Disclaimer:- I neither own nor earn anything from this story. Harry Potter and his world is the intellectual property of JK Rowling and associates.

sSs

A/N:- Thank you yet again dear readers for all your alerts and reviews, I appreciate each one, and some of your comments help me to plot the direction of the story.

There is a scene contained in this chapter that scores a ten on the cute-o-meter, I hope I haven't taken 'Papa Lu' too far, but I couldn't resist writing it. The image of Lucius Malfoy changing a nappy and then… well you'll see, it was just too priceless to leave out. Please enjoy…

hHh

Chapter Twenty Seven – Thoughts and Perspectives

The headline read, 'Harry Potter Dies A Hero', and Minerva McGonagall slammed the Daily Prophet down beside her cup. "How dare they!" she seethed to Filius, who was sitting beside her.

The diminutive professor took a sip of his tea, as calm as usual. He didn't ever seem to change. "We always knew they would, Minerva. He was such a popular public figure; the general public would not have accepted anything less, and they are not to know what really happened, that would not serve any purpose."

"Well it's just plain wrong, and I'm not going," she huffed.

It was true, both The Daily Prophet and Kingsley Shacklebolt martyred Harry Potter, and a huge Ministry sponsored funeral was planned for him. It was to be in every way as impressive as a Muggle state funeral, and none of the people who respected Hermione attended.

Severus and Hermione were of course nowhere to be found they were enjoying their honeymoon in parts unknown. True to his word, Lucius had taken Ginny and the children to his French estate for the summer, and Draco and Astoria were visiting Narcissa in Tuscany.

Back at Hogwarts Minerva McGonagall gave no comment for her absence from the funeral, and the Longbottoms followed the headmistress' example, making no comment about the passing either. Anyway they were currently away on a long planned holiday to Australia, with Augusta in tow.

Hagrid was torn, as he often was. He had loved the little boy he had rescued from the hut in the middle of the ocean all that time ago, but he could not countenance the man he had become. Of course he supported Hermione, but he mourned the loss of Harry Potter, the boy he had known terribly. His way of handling the grief was to disappear into the depths of the Forbidden Forest. He more than anyone knew that dark forest's secrets and could keep himself safe amongst them. Nobody was certain if he would actually come back, but they did know he would be safe.

Of course Molly and Arthur attended, and Charlie brought Ron home for the occasion. Bill and George were a different matter, and they couldn't understand why their mum and dad were bothering. Charlie may have brought his brother home at his mother's request, but he knew the truth and he also refused to attend.

Like Hagrid the Weasley parents had loved and cared for the little boy who had been so lost, and the kindly couple mourned that loss in their own way. Arthur was currently sitting at his kitchen table, he saw a flicker of some undefined emotion flit across Molly's face, and wondered not for the first time, if his wife had actually expected everything was just going to be suddenly all right.

Then Arthur turned his eyes to his own lost boy. Ron was a very changed wizard, but now he was back under his mother's watchful eye he was starting to thrive again. Shaking his head with regret, Arthur still couldn't believe that none of them had seen what was happening. Hindsight had since provided both Arthur and Molly with all the signs they would have needed to see what had been happening, but at the time there had been reasonable explanations for everything.

They had believed what the boys had said about poor Hermione. They realised now that they shouldn't have, and regretted terribly that they hadn't seen through the smoke screen. He sighed, Well it was too late to be thinking these things now, he thought, and patted Ron's hand.

Ron had been sitting at the kitchen table silently. Even though he was much more settled now he was home, he was still filled with remorse, and they were taking each day as it came. He was generally quiet, so they were unprepared when he spoke. "Please, Mum, I want to stay at home now."

Molly and Arthur exchanged glances, and Molly sat down on the other side of her son. "Ron, do you realise what you did while under the influence of that curse?"

"Umm, some of it I think, but most of…" he grimaced, "It was like a little voice in my head, tellin' me what to do." He turned large blue eyes to his parents, "I fought it to begin with, really I did," he sighed, "but in the end, it was just easier to do what the voice urged you to do, because it became louder and more urgent the more you ignored it. Much worse than having that bloody necklace around your neck, that year we were on the run," he drew a deep breath. "That year seems like just yesterday, I can't believe ten years has passed."

"Well son, the professor told us that in many ways it is very likely that you think it is just yesterday."

