Aftermath 1: April, 1998

The remaining Death Eaters, about 40 individuals who had rejected Malfoy's historic May 1992 coalition, had met with Voldemort in a cemetery that night, as was their custom. Tonight, however, Aurors and volunteers had surrounded the Death Eaters. Alastor Moody was standing between Harry Potter and Bellatrix Black, all three facing Voldemort. Amelia Bones, Lucius Malfoy, and Madam Longbottom were on the other side of the circle. Every Auror healthy enough to stand unaided was also present, as were McGonagall, Flitwick, several other professors, Hermione, Draco, the other seventh year students who had once served in their school armies, and many graduates who had fought in Quirrell's armies.

The Death Eaters were outnumbered by about 5 to 1, which while good odds for a normal fight, was less than Moody would have preferred for this one. The other Death Eaters would go down easily enough, but Voldie was still a wild card. He knew Harry had a plan, but he hadn't shared all of it so Moody had to assume it would fail. This could still get ugly.

The fight so far had been short and anti-climactic: Harry had sent his Patronus to locate Voldemort and keep him under surveillance from a distance until he met his followers. When it reported back, he had gone back in time, and organized the large group to arrive one second later. Harry had explained the benefits of specialization to them, as well as the economics of relative advantage. Eventually he convinced all of them to follow his plan. The students would cast prismatic hemispheres and try cover the ends of their opponents wands, the less experienced Aurors and some others would cast their best shields around the entire group, Director Bones and Headmistress McGonagall would enact spells similar to those which protected Azkaban, such as anti-apparition and anti-flying, Hermione and a few others would cast Patronuses, and anyone who could cast killing curses would do so, except for Moody, who, along with Harry, would telepathically attack Voldemort, mostly to keep him on the defensive and prevent him from telepathically attacking others. Everyone else would cast attack spells at their discretion. It had taken days for Moody to become comfortable with trusting others to handle any defenses for him. It also took days of demonstrations and practice for many to believe in a Patronus that could block a Killing Curse.

When the group Apparated into position, the Death Eaters had immediately released a volley of Killing Curses, as expected, and then watched, astonished, as their targets calmly stood their ground casting spells while silver balls swept quickly around the circle intercepting the green flashes. The Death Eaters, witnessing the impossible and being familiar with the now legendary status of the Boy-Who-Lived, were demoralized by this and attempted to escape, only to discover that they were trapped.

As they leveled wands at each other, Harry Potter looked Voldemort in the eyes and spoke. "You, Thomas Riddle, are apparently under the mistaken impression that we are in some way equal. An understandable mistake, but the prophecy said YOU would consider ME your equal, not the reverse. I destroyed Dementors and Trolls as a first year student. I beat you as an infant. I bring my friends back from the dead. And my true arch-enemy, Death itself, is more powerful than you could ever be. You would have to be stupid to believe you could defeat me. I will now give you one chance: you have something that I want, and if you agree to give it to me, I will show you mercy. That is, Salazar Slytherin's secrets. Agree to teach them to me and I will let you live in prison for as long as you choose to live. But make no mistake, Tom, this is not so important to me that you have a position from which to bargain. You will surrender unconditionally or you will die. Choose now."

Voldemort paused for only a moment before replying. "You're bluffing. I know you better than you think, and you underest-"

A few weeks earlier, Harry had prepared for this fight in his usual way. Fighting wizard was conceptually simple: trying to put up defenses that would block whatever someone was likely to throw at you, while trying in turn to attack in ways that were likely to go past their current set of defenses. He had read about every tactic and ability Voldemort had been known to use. Then he made a list of every know shielding spell and every known attack those spells would block. And thought about which attacks would be likely to defeat or incapacitate someone whose Horcruxes would defend him from Killing Curses. Then he noticed something. He muttered to himself "That's too obvious. I thought of it as a first year student. There's no way SOMEONE hasn't..."

"Burn him." This was Rogue's cue, she instantly appeared inside Voldemort's shield, grabbed his wand in her right talon, his wrist in her left talon, and snapped the wand. His shield failed instantly and they transported away. All of this happened in about 50ms, barely long enough for anyone to register what had happened before it was over.

Anyone watching a certain location would have seen a phoenix-like flash, and then Voldemort explosively exhaling a cloud of bright white flecks from his mouth and nose, and spinning backwards. He clamped his hands to his ears, kicking his legs helplessly and gasping for breath, half his body was burning and the other half freezing. Blackness closed around his peripheral vision. The last thing he saw before his vision failed entirely was the blinding light of the sun, taking up his entire field of vision as he rotated to face it. And then he lost consciousness, and high intensity ultraviolet light vaporized his remaining organic material over the next few hours.

Back at the cemetery, Harry instructed Rogue, "Do that snake too. That thing creeps me out."

Bones spoke, "You're all under arrest. Throw down your wands and surrender."

Moody added "Or resist. This battle hasn't been any fun yet." Carrow spun and raised his wand. Moody cast two spells. After the first, Carrow's shields were torn away. After the second, he was on the ground, unconscious but still alive.

Most people gasped in horror, Auror and Death Eater alike. Nymphadora turned to Moody, "You never taught me that spell. I never even knew there WAS a flaying spell."

Moody gestured at Harry, "Never saw the point of it before this damn kid killed all the Dementors."

Harry interrupted, "Hey! I did NOT kill ALL the Dementors. I left four in case I ever needed one for something. They would have been useful today, for example. Hermione eradicated them. She thought I was going to go dark side. Though if you really want to make a new one, Professor Quirrell once told me there was a ritual involving a rope-"

Hermione interrupted, "Harry! You DID go dark side. You had one of them kiss Snape."

