The End

In which Random Thoughts at last goes to rest…

A long time ago, in the not too distant future… The autumn was like an orange… Yes, an orange. Wait, that's not right. It was like an apple! Yeah, a golden, crisp apple. Something that was fresh, and young, but aged and wearing on at the same time. That was the autumn, as far as Harry was concerned.

He sped down the vast platform, made cramped by the sheer number of people, in search of the wall. That wall between Platforms Nine and Ten. That was where the magic happened, after all. He happily strolled along, his family in tow; a striking red-haired woman beside him, and three, snively children behind him. Harry had no regrets over waiting to have kids as he listened to them bicker.

"You're gonna be in Slytherin! What would Dad say? They'd never look you in the eye again!" Obnoxiously-Named-Brat #1 yelled.

"I will not be in Slytherin! I'll set that hat on fire if it tries to put me in there!" Obnoxiously-Named-Brat #2 countered.

"I WANT TO GO TO HOGWARTS," the lone female Obnoxiously-Named-Brat wailed over all of them.

Harry turned around and silenced them all with a warning glare. He'd had enough of this crap at home, and was relieved to be dumping them into the occasional-safety of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All except the youngest, he'd enjoy having her sanity around without the other two.

"Alright kids, right on through," Harry gestured to the barrier, and motioned them through. Naturally, James Sirius was the first through, what with his ridiculous personality and such. He zoomed his trolley through the barrier like he was racing the thing down, daring it to turn solid and kill him.

Harry rolled his eyes and dragged Albus Severus through the barrier, with reluctance.

Albus Severus seemed sure that they would hit the barrier, but just as James Sirius had done, they went strolling right on through like it wasn't even there. Before him was the giant steam engine, the Hogwarts Express.

Harry couldn't help but notice that the platform seemed oddly foggy. He was trying to spot the others, but couldn't. Instead, he tried looking for the source of the fog. A Dementor was about 10 feet in front of him, sitting on a bench.

'I didn't know Dementors could sit,' Harry mused idly, but it appeared that this was indeed the case. He shouted over to the Dementor, "Excuse me! I'm kind of looking for someone, could you take it somewhere else?"

The Dementor, who had previously been reading a newspaper, got up, glanced (If you could call it that) at Harry, and then drifted away morosely. Without Voldemort, Azkaban had grown vacant. Sunshine and rainbows everywhere left Dementors out of work and quite depressed. Harry almost felt inclined to let the poor guy suck on his soul a bit to cheer him up. Almost.

With the Dementor exiting, the platform became instantly clear, and he spotted who he was looking for through the receding haze. The other family, which had spotted Harry, Ginny, and the kids, (They had waltzed up behind him to stare at the Dementor who was busy trying to incline itself up the stairs 'Could Dementors climb stairs?') rushed over.

A tall, balding redhead, a bushy beaver of a woman, and two innocent children. Hugo and Rose never seemed to notice that they were named quite differently from their Potter counterparts. It was something the Weasley's took immense pride in when the Potters weren't looking. Lily Luna and Albus Severus stalked up to say hello to Rose, and James Sirius had disappeared into the haze, as was to be expected of any free-wheeling Brat.

"Oh look, it's Thing One and Thing Two!" Ron grinned at Albus Severus and Lily Luna. Ron meant to impress Harry and Hermione with his knowledge of Muggle children's stories, but all it got was a warning look from Harry and a smack on the arm from Hermione. "This is not how we treat our friends' children, is that clear?" she hissed at him. He complied hastily.

The joke was clearly lost on Albus Severus and Lily Luna, but they did not seem at all impressed at being referred to as 'Things'. They glowered at Ron. Ginny said nothing, feeling that Ron had, as usual, deserved any animosity he brought upon himself.

"So," Ron said, attempting to clear the air, "You drive? I did. Parked and everything. Let's face it, those Muggle driving exams are easy, eh?"

Hermione looked at him, disapproving, and so instead turned to Ginny to stop herself from putting Ron in his place. When he was sure that she had looked the other way, he whispered to Harry, "Nearly killed me, it did. Those things are scary, cars. And the motorways! Good god Harry, how do your people do it? Have you ever been in…" and Ron's face turned into a mask of pure horror, "a roundabout? Scariest thing of my life, mate, tops the spiders, tops it all. I'd rather face down a bunch of Death Eaters than go through that hell again."

