No, I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, though I do own copies of all the books and films. The people who do own the Harry Potter franchise are JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros. and a few other publishers. Thank you to JKR for letting us play about in the sandbox of the Wizarding World.
Harry Potter: The Forgotten Brother
Chapter 29: It Is Over
"I-I can't do it." Daphne whined, her hand shaking.
Hermione grabbed it "Daphne, look at me."
Daphne met Hermione's eyes.
"You can do this. Harry knows you can. That's why you were left behind."
Daphne nodded and held her wand with a steadier grip "Tracey, Hannah, I'm gonna need your help here."
The moment the portkey had arrived, Hermione had found herself and Harry being swept into Luna's embrace.
Quickly they had gotten Harry onto a bed and Daphne had come hurrying over. Her diagnostic charms had quickly found the source of the problem; a deadly poison was flooding Harry's bloodstream. She had managed to trace its origin to a hastily healed cut in Harry's leg. Further inspection revealed the cut to actually be a very deep wound.
Daphne was not able to get a good read on what exactly the poison was, but a bezoar was soon neutralising it. Once that had begun happening, Daphne had been able to confirm that all of the poison's damage could be reversed.
Well, almost all of it.
Harry's left leg, from just below his knee and down was coloured black, purple and blue and was swollen. Several large blisters had opened in the skin, and puss along with blood that was more like mud than anything else was oozing out of these.
The muscles and veins in the lower part of Harry's left leg were too far gone to be rescued.
So that was why Daphne was panicking. She had administered potions and antidotes to many people before now, and had healed up many a wound. But now she found herself having to actually disfigure someone. The fact that that person was Harry made this far worse.
But Hermione was right; Daphne could do this. She had to.
It had been the job of Luna, Hermione, Padma, Su and Sally-Anne to get Harry home. After that his well-being was Daphne's responsibility, no matter what that meant.
At her call, Hannah and Tracey handed already on-the-mend their patients over to others and then hurried over to assist.
Forcing her hand to stop shaking, Daphne pressed the tip of her wand to Harry's leg, just above the knee and cast her spell.
"Diffindo."
A couple of blackbirds were singing outside the window. A bright sun shone through the glass pane, coming to land on the face of a man in his early thirties.
Harry Potter stirred and woke up.
His vision was blurry. He wondered where he was.
And why did he feel like crap?
Realising that he was lying down, Harry moved to push himself up.
"Easy, Harry." said a voice as two pairs of hands moved to help him sit upright.
His glasses were placed on his face, and the world came into focus.
There were a lot of people gathered around his bed, each of them with a relieved smile on their face.
To his left was Luna. She was the one that had put his glasses onto his face. Next to her was Padma, and next to her was Su.
On his right was Hermione. She was the one who spoke. Next to her was Daphne, and next to her was Tracey.
Gathered around the rest of the bed were Lily, Sarah, Serena, Hestia, Narcissa, Neville, Hannah, Susan, Dean, Seamus, Lavender, Parvati, Cho, and Ernie.
"How're you feeling Harry?" asked Lily.
Harry took a deep breath, let it out again and answered "Weak and numb, but not in pain. How long have I been out?"
"A week." answered Luna.
Harry looked at her, his eyes wide with surprise.
"And the battle?" he asked.
"Don't worry Harry." said Hermione "We won."
"We did?"
"Yes. Once you threw Voldemort out of the window, most of his remaining followers threw down their wands. They're all awaiting trial, though we did have to destroy the last of the Inferi." explained Seamus.
Harry nodded, but then noticed something; someone was missing.
"Where's Sally-Anne?"
The door opened with a slight creak. Harry stared down the darkened steps into the gloom below.
"Sally-Anne?" he called out.
There was no reply.
He took a step forward and began to descend the staircase, trying to ignore the clunking sound that accompanied his every other step now, thanks to the artificial leg now attached to him. Hermione, Luna, Su and Daphne accompanied him. He had wanted to go alone, but he wasn't used to his fake leg yet.
