Hogwarts Graduation

Jess always liked the way the elves rearranged the Great Hall for graduations. The house tables, were shrunk a little, width wise, making room for a second table for each house to fit side by side, so instead of 4 tables, there were now 8, with room for parents now being afforded.

For, of course, parents would be here. What sort of loving mother or father... well, that was a narrow minded thought... what kind of loving.... family member (Jess had never been a fan of the nuclear thing, which was handy enough given his relationship with the extended family) or significant other would not want to attend their beloved's graduation? Of course, not only... family members... made their way to gradutions. It was a chance for alumnis to return to their school and reminisce about days gone by.

So it had really disappointed Jess, as it had many others, when last year's graduation had been moved to another venue (though no one really complained, it wasn't like Hogwarts was exactly in any state for guests this time last year.) He was pleased now that it was all coming back together, with things following their prescribed route. Hopefully today would be the day it should be every year - a celebration of the future, not some political statement, like last year's...

Jess stood in the hall, along with the rest of the staff, checking over the last of his preparations. He'd broken one of his own little rules in allowing himself to don muggle attire, a simply black suit with a black shirt and silver tie replacing his general wizard garb. The day would be interesting, there were many students he'd watched grow up leaving the school this year - it was a truly frightening thought for him, as their teacher, to imagine a classroom without them in it, or worse, to envisage a world with them roaming around it, free to do what they pleased.

Passing the list of graduating students to the Headmistress he smiled at her and chuckled airily. "My god, there are a few names on that parchment that I never thought I'd see leaving," he commented. This would be his first graduation as the Deputy Headmaster, so a lot of the organising had come down to him - it was one of the perks he'd noted of the top job, that you didn't have to deal with all the petty admin work regarding students. Still, he was a tad nervous, hoping he'd handled his side of the job well enough.

The day had finally come. After seven years of being at Hogwarts, she was finally graduating. She couldn't believe it, it was like just yesterday, she was entering the castle for the first time. But soon she would leave the school, and go out into the Wizarding World on her own. She would be on her own, no one there to help hee through the tough spots. She was actually glad about that, James wouldn't be able to boss her around anymore. She was finally free from him.

Yumi wished that she could enter the Great Hall with her parents for her graduation. But because of a certain person in her life, they couldn't be there. They hadn't even been able to watch her grow up, and they wouldn't be able to watch her get married or anything. She hated him so much for that, but she had to push that to the back of her mind now. Today was her graduation and she couldn't let anything ruin her mood. She wouldn't let something like that get on the way of the happiness she felt today.

The girl walked into the Great Hall alone, with a a smile on her face even though no one was there to congratulate her from her family. She wore a green dress that nearly touched the ground and hugged her figure. She could have worn anything else, but she chose to wear that dress, to show her Slytherin pride. On the dress she had a small Slytherin pin and she had on silver high heels.

Yumi had on a bit of make up too, though it was something she didn't normally wear. It wasn't anything that would draw too much attention to her, as it matched her skin tone and everything. She had a silver and green bracelet on each wrist and she wore long dangling green earrings as well. Now all she wondered was if Kasumi was going to be there to see her.

Kasumi couldn't believe that her sisters Graduation has came so fast. Kasumi remembers meeting Yumi like it was only yesterday. She was so happy for her slytherin friend. Kasumi was wearing a pale yellow dress (prettier than it sounds) that was all ruffled from the hips down. She ironically also wore silver high heels. Kasumi wore yellow hoop earrings and got her hair done all special for this event. She has make up on too. Her make up made her look a lot older. She was very excited to see her friend graduate. She entered the doors excited to see if she could find Yumi. Kasumi had a small purse with her. In it was a cell phone, a camera, some make up, money, a graduation present for Yumi, and a few photos. One of them was of Kasumi and Yumi. Kasumi decided to sit for a few thinking that her friend might not be at the graduation yet.

She was using her phone when all of a sudden a familiar person appeared out of the corner of her eye. She looked over and saw it was Yumi and boy did she look amazing. Kasumi has never seen her this beautiful and was in awe. She went up to Yumi and didn't know what to say. "Oh my gosh Yumi you look amazing! I cant believe you look the way you do! I didn't even realize it was you." Kasumi opened her purse and gave Yumi the present, which was one of those locket necklaces. In the locket was a picture of Kasumi and a picture of Yumi. "I hope you like it..I picked it out special for you." The locket is heart shaped and was green and yellow, for their houses slytherin and hufflepuff. Kasumi hugged Yumi and waited to see if she liked the necklace.

Louis looked up at the Dormitory of Hogwarts. This might've been the last time he would be looking at it. Thinking of all the things he had accomplished through his time in Hogwarts. He had become a great Wizard. He had taken on a Death Eater by himself and gotten out alive. He found love twice. And many more things. He had been studying all those years and this moment he would finally come. Where he'd be a wizard and no longer a wizard in training. All those days putting up with Arrogant Students and Teachers. He saw this as a giant accomplishment.

