Epilogue

Hogwarts came alive. Literally. The staircases began to move again, the paintings and portraits started peeking at each other, the fire crackled merrily in the fireplaces, the windows were no longer blowing out, and the dungeons were dry. All the faculties were pleased: magic was back, witchcraft was much easier and more pleasant. The professors were perplexed, but happy. The only overshadowing thing was that Dumbledore and Snape were gone. The search by blood yielded nothing, and then the pedagogical staff and the remnants of the Order of the Phoenix did not work very hard. And then, just a week later, there was thunder.

An inconspicuous owl brought a thick letter to the Prophet's editorial office, in which, in addition to several pages of excellent, fine-written parchment, were enclosed flat vials in which someone's memories were swirling. The editor, rereading the letter a couple of times, realised that Bombardo had unprecedented power in his hands. The articles had been finished in a couple of hours and threatened to be the best of the Daily Prophet's existence.

The next morning, as everyone was getting ready for their first lectures, many owls flew into the Great Hall right at breakfast. Those of the seniors who already knew the news were silent, smirking, the rest were shocked. Each owl tossed a roll of fresh newspapers onto the table. On the front of each of them were headlines in large black letters: 'Voldemort destroyed: no need to fear the name', 'Boy-survivor saved magical Britain', 'Albus Dumbledore: old senile, or mad genius', 'Dark Lord never existed! Dumbledore is Grindewald's successor!" A hum of voices covered the room, the Teachers were stunned, each eager to snatch up the paper and make sure of what was written. But that was only the beginning. A large delegation from the Ministry, led by the Aurors, burst into the room.

For the next few days Hogwarts was facing the biggest reform in its history. The gargoyle that guarded the headmaster's office was taken down by Bombarda, and the search began. In Albus's papers, many mentions of the "grand" plan were found. The development to create a dark lord out of Thomas Reddle had stunned not only ministerial officials, but also seasoned aurors. Dumbledore purposely guided the boy into the Darkness, hinting, informing and nurturing his vanity and ambition. And when it worked, but the Lord went mad - Dumbledore managed to destroy him single-handedly, giving the magical world a break. And immediately began to nurture the Chosen One into the role of the Hand of Light. The choice fell on the Potter family. James was easily indoctrinated, and Lily simply wanted wealth. Both got bookmarks on the mind, and so James had a falling out with his parents, and Lily married him and almost immediately became pregnant. The Potters elders die (Albus didn't have a write-up on how here), James gets everything, including the invisible mantle. Halloween night, too, was planned to the finest detail. The Potters died, and the boy had to grow up in poverty and beatings so that he - the great light wizard - would seem to be the kindest and most understanding wizard to replace his parents. But that was not the case. Obedient at first, the puppet malfunctioned and disappeared for years.

Everything was changed. Faculties were abolished, introducing separate apartments for each student; common lounges were huge, bright and cosy. A dozen or so new subjects were added to the curriculum, something that had disappeared under Dumbledore's influence over the last fifty years: fencing, etiquette, Latin, Greek, Muggle Studies, the study of the customs of the wizarding world and much more. Teachers had been found for all the vacancies. The toddler school was retained, approving of such endeavours.

Flitwick became headmaster. He took the full magical oath as Headmaster, and began to hear the castle and everything that happened to it. Also, Filius could now apparate anywhere in the castle if required. McGonagall remained as Professor of Transfiguration, surrendering the post of Vice Principal and Dean of Gryffindor to the young swordsmanship tutor Reynold Roche, who had been specially invited from Charmbaton.

****

A few months passed.

In the beautiful and spacious street in the heart of London, children and their parents scurried up and down the street to Hogwarts. Some gawked at the speeding brooms in the window, excitedly discussing Quidditch, others ran to Mulpepper's Pharmacy for the standard ingredients for potions, others savored the delicious ice cream at Fortescue's. The Gringotts building was a bright white blur on the restored Slanted Alley, but there was more to see than that. "Weasley's Prank Shop" pleased with a brightly coloured sign in the shape of a clown taking off his hat to anyone who opened the wide doors to this realm of deception. The twins, of course, recognised what had happened to Ron. George sighed then and said:

- Serves him right. Never thought with his own head.

And Freddie picked up on it and continued:

- I hope he's much better off there now than he is here.

The subject never came up again. Yes, Harry himself wouldn't want to talk about the double betrayal of his 'friend', but he had to tell his brothers personally. Rumor has it that they often visited Harry and every time they returned with boxes of scales and other dragon parts for their research.

Hogsmeade, too, had been rebuilt. It was now a large village, almost twice the size of the previous one. Houses stood in straight blocks, shops pleased with fresh merchandise. "Zonko's, Sweet Kingdom, several cafes and bars had also been rebuilt. In addition to those who had escaped during Voldemort's raid on the village, many wizards whose children were either studying at Hogwarts or about to enter their first year moved in, as well as those who had sent small children to the castle school.