Reaching the bottom of the staircase was more tiring for Harry than it should have been, but he knew that he'd get used to it in time.
At the base of the stairs, Harry came to a stop and peered through the gloom again.
"Sally-Anne?" he called out again.
"Harry?" a voice asked in reply.
Harry turned and moved towards the source of the noise.
He just barely got a glimpse of her before she darted backwards, retreating further into the darkness, away from him.
"Don't look at me." she cried.
Harry drew his wand and incanted
"Lumos Minima."
A very dim light, at only about a quarter of the strength of the usual wand-lighting charm, emitted from the tip of Harry's wand.
It wasn't much, but it was enough.
Sally-Anne stood there, backed up against the wall, looking both frightened and distraught at the same time. Her eyes narrowed slightly, her pupils wide. Her skin was very pale, and she was slightly taller than Harry remembered.
And she had two long pointed teeth in her top jaw.
Harry stepped closer, but still she shied away from him. But Harry moved quickly, so quickly that he nearly fell due to his fake leg, and grabbed a hold of her and pulled her into a hug that was both comforting and protecting.
Sally-Anne broke down completely and cried into his shoulder, trying all the while to ignore the sound of Harry's blood pumping through his system.
Sally-Anne Perks had become a vampire, and as far as Harry Potter was concerned, that mattered not one jot.
Padma, whose hand Daphne had managed to regrow, unlike Harry's leg, Su, whose scar on the side of the face had been healed, but would remain as a faint line forever, and Daphne all made their way over to join the hug.
Hermione turned to Luna with a slightly exasperated look on her face.
"Harry's got himself a bloody harem whether I want him to or not, doesn't he?"
Luna smirked "Well, at least you'll get to be Alpha." she said before moving in to join the group hug as well.
Hermione just shook her head and moved to join in as well.
The Wizarding World would take one hell of a long time to rebuild, but with the new tough stances on Death Eaters and Dark Lord Sympathisers, the world would ultimately be rebuilt far better.
Cornelius Fudge decided to step down as Minister. He had wanted to for quite some time, but someone, usually Dumbledore, had always, somehow persuaded him to stay on. Harry and many others had their own theories on Dumbledore's reasoning for that, but the truth would probably never be known.
There were many calls from all quarters for Harry to step up and become Minister, but Harry had no desire for such things. Instead Wizarding Britain voted en masse for his personal recommendation; Neville Longbottom.
Neville did not find that very amusing, but accepted his role once Harry promised to help him in the role; being an advisor to the Minister allowed Harry to implement a few of the changes he wanted, whilst generally staying out of the limelight.
And, fortunately, Neville had to more very good advisors, in the form of his wives, Hannah and Susan. Harry wasn't quite sure just how that happened, though Hannah mentioned something about Luna having very good ideas. The death of her aunt Amelia had hurt Susan deeply, Hannah and Neville had been there for her and things just evolved.
Once those arrested were thrown into Azkaban, Harry and Neville had gone together to face a foe not as powerful as Voldemort, but far more corrupt;
The International Confederation of Wizards.
Harry and Neville's argument was a simple one;
"Some of your most well respected and wealthy families funded and actively fought for an organisation that tried to obtain control over Wizarding Britain in a hostile takeover. Pay us reparations, or we're gonna cause trouble for you."
(That wasn't how they said it, but you get the gist.)
Naturally protestations against this occurred, with the Russian delegate speculating loudly just how much of a threat Wizarding Britain would be in its current state.
In response, Harry took a small stone from his pocket. He enlarged it and activated the charms and runes.
The fire golem roared into life, causing the delegates to scramble back against the far wall in fear.
Neville stepped around the fire golem and held up a rolled up piece of parchment.
