The Final Battle

Picking Up The Pieces

The next morning around nine Remus opened the door to the small bedroom in the infirmary that Harry now once more occupied. He had spent most of the previous morning sitting beside the sleeping boy, but in the afternoon he had returned into the main room of the infirmary to help Madam Pomfrey wherever he could. Though most of the injured Aurors had been brought to St. Mungo's by now, some of them had injuries that were too severe to transport them already.

Remus had been very surprised to hear that actually none of the injured Aurors had suffered from a werewolf bite. There had been many bites, no illusion about that, but the injuries of the ones who got bitten had been too hard to save them anyway. Well, actually this didn't surprise Remus either. Though he had hardly any memories of the night when he himself had been bitten, he knew that he had nearly not survived that night either. Werewolf teeth were sharp, and the wounds they left mostly caused that the victims bled to death if they weren't treated immediately.

Still there was no official number of the people that died two nights ago, but Remus didn't doubt that it had been more than hundred. And each and every one of them had been one too much.

In the afternoon, Sirius had finally woken up and after some moments of slight disorientation his first question had been if Harry was okay. Not that this had surprised Remus either. He guessed that it was hard to surprise him at all these days.

They had not been able to talk very long, just as Remus had told his friend the most important things that had happened, meaning that both Voldemort and Dumbledore were dead, Madam Pomfrey had rushed by and told him that her patient needed rest. A goblet full of sleeping potion and quite a struggle to make Sirius drink it later, he had been fast asleep again. And had not woken up since then.

After having had a rather sleepless night himself, Remus thought that it would not be very wise to leave Harry alone now.

Harry didn't even hear him enter the room.

He had woken surprisingly early that morning, even before dawn, and had settled himself onto the large windowsill of his small room. With his knees drawn to his chest, he had stared at the sunrise and contemplated everything that had changed during the last couple of days.

Dumbledore was dead.

That thought didn't go off his mind. He still could not imagine that he would never again see the old headmaster, never again see the sparkle in his blue eyes behind the half-moon spectacles, never again receive an advice from the man. He associated Hogwarts so much with its old headmaster that he could not imagine life at the castle without him.

In fact, Harry could not imagine what life would be from now on at all. Voldemort was dead. That had been his purpose, hadn't it? He had defeated Voldemort when he had still been a baby, and from the point on when it had become clear that Voldemort wasn't really dead everybody had only waited for the day when he would defeat him again. Once more Harry had stood up against the Dark Lord and this time he had been the winner. And what now? Nobody ever seemed to have thought about that. Harry had fulfilled his purpose for the wizarding world, but what was he supposed to do now? He wasn't needed anymore now that the threat was banned.

With quite a shock Harry had realized that the death of Voldemort had left a huge gap in his life. For as long as he had been a part of the wizarding world, Voldemort had been a part of his life as well and the plans to defeat him had had a huge influence on his life. Now that this was all over, nobody really needed him anymore, did they?

He was startled when suddenly, out of nowhere as it seemed, someone spread a blanket over him. Looking up he found himself face to face with a smiling Remus.

"You must be getting cold without a blanket. Good morning."

Harry tried to return the smile but realized that he was failing.

"Good morning Remus."

Remus sat down at the other end of the windowsill and handed Harry a cup. Harry examined the liquid he had been handed.

"Hot chocolate?"

Remus only smiled.

"Well, it always cheers me up so I thought you could use some of it. I also brought breakfast, if you like."

Harry shook his head.

"No, not now. But thank you."

"You're welcome. Sirius woke up yesterday. He'll be fine, Madam Pomfrey assured me. He asked about you."
Harry only nodded and stared into his cocoa. After a while he looked up.

"Remus, what will happen now?"

Remus raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"
"I mean, now that Voldemort is defeated. What comes next, what am I supposed to do now?"

Remus just kept on staring at Harry, still not understanding what the boy wanted.

"Harry, I still don't get what you mean."

Harry sighed.

"Well, I have done what everybody expected me to do. And now that Voldemort is gone, it doesn't seem to make sense anymore. Nothing makes sense anymore."

Remus looked at Harry for some long moments while he thought about his answer. He did his best to hide how much Harry's last statement had shocked him. He knew that reaching normality would become difficult, but he had not imagined that Harry didn't even seem to consider leading a normal life as an option. He only hoped that the boy had not talked himself deep into that depression yet.

