Chapter 17

Headmaster's Office,

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

2nd September 1997

"Good evening Headmaster," Lily greeted him; she had made her way to the office after dinner. "I was hoping that we could speak to you at some point."

"We, Lily?"

"Yes, James, Marcus and Esmerelda would like to be a part of the conversation. It may be necessary to involve the kids but I would prefer not to at this stage."

"I see. May I ask what the discussion would be about?"

"Voldemort and the likelihood of his return."

"Ah. I can see why that would be of interest to your families."

"Yes, and as this is Harry's last year and it's obvious that Voldemort could not have been targeting the twins, we feel this conversation needs to be had this year – and preferably sooner rather than later."

"Very well," he agreed, "please invite them this weekend."

6th September

"What is it you wish to discuss, exactly?" Dumbledore began the meeting; David and Cassie had been left with Rose and Heather; they were babysitting so that Esme could also attend.

"Minister Crouch visited us shortly after The Battle," James began, "and told us of Voldemort's horcruces – specifically the two that had been destroyed by then. He was uncertain as to the existence of others, though we later, of course, found that locket to be one. So our first three questions, Albus, are do you have any awareness of any more of these creations, do you know if Voldemort is still alive and if so where is he?"

"I can honestly say I do not know the answer to any of them," Albus sighed. "I had a suspicion that he may have created one of these items, but more than one?" he looked horrified at the thought. "To the best of my knowledge it had never been attempted before. I do wish I had had the chance to investigate the cup or the diary before Barty had them destroyed. As for the locket…" he shook his head regretfully, "to think it was here for months and I never realised, never saw it – and then it was destroyed too. I may have been able to use one of them to track down any others, or indeed Voldemort himself."

"The Unspeakables felt that was impossible," Marcus observed. "Do you know magics that even they don't?" he asked curiously.

"I wouldn't want to make that claim," the Headmaster admitted, "but I have spent a lot of years studying different types of magic myself. But I will say, if Voldemort made more of these abominations then he is out there still somewhere."

"The Unspeakables felt that may not necessarily be the case," Marcus recalled. "They said horcruces do not prevent death from old age – and also the splitting of the soul shortens one's lifespan. Riddle would be around seventy by now?" Dumbledore nodded. "Not old for a wizard, but for a wizard with only a fraction of his soul? We cannot discount the possibility that he is gone forever."

"Alas, if he remains abroad then we may never know for sure," Dumbledore observed. "I was not aware of the shortening of one's lifespan; that is something the Unspeakables have discovered that I had not. It is certainly valuable information if we can indeed just wait for Father Time to do what we wizards could not, though of course we may never learn of his demise if that is the case and especially if he dies on foreign soil. In the meantime, Harry should continue to take care," he warned the Potters, "he was the main target, not you two."

"Really?" James was floored at the disclosure.

"Yes," the old man breathed softly, feeling the time had come to be open with the family, "a prophecy was made about a child born as the seventh month dies being able to defeat him; it could have referred to your Harry or to the young Longbottom, his classmate Neville. Riddle determined that it meant Harry, so he targeted him. That led him to Godric's Hollow that night."

"How do you know this?" Lily asked.

"Because the prophecy was made to me," he revealed, "but was overheard by Severus."

"Snape!" Marcus hissed.

"He was filled with remorse when he realised the Dark Lord had targeted you," Dumbledore told Lily; nobody believed it.

"He was with Riddle when he attacked the cottage," James reminded him. "He was killed in the attack in full Death Eater garb. I find it hard to believe they were the actions of a remorseful man."

"I can only judge the man as I found him," the aged Headmaster said carefully.

"Believe what you must, Albus; we will judge him by what we saw of his actions," Lily said.

A thought occurred to Esme. "If the locket was the last of these devices, and it was Neville who is responsible for it being discovered and the Unspeakables destroying it, could that meet the terms of 'by his hand'? Could the prophecy have actually referred to him and not Harry?"

"Again," Dumbledore replied with a shake of his head, "we may never know for sure." It was obvious, though, that the suggestion had piqued something in the old wizard's mind.

"We should contact our colleagues in Canada and Mexico; it can't hurt to have eyes and ears as close to the US as we can since we think Riddle is still there," Marcus observed.

"Please let me know if you hear anything," the Headmaster requested.

James dearly wanted to tell him where to shove his request, given that Dumbledore had kept the prophecy from them for almost two decades. However he had to concede that it would be better to have the old wizard as an ally than not so just nodded before he, his wife and the other couple left the office to find their children.

"Any idea where Harry and Pansy are?" he asked Lily.

"If they were us then I'd know exactly where they'd be on their first weekend in the Head students' suite," she observed with a grin; Esme smiled while Marcus tried not to listen to speculation about his daughter's sex life. "If, however, Hermione Granger intercepted them at breakfast then she probably has them holed up in a classroom somewhere, or more likely the library. The twins are probably there too along with our two if Miss Granger is cracking the whip."

"Does Harry still have the mirror with him?" Marcus suggested; James mentally slapped his forehead.

"Good point," he drew his own mirror from his robes amid the wives' sniggers. "Harry?"

"Hi dad," his son's face appeared a few moments later; the quietness of his voice betrayed his location, "has the meeting finished then?"

"Yes, and we were just going to say hello while we're here."

