Thank you, fantastic readers, for making it to the end of this epic journey with our characters and me.

I told you this is a fic close to my heart, and now I'm going to swallow my own pill of advice and tell you why -

I am first and foremost a non-fiction writer, one who also happens to have a background in data analytics. I've been pursuing writing as a way to learn to invoke empathy and honesty, a way to tell stories that get lost in slews of numbers and stacks of spreadsheets.

If you cried when Narcissa had to part from Draco or when Tonks died during childbirth, or felt a burst of outrage when Snape Imperiused Luna or when Blaise showed no remorse when Theo died, please spare a moment to recognize there are real people undergoing these trials you read.

This is a humanitarian plea, not a political one, although it can be argued they intertwine over multiple vectors. That being said, my family has been torn apart by the U.S. immigration policies, mass incarceration, and woeful lack of adequate healthcare available where I'm from. Wherever you stand on these issues, they have hurt me personally, and this is my story. Try to keep that in mind while you read.

My kids lost their caretaker, who in turn lost her financial stability, which caused me to lose my financial stability. My husband lost his grandmother. My cousins had to flee their fruitful life in their homeland to live in a trailer on borrowed land, and they were lucky. Another of my friends ended up homeless because he's haunted by seeing people skinned alive where he's from, and couldn't get the mental healthcare and support he needed in this country to move past it. He tried to take his life twice during the writing of this fic.

Texas, where I hail from, is the second-largest state in the U.S., hosting two of the most populated cities in the country. We also have the highest maternal mortality rate (read: mothers who die within a year of giving birth) in the entire developed world. My friends and family who I love and care for have been tortured during childbirth. Quite a few touched the robes of death and none of them received adequate follow-up care. One was shamed during a suicide attempt because no one would believe she had prenatal depression. Not a single person cared enough to stand up and make sure she had the care and compassion she deserved.

Finally, if you threw something at the screen when Draco went to jail, maybe spare a thought for my mom, who was locked in a maximum security prison for two years following a severe bout of mental illness after my father passed away. There is no sugar coating the problems that one decision cost our family - her life was utterly ruined and mine was for over a decade. We continue to grow and heal from the trauma, but the scars will remain as long as we do.

I could go on forever about all of the people who have died, every way the people I love have had their souls sucked out by the cold realities that don't have to be this way. But it doesn't matter if you don't care.

That's why I had to kill Lucius, by the way. He could have stopped it. He had the power, the connections, the money to make it happen, but yet he turned a blind eye even as his own son swallowed his pain with drugs to make the pain stop. It's bad out here, folks. Not everyone has a magic carpet or 500,000 galleons to make it out alive. If you do have any power, if you're a nurse or a caretaker, an informed citizen or even a neighbor, I hope this fic moved your heart in a way to show just a tiny bit more empathy, a shred of compassion, and an ounce of effort. You never know when the power will shift, and the life you save may be your own.

Thank you for reading.

May you always have a seat for everyone at your table. May your life be remembered as a lit candle in the wind. Beyond the veil of darkness, may you soar amongst the stars,

Vine