WARNING: I wrote this chapter for myself. I realized a week ago that no ending, planned or otherwise is going to please all 3,000 followers. Some may find this chapter a little silly, a little fast, and a little unrealistic but it is truly how I picture my somewhat jaded, traumatized, and insanely powerful characters responding to the events. Thank you all, especially the reviewers who have helped me through a difficult time in my life over the last two months.

AN: Someone pointed out that I never explained why Nym's hair is primarily white and her eyes typically blue. In an earlier chapter I meant to say that Nym is working on holding one form longer to build up an endurance for undercover work, also it is a comfortable form for her. She doesn't stay in that one form constantly but for this fic it how Harry sees her most often ... mostly ... ;)

Chapter 21

"You look extra perky today," Kingsley said.

Nym blushed, "Harry showed me the house in France yesterday."

"Did he now? And how was the house? Solid walls? Sturdy furniture?" His deep rumbling voice was almost a purring.

She glared at him, her hair turning a rich dark brown. Her face still flushed, she asked, "How can you say stuff like that and still sound cool?"

Kingsley grinned, "My maternal grandfather was a singer-songwriter, my mother said I got it from him. If the stories people tell about him are be believed he could charm his way into any place at any time. But speaking of the sounds a person's voice can make and appearances, does Harry have any preferences? You can be anyone of any shape, right? Does Harry ever ask for anything kinky."

Nym looked away, "Why would I tell you that?"

"So he does!" Kingsley grinned, his white teeth flashing.

"No," she defended, "he doesn't."

"Come now, Tonks, everyone has some kink, and we are friends, aren't we?"

Nym shook her head, "Harry is not the kinky one, comparatively speaking anyway."

"Do tell," Kingsley said, resting his chin on his hands, elbows on his desk, for all the world a teenager waiting for the scoop. Yet his presence was such that in spite of the juvenile act she was not lulled into forgetting that this minister sitting across from her, their containers of take out food between them, was one of the most powerful Aurors to ever walk through the halls of the British Ministry of Magic.

"Well," Nym said not entirely sure sharing with him was the best idea, but over the years her other friends had drifted away. Kingsley was the closest friend she had outside of Harry. "-in the act, my control isn't really at its best and well, I kind of switch between or fluctuate through a number of forms."

Kingsley, noticing that her demeanor was serious, straightened up in his seat. He asked, "Does Harry mind?"

"No but I- um, I-" she could not put it into words her face flaming again, her freckles emerging like a speckled band across her face.

"You what?"

She took a deep breath, "Well we have been intimate for more than a month now and-"

"Is Harry Potter good in the sac?"

She rolled her eyes before meeting his gaze then, a wicked glint in her eyes. Her hair shifting to a deep auburn, she smiled, "Oh he's good, very, very good, but um… as we have gotten to know each other he's gotten even better at hitting my hot keys."

"I'm sorry," he said, "But I do not see the problem with that."

"He got better at going down on me."

Kingsley frowned, "I thought women liked that."

"We do, or at least I do, love it, in fact, maybe a little too much," she said.

"Again, I am not seeing the problem."

"I got too excited."

"It's sex, Tonks, you're supposed to get overly excited," he said.

"I shifted."

"So? I thought you said Harry didn't min-"

"Kingsley," she interrupted, "I shifted genders."

A long pause, and then Kingsley was roaring with laughter, "Did he continue? Oh Merlin, please tell me, he kept going?"

She smiled sweetly at him, "That's for me and Harry to know."

"Tonks," he nearly wined.

There was a pounding on the door and Kingsley's secretary let himself in, sweating and in a panic, the secretary said, "Hogsmeade is under attack!"

"Luna, are you sure this is a good idea?" Ron asked, staring down at the shifting trees through his invisible stead.

"Fawkes said we needed to leave now," Luna sang back.

"But to where?" Hermione asked, Ron clinging to her as she clung to the Thestral.

"We have to stop Voldemort's followers from getting into to Hogwarts," Neville shouted.

"Yes, but where?" Hermione repeated.

"Oh shut up, Granger," Draco yelled as he stayed glued to Neville's back. "I need to find my parents."

"Fawkes said that we were needed-" Luna started.

