Disclaimer: I own nothing. Sadly.
Okay guys, this is the last chapter: I was going to write an epilogue but most people so far don't want one so, sorry, democray prevails. Though if you really really really need to know what happens PM me and ill tell you what i had planned.
To be honest though I've really enjoyed writing this story; and finishing it is actually more upsetting than I thought.
I'd like though to thank everyone who reviewed throughout the story; weather you found it when I first started writing it and reviewed religiously on every chapter, or weather you just stumbled across it and read it in one go and gave me a massive review on the whole thing or just told me after a certain amount of reading that you like it. Thank you so much as every review had inspired me and spurred me on.
Anyway, read on. Some people will like the chapter and some won't. I just didn't want to end the story on a bad feeling. Anyway, enjoy.
Josie and what seemed like the whole world seemed suspended in time as Voldemort's body did a funny dramatic flip and lay still; his red eyes staring up to the ceiling. Death eaters and opposition alike just stood, their wands suspended either in the air or by their side as they watched Voldemort's body; waiting for it to move or to do, well, something! After all, this was the darkest lord in over a century…had he really been killed?
Neville himself stood opposite the corpse, panting heavily as he glared at the fallen body of the mad man who had killed or ordered the killing of most of the people he loved. Part of him knew Voldemort was dead, another part wasn't so sure. After all, he had meant to be dead after Harry had supposedly finished him…but he had horecruxs then, he didn't now. So he had to be dead, Neville decided uneasily; wishing he believed it more.
After five minutes of solid silent staring everyone seemed, simultaneously, to snap back into action and the hall was filled with roars of outrage and pounding footsteps by the death eaters who, without a master to guide them, felt lost and whose first instinct was to run. Other sounds came from the opposition who sent stunners, body-binds or ropes out of the ends of the wands to prevent the death eaters from escaping punishment for the horrors that they had inflicted on people weather magical or muggle.
Josie stunned a dizzy looking Rabastan Lestrange before realising that the hall was filled with people cheering madly, hugging each other; as Josie looked she realised there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was only when Hugo came up to her and hugged her that she realised that she was crying too.
"Where are the other death eaters?" she asked
"Either tied up," he indicated a bunch of either unconscious or glaring death eaters in the corner who seemed to be tied up with an invisible rope, "Or they've ran…cowards," he added venomously
The next hour was spent herding the death eaters to the dungeons, removing the corpses of Voldemort and the fallen death eaters and lining up their own dead as well as reviving stunned comrades. Josie deliberately avoided her mother as she walked up and down the line of the dead, silently honouring them all. In total forty five had died, the most obvious one being Ernie.
Josie stared at his figure for a few minutes before walking over and softly closing his eyelids and muttering a quick prayer over him. Ernie had been a good friend to her and his death his especially close to home, though as she was shattered the death didn't nearly seem as bad as it felt. The next day would be the hardest, Josie knew, as tomorrow they would have to start rebuilding the whole wizarding world and Hogwarts. Regaining trust in the muggles who were probably now being let out of the camps and reunited would be especially hard. Nothing in life was easy though, Josie mused, and there were sacrifices. But sometimes sacrifices helped gain the desired result. A hand on her shoulder broke he rout of her trance and Josie looked up to see Trevor, Ellen, Jamie and Hugo there, smiling down at her. All around them people were sitting at tables, happy; Happy for the first time in their lives, or, depending on their age, for what seemed like a long time.
Standing up Josie suddenly felt very tired as everything came crashing back down on her. Stumbling towards the nearest seat she sank down gratefully, allowing herself to rest her head on her arms on the table. Within minutes she was asleep. Josie vaguely remembered someone pick her up and carry her up, up, up until…was that the fat lady? The person holding her spoke the password and the portrait swung open, revealing the warm common room lying undisturbed beyond.
"You take her Hermione. I'll be waiting here for you."
Josie felt herself being passed into someone else's arms and taken upstairs where she was laid on a very comfy bed. Lying down and allowing herself to fall deeply asleep. Her last thought before she fell asleep was how they had all done what she had set out to do: to avenge Jason and free the wizarding world.
Downstairs Hermione found Neville by the fire, staring into the flames.
"You okay?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah…well I knew some of us wouldn't make it through…" his voice was sad as he thought on the dead: Ernie, Hannah, and Terry being only a few. The others were students mostly though not all of them had been named.
"I think Josie will be okay you know. She'll make it through, despite killing White…"
"She's tough…like her dad," Neville observed.
Hermione slumped down into a spare chair next to Neville who suddenly looked twenty years older than he actually was.
"Well, well; what about you though. Killing Voldemort; the next Harry Potter," Hermione tried feebly at a joke. Neville smiled despite himself.
