49

Epilogue

It was a week later that found Harry sitting, with Sirius, Cedric, Dobby and Remus, in Professor Dumbledore's office. They were all pretty badly beaten up, but almost all of their injuries had already been fixed, leaving only the scarring which would fade in time. Harry, for his part, was pretty proud of his new scars- apparently they gave him a rugged, dangerous look. Nobody else really saw it, but if it made Harry happy, then they were more than willing to go along with it. After all, He was now a twice-Dark-Lord-vanquisher.

Outside, the press had been going crazy, of course, but inside the walls of Hogwarts everything had been strangely calm. Fred and George Weasley hadn't even thrown a 'Harry killed Voldie' party yet. People were pretty worried about that- anytime the Weasley twins went more than a week without throwing a party meant that they were up to something. Their suspicions would be correct when, a week or two later, skiving snackboxes began appearing around the school.

But back to Dumbledore's office. The old man had summoned them all for an 'important meeting'. Sirius had been sure it was about lemon drops or something, and Harry was all for staying in bed (he had been staying in bed a lot lately- nearly dying had made him tired, it seemed) but Remus had forced them. Therefore, I'm sure it comes to no surprise that Harry and Sirius were sulking in their seats; Dobby between them looked unsure as to whether he should be sulking as well (he had been in the middle of icing a very nice cake when he had been summoned out of the kitchen to Hogwarts) and showing respect for his reading and writing teacher. The result was a sort of distorted grin paired with a frown. Everyone else was trying quite hard not to look at him.

"Now, I'm sure you're all wondering why I've called you here," Dumbledore began in a grave tone.

"Something about fucking lemon drops, no doubt," Sirius grumbled under his breath. The headmaster pretended that he hadn't heard him and carried on.

"I'm afraid that I have bad news for you all." Sirius rolled his eyes, still sulking, though Harry had perked up slightly now.

"What? You've run out of lemon drops?" Sirius muttered. Dumbledore ignored him.

"It concerns Voldemort." Cedric blanched slightly at the name; his bravery only knew certain limits and after seeing the dark lord in the flesh Cedric's fear of him had certainly heightened.

"What about the wanker? I put a sword through his head, remember?" Harry said grumpily. Part of his grumpiness was because he had been dragged out of his bed for this, but part of it was because he still hadn't managed to get his sword back. Nobody seemed to know where it was, and the most popular theory at the minute was that it had disintegrated along with Voldemort's body. Needless to say, it was a bit of a sore subject with Harry at the minute.

"That you did, Harry, but I fear that it isn't as simple as that. In your second year, Harry, you presented me with evidence that Voldemort had taken extreme measures in his quest for immortality. The diary, Harry. Ginny Weasley's diary, the one that allowed Lord Voldemort to possess her. You see, I believe that it wasn't just a diary but a horcrux." Remus was the only one who reacted to this piece of news with anything but a puzzled expression.

"A horcrux, Albus? But that's the darkest of magics..."

"Indeed, Remus. And, in fact, I am fairly sure that he did not merely make one of these heinous items."

"Wait, what is a horcrux?" Cedric asked, looking from Remus to the headmaster in confusion.

"It is, as Remus said, the darkest of magics. It involves putting a piece of your soul into an inanimate object, therefore tying you to this plane. It is impossible to truly die when you have a horcrux, which is exactly how Voldemort was able to rise again last week."

"What, so he's actually, like really immortal? Fuck..." Harry said, running a hand through his hair.

"In a way. But, he is still able to be defeated, just like any other evil wizard, and we shall work together to bring him down, once and for all. His body is destroyed for now, which means that he will be roaming the earth in a ghostly form, greatly weakened and unable to fight us whilst we go about destroying the last of his links to this earth." There was a pause as everybody in the room tried to process what an enormous undertaking this would be. Eventually, the silence was broken.

"Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but why am I here?" Cedric asked sheepishly, "I mean, Harry's an obvious one, as is Sirius. And Remus is obviously an expert on defence against the dark arts, so he's an obvious choice as well, and Dobby kind of comes in a package with his masters," here Dobby nodded enthusiastically, making his ears bobble about, "But I don't understand how I can help at all."

"You're not reckless, like us shits," Sirius explained before Dumbledore could even open his mouth, "I mean, we have Moony to be the sensible one, but sometimes he forgets that and throws his lot in with us, and we really are far too fucking reckless sometimes. So you, mate, are going to be the responsible one." Sirius finished with a grin, knowing too well that anybody being held responsible for him and Harry was absolutely, one hundred percent screwed.

"Really?" Cedric asked Dumbledore, an almost desperate, pleading note in his voice. The headmaster chuckled.

"Well, I suppose so," he smiled, eyes twinkling like crazy, "Although it also had a fair bit to do with your courage the other night in the battle. "

"But... I didn't do anything."

"Of course you did, my boy. You saved many people that night, which is just as honourable as fighting. If not more so." Cedric blushed.

"Alright then," Harry spoke up suddenly, with the air of having just made a decision, "Fuck it. I haven't got anything better to do."

Harry grinned as he made his way across the grounds with Sirius that afternoon. Remus had decided to stay and scour Hogwarts library for information on horcruxes or Voldemort or anything that could possibly be useful and had roped Dobby into being his assistant. Cedric had gone off to find his girlfriend, Cho, and so it was just Sirius who Harry was walking to the gates. It would be a week before Harry himself was also allowed to leave the grounds and head for the comfort of home at Grimmauld place.

"Harry!" Harry smiled and waved at Neville, Hermione, Ron and Blaise as they passed by. The four were sat under a tree by the lake and, judging by the sheer number of books dotted around them, revising for their exams. Harry smiled as he thought of Draco, himself again, even if he was confined to the Hospital wing for the time being. Because of how sudden the severing of the link between himself and his father had been, Madam Pomfrey saw fit to keep him away from the other students for the time being, for everybody's sakes. He was quite unstable at times, but he was getting better all the same. And Harry would take a slightly unstable Draco to a pureblood-mania spouting Draco any day of the week.

"Draco's coming for the holidays, yeah?" Sirius asked. Sirius had rather taken to the youngest Malfoy over Christmas, and was almost as happy as Harry was that he was back.

"Yeah, probably," Harry agreed happily, lighting a cigarette. Everything, he thought to himself, was fucking perfect. They would destroy all of Tommy's horcruxes, live off of all the press money that they would doubtless be getting for all of the 'exclusive' interviews they were planning on doling out and live happily ever after, drinking and smoking and fighting and laughing to their heart's content. Easy.

Oh, how wrong a person could be.