AN: Here it is, the epilogue! It's been a bit of a wild ride writing this, and I know I did some major fuck-ups along the way, but you know what? This is the first fic I've ever written, and I'm damn proud of it. This is my debut into fan fiction, and I personally believe that I've achieved some level of success, and I will continue to write fan fiction for a long while yet, unless something happens to me of course.

So, without further rambling, read on.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Epilogue

There was something of a relaxed air around Harry's home in Fuyuki one day several months after the final task, though it could also easily be called a lazy atmosphere. Satsuki, Sion, and a Riesbyfe that was still getting used to being properly alive again were sitting together, seemingly discussing something with a fair deal of interest.

Zelretch had a newspaper in his hands and was flicking through it idly, thinking goodness knows what, while he sat in a comfortable looking armchair. Stheno was preparing for her classes which were going to start in a few days, and Euryale was actually helping her, the usually more mischievous Gorgon sister having nothing better to do at present.

Liz had a sketchpad in her hands and was scribbling on it in pencil. She was proving to be a quite popular up and coming artist, her detailed draconic works having been put up in several different exhibitions around the world. Fran was next to her, reading through several physics, chemistry, and biology textbooks, as she was thinking about attending a university and getting a degree or two for herself.

Illya was juggling fruit over her head, the reclining armchair she was in set as far back as it could go. Anyone who looked her way would have to admit that she was proving rather skilled at juggling, having more than nine different fruits in the air at once. Holly was watching her do this with quite a focused expression on her face, her fingers flexing slightly as she imagined doing that herself.

Medusa herself wasn't actually present. She was currently taking photos of Draco Malfoy, who was 'suffering' a punishment that Harry had suggested for trying to enslave Stheno as he had. Perhaps it showed that something of Zelretch's personality was rubbing off on Harry, considering he'd handcuffed Draco to that 'charming' angel he'd met before, what was his name again? Hapsiel? Heh, from what he'd heard, he'd been begging Medusa to kill him since shortly after meeting the guy, but she was drawing out his suffering before she would let him have that release.

Tamamo was sitting on the floor, Jack in front of her, and the two of them were playing with dolls. It was quite an innocent and domestic sight, most assuredly one that you wouldn't have expected if you know who exactly those two were. Watching the two play were the two Lens, both of them in cat form.

Behind Tamamo, what she was leaning against actually, was a chaise longue. On this article of furniture, lay three people. One of those people was Harry himself, who was currently feeling very comfortable. In his arms, with her back to him, was a half-asleep Altrouge Brunestud. Laying on top of the pair of them, tickling the pair with her fluffy wings, was V/V.

Sirius walked into the room, saw the position that Harry was in, opened his mouth to make a comment, and then bit his tongue as he forced himself to be quiet. He knew that the step up in Harry's relationships was because he'd kind of accelerated things with his 'prank' with V/V, and since he'd come back home from Hogwarts, a few of the other girls had been rather determined in their pursuit of him.

Surprisingly, despite Liz and Tamamo being the most obvious about it, Altrouge was the one who got him into bed. Sirius was not entirely sure what had happened, all he did know was that everyone had gone to sleep one night and when they woke up the next morning, Harry and Altrouge had emerged from the former's room with flushed expressions.

He was not the only one curious how this event had come to pass, but all that any of them had been able to find out was that Harry had had some sort of argument with Shadow of the Heart which Altrouge had tried to comfort him over. After that, with his argument with Shadow damaging his impulse control, well, one thing led to another, helped along by their mutual attraction to each other, and they 'got it on', so to speak.

V/V was also a bit of a surprise as well. When Sirius had first met her properly, she had seemed really sad, distant, and a little bit broken. That had lasted until around the time of the final task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, and she had perked up a bit after that. She also seemed to talk to Harry quite a bit, their conversations delving deeply into the philosophical, and leaving Sirius confused as heck. The two weren't in any sort of official relationship, but it was obvious that there was a closeness there that there hadn't been previously.

"Anyone know where the others are?" He asked, wondering where the missing members of the household were.

"Aoko is in Turkey, she said something about 'an utter bastard that needs blowing up' before she left. Waver, as I understand it, is receiving a promotion of sorts. It seems that spending as much time as he does with influential people has made many sit up and take notice, especially with the quality of the students he teaches. Arcueid is chasing up a rumour of a rogue Apostle in Korea, and she took Carla and Primate Murder with her. Medusa is, as you know, enjoying watching dear Draco spend some quality time with a 'delightful' angel." Harry told him.

Sirius shuddered as he recalled the time Harry introduced him to Hapsiel. Harry truly was sadistic if he didn't think that mentally scarring encounter was enough to make up for the loosing his virginity to a TYPE 'prank' he'd pulled. That Harry had said that there would be more where that came from made Sirius seriously consider never pranking again, or at least never letting Harry get caught in one of his tricks, for fear of his retribution.

Harry's eyes caught sight of the Daily Prophet in Sirius' hands. "Anything new in that thing?" He asked, nodding at the newspaper.

