Notes:

This is just a short chronology of what happened to our favourite characters, including a few silly one-shot ideas in case anyone was still vaguely interested at some future stage...

Thank you so much to all of you who left comments here, and apologies if I didn't answer some as the website was down a few times and wouldn't allow any comments back from the authors. I genuinely really valued every single person who took the time to comment here.

Epilogue

There was still shit to deal with, inevitably.

It took months to round up the usual suspects (everyone knew who the Deaters were, but proving it was something else entirely). Remus, James, Lily, and Sirius and all the Order testified at the Death - Eaters' trials. But none was as powerful, or as damning, as that provided by Regulus Arcturus Black, himself accused on charges of being a member of Voldemort's inner circle. Regulus left nothing out, incriminating himself numerous times, knowingly. Regulus informed his Legal that he did not lie and was not about to start now. He was initially sentenced by Crouch to life imprisonment in Azkaban, but a furious Sirius Black appealed it, along with all of his friends, the Order, Dumbledore and Moody. Dumbledore swore he had provided them with vital evidence to kill Voldemort, which was true. In the end, not only was the verdict overturned, but Regulus was awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. He kept it inside his writing desk, carefully stored inside the shadow box, surrounded by tissue paper, and never wore it. There was talk of some of the others getting medals too, but it fizzled out, and they couldn't bring themselves to care.

Regulus teamed up with his loyal friend Kreacher and politely demanded that Dumbledore's sole focus be the destruction of all of Tom Riddle's Horcruxes. He had become obsessed with Voldemort when he was still in school, had dreamed of making his parents proud and becoming a Death Eater when he grew up. When Regulus developed an interest, it became all-encompassing. He did not do things by halves. As a teenager, Regulus had photographs and articles about the Dark Lord and his followers cut from the Daily Prophet, in a scrap-parchment and a collage which were hung in his bedroom near a painting of his family crest. With detailed arrows and footnotes, he drew in the links and connections between various events and people in Voldemort's life. There was probably nobody aside from Voldemort himself who had such detailed, precise knowledge of the Dark Lord at his fingertips. All his intellect now turned to the threat of Voldemort's Horcruxes, and of how to successfully destroy them. Dumbledore reluctantly agreed to a short sabbatical, and provided the missing links in Regulus' history. The ensuing hunt for Horcruxes lasted two years. Lily Evans Potter and Remus Lupin-Black provided invaluable support and advice to them, and took part in some of the adventures, as did their husbands, and the Order members. A full history of this (including how Fenrir Greyback met his end) can be found in Regulus Black and the Sign of Six*. At the end of which, Voldemort was destroyed, once and for all, with little pomp or ceremony to mark his final demise, at Regulus' request. After all, the general public presumed he was already dead since 1981. On his return, Dumbledore took up the headmaster role in Hogwarts once more.

It turned out that Regulus was something of a genius when it came to investigating crime and other complex mysteries which had baffled the Auror Department for years. He set himself up as a Consulting Magical Investigator (Lily's wording) and became very famous. People came from all over the world to ask for his assistance in solving cold cases (such as the now infamous A Study in Gryffindor Red, The Grim & the Basker-Villiers, and The Red-Headed League** to name but a few). Kreacher became his colleague, and a highly skilled detective in his own right. Of course, due to the fact he was an Elf, he was consistently underestimated, which he found exceedingly useful in solving cases, if not infuriating.

True to their word, Lily and James campaigned tirelessly for changes to werewolves' rights and managed to pressurise the Ministry into providing free Wolfsbane on demand. In addition, Sirius and Remus managed to persuade the Board of Governors of Hogwarts to routinely allow werewolves to enrol there. All of them campaigned for the removal of Dementors from Azkaban, in particular Sirius Lupin-Black, who devoted many years to this campaign and became a licensed Legal Counsellor to help this cause. They were finally banished from Azkaban in 1993, the same year that he and Regulus discovered the way to neutralising Dementors, by developing a highly successful vaccine against them. They dwindled and disappeared.

