Chapter 24: Epilogue, Part 1
I am embarrassed by this, because it is quite important to me to write clearly. But judging from reviews, some readers do not understand everything that went on in the previous chapter. So I will explain now what I did not clearly explain then.
The rules for a formal wizard's duel are never explicitly stated in canon, but I presume that there is some stated minimum distance between the duelists. Because travel-time for a cast spell is not instantaneous, setting a minimum distance gives each duelist a certain minimum amount of time in which to dodge the other's spell.
The "sneak attack" that Voldemort decides to do, at the end of Chapter 22, is to Apparate to two feet in front of Harry and to fire a spell from there. This is big-time cheating, by the rules of magical dueling. But why two feet away? Two feet is far enough away that Voldemort can see Harry's facial expression after the Apparition, and is close enough that Harry cannot dodge Voldemort's follow-up spell and cannot put up a suitable shield in time.
Voldemort's plan, before arriving at the pitch for the Duel, is to duel Harry from the proper distance and to wait for that moment during the Duel when Harry realises he is beaten and soon will die; then, to add insult to injury, Voldemort plans to sneak-attack.
But when Voldemort is informed that all his horcruxes are destroyed, does he think Not a problem, because I'll probably win the Duel anyway? No, Voldemort panics and makes his sneak attack be his opening move.
But Voldemort has forgotten that putting himself two feet in front of Harry Potter means that, just as Harry cannot dodge Voldemort's follow-up spell, Voldemort himself cannot evade Harry's spell.
Harry never in a million years expected to use his §Gladius§ spell during the Duel. But now Harry is put in a situation where he can use this spell. Harry's attack-spell is three syllables whilst Voldemort's attack-spell is six syllables, so Harry gets his attack in first.
Chapter 24
Epilogue, Part 1
Friday, 2nd August 1996, 3 days after the Duel
Wizengamot chamber, Ministry of Magic
Harry was summoned to the Wizengamot to answer questions about the 29th July destruction of Malfoy Manor. Harry appeared whilst wearing formal robes that had twenty House crests on the front; eighteen House crests, including the crest for House Malfoy, were ringed in red.
Harry was asked, "Did you destroy Malfoy Manor on 29th July, killing everyone inside?"
Harry replied, "I destroyed Malfoy Manor on that date, yes. I didn't kill everyone inside. Before I attacked, I rescued Narcissa Malfoy and all the Malfoy house-elves. The house-elves, on their own initiative, rescued Florean Fortescue and Garrick Ollivander, who were being held prisoner in the dungeon. Somehow Severus Snape and the Dark Pretender Voldemort escaped death."
"You committed mass murder!" a seat-holder yelled.
"No, it was the Dark Pretender Voldemort and his face-hiding minions who committed mass murder. They killed innocents. Whereas I committed an act of war. The only innocent people who were in Malfoy Manor, I rescued, or the house-elves rescued, beforehand."
"What does Narcissa Malfoy think of what you did?"
"Her name is Narcissa Black; she's now a widow who has reclaimed her birth name. As for what she thinks about what I did, I suggest you ask her yourself."
"How did you make the wards fail and make your attack, without Lucius Malfoy responding?"
Harry smiled. "The reason that Lucius Malfoy didn't respond was because the wards didn't fail. During the entire attack, the Fidelius charm was up and the wards were undisturbed.—"
"Impossible!" someone shouted.
"He's lying, he has to be!"
Harry calmly continued, "The wards came down only when I, as Lord Malfoy by Right of Conquest, brought the wards down so that dead Death Eaters' bodies could be recovered. I'm quite proud of the trick I invented."
"What is that trick? How did you trick the wards and the Fidelius charm?"
"I refuse to answer that. I refuse to explain any part of that. I know the most valuable military secret in Wizarding Britain, perhaps in the entire magical world, and I'm not sharing it!"
"You defy us? We could send you to Azkaban!"
"And I'd go, willingly. This secret, I won't tell my children when they ask, nor will I tell my grandchildren. So why do you think I'll tell you? There is at least one person in this room whom I'd not trust with the Secret to a Fideliused student trunk—do you think I'll tell the lot of you how to destroy Potter Manor?"
The Wizengamot members blustered and thundered and threatened. But the result was that Harry did not reveal his secret, and Harry was not sent to Azkaban.
Saturday, 31st August 1996, 32 days after the Duel
The day before the start of the new school term
Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey
The Dursleys had moved out. The house was empty of furniture, and no Dursleys were there. But the house was not empty of people: several wizards and witches, and one house-elf, stood inside. Specifically, the wizards were Harry, "Mad-Eye" Moody, Neville Longbottom and (representing Gringotts) Bill Weasley; the witches were Hermione and Daphne. The house-elf was Dobby.
Harry was blushing. "I've never spoken more than hints about what happened to me inside this house; but 'Mad-Eye,' as much time as you spent outside this house, you surely have some idea."
"Mad-Eye" nodded, frowning.
Neville shook his head. "I don't understand. What happened here?"
Harry looked at the floor. "For me, Nev, this was a house of horrors."
Hermione laid a hand on Harry's arm. "You never told me either, but my eyes worked. Listen, the day I met you, you were sent off to school with clothes that were too big, and your glasses were broken. What normal aunt would embarrass her nephew this way?"
Harry replied bitterly, "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had a peculiar definition of 'normal.' "
Harry gave his visitors a room-by-room tour of the house, sharing his most unpleasant memories of each room, but speaking with no emotion. All the visitors looked horrified. The visitors were further horrified to see the upstairs bedroom door with locks on the outside and a cat flap in the door, which led into a bedroom with bars on the windows.
But the shock of that upstairs door and that upstairs room was nothing to when Harry led the visitors down the stairs, and stopped partway in the corridor between the bottom of the stairs and the kitchen. When Harry had everyone's attention, he pointed his wand at the cupboard under the stairs, which for some reason had locks on the outside of the door. "Alohomora," red-faced Harry said and, saying nothing else, opened the door—
What the Dursleys had not taken of their things, they had binned. But what was in the cupboard under the stairs had not been removed and had not been binned; those objects told a ghastly story.
"Mad-Eye" counted fifty-nine dried blood-droplets on the floor of the tiny room or on the undersized mattress. Whilst "Mad-Eye" counted, Hermione and Daphne were both clutching onto Harry and were weeping.
