Epilogue: 11 Years Later

The pretty young announcer smiled brightly for the cameras as she prepared to address her audience.

"Hello! I'm Scarlet Witherspoon coming to you live from London's Tower One on the tenth anniversary of the creation of the World Council for Justice!"

The camera pans past the young woman to show the large tower in the distance. As striking as the image of the Tower was, it was the landscape around it that caused viewers around the world to wish they could be there at that moment. The lush green fields and rolling hills are filled with small buildings and inviting parks. The London Restoration Project has been in full swing for ten years, and was considered one of the most successful of all the projects then underway.

"With the creation of the WCJ," continues the voice of the young woman, "and their announcement that magical terrorism had finally been wiped from the world, the people of the world were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief."

Stock footage showed thousands of people celebrating the news that magic was once and for all a thing of the past. To the casual observer, it all looked so normal. If you were to pay closer attention though you would see the occasional face in the crowd that did not look nearly as pleased with the announcement. However, for the most part, everyone seemed pleased with the news as they applauded the form of the tall red haired man that was making the announcement.

The picture once again changed to show the young woman's smiling face. "With the end of the war against the magical terrorists finally at hand, the Leader of the Brotherhood for Scientific Achievement announced the dissolution of his organization. He also announced that he would be taking over a full time position as Chairman of the WCJ, overseeing the restored governments of the individual member nations."

Once again the image changed to show more stock footage from ten years before of the same tall red haired man shaking hands with numerous men and women from around the world. Standing at his side was a young woman with bushy brown hair and a wide smile. The tall young man had an arm possessively around the woman's waist, a fact that many of the people around him seemed to be commenting on in a good-natured manner. Several times the camera panned over to where two small babies were being tended to by a nanny.

The reporter's voice continued over the image of the two small children. "The Chairman's announcement that he had secretly married the year before, but kept it secret to protect her until the BSA was certain that there would be no further magical attacks, was seen as a humanizing factor for the Chairman. With his push that same year to begin restoration of the areas that were damaged by the magical attacks, it was widely accepted that the Chairman was probably the greatest humanitarian the world had ever known."

Once again the reporter's face was smiling out at the audience. "After ten years of peace and prosperity, Chairman Ronald Weasley is being awarded the much coveted Nobel Peace Prize for his outstanding dedication and service to the world. Afterwards, he and his family will be taking a much needed vacation before his children start private school this fall."

Harry turned off the screen at that point. He knew the rest, probably better than the reporter did. It had taken Ron nearly a year to put his changes into effect. The first task was the deprogramming of the BSA soldiers, a process that had turned out to be much more difficult than any of them had originally anticipated. Compared to that mammoth task, the rest had been easy. The creation of the WCJ and dissolution of the BSA had gone far smoother than hoped. It seemed that no one really liked the BSA and even after hundreds of years of its rule, the sovereign nations and their people had been yearning for their freedom. After his announcement that the magical terrorist threat was a thing of the past, it was easy to return power to the individual nations.

Harry had to laugh as he remembered the day of the announcement. Ron had only been able to sneak away for a single day when his children, Fred and Georgina, had been born. So the night before he made the announcement that would once and for all end the worries of the Muggle world concerning magic, Hermione Apparated to the Tower with their two children. In an argument of epic proportions, she had informed her husband that they had been separated for too long and she was moving in. Any hopes he might have had of winning were dashed the moment Hermione handed him their two children. Ron had realized that he never wanted to be separated from them again, and so the story of his secret wedding.

Now, over ten years later, Harry was happy to know that soon his two best friends in the entire world would be able to come and visit for a few weeks before the new school year started. Hogwarts had been a little lonely without Ron and Hermione, but that did not mean that Harry had been bored. Harry's duties as the Headmaster of Hogwarts, as well as his position as the Minister of Magic for the entire Wizarding world, had kept him extremely busy over the past few years. Being the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had not helped matters much, but everyone was wearing more than one hat nowadays.

When the decision had been made to once again hide the Wizarding world from the Muggle world, Harry and the others had worried that there was nothing left to be hidden. Thanks to Wulfric and Fawkes, they had been proven wrong. Wulfric and the phoenix had spent several weeks searching out the survivors of the magical world. With the discovery of each new survivor, Wulfric had sent them all to Hogwarts until the castle could not hold them all. That was when the restoration of BSA damaged lands had been proposed and the area around Hogwarts had been reclaimed. . Hogsmeade was rebuilt shortly thereafter.

Since then, they had managed to staff Hogwarts and begin once more the training of the next generation of witches and wizards. This last spring had seen the graduation of the third group of students to attend Hogwarts for a full seven years, a fact that Harry could not be prouder of. There was also the news that Wulfric's first batches of brand new wands were a resounding success, thus alleviating the worry of running out of wands anytime soon. Things were finally getting back to normal for all of them, something for which they were all grateful.

Making his way down towards the Great Hall, Harry smiled to himself contentedly. The last eleven years had been tough, but also some of the best of his life. For all the work and changes, Harry had still been able to enjoy his time with his friends and family. Ginny had surprised him to no end when he had returned from the Tower only to be told that not only was Hermione expecting twins, but so was she. Just five days after Hermione gave birth to Fred and Georgina, the world was introduced to Sirius and Remus Potter. Amelia had been thrilled to have two adorable little brothers, and had taken her duties as an older sister very seriously.

