Epilogue

So that's it. That's the story. I'm the one who wrote this down because Harry thought it was pointless, and Ron, well, you can't do anything with him as far as writing is concerned. But I don't want people to forget. I don't know if I'm going to publish this or not, I know Harry wouldn't like it if I did. The thing is, people are already forgetting. And that scares me.

It's been a year since that day. Harry took a while to recover in the hospital, so long that he's often be chastised for over exerting himself when he'd get bored and decide to look for secret passages in the hospital, or harass Gilderoy Lockhart. But recover he did, except that no matter what was done to fix it, his right hand is still…charred looking. They don't think it will ever work properly again either. Harry thinks it's a small price to pay, and even boasts that his hand is a tribute to Dumbledore.

The three of us do live together in a house now, with Ginny. Harry can get anything he wants for free now, and so can his friends. He always trys to insist on paying, but people are unmovable. Ron, as a contrast, takes advantage of this opportunity with much delight, and whenever we go anywhere will scream "HELLO! WE ARE WITH HARRY POTTER HERE! THE WIZARD WHO SAVED YOU ALL FROM DESTRUCTION! GIVE US FREE STUFF!" At which point Harry will kick him, then Ron will kick him back and I'll scream at them both to stop it before I curse them into nothingness, and that's why Ginny doesn't like going out with us in public.

But anyway, unfortunately there is a tally of missing and dead people to go over. Harry's ex-girlfriend, Cho Chang along with her friend Marietta Edgecomb, was killed when the Death Eaters raided Hogwarts and so was Professor Vector, my beloved Arithmacy teacher. There were two other casualties as well, a first year I had never gotten the chance to meet, Ellis Cranwell and a third year called Euan Abercrombie. Elphias Doge and Strugis Podmore are Order Members who were killed in the final battle too, rest their souls. Draco Malfoy has been missing in action ever since that day. I can't say if he's dead or not, but I'd wager the latter. I guess he just wanted to escape. And of course, countless others I did not know personally were killed, all around the world. A few were found though, for example, Mr. Ollivander, who had gone into hiding in Madame Malkin's house after escaping from the Death Eaters who attacked his wand shop. He's perfectly fine, crazy as ever, and creepily enough has a "thing" with Madame Malkin.

We recently did our make-up N.E.W.T.'s for seventh year, along with others. We all did very well (I got an E in Arithmacy because I go distracted missing Professor Vector, but what can you do?), thanks to the study sessions I set up of course. Ginny will be resuming her sixth year as soon as Hogwarts opens back up again, which should be soon.

We'll be applying for jobs soon. Ron and Harry are still considering being Aurors, and if they do it I suppose I'll go with them, but I'm not sure. I would very much like to set up a House Elf Liaison department in the Ministry, though Ron keeps reminding me not to scare them too badly. Harry said something about the Muggle Civil Rights movement, which on further questioning he remembers absolutely nothing about, but that's fine.

The point is that change needs to happen. The real reason I'm writing this is I look out the window, I see people celebrating Voldemort's downfall, but they don't seem to remember what caused all this ugliness in the first place. They don't really know how much sweat, blood, death and tears went into ending it, even though they were right there. They don't seem to remember that they didn't believe Harry at first, they don't reflect on how fickle they were. They laud Harry as a hero, but they don't understand who he truly is. They seemed to think he defeated Voldemort because he was magical and special. Well, he is very special. Not because he's ungodly powerful, not because he's the mightiest warrior on earth, not because he's brilliant or anything. What makes him who he is…is he has something most people don't. He's special because he's just a regular person, only he refused to give in, to give up. What makes him special is he puts other people before himself and weathers things people would go mad over. What made him in the end was he was able to look at things…and not get involved in petty differences in blood or heritage or how you grew up- and being able to distinguish the lies from the truth, and not believing in the hate people spew.

People need to learn from that. But they don't seem to be. They're making the same mistakes over again…still thinking Muggles are stupid because they can't make things hover with their minds, still hating anything that's different. And worst of all, they're forgetting. Forgetting like they did after the first time Voldemort was defeated. Thinking they're safe. Forgetting the dead, the terror, the miracles, the way our government showed how corrupt it was. Making the same mistakes over and over again.

I fear if we don't change, another Voldemort is going to be created. Voldemort was an embodiment of the hatred and madness of humanity. The way we're going, there will always me another Voldemort.

We just have to hope there will always be another Harry Potter.

