I am embarrassed by this, because it is quite important to me to write clearly. But judging from reviews, some readers do not understand everything that went on in the previous chapter. So I will explain now what I did not clearly explain then.
The rules for a formal wizard's duel are never explicitly stated in canon, but I presume that there is some stated minimum distance between the duelists. Because travel-time for a cast spell is not instantaneous, setting a minimum distance gives each duelist a certain minimum amount of time in which to dodge the other's spell.
The "sneak attack" that Voldemort decides to do, at the end of Chapter 22, is to Apparate to two feet in front of Harry and to fire a spell from there. This is big-time cheating, by the rules of magical dueling. But why two feet away? Two feet is far enough away that Voldemort can see Harry's facial expression after the Apparition, and is close enough that Harry cannot dodge Voldemort's follow-up spell and cannot put up a suitable shield in time.
Voldemort's plan, before arriving at the pitch for the Duel, is to duel Harry from the proper distance and to wait for that moment during the Duel when Harry realises he is beaten and soon will die; then, to add insult to injury, Voldemort plans to sneak-attack.
But when Voldemort is informed that all his horcruxes are destroyed, does he think Not a problem, because I'll probably win the Duel anyway? No, Voldemort panics and makes his sneak attack be his opening move.
But Voldemort has forgotten that putting himself two feet in front of Harry Potter means that, just as Harry cannot dodge Voldemort's follow-up spell, Voldemort himself cannot evade Harry's spell.
Harry never in a million years expected to use his §Gladius§ spell during the Duel. But now Harry is put in a situation where he can use this spell. Harry's attack-spell is three syllables whilst Voldemort's attack-spell is six syllables, so Harry gets his attack in first.
Chapter 24
Epilogue, Part 1
Friday, 2nd August 1996, 3 days after the Duel
Wizengamot chamber, Ministry of Magic
Harry was summoned to the Wizengamot to answer questions about the 29th July destruction of Malfoy Manor. Harry appeared whilst wearing formal robes that had twenty House crests on the front; eighteen House crests, including the crest for House Malfoy, were ringed in red.
Harry was asked, "Did you destroy Malfoy Manor on 29th July, killing everyone inside?"
Harry replied, "I destroyed Malfoy Manor on that date, yes. I didn't kill everyone inside. Before I attacked, I rescued Narcissa Malfoy and all the Malfoy house-elves. The house-elves, on their own initiative, rescued Florean Fortescue and Garrick Ollivander, who were being held prisoner in the dungeon. Somehow Severus Snape and the Dark Pretender Voldemort escaped death."
"You committed mass murder!" a seat-holder yelled.
"No, it was the Dark Pretender Voldemort and his face-hiding minions who committed mass murder. They killed innocents. Whereas I committed an act of war. The only innocent people who were in Malfoy Manor, I rescued, or the house-elves rescued, beforehand."
"What does Narcissa Malfoy think of what you did?"
"Her name is Narcissa Black; she's now a widow who has reclaimed her birth name. As for what she thinks about what I did, I suggest you ask her yourself."
"How did you make the wards fail and make your attack, without Lucius Malfoy responding?"
Harry smiled. "The reason that Lucius Malfoy didn't respond was because the wards didn't fail. During the entire attack, the Fidelius charm was up and the wards were undisturbed.—"
"Impossible!" someone shouted.
"He's lying, he has to be!"
Harry calmly continued, "The wards came down only when I, as Lord Malfoy by Right of Conquest, brought the wards down so that dead Death Eaters' bodies could be recovered. I'm quite proud of the trick I invented."
"What is that trick? How did you trick the wards and the Fidelius charm?"
"I refuse to answer that. I refuse to explain any part of that. I know the most valuable military secret in Wizarding Britain, perhaps in the entire magical world, and I'm not sharing it!"
"You defy us? We could send you to Azkaban!"
