I Wish I Could Go Back to Hogwarts

Carmen Black

Story Summary:
Former Hogwarts students think back to their school days while they are now in the midst of a war. Dialogue is lyrics from a filk of Avenue Q's "I Wish I Could Go Back to College".

Chapter 01

Posted:
03/01/2007
Hits:
441


Author's Notes: All the dialogue in this story is the lyrics of a filk I wrote. It's a filk of the Avenue Q song "I Wish I Could Go Back to College", which I don't own (see below).

Additional Disclaimers: I don't own Avenue Q, the show that contains the song that my filk is based on. Also, some of the lyrics are the same.

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Hogwarts. It had been such a place of safety and comfort. Former students remember a time when their biggest problems were passing Potions and avoiding getting caught under the mistletoe come Christmas time. Now, they are in the midst of a war for the Wizarding World...

***

Neville sat down at booth in a small restaurant with Luna. The two of them had become closer in his last year at school, and now two years later, with a war incomplete, they decided to stick together. Neville had asked Luna to join him as a friend for dinner that night. She was reminded vaguely of her fifth year in school when she was asked to a party, as a friend, for the first time.

"I wish I could go back to Hogwarts," Neville admitted. "Life was more simple back then. What would I give to go back and live in my dorm with old roommates again?"

He heaved a great sigh as he handed the sympathetic Luna a folding menu.

***

Shifting documents in his new office, Percy felt a piece of paper slide to the floor. He bent down and picked it up. Flipping it over, he realized with a jolt that it was a picture from a newspaper that was years old. It was a picture of him and the rest of his family standing in what had been the bright sunlight of Egypt but was now dusty looking from the yellow aging of the newsprint.

Percy felt the guilty twinge that often accompanied thoughts of his family. He hadn't seen them for almost four years. His mother missed him dreadfully, he was sure, but he had his own duties: duties to the Ministry of Magic, the best chance the Wizarding World had, in his opinion. Percy's mind wandered to a time when he was a student, and found he missed the life he had once known. What had he become?

"I wish I could go back to Hogwarts," he quietly choked out to no one. "In Hogwarts, I knew who I was: an ambitious young guy, my one limit: the sky, acting as any good prefect does!"

And he had been loved. Was he now?

***

It was the one-year anniversary of his best friend's death, and Dean had not forgotten. Seamus's cousin Fergus had begun fighting with great force against You-Know-Who. Seamus and his mother, the only relatives Fergus had, were killed by Death Eaters to try to teach Fergus a lesson. Dean missed Seamus terribly, and now he had only memories to keep Seamus's spirit alive.

"How do I go back to Hogwarts?" Dean lamented to the thin air of his flat. Thinking of Hogwarts made memories of the past come flooding back in a rush. "Don't know who I am or what to do! I wanna look out of the tower to see Weasley fireworks spelling out 'POO!'"

He smiled fondly at the vivid recollection. He and Seamus had their noses pressed against the foggy widow, cheering as they watched the remainder Fred and George Weasleys' infamous fireworks zoom around the grounds. How he missed those days.

***

Ron and Hermione were waiting for Harry to return. He had told them he need some time on his own to think about his next move. They both knew that meant that Harry needed time alone to brood. They were used to this by now, having known Harry for quite a long time.

It had been years and years since Harry hadn't been under the kind of stress he was now. Around first or second year, Ron figured. Hermione pointed out that the real pressures began in their fifth year, when Voldemort had come back. Still, in school there was always something else that was going on, something that could temporarily take their minds off the war. Hermione and Ron were discussing their old school days and how they longed for them in the dark days in which they lived.

"I wish could just go to class or explore on the grounds, or got play Quidditch, or make prefect rounds. I need a trip to Honeydukes Chocolate shop down in the town!" Ron announced. Hermione smiled. Honeydukes was always a favorite of Ron's, even before he had ever gone to the village. Hermione's thoughts wandered to one of her favorite memories.

"We could be sitting there in the library, you and Harry working on an essay for Binns," she recalled. "I'd be chiding you two 'cause you didn't start sooner and laugh as the rest of the class joined in!"

Ron rolled his eyes and chuckled. Though she had changed, some things would always remain the same when it came to Hermione Granger.

***

Colin had recognized Ginny a few minutes before in the near-empty pub, the Leaky Cauldron. She was sitting at the bar, gently tracing the rim of her glass of gillywater. He had placed himself next to her, ordering his own butterbeer and setting his camera down on the counter. Soon, they were in a pleasant discussion about their school days that were not so long ago but felt ages away. Their talk drifted and landed with an uncomfortable bump at how different it all was now.

"I wish I could go back to Hogwarts!" Ginny cried out in anguish. She turned to Colin. "How do I go back to Hogwarts?"

Colin shrugged, playing with the empty bottle in his hands. He shook his head dolefully and softly confessed, "Ah, I wish I had taken more pictures..."

***

Harry sat at the opening of the cave his godfather had once stayed in. He was staring out over the village of Hogsmeade and at the visible bit of his old school, the tops of a few towers. He remember the terrible night that the best Headmaster he had ever known died, and the dark mark had shone brightly over the tallest tower.

Harry had never completed his schooling., and neither had his friends, Ron and Hermione. He felt a pang of guilt for leading them away from school. Hermione especially, he knew, would have liked to complete her seventh year. Harry thought, for the hundredth time, about what it would have been like to have taken that final year.

He realized aloud, "But, if I were to go back to Hogwarts, think what a coward I'd be... From the war I'd have run but think, 'What have I done?' These kids are all depending on me..."