"Harry, Voldemort has not been the sole purpose of your life. You have school, your friends, Quidditch, Sirius, me, you've got your whole future lying in front of you. And now with Voldemort gone, you are finally able to lead a normal life."

Harry just shook his head.

"Even if I could, I wouldn't know how."

"You just didn't have any chance to lead a normal life yet. It might take some time until things settle down, right now there's a lot of fuzz about Voldemort and his death, the Ministry trying to get things under control and the press trying to get pictures and interviews, but in a couple of days this will be over. And then I'm sure you'll pretty soon learn how to lead a normal life."

Harry shook his head.

"It'll never be normal Remus. Not for me."

Remus sighed.

"It's true that you will probably stay The Boy Who Lived forever. And now that you've played such an important part in killing Voldemort, this won't change, on the contrary it might even increase. But you've coped with it so far, and I'm sure that you'll be able to cope with it in the future. You're not alone with it, Harry. You got people who care about you, you got friends. We'll all help you with what will be. Just don't think too much now Harry, it doesn't do any good. What comes will come and you'll just have to take it then."

Now Harry managed to smile.

"I think I've heard that one before."

"From whom?"

"Hagrid."

Remus thought for a moment, then grinned.

"Oh. Well, I can live with sharing his wisdom, as long as it doesn't mean I have to start cooking like him."

Harry laughed shortly.

"You'd better not, otherwise there won't be anybody left in our household for that job except from me."

He grew silent for a moment and Remus realized that he was struggling very hard with himself.

"That means...if I'm still welcome. After all, I gave Sirius the impression that I didn't appreciate his presence very much."

Remus sighed and closed his eyes. He should have known that Harry would still think along these lines.

"Harry, I am the first person to admit that Sirius can be as stubborn as a mule sometimes, but he's not unforgiving. It's true, you need to sort things out, and some things need to be said that have been kept down by both of you for much too long. The two of you have gone from hardly knowing each other straight to a parent-child relationship without any steps in between, and maybe that was too fast. But Sirius loves you. I know that you'll sort things out eventually, you'll see."

Harry nodded, barely noticeable, and for long minutes both stared out of the window onto the grounds. From Harry's window the grounds in front of the castle could not be seen, and Remus thought that this might be good for Harry. The Ministry had not completely removed all signs of the battle yet and it would take some more time and far more spells to make the grounds look again just like they had done before the attack.

Remus was startled when Harry suddenly spoke again.

"I miss them."

He didn't need to tell whom he was talking about.

"James and Lily?"

Harry nodded and for some moments he fought against tears again.

"It was...I don't know. It was what I had always wanted and suddenly I had it. I had a family, my parents were there. I felt at home, I felt safe, I felt loved. It was perfect. And then I had to find out that it was only an illusion, that it had never been real. Even worse, that it's been an illusion that Voldemort created to get me out of the way. It feels like I've lost them a second time, just as if Voldemort hat taken them away from me again. Only that they had not been real this time in the first place. He's been toying with me and I fell for it."

Remus was at a loss as to what he should say. He had known that Harry's longing for his parents had been strong, only because of that he had never started doubting his dreams at all. But words were probably of no use for Harry anyway. This was something he would have to make out with himself, and Remus knew that he could do nothing to help the boy except from listen when Harry needed to talk. Not that he liked this, but he would have to accept the fact that he was helpless here. Sirius was the one Harry needed to talk with about this, not him.

"Do you know that Trelawney predicted it?"

Remus frowned his brow. He could not imagine Trelawney predicting anything, maybe except from that Thursday would come after next Wednesday. Harry saw the look of disbelief on his face and laughed.

"Dumbledore said it would happen from time to time. Though significantly she can never remember when she makes a real prediction.

She said that only if I doubted everything I believed and if I sacrificed what I loved most I would be able to defeat Voldemort. It's been true. I mean, only after I realized that it weren't really my parents and after I was able to give them up again it was possible to defeat him."

Remus thought for a moment before he answered.

"I have to admit that I've never been good at Divination, but I don't think that this is what the prediction meant."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

Remus shrugged his shoulders.

"Just try to see it that way: if you had not thrown overboard everything that you had believed before after you woke up from your sleep, then you would most likely not have disobeyed all orders during the night of the attack. Then this confrontation with Voldemort would not have been possible, because you would have never allowed that image of James to take you away from Sirius. And then, when things got tough, you were willing to sacrifice Sirius because you knew that this might be the only chance to defeat Voldemort."

