A Game of Hunger

Chapter 20 - Epilogue

A/N: So this is 15 years later which makes the year about 2012 and also makes Harry & Hermione around 32 now. It's just a short epilogue, I wasn't even sure if I was gonna do one but with so much angst in the rest of the story I wanted a wee bit of happiness.

Enjoy!

15 YEARS LATER

It was a beautiful summer's day. The heat of the July sun was beating down on the back-garden where children ran around in a paddling pool screeching with joy and splashing each other. The grass was green, the house large and rustic, a remainder of the past in the form of a mock Tudor building. It was the perfect suburban life in almost every way.

On a picnic blanket nearby the adults sat, drinking wine and laughing as they kept a close eye on the children in the pool.

'James!' Hermione shouted when she saw her son splash water in his sister's face, 'stop that! You know Elizabeth hates it!'

James Draco Neville Potter, who was 7 years old with his Mothers mousy brown hair and dark hazel eyes huffed at being told off and left the paddling pool. Hermione rolled her eyes as he dried off on a towel in the sun. She turned back to her companions on the picnic blanket.

'Elizabeth's just smug now,' Harry said with a chuckle as Elizabeth Lily Luna Potter, who was 6 years old lay down on her back with the pool to herself. She looked mischievous with jet black curls and emerald green eyes, nobody would guess she and James were related purely on looks.

'She did that on purpose to get rid of him,' Sirius chortled as he watched the kids.

Harry's half-sister Scarlett chuckled from beside her Father, 'Emily just seems to be enjoying chasing that duck,' she remarked as her only child, 4 year old Emily chased a duck in circles around the paddling pool.

'Poor blinking duck,' Scarlett's husband Colin remarked as Emily gave up and fell onto her bottom crying. With dark hair and blue eyes she was the image of her Mother, and her Grandfather.

'Poor thing,' Scarlett said as she got to her feet to soothe Emily.

Sirius was sitting with his arm around Amelia on the blanket, next to them were Harry and Hermione, and on the blanket next to them sat Colin watching his wife and daughter, and Alice and Frank. The occasion was Harry's birthday and the fantastic weather had led them to spend it outside.

'Is Remus coming?' Harry asked, glancing at the time on the watch Sirius had given him for his 17th birthday a few months after the war ended.

'He said he'd be a little late,' Amelia replied, 'Ministry business.'

'I expected that,' Harry admitted.

'I'm surprised Charlie and Narcissa aren't here,' Sirius said.

'Oh they couldn't make it, they're working at a dragon camp in Romania,' Hermione said, 'they quite like it, they said in their latest letter they might stay out there.'

'That's good,' Frank said, 'Narcissa always complains about the cold here.'

'Not that she would today,' Alice said, 'it's lovely.'

'I bet Sora's enjoying it at her friend's lake house,' Hermione said to Alice.

Alice rolled her eyes, 'Oh I'm sure she is, she's at that age now where spending summer with us isn't cool.'

Sora was an orphan who Frank and Alice had adopted a year after the war, she had been a baby and Frank and Alice had raised her. She was a lovely, polite young girl with mousy blonde hair and blue eyes. She saw Frank and Alice as her true parents and was rarely any trouble. Not until now, she had suddenly wanted to spend all of her time in the summer with her friends.

Frank smiled slightly, 'Well she is 14 Alice, it's to be expected.'

'I'm glad ours aren't at that age yet,' Harry said, watching James and Elizabeth bicker about something as Emily re-joined them in the paddling pool to cool off. Scarlett returned to the picnic and sat down next to Colin, 'she's such a drama queen, she didn't even hurt herself.'

'I wonder where she gets that from,' Harry said under his breath sharing an amused look with Colin.

Scarlett stuck a finger up at him and they were both scalded by Amelia while Sirius chuckled. A light breeze ruffled their hair and they sighed in relief, it was welcome in this scorching hot weather.

With the breeze opened the gate and in walked Remus. The three soaking wet kids ran to greet him with a shout of 'Uncle Remus!' and as they hugged him they drenched him and pulled him in the paddling pool.

Sirius was doubled over with laughter as Remus got to his feet, laughing himself at what had happened. Even the kids were laughing as he took off his cloak, shoes, socks, tie and waistcoat, and lay down on the grass to dry off.

'You could just use a drying charm,' Sirius chortled.

'Sometimes I prefer the Muggle way,' Remus said with a sigh of contentment, 'drying off under the hot sun.'

Hermione smiled, 'How was work?'

'Ah, boring,' Remus said casually.

'Boring?' Harry asked in amusement, 'you're the bloody Minister for Magic.'

'And he has been for 15 bloody years Harry, I'm bored of him being the Minister for Magic,' Sirius said, barking out a laugh as Remus laughed loudly.

'There is that,' Remus said with a chuckle, 'there is some good news though.'

'Yeah, whats that?' Harry asked.

'We're letting another 100 Muggles in next month,' Remus said, 'now that most of the country is rebuilt, we still have to get to work on the Northern Scottish areas and some of the more Northern English parts, but we're about 85% there.'

'Not that it's taken 15 years,' Sirius said.

'Well it took Voldemort 16 to completely destroy it,' Colin pointed out, 'and rebuilding something is said to take twice as long as destroying it.'

'Well said Colin, I knew there was a reason I decided you were good enough for my little sister,' Harry joked.

'Oh yeah, apart from the fact he can't play Quidditch you mean?' Scarlett asked Harry with a raised eyebrow, it was something he always teased Colin for.

'I can play Quidditch,' Colin retorted, 'but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm any good at it.'

