[A/N: I know, I'm trash. Check the note at the end so I can grovel.]

"Speeches are dumb," I said putting my head down on my dining room table. The anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts was right around the corner and, at the request of McGonagall and Kingsley and a few others, Harry and I were going to speak, much to our chagrin.

"Do you think I could just do a dramatic reading of the lyrics to Welcome to the Black Parade? Do you think anyone would notice?" Harry asked.

"Probably," I said. I sighed. "Why didn't Ron and Hermione get landed with speeches too?"

"Probably because they weren't the reason half the school was blown to bits. I'm not entirely convinced that we're not being punished," Harry said.

"Strange though," I said. "Can you believe it's been a year already? Has it really been a year since everything happened?"

"It is incredible," Harry said. "I wasn't sure we'd be alive today a year ago—at one point I was positive we wouldn't be, but here you are, getting married, in your own house with your daughter, starting at Hogwarts next year. And me, I sit in my room and sob quietly over all of the books I have to read to become an auror."

I chuckled. "Better than being dead though, I suppose."

Harry nodded. There was a knock at the front door.

"Come in!" I shouted it. The door was opened by Tonks who dashed over to me and sat down at the table. Remus walked in carrying Teddy in much less of a rush than his wife was.

"I have decided to cancel Teddy's party. I have officially given up," Tonks declared.

"We're not cancelling his party," Remus said. "Also, hello Harry and Hannah."

"He won't remember," Tonks said dismissively.

"You'll remember," Remus said. "Can you live with that?"

"I think. . . Yes, I can definitely live with that," Tonks said.

I rolled my eyes. "Calm down. You can't cancel your son's first birthday party. Why are you so stressed out anyway?"

"I'm an only child and my mother is taking this grandparent business very seriously," Tonks said. "And it's very probable that Teddy will be our only child. She's trying to get as much mileage out of him as possible."

"He's not a car," Remus said with a frown.

"Well if you can come up with a better analogy please feel free to interject," Tonks said.

"Look, I understand what you're going through. Draco is an only child and his mother is also the product of the Black family as well. Do you know how I survive?" I asked.

"How?" Tonks asked.

"I ignore Narcissa Malfoy and do what I want," I said.

Tonks groaned. "I actually like my mother. I can't just ignore her."

"You don't have to ignore her. Just tell her that you'll take her opinion under advisement, but you do what the hell you want," I said.

"That advice sounds eerily familiar," Remus said.

"You are walking a very fine line right now, Remus John Lupin," Tonks said.

"Tonks, I love you, and you are more than capable of planning a birthday party for a one-year-old," I said. "Why don't you ask Mrs. Weasley to help you? She's thrown, like, seven first birthday parties."

"Again, familiar advice," Remus said. Tonks turned and glared at him.

"Tonks, I would really love to help you. I know that Teddy's party is next week, but do you know what the week after that is? They're calling it Victory Day and I have to go to Hogwarts and give a speech about what was probably the most traumatic day of the most traumatic year of my life," I said.

Tonks sighed. "Stop making me feel guilty."

"Hey, since you're here, tell me what you think of this part of my speech," Harry said.

"Fine," Tonks said, with a groan.

"He said son when you grow would you be the savior of the broken, the beaten and the damned? Will you defeat, your demons and all the non-believers, and the plans that they have made. Because one day-."

"Isn't that a My Chemical Romance song?" Tonks asked.

"Harry I told you it's not going to work!" I said.

"I had to try!" he said.

888

My time as an intern was slowly drawing to an end. I was nearly done with the program. When I was officially done, I was going to be signing on as a substitute teacher at Hogwarts. Soon after that Draco would be graduating. Then I was getting married. So much was happening all at once it was almost making me dizzy.

But I still had a few tasks I needed to complete before I left the Research and Development office behind. I had mostly cleared out my desk, save for the few things I would need to continue working there for the next week.

Tyler still worked next to me, but I didn't say a word to him if I could help it. I was so used to Voldemort testing my relationship with Draco, it didn't even occur to me that other people might try to ruin us.

"Potter," Thaddeus walked up to me at my desk. "So it's your last week."

"So it is," I said.

