The aftermath of the final battle continues to unfold.

Enjoy!

May 5th-

Molly Weasley held Percy as closely as she could, ignoring Arthur's pleas for her to let him go. Hermione and Ron stood with the rest of the family behind them, the former giving Harry and Miranda a watery half smile in greeting.

Miranda knelt next to Molly with much less grace than before, putting a thin hand on the matriarch's shoulder, "Molly?"

"He's cold." Molly whispered, rocking side to side slightly as she stared blankly in the distance, eyes unseeing. "He doesn't like being cold."

Harry moved to join his best friends, knowing that Miranda didn't need him to hover. Ron needed him though. "My brother-" Ron said brokenly before Harry pulled him and Hermione into a three-way hug.

A pair of wizards Miranda didn't know stood off to the side, a stretcher propped up between them. Obviously, they were trying to move Percy from where he'd fallen to the far corner of the hall occupied by cloth covered corpses. Instead, they looked on in sympathy.

Miranda brushed some of Molly's red hair back from her sweat and tear drenched face, "I know, Molly. There's nothing you can do for him right now. Nothing except letting him go."

Molly looked at the younger witch, blinking slowly as if she hadn't registered the girl's arrival. She looked right back down at her son's pale face, "I can't."

"You must." Miranda insisted, shifting closer, putting one hand over Molly's that rested on Percy's still chest. "Look at him, Molly. Really look at him." The older witch seemed to do just that, so she continued, "I didn't know him, but I heard a lot about your whole family. From what I know, Percy would not want to be seen like this. He would want to look respectable when it came time to say goodbye. He would not want to be remembered this way."

"You're right." Molly whispered as she scrambled into motion, drawing up the cloth someone had started to cover him with. Then she stood so fast she nearly knocked Arthur over, but her grabbing the wizard kept him upright. She stared at her husband, her whole body shaking as she said, "Arthur, he's dead."

"I know, Mols, I know." He whispered, pulling her into his arms.

Miranda didn't have the energy to stand. She just stared at the flaws in the white fabric until it started moving. Right, the two men consolidating bodies. They lifted Percy up, and Miranda felt herself stand, pulled by an unfamiliar solidarity with Molly to take care of him. His hand had fallen over the edge as they'd moved him. That wouldn't do. Miranda reached out and righted the limp limb, smoothing the white cloth over it once it was safely repositioned.

"Thank you." Arthur said when she turned back around, still holding his wife.

"You're Harry's family." She said simply, drifting towards the Golden Trio.

Hermione and Ron regarded her warily for a moment, but the brightest witch of her age set doubt aside and reached out a welcoming hand. Miranda felt tears burn in her eyes, but forced herself to lock eyes with Ron as she said, "I'm so sorry."

He grimaced, but nodded.

Hermione pulled her into the embrace.

The four of them stayed huddled together for the rest of the night.

Eventually they must have fallen asleep because the next thing they knew, Miranda was screaming.

Harry jumped to his feet, instantly awake, searching for her. She had been yanked up from their pile of comforting limbs by one of her arms. Michael Corner had a tight grip on Miranda and was pulling her towards the doors of the Great Hall.

"Michael? What are you doing?" Ginny screamed, rushing after Harry.

Miranda tried yanking herself free, but wasn't successful until Harry grabbed her hand. She stumbled back into his arms and they were surpassed by Ginny with her wand raised. "What the hell?"

Michael was panting, his long dark hair hanging in front of his eyes, "She needs to be held responsible for what she's done!"

"What she's done?" Harry hissed, cupping the wrist Michael had held in his hands, checking her for injury.

Miranda was oddly quiet though. She let the Gryffindors argue, eyes cast down to the floor. Minutes later, she interjected, "Harry, stop, please."

He stopped mid sentence to stare at her, eyebrows knit together behind his glasses.

Miranda pinched her eyes closed, "I can't stay here. He's right. There are a lot of heavy feelings and I was not advertised as being from the 'winning' side." Harry looked crestfallen, and she loathed that she was the one putting the expression on his face. "It's just not safe." She put a hand on her stomach, and his eyes widened with woeful understanding.

He tipped his head towards where Draco had been detained by wand-point a few meters away. "He's coming too, isn't he?"

Miranda could hardly resist the sardonic smile that tugged at the corner of her lips, "Pansy too, and…" she looked around the hall, "where's Severus?"

"Dunno. Pretty sure he didn't make it." Harry said, taking her hand in his. They stayed closed together as they checked the dead for Severus, but he was not among them. "Could he still be in the boat house?" Harry wondered aloud. He had told several people hours and hours ago that Snape had died there. Had no one really gone to get him?