Again, Remus shrugged his shoulders.

"As I said, I'm not very good at Divination, but I don't think that the memory of your parents is what you love most. You're not the kind of person who loses himself that much inside of his own mind. I know you quite well, and I know that you try to keep people away from getting close to you because you're afraid that they might get hurt. But some people managed to get close to you over the years, and those people you love with all your heart. Far more than you could ever love the image of something you never really had.

I guess it wasn't easy for you to let go of the idea that you could have your parents back, but if you're completely honest you know that they've never been a part of your life in the first place. Sirius however, has been. And giving up someone as real as that, someone you had in your life and wanted to keep there, sounds more like sacrificing something beloved to me."

Once more, silence settled into the room when Harry processed what Remus had just told him.

From their window, they could see Hagrid roaming around his hut, Fang at his heels. Harry enjoyed just watching him doing what he did everyday: seeing to his groundkeeper duties and taking care of a strange assortment of magical creatures that had miraculously survived the night of the attack in the backyard of his garden. When Harry let his gaze wander across the grounds, he caught sight of the group of trees in front of which they had been attacked by the fleeing Dementors.

Harry remembered his amazement about Sirius' and Remus' Patroni and taking another sip of his hot chocolate, he posed the question aloud.

"Remus? Can I ask you something?"

Bringing his amber eyes back into focus, Remus looked at Harry.

"Sure."

"I just remembered the Dementors we fought. I have to admit, I was kind of puzzled by your Patroni."

Remus smiled.

"By both of our Patroni, or just about the fact that my Patronus is Padfoot?"
"Both, though more about the latter."

Remus laughed.

"I would have guessed as much. Did Sirius ever tell you about his family? About his mother?"

Harry nodded slowly.

"Yes, but not much. He told me that she died when he was still very young."

"He was five, I think. You see, his mother was the one who chose his name.

Sirius once told me that one of the few memories he still has from his mother is the picture of her, sitting with him in the garden where she showed him the star after which he was named. She told him that it was something special to be named after a star, and that somebody that special never needed to fear anything because he's protected from above."
Remus smiled.

"I think he's very fond of this particular memory, so that's why his Patronus is a comet. It's his protection from above."

Harry nodded.

"And what about yours?"

"Well, nobody was more surprised about my Patronus than I was myself. We were learning the charm in seventh year, and though nobody except from James, Sirius, Peter and myself knew that the dog was Padfoot, we were all very puzzled about it. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

Being a werewolf is something you hopefully will never be able to imagine. It's true that the wolf doesn't surface except from that one night a month, but it's definitely there all of the time. Sometimes I hardly feel it, but sometimes it tries to take control over my actions. The evening of the attack was an extreme example. Moony felt the other werewolves and wanted to transform, and he started raging inside of me when he realized that he could not.

Being a werewolf means that you're in a constant fight for the control of your own mind. And one night a month, I have to surrender to the wolf. Completely and unconditionally. And there was nothing I could do about it, no way that I could restrain the wolf during that night. Not until your father, Sirius and Peter decided to become Animagi.

I think Moony so easily accepted a stag, a rat and a dog as his pack because they had been my friends. They had been the friends of my human self for five years before he even got to know them. They were my pack, and so he accepted them as his pack as well. But there were differences.

Wormtail was no real match for him, that was obvious. Wormtail was fun to play with, Moony could chase him but it was perfectly clear that Moony was the superior.

Prongs was big and strong enough to control Moony, but he was no match for him either. Sure, Prongs was fast and strong, but so was Moony. Both could have easily hurt each other, but I guess in the end Moony would have won. The wolf is a predator, the stag isn't.

That was completely different with Padfoot, and it was right from the start. When Sirius first showed me his animagus form, I felt Moony inside of me howling. Padfoot was no wolf, but he was as close to a wolf as possible - a fellow canine. Not a toy like a rat, no prey like a deer, he was an equal. Padfoot was the only one of the pack who could keep Moony in check on his own. He was the only one who understood Moony's urge to howl at the moon.

And, far more important, he was the only one who could truly protect myself from Moony, and Moony from himself during full moon nights. He could prevent the wolf from hurting himself just by being there and distracting. Distracting Moony from himself as well as from possible prey. He could protect me from making my worst nightmare become true - burdening someone else with that curse. And he did, more than once."

