The Beginning:
In the ensuing months after The Battle of Hogwarts, it was decided that Harry Potter and his classmates would repeat their last year of schooling, even those who had lasted the year under then Headmaster Snape, creating a jumbo Class of 1998. The school year was uneventful, compared to the cataclysmic events of the previous seven, though issues did crop upàà.as well as the aftershocks of the last days of the man who called himself Lord Voldemort. This is a chronicle of some of what happened after Harry Potter graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
This story begins approximately 14 months after The Battle of Hogwarts and the death of Tom Marvolo Riddle:
Friday, July 2, 1999
Hogwarts Private Dining Area
7:30 pm GMT
Headmistress Minerva McGonagall surveyed the large class of graduates seated at the tables in front of her. Her remarks were to be brief, not a public speaker was she:
ôI would like to congratulate all of the Hogwarts Class of 1998, both the students who were supposed to graduate this year, and those who should have graduated last yearàà.and would have, if not for certain events.ö She smiled ruefully and most of the young people shared her look. She paused and looked at the ôPotterö table, as she had thought of it through dinner. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Lunaààand George, who had returned for his final three months of school. Seven students, among many others, who had risked everything for Hogwarts. A tear fell down her face as she thought of it, and quickly turned her head so that people wouldnÆt see.
But they did, and it touched even the cynical heart of Blaise Zabini, he of the many step-fathers. She continued:
ôYou have all represented us honorably during your time here, and I know that you will continue to do so upon your entrance into our society.ö Nice words, and it took every ounce of willpower Harry and company had not to look over at Draco Malfoy as she said it, though a few of the faculty were not so reluctant. Young Malfoy had only been readmitted to school under a plea agreement with The Ministry, though he had kept as low a profile as he possibly could during the last year. To her credit, McGonagall had made it a blanket statement, whatever she privately felt about certain students.