"Why do we think we will be more good than the adults at fighting Voldemort?" Hermione interrupted.

"Because it is a Friday afternoon and Harry is France with his family and no one else would listen to us," Ron said loud enough to be heard over the wind as they sped over the Forbidden Forest. The lake was a shining disk below them.

"Maybe he hasn't left to the border yet," Hermione said, ever the voice of reason.

"Granger!" Draco yelled, "Potter is not always going to be a hero, he isn't around to help us."

"Or maybe he is!" Luna cheered, pointing to an orange-white-blue-grey speck flying at them.

The kestrel squawked and screeched and tweeted at them as they were approaching the Hogsmeade barrier. Harry transformed landing behind Luna, the Thestral at once taking orders from his leg pressure that directed the skeletal and bat-winged horse back in the direction of Hogwarts.

"What are you five doing!?" Harry roared at them, as all the Thestrals followed his lead. "I saw you through my classroom window, and knew it had something to do with you lot. Thestrals don't fly in the day on their own."

"The Dark Lord is attacking-" Draco started.

"I realize there are only a few weeks of the year left but all of you are getting detention with me for the rest of term," Harry snapped, "I am disappointed in all of you."

Neville looked the most affected by those words, here was the man who had given him back his parents.

"Harry," Luna said, "The Dark Lord is attacking Hogsmeade."

Harry cursed, "You all go back to the castle, I will be paying each of your parents a visit and one hundred points from each of you. If you don't stay in the castle I promise that I will make your lives hell."

Harry started to back up to jump off Luna's Thestral when Draco called, "You can't go to mine, my parents are gone."

Harry shook his head, "They are in hiding Draco, Narcissa is having another baby."

Draco gaped at him.

"Go back to the castle and stay there!" Harry ordered as he flung himself off the Thestral. Shifting mid-fall, he flew with all his might to Hogsmeade where Andromeda had gone ahead of him with Teddy to apparate to the continent.

Hogsmeade was in chaos. Stores were on fire, homes were shambles, and people and Death Eaters were fighting in the streets. Voldemort and his followers had drawn up wards around the town to prevent people from disapparating away to safety.

Aberforth was guarding the backs of a group of elderly and young people running for the hills. He transfigured barriers to stop the unforgivables and shields for other hexes and curses.

By the time the Aurors arrived the battle would likely be decided.

Andromeda was in single combat with Lord Voldemort. Teddy stepping nimbly and keeping quiet as he hid behind her skirts. Andromeda wand flashed like a sword before her, unlike Harry, she was not the best in defensive magic. She knew a few shield charms but in a duel, her tactic had always been throw as many offensive spells and curses in such a way that most would term it as inhumanly possible.

The Dark Lord took more steps backward than forward, barely fending off her attacks. He was not used to fighting people who used the Dark Arts, not on a professional level. The closest he had gotten to this style of dueling was his sparring matches with Bella so many years ago. Except he had trained Bella, it would appear the Black family had groomed Andromeda in the old ways. He narrowed his red eyes at the witch before him that so much resembled his creature, his Bella. It hurt some unnamable part of him that this doppelganger of his Bellatrix opposed him.

"You could have been great Andromeda Black!" he called to her, having to side step a razer blade manifestation of black smoke. "Wondrous even!"

"I am great, Tommy! And I have always been wondrous. It is you who never amounted to anything other than a scar upon humanity!" Andromeda shot back, painfully aware of the grandson she was concealing behind her. She could not let Teddy come to harm and she could not die in front of him. She could not do that to him, not to this little boy who had saved her so many times over.

"But you could have been more, look at you! You are no white witch, you have always belonged to the Dark side, join me and you will be rewarded!" Voldemort offered her.

"I was born to the dark, Tom, I know it intimately and when I was young I let it consume me. But I was stronger than it, stronger than sides, I trusted my own judgment and led my own life away from your butchery!" she said, hoping that she could punch at his ego and keep him talking. If he talked long enough, she might find an opening to get Teddy away from here.

"Bella was the most beautiful creature in this world, you could be her," he simpered.

White hot rage filled Andromeda's veins, "She was beautiful and fragile and you shattered her. You remade her into a monster."

"She was no monster, she was your sister."

