Closed Graduation Boats & Carriage Ride (Part II) Only Graduates

As the students crossed the lake through a shroud of fog. The soft breeze that caressed their cheeks would carry something else with it. The sound of a tin whistle, playing the tune of a well-known Scottish song. Its music would grow louder and louder until the banks of the surrounding glen would become visible through the fog, at which point the whistle stopped playing. "There you are!" A voice shouted towards the graduates as their boats docked themselves to shore. "I was beginning to think you were planning to stay."

The students would see the silhouette of a man, hands resting on his hips, greeting them from the top of a ridge that they knew would lead them towards the carriages. No doubt his voice had already given his identity away. But should any of them take a few steps closer, the rising sun would hide behind a line of trees and reveal Caradoc's unmistaken grin to them. His bright eyes sparkling with excitement and pride.



"C'mon, c'mon!" He waved them over to climb the stairs and join him up top. "You haven't got all day, you know. Your lives are about to change." Caradoc chuckled, with a hint of warning and experience behind his words. They had absolutely no clue what was in front of them. How could they? When he met up with the first worried face after hearing his words, he blurted out a quick:
"It'll be fun!"

The Head of Hufflepuff walked with the graduates for a while, until they reached the familiar road, where a line of carriages stood waiting for them. Each vehicle drawn by a pair of thestrals that calmly waited for their passengers to hop on. Caradoc turned on his heel and took a moment to look from the thestrals back to the students. His face had turned sad and dour all of a sudden.

"I will assume most, if not all, of you can see them by now." He said with a soft voice. "For as much as Hogwarts is described as a home for many of us. It also tends to give us our hardest trials." His hand reached out to pet the nearest thestral as its head turned sideways to greet him.

"Stress, pain,... and death. All of these are a part of our journey. But you should look to the rising sun, kids. Because out there is a world where the good here unfinished is completed. And where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. Make sure to live and we may laugh together yet." Caradoc winked and patted the thestral one last time.

"Now get on, get on! Let's send you off, singing in the sun!" With that said, the Head of Hufflepuff made sure everyone got on their carriages before taking a seat on the first one himself. Any of them could have sat beside him, he just made sure they could all hear his cheery voice ring out to the sky as he began belting the lyrics of the same Scottish tune they heard earlier.

After some time, they'd finally arrive at the train station, where he got them all to step off the carriages again and gather around him. Their trunks and bags already loaded onto the train, all that remained for them to do was simply to… take the next step on the train and live their lives. It made the forty-year-old Irishman's eyes glitter with pride and a fair bit of sadness.

"Now off you go." He waved towards the train. "You don't wanna miss this one." He tried to say convincingly. And while he tried to remain neutral during the whole trip, he could not help himself from turning towards the Hufflepuffs present. "I'm so proud of you lot." He grimaced, holding back his tears. "Proud of all of you." He corrected himself and addressed the other houses, he had been a professor to them for some time after all.

Whether they stuck around to say goodbye, rushed off to the train without hesitation, or lingered a little too long behind till the conductor had to call them in. Caradoc could be seen furiously waving his hands around to any that would look back to him. Their last memory of Hogwarts being that of a proud dad sending these young adults off to their next adventure...