Chapter 146 - The King's Life

The Potter-Snape's secretary was ready to tear his hair out, and goodness knows, he did not have that much of it to begin with. Martin Marchelle was a tall, thin man with not much reddish-blond hair left on his head. He'd been private secretary to all manner of politicians, elected officials, and social elites over his long career, but this was both his most prestigious and most frustrating job yet. Most people needed his services to manage active social lives. He was renowned for guiding people through the intricacies of entering and then making their way in society and in managing the complex social calendars that followed. He found the task of being a private secretary to two gentlemen who apparently wanted as little social contact as possible to be extremely frustrating. He had never had to say "no" in so many ways to so many people.

At least once Lords Potter and Snape left Hogwarts and returned to reside in Snape Manor, he had hoped that things would get better, but it did not seem to be working out that way. He'd finally sought an interview with Lord Snape, the one who had hired him.

"I'm so sorry to take up your time," he began, fully intending to tender his resignation. "Lord Snape, I have been thinking about how the role of a secretary fits into the sort of lives you and Lord Potter seem intent on living, the sort of social engagements you want to attend. I am afraid that I just don't see that I am adding anything to your lives with the work I am handling for you."

Mr. Marchelle paused more for effect before continuing, planning to extract the letter of resignation he had written from his pocket and that would be that. He was a bit surprised then when Lord Snape immediately responded.

"Marchelle, that is about to change. We have work we need to do, and Mr. Potter needs interaction with others. The isolation much come to an end."

X

Harry and Severus had been in residence at Snape Manor for not much more than a month when Severus had begun to be concerned about Harry. He was getting quiet and moody. He got up in the morning and took his meals, but picked indifferently at his food. He'd spend an hour or two working on translating various Parseltongue documents and then announce he was getting a headache. Most telling: he had not once initiated physical contact with Severus.

Several days before his conversation with Marchelle, as he was lying beside Harry in bed, Severus had reached out to stroke his arm. That gesture normally got a response from his bondmate and often as not led to far more intimate contact. That night, Harry had just pretended to be asleep. This was not like Harry, at all. The next morning he tried to talk to Harry about this, but was rebuffed.

"Nothing is wrong, Severus," Harry mumbled. "I was really tired last night, and must have fallen asleep."

"No, I do not believe that," Severus protested. He grimaced when Harry simply shrugged at him.

"We need to address whatever is wrong, because this cannot go on. You look miserable, you are not yourself. What can I do? I cannot ignore this, whatever it is."

"Severus, if I don't know what's wrong, how are you going to do anything?" was all Harry could think of to reply.

Severus had already done some discreet research of his own (the last thing they needed was the publicity of a visit to a mind-healer St. Mungo's) and was now of the opinion that his bondmate was bored, and possibly becoming depressed.

That led to the matter of why Harry was bored. What was missing from his life? Severus was content with the life that was shaping up for them at Snape Manor, lots of time by himself to pursue his interests in brewing and research. But Harry was a Gryffindor. He might personally be shy and uncomfortable with people he did not know, but he needed social contact.

As Severus reflected back on their last year at Hogwarts together, he realized that Harry had almost never been alone. He was meeting with Albus and others, or down at the Quidditch pitch helping Hootch teach flying or coaching Quidditch players. He was sitting in the Great Hall with students. He read or worked in the evenings either in a Common Room somewhere or with him in their rooms or his lab.

"I actually do have a suspicion," Severus suggested, his voice neutral. "I think you need more social activity. When was the last time you got together with Weasley or Miss Granger? For that matter, spoken to anyone other than me or our staff here?

Another shrug from Harry. He couldn't recall the last time he'd had a casual, fun conversation.

"That settles it. I'm going to ask Marchelle to address this."

Harry just looked at him in resignation. The way he felt right now, the last thing he wanted to do was make a big production of going off to visit someone.

Once Marchelle understood what was required, he was on it. He now saw his main job of deflecting requests for his employers' time in a very different context. His role was not about enabling them to engage with as many of those seeking their attention as possible, but to keep those people away so that his employers, most particularly Lord Potter, could maintain connections to certain people who mattered to him.

He immediately worked up a plan, and mapped out a strategy to share with them. Severus had already given him some parameters: Harry needed to have some time to socialize, particularly with his best friends, Weasley and Miss Granger. Weasley was working for the Ministry, so his time was somewhat limited, and Miss Granger was continuing her education at Oxford, so she'd be very busy but might have more flexibility. Harry could suggest others from school with whom he wanted to stay connected, but Severus knew those two needed to be on the list right off.

