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Chapter 28
Harry sat there in shock. He was covered in what was left of the matter that had been LeStrange's brain and he was staring up at Hermione, who had just killed the woman in the middle of torturing him. Hermione quickly ran out of the adrenaline that she had been running on to act as she had, and she sank to the ground and started to sob. Harry had just enough mind to pull his girlfriend to him and envelop her in his arms. Between sobs she would say things like "I had to stop her," and "Couldn't let her hurt you," but Harry couldn't focus enough to really understand what Hermione was saying, so he just held her as close to himself as he could. Neither of them could say just how long they sat there, with Harry and now also Hermione covered in things they didn't want to think about and the body of LeStrange lying just at their feet.
Eventually they were interrupted by a screaming sound that came from the body. The teens turned and looked at the source of the sound, terrified of what Harry knew was to come next. Black smoke started to billow out of the hole that now made up the greater part of LeStrange's face. The instant that the cloud spilled forth into the room with them. Harry felt a pain like someone had taken a white hot piece of wire and pressed it to his scar.
The smoke formed a mostly human face, though it was twisted by hate and rage and it continued to scream not in pain but in a primal fury. It tried to get at the teens to possess them, to control them, to hurt them in any way it could, but the Cup of Helga Hufflepuff, the Horcrux made to keep the soul shard safe and contained, still stuck to the hip of the dead body that had one been one of the most feared witches in all of Britain, did its job and started to draw the soul shard back inside it. The piece of Voldemort fought it, trying to get at Harry and Hermione, but it was in vain. The pull of the Horcrux too much for it to resist, and soon everything was silent.
After so much happening, the silence was overbearing and the two just sat there looking at the cup. It was probably a handful of minutes later that Harry got up, though it could have been an hour or more for all the sense of time he had. He summoned a bag from the piles of lost students' belongings, and a book bag that was originally black but looked like someone had spilled bleach on it came flying over. Harry used a cutting charm to separate the cup from LeStrange's body. He wasn't particularly careful with his aim; the cup was unfortunately immune to cutting charms and he didn't care about LeStrange's corpse enough not to hit it. He flouted the cup into the bag, careful that neither he nor Hermione touched it, then floated LeStrange's body before pulling Hermione to her feet.
As LeStrange was floated through the Room of Requirement, a book slipped from her pocket and landed on the floor. Both Harry and Hermione were wary of the book and levitated it into the bag with the Horcrux. The two trudged through the room, too tired and in too much shock to really be feeling anything. Hermione let out a small sob when she saw the body of the headmaster, but Harry just floated it up next to LeStrange's. Snape was still hanging in the air over a pool of his own blood, so Harry added his body to the collection he had floating behind him and left the room of Requirement, leading the way to the headmaster's office. On the way he called on Dobby and had the elf bring him the last basilisk fang he had stored in his trunk.
The headmaster's office was full of noise when Harry stepped in, the bodies floating behind him. The portraits were arguing as a new portrait of Dumbledore was sleeping in his frame; it would likely take portrait-Dumbledore at least a few weeks to wake Harry walk into the office, a bunch of the former heads started to demand answers, but Harry ignored them, he knew the first thing he had to do was destroy the cup, and Dobby soon popped in with that he needed. A few of the portraits protested what Harry was about to do when they saw Hufflepuff's Cup, but he didn't have the energy to listen to them. He stabbed the Horcrux with the fang and felt oddly satisfied when he heard again the dying screams of a piece of Voldemort's soul. It was done. All the free parts of the soul were destroyed.
Harry felt a wave of fatigue was over him at the thought that the fighting was over. A big part of him wanted to just leave the bodies in the office and for him and Hermione to go find somewhere quiet so he could just sleep, but he knew he couldn't do that. First he put the cup and the fang in the book bag and gave it to Dobby, telling the elf to put it in his trunk. He knew that the fires in the school were a Floo network of their own and only the Floos in the professors' offices were able to connect to the outside of the castle. Harry Floo'ed the D.M.L.E. from the office and reported that LeStrange had attacked the school and that she, Snape, and Dumbledore had died. After confirming that the danger had passed and the fighting was over, he was told that a team from the D.M.L.E. would be at the school shortly. Once Harry was done with the Floo call, he sent a Patronus message to Professor McGonagall telling her to come to the headmaster's office as soon as possible.
