epilogue
They all heal eventually, in their own times.
The Order still meets to discuss what needs to be done in the wizarding world, post-war. There are still a few rogue Death Eaters to catch, after all. Conversations are stilted as they remember Alastor, and Albus, and Gideon, and Fabian, and Kingsley, and countless others who laid their life for the freedom they now enjoy.
The Longbottoms and the Potters stay in hiding for a while, fearing that some may wish the prophecy still to come true.
Blair, Regulus, Cissa, and Lucius undergo trials because three out of the four of them are marked.
Regulus sustains lasting injuries, but he retains his quick wit and good humor. Severus will never be able to walk again, but somehow, gliding along on a wheelchair does not take away from his dramatic entrances.
The rest of them- no, all of them, suffer from post-war trauma.
Life goes on, however slowly, and eventually, they do heal.
It takes a good five years for Blair and Dan to marry.
They marry in a church in Surrey, in front of Dan’s muggle relatives and all their friends. It is a far cry from the wedding she had envisioned as a child, but it is still beautiful, and somehow lavish (she is still a Black, after all).
It is, however, also chaotic.
Cissa cries at the wedding more than the bride and groom do. Lucius and Lily surreptitiously cast calming charms at Draco and Harry when they think no one is looking. Sirius and James fight over who gets to push Severus’s wheelchair. (These days, it is a privilege that they fight over often.)
Blair feels the urge to roll her eyes, but Dan pulls her into a corridor in between the speeches. He kisses the exasperation out of her, and she forgets everything else.
Dan’s thumb gently strokes Blair’s hand and rests on the enormous diamond and emerald ring he has given her, and she smiles into his mouth.
-
Dan and Blair’s children become the first main line Black children whose names are affixed to a Muggleborn surname. (Nymphadora Black-Tonks holds the honor as the first Black child, but Blair does retain some of her snobbery as an Heiress Black.)
Blair has Perseus, then Caelum, then Castor and Pollux, and Lyra in quick succession. One of the Black traditions Dan actively encourages is to name their children after celestial bodies. Blair teases him good-naturedly that he is a swot, and he teases her back that she is almost as good a swot as he is, but just not good enough.
She and Dan have as many children as the Potter and Malfoy children combined. (James and Lily’s Clementine are the same age as Caelum, and Lucius and Cissa’s twins, Asterope and Aurora, are the same age as Lyra. Eventually, to Lucius’s mock consternation and everyone else’s amusement, the Potter and Malfoy families are joined by a union between Harry and Draco, their war babies.)
Sirius is mirthful, needling Blair that she has single mindedly repopulated the entire Black family. Blair only scoffs. Reg can’t have children; Sirius won’t have children, so the preservation of the House of Black is left to her.
She doesn’t tell them that her determination also stems from her abject inability to keep her hands off Dan.
Dan, who is the love of her life, the first muggleborn Slytherin in a century, and the best Defense professor Hogwarts has had in ages. He is a force unto himself, and Blair is completely, utterly in awe of him.
Blair Black-Humphrey grows up steeped in magic, but her husband does not.
It doesn’t matter.
Their children will grow up safe, and warm, and loved, not living in the shadow of a war. Their children will grow up with magic. They will be taught to be thoughtful and deliberate, that their magic thrives on intent. They will grow up under the watchful eye of their muggle Grampa Rufus and their shrewd Auntie Jenny.
Blair herself will grow old in the arms of her husband. She will playfully swat at him every morning when he gives her moon-eyed looks over his tea. She will still give him scathing looks and sharp remarks even when they are both too decrepit to climb to the owlery that they used to escape to. She will always feel safe in his arms.
Blair Cassiopeia Black-Humphrey isn’t born into a world she belongs to - she and her husband have made it so.