Second, they needed to get out into the world and meet with people. Harry had met people at the Calling, which Severus felt ought to be the priority, as well as others at the Ministry, and at Hogwarts, who hailed from all over the globe and who had insights and views that could best inform Harry's own plans. Harry could meet with them, and perhaps at some point each of them could be asked to identify people they knew who he ought to meet as well.

Third, and Severus had mentioned this with a roll of his eyes, but Marchelle knew from his research into Lord Potter's history it was serious, they had to find a way for Harry to play some Quidditch.

Finally, Harry really did have some projects that he needed time to work on in a more quiet setting. He'd acquired quite a few Parseltongue documents that he needed to translate before he left Hogwarts, and more seemed to find him every day. He had the rare gift of being a Parselmouth, and was trusted to produce fair translations, so anyone with a Parseltongue document was anxious to ask Harry to translate it. Harry seemed amenable, and Severus was savvy enough to assure that they had a right to a copy of whatever translation he created. Severus was fascinated by the things that came their way. It wasn't all potions notes, of course; there were some histories and even a few bad poems in the mix, but there was enough of material that did interest Severus that he was willing to help Harry with the work.

Marchelle suspected that he knew what mattered most. He had worked for owners of two Quidditch teams over the years, and had contacts with several players. It took just four owls to have arrangements made for Lord Potter to join practices with four teams whenever his and their schedules allowed. In Quidditch circles, Harry had been well-known as an up-and-coming Seeker. Had he not been identified as the Wizard king, it was suspected that he might well have become a professional Quidditch player, so there was actually some enthusiasm among the fliers about having him work out with their professional teams.

He passed those invitations along to Lord Potter immediately, with the suggestion that he select times that worked best, and Marchelle would make all the arrangements with the teams. Harry decided to join two teams for their afternoon practices each week, and Marchelle had his first sense of success in this job, as Potter's mood brightened considerably with just that task completed.

When he reached out to Miss Granger, she immediately asked to meet with him herself. She and Harry had exchanged some letters, and she had her own growing concerns about him. Marchelle recognized her immediately as an ally in getting Lord Potter onto a proper schedule. Her Wednesday afternoons were free of classes, and she was very willing to leave some time open to get together with her friend. She also proposed a weekly dinner with her and Ron, either in their apartment or a Diagon Alley restaurant, or even in muggle London. She would get that arranged with Ron, who she said also really missed his best friend. She would be in touch with Harry herself to set things up.

Marchelle worked out a few proposed trips for his employers to consider. He has identified everyone who had been mentioned in the newspapers as having joined the International Confederation of Wizards, which he understood to be a measure of who would have been at the Calling. He plotted several week-long trips that would enable his employers to meet with at least three or four of them but decided to wait to reach out to those people until he had Lord Potter's agreement.

When Marchelle sat with Lord Snape several days into his new assignment, Severus was impressed with the progress already made. Harry's mood had brightened immediately with the chance to play Quidditch, even if just in practices with professional teams, and he'd even had lunch with Miss Granger already. Severus reviewed and approved the first grouping of week-long trips, and assured his employee that this was exactly what he'd wanted.

Later that evening, over dinner, Severus brought up the matter of the trips.

"You are looking much more chipper, Harry," he began. "I trust the chance to fly with – who was it today? The Puddlemere United? Or was it the Montrose Magpies? – agreed with you?

Harry smiled, a rarity this past month. "Puddlemere. They have a game this weekend, and are practicing all week. It was fantastic. I know you asked Martin to call in some favors and set that up for me, and I appreciate it."

Severus nodded at the recognition. "If you spoke with Marchelle, perhaps he mentioned another task to which I set him. I feel we need to make some progress on the matter of your kingship."

Harry looked at him quizzically, so Severus expanded on that thought. "My recommendation is that we begin scheduling one-on-one meetings with people you've met already. I'd propose beginning with the people you met at the Calling, and at some point add in others you know from Hogwarts or possibly even the Ministry. Talk to them. Find out what they would suggest would represent a good contribution for the King to make, listen to their concerns. At some point, you can ask them to introduce them to others that they think you ought to speak to, and expand your network and have more conversations. I suggested to Marchelle that he work up several itineraries for week-long trips, during which we'd meet with three or four people. I'm very willing to join you, if you'd like, or you can meet with people alone, as you prefer."

