Alright, here it is the last chapter for this story. Thanks for following the story faithfully. I will see if I can come up with a new one soon. I have some ideas for a new story, but for the mean time you will have to make do with the other running stories I have. Happy Reading.

Aftermath

In the next days the burials of all the fallen fighters and innocent victims happened. All the surviving defenders of Hogwarts, the returning muggleborns, and some officials from the Ministry under the leadership of Kingsley attended the funerals. Kingsley had to do a lot of convincing for Harry to accept the order of Merlin first class he was awarded for his actions in the war. Ginny had finally told Harry that he wouldn't get away from that and that he should just accept it. Harry accepted, but insisted that all those that had fallen in the war fighting Voldemort should also get an award. Kingsley readily agreed and made sure that even Sirius and Cedric got one.

As Harry had told Ron and Hermione he treated them distantly. He greeted them politely if he saw them, but he didn't initiate conversations like he did with others like Neville, Seamus and Luna. The felt just how much they had hurt Harry and this time he wasn't willing to simply brush it aside only to not have them leave him like he did with Ron in fourth year.

Once all the fallen Death Eaters had been identified, Harry saw himself confronted with inheriting quite a few of their fortunes. Voldemort had torn a huge hole in the population. So more often than not the ones that normally would have inherited the possessions of the Death Eaters through their last wills were also dead, which meant the goblins contacted the closest remaining living relatives. Harry's mind had spun with how many families he was related to through his father. Sirius really had been right saying that all pureblood families were somehow interrelated. While the Ministry was decimated so much, they let the Gringotts cursebreakers take care of the dark objects in the vaults. While many would think the goblins wouldn't be interested in having the Death Eater vaults handed over to the heirs, it was the opposite. The goblins earned gold if they could invest the fortunes that they were trusted with.

The war had been bad for their business as nobody was sure how a business would stand at the end of the war. Now with the war over and the rebuilding efforts starting in the climate of a no tolerance policy for crimes of the surviving Death Eaters and their unmarked supporters, the goblins started investing again. And investing could only work with the agreement of the owner of a vault. Andromeda Tonks saw herself being the heiress of the Malfoy and Lestrange fortunes as she was the sister of both wives of the heads of house who had no remaining living relatives. Molly Weasley got the Nott and Yaxley vaults. Turned out that her great-grandmother on her father's side had been a Nott and no other members of that family had survived. Her grandfather on her mother's side had been a Yaxley. That would get the Weasleys out of financial worries forever.

Harry had inherited the Rosier vault through his grandmother Dorea Potter, nee Black, her mother had been born a Rosier, he could claim the Peverell vault, which had been in stasis for over four hundred years, the Gaunts never realized there was still a vault, he got the Crabbe vault, five generations ago a Crabbe woman had married a Potter, but to keep the vaults active the goblins got really active and creative in ancestry research and finally the Avery vault. He intended to donate some money to charity. He really didn't know what he should do with all that money. Ginny suggested buying a nice house where they could start a family. Alone for that comment she got a passionate kiss from her boyfriend. Having a family of his own had been his greatest dream and hearing the woman he loved saying she wanted to start a family with him was having that dream come true.

Remus inherited the Goyle and Prince fortunes. Through his mother Snape had been the last of the Prince line, but Remus had been disinherited from both family lines because he was a werewolf. The goblins didn't care though, he was the last relative of their lines and as their wills couldn't be fulfilled due to the heirs being dead themselves and having no heirs of their own, he got them. And Kingsley had already promised to undo the stupid werewolf legislation that Umbridge had created. It made life for him and his family a lot easier.

After the battle Winky also got a dream fulfilled. She had wasted away without having a family to look after. It had got better when she had been part of the resistance against the Carrows and Snape, but she still wanted to be a proper house elf again. So Molly Weasley, who knew that her house would be filled with the offspring of her children sooner or later, now that the war was over and people could start thinking about having families without fear again, offered her to take her as the Weasley house elf. She had always wanted a house elf to help her around the house and even Hermione couldn't deny that Winky would be happier having a family she was bonded to again. And the Weasleys would never abuse her; that she was sure of. She still protested against the abuse of elves. Many house elves were part of the inheritances from the extinct pureblood lines and were now waiting for their new families to get them. They took care of keeping the houses clean for their new masters.