"Yeah…you know, I really feel we should be happy at winning and to an extent I am but…"
"It's difficult to feel happiness when you haven't been happy for a long time," Hermione finished.
Neville nodded before grinning at her,
"But you haven't spoken about your own fame…killing Bellatrix Lestrange…"
"She was a bitch; she had it coming," Hermione declared matter of fact.
"True."
Both sat there in comfortable silence for the next half hour until Neville said,
"It's going to be a big job, you know; rebuilding the world…"
"Yeah, but you have to start somewhere…the mistrust was mostly based from reading about Voldemort; if they read about how we got rid of him…well it's a long shot but hopefully people will come round; realise not all wizards are like that. If we extend the hand of friendship…or, does that sound too naive?" Hermione asked.
"Worth a try." Neville gave a huge yawn,
"I think I'll go to bed. Long day tomorrow."
Hermione nodded and watched as her friend made his way up to the boy's dormitory. Sighing she made her own way up to Josie's dormitory, deciding that Josie wouldn't mind if she slept in Adonia's bed.
Sunlight woke Josie up the next morning though she was reluctant to wake up; Waking up meant that she would have to face the mess that the death eaters had left behind. Better to stay in bed for five more minutes. Five more minutes turned into two hours when Josie fell back to sleep; and this time, when she woke up she felt more energized and, dragging herself up, realised she had slept in her clothes and that she badly needed a shower.
Walking into the bathroom Josie stood under a steaming hot shower until the water ran cold before stepping out and towelling herself dry she saw that someone had dropped off some clean clothes. Dragging the T-shirt and jeans on she padded barefoot down towards the great hall.
Walking into the great hall she was suddenly hit by how loud it was; people from all houses sitting at any table regardless of house. Sitting down at the Hufflepuff table next to Trevor she smiled at him who smiled back.
Looking round she was surprised to see huge plateful's of food around her. Not one to question her luck Josie helped herself to some of everything.
"You okay Josie?"
"No, but I'll be fine."
Trevor hesitated then came out with it,
"Your mum was looking for you earlier…"
"Why?" Josie's voice was harsh.
"She…she said she needed to tell you something."
"Well she can sod off…"
"Josie," Josie turned round to see Neville standing behind her, "can you spare a few minutes once you're done?"
"Yeah, sure." Neville smiled at her before being swept away by another load of people who wanted to congratulate him and talk to him.
Josie speeded up in eating her breakfast before saying goodbye to Trevor and going off to find Neville. She found him outside near the old disused greenhouses.
"I used to love Herbology," he said as she came up; looking at the old smashed greenhouse, "It was my best subject…" he trailed off as he remembered where he was.
"Come on. There's someone who wants to speak to you…" Neville started off and Josie followed before Trevor's words came back to her and, suddenly, she knew who wanted to see her. Problem was Josie didn't want to speak to her.
"I'm not speaking to her!" Josie insisted, stopping mid stride and crossing her arms over her chest. Neville stopped a few strides in front of her and studied the girl. Regardless of what people thought Neville Longbottom could be as stubborn as Josie herself, if not more; and Josie really did need to straighten things out with her mum. If she didn't she would just end up filled with hatred and bitterness and those two qualities were a major factor in turning a wizard or witch bad. Not that Josie would go bad, just that he didn't want to leave anything to chance.
"I really think you should hear her out Josie…"
"No!"
Neville looked at her before taking two strides towards her, lifting her up and throwing the protesting girl over his broad shoulder before walking back towards the castle; completely disregarding Josie's protests.
"Let me down! Let me down, now! Neville, this is not funny…no, I'm not going to talk to her. NEVILLE!" The last was said in a frustrated scream, though Neville completely ignored her.
Walking into the castle people stopped and stared at the screaming girl, though no one stepped in. This was the guy who killed the dark lord; better not cross him despite how nice he was.
Walking into a disused dusty classroom Neville dumped Josie on the floor then, after placing a silencing charm on the door, stood with his back to it so Josie couldn't escape. Sitting up and glaring at him it took her a while to notice the other occupant in the room.
"Josie?"
"What do you want?" Josie snarled.
Mary stared at her, wondering how best to go about this. Making excuses wasn't an option so how could she approach the subject of how sorry she was?
"I messed up," she started
"Yeah, you did."
"I'm sorry."
"Are you?"
"Yes Josie; I was a complete idiot; completely disregarding your father's memory, thinking only of safety rather than what James would have wanted, I was…"
"A screwed up pureblood fanatic who loved money and power, more than me?" Josie offered. Mary hesitated before nodding. Josie stared at her: it took guts to admit that and if she did admit she was wrong…then maybe she meant it when she said she was sorry.
"You've got my attention," she said slowly.
"Josie I would love to start again with you; for one more chance to prove to you how much I love you and your dad…just one."
