Epilogue

Early November 2002

"Doctors make lousy patients," Jacob Wells Senior said conversationally to his long-time friend and co-worker Dr. Peter Alcott.

"It's easy for you to say," Peter replied. "You've never been in labor."

"But I've suffered along with my spouse," Jacob Sr. protested.

Emma Granger stuck her head out of the birthing chamber. "Would you two old fogies be quiet out here? We're giving birth here."

Suddenly a shouted imprecation could be heard over Emma's voice. "I hate him. I'll castrate him."

Dan moved quickly out of the chamber even as Emma stuck her head back in. "Brings back memories, gentlemen," he quipped even as he moved towards the library in the Hub.

"How's Harry holding up?"

"He's taking everything Hermione's saying very, very seriously. I swear he's getting ready to run."

Both doctors, now semi-retired, smiled in understanding. "It will be close now," Peter said.

"Doctors or mediwitches make lousy patients," Jacob Senior repeated.

Another cry punctuated the silence, but this time there were now encouraging voices and the repeated command to push.

Silence descended once more, and Vincent took that moment to stick his head into the library. "Are we grandparents yet, Dan?"

"Any time now, Vincent," the proud grandfather-to-be said. "She's almost done cursing Harry. I really feel sorry for our son though. He's been backing up towards the door.

"Catherine and Erin are holding up well?"

"Catherine's got a real calming touch," Dan answered. "Erin's just drinking it all in."

At that moment, there was another cry, but one much more welcome to the waiting males. It was a lusty cry, thin and piercing that told them a new child had been born.

Diana emerged into the library moments later, her hair and face soaked with sweat, but with a smile which melted everyone's heart.

"Vincent and Dan, your first grandchild is born."

Late November 2002

"I hate you," Hermione told her Veela bond mate.

"C'est la realite des Veela," Fleur said even as she was cuddling the new Miss Black in her arms. "Magic gives us benefits to go along with the extra burdens that we have to bear."

"But almost no labor pains at all? I had magic charms and I still was in labor for over ten hours. Even now my consort is wondering if and when I will allow him to get back in his bed."

"Well, you must admit, 'Mione, that you were a little forceful in telling him that you wanted to castrate him."

"But Father explained it to me: doctors make lousy patients. It's a sign that labor is reaching its peak." Hermione's face showed her self-doubts as she worried her lower lip with concern about her comments even under the stress of giving birth.

Fleur was tempted to tease her further but decided to have mercy on the woman who had become dearer to her than even her own sister. "'Mione, do not worry. Harry loves us too much to stay away too long from your bed.

"Or mine.
"Do you not think that her green eyes looks very good with my blond hair?"

"No better than my son with bushy black hair and green eyes."

"That is the problem with Harry – his green eyes appear to be dominant."

Both bond mates began to compare and connect with their children, born of a love of the same man.

December 2002

"We welcome two children to our community. We welcome first a son born of a marriage of calm and impulse.

"We welcome my first grandchild with a name."

Hermione and Harry stepped forward with a small bundle in her arms. "We have named our son Vincent Daniel Wells Potter."

Tears came to both sets of grandparents as the implications of the honor both parents had bestowed on them sank in. Diana squeezed her husband's hand even as Dan and Emma hugged one another, then both parents.

"We welcome my second grandchild," Vincent's voice intoned once more. "We welcome a child born of fiery passion and impulse.

"We welcome this child with a name."

Now Harry stepped forward, this time with Fleur wearing some of her new fashion line which was gradually taking New York City by storm. "We welcome our daughter with the name Diana Apolline Catherine Wells."

Sebastian and Apolline stood there, embracing Diana and Vincent, then their own children.

Everyone was talking and waiting for the formal announcement that food was waiting for the community in the kitchens, but the person appointed with this weighty task was occupied.

Jacob Wells, younger brother and uncle of Diana and Vincent, was busy talking with a young woman only a few years older than he.

The contrast between her white blond hair and his long strawberry mane would become a common sight in the weeks, months and years ahead.

It was Catherine who saved the day by doing what her besotted brother had forgotten.

"Let's celebrate the naming in the kitchen."

June 2004

There was a buzz now in the corridors of the World Below and among their helpers above.

It was the time of passing of the torch.

Two great giants, founders of the community that was now Magical America's only magical hybrid community, were set to formally begin their well-deserved retirement.

New leaders had already come to forward. Vincent Wells had been the defacto leader of the underground community since the late 1990s.

But now, Jacob Wells Senior and Peter Alcott were both formally stepping down and handing over their medical stethoscope and medical services to one of the new generation.