In the battle three house elves lost their lives as well, Harry was very sad that Kreacher was one of them. The old elf had been doing so much better and without his help Harry couldn't have done his task. Harry gave him and the other two a proper burial. He also buried all the stuffed elf heads from Grimmauld Place with Kreacher. He had wanted to be together with his ancestors in death, but Harry couldn't stomach the thought of the elf heads staying where they had been before. Many of the students, whom Kreacher had helped during the Carrows' regime of oppression also attended. They had been humbled by the help the elves had given them and got them food and drinks while the Carrows withheld food from three quarters of the school.

Many also thanked Dobby and Winky personally for their help during those times. Even the pureblood children that had grown up seeing house elves as simple servants that didn't need to be treated well, had had a change of heart. Hermione was very happy to see that. When Dobby heard that Kreacher had died, he went to Harry and asked him if he needed a new house elf to look after him and his future family. Harry asked Dobby if he would like to work for him and Dobby delightedly agreed. Harry had to discuss his payment, Dobby wanted to not take too much, but in the end they got an agreement. He would get two galleons a month and two days off. It was more than he had got from Dumbledore, but Harry was a stubborn wizard.

Kingsley got all the muggleborns out of Azkaban and got them new wands, if their old ones had been destroyed, paid by the Ministry. Ollivander was a big help, remembering exactly what wands they had had before. Those that had been taken away and stored by the Ministry he turned back to their owners; otherwise he had a good idea what kind of wand they could need now. The new first years, thankfully the Ministry hadn't yet targeted them, so they only hadn't been able to go to Hogwarts, mostly still had their things that they had bought at the beginning of the school year and were delighted that they could now start their magical education.

On the first of February the students returned to Hogwarts. The muggleborn first years were sorted into their new houses. Remus, Ted and Minerva had visited them, explained the situation in the civil war to the concerned parents and offered them to start now, half a year later than planned. The first years would be taught from the start again, after all, many things hadn't been taught properly before, like Defence and Muggle Studies. The end of year exams would also only include what would be taught from February on. All those that had been at Beauxbatons had returned. With Hogwarts being open again, they could just continue where they had left. Ron had to catch up a lot, but with Hermione helping him, he got to an acceptable level. He had finally got the courage to ask her out and she had agreed.

As Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson had been named headboy and headgirl, the new headmistress had to choose new ones. Hermione was disappointed when she was passed over for the headgirl badge, but the headgirl had to be someone the other students could look up to after the chaos, so Padma Patil was chosen. She had been actively helping the younger students under the Carrows' regime and they looked up to her. On top none of the other seventh-year girls had her grades next to being looked up to. What most people didn't expect was who became the new headboy. Many had expected Harry to get it, after all he had been the one to defeat Voldemort, but the new headboy was Neville Longbottom. When he asked Minerva why she had chosen him and not Harry, she told him it had been him who had led the students' resistance against the Carrows and had been their first line of Defence. He deserved it. Harry fully agreed with her and congratulated Neville to his new badge. And he really could use his time better than with headboy duties. He had done his duty, now he wanted to just be a normal student. Well, he got his Quidditch captaincy back, but that duty he gladly accepted back. His replacement, ironically it had been Ginny as she had had the most experience of the team, was only too happy to let him lead the team again. She took the position of co-captain and the captain and co-captain had some long discussions about strategy. Mostly in the prefect's bathroom on the fifth floor.

All the games that had been played already, meaning Gryffindor vs. Slytherin and Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff were voided and the new teams, many got their experienced muggleborn players back, would start the season anew. The games would be a bit closer together, but nobody cared. The teachers gave the captains a limit of allowed practice times though as the students had to catch up on a lot of material in their classes.

