So here it is, the epilogue, remember you have been warned, it's twee and you might not like it! Ha ha but hey why not read and review anyway!!

Epilogue

"But when can we go and get everything I need?" James sulked as he poured milk over his cereal.

"There's plenty of time before September young man so stop getting ratty and be patient," his mother replied.

"But all the best stuff will be gone, I want a proper brass cauldron with matching scales for potions and-"

"You will have a standard pewter cauldron like all the first years are supposed to have James Sirius Potter," Ginny interrupted with a scolding tone to her voice.

James' mouth fell open in horror, "That's not fair, Victoire has a matching brass set and she's had them since her first year too."

"And she never needed them, it was just your Aunt Phle- er Fleur having to give her the best as always," she retorted and then in a whispered voice added, "because they always have to be better than everyone else."

"Ginny," Harry chided when he heard her but still chickling in agreement.

"But Mum, why can't-"

"You will wait until your letter arrives, James" she interrupted "and then we will go and get what is on the list and nothing else." He opened his mouth to argue again but a stern look from his father told him he was not going to win the argument so he turned back to his breakfast with a sulky look on his face.

Harry watched on from his favourite chair by the fire as his two other children and his young cousin, Vernon, came to sit at the table for their breakfast, there was barely a month left before James would be going to Hogwarts and he realised that it would be quite strange when he was no longer there every day causing trouble. Of course Albus and Lily would still be around for a few more years and Vernon would be at home at least until he was eighteen and his money was released.

Over the last few years Vernon had settled into their family and was now like one of their own children, he still argued with them sometimes but in the same way that they did with each other. He had slowly integrated with them all, learned to play wizarding games and interacted with the entire Weasley clan, he even allowed Molly to hug him albeit briefly whenever they went over to the Burrow or if she came to visit Grimmauld Place. However in their house the only people allowed to hug him were Ginny and Lily and again it would always be brief and quite sporadic, he had grown quite close to Lily and become as protective of her as Albus was, he was always more comfortable playing games with her than he was with the boys and they could often be found ensconced in a room or vacant area together. Albus had been a little jealous at first as Lily had always been his baby but his easy going nature had let it slide when he realised that Vernon was not trying to take her away from him. James' temperamental nature meant that he and Vernon were often at loggerheads with each other, but no more so than he was with Albus at times. If truth be known Harry and Ginny were both looking forward to James attending Hogwarts so he would be around other children of his own age and disposition as the gap between him and Albus, in age and in character, was just a bit too wide for an easy life in the Potter household.

About a year after he had first arrived at the Potter house, Harry had added Vernon to the Potter-Weasley family tree, the boy had been shy about it at first but was also secretly proud and pleased that he had been added to their family in such a way.

Life for Ginny and Harry had returned to normal quite soon after their brief separation, true to his word Harry had not gone back to the Ministry, although he did go back in an advisory position when Abery asked him to, he always insisted that Ginny drop into the office unexpectedly during these times so she could make sure he was only at the Ministry and not off in the fray but she constantly refused saying that she had to trust him. However Harry was sure he had seen a wisp of red hair scoot past the auror office on a few occasions when he had been in there but he did not mind at all, he had been stupid to lie to her and knew he was never going to make as grave a mistake again.

"We'd better be going out to get you a uniform too, Vernon," Ginny said softly as she poured him a glass of pumpkin juice, he nodded back at her and smiled. He had been fed on a much healthier diet since his arrival with the Potters and had slimmed down considerably over the last two years, although he would never be gangly like James and Albus because he had a large frame, he was much trimmer than he had ever been in his life which also made him fitter, by the end of his final year at the local muggle school he had been playing on both the rugby and football teams, something he would never have dreamed of doing in his life.

Vernon had also become quite taken with Quidditch, he had watched the children playing at the Burrow when the whole family were together and Harry had even taken him up on his firebolt once or twice so he could be part of the game, he had loved the feeling of flying and his cousin had even allowed him to catch the snitch, something Vernon had been immensely proud of. On his eleventh birthday in January they had taken him to see a proper Quidditch match, the Chudley Cannons against the Appleby Arrows and the young boy had been in complete awe, they had flooed to the ground with all the children and taken their seats in a box which Abery had managed to wangle from the Minister for them. Vernon had never taken his eyes off the game which had played out for over five hours before the Cannon's seeker, Marcus Towler, had caught the snitch and won the game. They had been so delighted with the result that Harry had taken them all out to eat at the Leaky Cauldron where they had ordered steak and chips with plenty of butterbeer to keep them in high spirits. By the time they had reached home Lily was asleep in Ginny's arms and the boys were swaying on their feet, Vernon had had a smile on his face as wide as a coat hanger and had collapsed exhausted into his bed.