So maybe I will put this out there, as one last battle. Maybe it will open somebody's eyes. My mother (my parents and I visit each other often now and are trying to work out our "issues". In fact, we go there so often Crookshanks managed to reproduce with the lady cat who lives next door to them) says the pen is mightier than the sword. Harry points out that this is not true, citing second year. Ginny argues that was a Basilisk fang, not a sword. But whatever is mightier, I'll give this a shot. If there's anything I believe in, it's the power of books.

My name is Hermione Granger.

All I want is one thing.

I want you to remember.

She relaxed her mind and watched the quill drop to the table.

"You're finally done with that?" Harry said across the room, where he was watching Ginny doing the Daily Prophet crossword puzzle.

"Yes," Hermione said. "Our harrowing journey all laid out. Is it okay if I publish it?"

"That depends, did you call me any names in it?" said Ron, who was on the couch beside her, playing with her hair.

"Nothing you didn't deserve," Hermione said, flicking him on the nose.

"All right, then."

"I don't care," said Harry, as he started tickling the back of Ginny's neck until she giggled and swatted him.

"I'm dedicating it to Luna," Hermione said decisively. "What should I call it?"

" The Adventures of Ron Weasley and His Friends…But Mostly Ron Weasley!" Ron said dramatically.

"No."

" "How I Spent My Summer Vacation?" "The Handbook To Defeating Dark Lords?" "The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook?"

"Ginny's Quest to Stop Harry From Doing Idiotic Things?" Ginny suggested.

"Now you're just being too silly…"

"The Power of Love and It's Practical Applications?" Harry waved his mutilated hand.

"Ooh! Ooooh! I've got it!" Ron said excitedly. " Soul Searching!"

"Honestly…"

FIN

Authors Note: Once again, I'd like to thanks all my awesome reviewers. I'd also like to thank the people at ThinkPotter once more. I've worked on this thing for more or less a year, and I could never have gotten through it without them. I got the idea for this fanfic as soon as I finished reading HBP. It took a lot of thinking and a lot of wriggling around plot holes to get it done, but I did. The reason I told it from Hermione's point of view is entirely selfish, she's my favorite character. But also, I did want to do something different and not have Harry tell the story, but have someone who we all know would be a good narrator, with her sharp logical way of looking at things and her ability to peice the puzzle together. Just interesting, you know.

Harry Potter means a lot to me, and so does writing. It was only because of HP that I survived fourth grade, the world is not kind to a geeky and socially inept little blonde girl, especially the elementary school world, and so I took refuge in HP to a pretty unhealthy point, but it helped me not crack. Now I'm cough mostly well adjusted, and actually have moved on to other things besides HP though I still love it obviously, I'm not obsessed with it anymore. Well, only the tiniest bit obsessed. But Ms. Rowling is a real inspiration to me in my writing, and I'll always see her as the best in the buisiness. She, and Hermione, provided positive role models for me in my youth. I can only imagine how many other children JK has helped, and she is awesome for giving kids something to hold onto, like she gave that little girl with no friends and an alcoholic father so many years ago something to hold onto and to help her dream.

My point in all this is this is pretty much the longest thing I ever wrote, and it did take a lot of effort, but I did love doing it so much, even if I felt like giving up sometimes. So since I spent a year writing this, I get to do the weepy speech. I'll say one more thing, an interesting little story. I remember doing a search to see if there were any fics with the words: Horcrux Hunt in them and found "Harry and 'Miones Horcrux Hunt: A Must Read for Ginny Haters.

My reactions

1. Who could hate Ginny:(

2. Why are we putting 'Mione and not Hermione, no one has ever called her Hermione in the book.

3. Why did Harry and Hermione ditch Ron? Ron is their best friend, why'd they go off without him.

I didn't read the thing, so it may be awesome for some, though I doubt it's for me, and no disrespect to the author, but it reminded me I really hate it when authors use fanfic as an excuse to bash on characters they don't like, instead of using it as a chance to celebrate (and celebrating includes parodying of course) the canon and crafting their own side story in order to hone their writing skills. Fun is the word for fanfic, and hating fictional characters is no fun at all. So people should stop.

Okay, that's over. Now, I hope everyone enjoyed this and thank you all for reading, once again! Now we have Deathly Hallows to look foward to and it should be a blast! So catch you all on the flipside, and let's all wait passionately for July 21! Thanks JK Rowling, for all you fo.