Here we come, to the last chapter of this book.
Chapter 20: Mourning and the Home Ride.
Everyone found themselves in the Great Hall for the end of term feast, but this time, there weren't any colourful banners signalling who had won the house cup. There were no students taking excitedly about going home for the summer, making plans to meet up over the summer.
The banners that were hanging were black. The students were either looking straight ahead or at their shoes. Some of the students were crying while the others were either comforting the crying students or just staring into space.
Hermione leaned over and rested her head on Harry's shoulder. Harry leaned his head over and rested it on her head, holding her close to him. Mia stared stonily ahead of her while Ron looked down at the ground, unable to deal with the emotions that were mixing inside of him.
Dumbledore stood up at the Head Table, where all the teachers were dressed in black.
"Today we won't be celebrating," Dumbledore started. "No, today we are mourning the death of an amazing young man who we've all come to know. Cedric Diggory was a remarkable young man. He had shown strength and loyalty toward his house and friends. While death is a new adventure, he was taken away from us at a young age and we will never understand why he had to be taken away from us." Dumbledore stopped and scanned his eyes over his students. "The Ministry doesn't want me to tell you this because they think it will cause a panic but, I feel it's my duty as your headmaster to tell you, that Cedric was killed…by Voldemort."
There were hushed whispers going around the Great Hall. "Voldemort was alive?"
"Voldemort has managed to resurrect himself, and in the process, Cedric died. The Ministry refuses to believe that Voldemort is back but I'm telling you right now and right here, Voldemort is back and I want you all to be extra cautious from now on," Dumbledore warned them. "Just because it looks safe - it never means that it is safe."
Dumbledore sat down and turned to speak to Snape, who nodded in agreement with something Dumbledore told him.
"Let's go for a walk," Harry told Hermione, who nodded in return and they both stood up, leaving the Great Hall.
Just as they left, they were interrupted.
"Harry," a male voice called out and Harry turned only for Hermione to grip his hand tightly when they both spotted Amos Diggory making his way over to them with a woman, who Harry assumed was Cedric's mother.
"Yes," Harry asked. Hermione just kept her mouth shut as she glared at Mr. Diggory, while she understood that Mr. Diggory was grieving over his son, it gave him no right to assault Harry.
"We heard about you refusing the money," Mr. Diggory told him. "We want you to take it - Cedric would have wanted that."
"Mr. Diggory - money means nothing to me," Harry told him. "The only reason Cedric is dead is because no one bothered to make sure that everyone was who they said they were - all this could have been prevented if people actually took measures in making sure everything was safe."
Hermione just looked up at Harry before resting her chin on Harry's shoulder as she looked at the parents once more.
"Please," the woman whispered and Harry looked at her. "My son died - we want you to take the money - it's what Cedric would have wanted." Harry just stared at her for a long moment before he gave a short nod.
"I'll find something to give the money to - for what it's worth, Cedric said he loved you before he died," Harry told them and the woman let out a soft sob as she gave Harry a soft look.
"Thank you," she whispered and Harry nodded as he watched Mr. Diggory wrap his wife up in his arms as they both walked away from Hogwarts with the knowledge that their son loved them and that he was dead.
"Are you okay?" Hermione's soft voice called him back and Harry looked down at her before smiling softly and brushed a soft kiss across her forehead.
"Yeah," Harry told him and they both walked out of Hogwarts and onto the grounds where they could escape the world for a short moment.
**********
Harry was sitting at the base of the tree next to the lake. Hermione was sitting in between his spread legs with her back resting against his chest and her head on his shoulder. Harry had wrapped his arms around her waist.
Ron was sitting on a boulder as he looked out toward the lake while Mia was lying down at the bank of the lake and trailing her fingers through the water aimlessly.
All four of them were lost in their thoughts.
"Do you think we could ever have a quiet year at Hogwarts?" Ron asked and Hermione snorted.
"No," she told them and Ron smirked.
"What is a year without a few dragons?" he asked and Mia rolled her eyes.
"Oh yes, dragons, three-headed dogs, giant spiders, basilisk, werewolves, a mass murderer 'supposedly' on the loose, merpeople," Mia listed off before she changed the topic. "By the way, have you noticed a trend when it comes to the DADA teachers? One teacher was possessed, another was a fraud, one was a werewolf and we just had an impostor - what's next?"