When everyone had looked inside, Harry said in a dead voice, "This was my 'bedroom' from age fifteen months to the day I got my Hogwarts letter. My Hogwarts letter was addressed to 'the cupboard under the stairs.' Meanwhile, Dumbledore and Gilderoy Lockhart were pocketing money from books that claimed I spent my childhood in a bloody palace."
Harry pointed his wand at the ceiling and said, "I hereby declare that Number 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey is no longer my home. So mote it be." Light flashed, and Harry felt the blood-wards collapse. Then Harry looked at his friends and added, "Unofficially, this house never was my home, not for a second."
Then Harry said, "Bill, the wards are yours. Dobby, get the rest of us the bloody hell away from here."
Sunday, 1st September 1996, 33 days after the Duel
The first day of the new school term
Aboard the Hogwarts Express
The "Gold Four" (Harry, Hermione, Daphne and Neville) were sitting in the same train compartment, along with Lavender Brown and Tracey Davis. Harry, Hermione and Daphne all had been selected as prefects of their respective Houses; Hermione was overjoyed by this.
Ron had not tried to enter the compartment, because Hermione had put a "Ron Weasley Notice-Me-Not" charm on the door. But now the charmed door opened. Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle peered in, with a blonde standing between them. But this time, the situation was very different than in previous years.
For one thing, neither Vincent Crabbe nor Gregory Goyle were wearing Heir rings, Harry noticed.
Awkward Crabbe and Goyle offered themselves as bodyguards to Harry, and offered firstie Galina Goyle as Harry's "servant girl." After the Gold Four asked a few questions, red-faced Crabbe and Goyle revealed that House Crabbe and House Goyle each owed more than ten thousand galleons to House Malfoy; and the condition that Lucius Malfoy had set for not calling such loans due immediately was that each debtor House's heir would become a bodyguard of the Malfoy heir; and Galina, once she attended Hogwarts, would become Lucius's and Draco's "personal servant." (And yes, this meant exactly what it sounded like.) Vincent, Gregory and Galina were fatherless now, and so had even less chance of paying off the debts than their dead fathers once had.
Harry promised Victor, Gregory and Galina, "I'll figure out how to settle your debts; but for now, return to your compartment, because I don't want servants. Galina, one day you'll marry, and I swear that you'll be able to look your husband in the eyes on your wedding night."
Meanwhile, Ron Weasley on the train was asked pointed questions about why, if Harry Potter were indeed Ron's "best mate" as Ron claimed, nobody had seen Ron on the Quidditch pitch on the day of the Duel. Ron would be asked this question for the rest of his life, and he never would think up a convincing answer.
Sunday, 1st September 1996, 33 days after the Duel
The first day of the new school term
Hours later, at Hogwarts Castle
Just before the Sorting and the Welcoming Feast, Ron Weasley tried to sit down next to Harry—in Hermione's place. Harry and Neville shoved Ron off the bench and onto the floor.
Headmistress McGonagall's response? "Mr Weasley, you took the seat intended for Miss Granger, and clearly Mr Potter and Mr Longbottom do not wish for you to sit there. Go sit elsewhere."
When Ron sat down, between Dean and Seamus, Ron's ears were red and he was grumbling about "favouritism." Dean told Ron to STFU. Harry glanced over at the Slytherin table and saw that Daphne was answering questions.
The big surprise of the Sorting was that Galina Goyle was Sorted into Gryffindor. Ron Weasley was loudly opposed to this; everyone else at the Gryffindor table told Ron to STFU. When Galina started to cry, Harry walked from the sixth-year part of the Gryffindor table to the first-year part, and gave Galina a public hug. The entire Great Hall went silent when this happened.
Headmistress McGonagall made introductions before the Welcoming Feast. Gerhard Übersuppe was the new Potions professor; Aurora Sinistra was the new Head of Slytherin. Filius Flitwick was Deputy Headmaster, besides remaining the Charms professor; Charity Burbage was the new Head of Ravenclaw. Charles and Nancy Wood (grandparents of Oliver Wood) were the joint Heads of Gryffindor. Headmistress McGonagall would continue to teach Transfiguration.
The headmistress just had finished announcements, and food just had appeared on the tables, when—pop!—a Hogwarts house-elf appeared at Harry's elbow. The house-elf held out a folded, wax-sealed parchment to Harry.
A minute later
Harry walked up to the Head Table. "Headmistress, I have received a letter from Professor Snape, written the day before I dueled Voldemort. Since this letter was written at Malfoy Manor, it's safe to say the letter was written before I destroyed the place." This caused a buzz in the entire room. Harry continued, "May I read the letter?"
"You may, Mr Potter. Please speak loudly, so that everyone can hear."
Harry turned about and loudly said, "Professor Snape wrote—"
Harry read aloud, "I wish to state that I was wrong, grievously wrong, about Harry James Potter. I hated Harry's father and I saw Harry as nothing other than his father's son. So I slandered Harry, I oppressed him, and I belittled him. I abused my position as Potions professor when it came to Harry. Only belatedly have I seen that Harry is much more Lily's son than he is James'. Harry, I apologise to you.
"If the Dark Lord is dead, read this also: I was Headmaster Dumbledore's spy on the Death Eaters, but to be effective, I needed for the Dark Lord to believe that I was his spy on the headmaster. Both the headmaster and the Dark Lord insisted that I stay at the school as Potions professor, years after I would have chosen to leave the position. Eventually I came to hate teaching Potions, then I took out my anger and frustration on students. Now that the Dark Lord is dead, I apologise to all my former students for being such a poor teacher to them, and I already will have tendered my resignation to the headmaster, effective as soon as he can replace me."
Harry refolded the parchment, and turned to face the student tables.
"I've had many unhappy moments here at Hogwarts, and Professor Snape was the cause of most of them. But in the last two months, since the end of the previous term, I've grown to deeply respect the professor. He died a month ago, on the day of the Duel—he died bravely, which we Gryffindors honour. But I also think he saw that Voldemort would not outlive the day, and neither would Voldemort's mystique outlive the day; so Professor Snape broke away from Voldemort before the professor was stuck with the Dark Lord's bad reputation. Professor Severus Snape died showing cunning."
