News always spread quickly around Hogwarts, and it did not take long for the school to begin whispering about Artemis Hexley and her friends' heroic defeat of the cabal and destruction of the infamous Cursed Vaults. With each passing day, the rumours and stories grew increasingly far-fetched, and by the time the school gossipmongers had moved on to the latest scandal - namely, Slytherin winning the Quidditch Cup after they cheated their way to victory over Gryffindor in the final match of the year, much to the obvious chagrin of Professor McGonagall - Artemis was surprised that anyone even believed in the Cursed Vaults or the Circle of Khanna anymore.

Not that she really cared, of course. She and the other seventh years had bigger things to worry about: their N.E.W.T. exams. Having spent the majority of her final term breaking curses, Artemis had not put as much effort into her revision as she should have. She had attempted to study as hard as she could in the few weeks that followed the night she had destroyed the Cursed Vaults and preceded the exams, but she had found it harder to focus on the N.E.W.T.s than she had the O.W.L.s. She was not sure whether that was because the subject material was more complex this time, because she no longer had Rowan there to motivate her with revision timetables and long library sessions, or because she was still unsettled by what she had discovered in Dumbledore's pensieve. Probably, it was a combination of everything.

Still, she had managed to struggle through her written exams and, as always, she fared far better in the practicals. She could only hope that she had done enough to get the grades she needed to get onto the Curse-Breaker training scheme at Gringotts.

Merula Snyde had also applied for the programme, however, she didn't seem concerned about her exam results at all.

"They won't care about grades," she told Artemis as they left their final, abysmally difficult Ancient Runes exam. "Not when I've already given them something better."

Artemis frowned. "What?"

"Let's just say I managed to get a pretty convincing letter of recommendation for my application," Merula said, her eyebrows raised. "After all, I know someone whose opinion on Curse-Breakers gets taken very seriously."

"Who, Bill?"

"No, dungbrain. I mean Madam Rakepick, obviously."

"There is nothing obvious about that," replied Artemis. "How did you even-"

"I wrote to her in Azkaban. They are allowed to receive letters, you know." Artemis didn't know, but she nodded anyway, and Merula continued, "I told her that after the Buried Vault and what she did to Khanna, she owed that much. And seeing as she took the three of us on as apprentices and got Bill a place, it was only fair that she do the same for us, too."

Artemis blinked. "Us?"

"Yeah, I told her to write a letter for you as well. She sent me back one for each of us, basically saying that they'd be idiots not to take us on, and I forwarded them on to Gringotts. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I just don't remember the last time you did anything this nice for me, Merula," Artemis replied. "Actually, I don't remember you ever doing anything this nice for me."

Merula rolled her eyes. "Don't get used to it."

"You mean, you don't want us to be work friends as well as school friends?"

"We're not friends at all, Hexley. I barely tolerate you."

Artemis laughed out loud, and as she walked away, she could've sworn she saw Merula smirking to herself.

***

On the last day of term, the final years were asked to meet with their Heads of Houses. When the Hufflepuffs arrived at the greenhouses, Professor Sprout was already there, smiling at all of them with a look of mingled sadness and joy in her eyes.

"Thank you for taking time out of your last day to sit and listen to me," she said. "There are a few things I wanted to say to you, and I'm not sure that there will be time before the leaving ceremony tomorrow morning. I expect that you will want to spend that time with your peers and with your families, and not your head of house.

"However, as your head of house, I do want to spend a little time with you. I remember your first night at the castle, when you all were first sorted into Hufflepuff. You were all so nervous and you looked so small under that hat, and now, look at you all. All grown up and ready to leave."

"To be fair, Professor, some of us still would look small under that hat," said Tonks, and Artemis stuck her tongue out at her.

"Hufflepuff house has always valued hard work, patience, dedication, fairness, loyalty, and kindness," Sprout continued. "Now, I know what some say about our house, and those of us who are sorted into it. I believe the word 'duffers' gets thrown about fairly often, and I suppose that next to the bravery of Gryffindor, the wisdom of Ravenclaw, and the ambition of Slytherin, our house does seem a little bit humble in comparison. But, what those people fail to understand is how there is brave you must be to truly care for others, how hard work requires ambition, and how treating others fairly is always the wisest choice. Our values are nothing to be sniffed at. You've done a great job at upholding them whilst you've been here, and I do hope you'll continue to uphold them after you leave. Remember, there is strength in being kind.

