Disclaimer: Harry Potter, most characters and the magical world as depicted, belong to J. K. Rowling.

Chapter 20, Final Chapter:

The Hogwarts Express steamed into King's Cross and James alighted, dragging his trunk. Harry waited for him. He knew now that James had wanted to avoid seeing him, and was unsure of how he would be greeted.

They faced each other, James holding off, looking cool, expressionless, and more like Harry than ever.

The confrontation was interrupted, as two of Harry's former girl students grabbed and hugged their Professor Potter, to the amusement of Bedwin and Mark, watching from nearby, and suddenly Harry was surrounded by students he had taught, addressing him as Professor Potter, and chatting to him about events at Hogwarts, never mentioning trials, killings, rape or kidnap.

He had always been a popular teacher, and they wanted him to know that they fully approved his actions. To most, it seemed only proper that a rapist should be killed by his victim. They all knew the details, as the trial had been very thoroughly reported in the paper. Their careful tact was not really necessary, as Harry had been thoroughly hardened now, and seldom even blushed when comments were made that would have had him cringing a year before.

Harry touched his wand to James' trunk which vanished, sent instantaneously to his home. Those surrounded him blinked. What had he done? Oddly, this obvious and practical piece of magic was not a common thing.

Harry was still awkward with James, but he had developed a very different relationship with his bodyguards after this past year, and he introduced James to Mark and Bedwin, who were watching out for him that day. He had so resented their presence in the past. Sometimes he still did, but those who surrounded him were decent men, and had become friends.

Mark and Bedwin were looking at young James, thin, and nearly as tall as his father. He was so like Harry, except for the absence of glasses, and they wondered if he had the enormous talent and power of his father. But while James was highly talented, Harry was still unique in his world.

James stayed a week with Harry, meeting Luna, of course, but treating her with reserve. After an awkward week, Harry let him have his way, and James went to his Uncle Ron's for a time. He had come armed with other invitations, too, and spent most of the holidays with other friends.

Harry had tried and failed to talk to him, but James could put on an air of icy reserve that defeated his father. Adam didn't even try, although Victoria made an attempt one day.

Harry lost James, as he had known he would the first time he saw the pornographic video that Nick Bagshott had given him. He had long since vanished the horrible thing.

But he had found Luna, and at the end of March, when Harry was fifty, and without the slightest trouble, a little girl was born, whom they called Beth.

**xx**

Madam Amelia Bones felt as if the trial of Harry Potter had added ten years to her age, and retired from her position as Minister for Magic. Her place was taken by John Daunt. John Daunt was a stickler for the rules, and was known to Harry. Harry thought that he would make a reasonable Minister. He had not tried to influence these elections - he didn't even have a vote any more. Once convicted of a crime, a wizard loses his vote for life.

He and Luna found that it was better to stay out of England as much as possible. There had been a renewed spate of death attempts, and he now bore another knife scar, although it had been treated quickly enough that it was scarcely visible.

But even more of a problem was his Probation. The slightest transgression might land him in Azkaban, and it seemed there were a lot of people bent on providing sufficient provocation that he would forget prudence, and hit out. One of his enemies had even bought a hotel just for the purpose, and again there was a Harry Potter room, and its patrons would turn up in their capes, their choice of costume indicating to the initiated which position they preferred.

Harry knew of it, and left it strictly alone, but the wizard who owned it found it so profitable that he kept it going anyway.

Occasionally he still did some spell-breaking in Europe, but he had already dealt with the accumulation of cases from the last decades, and there were only the new cases to worry about.

There were a few ancient cases buried away in institutions, both in Britain, and in the rest of Europe. They tended to be forgotten, and he seldom saw them.

Whenever he was in England, he did his spell-breaking stints with Hermione, that he had first started around thirty years before. The Ministry still insisted on their observers, although once John Daunt took over, he was less heavily protected. It took a while for him to realise that Daunt regarded him with some suspicion, and may not be as interested in keeping him alive as Amelia had been. Now that he was doing a lot less of the overseas work, he had become less valuable to them.

