11 Aftermath

The Potters and Susan had a very good night. They spent more than an hour on bedtime fun before falling asleep in a three-way hug. Harry had no nightmares. Most of them stopped after the healing of his scar and the rest were banished by the fun he had each night. Even regular nightmares that most people have at times didn't come to him since bonding with Hermione.

They also had a bit of fun in the morning, before showering, dressing, and rushing to get breakfast. They reached the Great Hall shortly after the owls arrived and could see quite a few shocked faces, including the headmaster's.

They sat near Neville. "What happened?" Harry asked.

Neville turned to answer. "It looks like all the marked Death Eaters died just before midnight. Some Slytherin students were found dead, also marked, of course. Snape also died. Now, many in Slytherin and a few others got mail about the demise of one or two of their parents."

"Any idea what caused that?"

Neville shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine."

In fact, Harry suddenly felt that he had a good guess at the cause. Didn't the goblin curse breaker promise to do the ritual to destroy all the soul shards? What if it also destroyed the one in the resurrected body? After all, it wasn't a real natural body. Then…

Hermione was also thinking. "I believe Voldemort is dead," she quietly said.

"How so?" Harry asked.

"You told us the goblins planned to destroy all the soul shards. I think they also destroyed the ones not present in the ritual room. Then, as soon as Voldemort felt himself weakening, he tried to gain what he was losing by taking some from his marked Death Eaters, only the ritual kept going, removing all he could suck until there was no more. He killed his followers before he died. What a nice leader!" The last part was said sarcastically, of course.

"I was also thinking along the same lines. What do you think will happen now?"

Hermione shrugged. "Dumbledore is in shock for losing Snape, that's evident. We still need another DADA teacher for the rest of the term, you know. Then, quite many from Slytherin and a few from other houses lost close family. Many more lost distant family or acquaintances. Probably even you and Susan, the way things go in the pureblood society."

She stopped for another thought and said, "As for the rest – it's too early to know."

She looked around. Nobody got the newspaper yet. It also pointed to some last-minute changes in the layout. She expected the newspapers to arrive soon, though, including her own copy. "We may know some more after we see the latest edition of the Prophet, I suppose."

–..–

After an active night and an almost as active early morning, the three felt quite hungry. While others were busy gossiping about the news, the three ate with gusto, refilling their energy reservoirs and enjoying the different tastes. The newspaper arrived when they had almost finished eating.

Hermione was quick to grab her copy. The headline was very large and bold. "Tens of Upstanding Citizens Lost Their Lives At Midnight". It almost filled the front page, with only some images of the most prominent victims: Malfoy, Nott, Umbridge and Snape. Well, maybe these were the ones the editors had current pictures of.

The main article, on the second page, didn't give much information. It had a list of all those who fell dead near midnight and some who were discovered later. There was also a comment, "The list may still grow as some people could have been away or alone when whatever happened killed them. We have reliable information of a few more dead, but it's not confirmed yet."

Harry felt a bit sorry for those who lost their parents. Most acted so horribly that he couldn't feel more empathy for them. All were from pureblood families, most of them known as dark.

In a way, he was more worried for the school. They needed a DADA teacher, again, and they still had a boring ghost as a teacher and an overworked deputy. These were problems that needed solving soon. It also looked like the headmaster would not be able to act as required for a while longer, if ever. Dumbledore seemed to be shocked, mourning and in denial. Harry wondered if he could even resume normal functionality after this.

But then, it was also good. If Dumbledore would become unable to keep his job and either resign or be forced out, it would be easier to put another person in his place and not require that much effort.

Well, these were thoughts for another day. He needed to go to Grimmauld Place again, first.

"Dobby!" he called.

–..–

A short while later he was in London. A few minutes later, the goblin curse breakers arrived. Harry noticed they were a much larger team than the one from the previous day. He asked the team leader about it.

"We were only looking for one item yesterday, I could have done it alone, but I wanted two others to guard me, in case we had some surprises. Today, we have a large house to check. I will send them in two and three to the different parts of the house to scan. Once we have a good estimate of what we need to work on, I can calculate the cost. Now, the contract I need you to sign is only for the initial scan. Its price is a function of the number of rooms only. Then, I'll need you to sign another contract for removing all the curses and cleansing any tainted objects. The price will consider the number of items and the power of the curses as part of the calculation."

Harry nodded in understanding.

Even the initial scan took quite long. Harry had to send Dobby to tell Hermione (and Susan) that he was well, only waiting for the scan to finish.

Dobby returned with a generous lunch for him.

Once the scan was finished, the team leader calculated the total cost. Harry had no idea about such things. He thought the price was reasonable, but thought that haggling could help him either to lower the price or, at least, learn some more about the expected work and also about the goblins.

It ended up helping him in both aspects. He managed to lower the price by twenty per cent and also learned quite a bit on the way. He returned to Hogwarts very satisfied. The goblins would need to work there for more than a few days and would inform him when they finished.