"Now, obviously, there is one less person here than there should have been. I don't want to linger too much on sad events when you've all achieved so much to be happy about, but I'd like us to take just a few moments to remember Rowan." Professor Sprout paused, placed one green-fingered hand over the other, and bowed her head. Several others followed suit, including Artemis. After almost a minute, Professor Sprout spoke again, "I think Rowan would be as proud of you as I am. And I am so very, very proud of you. I'm sorry to see you go, but I can't wait to see how you'll continue to make me proud in the years to come." She smiled and wiped a single tear from her cheek. "I'll let you all get on. Murphy, Diego, Artemis. A word, please."

"Did we do something wrong, Professor?"

"Not at all, I just need to take back your prefects' badges and Captain's armband," she told them. Diego unpinned his badge and gave it to her. Artemis waited until he had gone to do the same. Professor Sprout squeezed her hand as she pressed the badge into her green palm. "And you thought you wouldn't make a good prefect."

Frowning, Artemis' nose wrinkled. "Did I make a good prefect?"

"You made an interesting one, I'll give you that," Sprout chuckled. "But overall, I think you did a good job. Thank you."

"Thank you, Professor Sprout. For everything."

"You're welcome, Artemis. Now, have you sent off all your invitations for the ceremony tomorrow?"

Artemis shook her head. The following morning, the final years would take part in the annual leavers' ceremony before returning home, and they had each been given a set of invitations to send to their families. Artemis had already posted invitations to her great-aunt and uncle, along with the newspaper clipping detailing the results of the magizoological photography competition she had entered earlier in the year, but had yet to send out the other two.

One she had thrown into the bin, having decided that her mother probably wouldn't want to come, and not being certain that she wanted her to come, either. The final invitation was meant for Jacob, but she still didn't know when he would be released from Azkaban. She had kept hold of it in the hope that he would be allowed out in time to attend, but it was looking less likely by the hour, despite several written requests to Kingsley Shacklebolt that he try to hurry the process along a bit.

"There's still a little time," Professor Sprout told her gently before she let go of her hand. "Murphy, your armband?"

Murphy handed it to her. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

For the first time in seven years, Murphy had nothing to say. He simply shrugged his shoulders, a look of glum resentment on his face. Professor Sprout sighed and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Murphy, when I said just now that I'm proud of you all and your achievements, I don't just mean the big wins. You were faced with an opponent that was not playing fair, and you chose to stick to your principles rather than stoop to their level. As far as I'm concerned, that was a great achievement in its own right. Besides, Quidditch shouldn't just be about winning. It should be about being part of a team and having fun with your peers. And you know, even though you're adults now, it's okay for you to do things you enjoy just for the fun of them."

Artemis' eyes widened and her jaw dropped.

"I almost forgot!" she blurted out. "Murphy, I've got an idea. Can you get the Quidditch team together? Tell them to meet on the pitch right after lunch. I'll make sure Andre and Charlie know to come, too."

And so, with Penny's help spreading the word, several assorted members of the Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor Quidditch teams and the entire Circle of Khanna met on the pitch, ready to play one final game while they still could.

"But there's too many of us," said Andre, frowning at all the people who had gathered around to join.

"So? We can have more Chasers and Beaters, or we'll just swap players in and out as we go."

"That's actually against the rules," Murphy told her. "You're only allowed to substitute players after the beginning of the match if the game goes on for more than-"

"Sod the rules. This is just for fun. Anyone who wants to play can play. Who's in?"

In the end, they managed to sort out two teams of nine players, made up of students from all four houses, with both Murphy and Lee Jordan sharing the commentary.

It was chaos. With more players on the pitch (many of whom did not usually play Quidditch), two commentators, and no team robes to distinguish who was who, Artemis found it hard to follow what was actually going on, even from the vantage point she was using in order to look out for the golden snitch.

"Egwu saves, but Diego Caplan picks it up on the rebound," announced Lee Jordan. "From what I hear, this is something of a speciality for Caplan, who-"

"Caplan passes to Hopper," Murphy interrupted him wearily, "who flies back to the scoring zone. Hopper has a remarkable shooting record in the past, so Egwu will have his work cut out for him. But what's this? One of the Weasleys-"

"I think it's Fred. Could also be George."

