Miss Moony would like to dedicate this chapter to angelicattie for being the 100th reviewer.
Miss Moony would also like to thank Serpent of Light, Unknown-Dreams and I Am The Bunny Slayer for reviewing.
To Serpent of Light: I'm currently in the OMGOMGOMG phase of realising that you've reviewed, seeing as I am a massive fan of On Pirates, Wizards and Sharp Pointy Objects (even if I never review from this account), but I'll get over it in a second and be able to focus on answering your question. (Calms down) okay, I can think of two others off the top of my head – one's a semi-crackfic (though I don't know if that was intentional or not) called Harry Potter and the Circle of Confusion by Jeanne2. The other's called The Circle Continues by Sakura Rhapsody, and though it's quite slow-paced, it's well written. Both are archived here on ffnet. Umm… I think that's it, but I've been wrong before. You could always check the HP/Tamora Pierce thread in the Back in Giles' Day… thread at Fiction Alley Park and there might be some others there. Thank you for reviewing (is properly awed that you liked the other ficlets as well).
To angelicattie: Yeah, I know. That's the scene that inspired that mini-story.
To Unknown-Dreams: Aww, you're that eager to see it over? (Mourns.)
To I Am The Bunny Slayer: Was that supposed to be a "gah" of appreciation or disgust?
------- I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good -------
Epilogue
The sun shone brightly over Rosethorn's garden as Briar and Harry carried various objects outside. The photo album, the documents that had been removed from it, a few letters and doodles, and a book: The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts.
'Are you okay?' Briar asked, his tattooed hand covering Harry's smaller one.
The green-eyed boy smiled and nodded reassuringly at his partner of two months.
'Let's go, then.' Daja, Tris, Lark, Rosethorn, Niko, Frostpine, Evvy, Keth, Comas and Glaki were divided between three rugs in the garden, and they had been joined by Pasco and Sandry, who had come over from Summersea for this little chitchat between friends.
Harry returned to his their shared room briefly and collected his penseive, flickering with surface images of a small, black-haired, green-eyed boy dressed in black, red and gold.
He sat down on the rug next to Briar, who took his hand, showing his support. Glaki came across and sat herself down in Harry's lap, abandoning Little Bear to drape himself lazily over Tris.
The surface of the penseive showed an image of a small hut perched on a rock, in the middle of the ocean in a rainstorm, picking up on what Harry subconsciously thought was the beginning of the real world.
He opened his mouth, took a deep breath, and began to tell his story…
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There was a garden in the afterlife: half of it was a tangled mess, because Briar would need something to keep him occupied now that life was over.
A plump, round-faced boy knelt in the soil at the far end, and Briar recognised him as Neville Longbottom from Harry's photos and memories.
Looking around, he could see other familiar faces of people he'd never met before, too. Luna Lovegood, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, and a few others whose names slipped his mind.
There was only one other of consequence: A tall, dark-skinned boy approached Briar with a wicked gleam in his dark eyes.
'You're Briar, right?' he asked, and received a nod in return. 'I'm Blaise. Blaise Zabini.'
Briar took his hand firmly and shook, regarding the first person to have captured Harry's heart.
'Harry talks about you all the time,' Blaise continued, 'when he's not blabbering on about how wonderful his parents are. He's missed you, you know.'
There was no resentment in the other boy's gaze, and Briar thought that, had the positions been reversed, he wouldn't be handling this nearly so well.
'He's with Mrs. Potter and Professor Lupin at the moment: over there, if you want to see him.' Blaise pointed towards a gate at the back of the garden, and Briar could just about make out figures through the thick, thorny vines that grew over the gate: briars.
He moved towards the second garden, towards Harry, when Blaise called back to him with a grin, 'I should probably warn you. Beware the Potter males: they're stubborn as mules, the lot of them.' His smile grew. 'But you already knew that, didn't you?'
But the dark-skinned boy was gone by the time Briar turned back to respond.
------- I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good -------
Dear readers,
To those of you who were hoping for more, I apologise, but this is the end of Lupines and Lilies, and I thank you all for bearing with me through the author's block, multiple computer problems, and general laziness.
To those of you who are only reading because you got author alerts for it when you were hoping I'd updated The Chosen, Missing You or Wolf and Serpent, I thank you for your patience, and I hope that you've enjoyed whatever of this story you might've read.
Thank you all. Goodbye for now.
Moonshadow
