A/N: Thank you all for staying with this fic. It has truly be a joy to write. I hope you get as much fun out if as I did!

Epilogue

The wizarding world in Britain was reeling. They couldn't decide if they should celebrate or mourn. In the span of a summer, they had lost Albus Dumbledore, Lord Voldemort, and Harry Potter. In some moments they rejoiced, and then the loss hit them. They looked to those who had known Harry and Albus the best for a cue as to what to do. Ron and Hermione seemed desolate…for a week.

Harry's two closest friends shut themselves away and mourned the loss of their friend, until they emerged from the Burrow one sunny day and jumped back into their life. It was like their friend hadn't died a week before. They seemed a bit more serious overall, but they seemed much less affected than anyone expected. No one was sure what they should think. Were they handling this all very maturely, or were the friends maybe not as close as they all thought?

Sirius Black and Poppy Pomfrey retreated to her townhome in Durham once the injured from the battle were cared for. They took Severus Snape with them who needed more care but who was expected to make a full recovery. Viktor Krum and a couple house elves were seen coming and going and doing the standard shopping for the group, but overall, they kept to themselves.

Once the school term began, Sirius and Poppy were once more in their posts at Hogwarts. The infirmary was gleaming, and the History curriculum was constantly improving. The staff all shared looks though in concern when Poppy laid out a deck of cards or her wizards chess set in the evenings as she would when Harry would come by. No one wanted to tell her to stop though. Maybe it helped her to still set them up as if she was waiting.

Severus Snape did recover and taught for just one more year at Hogwarts, proving the DADA curse to be broken. He made sure Harry's year were all graduated to the best of their abilities, then promptly submitted his resignation to Headmistress McGonagall, who'd frankly been expecting it all year even though she was going to miss the Slytherin Head of House. Poppy, Dobby, and Sirius had no plans to leave. Sirius was even more resigned to staying for the long term when Viktor Krum officially took over the post of Potions Professor at the school once Slughorn retired yet again.

Hagrid stayed for just one more year as well before he was able to sit his OWLs, which he passed with exemplary scores. With a heavy heart, but also a great deal of relief, he handed the position of Care of Magical Creatures professor off to Charlie Weasley. Hagrid took on the full-time care of the Abraxan herd at Beauxbatons. Everyone knew that the magical horses were not the main draw of France though.

Hermione graduated at the top of her class…and well, Ron graduated and everyone was very happy about that. Neville took on an apprenticeship with Professor Sprout in Herbology, Hermione began an apprenticeship with a law firm specializing in human and creature rights law, and Ron actually had Potions NEWTs good enough to get him into auror training. He clearly had help from someone, but no one was sure just who had taken the time to tutor him.

It wasn't long after graduation before Ron proposed and Hermione asked him what had taken him so long. They stood firm in front of their families that their wedding was going to be very small and family only. Understandably, weddings were a bit more stressful and traumatic than they should be since the battle. It was during the planning that everyone actually started to be concerned about the last two members of the Golden Trio.

Molly Weasley hadn't thought much about it beyond that it was probably a very sad decision for Ron when she asked who he was going to choose for his best man. She had guessed it would be either Neville Longbottom or one of her other sons. Ron hadn't even looked up from the invitations Hermione was making him painstakingly address though.

"Harry, of course. Who else would be my best man? We've been friends since we were eleven," he said very matter-of-factly.

"I asked Ginny, and Luna is going to be a bridesmaid too," Hermione said from where she was sitting as if what Ron had said wasn't completely concerning.

"Erm, Ron, love," Mrs. Weasley began after a worried look over to her husband who was staring at his son like he'd temporarily stopped breathing. "You do remember…Harry died, love."

"Yeah…that's not going to stop him from being my best mate though," Ron snorted and shook a cramp out of his hand.

"Mum…just leave it," Fred put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"He knows…we got this," George said lowly to her next.

"Would it be weird if I asked Viktor to be a bridesmaid too? Fleur did," Hermione asked her fiancé.

Ron heaved a deep woebegone sigh. "If you must…I call Dobby though."

"Drat," she grinned and kissed the smug redhead.

There were only Weasleys, Grangers, and a smattering of very close friends at Ron and Hermione's wedding. That didn't mean that there weren't quite a few people who were completely stunned and thinking they had taken leave of their senses as Ron stood proudly, and a little nervously, at the front of the aisle and waited on his bride…with his best mate beside him, fixing his tie.

"You just tied this; how is it already messed up?" Harry sighed at his friend.

"Its must be related to Master Harry's hair," Dobby snorted in amusement from Harry's other side where he was wearing very spiffy little dress robes.

"You're ruining my majestic walk down the aisle," Viktor hissed from where he was carrying flowers as he followed Luna with the bridesmaids which elicited a wolf-whistle from Sirius Black and got Sirius a smack to the back of the head from where Poppy Pomfrey was sitting beside him.

"Right…getting married…I got this," Ron nodded firmly and took in a deep calming breath.

