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At first Sirius couldn't believe that Remus could have any doubts about their friendship. He was hurt by his friend's lack of trust in him but over time he came to realise that Remus might have been right. Not about their friendship, Remus would still always be his best friend but that he really had never known the person Remus had been meant to be, that nobody had. It was possible that if Remus had come to Hogwarts without being manipulated, he would probably not have been a Gryffindor and that they wouldn't have even got to know each other well enough to have been friends. Sirius didn't know how he felt about that, on one hand he was grateful for Remus' friendship while they were in Hogwarts and glad to still have the last of his friends with him now but on the other hand, he was furious with Dumbledore for what he'd done to them all but especially how he'd harmed his friends. James was dead because of Dumbledore's manipulations and Remus had spent years suffering more than he already would have and he himself had spent years in Azkaban, hell Sirius was starting to believe after seeing the changes in Remus that it was even possible that the rat might not have betrayed them all if it wasn't for Dumbledore's interference.

Remus was quieter than he'd ever been, almost shy even with him which annoyed Sirius. The new Remus also had a lot less patience with Sirius' lack of personal organisation but was hesitant to step in and take charge, organising things for his friend like he would have done in the past, not realising that that's exactly what Sirius would like him to do.

Remus started seeing a counsellor who his healer recommended to try to find the lingering ideas and behaviours that the compulsions had influenced for so long he wasn't even aware they weren't natural and to discover exactly what sort of man he would've been. One of the biggest shocks was when he realised that the belief that werewolves didn't deserve to fall in love and have a family of their own was a compulsion, or at least had been largely reinforced by compulsions. He still wasn't sure that he trusted himself to have children, or at least not to have children without several people in charge of looking after them during the full moon to make sure he couldn't infect them. But now he could understand that he wasn't a monster during the rest of the month and that he was as deserving of friendship, love and affection as anyone else. He wondered why Dumbledore had wanted to make him believe he wasn't. Had he been trying to make sure that he drew away from James and Sirius and Peter to leave his friends vulnerable to Dumbledore's manipulations? Had Dumbledore's manipulations made him abandon Peter, making him vulnerable to recruitment by the Death Eaters?

-o0o-

Once they'd come to believe in Remus's change of beliefs and personality, Dan and Emma found they both liked the werewolf and actually preferred it when the two men came to visit Harry together. Remus was the one that reminded Sirius that Harry wasn't a clone of their friend but his son who had had very different life experiences and couldn't be expected to see the world the same way James had seen it. It was Remus that first accepted that as much as they loved Harry and Harry cared for them, it was Dan and Emma that he looked to for parenting and that was okay. He pointed out that that let him and Siri have the positions in Harry's life that they would have had if James and Lily hadn't been killed, and that it was more fun to be the irresponsible uncle rather than be Harry's guardian and have to deal with boring things like discipline and proper diets and bedtimes. With Remus acting more reasonably he was able to point out to Sirius when he wasn't and to explain to the two dentists what damage the Dementors had done to their son's godfather's mind. With Remus' help they convinced Sirius to see a healer and to begin counselling.

-o0o-

It took time but Harry and Hermione eventually learned to trust Remus as much as they trusted Sirius. That is, they learned to trust that he was free of the compulsions Dumbledore had cast on him and that he genuinely wanted what was best for Harry even though they couldn't always trust either of them to see things from Harry's or Hermione's point of view, or even Daniel and Emma's point of view. It was not always a bad thing though was often frustrating and at least Remus could be reasoned with and explain his point of view rather than Sirius who continued to be a bit blind to other people's reaction to his actions and ideas. In spite of that Harry continued to think that Sirius was more fun to hang around with, a little insane perhaps but not in a way that was likely to hurt Harry. Hermione preferred to spend time with the quieter and more bookish Remus who now that the compulsions had been removed actually had a vast knowledge of all their school subjects and curiosity into the differences between Bunyip and Hogwarts as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the other Australian schools.