–..–

"Professor Dumbledore is not feeling well," McGonagall announced the next morning. "Until he recuperates, he passed all his duties to me. Since I can't fill both the headmaster position and the Deputy, Professor Flitwick agreed to fill the deputy position for the duration. We are looking for another DADA teacher for the remainder of the term. Until we find one, these lessons are free periods. Please use them to study from your books."

Harry turned to the girls. Their pregnancies were already showing a bit, although most didn't pay them attention yet. "Shouldn't we inform her of our position?"

Hermione considered it and shook her head. "Not yet. As long as Dumbledore is around, he may try to manipulate things his way. I don't think he'll stay here much longer, though."

"And why is that?" Harry asked.

"He's still in shock. Old people need much longer to recover than young ones, and he's very old. He, or maybe Poppy, may decide it's better to put some distance between him and Hogwarts if only to ease his recuperation. He may also need to leave to handle his other positions unless he resigned them."

"So, we wait a bit longer?"

She smiled. "It's not that bad. We'll have much less time for our fun once our position becomes known. We should enjoy our time until then."

Harry knew what was expected. "Of course, dear."

–..–

It only took a few more days for Hermione's assessment of the situation to be proven right. The Prophet's headline proclaimed, "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is Dead?"

The main article told about the Aurors checking a derelict mansion house that somehow popped back into existence after disappearing for a few years. They found the decaying cadavers of Bellatrix Lestrange and Peter Pettigrew there, along with a few other known or suspected Death Eaters. Yet the most important and controversial finding was another cadaver, one that was in such a bad condition that it could not be immediately recognized. Judging by the wand on the night table near the bed where it was found and by the robes it was wearing, it was the remains of the Dark Lord, but the DMLE had no way to confirm or deny that assessment.

Harry read the article along with her. "It looks like you were right, as always, dear."

She smiled at him. "Not quite always, but most of the time. I also make some mistakes, you know, like almost giving up on you."

He smiled at her. "Luckily for us, you corrected that mistake quickly enough."

She smiled in response and then frowned. "But now it looks like we were too hasty at starting a pregnancy. With Voldemort and his minions gone, there's no longer any urgency. We could have waited to finish our studies first."

He nodded. "True, but you had no way to know it in advance. It was more prudent to act the way we did than wait and possibly miss our chances."

She turned and hugged him. "I love you, Harry. You're the only one for me."

He returned the hug. "And you're the only one for me."

"What about Susan, then?" she insisted.

"I could live happily without her. I couldn't do that without you. Still, we welcomed her into our family and I now love her, but not the same as I love you."

"And you also enjoy her big tits," she teased.

He chuckled. "It would have been boring if she had ones similar to yours. This adds variety, you know, and I still love yours better."

"Neither mine nor hers are for you, though. They're for the babies." She couldn't say her admonishment with a straight face, making it evident teasing, but Harry played along.

"Won't you let me caress them, at least, and occasionally check what you give our baby to suckle?"

Hermione only laughed in response. Had she not been fully dressed, she would have let him fondle and suckle her breasts. Well, she would do it later, she was sure.

Harry turned serious. "Aren't you expected to already show? Your belly is not much different than before. Susan's neither."

Hermione smiled understandingly. "We're less than three months along. It starts showing if you look attentively, but we can still hide it well enough under the robes. It may take close to two months before we can no longer hide it, maybe even longer."

Harry looked relieved. "Oh, that's alright, then."

–..–

That same headline and article affected Dumbledore very differently. With the hesitant confirmation of the demise of Voldemort along with all his marked minions, Albus felt like all his plans crumbled to dust, leaving only unanswered questions, most of them about his decisions.

Was it right to limit the 'light' forces to use only non-lethal curses? Why had he kept so much information secret, information that could have helped his side prevent quite a few deaths? Were the lives of the victims so worthless in comparison to the life of his spy that he needed to sacrifice them? He no longer felt like he had much justification for his deeds and decisions.

Why did he let the Potters make Peter their secret keeper when he suspected the rat was a traitor? Was he setting them up to die? It didn't look that way at the time, but it should.

Was it the best decision to let Harry stay with his aunt, who feared and hated Magic almost as much as her husband? Why not let Sirius get the child? Sirius had been a devout follower and would have raised Harry as such. Why did he condemn both to such miserable lives? He could find no justification, in hindsight.

He spent the whole day in contemplation, his mood plummeting with each decision he was checking. He couldn't believe he'd been such a bad leader, a bad man, but the facts indicated otherwise.

The meals that the house elves brought were left untouched. He didn't even feel thirsty. He vaguely noticed that his mood was causing his bodily functions to slow and then shut down. Well, maybe it was time to start his next great adventure, although he didn't feel like starting anything.

In a moment of lucidity, he took a quill and some parchments and wrote resignation letters from all his positions. He thought they were redundant if he died shortly, but if he went into a coma or some other disabling medical condition, these would help keep the school, at least, going smoothly.

Once the letters were written and signed, he put them on the side table and stretched himself on his bed. He felt very tired. A nap could be helpful, he was sure.