On the tenth of March Tonks gave birth to her firstborn son, Teddy Remus Lupin. She and Remus had decided to name their child, if it was a boy, Teddy after Tonks father, who had been on the run from the Ministry at the time. Harry was named godfather and spent a lot of his free time together with Ginny and Teddy. At the end of the year Harry and his yearmates sat their NEWTs. After some intense catching up with the material in Herbology with Neville's help and Potions with Andromeda's in January, Harry found the NEWTs while tricky and exhausting, easier than the OWLs. Perhaps because of all the time he had invested in learning the spells during his time at Privet Drive.

He had heard from Dedalus and Hestia that the Dursleys had been brought back in February. He didn't really think about them except for one time when he thought if Aunt Petunia would notice the missing three hundred pounds from the flower vase. So far he didn't get any indication that she did. He didn't care though, it was only the due payment for them using him like a slave around the house and having him wear Dudley's horribly too large cast-offs. A bit payback was only fair.

After his exams were over he had two weeks of free time while the other years took their exams. The only ones finished were the fifth and seventh years. He used that time to be with Ginny whenever she had time and didn't have to learn, with her not having OWLs to take that was much more time than last year, and visiting Tonks and Teddy. While his godson slept most of the time, Harry was fascinated by the tiny baby. Tonks and Andromeda swore he would make a fantastic father one day.

Remus had got the students caught up with proper Defence Against the Dark Arts and the expectations for the OWLs and NEWTs were the best since Harry's fourth year. While the Moody had been a fake, he had taught properly to not be uncovered. With Voldemort dead the curse on the position had been broken and it was sure he would return next year. That he was a werewolf didn't interest anybody. As long as he had wolfsbane potion on the full moons, something Andromeda took care of, as a trained healer she was easily capable of brewing it, it was completely safe for him to teach. And he was loved by his students.

Contrary to the OWLs the NEWTs were graded before the year ended for the students to have enough time to apply for jobs. Harry got an O in Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts and an E in Potions and Herbology. He was very happy with those grades. Hermione got O's in Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology and Potions and E's in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. Ron was a bit worse, but he still passed his courses. He had E's in Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology and A's in Transfiguration and Potions. Neville surprised many. He got an O in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology and an E in Charms and Astronomy.

When the seventh years talked about their career intentions, Ron told them he intended to work for the twins and at the same time apply for auror training. He didn't know if he would be taken though as his Transfiguration and Potions NEWTs weren't that good. Hermione would apply for a position in the Ministry. With as many open positions as there were after the fall of Voldemort, her chances to make a good career were great. And under Minister Shacklebolt the ridiculous ostracising of muggleborns had stopped. Neville would start an apprenticeship under a renowned Herbology master to gain his mastery in the subject. Everybody had known Neville would follow his one love of learning in his career choice. Seamus wanted to work for the Daily Prophet and Dean would start working for Flourish and Blotts while he took lessons towards creating wizarding portraits. He wanted to make a career of his drawing talent.

Parvati and Lavender planned learning under Madam Malkins and in the end having their own fashion and beauty salon. Harry surprised most, as they had thought he would start auror training.

"I'm going to be starting seeker for the Appleby Arrows for the next season and I will simultaneously work on my masteries in Defence and Transfiguration. Perhaps Charms too, depends on my time." He told them.

"But Harry, I thought you wanted to be an auror?" Ron asked.

"Ron, I have fought more than I ever wanted to in my whole life. I can't imagine anymore having to hunt down dark wizards all the time. I think I have done my share. And I want to have a family. Having a dangerous job like an auror wouldn't be the safest option with that goal in mind. If I change my mind in the future, I can still apply later in my life. But I think for the moment having fun while playing Quidditch and working on those two perhaps three masteries will be more what I want." Harry said.

"And what do you intend to do after you can't play Quidditch anymore? With those two masteries you are working for, you seem to have a backup plan in mind." Neville asked.

