The Sins of Us Chapter 7- Greed, a harry potter fanfic

Disclaimer: Still don't own, sorry, just the plotline and OCs.

A/N: Hey guys, thanks to those who read and reviewed, please continue.

This story is almost finished this is the last chapter but there is still an epilogue left to come up soon.

Enjoy!

Greed:

They say that pride comes before a fall, but as she stared at the broken shell of the man that was lying at her feet, Ally Potter had to admit that they were wrong. For Lord Voldemort whilst being vain and proud his greed was his undoing.

His greed for life. His greed for knowledge. His greed for power.

If she was being honest, Albus Dumbledore's undoing had been the same thing.

His greed for knowledge. His greed for control. His greed for magic.

10 months was a long time, a long time to be in a tent with three other people with barely any other human contact. It was enough to drive a sane person insane. Ally was never sane to begin with so she was fine. Harry's sanity had also been questioned so he too was fine. But Daphne and Susan though sticking it out were glad to be back. Ally couldn't blame them, as she watched them run into their boyfriends' arms.

Ally kicked the corpse of Voldemort as she watched families, broken, bloodied and once hopeless reunite with loved ones. She watched as they bawled together and hugged as if they'd never let go.

It was pretty grim, Ally thought to herself, everyone else was celebrating and she was thinking about the greed of a dead monster and another dead man who was rotting in the ground. She shouldn't be surprised; she was always on the outskirts of everything, family gatherings, pictures, groups. It had always been that way.

Finally, Ally tore herself away from the figure of Tom Riddle, the figure that she had delivered the killing blast to after he had tried to hit her father with the Killing Curse. It didn't matter that the spell didn't hit Sirius; all that mattered was that Riddle had just made it personal. She felt no remorse for killing the creature that had once been human, for he had taken too much from her.

Madame Pomfrey was going around healing individuals and Minerva McGonagall was trying to gather helpers to help with the dead and the wounded. As Ally passed her group of friends who were wrapped around each other and their families, Daphne and Susan split from the group and stood to flank her as she moved over to the rows of dead.

Ally felt it her duty to help those who died, after all she did know many of them.

"Colin Creevey," Susan muttered.

"Mundungus Fletcher," Daphne pointed to another body.

"What are we going to do with them all," Susan asked practically.

Before either of her friends could answer, another voice did, "We are to transfigure them into eternal flowers," Minerva McGonagall smiled shakily, she had aged over the last year, they all had, some more than others, all battle-worn but survivors.

"Can I erect a wall," Ally asked, her voice was husky with supressed emotion, "as a Memorial, I will more than willingly pay for it, but the dead deserve to be remembered after all they gave their lives so that we could live ours peacefully."

"Of course," Minerva's eyes were surprisingly moist and rather unexpectedly she pulled the three girls into a hug before sniffing audibly and hurrying away.

"If you want to do the wall, Susan can identify them and I'll transfigure them," Daphne offered, the two knew that Ally wouldn't want to be mollycoddled and that she needed to do this, so they were going to help her.

Ally nodded, "That would be great thanks guys," the other two knew that Ally's heartfelt thanks was not just for this but for the entirety of their friendship, they smiled and continued.

"Seamus Finnigan."

"Theodore Nott."

"Lavender Brown."

"Penelope Clearwater."

"Charlie Weasley."

Ally looked up, sure enough the second Weasley brother was lying there pale in death, surrounded by his mourning family members, Ally caught Bill's eyes and gave him a commiserating look, his eyes were red-rimmed. Ally felt a bit more of her already fractured heart break further, Charlie had been a good friend of hers.

"Rolanda Hooch," Susan muttered, the list was memorial which was floating in front of Ally was getting larger by the second as they discovered more and more bodies.

"Pansy Parkinson," Daphne recognised her old dorm-mate "is it bad that I don't feel that sorry for her?"

"No, I mean when I saw her, I didn't feel too sorry," Ally admitted.