He sighed.. He would miss Hogwarts thought. All the good times he had.. All of the things he had done there. Nearly killed by Jack while playing Quidditch. Had fought to save a person he loved. He had met a whole bunch of new friends. He had become Deputy Leader of Potters Army. He had been a Prefect that year. He was thinking what was ahead. He had already thought about joining the Order and was ready to take the responsibilty. He had already planned on staying at the Shell Cottage and in a few months to move out and find somewhere in the Wizarding World. Maybe even have the Shell Cottage when he would have a family.

Louis walked into the Great Hall. This was it.. The last time he would ever see this hall. He looked around and sighed. There he was Yumi.. His somewhat secret girlfriend and walked up to her kissing her on the cheek. "Hey."

Amelia could not in her wildest dreams have imagined that on this, the one year anniversary of her graduation from Hogwarts, she would be standing among the faculty of the school, not merely as a member of them, but as the Headmistress, the person they would be looking to for leadership.

It was almost surreal that she had somehow managed to survive this last year, beginning with the Battle of Hogwarts, becoming a professor under Grindelwald’s regime, then becoming headmistress herself. For someone so change-averse, Amelia had certainly run the gambit of change in this past year. The young redhead still wasn’t completely certain how she had gotten through everything that had been thrown her way, but that didn’t stop her from being grateful that she had made it without falling completely on her face.

For the occasion, everyone associated with Hogwarts or one of its graduates came dressed to impress, and Amelia was no exception. Even though Amelia now held great responsibility of her own within Hogwarts and was a name in her own right in the magical world, her mother still didn’t trust her sense of style, especially since Antoinette and Frederick were here tonight. Her mother had had a cranberry coloured dress sent to her by owl post a few weeks earlier with a reminder not to eat the stress of the end of the school year or the gown wouldn’t fit. Always such loving advice from dear old mum.

Antoinette was already out mingling with the adult guests that had arrived thus far, Amelia’s father lingering just a bit behind her and adding to the conversation only intermittently. Amelia was watching the pair of them, wavering between slight annoyance that her mother still supervised her at these types of events, and a small twinge of jealousy at the way Antoinette could effortlessly work a crowd. If Amelia had inherited even half of those social graces, her transition into the position of Headmistress would have been considerably smoother.

Her observation of her parents was interrupted by Jess’s voice at her side as he handed her the sheet of parchment with the roster of graduates, which she took in surprisingly shake-free hands, considering she would have a rather large role in tonight’s ceremony. Either she was getting used to this public speaking thing – unlikely – or the time of her speech was not imminent enough yet to cause physical symptoms of nervousness (more likely).

“Some of them certainly do have a tendency to surprise us,” Amelia replied, her eyes raking down the list of names she had already seen a dozen times. Although Jess handled the administrative side of graduation, everything filtered through the Headmistress at one point or another.

“But I am sure that they are equally surprised by the fact that some of us stayed,” she added with a small smirk, knowing that many of her former classmates were astounded when she became a professor, and even moreso when she was appointed headmistress. Jess was less surprising in that regard, but he could have done many things. The fact that he was still a presence in Hogwarts was both surprising and a blessing, as far as Amelia was concerned.

Darius was already bored, and he had only been here for ten minutes.

Over the years, Darius had been to more than one graduation ceremony, mostly to check out the girls dressed to the nines and hoping for someone to notice how hard they were trying. He much preferred the agenda of getting someone drunk and taking them back to the dormitories than having to sit around waiting for his name to be called, and being on roughly good behavior seeing as his family was going to be here tonight. He had even put on something halfway decent in order to keep to his parents’ requirements, though the sunglasses were definitely not within their idea of acceptable dress code, and they were completely unnecessary for the evening ceremony.

As they weren’t here yet, though, Darius was logging his ‘I don’t care’ hours by sitting backward on the bench of the Slytherin table, leaning against his own table and putting his feet up on the bench of the Gryffindor table. This effectively pissed off the Gryffindor students, who thought he was being rude by putting his feet where they were to be sitting – and he was, intentionally – and it was bothering anyone who wanted to walk the aisle between the two tables, because his long legs were creating quite the obstacle.

“Um… can you move?” an awkwardly gangly Gryffindor girl with unfortunate acne asked as she and what Darius assumed was her friend got blocked by his legs.

“What’s the password?” the Slytherin boy asked cockily, tilting his head to the side to match his mocking tone.

“We’re not playing games, Darius. Just let us through,” the other girl said stubbornly. It seemed she would be playing the part of the short, fat, overly-direct friend, Darius determined.

“Sorry, love. Whiny B**** is not the password,” Darius said pointedly, “You lack of intelligence clearly proves how you avoided being sorted Ravenclaw.”