Dinnertime, a day later
Monday, 2nd September 1996, 34 days after the Duel
The second day of the new school term
The Great Hall
Harry, who was carrying two half-foot pieces of parchment, and Galina both walked from the Gryffindor table to the Slytherin table. Harry handed the parchments to Daphne and asked, "Any comments?"
Daphne beamed at him. "This is so Harry of you. Is it okay if I pass them out?"
At Harry's nod, Daphne handed one mini-parchment to Vincent Crabbe and one to Gregory Goyle. The wording was the same: "The amount of [specified] galleons that House [Crabbe, Goyle] owes to House Malfoy, I forgive. Signed, Harry James Potter, Lord Malfoy."
Daphne ran around the table then, ran up to Harry, and hugged him quite enthusiastically. One Slytherin muttered to another, "Did somebody Imperius the Ice Queen?"
Gregory looked at his sister and asked, "Galina, how'd you wind up Sorted into Gryffindor? I'm not cheesed off or nothing, I just can't figure it out."
All Slytherin eyes were on Galina as she replied, "You know the offer we made on the train, and you know why we made it: because of Lucius Malfoy! But when we offered me to Harry Potter, he said, 'Go back to your compartment. I want that you can look your husband in the eyes on your wedding night.' Which was notwhat Lucius Malfoy would have said! This started me thinking, 'Do I want to be in the House of Lucius Malfoy, or in the House of Harry Potter?' When the Hat was dropped on my head, I told it, 'Please, please, please, make me a Gryffindor like Harry Potter!' "
Then Galina looked at Harry and said with determination, "I'm not brave yet, but I bloody plan to work on it."
Harry and Galina were about to walk back to the Gryffindor table when Pansy Parkinson shouted, "You stole my inheritance, blood-traitor! I demand you give it back. I deserve it more than a half-blood like you deserves it."
The Great Hall instantly went silent.
Harry could not help it; he chuckled. "Miss Parkinson, of all the people in this room, not counting the first-years, you and Ron Weasley tie for being least deserving of anything good."
"Oi!" Ron yelled from across the room.
Harry eyed the sixth-year Slytherins. "Miss Parkinson says I'm a 'blood-traitor' because I think Hermione Granger is as good as any Pureblood. Let me take it further, Miss Parkinson: I think Hermione Granger is the best witch or wizard in this room. She knows a lot about magic, she knows a lot about the magical world, and she's loyal when being loyal is hard. Hermione invents spells—I've seen it. There is no Pureblood who deserves their magic more than does Hermione, and there are only a few Purebloods—Daphne here, Neville Longbottom, the Weasley twins, Luna Lovegood, Susan Bones and the late Amelia Bones—who are as deserving asHermione."
"The Mudblood's manners are atrocious," Pansy sneered.
Daphne said, "They used to be. They aren't anymore."
Harry said, "Speaking of manners, Miss Parkinson—you interrupted me. As I was saying. A month ago, some friends and I dropped in, quite uninvited, on Malfoy Manor. Besides Lucius Malfoy and the Dark Fraud Voldemort, many Death Eaters were there. Including your father, Miss Parkinson."
Pansy's look was murderous.
Harry raised his voice, so that the entire Great Hall could hear. "Want to know what a Death Eater is? He or she is a Pureblood who kisses the ... feet ... of a half-blood fraud who tells the Pureblood what he wants to hear. And the Pureblood is so thickthat he never notices that the Dark Lord whom he follows, demands big sacks full of galleons, Crucios his own people, and A-Ks his own people. Death Eaters are as stupid as flobberworms, they're inbred, and they don't deserve to rule Houses."
Pansy snarled, "We're not inbred! That is a Mudblood lie! Nor are we stupid."
Harry shrugged. "If you say so. All I know is, When I destroyed Malfoy Manor, there were only two survivors: the half-blood fraudVoldemort a.k.a. Tom Riddle, and the half-blood Professor Snape. Not counting Narcissa Malfoy, whom I rescued, every one of the 'superior' Purebloods in that house was killed off by me, a half-blood. Hm, Purebloods sound pretty inbred to me."
Daphne looked at Pansy and said coldly, "You're not as bad off as some. It's two years before you sit for N.E.W.T.s, which means you have two years to study hard. Once you take your first job, save your knuts. But lose the 'I'm so entitled' attitude, Pansy—it's ugly hearing MoRon Weasley spout it, and neither does anybody want to hear it from you."
Friday, 14th February 1997
Four and a half months before Dumbledore's original-timeline death
Six and a half months after the Duel
The Daily Prophet reported that Albus Dumbledore died in Azkaban Prison. The cause of death was a body curse.
What the Prophet did not report, but what Headmistress McGonagall discovered, was that upon Dumbledore's death, his portrait did not appear in the headmaster/headmistress office.
Needless to say, Dumbledore's corpse was not given a fabulous tomb on the grounds of Hogwarts.
Before Dumbledore had died, Harry had written a letter to him—
"Have you ever considered why God, Fate or Whoever, let youhear the Prophecy, instead of someone else hearing it? Because you held three positions of power. After 31st October 1981, you could've trained me, and brought me to others who'd train me, so that I'd have grown up to be a one-man magical army whom Voldemort had no hope to beat.
"Instead, from the very minute my parents died, you worked to sabotage my life, so that at the prophesied battle, my death would be certain and you'd step on my corpse as you battled Voldemort in hope of glory. You were given a great responsibility that only youcould fulfill, and instead you failed at this responsibility, completely and knowingly.
"No matter how painful the final stages of your withering curse become, I truly believe that you deserve much worse."
Thursday, 31st July 1997
One year and one day after the Duel
Harry's seventeenth birthday
Buckingham Palace
Harry was knighted by the Queen—formally, with a sword-tap on each shoulder. Witnessing the knighthood ceremony were Hermione, Daphne, Neville and Dobby; Queen Elizabeth had not met a house-elf since she had been a princess. Colin Creevy took photographs.
Daphne and Neville were wearing dress robes for the occasion; Harry, Hermione and Colin were wearing dressy Muggle clothes; and Dobby was wearing a scaled-down copy of Harry's outfit.
Colin Creevy's best photograph was printed in the Daily Prophetthe next day.
