of panicking. "Fleur, what's wrong?" Harry asked, concerned.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong With you? Where's Hermione? The two of you were meant to call me hours ago!" Fleur was upset.

It was at this moment that Hermione's voice came through his mirror to Fleur. "Oh my god Fleur I'm so sorry, there was this big surprise party to celebrate the end of this year's exams. Harry and I got completely caught up in it and I forgot to tell him we had a mirror date tonight."

Harry felt as though someone had just dropped a boulder in his gut. He was having fun while Fleur was probably worrying about what had happened to them. He was right, Fleur went on about how terrified she was that something had happened to them and was understandably rather annoyed that she had been forgotten about for a party. It wasn't like Fleur wouldn't have told them to go if they explained it to her, but they should have at least called her.

Hermione tried to take all of the blame for forgetting to tell Harry, but he wouldn't let her. Now that he was thinking about it, it was obvious that they would have had a mirror date that night now that Fleur was also over with her exams. He had even been planning to call her himself. Yet just like Hermione, he had forgotten about it once he was distracted by the party. Both of them felt terrible for what they had done to their girlfriend and promised to be more careful in the future

-ϟϟϟ-

The last week of the term was uneventful and passed quickly, there were even less reported attacks in the Daily Prophet and only one student had been taken aside to be informed of a death in the family since the exams, which was an old grandmother who caught something called Spattergroit. The whole school was at the leaving feast, the atmosphere was good, and everyone was looking forward to seeing their families the next day. The hall was decorated in Hufflepuff colours. Even though Gryffindor had won the House Cup, it seemed that when Snape was monitored to prevent him from cheating the house point system, and also with no Dumbledore awarding ridiculous amounts of points to Harry and his friends at the end of the year, the Puffs' "work hard and stick together" mentality was actually able to bear fruit.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?" The shout came from a group of Ravenclaws who had just walked in and seen the yellow and black banners "For once! For once the stupid cup isn't being decided between 'the house that breaks the most rules while looking vaguely heroic' and 'the house that gets points from their head by not melting their cauldrons', and the cup still doesn't go to the house that actually cares about their grades?" It was Marietta Edgecombe, a girl from the year above Harry and one of the popular girls who hung around with Cho Chang. "HOW THE HELL DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? This is supposed to be a bloody school! How is the house that follows the rules, doesn't make a fuss, and owns nine out of ten of the top grade slots in every year not the winner?! SCREW THE CUP, AND SCREW YOU ALL!" and she turned and stormed out of the room before anyone could say anything. Which was probably a good thing, as the Hufflepuffs looked ready to make something of it if Marietta hadn't shut up soon.

"What's that bullshit about having nine out of ten of the top students? Hell, in our year two of the top students are Gryffindors and one is a Slytherin," Hermione grumbled.

"Well love, most years don't have you pulling up the grades of your friends. That's the only reason Daph and I are in the top ten and Tracey is in the top twenty," Harry explained. Hermione of course had the top spot, Daphne was in fourth place, Harry had tenth, and Tracy had thirteenth. Hermione tried not to look proud of herself but failed as Harry took her hand and led her to the Gryffindor table.

The food as always was excellent and plentiful. During dessert, while Harry was considering a second serving of treacle tart and vanilla ice-cream and Hermione was already on her third bowl of her favourite chocolate ice-cream and caramel sauce, Headmistress McGonagall stood up to address the hall.

"Well, this is the end of another year here at Hogwarts. For some of you it's the end of your first year of magical education. For some others this is the last full day where you can call yourself a student here. To the students who are leaving us, I would like to offer you a few words of advice. You have learnt many lessons during your time here. I don't just mean your classwork, you have learned how to stand independently, how to make friends, how to manage your time. You have learnt the value of cunning, knowledge, loyalty and bravery." McGonagall nodded at each of the houses as she listed their virtues.

"These are tools for life that you should never forget about. Those skills will far more often be the answer to your trials in life than any spell you may have learned. This may be the end of one part of your life, but an end is nothing but the beginning of something new. Yet as much changes come from today, I know that all of you who are leaving us for the last time have everything you need to go forward and be successful.

"There is so much more I want to say. Unfortunately, among all the talents I have, writing speeches is not really one of them, so I will finish up before I start boring everyone to sleep and will simply say this. Good luck, you've got this." McGonagall finished and sat back down in her chair to a round of applause.

-ϟϟϟ-

The last day in the castle was chaos. Students were running everywhere, looking for the last few items they had forgotten about or trying to spend the last bit of time with their friends. It wasn't only people rushing about either, not five minutes went by without some random item flying across a common room or down a corridor as whoever was looking for it gave up and summoned it.

Harry and Hermione were both glad they tended to keep everything in their enchanted trunks the year round. This meant that they were packed except for the things they needed days ago. That's not to say the two of them weren't running around busy just like almost everyone else; the difference was that the two of them, as Prefects, were running around helping the first years making sure they didn't leave anything behind. In fact, probably about half the random items that went flying across the Gryffindor common room were summoned by Harry. After that, the two Prefects spent most of their morning helping take the first years trunks down to the entrance hall (no way was Filch going to risk the paintings and artefacts by letting first years float their own trunks through the corridors) and showing the first years how to ask the kitchens for a packed lunch for the train ride.