The Weasley family had been subdued since Ron and Dumbledore's death. Arthur was sacked from his job and took up trading. This allowed them to make a bit of a difference: rebuilding the house, furnishing it, dressing up themselves. Molly was knitting for sale.

Hermione Granger had withdrawn into the Muggle world after graduating from Hogwarts, abruptly cutting off contact with fellow students and other wizards. No one ever heard from her again. Harry never forgave her 'friend', though she tried to make excuses, so he didn't care where she was or who she was with.

Neville and Luna had a baby girl. They named her Lily. Their family visited Potter House often too. Neville studied all the plants that were found in that part of Latin America and picked up dragon dung for his research in the Hogwarts greenhouses. Luna was often seen on the beach with the baby dragons. She understood them by some intrinsic sense of her own and was very spoiled, as was her Lily.

The Ministry wasn't the same after such a shock either. All priorities were reconsidered. Lucius Malfoy ran for minister and won the next election. Draco became secretary to his father. Narcissa opened a charity to support the adaptation of muggleborns in the magical world. Astoria was staying at home with an adorable boy, Scorpius.

****

Ten years later

Potter House was shrouded in twilight, and only the western windows were lit with a beautiful orange sheen from the last rays of the sun that had fallen over the horizon, the dark sky taking in the bright colors of the fading light. Like cunning foxes lurking in the west, the bright orange clouds moved southward, revealing the first stars, and the thin sickle of the moon almost above the water's edge. The evening chill was felt in the air, but the pair flying in the sky were not paying attention to anything. The red dragon was turning in circles as it swooped across the sky. On its back sat a boy of about eight and shouted:

- "Come on, Yunsheng! You can go even faster! I love flying with you so much!

Yunsheng snorted, twisting in big rings and climbing up even steeper to dive straight down.

On the doorstep, next to the tinkling large roses on one side, and the flexible whips of magic ivy that tried to stroke her face on the other, stood a young woman dressed in a strict blue floor-length robe that did not hide her small tummy:

- Christian James Potter, come downstairs immediately! We're about to have dinner, so quickly wash your hands before your father sees!

The boy squeezed the dragon's sides and he dived straight for the threshold. The boy looked guiltily down and slid off the huge lizard's back:

- Bye, Yunsheng, see you tomorrow!

The dragon tilted its large head towards its mistress and looked intently into her eyes. The woman smiled:

- Yes, Sirius and Letitia and son, Lady Stone and Mrs Stone are coming over.

The dragon snorted happily and shook his head towards the mountains. Louise, and that was her, stroked its rough and warm scales and released the lizard. It rose into the air and flew towards the caves in the rocks. There, in one of the deep caves, Yunsheng's consort, Meilin, as Potter called her, coiled herself around the clutch and breathed an occasional fire on the eggs.

The lizard crawled inside, having first caught a couple of mountain goats. As the mother-to-be savoured the meat, one of the eggs cracked. Yunsheng stirred and breathed flames on it. It's not every day that a Chinese fireball gives birth to offspring. And Yunsheng's girlfriend Harry had brought back from China, where Meilin had been trapped in a pagoda in one of the northern provinces, a year to the local deities. He and Louise travelled the world after the wedding. True, no new dragon species were ever summoned by him.

****

In the meantime, Harry and Sirius were seated with glasses of twenty-year-old whisky on the sofa in the living room. Children's laughter echoed in the rooms above. The boys - Christian and Jared - were clearly up to something. Laetitia was giving last orders to the elves. Lady Stone and her sister were talking quietly to Louise about the baby's dowry.

Sirius had married just after Harry. Turns out all the time he'd been away for weeks, he'd been seeing Leticia Brown. But he never wanted to get married. But when he found out they were going to have a child, Sirius shared it with Harry, who had already talked some sense into him. So the heir to the Black family was Jared Regulus Black, almost the same age as Chris. The young wife the godfather did not bring the side of the dragons, and took his mansion on Grimmauld, which he cleaned to a shine.

Harry was still very close to the dragons. His talents were passed on to Chris as well. How pleased Harry had been when he first saw Junshen looking at the boy and nodding occasionally, snorting, before picking him up on his back and taking him for a low ride. The boy interacted easily with the dragons, not even using his mother's stone. He played with the little lizards, pulling their tails, flying on them, helping with the food. At times his father would take him into the mountains and there Chris would hunt with his crossbow for mountain goats and bulls, which were then sent down. Dragons hunted on their own as well, but Chris was happy to bring the tasty treats to his beloved reptiles.

Tailgaters quickly outgrew their young, and now the air was filled with huge baby lizards who also roamed the sea until Adrynn's mother corralled them in caves. The other dragons had also found a mate and had offspring. Only Yunsheng was alone for a very long time. But he had been lucky. He fathered five beautiful little dragons.

Five months later, the beautiful Rio Louise Potter was born. She was named after the festival in Rio de Janeiro, where Harry was celebrating another wedding anniversary with his wife. The result was a daughter.

Seven years later, Harry managed to breed golden dragons. But that's another story.