No you are not dreaming, yes this is real! And I apologize so much to everyone who has been waiting for this chapter. I'm sorry it took me so long. This is the final chapter of The Lioness and her cubs. I hope you enjoy it and again I'm really sorry that it took me this long.

Dedication: To everyone who has read my story and reviewed and sent me messages encouraging me to finish this chapter and really the whole story is dedicated to you, because this would not have been possible with you.

Disclaimer: Over my two year hiatus I have fought JK Rowling for the rights and succeeded!... Just Kidding although I did get to meet JKR I still own nothing!

"Ron, Ron!" Hermione shouted up to him as she ran up the staircase where he was standing at the top landing. "Has Harry come out yet?" she asked breathlessly coming to stand next to him.

"Yes Hermione, Harry came out and I told him you weren't here yet so he walked all the way back to the hospital wing, and how he's walking all the way back." Ron said sarcastically. Hermione frowned at him.

"A simple no would have been fine Ronald." He just rolled his eyes. "Mind you if Madam Pomfrey doesn't let him out soon then we'll be late for the feast."

"Big deal" Ron said leaning over the top of the staircase, "everyone knows Slytherin won the house cup, the whole thing is going to suck."

"Well even though Slytherin won it should be fun, there'll be a lot of food at the feast that we don't normally get."

"Well of course the food will be good Hermione, it's always great, but I bet Winky would bring up the food if we asked her to, we could say Harry's still recovering. Then we wouldn't have to see Malfoy's smug face."

"Your efforts would be in vain anyway Ron, because according to Professor McGonagall all students are required to attend the end of year feast unless you're really, really ill. Like in a coma or something."

"Ugh, well I just hope we're no where near that prick Malfoy."

"Really what did that jerk do this time?" Ron and Hermione looked down sharply and beamed at Harry who looked up at them from the bottom of the stairs.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted running halfway down the steps to give the bespeckled boy a huge hug, which he returned happily.

"How are you feeling mate?" Ron asked once they were all standing on the top of the staircase.

"Great actually, good as new! Madam Pomfrey did a great job, but she wants me to keep some of these bandages on my hands tonight just in case."

"Glad to hear it!" Ron said smirking, "Plus maybe it'll prevent Professor McGonagall from punishing you if you keep those on." Harry laughed and ignored Hermione's startled gasp.

"Actually I think she already punished me," Harry told them, "I was suppose to get out of the hospital wing yesterday when I woke up and then all of the sudden I'm being kept until today."

Ron and Hermione both groaned in sympathy, knowing how Madam Pomfrey tended to act with her patients.

"Oh come on we better hurry otherwise we'll be late for the feast." Hermione said suddenly, which cause Ron to say a few choice words under his breath and Harry to stare at him confused.

"He's mad because Slytherin won the house cup, and we're dead last"

"What we were in second before!" Harry said somewhat loudly. "What happened?" Ron and Hermione shared a look.

"You missed the last quidditch game, without you Ravenclaw completely dominated us." Ron said sadly. "Now we're last." Harry groaned loudly and hung his head.

"Don't worry Harry, no one blames you!" Hermione said quickly. "In fact most of the Gryffindor's have been telling us how cool it is that we did what we did, the whole school has some sort of idea what happened!"

"How in the world did they find out what happened?" Harry asked.

"I for one have no idea who would spread such rumors," Ron said seriously, as Hermione scoffed and rolled her eyes at them while Harry laughed.

The trio made their way into the great hall joining the other Gryffindor's who welcomed Harry back warmly. Fred and George asked quite loudly what he thought of their present for him. They seemed quite disappointed that Madam Pomfrey had confiscated it before it could have been put to good use.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully silencing the massive crowd. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts..."

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twenty three points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy- two."

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. Harry could see Draco Malfoy banging his goblet on the table. It was a sickening sight.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The room went very still. The Slytherins' smiles faded a little.

"Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes...

"First - to Mr. Ronald Weasley..."
Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn. "...for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

The Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!" Ron's brothers all slapped him on the back to his embarrassment. After a moment there was silence again.

"Second - to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

Hermione buried her face in her arms; Harry strongly suspected she had burst into tears. Gryffindor's up and down the table were beside themselves - they were a hundred points up.

