When All Was Done
Going on seven years in the wizarding world, Harry was quite used to being talked about wherever he went, though he still found it wearing at times. He’d been given a hero’s welcome upon his return to Hogwarts in September and the interest in him hadn’t subsided in the least bit since. Very few people knew the full extent of the events that had transpired on the morning of Lord Voldemort’s death, but they knew that it had centered around Harry and that Severus Snape had really been working on his side all along. Their relationship had become a subject of great fascination in the public eye and Harry had to dodge almost as many questions about it as he did about Voldemort these days. It made him more grateful than ever for the quiet moments that he could just steal away with the people who had never cared about his fame.
“Hagrid, what is that?” Harry asked, accidentally sloshing his tea down the front of his coat as he jumped at the sudden and unexpected appearance of a strange creature in the Gamekeeper’s hut.
“Franky!” Hagrid exclaimed, setting down the pair of socks that he was knitting to hold out his arms to the strange creature that looked to be a cross between a sloth and an ape. “I was wonderin’ where you’d gotten to!”
Harry watched in bemusement as Franky climbed up onto Hagrid’s lap. He was used to Hagrid loving on all different sorts of beasts and supposed he should just be thankful that this one seemed to be much more tolerable than Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback or the Blast Ended Screwts that had so terrorized their Care of Magical Creatures class back in fourth year. It wasn’t at all surprising for Hagrid to begin rocking back and forth with Franky in his arms, looking very much like the doting parent of a rather ugly son.
“He comes out when he wants a bit of attention and then he turns invisible once he’s had enough,’ Hagrid explained.
“So he’s been in here all this time?” Harry asked, setting his mug down on the table beside his nibbled rock cake.
“Might’ve been,” Hagrid said mysteriously. “Or he might’ve just come through the wall from outside. Great creatures, Demiguises, aren’t yeh?” he tickled Franky under the chin affectionately. “Very peaceful - they won’t bite unless provoked. And they can become invisible and tell the future - which makes 'em very hard to catch. Yeh have to do somethin’ completely unexpected to trick a Demiguise.”
“Well, he seems friendly,” Harry commented, pulling his grandfather’s pocket watch out to check the time.
It had changed hands more than once. From Lily to Severus after her father’s passing; from Severus to Harry on his fifteenth birthday; and then back again, just before the death of Dumbledore, when Harry had thought that Snape should have a token to keep him strong during the hardest thing he’d ever have to do. Snape had returned it to him after the battle and Harry had taken to carrying it on him ever since. Though all the usual feelings of sentimentality he ordinarily experienced from looking at it washed away as he read it just now.
"Do yeh have to go? Hagrid asked, gently removing his knitting from the Demiguise's curious hands.
"The train will be leaving soon," Harry nodded, shoving the watch back into his coat pocket and already getting up from the table. Hagrid set Franky gently down on the floor where he promptly vanished and then stood up to follow.
"Are you sure you won't come for Christmas, Hagrid?" Harry asked, adjusting his backpack over one shoulder and the box of Bertie Botts' Every Flavour Beans under his arm, which Hagrid had just given him for a present.
"Someone has to stay behind with the kids who will be remainin' here over the holiday", Hagrid replied, smiling behind his beard as they stepped out into the frigid winter weather. "I wouldn’t want to leave our Headmistress to do that all by herself - especially well…."
"It’s okay," Harry assured him quickly, as great big tears welled in Hagrid’s eyes. Harry stepped forward to give him a goodbye hug that was reciprocated with such enthusiasm that it knocked the wind out of him. "I'll see you when I get back then."
It was surely going to be a very difficult Christmas for both Hagrid and Professor McGonagall without Dumbledore to spend it with them, Harry realized, as he began trudging back up the hill towards the castle a few minutes later. The whole essence of Hogwarts had revolved around Albus Dumbledore and without him there was a tremendous void that even the incoming first years, who had never known any different, had been able to sense. Harry expected that Christmas at Hogwarts would be quite bittersweet this year and felt rather grateful to have a home to spend it at instead, although he had never pitied himself for remaining behind at the school in the past.
Indeed, nearly all of his best memories had taken place on these grounds. Hogwarts had been, and would forever be, his first home. It was the place he had found friendship and family. The things that he had lacked in the ten years he’d spent cut off from the wizarding world at the Dursleys had all come to him in abundance once he’d begun to discover who he really was, and he would never take any of it for granted. Not the way that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had always made sure he had presents to open despite having seven children of their own to provide for, nor the way that Ron had always treated him like a brother, or how Dumbledore had given him James’ Invisibility Cloak which became his most treasured possession and connection to his father.