"We're all in the library," he turned the mirror around to show the rest of the table; Heather, Rose, Pansy, David, Cassie, Hermione and Neville all waved to him.

"If you can take a break then we can talk in person for a bit," his dad suggested. Despite Hermione's frown the other Potters and Parkinsons agreed. Neville was secretly pleased to get a bit more alone time with his girlfriend in her native habitat.

"So I was the target and if he does come back he'll be after me again?" Harry clarified.

"That means he'll be coming for me too," Pansy declared, taking her husband's hand and gripping it firmly. "Wherever you go I go, Harry; it's that simple."

"I know," he agreed, "but I don't like the idea of you being in danger from him."

"I could say the same about you," she replied stubbornly.

"I think the best plan is for you to do what your parents did," Marcus suggested. "Find a place in the non-magical world where you can live in peace and grant access to the property only to people you trust and from as few places as possible."

"Our next few years will be at university anyway," Pansy mused, "so that will have to be somewhere non-magical. After that we've a bit more freedom to decide, based on anything that changes between now and then."

"And in the meantime, focus on your schooling, your NEWTs and your A-Levels," Esme urged them. "You're perfectly safe at least until he comes back – if he ever does; for all we know he might already be dead."

Parkinson Manor,

Loughborough, Leicestershire

5th July 1998

"Have you decided what your plans are for next year?" Lily asked once the House-Elves had cleared the table; it was a family meal to celebrate the end of another school year – this time the last one that Pansy and Harry would spend at Hogwarts. They had completed their NEWTs (and were confident of passing) and had almost finished their A-Levels too. All that remained was to reveal what they had decided to continue their education in.

"You know we accepted the offers from Loughborough," Harry began; she nodded. "It's nice and local for the in-laws," he laughed, "and certainly the best course for Pansy while the course I want is offered as well."

"It's Chemistry you decided on?" James asked his daughter-in-law with a slight frown.

"Yes but with a focus on medicine and pharma," she confirmed. "It's a new course and sounds perfect, as I was thinking I could look to expand the business into remedies and treatments."

"It's been looked at in the past," her father admitted, "but never quite succeeded for some reason."

"I think people saw the 3P brand and didn't believe it would do anything other than get them drunk," James suggested.

"Right, so we're going to borrow an idea from the non-magical world," Harry spoke up. "A lot of the brands available in the shops are owned by a few large companies but they sell things under different brand names – for instance that Cover Girl make-up that Pansy likes," he grinned at his wife, "is made by the same company who also make Crest toothpaste," he turned to his in-laws, "that's the weird stuff the Grangers tell you they slap on their teeth twice a day." The Parkinsons nodded. "You have to do a bit of study of the packaging to find out which company makes what as they keep the brands separate; we could easily do the same. We have done the same," he reminded the parents.

"Right," his dad nodded, "we kept the A&B label on their pumpkin juice after the take-over, in addition to our own – until sales fell so low that it wasn't worth continuing to make it. We've also kept Ogden's name on the Firewhisky all these years."

"Most people still think Ogden owns that company," Harry noted.

"You know most wizards would be too lazy to study the packaging and make the connection," Pansy added.

"And even if it doesn't work in terms of sales because of brand association, if Pansy's team can develop some new products we can always spin the department off into a new company – either independent of 3P, even though our families would still be the owners – or a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company."

"I see why you wanted to study magical and non-magical business," Esme noted, understanding perhaps half of what Harry had been talking about.

"It definitely sounds like you have it all planned out," Marcus concurred. "What are your friends doing?"

"Hermione got accepted to Cambridge; she wants to drag Neville there too but his grandmother's not keen on the idea, plus we don't think his understanding of the non-magical world is quite there and he probably has too many gaps in his education to get into a university – especially one of the elite ones. Susan and Hannah are looking at apprenticeships, Ernie's working for his dad and I think Justin is going to join his family's business too."

"Ok, a small place like a flat will do for you two then," Marcus mused. "If your friends were going to the same university we'd have got a house for you all while you were there but you won't need something that size."

The young couple were floored by the offer. "That's… incredibly generous, thank you," Harry said.

"It's nothing, Harry," his father-in-law waved him off. "We just want you to have somewhere that you can bring your friends to as well – both Hogwarts friends and those you make at the university."

"Just not too many at once as space expanding charms are probably a no-no," Esme chuckled. Her daughter pounced on her and her husband, hugging them in delight.

It was a simple gesture but one that caused Esmerelda Parkinson to reflect on just how much she had changed over the last seventeen years, ever since that fateful Halloween night. She had gone from a straight-laced, old-fashioned Pureblood, with ideas to match, to becoming someone much more accepting of other people, much less interested in blood and its 'purity' and someone who was at ease with displays of emotion and affection towards her family – especially her son, despite his lack of magic. As her husband summoned a crate of bottles, Esme reflected on the fact that the Potter and Parkinson families, while retaining their own homes and private times, worked together almost as a single unit – a very powerful one in their world and that they were about to celebrate their eldest children moving on to the next phase of their lives with the very thing that brought it all about in the first place: a butterbeer.

THE END

AN: And so we reach the end of this little story; a huge thank you to all of you for reading it and to those who have reviewed it. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please keep an eye out for my next short story (hopefully coming soon, though I am back at work now that the new school year has begun); it's based on one of the late, wonderful Broomstick Flyer's one-shots and called The Darkness and the Light. PD