Harry was beyond relieved that the suggestion was for just a week-long trip, and that Severus would join him. "Just a week?" he sought confirmation.

"I propose we look at taking one trip a month to start, although if we start here in England, we can apparate to and from the Manor, not really have to travel. One week might be too much, or we might feel we should take some longer trips. I put this idea before you because I assume you do want to engage with the magical world in some way as the King. You could decide that you don't want to do anything, and that would be fine, as well."

Harry looked down at his hands, thinking. "No, you're right," he finally conceded. "I can't just sit around. That wasn't working for me. I have to do something, and I don't mean getting a job someplace, or spending all my days translating ancient documents from the original Parseltongue. How far along has Martin come in working up itineraries?"

"I've seen two, so far. He did this just to illustrate what might be possible. If we are agreeable with this approach, he'll start sending owls and making concrete appointments."

That night, Severus realized that his efforts had not been for naught when Harry had a bath drawn for them before bed, and they enjoyed their tub more than they had in a month.

With Marchelle's help, Harry began to reach out to the witches and wizards he'd met at the Calling. Severus joined him on most calls, at Harry's request, although Severus realized quite quickly that Harry was actually a natural at one-on-one meetings. Each person sought out was flattered at the King's attention, and many had been thinking hard about what it meant to them to have been called that night. In seeking them out for his own purposes, Harry found he helped them find their own purposes, too. Over time, Harry not only met most of the powerful, smart and insightful witches and wizards in the world, but he developed a very well-rounded understanding of how he could use his kingship to greatest advantage for the magical world. He found his own path.

Severus personally cherished the weeks that he and Harry were NOT travelling. His own brewing and theorizing was his great pleasure. Time with Harry was always wonderful, of course, and especially on trips farther abroad in the world, the two had enjoyed some amazing experiences, but he had to set aside his own passions to join Harry. He also wanted to be sure that Harry continued to make at least some time to translate their burgeoning collection of documents written in Parseltongue. Severus assisted in translating anything that involved potions, and he began to expand that to include herbology, when he realized how helpful ancient or at least old documents could be when trying to track down an herb or plant that had taken a new name at some point. He made sure that he was allowed to retain a translation of all the documents that interested him.

Severus also quietly, and with Marchelle's help, began to gather his own collection of Parseltongue documents. His own most treasured possessions were the translations Harry had made of Salazar Slytherin's Books of Light, and Harry was sure that there were Books of Dark out there. Both reputable and disreputable auction houses and old book dealers were contacted and asked to alert Marchelle to any material in the strange, unreadable print reaching the market. Severus also thought that if Voldemort had given some of his personal books to Lucius Malfoy, he might have asked others to hold onto other books for him. He had hoped, given the terrible toll the war had taken on the fortunes of some of England's Dark families, that some of those families might be looking to sell those old documents. Marchelle began a series of very discreet inquiries to those families to inquire about any old parchments that they might wish to sell. Unfortunately, those inquiries yielded only one or two documents, almost certainly not in the hand of Salazar Slytherin, and he wasn't even sure that the documents came from Voldemort.

Severus finally devised a new strategy: he had Marchelle arrange to purchase a certain muggle property in Little Hangleton, the old Riddle estate. It had sat unused for many years and some civic-minded local citizens were starting to consider if it ought to be demolished. While children maintained it was haunted, the general consensus was that it was so old and decrepit that it would likely crumble to dust if anyone tried to enter. The offer of purchase from Marchelle, made through solicitors in London, was greeted with enthusiasm by the community, especially when the solicitor noted that the buyer did intend to demolish the decaying old building, ridding the area of a blighted nuisance.

Fortunately, there were no signs of curses on the old space, although it was clear that magic had been part of the building. After stabilizing the structure to make it safe to explore, a team of magical carpenters working under obscuration charms pushed through the building, and eventually found the dungeons that it appeared Voldemort had added after he moved into the place. There was a large audience room and a number of other grand spaces. It was in an upstairs bedroom, though, where they found a few boxes that contained a small collection of parchments and books in odd script. Those were boxed up and sent off to Severus, and shortly after, the building was completely demolished. The land was cleaned up and a local crew muggle crew engaged to create a community park, which was promptly donated back to the community.

