AN: A short chapter, but since this is basically the epilogue I think it's fine this way.

Best Left Unspoken

Harry sighed to himself.

After everything that happened, their return to Hogwarts was plagued by a truly ridiculous amount of rumours. Some people believed Harry had duelled Voldemort alone, while some claimed the Death Eaters had cursed them to turn to stone. Never mind that all seven of them were walking around, obviously not made of marble.

The atmosphere in the school was one of hushed whispers. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had returned, and everything was uncertain.

Contrary to that, Harry felt better than he had all year. Nobody thought he was lying anymore, Malfoy's father and several other Death Eaters had been arrested, the Ministry was finally taking action, and he wouldn't have any more detentions with Umbridge.

There was a grim sort of satisfaction to the entire situation.

He, Ron and Hermione were walking around the grounds, enjoying the fair weather. The sun shone down on the castle, warming them up ever so slightly. They talked about how they'd done on their exams, with Hermione fretting about mistranslating some runes. It felt nice, normal.

Despite the general atmosphere, there were plenty of people milling about the grounds. One of which was someone Harry had been wanting to talk to for a while.

"There's Danny."

Completely ignoring that it wasn't actually hot outside, Danny was laying in the shadows with his feet in the lake.

Harry had to blink a few times when he saw it, to make sure he wasn't imagining things. The lake was deep, there was no way the water was anything but freezing.

"Oh, good. We can finally ask him about that ancient archway thing. I tried looking for it in the library, but I couldn't find anything." Hermione's eyes lit up with interest.

"Of course not." Ron snorted. "There's a reason those who work at the Department of Mysteries are called Unspeakables. It's not like a school library would have information about anything they do."

"I tried the Restricted Section."

Ron gave an exaggerated huff.

"Danny?" Harry called out when they'd gotten closer.

The Hufflepuff sat up and turned around, pulling his feet out of the water.

"Can we talk with you? Somewhere... private." Hermione wrung her hands together, and looked around the grounds.

"Sure." He shrugged. "It's too warm out here anyway."

"It's not that hot." Ron rolled his eyes.

Without missing a beat, Danny replied. "Maybe it's just me."

Everyone made a point of ignoring that comment.

Danny put on his socks and shoes, and followed the trio into the castle.

It didn't take them long to find an abandoned classroom.

The room was stuffy, but not warm enough to be bothersome. Harry blinked furiously as his eyes adjusted to the lack of natural light.

"So..." Danny leaned against a wall, almost cocky in his casualness. "What did you want?"

"That archway. In the Ministry. The one you came out of. What is it?" Harry leaned forward slightly as he talked.

Danny squirmed. "I'm not supposed to tell you. You know that."

"You told us about the weapon." Ron rolled his eyes. "Even though there was no weapon, in the end."

"That was different. That was to stop Voldemort. This is just about you guys being curious." Danny threw out his arms in frustration.

Harry couldn't deny that. Instead, he settled for trying to trick Danny into telling them more than he wanted to. "I could hear voices coming from it."

Danny gave him a measured look before nodding. "It does that."

"Why? What were they?"

"It's a... portal." He seemed to choose the word really carefully. "It's a portal to another dimension. You heard the people on the other side."

"That's amazing." Hermione's eyes lit up with curiosity once again. "What's it like in that dimension? I'd really like to see it."

"One day, maybe."

A foreboding chill went up Harry's spine. Something about Danny's comment made it sound a lot more ominous than it should have been.

"So, anyway." Danny pushed himself from the wall he had been leaning on. "If that was everything, I'll just go back to doing absolutely nothing."

Harry felt torn. On one hand, he wasn't absolutely sure of what he'd seen. On the other...

"I saw you." He kept his voice neutral.

"I can't to turn invisible, so that's only natural." Danny smirked.

Ron's mouth twitched, but Harry only scowled.

"You took a killing curse for Sirius." Harry couldn't decide between thanking Danny and demanding an explanation.

"Correction." Danny raised a single finger. "I pushed him away from a killing curse. It missed me too."

There was something flat about Danny's performance. He clearly wasn't cut out for a career in acting.

"I was right next to you. Everyone else might have been too far away, the light of the curse blocking their view... I wasn't even sure at first, that I'd really seen it... I thought it might have been a trick of the light..."

Danny looked like he'd bitten into something sour.

"That killing curse hit you, didn't it?"

"You're free to check my pulse if you want to." Danny smiled, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Danny." Harry frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. He put as much authority as he could into his voice.

Danny was the one to break eye-contact. "Please don't tell anyone."

Hermione's eyes widened at the implied admission, while Ron's face paled.

"I mean... Harry, you of all people should realise the sort of attention I'd get for surviving a killing curse. I really don't want that."

"Bu-but how?" Sputtered Hermione. Harry quietly echoed the sentiment.

"I'm not fully human." Danny stared at his feet.

"I knew it!" Ron smiled triumphantly. "Your dad's half-giant, isn't he? I mean, he's basically a beardless Hagrid..."

"Dad's a muggleborn."

Ron deflated. "But he's so tall."

"Oh, honestly, Ronald. Some people are just tall." Hermione huffed.

"Please keep this secret," pleaded Danny.

The trio shared meaningful looks before nodding.

"So you knew you'd survive when you pushed Sirius aside?" Hermione tilted her head in thought.

"Nope."

"What do you mean, 'nope'?"

"I wasn't sure it would work." Danny shrugged, the casualness of it in sharp contrast to the serious subject. "I didn't exactly have time to think things through... Mainly I was hoping neither one of us would get hit."

"You weren't sure?" Hermione crossed her arms, managing a striking impression of Mrs. Weasley. "I guess Harry isn't the only one with a saving people thing."

Harry had to stop himself from flinching at that. His 'saving people thing' had nearly gotten Sirius killed.

"Anything that's meant to cause death and nothing else is... I can manage that." Danny looked out the window, his thoughts obviously miles away. "If it had been Reducto, rather than Avada Kedavra... Well, I guess I wouldn't be standing here today. I can't heal a severed head, now can I?"

Harry wanted to swear at him. "You can 'manage' death? How the he-"

"Sorry," Danny didn't sound sorry, the jerk "that's Unspeakable."

AN: This was the last chapter. This fic is now complete!

Looking back at this fic, if I had to write it again there are plenty of things I would do differently... but I'm still happy with what I've written.

I'd like to thank all my readers (but especially my reviewers) for staying with me through 33(!) chapters. You rock.