Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other canon characters or plots. JK Rowling does. Any characters that she doesn't own are mine, though.

Chapter 7: Happiness

Harry grinned down at Asismisno, ignoring the brand-new corpse a few meters away. "Great job, Fang! Now that that's settled, we're free for another two months." He had returned to his original method for dealing with targets – distract them until Misno reached their feet, grew to a more dangerous size (his snake's venom was more potent was he was larger) and bit them, and then leave while the Death Eater, aspiring Dark Lord, or otherwise-titled evil magic-user literally fell to the unstoppable poison – now that he was rid of the depression. And Harry had indeed been depressed while working for the God of Fate. Of course, after his friends managed to persuade the god into giving Harry more freedom, Harry no longer needed to be so melancholy. After all, he was (mostly) free, Voldemort and his Death Eaters were dead, and he had his friends, his familiars, and a new family. Sirius and Remus - who he considered to be a better uncle than Vernon had ever been - had opened their house to him and Harry had begun designing his own room a week later. Ron and Hermione had not only instantly forgiven him for yelling at them and freezing them, they had kept the crowds of Hogwarts at bay until Harry could handle lots of people again. Hermione had brought him up to speed on his studies, and everyone had been amazed at his new capacity for learning.

Harry twisted his smile to one side, considering the source of his new learning speed. He still didn't know if Fate had done it when he first hired Harry or when he had changed the contract, but he did know that Fate had messed with his head. He could read faster, think faster, and remember almost anything perfectly. Beyond that, Harry now knew that he was much faster and stronger than anyone his age and probably most adults. He had dueled first Sirius, then Remus, and even Dumbledore to either a victory or a standstill.

Not that he was suddenly excelling at everything, though. He still stunk at potions and herbology, history of magic still put him to sleep, and he still only saw lots of fog in crystal balls. Harry supposed that was a good thing, though. It was bad enough that he was the Boy-Who-Came-Back-To-Life-Again, bad enough that he was matching Hermione in reading and retention, that Harry dreaded to think what would happen if he was suddenly top in every class. Hermione would go ballistic, he was sure.

Hermione… Harry changed direction and beckoned for Misno to follow him. "Come on, Fang – I've got a great idea!" It was Ron's birthday tomorrow, but Ron had insisted that instead of celebrating just his birthday, they should celebrate their reunion. There had, of course, been a party once the Gryffindor House had realized that Harry was alive, but Ron thought they should finally have a private party: just Ron, Hermione, Harry, Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, and Ginny. Harry had been surprised at the youngest Weasley's inclusion until he realized that Ginny had been hanging out with Ron and Hermione in his absence. She hadn't replaced him, as his friends had quickly reassured him; she had just joined their group.

Not that Harry minded. In fact, he found himself fairly impressed with Ginny. She had replaced him as Seeker and done a great job, and they had taken to trading off for Quidditch matches. She had clearly moved on from her traumatic first year, as she demonstrated with her fascination with Misno. She could even understand him, sort of, as a leftover from Voldemort's possession of her.

So Ginny would be at their party tomorrow. And, since the party was for everyone and Ron, they had decided to all get each other gifts. And Harry had just thought of three great gifts. Hermione's might be a bit tricky, but Ron's and Ginny's should be easy enough…

Harry left the body of Delores Umbridge, dark witch, far behind as he prepared his magic for a project he had abandoned months ago.

Ron tore open his present from Bill and Charlie. Neither of them was in England, but they had managed to collaborate on a birthday gift for him. Ron gaped as the charms on the small box deactivated, revealing a full-sized, brand-new Starfire, the latest American broom. It was supposedly the best broom in America and was the preferred broom of the Chudley Cannons. Grinning in delight, the sixteen-year-old resolved to get his older brothers the best Christmas presents he could while he showed off his new broom to Hermione.

"It's the Cannon's favorite broom, and it's supposed to be at least as fast as the Nimbus Two Thousand, but it's better at changing direction –"

"Which would be good for Keeping, I suppose?" Hermione interrupted a tolerant look in her eyes. The two got along much better now, especially since they had come to a compromise at the beginning of Quidditch season: Hermione would fully support Ron as the new Keeper and Ron would be more diligent in his studies. Now he struggled to finish essays two days before they were due, so Hermione could review and edit them at her leisure, and he actually took notes in most of his classes, leading to a steady improvement in his grades. He still slept through History of Magic, though. Hermione, in turn, now came down with Ron for practices and sometimes stayed on the field with him after, so Ron could coach her on the finer points of flight. She was much more confident on a broom now, though she would probably never play more than amateur Quidditch.

