A/N: Well...I feel kind of stupid updating after the book. sob I can't believe she killed that character! I won't say who it is though in the off chance someone hasn't read the book. So anyway, this is the last chapter that will make since if you haven't read my other stories. Just a warning.

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Chapter 15: Epilogue--Part 1

Harry heard the noises before they registered to him. His head was pounding. He instinctively shut it out. He sat there for a moment, unmoving, not sure where he was. It was never smart to announce yourself before you assessed the situation.

"I swear to God, I have never seen some turned inside out and still able to walk on his own. That is the strongest person I've ever met."

Memories rushed back to him. Malfoy. The soul exchange. The fire. The disoriented run from the mansion. His hands...

Before he could stop himself, he sat up with a jolt and stared at his hands, for an instant, seeing them bloody and burned before realizing they were whole and healed. Wincing at his carelessness, Harry looked around him, hoping to see nurses instead of Death Eaters. It was a hospital to be sure. He cringed to see himself in the impractical hospital garb. There was more than one way to confine a person to bed. The voices had been continuing throughout his self examination and he realized that he had tuned them out. He began listening again as he heard a muffled voice say, "The nurses said we could wake him!"

"Maybe you should let me check on him first," said a definitely female voice. "I know him better than you, after all. I don't want to overwhelm him right when he's doing better."

Whoever she was talking to sighed impatiently. "Hurry."

The door opened very slightly and a figure with bushy brown hair slipped through.

"Harold!" She said with relief, telling Harry with one word who the other person at the door was. "It's so good to see you awake! We were very worried about you." As though she suspected he didn't get the point, she gestured toward the door with a meaningful expression. "Are you feeling well enough to have visitors?"

Harry sighed. "It's too soon for this type of nonsense," he muttered, careful to keep his voice down. He looked around. "Wand?"

Hermione pulled it out of her pocket. "I didn't want him to see it," she whispered, nodding toward the door again as though he was daft.

Harry accepted the wand gratefully. It seemed to warm under his fingers. "What did I look like when I came in?" At her expression, he clarified. "What features were distinguishable? Hair color? Eye?"

"Hair," Hermione said, nodding. "It was too dark to see much of anything else. And you're face was, well, quite disfigured."

"Excellent," Harry said. Hermione gave him a look that said it wasn't excellent to her. Harry felt compelled to clarify. "That means I have some liberty with my facial features. Mirror."

Hermione pulled one out of her bag. "I thought you might ask," she explained.

Harry flipped open the tiny mirror and looked at his reflection.

"I look terrible," he said. Fortunately, he didn't look up just then or else he would have seen Hermione hide a smile behind her hands. His face was thin and gaunt, rather blotchy with wounds that weren't entirely healed. Shaking his head to clear it, he moved his wand around his face. Where the wand touched, his features changed. His he specifically turned dark blue, but the for the rest of it, he let the wand decided. It didn't matter to him. When he decided his face was sufficiently changed, Harry closed the mirror and handed it back to Hermione.

"Don't even recognize you," Hermione said.

"Let's hope the kid doesn't either," Harry said. "You can see right through it if you know what you're looking for."

There was an impatient knock on the door. "Can I come in?"

Harry stuffed his wand under his pillow and nodded to Hermione.

"Come on in, Harry," she called.

Harry saw himself stick his head in the door.

"You look terrible," his other self said. This time, Harry saw Hermione hide her smile. Oddly, he almost wanted to smile back. He must be high on pain killers.

"You don't look so good yourself," Harry said, managing a cheerful grin on his newly round face. "Thanks for breaking me out, by the way."

"No problem," Other Harry said, shrugging. Yeah, especially since I was helping you every step of the way, Harry thought to himself, but it lacked the usual annoyance. "You claim you can help Remus?"

"Yes," Harry said, nodding. "Combined hexes are one of my specialties."

"One of many, of course," Hermione said, keeping her face carefully neutral. Both Harry glanced at her.

"Sounds like something I would say," Harry said with a broad grin. "But she's right. I also do a lot of undercover work. Which begs the question, is Malfoy dead?"

