CHAPTER 33: I HOPE SO

Harry had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. To their great surprise, both he and Ron passed with good marks; Hermione, of course, came top of the year. Alfred's marks were somewhat lackluster ("Whatever, dude, Einstein totally got bad grades, too!"), but he still passed. Matthew's grades were much higher, second only to Hermione ("I guess all that time in the library did some good, eh."). Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one. They had hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be thrown out, but he passed, too. It was a shame, but as Ron said, you couldn't have everything in life.

And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Neville's toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays (Alfred in particular was extremely unhappy about this); Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats (Alfred and Matthew put on the same bomber jacket and red-and-white hoodie, respectively, that they had been wearing on the train back in September); pulling into platform nine and three quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took quite a while for them all to get off the platform. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles. Harry, Ron and Hermione were grouped together, while Alfred and Matthew were next in line.

"You must come and stay this summer," said Ron. "All of you – I'll send you an owl."

"Thanks," said Harry. "I'll need something to look forward to."

Alfred looked a bit uncomfortable as he said, "Sorry, dude, I don't think me or Mattie can go. We're probably gonna be pretty busy this summer."

Matthew nodded. "Sorry, eh. It sounds really lovely, though."

Harry, Ron and Hermione were motioned to go through the barrier. People jostled them as they moved forwards towards the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called:

"Bye, Harry!"

"See you, Potter!"

"Still famous," said Ron, grinning at him.

"Not where I'm going, I promise you," said Harry. He, Ron and Hermione passed through the gateway together.

"There he is, Mum, there he is, look!" It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron. "Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mum! I can see-"

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point." Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them. "Busy year?" she said.

"Very," said Harry. "Thanks for the fudge and the jumper, Mrs. Weasley."

"Oh, it was nothing, dear."

"ALFRED, YOU IDIOT!" Pretty much everyone turned to look at the source of the noise. Alfred and Matthew had come through the barrier and been confronted by the same angry-looking blonde man with thick eyebrows that had been lecturing Alfred in September. Oh, this must be 'Iggy'. The man continued, no longer shouting but still quite loud, "I told you to leave off it and let the adults take care of it, but did you listen to me? NO! You just had to go and play the hero and put your friends' lives in danger! Why do I even bother with you? You never do what I tell you to, no matter how stupid it is!" He turned on Matthew. "And you! Grow a spine, already, and stop letting him be such a horrible influence! You could have tried talking him out of it, but no, you just had to go along with his hare-brained scheme! And whatever happened to 'I'll write you again when anything interesting happens'? I had no warning you two were about to do something so stupid until Dumbledore wrote me after the fact!"

Matthew shuffled his feet. "Sorry."

Alfred wasn't nearly as apologetic. He was grinning, completely unfazed. "Nice to see you're as spazz-tastic as ever, dude. Next time we have a super-aweomse-ultra-heroic adventure, we'll make sure to write you a letter, then do it anyway!" While Arthur obviously tried to restrain himself from having another outburst, Alfred went over to Harry, Ron and Hermione and gave them all a huge, lung-crushing hug. "See you guys in a few months!" He let them go before the oxygen deprivation became too uncomfortable.

Matthew stepped in and hugged them each individually. "Have a good summer, eh," he said.

Harry nodded. "You, too. We'll see you in September!"

Matthew stayed quiet for a few moments, then murmured, "I hope so." The twins went to join Arthur and walked towards the exit, Arthur's lecturing and Alfred's insubordinate remarks audible even after they disappeared into the crowds.

A/N: And so, we reach the end. Pages Left: 0. Have a hug, everyone, we did it! \(^-^)/ Thank you all for your reviews, favourites, alerts and views. And in reply to the question at least some of you seem to have: It is definitely my intention to write a sequel! I might take a bit of a break first, but I'm pretty pumped about it, so it shouldn't be TOO long of a wait. Hopefully I'll see you all there! Farewell, beautiful readers! \(^-^)