The Beauty of a Werewolf

Epilogue

September 2006

A/N: Sorry it took so long. Truly I have no excuse. So I apologize. Finally, this story is coming to an end…as did “The Trouble With Love” a few days ago. But hey, it gives me some freedom. I’ve had these stories going on for quite some time now and, while it’s weird to be free of them, it’s also a bit…relieving.

I don’t get why I post a LAST CHAPTER, get 60+ hits, and get one review. Um…yeah. I don’t get it but hey, I can’t force you to write a review and post it. I can ask you nicely. So, please?

Disclaimer: You know the drill! If you still haven’t gotten it, check back to the last chapter.

“Come on, Ginny, do it again!”

“No, Harry! Quit asking, or I’ll have to!”

“Maybe that’s the point…?” A cheekily grinning Harry Potter stared up at his girlfriend Ginny Weasley as she glared down at him. Most of her red hair was pulled into a ponytail at the back of her head, with the exception of some fly-away wisps that framed her face. Once again, they were in the hospital wing, Harry once again having gotten injured catching the Snitch. Without the looming threat of Lord Voldemort, things were much freer, more relaxed. And Harry, recovering a little too well, had completely focused all of his energy on winning the Quidditch Cup. But, as he’d told Ginny in secret, he didn’t just want to win it. He wanted to win it spectacularly, as a sort of Seventh Year thing.

“You’re quite something, you know that, Potter?” Ginny huffed, her hands on her hips. They had won the game but Harry had had to immediately be taken to the hospital wing. She’d come with him but had run up to change into more comfortable clothes; Muggle clothes, to be precise – an old T-Shirt and a pair of basketball shorts. (1)

“Of course I know that,” he said, reaching up to grip her arm gently and pull her down. “But you’re the only one who can handle that, and you know it.”

She smirked. “How could I not? Not many other girls could watch their boyfriends plummet fifty feet headfirst from a broom and still remember not to drop the Quaffle.”

Harry, who had been focused on giving her a kiss, laughed, his warm breath spilling across her face and his rich voice filling the large room. “No, I wouldn’t say so.”

She leaned forward and gave him a peck on the lips. “Now, I have to go. Homework, you know; not everyone can pass through on top of Quidditch.” When he looked up, an eyebrow raised, she mimicked the expression. After staring at each other for a few moments she emptied her face of all emotion before winking suggestively.

“Hey!” he protested. “You can’t do that!” He smirked. “Unless, of course, you…”

Her eyes flashed angrily. “HARRY! I WILL NOT GROW CLAWS FOR YOU! SHUT UP ABOUT IT!”

He just smiled at her knowingly. The first month after the defeat of Voldemort and the discovery of the orbs’ true abilities had gone by as normal as a month like that could be. Until the full moon came around, and Ginny noticed a few…changes.

“You can never be truly healed,” Dumbledore said when she, along with very hopeful parents and a confused Harry, had sat down with him after the first night of the full moon. “You are cursed, and always will be. But…the power of the orbs, while not being able to completely counter that, has changed your predicament considerably.”

“How so?” Arthur Weasley spoke up, his hand gripping his wife’s and his arm around his daughter. “It’s not worse, is it?”

“Oh, heavens no,” Dumbledore had said. “The opposite, in fact. She still goes through transformations, though she is in control of them now. The werewolf side of her has blended more with her natural self. While it might be a bit odd to think of your daughter as more of a werewolf, it is actually quite advantageous. She now remains in control during her transformations and she can control the symptoms, somewhat. She can even call on some of them when the moon is not full, such as her claws, and some will always be with her – such as the change in her eye color.” Dumbledore watched them for a moment before adding something else, his expression saying he’d almost forgotten it. “And have you noticed that your senses are stronger? You also have better reflexes, more stamina.”

It had explained why Quidditch had become so much easier for her, why she could stay out on the field for so long without getting tired, and see well into the night.

That statement had been met with silence. Ginny’s face was blank; Harry’s, mystified and slightly disbelieving; her parents, stunned. “Are you serious?” Harry spoke up.

“Quite serious,” Dumbledore had smiled, that familiar twinkle in his crystal blue eyes.

One of the ‘perks’, you might say, were that she could change her nails into claws. Her eyes were also that same mixed color both shades remaining. Dumbledore had offered to give her a spell that would change the appearance to look like it did before, but she had declined, saying the liked the new color.

“Come on, Ginny!” Harry now said. He wouldn’t be so adamant about it if she weren’t so forceful about keeping that aspect of her transformations under wraps.

“Harry, no,” she said firmly. “I try not to think about that. Whatever would I need claws for?”

“Malfoy?” Harry suggested, grinning when Ginny smacked him playfully on his shoulder. “Ow, not there!”

She grinned. “Sorry. I can’t ever keep track of your injuries.” She paused. “And here comes someone. I think it’s Ron and Hermione, I smell that insane cologne he insists on wearing.”

Harry wrinkled his nose. “You think it’s bad, you don’t have to sleep in the same dorm as him. I swear, that stuff does not come off. Even after he takes a shower, it’s still there, melding into his pillow and bed. It just does not go away.”

She shook her head, smiling. “Harry…”

He frowned in concern when he noticed the different tone of her voice; it was more serious. “Yeah?”

“Harry,” she said again, obviously thinking her words over carefully. “I…want to thank you.”

“For what?” he asked, his frown deepening. He cocked his head slightly to one side as he watched her face closely.

“For…” she sighed. “For being there for me. I was wrong about you. I thought you just wanted me, in the beginning, just…to have me. Another mark on your list. But…most guys wouldn’t have stuck with me. They would be repulsed, disgusted by what I turn into every night.” Her voice had grown bitter, but she seemed to shake herself of it. “Harry, you made me feel comfortable with it. You still do.”

He stared at her for a moment before reaching forward to grip her hand. “Ginny, I love you,” he said baldly. “Of course I’d try my best to make you feel that way.” He smiled. “I’m glad it’s worked.”

She smiled too, squeezing his hand. “I love you too.” They remained in a comfortable silence for a moment, the footsteps of their friends growing closer and closer. Suddenly, Ginny laughed a little. “I know how to describe it, Harry. You’ve….you’ve made me realize that there’s beauty in a werewolf.” And at that moment, she realized that, from the very beginning, that was all she ever wanted. To find beauty in herself, not on the outside, but on the inside. And even though she had a beastly side of her, it was just as beautiful as her normal side. And she’d only ever needed Harry to show her that.

THE END.

A/N: There you go! Please review! Thanks for being with me through it all, through that horrible mix up there at the beginning…but yeah. Thank you ALL! I heart you. It’s been a long time…now I can let it settle. Once again, thanks for reading, and please, drop a review!