"Yeah, mate, everyone's all looking at your dead best man right now anyway. No pressure on you at all," Harry assured him with a chuckle and a pat to the back. It was true, everyone who didn't already know about Harry were looking on stunned like they must be seeing things.

"You're going to go invisible right when this is over with and leave me with all the questions, aren't you?" Ron grumbled as they waited on Hermione.

"Course I am! Perks of being a mostly crossed-over spirit," the dead man assured him with a smirk.

"Sometimes I think the hat was wrong to listen to you and put you anywhere besides Slytherin," Ron remarked, but Harry didn't get a chance to respond before the music started up and Hermione looking like an angel began to walk towards them.

"I'm the luckiest bastard in the world," Ron breathed out in amazement.

Hermione Granger-Weasley sighed when the eagle owl landed on her kitchen counter. She closed the oven door with a foot while holding the spoon with baby food on it steady for little Rose and took the letter from the owl with her one free hand.

"It's always when Daddy's on assignment that everything happens. When he's here, there are no problems at work, you are perfectly happy, and we have a slew of babysitters who would love to come over any time," she grumbled to the baby, putting down the spoon and opening the letter from her law office.

Rose threw a soggy carrot off her tray table while Hermione read the letter. She sighed deeply. Of course they would finally get a court date for the centaurs' rights hearing they'd been trying to get for months when Ron was out on assignment, Poppy, Sirius, Viktor, and even Draco (how did he become a friend again?) were all teaching at the school currently, Arthur and Molly were off on a second honeymoon in Italy, and she had learned her lesson and would never leave Rose with Luna and the twins again…not Dobby either…that had been terrifying. She didn't know that Rose had that much control over her accidental magic until Dobby had figured out how to teach her one-year-old some simple spells.

She looked at her calendar and gave a little evil smirk. There was one person she always knew where they would be on Friday afternoons. It wasn't ideal, but Rose would be well looked after and would probably have a great time. She had been asking for her uncle recently anyway.

"Right, baby, let's get you cleaned up. We're going to go visit your Uncle Harry," she told the little girl.

"Unca Hawwy!" Rose clapped her hands and giggled happily.

"That is not allowed to touch anything," Snape pointed at the little girl who was reaching for a feather hanging out of the bin of the ones on display in his very well maintained and not child friendly apothecary.

"That is a baby, Professor," Hermione rolled her eyes at the man, turning her head to where she could hear things being re-arranged in the man's storeroom. "You were one at one time yourself, you know."

"Granger, I've told you to just call me Severus," he sighed. "Now, what can I help you with? Are you in need of any potions?"

"I'll call you Severus when you call me Hermione…and the baby Rose," Hermione tacked on just to see the man wince. "Actually, I'm here for Harry."

"Ah, my resident ghostly nuisance," Snape smirked. "He's busy."

"If you weren't so cheap, you could hire a living assistant, you know," his former student just smirked right back at him.

"He would still haunt me every Friday afternoon and move around everything in the storeroom," Snape said wisely. Harry definitely would. It had been annoying originally until he'd finally admitted that Harry's system of organization was actually better than his own. Everything was much easier to find. Now, he only gave a token grumble when the spirit visited, realizing he did actually appreciate the company and help…now the Hufflepuff…he could just stay in the afterlife where he belonged. Cedric tended to distract his dead assistant more than help.

"Well, I'm co-opting him today. He's needed elsewhere," Hermione pushed past him and into the storeroom.

A floating jar of beetle eyes paused in the air before it was quickly set down on a shelf and Harry Potter appeared in the room. "Rosie!" He exclaimed rushing over and taking his favorite niece from her mother.

"Unca Hawwy!" Rose hugged his neck back.

"Right, so I'm off to court. You three have fun. Here's Rose's bag with everything you need. Do NOT let her get into any potion ingredients," Hermione set down the bag she was carrying and turned to rush out.

"I'm not a babysitter!" Snape exclaimed.

"Er…I'm dead!" Harry looked at her perplexed.

"That's never stopped you from anything before," she said mischievously before rushing out before they could recover from their shock.

"I refuse to change any diapers," Snape snorted with a glare towards the baby who knew him well enough to just laugh at the look.

Harry looked at the baby and back to Snape. "Er…Poppy's at the school, isn't she?"

"It's November," the man dead-panned.

"Well, excuse me for losing track of time occasionally in the afterlife!"

"Somehow you find your way here every Friday!"

"It helps to have a routine, Snape," Harry shot back as they made their way towards Snape's office.

"What about your mother?" Snape looked more concerned now that Rose was started to smell like that diaper change would be needed very soon.

"Non-corporeal," he reminded the man.

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose. "Merlin then?"

"Do you really want to ask Merlin to change a diaper?" Harry raised an eyebrow at the man.

Snape just raised an eyebrow back when the smell of a ripe diaper hit them both. "Right…Merlin!" Harry yelled out in fear.

The End