Epilogue

Twenty years later...

"Oh mom and dad, it's beautiful!"

It was the first day of September, and James Sirius Potter-Granger, the oldest son of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger saw Platform 9¾ and the Hogwarts Express for the first time. Naturally he was eager to Hogwarts, even though he would miss his parents and his siblings, his 8 year old sister Diana Petra Potter-Granger (named after Hermione's grandmothers) and the 5 year old twins Lily Luna and Rose Heather Potter-Granger. Harry and Hermione had decided to give their children both their family names after they had visited Spain and had found out that in this country all children were given the names of both parents. Also, Hermione was expecting her fifth child. Although she couldn't be sure, but she had a feeling that this time the child would be a boy again. Harry of course was overjoyed when his beloved wife told him they would be having another baby. His dream of having a big family had become true. And although every family had its problems every now and then, people would find it hard to think about a family with a stronger bond of love than the Potter-Grangers had.

As they had promised each other on the day the Wizarding War ended, Harry and Hermione had finished their studies at Hogwarts before travelling around the world, both the Muggle World and the Wizarding World.

But already then Hogwarts had changed. Because of the Wizarding War, the reputation of Slytherin had gone down the drain. Harry remembered how his own Sorting had gone. "Not Slytherin, anything but Slytherin!", he had said to the Sorting Hat. And indeed, he had been Sorted into Gryffindor. He also remembered that after hearing about the Chamber of Secrets, Ron had said that he would have gone back home if he had been Sorted into Slytherin.

But this was exactly what happened when Harry and Hermione had returned for their Final Year at Hogwarts and they watched the new First Years being Sorted. The first to be Sorted was a boy named David Anderson. But when the Sorting Hat had been placed on his head, he spoke out loudly: "Don't you dare to Sort me into Slytherin, the House of murderous Death Eaters!" As it turned out, David was a Halfblood whose Muggleborn mother had been tortured by the Death Eaters, so his reaction was understandable. Yet his outcry caused a chain reaction, as none of the children wanted to be Sorted into Slytherin. So that year the dorm for First Year Slytherins was completely empty. This trend continued in the following years, so by the time the first Potter-Granger child went to school, Hogwarts had no choice than to shut down the Slytherin House.

About ten years earlier, Harry's godchild Teddy Lupin had gone to Hogwarts, and was sorted into Hufflepuff, the house of his mother. There, he had fallen in love with Victoire Weasley, the oldest child of Bill and Fleur. He had recently graduated from Hogwarts and through his as yet unofficial father-in-law, Teddy had become interested in becoming a Curse Breaker.

Harry and Hermione were also going to miss their son, but they knew he was in good hands. Professor McGonagall, despite her age of 82, was still as strong a witch as she had been when they themselves had gone to Hogwarts, and it seemed unlikely that she was going to retire as Headmistress of Hogwarts soon. And James' godparents, Neville Longbottom and his wife Luna had become teachers at Hogwarts. Naturally Neville taught Herbology while Luna taught Care of Magical Creatures. Of course, James had also become good friends with the (only) children of his godparents, the twins Alex and Francie, who were also going to Hogwarts for the first time today.

"He will be alright", Hermione whispered in Harry's ear. Harry stepped behind his wife and embraced her from behind. Twenty-seven years after their friendship began, twenty years after they discovered their friendship had turned into love and fifteen years after they had married, their bond was still as strong as it had always been.

All was well...

The End