They had waited until this day. The day their community's mediwitch, their healer, and their newly minted MD was to graduate both from Columbia Medical School and from the concurrent Healer program of Magical USA's New York City hospital.

But while the rest of the community was abuzz with excitement and joy, the recipient of all of this joy was not filled with excitement.

She was frustrated and angry.

Her second child had chosen that moment to throw up all over the graduation dress that her parents and her companions had carefully scoped out and purchased for her.

"Diane Isabelle, how could you? Do you know how much effort and time went into getting this dress and putting it on just right?"

The six-month-old baby only looked at her mother with green eyes and a shock of bushy black hair. Staring into those eyes, the same eyes which shared her bed almost every night, Hermione Granger-Potter, erstwhile Lady Potter, sighed and kissed her daughter on the forehead. "It's not fair, you know," she tried to scold Diane. "She got his eyes and his hair and of course I could never resist them."

The baby's namesake popped in her head into their chamber. "Do you need me to take him off your hands, Mione?" Diana asked. The part-time detective who only worked the occasional case now with Alex Mackenzie and the FBI, showed the passage of years now as her once brilliant ginger hair was now beginning to fade to silver and orange.

As if to demonstrate to her mother that she knew where she could get spoiled, Diane Isabelle cooed and reached out her hands for her grandmother. The older woman smiled, taking the suddenly content baby from her mother's arms. "Go clean up. I'll look after things from here."

It was a measure of how much Hermione had grown to accept this strange world that she sighed, smiled and waved her wand over the dress. Evanesco, she muttered, and the dress was as good as new.

"Don't dally too long with your up top ceremonies, Mione," Diana said. "Remember that we have a Summer Festival celebration for you down below.

"Where will Harry, Fleur, Vincent, and Mom and Dad be?" Hermione asked.

"Fleur's taking all of your children and hers up top to Columbia. She thought of bringing a video camera even though she's going to share the ceremony with Vincent and the world below with your pensieve.

"Harry said he wouldn't miss any of your ceremonies today."

"And you?"

"I'll be content to wait down here," her mother-in-law responded. "We'll finalize arrangements down here, keep the two retirees calm, and help look after this little namesake of mine."

The two women embraced and as Diana felt her daughter-in-law, she could sense the underlying contentment and peace that was now the defining mark of the woman many in the community were calling the community's anchor. Hermione was now at peace, finally having found a way to combine her love for her family, her desire to be a part of their world with her own adventures in the world of magic.

November 2004

"For the first time in goblin history, we recognize a wizard apprentice who has become a master!" With those words, Ripclaw, Assistant Director to Gringotts in New York City stood and held up a roughly hewn mug of goblin ale.

Harry Jacob Vincent Wells, newly recognized Master of Goblin Finance and a recent graduate of CUNY MBA program, took only one brief sip of the potent brew, hid his grimace and lifted his own mug high in the air.

"To Gringotts," he barked. "K'pla!"

It had become a standing joke between the New York Gringotts' goblins and Harry that he considered them to be short Klingons. That they welcomed this connection with fictional warriors imbued with honor went without saying.

Rotgut rose once more and addressed the first mixed crowd at a Gringotts function in centuries. "Before us, we have the first wizard trained in goblin magic, trained as a goblin, taught principles of goblin finance and accepted by the greater magical community. We are optimistic that this example will spread throughout not only Magical America, but across the international magical community.

"Thus, it is with great pride that we honor the Black-Wells magical line today and name Harry Jacob Vincent Wells account manager for the magical hybrid community of the World Below."

Goblin warriors in the back of the hall began banging on their shields even as representatives of the Magical USA government, the World Below, and selected non-magical guests from the world above clapped.

It was after the formal presentations that Ripclaw finally approached the representative he most wanted to speak with. "Vincent, we are pleased that you are in charge now of your underground community. We are also pleased to report that those members of the community you call the Lost Ones are dwindling in number and we suspect that they might even die out with time."

The tall leonine leader of the underground community bowed his head in a gesture of respect to the assistant director. "I am very happy that our monthly meetings have gone so well to smooth out issues between us," he answered.

"Your son has the instincts of a goblin," Ripclaw continued. "Our only complaint is that he doesn't always put profit first."

"That is a mark of our community," Vincent answered. "We are happy to recognize that there are many things you can teach us. But we also have our own values that we seek to maintain."

"Yes, but on one thing we both agree: we build our relationships on honor and on mutual respect."

"In that, Ripclaw, we are in agreement."