"It's a fifty percent chance either way. Weasley aims a Bludger at Hopper, but it looks like... Yes, Bludger is deflected by Lee. Excellent defence from newcomer Lee there, leaving Hopper free to shoot. She shoots, and she scores!"

"Ten points to... Which team is that?"

It was not Artemis' team that had scored, but she applauded anyway as Ellie Hopper flew away from the goalposts and smiled at Barnaby, who blushed and dropped his Beater's bat.

On the other side of the pitch, Artemis thought she could see a flash of something gold, so she flew closer to investigate. She wasn't the only one. Charlie Weasley must have seen the same thing, for he flew in the same direction.

"You saw it too, then?" he asked her, his eyes scanning the pitch.

"Dunno what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't."

Artemis stopped feigning ignorance and grinned before squinting to try and see the snitch, to no avail.

"I think it's gone," she said, frowning.

"I think you're right," replied Charlie, but he kept looking for a few more seconds before shrugging and turning to her. "What's the score?"

"You're asking the wrong person. I think my team is winning, though."

"For now, maybe. Ow! That's a foul, you know."

Of course, Artemis did know, but she didn't care. She laughed and zoomed away from Charlie, leaving him to rub his upper arm where she had just flown into him sideways. She took both hands from her broomstick and held her arms wide as she accelerated, raising her face to the sunlight and feeling the breeze filter through her outstretched fingers. She was going to miss this feeling.

The sound of applause from down below drew her attention back to the game, and she saw that Beatrice Haywood had managed to score a goal for her own team. She clapped her hands, and scanned the pitch once more for the Snitch.

And she saw it.

There, near the other team's goalposts, the tiny golden ball was flitting around the hoops, weaving its way between them. Artemis put her hands back on the broom and accelerated towards it, the wind whipping her face and hair as she flew faster and faster through the air. She was focussing so hard on the Snitch that she almost didn't notice Charlie in her peripheral vision, but she just about managed to catch a glimpse of his distinctive red hair. She pushed further forward, descending into a dive as the Golden Snitch spiralled down the length of the middle goalpost.

Having nearly reached the ground, the Snitch shot out across the middle of the pitch, flying so low to the ground that it was almost touching the grass. Artemis pulled out of the dive and swerved to follow it, and so did Charlie.

Her broom was the better model, more suited to sharp turns than Charlie's, but he was the more skilled flier. He turned with pinpoint precision, and accelerated after the ball. Artemis flattened herself so low to her broom that her chin almost touched the handle, willing it to fly faster, but Charlie was gaining speed, and now they were neck and neck, and the Snitch was so close, so very close.

Artemis reached out her hand to catch it, but it ducked under her hand and dodged sideways, closer to Charlie. In desperation, she slammed her hand down, hard. She did so with such speed and force that she forgot to brake and her broom slipped out from beneath her, but she didn't care. Beneath her right palm, the Snitch's left wing was trapped and pinned to the ground. Unfortunately, however, the other wing was also trapped by another hand. As she had fallen from her broom, Charlie had jumped from his own, and had also managed to trap the Snitch by holding it down to the ground.

"Now what?"

The other players flew down and dismounted their broomsticks.

"Well, I think the fairest thing to do would be to see who touched it first," said Penny. "After all, don't Snitches have flesh memories?"

"They do, but this one is second-hand. It'll say I caught it, regardless of who did this time."

"So, what do we do?"

Charlie turned to Artemis. "Tie?"

That was good enough for her. "Tie."

Murphy and Lee Jordan called out the final scores, but Artemis was no longer listening at all. Not just because she didn't mind about winning or losing, but because from under the stands, she could see someone emerging who looked incredibly familiar, even from the distance.

"Hey, Hexley, isn't that..."

"It's my brother," she said. "It's Jacob."

She waved the others ahead and walked across the pitch towards her brother, who began to clap his hands as she approached him.

"Not bad," he grinned. "You're a decent flier."

Artemis shrugged. "I was just taught well."

"Humble, too. No wonder the hat put you in Hufflepuff," Jacob looked across at Artemis' friends, many of whom were surreptitiously watching the pair of them. "Want to get out of here?"

***

Together, Artemis and Jacob made their way through the grounds to the covered bridge, which gave them a clear view over the Forbidden Forest in one direction and the Black Lake in the other. Jacob looked out at both as if he'd never seen them before.