Hand in hand they navigated the battle field, and came up short when they found Severus Snape laying where Harry had left him. Miranda lurched forward, "Harry!"

"What?" He exclaimed, scrambling after her as she knelt next to the beleaguered professor.

"He's still alive." She hissed, pulling items out of her bag with forceful determination. "Hold this." She demanded as she chucked a vial at Harry without looking.

Prepared or not, he was the youngest seeker in a century, so he caught it right before it hit him between the eyes, "Love you too."

Miranda ignored him, pulling Snape's body so his head rested back on her shoulder, "Pour that down his throat. It should counteract the rest of the venom."

Harry did as she said, pinching Snape's abnormally long nose and using his hold to keep his chin up as he poured, "The rest?"

She looked irritated, doing her best to look after the actual wounds on Snape, "I didn't know I was pregnant, obviously. I had a feeling my brother would send Nagini after hum, so I gave him a vial of anti-venom based on my own immunity. But my blood's not entirely my own right now, so it wasn't enough." She took a breath, "Had to have worked somewhat or he'd be dead already, so not a total failure."

Harry tipped the last of the potion out, "You put your blood in a potion?"

"Yes, Harry, love. My blood is where the immunity came from, the rest of the ingredients were meant to help it spread in a new system." Miranda sounded like the professor himself, and caught the man by the shoulders right when he started to gag, "No. So sorry Professor, but you need to keep that down."

It took the both of them several tense minutes to keep the large wizard from vomiting up the potion. He didn't wake up, but even Harry had to admit he looked better than he ever had under all the blood and grime.

"I'll stay with him. Why don't you go get Draco and Pansy?" Miranda finally whispered.

Harry was torn, "You don't have a wand, Miranda. What if…"

She cut her hazel eyes up at him, "No one's coming out here, not before sunrise."

He nodded, "I'll be quick."

The instant Harry was out of sight, Miranda started to shake. All the adrenaline was gone, and she was reduced to a sobbing mess, gasping for air next to an unconscious likely-former headmaster.

Her brother was dead.

Voldemort was dead.

The monster inside of her was…temporarily…muzzled.

She was pregnant.

They were alive.

Not everyone was.

Part of it was absolutely her fault, but she couldn't stay in that castle one more minute with people who blamed her. People who might hurt her, and by default, the baby.

The bumping of the boats against the dock barely covered up the sound of her crying, but by the time Harry returned, she had mostly pulled herself together. Harry let go of Pansy's elbow and came right to her.

"I'm alright." She whispered to him, "Just overwhelmed."

Harry pulled her to her feet and into his arms, "Come on. Let's go home." She was confused for one moment, until the sucking feeling of apperation took over and the next thing she saw was a familiar street. He rubbed a hand up and down her back until he was sure she was really okay and brushed a kiss against the side of her head, "I'm going to get Snape. Draco should be here with Pansy soon."

Miranda smiled, "I'll get the house ready for company."

Harry popped away just as Miranda opened the door to Number 12 Grimmauld Place.

Kreacher and Claudius were waiting just inside, the latter of whom ran right towards her and wrapped his arms around one of her legs. "Mistress!"

"Hello, Claudius." She said as she peeled him off and knelt to be eye level with them, "We'll have guests, and we'll need to see about getting the old wards up and going."

Claudius snapped his long fingers impatiently at Kreacher, "Ready the guest rooms."

The other elf grumbled the whole way, but slunk up the stairs anyway. As soon as he was out hearing range, Miranda stared into Claudius' eyes, "Why are you here?"

A line of water bubbled up, but didn't fall from his eyes, "Claudius had hoped Mistress would come here again, and…Claudius has only Mistress to serve now. Master has passed to the beyond."

Miranda stood too fast and lost her footing, falling back onto her behind. Tears were streaming from her face as she processed his words, "My Papa is dead?"

Harry was there a second later, pulling her back into his arms as the sobs she'd fought back completely took over. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Miranda."

Through the grief, an odd thought came to Miranda's mind. For the first time in her life, she was horrifically upset, and the Obscurus was silent. She was getting to feel the emotions, as terrible as they were. So she let herself go. She wailed and sobbed, and hardly noticed when Harry picked her up and carried her up the stairs. If Pansy and Draco were there to watch her cry, she didn't know.

Miranda just cried herself to sleep, and when she woke, it was dark outside again. There was a numbness in her that faded as soon as she saw Harry standing in the doorway of Walburga's room. "Hey."

