Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

A/N: Thank you all for sticking through this story. I had a great time with it, and I hope you did too!

Epilogue:

Not long after the graduation that everyone would remember at Hogwarts, it turned out that Tom and Snape did in fact elope…sort of. Really, Severus just got tired of planning a wedding, so they just invited everyone to the castle for a cookout one weekend and surprised them with a wedding in the middle of it (the twins standing as Severus's best men and Harry as Tom's). As a lord and a member of the Wizengamut, Sirius Black officiated. It will go down as the only family wedding (maybe only wedding?) where the officiator was hexed by both grooms before he finished the ceremony. Supposedly it was all legal though.

Evan Shade-Snape, DADA Professor and Lord Slytherin, took up his seat on the Wizengamut, pushing forward laws to expand rights for magical creatures, especially the goblins and house elves, and to integrate muggleborns more into wizarding society. While proclaiming that he was Lord Slytherin was a massive scandal in itself, the fact that he stayed on at Hogwarts as a DADA professor for more than one year, in fact many years, was almost just as much of a topic for gossip. One, Albus Dumbledore, never did lose his suspicion that the man was in some way connected to Lord Voldemort. Professor Shade reminded them all though that Tom Riddle would never, under any circumstances, have hair as messy as his; therefore, he couldn't be connected to the man in any way. No one seemed to think it was a logical argument, no matter how many times he said it.

Professor Severus Snape continued on at Hogwarts, teaching the dunderheads for years to come. Many said that he mellowed out some after the war and getting married, but it was pretty hard to tell. The only major change in his life was that he never, under any circumstances, agreed to remain in the castle over a break. He was always off traveling, visiting his family, or trudging through some jungle with his husband hunting for a rare potion ingredient on all of them.

Professor Flamel remained at Hogwarts to continue teaching History of Magic and serving as the Deputy Headmaster and Head of Gryffindor House. Really, his wife decided he needed a new hobby, and teaching seemed just the thing. She also moved into the castle, bringing hordes of grandchildren for random visits, many of which were squibs. They happily helped Professor Perenelle Flamel teach Muggle Studies when she took over the position. It took them several years, many petitions, and many passionate speeches before Dark Arts was added back into the curriculum at Hogwarts. Finally, Professor Draco Malfoy became the first professor of the Dark Arts at Hogwarts in several centuries.

It only took a little over five years for house elves to get legal rights in the wizarding world. Surprisingly it wasn't petitions, marches, an uprising, or even SPEW that brought about the change…it was paintball. Dobby had put together his paintball league the year after Voldemort's defeat. By the end of the tournament, house elves were as obsessed with paintball as wizards were with quidditch. The tournament got larger and larger as almost all the Hogwarts elves signed up, along with many others. There were brackets, team names, and (after Winky got involved) uniforms. Sirius had been instructed to buy out an entire department store's pillowcases that became the official uniforms.

By the second year, there was a committee created to plan the tournament. This committee became a sort of government for all house elves when it became clear that some elves weren't allowed to attend by their masters. The paintball obsessed elves decided this was completely unacceptable. The tournament must be allowed for all who wanted to attend. So, a large governing body of house elves descended on the Ministry of Magic and demanded the tournament be made into a house elf holiday. When the old and more abusive families pushed back on these demands, the committee turned to Kreacher. He never did get into paintball, but all the elves seemed to understand that he would know how to handle the situation. And he did.

Kreacher formalized the petition to much more than a holiday to attend the tournament. The petition ended up encompassing the tournament, abuse and making elves injure themselves, and the ability to leave a family if the elf needed to for any reason. It turns out there was a very unknown bit of house elf magic that they never used. This magic boiled down to the fact that elves can free each other. So, the ultimatum was given…either the families and the wizarding world as a whole agrees to the petition, or any elf who complains to the committee will immediately be freed and sent to a family that did agree to the terms.

Faced with the very real possibility of losing their elves, the Wizengamut ruled in favor of the elves' petition and recognized the British Elven Paintball Committee as the governing body of the House Elf race. Hermione never could decide if she was impressed or upset that a sport, a violent one at that, was what brought about the change instead of her well-planned SPEW campaign. Ron and Harry thought it was brilliant, and Sirius and Tom were the largest supporters in the Wizengamut.

