AN/ Okay guys, I hope that this will be a sufficient finish to my story. Let me know if there's anything else bothering you that you want to know and I'll put in a 'let's check on Riley in another couple of years' second Epilogue.
Epilogue
I sat on the Hogwarts Express with Logan. I was leaving for the final time. The past seven years had been infinitely better than the first three I had spent at the school, the ones that had been erased.
Lily was so different from what she'd ever been before. She was a perfect Gryffindor and she was the best Head Girl that Hogwarts had seen since her namesake had been Head Girl. Right now she was finishing up her Head Girl duties for the year. The two of us were inseparable.
As for me, my life was completely different too. Mum died soon after Lily and I started school. She had insisted on learning to drive so she could 'take her precious darlings to school.' She got into a car accident and was killed instantly. I forgave her for everything at the funeral. Technically she hadn't done anything to be forgiven for yet, but that's why time travel is so confusing. Last summer Dad had married Ginny Weasley. They were expecting their first child in a couple months. Celeste, Lauran and I were friends, but not nearly as close as we had been. As for Julia, her sister Olivia and I, we had spent more nights in detention than we had spent out of it.
I had been Quidditch Captain for my last two years at Hogwarts. Colby wasn't Quidditch Captain until his forth-year. And I never ran into Spencer Wood in Diagon Alley. In fact, we met at the sorting when he sat next to me after being sorted into Gryffindor. It's amazing how many things change if you tweak one tiny little event.
"Riley?" Logan asked, jutting into my thoughts.
"Huh?"
"I know we've discussed everything before, but there's one thing I never asked."
"What's that?"
"Who was XJ?" Logan asked and I laughed.
"So you haven't figured it out yet?" I asked.
"I don't know. I have a suspicion, but I think it's impossible," He replied.
"I thought changing the future was impossible too," I replied, "But think how wrong I was."
Logan looked at me for a second, "I think that you were XJ. But not the you in that time. Does that make any sense?"
"Yes it makes perfect sense. And it also happens to be the right answer. In my 'explorations' of Hogwarts, I discovered a hole in the fabric of time. All I had to do was walk through it and think exactly when I wanted to be in the other time. Are you following, because you look a little confused?"
"I think I get it," Logan replied, "But it's hard to understand."
"You're telling me," I laughed, "I don't fully understand it either, and I'm the one who did the time-travel."
Logan looked thoughtful for a second, "There's one other thing I wanted to ask you. Out of all the people that Professor Longbottom could have chosen to send back in time with you, why did he pick me?"
At that moment Lily walked in, "Sorry, I know you two were discussing an important 'something' that you can't tell me, but I want to say a proper good-bye to my boyfriend too."
I grinned at my twin sister as she sat down next to Logan, "I'll see you guys soon. I've got to talk to a couple people before we get to King's Cross. I'm on duty right away."
"See you later!" Lily called happily as I turned to walk out the door.
"And Logan," I added right before I left, "I think I know the answer to your question."
"What's that?" Logan asked.
I just grinned at him, knowing that it would drive him mad, "If you can't figure it out in the next year, then come and ask me."
And with that I walked out of the compartment, knowing that soon my sister and best friend would be snogging each other, and that was something that I could not watch without being sick. Oh, sure I was the youngest Auror ever and had seen more disgusting things in my short life than most, but you have not seen gross until you have watched Logan and Lily play tonsil-hockey.
"Riley!" A familiar voice called from an open compartment, "I'll see you at Auror training, right?"
"Not exactly Wood," I replied, "I'll be there for some, but I'm going to be on duty for most of it."
"What do you mean 'on duty'?" Lauran asked, her legs draped across Spencer's (The two had been dating for a while, another change and one that I was not happy with).
"I've already been trained," I explained, "In fact I've spent several summers with my dad at the ministry. I'm not going to see a lot of you guys unless you come over to my branch of the Auror department."
Spencer raised his eyebrow, "And what branch is that?"
"I can't tell you that," I said, enjoying the disappointed looks on their faces, "But I can tell you that they only take the top Aurors into the department, and if you get in, you'll probably be working under me."
"Great," Spencer grumbled teasingly, "I might get to work under Riley Potter the brilliant trouble maker who hasn't been caught for anything all year."
"Being the Head Girl's sister does have its perks," I sighed, "Although the fact that I learned how to make sure nobody could prove I had done anything helped in that department too."
Lauran and Spencer laughed.
"But I have to ask you, Lauran, why are you going to be a Healer? We can always use people with your talents," I told her truthfully.
"So can the Healers," Lauran replied, "And you're getting Celeste, who is almost as talented I am."
"Always the modest one," Spencer teased, kissing his girlfriend on the forehead, "See you at training Potter."
"Yeah, I'll see you around Wood," I replied, knowing that was his way of telling me to get lost.
I thought as I walked past the compartments. I had sacrificed everything to save my sister and the world I had loved my entire life. In going back in time I had lost my mother, my first love, even my best friends. And, as I thought, I wondered if it was worth it. As I came to the compartment filled with friends that was my destination I realized that by sacrificing all that I had once held dear, I had gained a sister and a world in which there was no evil. And my little suffering was dwarfed by the good I had done, the world I had rid of evil.
"Hey Riley!" Greg exclaimed as I walked into the compartment that held him, Morgan, and many of the other Gryffindors in his year and in mine.
"Hi Greg," I replied, sitting down next to him and catching the package of Pumpkin Pasties that Amity tossed to me.
"So, I hear you're the youngest Auror the ministry's ever seen," Morgan said from my other side.
"Yeah, and the youngest person in my department as well as being the most respected," I replied.
"Aren't we modest?" Celeste called from across the apartment.
"Yes, we are," I announced truthfully, knowing that the world would never know what I had done for it, "And modest we will stay."
Thanks so much to all my reviewers and especially to my cousin Elizabeth who first encouraged me to write fanfiction and then to continue.
Love From,
MotherCrumpet