Throughout the last five months of 1997, and afterwards
Whether by accident or the queen's design, the photograph in the Daily Prophet of Queen Elizabeth knighting Harry, shifted the politics of Wizarding Britain. Immediately Muggle-borns owled Harry with "Can you help me?" pleas, which Harry posted to Her Majesty. The result of this was that the Minister for Magic was summoned to Number 10 Downing Street and was reminded (and was often re-reminded) of a centuries-old treaty between Parliament and Wizarding Britain. The Ministry of Magic, threatened with Wizarding Britain losing its independence, made changes in the following years. Slowly and reluctantly, yes, but the Ministry made changes.
But the biggest force for change was the author-trio of "Potter, Black and Black-Potter," beginning in 1999, the year after the three teens married. More about this later.
Monday, 1st September 1997, 13 months after the Duel
The first day of the new school term
Hogwarts SOW&W
Harry, Hermione, Daphne and Neville began their seventh year. Harry and Daphne were prefects again. Stephen Cornfoot of Ravenclaw was Head Boy whilst Hermione, to nobody's surprise, was Head Girl.
Ron Weasley, meanwhile, had failed his entire sixth year and so was required to repeat it.
Saturday, 27th June 1998
23 months after the Duel
One day after sitting N.E.W.T. exams and finishing the seventh-year term
In the morning, Harry and Hermione, and Harry and Daphne, were magically married at Hogwarts. Both weddings were held in the first-floor girls' lavatory by the Charms classroom, where Harry and Hermione once had met a mountain troll. The wedding breakfast (wedding reception) was held in the Slytherin common room. By means of special magical bracelets, the Doctors Granger were able to attend the double wedding at Hogwarts.
Four hours after the Hogwarts wedding, Harry and Hermione were married at Saint George Church of England in Crawley. Daphne was there as the Maid of Honour. Dudley Dursley attended as family of the groom.
Harry, soon after his marriage, converted a large room in Potter Manor, and a large room in Grimmauld Place, into Faraday-cage rooms in which electronic devices worked. Each room was given a computer, a telly and VCR, and the necessary furniture. At Grimmauld Place, Narcissa and Daphne bonded over a new love of BBC period-dramas.
Throughout 1998
In southeastern England, houses began being sold in the new town of Malfoy. Residents of those houses could shop at brand-new Malfoy Mall, in which was a fast-food restaurant, Harry's Fish and Chips Dining Room.
Behind the cash register of Harry's, facing the customers, was an enlarged photograph of a teen boy in a top hat, along with two teen girls, who were all dressed in white. If customers asked about the photograph, they were told, "It's some sort of in-joke."
To wash down the fish and chips, Harry's offered several brands of carbonated beverage, apple juice, and a pure novelty drink: pumpkin juice.
A youth (name-tagged "James") with messy black hair and striking green eyes, sometimes worked at the Dining Room. James, whenever he was there, manned the cash register and commanded the other employees. Customers, if they thought about James at all, presumed that he was merely the shift-manager because the lad looked so young. Few customers noticed that James bore an uncanny resemblance to the top-hat lad in the photograph.
What residents of Malfoy soon noticed, after Harry's Fish and Chips Dining Room opened, was the odd group of regular customers that the Dining Room attracted. These regulars were not recognised by residents of Malfoy as fellow residents; indeed, judging by the accents heard, these regular customers had grown up all over Britain. But these odd strangers would gather, would eat fish and chips, and at least once a night would toast "To Harry!"—whilst drinking only pumpkin juice. But at least the odd strangers all wore normal clothes.
This mysterious group of regular customers shared another odd trait. The customer-seating part of Harry's Dining Room featured a gigantic oval table that was made of stone, and the pumpkin-juice-drinking customers always sat at this table.
1999
Hermione Potter was selected as the editor for the latest edition of Hogwarts: A History (an honour, by the way, which never was offered to Hermione Weasley in the original timeline). In Hermione Potter's description of the "Quidditch-Pitch Duel," she named the seven Slytherins who had stood with Harry. (Hermione also, as Harry had predicted, included in the latest edition a photograph of herself, Harry and Daphne on the day of the Duel, all wearing their white finery.)
But after the new edition of Hogwarts: A History was published, the team of Harry, Hermione and Daphne began writing books that explained Muggle topics to magicals. Hermione was the main author, Daphne made Hermione's words acceptable to Purebloods, and Harry explained to ordinary witches and wizards what his wives meant. (Always Harry needed to halve the page-count from the door-stop manuscripts that Hermione and Daphne presented to him.) The books that the author-trio wrote became bestsellers, and they changed the thinking of the magicals of Wizarding Britain. The books' recurring theme was this: "Sometime during the authors' lifetime, Muggles on computers will knock down the wall of secrecy around Wizarding Britain. You can't prevent this. Magical society is woefully unprepared for this."
All of the author-trio's books were written on computer. The author-trio's first book, The Muggles WILL Find Out, in 1999 had to explain to magicals the most basic facts about computers, even though Muggles had known about computers since 1946.
Chapter 25
Epilogue, Part 2
About twenty years later: 7th August, 2019
Wizarding Britain
In one month in 1996, Harry not only had killed Voldemort and all of his Death Eaters, but then, by claiming many Dark Houses by Right of Conquest, Harry had gutted the power of the Dark families. Heads of House who had been Death Eaters were dead, so could not cast their votes, whilst those votes went to Harry James Potter, the Lightest of Light Wizards. The sons and daughters of Death Eaters had lost their inheritances—and with this, had lost their chance to vote in the Wizengamot in the future.
But not only had Harry defeated the Dark families militarily and politically, but he had put them up to ridicule. Considering how easily Harry Potter, the Muggle-raised half-blood, had defeated Voldemort and the Death Eaters, the entire Blood-Purity doctrine turned laughable. The Blood-Purity doctrine of "Purebloods are superior to half-bloods, who are superior to Muggle-borns" became the Wizarding Britain equivalent of "The Earth is flat."
After 1996, the many prior laws that favoured Purebloods and that discriminated against Muggle-borns all were rewritten. For instance, take the law that said "A child under seventeen cannot practise magic except at Hogwarts." This law was unenforceable when the child lived in a house that was behind a Fidelius charm; so in practise, the law stopped only Muggle-born children. In 1997, this law was changed to read "...except at Hogwarts, or inside his or her house with parental supervision."