The last bodies had been saved for last on purpose; all three knew that these two bodies would wreak the most damage on Ally. Severus and Marlene Snape lay together in death. Their eyes staring unseeingly into the blue sky, without realising what she was doing Ally was kneeling by their bodies and shut the lifeless eyes, and placing their hands together. Unconsciously she waved her hand at the bodies transforming the bodies into a black and red rose intertwined, everlasting, transfigured permanently. They were the only two roses in the mass of bodies.

"Why a rose," Susan asked Daphne, the two had moved slightly further off to allow Ally to grieve.

"You've never noticed Ally's tattoos," Daphne asked.

"No, I knew that she had a lightning bolt that appeared after the bond formed," Susan appeared confused.

"She has more than that, the one I was talking about is a beautiful colour changing rose which has the words 'every rose has its thorns' underneath. That's why she changed them into a rose, besides she has that much raw power to do that."

Ally knew deep down that the two were at peace but she couldn't help but think of poor Lexi who was not even a year old and lost her parents. When Ally had seen her aunt mere hours ago before the start of the final battle, Marlene had told her that if anything happened to her or her husband then their daughter would go to Ally and no other person. Ally had been resigned to this; she knew that she owed it to the older woman and she really did love her god-daughter, but she never thought that that contingency would be needed.

"You know, they're not really gone," Susan finally said as she sat down on the floor next to Ally.

"I know, but it doesn't make it hurt any less," Ally told the other redhead, currently Ally's hair was black, she was mourning.

"No, it doesn't," Daphne agreed as she stroked the younger girl's black hair.

"Look, I know that I like projecting the view that I'm a hard-ass and that I can take care of myself, and I can but I still cared, you know. They were the only family who actually liked me. I'm not sad for me, I'm sad for Lexi, she'll never know her parents," Ally explained.

"I know, but she'll be in good hands, you will be a great mother. She'll grow up with your three children; she'll have friends and a family who will love her. You knew her parents the best, they chose you to be her guardian for a reason," Blaise replied as he too walked over and sat opposite the three girls.

Ally smiled, her friends had too much faith in her, "Okay, well I guess I've probably moped enough."

The others scoffed, Ally didn't really deal with her emotions well, she never had, she just suppressed them.

"This is going to be a nightmare to clean up," Daphne groaned as she pushed herself up off the floor, dusting off the jeans that she was wearing.

Their time on the run had changed the four, that was not to say that Neville and Blaise hadn't because they had, but the quartet had become really close. They were all like siblings barring Harry and Ally whose relationship had gone from strength to strength.

The hours had passed by agonisingly slowly, the four had felt loneliness before but nothing like this, they felt alone despite all their company. The first few months had been the worst, the constant fear, and the worry. For three it had gotten better, for Ally it hadn't she missed her children, a lot and her siblings- she worried for them, she couldn't help it. She knew that her parents had always been good to her younger siblings but Ally had taken care of them a lot too, she had always written to them and sent them small gifts, so it worried her that she had to leave them behind when she was off on a wild goose chase trying to kill a mass murderer.

As for fashion which had gotten Ally started on this train of thought, the Purebloods certainly had learnt about Muggle clothing. Daphne and Susan had initially been scandalised by the clothes that Ally had packed into her bag for all of them, for they were not traditional garb, but eventually they had come to see that Ally's packing had a method to it. They had come to realise that the Muggle clothing was actually comfortable and highly easy to use to blend in. Now they were addicted to it.

"We'd better get started," Neville groaned as he walked forward wiping a smidgeon of blood off his face.

"No, we need to get started you are going to go to Lady Black and get her to heal you," Ally told her friend in no uncertain terms, her voice brooked no arguing and Neville trailed off to find Athena Black.

Neville found the older woman in a group next to Harry, "Hey."

Harry looked up; he looked slightly battered and bruised but nowhere nearly as bad as Neville looked, "Hey, Nev, what's up?"

"Well, I have a feeling that my girlfriend is going to kill you if you don't go and help them out over there," he gestured behind him in the general direction of the clean-up crew, "and I was told in no uncertain terms to allow Lady Black to heal me otherwise there would be dire consequences."

