It took days of gruelling effort, but they took back Hogwarts. That was a fair consolation prize to Professor McGonagall. The fraction of students who still lived were sent home, and only fighters remained. The castle was cold with its dearth of living beings, and even colder with the drastic increase in the dead. The ghosts were often confused and afraid, sometimes angry, and the first weeks of living in the castle were spent soothing them.