"You killed my sister! She was never a good person but the light was as much a part of her as the dark, by destroying the one you destroyed the whole!" Teddy almost didn't step back in time as Andromeda was forced to back up and simultaneously step to the side to avoid a purple colored curse.

"Bella was a work of art," Voldemort said, the barest hint of remorse in his voice. A man losing his favorite toy.

"She was not a piece of art, she was a person!" Andromeda bellowed as her wind curse nearly swept the Dark Lord off his feet. "She never belonged to you or to Lestrange. Bella was never meant to be anyone's, except for being our big sister!"

The Dark Lord stumbled.

And Harry Potter landed before his godmother and godson, wand striking with the ferocity of lightning. Voldemort did no more talking as Harry and Andromeda double teamed him.

Teddy danced behind his guardians, being sure to stay behind Grandmama's skirts so the Dark Lord could not see him. He looked up at his father, prayer to any power that might hear him that they would all be alright. Teddy wanted to call out to his father, to have him comfort him, but Teddy was afraid to distract him.

"I can't apparate out," Andromeda said to Harry as her curses got bolder and deadlier.

Harry was drawing wards frantically between hurling spells at Voldemort. He knew these wards by heart and could have fought and drawn them at the same time if only- he had two wands… Harry unsheathed the Rowan wand and began doing just that. His focus was spliced as he tried to keep track of Andromeda and Teddy, the chaos around them, and the Dark Lord in front of them. His pulse was hammering. Even as Andromeda's and his advantage grew, even as the Aurors arrived and began picking off Death Eaters and calming down the screaming civilians, Harry was hampered from letting loose his full power in his effort to shield and defend rather than simply slaughter the piece of noseless-crap before him.

Harry cursed, "Damn Fawkes!"

Said phoenix flamed into existence between Andromeda and Harry, trilled a pretty song, and flamed away, whisking Teddy off with him.

"Bless him," Andromeda said, her relief nearly stunning her.

As one Harry and she stepped forward their power and their magic bringing the Dark Lord to his knees.

Harry focused on Voldemort's right red eye and from the depths of his being bellowed, "Reducto!"

It was a simple spell and yet there was so much power poured into, the Holly wand feeding on the rage, mutating the spell into something unstoppable and perfectly deadly as it pierced that one red eye.

Tom Riddle Jr.'s brains exploded, his other internal organs frying and boiling instantaneously. The corpse slumped backwards into the green grass

Harry approached the cadaver cautiously. When he could detect no forms of life, he kicked it; repeatedly. Andromeda came over, checked its pulse before pulling Harry back and setting it on fire.

Harry and Andromeda looked into flames for a long moment, neither smiling, before they focused on the world around them. Nymphadora caught her mother's gaze and then Harry's, giving them a signal. A signal that Hogsmeade was in the all clear. There were a few casualties lying in the street, a lot of destroyed buildings, though the fires were being put out, yet the damage was practically insignificant to the toll of the Battle of Hogwarts from their past.

Harry's knees were suddenly weak and he sat on the ground, watching Riddle's body burn. "This better be the last time I kill this bastard or I am going to find a way to kill Death from that stupid Beedle the Bard story."

"Harry," Andromeda said sitting beside him on the side of the road, the grass soft against her fingers. "You can't kill Death."

"I think I've accomplished less logical things in my life," Harry said, running a hand through his hair, "That Buzzard had better have brought Teddy back somewhere safe."

"I think that buzzard, also respectfully called Fawkes the Phoenix, is aware that you would kill him."

"He better be aware," Harry said darkly.

"You can go find out," she suggested.

"I need to see the body be ash and then scatter the ashes. I am glad Ted is a at work."

"Me too," Andromeda said and summoned a bag of marshmallows.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked, giving her an specaltive look.

She summoned long sticks and put a marshmallow on each, before she could roast them over the pyre Harry stopped her.

Grabbing her hands, he said, "You cannot cook marshmallows over a dead body and it is unsanitary."

She pouted at him, "But I what else are we supposed to do while we wait." She held up the bag, "I have marshmallows."

Harry sighed and accioed over a few broken planks from a destroyed building and lit a bonfire a little aways from Riddle's the pyre. "There," he said.

She kissed him on the cheek and handed him a marshmallow stick. For a while that is all they did as they waited for the body to become ash.

