Chapter Text
December twenty-fifth, nineteen ninety-eight was a somber affair. The annual Malfoy Yule ball wasn’t held; no one wanted to celebrate when their most beloved friend and son-in-law was still languishing in a persistent vegetative state. Healer John Carter from St. Mungo’s had been in to see Harry for a regular check-up, and the sad shake of his head told Lucius, Narcissa, Neville and Luna all they needed to know. “I’m sorry,” he had whispered, voice trembling from suppressed emotion. “In all my years of Mediwizardry, I’ve never seen a withdrawal from the world such as this. It’s almost as if he wants to leave, but is just waiting for the right moment. There’s nothing more to be done but to keep him comfortable until he’s gone.”
None of the adults had exchanged gifts with each other. Without Harry there to enjoy it with them, the holiday seemed somewhat hollow. They didn’t allow those feelings to dampen Draco’s and his toddler sons from enjoying themselves. As young as they still were, it was understandable that they wouldn’t feel the loss as keenly as the others had, since they’d had very little real time with their fathers before their deaths. For that was what Harry’s coma amounted to; a long, slow, protracted death. Harry had made sure that things would be different for his boys; that they wouldn't suffer the isolation, loneliness, abandonment or abuse that he'd endured his whole life.
“It’s not right,” Lucius had railed at the young man more than once in those months since the final battle. “You have two beautiful sons for which to live. That you’re taking the coward’s way out and abandoning them is just beyond my understanding; especially since you’d suffered the exact same fate at nearly the exact same age.”
As was typical, Luna was in the room with Lord Malfoy, and she quite often acted as an interpreter. She seemed to have an unusual and unknown mental connection with the brunet on the bed, and the feelings coming through to her now were loud and clear. “Harry’s sorry that he can’t be there for his children,” she explained softly, holding Lucius’ hand to get him to calm down a little. “He had undergone so, so much in his short life; things that his sons will never have to go through, and that last betrayal of all he thought good and decent was just the final straw. He’d realized, in that single moment, that he’d never be anything but a symbol behind which to rally. A means to an end for others’ goals, and it sickened him that he couldn’t even have a single friend who was loyal to him, and not to the Boy Who Lived.”
“He had you, Longbottom, my son and the other Slytherins to support him when he needed it. Why were the Weasel and the mudblood that much more important than the others?” the blond queried gently, beginning to understand why his son-in-law had all but given up.
“Ron and Hermione were his very first friends,” the flighty little blonde explained gently. “For a long while, they were his only friends. Weasley and Granger did all they could to keep others from invading their ‘charmed circle’, so Harry couldn’t get to know anyone else. They couldn’t, however, prevent Draco from worming his way into Harry’s heart, and it was through those meetings that your son-in-law was able to expand his network and find true companionship and honest friendship in the Slytherins, Neville, some of the Hufflepuffs, and some Ravenclaws, including myself. He was able to look past the stereotypes and the rumors and actually see us as individual human beings, with thoughts, feelings and dreams just like he had.
“The rift started when Weasley and Granger tried to micromanage all of his free time, preventing him from meeting with the new friends he was making, and especially inhibiting his assignations with Draco. Neville and I had to run interference, as did Colin and Dennis Creevey and quite a few of the first years in every term. They hero-worshiped Harry, and would have done just about anything to make sure he was happy. As those kids grew up and saw what really happened, they dedicated themselves to making Weasley and Granger as miserable as possible, and Fred and George were more than willing to shoulder the blame for it. Despite our efforts to try and make sure Harry had a pleasant experience in school, little pieces of his heart would break off every time his first friends did something that showed just how much they weren’t ever on his side. It took such a toll that I’m surprised he didn’t just give up long before the final battle.”
“Thank you for explaining at least some of Harry’s motivations for this,” Malfoy told the blonde softly. “I suppose I can understand his desire to escape, though I thought he would have wanted to stay for his children, seeing as they are a part of Draco, too.”
“I’m sharing this last bit with you because you need to really understand, and so that you don’t fight it when it’s time for Harry to go,” Luna whispered, grey eyes intent on Lucius’. “Harry is Master of Death, and when he leaves this world, it will be to move on to a brighter one that has all of the people he loved in this one, alive and healthy and there for him in ways that we never could be. Because of the cloying, suffocating grasp that Voldemort had on this world, we could only support Harry when we had time; when we weren’t, ourselves, fighting for our lives or dealing with our own damage. He was left adrift far too many times to ever feel secure enough in this world to want to stay.
“In that other one, he’s had all the love, support and acceptance he never received here, and he gets to share his life with the people who had been lost to him here. It’s going to be hard, I know, but understand that he’ll finally have the life he’s always deserved, and your grandchildren will herald in a brighter future, with you and your wife, and all of us, behind them and supporting them in ways we couldn’t support Harry.”
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January 15, 1999
The Daily Prophet
TRAITORS KISSED!