'He said it, not me,' Harry said with a chuckle.

Hermione rolled her eyes in amusement, 'oh Harry, behave,' she said with a chuckle as she got to her feet.

Harry grinned cheekily at her, 'where are you going?' he asked.

'To get your cake,' she replied, disappearing into the lovely house they owned in the newly rebuilt and refurbished town of Godric's Hollow. It had been rebuilt as a wizarding only town which meant kids quite often whizzed around gardens on brooms or people flew to the grocery shop on their broomstick or in Sirius's case, flying motorbike.

Harry smiled as he looked around the garden at his family, the arenas from the games had been demolished, the games no longer existed, the reapings had stopped. Severus Snape had been tried in a court of law and given a fair trial and a full pardon for protecting the students of Hogwarts throughout Voldemort's 16 year reign of terror. He had been re-instated as Headmaster of Hogwarts and the corrupt staff replaced with legitimate professors.

Harry knew when James and Elizabeth went to Hogwarts they would have a proper education, not a corrupt, brainwashing one like that he and Hermione received. They would never be made to stand at a reaping, they would never have to fight to the death in an arena. They had a safe and secure future and nothing could make Harry happier. He and Hermione had done a lot towards helping that, they had helped rebuild and reform the Ministry to ensure there was never another dark lord.

Harry now taught Defence against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, and Hermione worked in the Reforms department at the Ministry, she also dealt with Muggle affairs. They had tried to find Hermione's real parents after the war, but with no idea of their names or where they had been born, or in fact, anything, they hadn't been successful. All of the records concerning them had been destroyed and despite her initial disappointment Hermione had learnt to deal with that.

Harry was pulled out of his reverie by the gate opening once more, he smiled as Rachel walked in and sat down on one of the blankets, 'hi Harry,' she said brightly, 'where's my sister?'

'Inside getting my cake apparently,' Harry said, 'I didn't think you'd be able to make it.'

'I wasn't sure,' Rachel admitted, 'I was performing surgery, but it all went well so I got away early.'

'Hermione will be happy to see you,' Harry said as Hermione emerged with a large cake shaped like a Quidditch pitch and grinned when she saw Rachel.

'Hey Rachel!' she said, handing the cake to Amelia to hug her sister, 'I'm so glad you made it!'

'I was just telling Harry, we finished early so I decided to drop in,' Rachel said, hugging Hermione back. They didn't see each other too often between Hermione's job and her dedication to the kids, and Rachel's high demand job as Head Healer at St. Mungo's. She hadn't married or had children, Hermione often said Rachel was married to her work.

'Well here is the cake,' Hermione said as she lit the candles with her wand, 'James, Elizabeth, come sing to Daddy!'

'Emily!' Scarlett called to her daughter, 'come and sing to Uncle Harry!'

With the three children by the cake they all sang, 'Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Harry/Daddy/Uncle Harry/Son, happy birthday to you!'

Harry blew the candles out with one breath and then said to the kids, 'So who wants some chocolate cake then?'

'Yeah!' they cheered eagerly, Sirius joined in with them and got elbowed by an amused Amelia much to the amusement of the others who laughed at his childish behaviour. After all these years they had come to realise that in this post-war time that was just who he was, even Remus was light-hearted and free now. Severus had developed a potion that made him harmless during full moons which helped a lot. Ever since a bunch of half-bloods and half-breeds had won the war prejudice didn't really exist anymore which was a beautiful thing. Remus often said he never thought the people would happily follow and re-elect a werewolf as the Minister for Magic yet he was serving his fourth term running.

In the past 15 years there had been funerals, but there had also been marriages and births. Far more celebration than suffering had followed the war and the rebels victory. Harry still struggled with flashbacks sometimes but he wasn't violent anymore, he had never laid a finger on Hermione since that time when he had tried to kill her. It was practically an inside joke now, because it couldn't be a regret. A regret was hard to live with, an inside joke only hurt every now and then.

Hermione still had nightmares, sometimes she woke up in a cold sweat thinking she was back in the arena, or the war, but Harry was always by her side to bring her back to the real world and to soothe her back to sleep. Together they had rebuilt the wizarding and Muggle world, but more importantly than that, they had rebuilt each other.

Harry caught Hermione's eye and smiled at her, she smiled back, looking around at the family she loved and cherished so much, despite all the pain and suffering she and Harry had gone through she would not change a single thing. All of that pain had made them who they were today and without it they would never have been able to appreciate just how good the life they had together was.

The End :)

(For real this time!)

A/N: Finally! It's felt like its taken FOREVER to finish this fic, so thanks to the people who stuck with it all the way through! I kept promising that I would finish it and now I have, woohoo! I hope you enjoyed reading it, writing it was really difficult sometimes! I would like to go back and change the earlier chapters at some point to make them more in character HP-wise and less Hunger Games. I don't know when I'll have time to do that though.

I've got a few more upcoming fics for anyone interested, now this one is complete. One is a Hermione/Charlie 7-parter, another is a NextGen Rose/Scorpius 7-parter based loosely on Mamma Mia (it's AU!). Those are both finished and waiting to be uploaded, in the part-finished sector are a couple of Drarry multi-chaps and a Severus/Charity Burbage fic I've been trying to finish for years!

So if you like the sound of any of those, keep your eyes peeled and they'll pop up on my profile soon!

Thanks again for reading, I really do hope you enjoyed the story and send me any constructive criticism, I'll try to find time to reply, but if I don't I promise I read all my messages!

Have a great day guys!

Holly

xxx