"Harry, you ass!"
Harry chuckled, looking at Mimosa Windermere.
"Sorry if I'm so handsome, it hurts to look at me," he grinned.
"Don't be so full of yourself, Harry. Tell me what happened."
Harry's face darkened. "They've created a hell for our senior year."
"What are you talking about?"
"They've made an – an exchange program," sneered Harry. "They want half of each seventh year of each house to switch. I'm still in Gryffindor, thankfully, but Ron's in Hufflepuff and Hermione's in Slytherin. You're in Gryffindor."
"But I'm a Ravenclaw and I'm new, and I'd like to know the Ravenclaws," mourned Mimosa. Her drifting chestnut curls fluttered nervously around her.
She thought for a moment, looking panic-stricken. "Well," she said at least, reluctantly. "I suppose it will be a nice change. And hopefully it'll lead to more interaction between the houses. Hermione's told me how horrible it is that the houses are all so isolated from each other."
"There's been a lot of friendly exchange since Voldemort died," said Harry firmly.
"Harry! Over here!"
Harry turned to see the faces of his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, along with Ginny, coming through the Ravenclaw common room. Rules had changed; people from other Houses could visit other common rooms with visitor passes and sign-outs.
"Can you believe I'm going to be stuck with a bunch of Huffleduffs?" said Ron furiously.
"Don't say that," protested Luna Lovegood, drifting dreamily from the fireplace. "There's a lot of nice people in Hufflepuff. Though there are some nicer ones in Ravenclaw. In my opinion, all the rest of you are a bunch of piffers compared to us –"
"Yes, thank you, for your ever-expressive opinion, as always," coughed Hermione. "Harry…um."
"Have you heard?" smirked Ron. "Malfoy's asked Ginny out."
"So?" grumbled Harry. He was not surprised. Malfoy had been making doe-eyes at Ginny for quite awhile now, and though Harry was pissed that she didn't mind Malfoy's attentions in the least, he was even sicker of Ron discussing the whole matter. He'd spent so much time in the sixth year, lying in bed and wondering about Ron and Hermione, only to have felt disgusted at the mention of Malfoy and Ginny. He was glad, however, that Ron had gone for Pansy Parkinson's little sister, Peony Parkinson. She was fifteen, two years younger, and a ravishing beauty that spoke quietly and was thankfuly not eager as Lavender Brown to have make-out sessions in public.
Harry had supremely chuckled to himself to see Pansy's face whenever she saw her sister and Ron walking up and down the hallways, Ron holding Peony's books for her and his jaw slack, gazing at Peony. And now, how they felt for poor Pansy, as Ron discussed Malfoy-and-Ginny.
"Are you sure someone didn't slip love potions in their wormwood-tea?"
"Harry," said Hermione in a you're-being-quite-insensitive-and-rude tone, "I'm sure that they feel pangs of true feeling for each other."
Ron and Harry howled with laughter.
"It's true!" cried Hermione in irritation, knocking over Ron's cup of firewhiskey to stand up. "Ginny's told me how she's over Harry. And sorry if Harry isn't over her –"
"I think I'm over that little ska – Ginny," said Harry, glancing at Ron.
"I'm going to have a talk with her about it," offered Ron.
Harry remembered on how last year, Hermione had gone out with McLaggen to make Ron beet-red jealous. Perhaps, Ginny was going out with Malfoy as vengeance for a week ago, when Harry had gotten drunk at Neville's party and made a fool out of himself. He had juggled empty butterbeer bottles (Goyle had taught him) and enchanted a tablecloth to follow a group of underage girls at the party, making them shriek in horror, splashing firewhiskey on their robes, as the tablecloth impersonated a ghost, and,moaning and groaning, fluttered at them.
Then he had sang "99 Bottles of Butterbeer on the Wall" with Ernie Macmillan, and in the midst of intoxication, he reached over and kissed Mimosa, or "Mim", as everyone called her, on the cheek.
