A/N: All righty then, first things first: I do not own the song "Linger", which I use in the story towards the end. It belongs to the Girl Scouts of America. I don't know who wrote it, my Girl Scout songbook didn't elaborate. Enjoy!

Chapter 36 Goodbyes and Farewells (Marco)

            My name is Marco.

            And I was basking in the limelight.

            All the girls in Hogwarts wanted me. I caught Pansy Parkinson chasing me around in the corridors one day (Eeeew!). The Patil twins loved me. They always sat near me and played with my hair. They adored me, and I showed them the most attention out of everyone. It made all the other girls seethe with envy.

            I love it when that happens.

            Oh. You want to hear about what happened after we won the battle?

            Are you sure?

            Fine.

            Dumbledore drained the Yeerk Pool, keeping a lot of Yeerk hostages, and destroyed it. He locked the Controllers that wouldn't cooperate on his terms of letting their hosts go in the room holding the former Yeerk Pool. They stayed there for three days, until their Yeerks died of Kandrona starvation. Then their hosts were free.

            Ax became an Andalite again that next morning, mentally shaken but otherwise perfectly fine. He always skived off the topic of his werewolf-dom when it came up. Dumbledore gave him a special goblet that has a never-ending supply of Wolfsbane potion.

            Harry and Hermione were sure to live happily ever after. Now you never see one without the other, and most of the time they're holding hands. The thought makes me sigh and go to that happy place in my head.

            Ron is still paralyzed. Dumbledore is looking for a cure and says he'll come up with one if he can't find one, but I don't know if there is one. If there were, he would probably all ready know about it. Ron may be doomed to be paralyzed forever. Jake doesn't know Ron, so he isn't going to let Ron have the morphing power anytime soon.

            Besides, Dumbledore was bound to come up with something.

            Erllon decided to stay a bird. He said (with Tobias translating; turns out Transfigured, sentient beings can talk too) that he liked it that way.

            The Yeerks in the Yeerk Peace Movement were transfigured into humans. They were muggles, if you looked at it in the wizard perspective. Dumbledore wiped their memories and sent them to live in London with new clothes and a great deal of British currency, so Harry's promise was fulfilled. Erllon was extremely pleased.

            So that pretty much wraps it up. Now can we get back to me?
            I was walking out of the Great Hall after dinner with a Patil twin on each arm when Ron came wheeling up to me. His face was flushed and there was a twinkle in his eye that I had never seen before.

            "Hey, Ron," I said, grinning.

            "Hi, Marco. Do you know where Harry is?" Ron replied, wiping sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.

            "Uuuh…" I said, pausing to think. "I don't know. Why? What's the big hurry?"

            Ron beamed at me. "Dumbledore's found a way to heal me! If I drink a potion made of phoenix tears and crushed unicorn horn mixed into pumpkin juice, I'll be able to move my legs again in a few months!"

            I couldn't help but grin myself. "That's great!"

            "Sure is! Then I'll be able to go out for the Quidditch team next year!"

            It was then I noticed that Parvati and Padma were glaring daggers at Ron. I hurriedly said, "I'll see you later, Ron."

            He followed my gaze, saw the glares directed at him, and cringed. "Yeah. Bye," Ron said quickly, wheeling away as fast as he could.

            "He is so stupid," Padma drawled, a fiery hatred in her voice, "I bet he put those scars in his neck to look like his idol, Harry Potter."

            I stiffened. "Ron happens to be one of my friends. You do know he nearly killed himself—twice—for Harry, right?"

            Both their eyes went huge and they stared up at me, making my bad mood melt away. "Really?"

            I blinked. "Yeah. Once he fell off this tall stairway when the Yeerks were trying to infest Harry. That's how he paralyzed himself. The other time he threatened to shoot himself in the head. That would have killed the Yeerk too, but the Yeerk started to crawl out of his head as he took the shot. That made him jerk his gun and it shot him clean through the neck. That is where he's got those scars from."

            They both let go of my arms and ran after Ron, calling him.

            I stood in a stupor for about five minutes. I came out of it only when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

            "You knew it would never last," Jake said, shaking his head sadly.

            I defiantly squared my shoulders. "It coulda."

            Jake laughed and punched my shoulder. "There are a ton of other girls here that wish you would pay attention to them," he said, nudging me and nodding across the room to where Pansy Parkinson stood. She giggled, bat her eyelashes, and waved flirtatiously at me.

            I shuddered and shook my head in disgust. Jake roared with laughter.