The books rescued from Riddle Manor were, indeed, the remaining books that Voldemort had taken from the Chamber of Secrets, and Severus put them into the stack that eventually he and Harry would translate.

The schedule that Harry had agreed to actually worked well for him for a number of years. He had ample contact with all manner of interesting people, who gave him a continual stream of ideas and thoughts as to what he might be accomplishing. He was able to join Quidditch teams around the world for practices as he travelled, or one of the English teams when he was at home. While he would always consider the idea of being a professional Quidditch player the one dream he'd never been able to explore, he came as close as possible to the experience by working with professional teams in practice. And he still had his good friends. He had lunch or dinner once or twice every week with either Hermione or Ron or both, joined at times by others from their time at Hogwarts.

Auror training was just what Ron had always hoped it would be. He frequently thought how much more fun it would have been had Harry been able to join him in this career, but he had Seamus Finnigan in his training program, and he made friends easily with several others. Hermione made quick work of Oxford, completing the graduation requirements in three years, and finally deciding on what sort of work she'd pursue after receiving her degree. Her joy was in research and books, so it surprised very few that she decided to use her degree (awarded with highest honors, with concentrations in chemistry, mathematics, history and philosophy) not in a business setting or as a teacher, but in a library. Harry had actually been the one to suggest to the Minister of Magic that she consider allowing Hermione to create a small department within the Ministry, for Research and Recommendations. Minister Bones and Hermione came to an agreement, and she began her career with a job taking on various problems encountered in other departments. She loved it.

Of course, as young people leave school and start new lives, major rites of passage include marriage and children. Just as Neville and Nitrocris were the first to marry, they were the first to have a child. They had a son just a bit less than a year after their marriage, and Harry stood as godfather. The child was the first of seven for the couple. Nitrocris confided in Harry that things changed tremendously with the arrival of her first son, both for herself, now firmly recognized as the founding Pharaoh of a new dynasty, and for Neville, now accepted as a significant part of Egyptian life.

Hermione and Ron held off marrying until she had finished her time at Oxford, although they had set up house together as soon as they left Hogwarts. They stayed in London, finding just a larger flat, as they both worked at the Ministry, but children began arriving quickly, in multiples. Twins came first, then triplets. Harry knew that she wanted her career, and while the Ministry was surprisingly flexible in giving her time off and allowing her to work at home at times, she was struggling with five children under the age of 3. He initially proposed offering her a house elf, but Ron immediately reminded him of S.P.E.W., so that idea was dropped. Instead, he asked Martin Marchelle to find her an au pair, whose salary would be his gift to his two best friends. That offer was accepted, and Hermione was able to continue with her career.

Unfortunately, the magical world is a dangerous one. While those with magic fare very well when confronted with the challenges and dangers typical in the muggle world, their own world is rife with peril. Sadly, that fact caught up with Harry.

About seven years after joining the Auror Corps, just as Ron was beginning to make a name for himself for his thoughtful approach to investigating and solving all manner of crimes, he and Seamus Finnegan were sent off one day by their boss to investigate some suspicious activity in a large warehouse in one of the unplottable counties. Aurors frequently handled these sorts of matters, especially when the exact nature of the activity was not known. They quickly determined that there were no wizards, dark or otherwise, about the warehouse, and began investigating the items stored there. Seamus cast a spell that was supposed to determine the nature of the contents of a large wooden barrel, but, not terribly surprising given his history at school, instead of assaying the contents, his spell ignited them. The entire warehouse blew up in one colossal explosion, with the tragic outcome of his own and his friend's deaths.

Harry was devastated at the news. He had always reacted badly to news of death, but to this point in his life, the news was more abstract, not of people he loved. His parents were gone before he really knew them, and the dead who haunted his dreams were usually known to him simply as his allies. Severus recalled that Harry had even shown some distress when learning that Cornelius Fudge and Vernon Dursley, clearly not Harry's allies, had been killed in their ill-considered assault on Hogwarts. He quickly located a large dose of Calming Draught for Harry, and cancelled all meetings and visits for the following month.

Harry's distress aside, Hermione and the entire Weasley family were united in their terrible grief. Everyone crowded into the Burrow for support and to share their sorrow, and Harry and Severus were among them. Hermione had once shared with Harry her and Ron's hope to someday have a house near the Burrow, and it was clear that Molly and Arthur would happily welcome her into their home, if she wanted to raise her five little ones with their little Harry. If anything, it appeared that they expected her to agree to that. But Hermione had the support of her own parents, and she pulled herself together. After the saddest wake he could possibly imagine, Harry helped his friend gather her family and return them to the flat in London.