"And I'd go, willingly. This secret, I won't tell my children when they ask, nor will I tell my grandchildren. So why do you think I'll tell you? There is at least one person in this room whom I'd not trust with the Secret to a Fideliused student trunk—do you think I'll tell the lot of you how to destroy Potter Manor?"
The Wizengamot members blustered and thundered and threatened. But the result was that Harry did not reveal his secret, and Harry was not sent to Azkaban.
Saturday, 31st August 1996, 32 days after the Duel
The day before the start of the new school term
Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey
The Dursleys had moved out. The house was empty of furniture, and no Dursleys were there. But the house was not empty of people: several wizards and witches, and one house-elf, stood inside. Specifically, the wizards were Harry, "Mad-Eye" Moody, Neville Longbottom and (representing Gringotts) Bill Weasley; the witches were Hermione and Daphne. The house-elf was Dobby.
Harry was blushing. "I've never spoken more than hints about what happened to me inside this house; but 'Mad-Eye,' as much time as you spent outside this house, you surely have some idea."
"Mad-Eye" nodded, frowning.
Neville shook his head. "I don't understand. What happened here?"
Harry looked at the floor. "For me, Nev, this was a house of horrors."
Hermione laid a hand on Harry's arm. "You never told me either, but my eyes worked. Listen, the day I met you, you were sent off to school with clothes that were too big, and your glasses were broken. What normal aunt would embarrass her nephew this way?"
Harry replied bitterly, "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had a peculiar definition of 'normal.' "
Harry gave his visitors a room-by-room tour of the house, sharing his most unpleasant memories of each room, but speaking with no emotion. All the visitors looked horrified. The visitors were further horrified to see the upstairs bedroom door with locks on the outside and a cat flap in the door, which led into a bedroom with bars on the windows.
But the shock of that upstairs door and that upstairs room was nothing to when Harry led the visitors down the stairs, and stopped partway in the corridor between the bottom of the stairs and the kitchen. When Harry had everyone's attention, he pointed his wand at the cupboard under the stairs, which for some reason had locks on the outside of the door. "Alohomora," red-faced Harry said and, saying nothing else, opened the door—
What the Dursleys had not taken of their things, they had binned. But what was in the cupboard under the stairs had not been removed and had not been binned; those objects told a ghastly story.
"Mad-Eye" counted fifty-nine dried blood-droplets on the floor of the tiny room or on the undersized mattress. Whilst "Mad-Eye" counted, Hermione and Daphne were both clutching onto Harry and were weeping.
When everyone had looked inside, Harry said in a dead voice, "This was my 'bedroom' from age fifteen months to the day I got my Hogwarts letter. My Hogwarts letter was addressed to 'the cupboard under the stairs.' Meanwhile, Dumbledore and Gilderoy Lockhart were pocketing money from books that claimed I spent my childhood in a bloody palace."
Harry pointed his wand at the ceiling and said, "I hereby declare that Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey is no longer my home. So mote it be." Light flashed, and Harry felt the blood-wards collapse. Then Harry looked at his friends and added, "Unofficially, this house never was my home, not for a second."
Then Harry said, "Bill, the wards are yours. Dobby, get the rest of us the bloody hell away from here."
Sunday, 1st September 1996, 33 days after the Duel
The first day of the new school term
Aboard the Hogwarts Express
The "Gold Four" (Harry, Hermione, Daphne and Neville) were sitting in the same train compartment, along with Lavender Brown and Tracey Davis. Harry, Hermione and Daphne all had been selected as prefects of their respective Houses; Hermione was overjoyed by this.
Ron had not tried to enter the compartment, because Hermione had put a "Ron Weasley Notice-Me-Not" charm on the door. But now the charmed door opened. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle peered in, with a blonde standing between them. But this time, the situation was very different than in previous years.
For one thing, neither Vincent Crabbe nor Gregory Goyle were wearing Heir rings, Harry noticed.
