Epilogue: September 2017

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The air on the first of September was crisp and fresh, adding to the thickness of the mist that now coated the train platforms at Kings Cross Station. Amidst the wafts trundled a family of five: a mother, a father and three children. Two boys were pushing trolleys ahead of them. The third, a girl with blonde ringlets, sniffled, clutching her father's arm.

Harry Potter smiled down at his daughter. "It won't be long now, and you'll be going too."

"Two years," sniffed Lily. "I wanna go now!"

Harry chuckled, though the laugh quickly turned into a sigh as the yelps caterwauled on the wind behind him and reached his ears: his sons had resumed the argument they had started in the car.

"I won't! I ruddy won't be in Slytherin!"

"James," Luna murmured, her voice as serene as ever, but with a maternal edge to it. "Mind your brother."

"I only said he might be, Mummy," James tousled his grin along with the long bangs of jet-black hair falling into his eyes. "There's nothing wrong with that. Xeno might be in Slytherin…."

He caught the hairy eyeball his father sent back at him over his shoulder and fell silent. The five Potters approached the barrier.

"I won't be in Slytherin, I tell you!" Xenophilius, the middle child and named for his paternal grandfather, was insisting. "Daddy was in Gryffindor, and Mummy was in Ravenclaw! Either one would be sure to take me! If something really weird should happen, I suppose Hufflepuff wouldn't be too bad…. But Slytherin! Imagine!" He sounded genuinely horrified at the very thought; the dramatic flair in his son's tone made Harry snicker.

"If by some weird coincidence you did end up in Hufflepuff of all places, you know old Ted would show you the ropes…." He squatted down slightly, speaking to his son in low tones.

Luna took her husband's place at Lily's side, looping their daughter's arm through hers as the five Potters rolled to a halt in front of the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10.

"Hmm, the Muggles are out in force today…." she mused.

"We'll be fine, love," Harry assured his wife. Seeing the nervous look in Xeno's expression, he remained bent low and whispered encouragingly, "Together." Then father and son charged the barrier.

The family emerged amidst the steam onto Platform 9 and 3/4s. In an attempt to put his own nerves at ease, Xeno set about scanning the heads of the throng of parents and students.

"Uhhhh…. Where are they?!"

"We'll find them," Luna assured him.

Harry gave Xenophilius a nudge. "Oi – I think that's them, Xeno."

A family of six was being revealed from the mist, standing alongside the very last train carriage. In a creamy white business suit, Hermione Longbottom (neé Granger) was fussing over her eldest daughter's appearance.

"Bag….. Jumper." Suddenly overcome, the beautiful witch bent and wrapped Alice in a hug. "Gonna miss you…."

"Here they come…." Neville rumbled at her side. His wife lifted her head and turned to see the Potter slowing up out of a walk to join them.

"Hi," Xeno breathed through a smile, his face flushed while looking relieved.

Alice, his cousin in all but name, beamed at him while sporting her smart school robes.

"Halloo, lads and lasses!" Neville sported his bouncy, boyish grin, dealing out handshakes all around, while bestowing kisses on the cheek for both Lily and his old friend Luna. "Ready for the off?"

"Definitely," Xeno beamed as behind him, Alice's brother, Frank, slapped palms with his fellow second-year James.

Lily sulked over to where the twins, Rose and Hugo, were also sporting hangdog looks. "Well, if I'm going to be left behind, at least it won't be alone…"

Hermione smiled indulgently at her niece, while ruffling the hair of her youngest. "Don't worry, poppet. In a couple terms, you lot will all be going together…"

"And thank Merlin for that!" Luna laughed, diving in to embrace her best girlfriend warmly. "Have I ever told you how lucky I am that we had our little ones all around the same time as we did?"

Hermione's full lips pursed into a thin smirk, as she smiled down to where her twins were nudging each other. "Well, Rosie and Hughie were quite the unexpected surprise, I must say…." She and Luna glanced back to where their respective husbands were busy hefting Xenophilius's trunk through the window of an empty compartment.

"…. Parked all right then, lad?..." Harry was asking Neville.

"Nev did marvelous! Didn't you, darling?" Hermione chittered. "He's a wonderful driver!" she conveyed to Harry while beaming with pride at her husband.

Neville shrugged off his wife's praise with a proud grin. "Not so bloody different from riding a threstral!" A beat, and he made a show of glancing about before stage-whispering in an aside to his godson, "…. Though I daresay a motorcar is a world of difference away from flying a broomstick!"

"Quite right, dear," Hermione clucked, looping an arm through his and leaning her head on his shoulder. "That's why neither of us have flown one since the day of our wedding…."

Lily, Rose and Hugo all laughed, while Xeno and Alice looked solemn. As for Neville, he was no longer paying attention, his eye having caught something in the near distance. He nudged Harry.

"Coo! ….. Look who it is, mate….."

