After The Bombs; What Happened After
Me and Merri were talking about the Epilogue (which I haven't read, nor am I really interested in doing so), and about how Joanne just stopped where she did and fast-forwarded to nineteen years later, completely disregarding that despite what happened in the final chapters, it is not over yet.
I told her what I wished the Epilogue would've consisted of, and she said what she wanted, and I went further, and here it is.
As Merri said, 'What irritates me, is that we didn't see the clean up, which is as important as the damn war itself. So we don't know how'-
After The Bombs
What happened after.
Harry still wakes up in the middle of the night, dripping with sweat and shaking from the fact that in his dream he wasn't fast enough and Voldemort killed him. Kingsley let Harry be an Auror for six months, but he bombed out most spectacularly, and now trains one of the lower-rate Quiddich teams.
Ron still jumps when he hears a car backfiring, and has flashbacks where he hears the poison of the Horcrux seeping into his soul, separating him and his friends. Hermione can't stand drinking coffee in diners anymore, or the heavy weight of necklaces around her neck. She dreams of beaded bags handcuffed to her wrists, so heavy she can't move.
We don't know that Neville spends his evenings down with his plants, knowing that they can protect him from the things in the dark. The Hog's Head is still there, and Neville makes a point to go in at least twice a week, and make sure everything is still running smoothly.
Draco can't stand fires, which makes Malfoy Manor a very drafty and uncomfortable home for his son. He works work side by side with Hermione, and while it's not exactly a comfortable working environment, it did mean that the book about Severus Snape was on the top of the bestsellers list for a good three years. Draco hasn't spoken properly to Harry since the embarrassing night when he drank too much, and sobbed profusely, while on his knees, thanking Potter for saving his life. Potter gave him back his wand, and sometimes it still feels uncomfortable in his hands.
We aren't told that Teddy can't stand the colour pink, and that he refuses to change his nose into a pig's snout, no matter how many times Ginny begs.
Percy cannot bear to look at his mother's magic clock anymore, so Molly has to put it away when he comes over.
George sold up the shop and vanished somewhere in Europe, showing up when he has run out of money, and needs to score a fix. Molly still dreams about the fire in her wand, the knowledge that she can do anything, and upon waking stares at a family photo in which Fred and George are holding a battered Weasley's Wheezes sign and laughing.
McGonagall can't stand to look at Dumbledore or Snape's portraits anymore. She put them in the Room of Requirement where they spend all of their time playing chess and discussing times and people long since gone. Hagrid is still living in his hut, and still wanders into the Forbidden forest to look for a ring with a cracked stone, hoping to someday find it so he can throw it into the Great Lake.
Peeves is still telling everybody that he remembered Harry Potter when he was the Heir of Slytherin, all the while directing new first years to the other side of the school than the room they are looking for.
Pansy Parkinson is still shunned wherever she goes, and she can't forget those ten seconds and a childish shout that caused it.
Lee Jordan surprised everyone, becoming the youngest and best minister for magic ever remembered, putting to use some of the leadership he learned in the war, and Luna became a healer. Dobby's grave became a beacon for house-elves, and number 12 Grimmauld Place is filled with childish laughter again. Cho now plays for the Tornadoes, and if she dreams about screaming and blood, she doesn't tell anyone.
There is a memorial statue for everyone that died in the second Voldemort war; not just those that fought, but for Cedric, too, and all the other unfortunate victims of a man unable to love. None of the heroes could look at it while they accepted their Orders of Merlin, even though it was right in front of them. Dean still can't look at it, even though he passes it to get to his office five days out of seven.
Repairing Hogwarts took years, hours and months spent crying and sweating. There's also a memorial at Hogwarts that's built for the ones lost in battle, especially the young students who stayed behind to fight when they could've chosen to keep themselves safe.
Umbridge and Fudge get arrested, which leaves the whole Wizarding World buzzing, moreso when Rita Skeeter starts "corresponding" with them and others put in prison after the war was over, and writes book after book. People wonder what will become of Azkaban, and how they are going to wipe out the Dementors, after all the breeding they've done.
Blaise had wanted to stay and fight, but his family loyalties weighted down on him heavily, and besides, he wasn't really given a choice, was he? Goyle refused to tell anyone where he and Crabbe had learned the spells they knew; actually he refused to speak at all until his death at age twenty five in St Mungo's criminally insane wing.
Harry stands as witness for the Malfoys, testifying for them, backing them up when they say Voldemort forced them to obey, by threatening their family.
And then Hermione leaves Ron and Harry for a while, on their own in England, while she goes off to find her parents, restore their memories and admit to them what she's done. She returns distraught, pale and unusually quiet.
After a while, Hermione's horrification for not having any NEWTs shows through, and she wonders if she'll have to do the seventh year still if she wants to help rebuilding the Wizarding World, and go for a career. (And the question is whether everyone who was in the seventh year the Trio missed needs to do the year over to get NEWTs, or not.) And she's Hermione, so she'll want to do both. She'll be an Unspeakable, and yes, she and Draco will cross paths sometimes, because they're both like that.
Meanwhile, Harry's wondering where to live - at Godric's Hollow, where his parents died, or at Grimmauld Place, where Sirius used to live, or is there another place he has to go to - or will he buy his own house, without any memories attached to them?
One night, Harry finds a pile of old small woollen hats and socks, and contemplates burning them, but settles for using them as pillow stuffing for a while. Later on he puts the hats on the house-elf heads in Grimmauld Place. It feels disturbing, but he thinks that perhaps the war's left him more than a little bit off, too, somehow, so he doesn't care.
And it'll take so long before the Wizarding World loses its fear, it's haunted, hunted, despairing feeling, much longer than it took after the First War, even for those who weren't even in the midst of it.
People will have trouble keeping the nightmares away for years to come, lifetimes, and they'll always keep an eye on their children. They'll never stop fearing the Dark Mark, and those few still alive and free that have it are outcasts by default. Draco has taken to wearing long-sleeves, even in the summer. Most people still fear saying his name. They pretend otherwise, though, but everyone knows it's a façade, that Voldemort's death didn't, couldn't just wipe all the fear away.
And Harry still has nightmares and flashbacks of asking his parents and Sirius and Remus clumsily, childishly, if it would hurt, and the kind, kind looks on the ghosts's faces as they shook their heads and reassured him. He comes back to himself with wet eyes, and always gets up to walk around for hours until he feels he can go back and face the world again.
Moaning Myrtle will always stay in that bathroom, thinking dreamily of two young boys; one with dark hair and a scar, and one with pale hair and a snake on his arm.
Ministry officials will go to the Muggleborn children who missed their first years to try and convince their families of please, letting their children enter after all.
George can't look in the mirror any longer.
And Slytherins and Gryffindors everywhere still hate each other's guts, and try to outshine each other whenever they can.
"But i guess that's why we have fandom - to fill in these blanks for us. So come on guys, start writing!!"
The above was written by me &
jezzabe .
Merri said: I guess the thing that really gets me though, is that this is the last of my childhood. This is it. Now i have to grow up. *sigh*
Same goes for me. Harry Potter is connected to my childhood, and now that it's over, I've lost the last thing that bonded me to it.
And yay, people asked and we said yes and now there's fic being written to this! Fic to our fic...-like-thing!
ETA: Look! Fic!
A Second Look, by
archanas247. Fred, George. PG.
wallflower, by
archanas247. Harry/Ginny, Weasley Ensemble. PG.
the nightmares change, but they don't go away, by
cria_ecrit. Harry, Voldemort, Ginny. PG-13.