"Vampires?" Harry suggested and Mia wrinkled her nose.
"I hope not, beside - vampires don't really like school that much," Mia told them.
"Beside - after all the mail Dumbledore got about Remus - he won't risk angering the parents too much," Hermione agreed.
"What are we going to do?" Ron asked after a few moments of silence.
"We're gonna go home and meet up again in the middle of the summer," Harry told them and everyone turned to look at Harry but he was staring out at the lake. "We're going to train even harder to stop Voldemort and his minions."
"Ron," Hermione started and Ron looked at her. "You need to join us in training - because Voldemort knows you're our friend, you need to be trained."
"Okay," Ron whispered with a gentle nod, understanding what Hermione was getting at.
Mia rolled onto her back and looked up at the sky before she sat up and raised her knees and wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging them.
"Do you think we can get through this war unscathed?" Mia whispered, asking the only question that was burning in her mind. Harry looked at Mia. "Do you think we'll make it out of the war alive?"
"We have to," Hermione whispered as she looked at her best friend. "Because I'm not going on with my life if none of you are here."
"Where ever one of us goes - the others follow," Ron said and gained a small smile from Harry.
"Yeah," Harry agreed and all of them looked toward the lake once more, lost in their thoughts.
************
Harry and Hermione strolled through Hogwarts hallway till they reached a classroom. Harry looked around before he opened the door and ushered Hermione through and stepped through himself before shutting the door.
Hermione made her way over to the lone trunk that was in the classroom and opened it before pulling out a jar - one that suspiciously looked like the one that Remus had slammed on the windowsill.
Hermione moved over to the middle of the room and unscrewed the jar and tipped it to the side.
A small water beetle came out of the jar and just stood there while Hermione placed the jar to one side and glared at the beetle.
"Okay Rita - we know it is you. Give yourself up," Hermione ordered only to let out a sigh of frustration when Rita refused and pulled out her wand and pointed it at the beetle, only for the beetle to scuttle away and it morphed up till Rita Skeeter was standing in front of Hermione with a haughty expression. Harry and Hermione had talked about asking Rita to write about what happened on the Graveyard but decided to keep back - they wanted to see what the Ministry would do first.
"Nice to see you Rita," Hermione said with a satisfied smirk on her face.
She and Harry had spent time together after Hermione had told Harry that she had some suspicions that Rita was an animagus. Both of them had talked about what kind of animagus she could be till Hermione remembered the water beetle that she had seen at two scenes and they had both approached Remus about their suspicions.
Remus had thought about it and agreed that it had made sense and agreed to help them out. He had spotted a water beetle on the windowsill of the Hospital wing and trapped it in a jar before it could escape.
"What do you want?" Rita snipped and Hermione arched an eyebrow.
"A life of peace with Harry - but then again, that's not gonna happen for a while," Hermione informed the woman sarcastically. "Not after your lies."
"I was only telling the truth," Rita informed Hermione with a tilt of her nose and Hermione snorted.
"Telling everyone that I was using a love potion on Harry when we got together because we wanted to be together? Telling everyone that I was stringing Viktor Krum and Harry along when I had already chosen Harry? Do you really want me to continue?" Hermione raged.
Rita couldn't help but take a step back out of fear when she saw Hermione's eyes dark eyes turning blue. Harry just rested his back on the wall and crossed his arms as he watched his girlfriend scare the life out of the reporter.
Harry couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face seeing dangerous Hermione was looking, and was glad to see that the old Hermione was back. She had been worried about him nearly all year - it was a relief to see that Hermione was beginning to get back to her old self.
"You wouldn't be allowed to do anything to me," Rita informed Hermione, not confidently as she watched Hermione's features darken as she glared at the reporter.
"That's what you think," Hermione asked as she took a step closer to Rita, enjoying the way Rita took another step back out of fear. "I could go straight to the Newspapers and inform them how you are getting your information - I'm pretty sure that they won't be too happy."
"What do you want?" Rita asked.
"I want you to stop writing for a year - see if we can't break that bad habit of yours," Hermione ordered her. "Maybe then you can find something that is the truth."