Molly got up and made tea for them. "You've lost ten years, and I could not see Ginny or Hermione wanting anything to do with you." Molly sighed, "Could you understand why?"

Ron sighed, "Yeah, I guess I can," and he chuffed a toneless huff, "and both of them are now attached to the two wizards that Harry hated so much." A tear slid down his cheek, "I can't believe what I did to 'Mione," and his cheeks flamed, or what Harry and I used to do in front of… never mind." He tried to blink his tears away. "I did truly love Harry, I would have followed him into hell…" he wiped at his eyes. "I guess I did, actually."

After admitting this Ron got up from the table and walked out to the swing in the backyard. He sat there swinging slowly as he thought. Harry's gone; he never really had a chance. At least I had a happy childhood, and maybe that will get me through this. The Dursleys abused Harry, and Harry became the abuser. You know a great deal of this rests squarely on Dumbledore's shoulders. Surely he knew what was happening to Harry, but he didn't stop it.

Then a strange thought entered his head, I wonder if Snape knew? Would that have changed things? I wish I could ask him, hang on, I can. Well, once they get back from their trip… bloody honeymoon, yuk, fancy 'Mione doing the dirty with Snape, and he shivered.

However, that small thought planted a seed in Ron that grew, one that could possibly help him through this. I will start asking questions, and I will bloody well learn the truth, I'm not going to lose any more. I've lost ten years, and the most important person in the world to me, yes I truly did love Harry, but I'm not going to let the war bash me up any longer. I have several people—and especially Hermione and Ginny—that I need to face and do the right thing by, and I am bloody well going to do it.

With this new resolve firmly anchoring him, Ron got up from his seat and went to get his broom. I need to good fly to clear my head, I wonder if Charlie will come?

xox

The Lupins had the advantage of no longer being known, so they did not have to concern themselves with which side their loyalty sat on, even though they supported Hermione. Besides with Teddy finally about to start Hogwarts—be it a year late or not—they had made the monumental decision to return to mainland Britain, so while all the attention was on the funeral, they were quietly occupied moving their family to their new home, and making a member of their extended family a part of their family.

The community no longer needed their guidance, and with Severus' improve Wolfsbane Potion, they felt that they could safely return. They were still going to work for Werewolves and be involved in the capture and classification of rogue weres, but they reasoned that they could do that just as well from a base in Scotland as at the Lycan community.

Thank Merlin our duties for Kingsley have finally come to an end, Remus thought as he relaxed in his yard watching his family. I'm such a lucky man.

Their whole undercover operation had culminated in a huge raid, netting a mystery underground organisation that had slowly been gaining more of a foothold on the goings on in Knockturn Alley over the years.

Oddly enough it had gone by the acronym of DA. When it had first appeared the Aurors had thought it to be an offshoot of Voldemort's Death Eaters, but no one seemed to be able to pin anything on anyone. It had been just after the end of the war and Kingsley knew he had the perfect pair to investigate it, because everyone believed them to be dead. Kingsley had recruited Dora and Remus for his new official spy network.

After seeing what Dumbledore had been putting Snape and Malfoy through with no official paper trail to assist them, he was adamant that that would never happen again, so as part of his reforms he started and advance section in the Aurory so that everything could be validated. He suspected that there were at least two other spies that Albus had used that went down for their crimes when they shouldn't have, but there was nothing to say otherwise. Snape and Malfoy had only escaped because Hermione had stood up for them.

So the final battle was used as the catalyst for Remus and Dora to go into his service. They were both seasoned fighters, and they were actually surprised that no one questioned their 'deaths', but they had trusted Shacklebolt, he had revived them post battle, and they had disappeared undercover.

Who knew that our investigations would all come back to the boy-who-had-lived? Remus sighed. The war had a lot of hidden costs, and he pondered this as he took a sip from his bottle of beer.

It was fair to say that Harry had hidden his involvement very well, and it wasn't discovered that he was the head of the organisation, until he and Ron had fled The Burrow after Harry had tried to kill Ginny. Then, things had started to grow exponentially.

However, that was when he made his first mistake as well, he had Percy disposed off. His men attacked Penelope to make it appear that Percy had found a dead Penelope and had killed himself over it. Nobody thought of Bill intervening and saving Penelope, or that Percy—prat extraordinaire—would have kept a dossier of incriminating evidence, and once we found that, well everything fell down like a pack of cards, with every level of the organisation leading to the next. The truth was that Percy was up to his ears in the corruption and he knew too much. Remus shook his head. The tangled web we weave.