“How about you’re being a completely assho-“ the fat one started, her face getting red with anger. Darius loved this part.

“Come on, Cindy. Let’s just go around,” the gangly one interrupted, putting a hand on her shorter friend’s shoulder and leading her back the long way to find seats further away from Darius.

“Better luck next time, Gryffies!” Darius shouted obnoxiously loud as the two retreated, causing them and several others to shoot dirty looks in his direction. Maybe this ceremony wouldn’t be so bad after all.

She was really going to miss this place. There had been some good times and bad times here, and even though there had been plenty of times when she wished she had never been there, she was really going to miss Hogwarts. It had been her home for seven years, and the thought of not coming back next year was almost enough to make her cry. She saw Kasumi walk up to her, exclaiming something about how she looked and Yumi smiled at her.

"Thanks Kasumi. You don't look too bad yourself." she told the younger girl, chuckling a bit. The thing she was mostly sad about was that she was going to have to leave the girl who stood in front of her, alone to deal with the other girls who always picked on her. She was sure Kasumi would eventually learn to stick up for herself when they said something about her, but who knows when that would happen.

Smiling, she took the small box that Kasumi held out to her and opened it. She picked up the green and yellow locket necklace that was inside and opened it to find the pictures of the two of them inside. "Oh, thank you Kasumi. I love it." she told her softly, giving her a quick hug. "The colors are for our houses I assume?" she asked her, as she put the necklace on. She looked down at it and sighed softly.

Yumi glanced up to look near the entrance of the hall and she saw Louis coming toward them. Her smile grew a bit as she saw him and she returned his kiss with one on his cheek. "Hey." she responded with the same greeting he'd given her. "Can you believe we're already graduating?" she asked him softly, momentarily forgetting about Kasumi.

Kasumi looked at Yumi with a very smiley face when she opened the box. "Yes, the colors are for our houses." I kinda figured you would like it!" she hugged Yumi back. She glanced over to see Louis coming over the Yumi. "here comes your boyfriend..." Kasumi whispered into Yumi's ear. They started talking and Kasumi decided to let the somewhat secret couple talk alone. She went to go sit for a little while. She took out her phone and saw she had a text from her father. It read: " Kasumi, I know this isn't a good time, but i just wanted to tell you that I miss you terribly and I wish I could come home. The firehouse has been really busy lately and I havent been able to call you, your brother, or your mother. I understand it's Yumi's graduation. Tell her I said congrats and that Eventhough I can't tell her, I'm proud of her. I have to go, but I just want you to know that I love you so much. Love, Dad."

Kasumi started to tear up when she read this. She hasn't talked to her dad in months. She started talking to herself. "No Kasumi...no tears. Stay strong for Yumi. Your here for her...not yourself. Don't let her see yourself like this." Kasumi toughened up and decided to look around. She couldnt help but see Yumi all happy with her boyfriend. She knew that Yumi really wasnt happy. Yumi was really sad to leave and Kasumi didn't want to put much pressure on her friend. She started to text on her phone waiting for her slytherin friend to come over to her.

This was it, his last day at Hogwarts. After seven years as a Slytherin in the school, he was finally going out on his own as a Wizard. He wasn't a little kid, a wizard in training, anymore, he was an adult. An adult that would find his own path in the world. Although he was very happy to be leaving, he had to admit he was nervous. It had been seven years where Hogwarts was his home, where he'd met his friends, and where he'd found the love of his life.

It was hard to imagine that next year he wouldn't be coming back. He would miss the castle, and all his professors, even the ones he didn't get along with sometimes. Atticus stood in the Slytherin common room for a while, taking one last, good look at it before he left it for good. No more getting homework done at the last minute here, no more hanging around with his friends here. He really will miss this place, a lot. Sighing heavily, he left the Slytherin dungeon and walked up to the Great Hall. This was probably the last time he would step foot in this hall, he thought.

Jessica and Miles Bletchley entered the hall a bit after he had, and Atticus smiled at them. At least they hadn't been too busy to come to his graduation. They always had something to do though, so he didn't doubt that by the end of the ceremony, they'd already be gone. His mother smiled at him as she saw that he'd put on the suit she'd chosen for him, and she dusted it off a bit and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, before she and Miles headed off to sit somewhere.

To say Monroe had mixed feelings about leaving Hogwarts would be an understatement. He still hadn't finished his course in occlumency training, a skill he would need to perfect in order to have an effective career in any wizarding world politics, let alone the top job.

Still, Monroe didn't let his qualms show as he entered the Great Hall, only to be greeted by the sight of his siblings already settled at the renovated Ravenclaw tables. Monroe knew ahead of time his parents would not turn up to see him graduate, which was acceptable, since he would not have thanked them for doing so in any case. The only reason it was acceptable for his brothers & sisters to turn up was because they were doubtless trying to escape their regular classes.