A/N: Just a short epilogue, hope you like it!
That I don't own Harry Potter should be pretty obvious, but in case it isn't, I don't own Harry Potter.
EPILOGUE
"NO HEDWIG! I AM NOT YOUR FOOD!", Ron shouted at her after they had arrived in the Owlery, the stinking, hooting hell that was the Owlery. 'Out of the frying pan and into the fire! Why me? Why, in Merlin's Name, is it always me!", Ron thought and lost control of his temper.
"HOOOOT!", Hedwig and a bunch of other owls hooted loudly as Ron wildly threw around hexes, aiming at everything that was not protected with a sticking charm.
"NOOOO! THIS HAS GOT TO BE A DREAM!"; Ron screamed. Not knowing what else to do and hoping that it was only a dream, he turned into his Animagus form again with the hope that he wouldn't be a Squirrel, but it only confirmed his worst fears and crushed his hopes. While he looked and pitied himself, an owl that had just returned from a long flight swooped down for her late-night snack. Ron threw the bird out the window.
Ron sat down and cried, his wailing went on the entire night and was even heard in Hogsmeade.
XxX
"Weasley, a word please!", Professor McGonagall whispered to him after the class.
"Mr. Weasley, I wanted to talk about your, well, outstanding achievement. I must say, and this is nothing but the naked truth, that I am more than impressed with what you have achieved. I am really proud of you.", McGonagall told him after the other students had left the class. It was the first time that he had seen her with a real smile. A real smile that crinkled her eyes and lifted the corners of her mouth.
It was the first genuine smile Ron had seen, that did not concern his Animagus form, but that he actually managed to do it. He had been depressed for the past 3 days, not even really caring about Harry and that he was chosen to be the second Hogwarts champion. Ron Weasley had gotten attention, but not the kind he desired. It was the kind he despised with a burning passion, the kind his brothers had given him so many times. And now, Professor McGonagall, the head of his house and second-in-command of the entire school praised him for becoming an Animagus.
"Thank you, Professor, thank you so much!", Ron told her with a very big smile.
"I would like for you to come to my office after school, so we can talk about how you managed to do this. Since you have done something so complicated at such a young age, I would really appreciate it if you told me this, I am sure, extraordinary tale.", McGonagall said to him.
"Yes Professor, of course. I will be there after dinner!", Ron answered.
"Very well. Now off you go, Professor Flitwick surely does not want you to be late!", the Professor said and Ron headed for the door.
"Oh, and one more thing, Mr. Weasley. 200 points to Gryffindor for your achievement! And because a wanted Death Eater was caught, which is also partly your achievement.", she said with a smirk. Ron could truthfully say that he was happy again, really happy.
XxX
"No, please, I beg you! I don't want to do this!", Hermione pleaded. She, Crookshanks and the House Elves from the kitchen all stood inside the Gryffindor Common Room. A clause demanded in the "Treaty of Tolerable Treatment of Pets and Elves" was that she had to be the sole cause for the most chaos and mess the Common Room had ever seen, only to watch how they would merrily clean it to absolute perfection.
"Missy Hermione, the contract you signed explicitly states that this, among various other activities, have to be solely caused and observed by you! Also, we will stop working every time you close your eyes, so you have to watch us do what we do best.", Witty informed her and the elves cheered in agreement. Crookshanks was lazily watching the thing from his favourite spot near the fireplace.
"No, I must have misunderstood… I mean, I can't do this! I just want to help you, don't you understand that? I just want to end the elvish enslavement!", Hermione cried.
"And we want to enforce elvish enslavement, Missy Hermione! I would advise you to remember the consequences for non-compliance!", Witty answered. He was now shouting and frankly fed up with the way the unruly student behaved. Hermione shot one last look at the elves, sighed and pulled out her wand.
"Confringo!", Hermione snapped. The curse impacted with the fruit bowl and it exploded, sending bits and pieces of Bananas, Apples and Mango through the common room.
"YAAAAY!", the elves cheered. "NOOO!", Hermione sobbed.
This continued for the next 30 minutes, all the elves cheering loudly whenever one of the blasting, cutting and incendiary curses hit anything in the room while Hermione hiccupped and cried uncontrollably. A flourishing betting ring had emerged among the elves and whoever tipped right on what she would destroy next would get to clean it all by themselves.
"Okay Missy Hermione, I think you have done enough damage for today. Now you just have to watch how we clean the room. Dobby even prepared one of the couches for you to sit on!", Witty happily exclaimed. Hermione stumbled onto the couch, devoid of all energy and emotion she could have used to make the elves think differently.
Crookshanks jumped on her lap and she absentmindedly started to pet him. The peaceful petting once he was on her lap was also a clause in the contracts she had to sign, although she would have much rather strangled him. Somehow she knew that he was behind this, her pet, the most loyal friend she could have turned against her. The elves were all singing the anthem of their movement and even she would sometimes start whistling "Los Elfos Unidos…". The next few times she had to do such crimes against elvenkind broke her spirit entirely, her precious logic for living beings shattered in front of her eyes.
XxX
"Hem, Hem.", Umbridge declared her malice.
"Yes, Professor?", Ron asked, a feeling of helpless dread settling on him.
"Mr. Weasley, it has been brought to my attention that you are an Animagus. When I first heard of this, I wrote it off as a silly rumor, intended to harm the learning environment I conduct. But now, I must admit that I am just curious if there is a kernel of truth to this. Are you an Animagus, Mr. Weasley?", Umbridge asked.
Ron swallowed nervously and pearls of sweat started to roll down his forehead. "Uhm… No, Professor, I am not. I tried to become one last year, but failed."