            I turned around and searched for a girl in the crowd, any girl. I found an Asian girl and tapped her on the shoulder, putting on my best smile and slicking back my hair. She turned and looked thrilled when she saw me. I held my arm out to her. "Hello," I said suavely, "I'm Marco."

            She took my arm and looked up at me through her long lashes. "Of course you are. Everyone knows who Marco is. I'm Cho Chang," she replied. She held out her hand for me to kiss, which I did (way more than needed).

            I grinned at Jake, bobbing my eyebrows up and down in quick succession. He grinned back and rolled his eyes, trying and failing to look exasperated.

            Just then, Hermione ran up to us, Harry in tow. "Did you hear?" she trilled.

            "That Ron's gonna be okay?" I asked.

            "Yes!" she shrieked happily.

            Harry stared at Cho, who had her head resting on my shoulder. He had paled a little. Cho wrinkled her nose at him. I looked between them. "What? Are you 'ex's?" I asked.

            Cho nodded fervently and stroked my arm with her hand.

            I raised my eyebrows and said nothing.

            Dumbledore came up behind Harry with Rachel, Cassie, Ax, Tobias, and Ron. Harry heard him and turned around. We all looked up at him in silence.

            "Miss Chang, if you would please leave us for a moment?" Dumbledore asked with a gracious nod of his head.

            Cho smiled fleetingly and left my side.

            When we were alone, Dumbledore said, "I want to thank you all. Especially you, Harry, for freeing me. You are all exceptionally brave. I could never have wished for more of my students—and their friends. You have saved the school and many lives. They would have infiltrated the government next."

            "Government?" asked Cassie.

            Dumbledore nodded. "Yes. The Ministry of Magic. They are not our friends as of the moment, but no one deserves such a horrible experience in their life."

            He paused and gave me a look that made me feel as if I were being X-rayed. Slowly, he gave us all the same look. "I am sorry, but you Animorphs must return home. You have your duty to your families there. I trust you miss them?"

            We all nodded fervently.

            "I must tell you, though, before you leave that you are always welcome here. Again, you have rescued us from an eternity of slavery. This is something that no wizard—or muggle—could endure for an extended period of time without going mad. I almost went crazy myself. Well, that is, if I'm not mad all ready."

            We all chuckled.

            He patted Harry on the shoulder. "I'm sure Harry and Hermione would like to see you off."

            Harry and Hermione nodded.

            "We could always lend you some thestrals to take you home, if you wish."        

            Jake smiled and shook his head, "We've acquired thestrals all ready. We can morph them and fly home."

            "Aaah," Dumbledore said knowledgeably, "Farewell, then, my friends, and always remember you are welcome here."

            We all turned to go out the Entrance Hall. Ron eagerly wheeled forward, but Dumbledore put a hand to his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. "Ooooh," he said, and followed Dumbledore out of the room.

            We walked out onto the front lawn and stopped by the lake. The giant squid (it had shocked me completely the first time I had seen it) was lazily drifting across the surface. Harry stared out over it for a little while, before turning to us.

            "Well, I guess this is it."

            "Yeah." Jake said, looking down.

            Harry extended a hand to him, which Jake took and firmly shook.

            "We will never forget this, Jake. If you ever—ever—need help of any kind that a wizard could do, don't hesitate to call."

            There was an uneasy silence. How would we contact him?

            Harry pulled something out of his pocket. We all looked down to see. Across his palm were two necklaces, with fine golden chains. Strung onto the chains were gold and silver lightning bolt charms, one to a necklace. They glowed in the fading sun.

            "To get through to us, squeeze this in your hand and concentrate on us," Hermione explained, undoing the latch and opening it for him. She stood on tiptoe and fastened it around his neck.

            She did the same for Harry, except she kissed him on the cheek as she drew away.

            He closed his hand around it and, startled, drew his hand back when he touched it. "It's warm," he said.

            Hermione nodded. "If it ever goes cold, then Harry will be unavailable. That either means he's dead, he's in Potions class, or he's dueling with Voldemort. Oh, and it works two ways."

            He shifted from foot to foot. "Won't it fall off when I'm morphing."

            Hermione grinned. "Nope. I rigged the spell so that it would stay with you when you morphed. Keep it on no matter what."

"They need a name, too," I said suddenly.

"Huh?" Jake asked.

"We're the Animorphs. They need a name."

"Oh?"

"They should be… uuum… the Aniwizards!"

"Aniwizards?" Jake asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Wait…" Harry said, a slow grin spreading across his face. "I like it.

Hermione nodded fervently and clutched Harry's arm in her hand.

I grinned. "And the legacy lives on."

We stood in silence for a few moments.
            "Well, I guess this is goodbye, then," Jake said.