That done, Harry collapsed in a chair with Hermione, not having the energy to stand anymore. Professor McGonagall soon came running into the office dressed for bed in her tartan dressing gown. "Potter, what's going on? And why are you summoning me to the headmaster's office at three in the morning? I have half a min-" She then saw the three dead bodies and was shocked into silence.
Director Amelia Bones of the D.M.L.E herself soon came, leading a troop of Aurors. Harry had forgotten that, as the chief Warlock, Dumbledore's death would require that the D.M.L.E. send the most senior people. It wasn't until the start of breakfast five hours later, and going over their story about ten times, that Harry and Hermione were taken to the hospital wing and left in the car of Madam Pomfrey, who shuffled them into beds and gave them each a dreamless sleep potion.
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In the aftermath of LeStrange's raid of Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione had a decision to make: would they try and go back in time again and try for a better outcome? On one hand, they knew even more now than they did the last time, but on the other hand compared to the first timeline things were pretty good now, and trying again could easily lead to a worse outcome. They still didn't know where the cup was hidden before this, so they couldn't destroy all the Horcruxes before Voldemort attempted to come back, meaning there was always going to be an element of luck involved. What if LeStrange was the only one who knew where the cup was? If something happened to her, then they would be left with a bomb just waiting to go off.
No, the current timeline was pretty good: no war, little chaos, and best of all (even if they hadn't been able to save everyone) they had saved a lot. Sirius, Mad-Eye, Cedric, Director Bones, Minister Fudge, Rufus Scrimgeour. The muggleborns weren't going through hell on the run, and best of all Hermione's parents still knew who they were and who their daughter was. This timeline was worth fighting for. They weren't gods to decide to erase the past five years of everyone's lives on a chance that they could make a world they thought was better. They had used a situation they had found themselves in once, but doing it on purpose just didn't feel right to either of them. It was time for them to look to the future, not the past.
With Dumbledore dead, Hermione was no longer bound to the oath of doing her Horcrux research in his office. The oath required there to be a Dumbledore's office for that to apply, and that office now belonged to Headmistress McGonagall. So Hermione stole the books on Horcruxes again, and she also had the book that had fallen out of LeStrange's pocket. At first they had been worried that the book was a Horcrux like the diary had been, or that it was cursed like the ring had been, but after every test she and Harry could devise, the only things on the book were some quick and dirty privacy charms.
Harry had gotten Hermione a trunk like the one Mad-Eye had, one with a secure room that could only be opened by the two of them. The room was set up as a study so that she could do her research without risking that one of her dormmates might pick up one of the incredibly dark and dangerous books out of curiosity at what Hermione was studying. The trunk had been expensive, but it was better to be excessively cautious with books that contained instructions for such dark magic.
Apparently, while on the run LeStrange/Voldemort hadn't had the time or materials to enchant her book with real security. This meant that, while it took some time to beat the charms, it wasn't particularly difficult. It turned out the book was Voldemort's work journal. In it were the plans he had worked out step by step to restore himself to a full body. After his plans at the graveyard had failed, the younger version of Voldemort had another way to return, though this last method was nowhere near as fast. He had needed to posses two Death Eaters, one of each sex, and have them conserve a child in a ritual circle. The two soul fragments would be drawn into the fetus, where they would bond with the proto-soul of the fetus. Nine months later, a brand new baby Voldemort would have been born, a baby Voldemort with a whole and complete soul. It was a disgusting piece of magic, but it did prove one thing to Hermione, that it was possible to transfer a soul shard out of its Horcrux. That information gave Hermione the hope she needed, and she started the long process of breaking down the ritual to find how to do the parts she needed.