It was only later that Hermione and Harry learned that it was Severus who stayed behind that afternoon at the Burrow to console the Weasley parents and distract them from any lingering anger at their daughter-in-law's independent streak. He partially understood that Hermione felt that she needed to stand on her own, but he fully realized how important she was to Harry. Her finding her bearings again after this terrible shock was as important to Harry as it was to her own family, and he had no intention of allowing anything to disrupt that.

After the two finally returned to Snape Manor after several days to participate in the wake and funeral, Harry finally had the chance to thank Severus for his unwavering support.

"You were amazing, Severus," he began. "I could not have done that without you."

"Of course, you are most welcome, but I could have done nothing less. Harry, you are my family, as well as my bondmate. I might not share your personal fondness for some of your friends, but I value them for the place they have in your life. This event was a tragedy, not just because it represents a loss of two competent Aurors to the Ministry, but because it punches a hole in your world. You must be assured that I will stand by you."

Harry's eyes shone brightly at that evidence of the depth of Severus' commitment to him. He never had any reason to doubt it, of course. The man had accompanied him without complaint on any number of trips and met with people that he imagined Severus would have happily ignored. But not surprisingly, it wasn't something that they discussed.

Severus sensed that his comments might have overwhelmed Harry, so he went on, hoping to lighten the mood. "I know that you have enjoyed your lunches and dinners with your friends. If you'd like, please invite Mrs. Weasley and her children to join us her occasionally for a meal. I think she would like that as much as you. We'll find a way to prevent the children from destroying the Manor, I am sure."

Harry did smile slightly at the offer, his first smile in several days. Over the next few weeks, Hermione and her five children did join Harry and Severus for a week-night meal, and that settled into a pattern of a weekly visit whenever Harry and Severus were in residence at the Manor.

One positive outcome of Hermione's presence at the table for these meals were the conversations she and Severus had about some of his experimental brewing. He had explained to her at one time that he was looking anew at old assumptions as to how magic moved within a body, suspecting that it did not really travel along nerves. His work with Harry to strengthen his own magical pathways and assure that he was capable of safely using wandless magic had reinforced his belief that this was not entirely about the nervous system. Hermione had some pointed questions that prompted some new paths to consider, and Severus returned to that old project with renewed interest, even as his work was interrupted once he and Harry resumed their travels.

Another positive outcome of Hermione's presence was in Harry and Severus making the acquaintance of her children. They were pure Weasleys of course, but some of the rougher edges were moderated by their Granger heritage. They opened up the prospect of parenthood to Harry and Severus, who had vaguely considered it a possibility but not given it much thought beyond that. The twins were three years old, and the triplets not yet a year old when Ron died, so the two men had the opportunity to experience much younger children than either had ever had much experience with before. No immediate conclusions were reached, but the possibility became clearer to them.

Severus eventually did produce some breakthrough potions that might help those with damaged magical pathways, but (fortunately) in him and Harry, he had no test subjects. Hermione had done some work for a mediwizard at St. Mungos and suggested that Severus share his work with the man. The mediwizard was pleased to review Severus' work and had some thoughts of his own. He had (unfortunately) no shortage of patients, particularly among St. Mungo's long-term patients, with the kinds of injuries and damage that might respond to some of these potions. Given the provenance of the research and potions involved, he got approval from the Ministry and the hospital leadership to treat some of those patients with these new potions. Progress was slow because treatment was exceedingly cautious, but eventually many of those whose magic had been disrupted and who could not access or channel it within themselves began to improve. Even Neville's parents were able to remember him and Nitrocris from one visit to the next, although they would not be able to leave St. Mungos to live independently for many years to come.

A final big disruption to Harry's primary support network occurred just a few years after Ron's death.

The great urgency that Albus Dumbledore had evidenced in his work on Harry's Wizard Kingship and on Merlin's Favor did produce one of the most comprehensive records ever made on the phenomena, but that urgency was well-founded. At the age of 187, Albus succumbed to a splinching accident that destroyed several of his major internal organs.