Remus shrugged his shoulders.

"It's said that your Patronus is the thing you feel most protected by. And thinking about it, it's not all that surprising that this is Padfoot for me. The borders between myself and the wolf are not very clear, and I think the same is for the protection Padfoot provides for both of us."

Harry nodded and allowed his mind to process what Remus had told him. It made sense. But thinking of Patroni, there was another thing that had been occupying his mind.

"What about the Patronus I cast on the clearing? I still don't know how I did that. I tried to levitate my blanket this morning and still could not manage it, then how was I able to cast a Patronus?"

Remus scratched his head and thought for a moment.

"I don't think I have the answers you want to have, Harry. I'm afraid that all I can say about this will only raise more questions. Previously in situations like this, you always had Albus at your side when you woke up and he had your answers, but I'm afraid I don't."

Tears clouded Harry's eyes when he thought about the old headmaster and how he had always explained what had happened to Harry. He already missed the man dearly.

"I don't think you cast a Patronus on the clearing, Harry."

Harry looked up, quite puzzled.

"Why? I mean, I have to admit that I didn't think about it until I said the incarnation, but I saw the stag coming out of my wand. Though it was different. My Patronus wasn't silver like he had always been, he was brown, just like a real deer."

Remus slowly nodded.

"Harry, do you know what we found when we entered the clearing? There were four bodies lying on the ground, none of them moving. Sirius, you, Albus and Voldemort. And in front of Sirius' body, protecting it, stood a stag. Prongs. I have to admit that I'm slowly getting old, but I think I would never be able to mistake Prongs with another deer. And he was real, well somewhat real. He was solid. When I tried to approach Sirius, the stag stepped towards me, ready to attack should I prove to be a threat to Sirius. Only after he recognized me and realized that my intention was to help and not to harm Sirius, he vanished."

Remus looked into Harry's eyes for some moments, various emotions crossing his face which Harry couldn't all interpret at once.

"I think that the stag was the only thing that was really connected to James that night. Not the image of him standing there, allowing Voldemort to torture his best friend. But the stag that saved him."

"But how did I conjure him? Or if I didn't, then how was he able to show up at all?"

Remus only shrugged his shoulders.

"I really don't know Harry. Maybe James thought that it was time to help his best friend and to set some things right between them, once and for all. I really don't know, but I'm convinced that it wasn't just a normal Patronus."

Harry slowly nodded and then rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands. The conversation had drained him, adding only more to think about to the many things that were already causing fracas in his mind. But nevertheless he felt better then he had done when he had gotten up this morning.

"Come on Harry, you should get back to bed."

Not having any strength left to disobey, Harry nodded, put his empty cup aside and moved over towards his bed. When he had lain down, Remus spread the blanket back over him just as raised voices from the main room started to quarrel. Remus sighed.

"Try to get some more sleep. I'll better have a look at that godfather of yours before Poppy has to sedate him. He makes a horrible patient, mind you."

Harry smiled and watched as Remus left his room, ready to give Sirius back some of his own medicine from not so long ago.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Dumbledore's funeral took place two days later. Harry had spent these days in his small bedroom, not really ready yet to go out and face the reality of it all. The previous afternoon however, Snape had come into his bedroom, accompanied by two Ministry officials. Remus had prepared him that there would be an official questioning, and together they had agreed what parts of his story Harry should tell. They had agreed that Harry should tell them everything that had happened after he had left the castle, but that he should better leave the parts of the time he thought he had spent with his parents out.

Though Harry had thought that he had been prepared for the questioning, once again telling the events of the night in which Voldemort died had not been an easy task.

Apart from Snape and the Ministry officials, Remus had visited him daily, and the entire Weasley family had dropped by at least twice. Harry was glad that Charlie was indeed alive and, though he was still confused and shocked by what he had nearly done, was on his way to recovery.

He had yet to meet Sirius again.

The day of the funeral, Harry sat on his bed dressed in black dress robes, and waited for Remus to fetch him. The door to his room stood slightly ajar and from the main room of the infirmary he had been listening to raised voices for about ten minutes right now. Remus and his godfather were quarrelling.

"I will tell you only one more time: you are not well enough to leave your bed for such a long time yet!"

Remus sounded exasperated by now, but somehow Harry doubted that he could convince Sirius, no matter what he tried.