Not long before everyone started to climb into the carriages, most of the students assembled on the banks of the lake. In a mirror to their first time coming to Hogwarts, Hagrid was waiting at the lake with the school's fleet of boats ready to take the leaving seventh years across the lake.

"Seventh years! Seventh years over 'ear!" Hagrid's booming voice called over the crowd, and the summoned people made their way over to the tall man. "Now, no more than four to a boat. I'm sure you all remember." Hagrid said with a big smile on his face. Harry and Hermione stood with hundreds of other students watching as the seventh years, with some friends among them, left the school for the last time. Harry could easily spot the Weasley twins' bright red hair sharing a boat with Alicia and Angelina, Lee Jordan in the boat next to them leaning over to talk with the twins. Hogwarts truly wasn't going to be the same without them.

After that, everyone started to pile into the waiting carriages. This year Harry, Hermione, Daphne, and Tracey were headed to Grimmauld Place, so while they could Floo from the Hogsmeade house if they wanted to, they decided to take the Express to London instead. Thankfully, Harry and the other Prefects didn't need to help the first years load their trunks onto the carriages, as they were now all good enough with the Wingardium Leviosa charm to do that much themselves, especially as there were no paintings outside to risk. Harry did end up levitating Hermione's, Daphne's, and Tracey's trunks, but that was more because Harry was acting the part of a gentleman than the girls actually needing any help.

Slowly the carriages started to make their way down out of the school and towards Hogsmeade and the train station. "So Daph, Trace, any plans for the summer?" Harry asked. The two girls may live with him and Hermione now, but the Slytherins definitely had their own lives.

"Dad has booked a private function room at the Leaky Cauldron for two days of every week of the holidays, so Tracey and I are going to spend some time with my family," Daphne told him, which he smiled at. Daphne's grandfather may have kicked her out of the House of Greengrass and forbidden her entry to any Greengrass property, but that wasn't something Daphne's parents agreed with and the Leaky Cauldron was one of the places in Magical Britain that was considered neutral ground. The others were the Ministry, Hogwarts, and of course Gringotts. Of those options, the Leaky Cauldron was by far the most comfortable and budget friendly. That was why more treaties between feuding houses had been signed there than anywhere else in the country.

"Has your grandfather shifted his stance at all?" Harry asked.

Daphne sighed. "Unfortunately, only in the wrong direction; the stubborn old bastard is digging his heels in. The way it's going, I'm going to need to keep up the cloak and dagger bullshit to spend time with my family until the old curmudgeon finally kicks the bucket." Daphne looked a little depressed at the thought and Tracey pulled her girlfriend in for a hug.

"Well you'll have a place with House Potter as long as you want it, and there is nothing stopping friends of mine or yours from visiting. What about you Tracey?"

"I need to look in on my parents' business and check up on the family home. Gringotts is renting out the house and I put one of the managers in charge of the business but the staff are mugg… uh, mundanes, so they can't produce the potions and ointments they use. I'm gonna need to spend some time restocking the supplies before I go over all the books and make sure everything is being managed correctly."

"I can help if you like," Hermione offered. "And I'll even write a magical contract preventing me from sharing any of your family's business recipes if you need it."

"Thanks Hermione, I appreciate the offer, but I want to at least try to do it myself first," Tracey said.

"Well I do have a top tier Potions lab on the top floor of the Hogsmeade house. It will need cleaning up before it can be used, but you are more than welcome to use it," Harry offered.

Tracey smiled and was about to accept the offer, but she was cut off by the sound of a massive explosion and the carriages came to a stop as the thestrals refused to go any further. Then a loud voice started talking, chilling everyone to the bone. "Harry Potter. Come. If you don't, I will execute one student for every minute it takes you. Come Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort won't wait for long."

Harry thought about what to do for a few seconds. A part of him wanted to grab everyone in the carriage with him and step away. The Hogsmeade house was close enough that he could take them all in one trip, and then they would be safe under the wards. But he thought about all the others he would be abandoning. Ginny and Luna, the twins, Ron, Neville, even Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott popped into his head as he considered the people he had taught to fight a little. There was no way he could abandon everyone.

So Harry leaned over and pressed his lips against Hermione's and said, "Please help get as many away from here as you can. I will hold him off for as long as possible. I love you."

And before Hermione could try to stop him, Harry jumped out of the carriage as Hermione shouted, "Harry no!"

Harry didn't know why, but in that moment he realised exactly why Voldemort was doing this. He was afraid. Afraid of Harry, afraid of what Harry represented to Voldemort, and mostly afraid of losing all his power as his followers stopped seeing him as an unstoppable force. So he decided to play it up a little. He pointed his wand at his own throat and cast the voice amplification charm, before turning to look towards where the explosion sound had come from. There he saw Voldemort, a bunch of Death Eaters, and a large hole where the road used to be.

Harry looked Voldemort straight in his face and said, "Well, if it isn't the lopsided Dark Lord come to say hello."

A/N
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