"I'd write you a glowing recommendation, but it seems you've already been hired as a substitute professor at Hogwarts," Thaddeus said. "Not that you'd need my help, your reputation proceeds you after all."

I shrugged. "Can't help that some crazy person tried to murder me as an infant," I said. "But I'm glad I have your support anyway."

"Tyler will help you with the remainder of this project if needed," Thaddeus said.

I glanced over to Tyler, still sitting at the desk next to me. "I'm sure I'll be fine."

Thaddeus gave me a nod and went back about his business. I turned back to my work when I heard Tyler clear his throat. I paused and looked over to him.

"Can I help you?" I asked.

"I really can help you with that," Tyler said. "I know you're helping with the Victory Day memorial at Hogwarts on the second. I just figured you had better things to do than be here."

"As it turns out, I don't have better things to do than be here, which is the whole point of me being here," I said.

"I just thought-."

"That I might start talking to you again?" I asked. "You do realize that you are an actual, real life pile of trash, right?" Tyler frowned at me. "I'm getting married and you kissed me and tried to get me to leave my fiancé? You can't possibly still think you're the good guy in all this."

He sighed. "I just think you deserve better than him."

"I took out a dark wizard about a year ago, pretty sure I'm qualified to safely make my own decisions," I said. "Among other things I'm qualified to do, it's finish these risk assessments by myself. Got it?"

Tyler sighed and turned away from me.

888

In spite of all her panicking, Tonks and Remus managed to pull together a great party for Teddy. I watched Mira and Teddy playing together and glanced around at all the other party goers scattered around the living room.

There was a tap on my shoulder and I looked over and saw Remus. He held out a napkin.

"You've got cake on your cheek," he said.

"Thanks," I said, taking the napkin from him. "You try to be cool and give your kid sugar and they just throw it back in your face so they can go and play with their cousin." I wiped my face and sighed. "I'm glad I'm here to have cake thrown in my face though. A year ago I was planning our great plan of breaking into Gringotts which we knew would ultimately end up with success or death."

"But you pulled it off somehow," Remus said.

"By escaping on a dragon. Pretty sure that was my finest moment," I said.

"You'll never be that cool again," Remus said.

"I don't want to be that cool again. That was terrifying," I said. "But what about you?"

"A year ago, I thought I'd be dead for sure because I thought I was going to have a heart attack the day he was born," Remus said. "But I was terrified that he'd turn out like me."

I nodded. "I'd be afraid of my kid turning out to be a nerd if I were you too."

Remus rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. Especially after Kaitlin."

"Of course! I'm sorry, I'm an idiot. I mean, you're a nerd, and Kaitlin's a huge nerd. And obviously you married Tonks. You're right; the poor kid doesn't stand a chance," I said. He frowned at me. "Honestly, we all love you and you love Kaitlin and if Teddy were a werewolf you wouldn't love him any less and none of it matters. Your kid being a mega nerd is all that matters."

"A mega nerd?" Remus asked. I nodded. "I guess we'll just have to see how my parenting skills develop."

I scoffed. "You've already got great parenting skills. You've been parenting the crap out of me since I was 13-years-old."

"That's different," he said.

"No it's not. We may share no biological relation, but let's face facts, I'm totally your daughter," I said. "Accept it."

Remus put his arm around me. "I'm very proud of you, you know?"

"You see; this is a parent-child talk. You're an expert," I said.

"And so are you," he said. "I know this year is better than last, but you've still had a pretty hard time this year too, and I am really proud of how far you've come."

"I guess I am almost a fully functioning adult now, aren't I?" I asked.

"Afraid so," he said. "And Draco too. I'm sure we don't say it enough, especially considering how we loathed the two of you being together to start with, but we're all very happy for the two of you. I don't know if it was love or stupidity or both that kept you together in the beginning, but you both kept fighting and you're both better for it. Mira is better for it."

"I hope so. They say you can do everything right, but your kid can still be a screw-up. I'm a prime example of that," I said.

"You are not a screw up," Remus said. "One mistake does not a screw up make."

"Well, I tried really hard to be one," I said.

"You defeated a dark wizard and your daughter is too sweet for you to be a screw up," Remus said.

"Um, I don't think my daughter really qualifies as sweet," I said. "She's kind of a jerk, actually, if you can be 19-months and also a jerk."