"Then I will tell you only once more that if you want to stop me from going to Dumbledore's funeral, you'll have to tie me to the bedposts."

"Well, if it's that what you want..."

"Expelliarmus!"
"Sirius, give me my wand back right now!"

"As soon as I'm dressed you'll get your wand back. I will go to the funeral, I have to. Every other headmaster would have expelled me during third year latest, and he believed in me and my innocence when nobody else did. Without him, I would probably not be here anymore, and I owe him at least this much and be there at his funeral."

Remus sighed deeply.

"Fine, if you think you must. But if you collapse, don't expect me to pity you. I told you that it was too much. I'm going to get Harry now."

When Remus entered the room, Harry could not hide the smile that spread across his face. Remus raised an eyebrow.

"As glad as I am to see you smiling again, but would you care to tell me what is so funny?"

Harry's smile spread even further.

"Oh, I just thought that I have heard that kind of conversation before. Just that then the roles were somewhat reversed."

Remus grimaced painfully at the memory.

"Okay, okay. I get your point. Ready to go?"

Harry shook his head.

"No, not really. But then I think I never would."

Remus nodded sympathetically and Harry got up from the bed. Remus opened the door and for the first time since he had been brought back into the castle, Harry left his small bedroom and stood again face to face with his godfather.

One look at Sirius told Harry why Remus was making such a fuss about him leaving bed for the funeral. Sirius was pale, his dark hair that he had tied back in a ponytail stood in extreme contrast to his white face. There were huge shadows under his eyes and he steadied himself with one hand on the post of his bed. When he saw Harry, he smiled weakly. Harry tried to look away, but couldn't help to shyly return the smile.

"Hi Harry. How are you?"

Harry nodded.

"Fine, thank you. And you?"

"Better. Though Remus thinks I'm some kind of invalid or something."

While saying the last part, he cast a murderous glare towards Remus, before he turned his eyes back on Harry again. There was a tense silence for some moments, which was finally broken when Remus ushered them to go. Not before he had grabbed his wand back from Sirius' hand.

The funeral itself was one of the saddest things Harry could remember. Dumbledore's casket had been on a bier in the Great Hall during the last days, and this was where the ceremony was held. The Great Hall was filled with masses of people, mostly students, teachers, former students and Ministry members. Harry inwardly suspected that the Great Hall had been stretched magically to fit in all the people who wanted to attend the funeral.

Dumbledore's brother Alberforth, an equally old man with a great resemblance to his late headmaster, though he wore his hair and beard shorter and robes in a daring colour combination, held a speech of which Harry could not remember much in the end.

Nobody really did.

All through the speech, Harry stared at the casket and thought about the man who had for such a long time been a crucial part of his life. He thought about the first time he had seen him, here in the Great Hall, at the feast on his first evening as a Hogwarts student. About the end of his first year when Dumbledore had sat at his side and had told him more about his parents. His thoughts drifted off to various occasions like this one, when Harry had been through another rough encounter and Dumbledore had just remained unruffled and listened, calming Harry by his mere presence. As long as Dumbledore had been there, Harry had never doubted that things would be alright in the end. Now the old man was gone and he left a gap which Harry was sure nobody would ever be able to fill.

Remus, sitting at Harry's side, was thinking along the same lines. He couldn't help but remember the day when he was ten and his parents had taken him to Hogwarts for the first time. There in Dumbledore's office he had sat on a chair in front of the headmaster's desk, scared out of his wits and not really knowing why he had been brought here in the first place. Dumbledore's eyes had sparkled behind his half-moon glasses and he had simply asked Remus whether he would want to come to Hogwarts. It had been like a dream come true for him.

Just like the day four years ago when Dumbledore had apparated into his small cottage and had asked him whether he could imagine to teach Defence. He owed it to Dumbledore that he had been allowed to become a fully qualified wizard, something which not many others would have enabled him. Dumbledore had been a fortress, never wavering no matter how much the wizarding world was once again in uproar. He had always been someone Remus could turn to in times of need, and now he was gone. Remus didn't know whether he should smile at the memories that surfaced or whether he should cry. He definitely felt like crying, but somehow he could not imagine that Dumbledore would have wanted people to break down in despair at his funeral. It didn't seem like something the old wizard would have wanted.

Looking around, Remus found that not everybody seemed to think along the same lines. Amongst the hundreds of people who had come to attend he funeral, many were crying their eyes out as it seemed. But Remus realized that none of those who had been close to Dumbledore did so.