"And just how are you going to make sure that I will do that?" Rita asked and Harry sighed, he was getting annoyed with the circle and decided to make it clear.
"Fine, I'll make it clear," Harry informed the witch. "Tell one more lie - we'll hunt you down and make you regret it." The room lit up with an unseen fire. "Trust me when I say you don't want to cross us - being an unregistered animagus isn't really a good thing, last I heard, the penalty for being one was pretty severe."
With that, Harry wrapped his arm around Hermione's waist and both of them left the classroom and Rita Skeeter alone so they could meet up with the others and go home.
*************
They reached the train station. Ron went ahead to grab an empty carriage for them while Mia, Harry and Hermione met up with Draco.
"Here we are," Mia stated as they came to a stop near the train. "The end of another year."
"Never uneventful," Draco stated as he handed his trunk to the prefect, who took it and the rest of the trunks. They knew it was risky, talking to each other, but Draco didn't care. He was planning on showing his real path later in the year anyway.
"Are you staying at Harry and Mia's house this summer?" Hermione asked from where she was tucked under Harry's arm and got a nod in reply.
"Yep, for most of it. Dad still doesn't know about me being on your side so I'm safe at the moment," he explained.
"Thank God for that," Mia stated, "beside, I have a feeling that when he does realise, it will such a shock to him, he'll die of a heart-attack on the spot," Mia stated as she climbed into the train and Draco looked at Harry and Hermione.
"Did she…" he trailed off when he got nods in reply and rolled his eyes before stepping into the train. "She's more bloodthirsty than the rest of us," he muttered, leaving Hermione looking after them with amused look and Harry shook his head.
"And he is just figuring this out?" Harry whispered to Hermione. Hermione just gave him a tender smile before she reached up and kissed Harry's cheek and stepped into the train with Harry following her.
Harry looked around and saw that Fred and George were making their way over to a compartment and turned to Hermione once more.
"I gotta go and talk to someone - get us a compartment and I'll meet you there," he told her. Hermione nodded as she reached up and kissed him before she followed Ron and Mia as Harry hurried over to the twins.
"Fred, George, can I speak to you for a minute?" Harry called out and the twins looked back at Harry before waiting for everyone to leave and Fred closed the door.
"Yeah?" George asked.
"Know how you two have wanted to set up your own joke shop?" Harry asked and the twins nodded, curious. "Here," Harry handed them the sack of the triwizarding championship money.
"You're crazy," Fred stated as he tried to hand the money back, but Harry shook his head.
"No, listen to me," Harry told them and they both looked at him, serious. "Voldemort is back - all the money in the world isn't going to stop him from coming after me but you guys - you can do something good with the money. Just because darkness is rising - it doesn't mean that you can't create some light of laugher in the midst of it."
"Harry…" George started.
"Create laughter - remind everyone that just because there are dark times, the good times are still there waiting to be revealed - only you two can do it," Harry told them and they both nodded, finally accepting the money and Harry gave a smile of relief.
"One more thing," they both looked at him. "Don't tell anyone that I gave you the money - especially Hermione - I actually like having her as my girlfriend," Harry told them and they cracked identical grins before they saluted and Harry walked out of the compartment.
Harry went looking for Hermione and the others and smiled when he saw Ron was sitting upright on the couch with his head pressed against the window, sleeping. Mia was curled up next to him with her head resting on his shoulder as she slept as well.
Hermione was sitting next to the window with Crookshanks sitting on her lap as she alternated between reading the book that were in her hands and looking outside at the scenery.
Hermione turned her head when she felt someone watching her and felt a smile cross her face when she saw Harry standing in the doorway.
"Hey," she whispered, mindful of the two sleeping partners. "What took you so long?" she asked as Harry moved closer to her.
Harry sat down next to her and she shifted her body so her head was resting on his shoulder and she placed the book on the small table.
"I just need to talk to the twins about something," Harry whispered back to her and she nodded as Harry kissed her on the forehead and both of them stared out of the window, relishing in the silence.
***********
The train came to a shuddering stop, awakening Mia and Ron from their sleep. Mia stood up, stretched, and rubbed her eyes before she looked around and noticed that they were at the train station.
