Threshold of the Future

By BenRG

Disclaimer

Harry Potter and the characters, locations and situations of the Harry Potter universe are the property of J. K. Rowling. This is a non-profit fan work for free distribution through the world-wide web.

Author's Notes

This is a sort of amalgam of some various widowed and orphaned bits of several HP stories I have written (but never finished) over the years. I was walking home today when I realised that these particular three bits fit together quite well.

This is essentially an alternate ending and epilogue for the story. There are elements of canon in this but it will also go significantly AU in places.

My thanks to Jo for allowing fans (and critics) to play in the sandbox she built for our own amusement.

Censor: T – Mentions of premarital sexual relationships (and their consequences) and also description of violence

Chapter 3 – Sixteen Years Later

Autumn arrived suddenly that year, the hot, sticky tropical heat of August suddenly forgotten as cold air moved in as crisp and golden as an apple.

The family worked their way across Pentonville Road to the yellow brick and silvered glass buildings of King's Cross station. Hermione Potter couldn't help but marvel at how clear the air in the city was since the outlawing of petroleum-fuelled engines in urban areas just a year previously.

Ahead, a cluster of three youngsters were pushing Network Rail luggage trolleys with probably the strangest burdens that anyone had ever seen (if it were not for the Notice-Me-Not charms placed on them). As well as big sea chests, all three were surmounted with big bird cages containing owls, which were hooting in protest at the rocking ride provided by the uneven pavement surface.

Two of the three children pushing trolleys were of the same age and the third, who was a near mirror image of the woman behind her, was obviously younger. In between the two adults was a boy, younger still, with untidy brown hair and the most startling green eyes. "I want to go to Hogwarts too," the boy suddenly announced, scowling dangerously. "Why can't I go?"

Hermione Potter laughed and squeezed her youngest son's hand. "You will, Danny," she promised. "Four more years."

"Yeah," Daniel, remarked darkly. "But only after Jimmy and Rose have finished! Ugh! Imagine! Charley will probably be a prefect by my second year! She'll be able to boss me around!"

Harry Potter rolled his eyes at his youngest son's oft-declared dislike of his sister's tendency to try to 'manage' her siblings. "If a prefect 'bosses you around', Daniel Harry Potter, then you will take it with a smile."

"And then prank them when they're not looking. Right, Dad?" Daniel asked brightly, his green eyes sparking with mischief.

Harry took one look at his wife's thin-lipped disapproving stare (that he knew she had learnt from Professor McGonagall) and decided that either confirming or denying Danny's suggestion would be bad for his health. He hadn't meant to teach his youngest son to become a prankster to rival the Marauders; the boy had just absorbed his stories about his grandparents' school years adventures like a sponge. That blasted Granger photographic memory and Potter eidetic memory causing trouble again.

"Daniel Potter," Hermione said, trying to stop herself from laughing at Harry's mortified expression. "I don't ever want to hear you being caught carrying out a prank at school." She saw Harry's half grin and smiled back; She had been miserable at school because she focussed on books and learning without having fun. Fortunately, she met two wonderful boys who showed her a middle path.

"I won't be in Slytherin! I won't! Dad! Mum! Make them stop!" Harry and Hermione looked up. It was clear that their oldest children, Rose and James (Jimmy) had continued their only semi-serious teasing of the new Potter to start at Hogwarts this year, Charlotte (Charley).

"Honest, Dad," Jimmy announced loudly. "We weren't saying anything really. We were just saying that Charley might end up in Slytherin! It does happen; the Sorting Hat makes the choice!"

"It won't happen to me!" Charley shouted at her older brother. Jimmy looked so much like his father and paternal grandfather (with the exception of the blue eyes that he had inherited from Dan Granger) that some people were whispering about the Potter family performing strange fertility rituals to ensure the inheritance of blood traits. Right now, those blue eyes were sparkling with good-natured mischief. Charlotte had inherited a great focus and sense of order from her mother. Like her mother she also tended to come apart in a big way if that focus and order was shattered. Jimmy made it his life's mission to make sure that his little sister 'let her hair down' (as he put it) as often as possible.

"Jimmy, let it go," Harry said.

"But dad…"

"Let… it… go." Harry's voice was quiet (he almost never raised his voice to his children) but James could see the light in his father's eyes that told him that he was pushing his luck.

"Yeah… Okay… Sorry dad." Harry raised an eyebrow at his oldest son and daughter. "Yeah… Sorry, Charley, no offence meant."

