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Epilogue
Three years later…
A cheer rose up around the Great Hall and before Harry could really understand what had just happened, he was surrounded by his friends. And Sirius, who was hugging him so fiercely that Harry knew his ribs would never be the same again.
And when Sirius spoke, he was hoarse from the minutes he'd spent screaming for Harry after Voldemort's shield had thrown him from the circle; his hands were probably raw from pounding against the spitting magic. "You did it," he breathed, sounding like he was choking on the words.
Or perhaps it was from the cry of rage when Sirius had seen Harry limp in Hagrid's arms. Or the one right before he'd severed Nagini's head from his body.
Harry returned Sirius' hug as hard as he dared, half afraid that he'd shatter his godfather in two. "We did it," he muttered into Sirius' shoulder. Because Sirius had been with him through all of it. Through Umbridge's torment, through Dumbledore's death, Snape's supposed betrayal, and with him on the hunt for the Horcruxes.
He'd never let Harry down; Sirus had given him everything he'd ever wanted in a guardian.
In a father.
And just as Sirius had promised, Harry was free from Voldemort.
--
Fourteen Years After that...
"James Sirius!"
"Oy, Al, move before Dad—"
"Before Dad what?" Harry interrupted in the quiet tone reserved for just such situations.
Both of his sons gaped up at him. Though it was rather hard to tell who was who under all the muck covering their faces.
"It was his fault!" James immediately said.
"Was not!" Albus tried to stand but James caught an ankle and scrambled up before his brother could. "Hey!"
"Here…" Harry reached a hand down and hoisted his younger son up, giving the elder a one-eyed glare. James scrubbed a filthy hand across his nose and glanced away, shrugging slightly.
"Sorry Dad," Albus panted and Harry sighed as he saw the mud splattered across his clean trousers.
"That's what cleaning charms are for," he said with a quick squeeze for Al's shoulder, not actually concerned with a few flecks of mud. Two mud-encrusted boys, now that he was concerned with. "What were you two doing?" he finally asked.
"Nothing," James immediately answered. "Er," he amended when Harry ducked his head to meet his son's dark-eyed gaze. "Just fooling about near the pond."
"Fooling about?" Harry echoed suspiciously.
"Yeah," Albus piped up in his slightly squeaky six-year old voice. "With Rose and Fred."
Harry glanced toward the direction of the pond. "Where are Rose and Fred?"
"Oh, Aunt Hermione made Rose go in ages ago," Albus said helpfully. "And Fred had to duck into the house real quick, before Aunt Angelina saw him. He looks worse than us."
Harry looked between his sons, both of them smiling like the devilish cherubs they were. "And that's all you were doing? Mucking about in the pond?"
"Yep," the brothers chorused together.
Harry narrowed his eyes, studying them carefully for broken limbs. He couldn't find any. Or blood. Not even a scrape. Whatever mischief they'd got up to, at least they returned whole. "I had best not find out differently," he warned them anyway. The briefest of pauses, a shared glance, and they were both nodding obediently.
"Honest Dad," James insisted, "we weren't doing anything bad."
"All right," Harry conceded, curiosity surging through him then at the sincerity in James' tone. "Let's go inside. Your mum was about to send for the Aurors."
"You're an Auror," Albus pointed out sensibly. "And Uncle Ron."
"Don't be a prat," James said, as he gave his brother's shoulder a shove, "not them. Dad means real Aurors."
Harry laughed. "And just what am I if not a real Auror?"
James shrugged, grinning through the caked mud on his face. "The Vanquisher of Voldemort?" he warbled, quoting the Prophet's favorite title for Harry.
Harry rolled his eyes, ruffling James' crusted hair fondly, but anything he might have said was cut off as the back door opened. "Oy, you three! We're about to start chewing off limbs in here!"
"Start with an arm, Grandad!" James called back cheerfully. Sirius grinned at him.
"Perhaps yours," he retorted. And then made a face as James planted himself in front of Sirius and shook his head vigorously. Mud splattered across Sirius' shirt. "You little bugger…"
James laughed as he dodged Sirius' playful swat and scooted into the house.
"Don't you dare, Al," Sirius said in mock-horror as Albus mimicked his brother. But it was too late and another round of mud splattered Sirius.
"That's what cleaning charms are for," Albus told him with a grin. He yelped on his way past, not quite managing to avoid Sirius' hand as deftly as James had. Sirius chuckled and slung an arm around Harry's shoulders as they watched the two boys fleeing Ginny's scolding, which was interrupted by a loud crash.
"Lily!"
"Hugo!" Hermione's voice chimed in.
"I'll get it, mate," Ron said under breath as he passed Harry and Sirius, already pulling his wand from his holster. "It's all right, Hermione… Reparo!"
"Were you playing in the pond with the children, Sirius?" Molly asked as she ushered the two of them inside. "Harry, your trousers!"
"Taken care of, Molly," Sirius said with smile. He waved a strong Cleaning Charm over both of them, and the mud disappeared with a slurp. Molly patted his arm and moved off to finish the dinner preparations, pausing to cluck her tongue at Arthur as he dismantled a Muggle radio with Remus' help.
Sirius eyed Harry with a smirk. "Playing in the pond?"
"So they say."
"Didn't see any blood," Sirius mused with worried brows as he glanced up the stairs where James and Albus had disappeared.
Harry smiled at his godfather. "Not a scratch."
Lily bumped into Sirius' legs then and Sirius' arms were full of four-year old in the next second. "Hi there, love," he said softly. Lily's lips immediately formed a pout. "What's the matter?"
"Mummy shouted at me!"
"Did she?" Sirius murmured. "Are you all right?"
Harry shook his head in amusement as Lily said vehemently that no, she was not all right and added that Mummy was awfully mean. Sirius kissed her cheek, nodding along with her childish rant as he carried her into the kitchen so that he might soothe her troubles with a biscuit.
Harry went to help Ron with the last bits of shattered glass, smiling as he listened to the sounds of his family all around him.