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Harry and Hermione finished out their fifth year taking their O.W.L.s, loving that exams were the biggest thing they had to worry about. Hermione's research into the Horcrux in Harry's head, while important, wasn't time critical. The last couple of weeks after the O.W.L.s were mostly spent just soaking up the sun around the lake, sometimes alone and sometimes with their friends. Harry had a good laugh at one point when Colin and Luna had joined the two of them for a picnic around the far side of the lake and the younger boy hadn't realised he was on a double date until they were about halfway through. Luna and Colin were getting pretty serious, and Colin had even been invited to go snorkack hunting with the Lovegoods over the summer holidays. Luna admitted that she was still unsure if her father had heard the part about Colin being her boyfriend and had just accepted because Colin was a skilled photographer.
Soon the end of the year came, and all the students piled into the Hogwarts Express to travel south to London. Harry still half-expected Malfoy to come bursting into his compartment, but from what he heard Draco had been betrothed to a pureblood girl who's father had taken control of the Malfoy businesses as part of the deal. The part that had really amused the Weasley twins (from whom Harry had heard the information) was that as part of the deal Draco had to attend a non-magical school, and the grades he got there would determine how big the stipend he and his future wife received from the Malfoy business would be. Harry thought it was perfect.
Dan, Emma, and Sirius were waiting for the two of them on the platform, and instead of taking them home they took them out to dinner. Not just a walk-in place either, Sirius had a reservation for a private room. Hermione asked what was going on once they were seated, and it was a grinning Sirius who told them that the Wizengamot had decided to offer both Harry and Hermione the Order of Merlin for their role in protecting the students of Hogwarts from Bellatrix LeStrange, and for Harry's actions in capturing three incredibly dangerous criminals at the end of the Triwizard Tournament
Both of them almost turned them down out of humility, as well as the fact that LeStrange wasn't interested in the students when she and Voldemort had snuck into the school. However, there was one thing that came with the Order of Merlin that pushed them to keep it; it also came with a lifelong seat on the Wizengamot. Hermione had put her aspirations to help the house elves to one side while she worked on Voldemort and the Horcruxes, but Wizengamot seats would make that goal a hell of a lot easier to achieve, so they accepted the award.
The award ceremony had been a big summer ball in the Ministry. The entire Wizengamot was there and the whole thing was an excuse for each of them to talk to the new Order of Merlin holders and feel out just how they were likely to vote in the future. For a lot of the issues, Harry could honestly say he had no idea and would have to study the issues a lot more. However, he was happy to say he would vote for any bill that gave werewolves back all the rights they lost because of their curse, and that he would oppose any bill that restricted the rights of any magical citizen.
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One thing Harry truly wasn't looking forward to was going to visit his cousin. He and Hermione took the Knight Bus to a small town out in the countryside of Surrey, and after talking with a few locals Harry was able to find Aunt Marge's house. According to the Dursleys' will (Harry had gotten a copy from the probate office), the house on Privet Drive was to be held for Dudley until he was eighteen and rented out to a good family until then to pay the property tax and mortgage.
Harry knocked on the door of the house and winced slightly as the sound of about ten dogs barking assaulted his ears. "Get the door!" Harry heard his aunt shout and a short wait later (where Harry could hear someone struggling with a pack of dogs) the door opened to reveal Dudley. His cousin saw Harry standing there with Hermione, and for a moment it seemed like he was trying to get angry at Harry, only he couldn't seem to do it. Almost defeatedly, he asked. "What's happened now?"