Harry scoffed, "Well I know better than to piss off a redhead, I better get going, I'll see you guys later," before he could get stopped he jogged off and they watched as he gave them all a hug as he approached the clean-up crew.

"Okay, so can you fix me up," Neville asked hopefully.

"Of course, just one question, who told you that I could heal you," Athena asked, it wasn't often that someone remembered that she was capable of being a Healer.

"I know that I'll regret telling you later, but Ally," Neville groaned, his 'sister' was going to kill him for this.

Apparently Ally had somehow gained super hearing whilst on the run for as soon as the words were out of Neville's mouth she had appeared next to him, "You rang?"

Neville blanched, "Nope." His voice gave him away for it cracked on the one word.

Ally gave him a wry look before shrugging and walking back into the shadows and disappearing. The girl seriously had ways of getting out of things that she didn't want to do.

"I'm so dead," Neville moaned.

"She didn't buy that, I presume," James asked the younger man.

"Nope, if she had she would still be here talking to me," Neville explained.

"Would all of you stop bitching about why my best friend is mad at you and actually get healed, Ally's getting pissed off if I'm being honest, so if you don't hurry the hell up she may attempt to murder you, and frankly she'll get away with it, she did kill Voldemort after all. On second thought she might have gotten away with it anyway given that she and my mother are good friends," Blaise groaned, the last thought added afterwards as an aside. Neville started very slightly, over the last year the two had gotten even closer but Blaise's sneakiness still startled the Gryffindor.

Neville groaned before looking pleadingly at Athena Black, the woman sighed before waving her wand and muttering a spell, and Neville's wounds all stitched up and disappeared.

"Thank you, oh and Mrs Black, I'm sorry for your loss, she was a great person," Neville did not even stay to register the look of shock on Athena's face as he quickly sped after Blaise.

Fifteen hours later and one by one other survivors from the battle began emerging, most had slept in this time, most but not all. Ally had been awake the entire time; since the war had begun she had become an insomniac, something that not even her husband had noticed.

The others had all gone to bed for hours, there exhaustion carrying them no further, Ally instead had gotten changed into fresh clothes that she had kindly asked Kreacher to get for her. She knew that what she was wearing was going to scandalise her father, she knew that she couldn't ignore her family forever. So she had dressed in leather trousers which showed off her muscled legs to perfection, her top beared her midriff with her belly button ring, the tank top was made of thin material and her feet were encased in thick-soled combat boots. All in all, Ally had not changed drastically since the war; in fact her style had remained much the same.

"Did you go to bed at all," a voice came from behind her.

Ally spun around and came face to face with Bill Weasley, the oldest Weasley brother was a good friend of hers because of her close friendship with Charlie. His red hair was sticking out unkempt from his ponytail, his eyes red-rimmed and tired.

Ally smiled wryly, "You know, you're the first person to come out and ask me that, no, I haven't slept."

"You know he loved you," Bill asked smiling slightly sadly, his blue eyes bored into Ally's onyx ones.

Ally bit the inside of her lip, did she know that Charlie Weasley had loved her as more than a friend, she thought to herself. She probably did, she just didn't think about it too much as she loved him like a brother.

"He knew that I loved him," Ally began, and at Bill's incredulous look she continued, "I didn't love him like he loved me, and he knew that. But I loved him all the same, I asked him to be happy, and he was, he was so happy with his dragons. We used to write to each other a lot, then he found Claire, she made him happy."

Ally's voice broke very slightly as she recounted the story that she knew that Bill deserved but that Charlie had never told him.

"He told me that he could settle with her because he couldn't have me, it damn near broke my heart, I wanted to give us a chance so much, but I couldn't take getting hurt by him, anyone else I could deal with, but he had the ability to hurt me so much more," here Ally paused wondering how to proceed, but then she thought about Bill's profession and continued, "what do you know of soul-bonds?"

If the Weasley was shocked, he didn't show it, "it's a bond between two destined to belong together, but there are tales saying that those with those bonds can have more than one fate."