"Yeah, it would, and – hey, what's that, Ginny?" Ginny had picked up her last present and was turning it over in her hands. Ron would never understand why Ginny tried to figure out what her presents were without opening them – he just tore them open and was surprised every time.

"I'm not sure, but you've got a package like it, right there, and so does Hermione." Ron and Hermione both turned to their piles and, sure enough, a small, brightly wrapped box was at the bottoms. "Oh!" Ginny had finally given up trying to guess and, at Harry's encouragement, opened her present. It was a small pendant on a chain. It was gold and had six sides, with a red snake in the shape of a T on it. The chain was also gold and quite delicate. Hermione leaned in and admired it.

"It's beautiful, Ginny. Harry, where did you get it?" Harry smiled shyly. He was pleased to watch Ginny gaze at it a moment longer before putting it on. She then picked it up again to look at it some more, before she also turned to Harry.

"Yeah, Harry, and why a snake that looks like a T?"

"Wait a minute, Ginny – let Ron and Hermione open theirs, too." Harry responded. After Ron and Hermione began to curiously open their gifts, too, he continued. "Actually, I didn't find it anywhere. I made it. I made all three of them." Sirius looked carefully at Ginny's pendant and frowned for a second.

"This looks a lot like that amulet Fang used, to let us understand him. Except the snake on that amulet was green, and this one's red. Is it the same sort of thing, Harry?" Dumbledore also leaned forward and examined the necklace to see that Sirius was right. When Harry just widened his grin, they all turned to watch the sixteen year olds pick similar amulets up. Upon examination, Ron announced that his was red with a gold owl on it, and Hermione's had a cat's face on hers, but the same color scheme as Ron's. All of them began peppering Harry for answers. Harry pretended to fend them off with raised hands and explained.

"They are like my Parsel-amulet, except that they translate for different animals. Ron's will translate Owlspeak, and Hermione's should – I'm not sure, I never tested it – translate whatever cats say into English. I know the Parseltongue and Owlspeak ones work, since I've made those before, but I don't have a cat, so I couldn't be sure. And, Ginny, I know you can sort of understand Fang now, but, well, I think the reason you understand him is because he's totally magical and already tied to a human. That should work for all snakes. Of course, if any of you don't like it, it's fi-"Harry never got to finish his babbling explanation, because Hermione and Ginny both threw themselves at him, exclaiming (with Ron's voice doing the same thing in the background) that they loved their presents and there was no way he was taking them back, and thank you, thank you. Harry just blinked, slightly confused, and turned to Sirius for help. Sirius just grinned.

"Sorry, kiddo, but you're on your own here. It's your own fault really, making them necklaces that had magical properties. And if I haven't said it already, thanks for this." Sirius gestured to the magical miniature sculpture Harry had made and given to his godfather and honorary uncle. It had an obsidian dog, werewolf, and stag that played all over the obsidian base. Harry had bought the obsidian and shaped it with his new talent for creative magic. At the base was a plaque that simply read "Messrs. Moony, Padfoot, and Prongs: a brotherhood of love". Sirius and Remus had been watching it intently ever since they opened it and had already thanked Harry many times. Each time, Harry just pointed out that they had done far more for him than he could ever do for them.

When Harry's eyes turned to Remus, instead, he found that Remus had already turned back to watching the animals frolic. Remus probably hadn't even noticed that anything was happening besides a small sculpture's enchantment.

Harry finally begged Ron for help. Laughing, Ron put his amulet on and got up to pull Hermione off Harry. Both girls snapped out of it and apologized, Ginny blushing bright red, for smothering him. Harry shook his head and forgave them. He checked to make sure that his new holsters – one for his wand and one for his dagger – were undamaged, and stood up. He caught his new Snitch again and put it back in its box, which he then stuck inside his new book-bag. Hermione and Ron had bought it for him and had enchanted it themselves to be able to hold just about anything. The holsters were from Sirius and Remus. The snitch was from Ginny. Dumbledore had given Harry a pensieve, explaining that 

perhaps it would be nice for Harry to use it to organize his memories of "when he was dead," as the headmaster had whimsically put it. Harry thought it would help quite a bit. He rather looked forward to being able to take out his memories of all the people he had killed and of every time Fate had punished him.