Eventually Kingsley, Amelia, Sirius, and Nym joined them, each summoning their own marshmallow stick. Harry had to redirect Sirius too from cooking his marshmallow over Riddle's corpse.

"How many times have you killed him now?" Sirius asked, "Including the Horcruxes?"

"All together at least fifteen times," Harry said.

Kingsley shook his head, "You say that like it's normal."

"What is normal?" Harry asked. "I've died twice or is it thrice? I don't know if what Fawkes did to us counts."

Sirius said, "Well Voldemort is dead now."

"How many casualties?" Harry asked Amelia.

"None, surprisingly. These are lesser Death Eaters and they were more interested in the torture curse than the killing curse. One guy lost an arm and a leg, the rest should recover, at least physically," Amelia said.

"It was good we heard about the attack so soon," Nym said. "Some girl, Luna Lovegood I think her name was, fire called Sirius who got word to the ministry."

Harry wanted to ask how Luna would have known to or how to contact Sirius but then it was Luna Lovegood which was almost answer enough within itself.

"So it's better," Harry said. "Better than it was the first time." He felt strangely numb, strangely distant, he should be ecstatic. But as he watched Riddle's body burn and ate the marshmallow all his worries seem to compound upon him. A part of him felt like he was watching his own funeral pyre burn. If he could be ripped out of time once who's to say it will not happen again?

Their little party was somber and when the ashes had cooled Harry gathered them up and buried some in the Forbidden Forest and the rest he chucked in the ocean. Tom Riddle Jr. would never again walk among the living, his soul, and his remains beyond repair or discovery.

Harry ended that night in his new house, in their home with his family. Teddy smiled and laughed as his grandparents read him a story in the living room. Sirius sat at Andromeda's left adding in funny noises as the story progressed.

Harry sat in a chair alternating his view between Teddy and the was pretty sure he was in shook, it was the only way to explain this non-feeling.

Nym came into the room holding a tray of mugs, passing one out to everyone.

Teddy made an hmmm sound of approval after taking a sip, licking his lips like he might have in his canine form.

Nym came to him with two mugs, one for him and one for herself. She sat across his lap, her heart shaped face smiling at him gently. "Hot chocolate is the one the only thing for which I am competent at making in the kitchen."

Harry took a sip and he nearly repeated Teddy's hmmmm sound aloud. His body began to fill with warmth as he took several more sips of hot chocolate. It was like he was recovering from a Dementor attack.

"Harry?" Nym questioned.

He looked down into her face, her eyes, and saw only love there. Harry looked around the room and realized there was only love here. What had been a ceaseless worry, driving him mad since returning to this time broke in him. Breaking a dam inside him that had been holding back all the possibilities and hopes and dreams that Harry had kept himself from fully acknowledging filled him, flooded his insides.

He had everything he could have asked for and more. His future was bright, his son's future was bright. He took Nym's mug and his own, placing them on the coffee table before he hugged. Hugged her tight, breathing her in, his lungs expanding fully for the first time in nearly a year. She hugged him back.

"Group hug!" Teddy declared, and suddenly Harry and Nymphadora found themselves buried under a pile of bodies. Ted, Nym, Sirius, and Teddy laugh uproariously.

It had been worth this, it all had been worth this. Lily's sacrifice, Harry's first life that had led him to Teddy and Andromeda, and Harry's second life that had given him back a godfather and Andromeda her husband. Fawkes had given them a chance to take back their lives. In just saving Nym's life, the phoenix had given her the chance at a full life, Harry a chance with the love of his life, Andromeda back her daughter, and given Teddy back a mother he had never met.

Harry Potter had suffered, he had been broken, had been made to do terrible things, had made terrible mistakes, and he had died. Yet he would continue his life with a kind heart because he had found every kind of love in his rebirth.

AN: Thank you all for sticking with me! After-war scenes and 19 years letter epiloguelogue will be up by the end of the week to say that I finished 100,000 word plus story in two months :D

ANII: To answer Kingsley's question, yes, he did, because long live pansexuality! (my Harry gets to reflect me)

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MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOR: Much love to everyone, I wish you all happiness and love because you are all deserving of respect and finding a home either within yourself or with a family somewhere in this big wide world.