Completing her seventh year at Hogwarts was exactly what Éponine Rosier needed in her life after what had been a rather chaotic beginning to the first half of the term. After having her emotions be toyed with and suffering the devastating reality that she couldn't save Regulus because he didn't want to be saved, Éponine returned to the castle with her original plan in mind. Initially, all she had wanted to do was finish out her seventh year with decent marks and make a good life for herself.

Of course, she had been thrown for a loop when Regulus claimed he wanted to change for the better and she had wholeheartedly believed him. And it broke her heart, in more ways than one, that Regulus had lied to her.

He had no intentions of changing his prejudiced views, in fact, it had all been a trick to lure Éponine back and punish her for ever daring to think differently. Some would venture to say that she was 'too young' to experience heartbreak, but while Regulus had proven to be a terrible person, in the long run, Éponine knew he had been her first love.

Even if they weren't on good terms by any means, she did share some good memories with him, memories where she had grown as a person. After nights where she quietly cried to herself, Éponine came to the conclusion that she couldn't waste any more tears on Regulus. She could be thankful for the good memories, but be aware that he stood across enemy lines.

Reality only set in even more so when Éponine returned to school, to discover that Regulus, Avery, and Mulciber had all dropped out. Regulus' departure left the position of Head Boy opened to be replaced, while Éponine saw it more as him fully dedicating himself to the Dark Lord, and Avery and Mulciber were following the same path. For a while, it felt as though she had entered a state of mourning, and while none of the boys had died, Éponine mourned the loss of what could have been.

All three of them had such potential to be loving and caring people, she had witnessed it with her own eyes, but darkness had stolen them away in the form of the Dark Lord. She couldn't save them, Éponine had to keep telling herself that for weeks on end. She couldn't save them because they didn't want to be saved, and she had to come to terms with letting them go.

It certainly didn't happen overnight and even with the support of her dearest friends, Éponine struggled quite a bit in the beginning.

But being back at Hogwarts, although painfully reminded of Regulus' absence on a daily basis, Éponine continued to flourish. She put almost all her time into her classes and when she wasn't working on being the top of her classes, she was busy supporting Gian as he took over the Slytherin Quidditch team as a third-year student. And after a while, she noticed that with Regulus and the others gone, Slytherin entered a bit of a Renaissance period where everything seemed to be so peaceful in the House.

Sure, there were still some prejudice students but they didn't dare to voice their thoughts out loud anymore as they fell into the minority numbers and there was no big name of the Sacred Twenty-Eight there that supported their views either.

Then came the days where Éponine didn't think about Regulus at all, too busy with her own life. Days turned into weeks and then those weeks turned into months. And while she had been introduced to the Order of the Phoenix, it was clear she could not be active while she was in school, so per the advice of Dumbledore, she focused on her academics and when her time at Hogwarts ended, she would join the cause fully.

The Order of the Phoenix as Dumbledore had explained to her back in December, was a secret organisation founded by the headmaster, that was put together to fight the Dark Lord and his followers. Initially, Éponine believed that the Order was relatively smaller, consisting of Sirius, James, Lily, Remus, and Peter, only to learn later on that there were plenty of others that had joined that she would eventually come to meet.

And she couldn't wait to meet them.

However,  Éponine had to get through her graduation ceremony first.

It was meant to be a rather poetic and symbolic ceremony of having the Seventh year students cross the Black Lake in the small boats they had taken back in their first year. They were to don their school robes one last time before Professor Dumbledore gave them the send-off after wishing them all the best luck in their future endeavours. The ceremony itself appeared to be so simple and short, but what was there really to say or do? It was time for the students to go back to the real world where they weren't shielded by the walls of the castle.

As for Éponine, climbing into one of the boats, she knew families of the students were waiting across the way on land. And while she hadn't thought about them in so long, her mind wandered to thoughts of her parents. They had left off in a terrible way, but there was always going to be some part of Éponine that hoped they would come to their senses. She thought about the wild possibility of them being across the way, waiting on her when she showed up so they could finally apologise for being terrible parents and beg for her forgiveness.

Of course, the idea itself of her parents showing up, letting alone showing up to say sorry was so incredibly far-fetched. Éponine knew very well that on land waiting for her was Sirius, Gian, James, Lily, Remus, and Peter because they were her family. Not that she was going to be disappointed to see them, besides the sporadic visits at Hogsmeade, she missed all of them terribly, with the exception of Gian, who she saw on a daily basis.

Looking across the way at one point, Éponine spotted Emmarentia, who despite being part of the ceremony, appeared to be absolutely miserable. More than likely, it was due to the fact that Hogwarts had allowed her the last bit of freedom that she craved and the ceremony meant she was about to enter a life she didn't want. Éponine, in some ways, wanted to feel sorry for her, but she couldn't bring herself to do it anymore. It just felt like a waste of energy to keep trying to help those that weren't going to listen.

So rather than living a life fighting for her own rights, along with the rights of others, Emmarentia was going to live a life doing what she was told. It was hard to believe she was the same girl that had told Éponine only a couple of years prior that she needed to stand up for herself and do the things she wanted in life.

As Emmarentia sensed someone watching her, she glanced over only for Éponine to look away as they approached land.

And rather than waiting for the boat to fully approach the land where she saw everyone waiting, Éponine had grown too impatient and decided to jump out.

She splashed through the lake water and made her way to where her family was waiting on her, all of them looking oddly confused by her decision to trudge through the water rather than wait. But instead of asking her what she was thinking, they approached her, ready with hugs. She took each of them, holding onto all of them tightly.

"Go on, hug the others," Gian laughed when she hugged him, " you saw me only an hour ago! I know I'm great but you couldn't have missed me that much!"

She let out a laugh as Gian continued to hold onto Toulouse as James and Lily hugged Éponine in unison before she moved onto Remus and then Peter.

She saved Sirius for last.

After all, without Sirius' support, Éponine wasn't sure where she would have ended up. She had done a lot of the work herself, especially in the beginning when it came to coming to the conclusion that everything she had been taught in her early life was wrong. But when those she thought were closest to her, abandoned her, Sirius had been there for her, along with the others. However, he had been the one to understand her pain on another level, that the others couldn't relate to.

He didn't have to help her when he did, and even when she decided to give Regulus another chance against Sirius' advice, he was still there for her when she realised her mistake.

She had told him back at Christmas time that she wasn't ready for a relationship after what had happened with Regulus and he respected her wishes. Even then, he always made sure to write to her frequently to make sure she was doing alright. When she had trips to Hogsmeade, he was there so she could talk to him, whether it was about how she was feeling or something as mundane as her classwork.

Wrapping her arms around Sirius, she held him the tightest and let out a sigh of relief as he hugged her in return. He whispered his congratulations in her ear that brought a smile to her lips almost instantly. And while she held onto him the longest, eventually, she released her hold and took a step back from him.

"Do you have plans for tonight?" she suddenly asked him.

"Well, we were going to originally have your party tonight," Sirius told her, " but Lily thought it would be best to wait until this weekend and after she said that, it made sense to wait. That way Gian can go home and see his parents and then come over for the weekend. He'll be staying at the flat."

"So, you're saying that you don't have plans?"

Sirius looked absolutely confused but shook his head.

"Great, so does that mean you're free to go on a date tonight?"

While Sirius' shock was clearly written on his face, it was James who let out an excited squeal that was silenced by everyone in the group looking at him. He quickly looked around at everyone before dropping his hands that had clapped to the sides of his face.

"Oh, what?! Like you all aren't excited?!"