"This," he said "is the document signed by former British Minister for Magic Eldritch Diggory. This document was signed just before Britain began to help in the war against Grindelwald. In exchange for Britain getting involved in a war that was not effecting it, the countries requesting their aid agreed to come to Britain's aid should the need arise. This agreement was signed why France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Switzerland, Norway, Greece, Italy and many other countries besides."
Harry stepped forwards "Wizarding Britain has since fought two wars with Lord Voldemort, the first war lasting around a decade, the second nearly two decades. Both times we made repeated pleas for you to honour this agreement, and every pleas fell on deaf ears, well listen now and listen good; in our eyes you have broken our agreement, so here is how it is going to be; you will pay us reparations, or we will take the actions of the Malfoys, the Lestranges, the Dolohovs, the Rowles, the Karkaroffs, and many others as declarations of war by your countries. And trust me; if it comes to that, we will crush you just like we did the Death Eaters, is that clear?"
As if to emphasise that point, the fire golem gave a mighty roar that shook the walls of the room they were in.
Britain got its money. And it was a good thing too. Not twenty years later, the Wizarding people from several countries throughout Europe and Asia came under siege from a dark force. With the issue settles, Neville and Harry were happy to provide aid, but that's a whole other story.
Hermione's parents were brought back home, and as promised, Harry and Hermione had their Muggle-style wedding. The elder Grangers were a bit bemused by the fact that Harry had a harem at first, but eventually just accepted it as another odd quirk of the Wizarding world. Hermione had tried insisting that it was not normal, but then Neville turned up, with Hannah and Susan on each arm, and Hermione's argument fell flat.
Harry officially married the rest of them the following year.
James and Lily's separation was made official, and Lily and Sarah officially got together, with Serena, Hestia and Narcissa being frequent 'visitors'.
Sally-Anne eventually got over the fact that she was a vampire. Harry and the others cared about her just the same, and Daphne and Su were able to devise more than one way for a Vampire to move about in daylight.
Many a Hogwarts teacher retired following the war as well, allowing room for newer staff to move in. Daphne took over the role as Potions professor from Horace Slughorn, Padma took over the instruction of Care of Magical Creatures from Hagrid, who wanted to reduce his duties now that he was getting older, and Hermione did decide to return to teach Muggle Studies when Lily announced her decision to take over History of Magic.
Tracey, Cho, Ernie and Astoria all went on to marry Muggles.
Remus and Tonks got together and eventually married. Tonks was offered the role as Head of the DMLE and she took it, but only for as long as it took to get the Ministry back on its feet. She wanted to have a family.
Sirius did get his hand regrown, though his eye was a different matter.
In the end Ginny gave birth to a son, one that James doted on. Harry decided to get to know his father and his friends, and found that he liked them well enough, though he dreaded to think how he would've turned out had he been raised by James.
It was on an outing to a pub that, whilst James was in the toilet, Neville brought up something that Harry had wondered about "What was James' relationship with Ginny?"
Sirius reply was a good one "It's one of those things in life; you're quite desperate to know the answer, but you are also fairly certain that you are happier not knowing."
Despite everything, there was one thing that Harry wanted most of all; to go back to his cottage and live quietly.
There was, however, an issue with that plan; it's called having six wives and too many kids to count.
In the end, Harry sold the cottage and moved the small farm to the grounds of the manor. That end result suited everyone and one person in particular; Holly Pearson, the girl Mad-Eye Moody had rescued from The Spiny Serpent. Once she had been given the all clear by St. Mungo's, Hannah had taken Luna's advice and brought her to Harry's manor house, and she had been running around the place ever since.
One pouting look from all six of his wives left Harry with no option but to agree to adopt her.
And in the end, all was well.
A/N: Bit of a naff ending, I know, but this was the best I could come up with; "In the end, Harry and his friends were alright." Who doesn't want that ending? I should probably work on my endings though, I like to round everything off, but it never seems to come out right.
And before anyone asks, that whole "But that's a whole other story" bit is not, I repeat NOTa hint at an impending sequel. I am done with this one.
It's been a fun ride.
Thanks for reading.
