Disclaimer :

I do not own nor claim to own the characters from the Harry Potter universe as created by J. K. Rowling. I am just borrowing them for my (and your) amusement. Story starts off HG, RHr but will end up HR, HrG. EWE, but otherwise, canon compliant.

It was Sept 1, 1998 and Voldemort was dead! The magical world was working on putting itself back together and first and foremost, the reconstruction of Hogwarts was complete! And just in the nick of time for the students to return to school. It was as if the last year didn't happen, it's not like the students actually learned anything from the "Professors" Voldemort had instilled at Hogwarts last year. Everyone was restarting a the level they were at the previous year. You could test out of repeating the year if you felt you were smart enough, and there were a few students who managed to succeed at this. Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood were 2 such students. They were starting as Year 7 students right on schedule with Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter, the Boy who Lived! Even though Ron and Harry had been offered positions as Aurors, they were somewhat sick of fighting off the forces of evil and Hermione had convinced them that finishing school was a good way to take a break from that and decide if becoming an Auror was right for either of them. All their supplies had been obtained for the year and Hermione was Head Girl. They weren't sure who was Head Boy, just that neither Ron nor Harry had been put in the position. The "kids", more like adults, were gathered at King's Cross to board the Hogwarts Express for the final time on their way to their last year of school.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Luna worked their way through the barrier to Platform 9 ¾ ready to meet up with Neville Longbottom and see who else decided to return to finish their 7th year. All of the deatheaters had been captured either in the final battle or just afterwards, so there was a nice peaceful atmosphere at the station. The aurors weren't stupid of course, so there were a few stationed just to make sure nothing hinky would happen. Not that they were expecting anything, but better safe than sorry. If there's anything the Ministry learned from the war against Voldemort, it's don't bury your head in the sand and pretend things are just fine like Fudge loved to do. Oh no, Kingley Shacklebolt was a different type of Minister of Magic, that's for sure. He wasn't going to be taking any chances.

The kids settled down into their compartment and were catching up with each other as they hadn't seen each other in about 2 weeks, working on getting ready for the upcoming school year.

"Good to see you Neville, are you ready?" asked Hermione excitedly, "I can't wait to finish this year and take our NEWTS. I've already begun studying!"

"Hi Hermione, yes I'm ready! Well, as ready as I can be right now," Neville said with a small blush. It was well known that his Gram would owl him whatever he forgot, usually by the end of the 1st week back.

"Oy, Hermione, studying already? That's my girl!" Ron cried out, and then blushed. He and Hermione had shared a wonderful moment in the Chamber of Secrets during the final battle and finally kissed. They had begun dating after the dust settled from the battle.

Hermione blushed and quietly said, "Oh shush Ron!".

The rest of the compartment laughed as they had already known that those two were dating and it was totally like Hermione to start studying before they had even gotten to Hogwarts. Things were normal again for a chance, and it was nice.

Ginny bashfully looked at Harry as he laughed, thinking to herself "He is still adorable..." and then averted her eyes when he glanced her way. He hadn't made the move yet to get back together with her and she was trying to be patient and wait, but at the same time, wanted things to get back to the way they were before the war.

"Hey Ginny, did you miss me?" Harry said, with a raised eyebrow and a wink. He knew how Ginny felt but was working through some inner demons before he decided if he got back with her. He knew he cared about her, but was it as a girlfriend or just a good friend?

"Um, yes?" she replied, a flush working its way from her neck to the roots of her hair. Oh the power he had over her.

"Nice to know I'm missed," he replied with a smile.

"Hey, what am I chopped liver?" said Ron as he looked between Ginny and Harry, "I miss you sometimes!"

"Why Ron, I didn't know you felt like that about me," Harry said as he grinned.

"What, um, hey, you know what I meant" spluttered Ron.

"Ron, relax, I'm just taking the piss out of ya" laughed Harry at Ron's reaction.

"Oh," Ron said as he relaxed, "I knew that!"

Everyone in the compartment laughed and went back to chatting amongst themselves as they enjoyed the company on the ride to Hogwarts.

It might have been organized chaos at its best, but it was still chaos. Such was the standard as all the school children arrived at the Hogsmeade Station and scrambled to get their belongings off the train, at least the ones they carried. The trunks would be delivered to their correct locations by the many house elves Hogwarts had, a couple of which were paid. Turns out Hermione's S.P.E.W. had made a few elves think about changing things up but most of them liked the status quo and didn't want to change their servitude. Dobby explained this to Hermione and she grudgingly understood. Once all the kids had secured their things, they wandered en masse to find a free seat in one of the carriages. Unfortunately, to most of the older students, they could no longer be described as "horse-less" as they could all see the Thestrals now, after their participation in the final battle. And of course, Hagrid was there to collect the 1st years, which was a double class due to all the Muggle-borns who had been excluded from last year's participation.

"Firs' years over here please, firs' years, follow me!" Hagrid yelled as he tried to corral the unusually large group of Firsties he had to get safely across the lake.

"Hi Hagrid!" called out the various voices of Ginny, Luna, Hermione, Ron, Neville and Harry as they walked past him.

"Oy, you lot! Get a carriage before yeh have to walk yer sillies!" Hagrid called out as he grinned at the group.

Laughter rang out as the kids responded to Hagrid's comment and they picked up their pace to get a carriage, before they really did have to walk! Everyone made it safely into a carriage, though they did have to split up, Neville, Luna and Ginny in one, Harry, Hermione and Ron in another. The carriages carried them up to the front doors of the school where they climbed out of their respective carriage and made their way inside Hogwarts again.

"You can't barely tell there was even a battle here!" cried out Ginny, who had been mostly busy helping reconstruct the Burrow and such after the devastation it had seen and therefore didn't get to help out as much as she would have liked.

"We worked hard on it." said Hermione, proud to have been part of the team working on piecing Hogwarts back together.

"Yeah, we did" agreed Ron.

"Definitely" said Harry.

The loud grumbling of Ron's stomach interrupted further discussion as everyone turned and looked at him in surprise.

"What?" he said, "it was a long train ride!"

The group laughed as they headed into the Great Hall for the welcoming feast.

"Oh no!" cried out Hermione in horror.

"Are you ok?" Ron called out, stopping to make sure she was ok.

"It's our last sorting to witness," she said, as a tear fell down her cheek, "the final one!"

"Aw, it's ok Hermione, we knew this day was going to come eventually, right?" said Ron, a little out of his element. He always hated it when girls cried, especially Hermione!

"But..." she sniffled, "it's just so...overwhelming!"

Ron put his arm around her in a small showing of affection, "It'll be ok love. You'll see."

Hermione leaned into Ron's embrace and said, "ok, I hope so." They walked in together, locked in each other's arms, into the Great Hall for the last time they'd witness the welcoming feast as students.

AN: I realized in some research to maintain my canon compliance that my date was all FUBAR, so I changed the starting date of the story! Sorry.

Source: In the official Harry Potter Wiki, under Hogwards School of Witchcraft and Wizardry it says "In May of 1998, the Battle of Hogwarts took place." So I revised the story to be accurate!