For Muggle-borns and even Squibs, life in Wizarding Britain was much nicer in 2019 than it had been in 1996, and all the credit for this went to Harry Potter.
Meanwhile, on August 7, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Carl Deorsam and his girlfriend Penelope Farmer were enjoying the last little bit of summer break before they returned to Texas A & M University. Penelope was the only child of two Dallas optometrists, so Chicago was nothing special to her. But Carl came from Gatesville, Texas (population twelve thousand), so Chicago was—both for good and for bad—a place very different from what he knew.
Carl just had snapped Penelope's photo with his smartphone-camera, in front of Dagworth's Drugstore, Dagworth's Apothecary, and Jim Nelson Insurance. When Carl viewed the photo he just had taken, he noticed something odd—
In the photo, behind smiling Penelope, Dagworth's Drugstore and Jim Nelson Insurance shared a common wall; Dagworth's Apothecary had disappeared.
He beckoned Penelope over. "This is weird. Come look at the picture I took."
Seconds later, Penelope was looking at the photo. "My hair is covering up part of my face. Stupid wind."
Carl said, "No, that isn't what I meant." He pointed at the unphotographed business in front of him. "The apothecary store doesn't show up in the picture."
Penelope looked around. "What apothecary store? Honestly, Carl, there is no apothecary store anywhere around."
Is she playing a prank on me? Carl wondered. He jabbed his hand forward to point at the store again. "It's right there, between Dagworth's Drugstore and an insurance agent."
"What are you talking about?" Penelope challenged, now pointing in front of herself. "There's the drugstore, and..."
Penelope's forearm moved from left to right, and her head moved from left to right, but now her movements were unnatural. Robotic. Also, Penelope had quit speaking while her finger was pointing at the apothecary.
After her silence, Penelope finished, "...right next to it is Jim Nelson Insurance. With no gap, I might add. Honestly, Carl."
During the next minute, Carl got into the strangest argument that he had ever argued in his life. He was insisting that there was an apothecary store right the hell in front of both of them, while know-it-all Penelope insisted that no such store existed within a thousand miles.
Then Carl got an idea. He said to Penelope, "You stay here. I'm going to check on something." Then, with his smartphone in hand, Carl walked toward the apothecary.
Carl walked the last ten feet toward the door while looking at Penelope. She was watching him walk away from her; her face looked angry, and her arms were crossed. That is, at first she looked like this—
When Carl was about four feet from the door, Penelope startled, she uncrossed her arms, and she began looking around in almost every direction.
Almost every direction. For an entire minute, Carl stood just outside the door, watching Penelope. In this same minute, Penelope never once looked towards the apothecary store.
Carl, feeling uneasy, pulled the door open and stepped into Dagworth's Apothecary.
Inside Dagworth's Apothecary
The store had no electric lights overhead and no neon signs on the wall; the store was lit only by about a hundred candles. But the candles were floating above Carl's head, in defiance of gravity. But how can—?
Then Carl saw a sign, "Special this week on magic mushrooms," and realization hit.
Carl breathed, "This place is magical."
In response, the only other customer in the store—a blonde in her thirties with a cooking chopstick stuck in her beehive hairdo—smiled at Carl. The blonde's smile looked happy but distracted, as if she were listening to the world's greatest song on headphones.
Carl now went to work with his smartphone-camera, trying to take pictures of the floating candles, the magic-mushroom sign, a sign for "Horned-toad hearts (under stasis)," and everything else that caught his eye.
Alas, his smartphone-camera went on the fritz. When he took the picture of the magic-mushroom sign, he could still make out the words of the sign, but most of the picture was marred by a rainbow of sparkles. When he snapped other photos of the magic-mushroom sign, after stepping back, or moving forward, or moving to the left or right, the rainbow of sparkles changed places in the digital photo, but never went away.
For most photos that Carl tried to take, the rainbow-sparkles problem was so bad that it covered the entire photo. Only for three pictures—the floating candles, which he snapped while standing by the door; the "magic mushrooms" sign; and the "horned-toad hearts" sign with actual horned-toad hearts underneath—were the rainbow sparkles few enough that you could see the subject of the photograph.
Carl noticed that prices were marked not with dollar signs, but with a strange symbol that Carl realized was a 'G' with a slash through it—
"What are you doing?" a woman's voice demanded. The store clerk, who had been standing behind the counter when Carl had walked in, now was standing only three feet away. And the woman looked scared.
Why, Carl wondered, is she pointing a cooking chopstick at me?Then Carl was hit with his second realization, and he thought, Oh, SHIT!
An instant later
Carl was shocked when the blond customer-woman rushed to step between Carl and the store clerk, and when the blonde pushed the clerk's magic wand aside.
The blonde said, "Stephanie Lipton, leave this man alone." The blonde spoke with a British accent. "Carl Deorsam being here is meant to be. Let events unfold."
The store clerk demanded, "How do you know my name?"
Carl was wondering the same thing.
Carl said, "Um, maybe I should leave."
The blond Brit smiled at him. "I will leave with you and say things to you," she said in a dreamy voice.
Stephanie the store clerk gasped. "You can't! The Statute!"
The blonde replied, "I will not inform him about anything more than what he's already realised. I shall not break the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy."
As Carl thought, So wizards are real? And they've even passed laws?, the blonde gently pulled Carl out of the store.
The blonde stopped Carl when they were just outside the door to Dagworth's Apothecary. Penelope, so Carl noticed, now was sitting on a park bench and was looking around—but still never looked at the apothecary.
The blonde smiled a dreamy smile at Carl. "Almost all people have no magic at all. They can't see this shop because of a special spell, even when the nonmagical people are standing in front of the shop."
Carl nodded. "Like my girlfriend over there. Magic is why my camera couldn't see the store until I was in the store, right?" A few seconds later, Carl was showing the blonde his apothecary-less photo of Penelope.
Then Carl asked the question that would change his life: "How do I get my camera to see what you and I see? How do I prove I'm not crazy?"
"You revise electrics, don't you?" the blonde said mysteriously. "At your uni, you revise electrics—"
"Yes," Carl said, "I'm majoring in electrical engineering at Texas A & M." He did not bother to ask how the blonde had known this. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
The blonde smiled mysteriously. "Whatever you figure out on your own, or discover on your own, can't violate the Statute. I've told you all I may, but you're a smart bloke, Carl Deorsam."
