Epilogue

The Boy-Who-Lived, Saviour-of-the-Wizarding-World, married.

Yesterday, Harry Potter, the man who rid the Wizarding World of the Dark Lord no more than five years ago, married his Hogwarts sweetheart; Hermione Granger.

The pair disappeared from the Wizarding World not a week after the final battle, which took place not only at King's Cross but in Hogsmeade, the French Ministry of Magic, the Bulgarian Ministry of Magic, the German Ministry of Magic, and the Russian Ministry of Magic, and were not heard from until yesterday. Their friends did not reveal anything, and Gringotts refused to reveal the location of the young couple, or if he had stopped by for money.

Invited to the wedding, were the Weasley family – Ronald, keeper for the Chudley Cannons, and his wife Luna, editor of the Quibbler, Fred and his wife Katie, George and his room mate Alicia, co owners and employees in the Joke shop; Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, Bill, Curse Breaker for Gringotts, and his wife Fleur, Translator and ambassador in the Ministry of Magic, Charlie, dragon keeper, and his co worker Bettie, and their parents Arthur, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Department, and Molly, homemaker – the Longbottoms – Neville and his wife Ginny and their son Harry – Minister for Magic, Sirius Black, Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin – also functioning as a liaison for the werebeasts at the Ministry of Magic – the Hagrids – Rubeus and his wife Olympe, both half giants and employed as Care of Magical Creatures professors and Groundskeepers.

The only press invited was the editor of the Quibbler, who supplied the Daily Prophet with photographs, Luna nee Lovegood.

Also invited were members of some magical creature clans, such as the vampires, and the werebeasts. Some unidentified wizards and witches were also present, but judging from the appearance, they served as security.

Apparently, the happy couple spent these past five years taking equivalency tests and getting a doctor's degree in archaeology (Muggle field of study, archaeologists travel the world in search of cultural and historical treasures to share them and theories of ancient civilisations with the world). It is also rumoured that Gringotts has given them freelance jobs as Curse Breakers.

'Harry! Hurry up or we'll be late!'

Harry looked up from the yellowing paper clipping in his hands, and at the closed door of his and Hermione's home office as it opened, he thrust the clipping into the open drawer so it would not be found.

In came a woman with short cropped brown hair and a summer dress in soft blue.

'How many times are you going to read that old clipping?' asked the woman in a sigh as she leaned against the doorway.

'Until I can't read it any more, and then I'll repair it and hang it on the wall,' replied Harry without hesitation. The years had fared well with the two of them. At age thirty-four, the pair of them didn't look a day over twenty.

'You're incorrigible,' sighed Hermione. 'We have to get going, or Lily will miss the Express and we will have to reveal the truth to her ourselves by taking the Knight Bus to Hogsmeade. And -'

'- and after keeping her in the dark all her life, we would be on the receiving end of a ranting to end all rants instead of letting her throw her tantrum at Hogwarts and cool down before we get a letter from her,' finished Harry. 'I was just getting nostalgic,' he added. 'Seems like only yesterday that we first stepped onboard the Express for our very first year.'

'Ssssh!' shushed Hermione. 'She'll hear!'

'Mummy! Daddy! Hurry!'

Harry got from his chair and joined his wife in the hallway, where an eleven year old girl with dark red hair in a bushy ponytail stood with her, arms crossed and green eyes scowling at him.

'Right, I'll take the trunk,' said Harry hurriedly to bar any scolding.

'Mummy will be driving!' called the girl, 'You drive too slow, daddy, and I want to go to this school and learn magic!'

'Lily, the reason mummy drove fast last time was because daddy had broken his leg and was bleeding,' Harry explained.

'But this is more important!' argued Lily. 'You could have fixed that leg on your own with those natural remedies you always use.'

'OK, lily, mummy will drive,' sighed Hermione and opened the door of the car.

'Wait! I forgot Heddie!'

Lily sprinted back to the house, only to return with a cage containing an owl, primarily white but with black and brown specks.

Harry still had descendants of his loyal Hedwig close by. Hedwig had made a nest in the tree in their back yard, and one of her children had taken it over once she died of old age five years earlier. Heddie was the grandchild of Hedwig, and by some coincidence, Lily thought to call the owl Harry had managed to "capture" for the nickname version of the same name. In reality, Hedwig's offspring were as friendly and obedient as herself, and after a few moments of asking nicely, Hedwig's daughter had agreed to allow him one of her daughters to become Lily's pet.

Harry cooperated with the females, and took the backseat, so he wouldn't be in the way of the Mother-Daughter bonding that was taking place, and contented himself with watching the world about them.

Not long after, they arrived. Nearly an hour had passed, but Harry had been so involved with the view that they passed, so he didn't really notice the time until the car stopped at a parking house not far from King's Cross.

At the doorways of the station, a plaque had been erected, listing the names of those who had died in the "Terrorist Action" that had taken place seventeen years ago. No terrorist factions or countries had taken responsibility for the incident, and thus had never been cleared up or revenged. The Ministry of Magic had to pull any employee they had from other places to manage the memory charms for all the Muggles that had been there, convincing them that it had been an act of terrorism, and explosives had been used to blow up the trains, and all that. Those that had died without a scratch on them had been explained away with an experimental weapon that had been stolen, based on lights to shut down the brain. One of the larger craters was told to be where the brave police had gotten a shot in and blown the weapon up, not leaving a single trace of it. This happened to be the very same spot that Voldemort perished in a blaze of phoenix like fire. Nearly half the station had to be rebuilt from the battle, which said something about the seriousness of the war.

'Another generation for Hogwarts,' sighed Harry as he watched their daughter hurry through the barrier as instructed on her ticket. They would have followed, but for all intents and purposes, they were supposed to be Muggles and not able to pass through.

'At least we'll be able to explain things to her by Christmas,' comforted Hermione.

'By then we'll have to tell her not to tell her baby brother about us,' added Harry and patted Hermione on the stomach as he embraced her from behind. 'Four months along and hardly showing, you must be the envy of all women,' he teased.

'I have all the confidence in her,' said Hermione confidently. 'I just worry about how she'll react when she finds out that her parents saved the world.'

'Look at it this way,' said Harry in a placating tone, 'several things will be explained to her by that simple fact; the statue in our garden, those "natural remedies" we always use, and finally; how we always seem to know when she is planning some sort of mischief. It is just the reason why we put on this charade to begin with; so our child wouldn't start off with a swelled head like Malfoy, and so that she would not start off with the opinion that wizards are the best, and to give her skills to survive after her education. We agreed to it, and we are about nine years too late to end it now.'

'You're right, love,' agreed Hermione in a sigh and leant back into him.

Harry nodded as he and his wife watched the bricks where their daughter had gone through after hugging them quickly. It was now one past eleven, and the Hogwarts Express had departed.

'Come on,' said Hermione suddenly and twisted herself out of her hubby's arms before grabbing hold of one and pulling it. 'We have the house to ourselves for the first time in eleven years, and I plan on taking full advantage of the time before little James comes along to spoil it in a few months.'

Grinning sheepishly and happily, Harry let himself be dragged.

'No need to hurry, we have at least a hundred years before we pass away from old age,' he laughed.

'No, we'll hurry and live now while we're still young enough to enjoy it,' argued Hermione, positively bubbling with anticipation.

'Lead on, love,' Harry agreed after a moment of chuckling.

This is the meaning of life, thought Harry as he was driving back to their two storey house in the northern outskirts of London. To be born, find love and make that love grow into a new life that is the very embodiment of that love, and watch it grow and create love as well, and when you have seen love born a few times, you pass on to the next great adventure.