Harrigan sat in his office, carefully writing on a long sheet of parchment. His self-inking quill and never-ending parchment were certainly coming in handy, this report was going to be truly massive. He set out and wrote this report far more carefully than anything else he'd written, laying it out just so and placing all of the truly damaging pieces of information where they would have the most impact. This was his final report for the Board of Governors after a year at Hogwarts School and he knew once they read these words, once they realized the amount of damage one Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore had been doing to their children, the future of Wizarding Britain, the man was done for.

The most gratifying part of this report was the fact that absolutely none of it had been falsified. The most damning pieces of evidence had come from students, willingly offered and backed with Veritaserum authorized by their parents. Sirius and his friends had agreed to speak with him, all but Pettigrew which bothered Harrigan for a reason he couldn't quite pin down. He would have offered to leave off the Veritaserum but unfortunately, without it, the testimony didn't hold the necessary weight. No matter, James, Sirius, Severus, and the graduated Lucius Malfoy had given some of the most weighted evidence in the whole report. Harrigan could only commend Sirius, James, and Severus on their courage to speak about the matter that had happened one night on Hogwarts grounds below a very dangerous tree.

The 'Willow Incident' as it was referred to was one of the most powerful pieces of evidence that Harrigan had towards the blatant favoritism by Dumbledore of one House over others. As much as Harrigan loved his stepson and was fond of his distant cousin the two boys should never have gotten away as lightly as they did for endangering the life of another student, leaving him exposed to a powerful, dangerous transformed creature. Yes, he understood James had pulled Severus away, but he should never have gone down there himself in the first place. The right thing to do would have been to get a teacher, but he had been more afraid of his friend being expelled than what could have gone horribly wrong.

Harrigan slowly ceased writing, laid down his quill on a scrap piece of parchment, and stood, stretching his cramping fingers. He stared out the window down to the Black Lake, pale jade eyes thoughtful. He had enjoyed teaching this past year, his classes had been entertaining, some of the students were openly disappointed that he would not be returning the next term. All of his 7th-year students had improved as both open-minded individuals and as witches and wizards, aside from one.

Lily Evans. Bright, beautiful, clever. A powerful witch despite her Muggle parentage, not that he had anything against her for her parents. No, his sole problem with her was her closed-minded attitude. She loathed the idea that Dark and Light were anything more than what she had conceived them to be at the beginning of her education, she refused to learn about Magical religion, tradition, and laws. She was one of those that had refused to attend Wizarding Studies in her first year. It was a real waste. She would go out into the magical world after her graduation and find that very few doors would be open to her due to her lack of ability to consider other things than what she herself believed in.

Thoughts of Evans brought to mind another aspect he'd been noticing over the past year and it brought a twitch of a smile to his lips. It seemed the revelation of Sirius' relationship with Lucius and their mending of broken fences had been something of a cue for their friends. He had noticed that Remus and a rapidly improving Bellatrix were rather close over the past couple of months, often found in the Library researching more into a topic that had intrigued them in class. And then there were James' almost painfully shy advances towards Regulus, whom Harrigan could tell was close to reaching the end of his tether with his patience for James to finally make a move.

Severus remained in the close-knit circle of friends, from what Harrigan had seen he was getting steadily closer in his own reserved way to Lucien Lestrange's oldest, Rodolphus. The two suited each other, closed-off in public with sharp wits and an even keener mind. Severus was rapidly on his way to becoming a Potions Master of great renown while Rodolphus was no slouch himself, taking on the difficult, dangerous but rewarding field of Spell Crafting with the voracious appetite of a perfectionist.

Harrigan was very proud of all of them, honored to have been part of their education. He would never regret spending this last year with them, helping them grow as individuals and fostering the bright talents he had seen in them from the first moment he had met them only a year prior. He knew Orion was very proud of his sons, the smile that filled the man's face when either of them were mentioned enough for anyone to see how much he loved his sons.

No, he would never regret coming here. It had been an eventful year, but he certainly wouldn't have had it any other way. Harrigan turned back to his desk and seated himself again, studying the last several paragraphs of his report to pick up his thought process again. Picking up his quill, he set to it with a firm determination. This would be Dumbledore's last year here, he would make sure of it.

Regulus stood next to his father, gazing wistfully at the mass of students sitting arrayed by houses in the Great Hall. The usual tables had been removed, the students sat in individual seats. Standing or sitting around the edges of the Hall were their friends and family. With Regulus and Orion were both Lucien Lestrange and Abraxas Malfoy. Abraxas' only son had since graduated, but the man was fond of his son-in-law and proud to be witness to his graduation at almost six months pregnant.

Fondly, Regulus remembered how much his brother had struggled over the past few months to keep up with his studies when his growing child was exhausting him at times. Hormones had not helped, particularly difficult classes had driven him to tears. Their circle of friends had always been around to help their fellow teen, staying calm and steady and not over-reacting to his emotional outbursts.