Ally nodded and smiled, "Yes, that's essentially correctly, basically every bonded pair can occur in two ways, each person capable of bonding can make it with two different people. At the time we didn't know that we could do that potentially, so we went our separate way until two summers ago, I got a message from Charlie telling me that he needed to see me urgently. I loved him, even then, I was barely 15, but I went anyway. He introduced me to Claire, his wife, now that was a shock.

It seems that they formed a bond, but she wanted to tell me because I was the other person that Charlie was able to bond to, but he didn't instead, it happened to Claire and him and later on me and Harry. Something that I told him at your wedding. He was happy for me."

Bill's eyes widened, "I didn't know that Charlie was married," the two brothers were very close; he knew that the younger man had loved Ally but he didn't know that they had a bigger history than what he had anticipated.

"Yeah, he was going to tell you after the war, Claire is an amazing woman." Ally sighed, it was so sad that she could not save her best friend, he was her oldest friend and she had loved him, she knew that she could have easily loved him like he had always loved her.

"What is she like," Bill asked.

"Perfect for him, you know, adventurous, kind, pretty and tough-"

"But not you," the older man pointed out, Ally sighed, she knew he was right, Charlie and Claire had said as much to her.

"Yes, she's not me, but he loved her just like I loved him, Claire never doubted that. I think that she was always a little insecure about my relationship with her husband but we are now good friends, it pains me that I have to tell her that her husband isn't coming home. I guess that the worst thing about it is that I kind of blame myself, if I had loved him like he did me then perhaps he would be alive."

The man crossed the small distance between them in two long strides pulling her into his steely embrace, "It isn't your fault, it never was, and he loved you. But he will never believe that the woman he loved would blame herself for his death," Bill told the younger woman.

"I guess that the rational part of my brain knows that but I can't bring myself to believe that," Ally shrugged.

Bill observed her closely, "It took you everything not to go running toward him yesterday, didn't it?"

It was posed as a question but it was a statement.

"Yes, but I couldn't do that to your family, look I know that Ron and I don't get along and what your mother thinks of me but the twins are my friends, so are you and Charlie. But I was not going to interrupt the family moment, you needed it."

"To most of us you are family," Bill told the younger woman, to him and most of his siblings Ally was the little sister that they wished that they had.

Ally smiled, "I guess you're going to want to go with me when I go to see Claire, she's a good friend, it's only fair that I tell her."

Bill was about to complain when he saw the determined set of her jaw, something he had often seen both Sirius and Lily do, when they did that it meant that they had made up their minds and there was no way that he was going to be able to change it. So he just nodded.

"Tomorrow, then," the redhead quirked an eyebrow at her, Ally nodded once and Bill gave her one last hug before turning and walking away.

Ally sighed; she knew that she had given the eldest Weasley brother a lot to think about, it just seemed that she always brought tragedy in her wake. Before she could delve too far into her bad thoughts they were interrupted by the arrival of some people that were emerging slowly from other parts of the castle.

"I'm amazed that you are on your own," Daphne commented as she plopped down on the ground next to Ally who was leaning against the willow tree that overlooked the lake.

"Well, I thought that I better escape before Rita Skeeter gets a hold of me," Ally commented with a small smile.

"Touché," Daphne commented as she looked at her boyfriend's best friend, "I see that you added some new carvings to the willow."

"Yeah, I thought that it is our generation's turn, after all there are permanent carvings done by our families before our time, it's like a rite of passage," Ally smiled, she had carved a lightning bolt, a shield (representing her) and a few other symbols such as the phoenix and a thestral.

"Did you carve them with your wand," Daphne asked observing the precision of the cuts.

"No, I did them by hand," Ally explained pulling out a small dagger which she brought down on the bark carving two hearts with precision in the first 'HP+ABP' and in the second 'CW+AB forever, you'll be remembered'.