"Yes, I have. I have thought about becoming a teacher. I mean, Hogwarts has been my home since I started here as a first year. Retuning as a teacher doesn't seem so bad. And from the current teachers many will retire over the next ten years. Slughorn will probably do so at the end of this year again, after all Dumbledore got him out of retirement, McGonagall will also give up her teaching position after this year and will only be headmistress. Sprout will retire in the timeframe I mentioned and probably Flitwick as well. I can't see Ted keeping his position for many years as well. So there would be a good chance to take one of their positions." Harry explained.

"That's a great plan, Harry. You were a fantastic teacher when you led the DA. Your students would be lucky to have you." Lavender said.

Hermione nodded. Harry had been a great teacher and she could imagine him well in that position.

"What did Ginny say about your plans?" She asked.

"She was happy and fully supports me." Harry said.

He also had plans for Ginny's birthday. He had planned to ask her to marry him. He knew she was the one for him and he didn't want to wait telling her that for much longer. She would turn seventeen on the eleventh August and therefore be of age. He knew she also had plans of making a career in Quidditch if a team wanted to have her and he thought she would do great.

Time skip 5 years after Battle of Hogwarts (ABOH)

Harry Potter held his wife's hand while she was going through labour. His hand felt like she had broken a bone or two, but he knew she was in more pain than him. Very soon he would see his first child. And his second. Ginny was expecting twins, two boys from what Alicia Wood, their healer had told them. Alicia Spinnet had married Oliver Wood and had become a healer. Oliver was the captain of the Puddlemere United Quidditch team and his team-mates had become used to their fanatic of a captain, especially when they had to play against the Appleby Arrows, the two times winner of the league under their captain Harry Potter.

Ginny Potter had played three years after graduating from Hogwarts for the Holyhead Harpies. They didn't win the league during that time, but Ginny had been the best chaser of the whole league during her second professional year. After that she and Harry had decided to start a family. She had first worked with the twins in their shop, turned out she was a great inspiration for the twins for new pranks, and had then started working on her Runes mastery simultaneously. She reasoned if Harry wanted to become a teacher after he finished his Quidditch career she didn't want to be left behind. And Bill had got her interested in Runes when she was little. It had been one of her best classes at Hogwarts and her chances to get the position were pretty good. Not many Runes masters went into teaching, most worked in positions like cursebreaker or enchanter.

By now Harry had his Defence mastery and was close to getting the Transfiguration one. His Charms one was a bit behind, but he just didn't have the time to really work under more than two masters in his free time.

Ginny was going through the final phase. Alicia told her she could already see the head. Then Ginny pressed again and the first twin came out. Alicia handed Harry scissors to cut the umbical cord. After that she handed the baby boy to a nurse to get him weighed and examined. She stayed with Ginny and waited for the second baby to be born. Four minutes later the second boy came out. Harry again was tasked with cutting the umbical cord. Then Alicia took the boy to get him examined.

Harry stroked Ginny's wet hair. She had gone through seven hours of labour to get the twins into this world. He was incredibly proud of her. Then Alicia and a nurse came to them with the twins in blue blankets.

"Here are your sons. They are perfectly healthy. What names did you choose?" Alicia asked while she handed Ginny one baby and the nurse handed Harry the other.

Harry was fascinated with the little boy that was his son in his arms. He looked over to Ginny and saw it was the same with her and the second twin.

"Ginny and I decided to name the firstborn James Marcus and the second born Sirius Jonas." Harry told Alicia.

"James Marcus Potter and Sirius Jonas Potter. I like the names." Alicia said. "Why didn't you give any of them your name as a middle name? I have many parents who do that, it's traditional."

"We thought about it, but we didn't want to put one twin over the other. And with Harry being as famous as he is, we didn't want to burden any of our children with his name as the middle name. We don't want any of our children feeling forced to live up to his name." Ginny explained while looking at Sirius.

After half an hour Ginny needed to rest and Harry let Alicia and the nurse lay the twins down in their beds in Ginny's room. He would inform their family and friends of the two newest Potters.