Remus did eventually marry Melinda Masterson…she beat him to the question and asked him to marry her first. It turns out he already had a ring for her in his pocket when she asked. He took on the role of Defense Professor full time at the Toronto Institute of Witchcraft. Where he saw Charlie daily as the new Care of Magical Creatures Professor and Harry at least a couple times a week for dinner.

Sirius Black never did get married and settle down. That suited him just fine though. He loved to spoil his many nieces and nephews, as well as those he called his god-grand-pups. He did eventually get Steve to go out with him though after dancing with him all night at Harry and Charlie's wedding…it was an unmitigated disaster.

Ron and Hermione ended their romantic relationship just a few months after graduation, deciding that they made better friends than romantic partners…and they did. They successfully made the change back over to best friends, staying close all their lives. Hermione reconnected with Viktor Krum when he swept her off her feet (literally) at a quidditch game she attended. They were married several years later once Hermione had set up her own successful legal practice.

Ron was single for a long time, rising in the ranks of aurors to a position of respect and authority. When he was around 32, he went to visit his best friend and his best friend's husband (he insisted that Charlie was Harry's husband first and his brother second) in Canada and fell head over heels for one of Harry's coworkers. She was a 25-year-old, gorgeous, quidditch obsessed, senior research healer with a snarky attitude and a fiery temper, and she was well on her way to developing a cure for cancer in the magical community. Emilia Smythe and Ron Weasley were married just two years after reconnecting in a huge wedding on the property of the Burrow.

The Weasley family had ended up staying at Slytherin Castle for a little over a year. In the magical community, it was common for even a large house to be built within a few months with the aid of magic. However, Tom insisted that everything be perfect from the blueprints down to the furniture. They only finally moved out because the man couldn't find any remaining excuse for them to continue living with him and Severus. There were tears all around, but it was finally decided that the entire family would forever get together every other Sunday at Slytherin Castle for dinner, no matter where they were at the time. This was aided by a plethora of highly illegal, international portkeys that Tom supplied his entire family with constantly whether they lived in Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, or were wherever Neville and Luna happened to be off hunting rare plants or nargles. And Tom Riddle always received a Weasley jumper for Christmas.

Harry and Charlie were indeed fine. Harry loved his position at the research hospital. He did finally master the ninth level of Necromancy after doing a rotation in mind-healing. However, he never went above that level, even though Sirius insisted that possessing an animal would be epic (10th level) and Tom insisted that raising a demon would be fun (12th level). He did try to do the eighth level once more for its original purpose of healing a cursed or damaged part of a soul.

Harry determined that he could cure Remus of his lycanthropy by removing the cursed part of his soul. However, once the family learned of his plans, Harry was immediately summoned, by illegal portkey, to an intervention. Remus assured him that his werewolf was a part of himself at this point. He had accepted and welcomed the wolf into his life, and he wouldn't feel the same without it. Harry was then convinced to make an unbreakable vow to never, ever do the eighth level again. Needless to say, there was a lot of yelling and tears, yelling on Harry's part and tears on Sirius and Remus's…and then Harry's.

Charlie really enjoyed living in a real house instead of a tent and getting to teach. He had never pictured himself living in Canada and teaching at an all-girls school, but he enjoyed it more than he could have ever imagined. Most importantly he fell deeper and deeper in love with his Harry, who in turn, loved him more each day. Their wedding started out small and became a massive event once Molly and Tom took over. Harry and Charlie eventually just let go and went along for the ride. Lily and James were even summoned for the ceremony to the surprise of all the attendees. The party lasted well into the night, the booze flowed, and the food was to die for, and everyone was fairly certain that Neville and Luna's first child was conceived that evening.

It was forever Harry and Tom against the world. No matter where they lived or what they were doing, they talked all throughout the day and supported each other no matter what. No matter how many people were integrated into their lives and added into their family, it was always Harry and Tom. It started out that they were all each other had, coming together to help each other survive and find some happiness when their lives were all pain and torment. Even when they had so much and their lives were so rich, it was the two of them and their love that was the backbone and glue that held the entire family together. For generations, Tom and Harry gathered everyone together for family dinners, holidays, and family events. For two people who had no family at all, their family grew and thrived surrounding them through the good times and the bad. They were no longer all that each other had, and that was the best thing that had ever happened to them.

A/N: Once again, thank you all. I hope you enjoyed!