Awkward Crabbe and Goyle offered themselves as bodyguards to Harry, and offered firstie Galina Goyle as Harry's "servant girl." After the Gold Four asked a few questions, red-faced Crabbe and Goyle revealed that House Crabbe and House Goyle each owed more than ten thousand galleons to House Malfoy; and the condition that Lucius Malfoy had set for not calling such loans due immediately was that each debtor House's heir would become a bodyguard of the Malfoy heir; and Galina, once she attended Hogwarts, would become Lucius's and Draco's "personal servant." (And yes, this meant exactly what it sounded like.) Vincent, Gregory and Galina were fatherless now, and so had even less chance of paying off the debts than their dead fathers once had.
Harry promised Victor, Gregory and Galina, "I'll figure out how to settle your debts; but for now, return to your compartment, because I don't want servants. Galina, one day you'll marry, and I swear that you'll be able to look your husband in the eyes on your wedding night."
Meanwhile, Ron Weasley on the train was asked pointed questions about why, if Harry Potter were indeed Ron's "best mate" as Ron claimed, nobody had seen Ron on the Quidditch pitch on the day of the Duel. Ron would be asked this question for the rest of his life, and he never would think up a convincing answer.
Sunday, 1st September 1996, 33 days after the Duel
The first day of the new school term
Hours later, at Hogwarts Castle
Just before the Sorting and the Welcoming Feast, Ron Weasley tried to sit down next to Harry—in Hermione's place. Harry and Neville shoved Ron off the bench and onto the floor.
Headmistress McGonagall's response? "Mr Weasley, you took the seat intended for Miss Granger, and clearly Mr Potter and Mr Longbottom do not wish for you to sit there. Go sit elsewhere."
When Ron sat down, between Dean and Seamus, Ron's ears were red and he was grumbling about "favouritism." Dean told Ron to STFU. Harry glanced over at the Slytherin table and saw that Daphne was answering questions.
The big surprise of the Sorting was that Galina Goyle was Sorted into Gryffindor. Ron Weasley was loudly opposed to this; everyone else at the Gryffindor table told Ron to STFU. When Galina started to cry, Harry walked from the sixth-year part of the Gryffindor table to the first-year part, and gave Galina a public hug. The entire Great Hall went silent when this happened.
Headmistress McGonagall made introductions before the Welcoming Feast. Gerhard Übersuppe was the new Potions professor; Aurora Sinistra was the new Head of Slytherin. Filius Flitwick was Deputy Headmaster, besides remaining the Charms professor; Charity Burbage was the new Head of Ravenclaw. Charles and Nancy Wood (grandparents of Oliver Wood) were the joint Heads of Gryffindor. Headmistress McGonagall would continue to teach Transfiguration.
The headmistress just had finished announcements, and food just had appeared on the tables, when—pop!—a Hogwarts house-elf appeared at Harry's elbow. The house-elf held out a folded, wax-sealed parchment to Harry.
A minute later
Harry walked up to the Head Table. "Headmistress, I have received a letter from Professor Snape, written the day before I dueled Voldemort. Since this letter was written at Malfoy Manor, it's safe to say the letter was written before I destroyed the place." This caused a buzz in the entire room. Harry continued, "May I read the letter?"
"You may, Mr Potter. Please speak loudly, so that everyone can hear."
Harry turned about and loudly said, "Professor Snape wrote—"
Harry read aloud, "I wish to state that I was wrong, grievously wrong, about Harry James Potter. I hated Harry's father and I saw Harry as nothing other than his father's son. So I slandered Harry, I oppressed him, and I belittled him. I abused my position as Potions professor when it came to Harry. Only belatedly have I seen that Harry is much more Lily's son than he is James'. Harry, I apologise to you.
"If the Dark Lord is dead, read this also: I was Headmaster Dumbledore's spy on the Death Eaters, but to be effective, I needed for the Dark Lord to believe that I was his spy on the headmaster. Both the headmaster and the Dark Lord insisted that I stay at the school as Potions professor, years after I would have chosen to leave the position. Eventually I came to hate teaching Potions, then I took out my anger and frustration on students. Now that the Dark Lord is dead, I apologise to all my former students for being such a poor teacher to them, and I already will have tendered my resignation to the headmaster, effective as soon as he can replace me."