Harry saw the change in Dudley so he didn't waste any time in saying that the monster that killed his parents was dead, and that while he had tried to do it it was Hermione who had finished off LeStrange. Dudley actually surprised Harry by shaking Hermione's hand and thanking her. They ended up going for a walk around the local neighbourhood, and Dudley apologised for hitting Harry the last time he had seen him. He told them that in his temper he had mouthed off that his parents' deaths were all Harry's fault, and a few of his dorm mates had called him out on the complete bullshit he had been spouting. They had, aggressively at times, made him think over everything. In the end, Dudley couldn't tell his dorm mates the truth because they would think him insane. He did, however, realise that after the way Harry was treated he hadn't owed his family anything, and Harry (being a teenager himself) couldn't be held responsible for what some murderer did.
As they talked, Dudley revealed that he had done quite well in his G.C.S.E.s, but with his parents estate held in trust for him until he was eighteen he didn't have the money to return to Smeltings for his A levels, and Marge apparently didn't have the money either. Harry told Dudley about how he had agreed to pay for the last two years if Dudley needed it and was surprised when Dudley tried to refuse, but Harry insisted, saying that the school had apparently been good for Dudley.
Harry and Hermione left a much less mopey Dudley behind them when they left. Harry doubted that they would ever have a good relationship between them, but all that time away from his parents had let Dudley grow up into something that resembled a decent human.
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Harry's birthday came and went, and with it came his and Hermione's O.W.L. results. Hermione had managed to fix her one bad grade in Defence Against the Dark Arts and she now had Outstandings in all of her subjects. Harry hadn't done nearly as well as Hermione, as he only had five Outstandings in Defence, Transfiguration, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions, with an Exceeds Expectations in everything else. Sirius was more than happy with the results as soon as he read them, and the Grangers, once they understood that their daughter had just achieved the magical equivalent of straight A's in her G.C.S.E.s, were ecstatic for their daughter.
With the problem of Voldemort / LeStrange dealt with and the adults in their lives happy with their O.W.L. results, on top of no homework as they hadn't chosen what N.E. yet, Harry and Hermione basically had the summer to themselves to do whatever they wanted. With the Knight Bus to get around the country cheaply and beaches being free to visit, the two of them spent a lot of time relaxing on the sand with Hermione catching up on reading a few novels and Harry goofing off in the sand or getting involved with some game other teens on the beach were playing. After everything that had happened, it was just what they needed: a slice of the normal life they had been fighting for.
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It wasn't until Harry and Hermione were in their seventh year and Hermione was head girl that Hermione finally made the breakthrough to get the soul shard out of Harry. As was often the case, the solution turned out to be much simpler than they ever would have guessed. Harry had to make a Horcrux.
Naturally Harry had not been a fan of the idea when Hermione first told him. After a week-long fight where Harry had been an ass and refused to listen to Hermione at all, she had tied him to a chair in the Room of Requirement. After silencing him so that he had to listen, she explained. "God damn it Harry you are an infuriating git sometimes. Now you're just going to sit there and listen to me for a bit." Harry shot her a look, but that was all he could do. "I don't mean for you to murder someone and use that murder to split your soul. I'm talking about using the final part of the ritual where you push the fragment into an object. Only instead of a fragment of your soul, we target the fragment that is already separate from your soul. Put Voldemort's soul in something worthless, like a copy of one of Lockhart's books, then we destroy it and end the problem for good."
Harry had calmed down when he understood that he wasn't going to kill anyone or any of the more distasteful parts of the ritual and had agreed to Hermione's plan, then spent the next few weeks apologising to her for hurting her feelings. Hermione had to rewrite the ritual from the ground up to remove the elements that they didn't need. While they weren't completely happy with the results (as they couldn't remove the need for a sacrifice completely), Hermione was able to work it so that the sacrifice of her virginity to Harry was acceptable, even if she had wanted their first time to be more romantic. The ritual went off without any problems, and for hopefully the last time in his life Harry wielded a basilisk fang and destroyed the Horcrux.
Once the last Horcrux was destroyed, Fawkes had made an appearance and started to sing a song of relief, joy, and apology. Harry and Hermione both understood the bird felt ashamed of what the feather he had donated for Voldemort's wand had done, and he had added magic to Harry's wand so that Harry could end the damage being done by Voldemort and his wand. Fawkes took Harry's wand from him and burst into flames just like on his burning day. Both the phoenix and the wand were reborn in the ashes, and the holly in the wand took on a much lighter colour. Harry understood that the wand would never take him back in time again.