Then he chuckled softly still watching his family from his comfortable lounge in the shade in his new backyard. In some weird way Percy has ended up the hero in all of this, wonders will never cease.

His eyes then came to rest of his eldest son, his electric blue hair was easy to pick out of the laughing and playing group of children and Dora. Teddy's incredibly excited about the prospect of going to the same school as we did. Headmistress McGonagall had agreed to take him into second year, although he'll be sorted with the first years.

He's already made two new friends at Hermione and Severus' wedding, and for the first time in his life, he's spent his summer corresponding with other people, as well as spending time with Rolf, but even with his new fiends I'm still glad that Rolf will be there as well.

Rolf was a war orphan, and also the newest member of the Lupin family. They had finally adopted him officially after fostering him together with another family in the community since his birth.

He had been infected with Lycanthropy while still in his mother's womb. His mother had had the misfortune to be a play toy for Fenrir Greyback's twisted mind just before the war had ended. The poor boy's father had been killed and his mother, a Muggle-born witch, had lived long enough after she was set free to give birth to Rolf, but had died soon after from the impact of a curse she had received during her ordeal.

Remus had often considered the sick mind of Greyback during his introspections about Harry, while he was trying to reconcile the monster that Harry had become with the sweet boy he had known at Hogwarts, and remembering the evil werewolf reminded him that there had been more pure forms of evil in the world.

The kindly ex-professor only had to look at Rolf to see that. Greyback had been a truly twisted individual who delighted in other people's suffering. Fancy making a heavily pregnant witch watch her husband's murder and then infecting her so her baby would be born a werewolf and then letting her go to live with it. At least Harry had been driven to his acts by the whispering of the curse he was victim of.

Remus didn't agree with the things Harry had done, but he could see that the wizard had had little choice in the scheme of things. His anger had always been a problem for him, and the curse used it to make him hurt those around him, whether that grudge was justified or not. The more he cared for someone the more he hurt them. Thank goodness he was impartial about his children, although in the end, he did send someone after his daughter, this thought made Remus shudder.

His eyes then turned to the dark head of hair that hid amber eyes behind a long fringe. Werewolf children were still rare, and Rolf would be the first since Remus himself to attend Hogwarts, and I bet he's just as excited as I was, Remus smiled.

There have been so many advances in treatment for Lycanthropy since I was a child, and while werewolves were still marginalised, they were more accepted. Rolf is a trail blazer in that respect, Minerva and Poppy have set up a private area in the infirmary to deal with the monthly issues of housing a werewolf. My new son will not be hidden like I was, and definitely not trekked to a stinking old shack to endure his change alone. While Severus' skill as a Potions master has negated any risk to the other students. The new Wolfsbane Potion he has developed is working well.

Remus closed his eyes and smiled. Life's turned out better than I would ever have imagined.

xox

For their part Hermione and Severus started their life together, they were currently in Venice. The sound of the water lapping on the ancient building was drifting through the open casement. So far their honeymoon had been pure bliss, a continual trail of luxurious hotels and bed and breakfasts, and only each other to occupy them.

Hermione shivered as Severus' long fingers ghosted over her naked skin. His digits left a trail of goosebumps in the wake, and she moaned longingly, "Please," she implored, opening her legs further and encircling his waist with them. "Please… now."

His silky voice arrived in her ear, "Now, what, darling?"

"Please, you in me… noowww," she whined, when he started rubbing himself up and down her eager cleft.

"So wet, my love," he teased, and then slowly inched his way inside. "Is that what you wanted?" He heard her hiss in pleasure, and he smiled. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too… Oohhhh, faster," Hermione commanded, making Severus chuckle even more wickedly as he continued his torturous pace.

It was her muscles deliberately clenching around him that changed his mind, "You minx," and he kissed her as he started thrusting in earnest, and her agreement filled the velvet night.

xox

In France the Malfoy family had put their children to bed, they were resident at Lucius' French estate in Bordeaux, and Lucius could only wish that they were currently engaged in the same activities as Severus and Hermione.

