I don't own Harry Potter, or any related characters, and I'm not making any money off this.

A/N: Very special thanks to CaseLynn for acting as Beta and cleaning this chapter up in general.

This is the final chapter of this story, so thank you for reading, I hope you have enjoyed it.

9 Lives

By: Time Keeper

Epilogue: When it's Over

#/# January 3, 1995 #/#

Today is the first day of class after winter break. Harry and Hermione sit at the Gryffindor table amongst their friends.

"Are you two ready to return to class with us?" Ron asks, obviously excited at the idea of having his friends with him.

"Ron," Hermione says patiently, "we're joining the seventh-year classes."

"Wait, what?" Ron asks.

"Remus drilled so much into our heads that we are able to take those classes." Harry explains. "We'll be allowed to take our Newts at the end of the year, and if we pass, we graduate."

"That's amazing!" Neville says.

"I'm surprised they got Professor Snape to agree." Lavender says.

"May I have your attention." McGonagall says, ending that and all the conversations in the hall. "To those of you who are not aware, Professor Snape has decided to seek employment elsewhere. In his place I'd like to introduce Professor Andromeda Tonks."

Andromeda, a tall woman with brown eyes, and black hairs, stands up from her place at the professors' table. "I have been working at St. Mungo's as a healer and look forward to this chapter in my life." With that she sits back down.

"I ask that all students help her ease into her position." McGonagall says, then sits down.

"You two knew about this?" Neville asks.

"We only found out a few days ago." Harry answers.

"We were lucky enough that she happened to be Sirius' cousin." Hermione says. "He arranged for us to meet her."

"She looks like Bellatrix Lestrange."

Harry takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. "Bellatrix is her sister."

"But she's nothing like her sister." Hermione says.

"I hope not." Neville says.

#/#/#

Ron, Lavender, and Neville walk into the dungeon potions room, along with the other fourth-year Gryffindors. Only to find a note scrawled on the blackboard. "All potions classes have been moved." Underneath are directions to the new room.

They quickly follow the directions. They find the new potions room to be everything the previous one wasn't. Enchanted windows let in light, and fresh air that is comfortable, despite of the frigid temperature outside. All along the ceiling hang sweet smelling plants.

Andromeda stands at the front of the classroom. "Welcome," she says. "This is where I will hold class from now on. I expect everyone to be here on time after today." Once the students take their seats she speaks again. "Now, Professor Snape did not leave me any notes, so who can tell me what potion he taught last?"

#/#

They are all cleaning up at the end of class when Andromeda comes over to them. "Mister Longbottom, might I talk to you privately?"

"No offense, Professor, but I'd rather not be alone with you." Neville says.

Andromeda nods. "I just wanted to make sure you knew I was not my sister. I fully understand if you find you can't trust me, but I just want to ask you to give me the chance to earn your trust."

Neville nods. "I'll try, ma'am."

"That's all I ask."

#/# June 21, 1995 #/#

Everyone is sitting in the Great Hall for the farewell feast, red banners hang from the ceiling. McGonagall stands up. "Good evening everyone, and thank you for another wonderful year here at Hogwarts. First I would like to start by thanking those who participated in our Tri-wizard tournament. From Durmstrang: Participant: Victor Krum and Judge: Igor Karkaroff."

The two men stand to a round of applause, once they sit back down McGonagall continues. "Hogwarts' own Cedric Diggory." As Cedric stands the room goes nuts, after a minute he sits back down. "Lastly from Beauxbaton: judge Madam Maxime and the tournament champion: Fleur Delacour."

When Fleur stands, the room cheers louder than it did for Cedric. A few more immature students catcall and wolf whistle at the half-veela, someone even shouting out, "Will you marry me?"

"Thank you for your cheers and support." Fleur says, "I will have to turn down the marriage proposal I heard in there, though I do appreciate it." With that everyone chuckles.