This was a sad, but not entirely shocking development (aside from the splinching aspect), given Albus' advanced age. It was also a more public matter, as Albus had been a public figure for well over 100 years and was widely known throughout the wizarding world. His brother Alberforth was asked if he would cede responsibility for Albus' rites to Minerva McGonagall, who would arrange to have his funeral at Hogwarts, and have Albus buried there. Within a day of getting the news, Harry and Severus joined what seemed like most of the wizarding world at Hogwarts to bid their mentor farewell.

They had been discussing the prospect of parenthood for some time now, and had been saying for some time now that they would have to reach out to Poppy Pomphrey at Hogwarts to discuss the matter of identifying a surrogate, when now they found themselves at Hogwarts. After greeting Acting Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, Harry asked to see the life-sized portrait that would soon be hung in the Great Hall in honor of Hogwart's most famous Headmaster. It had only been completed a few weeks before Albus' death, and was still propped against a wall in the Headmaster's Office. Minerva was glad to leave Harry alone with it while she and her old friend, Severus, caught up in a sitting room, before she invited Poppy to step through the floo to join them.

Harry studied the portrait, not sure what he hoped to find. He had been consulting with Albus periodically, and still had so many things to ask him. The portrait was idly watching him study it; it took a few months after someone passed away for their portrait to fully animate, but some level of awareness and communication was still possible once the wizard had died.

"I'm not sure that I'm ready to do this without you, sir," Harry said, almost to himself.

The portrait heard him and replied, very softly, "Nonsense, my boy. You and I have said as much as we needed to. You have learned more than you realize, and you have found some wonderful advisors who can stand in my stead. Severus, Hermione and Augusta, to name but a few, are there for you now."

The portrait went silent, and watched Harry again as he resumed his study of it.

It was a curious image, showing Albus attired in one of his signature robes of bright orange with silver shooting stars, sitting at a table, with what looked like a piece of luggage sitting beside his chair. On the table was a small contraption that Albus had designed at some point, something he called a "deluminator," and the Marriage Stone.

The portrait saw Harry studying the accoutrements with which he chose to be painted, and calmly waited for a question.

"I don't think I understand the luggage, Headmaster," Harry ventured.

The portrait quietly answered, "Ah, Harry, I am off on my next great adventure, and I am looking forward to the journey."

"And the things on the table?" Harry asked.

The portrait nodded. "Those things represent what was most important to me about the great adventure just concluded. No matter the obstacle or the difficulty before us, there is always a path forward. I created my deluminator to help me find that path when it was most obscured. And I credit the Marriage Stone with responsibility for the most remarkable events that occurred in this adventure."

Harry went silent at that, pondering what the Headmaster's portrait had said. The Marriage Stone. It had joined the unlikeliest of people in him and Severus, and yet that joining had been essential to the saving of the entire world. He had needed Severus to accomplish so many of the things he did before he was identified as the King, and he had needed Severus to accomplish his mission as King, and he was only able to function as King with Severus' help.

Clearly Severus was his true bond mate. But he had never forgotten a long-ago conversation with Hermione. Severus was his bond mate, but that did not mean that he was Severus' bond mate; this was not automatically reciprocal. Was he enjoying his happiness at the cost of Severus' own happiness? That he was potentially so selfish had bothered him when Hermione posed the question the first time, and it was always in the back of his mind. It occurred to Harry that the artifact itself was sitting on a shelf just across the room, and this was his chance to ask it a question that had been on his mind for many years now.

With a bit of worry crossing is features, he walked over to the shelves and quickly located the Stone. Steeling himself for whatever was revealed, he held it firmly and spoke the name of the man he'd come to love and rely on:

"Severus Snape."

To Harry's everlasting amazement and relief, the name that appeared on the stone was:

"Harry Potter."

[A/N – I cannot believe I've come to the end of my story! I have appreciated each and every one of you who has come along on the journey with me (and I'm well over one million hits on this story – amazing). Your comments (and criticisms) have encouraged and inspired me. Thank you.

As I've looked back over the arc of Josephine Darcy's story and this continuation, I realized that this is my last opportunity to share a few things about the decisions that I made in choosing the directions I took.

My own jumping off point in beginning this continuation of her story was to thwart Voldemort's plan to kill all the muggles and most of the magical people in the world. I'm not so sure that Harry himself could have survived that level of destruction, especially when you consider how distressed he became when even small numbers of people perished and he couldn't save them. I had no interest in a story continuation that explored his mental breakdown. It was bad enough that so many muggles perished from the aftermath of Voldemort's first spell. At least everyone with magic woke up that time, and they were able to protect the ones without magic. There could not be a second spell for the story to go on.

