Hindsight

New Beginnings

'Harry?' Hermione murmured.

Harry rolled over groggily and took her into his arms. 'Hermione?'

She caressed his face tenderly. 'How do you feel?'

'Strange,' Harry replied honestly. 'Everything we've done for the last…I don't know how many years…had been to fight against Riddle. And now he's gone…a part of me still can't believe it. What do we do?'

Hermione sighed and pulled Harry tighter to her. 'All the things that we'd always wanted to do but never could.'

'What do you have in mind?'

'Well, let me get my planner first,' Hermione teased. 'I'll need to find time to squeeze everything in, you know, with all the revision and homework.'

Harry snorted. 'You'll never get to me, then,' he grumbled jokingly.

Hermione laughed musically. 'No, Harry, you misunderstood me. I meant that I'll have to find time to squeeze in the homework and revision in between "us". Besides, it's not like we really need to revise for our classes.'

'We don't need to revise?' Harry asked, miming a look of shock. 'Are you my Hermione or are you Ron under Polyjuice?'

'No! I don't even want to begin to picture that,' Hermione squeaked, shuddering. 'No, oh Merlin, no, please…that's revolting!'

Harry rolled over on top of her and kissed her passionately. 'Better?' he asked when he came back up.

'Much,' Hermione cooed. 'You can make it even better, though.'

It took another two hours for them to finally leave their bedroom, and another thirty minutes for them to get out of the shower. When they finally got dressed, it was already nearing eleven. Harry and Hermione descended down to the kitchen to find Sirius having tea with the unlikeliest of guests – Professor McGonagall.

'Good morning, Professor,' Hermione greeted, pleasantly surprised.

'Very good morning to you, Miss Granger,' McGonagall replied with a smile. 'And you, Mister Potter.'

'Hello, Professor,' Harry said, sitting down in between Hermione and Sirius.

'I heard about what happened yesterday,' McGonagall said. 'I'm sure it is unnecessary, but I would like to commend you on your bravery. You showed yourselves to be true Gryffindors.'

'Thank you, Professor,' Harry replied quietly. 'It wasn't just us. It was everyone else there.'

'Very few, if any, wizards would be capable of defeating You-Know-Who, and then best Dumbledore less than fifteen minutes later,' McGonagall said. 'You need not downplay your own actions, Mister Potter.'

'Hermione helped, and I was honestly just lucky,' Harry replied with a shrug. 'And Professor, please just call him Tom Riddle, or otherwise, Voldemort. He's gone for good. Don't let him live on through fear.'

McGonagall swallowed and nodded. 'You are right, Mister Potter. Dumbledore has long said that fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself.'

Harry noticed a look of distaste cross McGonagall's face at the mention of the Headmaster. 'Where did they take Dumbledore?'

'As you know, he was arrested at the Ministry,' McGonagall replied. 'According to the Minister, he is being held in one of the Ministry's magic-suppression cells. You can be certain that he will not be making a return to Hogwarts.'

'Are you the Headmistress now, Professor?' Hermione asked, looking a little too excited.

'I am, Miss Granger,' McGonagall confirmed with a small smile. 'Only temporarily, of course. The Board of Governors, has the option to replace me with a more permanent Headmaster of Headmistress.'