A/N SO, the last chapter of the sixth book! Thank you to all the reviewers, which keep me going and makes me want to update and carry on, thanks to the followers and the favourites and to anyone who viewed the story! I bought The Cursed Child yesterday but am sort of saving it, but I think I may just stick with seven stories, so the next book will probably be the last. You never know, I may do a 'before the epilogue' or snippets but I shall have to see. I may take a break between this book and the next, due to only having two chapters of Year Seven and I want to focus on my new story - Words of Wisdom [go check it out!] - for a while. [Words of Wisdom is AU, as I doubt any of it is in Cursed Child ...]

For the last time on this story ... enjoy! xxx :)

Chapter Thirty

The Journey Home

When they arrived back to where the remaining crowd was, Fred and George were both glaring at Percy's retreating back as though he'd burst into flame by their stares. Ginny seemed rather distant with them, and Amara had a bad feeling that Harry's talk was not a nice one. Tally seemed to be comforting her. Madame Maxime had already gone, taking the carriage and horses with her, because Tally was not returning to Beauxbatons until September. Jesse and Adrien soon took their leave, telling Amara they'd meet them at the station to take them home. Fred asked her, once Percy had disappeared, if she wanted him to take her home immediately. Amara said no.

Amara and Hermione returned to their dormitory after the funeral had dispersed. Fred had seemed rather miffed that she had refused to go back with him, but Amara had her reasons to want to go back on the Hogwarts Express. It was her last time on the train, not that they had agreed to go with Harry wherever he was going. Instead she told Fred to meet her at the station and take her home, whilst Jesse and Adrien could take Tally, Ethan and Tessie. Amara could Apparate herself but she wanted to see Fred again.

Lavender had already packed, said goodbye and left whilst they were sorting out their things, and Amara noticed she had seemed more distant than ever.

Amara wondered what her parents would say when they realised she was not returning to Hogwarts the next year. Would they be supportive of her? She couldn't tell them what she was doing, but it was definitely for the best if they didn't know …

It was five minutes later, when Amara had closed her trunk, that she found Hermione standing by the window, deep in thought.

"Hermione?"

She was startled out of her thoughts at the sound of Amara's voice.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing ... I was just thinking ..."

"About what?"

"Remember Harry mentioning that Dumbledore had taken all the books out of the library?" Hermione asked.

Amara blinked in confusion.

"What books?"

"The - the Horcrux books."

"The ... Horcrux books? Why ... You don't want to read them do you?"

"Not exactly," Hermione flushed. "Well, we hardly know anything about them, do we? And I don't suspect Dumbledore destroyed the books ... Not even them ..."

"Worth a try," said Amara. "I mean, we need all the help we can get, don't we?"

Hermione nodded. "It's not stealing is it?"

"No of course not!" Amara insisted. "It's not like he wanted them, and it's not as though we are going to make Horcruxes ourselves, is it?"

Hermione shuddered at the very thought of it.

Amara crossed to the side of the room and opened one of the windows. She peered out, down at the sunny grounds. A few people were still walking around and she retracted her head back into the room.

"D'you think a summoning charm will do the trick?" Amara asked.

"That's what I thought to do," Hermione said.

"After you then," Amara said after a pause. Hermione bit her lip.

"Accio Horcrux books!" Hermione said clearly with her wand out. Amara looked unsurely at the open window. Hermione looked slightly disappointed.

"They're coming!" Amara said suddenly, spotting several books zooming towards the window. Down below the scene must have looked rather odd. The books came through the window and landed on Hermione's bed.

"I didn't think it would work!" Hermione said, rather shocked.

"Neither did I," said Amara. "Do you want to have them?"

Hermione nodded and opened her trunk.

"They don't look very nice, do they?" she said. She held one up, which was bound in faded black leather. "Secrets of the Darkest Art."

"Sounds grim," said Amara. "Pack them away, I don't like seeing them."

Hermione nodded and not a moment later Tally poked her head around the door.

"Everyone's ready," she said. "And Professor McGonagall has let people go for the carriages."

Amara and Hermione nodded. Tally retracted her head and disappeared. It was strange how quickly she had got used to the castle, and she seemed to feel at home at Hogwarts. It was a shame they were leaving so soon after she arrived. Amara stood at the door of her dormitory, which she'd slept in and called her bedroom for six years of her life. It was more familiar than anything, and she was going to miss her four poster bed, sharing with Hermione and the rest of the girls. It was never going to be the same again.

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Tally were waiting in the common room with their things by their feet. Everyone else's trunks had been stacked up in the corner, waiting for the house elves to take them to the train. The six of them added theirs to the pile before shouldering their bags and picking up their owls and other pets. They would re-find their trunks on the platform, as taking it through the castle and into the carriages may cause a lot of harm for many students, especially those with heavy ones which were rather hard to pick up.

The castle was quieter than usual and everyone who was flooding down to the front doors had got dressed and was wearing ordinary Muggle clothing again. The carriages, drawn by Thestrals like always, were waiting for them on the drive. Many students had already got in them and the six of them managed to get a carriage to themselves.

