Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series and its characters are the property of J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.

Rated K.

November 1, 1981

It was the middle of the night, but no one thought of sleeping. Minerva McGonagall considered chastising her fellow professors for abandoning their students and huddling in gossiping groups in the corridors, but, in her heart of hearts, she couldn't blame them. After a brief internal struggle, she decided to join the others, leaving the Gryffindors under the care of their prefects. Shacklebolt and Trimble, the seventh-year prefects, were strong students; she had no doubt that they'd be able to keep the younger Gryffindors in line, or at least as much in line as anybody would at this moment.

The professors were buzzing with talk. Professor Snape stood by himself as usual, looking rather white. "Of course, if you examined the stars…" Professor Trelawney was telling Professor Kettleburn; Minerva shook her head in disgust and joined Professors Sprout and Flitwick, who seemed to have much more sensible things to say.

"No word from Dumbledore?" Professor Sprout asked Minerva.

"Not yet," Minerva replied. "And no other news. Have you heard anything, Filius?"

"No," said Professor Flitwick. "We're all in the same situation here. Hearsay, hearsay, hearsay, and nothing coming in!" Minerva was forced to agree.

After a few hours of patrolling the halls, circular conversation, and wondering what really had happened with the Potters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Minerva decided that it was time to do something more. "I'm going out," she told the other professors. "If the rumors are true, it's likely that Harry's to go live with…with Lily's family. I'm going to find out what sort of people we're dealing with here."

A brisk walk to Hogsmeade, which helped clear her head—were the rumors true? One spell to Disapparate—were the rumors true? Another spell to become a cat—were the rumors true?

This wondering was fruitless. She would find out soon enough. For now, she settled down to watch the house.

It was four o'clock in the morning, and someone was crying, hardly an unusual occurrence. In fact, Molly could barely remember a night when she hadn't been woken at least once by a crying child. It didn't matter tonight, though; Molly wasn't asleep anyway. She rose from her armchair and followed the noise; she could tell it was coming from Ginny, upstairs in her cradle.

She picked up Ginny and rocked her. "Are you hungry, love?" she murmured. "Well, we'll soon fix that." As she nursed her daughter, she wondered when Arthur would be home. Since the evening, she'd been hearing wild rumors. Friends and acquaintances had been popping in and out by Floo and sending messages by owl, but she had had no idea what to believe. Could the rumors be true? Could He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named really be gone? Arthur would know, though. He would have heard at the Ministry, or someone from the Order would have given him information.

She heard a pop from downstairs. "Arthur?" she called. "Is that you?"

"Yes, dear," Arthur called back. Molly rose quickly, holding a drowsy Ginny against her chest, and went downstairs.

"What's happened, Arthur?" she asked. "I've been hearing nothing but rumors all night. They say that You-Know-Who is gone—just like that! And that…that it was Harry Potter who defeated him. A baby! Can any of this be true?"

Arthur smiled at her. "It seems that it is," he said. "It's as incredible to me as it is to you, but it seems that it's really true."

"I can't believe it," Molly said. She leaned in to kiss Arthur, unable to keep herself from smiling. "This is…this is wonderful."

"Let's tell the children," said Arthur.

"Arthur, really, it's four o'clock in the morning. Surely it can wait a few hours."

"How often does something like this happen?" Arthur demanded. "We want our children to remember this moment. Let's wake them up."

After a few more protests, Molly assented. She and Arthur went to wake up the boys. Arthur picked up Ron, while the others climbed out of their beds, confused and sleepy-eyed.

The children all had their own reactions when Arthur told them that You-Know-Who was gone and that he wouldn't trouble the wizarding world anymore. Bill and Charlie understood what it meant and clapped and cheered. Percy nodded importantly, but she wasn't sure that he really knew what was going on; she was rather more sure that Fred and George were only cheering because they enjoyed the novelty of being out of bed at four o'clock in the morning. Even Ron, who usually hated anything that woke him up, gave a big smile, and Ginny crowed happily. And, thinking of the peaceful, happy days that awaited her family, Molly decided that Arthur's idea to tell the children had been a good one.

Narcissa knew that she really ought to put Draco back in his crib after night feedings. She was going to sit up anyway, though, and it was comforting, when she didn't know what was going on, to have her darling sleeping baby to hold.

"Narcissa?" It was Lucius's voice.

"In the nursery," she said. "Draco's sleeping; keep your voice low." Lucius came into the nursery. "What's happened?"

"It looks like the Dark Lord is really gone," said Lucius.

Narcissa accepted this. They couldn't change the facts; all that they could control were their own actions. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

She could tell that Lucius was pleased with her pragmatic response. "Lie," he said.

Narcissa nodded. "I can do that," she said.

Lucius leaned down to kiss her. "My sweet."

Rita had not, absolutely had not, written circles around all the other job applicants for the chance to run things off to the printer for the Prophet's senior reporters. Oh, this was maddening.

"Skeeter!" Barnabas Cuffe came hurrying over to her.

"Yes?" she said, all smiles on the outside. For whom was she going to have to fetch and carry now?

"What are you doing sitting here?" Cuffe demanded. "We need all hands on deck now. You can go with Braithwaite—where are you off to, Braithwaite?"

"Who knows?" Betty Braithwaite said. "I think I'm supposed to be at both the Ministry getting Scrimgeour's thoughts on what's next for the Auror Office and down in Godric's Hollow reporting on the scene. I need a Time-Turner."

Rita rose from her seat. "I could go to the Ministry," she said. "That would make everything much easier."

"Yes, do that," said Cuffe. "We've got to get people everywhere. This is the greatest thing to ever happen to the wizarding world!"

