The world seemed to stop.

Voldemort dodged a curse. Albus caught sight of Hudley in his line of fire. The Dark Lord took advantage of this momentary distraction and sent off that fatal spell.

Six syllables brought green death.

Severus was certain that, in his last moment, Albus' eyes had found Severus' own to mouth his last words.

Fly, you foo

The world resumed.

Voldemort paused, seemingly surprised himself. All around them, Death Eaters, Order members and Ministry employees alike watched the venerated old Headmaster tumble off the bridge, beard whipping behind him.

Hudley and Severus kept running.

Hudley reached the Dark Lord first, tackling him to the newly-repaired planks. Red light shot from the boy's hawthorn wand at point-blank range. An Expelliarmus followed, for good measure.

The Dark Lord Voldemort fell into unconsciousness. Bellatrix Lestrange's cackles cut off into confused silence.

Severus wished they actually had a plan for this. They had joked about it, yes. They had decided on Transfiguration, yes. But now, the only thing he could visualise, for the life of him, was a shoelace.

And thus, the Dark Lord Voldemort was vanquished. Spectators would later claim he vanished in a puff of smoke, by the power of the Boy-Who-Lived and His-Cousin-Who-Tackled-To-The-Ground.

"Well, that was entirely anticlimactic," Hudley complained, watching Severus retie his shoes.

Severus walked away from the scene with shaking knees and, if viewed with Special Spectacles, a rather oddly twinkling shoelace on his right dragonhide boot.

"Never, ever, ever do that to me again," he hissed at Hudley as the Aurors approached.

"That's the opposite of Always," Hudley said, and winked.

Severus did not recall most of what followed, too busy fuming. God, Hudley would be the death of him. He had been the death of him.

He was never leaving Severus' sight again. At least, not until the end of their Hogwarts years.

… …

Death Eaters were arrested, tried and sent to the new-and-improved Rotfang Reformation Room-and-Board that had replaced Azkaban.

The power vacuum Albus Dumbledore left was filled by people who were, if not competent neutrals, at least able to tell which way around to hold their wands—which was a distinct improvement on the last administration.

Hudley and Severus sat their OWLs, then their NEWTs. They got accepted for a teaching position at Hogwarts and further studies at a French university, respectively.

Hermione had a bright future in politics ahead of her.

All was well.

… …

"I feel like we're forgetting something," Hudley said, on their last Hogwarts Express ride back to London.

"Hush, Dudley," Hermione said. "I'm sure it's nothing."

… …

To be continued…

… …

Thank you Eider Down for enabling this story.

I'm taking part in The International Wizarding School Championship, which will eat into most of my already limited writing and editing time until it ends on June 13th. There's a fun Regulus marauder-era fic in the works for that if you want to check it out.

Please expect this story to be updated/the sequel posted within a year, rather than months. I next anticipate having free time in August.

In the meantime, check out my other stories and Eider Down's time travel epic at /s/13010260