They did not speak much in the carriage. Nobody knew what to say - especially when Ginny and Tally were with them, they couldn't talk about the hunt they had decided on doing. Instead, Ron and Tally talked quietly to each other, Amara stared out the window with Harry, watching Hogwarts as though their lives depended on it and Ginny and Hermione also talked between themselves.

The platform was busy with students getting on the train. Some teachers had come down to and were ushering everyone onto the train and helping with trunks and animals. It was time to go.

Amara chose a seat next to the window when they got into a compartment. Tally was suitably impressed with the train, which she had never seen before, and said she wished Beauxbatons did something like it. Neville and Luna joined them and were introduced to Tally. Tally seemed shocked at the things Luna came out with and it was rather amusing to watch. The compartment was rather full with eight of them in there but Amara rather liked it.

Neville kept losing Trevor as usual and Luna showed Tally her latest edition of The Quibbler. Tally kept looking at Ron for reassurance that it was normal. Hermione had her head in a book and they somehow managed to get on the subject of Quidditch. Neither Tally nor Hermione showed much interest in this and they did not comment much (Luna was doing a Quibbler quiz).

It was a weirdly quick train ride back and all too soon they were chugging into Platform 9 and ¾ at King's Cross. It was a slow process getting off the train with all their luggage and owls and took even longer lining up for the barrier. Archimedes felt it was a good time to start a conversation with Hedwig and Pigwidgeon whilst Alfred tried to get out of the cage and into Ginny's one, to see Arnold. The guard let them go two by two and Amara went with Ginny through the barrier and out the other side. Harry and Ron had gone first, then Tally and Hermione.

There were a lot people meeting everyone on the other side for many families. Hermione's parents were there, and so were Mr and Mrs Weasley for Ron and Ginny. Jesse and Adrien were with them, already with Tessie and Ethan, who seemed to be arguing. And then there was Fred, still in his black dragon skin jacket and getting some double glances from girls walking past. Amara beamed and went to greet everyone, and landed on Fred last.

"You alright?" he asked her, when her head was resting against his chest.

Amara exhaled deeply. "Not really," she said.

Fred nodded.

"How was the train?"

"Quick," she replied. "Can I go home now?"

Fred smiled and went over to the others, who were all talking seriously to each other. Amara noted Ginny and Harry were not standing near each other and felt a little tug of the gut. She didn't have to break it off with Fred, did she? Or was it the right thing to do? Hermione was in Jesse's arms again and he seemed to be whispering something in her ear. Her parents were looking fondly at them, for they had been together for quite a while. Would Hermione break it off too?

Ron had his arm around Tally. Amara didn't think they'd break it off, not when Tally was going to Beauxbatons and they'd only been together a year.

Hermione's parents seemed eager to go home so they left shortly after. Jesse and Adrien took Tessie and Ethan and went to an alley to Apparate in. Jesse came back for Tally as the Weasleys were making their move. Harry had walked over to his Uncle, who had just arrived, and waved at them all.

Amara looked up at Fred, who was talking to Mr Weasley and sighed. She couldn't ever break up with him.

After a while, Fred was soon pulling her into the side alley near the station, which was grubby and obviously not in a good shape, but as it was only wizards and the occasional homeless or drunk muggle who came down the alley, it wasn't surprising.

"You could do this yourself, you know," Fred said.

Amara looked at him and he grinned.

"But I'm more than happy ..."

Amara giggled slightly and Fred seemed to think it was a massive achievement. He tightened his grip, turned on the spot, and the alley disappeared from view. A few uncomfortable seconds later and Amara was facing the back door to her house. It was more overgrown than it had been in previous years as her parents couldn't be bothered to do the gardening anymore.

Everyone was in the kitchen when Amara and Fred walked inside. Her mother had baked a cake and cookies and her father, Tessie, Ethan, Tally, Jesse and Adrien were sharing them out between them whilst having tea and coffee. They seemed to have cheered up considerably.

"Amara! Oh you're home!"

Her mother walked over to her and hugged her tightly. She was the same height as Amara, both of them shorter than Ethan and her father.

"I'm alright," she said carefully patting her on the back.

"Thank you for bringing her home!" Her mother said to Fred, who grinned. Amara noted it wasn't a completely Fred-grin, as his eyes were slightly duller than usual.

"It's no problem," Fred said.

"Would you like to stay for a while?" her mother asked, smiling and leading them both over to the table.

Jesse looked up and caught Amara's eye with a grim smile. It was then when she realised that though they seemed happy around the table, they had a lot of things on their minds. Amara wished Tessie and Ethan didn't, being so young, and then realised she was young and shouldn't be dealing with so many pressures. But it was what Voldemort did to people. And it made her want to stop him even more. She was going with Harry whether she was killed trying.

But what were they going to do without Dumbledore? They had no leads. All Harry knew was that he wanted to go to Godric's Hollow.

Amara looked around the table, with her family, her extended family, a family friend and her boyfriend, it made her realise this may be the last time she could do this. She had to tell them what was going to happen, and she was not looking forward to it.

But when it was over … Amara knew they would, finally, be able to sit in peace, knowing the world was safe once more.

~End of Sixth Year~