"Yes, that does seem very likely. Funny that I believed you would be capable of doing something as tedious and complicated as mastering the Animagus transfiguration! Teehee! Mr. Malfoy does have a very sophisticated sense of humor, don't you agree?", Umbridge giggled.
"…Yes, I suppose", Ron said through gritted teeth.
"Very well, continue with your work. Oh, and 10 points from Gryffindor for not properly addressing a Professor.", Umbridge said with a faux smile and walked away.
In the back, Crookshanks ripped the picture of the purring cat into tiny pieces after it did not pay any attention to his third attempt to woo it.
XxX
"Good to see you, Wollombee!", Slughorn slurred and slouched away.
"First Ginny and now this, if he knew that I was an Animagus, he would not treat me like this! He would invite me to the Slug Club, purely because I am the youngest Animagus.", Ron said bitterly.
"He probably has heard about it, but written it of as a rumor because he deemed it sheerly ridiculous.", Hermione said and took a swig of her Butterbeer.
"What?", Ron asked bewildered.
"Ron, you are not seen as someone who could become an Animagus at such a young age. You are the Outlier, the irregularity. And you are generally horrible in school, so how could he believe it? ", Hermione told him. "Besides, if you so badly want to be in his special club, why don't you go to him and transform, proving that the rumors are true?"
Ron thought about what Hermione said and had to admit that she was right, it was far easier to believe that the Animagus thing was a rumor.
"Hermione, do you think that he would be able to keep quiet and not sell me out to the ministry?", Ron said. "Don't you believe that he would be all like "Oh yeah, among my students was the Boy-who-lived, You-know-who and the lad who became the youngest Animagus ever!", especially how easy it is to get something out of him when he is drunk. I would not have a week until the ministry knocks on the doors."
Hermione looked questioningly at him, then at the floor. "Maybe you're right. He would probably not stay quiet, and you are not an impressive Animal either, you are right, this would not end well.", Hermione said after pondering for a while. "Alone that McGonagall did not force you to register at the ministry is unbelievably kind of her."
XxX
"Ron, you know what you have to do. I know you will succeed.", Harry said and handed him the tiny vial of Felix Felicis.
"Ron, you can do this!", Hermione said, trying to be as helpful as possible. Ron sighed, took a last look at his two best friends and opened Felix.
"Here goes nothing!", Ron said and gulped the potion down. The best feeling he ever had filled him immediately, a feeling better than the Imperius.
"Alright, I'm off to Mom.", Ron said with no worries about their original goal. Harry and Hermione panicked and tried to grab onto him, but he apparated away.
One very delicious meal later, he took the house ghoul and apparated to Dumbledore's tomb, broke it open and picked one of the corpses hairs. Shortly after, a imperioed ghoul polyjuiced as Dumbledore and a Squirrel on the naked wizards shoulder flooed into the ministry for magic. While a gigantic battle between the Death Eaters and Dumbledore took part, Ron used his Animagus disguise to quickly locate Umbridge, bit her nose and took the locket.
Dodging the array of curses flung around, he darted for the line up of flooing points, only to run against the foot of Lord Voldemort, who kicked him back to inside the Pandemonium of the Atrium.
The Dark Lord became so enraged by the presence of his greatest foe, that he unleashed a gigantic fiendfyre snake upon him. Knowing that this tactic failed the last time, he made it a snake-spider-wasp hybrid that wreaked havoc on the ministry, destroying it entirely and killing nearly everyone that had not taken cover or could apparate away.
Ron could not really be bothered about that, he conjured a skateboard with a little rocket on the rear end and darted through the forest of moving feet. Some would later say that they saw a squirrel with jewelry on a rocket-powered skateboard hit against their feet, but they would not be believed, a ghoul impersonating Dumbledore was insane enough, clearly someone of the resistance had put a curse aimed to induce madness onto the ministry. Only Voldemort had saved them, or maybe it was all a dying fever dream, no one would really know.
XxX
"Harry Potter… The boy who lived, come to die", Voldemort said, his wand slowly rising to aim at Harry.
"AVADA –"
"Now Ron!", Harry screamed. Ron darted out from under the Invisibility cloak, jumped and transformed mid-flight. This was it, they had been training so long for this very moment.
At first, he seemed to be confused and did not know what was happening, but then Voldemort's eyes widened and he dropped his wand. Flinging both arms behind himself to clutch at his backside, desperately trying to delay the inevitable. So the Dark Lord met his demise, for neither can live while the other survives. Ron had entered the realms no one had entered before and no one should enter again, so he turned back to his human form, as this was the only way he could leave this dire dimension.
"AAAAAAAHH! MAKE IT STOOOO-", Voldemort screamed in rage, but the fear in his eyes was unmistakable. It was too late and Voldemort knew it, his end had come, Death would take him now.
The Dark Lord exploded, bits of white, scaly flesh flying in all directions and hitting the Death Eaters. All of the Dark Lords followers were confused beyond repair and that was the only thing Professor McGonagall needed. She turned from her Animagus form and took out the most dangerous foes, while Harry easily defeated the rest. Ron now was worthy to swing the sword of Gryffindor and pierced the head of Nagini, killing the last Horcrux and so Voldemort.
Voldemort and his Death Eaters were defeated, defeated by rather unusual methods.
"We… we did it!", Ron screamed in joy. The three of them formed a circle and jumped around in joy, they were the saviors of the world and this was the best day of their life.
"Thank Merlin we cut your through your scar with the sword, Potter!", McGonagall said. At that moment, Fawkes noticed that the Death Eaters and Voldemort had been defeated and sung his most beautiful song yet.
All lived happily ever after and their children had been given regular, acceptable names. Crookshanks, with immense help from the house elves, became the ruler of the world and everyone loved him, for he abolished money and made relaxation the new currency.