"I don't think I'll ever get over these views," he said. "Although any view is an improvement on what I've been staring at for the last ten months."

Artemis looked at her brother properly. He was paler than he used to be, his robes hung from his body as if they were too big for him, and his cheekbones were more pronounced than ever. His eyes had dark circles beneath them, and his smile didn't quite reach them.

"I'm sorry I didn't write to you. I would've done, but I didn't know they let you send letters to Azkaban," she told him. "When did they let you go?"

"Late last night."

"But Dumbledore asked them to release you weeks ago!"

"Yes, but because lying in a court of magical law is also a crime, I had to finish a shorter sentence before I could leave," Jacob explained. "So last night it was. Didn't want to be alone, so I stayed at Newt and Tina's. I came here as soon as they stopped telling me about your photo competition. Uncle Newt is incredibly pleased that you are the second-best magizoological photographer in the country. He's had the article framed and everything."

"He has?"

"Twice. Apparently one of the Crups ate the first frame."

A small laugh escaped Artemis' mouth, and the fine lines in the corners of Jacob's eyes deepened as his smile widened.

"Did they tell you about the leaving ceremony tomorrow?" she asked, and he nodded. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her last invitation. "Do you want to come?"

"Definitely. I think I've missed enough already," Jacob said. He took the invitation from her and wrapped his arms around her. "It seems very strange to think of you being old enough to leave Hogwarts."

"Yeah."

"What are you going to do next?"

"What I'm good at," said Artemis. "Curse-breaking. I've applied for the training position at Gringotts." She frowned. "What will you do? Where will you go?"

"I want to solve mysteries. The mysteries." For the first time since Artemis could remember, Jacob's eyes brightened. Not understanding his meaning, her eyebrows furrowed deeper, and he explained, "Mysteries that have been around for so long that people have forgotten they ever even existed. Like the Chamber of Secrets or the Fountain of Fair Fortune."

"Those are just stories. They're not real."

"Muggles believe that Merlin is just a story. We were told that the Cursed Vaults weren't real. They are, they've just been talked about so much that people have stopped believing in them. In every legend there's an element of truth, and so I want to find out exactly how much truth there is in everything we now consider to be a legend. As for where that will take me, I don't know."

Artemis swallowed. "So, you'll leave? And I won't know where you'll be going or when you'll be back?"

"Or you could come with me."

"You really mean it? You and me, going around the world, and working together?"

"Why not? Between us, we managed to do the impossible with the Vaults. What's to stop us from doing more impossible things?"

Artemis could scarcely believe her ears. This was everything she had ever wanted to hear, everything she had longed for in all those years of searching and missing her brother. And yet...

Perhaps it was just that it felt too good to be true, or perhaps it was because she already felt homesick for Hogwarts, or because so much had changed, but she felt suddenly apprehensive. It was as if she were being pulled in two different directions, and she didn't know which way she should go. So, instead of agreeing, she asked:

"What about Gringotts?"

"You don't have to go to Gringotts. I doubt you'd like it, anyway. They have a lot of rules their curse-breakers have to follow, and there's a lot of studying and paperwork you'd have-"

"You don't know that," Artemis said. "You've never worked for Gringotts."

"Patricia used to talk about it."

"Patricia? Oh, Madam Rakepick," Artemis nodded, and gave a little shudder. "It's so strange hearing you call her that, thinking how you were friends, after everything she did." Jacob made a humming noise, and Artemis continued, "Did you know Merula wrote to her about Gringotts and asked her to write us both recommendations?"

"No."

"Yeah. She actually did it as well. Wrote the letters."

"Makes sense," said Jacob. Artemis stared at him incredulously. "She saw something of herself in you. I think she was quite fond of you."

"Yeah, she seemed really fond all those times she tried to murder me."

"She was fond of you, but she cared about the Vaults more."

"Like Dad?"

She hadn't meant to say it. She had been so happy to see Jacob that she hadn't wanted to bring up everything she had seen in Dumbledore's Pensieve the night she destroyed the final Vault. She didn't want to feel angry at Jacob, not after he had just spent months and months in Azkaban to keep her safe, without her even writing him a letter.

"You know about Dad?" Jacob asked, his body stiffening.

"Yeah. Dumbledore told me-"

"He shouldn't have done that."

"- and Ma gave me back my memories." Jacob didn't respond, so Artemis elaborated. "You know, the ones you stole from me."