"Pass it over here then, you are absolutely right, it's our turn to add something for the future," Daphne replied taking the dagger, she was nowhere nearly as good as her friend but she was decent enough to be able to fix something onto the tree, besides it wasn't often that they got to think about the future.

The carving that Daphne put in was different to the ones that already existed, instead of professing her love for Blaise with words she put in symbols, a fire, a naiad followed by the word 'friendship'.

"You know, I don't think that I'm ready for the future yet, I feel like this last year has been so fast and hard to deal with that I have lost an entire year, I can't remember anything that I've learnt," Daphne moaned, she had been thinking of what to do with her future.

Ally smiled, "You know the exams that you took at the end of the last year, well Severus and I never told any of you knowing that you would freak out about it, but they were the NEWTs, you guys have passed the 7th year, you don't need to come back."

Daphne's glare would be enough to scare most, Ally was not most, she loved Daphne but the girl did not scare her at all, she never had. Blaise who had walked over with Susan, Harry and Neville to hear Ally's comment was grimacing at the look on his girlfriend's face.

"So, none of us had to come back for our 7th year at all," Neville asked Ally incredulously, he could not believe that they had come back under the Carrows for no good reason.

"Yeah, but you are an absolute idiot Nev, if I hadn't sent you and Blaise back then there was no way that Hogwarts would have survived and more students would have died," Ally pointed out reasonably.

Neville groaned he hated it when Ally was reasonable in what she was saying; it occurred annoyingly often, "I hate it when you're right in what you were saying. So I presume you have our official documentation for the exams."

Ally nodded before grabbing Harry's mokeskin bag off her husband and rummaging around in it, emerging a few seconds later with a triumphant grin with eight envelopes, "Here we are, you know there are two extra envelopes that I managed to get copies of by bribing a Ministry official, anyway they include Weasel's and Granger's results, Dumbledore apparently allowed his pets to sit their exams early, do want to open theirs first?"

At this the other five's face split into a grin, they were all still sad about the deaths but they had to move on, they owed it to those who were lost.

Hermione Granger's NEWTs:

Arithmancy

Charms

Defence Against the Dark Arts

History of Magic

Potions

Transfiguration

Ronald Weasley's NEWTs:

Charms

Defence Against the Dark Arts

History of Magic

Potions

Transfiguration

"Oh dear," Susan commented wryly, "Weasley didn't pass anything, no wonder he looked like he swallowed a lemon, right, Neville," she turned to her boyfriend for confirmation which she received.

Blaise looked at Granger's results, "Well, this explains why Granger has been even more of an annoying know-it-all bitch this year; she must have been incensed by her results."

"One minute, as much as I hate my ex-best-friend at this point, you have to admit she is very clever, if she barely got passes then how well did we do," Harry had paled considerably.

Daphne on the other hand smirked, "Ye of little faith. You forget that Ally helped us for the majority of the time before the exams and she definitely knew what she was talking about, so I'm sure that we did well."

Neville sighed, "I'm sure that we did okay, Ally would not have agreed to let us sit the papers without enough knowledge."

Harry looked at his wife, she looked tired and worn, the war had taken a lot out of them, but her emerald eyes still held a spark and absolute truth, "You really think that we passed," he asked her.

Ally nodded, "Yes, I'm positive you all did well, here, who wants to go first?"

"How about oldest first," Neville smiled slightly, Susan shot him an annoyed look, her birthday was the first out of all of them, being in January.

"Fine," Susan sighed, holding out her hand for the envelope, ripping into it:

Susan Amelia Bones' NEWTs:

Ancient Runes

Astronomy

Charms

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Herbology

Potions

Transfiguration

*These subjects were studied outside of school

These subjects are at a Mastery Level

She smiled brightly, unable to believe the results, she had passed everything.

"Susan," Daphne asked, "how did it go?"

"I'm happy," the redhead admitted handing the paper around the circle and being congratulated by everyone, "my Aunt Amelia is going to be so happy when she sees this. I mean I passed everything and the only thing I didn't do so well at was Herbology and I took that so that Neville would have something to talk to me about. And I got a Mastery in Charms!"

