A/N: Well, this is the last chapter. Hard to believe I've finally finished. Hope you enjoy, and let me know what you thought of the story as a whole!

Chapter Eighteen

They emerged from the Pensieve with the most ridiculous grins on their faces.

"Well," said Hannah, "It's about time we got to see some happy memories. I was beginning to wonder whether I'd ever been happy before in my life."

"That wasn't associated with anyone specific, was it?" Hermione mused, "It covered all of us. I suppose the Pensieve wanted to remind us of all of the best parts of our relationships."

"The Pensieve wanted?" Ron repeated, "Can the Pensieve want things? Surely it's just an object?"

"It's certainly not just an object," Astoria said, "Whether it's the Pensieve itself, or whether it's a combination of all the old spells in here, there's certainly something that's channelled all our memories into such an organised display. Perhaps it's us. Perhaps the magic has just picked up on our memories, and something about our thoughts and our subconscious ideas have organised them into the best means of us looking through them. Either way, I think this needed to happen, and I'm very glad it has."

Harry nodded. He agreed with Astoria. This whole room hummed with magic, magic that mostly been performed by Dumbledore, and this certainly seemed like the sort of thing that Dumbledore's magic would do.

Suddenly there was a blast, and one of the walls exploded. He threw his arm up over his head to protect himself from the shrapnel, instinctively reaching for Ginny's hand as he did so. When the dust cleared Harry straightened up, and couldn't help but grin at what he saw. Hannah was clinging onto Neville's arm as he protectively threw the other arm around her shoulder. Ron and Hermione had been standing on opposite sides of the Pensieve, but Ron had somehow managed to end up right beside her, having leapt over it even as rubble rained down on their heads in order to be able to hold her. And perhaps the most moving sight of all: Draco had instinctively stepped in front of Astoria, shielding her body with his, having made the decision to protect her without even a moment's hesitation. Wasn't it funny how, in a moment of danger, the automatic reaction of all of them had been to reach for and protect one another?

Turning to see the cause of the explosion, Harry's grin widened. Professor McGonagall stood in the hole created by the blast, wand held aloft.

"I apologise for that," she said in that crisp, business-like voice of hers (though Harry could see tears of relief glistening in her eyes), "I did hope we could get you out a little more carefully and quietly, but Professor Dumbledore's study never was given to being quiet. I'm glad to see you're all well. I'm sure your anxious friends and family will be very relieved to see you."

The eight companions looked at one another. It was almost sad to have to leave the room that had been their home for what felt like a lot longer than merely a few days, and re-join the real world. Things weren't as simple out there. They were unlikely to be friends with Draco, for one thing. He would go back to being Malfoy again out there. They might have resolved some of their differences, but there was too much history and too many complications for them ever to be more than polite acquaintances.

And their relationships might be in a better state now than they had been when they went in, but that didn't mean everything was going to be easy from now on. They had laid the foundations, but there were still problems to be solved and difficulties to get through.

"Come on," said Ron, slinging his arm around Hermione's shoulders and leading the way out. Hand in hand, Hannah and Neville followed, and, a little more reluctantly, so did Draco and Astoria. Ginny paused at the exit, waiting for Harry, before seeing that he needed to be alone and going on. Harry turned to take one last look at the room. It didn't feel like being freed after being trapped for several days; it felt like leaving a place of safety to face the harsh, cruel world. Then again, perhaps they were the same thing really.

"Thank you," he said quietly, unsure whether he was talking to the Pensieve, the room, Dumbledore, or simply the world in general. Taking a deep breath, he stepped out through the newly made hole in the wall.

Several families stood in the corridor, all looking incredibly happy. Harry's aunt and uncle weren't there, of course, and neither were Hermione's parents, but there were enough Weasleys and enthusiastic hugs from Mrs Weasley to more than make up for that.

"Oh, Harry, I've been so worried! And to think of you having to be in charge and not knowing when help was going to come, you must have been so scared! And you managed to keep order in there, I don't know how you did it, with that Malfoy boy in there and everything …" she rambled on and Harry, though very grateful for her concern, eventually felt the need to carefully extract himself. As the official leader of the group he felt like he had some responsibility to check they were all alright now that they were finally out.

Hannah and Neville were standing with Neville's gran, who normally looked very formidable but was obviously softening to Hannah.

"Now, of course I wasn't exactly worried about Neville. After all, he has been through considerably more than simply being locked in a room, and has coped with it all very well," she was saying proudly to Hannah, "I knew he'd be absolutely fine. But I … well I'm glad to have you back, Neville. Now Hannah, has he told you all about the time he stood up to Bellatrix Lestrange in the Ministry of Magic? No? Oh, well he's far too modest, you see …"

Neville turned to grin at Harry, who gave him a nod, happy that he and Hannah both seemed fine.

Standing at the other side of the room, as far as possible from the other families, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy were affectionately embracing their son. As Harry approached they stiffened, but Draco stepped towards him.

"Potter, I was wondering if we …" he paused, "Could we drop the whole "enemies for life" thing? I know we're never going to be friends – I guess I blew my chances at that the first day of school – but could we agree not to be enemies?" Harry smiled.

"Of course," he said, "I think it's about time we both grew up and learned to put all that rubbish behind us." He extended his hand and Malfoy shook it. It wasn't a moment he'd ever expected to happen, but he was very glad that it was. The Wizarding community had been severely shaken and needed rebuilding, and they couldn't do that if they clung on to old enmities.

"Draco," said Astoria's voice behind Harry as she left her parents to join her new boyfriend, "Aren't you going to introduce me to your parents?" She slipped her hand into his and they turned to talk to Mr and Mrs Malfoy. Harry walked away, content that he had done what he needed to.

He was about to return to the Weasleys when McGonagall waylaid him.

"I wanted to talk to you for a moment, Potter," she said, steering him over to the corner of the room, "I very much admire the way you kept order in there – it can't have been easy considering who you were with – and I wanted to apologise for ever putting you in that situation. I should have checked far more carefully before allowing a group of people in there without even wands to help them. I take full responsibility for what happened, and I'm truly sorry." Harry glanced around the room, at the happy, reunited families and at the several pairs of interlocked hands that hadn't been that way a few days ago.

"Don't apologise, professor," he said, "I think you may have done all of us a bigger favour than you could even begin to imagine."