It was strange to realize that Amelia was twenty-one years old now, happily married to William, and expecting their first child in October. Everyone with the exception of Larry and Elizabeth were married now, and those two might as well be married for all the bickering and shagging they did. Greg and Antonia had not been nearly as reserved, marrying the day after Antonia turned eighteen since she was a Muggle and therefore abiding by their laws. Antonia was the best Muggle Studies teacher that Hogwarts had ever seen, while her husband had turned out to be a very talented History of Magic teacher whose students were never bored by his antics.

"If I can just keep the two of them out of the broom closets this year," Harry thought to himself with a chuckle, "I might keep them from having that eighth child they keep trying for."

Ginny had taught Charms for a while until they found someone more qualified for the job. Now she spent her days working with the younger children in Hogsmeade, teaching them about their magical heritage and, more importantly, about Quidditch. That was not her only passion though, and it had not been long before Ginny had announced her intention of establishing a new and unbiased Wizarding news service. Within the year, with Larry and Elizabeth's help, she had managed to restore daily service of a new Daily Prophet and even nightly news broadcasts. Elizabeth hosted the video broadcasts that could only be picked up on magically enhanced screens such as the one in Harry's office, while Larry produced the show for her.

Oddly, the first advertiser in the new Daily Prophet was a company called WWW, which provided "quality jokes and pranks for all ages." Harry never actually asked Ginny if she was behind the return of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. It was an unspoken agreement between them that so long as no one was permanently injured, Harry would not ask any questions. He was pleased to note however that all the profits of the mail order company was donated to the building of a new wizards' hospital being built in Hogsmeade and scheduled be completed by Christmas that year.

There were a number of building projects that would soon be completed. Harry had been able to convince the remaining goblins to build and run a new version of Gringotts, which would be finished in a month. The goblins were taking their job very seriously and promised that although the building and smaller vaults would be finished soon, the high security vaults would take many more years to complete. According to the clan chief in charge of the project, this new version of the Wizarding bank would be far more secure than the previous one and there would never be another repeat of what had happened in Diagon Alley.

The other building project was a bit more worrisome to Harry; the new Ministry of Magic building, which would not be completed until the following summer. Originally, they had not felt it was needed but there had been a popular outcry for a visible sign of government for the Wizarding world. Against his better judgment, Harry had given the go ahead on the project and soon there would be a brand new Ministry building located one hundred miles north of London in what looked like a deserted mansion. Harry just hoped the wards around it would be strong enough to keep it safe, should anyone discover its true nature.

"We don't want to start a new wave of hysteria if it's discovered," Harry thought with a frown as he entered the Great Hall.

Harry's greatest worry these days was what was going to happen when they started notifying Muggle-born witches and wizards of their acceptance to Hogwarts. Peter Weasley had managed to destroy an entire generation of Muggle-born witches and wizards. Some had voiced the opinion that there would be no more Muggle-borns after the BSA's purge of their numbers for so many years. Yet within months of Ron taking control of the BSA, the first new generation of Muggle-born magic users was born. Now, eleven years later, they would be receiving their letters from Hogwarts within weeks. How they or their parents would take the news was anyone's guess.

Thankfully, there were only a handful of children involved worldwide. Just the day before, Harry had counted the letters himself and so far there were only about forty Muggle-born students in addition to the sixty-five children from the magical families. Harry and Ron had been thinking of personally delivering the letters to the children in question and explaining it to their families together. Of course the other reason for this was so that if the parents decided they wanted nothing to do with Hogwarts and magic, Harry could always Obliviate the parents' memory and seal the child's abilities away. It was a hard decision to make, but a necessary one in Harry's opinion. Too many lives were on the line if it became common knowledge once again that witches and wizards were alive and well in the world.

"Maybe in a few more years it will be different," Harry said to himself.

"Talking to yourself again, Professor Potter?"

Harry turned around to see Ginny standing just inside the doors to the Great Hall. She was just as lovely as always, and Harry loved her just as much as he had the day they were married.

"Well, Mrs. Potter, I have so many brilliant ideas that they just tend to slip out," Harry said, walking over to kiss his wife. "Are our guests here yet?"

Sliding her hand into his, Ginny led Harry out of the Great Hall. "Not yet, dear. Hermione said they probably wouldn't get here until late this afternoon."

Together they walked through the deserted entryway of Hogwarts and out onto the sunlit grounds beyond. It seemed like a lifetime ago that they had been brought back to Hogwarts to fight for the survival of the magical world. It was amazing that they had been blessed with not only a second lifetime together, but that they had actually succeeded in restoring peace to their world. Now he had a new family, friends, and was living at the place he had always thought of as his first home. Harry doubted his life could get much better.

"Harry?"

"Yes, Gin?"

"Since we have a bit of time before Ron and Hermione get here, I was thinking we could go for a dip in the lake," she said pulling him towards the lake in the distance.

"We don't have suits, Gin," he laughed as Ginny led him towards the water.

"Are you a wizard or what, Harry? Besides," she said with a wicked grin, "who says we need suits?"

"You know," he said with a smile, "I think I can live with that."

The End.