"Yay, home!" Mia cheered quietly, getting a smile from Harry and Hermione as Mia grabbed her stuff and made her way out of the compartment with Ron following her, stumbling slightly as he tried to wake himself up.
Harry and Hermione followed them and they all stepped off the train and looked around to see that most of the students were like Ron before they grabbed their trunks and phased through the wall to get onto the other side.
Harry and Hermione passed through the wall, they found themselves standing on the muggle side of the train station, Hermione spotted her parents standing next to the car, talking to each other as she and Harry moved closer to the car park.
Hermione came to a stop and looked at Harry.
"I want you to meet my parents," Hermione told him and Harry looked at her.
"I've met your parents," Harry reminded her and Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Not as my boyfriend," she shot back and he stopped in his tracks and looked at her. Hermione looked at him too, now with cautious.
"What?" Harry asked and Hermione shrugged.
"We kissed, I'm just assuming that we're boyfriend and girlfriend," she whispered and Harry shook his head.
"Is that what you want?" Harry asked and Hermione looked at him before smiling gently.
"I don't usually go around kissing my friends," she teased him and he laughed slightly. "Are you okay about it?" Harry nodded.
"Yeah, I just never, you know, thought about it that way," he explained. Hermione just gave him a smile before kissing him, gently, on the lips before linking their hands together and led him over to meet her parents.
"Mum! Dad!" Hermione greeted with a bright smile as she moved over to her parents. Stuart and Jane Granger turned and smiled when they saw their daughter with Harry in tow.
"Hello sweetheart," Jane greeted as she bent down and kissed Hermione's cheek before pulling her into a hug. She let Hermione go and turned to face Harry. "Hello Harry," she drew Harry into a hug before kissing his cheek and let him go. "I'm so sorry to hear what you've been through this year, Hermione explained everything to us." Harry nodded as Stuart let his daughter go after enveloping her in a hug.
"Yes, though I'm not very happy about this 'Voldie'?" he looked at his daughter, who smiled up at her father. "As Mia tends to call him, coming back and telling his servant to kill a friend of yours. I have never heard of a more cowardly thing in my life."
"I'm sure that Mia will agree with you," Harry told the man, who nodded.
"Is there something you want to tell us?" Jane asked as she watched her daughter and her best male friend, as Hermione often referred to Harry as, fidget slightly. Hermione blushed before she reached out and linked hands with Harry.
"Harry and I are together, together," Hermione told them, staring at them both with a determined glint in her eyes. Stuart placed his fist over his mouth under the pretence he was thinking while in reality he was hiding his smile.
Stuart and Jane had spent most of the years talking about the budding romance between Harry and Hermione because all of Hermione's letters seemed to contain more of Harry than anyone or anything else. They had wondered how long before the children would finally get together. Stuart knew that he shouldn't be happy and a part of him wasn't, that part wanted to keep Hermione as his little girl but at the same time, he remembered how Hermione glowed whenever someone mentioned Harry or when she talked about Harry and knew that Harry would protect her.
Mia had made that pretty obvious by telling them a lot of things that Hermione seemed to have neglected to mention in her letters.
Jane couldn't stop the smiling that was spreading on her face. She saw how happy Harry could make Hermione and Harry was everything she had envisioned for Hermione's future partner.
"Oh, congratulations sweetie!" Jane told them as she swept them up in a hard hug.
"Thanks mum," Hermione said while Harry looked at Stuart.
"You just take care of Hermione," Stuart told Harry and got a firm nod in return. "So, I guess this mean we won't be seeing you much this summer then?" Stuart asked. Hermione seemed to deflate at his question.
"Actually, we were wondering if you would like to come up to our house this summer?" Harry jumped in, causing Hermione and her parents to stare at him in a shock.
"Excuse me?" Stuart asked hopefully.
"We couldn't have you up in summer before our second year because you had all those dentist conventions. We couldn't have you up in the summer before our third year because Sirius was still under cover. We couldn't have you up last summer because we already had plans but I was wondering if you were free this summer, would you like to come up? This way you get to see more of your daughter and I'm pretty sure that Mr. Weasley would like to get to know you as he and his sons are coming up to our house over the summer," Harry shot Hermione an amused grin.