That led to the next item on the agenda. If Voldemort could still easily access the power of his followers through their Dark Marks, what would stop him from simply re-casting his spell once he realized that the Ministry had figured out how to get the sleeping muggles into stasis rather than sleep? If he did that, Harry would send out a counterspell, and again I'm not so sure he would survive that. Something had to break that chain, and that meant (to me, at least) that the Dark Marks had to go. If Voldemort could not access the power he needed, he was not going to be able to cast a second spell. Presumably there was something in one of Salazar's books of light that offered some thoughts on that, and Hermione would help figure it out.

Once Voldemort was stuck with a world full of living people both with and without magic, we had any number of directions to go. Fudge made a great villain, and Vernon was pretty irresistible in that area, too, so they got roles in the story of the plans to at least rid the world of Harry Potter.

How on earth could the ancient wards of Hogwarts fall just because a bunch of Death Eaters and other haters stood outside and cast spells on them? That made no sense to me (although the special effects in the movie of Flitwick and the others strengthening the wards and then watching them fall were pretty spectacular). If it was that easy, I assume those wards would have come down centuries ago. The wards had to stand. But Harry and Voldemort had to meet to settle their differences, and since Harry wasn't leaving Hogwarts that meant that Voldemort had to get in. Hogwarts is a public space with lots of people coming and going, so I figured that it should be possible for a small number of baddies to get in by being escorted in by someone inside the castle.

Now, to the characters. One reviewer told me that my Hermione seemed like a Mary Sue, but for the fact that she came right from the pages of the book and off the screen in the movies. I'd like to think that my Hermione is true to "book" Hermione. We saw some glimmer of that really smart Hermione in the early movies, but the movies got away from that smart, fearless persona as the years passed. My Hermione is the same brilliant, focused person we first met in the first Harry Potter book, just more mature, with more experience, and access to much more interesting research material.

Neville's development, through the movies in particular, was quite remarkable, and I exaggerated it here. The Neville in this world never really was the weak, mushy little boy so many saw him to be, and he deserved a very special story line. I did like the Pharaoh once I got her into the story. She was perfect to see Neville for the young man he had become and not the little boy everyone assumed he had been, so that was that.

Harry's observation to Petunia when he saw her once in the Hogwart's greenhouses, that he saw a path before her that might lead her to a happy life in the magical world, was the place that I decided that she'd find her way back to magic once she and her family left Hogwarts. Petunia was a nasty, bitter piece of damaged goods. However, I had in my mind a deleted scene from the beginning of the seventh movie in which she is taking a last look around the house before the family moves away and tells Harry something along the lines of "You didn't just lose a mother that day, I lost a sister." Even though that never actually made it into the movie, there was something very sad in her expression and her voice. She expressed everything wrong, but I'll put most of that on Vernon's influence. Anyway, she found in Thurston the kind of life and status she wanted with Vernon, just in the very world that Vernon detested.

It struck me that so many of the people Harry knew had lost family members young. As established by J.K. Rowling, he'd lost his own parents, and apparently had no grandparents either, so they never attained great age. Luna's mother died young. In this story, Severus' mother died young as did his father. Malfoy's father went early, too. On the one hand, we saw that magical people could overcome injuries and were immune to most muggle diseases, and many could live spectacularly long lives. But we saw that so many of them perished quite young. I wanted to speak to just how dangerous magic, and the magical world, could be. Having managed to get Harry and his crew through the Battle of Hogwarts with almost no serious injuries let alone any deaths, I felt that the odds were very high that their ongoing lives in the magical world would cause some of them to die early.

Finally, Josephine's story was called The Marriage Stone. Apart from its very brief appearance in the opening chapter, the Marriage Stone sat pretty much untouched in a drawer in Albus's office after it set up the rest of the story. I'd made some references to it along the way in my continuation, but in honor of it being the title of the story, I felt I had to get us back to the stone somehow. I'd envisioned my final scene before I wrote my first chapter, so it was great fun to finally get there and finish with it.

Thanks to all of you for reading along my version of where the wonderful story that Josephine Darcy began might have led us. I don't know if this is what she had in mind when she began but I think it plausibly follows on from what she left us. I thank her for the first 77 chapters that inspired such enthusiasm for and interest in the world she created with J.K. Rowling's characters, and hope she is well and happy, wherever she is.]