Several feet away, Harry spotted the profile of Draco Malfoy, their one time school tormentor and rival. His shock of white-blonde hair was receding somewhat, standing alone with what appeared to be a carbon-copy version of him, in the form of his son.

Luna tutted. Harry knew his wife very rarely had so much as a discouraging word to say about anyone, but Malfoy had more than earned the right to be an exception. "Remind me: what wench was barking enough to lie around with him, I wonder, long enough to make a baby out of it?"

"Astoria Greengrass," Hermione murmured, as usual in the know. "That horrid blood curse took her a couple of years ago." She studied the departed woman's boy with sympathy and clucked again. "Poor lad."

"Poor lad, my arse," Neville grumbled. "That must be little Scorpius." He turned to his eldest girl. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Ally, my dear. Thank Merlin you inherited your mummy's brains!"

"Neville! For heaven's sake!" Hermione laughed, her admonishment half-stern, half-amused. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"

"You're right, dearest, as always – sorry," Neville quipped, only to turn right around and mutter low to Alice, "Just don't get too friendly with him, Ally."

"I heard that!" Hermione twittered, her brown eyes twinkling.

James and Frank, meanwhile, were staring past their parents at the Malfoy boy and shared sly grins with each other. "Not to worry, Alice – we'll fix him!"

Harry heard them anyway. "Jamie, I warn you: touch one hair on that boy's head, and your mother and I will bring you straight on home!" James pouted, deciding to board the train and express his displeasure by aiming a kick at Xeno, as if it was somehow his little brother's fault for their dad's good hearing.

"See you later, Xeno. Watch out for the threstrals."

"I thought they were invisible! You said they were invisible!"

"Daddy? Are you going to ride the train with us?" Alice asked.

"Try and stop me!" Neville laughed. He shouldered his briefcase, pausing to allow his wife to breathlessly fuss over him, straighten his robes.

"All right, my love, have a good term – send me an owl when you get there…." Leaning in, the Hogwarts Professor of Herbology and the 36th Minister for Magic embraced and kissed each other chastely on the lips, and Neville boarded the train. Alice bounded after her father onto the locomotive, not noticing how her little siblings were making a face at their parents getting all mushy.

Meanwhile, Luna was trying to calm her middle son down.

"The threstrals are invisible, Xeno….. They're only visible to certain people…."

Xeno cocked his head. "What sort of people, Mummy?"

Luna faltered for a moment, but then she smiled reassuringly, while trying her best to make it look convincing. "Oh, people who are…."

"Never mind that!" Harry saved her, kneeling in front of their son. "Anyway, you won't be taken up to the castle by the threstrals and the carriages; you'll be going in the boats."

"Dad?... What if I'm in Slytherin?..."

The whisper was for his father alone, and Harry peered thoughtfully at the boy as he pondered how to answer. Behind him, he could feel Hermione watching him, but when he glanced back, she made a show of waving goodbye to James, who was now on the train.

"Xenophilius….. Albus…. Severus Potter: you were named for two Headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them was a Slytherin, and he was probably the bravest man I've ever known."

"But just say…."

"…. Then Slytherin House will have gained a wonderful young wizard, and an excellent student. It doesn't matter to your mother or me, Xeno. But… if it means that much to you, you can choose Gryffindor or even Ravenclaw over Slytherin. The Sorting Hat takes your choice into account."

"Really?"

Harry smirked, leaning in conspiratorially. "Really. It did for me."

He had never told any of his children that before, and he saw the wonder in Xeno's eyes when he said it. Above them, the clock struck 11, prompting a rushing for the train windows on the part of the parents, who bestowed on their children a flurry of kisses, last minute reminders.

"Get on," Harry nudged Xeno, who lunged for the locomotive and clambered aboard at the same moment the Hogwarts Express started to move. Finding his son's compartment, Harry ambled at a walk alongside it, not bothering to lengthen his stride even as the train car began to pick up speed. Behind him, Lily and the twins were struggling mightily against their mothers, crying and begging not to be left behind. Harry chose to ignore this, as well as all the pairs of eyes that now seemed to be looking in his direction.

"Why are they all staring?" Xeno demanded.

"Don't let it worry you, love!" Hermione called to her godson. "It's me! I'm extremely famous!" Which was the truth – after all, she was the Minister.

James, Frank, Alice and Xeno all laughed. The Express picked up speed and bulleted out of the station, Harry waving amiably, even as he felt ache in his chest, watching his son glide away from him….

The Hogwarts Express rounded the corner and disappeared; Harry's hand was still raised in farewell.

He sensed Luna glide up alongside him. "He'll be all right, Harry…." she murmured.

Grinning down at her, Harry bent and kissed his wife on the lips, relishing in how her hands came up to frame his face as they held the kiss.

Her fingers dared to brush the lightning scar on his forehead. Husband and wife tenderly broke apart.

"I know he will…."

The scar had not bothered Harry for nineteen years. All was well.