"I didn't know that was possible," Harry mused as he passed the grade sheet back to its triumphant owner.

Blaise and Ally shared a smile, working with Amanda had its perks including understanding how the grading system worked.

Daphne saw their shared smile, "Spill, what do you two know that we don't?"

"If you attain in any subject higher than 95% in the exam then you are awarded a mastery level," Blaise explained, "mostly Unspeakables are recruited from the people that have Masteries in any subject very few have none."

"Okay Mr Smarty Pants, you're next," Daphne teased, her blue eyes sparkling with mischief as Blaise squared his shoulders and held out his hand for his results, ripping into them.

Blaise's dark brown eyes widened as he took in his results, he couldn't believe it:

Blaise Edward Zabini's NEWTs:

Ancient Runes

Care of Magical Creatures

Charms

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Potions

Transfiguration

*These subjects were studied outside of school

These subjects are at a Mastery Level

Blaise stare some more, not really reacting to any outside stimuli, Daphne even unbuttoned a few of her top buttons to try and snap him out of it, to no avail.

"There's something wrong with him, he didn't even try to look down my blouse," Daphne complained.

Ally smirked, "You want him to look down your blouse," she asked shrewdly.

Daphne glowered before blushing, she knew all too well that it was virtually impossible to lie to Ally, the girl just let people get away with things from time to time but she seldom was tricked, the only person she had allowed to blind her had raped her. Daphne knew that Ally would never let that happen to her again.

Neville reached over Blaise and Susan to grab the results and then passed it around.

"Well, now that pressure is really on," Neville muttered as they looked at the results.

Daphne pulled her boyfriend towards her and kissed him passionately, this too garnered no response, the boy was simply too shocked.

Ally smiled as she got the paper, "Blaise, she'll be proud of you, you know. You'll make a great Unspeakable; your mother did a good job with you."

This seemed to do the trick for Blaise shook his head to clear thoughts from his mind as he turned to look at his best-friend, "You really think so," his voice was so hopeful that it was almost painful to hear.

Ally smiled kindly, "Of course, she will, she would be proud of whatever you do. Besides you got two masteries, that's almost unprecedented and you did it with one year's less education."

Daphne pouted, "I can't believe that my boobs didn't get you out of this stupor and that Ally Potter managed it."

Ally grimaced, "Don't say that in public who knows who may be lurking around. The press will have a bloody field day if they hear about this."

Neville lowered his voice, "Didn't the two of you make it official the day after the bond formed?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, Marlene thought it for the best, so she took us, it's official, we just would prefer to tell out parents first without the press knowing."

Daphne looked immediately contrite.

Blaise smirked at his girlfriend of 3 years, "You mean the world to me, babe, but there are some things a guy needs his sister for. In fact you mean so much to me that…" He trailed off, instead bending down on one knee and pulling out of his pocket a ring-box, it was velveteen and snapping it open, the others could see a beautiful sapphire flanked by diamonds in a white gold band. The ring was exquisite.

Before her boyfriend could say anything, Daphne had squealed, "Of course I'll marry you, you doofus!"

This seemed to have worked for Blaise smiled, a real smile and not a smirk and pulled his fiancée to his own body and kissed her deeply. Ally smiled, she had helped pick out the ring and it seemed to have paid off, she knew that she and Blaise had always been close but she did not think that he thought of her as a sister but she had always thought him her brother.

Blaise turned to face Ally once more; tears were in his eyes, "Will you be my best-man?"

At the same time Daphne had turned to face Neville, the two had been quite close growing up given that they were distant cousins, "Will you be my maid of honour?"

Neville groaned, "I knew I was going to regret saving you from Flint all those years ago."

Daphne looked affronted, "Then you'll do it?"

Neville smiled, "Of course I will, but I draw the line at wearing a dress."

"Oh, and I was so looking forward to seeing you in stilettos."

Neville stuck his tongue out at his oldest friend, they had never done conventional and they never probably would.

Blaise meanwhile was looking hopefully at Ally. The redhead was smiling thoughtfully.

