Disclaimer: Who, me? *looks innocent* I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't take anything from anyone…

Boy-Who-Lived Comes to Hogwarts!

Daniel Abbott, Special Correspondent

September 7, 1997

For sixteen years, Wizarding Britain has wondered just what became of their living hero, Harry Potter. The only son of the deceased heroes of the Dark Years, Lily and James Potter, Harry has not been seen by any credible source since he was taken from the wreckage of his home by Albus Dumbledore and placed somewhere secret for his own safety.

That night, October 31, 1981, Harry Potter did the impossible and defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, surviving the Killing Curse with only a lightning-bolt shaped scar and no other evident injuries. The Wizarding World celebrated the end of the Dark Years, but little infant Potter was whisked away and not heard of again: until now.

One week ago, Harry Potter calmly waltzed in to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and announced his intention to enroll for his seventh year at the renowned boarding school in Scotland. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, said to reporters that, "I am very pleased and excited to welcome Mister Potter to Hogwarts. I think he will do very well here." Asked if he had expected, along with the rest of Britain, that Potter would attend Hogwarts from his first year, the wizard merely winked and offered lemon drops to all.

Although Potter disappointed many when he did not appear for his first year at Hogwarts, six years ago, there is no disappointment now! The Owl Postal Service reported a sky-rocketing volume of mail being delivered to the young wizard and his school-mates are all excited to attend school with the mysterious celebrity.

Potter delivered his second shock to the Wizarding World (the first being his sudden appearance the first day of a new Hogwarts term) when he was Sorted into Slytherin House!

Despite both his parents and indeed, the history of Potters being Sorted into Gryffindor House, Potter did not seem surprised as he slipped off the too-small stool and joined his new House-mates at Slytherin table. Rumored to be a House full of ambitious Dark Wizards and Witches in the making, Slytherin has had a rocky history of ups and downs. However, Potter was not displeased at his Sorting and scoffed at the idea that Slytherin was synonymous with Dark magic.

In a blanket statement issued to reporters, Potter states that he is "settling in well into Slytherin and making friends. I don't believe that you can simply type-cast an entire group of people based on the colors of their crest. Slytherin doesn't mean evil and saying that it is doesn't make it anymore true than saying that Hippogriffs are pink. This House has gotten some bad press lately. I hope to show that many, many Slytherins here have honor equal to that of a Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. Prejudice is blind, but if we take the blinkers off we can truly unite and that is real power, right there."

One classmate, Gryffindor Hermione Granger, already well-known for her exploits against the spirit-form You-Know-Who, is quoted as mentioning that "Potter's right about prejudice. I think it's silly how school rivalries remain and become horribly distorted into exaggerated and often wrong ideas." When questioned if she would make friends with the only other person of her age to surpass her own hard-earned fame for facing multiple dangers in her time at Hogwarts, Miss Granger stated that she was thrilled that there was another person willing to stand up against You-Know-Who and actively "do something."

House-mate Pansy Parkinson told the press that Harry Potter had so far been "wonderfully polite, chivalrous, and a perfect gentleman. We were all shocked that we got Harry Potter, but he's already got the entire House in stitches with his acerbic wit. And of course, all of us girls are absolutely head-over-heels for the sexy wizard. He's so charming and handsome…"

"He covers his Slytherin side pretty well, but everyone in Slytherin knows not to mess with Potter. He's powerful and he's not afraid to use spells considered rather in the grey area of magic to get what he wants," another classmate who prefers to remain anonymous told me.

"Really charismatic personality, but you want to be on his good side," adds another anonymous schoolmate.

I managed to get a personal interview with the young Potter heir and we sat down to talk about life, You-Know-Who, and his plans for the future. "Italy," is his first statement to me after we introduce ourselves and sit down. "I know what you're thinking—what is that accent? It's an Italian accent, and I'm afraid that I'll never have a proper British accent."

So that is where he has been all these years? Italy?

Yes, he confirms. "My adoptive family resides in Italy, although for safety reasons I'm sure you can understand if I do not divulge exactly where or who they are."

Since there have been irrevocable signs that You-Know-Who is back in spirit form, this is hard to deny. I asked Mister Potter if he had enjoyed growing up so far away from his home country.

"I don't remember too much of Britain, to be honest," the young man with stunning green eyes admits cheerfully. "I was just a baby when I left the country. But from what I've seen of it so far since coming here, it seems quite a nice place."

If he didn't come to Hogwarts for his first six years, where did he go and why now?

"My adoptive family decided that there was no reason an eleven-year-old would need to be placed preemptively in danger before I was ready to take on anything scarier than a troll," Potter says with earnest humor.