"Nope." Sirius replied. "All they can talk about, even now, is what went down at the end of the tournament. Some of the influential purebloods, those you didn't kill off, are calling for your death, claiming that a 'rabid beast' should not be allowed to kill humans. Of course, everyone is simply too scared of you, and what you are capable of, to actually get off their arses and do anything about it."

"And their reaction to Voldemort?" Harry queried.

Sirius shrugged, sitting at the end of the chaise longue. "Split, some think it was an elaborate hoax, others think you're the saviour all over again. Not that any of that matters, it's not like you're really going to have anything to do with the Wizarding World any longer, right?"

"Sion is still managing the businesses I own in that world, not that it's widely known that I'm actually the owner of said businesses, but that's about it. I might pop back every now and then to talk with one of those I can actually stand to be around, but apart from that, it's goodbye from me to that world." Harry replied.

Sirius was silent for a moment. "Yeah, I see." He said somewhat distantly. "Don't you still have that other Wizarding World that Fate asked you to save? It's the reason you've been lying around for the last three months, isn't it?"

"The border world? Yes, there is that, though that is a world of both Wizards and Magi, so it's obviously going to be different to the Wizarding World you know. I'm waiting on Fate now, she said she'll show up when the time-line is at the right point, the worlds running sort of parallel as it were." Harry told him. "Why?"

"C-Could I... Could I come with you?" Sirius asked, swallowing heavily. He knew that Harry had not forgiven him fully for his prank, and he really wanted to earn his forgiveness, but in order to do that, he had to be useful, or at least nearby, and he couldn't exactly do that from another world.

"Well ain't that a question." A new voice spoke up, one that Harry recognised.

"Fate? Is it time now?" He asked, looking up to see the golden-skinned form that Fate had always taken around him.

"Yes, it's me." Fate replied. "Now, you have about twenty minutes before I'm switching you over to the other world. Anyone who's going with you needs to be prepared, like now."

"I'm not letting him leave me behind." Altrouge said, slipping on a pair of sunglasses that Harry had just handed her to hide her red eyes, before he put his blindfold back on, hiding his own 'interestingly' coloured eyes.

"I think- I think I would like to come too." V/V stated from where she lay on top of them. "Yes, I'm going to go with them as well." She added more firmly and assertively.

Holly alighted on Harry's shoulder. "If you think I'm staying here, you've got another thing coming, buster!" She fixed Harry with a look, though all it did was make everyone chuckle, which caused Holly to pout cutely.

Liz reached over to Harry, and tapped the Command Seal on his arm that corresponded to herself. "I'm always available if you need me Harry, so just call if something comes up. I need to prepare for my next exhibition, though do expect me to be a frequent visitor. With our own personal transport, there's no reason to make this separation anywhere near permanent."

The look that Liz shot Zelretch then made the old vampire shudder. Trust his grandson to always attract the scariest of girls, Liz's A Rank Torture Technology was enough to even make him green. In one part of his mind, he immediately began making plans for personal teleporters for all of Harry's girls that would allow them to teleport to his side and return without going through him to do so.

"I'm coming with you, and your not leaving Jack behind either." Tamamo piped up. "It might be a good idea to remain hidden though, you might need some of us to walk in the shadows for you after all." So saying, Tamamo astralised.

She then began to slowly and sensually strip, making her true intentions known. After all, only Harry could see the disrobing kitsune right then, and something told Harry that Tamamo would not be staying invisible when it came to bed time.

Jack also astralised, though thankfully she didn't begin to strip like Tamamo had. Illya seemed to think about things for a moment, before shrugging, and then she also astralised. Fran blushed as she raised the textbook in her hands, and Harry nodded, giving her an easy grin as he knew that she wanted to attend university. Something told him that, like Liz, she would be a frequent visitor too, and possibly one who would stay for entire weekends.

Len and White Len, still in their cat forms, both leapt up onto the furniture as well, one near Harry's head and one draping herself over his legs. Neither of them were going to let Harry out of their sight, and they would be his shadow if he ever needed them to be.

Sirius huffed a half-laugh. "I guess someone is going to have to keep them out of trouble, though they could do with far better than me. If nothing else, I recognise trouble at least, even if I'm normally the one causing it." He said, before fixing his eyes on Fate's "I'm going too."

"Is that everyone?" Fate asked, looking around. "Very well then, be ready and I'll send you off in just a minute!"

The group seemed to notice they were all on the chaise longue at that point, but they all shrugged it off. They were going to a new world that none of them had ever been to before, and Fate itself was facilitating the journey. Arriving on an unusual bit of furniture wasn't that ridiculous, was it?

With that thought in their minds, they disappeared from that world, going on to another great adventure.

xxxxx

Back in the world that Harry had essentially abandoned, on the muggle side of things, the only mention of Harry Potter one would find would be at the eleventh birthday of one Rosie Dursley, who was the daughter of Dudley Dursley, and interestingly enough, a witch.

