Marlene's POV from here on:

Here it was. Our last day.

Everyone sat in the Great Hall, savouring our last meal here at Hogwarts before we left.

Dumbledore stood up and everyone quickly fell silent, turning towards him.

"The last day of school," said Dumbledore calmly. "For some, you will be returning soon for another cherised year at Hogwarts. For others, it's your last time here. We hope all of you have had a wonderful time here, and-"

He stopped, turning towards our table. 

I looked around, trying to find what he was looking at.

Lily had her hand up. I could see her trying to blink back some tears.

"Yes, Miss Evans?" said Dumbledore amusedly.

"Will we be able to come back to visit here again?" she said morosely.

"Of course," said Dumbledore, a fiery glint in his eyes. "Hogwarts isn't just your home. It's our home."

At this notion, a couple of first years burst into tears.

"Were we this emotional when we were 11?" I whisper to Sirius.

"You once cried because Remus ate your chocolate," he muttered back. "You were definitely emotional."

I elbowed him playfully.

At this point, it wasn't only first years crying. I could visibly see Lily and Alice hugging each other while sobbing.

James was openly sobbing into his plate of scrambled eggs while Remus patted his back in amusement.

I looked up to the staff table and saw a couple of teachers dabbing their eyes.

I've never seen a more emotional display of people.

Lana Anderson from Hufflepuff is getting a little riled up about the emotional display, so she 'accidently' threw a pie at her best friend's face.

"Oh great," I sighed to Sirius.

"What?"

"Lana's started a food fight..."

"Wanna continue it?" Sirius said with a grin.

"You're on," I smirked back, already grabbing a hold of James' tear-stained scrambled eggs.

I lobbed them at Sirius.

But with my horrible aim, I totally missed and hit a 4th year Ravenclaw, who glared at me and threw a corn husk at my face.

"Hey!" I shouted, throwing it back, but this time hitting Lana again.

Lana got so riled up that she started lobbing platters of food everywhere and a full food RIOT started.

"Great way to end the school year, covered in mashed potatoes," Sirius yelled, fending off a splatter of ice cream with a large plate.

Unfortunately, the ice cream hit me.

"SIRIUS!" I shrieked, now covered in sopping wet ice cream.

"Oops," he smirked.

I picked up Lily's sandwich and threw it smack in the middle of his face.

"Hey!" he gasped. "I'm gonna get you back for that!" He reached forward and started tickling my sides, making me giggle uncontrollably.

At one point, I swear I saw Dumbledore winking at me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the whole school had been cleaned up, Dumbledore told us to make sure our stuff was all packed.

Lily, Alice, and I had packed the night before and decided to walk around the school, looking for reminiscent memories.

We saw our signature palm tree and sat below it.

"I'm gonna miss this place," sighed Alice contentedly.

"I will too," I said quietly. "We all will."

Lily simply smiled and looked at the Great Lake. "Do you remember the time we gave the giant squid some crackers and cheese?"

I laughed. "And the squid even gave us some seaweed in return!" I thought about this. "Hold on- how is there seaweed in a freshwater lake?"

Lily smiled again. "We've been here for seven years and we'll still never find out this castle's biggest secrets."

Alice stood up and checked her watch. "We should go. 10 minutes till the train leaves."

Lily and I stood up as well.

Lily grabbed Alice's hand and Alice grabbed mine.

And in turn, the three of us walked down to the train.

But the true pain of leaving Hogwarts didn't set in until we got off the train.

Lily and Alice hugged me tight, not wanting to let go, but had to leave. They promised they would send lots of letter and keep in touch.

I knew they would.

And James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius engulfed me in the tightest group hug possible.

We would all keep in touch. We were best friends.

I grasped Sirius' hand tightly, scared to leave my true home. He clutched my hand just as tight.

And I then understood that even if we had our ups and downs at Hogwarts, we had still made our mark here.

People I hardly knew shouted things like, "See ya, McKinnon!" or "Bye Marlene!"

Hogwarts was most definitely my home. And I knew I would be coming back soon.

The End.

A/n: SHOULD I BE CRYING?! CUZ I AM AHHHHHH

Thanks so much for all the reads. I love you all soooo much. The final book in the series will be released soon next week. 
I love y'all sooo much. :)

Love, Jui Weasley