"Look, you don't..." Jacob sighed. "You were six years old, Artemis. You were confused and scared, and it was better that you didn't remember what happened. You were better off without those memories."

"I don't care. They were mine. You had no right to-"

"Actually, Artemis, I did have the right. After Dad died, I was left in charge of everything, including you."

Artemis glowered at him. "This is the part where you're supposed to apologise."

"I'm not going to apologise to you for doing the right thing," Jacob told her. "You might not like it, but I did it to protect you. Every single thing I have done has been to protect you, and some of it might not have been to your liking. Some of it wasn't to my liking either, but I did it anyway, because there is nothing - nothing - that I wouldn't do to keep you safe."

He stopped talking and turned his face away from her to look out over the grounds. Artemis frowned. His words echoed in her ears, reminding her of something someone else had told her, not too long ago. Duncan Ashe.

She bit her lower lip before asking in a quiet voice: "Like betray someone to R, you mean?"

"What are you talking about?"

Jacob asked the question in a level voice and with only a moment's hesitation, but in that split second before he spoke, what little colour her had left in his cheeks drained from them entirely, and even in profile Artemis could see that his eyes had widened, just a fraction.

"I'm talking about Duncan," she told him, and he exhaled. "He thought that you betrayed him, had chosen him to die over me. He said that you'd told him yourself, and I thought he had just gotten the wrong end of the wand, but..." Artemis shook her head. She had just seen the truth on Jacob's face. "You did, didn't you? You deliberately made it seem like he was the person you cared about more than anything or anyone else, just so that the Cabal wouldn't come after me."

Slowly, Jacob nodded his head. "It was the only way, so I... That I will apologise for."

The look in his eyes was one of genuine guilt. And something else, Artemis realised, as he looked at her properly. She narrowed her eyes at him and he looked away again. As he did, she realised what it was.

Relief.

"What else?" she asked him, her blood running cold as she did so. She wasn't sure whether she really wanted to know the answer, but she still repeated her question. "What else did you do?"

Jacob said nothing, just continued to look out at the grounds. There were tears in his eyes. Something in the front of his neck moved up and down. Artemis followed his gaze and saw that it was focused on the Forbidden Forest. She closed her eyes.

"The letter," she murmured. "The one Corey found. The handwriting, it... I thought it looked funny. Different. I assumed it had been written in a rush, but..."

She opened her eyes, but she was still unable to see the forest. Even Jacob was blurry through her tears as she looked at him and asked him:

"Was it you? Jacob, did you send that letter to Rowan?"

"Artemis..."

"You did. You sent it. All this time I thought it was my fault, and all of this time... It was you." Artemis' sense of cold dread was draining from her. She was growing hot all over, almost burning with rage. "You plotted it, all of it. You and Patricia. You're the reason Rowan was there in that forest that night, and you're the reason she..."

Jacob looked her in the eye and told her: "I'm sorry."

"Would you do it again?"

Artemis' question hung in the air, unanswered.

"Then you're not sorry," she said, half-spitting the words at him. "And I don't have to forgive you."

"I didn't ask you to forgive me."

"Good, because I don't, and I never will. I'll never forgive you." Jacob closed his eyes, but Artemis' stayed open, staring at him in contempt. "You know what? You should just leave and not tell me where you're going or when you'll be coming back. I don't even care anymore. And I'll be having this." She snatched her invitation from his hands so furiously that it was a miracle it didn't rip in half. "I don't want you at the ceremony. I don't want you anywhere near me or my friends. Here, you can have this back instead."

Her fingers trembled as she removed the watch Jacob had given her for safekeeping all those years ago, making her fumble as she undid the clasp. Jacob watched her with his eyes wide.

"I don't want it," he said gently.

"Neither do I. I don't want any part of you."

Finally she managed to take the watch off. She threw it at Jacob's feet, not even caring if it broke, and glared at him, daring him to contradict her.

"You'll always have a part of me, Artemis. Like it or not, I'll always be your brother."

"I already have a brother. His name is Bill."

She had nothing left to say, so she turned tail and ran away, down the covered bridge, out past the stone circle, and through the grounds, her heart pounding and aching and breaking.

Nearing the owlery, she stopped and half-threw herself down under the red-berried tree outside. Her head on her hands and her elbows on her knees, she let out a strangled scream, not caring if she startled the group of Thestrals that were grazing on the grass behind her.

