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The school year went on. Dumbledore's search for Harry Potter did not bear fruit and the headmaster's influence began to vane. Henry and his friends studied, played, fought and laughed. Draco could not persuade his father to use his influence as a governor for allowing first years to play Quidditch. The boy was not truly hurt by his failure as on the one side he would be a second year soon and on the other hand his father had expressed his pride over how Draco had conducted his campaign. Apparently he had shown signs of political savvy, whatever that was.
Theo successfully traced Hermione's father's ancestors to a Squib of the Dagworth-Granger family. Nott Sr. filed that piece of information away in his mind, there was no need for a contract yet. The children were no more than twelve and Snape had hinted that Muggles outside the aristocracy no longer supported arranged marriages.
Henry had succeeded in persuading Charity Burbage to sponsor a club. The Muggle Studies teacher had bought herself a book about the rules of football and a whistle. The offside-rule still eluded her but surely school-games could do without, couldn't they? Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas of Gryffindor were Henry's most vocal supporters. Hogwarts' football team quickly grew to over twenty boys and girls from all houses from year one to year three. Severus Snape was watching the trainings and matches from afar. Obviously Charity's books about football were woefully out of time and the woman, although she tried hard, had no idea what to do really. The Death Eater – situation had been changing with Nott's and Malfoy's machination and one afternoon in early April the Potions master decided to throw caution in the wind. He transfigured his robes into a black track suit, stormed the football field where the children were doing some sort of gymnastics and took over training after delivering a speech that would make the next edition of Hogwarts – A History.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exacting art of playing football. I do not expect that many of you will understand the beauty of defying the force of gravity and other laws of physics, the absolute power of a well-trained defense formation, the allure of a precisely executed set-piece. I can teach you how to pass, how to dribble, how to cut through the opposing team's defense like a hot knife through butter if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as you are in my laboratory!"
He then Transfigured some sticks into multicoloured caps, threw them on the ground and, with the enthusiastic help of Dean, Seamus and Henry showed the assembled children the meaning of ball-control. Charity Burbage got a little flustered watching.
At the beginning of May Snape managed to get tickets for the last match of the season – a Confundus or two might have been at play - and the awestruck children watched ManU beat Tottenham Hotspurs 3:1. Miss Burbage had never been to a stadium before, neither Quidditch nor Old Trafford, and therefore kept very close to her colleague. When a week later Ronald Weasley badmouthed the Potions master he got his nose bloodied by Dean Thomas.
Neville Longbottom had a spot of trouble when Headmaster Dumbledore decided to use him as a stand-in for the Boy-who-lived and summoned him into his office. But his friends prepared him accordingly. Draco lent him an amulet to protect him from Legilimancy, Hermione researched the Hogwarts charter and Theo reminded him to ask his Head of House to accompany him. Minerva McGonagall would have done so anyway, her admiration for her boss had lessened considerably during the last few months, but Dumbledore played foul. He had invited the Dowager Longbottom to put even more pressure on the child. The old witch surprised her grandson, however, and told the headmaster where he could stick his aspirations for Neville, in the end threatening to withdraw the boy should Dumbledore insist on making the child a tool of prophecy.
Although Peter Pettigrew managed to find the wraith of Lord Voldemort in Albania they could not find a substantially big enough piece of Horcrux to gain him a body. A temporary solution was that Voldemort possessed Pettigrew's body but ten years as a rat had made Peter's human body rather clumsy. He stumbled off the curb at Charing Cross Road, giving the number 14 bus no chance to brake in time. The wraith leaving Pettigrew's dying body got sucked into the buses generator where it stayed for a long time. When, during a technical overhaul of the vehicle two years later, the wraith got himself disentangled he believed himself to be a bus. Sometimes there were dreams of witches and wizards and world domination but all in all Tom Riddle was quite happy perching unseen on the rear-view mirrors of different London buses.
Drivers who were Squibs could feel his presence but did not know why in particular they'd so loathed to drive some buses while being perfectly all right with others which spurred a whole slew of urban legends about haunted buses in London.
After graduating from Hogwarts Seamus Finnegan played for the Chudley Cannons and later, with much more success, the Falmouth Falcons and the Irish national team. When he suffered a career-stopping injury he joined the Hogwarts staff as flying instructor as well as football coach, leading the mixed inter-house team to being third in the Scottish school-tournament.
Charity Burbage never managed to understand the off-side rule but as Mrs Snape she cheered on their four children during their games nevertheless.
Albus Dumbledore was asked to step down from being headmaster due to age-related problems during Henry's fifth year, with Minerva McGonagall as his successor.
The quintet that had formed on that first journey on the Hogwarts express stayed friends throughout their years at school and beyond. There was some friction when Draco fancied himself in love with Hermione but as everybody and its house elf had known from the time the children were twelve that she was destined for Theodore Nott that time passed, too. The Granger-Notts would patent several revolutionary charms, the most important the one to enable computers to run in the magical world, thus making their family one of the richest in the whole magical world. Theodore Nott Sr had burned those portraits of ancestors who would not stomach a Muggleborn addition before the young people even found out that they were in love.
Draco Malfoy supported his friends in running their business – Hermione and Theo were more research minded – and lived a life of comparative leisure until his father involved him more in running Malfoy Industries. His parents had, after the Horcrux had been destroyed, had four more children and were quite busy with them. Spending his teenage years around babies and toddlers Draco had often and quite loudly proclaimed never to wish for children. Astoria Greengrass changed his mind when they eventually married, they only had a boy and a girl, though.
Neville apprenticed with Professor Sprout and followed in her footsteps as Herbology professor and in Minvera McGonagall's as Head of Gryffindor. He married Hannah Abbott. Severus Snape eventually apologised for his conduct during Neville's school years and the two of them became surprisingly firm friends, attending the odd Newcastle match together.
Henry Charkov graduated from Hogwarts with fair grades. He went on to study runes at the Sorbonne and became an enchanter. Later, together with his sister Catherine, they would be a household name for a whole lot of different things like teething rings or a self-stirring spoon. Since his graduation Henry made no longer a secret about being Harry Potter when managing the Potter affairs and shortly before his 25th birthday Dumbledore found out. He asked the young man to meet him in the Hog's Head. Henry conferred with his Uncle Sev and agreed to the meeting. Over tea and biscuits on a questionably clean plate the old mage earnestly entreated the young man to join in his fight against Voldemort and, with a terribly sad mien, told him that he had to die to vanquish the Dark Lord for sure. Henry started to explain that the Horcrux in his scar had been exorcised more than ten years earlier and that he and his advisors had destroyed others, too. Dumbledore was surprised and asked after said advisors. In agreement with Sev and Minnie Henry told him of their involvement since his time in school but not yet about earlier. The old man looked thoughtful and a bit lost. Just then his brother interfered.
"Come on, Albus, it is time for your medicine and a nap!"
Henry said his farewells. He would visit again but the former headmaster no longer insisted on his death. Henry's wife Luna declared the old mage infested by nargles.
Sometimes, in quiet moments who occurred more often now that both her children had homes of their own, Helen Charkov Barnaby thought back to that day where a Potions master in a Clash t-shirt had shown her a way out of her personal hell and had given her a son.
One staple food of the Snape-Burbage household were cinnamon muffins made after Mrs Evan's recipe. Every time their smell tickled his nose Severus thanked fate for that day that had saved not only a little boy's life but his own as well.
Fin