James and Lily had been heavy on Harry’s heart for the past few months in a different way than they had been before. He both longed for them more than ever and also felt like he had finally managed to put them comfortably to rest. He had decided against going back to retrieve the Resurrection Stone but could still feel their love pumping through his veins every minute of the day.
“I’ve loved you your whole life,” Lily had kept reminding him, as she’d stood there giving him the strength and comfort to stand tall in the face of death.
“And we’ve been with you all the way,” James had added, as he’d come over to take his place on Harry’s other side. “You can always find us, son. We’ll never leave you.”
Thinking about it later, Harry was quite sure that his mother and father had known that he wasn’t really going to die. They had been there to support him and prepare him for the sacrifice he had needed to believe he was making, but in the all-knowing wisdom that people were granted after death, Harry believed that they had known all-along that he was protected by the ancient magic cast by his mum’s refusal to stand aside from his crib that night in Godric’s Hollow. The beautiful magic of his mother’s love existed forevermore in his blood - the blood that Voldemort had foolishly taken to rebuild his own resurrected body. In the end, Voldemort had brought about his own downfall. He had preserved Lily Potter’s sacrifice within himself and thus made Harry impossible for him to kill, even as the Horcrux that had latched on to Harry was destroyed.
“Hey, Potter!”
Harry was taken rather aback by the sight of Draco Malfoy coming towards him with an awkward, almost nervous, look on his face. Though they had some classes together, they never spoke. Malfoy didn’t go out of his way to antagonize Harry anymore and was the subject of an awful lot of taunting himself from other students who were eager to punish him for his Death Eater involvement. Lucius Malfoy had been sentenced to Azkaban for admittedly a shorter duration than he probably deserved, though the disgrace of their entire family would last much longer.
“My father got out last week,” Draco shared, slipping his hands into the pockets of his black trousers.
“I know,” Harry replied coolly. “It was in the paper.”
He continued walking and felt a stab of annoyance to realize that Malfoy was following him. He didn’t resent Draco for his father getting off so lightly. Harry knew that Snape was largely responsible for that as he had vouched for all three of the Malfoys after his own case had been reviewed and his name promptly cleared. Snape was on the record citing that Draco had never willingly committed any crime, Narcissa had saved his own life, and Lucius had deflected in the end by choosing to leave the scene over fighting Voldemort’s battle. Harry could accept Snape’s desire to keep the Malfoy family intact. One thing Harry had learned to hold to heart was that a parents' love was nothing that anyone, including Draco, should be deprived of.
“Are you going home for Christmas?” Draco asked, falling into step with him.
“What's it to you?” Harry asked shortly, for which it seemed that Malfoy had no answer. He didn’t say anything but continued to walk alongside him and endure an icy silence. Speaking up just as they neared the Entrance Hall where students were gathered to await the carriages that would take them into the village.
“I knew something was off that night,” Draco told him, and Harry knew that he was speaking of the occasion in the corridor when he had seen Snape embrace him. “I was never going to tell him though…I never told anyone - not even my parents.”
“Well, that’s good, or he’d be dead,” Harry said coldly, refusing to express gratitude over Malfoy choosing to be a decent person for the first time in his life. Though he respected how difficult it must have been to lie, even by omission, around Lord Voldemort.
“Will you wish him a Happy Christmas from me?” Draco asked.
Harry stared back at him strangely. As far as he knew, Snape hadn’t even bothered to maintain any ties with the Malfoy family and it annoyed him that Draco was trying to keep their connection alive. But he found himself shrugging his shoulders. He supposed it wasn’t his decision who his father decided to be friendly with, and whether he liked it or not, Draco had always had a close relationship with Professor Snape before.
“Potter! Malfoy! What are you doing?” Professor McGonagall barked across the courtyard at them. “Get a move on before they leave without you!"
“I’ll tell him,” Harry told Malfoy, before hurrying over to where Professor McGoangall was waiting with a fixed scowl on her face.
“Sorry, Professor,” Harry told her. “Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas, Harry,” something in Minerva McGonagall’s eyes softened as she gave him a small but rare smile. As he hurried over to where the Gryffindors were gathered, he heard her yelling. “Now, Malfoy!”
"Where have you been?" Hermione exclaimed, when Harry came up to join her and Ron. "I thought you were going to miss the carriage!"
"I went to see Hagrid and didn’t notice how late it had gotten," Harry answered calmly, catching Lupin’s eye as he smiled and made a check on his list.
