Happy New Year!

As a reward... or at least a commemoration... of having over one thousand favorites, I thought I would post a little about what was going through my head when I wrote this, what it means to me, and maybe an omake or two.

I started out this story as a semi-serious story. The honest truth is I don't like most fanfiction. It's not imaginative, it's badly written, it follows canon or fanon far too closely except for when it makes the most sense to, and then it deviates into some kind of AU idiocy. I wanted to write something that addressed many of the issues that I saw in HP fanfiction. You can see a few of those things here. The very human dumbledore, the way the wizard world interacts with the goblins, the role of Gringotts vs. the Ministry - that's all stuff that really rubs me the wrong way.

But here's the thing: I'm a nut. I couldn't hide it. So as I thought of more and more completely silly stuff I just couldn't resist. Towards the end I think I just kinda burnt myself out because I realized entirely what I'd done with the story. I rather do like how it turned out, to be honest, but I wish I'd stuck to one thing or another, rather than starting one way and moving entirely in another direction halfway through. It is perhaps the supreme irony that, in an effort to write a fanfic that addresses many of the things I hate in HP fanfiction, I fell into the worst trap of all: lack of planning.

I've read all of your reviews. Even the ones where you just couldn't resist defecating all over the place. Many of them were encouraging, and I very much appreciate them. Even the defecating ones. At least you took the time to read and review. And I'm very glad that so many of you enjoyed this story. I'll post more stuff about my other stories and where I want to go with them onto my profile, so as not to make this a completely contentless chapter.

Alright, so in order to make this not an AN chapter which will get me in trouble, let me think of an Omake or some such. Ah. Here we go.

- Goblet's Revenge -

It was twelve years after the vaunted events of this story. Harry was walking down the path to Hogwarts, Luna snuggled into his arm, as it was rather a cold day. School was starting tomorrow, and Harry had accepted a position at Hogwarts as a DADA teacher. Luna looked up at Harry adoringly and snuggled closer as they walked. Harry's arm squeezed tighter around her slight body, and she smiled contentedly.

"Papa! Papa!", a small voice yelled, as a young boy of four years old came running up to the two. "Look what I found!"

Harry stopped and took the small thing from the young boy's hand, as he stood there proudly. Luna's breath hitched and her hand went to her mouth involuntarily. "Neville", she said, her voice quivering a little. "Where did you..."

"Over thew!", he said, pointing towards the shore of the lake.

Her fingers slowly traced over the butterbeer cork neckless that she thought she'd lost many years ago. She looked at Neville, then at Harry.

"Harry... why did you love me then? I was such a nutcase then... that necklace... those earrings... so many people hated me..."

Harry gazed at her, that piercing gaze that he used when he was looking at someone.

"It could never have been anyone else, Luna."

"But..."

"But nothing", he said, and put a finger to her lips. "The necklace, the earrings... they were you. Just like your heart was you. I knew you, Luna. I knew you before you knew yourself. Just like you knew me before I knew myself."

She threw herself onto him with a bear hug, one hand still clutching tightly to her necklace. Neville tugged on his coat. "I did good, Daddy?"

Harry smiled down at Neville. "You did very good. Now let's go in and get something to eat, shall we?"

Just at that moment, a medium-sized, very colorful bird flew down and landed on Luna's shoulder. Luna smiled and stroked its plumage, as it danced frantically around and sang a highly energetic song.

We ComposerBirds are happy that you've come back to see us

We remember all the times we had while you were here

Sometimes we talk about how much we miss you

And now that's you're back, we greet you!*

Harry looked quizzically at the bird, who preened self-satisfiedly. For it was only a matter of time before a ComposerBird would find a genre which allowed them to make up their own lyrics. Harry smiled and the JPopBird happily rode Luna's shoulder into the building, Neville trailing behind, laughing as other ComposerBirds followed them and sang random fragments of songs. It was good to be home.

*Tune: Joshi Kashimashi Monogatari by Morning Musume.