Her whole life, everything she ever had been, had been defined by the Cursed Vaults. And now, the Vaults were gone and she was leaving Hogwarts, and she wasn't Jacob's younger sister anymore, nor was she the Cursed Vault girl, or even the Hufflepuff prefect or Seeker. She was just... Well, she didn't really know who she was without all that. So, what was she supposed to do now?

She unfolded herself from the ball she had curled herself into and looked up at the branches above her, adorned with red berries and green leaves. The last two times she had come here had been on New Year's Eve - Rowan's birthday - and the tree had been almost bare. Now, it was full of life, but it would be bare again by December. That was just how things went. They kept going on. And so would she.

She looked down at her hands, still clutching the invitation to the leaving ceremony that had been meant for Jacob, and an idea came to her. She pulled out her wand and pointed it at the invitation in her hand, duplicating it wordlessly, and  carried the invitations up to the owlery. As she stood in the doorway watching two owls fly away from her, one due south and the other in the direction of the village, she wondered why it had taken her so long to send them, and hoped that she hadn't left it too late to do so.

The clock tower bell chimed seven times, and she returned back to the castle, her home for one last night, where the end of term feast would soon be beginning.

***

The sun rose early the morning that Artemis awoke in her dormitory for the final time, and so did she and her friends. With seven years' worth of textbooks, clothes, assorted knick-knacks, and a single bat having having found a home in the room, sorting everything out had proved to be somewhat of a challenge, and they still had the last few items to pack before they could attend the leaving ceremony.

"Whose scrunchies are all these?" Chiara asked, holding up five hair bands for the other girls to claim. "And that scarf isn't mine, either."

She pointed to a striped cardigan that was draped over the end of her bed. Fergus lay belly up beneath it, batting the pom-pom tassels with his forepaws. Artemis stopped unpinning the photos from behind her headboard to look at it, her chest tightening as she did so.

"It's Rowan's," she said. "She bought it in Diagon Alley the day we first met."

"Do you want to keep it?"

"I... Not if anyone else wants it."

"Nah, you take it," said Tonks. "You were there when she bought it. She was your friend from the beginning."

Penny, whose face had been pink and eyes dewy since the night before, promptly burst into tears. Artemis let go of the scarf.

"You can have it if you like, Penny. I don't mind."

But Penny dismissed her offer with a shake of her head.

"It's not the scarf, I just..." she sniffed and looked around the dormitory. "It's just that we're really leaving, and we won't come back in September and all be here together. I just... I can't believe it's all ending. It feels so... so..."

Artemis swallowed hard as Penny's voice tailed off. She understood all the feelings her friend was struggling to put into words.

"We were always going to leave eventually," said Chiara. She put down her packing and walked over to hug Penny. "And it's not like we'll never see each other again."

Penny wiped away her tears and nodded. "Well, yes, okay. But you have to promise, all of you, that we will all stay friends, no matter what happens. We will write to each other, and we will make sure that we meet up whenever we can, and you'll all come and visit me in Paris."

"Eh," Tonks shrugged. "I'm probably just going to find some new friends. Honestly, I've spent the last seven years waiting to get rid of you."

She winked at Artemis, who tried to keep a straight face as she told Penny: "Yeah, about Paris... I think I might be busy that week, actually."

Penny reached into her trunk, pulled out her favourite slippers, and threw one at each of them.

"You're both horrible!" she shouted, but she was at least laughing now.

The girls' laughter carried with them as they left the Hufflepuff common room one last time and made their way up to the Great Hall, where the professors, all dressed in formal robes and ornate hats, were gathered with their families. Floating trays of sparkling liquid in tall glasses drifted between the guests, the benches had been arranged in rows facing the top table, and stacks of black pointed hats had been placed on the daïs.

Penny was quick to find her family and drag them over to greet Chiara's parents, and Tonks made her way over to where her mother and father were chatting with two older witches who each had an arm around Tulip Karasu. Artemis went to greet her own guests, pleased to see that all four of her invitees were in attendance; not just her great-aunt and uncle, but Madam Rosmerta and Kingsley Shacklebolt as well. She hugged each of them in turn.

"I thought you might not be able to make it," she said to Ros and Kingsley. "I left it so late to send the invitations."