No longer a jinxed position after Voldemort’s death, Lupin had been appointed as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher once again, as well as head of Gryffindor. The recovering Ministry of Magic, under Kingsley Shacklebolt, had already erased many of the sanctions that had prevented werewolves from being able to get jobs before. Though there were concerns about him teaching again, and rightly so, as Lupin had been sacked last time for forgetting to take his Wolfsbane potion prior to transforming into a werewolf that had tried to attack some students. Snape had been adamantly opposed to Dumbledore hiring him before, so it was an interesting switch for him to be his most promising reference now.
"What's with all the books anyway, Hermione?" Harry looked back at her. "We're going on holiday…"
"That’s what I said," Ron shook his head.
"Have you both forgotten that we have our NEWTs in June?" Hermione rolled her eyes. "How do you expect to pass them without some serious study?"
"Harry will be able to get a job anywhere he wants, even if he doesn't sit for the exams," Ron pointed out. "What was it Moody said again?....Harry?"
"What?" Harry jumped, looking away from where he had spotted Ginny talking with Luna and Neville. "Moody? Well, he just said that he'd put a word in for all of us to join the auror department, didn't he? He’s got our names down already for a fast track in whenever we want…"
Though Harry was less sure now what it was that he really wanted to do with himself. He had never dared to think too far ahead once he'd learned about the prophecy and wondered how much of his ambition to become an auror had been rooted in believing that the rest of his life would be devoted to fighting Voldemort. As it was right now, Harry didn't think he desired much more than a quiet life with the people that he loved. He had zero interest in his exams and couldn't even pretend to care anymore. He was drifting through his final year at Hogwarts and only really there because he had a father who would never let him get away with dropping out early.
"What are you lot talking about?" Ginny asked, coming over just as a team of Thestrals, invisible to all of them except Harry, pulled a carriage up and they all climbed in.
"Harry’s future," Hermione replied, settling across from him on the bench next to Ron, leaving Ginny free to take the spot beside Harry. Despite the cold wind on his face, he suddenly felt rather warm.
"Well, I think you should play Seeker for the Montrose Magpies," Ginny informed him.
"Not if the Chudley Cannons; recruiter makes him an offer when he shows up to watch our next game in January!" Ron argued on behalf of his favourite team.
"My Dad was offered a place with the Montrose Magpies," Harry shared with them absentmindedly, watching Draco getting into a carriage near the back of the queue all alone. "He didn't sign on though because my Mum was pregnant with me…"
He remembered every word spoken and every action from the memory that Sirius had given him of the happy life that could have been his in Godric’s Hollow. Though he didn't yearn for it quite the same way that he had before. There were just too many good things that had happened alternately that Harry would never want to undo.
"Can you fit in one more?" Lupin asked, coming over to their carriage with a smile after he’d settled the rest of his students.
“Of course,” Ron said immediately, shifting closer to Hermione to create some space on the bench. As soon as Lupin sat down he couldn’t resist announcing the news that he had clearly been bursting to share.
“It's a boy!” he told them happily. “We just found out last night!”
“Congratulations!” Hermione cried.
They all echoed her and Lupin’s smile beamed even more brightly. He looked so much better these days; confident, hopeful, and even healthy. The modifications that Snape had made to the Wolfsbane potion did him a lot of good. It kept him in his right mind during transformations while greatly minimizing the awful side-effects that had made the potion so unpleasant for him to take before. As a result he looked much less tired than he usually did and the bonus of steady employment meant that he’d felt able to indulge in new robes to replace the shabby ones he’d worn for years.
“Is Tonks still working?” Ginny asked.
“Yes, she refuses to slow down,” Lupin sounded amused. “She intends to keep working until the baby comes in April, but she’s staying pretty close to the office now fortunately.”
In the aftermath of Voldemort, all hands were needed on deck at the Ministry. The auror department was, of course, on the front lines, rounding up the Death Eaters who had escaped from Azkaban and overseeing much of the work to rebuild the country. Naturally, the bubbly and enthusiastic young auror would want to be directly in the middle of the action, whether she had a baby on the way or not, and Lupin couldn't have appeared more proud of his wife if he tried. Thinking back to how distressed he had been during the summer, it seemed perfectly obvious to Harry that Lupin’s unhappiness with his marriage and unborn child had had nothing to do with Tonks and everything to do with his own lack of self-worth. How sadly common it was to see people resisting the very ones who just wanted to love them.
"Dora and I will be over Christmas Eve after we’ve had dinner with her parents," Lupin said, patting Harry on the shoulder as they stood on the platform together with the Hogwarts Express whistling loudly and blowing lots of steam in front of them.