James decided to stay at home with his children for a few years after the birth of Mia Minnie, in order to let Lily complete her studies. He found it hard to relinquish the feeling of threat that had lurked so long around them. But he was always eager to throw himself into more work, so in addition to that full-time job, he and Sirius set up the Alphard Foundation for young werewolves (using all of Uncle Alphard's inheritance and a fair chunk of the Potters' wealth), which he later expanded to include a service for children who needed to be removed from abusive home situations, as Wizarding child protection services were singularly useless. Sirius and Regulus gave the Foundation the use of Grimmauld Place when Walburga Black died. Prior to her death, she demanded that both Regulus and Sirius visit her at her sick bed in her residence. Very reluctantly they agreed to the request. She was still bitter and rude and spiteful, but haggard and sick and pitiful too. She tried to blame Sirius for poisoning Regulus against her. Regulus intervened. It was unpleasant. But Sirius was too happy in his own life to let her vitriol upset him too much. He forgave his mother, something she found profoundly distressing.***

Lily and James had more children, as everyone had predicted. Mia Minnie Potter grew into the liveliest, cheekiest mini marauder, exactly as James had predicted – a shock of tight auburn curls and warm hazel eyes. James said of her as a moody teenager "Mia is so difficult and opinionated; I deeply respect her sassy behaviour. She walks around the place like a muggle Rockstar, she's the child I worry about the least." Four years later, Sirius Monty Potter and Remus Regulus Potter were born, with straight, shining, well-behaved auburn hair (much to James' shock), inheriting James' dark skin but grey-eyed, and impossibly cute, kind-hearted twins.

Remus was offered the post of Professor of DADA in Hogwarts by Minerva Mc Gonagall while she was the temporary Headmistress during Dumbledore's absence (1983-1985), and despite his misgivings (and mostly due to Sirius' insistence), he accepted. When Dumbledore returned, he offered him a permanent position. Remus briefly considered resigning, but by then his love of teaching, and concern for his students, was too strong. And besides, with the destruction of the Horcruxes, the curse on the post was finally broken. And being the kind person that he always was, he forgave Dumbledore (perhaps too readily) for his treatment of him during the First Wizarding War. Sirius didn't. It was one thing forgiving people who had wronged him, but forgiving those who had wronged his friends and family quite another.

Lily trained as a Healer. In her own time, she also learned muggle therapy skills necessary for treating Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder and other psychological reactions to war and trauma (there was basically no such thing in the wizarding world). At Remus' suggestion, she applied for the post of Healer at Hogwarts, taking over from Poppy Pomfrey, specialising in children's mental health, and got the job in 1990. She was exceptionally busy, but absolutely sure she had made the right career choice.

Dumbledore made the unusual (Sirius called it fucking shit) decision to appoint Severus Snape as Potions Professor when Sluggie retired later that same year. Many of Lily's friends voiced concerns, believing that he had only applied for the post in order to be able to see her daily. Lily was furious with Dumbledore (James and Sirius positively fuming), but he assured them that Snape would be wholly professional in his dealings with other staff. Remus tried to behave as civilly as possible towards him, with much difficulty. Snape didn't bother, unless Lily was nearby. Thus it came to pass that when Harry James Potter was starting First Year in Hogwarts, in 1991, Snape was his teacher. Snape had been spared any negative publicity relating to him being a Death-Eater as Dumbledore had told the Ministry about the role he had played as double agent, leading to an official pardon.

From the moment Harry stepped inside Snape's classroom, it was obvious that Snape hated him. He gave him countless, unfair detentions, constantly talking about James Potter in a negative and wholly biased manner, which made Harry furious but also made him think that perhaps his father wasn't quite the wonderful person he had always thought. Harry, who didn't want to worry his parents, or be seen to receive preferential treatment, didn't tell anyone initially (much though he hated not confiding in them).

In the meantime, as luck would have it, James Potter applied for the recently vacated post of Flying Instructor, Quidditch Referee & Coach at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the Spring of 1992. Snape was furious that James Potter would be working there (it was partly due to Snape that James had in fact applied). Snape had been secretly attempting to befriend Lily again, unsuccessfully, prior to her husband's arrival. She could never be friends with someone who had tortured her husband and behaved as he had done, but he didn't seem able to accept that reality, even after all those years. Lily tried to ignore his behaviour at first, thinking that perhaps she was imagining him stalking in between his classes, making up excuses to visit her in her office, locking her in with him in the Charms Classroom "by accident". Instead of distancing himself from Lily, this behaviour increased, to the point that Lily could no longer disregard it. She told Dumbledore, who told her that Severus "still held a flame in his heart for her" and that he would "have a word with him".

