Second Time Love (Completed)

Chapter 12: Hogwarts Again

The month since Voldemort's defeat had been rather hectic for Harry and Hermione, travelling from celebration to celebration, visiting new memorials to those who had died in the second Voldemort war, and for the past week they had been attending the trials of former death eaters. Between them Harry and Hermione had been able to hand a large list of names of death eaters a lot of whom had claimed to be under the imperious curse and were therefore technically innocent, but with the list having been written by the Potters it was accepted as true and complete evidence, all of the death eaters who had previously been able to buy their way out of a goal term or the death sentence found themselves not only being taken into the room of death, but for those serving long stretches of time in Azkaban they were made to watch as the more evil of the death eaters were sent through the veil of death, most of them crying like babies and pleading for unfound mercy. They also found thanks to a suggestion from Hermione, their money and possessions confiscated to pay out damages to those people who had been injured or to families who had lost loved ones because of Voldemort.

It had been a satisfying time for Hermione as she watched the end of the death eaters and though she had nothing against purebloods the near eradication from the wizarding world of the pureblood belief in their supremacy came as a great relief and gave her a feeling of satisfaction. It was on a Monday just over a month since the battle at the ministry, as lunchtime approached she sat in the court room with Harry by her side as Lucius Malfoy was sentenced to death, she watched as he was led away screaming his innocence to the room where the veil of death was, it had tickled Harry somewhat when Lucius had expected to be set free simply because he did not take part in the final battle, but with Harry's evidence, starting at the attempt to kill Ginny Weasley and other Muggle born students at Hogwarts Lucius was doomed to pay for his crimes.

Hermione sat back a little with some satisfaction as the junior Malfoy who had plagued both her previous life and this one, was sentenced to twenty five years in Azkaban for having the dark mark and helping in several tortures of Muggles, she also felt some satisfaction knowing that Mrs Malfoy who had been sentenced to five years, would if she survived leave Azkaban as yet another penniless pureblood, all the Malfoy wealth had been confiscated and thanks to information from Mundungus Fletcher all their money and possessions stashed away in the muggle world were confiscated too.

Then as the prisoner she had been waiting to see was brought in and chained to an old oak chair she sat up and readied her self to be a witness. Delores Umbridge was sentenced to two twenty five year terms for the attempted murder of Harry Potter and Dudley Dursley, and for the attempted use of an unforgivable spell and for using an illegal instrument to punish pupils.

Three weeks after the last of the major death eater trials Harry and Hermione returned by invitation to Hogwarts, they were there to cram in some work before taking their N.E.W.T exams, before then setting off for a well earned rest and a holiday tour of the world. They were sat in the common room of Gryffindor tower reading the story in the Quibbler about the mob destruction of the Daily Prophet news paper offices and all the press room equipment. Harry chuckled out loud as he read about one Rita Skeeter being tarred and feathered and paraded through Diagon Alley tied to an old Muggle broomstick, during the celebrations Rita had published yet another story about Harry that was full of lies, it had been one ficticious story about their hero to many for the people of the wizarding world, and what had started off as a small gathering calling for her to be fired turned into a full mob destruction of the news paper that was now seen as a main supporter of the evil Voldemort.

Having been back at Hogwarts studying for their NEWT exams they had spent the past three months in secret training. Hermione had been teaching Harry how to dance; they had spent every spare moment they had in the room of requirement, every free period, every evening some times late into the night they had danced. When they first started Harry had still been a little stiff and clumsy but he had very soon begun to improve, and as Harry led Hermione around the empty dance floor provided by the room of requirements for the last time, she felt proud of him, he danced far better than Viktor Krum had and as far as she could tell he was now an excellent dancer. Like with everything else he did for her he worked hard to get it right.