Harry refolded the parchment, and turned to face the student tables.
"I've had many unhappy moments here at Hogwarts, and Professor Snape was the cause of most of them. But in the last two months, since the end of the previous term, I've grown to deeply respect the professor. He died a month ago, on the day of the Duel—he died bravely, which we Gryffindors honour. But I also think he saw that Voldemort would not outlive the day, and neither would Voldemort's mystique outlive the day; so Professor Snape broke away from Voldemort before the professor was stuck with the Dark Lord's bad reputation. Professor Severus Snape died showing cunning."
Dinnertime, a day later
Monday, 2nd September 1996, 34 days after the Duel
The second day of the new school term
The Great Hall
Harry, who was carrying two half-foot pieces of parchment, and Galina both walked from the Gryffindor table to the Slytherin table. Harry handed the parchments to Daphne and asked, "Any comments?"
Daphne beamed at him. "This is so Harry of you. Is it okay if I pass them out?"
At Harry's nod, Daphne handed one mini-parchment to Vincent Crabbe and one to Gregory Goyle. The wording was the same: "The amount of [specified] galleons that House [Crabbe, Goyle] owes to House Malfoy, I forgive. Signed, Harry James Potter, Lord Malfoy."
Daphne ran around the table then, ran up to Harry, and hugged him quite enthusiastically. One Slytherin muttered to another, "Did somebody Imperius the Ice Queen?"
Gregory looked at his sister and asked, "Galina, how'd you wind up Sorted into Gryffindor? I'm not cheesed off or nothing, I just can't figure it out."
All Slytherin eyes were on Galina as she replied, "You know the offer we made on the train, and you know why we made it: because of Lucius Malfoy! But when we offered me to Harry Potter, he said, 'Go back to your compartment. I want that you can look your husband in the eyes on your wedding night.' Which was not what Lucius Malfoy would have said! This started me thinking, 'Do I want to be in the House of Lucius Malfoy, or in the House of Harry Potter?' When the Hat was dropped on my head, I told it, 'Please, please, please, make me a Gryffindor like Harry Potter!' "
Then Galina looked at Harry and said with determination, "I'm not brave yet, but I bloody plan to work on it."
Harry and Galina were about to walk back to the Gryffindor table when Pansy Parkinson shouted, "You stole my inheritance, blood-traitor! I demand you give it back. I deserve it more than a half-blood like you deserves it."
The Great Hall instantly went silent.
Harry could not help it; he chuckled. "Miss Parkinson, of all the people in this room, not counting the first-years, you and Ron Weasley tie for being least deserving of anything good."
"Oi!" Ron yelled from across the room.
Harry eyed the sixth-year Slytherins. "Miss Parkinson says I'm a 'blood-traitor' because I think Hermione Granger is as good as any Pureblood. Let me take it further, Miss Parkinson: I think Hermione Granger is the best witch or wizard in this room. She knows a lot about magic, she knows a lot about the magical world, and she's loyal when being loyal is hard. Hermione invents spells—I've seen it. There is no Pureblood who deserves their magic more than does Hermione, and there are only a few Purebloods—Daphne here, Neville Longbottom, the Weasley twins, Susan Bones and the late Amelia Bones—who are as deserving as Hermione."
"The Mudblood's manners are atrocious," Pansy sneered.
Daphne said, "They used to be. They aren't anymore."
Harry said, "Speaking of manners, Miss Parkinson—you interrupted me. As I was saying. A month ago, some friends and I dropped in, quite uninvited, on Malfoy Manor. Besides Lucius Malfoy and the Dark Fraud Voldemort, many Death Eaters were there. Including your father, Miss Parkinson."
Pansy's look was murderous.