With those words, the blonde walked away.
A half-hour later, the words popped into Carl's head: Faraday cage.
He asked the hotel front-desk clerks where he could find a nearby hardware store.
At the hardware store, Carl bought a few square feet of wire-mesh flyscreen made of copper, four feet of copper wire, wire cutters, and needle-nose pliers. He spent money that, as a college student, he really could not afford to spend, but Carl was a young man on a mission.
It was after sundown when Carl had constructed a tiny little copper box that enclosed his smartphone completely, except for tiny little holes in the copper walls that allowed Carl's fingers to pass through.
That night in the hotel room, Carl could not sleep. Penelope, on the other hand, slept just fine—on the far side of the bed.
Early the next morning, Carl and his Faraday-caged smartphone were in front of Dagworth's Apothecary.
The digital photograph turned out poorly—as anyone would expect when he or she would put a flyscreen close to a camera lens. But now the words "Dagworth's Apothecary" clearly were visible in the photo.
Carl rushed back to his hotel room. A half-hour later, Carl had posted a new blog post that was titled, "Magic Is Real!"
What really convinced readers were the six digital photographs that Carl had uploaded to accompany his blog entry. (The sixth photograph to be posted was created when Carl held his Faraday-caged smartphone in front of a mirror, and the smartphone took a selfie of itself.)
The internet's reaction to Carl's blog post was not a welcoming Magic is real? This is delightful to know.
No, the most common reaction to Carl's blog post was Why has this truth been kept from us? We smell a conspiracy!
August 13th, 2019
The Chicago Tribune wrote about Carl Deorsam's blog post, which had been up for almost a week and had become a sensation on the internet.
The Tribune reported that they had sent four sketch artists to sketch the storefront of Dagworth's Apothecary; but just as with Carl's girlfriend, the four sketch artists saw no sign of the magical store.
The day after the Tribune printed this, someone visited the Tribune's offices in person, dropping off a sketch that showed Dagworth's Apothecary clearly. The artist refused to give his name, stating "I'll get in big trouble if you print my name." This fueled the conspiracy theories anew.
What also fueled the conspiracy theories: A young man in New York City had posted photos that he had taken of a magical storefront, by using Deorsam's trick of the Faraday-caged camera; two days later, a girl in Stuttgart had done the same. But then both sets of pictures had been removed from the internet—and when friends had emailed to ask, "Why did you take those pictures down?", the reply in both cases had been "What pictures? I didn't post any pictures."
The internet conspiracies now became "They" are brain-wiping people who tell the rest of us about "them"!
By late August 2019, the belief among many Netizens was "Evil warlocks and witches are secretly plotting to invisibly sneak into our houses, then steal our children and make us forget they ever existed."
Some people who had little or no magic themselves, did not buy into the conspiracy theories—because these people already knew the secret about magic.
In the United States, all former presidents knew the secret; however, outgoing president Barack Obama had judged Donald Trump to be a poor security risk, so had not shared the secret.
In Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Boris Johnson knew the secret, as did all living former prime ministers. Besides those people, the Muggle or Squib relatives of Muggle-borns knew the secret.
Some magicals in Great Britain had enough internet savvy that they knew about Carl Deorsam and his discovery, and knew about what the internet was saying afterwards. These magicals were frustrated, because the conspiracy theories that were being shouted online had no truth in them. But because of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy, these magicals were banned from coming forwards and setting Muggles straight.
The most frustrated of Great Britain's magicals, because she was the most internet-savvy, was Hermione Potter. She had a website up, "Hermione's site," that seemed to be for cat lovers. If you wanted to become a member of the site, you had to give an email address (which "Hermione's Site" confirmed), and you had to touch your fingertip to a little white box on the member-joinup screen that was inside a grey frame on the screen.
For 99-plus percent of members, what happened next was that they became Red Members. Red Members were allowed to surf pages in which only Red Members could post pictures of their cats, could write funny cat anecdotes, and could share tips on cat care.
But the grey frame on the member-joinup screen had runes embedded in it that were a tiny bit lighter in colour, but the human eye could not see these runes; the runes were Grey-129 against a background of Grey-128. These runes sensed if the new member was magical or Squib, or was Muggle. Magicals and Squibs who joined the site became Yellow Members—
And for them, "Hermione's Site" offered the only place in cyberspace where magicals could gather.
In the second half of August of 2019, every discussion in the Forum section of the website was about Muggles misunderstanding the magical world that they just had discovered. The magical members of "Hermione's Site" were frightened.
In mid-August, 2019
Harry Potter held in-depth discussions with his wives Hermione and Daphne; his relatives Narcissa, Ted, Andromeda and Nymphadora; Cyrus and Opal Greengrass; Harry's friend Neville, and Neville's wife Hannah; and Susan Bones. Afterwards, on 20th August, Harry wrote a letter, using pen and paper, and posted the letter to London.
At the same time that Harry posted a letter to London, he owled a letter to Justin Finch-Fletchley and his wife Luna. This letter was a conditional invitation.
1st September 2019, 23 years after the Duel
Twenty-five days after Carl Deorsam discovered magic
Platform 9-3/4, King's Cross Station, London
Harry Potter had arrived at the platform early (before 10 a.m.), and was determined to stay till the train left at eleven.
Along with both his wives, Harry brought with him his Black-named children (Vega, Altair and Spica), his Potter-named children (James Daniel "Danny" Potter, Hoskuld Jorund Potter, Emma Lily Potter and Daphne Luna Potter) and Harry's and Daphne's son William Cyrus Greengrass; as well as Harry's cousin once removed, "V.V." (Vincent Vernon Dursley, a fifth-year Hufflepuff).
Harry's eight children ran the gamut of Houses: three Gryffindors, two Slytherins, two Ravenclaws and one Hufflepuff. None of the children complained of having been mis-Sorted.
As Harry was exchanging friendly waves with his pink-haired cousin, Senior Auror Ennis, Harry heard a woman say, "You behave yourself at Hogwarts, Harry." She was not addressing the son of James and Lily Potter. Thirty-nine-year-old Harry grinned at Don't-Call-Me-Nymphadora Ennis and shrugged a What can I do?shrug.
