SPOILER ALERT: Pre-Epilogue- Do not read unless you are all caught up and have read and finished the entire series.

One year later… Lost and Found

Mark and Aries were at home. Now renovated and rebuilt, Mark's old home in Somerset played host to him and Aries and their future family. And if Mark became mayor, it would become a summer home. They had just returned from- well- the world. Their time was greatly enjoyed and their time back home was needed. Mark missed everyone. He missed Albus, he missed the twins, he missed Hogwarts, and he even missed Apollo, who Aries had left to pick up from their mother's home. To bring him and talk to him. Mark did hope she would come soon. He wanted to talk to Apollo, to see how he was doing, and whether he was ok.

Apollo had recently started learning to read and write, something he previously could not do with so much blindness. He had one year left. If he failed, he would have to defer his Hogwarts admission and study at home. The letters suggested he was making progress but he would've liked to see how he was doing in person. Mark sat back on a sofa chair, relaxing, staring up and thinking. Being back in England meant being back with all those memories again. All his friends, his family, his foster family. He left Lily in a bad way, the Potter family falling apart, Albus estranging himself from his father, and Ginny trying to bring them together to give Lucas a normal family.

Mark watched, from age eleven to seventeen, he watched. His parents died, Walter died, James died, Laura died… all his friends, dead. He would never, till the day he died, forget the day Laura rested in his arms, looking up at him and saying she could never ask for a better death. Dying in his arms was what she wanted, and she died. She was dead. He wouldn't leave her grave for a time, still shocked, sometimes finding himself wishing that he took her place instead, wishing that he was the dead one and she was alive and well and healthy.

He would never forget that her last words were words of love. She loved him. Mark felt even more guilty that he never gave it to her straight. He owed it to her. He owed it to her to just tell her, explain to her that he already had a fiancée, but that he still loved her as a friend, and wanted her to be happy. He left her to hope, and worry, alone with her thoughts. He watched as she needlessly dated Scorpius and watched that fall apart due to her own romantic insecurities. Perhaps, if he told her the truth from the beginning, she wouldn't have felt so obligated to him, and she needn't have died. It was too late now. Now at least the war was over, Mark could work on recovering, and not worry so much about who he would lose next. Now, hopefully, nobody would be lost. Nobody would die.

Apollo…

Apollo L. Kimble stared up, laying across a vast bundle of blankets. He stared up through his silvery eyes. He had just finished trying to read. He'd been doing pretty well. At least he could manage a small book, now. He sometimes found that trying to read was a stress on his mind though. He was not sure why, but if he tried reading for more than an hour, his mind started getting weaker, and slowly got painful. He felt like the residue of the Cruciatus Curse was still dormant. He did, after all, face it twice in his life, both times more painful to him than to the average witch or wizard. Slowly, as he stared up, his world went away and was replaced with his usual visions.

He saw himself dying… even now, he saw himself dead as a boy, he didn't look or feel any different. He would die before Hogwarts. Or… he'd live. This was not strange, he always foresaw his own death these days. The aftermath of the war was not kind to some, and it was very easy for him to get himself killed. He was just careful. He'd have to avoid walking out is all. Slowly, his vision changed to his own death as an adult, an old man, however old he'd end up being. His visions kept going, sort of like a cycle. He was used to it now, and he began growing a lot more conscious and enabled himself to stop his visions whenever he wanted.

He was used to his death in visions. He was even used to seeing his soul rise up and move on to the next plane of existence. He didn't fear death like others did. He welcomed it. He always imagined himself passing away and the spectral figure with the scythe Muggles frequently personified as Death, would come and take him in his cloak, would tell him it was time and he would wrap himself in Death's cloak and go off with him. Slowly, his mind starting experiencing pain again. He had to be careful not to see visions too soon after reading, they hurt. His mind was too stressed. He stopped for a bit, calming it down. Tried holding it back, but… it happened again. The visions came in force.

What the…

Apollo's visions were going haywire. His mind was in chaos. It was breaking. No, he needed to pull himself together. The curse was lifted and the pain- the pain stayed. It was too intense to disappear after the curse was lifted. He felt like his world was black now, perhaps he was unconscious? His visions still showed themselves like dreams. He sort of enjoyed them though, they showed a happy ending.

Eric was getting married to a Muggle woman, Alexander Ackerly was graduating from a specialized artifacts school with a wide smile, Frank Longbottom was retiring, he saw Cherry Goal put a white robe on and go on the attack against Knockturn Alley. He tried pushing the visions back again but nothing, more came, defying his mindset. He was too weak to stop them. Was this it? Was he dying? He made a choking sound, vaguely heard someone call his name, but he was still in blackness. He let out a great exhale of breath as his visions kept cycling through, showing him more and more.

Alexander Ackerly was hugging his sister tightly after his wedding, Eric Wallaby was kneeling over a weakened woman in a bed, he saw Alpha Greengrass sobbing tears of joy just before his wedding, he saw Seth Lean and Sophie Far talking about something very serious as a small boy cried in a corner, and saw Maria Prince attempting a Philosopher's Stone. The vision split in two. One showed her success, holding the stone to the sunlight and grinning in triumph, and another showed a massive, deadly failure. Apollo wondered, should he direct her? Maria wanted an eternal life, might even want to try to convince Mark to live forever too, but… was it right? Her lifespan was quite short otherwise. Maybe eternal life was good for her. It would definitely make her appreciate death all the same, because those around her will inevitably perish. Maybe he should, if only to avoid unnecessary pain for others, and Maria was free to live as she wanted.

His visions went on. Kids. Kids everywhere playing in a large courtyard, three girls sitting together on a balcony, two red-heads rushing towards a lake at top speed before taking a plunge, a good-natured, hyperactive boy taking a dare and diving from a balcony into a lake, ignoring his mother's shrieks, and one boy watching them with silver eyes, coming up with the craziest futures that might never happen. Honestly, Apollo dealt with one Trelawney, did he have to deal with another who was his nephew? He smiled as his vision receded somewhat. His peace of mind allowed the pain to ebb away and he saw one last vision. It was an interesting one, far into the future, probably by roughly thirty years, a young man in his twenties with black hair kissing a girl with blonde hair and grey eyes, looking very happy, pleased and blushing red. He was not sure he recognized either of them.

Apollo's life was hard, but it was life. He woke up and saw Aries kneeling over him, looking worried. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah… my mind's just- it's taking its toll," Apollo muttered, sitting up against her. "I'll be fine. It happens when I tax myself."

The world looked good from where he was standing. Things always changed, as much as minds changed, and as long as minds changed, so would the future, but even during a rough transitional period he could still see happy endings… that had to be a good sign. Peace would not last forever, ever, there would be problems, wars, and death, and ultimately, all would move on but in the end… well, best to live for the present. Albus, Mark, Scorpius, Lily, they had good lives ahead of them if they stayed on their current paths.