"We also have amongst ourselves the youngest graduates of Hogwarts in over a century." McGonagall says, "please join me in congratulating Harry Potter and Hermione Potter nee Granger on this feat." Harry and Hermione stand up and all the students and teachers clap.

"After some discussion we have decided to award Gryffindor 100 points for each of them, in honor of this accomplishment. Fully cementing Gryffindor getting the house cup!" McGonagall exclaims, resulting in a roar of celebration from the table.

Soon, Harry and Hermione are sitting at the table, and the excitement has subsided. "I can't believe you two are graduating," Ron says. "Hogwarts won't be the same without you."

"We're still going to be here." Harry says.

"How?" Ron asks.

"We're going to be apprentice professors." Harry answers.

"I'm going to apprentice in charms and transfiguration, while Harry will apprentice in defense." Hermione says, answering the question before it is asked.

#/# July 21, 1995 #/#

The home of the Weasley family, the Burrow, is a buzz with activity. Though they were already legally married, Harry and Hermione were having a ceremony today for all their friends and family.

When Molly, the Weasley matriarch, offered to let them use the property, they were both thrilled with the idea. However, Hermione realized that her parents would not be able to join them.

Lucky for them, Xenophilius Lovegood had a solution: A pair of bracelets that allowed muggles full access to their world. Unfortunately, they were one-time-use, and only good for 24 hours, so his parents could only help with the particulars on the day of.

Hermione waits in Ginny's room, which has been transformed into a beauty studio. Ginny sits beside her. Suddenly, Sirius appears, along with Hermione's parents.

"You made it!" Hermione exclaims, obviously relieved.

"That was a rather ... unusual experience." Richard says.

Helen nods. "Though it's worth it to be here." She hugs Hermione, then looks at Ginny. "Who is this?"

"Where are my manners?" Hermione says. "Mom, Dad, meet Ginerva Weasley, she was kind enough to lend me her room here to get ready."

"Please call me Ginny."

"It's very nice to meet you." Helen says.

"Come on, Richard." Sirius says. "Let's leave the ladies to their business."

"Sounds like a good idea." Richard says, and the two of them take their leave.

#/#/#

They had a small ceremony, with Ron serving as best man, and Lavender as maid of honor. People gather in small groups and chat. Though a few people find places where they are not so easily seen. Remus is one of those people. He is sitting in a corner of the Weasley home, reading a book.

"Are you related to the bride?" A female voice says.

"Why do you ask?" Remus replies, not looking up from his book.

"You're sitting here, reading, while everyone else is partying."

"I'm not usually the partying type." Remus says, closing his book and looking up. He sees a young woman with pink hair standing before him. "My name is Remus Lupin."

"Nymphadora Tonks."

"Well met, Miss Tonks."

#/# December 23, 1995 #/#

The sharp crack of apparition announces the arrival of Harry and Hermione in the small room. They look around the room. A large sign on one of the walls denotes the area as a Ministry approved apparition point. A much larger sign reminds them the apparition point is in a muggle area. Next to that sign is a wall full of various pamplets, everything from locations of other apparition sites to maps of the surrounding area.

They turn to the only door to leave and see a podium with a register and a scroll on top of it. On the podium there is a sign that says: "All persons must read the rules and sign the book before leaving." Hermione grabs the scroll and unfurls it. "Look, it's a list of how to look and act Muggle." She says.

"Well, at least we both already know how to do that." Harry jokes.

Hermione nods. "Come on, my parents' practice is around the corner." They both sign the register and leave the room.

"You know, it's nice to be in a muggle shopping district for a change." Harry says as they walk.

"I agree." Hermione says. She pushes open the door to the small dental practice,. The opening of the door sets off a small bell.

"Be right with you!" Helen yells from the back. About a minute later, her voice can be heard getting closer to them. "Sorry about that. How can I.." She stops talking for a second as she enters the room. "Hermione! Harry! What a surprise!" She hugs them both.

"It shouldn't be, I sent you a letter saying we were coming home for winter break." Hermione says as she hugs back.