"Malfoy?" Other Harry asked. "I thought the only people that called him Malfoy were the people who went to school with him."

"Too much time around Hermione, I suppose," Harry said, shrugging. The kid's suspicious questions confirmed some of Harry's worries. Although the kid didn't know to look for specific masking charms, he felt there was something off about Harry. "But did you kill him?"

Harry looked at him for a moment, as though sizing him up. Then, slowly, he nodded. "Malfoy's dead."

Harry gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. "I thought we'd never get him, not without Harry Potter's help, at least."

Hermione cleared her throat. "Actually, Harold, this is Harry Potter."

The kid gave her an exasperated look. "For God's sake, Hermione. I get one person I can talk to and you ruin it for me!"

"Are you Harry Potter for real?" Harry asked excitedly, sitting up straighter. "I had no idea, sir! Thank you for your help! Thank you very much! Imagine! Harry Potter come to save the likes of me!"

The kid stood up quickly. "Well, I'll let Hermione get the technical stuff done. I really should be going. I'll tell Remus the good news." With that, he quickly left.

Hermione let out a sigh of relief. Harry put a finger to his lips and motioned toward the door, giving Hermione's intelligence the benefit of a doubt and assuming she could figure it out.

Nodding, she hurried to the door and peeked out. "Gone," she said before coming back to the bedside.

"I will need clothes," Harry said, picking at his dressing gown distastefully. "And quickly. The sooner I can walk around the better." Suddenly he stopped. "How many days until the full moon?"

"Just one," Hermione said. "And you know how unpredictable that werewolf thing is. It could happen sooner."

"Then as soon as I have my clothes," Harry said pointedly, "I'll help him out."

"Let's just say your original clothes had seen better days and had to be thrown out," Hermione said. Suddenly a small smile crept onto her face. "Originally I bought these as a joke, but after meeting Harold, I think they'll fit you well."

Harry opened his mouth slightly in complete disgust. She pulled out of her bag a new pair of robes. Hawaiian robes. Harry had never seen anything so repulsive in his life.

"That was exactly the reaction I was hoping for," Hermione said, laughing.

"I will not wear that," Harry said stiffly.

"Of course," Hermione said, laying the clothes neatly on the bed. "But then again, they seem just the sort of thing Harold would wear."

Harry scowled. He opened his mouth to respond wittily but just then, the door opened.

"Did you give him the clothes?" asked Ron, poking his head in. When he saw Harry's face, he looked embarrassed. "Sorry, wrong room."

"Don't be silly," said Hermione, looking around at him. "Come on in."

Ron looked from Hermione to Harry's round face and burst out laughing. "I'm guessing you didn't pick the face!"

Harry scowled. "I didn't really care what I looked like. And I don't want the robes."

"That's definitely him," Ron said, still laughing. "Wow, Harry! I didn't know what to expect after last night, but whatever it was, it wasn't this!"

"Ha ha," Harry sarcastically. He tried to fit in a scathing comment, but at his last words, Hermione's laughter had joined Ron's and drowned out. It was rather infectious. Harry actually found himself smiling sheepishly.

"Knew I'd get a smile out of you before you left this time!" Hermione said triumphantly. Harry's smile vanished, but Hermione's widened. She tossed the robes at him. "We'll let you get changed. Come on, Ron."

She got up to go, but Ron hung back a minute, his eyes sparkling happily. "Have you heard? About the Death Eaters?"

"Malfoy's defeat?" Harry asked, grateful to take his mind off the horrendous clothes.

"It's more than that," Ron said. "You burned Malfoy mansion to the ground. Everything that was anything to the Death Eater's cause was in that mansion. We passed half of it on the way out. Weapons, plans, just about everything. You may not have noticed in your state. All reports say the Death Eaters are scattering. None of them know what to do and their all convinced the fight is over. After all, if Harry Potter's joined the cause..."

Harry nodded. With all the excitement out of the way, he was feeling rather drained and tired. Somehow, he would never figure out why, but Hermione had a funny knack for knowing what he was thinking (Occlemency? Surely not.) and she took Ron by the arm and gently led him to the door. "I think Harry needs some rest. He's been having to do a lot of healing in a short time and he's probably exhausted."