Harry had never heard of a real-life person named Hermione before he had met Miss Granger on the firstie train; now there were three Hermiones enrolled at Hogwarts (and maybe one more amongst this year's firsties). Daphne had become a popular name for daughters amongst wizarding families. Amongst Muggle-born fathers or mothers, the preferred choice for what to name their sons had become Harry. Harry Potter did not want to guess how many Harrys would step off the red train this evening.
(Oddly, nobody nowadays named their son Draco or Ronald. Perhaps the reasons had something to do with the fact that Draco had been killed with the Dark Mark on his forearm, and Ron Weasley now spent his evenings getting drunk at the Leaky Cauldron.)
When Harry and Daphne saw Blaise and Astoria Zabini approaching the Hogwarts Express with their two children, Harry and Daphne rushed over. Daphne gave her sister a fierce hug, which startled Astoria. (Remember, Purebloods don't hug.) The reason that Daphne acted so emotionally near her sister was because Daphne knew something that Astoria did not: Five months ago in the original timeline, Astoria Malfoy had died from her blood curse.
Everyone on Platform 9-3/4 knew that the Muggles now knew something about the magical world, but what the Muggles thought they knew, was wrong. Everyone on Platform 9-3/4 knew that Harry, Hermione and Daphne had predicted, twenty years ago, this very thing. Thus everyone on Platform 9-3/4—wizard fathers, witch mothers, Muggle parents, older students and younger students—wanted to share their thoughts with Harry, Daphne and/or Hermione.
The wizarding-raised people wanted to block the Muggles from finding out any more than they already had discovered, and wondered if the thousands of Muggles who already knew something could be made to forget everything they knew.
The Muggle-raised, whether magical offspring or nonmagical family members, wanted the secrets about magic to come out fully. So far as these people were concerned, the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy should be nuked from high orbit, because the Statute complicated their lives so much but they had no recourse to the Statute's restrictions.
11:01 a.m.
Harry and his wives watched the red train leave. Harry deliberately had given his children no hint of what he had scheduled for later today.
Harry and his wives, and Neville and Hannah, walked over to Justin Finch-Fletchley and his wife Luna, who were waiting for Harry and his group.
Harry asked Luna, "Are you nervous?"
"I am," Justin said, "and I won't be on camera."
Luna said in a dreamy voice, "I'm not nervous and I'm not excited. This press conference is destined, and I'm destined to be a part of it."
Daphne said, "I'm nervous, and I know it'll be Harry and Hermione who'll do most of the talking."
"I'm not nervous," declared Hermione. "I've been preparing for this day since 1998 or 1999."
"Well then, people," Harry said, "shall we get dressed to meet the queen again?"
Daphne, Luna, Neville and Hannah transfigured their casual robes into dress robes; Harry transfigured his casual Muggle clothes into a sharp suit (Justin already was dressed-up posh), and Hermione transfigured her clothes so as to not embarrass herself when she stood near the queen.
Twenty minutes later, the seven late-thirties magicals were riding in a limousine that just had entered a secure garage in Buckingham Palace.
A half-hour later
In a posh room in Buckingham Palace
Harry had no idea whether this room was regularly used for press conferences, but this was the room's function today.
In the front of the room was a lectern on a dais, which faced many reporters and some television cameramen—and which faced one man in wizard robes, who had a roll of parchment and an inert quill pen on the floor by his chair. (Harry noted several Muggle reporters pointing to the parchment and quill, and murmuring to each other.)
Also on the dais and near the lectern, an empty chair faced the reporters.
Several feet behind the lectern stood the queen, Elizabeth II; the British prime minister, Boris Johnson; and the minister for magic, Cyrus Greengrass. Harry and his wives and friends stood off to one side; Hermione's hold on a copy of The Muggles WILL Find Outwas a death grip, Harry noticed.
A liveried servant showed the queen his wristwatch; Queen Elizabeth walked to the lectern. The room silenced. The Daily Prophet reporter pulled out his wand and cast a spell at the quill pen, which then rotated almost straight up, ready to write.
(This startled every other reporter in the room, Harry saw.)
The queen said, with calm and aristocratic tones, "Magic is real, though I do not know this except by observation. I myself have no magical power." The Muggle reporters looked stunned.
The queen continued, "Until today, the existence of magic has been a secret, but it is a secret that nonmagical people have discovered in the past weeks, through the internet. We are concerned about the many untruths that We have read, some of which are hateful and inflammatory. We do not wish for Our nonmagical subjects to harm Our magical subjects because of mistruths. We do not wish for mistruths to cause violent conflict to break out between Our nonmagical subjects and Our magical subjects. We have decided to tell you, Our subjects, the truth about the wizarding world, and about Wizarding Britain in particular."
The queen then called Prime Minister Boris Johnson to the lectern. The prime minister did not speak long; all he said was to inform the reporters that governing Britain's secret society of wizards and witches was a secret branch of the British government, the Ministry of Magic; and that the head of this ministry, Minister for Magic Cyrus Greengrass, would speak next. Boris Johnson and Cyrus Greengrass then traded places.
At the lectern, Minister Greengrass announced, "A half-hour ago, the International Confederation of Wizards repealed the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. Magic no longer is secret under threat of arrest."
The Muggle reporters in the room looked either puzzled or bored by this announcement. Hermione gasped audibly. The Daily Prophet reporter merely nodded, as though he already knew this.
Harry and Daphne also nodded, having expected this.
Minister Greengrass surrendered the lectern back to the queen.
Queen Elizabeth said, "Just as magic has been secret until now, and the magical society of Britain has been secret until now, so too have two wars within Wizarding Britain, in the 1970s and the 1990s, been hidden from Our nonmagical subjects. Tom Riddle, who gave himself the false name and false title of 'Lord Voldemort,' was an evil wizard who attacked innocent nonmagicals, the magical children of nonmagicals and those who upheld magical law. Imagine Adolph Hitler, home-grown on British soil, wielding a magic wand. Riddle was devastating to magical Britain, and he was unstoppable—until he was stopped by a fifteen-year-old magical boy, Harry James Black-Potter. Harry Potter killed Tom Riddle and all of Tom Riddle's wizard minions, then Harry Potter destroyed the political power of Riddle's sympathisers. Harry Black-Potter at fifteen was a true hero; and Sir Harry Black-Potter will address you quite soon."