"I meant here." Helen says. "I assumed when you didn't ask us to get you from anywhere that you would turn up at the house."

Hermione blushes slightly. "My bad."

#/# January 7, 1996 #/#

Harry and Hermione appear at the professor's apparition point, just outside the gates of Hogwarts. "Back to the chaos." Harry says.

Hermione nods. "It was nice pretending to be normal."

"It was."

"Good, cause I have been pondering the idea of buying a muggle place for us to spend the summers." She pauses. "Along with our eventual children."

"We'd only be in it a couple of months out of the year. How would we maintain it?" Harry asks.

"Dobby and Winky could keep it for us." Hermione says. "My mum says her house is always tidy because of them, so I don't think they'd mind."

"Okay, we'll look into it this summer."

#/# June 14, 1996 #/#

The door to Granger Dentistry swings open, letting Harry and Hermione in. "Wotcher, Harry." Tonks says, causing Harry and Hermione to both jump and spin around to her voice. They see her and Remus sitting in the waiting room chairs.

"Tonks? Remus? What are you two doing here?" Harry asks.

"We wanted to see you since we missed you during winter break." Remus replies.

"It's good to see both of you." Hermione says. She sees them holding hands.

"What are your plans for summer?" Tonks asks.

"House hunting." Hermione answers.

"You're not going to move into Potter Manor?" Remus asks.

"There's a Potter Manor?" Harry asks.

"Yes, it's your ancestral home." Remus replies. "I never visited, but Sirius spent a lot of time there."

"We'll have to check it out at some point." Harry says, "but we're thinking about finding a muggle home to spend our time away from Hogwarts."

"That sounds nice." Tonks says.

"What about you two?" Hermione asks.

"I'm about to head out on a mission." Tonks says.

"Because of my knowledge and werewolf physiology, they generally let me accompany her to an extent." Remus says.

"What do you do about the full moon?" Hermione asks.

"I'm a metamorphmagus, so I can become animal-like and the wolf is just fine."

"Good to know." Harry says.

#/# December 21, 1996 #/#

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Dobby and Winky, the four-bedroom house Harry and Hermione bought is fully livable, and best of all, it's on the floo network. So they can step through the fireplace in McGonagall's office to their own.

"Welcome home," Dobby greets them as they step through.

"Thank you, Dobby." Harry says.

"You two have outdone yourselves fixing this up." Hermione says.

"It was our pleasure." Winky says.

"You included a space for yourselves, right?" Harry asks.

"Yes, we renovated the attic to meet our needs." Dobby replies..

"Very good." Harry says.

#/# December 25, 1996 #/#

Harry is busy cooking Christmas dinner when the doorbell rings. "I'll get it!" Hermione yells, lest her elves teleport to the door and scare some poor unsuspecting muggle. She makes it to the door and opens it. "Mum! Dad! You made it!"

"Of course," Helen says as she hugs Hermione and comes inside the house. "We weren't going to miss your first Christmas in your new home."

"We really appreciate it." Hermione says as she hugs her father, letting him in.

"Nice place you got here." Richard says.

"We can't take all the credit." Hermione says. "Dobby and Winky did a lot of the work for us."

#/#

Richard and Hermione are setting the table while Helen is in the kitchen helping Harry. When the doorbell rings.

"Are you expecting someone else?" Richard asks.

"No," Hermione says as she goes and opens the door. "Tonks! Remus!"

"Surprise!" Tonks says.

"Come on in, we're about to have dinner." Hermione says.

They come in, to find Harry is carving the Christmas roast. Harry immediately sees that Remus looks considerably less worn out then usual. "Remus, you look well, I'd dare say better than I remember seeing you."

"You can thank this mysterious potioner that published an improved version of the wolfsbane potion." Remus says. "It leaves me feeling hale and healthy."

"What do you mean by 'mysterious potioner'?" Hermione asks suspiciously.

"They supplied the altered recipe under a pseudonym." Tonks replies.

