This is the last chapter. II's idea of a happy ending. Hope you like it.

14. Everything will be all right

Quite a lot of things happened at the same time. First of all, while everybody else was busy fighting, Hermione and Luna freed Adam and helped him climb onto the Hippogriff's back(1). Neville landed on the ground with a loud crash, and the broom he had arrived on got stuck in a tree. Wormtail tried to stay out of the whole fight. Sirius… well… didn't let him. The Four Other Bikers spotted Big Ted's bike parked nearby, but weren't quite sure what to do about the whole crowd around it. A group of Aurors made quite a shocking discovery.

(1)of course, in the general atmosphere of chaos nobody noticed a Hippogriff. Weirder things were flying around at the moment. Neville on a broom for example.

XXX

The last few crashes and explosions and then everything calmed down just a little bit. The Tibetan listened.

'That's him all right! That bugger who took my bike!'

'And the bike's over there too, it is.'

'You, there!'

'Err…'(2)

'Yeah, you.'

'The bike, right? I'm really sorry for that, I – Dot't move, Peter!'

'mimblewimble…'

'I might actually enjoy walking home after all this is sorted out.'

'Home? I don't think that's where you're going, Black!'

'Ohshitohshitohshit…'

'No! You're making a mistake!'

'What do you mean!'

'Oh! Right! Before you arrest me, I think you should meet someone.'

'Ouch!'

'Say hello, Peter…'

'Oh my…' the rest of the sentence was too quiet for the Tibetan to hear.

'Yes, it really is him.'

'He's trying to escape!'

'Stupefy!'

Boom.

The Tibetan was too confused to listen to it any longer.

(2)Can't get into any more trouble, eh?

XXX

'Neville Longbottom, what do you think you're doing!' Mrs. Longbottom shouted at her grandson as he landed in the garden. On a Hippogriff! With two gilrs sitting next to him! And some people on broomsticks flying behind them!

'He saved my life, Mrs. Longbottom!' shouted one of the boys on broomsticks. The woman looked at him. And she was shocked. What on Earth – or even fifteen feet above it – was Draco Malfoy doing here? The others (including Harry Potter and some of the Weasleys) landed in the garden next to the Hippogriff(3) and began to explain. Mrs. Longbottom fainted before they managed to finish.

(3)Malfoy landed a little farther from it. Buckbeak hadn't seen him for at least three years now, but he probably still didn't like him…

XXX

Back at school again a group of people at the Gryffindor table were talking about what had happened a few days before in Lower Tadfield. Malfoy, Luna and the Them had joined them of course.

'So, what d'you think is going to happen next?' Adam asked.

'Well, as soon as it's all sorted out at the Ministry,(4)' Hermione said 'Everyone will know the truth at last, I guess.'

'Sirius will be free at last' said Harry happily 'And Wormtail will probably get he Dementor's Kiss.'

'What,' Pepper asked 'they will ?'

'Suck out his soul, yes,' Hermione said.

'If he even has one,' said Ron 'Stupid rat.'

'And You-Know-Who will probably stay away from you for a while,' Ginny told Adam, ignoring her brother's comment.

'Like Professor Lupin said,' Hermione added 'Everything will be all right at last.'

'That man's unbelievable, really!' Draco said 'I mean, with his… disease… er… problem… well, you know what I mean, and with so many of his friends gone...and everything… And he still tells us it will be all right.'

'Yeah,' said Hermione 'So I think he knows what he's talking about. It really is going to be all right. He wouldn't say so if it wasn't!'

'Yeah!' said Ron enthusiastically 'We might even defeat You-Know-Who someday…'

'Probably not,' said Adam 'I don't think anyone'll ever win. 'Cause then the world'd be all good or all bad. There'd be nothing to fight for any more.'

Luna was the first one to understand his strange logic.

'And nothing to live for,' she said. Hermione wasn't quite sure she agreed. If there was no Dark Lord left to defeat, she would just have more time for the S.P.E.W. But then, what was she going to do after she freed all the house-elves?

'Right,' she finally said 'We can't defeat all evil. We just won't let the evil defeat us either.'

'Sounds like a good plan,' said Adam, smiling at her.

'And then it will be all right… As all right as real life can ever be.'

(4)The wizarding law isn't really much better than the Muggle one. It might still take some time.

XXX

In stories the good guys usually win and the bad guys get the punishment they deserve. Life, however, is not a story. Wormtail had managed to avoid punishment for fifteen years. And when he finally got caught and the truth about him was revealed, he did not receive the Dementor's kiss(5). At the moment he was sitting in his cell, guarded by one of the few Dementors that had not joined the Dark side, thinking of the worst moments of his life. The furious Dark Lord torturing him with the Cruciatus curse. The long, humiliating years of being the Weasleys' pet rat. The loneliness in the beginning of his first year at Hogwarts, before he made friends with Remus, Sirius and James. The angry Dark Lord again. And then, for some reason, the day he had given away the Potters' wherebouts to the Dark Lord.

'Where did that come from?' he asked himself. And then, suddenly he understood. And he started to cry.

(5)Noone would like to kiss Wormtail. Not even a Dementor.

XXX

SQUEAK, said something in the darkness near his foot. He looked at it. It was a tiny figure in a black cloak, holding a miniature scythe in its hand.

'Is-is it really that bad?' Wormtail asked.

SQUEAK.

He was not surprised that he understood everything the thing was trying to tell him.

'So what happens to me now?' he asked as the little scythe cut him off from his hanging body.

SQUEAK! EEEK, EEK, SQUEAK, the small creature said irritably.

'B-back to my real shape?' Wormtail stuttered 'Wha-what do you mean?'

SQUEAK.

Wormtail transformed for the last time.

'Squeak?' he said timidly, and he followed the Death of Rats to some kind of rodent hell.

XXX

So everything was all right. In Lower Tadfield. In London. At Hogwarts. Even in Little Whinging, where it had finally stopped raining fish and Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were enjoying a perfectly normal day. It probably wasn't even so bad wherever Wormtail went. Rodents are not creative enough to imagine torture, so the rat was just very, very bored. Not much of a punishment for someone who only ever wanted to avoid any risk and never really liked too much excitement anyway.(6)

Real happy endings only ever happen in stories and life is not a story. But everything was… as all right as real life could ever be. Adam thought about it all and smiled…

(6)as Death always says, THERE IS NO JUSTICE. ONLY ME.

XXX

…and then he suddenly woke up. In his own bedroom, in his house in Lower Tadfield. The book he'd been reading last night was still lying on the floor. It was still summer. Had it all been a dream? Adam couldn't believe it now. Hogwarts had seemed so real. And the people he had met there. They couldn't have been only a part of his dream. They were his friends!

But, apparently, everything was back to normal after all. He was just an ordinary boy and he'd better get used to it. He sighed and looked out of the window.

And there, on the window-sill, sat an owl…

THE END…

Or is it?