"You know, I love you Blaise, you've always been my big brother. I know that you have had a hard time with me growing up, I am the youngest of all of us, and I also know that you have been beating yourself up for not being able to protect me. Don't give Daphne that look, she didn't tell me anything, I know you too well. I'm a big girl, I am capable of making my own decisions, you can't protect me from everything, but I appreciate your attempts at doing so," Ally reached over and kissed his cheek, neither noticed Harry breathe a sigh of relief, he had always worried that Blaise and Ally loved one another more than friends, it was a relief to find out that Blaise did love Ally as more than a friend, but as a sister.

"So, you'll do it," Blaise asked to be sure as the two split up from the hug.

Ally laughed, "Of course I'll do it, you idiot. If I'm doing this, I'm going the whole hog; you are going to get everything every groom-to-be does."

Daphne giggled, "Do give him back to me in one piece, I find myself to be quite attached to the idiot."

Blaise looked mock affronted, "I am not an idiot. Maybe I've changed my mind about marrying you."

"Too late," Daphne crowed, "the ring is on my finger and it's staying there."

Blaise grimaced, "Damn."

Ally reached over and slapped him over the head, Neville quickly darted forward and grabbed Daphne's letter and handed it to her.

Daphne's birthday was in June, June 8th to be precise; as such her birthday was the next one after Blaise's, like Neville had hoped giving Daphne the results had stopped her from optimising on her kill Blaise mission. Instead the blonde was staring at the unopened envelope in undisguised horror and fear.

Harry quickly looked around for Daphne's fear was making the ground tremble, it was a power that she had honed with Ally who had almost full control over, Daphne had no such control and he could tell that if anyone else saw it, it would be a problem. Luckily, the closest people were at least 400 metres away so would not notice anything awry.

"Daph, stop," Blaise quickly untangled himself from his 'sister' and placed his lips atop his fiancée's. His tongue duelling hers for domination, the kiss proved a nice distraction for the trembling stopped almost immediately. Her hands moved from her sides, even clutching the envelope which fluttered into Harry's hands as Daphne's wound themselves into Blaise's hair, the sapphire and diamonds glinting in the sunlight. His hands splayed across her back as the two lost themselves in the kiss.

Ally grinned at Susan who winked back, their friends deserved that happiness, they all did, and they could finally stop hiding and start living.

Life started with the NEWTs, as the last four went to look at their results they realised that they had all done better than anticipated.

First Daphne:

Daphne Ophelia Greengrass' NEWTs:

Arithmancy

Charms

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Etiquette, Wizarding Law and Politics*

Herbology

Potions

Transfiguration

*These subjects were studied outside of school

These subjects are at a Mastery Level

Then Neville, who to the other's delight fainted when he read his results:

Neville Franklin Longbottom's NEWTs:

Astronomy

Charms

Care of Magical Creatures

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Herbology

*These subjects were studied outside of school

These subjects are at a Mastery Level

Then Harry, he had been the most worried, Ally had spent a lot of time helping him, and he didn't want to disappoint his wife. That would be the worst feeling in the world after all she had done to help him. Thankfully his results were great:

Harry James Potter's NEWTS

Charms

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Herbology*

Potions

Transfiguration

*These subjects were studied outside of school

These subjects are at a Mastery Level

And then finally just as more people began spilling onto the grounds the youngest of the friends gingerly opened her results and for the first time in a long time, a genuine smile graced her face. She had done well, well enough to be proud of her achievements and well enough to know that Marlene and Severus would be proud as would her pseudo-mother, Amanda Zabini:

Alexandra Athena Lillian Dorea Potter-Black's NEWTs:

Ancient Runes

Astronomy

Arithmancy

Care of Magical Creatures

Charms

Defence Against the Dark Arts

Divination*

Etiquette and Wizarding Law and Politics*

Herbology

History of Magic*

Muggle Studies*

Potions

Transfiguration

*These subjects were studied outside of school

These subjects are at a Mastery Level

The six beamed, with these results they were sure to get into any profession they wished to. Susan was pretty sure that this was the first time that more than one student had attained a mastery in any one year at Hogwarts and certainly the first time in history that they had managed to gain more than one mastery each.