888

"It's a shame we couldn't keep you until August like we planned," Thaddeus said as he signed some paperwork for me. "Although, you are a bit overqualified to work as an intern. You already have your license, an Order of Merlin, and your NEWT scores were better than any of the hires we've taken on in the past few years. It's no wonder they want you at Hogwarts as soon as possible."

"That's nice of you to say, Thaddeus. This whole time I've thought you found me irritating," I said.

"Oh, make no mistake. I do find you terribly irritating, but you're also talented so I had to endure," he said.

I nodded. I'd finished my last day at the ministry. At least I'd be remembered here for something other than defeating a dark wizard.

"I wish you all the best," he said handing me my papers. "Oh, and I'll be at Hogwarts tomorrow for the Victory Day celebration. I heard you and your brother will be speaking there."

"Briefly," I said.

"Well, I look forward to seeing you," he said. "Good luck."

"Thank you," I said. I walked out of his office and headed over to my desk where I had a small box with all of my things in it. Tyler stood there, waiting.

I looked past him and reached for my things.

"I'm sorry for how things turned out," he said.

"I'm so sure," I said.

"I mean it," he said. "I think you're a great person, Hannah. And I really do think you're too good for Malfoy-."

"Yeah, well, everyone thinks I'm too good for Draco. I've been hearing people tell me that since I was 14-years-old," I said. "I don't ever get tired of proving them wrong."

Tyler sighed. "Have a nice life, Hannah Potter. I sincerely hope I'm wrong about Malfoy, for your sake."

I picked up my box. "Goodbye, Tyler." I left quickly, picked up Mira from daycare, and went. Harry was there with Ron.

"Finally, you're home," Harry said. "I'm making dinner tonight."

"Lucky me," I said. "What's the occasion?"

"Hannah, do you know what we were doing a year ago today, at this very hour?" Ron asked.

I paused. "We'd probably just broken out of Gringotts."

Ron nodded. "It's kind of incredible."

"Yeah," I said. "We'll also probably never do anything that cool again."

"Also true," Harry said. "But, we're alive. That's something. That's more than something. That's everything. A year ago tonight was probably the worst night of our lives, but we got through it. We're here. We literally thought we were going to be dead a year ago."

I nodded. "But we made it. It's over."

"Maybe we'll all eventually stop having nightmares," Ron chuckled.

"That'd be nice," I agreed. Mira had abandoned me as soon as she got in the house and was busy playing with her toys in front of the couch. "Every day is a little bit easier though."

Harry looked over to Mira smiled. "Look how far we've come. You're getting married in a month. Ron's getting married to Hermione at the end of the year."

"You're shacking up with my sister," Ron chimed in.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I've got an idea." He walked into the kitchen and returned a moment later with three glasses and a bottle of wine. He filled each glass. Mira walked over to the coffee table and held out her had.

"No wine for Mira, but maybe a juice box?" Harry asked her. Her eyes lit up and she nodded. Harry whisked away to the kitchen and returned with a carton juice which instantly pacified Mira.

"Sometimes that kid is so cut I want to punch myself in the face," Ron said.

"And other times she's screaming non-stop for no reason and you want to stab yourself in the ears," Harry said holding up his glass. "None the less, a toast to Mira."

"Why to Mira?" I asked.

"Because, we're all here to see her grow up," Harry said. "And a year ago we didn't think we would be."

Ron nodded and held up his glass too. "Sound good to me. To Mira."

"To Mira."

Mira held up her juice box. "To Mira."

We laughed and she climbed up on to the couch and rested her head against Ron's shoulder.

[A/N 2: So, it's been a while. It's taken me an inexcusably long time to update this story, especially since I only have 3 or 4 more chapters to post. Basically, I'm trash. The last two years have been super busy. I've been moving a lot, had some mental health issues I was working on, then last summer I got engaged, and just a couple weeks ago I got married. It's been wild. I was really stuck on how to finish this story, which hasn't helped, but I knew I HAD to finish it. I couldn't just abandon it. But now, I'm out of my slump, and I'm gonna get it done. I'm also going to finish posting the rest of Order of the Phoenix, which I've also been slowly working on. Things will be better, and if you came back after I was away for so long, you're literally the best and I love you guys!]