"You are such a jerk, James," Rose snapped, slapping her twin on his shoulder. The girl flipped her long, titian hair over her shoulder in the way that would have all the unattached boys in Hogwarts following her around with goofy smiles this year and tried to put some distance between them.

The family entered the low-ceilinged main waiting area of Kings Cross station. Deciding that his family did not need to sample any Muggle fast food, Harry snagged Rose and Jimmy and towed them off to the left towards the entrance to the platforms for the local trains. Ahead was a simple arched wall, and beyond that was Platform 9¾.

Since they started at Hogwarts, Rose and Jimmy had started going their separate ways, but they still did some 'twin' things. Right now, they grinned at each other and, acting as one, they accelerated to a run and pushed their trolleys through the dimensional gate guarding the entrance to Platform 9¾.

Charley looked at her parents uncertainly. "Go on, Charley!" Hermione called encouragingly. With a sudden, determined scowl (that Harry had seen occasionally in the mirror), the brown-haired girl pushed her trolley forwards and disappeared through the gate.

Harry and Hermione, with Danny in tow, ran through the gate and emerged onto the fold-space realm of Platform 9¾. The old-style wooden-framed slam-door carriages stretched away towards the head of the platform where the red steam locomotive sat in a cloud of steam, its brake pump occasionally uttering a panting noise. Parents were standing in knots along the platform's length, helping children get their trunks on the train or talking to their children at open windows. "Where have Rose and Jimmy gone?" Hermione was peering up and down the platform.

"They've probably gone to find Nathan and Aurora," Harry responded with an idle shrug. In many ways, Harry felt that it had been a mercy for Snape to die as he did at the climax of the war. Even setting aside the fact that Snape had been almost certainly facing time in Azkaban for his crimes, Harry doubted that the greasy-haired man would have been able to stand the arrival of the 'Golden Quartet' in Hogwarts with his sanity intact. "Come on, let's find them."

It was actually rather difficult to find anyone in the clouds of steam from the locomotive. Without the faces, voices seemed unnaturally loud. Was that Percy lecturing someone about the importance of obeying the rules? Or was it Dean Thomas talking to someone about the best ways of hiding contraband in a dormitory room?

"Ah, there they are!" Hermione called. "Ron! Luna! Neville! Ginny!" The brunette woman waved wildly.

A cluster of figures emerged out of the steam. Ron Weasley, his wife, Luna, and their nine-year-old identical twin daughters Rhea and Selene. They were followed by Neville Longbottom, with his wife (the current England Quidditch captain) Ginny, and their children, Nathan (the oldest), Marie and Fred. The three families walked over to each other.

"Hi, heroes," Ron said with a broad grin, making Harry and Hermione roll their eyes in unison. Ron loved teasing his best friends about their near-legendary status.

"Hello, Ron," Harry said, reaching forward to grasp his best friend's hand.

"Harry. Park all right did you? I'm sure that I did."

"You nearly parked on that Swamp-quacker," Luna remarked with a slightly mischievous smile. "I still say that your Confounded that Muggle proficiency examiner to get your driving license."

"Why does my own wife have no faith in me?" Ron wailed dramatically, putting a hand over his heart. Luna laughed and hugged his arm affectionately. Ron leaned forward to the Potters and spoke to Harry in a faked whisper. "Actually I did nearly have to Confound him! I kept forgetting to look in my wing mirrors. Why do they call them 'wing' mirrors when they don't let the dratted contraption fly anyway?"

Hermione was about to explain when Harry kicked her ankle lightly to remind her that Ron was only kidding. He was about to say something to Ron when he heard Jimmy and Rose calling. "Mum! Dad! We found Arthur and Aurora!" The two oldest Potter children rushed up, sans their luggage, which they had doubtless loaded onto the train, with Ron and Luna's two school-age children. 11-year-old Arthur (who looked like his father at the same age but with dark blond hair) and their 15-year-old daughter Aurora, who had beautiful strawberry-blonde hair and deep silver eyes that made everyone wonder if she, like her mother, would be a True Seer.

The 'Golden Quartet' of Nathan, Jimmy, Rose and Aurora immediately abandoned their parents to start gossiping excitedly about Quidditch, who would be sorted where and for what reasons this year and who might fancy who. It was as if they hadn't been together every other day for the summer at The Potter's Wheel, Longbottom Manor or The Snorkack (Luna's ancestral home and her wedding gift from her father).

