Left to you

Chapter 8- A Sudden Implication

In the blink of an eye, Hermione and the couple were standing at Hogwarts station with wand umbrellas in hand. Another great spell. It was of course, raining. Just one thing after another, Hermione thought. As far as she could tell, the station looked the same as it did before. Either it was undamaged, or there were great architects working on the restoration. Once again, Hermione was focusing on something unimportant to avoid her problems.

"I don't know about you guys," Harry said. "But I'm starving, let's get to the Great Hall."

"I would've expected Ron to say something like that, not you Harry!" Hermione said with a laugh.

With that, they proceeded to walk to the Great Hall. Ginny and Harry were talking quietly, the girl's head on the boy's shoulder. Hermione felt a pang of sadness, as her shot at happily ever after had been shattered. That's not important right now, she thought.

Soon enough, they were standing at the doors of the Great Hall. As Hermione looked around, she realised it wasn't much different to the way it used to be. The teachers were still sitting at the table up the front, except now Professor McGonagall was sitting where Snape and Dumbledore once did. The tables were still full of students, including Malfoy which definitely bothered Hermione. The candles still hung in the air. Nearly Headless Nick and all the other ghosts were chatting. The Sorting Hat sat in front, waiting to put people in their houses. This did not surprise Hermione, as there were new first years coming. I guess I was just worrying about nothing, Hermione thought.

The three Griffindors sat down at the table across from Neville and Luna. The years had been good to Neville, and he was no longer the scrawny boy he used to be. He had grown into a strapping young man, as Mrs Weasley would say. But of course Hermione had already seen this, as she had attended their wedding early last year.

"Hey guys!" Hermione said with a smile. "Haven't seen you for a while!"

Luna and Neville laughed. "We missed you three too!" Luna said.

At this point Ginny joined into the conversation and Neville and Harry convened to have their own little man chat.

"How's the married life treating you Luna?" Ginny asked eagerly.

"I could ask you the same question!" Luna laughed.

They both quickly stole a look at Hermione and rushed to change the subject. It was all over the Daily Prophet almost the minute Hermione left the church, covered by Rita Skeeter of course. According to her, Hermione had erupted into tears and rage as soon as Lavender had run in and screamed at Hermione for stealing her man. This was technically true, but it was the description that bothered her.

"So where's Ron?" Luna asked a little bit too enthusiastically. Neville and Harry joined into the girls' conversation finally at the mention of the redheaded guy.

"He's here at school." Ginny uttered.

"In the hospital wing." Hermione finished for her.

Luna and Neville were shocked. Harry took over the story as Hermione comforted Ginny. She was an emotional wreck for some reason.

But Harry had only gotten up to the part where Hermione had entered the Hogwarts platform when Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and stood up to the Headmaster's podium or in this case, Headmistress's podium.

"Welcome everyone!" She said. "We are so glad to have a school back in shape!"

At this the students burst into applause and cheers.

"Ah yes. This is something to celebrate." She said, and then suddenly became more serious.

"I have an important announcement to make. As you may know, many people believe that the Slytherin house is the so called 'evil' house. Light has been shed on the fact that many Slytherin students, past and present, had been associated with You-Know-Who."