"I think your son is going to be so lucky to have you for a father, Remus," Harry said, dropping formalities as his insides burned happily in anticipation of the Christmas celebration everyone was coming together for. "Anything you might be worried about - well you’re not facing it alone, are you? There’s nothing we can’t all figure out as a family."
"You're right," Lupin agreed quietly, a bigger smile stretching across his scarred face. "I’m really glad that my son will have to look up to Harry. You’re very remarkable, but not just in the ways you're famous for. You remind me of James more and more each day, do you know that? But I also see so much of Lily, Severus, and Sirius in you as well. I think you've got the best of all of them."
"Well…I try," Harry replied, a bit embarrassed, though pleased, by the sentimentality of their conversation. "See you in a few days, Professor."
"Safe trip," Lupin waved him off, as Harry boarded the train and went in search of the compartment that Ginny, Ron, and Hermione had already claimed.
"Do you think Fred and George will have any new merchandise they want us to test for them?" Ginny asked, after Harry had taken his place beside her and Ron had closed the door to the stragglers gawking at Harry from the aisle.
"And probably with some new demonstrations as well," Harry nodded, settling back into the cushioned seat to enjoy the journey into London, feeling peaceful and content. He was more than ready for an opportunity to decompress at home away from all the attention and overwhelming atmosphere that was Hogwarts these days, and most especially eager to be back in his safe place with his found family.
XXX
The moon was full and bright in the sky that night, accompanied by flickering stars that made the outdoors seem bright and inviting despite the freezing temperatures. Harry’s cheeks were burning from the frigid air and his lips were becoming chapped, but that didn’t prevent him from smiling. Up in the sky, where he belonged, and feeling particularly daring, Harry attempted a hand-stand in the empty space and stared down at the blanket of snow below him.
"Don’t get arrogant," Snape called.
"I’m not," Harry called back, annoyed as he was jolted out of his intense concentration.
Harry twisted in the air upright in an attempt at recovery, but could nonetheless sense himself beginning to drop back down towards earth. Though he did not panic as he gripped tightly onto his wand, about to cast a Cushioning Charm below him just as he experienced his whole body becoming light as a feather. He floated down to the ground slowly and his boots sank into the fluffy snow, with Snape landing next to him and lowering his own wand, which he had used to break Harry’s fall.
"I’m just getting more confident," Harry told him defensively.
"There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance," Snape smirked, "and you like to toe it."
Harry smiled more brightly as he stared back up at the full-moon in the sky, trying not to think about Lupin who was surely curled up somewhere right now in the werewolf form he despised. Meanwhile, Harry was enjoying the beauty and brightness of the moon as the perfect backdrop for his return home. It was like he could breathe easier here and had a clear head. He had just conquered Unassisted Flying for the first time in his life, and now he felt like he could do anything.
"I don’t want to go back to Hogwarts," Harry sighed. "I want to stay here."
"But you’re going to go anyway," Snape finished calmly.
They stared at one another with matching expressions of exasperation on their faces. How alike they were in so many ways - their childhoods, their courage, their affectionate yet complicated relationships with Albus Dumbledore, and their willingness to try again and learn how to begin taking ownership of their own lives now that they could. The latter of which was partly why Harry was so eager to go out in the world and no longer be confined to the restrictions and routine of Hogwarts. Although he knew that Snape had too much respect for magical theory to allow him to ever seriously consider leaving early, and Harry had too much respect for him to even consider disobeying his wishes. He only intended to express his dissatisfaction.
"Speaking of school," Harry said slowly. "Malfoy caught me just as we were leaving and asked me to tell you, ‘Merry Christmas’, from him."
"Did he?" said Snape. "That’s odd, because he already said just as much and more in his last letter."
"He writes to you?" Harry frowned. "Do you write back?"
"That’s none of your business," Snape said, looking as though Harry’s slight expression of jealousy amused him.
Harry’s frown deepened. "Well then why would he ask me to tell you -"
"Perhaps he wanted to talk to you but wasn’t sure how to break the ice," Snape suggested softly. "How is Draco getting on in school now anyway? Is he still being picked on?
"Shunned mostly," Harry shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "I don’t know. I don’t pay attention to him."
“You seem to have a lot of opinions for someone supposedly too indifferent to notice,” Snape remarked. “Draco’s grown a lot. He’s been through almost as much as yourself and come out the other side.”