Not tonight though, at the moment he was pacing at the foot of their bed with a small screaming bundle perched over his shoulder. This was the third night in a row that Lucy had had wind and Ginny was exhausted. They had decided that they wanted to be more hands on with their daughter, so that meant being up when she was up. Also with what had just happened to her ex-husband, the couple thought that the children might not want the nanny around.

Lucius remembered that Draco used to get wind as well, but his nanny used to deal with it, never Narcissa. This time he had wanted everything to be different, but he was dog tired. He could hear Lucy's tiny stomach rumbling, and he was pretty sure that even though he was patting and rubbing her back that the wind had gone too far down to come back up, it would have to go all the way through now.

So he kept walking, and finally he heard the noise he was waiting for, unfortunately the relief came with a smell that indicated the Lucy needed changing as well. "No wonder you had a tummy ache, mon petit ange," he crooned as he headed for the change table.

Several gentle cleaning and a strong banishing spell later together with some powder, and the tiny girl was already falling to sleep again. Just to make certain, the blond wizard cradled her in his arms and after glancing at Ginny to make certain she was asleep he sang his adopted daughter a lullaby.

"Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles await you when you rise.
Sleep,
Pretty baby,
Do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby.

Cares you know not,
Therefore sleep,
While over you a watch I'll keep.
Sleep,
Pretty darling,
Do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby."

She smiled at him, and her blue eyes closed as her tiny thumb went into her mouth, and soon her breathing deepened into that of restful slumber and he gently—albeit reluctantly, even in his exhausted state—placed her in her crib.

Tiredly climbing back into bed he felt a pair of warm arms curl around his middle. "Thank you," Ginny mumbled, and kissed his bare shoulder.

"I thought you were asleep," he murmured, sounding a little nervous.

"I was, and I didn't hear you singing our daughter a lullaby." Ginny snickered and nuzzled his shoulder. "You have a beautiful voice, darling. Get some sleep."

xox

Lucius and Ginny had only just got back to sleep and Ginny heard, "Mum," from beside her. "Mum, I had that nightmare again."

It was James, ever since he'd overheard Luna and Neville talking about Harry being a werewolf, the poor boy had been dreaming that his father was coming to get him. Ginny stumbled out of bed and went back to his room with him.

The only way he could get to sleep again was for one of them to sit with him until he did. She tried to smile but just couldn't coordinate her mouth, she was too tired, and she stroked his head watching him fall back to sleep.

Lucius had told her that Severus could safely section off the memory if it didn't stop soon, and she truly was considering it at the moment. She was very pleased that Albus and Lily were really too young to take much of what was going on in.

xox

Back in that room in Venice, Severus and Hermione were now up for their supper. They were sitting opposite one another in a bubble bath, and their feast was hovering on a tray between them. "How are we ever going to go back to normal after this?" Hermione snickered, rubbing her foot up and down the outside of his calf as they ate.

"We can have special midnight feasts every night, if we want," Severus replied, raising a raven eyebrow.

"Well, if I'm," and she patted her stomach. "That might have to change, we mightn't have the opportunity."

"Do you think you are? I did notice that you've stopped drinking alcohol."

"Severus, I wouldn't find out and then not tell you, love. I'm not sure when you can find out. I know that Muggle women have to wait until they've missed a period. I'm not certain about witches."

"It's two weeks, I believe," Severus told her.

"Really, well what's the spell?"

Severus grinned and summoned his wand. Holding it over Hermione's abdomen he murmured words she didn't quite catch, but didn't care when her stomach glowed blue.

"What does that mean?" she all but squealed, excitedly.

Severus laughed, "It means that in eight and a half months we probably won't be able to have our midnight bathes."

"Oh Severus, I'm pregnant!" The tray obediently flew out of the way and water went everywhere as she launched herself at him.

"Yes, you're pregnant," and he happily accepted her into his arms.

"Is the blue significant?" she asked looking up at him.

"No, that spell turns blue if you are and nothing happens if you're not. Now I think we better get some sleep." Severus banished the tray back to the outside of the door and helped Hermione up from the bath. He towelled her dry, kissing her stomach as he knelt to dry her legs. "Off to bed with you," he laughed, and started drying himself.

Soon they were curled up together sound asleep. In fact it was just at the moment that Ginny also crawled back in beside Lucius, there would be a lot of sleeping in done if they could get away with it; after all they were on holidays.

oOo

Notes:- The lullaby is called – Golden Slumbers, if you want to listen to it.