"Snape killed Dumbledore. And he was a really powerful wizard, so it was unlikely that I could kill him on my own at the time. What was I supposed to do?"

"SNAPE killed DUMBLEDORE?" Several people exclaimed this simultaneously. "Why?" asked many. "How?" asked Moody.

"Dumbledore just stood there and let him do it. I never understood why. And he had made me promise never to bring him back during every conversation I had with him for three years before that."

"Moody was supposed to be watching Bellatrix", Bones thought. "It's harder to convince anyone to surrender while that crazy woman is randomly Cruscioing the unarmed Death Eaters. Although, she hasn't shot any Aurors in the back, so she has still vastly exceeded expectations. Oh well, it's not a priority at the moment. I can deal with Bellatrix after the people who more obviously want to kill me are dealt with".

After the Aurors had the surviving Death Eaters safely disarmed and restrained, one Auror stopped and asked no one in particular "Um... Dumbledore had a phoenix during the last war... could he have done that to Voldemort whenever he felt like it?"

This was mostly forgotten after Neville called "Harry, Hannah's been killed. One of the Death Eaters got a spell though the shields and she didn't dodge in time."

"Where is she?"

"Vaporized. Gone. Can you still-"

Harry and Rogue appeared to transport from where they were standing over to Neville. But when they arrived, Hannah was with them. She looked around briefly. "I died?" she asked.

"No, not really." Harry interrupted the random people answering in the affirmative. "I haven't actually defeated Death yet, I've just gotten really good at poking it in the eye. I can't always save everyone, so don't take it for granted." Harry had said this before, but somehow, the message never got through.

May, 1998

"Harry, we really want you to become an Auror", Bones said. "You have quite a few unique and valuable skills." Moody nodded in agreement.

"I want to teach at Hogwarts. And research magic. But I'll make you a deal: I'm willing to be a consulting Auror, meaning I'll keep up with Auror training, help train your people with any new magic or tactics that might be helpful, help fight any serious threats, and help investigate time-turner cases. And you won't ask me to do anything boring."

He had shown unprecedented skill with time-cases during his Auror internship. Of course they would never give a student permission to work on such potentially dangerous assignments, but he'd never actually asked permission. Bones was convinced that he had this aptitude because he was already high-functioning insane, and therefore the work could not drive him to that state. She had learned that this was not a rare opinion. "Deal." His offer was still better than her working relationship with Dumbledore had been. Probably.

"I'm retiring." Moody announced. "I want to be a consulting Auror too. Sounds more fun" Bones just growled under her breath.

Aftermath 2: August, 2002

Harry entered Headmistress McGonagall's office. "Minerva", he nodded, "what did you want to see me about? My lesson plans?" Harry was teaching an introductory science course to all interested students and transfiguration to the older students. McGonagall still taught the younger students, when focusing on safety was most critical, and Harry had convinced her that students who do poorly in her classes should retake her classes rather than moving on and attempting more dangerous things. Most importantly (to Harry), he was mentoring the first Hogwarts class of "graduate students" who were helping each other research lost magic.

"No, Harry" she replied. "I really hadn't expected to have to call you to my office more often after you graduated than before. Clearly I was being wildly optimistic. This is about you and your graduate students cutting apart Hogwarts. You removed an entire tower from the upper levels. And put it on the moon!"

"The upper levels change all the time, Minerva. The hole has grown over by now. I challenge anyone to find a single crack, cut, or scorch mark. And the tower is far enough away from anyone that any unanticipated results are unlikely to be dangerous. The potential benefits far outweigh any downside: I believe that tower may be able to grow into a new school, like many types of plants can be propagated from a cutting-"

"You're missing the point, Harry. This is almost as bad as the time you blacked out the stars themselves. Did you know, the centaurs are still convinced you ended the world and we just haven't accepted it yet?"

His eyebrows lifted. "I didn't do anything to the stars. And no one has to take you seriously if you predict the end of the world a second time after getting it wrong. All I did was make the upper layers of the atmosphere opaque to visible light for a few days to help offset climatic change due to carbon emissions. I was helping prevent the end of, well not the world, but certain at risk ecosystems and human populations anyway. And if there's a point I'm still missing, it's highly unlikely I'm going to get it today."

"Be that as it may, you've gone too far. You will have to face consequences from the Hogwarts governors for this."

Harry paused, thinking. "In that case, tell them Draco authorized it."

Minerva's eyes widened in surprise. Then she recovered. "Does HE know that?"

Harry shrugged. "I've never been able to predict what he does or doesn't know. Anyway, the worst thing he's likely to do is make me accept a seat on the Wizengamot". Fawkes, from his traditional perch, and Rogue, from Harry's chair, looked at each other and laughed in a series of rapid caws. Minerva lowered her face into her hands. "Why is this part of my job?" she wondered.

July 2002:

Chief Warlock Draco Malfoy approached Harry. "We really need to talk. About the open Wizengamot seat. You need to take it."

"Draco, you know I just don't care about that. I have too many more important things to do to worry about politics-"

"Harry, you have to learn how the real world works. You can't stay at Hogwarts your entire life."

"Well, I've told you many times that I don't intend to spend my entire life on Earth. So... reproduce Hogwarts somewhere off-world. Is that your challenge?"

Draco lowered his face into his hands. Even after all these years, he couldn't predict Harry's responses, even the ones that should be so obvious...