-o0o-

Remus settled into life in Australia and while he continued to live with Sirius and spent a good bit of his time managing his friend and tempering his crazy ideas he also found work in a publishing company editing spelling and grammar and checking facts in manuscripts that had been otherwise approved for publishing. It was painstakingly pedantic work but Remus found that it suited him. He was particularly good at making sure that beginner text books for muggle subjects were assuming no prior knowledge of the subject.

-o0o-

Harry and Hermione were happy at Bunyip, Harry remained the undisputed quidditch star of the school but his grades were also in the top five percent of his class. Hermione was of course top in all the theory parts of every class though Harry beat her in the practical casting especially magic that had an offensive or defensive application. He also won the school duelling competition in his fourth year coming second in the interschool competition which he went on to win in his fifth, sixth and seventh years.

Harry and Hermione kept up with news from England as best they could without letting Sirius and Remus know they were interested or being in direct communication with anyone there and were pleased to hear that things had calmed down in Britain away from the influence of Dumbledore or Voldemort and his Death Eaters. There had been no suspicious disappearances or deaths, though several people from dark families had suddenly lost their magic over the years and had tried to hide the fact or refused to explain why. As the years passed with no sign of Dumbledore's dire warning of the He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's resurrection the people of Magical Britain started to forget about the need to track down The-Boy-Who-Lived and force him to return instead deciding that it was better for Britain if he never returned in case his return was one of the conditions necessary for You-Know-Who to return. Very few people who actually missed Harry and Hermione, in spite of his fame he hadn't actually been well known even among most of his classmates.

-o0o-

Ron Weasley surprisingly found as the years passed, he did not really miss either Harry or Hermione as much as he thought he would, though he missed the attention and sense of inflated self esteem he got being Harry's best mate he definitely did not miss the danger and drama that always seemed to surround his friend. He became closer friends with his other room mates and tried out for Harry's position as seeker only to be beaten out by his little sister. Still he tried out for the keeper position in fourth year and beat out that braggart Cormac McClaggen, making the team in his fifth year though the team never managed to win the Quidditch cup in the three years he played.

-o0o-

Ginny was thrilled to get the seeker position believing it would give her something in common with Harry when he returned to England. She was still angry and hurt by his refusal of her betrothal offer, she just couldn't understand that while she thought of marrying Harry as all her dreams coming true he had never thought of her like that and saw the attempt to manipulate him into the contract as a betrayal by her and her family. She was still hopeful that when Harry returned he would finally see that she was the woman of his dreams. Ginny would never have admitted it, even to herself but in spite of all her dreams and ambitions of becoming his girlfriend and betrothed, she couldn't actually miss Harry as a person, because they hadn't been friends, she'd never truly known him and she was too angry with Hermione, having walked off with the boy of her dreams to accept that she was missing her friendship and support, though she had to admit she was lonely without the older girl. Her experiences in first year with the diary had caused her roommates to avoid her whenever they could, and neither the girls on the quidditch team nor Hermione's former roommates were interested in hanging out with the younger girl either.

-o0o-

Neville truly missed Harry in spite of no longer being the odd man out between the two pairs of friends in the dorm and regretted that he hadn't been a better friend to him during the two years he was at Hogwarts. But he missed Hermione who had been one of his few friends in the castle, and had tried so hard to make sure he succeeded in class even with the memory problems he'd had before being healed at the start of third year and his father's poorly matched wand, more than he missed Harry. He tried to befriend Ginny who also seemed friendless without Hermione there to help run interference between her and her brother, but the red headed girl wasn't interested in his shy attempt to make friends.

-o0o-

Filius Flitwick was another who missed the young pair of Gryffindors, Lily Potter had been a particular favourite of his and he would've offered her an apprenticeship with him if it hadn't been for the war. To know that the school he loved for so long had let down her son and the young witch who's love of learning had reminded him of Lily, so badly that they felt they couldn't return even after the cause of their problems had been removed shamed him. Several of the other professors shared that shame but none of them felt the personal loss the way Filius did.