Harry raised his voice, so that the entire Great Hall could hear. "Want to know what a Death Eater is? He or she is a Pureblood who kisses the ... feet ... of a half-blood fraud who tells the Pureblood what he wants to hear. And the Pureblood is so thick that he never notices that the Dark Lord whom he follows, demands big sacks full of galleons, Crucios his own people, and A-Ks his own people. Death Eaters are as stupid as flobberworms, they're inbred, and they don't deserve to rule Houses."
Pansy snarled, "We're not inbred! That is a Mudblood lie! Nor are we stupid."
Harry shrugged. "If you say so. All I know is, When I destroyed Malfoy Manor, there were only two survivors: the half-blood fraud Voldemort a.k.a. Tom Riddle, and the half-blood Professor Snape. Not counting Narcissa Malfoy, whom I rescued, every one of the 'superior' Purebloods in that house was killed off by me, a half-blood. Hm, Purebloods sound pretty inbred to me."
Daphne looked at Pansy and said coldly, "You're not as bad off as some. It's two years before you sit for N.E.W.T.s, which means you have two years to study hard. Once you take your first job, save your knuts. But lose the 'I'm so entitled' attitude, Pansy—it's ugly hearing MoRon Weasley spout it, and neither does anybody want to hear it from you."
Friday, 14th February 1997
Four and a half months before Dumbledore's original-timeline death
Six and a half months after the Duel
The Daily Prophet reported that Albus Dumbledore died in Azkaban Prison. The cause of death was a body curse.
What the Prophet did not report, but what Headmistress McGonagall discovered, was that upon Dumbledore's death, his portrait did not appear in the headmaster/headmistress office.
Needless to say, Dumbledore's corpse was not given a fabulous tomb on the grounds of Hogwarts.
Before Dumbledore had died, Harry had written a letter to him—
"Have you ever considered why God, Fate or Whoever, let you hear the Prophecy, instead of someone else hearing it? Because you held three positions of power. After 31st October 1981, you could've trained me, and brought me to others who'd train me, so that I'd have grown up to be a one-man magical army whom Voldemort had no hope to beat.
"Instead, from the very minute my parents died, you worked to sabotage my life, so that at the prophesied battle, my death would be certain and you'd step on my corpse as you battled Voldemort in hope of glory. You were given a great responsibility that only you could fulfill, and instead you failed at this responsibility, completely and knowingly.
"No matter how painful the final stages of your withering curse become, I truly believe that you deserve much worse."
Thursday, 31st July 1997
One year and one day after the Duel
Harry's seventeenth birthday
Buckingham Palace
Harry was knighted by the Queen—formally, with a sword-tap on each shoulder. Witnessing the knighthood ceremony were Hermione, Daphne, Neville and Dobby; Queen Elizabeth had not met a house-elf since she had been a princess. Colin Creevy took photographs.
Daphne and Neville were wearing dress robes for the occasion; Harry, Hermione and Colin were wearing dressy Muggle clothes; and Dobby was wearing a scaled-down copy of Harry's outfit.
Colin Creevy's best photograph was printed in the Daily Prophet the next day.
Throughout the last five months of 1997, and afterwards
Whether by accident or the queen's design, the photograph in the Daily Prophet of Queen Elizabeth knighting Harry, shifted the politics of Wizarding Britain. Immediately Muggle-borns owled Harry with "Can you help me?" pleas, which Harry posted to Her Majesty. The result of this was that the Minister for Magic was summoned to Number 10 Downing Street and was reminded (and was often re-reminded) of a centuries-old treaty between Parliament and Wizarding Britain. The Ministry of Magic, threatened with Wizarding Britain losing its independence, made changes in the following years. Slowly and reluctantly, yes, but the Ministry made changes.
But the biggest force for change was the author-trio of "Potter, Black and Black-Potter," beginning in 1999, the year after the three teens married. More about this later.
Monday, 1st September 1997, 13 months after the Duel
The first day of the new school term
Hogwarts SOW&W
Harry, Hermione, Daphne and Neville began their seventh year. Harry and Daphne were prefects again. Stephen Cornfoot of Ravenclaw was Head Boy whilst Hermione, to nobody's surprise, was Head Girl.