September 2005

"Welcome to NY City Morning, folks. We have a morning show full of what's new and exciting in the city which never sleeps. Our feature this morning is the surprising success story of a French immigrant who has opened up her own fashion line of Renaissance style clothing. I'm Bruce Leibowitz and I'm now sitting down with Fleur Delacour Wells, formerly of France and now of Manhattan.

"Ms. Delacour, welcome."

"Merci, Bruce."

"You've been in NYC for how long?"

"I moved here to apprentice in finance in 1999. I met my future husband after he rescued me from being hit in one of our city's mad traffic rushes."

"So how do you like it here in the Big Apple?"

"I thought Paris was the center of the world, but this city has a dynamism all its own. This city is wonderful with so many different communities, different cultures, and different fashions."

"That's the reason we've invited you here today. According to New York Today, you've launched your own fashion line of clothing by going back into the past?"
The young silver-blond woman relaxed under the light of the TV lights and gazed directly into the camera. "New York has so much going for it. Yes, I will admit that I once believed that only Paris or Milan were true centers of haute couture, but once I began to know the city and more specifically the community where my husband and his family live, then I began to realize that New York City has its own creative genius."

"Could you show us some samples of your designs?"

What followed were the eclectic and colorful fashions of the World Below. To Harry, Diana, and other members of the World Below watching in the underground theater of the Granger Wells Professional Complex, it was exciting to see the personal choices of the various inhabitants of Down Below now reflected and being praised as creative fashionable designs.

It had taken much persuasion and permission before Fleur felt comfortable enough to launch her own fashion line. Now, seeing the models wearing down below fashions, the community's members were filled with pride that their creativity was being recognized.

"So, comfort, individuality, and earth tones are the mark of the Delacour line, no?" Bruce asked.

", each one of these designs are made not by myself, but by the members of the community," Fleur answered. "I simply act as a clearing house for their creative genius."

Diagon Alley

July 31, 2010

To the many magicals wandering up and down Magical Britain's main magical street, the two witches and one wizard wearing what were obviously foreign clothes didn't attract a lot of attention.

There were signs posted throughout the district however, shouting out the 30th anniversary of the birth of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived and then Died.

The brunette witch with soft brown curls stopped at Flourish and Blotts and stopped in, followed by her raven-haired consort and her silver-blond companion. "Very antiquated," Harry Black-Wells told his consort. "When will they realize that we are part of a larger world?"

"America understands it," Hermione answered. "Britain, even under the Bones Ministry, still doesn't."

"Do you intend to respond to the Wizengamot's annual demand?" Fleur asked.

"No! As Lady Potter, the goblins have assured me that I can transfer the seat of my house to anywhere in the world. That goes for you too, Lord Black."
Harry shook his head. "There's no place like our home back in New York," he answered. "Thank goodness we're only here to pick up those last few books. Then we can pay our respects to James, Lily, and Sirius at Godric's Hollow."

"Is Remus going to meet us there?"

Hermione nodded. "He's finally settled down. Somebody who would like to be reinstated into the Black family. He still thanks us for breaking the geas put on him by Albus."

Fleur shivered at the memory. "Imagine that you volunteer to work with a wise wizard like the old goat and he puts a geas on you to control you without your knowledge."

"Imagine him trying to reverse all that my life experience had been since I left these shores so long ago," Harry answered. "It's a nice place to visit, but Britain's no longer home."

January 2011

"We are gathered here to celebrate a new joining," Vincent began.

There was a buzz of laughter and excitement as the strawberry blond young man stepped forward, now meeting his father's eyes. Beside him stood a slim, curvaceous, young woman, slightly older but equally as excited.

Behind them both stood Diana, Sebastian, and Apolline.

"I would never have guessed that they would finally have agreed to end the suspense," Vincent continued.

"Obviously, my younger brother didn't learn from me that one has to move fast," Harry added to the laughter of all assembled.

"Jacob, you were born of the love I shared with your mother, a woman of rare beauty and character," Vincent began. "You came to know the other great love in my life, your mother Diana, who has blessed you with two sisters.

"Gabrielle Delacour, we first came to know you as Fleur's younger sister. Then you agreed to apprentice with our own Mediwitch and you've become a valued medical team member of our world below.

"To assembled guests, family, and friends, we are gathered here to witness the joining of Jacob Wells and Gabrielle Delacour in the bonds of love and marriage. Is there any here who would speak against such a joining?"

Harry raised his hand, aware of the price he was about to pay, but trying to carry on the legacy of a man he had never met.

"I do. I'm only wondering why he took so long."

For the one-time Boy-Who-Lived, once without a family, the circle was now complete. Now he could rejoice with other members of his large and extended family.

FIN