The boy had accepted wizarding life as normal and had very little to do with muggles and their ways at all, other than attending school. Ginny and Harry had tried to encourage him to do muggle things knowing that he would one day need to re-integrate into that world but he was reluctant to do so and eventually they had mused that maybe he would live like a squib in the magical world and leave his muggle roots behind if that was what he wanted, they didn't mind as long as he was happy.

Harry smiled over at the boy who was pouring milk onto Lily's cereal, it had taken some work but he realised that taking in the boy was the best thing he could have ever done for both Vernon and Dudley, he felt happy that he had been able to show a young child the kind of life he had been missing just like the Weasley's had done with him.

"Mum, look," Lily squealed pointing at the window and the whole family turned to face it, they saw two owls heading straight towards the house and Harry quickly jumped out of his seat to open it for them. They both swooped gracefully into the kitchen with their sealed letters, they didn't recognise either of them but their stature and markings showed that they were both official owls.

"Looks like one might be from Hogwarts, James," Harry said and the boy's face lit up like a candle, "the other one is probably from Abery," he added looking over at his wife who smiled in understanding. James had jumped out of his seat as soon as he had realised that one of the owls was from Hogwarts and was now holding a large envelope in his hand with the school's official seal stamped on the back, Harry gestured for the other owl to drop it's load on the table as they crowded around James to look at his letter. He ripped it open with vigour and pulled the letter out, there in curly black writing was his official confirmation that he was to attend the school of witchcraft and wizardry on September the first. Enclosed was his train ticket to school from platform 9 ¾ and a list of everything he would need for his first year, "There you go James," Ginny said pointing at the list, "it says one standard sized cauldron, pewter." James pulled a face but it was replaced instantly with the smile that showed how happy and ready he was to be going to this infamous school, Lily and Albus were beaming for him too as Harry clapped him on the back and Ginny stood proudly, no one had noticed Vernon.

"Vernon, isn't it-" Lily began as she turned to look at her cousin but her mouth fell open as she saw what he was holding, "what's that?" she asked curiously and all the other heads turned to look at him. Vernon Dudley Dursley was sat in his seat at the table, his breakfast discarded, his mouth wide open, holding a large creamy coloured envelope in his hands. He was staring down at it in bewilderment reading the address handwritten on the front:

Vernon Dursley, 12 Grimmauld Place, London

The rest of the family could see the Hogwarts crest stamped on the back of it, Ginny walked around the table to look at it with him, "Are you going to open it Vernon," she said softly making him jump a little.

"It...it can't...can't be for me, they...they must have made a...a mistake, I'm not a...a...a wizard, am I?" he stuttered.

"Open it up and see," Harry said remembering that Hogwarts, or rather Dumbledore, had once written to Aunt Petunia to say she couldn't attend the school so he didn't want to get the boys hopes up yet.

"Have a look," Lily whispered to him placing a hand on his arm, she could think of nothing better than Vernon being a wizard now that he had spent two years almost becoming one of them. Slowly he tore open the top of the envelope and extracted the letter, opening it carefully he peered down at the curled writing on the page which began:

Dear Mr Vernon Dudley Dursley

I am pleased to inform you that you have been given a place at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. The school year commences on September 1st this year and you will be taken to school by the Hogwarts Express which leaves Kings Cross Station, London from platform 9¾ at eleven o clock.

Enclosed in this letter is your train ticket and a list of books and equipment which you will need to bring with you to school.

I look forward to seeing you on the first of September.

Professor Minerva McGonagall

Headteacher, Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

"Me," he whispered unable to believe it, "I'm a...a...wizard?" The bemused young boy looked up at Harry curiously and he took the letter from his hand. Lily was jumping up and down by his side while Albus and James looked on with a similar curiosity.

"Well..." Harry began, "you can only get into Hogwarts if you are a wizard, your Grandmother wanted to get in but she wasn't allowed to because she wasn't a witch, so it can't be a mistake Vernon, you must be a wizard," he beamed down at the boy.

"Grandma Petunia?" he asked quizzically.

"Yes," Harry confirmed realising that he had never told anyone about the memory he had seen in the pensieve, Ginny was also looking at him inquisitively now as she had never heard about this before either. "I saw it in a memory once, when my mother got her letter from Hogwarts your Grandmother wanted to go too so she wrote to the headmaster but he wouldn't allow it because she wasn't a witch."

"Oh," Vernon replied, "So how can I be a wizard then?"

"I'm not sure, my Mum was a muggle born witch but neither of her parents were wizards or witches, otherwise your Grandmother would have been one too, but there must be some wizarding gene somewhere in the Evans family, which was carried by Petunia and your father and was passed onto you," he smiled down at the boy who was still stuck somewhere between shock and elation and gave him back the letter. "It says you can attend Hogwarts Vernon, so you must be a wizard!" the boy continued to stare at the letter which he read over and over again as the rest of the family watched on.