Ron Weasley, meanwhile, had failed his entire sixth year and so was required to repeat it.
Saturday, 27th June 1998
23 months after the Duel
One day after sitting N.E.W.T. exams and finishing the seventh-year term
In the morning, Harry and Hermione, and Harry and Daphne, were magically married at Hogwarts. Both weddings were held in the first-floor girls' lavatory by the Charms classroom, where Harry and Hermione once had met a mountain troll. The wedding breakfast (wedding reception) was held in the Slytherin common room. By means of special magical bracelets, the Doctors Granger were able to attend the double wedding at Hogwarts.
Four hours after the Hogwarts wedding, Harry and Hermione were married at Saint George Church of England in Crawley. Daphne was there as the Maid of Honour. Dudley Dursley attended as family of the groom.
Harry, soon after his marriage, converted a large room in Potter Manor, and a large room in Grimmauld Place, into Faraday-cage rooms in which electronic devices worked. Each room was given a computer, a telly and VCR, and the necessary furniture. At Grimmauld Place, Narcissa and Daphne bonded over a new love of BBC period-dramas.
Throughout 1998
In southeastern England, houses began being sold in the new town of Malfoy. Residents of those houses could shop at brand-new Malfoy Mall, in which was a fast-food restaurant, Harry's Fish and Chips Dining Room.
Behind the cash register of Harry's, facing the customers, was an enlarged photograph of a teen boy in a top hat, along with two teen girls, who were all dressed in white. If customers asked about the photograph, they were told, "It's some sort of in-joke."
To wash down the fish and chips, Harry's offered several brands of carbonated beverage, apple juice, and a pure novelty drink: pumpkin juice.
A youth (name-tagged "James") with messy black hair and striking green eyes, sometimes worked at the Dining Room. James, whenever he was there, manned the cash register and commanded the other employees. Customers, if they thought about James at all, presumed that he was merely the shift-manager because the lad looked so young. Few customers noticed that James bore an uncanny resemblance to the top-hat lad in the photograph.
What residents of Malfoy soon noticed, after Harry's Fish and Chips Dining Room opened, was the odd group of regular customers that the Dining Room attracted. These regulars were not recognised by residents of Malfoy as fellow residents; indeed, judging by the accents heard, these regular customers had grown up all over Britain. But these odd strangers would gather, would eat fish and chips, and at least once a night would toast "To Harry!"—whilst drinking only pumpkin juice. But at least the odd strangers all wore normal clothes.
This mysterious group of regular customers shared another odd trait. The customer-seating part of Harry's Dining Room featured a gigantic oval table that was made of stone, and the pumpkin-juice-drinking customers always sat at this table.
1999
Hermione Potter was selected as the editor for the latest edition of Hogwarts: A History (an honour, by the way, which never was offered to Hermione Weasley in the original timeline). In Hermione Potter's description of the "Quidditch-Pitch Duel," she named the seven Slytherins who had stood with Harry. (Hermione also, as Harry had predicted, included in the latest edition a photograph of herself, Harry and Daphne on the day of the Duel, all wearing their white finery.)
But after the new edition of Hogwarts: A History was published, the team of Harry, Hermione and Daphne began writing books that explained Muggle topics to magicals. Hermione was the main author, Daphne made Hermione's words acceptable to Purebloods, and Harry explained to ordinary witches and wizards what his wives meant. (Always Harry needed to halve the page-count from the door-stop manuscripts that Hermione and Daphne presented to him.) The books that the author-trio wrote became bestsellers, and they changed the thinking of the magicals of Wizarding Britain. The books' recurring theme was this: "Sometime during the authors' lifetime, Muggles on computers will knock down the wall of secrecy around Wizarding Britain. You can't prevent this. Magical society is woefully unprepared for this."
All of the author-trio's books were written on computer. The author-trio's first book, The Muggles WILL Find Out, in 1999 had to explain to magicals the most basic facts about computers, even though Muggles had known about computers since 1946.