He would never quite forget the look of mortified wrath Ginny had flashed him, or Mim's smile, lighting up her face, or Ron, considerably tipsy himself, chortling in a high-pitched tone (someone had accidentally jinxed him with a Sopranus spell) in such good spirits that he reached out to hug Crabbe, with such force that Crabbe fell over and broke a piano.
"If she wants to go out with Malfoy, it's fine," he told Ron, watching Mim as she read by the fire. Mim was an excellent student, though she fortunately did not read as much as Hermione, nor obsessed over the library as much.
Ten Years Later
You are cordially invited
To join in the felicity and celebration
Of Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood
As they celebrate their nuptials
June 9th
Avalee Abbey, Kent
The celebration continues
Later at three' o'clock
Gardenia Place, Kent
Harry stuffed the fairy-winged invitation in his drawer. He knew; after all, Neville and Luna had announced their engagement six months ago. And it was ironic that he would receive an invitation; he was going to chaperone Hermione, who was going to be a bridesmaid. The best man was some crackhead named Francis, whom he'd never met, and the Maid of Honor was to be Luna's cousin, Electra.
Ron was the only one not to have any special importance; Harry feared his resentment at having Harry, and Hermione to have important roles in Neville's wedding.
A great deal of the gang had flown the coop. Seamus was married to some Turkish witch; Dean Thomas was still single. As Harry had heard, Dean had never gotten over losing Ginny to Harry.
A year ago, he'd been invited as a special guest to Oliver Wood's marriage to some girl from the Slytherin Quidditch team, and though uninvited, he had heard a great deal of Cho Chang's wedding to some some English lord's brother.
Fred and George Weasley were still happy bachelors.
"Haven't found the right girl," drawled Fred when Harry had last seen him.
"Business is too busy to start a family," shrugged George. Harry was astonished because in fact, Harry had been inquiring about the ethics of Weasley Wizard's Wheezes taking over various joke shops, including the entire Zonko's Enterprise.
He had not heard much from Ginny. Ginny was still with "Draco", as she called him, and they had moved into a house in the States. She wrote occasionally to Hermione and her mother, and even at times to Hagrid, and astonishingly, once or twice to Luna Lovegood, but stayed out of contact with Ron or Harry. Ginny had once sent Harry a Howler shouting at him for being a stupid, moronic, dimwit with no life, and later sent him a letter in which she apologized and said it had been intended for one of her other friends.
A week later, Neville and Luna joined in holy matrimony. Harry found the whole ordeal tedious and monotonous, though he managed a smile for his friends' sake. He was actually happy for his friends; the fact was, he had hit his head the day before and was suffering an enormous migraine. He couldn't even laugh when Ron played Quidditch with Neville for old times' sake and, due to Peony offering him a piece of cake, looked down, only to look back up to find a solid brick wall less than five yards ahead of him. He swerved, got caught in an oak, and landed in a lake invested with angry grindylows.
"What's up?" asked Hermione breezily, hanging on the arm of her handsome husband, Aaron Langston-Newts, who was a first cousin of Cedric Diggory. Hermione had met him during a memorial for, ironically, Sirius. Aaron had come to express sympathy, since he was also connected with one of Voldemort's more famous victims. He bore a striking resemblance to Cedric, which Harry found sketchy and disturbing. She had been married to him for six years.
"Remember how I told you about hitting my head yesterday? Well, right now I feel like I've drank a cauldron full of firewhiskey, it's that bad."
She started to say something, but was interrupted by the tugging of a four-year-old, her own precious, precocious daughter, Alcestis Granger Langston-Newt. Alcestis was fond of grabbing Harry by the ankle while he was walking, and of invading her parents' potions set to make odd creations.
Hermione, after Hogwarts, had attempted an official SPEW society, but after finding only three other members after two years of campaigning, one who turned out to be an investigator from the Ministry, went to write a new improved version of Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, which had been so popular that she had been hired to re-write all of the transfiguration guides. Hermione stopped after making five more books because she was sick of it, and joined St. Mungo's briefly before inquiring for a position at Hogwarts.