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Harry proposed to Hermione on his eighteenth birthday and she was more than happy to say yes. They both agreed to wait until after they had gotten their Masteries to get married, and so it wasn't until Harry was twenty-two and had his Defence Mastery that he got to see a beaming Hermione in her wedding dress. Despite being members of the Wizengamot, they opted for a muggle ceremony in the same church that Hermione got christened in. It was a great excuse to keep the wedding from getting out of hand, with half the wizarding world trying to gatecrash the wedding. Colin was there both as a guest and as a professional photographer. He mainly worked with Luna taking photos for the Quibbler, but it wasn't uncommon for his work to end up in other publications.
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It took Hermione and Harry twelve years of work to pass a law to help house elves. Unfortunately the law wasn't one to free the elves, but an animal welfare law that protected all the magical creatures owned by witches and wizards, mandating a minimum standard of care where violators would have all the magical creatures they owned taken away from them. It wasn't what they wanted, and the pressure for the public was more about protecting cute pets like Crups and Kneazles. But (as Harry told Hermione) it was a massive step in the right direction, and it wasn't like they needed to stop making things better.
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Harry and Hermione had four kids. They had meant to stop at three but Hermione's last pregnancy had resulted in twins. Harmony Rose was the oldest, William Harry was next, followed by the twins Charles Sirius and Portia Lily (who was the youngest but Harry and Hermione refused to let the twins know who was older). Harry and Hermione were surprised when all of their kids could speak parseltongue, but after some paranoid testing the best they could figure was that Harry had absorbed the Slytherin line gift and had passed it onto his children just like any other line gift. All of them were raised in both the magical and the muggle world so they were just as comfortable in both.
Despite getting her Mastery in Transfiguration Hermione became an author, specialising in writing books that bridged the gap between the mundane world and the magical. Two of her books were even added to the Hogwarts book list. Hermione's books were never quite as popular as Lockhart's had been at his height, but when the man tried to discredit her books in an act of sheer pettiness Hermione had stood by her work and opened them up to public scrutiny. The public inspection of the papers just boosted sales of her books even higher when no errors (save a few missing commas) were found in her books
Harry had his Mastery in Defence Against the Dark Arts and went through a few jobs before he found where he fit, when Moony retired from teaching at Hogwarts and Harry took on the role of Defence Professor. Harry, as he had learned in the D.A., was a natural teacher and he soon became one of the school's most popular teachers.
Life was never perfect; there were times when he and Hermione had fights and times they both fought with their kids, but they were a real family, and Harry wouldn't change that for the world.
A/N
GCSE's - General Certificate of Secondary Education, the exams British students do in their fifth year of comprehensive school.
Well, that's it for phoenix wand I hope you have all had fun reading it. I know I have loved reading your reviews and all the support you have given me. This is my first time finishing a long fic and this is a bitter-sweet moment for me and maybe some of you as well.
But as one fic closes a new fic starts today I posted the first four chapters of a new fic 'Harry Potter and the Stitch in Time' it's not another time travel fix it despite the title but I think you all will love it. I would love to hear what you all think about the chapters so far.
you have all been brilliant. I'll catch you in the next one.
Omake
The ritual went off without any problems, and for hopefully the last time in his life Harry wielded a basilisk fang and destroyed the Horcrux.
Hermione was overjoyed. She ran, jumped, and (in a feat of athletic skill Harry never thought she would possess) she landed with her legs wrapped around his waist as she wrapped him in the most complete Hermione hug he had ever had.
Unfortunately, Harry hadn't expected to suddenly need to support two people and he fell on his ass. There was a snap of breaking wood and suddenly the two of them were surrounded by fire. "Here we go again," Harry sighed.