Ordinarily in this kind of situation where James would feel someone else was stealing his thunder the eldest Potter boy would have started an argument, but over the last two years he had grown to accept Vernon as a brother and had learned quite a lot from him about the muggle world, he had been unable to imagine what life would be like to live in a magical world without ever being able to do magic and he had started to feel sorry for the boy who would never be a full part of his world. Watching him now and seeing the joy on his face made him feel a little bit humbled, he was genuinely happy for his cousin and secretly thought it would be quite nice to have a friend at Hogwarts before he even started as deep down inside he was rather nervous about leaving his home and family. He stepped towards Vernon who had still not taken his eyes from the piece of parchment in his hand, Ginny noticed and held her breath waiting for her son to get angry about the situation but he surprised them all when he held out his hand to the child and said, "You'd better be in Griffindor!"

They all relaxed and started to laugh at James who turned to them all with a puzzled expression. "Come on," Ginny began smiling at them both, "we might as well make a trip to Diagon Alley seeing as we'll need two lots of everything!"

"Hooray!" James cheered dashing from the room to get dressed properly, "last one to get ready smells of stinksap!" he added as his feet pounded up the stairs, Albus and Lily charged up after him but Vernon was still sat at the table staring in disbelief at the letter. "Are you sure?" he asked tentatively lifting wide eyes, still too afraid to believe it for sure, and looking at Harry and Ginny.

"Vernon," she began softly sitting down on his right and placing a hand on his shoulder, "Believe us, there is no mistake, if you got into Hogwarts you must be a wizard, trust us Minerva McGonagall will not get it wrong, like Harry said there is magic somewhere in your family, it came to his mother and now it has come to you." He stared at her through enormous eyes and she could see some kind of acceptance in them, "now go and get yourself ready and we'll floo through to the Leaky Cauldron, you and James are going to need some supplies, some school robes and more importantly, a wand." The eyes grew wider again at these words as Vernon remembered all he had seen over the last two years whilst living in a magical family, he had always been most intrigued by Harry and Ginny's wands and now realised that if all this was real, if it wasn't a dream then he would soon be holding and learning to use his own wand. Vernon jumped from the chair and bounded out of the room to get ready as Ginny and Harry turned to face each other, "I can't believe it," he said to her.

"I know," she replied, "but isn't it wonderful? He has come to be so much a part of our family now and I always feared that once the children were able to do magic too he would feel more and more left out, but now...well, this is amazing, I'm so happy for him."

"I wonder if Dudley knew?" Harry said.

"What? How could he?" his wife replied.

"I don't know...maybe he did something when he was a young child, he knew afterwards that some of the strange things I did when we were younger were due to magic, like my hair always growing back and when I blew up Aunt Marge, maybe Vernon did something which made Dudley realise what he was, maybe that's why he wanted him to grow up with us if anything happened to them all, rather than Aunt Marge who would never understand it all, he would have known that due to his father's reaction to me, he would have known she would never accept it."

"Maybe you're right," Ginny replied, "But we'll never know for sure, come on let's get these boys kitted out and ready for school."

She left the room as Harry sat back in his chair and thought about how it had all turned out, his life was certainly different to the one he had had with the Dursleys when he was a child, finding out he was a wizard had been one of the best days of his life and he thought it very fitting that after everything he had been through Vernon was now going to have a life similar to that.

At the time he had thought that taking in a Dursley could have been a huge mistake even if it was what Dudley wanted but now he realised it had been the right and fitting thing to do, Dudley had believed in him and Harry was sure that somehow he had known that Vernon was magical, he just thought it was a shame both for the boy and his cousin that he was not there to see it now.

A scream from upstairs signalled that at least two of his children were arguing again and Harry set off up the stairs to intervene, he realised that life would be much quieter without James and Vernon around but he also knew that once they had gone he would miss them deeply and long for them to be back at home making a mess, making noise but most of all making him realise that he had the most wonderful, loving and understanding family in the world.

There you go! Thank you loyal readers and reviewers, I hope it wasn't too twee, I just thought maybe making Vernon a wizard would be fitting cause how much would Petunia and Uncle Vernon have reacted to that??

Anyway I usually say this at the end of every story but I think it's come to an end, I can't possibly give Gin and Harry more heartache to create a soppy angsty story, I thikn they've been through enough now. I do prefer the romantic slush when I'm writing cause it's so easy but I'm just not as interested in developing it in other characters! So this may be the end of this story line for now! But then again who knows? I said that after all my last three stories so I may be back before you know it, I am toying with a Hogwarts story based on Lily and Vernon but I'm not sure if i'm into it yet!

Anyway if you care I may be back!!

Chow for now!