Blushing Harry waved at the reporters, as Hermione, Daphne, Neville and Luna all grinned at him. Justin slapped Harry's shoulder.
The queen resumed: "Finally, We wish to note that the current 'crisis,' of nonmagical people with computers discovering the magical world, Sir Harry Black-Potter predicted twenty years ago."
Hermione, grinning, held up her copy of The Muggles WILL Find Out.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, We give you Sir Harry Black-Potter," the queen said, then she stepped away from the lectern.
Harry walked to the lectern. But rather than starting to windbag, Harry invited Hermione and Daphne to the lectern with him, and introduced them as his co-authors for twenty-four books. Harry spelled Hermione's name for the reporters.
Then Harry said, "My parents were both magical, but for reasons that don't matter here, I was raised in the nonmagical world till I was eleven years old. Daphne Black"—Harry gestured towards her—"was raised in the magical world, so she can answer questions about the magical world that I can't. Hermione Potter"—Harry gestured towards the bushy-haired brunette—"is magical, but her parents and family aren't; the first time Hermione met a magical person was on her eleventh birthday."
Harry took a breath and said, "Let me give you the view of one wizard and two witches about Carl Deorsam's blog entry. There are three levels of magical people: nonmagicals—which people in Wizarding Britain call Muggles"—Harry spelled the word—"even though Hermione and I think Muggles is a rude word, so we prefer Mundanes. The other two levels are magicals and Squibs." Harry spelled this last word. "Certain magical spells affect magicals and Mundanes differently, and whilst Squibs cannot themselves cast spells, they react to spells as wizards and witches do, not as Mundanes do. From what Carl Deorsam wrote on his blog, the three of us are sure he's a Squib."
Harry said, "In a moment, I will surrender the microphones to Hermione Potter, who is the best spellcaster amongst the three of us. But before I do, let me tell you that concentrated magic makes electronics go pear-shaped—this is why Carl Deorsam's smartphone-camera took bad pictures in the apothecary shop. Finally, please look at the empty chair next to me. Take a hard look at it."
The Muggle reporters glanced at the chair, then looked sceptically at Harry. It's a chair. We've seen chairs before. What trickery is this? On the other hand, the Daily Prophet reporter gave the chair a long, searching look.
Hermione, once she took the microphones, said, "We three believe that Dagworth's Apothecary was charmed with a Merchant's Fidelius charm"—Hermione spelled-out the new word—"which is a variation on the Fidelius charm."
Hermione explained about the Fidelius charm, then she said, "But I'm sure you want a demonstration. I've made myself the Secret Keeper for this next part." Hermione said formally, "The portrait of Harry Potter's parents is resting on the chair by the lectern."
The Muggle reporters all gasped, and the Daily Prophet reporter startled, when a framed portrait seemingly appeared from nowhere. The Muggle reporters were shocked when Portrait-James and Portrait-Lily waved at them, and when Portrait-Lily said, "Hello, nonmagical people. I spent my first eleven years in the nonmagical world, just like dear Hermione did; and Hermione was known at her magical school as 'the brightest witch of her age.' So ask Hermione lots of questions, because I'm sure she knows the answers!"
Hermione, Harry saw, was blushing furiously as she said, "Anyway, the three of us believe that Dagworth's Apothecary had a Merchant's Fidelius on it when Carl Deorsam saw it. The way a Merchant's Fidelius charm works is that it's as if every magical person already was told the Secret, without anyone actually needing to be told a Secret. So the British blonde, being magical, and Carl Deorsam, being magical enough, were able to see through the Merchant's Fidelius to see the apothecary shop, which Carl's girlfriend Penelope could not see, because she was Mundane. Harry?"
Harry returned to the microphones, as Hermione backed away. Harry said, "I'd like to call up here, Mrs Luna Finch-Fletchley." Harry spelled her name. "She is the blonde with the British accent whom Carl Deorsam met in Chicago, in Dagworth's Apothecary."
As beehive-hairdo'd Luna walked to the lectern, the Muggle reporters were murmuring, or were looking stunned, or both.
Luna began her time at the microphones by explaining to Muggles about the just-repealed International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. The Statute being in effect during the Dagworth's Apothecary incident was the reason that Stephanie the shop clerk drew her wand and almost attacked Carl Deorsam, and was why Luna had not publicly spoken about the incident till now, even though she edited a magical newspaper.
Later in the press-conference room
Luna stepped away from the microphones, glancing at Harry as she did so. Harry returned to the microphones and said, "The four of us have no more prepared remarks. Now we'll take questions from you lot."
Harry pointed to a bottle-blonde whose clothing was too bright for Buckingham Palace. The blonde said, "Betty Chatter, The Sun. Sir Harry, I'm curious why your two female co-authors have the same names as you. Are they your sisters? Your cousins?"
As Luna laughed in delight, Hermione sighed. "Honestly, Harry, couldn't you have picked someone from the Cambridge Varsity or the Oxford Telegraph first?"
After the press conference
Potter Manor library
Harry, Hermione and Daphne, Neville and Hannah, and Luna and Justin were discussing their Buckingham Palace adventure with Portrait-James and with Portrait-Lily.
Both Hermione and Daphne had their arms entwined with one of Harry's arms, and both witches were giving smoky looks to Harry.
Neville said, "Harry, for the past twenty-three years, you've been the most famous wizard or witch in Wizarding Britain, and one of the most famous in the entire magical world. Now you've made yourself famous to the Muggles too. Today your fame goes far beyond what Dumbledore could only dream of."
Hermione smirked. "So much for your wish for everyone to treat you as 'just Harry,' Harry."
He shrugged. "Not being 'just Harry' is fine, I've decided."
Hermione's jaw dropped. "It is? For as long as I've known you, 'just Harry' has been your number-one wish."
Harry smiled at Daphne. "Back before the Duel, Daphne wrote me a letter that convinced me that if I kept trying to act like 'just Harry,' the Death Eaters would come back—"
Daphne blinked. "You remember that?" Then Daphne purred, "Ooh, you are getting so lucky tomorrow. Felix felicis lucky tomorrow."
Harry smiled at the other people in the library, including his portrait-parents. "The main reason I can feel contented about never becoming 'just Harry'? Right now, I have the two most wonderful witches in the world as my wives. All is well."
The End