Harry sighed as he leaned back against the willow tree, "I feel sort of empty inside."

Neville scoffed, "That's probably because we haven't eaten anything since well maybe two days ago," he pointed out.

Daphne shook her head in disagreement, "No, you haven't eaten in two days, Bones, the two Potter's and I have not eaten in more like a week," she commented, it was true that whilst Horcrux hunting food opportunities were rare and actual edible food was even rarer.

"I didn't mean that kind of emptiness," Harry told them, smiling slightly, "although, now that you mention it, I may be kind of hungry as well."

Ally had not said anything, instead she was staring at the lake, the water was the clearest it had been in many years. The Giant Squid's tentacles were being tickled by the Weasley twins much like it had been done back in Ally's first year, the absence of Lee Jordan was conspicuous, he had been killed by Bellatrix Lestrange.

Blaise wrapped his spare arm that was not holding Daphne's around Ally's shoulders and squeezed, "What's on your mind Als," he asked.

Ally turned to face them, "This last year has been tough and I find myself back at the point where I am slightly lost," she admitted.

Daphne paled slightly, she alone saw through the younger woman's comment, the Slytherin in her couldn't help but put together all the pieces she had been storing in her mind.

Daphne remembered the mood swings, the bouts of crying, the reluctance to do anything too foolish, and the sudden avoidance of sweet foods. She knew now what Ally was referring to and spoke, "How many months gone are you?"

"She's kidding, right," Harry asked his wife, but the pallor of her skin told him all he needed to know.

"No, she's right, and Daphne, I'm further along than most know. Let's just say that I was in my third trimester at Malfoy Manor," Ally grimaced very slightly at the horror on her husband's face. He was suddenly towering over her, but she did not flinch back as he grabbed her and pulled her taut to his chest. She could feel the shuddering of his heartbeat; it reminded her how much life was worth.

Ally alone had known that she was pregnant at the time of their capture in March; she alone had known that she was 7 months pregnant and she had known that she may have lost the babies during the torture Bellatrix put her through. Throughout it, Ally had managed to keep her glamours up so that no one could tell that she was pregnant.

Harry placed his hands reverently on his wife's stomach and could feel the strong kicks from within as Ally finally let down a block in her mind that had kept Harry from finding the truth due to their soul-bond. Simultaneously, she undid the spell that kept her belly from showing, almost instantaneously her belly bulged.

"Oh," Neville gasped, the stomach was not as large as the last time that Ally had been pregnant but it was bigger than Marlene's had been, indicating another multiple birth.

"You could have told me," Harry began, Ally was about to open her mouth to disagree but was stopped by the loving look on her husband's face, "but I understand, I know why you didn't tell me. I would have sent you into hiding with the kids and you didn't want that."

"And I didn't want to distract you," Ally pointed out, she knew that her husband forgave her, "Harry, I saw Poppy about this earlier, the pregnancy is fine, the babies will be healthy. But-"

Blaise saw the look in his 'sister's' eyes, "But, what?"

"Bellabitch's spell did less harm than it would have had I not been pregnant. But there was still a side effect," Ally paused, visibly gathering herself together, "I'll never have kids again, the spell, it mutilated my reproductive system, so the twins will be my last."

"We'll be okay," Harry muttered.

"I know we will," Ally's voice was hoarse from her tears, but as she looked around at the group of people she surrounded herself with, her family, she knew as she stood overlooking the Hogwarts lake that they would all be okay.

Harry's arms tightened around his wife as the two took comfort from one another, after a few minutes, first Blaise, then Susan and Daphne and finally Neville joined in the hug, they were a family after all. Through thick and through thin, through heartache and misery and through defeat and success.

That's a wrap, just the epilogue left to go.

Give me a R, give me an E, give me a V, give me an I, give me an E, give me a W. R-E-V-I-E-W