Albus' brother Alberforth held his speech with a great sadness in his voice, but his whole bearing was more that of a proud than a grieving brother.

Snape had his eyes fixed on the casket, but seemed to be somewhere completely else in his mind. Amongst everybody here in the hall, he was probably the one who had been closest to Dumbledore during the last years. Not only because of his function as a spy. Ever since Dumbledore had given the former Death Eater a second chance in life, a truly strong friendship had developed between the two men. Both had accepted each other with all their quirks and failures, and while Dumbledore had been concerned about Snape's wellbeing whenever he sent him away on another dangerous mission, Snape had done everything in his might to prevent his mentor from any harm by the hands of the Death Eaters. More than once he had risked his cover to warn Dumbledore about another plot against his life and Hogwarts' safety. And Remus was sure that he didn't even know half of what had happened between the two other men.

On his right side, Sirius was staring off into space. Remus had no doubt that his friend was thinking about one of the various occasions at which the four of them had been hauled into Dumbledore's office after another of their pranks had been discovered. Dumbledore had always had a smile and a twinkle in his eyes for them instead of harsh and reprimanding words. He had been very fond of the four mischief makers, leaving the task to punish them mostly in the hands of McGonagall. Only this one time, the day after Sirius had told Snape how to open the passage under the Whomping Willow, this had been different. But Remus was sure that Sirius wasn't thinking of that day right now.

And surely McGonagall next to Sirius didn't, because a small smile played at the corners of her mouth. But then, she had mostly smiled about the old wizard's strange antics. Not openly, mind you, but in the staff room or when she thought that nobody was looking at her.

Remus was so lost in his own thoughts that it took him a moment to realize that Alberforth had finished speaking and everybody was filing out of the Great Hall, following Dumbledore's casket on his last way. Looking around, he found that Harry was still staring ahead as well and carefully, not wanting to startle the boy, he put a hand on his shoulder.

Harry nodded and got up, following the large procession of people out of the castle. They took the way out of the backdoor of the castle, over the grounds and then up a hill until they reached some kind of plateau. Though he was not really paying attention to the outside world, Harry realized that he had never been on this particular place on the Hogwarts grounds before.

By the time they reached their destination, Sirius was leaning heavily onto Remus' shoulder for support, looking as if he was about to collapse any moment. Though the walk had only taken a couple of minutes it had strained Sirius more than he was willing to admit. But he was grateful that Remus offered his support without reminding him that he had told him so.

Dumbledore's casket was lowered into a grave in a circle of other graves ('other former headmasters', Hermione told Harry later), and after some more moments of silent respect, the grave magically closed himself until no sign hinted anymore at the fact that it had been just recently dug out.

In the end, Harry could not remember how he had gotten back into the castle, he only remembered that he spent the rest of the day sitting in the Gryffindor common room together with Ron and Hermione. Though Harry was still not really able to do magic, Madam Pomfrey had seen no other reason to keep him in the infirmary anymore.

He would spend the night in Gryffindor tower together with Ron and Hermione and all the other Gryffindor students who had come for the funeral, and the next morning they would return to their homes. School had been cancelled for the next two weeks, until the new headmistress McGonagall and the other teachers had made a decision on how to continue the school year.

Later in the evening most of the students who had decided to stay had already retired to their dormitories and only Ron and Hermione had remained in front of the fireplace together with Harry. Ron and Hermione shared a sofa while Harry had taken an armchair next to them.

Harry had been glad that his two friend had finally come to their senses and told each other how they felt, but as he now once more looked at their entwined fingers, another thought came to his mind. It was only the end of January, Valentine's Day was not even close.

"Erm, Ron?"
Ron looked up at Harry and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"Just in case I don't see Ginny anymore before you head home tomorrow, could you tell her something for me?"

"Well, yes. What is it?"

"Tell her that she owes me ten galleons from the jackpot."

Harry grinned but Ron only stared at his friend, obviously not understanding what he was talking about. Then he followed Harry's gaze to his and Hermione's entwined hands, and suddenly understanding dawned on him.

"Harry James Potter, you don't want to tell me that you've been betting on my love-life, do you?"

Harry grinned somewhat sheepishly.

"Not on your love-life in general, and it has not been my idea, I swear!"

"You don't want to tell me that Ginny...that she...that my sister did that?"