Harry just laughed. Of course driving had been a bit of a fright for him, he'd become semi-adjusted to living a life where magic was the cornerstone to everything, but it's hard to forget your roots, and Harry had lived a purely Muggle existence for nearly a decade.

Harry was drawn out of his reverie by Ron: "Speaking of Death Eaters," he had muttered, and with the slightest of inclinations of his round, almost non-existent chin, Ron had motioned to a figure standing some 50 yards away. Draco Malfoy was standing on the opposite end of the platform with his wife and son. Some chick named Greengrass and a son named after more Latin nonsense for menacing creatures. Ron rolled his eyes in disgust.

But before he even knew it, his best mate, Harry Potter, was bounding across the platform toward Draco Malfoy. And as though the hard stone platform had suddenly become a meadow full of flowers, Draco and Harry ran toward each other, arms spread wide. Ron, panicking, shouted "Immobulus!" to try and stop the madness.

It only made things worse. Now, not only were they still running toward each other across the platform, arms spread wide, but they were doing it in slow-motion. Ron nearly gagged. "Guess that 'pot-of-friendship' thing worked out for them after all," he balked to no one in particular. Ginny sighed, "Let them do what they have to do, Ronald."

It had been almost 19 years since Harry had last seen Draco. I mean, yeah, they had had some crazy nights after the Battle of Hogwarts, but they'd agreed to stop seeing each other once Harry had settled down with Ginny. They both knew Pansy wasn't happening, so he'd found himself Astoria, just plain enough to keep him grounded, just Slytherin enough to keep him coming back for more. Harry was happy for the bastard.

Ron looked on in disgust. The Pot of Friendship concept was clearly lost on him. Instead, he focused on James Sirius, who had just returned from god-knows-where.

"Hey, it's Horace Fillius! How's it going?"

James Sirius looked on in annoyance. "You're getting warmer. Better than Rubeus Dedalus anyway."

Ron looked momentarily embarrassed, "Right! You're Gideon Alastor, I remember now."

"It's actually James Sirius," he replied tersely. Well, about as tersely as some 12 year old could, anyway.

Ron seemed supremely unconcerned, "That's great, really great," he trailed off amiably.

James Sirius decided he didn't have time for that crap, and went racing off for the rest of the group. Ron seemed even less concerned.

"YOU'LL NEVER GUESS WHAT I SAW!" James Sirius screamed over all conversation, "So I was wandering through the bathroom, and I kick open a stall, and there's Teddy Lupin having sex with Victoire in the loo! Our Teddy Lupin! Fornicating wildly in a train station lavatory!"

Ginny groaned, "Well, there goes that talk. Looks like the birds and the bees are coming early. Albus Severus, Lily Luna, come here. I'm only doing this once." She then proceeded to explain to the three of her children the principals of sexual intercourse. All three children seemed to facepalm in unison.

After a while, she sighed, "You would burst in on them having sex. Honestly James Sirius, you're so much like Ron sometimes it scares me. Complete lack of tact."

Just then, Harry returned. He seemed to be smoothing his hair back from something. Ginny thought it best for their marriage that she not ask. "Anyone have any gum?" Harry shot quickly. She put her head in her hands.

Completely ignoring her, he checked his ghetto watch, the golden metal long-since faded. It had once belonged to the most badass wizard alive, but hey, people die sometimes in children's novels. What can you do? "You kids should be getting on the train now," he mentioned, trying to shift the attention off of himself.

And so, with many goodbyes, much luggage cramming, and some hasty boarding, the children were on the Express, ready to begin their school year. They leaned out the windows so that their parents could communicate their final wishes before they could go to live without them for a blissful 10 months. Or at least till Christmas, anyway.

"Make sure you give Neville plenty of love!"

"Not you, Rosie! You stay away from him," Ron barked, "I don't trust that guy. Never married, did he? Merlin knows what he gets up to in that greenhouse!" For his rant, he received a smack to the back of the head. "Ron, this is NEVILLE you're talking about. Neville Longbottom, you know the boy we went to school with?" Hermione laughed in disbelief, "Ignore your father, kids, he's talking through his rear once more!" the children all laughed, because they knew it was true. Ron just didn't get any respect these days. Did he ever?