He smiled gently at her, crossing the room to sit next to her on the bed, "Feeling alright?"

Miranda curled herself so she had her head in his lap. "I guess. You?"

"Apparently people are going nuts looking for me. And there's a faction who want to drag you and other Slytherins to Azkaban." He said it all as easily as if he was speaking about the weather.

"Fabulous."

He held his hand out, "We'll be okay, but you need to eat. The house elves are arguing over who has the best food so there's mountains."

Harry watched her interact with the elves once they were back downstairs, just as graceful and kind as she had been with Molly. Dobby had joined them, and the three elves were practically falling over themselves trying to feed her. She ate a measured amount from each of them, diplomatically avoiding picking any of them. Which of course, had all three of them in fits.

Miranda smiled fondly, taking Harry's hand into hers, "Where are the others?"

"Draco and Pansy both went to bed about an hour ago. Snape is up and in the basement." Harry told her.

Miranda pursed her lips, "Certainly glad he's making himself at home."

Harry laughed shortly, "Yeah, he said you were 'an adequate potion maker, but obviously not a master since you made such a juvenile mistake'."

"Perfect." She drawled, looking down at the now faded scar on her hand, "What are we going to do?"

"Dunno." Harry replied honestly, but his eyes were stormy, "There's no way I'm letting you get hurt."

"Well, we're going to have to do something about the elves. I'm not sure the house can handle this many beings in charge."

Harry sighed, "Yeah…it could get bloody."

"I'll ask Claudius to look in on the Weasley's. He's the least excitable of the trio." Miranda finally said. "Have they restored the Burrow?"

"I didn't ask." Harry said softly, "I should have asked."

Miranda rubbed a hand over Harry's shoulder, "We can ask in the morning."

"You just got up."

Miranda laughed shortly, "Harry, there's seriously nothing you can think of that we could do to pass the time?" He stared at the kitchen doorway, apparently completely at a loss. Miranda took a moment to decide if she was being overly horny or if he was more sheltered than even she'd been. Just when she was reevaluating some life choices, Harry lunged at her. "Harry!"

He picked her up, leaving her no choice but to wrap her legs around his waist, "Absolutely. So much we can do." He crushed his lips against her.

"Upstairs." She said once she pulled her lips off his.

"Upstairs." He agreed, but they didn't quite make it.

So caught up in kissing her, Harry, renowned throughout the wizarding world, tripped going up the stairs. Miranda barely moved her legs out of the way before his ass hit the step. Miranda braced her hands against the step on either side of his head, trying not to laugh hysterically, "Did youreallyjust do that?"

"Are you okay?" He asked, face full of concern, but when she nodded, Harry started laughing heartily, putting his hands on her hips to help settle her against him in a way that was hopefully more comfortable for the both of them. He stopped laughing just as suddenly as he'd started, staring into the hazel eyes she'd been born with. Or rather the fixed version of them. He'd seen them before of course, when she was without the charmed snake, but knowing that she looking at him now made them even more stunning. "I want all of you." He whispered into the space between them.

She felt like a lit match. "Think you already have."

Harry shook his head, "No, I mean I want to know all of you. I think this is forever."

Miranda sat back just a bit, putting more of her weight back on his knees, an incredulous expression on her face, "You think?"

"I killed Voldemort." He blurted out, and then just kept talking, "I killed Voldemort, but at one time, he was your brother. I can't... I mean... how can you not hate me? I killed your brother. The brother you never hesitated to say you loved."

Miranda silenced him with a kiss, much sweeter than the one that had landed them on the stairs. A tear was running down her cheek when she pulled back, "Oh, Harry. My brother was dead a long time ago. You just put an end to the creature he'd become. You set him free, in a way. He was never going to be my Tom again."

"I want to know. About him, about you. Everything you felt you had to gloss over or spin into a half truth." He cupped her face in the palm of one hand, wiping away the tear with his thumb, "I want to know your story, Miranda. All of it. All of you."

She came to her feet and held out a hand to help him up, wiping the rest of the tears from her own face. Wordlessly she led him up the remainder of the stairs and into their borrowed room. Once they were under the covers, Miranda started talking, "I was born on the steps of Wools Orphanage during a snowstorm on January 1st,1927..."

So... Snape Lives! Fred lives! Percy...sorry!

Next chapter is...well underway, but I'm thinking of splitting it up because Harry and Miranda are skewing plot development portions for smut and it's getting lengthy already. At this rate, I'll have to add a pregnancy kink tag because Harry is waaay too proud of himself. Like...sir, that's enough.

Please let me know what you think!
-Jenn