And, Rita thought, it was the greatest thing to ever happen to her career.

There was a Death Eater behind the big willow tree. He thought that nobody had seen him. But he was wrong.

The top auror snuck towards him, heading across the big field. She would surprise him. He would never recognize her, not with her thick black hair and eyebrows and moustache. The moustache made her want to giggle, but she didn't. Top aurors took their work very seriously.

She had almost reached him. All that she had to do was cross the giant lake. She took a deep breath and jumped…and landed on her back in the dirty puddle. The Death Eater must have heard the splash! But it didn't matter. She was Dora Tonks, top auror, and she could fight any Death Eater face to face and single-handed! She could even fight two Death Eaters face to face and single-handed! And there were two Death Eaters running out from behind the tree right now! She was ready. She was going to stun them both, she decided, because top aurors were just and good and didn't kill people if they didn't absolutely have to. But maybe she would absolutely have to. They were running up to her right now! She got ready to fight, opening her mouth to shout the first…Mum and Dad were coming!

Dora looked down at her robes. They were filthy from her fall in the puddle. Mum and Dad had just agreed to let her play out in the garden alone, which they never did these days, and if Mum saw how she looked now she would probably never let her do it again. She could tell Mum and Dad that she was being a top auror, but she didn't think that it would work on Mum. Mum didn't understand that sometimes bad things happened when you were a top auror. They were coming closer! Dora ducked behind the willow, taking the hiding place where the Death Eaters had been only seconds before.

"They say that he's really gone," Dad said.

"Then we're safe," said Mum. "It seems impossible."

"But it's true," said Dad.

Peeking out from behind the tree, Dora could see Mum smile at Dad. "Good days are coming for us," she said, "and for all right-thinking wizards. I wonder what…" She stopped. "Never mind," she said after a minute or two. "It wasn't anything worth mentioning. Let's walk down that way."

As her parents headed to the other end of the garden, top auror Dora Tonks performed a secret mission. She snuck into the house to change her robes and hide the dirty ones before anyone could see.

It had been a long day. There had been much to sort out at the Auror Office. The reporters buzzing around hadn't made it any easier. There would surely be much more work to do in the days ahead.

No, Frank reflected, as he and his wife settled down in the living room and watched their son play on the rug, the days ahead would not be easy. You-Know-Who seemed to be gone, but his many followers still remained, and he and Alice would be needed to help track them down. Nevertheless, there would certainly be a future now. Life would be less precarious. His son would grow up in a better world. Frank would have many, many days to spend with his family.

"But it seems that he's really gone." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Rodolphus realized that this was the wrong thing to say.

"As if he could ever be really gone!" Bellatrix laughed derisively and resumed her pacing. "Do you lack faith in the Dark Lord?"

"Nothing of the sort," Rodolphus said quickly.

"What Rodolphus is saying," Rabastan threw in, "is that there's no sign of him and no sign of what happened to him."

"And you think," Bellatrix said, "that just because the likes of you don't know where the Dark Lord is, he's gone forever. You think that our Lord could be defeated by a little half-blood baby." She spat. "You both sicken me."

"We don't think that at all," said Rodolphus. "But—"

"I will not abandon my Lord," said Bellatrix. "I will find him, and my loyalties will never waver. If you two want to turn traitor—" She brandished her wand.

"We don't want to turn traitor," said Rabastan, who looked rather nervous. "We never said that we wanted to turn traitor."

"We only wanted to know what we're going to do," said Rodolphus.

Even when it wasn't turned against him, Rodolphus found his wife's smile a bit terrifying. "What do you think we're going to do?"

To lose one friend in a day was terrible. To lose two friends in one day was tragic. But to lose three friends in one day—Remus Lupin wasn't sure that anyone had yet invented the word for what that was.

He didn't really want others' sympathy; the only one whom he might want to see was Peter, of whose whereabouts he was unsure. Nevertheless, he was beginning to wish for company.

From everything that Remus had heard, James had died bravely. He had faced He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on his own and had tried until the very end to protect Harry and Lily. Lily had been just as courageous, protecting her son as long as she could. It was just what he would have expected of them. He supposed that, if he had had to lose them, if they had had to die, they had died the right kind of deaths.

But they hadn't had to die. That was what made it worst. Everyone had believed that James and Lily were safe and protected. And then Sirius had… Sirius was the worst kind of coward.

And so Remus had lost three friends in a day. And it was worse than terrible and tragic. And the worst part of all was that, if he hadn't lost Sirius, if Sirius hadn't decided to let himself be lost, Remus wouldn't have lost any friends at all.

Rose Granger brushed her daughter's teeth—they had all come in at last!—and tucked her into bed. "Read to me, Mum," Hermione said.

"What story would you like?" Rose asked.

"Sleeping Beauty," Hermione replied immediately. Rose wasn't at all surprised; her own mother had given Hermione the book for her second birthday a month ago, and something about it had captured Hermione's imagination.

Rose sat down beside her daughter and read aloud. Hermione's smile grew wide, as it always did, when the good fairy made gigantic hedges grow up around the castle.

"…And they all lived happily ever after," Rose finished, closing the book. As she put the book away, she noticed that the jade plant which sat atop her daughter's bookshelf was nearly twice the size it had been the previous week. It was growing faster than any houseplant that she had ever seen. "Your plant's getting really big, isn't it, Hermione?" she asked.

"Mm-hmm," Hermione said. "Like in the story."

Rose smiled. "Exactly like that," she said. "Goodnight, Hermione."

"Goodnight, Mum." Rose kissed her daughter goodnight and left the room. She headed downstairs to watch the news. It had been, on the whole, a pleasant but ordinary day. Nothing important had happened.