"I went to Italy's premiere school for witches and wizards instead. Belladona Preparatory, it's a very good school. But Voldemort—sorry, you fellows really don't like his real name, do you?—You-Know-Who, then—he's been rising again lately. We kept an eye on the news, and I'm seventeen now and as prepared as I'll ever be to take him on."

Does he actually plan on taking You-Know-Who on? Well, yes! The young man in front of me is sincere and confident, although he refuses to divulge any of his ideas on what his plans are for this. Since the Ministry has long speculated that the rising spirit of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been on a manhunt for the Boy-Who-Lived and defeated him the first time, it seems natural that the same boy would return to finish the job.

"It wasn't even me the first time, it was my mother's willing blood sacrifice out of love for me that protected me and defeated Volde—oops, You-Know-Who. But this time it'll be me. I have no doubt that men or spirits like You-Know-Who are obsessed with revenge. I'm the one that got away, so he's after me still."

But why would a young man not yet out of school come running back to face the imminent danger? That is the question that I pose to the wizard who looks very much like his famous Auror father.

"Seventeen years ago, my parents fought actively against Voldemort. Now, he's rising again and doing his best to hurt people my age and younger. He's been systematically attacking Hogwarts since six years ago. Of course, I could simply wait it out in safety and watch this country maybe go through another period of Dark. But I won't. My adoptive family and my parents, James and Lily, would have never turned their backs on others when they could contribute to helping a good cause against a corrupt one." Potter pauses reflectively.

"Someone important told me once that corruption and fanaticism are the two worst faults of mankind, whether wizard or Muggle. I am, by virtue of what occurred seventeen years ago, a symbol of the Light here in Britain. That alone gives me the responsibility and the power to fight against both corruption and fanaticism here, the same exact kind that killed my parents. I was raised to honor that duty and I will not shirk it."

Courageous words and they seem fitting for the young boy hero. My time is up, and my parting words to the Boy-Who-Lived are to wish him luck, fortune, and fortitude in all his endeavors. I suspect that we may expect great things from this wizard, not just for surviving the Killing Curse and defeating a Dark Wizard so long ago, but by the very forceful and convicted personality he possesses. May Britain live up to every expectation and welcome Harry Potter back into our midst!

Boy-Who-Lived Lives Again!: An Exclusive Interview with Britain's Newest Saviors

By Daniel Abott, Special Correspondent

June 19, 1998

With his charming Italian lilt and hypnotizing green eyes, Harry Potter is even more of a sensation as a seventeen-year-old than a one-year-old. Britain's Wizarding nation is once again indebted to their hero: having defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named as a one-year-old with only a curse scar the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead to show for it, Harry Potter found it no less hard, it seems, to hunt out and destroy the seven pieces of You-Know-Who's soul binding the man to life. (See page 8 for the article detailing Potter's search for the Horcruxes).

The Boy-Who-Lived then cast a Banishing Ritual, a spell no one has performed in over two centuries in Britain, to rid the world of the nuisance of You-Know-Who's spirit, around whom many former Death Eaters had been rallying around. When queried as to why he had chosen such a spell, Potter credited the initial idea to his friend Hermione Granger and the actual ritual to his adoptive family who taught it to him over Christmas Break.

An instant hit with girls across the nation, Harry Potter initially returned to his birth land for seventh year at Hogwarts after having spent all his childhood years and previous schooling in Italy. He received most of his education at Belladonna Preparatory School, Italy's premiere school for wizards and witches.

Six years after the spirit of You-Know-Who began to make trouble again, Harry Potter arrived back on his native soil to finish his schooling and kill the monster once and for all. It was the first time he had returned since he vanished as a child for his own protection and appeared sixteen years later in Italy as he revealed plans to travel back to Britain.

"Such a nice chap," one classmate gushes. "Very polite, you wouldn't have expected it of a celebrity and a Slytherin."

"He's absolutely beautiful," another adds eagerly. "He won the House Cup for Slytherin with those absolutely fabulous muscles…" Perhaps not quite accurate, but close enough as Harry Potter led Slytherin House to its first win in the House competition in over a decade by winning game after game with ease as Seeker on the Quidditch team. Fabulous muscles indeed, young Potter!

When I interviewed the boy in December, I was struck by his mix of charisma, truthfulness, and sharp wit. He caused a sensation first by being sorted into Slytherin House, long considered a breeding ground for young Dark wizards, and followed that shock by yet another: he became best friends with already famous Gryffindor Muggle-born Hermione Granger and Pureblooded Slytherin Draco Malfoy.

The unlikely but high-powered trio have been inseparable ever since and despite vast differences in culture and upbringing, continue to valiantly defend each other constantly. "We're like a three-headed dog," jokes Harry Potter. "Hermione's the idealistic head, Draco's the practical head, and I'm the attack-mode head. Separate us and we can't function on our own."