Fugitive Aurors finally face justice!
Tony Johnson, reporter
In the months since the end of the Dark Lord Voldemort and the incapacitation of the Savior of the wizarding world, many of Albus Dumbledore’s sycophantic followers have met their untimely ends, and this time is no different. Aurors Kingsley Rutherford Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Calypso Tonks, along with retired Auror Alistor ‘Mad-eye’ Moody were found and arrested in the land across the pond. It seems that, in order to escape their own responsibility in the deaths of most of the sixth and seventh year Slytherins, as well as the murders of Draco Lucius Malfoy and Severus Tobias Snape, they had fled to the United States of America, where they’d hoped to remain incognito and live to fight another day. Though they weren't present when the massacre happened, they had an active part in planning the deed, all under the guise of 'the Greater Good'. They saw absolutely nothing wrong with executing innocent children, simply for the patch upon their robes, despite the evidence of the students' betrayal of their parents ideals. Nor did they think it wrong to murder Severus Snape, a man who had worked hard to atone for his part in the Potters' murders, and was the only solid support our Savior had in that blighted school.
Unfortunately for them, despite Tonks’ metamorphmagus abilities and Shacklebolt’s liberal use of the polyjuice potion, their whereabouts were discovered through the stupidity of the oldest and most experienced former police officer in the group; namely Alistor Moody. A BOLO had been released to all the magical communities around the world, containing the descriptions of the treasonous traitors to the magical UK, which included a precautionary statement about not approaching the fugitives unless you were part of that country’s magical police force. Moody, a staunch dissenter in regards to using disguises to get around populated areas, had been seen stumping about the city streets of Las Vegas, Nevada, apparently on the hunt for what Vegas seems to be most well-known; their illegal prostitutes.
I shudder at the images that come to mind in regards to the statement I just wrote, but it gets much, much worse. There is a legal brothel located in Storey county, called the Mustang Ranch, where anyone with a need can get that hunger slaked. To go out of your way to solicit this sort of sex trade on the streets of a city in which it’s been illegal for many, many years is the height of stupidity, and unfortunately, Moody caught the attentions of a couple of off-duty Aurors who served in the magical community of Carreno and were visiting Vegas for the gambling. Reno, Nevada is also known to be a rather enthusiastic wagering hub, but Vegas is much older, and has a wider variety of entertainments.
These Aurors spied Moody clumping his way down the Las Vegas strip, and it appeared that he had his eye on a rather comely lass standing in front of the Mirage Hotel and Casino. Guessing at what the battle-hardened man intended for the young lady, they moved quickly to grab him, slapping magic suppressing cuffs on his wrists before he could reach for his wand. After being informed of his arrest because of the worldwide warrant on him, he was taken to the Auror station in Carreno, where he was given veritaserum in order to gather information on the other members of Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix.
Aurors Mary-Beth Lacey and Joe Friday were able to ascertain the location of Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphadora Tonks, and they sent a contingent of officers to the location. After a brief firefight, both Shacklebolt and Tonks were arrested, and the three were extradited to the UK Ministry of Magic, where Gawain Robards took charge of their cases. After extensive interrogations, all the information that could be gathered about the rest of the escaped criminals was compiled, and even more warrants were issued for the county of North Yorkshire in the UK, and Provence-Alps-Côte d’Azur, France, where Mundungus Fletcher, Rubeus Hagrid, Hestia Jones, Albus and Aberforth Dumbledore are located respectively.
There was no full Wizengamot trial for the prisoners. With the amount of information that had been gathered and submitted by anonymous sources to Minister for Magic Amelia Bones, and with the subsequent investigations into those allegations, the guilt of the former Aurors and current members of the Order of the Phoenix was assured, and the Kiss was ordered immediately. The sentence was performed at three fifteen a.m. in the bowels of Azkaban, and all three bodies were terminated, their corpses interred in unmarked graves on the Island of Staffa, where the prison is located.
All monies and properties belonging to the executed prisoners will be dispersed to any surviving family members or, barring that, to the coffers of the school. We are all quite sure that it’s what Harry Potter, the young man who was so grievously wronged by so many ‘upstanding’ people, would have wanted.
“Well,” Neville murmured as he looked at his wife, “that’s three more down. It won’t be much longer before everyone who was involved in that clusterfuck in May of last year will be gone, and then maybe Harry can finally let go and move on to a better place.” They were in the medical suite with Harry, and the Longbottom Lord had just finished reading the article aloud. As had happened during Yule, when his twin sons had visited with him and talked to him, a single tear ran from the corner of his eye, and it almost looked as if the raven haired teen heaved a quiet sigh of relief.
“It won’t be long now, Harry,” Luna whispered, her own grey eyes cloudy with grief as she laid a gentle hand on her friend’s arm. “It’s almost finished, and you can finally have the peace that’s been so long denied you. We will miss you terribly, but we all know that you’re moving on to a happier place, where all you’ve loved will be with you, always.”