-o0o-

Draco didn't hate his new school as much as he thought he would, though he hated the fact that he was seen as just another student no better than all the rest. For the first time in his life he had to accept that none of the witches or wizards in the school had heard of his father and none of them would be impressed by him if they did. Just like in Yorkshire and at the orphanage, neither the purity of his blood or the money in his family accounts mattered to anyone. He hadn't made real friends with anyone but had several acquaintances that didn't seem to mind him tagging along when he had free time and while it irked that nobody looked up to him, he wasn't being bullied. It did hurt his pride to be in classes with students younger than he was, and it only got worse when he realised that they were doing just as well or better than he was. He had no problems with relearning the spells he'd already learned but received poor marks for his essays since the teachers at Windwalker marked for grammar, spelling and essay construction as well as the knowledge of the topic. His remedial classes frustrated the hell out of him, particularly the mathematics class where many of the other students were nine and ten year olds.

Unlike at Hogwarts, or at least unlike around the Slytherin students, the muggleborn students spoke openly about their muggle parents and siblings, muggle friends and activities. Even the students with wizarding parents often unashamedly admitted they lived in the muggle world had muggle friends. What the students with magical parents never spoke about was how many generations their families had had magic, to them it just wasn't important, it didn't give them any form of advantage or sense of superiority to be a pure blood. Even their minister for magic cheerfully admitted to having a muggle father. Draco was very glad for the time he'd spent out with Nymphadora which helped him fit in instead of sneering at the muggle leisure pursuits and getting the other students off side. He kept his head down and worked hard, every time he was tempted to slack off he'd remember how terrible it had been at the Yorkshire School of Magic and at the muggle high school which he'd have to go back to if he couldn't pass his classes here.

He'd written to Crabbe a couple of times but only got a sentence or two back from him and had still heard nothing from any of his other supposed friends.

-o0o-

The Slytherin students found that life in the dungeons without Professor Snape's protection from the rest of the school and blatant favouritism was very different and not all pleasant. Professor Sinistra was true to her word and enforced strict punishments for any student caught bullying a fellow housemate and the rest of the professors were equally quick to assign detention to anyone starting fights or bullying outside of the dorms and common room. At first they resented it a great deal but after several months once they'd broken the habit of starting fights and expecting Snape to step in and punish their victims or ganging up on the younger years they noticed that the rest of the school was also less willing to pick fights with them and that their own first years felt safe to be out in the halls by themselves, something that they'd always had to be careful not to get caught doing in years gone past.

-o0o-

In spite of her hysterics when she found out that her father had cancelled her betrothal to Draco, Pansy eventually found that she enjoyed not being betrothed. She did miss Draco at first or perhaps it would be more honest to say she missed the security of knowing she had a comfortable and enviable future ahead of her no matter how well she did on her OWLs and NEWTs. Her father was looking for another betrothal for her and she had faith that he'd choose somebody appropriate, (though she was not as confident that it would be someone she actually could like and be friends with) but in the meantime, she was free to make decisions for herself.

When the first Hogsmeade weekend was announced she'd been shocked that nobody had asked her to go with them and had spent the weekend pouting. After watching her confusion and frustration, her roommate Tracy Davis had pulled her aside and told her bluntly that if she wanted boys to ask her out then she had to make an effort to be more likeable. Pansy was shocked to hear that her pure blood and old family name wasn't enough to have boys eager to date her lining up for a chance, but Tracy and Daphne had pointed out that third year boys weren't looking for a wife, that would be up to their parents or head of house and was something they didn't need to worry about until after they came of age. Thirteen and Fourteen year old boys were eager to have fun in Hogsmeade and would ask our someone who they thought they would enjoy spending time with, not worrying about what the effects that being seen with a particular girl would do for their family's social standing. Her father might be an up and coming man of some power in their world but Pansy herself wasn't, most of her political power had been as the future Lady Malfoy and she needed to remember that power and influence was gone forever, even if she did end up marrying Draco, the Malfoy name and reputation was in ruins. Tracy coached her to put more effort into being nice to her dates and boys in general and trying to appear to be interesting and approachable instead of arrogant and superior, so they'd want to ask her out and so she found herself trying things that she'd never considered trying or doing or thinking before. Tracy also encouraged her to throw Draco under the Knight Bus and tell people that her previous behaviour and attitudes were simply to keep her former betrothed happy so he would treat her decently and that her new personality was who she really was. It took several months for people to believe she had changed.