"Third - to Mr. Harry Potter..." said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. Harry glanced up at Professor McGonagall in reassurance and she nodded quickly towards him. "For pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house fifty points." Gryffindor's, Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's burst into cheers, standing onto the benches and jumping up and down. "If my calculations are correct, I believe a change of decoration is in order." Professor Dumbledore clapped his hands, red and gold banners appeared throughout the Great Hall. "Gryffindor wins the house cup!"

Harry, Ron and Hermione grabbed hold of each other as the rest of Gryffindor came up to congratulate them, Hermione with tear tracks down her face, Ron and Harry bright red. Up at the staff table Professor McGonagall happily took the house cup from Professor Snape and held it up proudly to the cheers of the hall.

The trio shared a happy glance when Malfoy threw his hat onto the table in frustration. This would certainly not be a night they'd ever forget.

Later that evening after the festivities had ended and the food eaten, the trio of Gryffindor's stumbled their way towards Minerva's quarters, extremely grateful they did not have to walk very far.

Minerva beamed at them as they walked into her quarters and her smile only grew as they all ran over to embrace her. As they backed away from her Winky appeared with hot chocolate for all of them and, stuffed from the feast as they were, they happily accepted the drink.

As they all settled onto the couch Minerva spoke up to them.

"I just want to tell the three of you that I am very proud of you! That being said of course if you try anything like you did this year, next year you will face my wrath… understood?" The boys remained quiet, while Hermione giggled.

"I hope you know that you're not scary anymore Professor." Hermione told her.

"Oh I'm not scary anymore am I?" Minerva said slowly and suddenly lunged at Hermione who ran behind her with a laugh. Harry and Ron grinned, and with a shared look leapt into Minerva's vacated chair. When Minerva turned around with Hermione in one arm she glared at the boys who were smiling smugly.

"Problem professor?" Ron asked her attempting and failing to act innocently. Minerva smiled back at him.

"No Ronald no problem at all." She pulled out her wand with a smirk. The boys faces went quickly from smug to horrified. "Rictusempra!" The boys immediately fell to the floor laughing as the tickling spell did its job. "Do you give in?" Minerva asked.

"Yes!" They shouted.

"Am I scary?" Minerva prompted once more.

"Yes!" they shouted. Minerva canceled the spell.

"That's right and don't you forget it." She told them. "And from the look at that clock, I'd say it is time for three young wizards to get to bed. There's a rather long train ride you all have to make in the morning."

"Do we have to leave Hogwarts?" Harry asked looking sadly at her, and Minerva frowned in response wishing she had a better answer for him.

"I'm afraid everyone leaves Hogwarts during the summer, even the professors Harry."

"Don't worry Harry, I'll ask Mum and Dad if you can come over, they wouldn't mind!" Ron chimed in.

"Thanks Ron!"

"Professor?" Hermione said softly. "Are we going to be staying with you again next year?" Harry and Ron looked at Minerva curiously waiting for an answer. Minerva mentioned for them to come over to her couch.

"Professor Dumbledore will announce it tomorrow but the gas that was in the tower has finally disappeared. Reconstruction spells will be put into place to work throughout the summer so you should be back in the dormitories starting next school year." All three students looked very disappointed.

"Do we have to move back into Gryffindor tower?" Ron asked softly and then added very quickly. "Because Neville talks in his sleep." As if this justified it.

"You snore!" Harry shot back causing them all to laugh. Minerva could not help the smile that grew on her face. Who knew at the beginning of all of this they'd want to stay with her.

"While you need to stay in Gryffindor tower with your classmates…" Minerva started, "I will leave your room as is, if you'd like to come visit every now and then." This brought on another group hug, which resulted in Ron spilling his hot chocolate onto Hermione.

As Hermione yelped and yelled at him to the amusement of Harry, Minerva couldn't help but reflect back on the year that had passed and although she would never admit it out loud, she was quite grateful to Fred and George Weasley. For the first time in many years she had a little family to look after.

Hi everybody! I feel so bad that I have not updated this in so long, honestly I never intended for it to take me this long to complete this story but my life has changed so much since I began this in high school.

I graduated from university last May after working full time and studying abroad to get my degree, so any free time I had I pretty much used it to sleep. I am now a certified Social Studies teacher in the state of Maryland, long term substituting (aka gaining as much experience as I can!) until I get hired full time somewhere!

I am thankful to everyone who has stuck with this story, and if some people removed it from alert or stopped reading I completely understand. I hope you enjoyed this final chapter of the story. I hope you enjoyed the story and again I'd just like to say thank you to everyone who stuck with me through this!

- Hermionewiz27