"I wouldn't have expected anything else from you, Tiny," replied Kingsley, with a deep chuckle. Madam Rosmerta squeezed Artemis' shoulder.

"You know I wouldn't miss this for the world. Now, where's your camera?"

Rosmerta wasn't the only adult wanting to take photos. Once she and Artemis' friends' family members were satisfied that they had enough photos of the graduating students, Professor McGonagall tapped her glass with a spoon, and the guests took to their seats. She held out a scroll of parchment, and told the students:

"When I call your name, you will come to the daïs, and have a hat placed on your head before you sit down. Ali, Badeea!"

One by one, each of the students approached the daïs and had Professor Dumbledore shake their hand and put one of the smart black pointed hats placed on their head, while the rest of the hall applauded gently. Once Talbott Winger's hand had been shaken and a hat placed on his tawny-haired head, McGonagall rolled up her scroll, and Professor Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"And so, that's that," he said, his blue eyes twinkling behind his gold-rimmed glasses. "Every year we greet a new set of students and say goodbye to another, and it appears that we have come full circle, once again. This is always a bittersweet moment as educators. Even our more stoic members of staff" - Artemis could have sworn that he glanced at Professor Snape - "have forged strong bonds with the young people sitting before me today, and we will miss you all sorely, just as I flatter myself to think that you will miss us in return.

"For the last seven years, Hogwarts has been a place of safety - by and large - and a home away from home for you. I understand how unsettling it can feel to leave, to be sent out into the world and all the uncertainty that it holds. I can tell you all I like that Hogwarts will always be your home, but as true as that is, I fear that it will be little reassurance to you. So, instead, let me say this:

"You may have heard it said that circle has no ending. This is true, however, it is also true that a circle has many endings. In fact, it has a multitude of endings, an infinite number of them, but," Dumbledore paused, his lips twitching slightly, "each of those endings is also a beginning. And so, while this may feel like the end, it is not. It is merely the beginning.

"In that spirit, it is time for you all to return to the place where you began, ready to end this journey and begin a new one, wherever it may take you."

The doors to the Great Hall swung open, and Professor McGonagall led the final years out into the entrance courtyard, where Hagrid was waiting for them, with tears in his eyes and Fergus the cat in his arms.

"I reckon 'e was worried yeh were goin' ter leave withou' 'im," he whispered to Artemis, who grinned and let Fergus climb onto her shoulders.

"I could never do that."

She stayed near the front of the procession of students, teachers, and guests that followed Hagrid down the cliff path to the Black Lake, where the boats were ready and waiting on the shore.

"Four to a boa'!"

As Penny and Chiara climbed into a boat with Jae and Ben, Artemis and Fergus climbed into an adjacent one with Tonks and Charlie, Hagrid steadying the boat as they climbed in.

"We're missing a fourth person," said Tonks, her pink eyebrows furrowing. "Should we ask-"

"No," Artemis shook her head and pulled the pom-pom-tasselled scarf from her cloak pocket and placed it on the bench next to her. "This seat is taken."

She avoided looking either Tonks or Charlie in the eye by watching others as they began to float away in nearby boats. Murphy McNully had joined Andre, Tulip, and Badeea in one, while the Slytherins - Merula, Ismelda, Ben, and Liz - were in another. Diego and Corey were sharing a third with Talbott and Victor Ketsueki, who raised his eyebrows at Artemis. She rolled her eyes at him but smiled to herself once she'd looked away, back at the shore where the guests had gathered with the teachers.

Bill Weasley waved to her with the arm that wasn't wrapped around his mother's shoulders as she cried into a handkerchief, and Kingsley nodded to her before conjuring another handkerchief and passing it to little Beatrice Haywood, who had been using her sleeve to wipe her tears from her face. Madam Rosmerta was smiling, and two Crups were yapping at her Aunt and Uncle's feet. Professor Dumbledore bowed his head to her, and the clock tower bell chimed ten times.

The sun was not yet high in the sky, but its beams burst through the scattered clouds of the midsummer morning, illuminating the castle and basking it in a soft golden glow. Artemis smiled to herself.

This was how she wanted to remember Hogwarts: golden, glorious, and finally at peace, for however long that peace would last. She kept her eyes on the castle that had been her home as the little wooden boats carried her and friends away towards their yet unknown futures, across the still and slightly glittering waters of the lake that no longer held a Cursed Vault.