Harry nodded when suddenly a voice from behind them asked.

"Ginny did what?"

Turning around, they found that Remus had entered the common room and was smiling at them. Harry gestured him to take a seat.

"Ginny did establish a betting round on when Hermione and I would become a couple."

Remus grinned.

"Yeah, I know. Harry won the jackpot, didn't he? I was rather disappointed myself, I thought it would take you till March at least."
Now both, Ron and Hermione, stared wide-eyes and open-mouthed at their professor.

"You...you as well...you were betting?"

Remus enjoyed their faces for a moment before he raised his hand in a calming gesture.

"No, I didn't, though I have to admit that I knew about it. Ginny didn't actually keep it a secret, you know? But you should have seen the looks on your faces!"

Remus broke into laughter, and soon the three teens could not help but follow straight. It felt good to laugh again after all the seriousness and grieve this day had brought. It took them a while to compose themselves again, before Harry raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What brings you here so late in the evening? Surely not talking about Ron's and Hermione's love life."

Remus laughed.

"As tempting as it might sound, but you're right. McGonagall and the staff have made a decision concerning the rest of the school year, and I thought that you would like to hear it before tomorrow."

Seeing the eager nods on the three faces in front of him, Remus continued.

"Well, it's been decided that as soon as the wizarding community has fully realized that the threat of Voldemort has been finally banned, there will surely be a lot of celebrations. They don't quite dare to celebrate yet, after they were so quick with doing so fifteen years ago and then Voldemort had not vanished at all. But as soon as they realized that this time he's gone for good, there will be celebrations all over the country. And the families will want to spend some time with their children. Not to mention that the castle and its grounds will have to be completely restored before school life can continue here.

Well, to make a long story short, we've decided that it might be best to cancel school until the beginning of May."

Three mouths dropped down synchronously.

"May? That's three months away!"

Hermione was the first to regain speech again, and to nobody's surprise her voice had a somewhat desperate edge. Remus only nodded.

"Yes, it is. But in May, school will start and you'll have a compact term until the middle of August when you'll take your end of the year exams. Then you'll have another two weeks of holiday before the new terms starts."

That now didn't sound as good as the news of three months off from school, but it appeared to be bearable.

"McGonagall will become Headmistress, won't she? But who will be deputy headmaster or mistress?"

Remus smiled a somewhat pained smile.

"Well Hermione, Minerva will become Headmistress, that's true. As far as her deputy is concerned, well...she chose Severus."

"What???"
Ron could not believe his ears and Harry didn't seem to pleased as well.

"Severus Snape? Deputy headmaster? He will be even more a pain in the ass when he's deputy headmaster!"

Ron's rage however, was interrupted when Hermione started to laugh. Three heads turned towards her, her two friends had a look of sheer disbelief in their eyes.

"Hermione, pray, what on Earth is so funny about this?"
Hermione took some moments to let the laughter subside, then she grinned at the three others.

"Well, with you all being purebloods I should have known you didn't really know it."

"Know what Mione?"
"Well Harry, do you really think that if you're raised as a muggle, you just jump ahead and say 'yes, of course' when suddenly a letter is delivered that tells you you're accepted in a school of magic? I can tell you, me and my parents didn't. Two days after the letter arrived, McGonagall came for a visit and told my parents and me about Hogwarts and showed us that magic really existed. She said that this was amongst her duties as deputy headmistress."

Harry stared at her for some moments, and when the facts finally trickled through, he began to laugh just like Hermione had done minutes ago.

"You want to tell me that Snape now has to visit all muggle-born students before the school starts and has to convince them that magic really exists?"

Hermione nodded.

That was too much for Ron. He broke into laughter, a laughing fit that actually forced him to hold his stomach and tighten his grip on the sofa so that he would not fall to the floor. Even Remus laughed when he pictured his former fellow student in various muggle homes, especially since he knew what Severus thought about most muggles.

The four of them stayed up until late that night, talking about this and that and nothing in particular, carefully avoiding to talk about anything related to the events of the past days. It was well past three in the morning when Remus bid them goodbye and remembered Harry that they would go home after breakfast the next morning. Madam Pomfrey had agreed to let Sirius out of the infirmary under the condition that Remus took care that his friend continued seeing to his recovery at home. Sirius didn't really look forward to this, and Harry had to admit that he too worried about what would await him once they returned home.