            Hermione smiled, eyes filling with tears. "Not goodbye. Never goodbye. Just a parting."

            Cassie smiled and hummed something. "Mmm, mmm, I want to linger…"

            "Mmm, mmm, a little longer," Hermione continued.

            "Mmm, mmm, a little longer here with you."

            "Mmm, mmm, it's such a perfect night,"

            "Mmm, mmm, it doesn't seem quite right,"

            "That this should be my last with you."

            "Mmm, mmm, and as the years go by,"

            "Mmm, mmm, I'll think of you and sigh,"

            "This is goodnight and not goodbye."

            They sang the last line together.

            I felt tears in my eyes. Annoyed and embarrassed, I quickly wiped them away with the back of my hand.

            "Okay," Jake said in a weirdly croaky voice, "Morph thestral."

            I closed my eyes and pictured the ugly, winged horse in my mind. Immediately, all fat I had on my body disappeared so that I was all skin and bones.

            Literally!

            I couldn't help but cry out in alarm, a cry that became a weird sort of shrieking sound. My head twisted and reformed, becoming almost dragonish. I felt my eyes change, so that they didn't have a pupil anymore. My spine contorted (and visibly, too) so that I fell onto hands that were quickly becoming hooves. I snorted as big, black, leathery wings sprouted on my back.

            When the instincts kicked in, I knew everything about the world. I could pinpoint any major city or small village in my head. I had a distinct loyalty to humans though I was quite wild at heart.

            Wow! Cool!

            Rachel's cry of glee shook me out the instincts.

            Cassie trotted over to Harry and Hermione and nuzzled each of them with her head. We'll see you later, she said, shaking her head and snorting softly.

            "Hopefully, under better circumstances," Harry said with a grin.

            I turned my pupil-less eyes to Jake. The golden chain of the necklace had expanded and had stayed on his neck, though not too tightly. He tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't budge.

            Hermione ogled at us. It then occurred to me she had never seen a thestral before. I grinned a big, horsy grin at her. She snapped out of her daze and took the morphing cube and held it before me. I took it carefully in my mouth. She did the same to Ax with his refillable goblet of Wolfsbane Potion (it's un-spill-able too… is that even a word?) and gave us all our wands.

            Let's go! Jake said, rearing and leaping into the air with a large flap of his wings.

            And we were off.

            I had never gone so fast before!

            It was amazing! The world was a blur as we raced. Yah-hoo! I yelled, tossing my head back and shrieking to the sky.

            By the time we stopped, however, I was thoroughly exhausted. We demorphed by Ax's scoop. It was great to be home, but I was tired beyond belief.

            I dragged my feet all the way home (I was too tired to even morph osprey). When I swung the door open, Dad looked up at me over the paper.

            "What happened to you?"

            I looked down. My morphing suit was still covered in slime from the Chamber of Secrets. I guess even the slime at Hogwarts is magical.

            "I fell in a puddle," I muttered.

            "A puddle? It hasn't rained for a week and a half."

            "Then I fell in a swamp," I said through gritted teeth.

            "And, besides, weren't you just upstairs?"

            "Yeah," I said sarcastically, "I just fell out the window."

            Dad raised his eyebrows, rustled the paper, and disappeared behind it.

            I stomped up the stairs, muttering to myself about nosy parents. I dragged my feet down the corridor and stopped in front of my bedroom door. I stood there, dreaming about my nice room and my warm, fuzzy bed. I had been sleeping on the floor for such a long time that I had almost forgotten what a bed looked like!

            I swung the door to my room open.

            And I screamed in terror.

            My stomach dropped out of existence. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. My heart jumped into my throat and beat rapidly against my neck. I paled several shades and started to shake.

            My room was clean!

The End

A/N: Finished! Complete! ::does a happy dance:: This is the first novel—original or fan fiction—I have ever finished! And I've got the most reviews for it, too!

Now, do you really think I could go without writing a sequel with an ending like that? No way, Jose! I'm writing another story, and I've decided on a name for the series. Yup, you guessed it: The Aniwizards!

I'm going to take a little break before starting it. I know the story is going to take place at the Animorphs' home (I'm not going to say the location of their homes… I won't give it away for the sake of all those who haven't finished the series!).

The next story will have book 5 spoilers and will take place after it. If you haven't finished OotP, I suggest you do because I'll give some major things away. For instance, who dies and who was there to witness the death.

Allllll righty, then! Stick around for my next Aniwizard Adventure, "The Aniwizard Adventures 2: Wizards and Controllers"! Or "Controllers and Wizards". Depends on what section you look for it under.

Bon voyage!