Ron clapped Arthur on the shoulder (he, along with Charley and Marie were starting Hogwarts this year). "Well son, I guess this is it. Remember, if you aren't sorted into Gryffindor, we'll disinherit you… but no pressure." The 'Quartet' laughed but the 11-year-olds all looked solemn and worried.

"Ronald Bilus Weasley," Luna said quietly. "I will remind you that I was a Ravenclaw and proud of it. We are certainly not going to pressure our children to go into your family's favoured house if they are not suited for it." Ron grimaced. Luna was quite upset when Aurora was sorted into Gryffindor, although Harry felt that it was partly because the Sorting Hat had been unwilling to separate the 'Quartet' – that way lay chaos.

Ron's head suddenly cocked and he caught Harry's eye, nodding to a point behind him. Harry turned and saw Draco Malfoy standing there with his wife, Pansy, and a dark-haired boy who was otherwise Draco's spitting image. The Malfoys managed to restrain their urge to sneer at the Potter/Weasley/Longbottom group, although Pansy did imitate her mother-in-law's impression that there was an unpleasant smell around them.

"So," Neville remarked. "That is young Cephus Malfoy. I wonder if he has been able to avoid the brainwashing that turned Draco practically into a clone of old Lucius."

Certainly, the Malfoy family was not the force that they had once been. Almost as soon as the dust of the War had settled down, Narcissa Malfoy had started throwing money around in attempt to regain influence and avoid paying reparations for Lucius's crimes. Kingsley had not been greatly impressed; The Malfoys found themselves being fined almost all of their assets and Narcissa ultimately died, an impoverished and broken woman, just five years after the end of the war. By sheer hard work and determination, Draco had managed to rebuild a bit of his family's fortune and reputation (although Harry suspected that Pansy's contribution to this endeavour was far more than the 'moral support' for which Draco frequently publicly thanked her). However, when Draco had attempted to reform the old Pureblood Supremacist faction on the Wizegmont, he found that the new generation of Lords and Ladies were not as easily fooled as their ancestors were. He had been thwarted at every turn. Several very specific investigations into his family's finances and conduct had cowed him into being simply a bleating reactionary voice, largely impotent in the various councils.

"Well, the new pre-Hogwarts schools set up after the war would have made it a bit more difficult to 'program' him," Hermione murmured. "Additionally, I think that Pansy is more of an independent mind than Narcissa. Draco wouldn't dare do anything that she disapproved of."

"Arthur, you are to beat that boy on every test," Ron said quietly, making his son look up at him in confusion.

"You will offer him friendship, Arthur," Luna contradicted. Suddenly, the woman's eyes went blind white and her voice became resonant and distant. "The Daughter of the Lion will be given command. Then the challenges of tomorrow threaten even the Bastion of the Four. And the divisions of yesterday must heal if the Daughter of the Lion and the Son of the Serpent are together to drive the Dark away. The Daughter of the Lion…" Luna blinked, her eyes back to normal. "Oh dear, I must have been bitten by a Wrackspurt!"

The other five adults exchanged worried looks. Luna had not had a precognitive flash like that for some time. "I think I'll need to talk to Minerva about this," Harry murmured.

"And I'll be asking Bill to double-check the wards on Hogwarts," Ron agreed.

"Hey!" Jimmy suddenly called out from the huddle of the 'Quartet'. "You'll never guess what I saw! Teddy Lupin snogging Victorie! Our Teddy! Snogging! Victorie Weasley!" It was pretty obvious that the foursome was a bit disappointed at the lack of reaction to this breaking news. "Well, anyway, I asked him what he thought he was doing…"

Hermione was appalled. "You… interrupted him? James Sirius Potter, you really need to stop channelling your Uncle Ron like that!"

"Hey! I'm not that bad, am I?"

"Darling," Luna replied. "I love you fiercely, but you have always had the emotional range of a teaspoon. You are the one who walked in on Harry and Hermione last Victory Day party and started asking them where the key to the wine cellar was despite the fact they were rather… busy at the time." Harry and Hermione went an interesting shade of red and Ginny's eyebrow shot up thoughtfully – she would have to get her sister-in-law to tell her that previously untold story.

Charley was thinking about her older siblings' news. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if Teddy were to marry Victorie?" she asked. Charley looked absently the way the others had come, her thoughts no doubt on the sixth-year Ravenclaw and his just-revealed fifth-year Slytherin girlfriend.

"Yeah," Aurora said with a grin. "Then he really would be family!" She turned to her father. "Dad, he could start living with Grandma, Uncle Bill and Auntie Fleur!"