"Really?" Harry asks. "And everyone just assumed it was safe?"

"Oh no, there were a few werewolves that volunteered to try the new potion. Once they saw how it works, they published it for all to use." Remus answers.

"Out of curiosity, what name did they potioner use?" Hermione asks.

"The Half-Blood Prince." Remus answers, causing Harry and Hermione to burst out laughing.

#/#

After dinner and dessert are served, Tonks speaks up. "There was another reason we wanted to come by."

"What's that?" Hermione asks.

"We wanted to let you know that we're getting married." Tonks replies.

Congratulations!" Hermione exclaims. "When's the big day?"

"Next week, we're just going to the Ministry and signing the forms. Neither of us wants anything fancy." Tonks says.

"Let us at least take you out to celebrate." Harry says.

"Very well," Remus says. "We were hoping you'd come as witnesses for the paperwork anyway."

#/# September 1, 1997 #/#

"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!" McGonagall says after the sorting ceremony. "First I would like to introduce you all to this year's Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin"

Tonks stands up. "Thank you for having me, Headmistress."

"Professor Tonks-Lupin here is a recent graduate of the auror training program." McGonagall says, earning a gasp from several students.

#/#

Later that evening, Harry knocks on Tonks' door, Hermione standing with him. She opens the door. "I was wondering how long until you two came to see us."

"We were wondering if everything was alright." Hermione says. "You didn't mention you were going to be here, so we got concerned."

Tonks chuckles. "I'm out of field work for a while, so I decided this was a good opportunity."

"Why would they pull you from field work?" Harry asks, concerned.

"I'm pregnant." Tonks asks.

#/# October 1, 1997 #/#

Harry steps out of the bathroom into the room he and Hermione share to find Hermione wearing a familiar green dress. "Hey," Hermione says.

"Is that the dress Hades gave you?" Harry asks.

Hermione nods. "I suspect it originally belonged to his wife, Persephone, goddess of spring. Hades said until I let you remove it I wouldn't get pregnant."

"That explains a lot." Harry says.

"I was thinking I'd be nice for Remus and Tonks' kid to have someone around their age to call a friend." Hermione says as she walks over to Harry and kisses him. "So what do you say? Would you like to remove my dress?"

#/# November 12, 1997 #/#

Harry and Hermione are in the Infirmary with Madam Pomfrey. "This morning I had what I believe was morning sickness, and I would like to confirm."

"This is fantastic." Pomfrey says. "Just imagine the babies."

"Babies?" Hermione asks.

"Of course, your reproductive system is most likely partially feline, so it's very likely that if you are pregnant there is more than one baby." Pomfrey answers.

"You're just telling me this now?" Hermione asks, obviously freaked out.

"I warned you that no outside changes meant high chances of interior changes." Pomfrey says.

Hermione sighs. "I had forgotten that."

Pomfrey nods. "Well, according to the spell you are definitely pregnant. Since this is your first litter I'd expect 4 to 6 babies."

"4 to 6?" Hermione asks, incredulously.

"It could be as high as 9." Pomfrey replies.

Hermione looks at Harry. "Well, I always said I wanted a big family right?" He asks.

"I'm not sure you thought of the possibility of getting a whole Quidditch team in one go." Hermione says.

"If that happens we'll definitely have to go again, if you're up to it." Harry says.

"And why pray tell would you suggest something like that?" Hermione asks.

"Well, if we can have a whole Quidditch team at one time we might as well go for two so they can play each other." Harry answers.

#/# June 12, 1998 #/#

Ron enters the Great Hall with the other Gryffindors. "Weird."

"What's weird?" Lavender asks.

"There's no banners." Ron answers

Ron sits at the Gryffindor table, beside him sits his girlfriend, Lavender Brown. Across from them sits Neville and his girlfriend from Hufflepuff, Hannah Abbott. The rest of the seventh year Gryffindor's sit around them.