Hermione couldn't help but smile back at Harry before she turned to face her parents.
"Please say you can come up, Sirius would love to be able to talk to you face to face properly this time and everyone would be able to explain the wizarding world way better than I ever could," Hermione pleaded them before giving them the puppy dog eyes.
"Well, we don't have anything on this summer," Jane stated as she and her husband shared a look.
"So, yes, we would love to come up," Stuart finished and got a delighted squeal and hug from his daughter.
"Great - you can call Uncle Sirius tonight and make the plans," Harry told them before turning to Hermione. "You still have the phone number?" Hermione nodded. "Good - I'll call you tonight."
"Great," Hermione told him and Harry leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips, mindful of her parents that were watching before he pulled away and stroked her cheek with his thumb before giving her a lop-sided smile and pushed his cart over to where Mia was saying goodbye to Ron.
Hermione just watched with a dreamy smile as Harry walked away before she turned to her parents and Stuart smiled.
"Uh oh, looks like someone is lost," Stuart teased, causing his daughter to blush as she ducked into the car as Stuart placed the trunks and stuff into the car and closed the boot as he and his wife made their way into the car and backed the car out of the car park, intending to go home.
After Harry had said his goodbyes to the Weasleys, he and Mia made their way over to the car and Mia slipped into the front seat while Harry sat in the back seat and nodded to Draco when he saw the blonde male sitting on the other side of car, Sirius had placed a charm on Draco that prevented him from being recognised by anyone.
Harry and Mia buckled their seatbelts and Sirius backed the car out of the car park and moved out onto the busy road so he could take the kids home to rest up and start new training.
"So Voldemort is back, what do you think he'll do now?" Mia asked and Sirius looked at her from the corner of his eyes and at the boys through the rear review mirror.
"He'll probably lay low for the times begin and I have a feeling that he will try and get a hold of the prophecy," Sirius told them.
"Thanks to Harry coming straight back after Voldemort came back, that means Voldie is pissed," Draco told them.
"Let's just hope that he won't start the war straight away," Mia muttered and Sirius shook his head.
"I don't think he will," Sirius told them. "He'll need time to regain his forces. Most of his old Death Eaters are either dead or betrayed him so he won't be too welcoming with them, so he'll be recruiting new ones, not to mention he'll probably raid Azkaban to get his most loyal followers out."
"I'll keep a look out for them when we go back to school, a bunch of them will be in Slytherin and I'm pretty sure there's a few in Hufflepuff. The Ravenclaw is a little more confusing - some of the purebloods whose family joined Voldemort seems to hate Voldemort but I can't tell if it just a cover, I'm pretty sure there might be some in Gryffindor - Peter was one and he betrayed you guys," Draco told them.
"Well, once Voldemort has revealed himself - the lines will be drawn and we'll know where everyone stands to a point but we'll need to watch out for spies," Harry told them and got nods of agreement in return as they all turned to stare out of their windows as Sirius drove the car in silence.
The End/TBC
Okay - I'm sure that you all noticed that I didn't say when the fifth book will be out and there is a reason for that.
I had a look at my diary and it turns out that if I was to keep posting one a week - this would last another two years - as much as I love this story - posting for another two years will drive me up the wall.
So my betas and I will be working together to get my series completed so that way I can start updating twice a week and you won't have to wait because I haven't finished a chapter in time and sent it to my beta too late.
Second - there are too many ideas coming in for the series so that means I need to take a complete step back from it and plan each section and as most of you were worried about Mia being at the front line - I've decided I need to drop her into the background in the later stories - to those who love Mia, don't worry - there will be plenty of her but there are other major plots in the next sections of the series causing me to having to divide all my time up.
Third - I'm back at college and have been since the end of August - we have been heading into the practical and I ALREADY have assessments piling up (I've only been there for a short time!) - I'm going all over the place.
This will take a while for me to get completed - it looks like it might be after Christmas when I finally get it all settled and a majority of it completed but we'll see.
But don't fear - I have a new story coming out which I have been working on.
Matters of the Hearts: Hermione Granger is a love doctor who helps people finds love. What happens when a misunderstanding threatens everything she holds dear? Does a mysterious black haired man hold the answers?