"And the triplets?"
"What about them?"
"Will they be living with you despite who their father was?"
Mary felt she had to be honest,
"Yes." Josie just stared at her hands. Living with the White heirs was less than desirable, but if they were brought up without believing the pureblood propaganda then maybe…no, what was she saying? They were Whites and White's were bad news…but then, wasn't she sounding like the death eaters? Discriminating because of a child's blood?
Josie stared at her hands, unsure before looking up at Neville as if wanting his opinion. In response Neville gave an encouraging nod.
Still staring at her hands Josie said,
"I suppose we could. Start again I mean."
Daring a look up Josie saw that her mother was in tears, her hands clapped over her mouth.
"Oh Josie, thank you," Mary whispered.
Josie just shrugged and got up to go. Neville didn't move, merely nodded towards Mary who, Josie now saw, was standing staring at her wit her arms out in an unsure way. Taking a deep breath and fighting down the fear of rejection she went over and gave her mother brief hug before leaving the room, Neville moving aside to let her pass: deciding to let it happen slowly rather than pushing her.
The rest of the day was spent clearing up Hogwarts and overseeing repairs. People came and went, helping and going off to do something else regarding the ministry and helping muggle borns, freeing the prisoners in Azkaban and in the muggle camps and taking them to Sanctuary to get healed physically, nutritionally and hopefully in the long run, mentally. Michael had been put up as Minister for Magic for the time being with Hermione as head mistress.
By dinner time most people had retired to the great hall for a chat to one another. Josie took this time to slip outside and down to the lake where she leaned back and watched the sky. The moon and the stars were unusually bright. She couldn't remember a time when they had ever been this bright and she supposed that the weather had a kind of magic of its own.
She felt rather than saw someone sit down next to her,
"Heya."
"Hello Josie. I heard about your mum." Josie looked up at Hermione and smiled,
"Always straight to the point, right Hermione?" Hermione smiled and leaned back herself looking up at the stars.
"What's going to happen regarding Hogwarts?"
"We're going to fix it, obviously, then start it again. Night time courses for people who need to catch up, mainly muggle borns."
"I take it that the curriculum will be changed?"
"Oh yes, most defiantly."
Josie smiled and stared back up to the stars, thinking over the past year and everything she had overcome to get here.
"How are you though?"
"Better than this morning," Josie answered honestly, "I'm trying not to think how I killed a man, regardless of who he was. I'm not looking forward to the triplets finding out I killed their dad."
Hermione nodded understandingly.
"You have the rest of your life to look forward to. Killing White was a necessity regardless of how horrible it was. In war it is either you or them. So long as it is explained properly the triplets will understand."
Josie just nodded and together they just lay there watching the stars which seemed to get brighter and brighter. It was around ten o'clock that Neville and Hugo joined then, each sitting down and staring up at the sky.
"It's going to be alright, isn't it?" Josie asked
"Hopefully," Neville remarked, only to be slapped on his arm playfully by Hermione.
"No, I mean everything. Michael is already making headway abroad. He told me today that he had a meeting with the president of the US. If they can get a treaty signed then people will follow…hopefully."
"Hopefully being the operative word," Hugo joked only to be silenced by one look from his mother.
"Yes Josie, I think that if we do everything right then slowly; everything will work out…"
"But it'll be hard?" Hugo chimed in and Hermione sighed,
"Yes Hugo, it will be hard. But we have made the first step. Voldemort's death has gone global…and now we need to work at the mistrust. Hopefully everything will come together."
Josie took this in while staring at the stars. One in particular seemed to shine brighter than others, directly over head; so far but so near it seemed. In that moment Josie felt strangely at peace with the world and when Hermione announced they should all go in otherwise risk getting a chill she obliged happily. It was the next day that really confirmed it though. Mary found Josie leaning against the wall of the castle, watching the sun rise.
When Josie didn't say anything Mary leaned next to her and watched the sun come up, dying the sky blood red.
"Dad would be proud of me, wouldn't he?"
"Yes Josie; James defiantly would be proud of you and what you have done."
Josie looked at her mum, properly this time and saw her for who she was; a woman who had had her fair share of crap that the world regularly dished out and who had been the victim of circumstance. Startled by her new found maturity Josie turned back to the rising sun; relishing the feel of the heat on her skin as the last of the resentment and hatred and bitterness left her. If small miracles like reconciling with her mother could happen, Josie thought, then maybe bigger miracles could happen in the world.
As the sun rose fully Josie and her mother walked back into the castle, holding hands as the sun rose high in the sky; burning brightly in a clear sky for the first time in years.
Thank guys. Anyway hope you've enjoyed this story as much as I've enjoyed writing it. Oh, and just coz it might be the end doesn't excuse you for not reviewing lol.
Jenny xx