Dating boys who weren't already betrothed to marry her was much more rewarding, it was a challenge for a start to manipulate them into wanting to go out with her and during the date they actually put effort into pleasing her and speaking about things she was interested in so she'd want to accept another date.

-o0o-

Of the other Slytherins only Crabbe missed Draco and the other students who had been expelled. The others were too busy trying to take advantage of the vacuum of power in the house caused by their absence and the absence of Professor Snape to provide support for his favoured few students. The fight to be top dog was no less vicious because it had to be kept out of the attention of their head of house. Even Crabbe had to admit that he rarely thought of the blonde boy after he was quietly removed from Hogwarts at Yule of his third year and home schooled in the tasks he would need to be able to do to help out on the family estate. He was quite relieved not to have to go back to school, without the task of looking after Draco Malfoy and the friendship of Gregory Goyle he found Hogwarts to be a confusing and unforgiving place. He had been failing all of his subjects and served multiple detentions each week for not handing in homework assignments or handing in work of such poor quality the teachers originally believed he'd scribbled down while walking to the class it was due to be handed in. They soon realised that he wasn't slacking, the substandard essays were the best he could do, someone else must have been helping him with them in the past (though the professors could hardly believe Malfoy or Goyle were generous enough to have helped him without some gain for themselves) and his detentions became extra lessons where he could talk through the ideas of his assignment instead of writing an essay for homework, but that did not make them any more enjoyable. He had no friends, the other's not wanting to hang out with Malfoy's sidekick now the blonde boy was not there to lord it over them and force people to hang out with him and his bodyguards, and was frequently harassed by the other houses in retaliation for how the Slytherin trio had ganged up and tormented other students the year before.

-o0o-

Voldemort, continued to try to build up his strength possessing snakes when he could, and trying to keep up with the news of wizarding Britain to find a Death Eater who was still loyal to the cause to help him perform a resurrection ritual. He chuckled over Dumbledore's arrest but was furious about the list of crimes the old man had got away with while proclaiming himself the leader of the light for so many years. He was also incensed to read the list of those that had been caught and sentenced to death or incarceration this time and about the vow that every prisoner, ministry employee and senior Hogwarts student had been forced to take and many citizens of magical Britain had taken of their own free will. He left the country realising that there was nobody left in Britain that he could trust. Unfortunately for him, but perhaps most fortunately for the rest of the world both wizarding and muggle he never found a wizard that he trusted who had the knowledge and magical power to help him return and despite his best efforts slowly grew weaker. He finally died, or it might be more accurate to say ceased to exist in the forests of Albania when the snake he was possessing was unexpectedly killed and eaten before he could detach himself.

-o0o-

Albus Dumbledore spent the rest of his life waiting in vain for Tom to be resurrected and the British Wizarding World to admit that they needed him to become the leader of the fight against him, planning what reparations for his imprisonment he would be able to demand, especially since their saviour had abandoned them and hadn't been found, it would all rest on Albus to Vanquish the Dark Lord. He would be the hero of the Wizarding World again and this time he would ensure the loyalty of his followers. His captors often let him have a copy of the Daily Prophet (the one's he wasn't mentioned in because they rightly believed it would hurt the elderly wizard more to be ignored than despised) so he could read how they were managing to eradicate his influence on the wizengamot and how well the British wizarding world was doing without him.

Nobody in Britain missed Albus, not even his brother or former friends. Even the few people who had managed to get over their anger and feelings of betrayal recognised that any signs of affability or affection and any favours the old man had done were only to cement his image as a light wizard and to enable him to manipulate and/or give him the opportunity to potion or spell his victims into complying with his schemes and that the elderly wizard had never had any personal fondness for anyone he manipulated.

The End.

A/N: Thank you to all those who read, reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.

Stay safe everyone.