Time skip Ten years ABOH

"Cedric Potter, don't touch Mummy's wand." Harry admonished his three year old son.

"Wanna pway." Cedric answered pleading with his father from his big green eyes.

"Come on, Ceddy, let's go out in the garden and see what your older brothers and your cousins are doing. And I'm sure Anubis will be happy to play with you." Harry said, lifting Ceddy from the ground and taking his son out into the garden of the Burrow.

Today was the traditional family and friends get-together for Easter. The Weasleys were hosting it and now counted an impressive number with six children and a heap of grandchildren. Bill and Fleur having three children, Victoire, Dominique and Pierre, Fred and Angelina and her two kids Fabian and Michelle, George and his wife Irene were expecting their second child in three months and the one year old Rachel was sleeping in the house at the moment together with her cousin Rose, Ron's and Hermione's first daughter. Charlie, despite his mother's best efforts hadn't married yet, but he had a girlfriend. They were living in Romania, Charlie leading the dragon preserve now.

The next kids were Harry's and Ginny's four. The twins James and Sirius, Cedric and baby Lily. Lily had been born just a month ago. Hermione was also expecting again, her son would be born in two months. Harry had finally completely forgiven Hermione and Ron for their actions during the war as it was too troublesome being mad at a member of your family. Still, he was a lot more distant with them than during his first six years at school. Molly was delighted at having so many grandchildren. Next to the family the Lupins were also present with their sons Teddy and Robert and their daughter Nancy. Tonks had insisted that her daughter wouldn't suffer from a ridiculous name like she had. Remus hadn't even though of naming any of his children that way.

The oldest was Teddy, who would start at Hogwarts this year. Then came Victoire with nine years, Robert with eight and a half, Fabian with eight, Michelle, James, Sirius and Dominique with five years, Nancy with four, Cedric and Pierre with three years, Rose and Rachel with one and baby Lily came in last. But soon the son of Ron and Hermione and the baby of George and Irene would be the youngest. The parents watched how their children played tag with Anubis being an eager participant in the game.

"I heard you had retired from your professional Quidditch career, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Yes, I have won everything I could. I was winner of the league four times since I started with the Arrows, have won the World Cup last year with the English team and the European Masters two years ago in the Finals against the Vratsa Vultures with Viktor leading them. I have had a great time playing Quidditch, but now it's time for something else." He said.

"So what will you do?" George asked.

"Ask Remus." Harry answered grinning.

After Professor McGonagall had retired as headmistress of Hogwarts at the end of last year Remus had been named headmaster in her stead. It had been a huge debate in the Ministry, but Hermione, in her position as head of the Department of Magical Creatures, which she had completely changed in her time there, had shot down all prejudices against werewolves in the beginning.

"Well, as I needed a competent new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher with my Darling wife not being willed to fill in the position any longer than till the end of the year, she wants to return to her work with the aurors, she really thinks teaching is too boring, I offered the position to Harry when I heard he would end his Quidditch career. With him having three masteries the decision wasn't a hard one." Remus said. "So may I introduce to you the future Professor Potter?"

"Really? That's great, Harry." Angelina said.

"Will Hogwarts survive a whole bunch of Potters living there?" Fred joked, knowing that James and Sirius were going to become great pranksters. They definitely had inherited the marauder gene.

"After being used to a bunch of Lupins I guess that will be not so much of a change." Tonks said. "We already have a good working child care system. Having so many volunteering girls to babysit my children was great."

Molly called all of them together, telling the food was ready. Arthur and Bill had been grilling meat and sausages and all of them were eager to eat. Molly and Andromeda had prepared salads, bread, sauces and vegetables to go with the grilled goods and as always the Easter party at the Burrow was a fantastic family feast, with Dobby and Winky being happier than ever working on supplying their families with clean plates and getting more food from the fridge once the first bowls were empty.