Regulus was struggling a bit with a growing sense of loneliness, all of his friends were graduating this year. He would be on his own in his 7th year unless he managed to reach out to a couple of his fellow students, something he had always struggled with. Sirius had always been his closest friend, up until Lucius' betrothal to Narcissa. After they began to fall apart he had grown to rely more on Severus and the Lestrange twins. It didn't help that his crush on his brother's best friend had moved to a full-blown infatuation and the stupid wanker still hadn't gotten over his sudden shyness to make a move.

His sharp mercury gaze found Sirius, sitting amongst his peers in rich crimson robes trimmed in gold with the Gryffindor lion emblazoned across the back. He looked dignified and elegant in his graduation attire, a warm smile on his face which was practically glowing in happiness and contentment. His sharp eyes found Regulus amongst the crowd and he smiled softly in understanding, realizing that his younger brother was maybe feeling a bit bereft.

Turning his eyes away from his brother's knowing gaze for a moment Regulus looked to the Head Table, or where the Head Table normally resided. Today there was a podium and a long row of chairs. Currently, Dumbledore was giving some long, dull speech about graduation that had probably not changed much in the last century. Three chairs from the end of the row sat Harrigan, sharp jade eyes watching Dumbledore and listening intently to his words. Regulus smiled proudly at the sight of his stepfather, composed and elegant in black, silver, and rich bronze robes.

Finally, Dumbledore's speech came to an end. The students started clapping and Regulus' eyes narrowed in annoyance when Evans reached over a student seated between her and James to poke him in the arm and hiss, no doubt he hadn't been paying much attention to the speech. Only James' clearly hostile, annoyed body language made Regulus relax from his almost defensive stance. That narrow-minded female had her chance, she'd lost it years ago.

The students stood and Dumbledore began calling out their names in alphabetical order. One by one they made their way up, shook hands with each of the professors, and took their scroll pronouncing them a graduate from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Regulus clapped firmly and a little bit loudly first for 'Bellatrix Black' and 'Sirius Black-Malfoy', then 'Rabastan Lestrange', 'Rodolphus Lestrange', 'Remus Lupin', 'James Potter' and 'Severus Snape'.

He clapped politely if a bit distantly for the rest, such as his cousin Narcissa and the Evans girl. Finally, it was time to announce the valedictorian and hear the student speech. There were several obvious choices, Severus, Rodolphus, and Evans (unfortunately). To Regulus' absolute delight the announcement of top student went to one Remus Lupin, who looked absolutely shell-shocked.

Sirius started laughing at his friends' reaction along with James, who gave him a playful shove forward. Remus' little impromptu speech was well thought out, reminding students that while they had shared seven eventful years here, separated by houses, there was a big wide world out there that didn't care about your house, your grades, or your sports records. He reminded them all that there had been a major threat to wizarding society not even a few months ago, to always be mindful of the past and open to what the future could and would bring.

Finally, all of the graduated students took out their wands, holding them above their heads. Led by Remus they swirled them slowly, generating all of the colors for the various houses above the tips of their wands. Slowly, majestically they flung their wands forward, releasing all of the colors above the chairs where they had been sitting. They swirled together and after a bright flash of white light, a shimmering, gigantic version of the Hogwarts Crest appeared with the animals actually moving within their sections.

This signaled a release of applause from the crowd and the students descending amongst each other in a big group, finding friends and hugging, laughing, and congratulating each other as various parents made their way amongst the crowd, proudly seeking out their former student and congratulating others as they passed. Regulus took a page out of his father's book, at least he was going to. Then he saw Evans making her way through the crowd and placing her hand on James' shoulder, pressing close as she talked to him.

Incensed, Regulus stalked through the crowd. He reached his brother and his friends about the same time that James was starting to push Evans away, telling her he'd had enough of her behavior. That was not enough to calm the rising inferno of emotions in one Regulus Arcturus Black. His family always got what they wanted and he would be damned if he was the first to let his slip by.

He caught James' eyes and snarled, "I have had enough of waiting for you to make up your blasted mind and make a move. You are mine!"

He took two steps forward, ignoring the surprised look on James' face and the amused one on their friends, rooted his fingers in James' purposefully wild-looking dark locks and yanked the newly-graduated Gryffindor into a fierce, emotional kiss. It was better than he'd imagined it to be, at least until he heard an annoyed huff.

Breaking his kiss with a still breathless, shocked Potter heir Regulus looked directly at Evans and said, "Go away, girl. You had your chance and decided you didn't want him. We Slytherins don't give second chances with what is ours. Open your eyes while you're at it, or do us all a favor and go back to the Muggle world you love so much!"

All of their friends burst out laughing and Evans stormed away with an indignant huff. Regulus stayed directly by his Gryffindor, absorbing their happy, amused chatter with a small smile. Yes, it would be hard being away from them for a whole term, but he would make it. The future that awaited them all seemed bright indeed, it was worth waiting for.