As James' popularity with the students and Professors soared, Snape's emotionally abusive behaviour towards Harry increased. Finally, Harry's friends (Ron and Hermione and Neville) told Lily about Snape's behaviour, and she stormed into Snape's quarters to confront him. The details of this entire episode are recorded elsewhere****, but the outcome was that Snape was arrested and charged and lost his position in Hogwarts, much to everyone else's relief. What he did with himself after this is not on file, as it was of limited interest to most people.

Dumbledore accepted that he should have taken greater care in appointing and supervising his teachers. He decided to hand over the running of the school to Minerva Mc Gonagall (who was much better suited to the role) and was appointed Minister of Magic for a time. He subsequently enjoyed his passions of Chamber Music and ten-pin bowling as well as permanently joining the staff of Honeydukes as a highly successful Confectionary Connoisseur, and occasionally joining Regulus Black on particularly challenging cases.

When Mc Gonagall was appointed Head of Hogwarts, they all bawled crying. Sirius Black was soon persuaded to join the staff by Minerva and became the new Professor of Astronomy, a subject he knew backwards. The students were baffled at first by the cutting remarks and ridiculous bickering between the dashing new Professor and their sassy DADA Professor, who delighted in pretending they weren't together until they were found out (the students loved it quite as much as they adored the incessant banter between Professors Evans and Potter). Following Snape's removal from his post, Lily decided to take over as Potions Professor, which allowed her to research potions for mental illnesses (given the scant progress in new medicines in the muggle world, and total void in the wizarding world), while continuing her role as Therapist in the school. She was a brilliant teacher, known for being both a kickass and also for being compassionate towards her students and a trusted counsellor. She and Minerva approached Healer Enda MacDougal to offer them Lily's old position. As well as continuing their job as Family Healer, MacDougal had become interested in mental health and specifically the mental health of LGBTQ+ teens, and had trained in muggle Medicine following Lily's recommendations, gaining specialist knowledge in Endocrinology. They were an instant success with students and professors alike and set up the first Wizarding National Service for Trans Teens, which developed over time with invaluable input from teenagers and those with supportive parents. For a time, there was some very vocal opposition to this service, and trans people in general, by certain purebloods, including sadly some well-known, influential ones. Healer MacDougal continued to provide this service, being singularly disinterested in what bigots thought, and worked hard to promote education in this area.

Fortunately, the Potters hit back in the press almost immediately.

In order to maintain a tolerant society, society must be intolerant of intolerance.

The wizarding media stopped reporting these bigoted views, and support for them reduced steadily.

Lily took a year's sabbatical after this, and in 1994, Dorky-Rose Potter and Marley Emma Potter were born, identical twins with black rebellious curls, brains to beat the band and astoundingly unusual aqua-coloured eyes. Harry was mortified when he found out his mother was pregnant at her age (she was thirty four, which seemed terribly old to him) and his parents, uncles and aunts were insufferably annoying with their teasing of him. He doted on the twins as soon as they were born.

And what of Lily and her sister Petunia? In the summer of 1982, a few weeks before Mia was born, Lily decided to visit Petunia with James and Harry. It was a gamble, a last attempt to patch things up between them. Petunia had told her in no uncertain terms that she wanted nothing more to do with Lily. Lily knew Petunia too well. She purposefully chose an ugly, shapeless dress that emphasised her huge nine-month baby bump, and clashed rather vividly with her hair. She wore no make-up. James agreed to be on his best behaviour. Harry didn't want to go. Lily bribed him with a promise of bringing him to the muggle cinema to watch E.T. (he was too young to watch it, and fell asleep half-way through it on James' lap, James adored it). Petunia opened the door to Privet Drive and balked. Petunia spotted the Burberry bag and the (magically-enhanced) rental Porsche 928 parked down the road. She thought Lily looked irritatingly beautiful in the cerise pink dress, like a TV ad for pregnant women's fashions. James looked as love-struck as ever, that horrid wizard who had stolen Lily from them. She never forgave him. Harry was cute and inquisitive, which she found annoying, especially as Dudley was far less talkative than Harry for his age. Stupid, advanced, big-headed, conceited child, she thought. When she heard about Voldemort's attempt to kill them and Harry, she blanched. An image of Harry living with them in Privet Drive popped into her mind and she shivered. She didn't want another person's child living with them, one child was hard enough, she thought *****. She was snappy and rude towards Harry, but Harry didn't notice and began exploring the house, marvelling at all the muggle contraptions and telling Dudley his house was "really, REALLY cool!" Dudley sat wide eyed watching Harry running around like a mini tornado for ten minutes, and then promptly pointed at Harry and said, "Harry come back!".