In the Wizarding World things had changed, if only a little and time passed, as it always must. Eleven year old children continued to join the student body, and eighteen year old teenagers left there with their NEWT scores in hand. Granted, the scores had increased some since Dumbledore had decided to include a permanent general 'professor' in a role similar to Harry's old one, and it proved to be quite the effective means of raising grades.

In the Ministry, with the demise of all of the Death Eaters, the power was consolidated into what few pureblood families remained. That couldn't last, however, and slowly but surely, the Wizarding World began to change and develop. They would never be on the same level as the Muggle World, their long lives meaning they tended to live more slowly and less frenetically than their non-magical counterparts, but the gap between the two worlds did shrink.

It was unfortunate, but fewer and fewer magicals were born each decade. For those who paid attention, they would notice that the declining population of human magicals, strangely enough, matched the decline of magical species of animals and plants.

Many Fae returned to their own world, situated just to the side of the human one, though a few did follow in Elestia and Aqua's footsteps, their presence further enriching the ever-expanding world attached to Harry's soul, allowing it to flourish brilliantly. Consequently, the magic present in the Wizarding World dropped even further.

Neville Longbottom, who thrived with his parents returned to him, grew up to eventually become the head of the Auror Department. While he did not have the disposition necessary for the head of the DMLE, Susan Bones did lean heavily on the powerful young man when she achieved her aunt's old position, which did generate rumours, ones neither side were confirming or denying.

Fred and George Weasley, having received assistance from a 'mysterious' benefactor, set up their own joke shop immediately after finishing their NEWTs. Their products proved to be immensely popular, though potions masters around the world did try and discover the secret of several ingredients in some of their products, ingredients that no Apothecary could recognise.

Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Angelina Johnson all went on to become professional Quidditch players, though they surprised many people when they all went to different teams. Games between said teams were always interesting to watch and generated quite the crowd, eager to see the intricate dance between players that knew each other so well.

Luna Lovegood, when she was older, took over the Quibbler from her father. She also married Rolf Scamander, a man that was quite possibly as eccentric as she herelf was. She did enjoy showing various 'gifts' she received off to one Hermione Granger, who had denied the creatures Luna mentioned were real and didn't quite know how to react when presented with the creature in question. Luna never told anyone where her large collection of pets ever came from.

Ron Weasley, in later years, joined the Ministry of Magic. In the Department of Magical Games and Sports specifically. None of his co-workers ever understood his ardent support of the Chudley Cannons, but hey, everyone has their quirks. He worked surprisingly hard while there, and he eventually settled down with a girl from the Department of International Magical Cooperation, though his wife was proved infertile two years into their marriage. Ron didn't care, and they ended up adopting four children to raise as their own.

Hermione Granger left Hogwarts with good grades. Not the best ever, but that record was so ridiculously out of reach that it was mostly ignored. She found it difficult to get work in the Wizarding World however, and not because she wasn't a pureblood. She had the bad habit of trying to bring her personal beliefs into her work, and anywhere that had house-elves would never hear the end of her rants, and when she tried working in the Department for the Regulation and Control for Magical Creatures and actually read the laws... Yeah, she didn't last long there, and returned to the Muggle World, where she spent some time gaining the required degrees and became a nurse.

Severus Snape, the only one to bear the dark mark and survive past the day of the final task, awoke the next day to find a note attached to his wrist. Reading the note, he pulled up his sleeve to see that the dark mark had been removed from his arm, not even the most faint evidence of it remained. He continued to teach at Hogwarts for a further two years, before leaving to set up his own potion distribution company, which proved to be very successful, and also how he met Victoria Ingram, the owner of an Apothecary and his future wife.

Ginny Weasley was in denial. Unlike in a number of other worlds, this version of the red-haired girl was never confronted by reality. Her celebrity crush on the 'Boy-Who-Lived' never faded, and she never moved on from it. She continued to believe that Harry would return for her and sweep her off her feet in a fairytale romance, and yet he never did. It took the Headmaster sharing with her Harry's desire to travel from one reality to the next to give the girl some purpose of her own. Unfortunately, the purpose she chose was to follow Harry into new worlds and claim him for herself. Ginny Weasley disappeared into the ranks of the Unspeakables, the only ones she knew who might know of a way to travel between dimensions, and no more information would ever be found about her. Did she ever succeed in her task? Well, who can say?

Albus Dumbledore remained headmaster of Hogwarts for eighty-seven years after the year Harry left the school. It was not an uncommon sight to see him amongst the students however, and he had a fondness for regaling them with the most outlandish and impossible stories, a twinkle in his eye and a wide smile on his lips. When asked where he got the inspiration for his stories, which he eventually wrote down and had published, he never gave a straight reply.

The closest anyone got to discovering the truth was when a student was sent to see him and had heard voices coming from within the headmaster's office. When the door was opened, the headmaster was sitting at his desk, two cups in front of him, one of tea and another of a red substance the student thought might have been wine. There was a single strand of purple hair that seemed to have gotten caught on the arm of the chair, but that wasn't anything noteworthy, was it?

Sequel now up,

Look for Fate's Gamble: Round Two