Hermione Granger is already famous for single-handedly discovering that the spirit of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had returned in her first year, figuring out and informing her teachers that the mysterious monster of Slytherin was a Basilisk in her second year, escaping from a werewolf in her third (and promptly turning around to defend Professor Lupin insisting that he had not been at fault for Death Eaters mysteriously finding his secure location and letting him loose, and should be allowed to retain his position at Hogwarts—and winning the petition!).

Her fourth year, Granger wandered into the Triwizard Tournament Maze before the competition began to examine the Charmwork and Arithmancy parabolas that operated the Final Task, and realized that the Cup was a Portkey. This saved both the competition and the unlucky winner who would have been transported to You-Know-Who's location and sacrificed to create a body for the spirit. (That year's Champion was Cedric Diggory from our very own Hogwarts). In year five, she campaigned successfully for Ministry-appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Delores Umbridge to be removed from her Hogwarts position, citing carefully collected hard evidence of favoritism, incompetence, and sadistic and frivolous use of a restricted magical artifact, the Blood Quill, on students. During this time, she also moved to revive Hogwart's dueling club in order to keep up with the former curriculum that Umbridge had scrapped.

Granger's sixth year culminated with a bang as has been tradition for the plucky heroine since she began attending Hogwarts when a student, Asbel Rosier, cousin of the infamous Evan Rosier who has resided in Azkaban since You-Know-Who's first death, let Death Eaters into Hogwarts. Granger and the Hogwarts dueling club formed a protective barrier between the Death Eaters and the younger students, and Granger's superb knowledge of spells disarmed the man who would have killed Albus Dumbledore.

Draco Malfoy, whose father Lucius Malfoy was publicly reprimanded eighteen years ago for having knowingly placed his young ward Severus Snape in the hands of Dark Wizards, has remained continually neutral throughout his years at Hogwarts, only declaring his allegiance to the Light when Potter befriended him.

"Harry's the sort of guy you want backing you up in a battle," states the young inheritor of the Malfoy estates (his father dead in a counterattack against the Death Eaters, his mother in Azkaban for conspiracy to murder Potter. See page 4 for details). "He knows a wicked assortment of spells, and he isn't afraid of the moral ambiguity in some of the shadier curses. He'll do anything to survive, and to win. As a fellow Slytherin, I appreciate that."

His brown-haired companion elbows him sharply, drawing a yelp from her new boyfriend (Yes, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy have finally confirmed rumors that they are now dating, although "It's nothing serious," Granger insists).

"It's a good thing these boys have me to keep them straight," Granger retorts vehemently. "They'd never be good if they didn't. Imagine!"

Is she the moral conscience of the trio?

"More like their mother," she snorts. But she gives Malfoy an adoring glance that says otherwise.

Harry Potter is scheduled to return to Italy after graduation, where he is staying in an Unplottable location with the people who have brought him up. He refuses to spill his past, but laughingly hints, "Italy is a good place for wizards and witches who want to escape their past, especially if you have very good connections."

Italy is well-known for its controlling Mafia, who regulate the borders of their country and are the true power of the country. Is young Harry affiliated with the Mafia? Perhaps; perhaps not. We may never know, although his friends Granger and Malfoy might find out. They're returning with him to Italy and staying with him while they decide what to do with their promising future.

"It's a gorgeous country," enthuses Potter, green eyes sparkling with love for his adopted home. "I can't wait to get back—I've missed it very much. I think Hermione and Draco will love it there."

Any last words from the three newest stars with whom Britain is obsessed? "Don't ever give up," advises Potter. "I know people who've gone through hell and back, and if they can do it you can too, all those people out there who may be suffering. Live for the moment, and always plan an escape hole!"

And the three are off, arm in arm, laughing like lunatics. The Daily Prophet and the British nation wish them all the best in a lifetime hopefully filled with joy. The three of you certainly deserve it.

Author's Notes:

The chapter title for this little epilogue of a chapter, "Exeunt," is Latin meaning "They go out." (Also known as two or more people exiting). It is a common stage direction in plays.

And folks, this is the very end of the road. I hope you enjoyed the epilogue as a glimpse into what changed and what remained the same. I hope very much that you enjoyed this story! To those who may be wondering—I do have another short story in the works, but don't expect anything for a while. It is only in the beginning stages and I plan on writing the entire story before posting anything. Snape's there, but it's something I've never tried writing before which adds to the not-sure-when-I'll-start-posting deal. But keep an eye out. Me and this fandom are far from finished with each other!

Thank you to all of you who have read, all of you who have taken the time to review. Each and every one of you brings me joy.