"Make sure you don't forget about tea with Hagrid on Friday," Harry called to Albus Severus. He heard Ron musing, "So he did survive that spider army, eh?" and snorted.

Harry began giving him last minute advice next to the window, rapidfire, "Don't duel anybody, they'll probably kick your ass. Don't fuck with Peeves, or he'll fuck up your life. Stay away from the Malfoy kid until you're 16, and then have awful slash written about you. Yeah, that's about it," Harry concluded.

"Dad?" Albus Severus asked, "What if I'm in Slytherin?"

Harry sighed. "If you're in Slytherin… I might have to disown you. I come from a long line of Gryffindors, son, we've got a streak to maintain," and upon seeing the look of abject horror on his son's face, laughed and added, "I'm just kidding. But you wont be. See, I'd tell you that the Sorting Hat considered me for Slytherin, but that doesn't really count because I was harboring a piece of the soul of the most evil, Slytherin, dark wizard of all time, which might have had something to do with it. So, just bank on your innate character traits, and your Gryffindor parents, to steer you out of that doghouse."

Albus Severus seemed to consider this for a while, but then finally deciding it was the best advice he was likely to get, nodded once and hugged his father goodbye out the window. "Try to keep James Sirius from killing anyone, wont you? Honestly, that kid's gonna be homicidal by the time he's 16, I swear," Harry mused. But then the train began to glide away. Harry raised a hand, and his two sons waved back at him, before settling into their seats.

Harry felt his fingers wander up to smooth his hair again, but instead he found them resting on A Lightning Bolt Scar. Not just any lightning bolt scar, the one that had been on his forehead since the age of 1, and he found himself wondering at all the death that the scar had caused, all of the people that had given up their lives because of it.

His parents, his Godfather, Fred, George's ear, Remus, Tonks, Snape, Dumbledore, Moody, Colin Creevey, Cedric Diggory, and 50 more in the Battle of Hogwarts alone.

The scar, and the guilt that came along with the gallons of blood on his hands, had not pained Harry in 19 years.

And all was well… Except not really.

A/N: And that's the end! This is an idea I've had for a long, long time. Since August 2008 I knew this was how I wanted to end the series. I really hope I did it justice. If you've made it this far, thank you so much. 42 chapters is an immense length, even when they're as short as mine. For those who were there from the beginning, for those who were there from the restart, and from those who have been following since, thank you, thank you so much. You, the readers, are why I write this. You're why I updated this story every week for so many months. You're a big part why this so enjoyable. Thank you all for making this story so very successful, in my eyes.

It didn't begin that way. Random Thoughts sat for a while without any reviews; in fact it was 3 chapters before I even knew anyone was reading. But read they did, so I began to update more, to explore the ideas I'd always had, because I knew that there were people out there that wanted to read this. It wasn't until November 2008, in fact the very weekend of my birthday, that I realized that this story had the potential to go further. I got an amazing reader response, and from there, I vowed to update weekly. You took this far further than I ever expected it to go. I began writing down ideas for this story in the summer of 2007. Here were are in the summer of 2009, two years later, and Random Thoughts is bigger and better than I ever dreamed possible. And I owe it all to you, the reader.

But there's one particular reader, one person I want to thank over anyone else. MandaMedieval, my girlfriend, has been following this story almost since we met. And she's been reviewing, and encouraging me, and uploading in the scant times that I'm not around. And it's her, really her, which has kept me going for this long. She's part of my inspiration. She motivates me to write when nothing else can. And, if you like well-written fanfiction (And if you're reading this, chances are you do- I kid, I kid), please check her stuff out. It's spectacular.

She's also the reason I'm starting my summer project, called Bringing Down the Walls. Yes, it's serious, and yes, it's not about Harry, (Neither was Random Thoughts, sometimes), but there's a good chance you might enjoy it if you like a well-crafted story. That's what I'm shooting for. Look for it very, very soon.

Sorry for the obnoxiously long Author's Note, but I've had two years worth of my life end here tonight. This story has evolved with me, evolved with my writing, and evolved with my life. It'll be sad to see it go. If I ever think up any more crazy ideas for one-shots, I'll know where to find you guys, eh? Don't rule it out.

Thanks once more for reading. You've all made this so enjoyable for me. Goodbye for now!