Checking to make sure that everyone else had also put their presents away, Harry smiled broadly and led the way to Ron's birthday cake. He handed the knife to Ron, who happily cut himself a large piece before letting Hermione enchant the knife to cut equally-sized slices for everyone else. Ginny settled down and began to feed Crimson Fang chocolate frosting, smiling as the snake hissed a perfectly understandable "thank you" to her. Sirius successfully distracted Remus with a plate of cake and a fork. Dumbledore tucked his brand-new socks into one of his many pockets and gravely thanked the cake knife for his slice of cake. The group chatted, joked, and laughed as they enjoyed each other's company.

Two years later, Christmas time

Harry nervously adjusted his collar and began a minute examination of his dress robes. Misno lazily hissed that he looked fine, except that he should probably clean the blood off his hand. Harry glared down at the splotches of red and hurried to the bathroom to wash the only reminder of his latest job for his boss. Fate had sent him after a dark wizard that had formed an alliance with a vampire and had bred a nundu. Asismisno's venom hadn't been able to kill the vampire or the nundu, so Harry had needed to conjure up a shield around the nundu's face to suffocate it while he engaged the vampire in a sword fight. Harry had won, of course, with only a few sword-scratches to heal. Normally he just let such injuries heal slowly, but since the battle had just ended two hours ago, Harry had been in a bit of a rush. Apparently he had missed a scratch, and it hadn't closed before letting some blood ooze out.

Again, normally Harry wouldn't bother with such a small problem, but he wanted to look his best tonight. He hadn't attended a Yule ball since his fourth year, and what's more, he hadn't been quite so nervous about his date then. Certain now that his appearance, at least, was immaculate, Harry grabbed the corsage and went to pick up Ginny. As an absolutely stunning Ginny and he walked through the common room, Harry saw Ron get up off his knees for the tenth time that day, put a small black jewelry box back in his pocket, and take a deep breath. Harry pointed her brother out to Ginny, who giggled a bit.

"Do you think he'll actually ask her tonight?" She murmured to him as he helped her out the portrait hole. "Thank you, Harry."

"You're welcome. I know he wants to. But y'know, he's much more confident these days. I really think he will"

"He better be confident. He's the Head Boy, after all – he's confident enough to take and give points and to give detentions, he should be brave enough to ask his girlfriend of 19 months to marry him!" Ginny shook her head at her brother. Harry knew what she meant. Gone was the uncertain 

younger brother that was eternally in the shadows of his friends and family. Now Ron was the confident Head Boy, an excellent Keeper, and even one of the better students in most of their classes. He had taken three weeks to work up the courage to ask Hermione out 19 months ago, true, but now they were one of the happiest (and mushiest) couples in Hogwarts. And two months ago, Ron had bought her a small ring, using that as an excuse to learn her ring size for the ring that now sat in his pocket.

Romance seemed to be blooming everywhere, Harry thought idly. He and Ginny were an established couple, Ron and Hermione were probably going to be married within a year now, most of their year-mates were coupled, and even Sirius was dating their new defense teacher. Harry still didn't know how to feel about strict Professor Handley being almost constantly hand-in-hand with his godfather, but Sirius was happy, so Harry supposed he could deal with it. And, of course, most of Hogwarts had cheered when Professor Dumbledore announced that Hagrid would be taking a leave of absence with his new wife, the ex-headmistress of Beauxbatons. Granted, Malfoy and his gang were probably cheering for a different reason, and attendance for Care of Magical Creatures had certainly increased with Charlie Weasley as the new teacher, but Harry at least was happy for his first friend.

But then, Harry concluded as he spun Ginny around, it certainly wasn't a bad thing for romance to be the new standard for relationships. Maybe in a few years, when Harry had a definite contract with Puddlemere United and was certain that his paycheck could support himself and a few others, well, maybe, just maybe…

Crimson Fang hissed happily from his vantage point in a window, where Hedwig had deposited him. Yes, his plan had worked. His master was finally, completely happy.

THE END

Author's Note: Well, I'm finally finished. I hope you're all happy with this. I know I am, and I am definitely please to finally be done. And no, there's no sequel. Writing this was hard enough. For those that want more information, yes Ron and Hermione matched up, as did Harry and Ginny and Sirius and the newly introduced Professer Handley. And yeah, Fate sees to it that Ginny has two sets of twins, with a girl in the middle. You can pick names for them. They're all very happy and the oldest set of twins agreed to serve Fate as soon as they turned 15. They don't do dangerous stuff, though.

Do you like Umbridge being one of Harry's targets? I liked putting that in.

Well, now all I can say is please review and tell me what you think of the finished work!