That's when Ron swaggered in with his new BFF.
Harry turned to see Ron roaring with laughter, a glass of mint firewhiskey in his hand, and by his side, Draco Malfoy.
"Hello, Ron," Harry said politely.
Ron's smile did not fade; rather, it turned uncertain. Malfoy also kept his grin, but he seemed a bit nervous.
"I didn't know you were invited," sneered Harry.
Ron fiddled with his rabbit-ears. Apparently, he had thought it would get a kick out of everyone. "Luna and Neville sent an invitation to Ginny and an escort."
"So Ginny's here?" Harry looked around.
"She couldn't come," shrugged Malfoy. Though he had looked like his father when he was a boy, his looks had jeered towards his mother's side. His pale hair was her shade, his eyes, though his father's, was her shape, and the rest of his countenance bore a small similarity to – Sirius. After all, Harry had to remind himself, Narcissa Malfoy had been Sirius' cousin.
"Well," Malfoy coughed. "I think I'll get another drink."
As soon as Malfoy ambled away, Ron started his woeful confession of guilt.
'Sorry, Harry, but I wrote to Ginny and told her that I was sorry for calling her an idiot for going out with Malfoy. She invited me for a visit, and I went three weeks ago to New York –"
"That was when, I suppose, you told me you were going to Paris to look at the exhibit of the African bobble-head dragon?" said Harry angrily.
Ron nodded uncomfortably. "And well, I decided for Ginny's sake that I ought not to make sarcastic remarks, and well Malfoy – he's – he's a changed man!"
"Excuse me if I'm somewhat dubious."
"He is, he really is," said Ron earnestly. "Well – sometimes he still makes snide comments, and he definitely hasn't stopped his weakness for flaunting stuff, but I think it's probably fatherhood."
Harry gagged and Ron blushed, slapping a hand to his mouth.
"What?!"
"He married Ginny four years ago and they have a two-year-old son named Priam," said Ron quickly.
"And she never told –?"
"She told Mum, Dad, and Hermione but they swore never to tell without her permission."
"Son of a snitch!" said Harry weakly. "I think I'm going to throw up."
"Actually," said Ron, enjoying himself, "his family almost disowned him, but Draco convinced them that it was for the best for their Death-Eater-Happy reputation that he marry someone whose family is so infatuated with Muggles – and it is very hard to find a nice, pretty, pureblood family like the Weasleys nowadays, you know."
Ten Years Later
"There you go!" shouted Harry as nine-year-old Grier Lily Hermione Windermere Potter zoomed off on Harry's Firebolt, eventually beating the crap out of Nero Weasley, Ron's eight-year-old son.
What ended up happening, inevitably, was that Harry was so shocked by Ginny's marriage and Ron's new friend – and his, he supposed, that he went out, drank gillywater and wedding cake till he really did throw up, accidentally squashed a pet salamander intended as a wedding gift, and Apparated to Mimosa's flat in London. A month later, he and Mim were married.
Harry had intended to be an Auror, but as Voldemort was gone for good, and the Death Eaters scattered, he joined the Quidditch team for England instead.
And now he was preparing for a twenty-year reunion at Hogwarts tomorrow. He had received the letter three days ago from McGonagall, the headmistress, of course. There were rumors circulating that McGonagall was going to retire and give the position to Professor Sprout, who had become Assistant Headmistress after Slughorn retired, but the real excitement was that Professor Sprout might take Hermione as assistant headmistress. In that case, Hermione would be the second-youngest person to receive that position.
The new generation was coming along. Hermione had made a list for them:
Harry Potter & Mimosa Windermere
Children: Grier and James III
Ron Weasley & Peony Parkinson
Child: Nero
Hermione Granger & Aaron Langston-Newts
Children: Alcestis, Harriett, and Renaldo
Ginny Weasley & Draco Malfoy
Children: Priam, Artie
Neville Longbottom & Luna Lovegood
Child: Ursula