Being less valued did not trouble Harry in the slightest. For he was very, very happy married to Luna. Now, when he joined his team for a week in Europe, he vanished every night to be with her, no longer bothering to conceal his ability to apparate that distance, although no-one but Luna knew that he could just as easily apparate to the other side of the earth if he chose, only having to remember time differences.

The bodyguards found him a lot easier to look after, but they were a bit disappointed, too. He had been such fun when he had got himself into fights, and went from one woman to the next. Now there were no fights, and no other women, and he was only there at night on the occasions he exhausted himself with a cure, or an attempted cure. He liked home best these days, where Luna was, and there was baby Beth, too.

Beth was a very easy baby, round and placid and happy, apparently content to sit and chortle to herself for hours at a time. She didn't even walk until she was nearly two, and still didn't talk at three, but no-one could look into those laughing and knowing eyes and think her dull. Luna was totally unworried, and simply assured Harry that everyone was different.

His friends were amused to see that in one respect, this marriage was exactly the same as his last marriage had been. He did exactly what his wife told him. But Luna didn't have the stern common sense of Ginny, and the couple were regarded as rather eccentric.

She still had her newspaper, the Quibbler, with an editor who did most of the collating and marketing. The intellectuals of their world regarded it as essential reading. Some of the articles were still distinctly odd, but there were also articles that contained enormous wisdom, and others that shone new light on mysterious phenomena that had baffled the learned witches and wizards of the age. Harry was now a regular contributor, as well as Luna, their writings the results of their research and investigations pursued in many different areas of the world. They spent a lot more time out of England than they did at home, placid Beth always with them.

Luna kept her own surname, as she had done in her three previous short-lived marriages. One of those marriages had lasted just three weeks. But with Harry, she had found what she needed in a partner, and Harry found enjoyment in her oddities, and very often he found truth and sense in her apparently outlandish notions. Her unusual views came from her unusual intelligence, and from something else that she shared with Harry. She too, had a latent telepathic talent, the quality that had made her previous husbands first uneasy, and then produced in them an urgent desire to flee. The closeness between them brought out that talent. More and more, they didn't need words, as their awareness of each other rendered verbal speech almost unnecessary. An obscure reference was always immediately understood, as the meaning came automatically with the scant words.

And when they made love, their intimacy was enhanced by the sense they had of each other. It was a very special thing.

**xx**

Life went on in other ways, Margaret, married to Sean Abercrombie, had her baby, then another, and was pregnant again. Victoria, married to Christopher Parker, several years older than herself, didn't seem interested in having children.

He still saw his niece, Gemme, although he no longer went to see Dudley. It just didn't seem worth the effort of trying to gain his forgiveness for his unconscious participation in a pornographic video.

Arthur Weasley died, and Molly was getting very old now. She loved looking after Harry's daughter, Beth. Beth was so easy, and such a happy toddler, even if she didn't talk. She refused to look after Margaret's children, though - they were a handful!

Kingsley Shacklebolt was beginning to think of retirement, and when he met Harry one day at a party, took him aside. He wanted Harry to know that no-one but himself in the Ministry knew where his home was, or that Harry had that other potential retreat, Sirius Black's old house. He had never made any records, and the whereabouts of Harry's hidden home was still protected from the Ministry.

Kingsley was beginning to think that Harry had been right when he had been so wary of the Ministry for most of his life, although he seemed to have dropped his suspicion in the last few years. But there had been hints, and whispers. Kingsley thought it was possible that Harry Potter might one day be again set against the Ministry of Magic.

**xx**

Harry and Luna's daughter, Beth, was nearly four. Margaret's first daughter, Harry's grand-daughter, was very little older, a redhead like her mother. The children were playing, not exactly together, but in the same room. Blonde Beth was fat, placid, and had a happy disposition. She still didn't talk much, although it was not for lack of ability. Mary was an active child, who rarely sat still.

Beth was playing with a fluffy toy orangutan. Mary grabbed it from her and ran off. A rare frown crossed the face of placid Beth. Mary held the toy, and was looking at her challengingly, ready to run. But round Beth didn't like running, and she hadn't finished playing with her toy. She held up her hand, and the toy flew straight from Mary's hand, back into her own. Mary stared at her, bellowed, and ran to her mother.

The End.