Petunia was glad her sister and family had not been killed, but not glad enough to want to keep in touch. Still, Dudley had few friends, and was constantly asking for Harry, and had unfortunately grown used to the idea that if he kept asking, he always got what he wanted in the end. She caved. Vernon was livid. So was Marge. Harry and Duds saw each other at least twice a year, and after Mia was born, Harry insisted on bringing his baby sister, who Duds had zero interest in. Mia was a menace. Petunia secretly thought she was quite cute. After Harry started school in Hogwarts, they had an argument about "stupid, useless wizards" and lost touch for a time, Petunia deleted and blocked Lily's (mysterious and inexplicable) landline from her mobile phone contacts (she was one of the first in her set of friends to own a Nokia 1011, thank you very much). The Potters kept in touch with Lily's extended family, especially those based in Connemara, so they still bumped into each other occasionally. It was only years later that Harry and Dudley rekindled their friendship, when one blustery Summer's day, Dudley arrived at Laurelmere with his three-year-old daughter looking for advice on how to parent a witch.

Sirius and Remus adopted a baby boy, Teddy Lupin-Black, an orphan (whose parents had been killed years after the war ended, during an Auror raid on one of the last remaining Death-Eater strongholds in the country). Teddy grew up to be a sweet, kind and loyal boy, and eventually became Head Boy at Hogwarts. The Potters were delighted and relieved, stating they "were too exhausted from parenting our lot to have the energy to have another one, and we always wanted seven!". The Lupin-Blacks were doting parents. Auntie Marls and Dorky loved Teddy and all the Potters, they liked kids but they didn't want any of their own, and being the coolest aunts was a wonderful compromise. They had that air of mystery that all Unspeakables possessed, and their adventures are still highly classified.

The Potters bought an old, neglected farmhouse in Tuscany, near the wildflower meadow of James' visions, south of Siena. They called it Va Pensiero. Here they all retreated to at regular intervals, including Summer holidays, and Harry's childhood was filled with memories of laughter, sunshine, blistering midday heat, delicious family meals, ice-cream, and visits to medieval towns and the beach of Cala Violina (and eye-rolling with his siblings and Teddy at his highly embarrassing, love-struck parents and uncles).

Harry was, and always remained, the best big brother they could all have wished for - exceptionally kind-hearted, brave, forgiving and sassy, but more laid-back, well-fed and confident than he would have been had Voldemort managed to kill his parents on that fateful night. He and his friends got up to all kinds of mischief and shenanigans in Hogwarts, with the help of Ron's older brothers and the Marauders' Map. But the details of what they did, and whether Harry fell for a red-haired, popular, quidditch-playing witch or a blonde, snooty, rich wizard whose father was in Azkaban, is for someone else to relay…

The End

Notes

* Regulus Black and Sign of Six (aka the Hunt for Voldemort's Soul) – instead of the Sherlock Holmes book The Sign of Four - I mean, maybe?

* *Sherlock Holmes books: A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Red-Headed League.

*** I would be interesting in reading this (or otherwise writing this?)

**** This I would consider as a one-shot (Every Breath You take) if any interest?

***** To be fair to Petunia, Dudley was born on the 23rd June 1980, IN JFK's CANON, she must have been tired and possibly suffering from the Baby Blues when stupid Dumbledore dumped her dead sister's baby at her door. Looking after twins on her own (essentially) must have been a very difficult task for her, especially if she didn't want more children. It doesn't excuse any of their vile behaviours towards poor Harry, the Dursleys were disgusting and engaged in emotional abuse and neglect at the very least, but it does makes me feel a tiny bit sorry for her.

Va, Pensiero – from Giuseppe Verdi's Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves (from the lyrics: fly, thoughts, on golden wings)

Notes:

This was basically just written for me because I had all these ideas and headcanons in my head (some of them similar to ones I've seen on Tumblr and written way better than this, especially much better Trans headcanons, please link me to any good ones and I will copy link here) and couldn't let go of the story till I had at least listed them here! But this really is The Very End.

I'll be posting the canon ending closer to 31st October (separately) for anyone wanting some angst (ugh!) which I had always planned on doing, as well as writing my version of The Prank (which happened just before the start of the story) at some stage (again separately).

Thank you to any of you who left generous and kind comments, especially for the ending of this fic, I can't tell you how much they meant to me and still do. The fact that you enjoyed this fic and that the characters meant something to you makes me incredibly grateful. I'm sad to leave this fic.