"It was nice of the Headmistress to allow me to sit with you for the end of year feast." Hannah says.

McGonagall stands up. "I want to thank you all for another wonderful year at Hogwarts. As you all know, this is our beloved Professor Flitwick's last year with us. We shall miss him greatly, but at least he leaves us with his apprentice, Professor Hermione Potter!"

A cheer comes from the Gryffindor table. "Thank you." Hermione says from her seat next to Harry at a separate table next to the professors' one. "Though I request that I be Professor Granger-Potter to avoid confusion with my husband."

McGonagall nods. "Smart thinking indeed. Now, I bet you are all probably wondering about the lack of banners." A murmur goes through the crowd. "I'm proud to say that all four houses have put in a marvelous effort this year." She looks over to the wall housing the hourglasses, all four glistening with their respective gems. "Currently it appears we have a tie between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Does anyone have any last minute points they wish to add?"

McGonagall looks to her left where Flitwick, Andromeda, Hagrid and Sirius sit, each one shaking their head. She turns to her right where Sprout, Trelwaney, and Tonks each shake their heads. "How about our new professors?" She looks over to where Harry and Hermione sit.

"No, Headmistress." Harry says as he stands up. "However, we have a suggestion to solve this dilemma."

"Go ahead." McGonagall says.

"We propose a friendly duel between the two houses." Harry says.

"We were hoping that the illustrious Professor Flitwick would do the honors of judging it." Hermione says, though she remains seated.

"That sounds like a delightful way to end my tenure here." Flitwick says.

As soon as Flitwick finishes Draco stands up. "I'll represent Slytherin!"

Ron and Neville quickly stand up and simultaneously announce: "I'll represent Gryffindor!"

Ron and Neville look at each other. "Do we need to fight to see which one of us fights Draco?" Neville asks.

"No," Ron says. "I'm not going to give that snake the advantage. You got this." He says as he sits down.

"Seems like we have our competitors." McGonagall says. "Now we need a stage."

"My pleasure." Hermione says as she reaches for Harry's hand. Harry helps her stand, as she does she puts her other hand on her very pregnant belly. Once on her feet she quickly pulls out her wand and casts a spell creating a raised dueling platform.

Neville steps up on the one side while Draco gets up on the other. "May the best wizard win." Neville says as he draws his wand.

"Then why bother, Longbottom?" Draco snidely replies before drawing his wand.

"You may begin." Flitwick says.

Immediately Draco silently sends three spells at Neville, a jelly-legs jinx, a stunner and a silencing spell, each at different heights.

Much to Draco 's surprise Neville turns into a badger avoiding all three spells. Neville quickly shifts back into his human form. "Expelliarmus!"

Draco is still in shock from seeing Neville's animagus form fails the guard against the spell and quickly loses his wand.

"We have a winner!" Flitwick shouts, and the Gryffindor banners unfurl from the ceiling.

"Longbottom cheated!" Draco growls, "I demand a rematch!"

"Mister Malfoy, you didn't follow the established rules of dueling yourself." Flitwick replies calmly. "You fired three spells rapidly at your opponent, instead of the allotted one. Whereas Mister Longbottom's animagus transformation, while unorthodox, is allowed as it's considered an innate ability."

Draco huffs as he walks over and grabs his wand from Neville. "Impressive, firing three spells silently that quickly." Neville says as Draco starts walking away.

Draco stops and mutters, snidely. "Congratulations on achieving animagus status." Then continues to walk away.

Hermione dismisses the dueling stage then sits down with a slight grunt. "You okay?" Harry asks as he sits next to her.

"Your children are fighting again." Hermione answers as she looks at her belly.

"My children?" Harry asks.

"Of course," Hermione chides matter-of-factly "If they took after me they'd be waiting calmly for me to read to them." Harry shakes his head and sits down, knowing he isn't going to win this one.

Once everyone is seated McGonagall speaks. "I'd like to wish those who are graduating the best of luck with their future endeavors. Now, enjoy the feast!"