Harry looked at Hermione gratefully as she led Ron out of the room. "Oh, Harry," she said, pausing at the door. "All jokes aside, you'll need to wear those robes."

Harry glared at her retreating back, but couldn't make himself do anything else. The pillows seemed extremely comfortable and before he knew what was happening, he was asleep.

He was sitting a room. It was extremely familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. There were three sofas in the room. He was sitting on the middle one. There were three doors. One, he knew, led to the outside. The other led to a hallway, and the other led to the kitchen/dinning room area. He knew the place well. And yet, he knew there was something missing.

The door to the kitchen opened and Ron stepped out. Ah. That was it. The missing piece. This was Ron's house.

"You're welcome," said Ron, sitting down on the sofa opposite him and grabbing a goblet of pumpkin juice that was sitting on the end table.

"For what?" Harry asked, oddly aware that this was a dream and at the same time, knowing that he shouldn't know that.

Ron sighed. "Completely unrecognized. Oh well. I suppose I should give you some slack. You were, after all, half unconscious at the time."

"Ah," Harry said, understanding at last. He took another goblet of pumpkin juice that was sitting at his own end table. "The run from the mansion."

"Knew you were smart," Ron said, nodding.

"Tell me," Harry said, taking a drink. He blinked in surprise. He hadn't had pumpkin juice in years and it was better than he remembered it being. He shook his head and looked back at Ron. "Why would fate get so completely and utterly involved in the affairs of mortals?"

"Your job's not done yet," Ron said with a shrug. "Had I not helped, you would have died. Trust me on that."

Suddenly something occurred to Harry. "So you're telling me that you were willing to help me escape from the mansion, but you weren't willing to help me beat Malfoy?"

Ron smirked over his pumpkin juice. "I'd have thought you'd figured that out now. I do only what I must to keep the timeline as unpolluted as I can. It's not easy with you jumping back and forth between dimensions, but I do what I can. Without my help, the kid would have known you were here. Oh, and you would have died, Remus would never have woken up, and all my plans for the future would have been ruined. Well," Ron had his holier-than-you expression on. "At least, as ruined as it can get from a single mortal."

"A damn powerful mortal at that," Harry muttered, taking a drink of pumpkin juice.

"Got that right," Ron muttered darkly. "Had no idea you could defeat a spell of that magnitude. Just about anyone else in the world would have been gone in an instant. That was half the reason I sent the Potter boy after you, figured he'd pull you out."

"Cheated fate, did I?" Harry asked, smirking. "I had no idea I was so important that you had to send people after me to save me."

"I said it was only half the reason," Ron said, shrugging. "The other half was to defeat Malfoy. The other half is because I would be in serious trouble if I let you die."

Harry laughed, thinking he was joking, but Ron did not smile back. "But you're fate. Who has the power to get you into trouble."

Ron smirked. "The only one I care about is myself."

"What does that mean?"

"I mean, the fate in your dimension would have my hide," Ron said, shrugging. "You've got a lot of things to do before you're done and not just here."

"So when do I go home?" Harry asked.

Ron smiled slightly. "Actually, there's something quite important for you to do before you go back. I'm sure I'll understand."

"Wake Remus?"

Ron shook his head sadly. "Didn't I tell you that a single individual doesn't really impact the dealings of fate?"

Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Other than you, of course," Ron said dismissively. "But that's totally different."

"Clearly," Harry said.

"Well," Ron said, standing up, his pumpkin juice disappearing. "Got to go."

"See you later," Harry said, standing up as well.

Ron raised his eyes brows. "Not for a while."

"But I will see you," Harry said, grinning slightly. Ron almost smiled back.

Harry opened his eyes. He was sitting in the hospital again. Those horrible clothes were sitting innocently on his bed.

"Stupid Hermione," Harry muttered, grabbing the clothes.

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A/N: Pretty much the end now. I do have the Epilogue Part 2. Okay, well. I'm going to go cry. Then read the book for the third time. Then cry again.