"As if he'd stop spending every evening and weekend with us," Hermione murmured with a slight smirk. She didn't really mind Harry's godson staying with the Potter family, of course. If anything, the polite and studious boy was something of a relief compared to her brilliant but hyperactive children.

Suddenly the whistle of the Hogwarts Express shrieked its 'five minutes' warning. "Okay, people, get on board," Ron announced, automatically taking charge.

"Arthur, be sure to give Aunt Lavender our love," Luna instructed her son.

The boy grimaced. "Mum! I can't go up to my divination teacher and give her love!"

Luna gave her son, so very like his father in so many ways, an odd look. "Arthur Xenophilius Weasley, you certainly know Lavender well enough not to feel self-conscious around her."

Arthur blushed. Like just about all the school-age boys of the Potter/Weasley/Longbottom group, at one time or another, he had a crush on the sensual blonde werewolf. "Yeah, but that's at home. This will be at school and she'll be my teacher! Besides, I'm a boy!"

Luna shook her head. The Nargles were clearly making her son dizzy again. "Just because you are at Hogwarts does not make her any less the woman who baby-sat you and your friends more times than I could count," she declared. "Show her respect by all means, but don't forget that she is your friend too." Luna then leant forwards and kissed her oldest son on the nose. "Now, on the train with you."

Harry and Ron had just finished levitating Charley and Marie's trunks onto the train. Harry turned and realised that Charley had grabbed her mother in a hug and wasn't about to let go any time soon.

Harry joined the group hug. "Charley, you'll be just fine."

Charley sniffled. "Dad… what if I am sorted into Slytherin?" she asked in a broken voice. Harry suddenly realised that this really did matter to Charley. Who would have guessed that his quietest and sweetest daughter would be so determined to follow her family tradition of being in Gryffindor House?

"Charley, each of the houses has had members who were good and members who were bad. None of them are 'evil' or 'wrong'. If the Sorting Hat thinks that you are ambitious enough to make it in Slytherin, brave enough for Gryffindor, curious enough for Ravenclaw or hard-working enough for Hufflepuff then, either way, your mother and I would love you just as much. After all, it nearly put me in Slytherin." Charley's mouth dropped open in amazement that her father, in her view the archetypal White Knight of magic if there had ever been one, was nearly in Slytherin! Harry leant over to whisper into Charley's ear. "If you really know where you want to be, tell the Hat so. It will take your choice into consideration, you know."

"Go on now," Hermione told her daughter, squeezing her shoulders. "Don't keep the Express waiting."

Charley's thoughtful expression suddenly turned into a sunny smile and she tucked a rogue lock of straight brown hair behind her ear. "Okay," she said at last. "Okay, I'll remember that! I love you mum and dad! I'll write to you as often as I can…" There was a pause. "Well, not that often. I mean, writing to you every day would be stupid but…" Hermione and Harry both laughed and hugged the girl again, cutting her off mid-babble.

"Come on, Squirt!" Aurora called out from the train door. Charley looked at the older girl, jogged over to the train and climbed aboard. Once in the door, she waved to her parents again as Ron closed the door.

The children had all found a compartment together and were all waving out of the window as the train began to pull away, Rhea, Selene, Danny and Fred running alongside and still waving to their older siblings. Harry stood with one arm around his wife's shoulders and waving to his son and daughters as they faded into the distance. He now understood why Molly Weasley had always faced 1st September with such ambivalence. Every time his children left him for ten months at Hogwarts, it was a little bereavement.

Hermione looked up at her best friend, her lover and her life partner with a comforting smile. "She'll be okay, Harry," she whispered.

"I know." Subconsciously, Harry had started rubbing his scar. In the last sixteen years, despite innumerable crises, dark wizards and plots to conquer the world, it had never ached as it did during his Hogwarts years. He took it as a sign that all was well. "I'll just miss having them around."

Hermione leaned closer. "I'm sure that I can find something to keep your mind off of your Empty Nest Syndrome," she whispered sensually, making Harry blush brightly, mentally cursing how easily his wife could do that to him. Hermione laughed and blushed too in pleasure at his reaction.

"Yuck, Mum, Dad!" Danny protested. He and the other younger Potter/Weasley/Longbottom children were watching the display with a mixture of disgust and resignation. Ron was pointing and laughing and even the quieter Neville was smirking at his old friends' expressions. Harry and Hermione couldn't help but laugh too.

Yes, this is what defined Harry. His friends, his family and the woman that he loved. He would never be just 'the boy with the scar'.

The End