Harry didn’t answer. He still felt far too resentful towards Malfoy to grant him any of the consideration that his father seemed to be suggesting he should, but it wasn’t because he didn’t recognize the power of change that could come from second chances. Of course Harry recognized that for what it was and he also accepted that Draco hadn’t always - or ever - been the master of his own choices. Certainly he had suffered tremendously at Voldemort’s hands and would have found it nearly impossible to hide once things had reached the point of no return….but Harry didn’t want to spend his first night home discussing sympathies for any of the Malfoys with his Dad. He wanted to attempt Unassisted Flying one more time and lose himself in the good fortune that had made him the happiest he’d ever been before in his life.
“Can I go higher this time?” Harry asked, rocking on the balls of his feet like a diver preparing to plunge.
“Yes,” Snape replied. “See if you can make it all the way up to the balcony.”
“Okay,” Harry exhaled, his breath visible on the air in front of his face. He fixed his eyes upon the balcony that led to the master bedroom on the second floor of their house, illuminated from the winter sky and the glow from the fire through the windows.
Harry focused on making himself feel as light and free as a bird. He didn’t need to depend on his broomstick and he didn’t need to rely on wings that he didn’t have to soar up above him and just be. With a push off the ground, Harry felt himself rising. He pumped his legs as though he were climbing an invisible set of stairs to the heavens. With his hands stretched out in front of him, Harry began to part the wind above him to allow safe passage. Going higher than he had ever tried before, reaching for the stone architecture of the railing. When he felt its cold roughness against his hands, Harry stopped thinking about soaring and just allowed himself to hang there, as the muscles in his arms contracted and he felt his full weight dangling once again.
“You did well,” Snape said fairly, as he stepped over the partial wall and onto the balcony covered in snow from the last storm.
The double doors opened to admit them and Harry hurriedly swung himself over the ledge to enter the bedroom that belonged to Sirius, but of which he’d already discovered Snape’s slippers and dressing gown inside earlier that evening. Although nobody apparently considered it necessary to discuss the ever shifting boundaries that pertained to the two men who'd both cooperatively put aside all differences to lay claim to him, it was clear to Harry that the relationship between them no longer revolved exclusively around him at all -and it filled him with gratitude to witness the comfortability and affection they now shared with one another and extended onto him.
"Dad, why are you listening to Celestina Warbeck?" Harry asked Sirius, taking in the sight of him cozied up in bed with a bowl of popcorn on his blankets and the sound of a sorceress singing from the wireless on his nightstand.
“How do you even recognize Celestina Warbeck?” Snape asked him, as Sirius laughed and silenced the music with a tap of his wand.
“Mrs. Weasley’s a fan,” Harry replied, crawling up onto the bed next to Sirius and helping himself to a handful of popcorn. “It’s always on when I’m over there.”
“Ah, well, for the record, I am not a fan,” Sirius told them, “but the news was just on a minute ago. They were talking more about Dolores Umbridge’s sentence to Azkaban. Looks like the old bat is in for a pretty long stay.”
“Good,” Harry said coldly. “She’s someone I wouldn’t have felt bad about sending there even if there were still Dementors running the place.”
Although making the prison more humane and secure had been a focus of the new administration. Kingsley Shacklebolt had removed the Dementors and their cruel and unusual method of driving the prisoners mad by sucking out all their good memories. Now Azkaban was in the hands of the auror department. Voldemort’s supporters had been rounded up and sentenced there, and Dolores Umbridge had been charged with crimes against humanity for her passionate and cruel efforts as chair of the Muggleborn Registration Committee.
"I'm going to make a cup of tea," Snape announced, "Would either of you like one?"
Though both Sirius and Harry shook their heads no, they did not desist from getting out of bed and following Snape down into the kitchen anyway. He glanced over his shoulder at then one time and shook his head as if exasperated, but Sirius only chuckled as he rushed ahead to kiss the corner of Snape’s mouth in plain view of Harry.
"If you do that in front of an audience again, I will cast you into oblivion," Snape said, not looking at all upset.
"C'mon, I don't count," Harry sounded bemused. Pleased, but surprised all the same. Who could have imagined it would come to this? And now it was the only thing that made sense.
Snape didn’t say anything but kept his lips tightly pressed together to suppress the smile that was already making his sallow skin glow. To be loved, accepted, and cherished - it was all anyone could want. Brought together through hardship and the fervent need to have someone that all three of them had shared, love had made it all possible. They had done everything that had been asked of them. They had done all that was necessary and painful in the hard work of growing, evolving, and forgiving so that love could blossom even in the formerly most hostile of places. So that the battle had been won and their family had been found. And Harry smiled as his fathers shared a look and then turned their focus onto him. Harry had everything that he had ever lacked. All was well.