Time Skip Twenty ABOH

Harry Potter sat on the head table of the Great Hall in Hogwarts, next to his friend and colleague Neville Longbottom on his left and his wife Ginny Potter, who had joined her husband in teaching three years ago on his right. After her last child, Elisabeth, had turned four, she had thought she could take over the newly open position of Ancient Runes teacher from the retiring Bathsheba Babbling. Neville had started teaching Herbology at the same time Harry had started teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. At the moment three of Harry's five children were attending Hogwarts. The twins James and Sirius had started their fifth year and were really living up to their marauder heritage. It didn't help at all that their uncles Fred and George were their idols. Harry didn't know how many times he had had to give his sons detention. But as headmaster Lupin found it terrible funny, Harry didn't mind their pranking habits that much. He was just glad that Ceddy didn't follow his older brothers in that area, he and his best friend Robby Longbottom, Neville's oldest son with Luna, were more into Quidditch.

He only had made sure that they never fell into the trap of overdoing it and crossing the line to bullying. And he made it clear that as long as their grades didn't suffer, he wouldn't interfere. When he had gone to the headmaster's office to talk to Dumbledore's portrait a few days after the last battle, Dumbledore had finally told him why he had trusted Snape so much. Snape had loved Harry's mother Lily. He had been friends with her since they were children and the memory Harry had seen in his fifth year had been their final falling out. Nonetheless Snape never stopped loving Lily and for her he had always protected Harry even if he hated that Harry looked like his father.

Harry, who had been bullied as a child himself taught all his children the difference between having a good laugh and hurting somebody else's feelings. Cedric was in his second year, Lily and Holly would start in one and four years respectively.

After the war the wizarding society had changed massively. The only surviving pureblood families that didn't go to Azkaban were the neutral ones and the light ones. Today there were nearly no pureblood children attending Hogwarts. With so few pureblood witches and wizards surviving the war, there simply hadn't been many choices to marry. Most children were halfblood with a good number of muggleborns. Not that the blood status interested anybody. They were just children learning to use magic.

After Kingsley retired as Minister for magic two years ago, the British wizarding world got their first muggleborn Minister in Hermione Weasley. Over the last twenty years since the fall of Voldemort the young generation had changed their world. They had started successful careers, had a record number of children, families with four or five children weren't rare anymore as, when some retarded old politicians had tried to force more people into arranged marriages to repopulate the shrunken society in Great Britain, an idea Kingsley Shacklebolt had shot down harshly, Harry Potter, who had had enough of blood bigots trying to keep in control, had proposed an incentive program for families who had more than two children.

With Harry Potter, the hero of the wizarding world, spearheading a program for more children and advantages for said families, many couples had decided to follow his lead. Luna Longbottom became the founder of the first wizarding child care institution. With three children of her own and her closest friends also having many children, she had the idea that for parents to still be able to keep their jobs when they had little children and not have financial problems, there needed to be a place where the children could play and learn together before they went to Hogwarts. Hermione introduced Luna to the systems in the muggle world and Luna built up the system. First she used the large grounds around the Rookery then she soon needed to have more places.

Older witches like Andromeda Tonks and Molly Weasley were happy to again take care of little children for some hours a day so that their mothers could work and add to the family income. Molly, having experienced the need for two incomes in a large family herself with seven children knew this would be the only way to get the rebuilding of their world done and at the same time raise the number of witches and wizards again. Those working witches were needed and the ones who had always stayed at home taking care of their children now had a new responsibility.

Even Hogwarts had a child care system. It included the children from Hogsmeade as well. In a former unused part of the castle the children that were younger than eleven were either taught in reading, writing and calculation and the like or played with other children. There had been no signs of any dark wizards rising again. The defeat of Voldemort's followers was absolute. While some of the younger followers, those that had been threatened to follow Voldemort had been released from prison after ten years, no one in the wizarding world wanted to return to those times of terror. No, people liked how things were now. They had peace, their Ministry was competent and not corrupt anymore, witches and wizards of all heritages lived together peacefully, sentient magical creatures had more rights and were treated as equals and the new generation grew up without knowing the horrors of war.

All was well.

I couldn't refrain from using that line as the closer. Hope you liked the ending.